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Commandment 2 - Idol Worship
Commandment 2: Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.
Recommended Reading:
The God Chasers- "My Soul Follows Hard After Thee
My Utmost for His Highest
Memory Aid: Picture a numeral 2 looking like someone bowing down.
When I read this, it says to me, “Thou shalt not make or worship any counterfeit gods.”
One of the problems we have in marriage is identical to a problem we have with God. Instead of loving God or loving another person for who they are, we merely love what we hope to get from them. When those things we really love don’t appear, we’re very quick to find comfort in someone else, and we’re twice as quick to make excuses for it.
Many times we are very quick to redefine God. Why? Because we want to have a god who is superior to all other gods and yet still lives subservient to our dreams and wishes providing hope of receiving all the things in life that we really love and want for ourselves. In a sense, idol worship is the ultimate form of pride. We don’t like to conform to God. We want him to conform to our wishes. That is sin.
Many times we’re ashamed of God. We’re ashamed to talk about God or to have anyone associate us with him. His name causes us embarrassment. When we esteem someone highly, we love to be seen with that person associated with him. That’s why so many people like to get autographs and do name dropping. But, when it comes to God, they’re ashamed. They go undercover. Religion is “a personal matter between me and God.”
It’s embarrassing to talk about God and his holiness and righteousness when we’re living in sin. But, Jesus said in Luke 9:26, “For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father’s, and of the holy angels.”
God is not a fairy godmother. He is not a Santa Clause in the sky or an Easter Bunny or Tooth fairy. He does not exist to grant our wishes. Jesus was tremendously humble to wash the feet of his disciples, and while God may love us tremendously far beyond our wildest imagination, if we’re going to be healthy and real Christians, we need to stay away from counterfeit gods of our own design and learn to accept God as he is and worship him with all we have and with all that we are.
Similarly, we need to love our spouses and our family and our friends as they are and not as we would like to make them to be. If you find yourself “falling out of love” it isn’t because one of you changed or because you merely “drifted apart”, but it is because there is a problem with your concept of love.
Some people love things and use people Others use things and love people. Those who love people stay the course faithful through hardship and difficulty and disappointment and discomfort. Those who love things go where the things go from one person to another to another never settling down except where the things settle, and even when that happens, the love is never for the person but only for the things of comfort and pleasure.
God calls us to love Him and to love others and rise above this slavery to the love of things.
