We’re in the second of a series of messages on the Ten\nCommandments. We started last Sunday with a look at what is, in the Hebrew\nmindset, the First Commandment—a declaration of the ultimate authority of God.\nIt’s found in Exodus 20:1-2: “And God spoke all these words: I am the Lord your\nGod, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.” We saw how even\nthough it is not phrased as a command like the others, it still requires a\ngreat deal of us. Our world\/culture\/society is constantly reinforcing our\nrebellious, sinful natures. It’s going against God’s authority in our lives,\ntelling us a big lie—that it doesn’t matter what we believe, as long as we\nbelieve in something. This is untrue. It is a lie that is destructive and dangerous.\nIt does matter what we believe in, what the ultimate authority in our lives is.\n<\/p>\n\n
We’re going to examine each of the Ten Commandments, but\neach in light of a bit of “conventional wisdom” that the sinful world tries to\nconvince us is true and beneficial to us. However, God tells us this “wisdom,”\nin each case, is a lie that is ultimately destructive and dangerous to us.<\/p>\n\n
People have always\ntried to figure out what God is like.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n Today we’re going look at the Second Commandment, and once\nagain, it is the Second Commandment according to the Hebrew tradition. Exodus\n20:3-6: “You shall have no other gods\nbefore me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in\nheaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down\nto them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing\nthe children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of\nthose who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love\nme and keep my commandments.”<\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n\n A kindergarten teacher was observing her classroom of\nchildren while they drew. She would occasionally walk around to see each\nchild’s artwork. She got to one little girl who was working diligently and\nasked her what she was drawing. The little girl said, “I’m drawing God.”<\/p>\n\n Her teacher paused and said, “But no one knows what God\nlooks like.”<\/p>\n\n Without missing a beat or looking up from her drawing, the\ngirl replied, “They will in a minute.”<\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n\n At the heart of the Second Commandment is the question of\nwhat God looks like. Or, more accurately: What is God like? What is his nature?\nWhat or who does he resemble? How can we accurately describe him?<\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n\n I can remember being young and trying to come to grips with\nthis dilemma. All sorts of questions come into your mind when you’re little: If\nGod made us and everything that exists, then who made God? If the universe had\na beginning point, then when did God begin? Where does God live? What does God\nlook like? You see, all of our experiences tell us that for everything to which\nwe give a name—especially animate objects, but this is true somewhat even of\nemotions and abstract ideas—we also attach an image to it in our minds. Yet,\nwith the God we read about in the Bible, we cannot do this. <\/p>\n\n This is what makes this commandment necessary. At the time\nGod gave the commandment, we must remember that the Israelites were not long\nout of Egypt, where they had many so-called gods, usually represented by\nfamiliar forms. The Nile River flooded each year, fertilizing the fields next\nto it, assuring good crops to carry the Egyptians through another year. So,\nmaybe the Nile alligator’s form represented the god who controlled Nile River\nto the Egyptians. In fact, the Egyptians had dozens of these “gods,” who were\neach supposedly powerful in certain areas of the Egyptians’ existence.<\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n\n When they left Egypt, the Israelites ran into many other\ngroups of people, who each had their own “chief-god” that they worshipped above\nall others. This chief-god was their champion when went into battle against\nanother tribe or people group. If they were victorious, they gave the credit to\ntheir god—a statue, stone, golden calf, or whatever. That was the order of\nday—to have a form that represented your god.<\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n\n Into this state of affairs comes the God of Abraham, Isaac,\nand Jacob. He was the God of the Israelites, but claimed he was very different\nfrom other people’s chief-gods. For one thing, he was real, not just a statue\nof stone or wood or metal. Also, he was not contained in any form, not limited\nby any conventional understanding of what a god was. In fact, he told his\npeople that to think of him in any form at all was to limit him, so it was\nprohibited.<\/p>\n\n This is the basis for Second Commandment: God, so unique, so\nspecial, so powerful, and so awesome, that to think of him being like anything\nthat we know is wrong. Any idea we attach to any image of him we have in our\nminds isn’t big enough to describe him! To think of God in any form is to\nshortchange him and rob him of his divine attributes.<\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n\n There are false\nimages of God that we cling to.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n Back then, people bowed down to statues, calling upon them\nfor help or favors, showing love and adoration to this statue or stone. Now,\nhowever, we’re not nearly so blatant about it, but we still have images of God\nthat we cling to when think about him.<\/p>\n\n Here’s an innocent example: Children, if they are introduced\nto the idea of God, usually have no choice but to compare God to their parents.\nTo them, God is akin to a super-parent who lives above the clouds. We call God\n“Father,” as instructed by no less than Jesus, perpetuating this comparison.<\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n\n I like the story of a little boy listening to his Sunday\nschool teacher tell the children about God—how he is everywhere, never\nforgetting us. She asked if the class knew this was true. The little boy\nagreed, and said, “God’s the one that opens the door at the grocery store.”\nWhen we’re young, that’s how we think of God. Yet, it is inadequate. Any parent\nhere can easily recall many times that we have been less than a perfect basis\nfor a child’s understanding of God!<\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n\n Others view God as kindly old grandfather-type—you know, the\nimage of an old man with a white beard. This is the image that is probably in\nthe mind of someone who thinks they cannot imagine a God of love punishing\nanyone for doing something wrong. To them, God is like a grandparent, or a\ngreat-uncle who lives far away. You don’t see him very often, but try to\nremember him at Christmas on his birthday. You expect to get gifts from him on\noccasion, but you cannot imagine needing to reconcile with him. He doesn’t mean\nenough to you for there to be any problem in your relationship with him. You\nprobably have good feelings toward him, but you don’t make too big deal about\nit. This is a dangerous, false image of God.<\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n\n There is also the “god of the wet blanket” image. This is\nheld by people who have come to believe that God is just waiting for an excuse\nto ruin their life. This image bears more resemblance to the Greek or Roman\nmythological gods than to the God of the Bible. Unfortunately, this image is\noften held by well-meaning, religious—even Christian—people.<\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n\n Probably the worst false image of God is what I call the\n“spiteful Santa Claus” image of the Almighty. It is similar to the distant,\nkindly relative, but a little different. This is the mindset of those people\nwho live their lives ignoring God when things are going well for them, but they\nquickly blame him when things go wrong in their lives. They want to have it\nboth ways. They want God there to bless them. Although they don’t give him\ncredit for the happiness they enjoy much of the time, they will quickly blame\nhim for any unhappiness or trouble that crops up in their lives. Their image of\nGod is like Santa Claus—he’s giving gifts out and being a jolly fellow, but\noccasionally he gets spiteful and mean, raining on their parade for no good\nreason. This is also a very inaccurate description of God.<\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n\n During his long career as pastor of New York’s Riverside\nChurch, the late H. E. Fosdick spent many hours counseling students from nearby\nColumbia University. One evening a distraught young man burst into Fosdick’s\nstudy and announced, “I have decided that I cannot and do not believe in God!”<\/p>\n\n Fosdick said, “All right, but describe for me the God you\ndon’t believe in.” The student sketched out his idea of God. When he was\nfinished, Fosdick said to him, “Well, we’re in the same boat. I don’t believe\nin that god either.”<\/p>\n\n Some analogies give\nus a glimpse of God.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n There are many misconceptions about God going around, but\nthere are also many ways to describe his true nature, to be accurate when we\ntalk about him. For example, God describes himself as being jealous in the\ntext. How do we reconcile the picture of jealousy with the image of God in our\nminds? Isn’t jealousy always wrong?<\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n\n On the one hand, yes. Think of a marriage. Ideally, the two\npeople in a marriage are secure enough with themselves and with their\nrelationship so that when a husband talks to another woman in a social setting,\nhis wife doesn’t suspect that there is anything wrong going on. It takes more\nthan innocent conversation to bring about suspicion. Unwarranted suspicion\narising from jealousy—that type of jealousy is wrong.<\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n\n On the other hand, there is a wholesome jealousy for the\naffection and adoration of one’s spouse. All of us want to be the solitary\napple of our spouse’s eye. We will not voluntarily share that cherished spot\nwith another. The marriage bond is so special that it cannot tolerate a third\nperson in it. “Two’s company; three’s a crowd.”<\/p>\n\n It’s the same with God. He wants to be so close to us and so\ndesires to be the sole object of our worship and adoration, that he will not\ntolerate pretenders to his throne in our lives. This is so important to him\nthat he warns of lasting consequences of infidelity to him. It can ruin several\ngenerations in a family if we turn away, yet the bond is so special that the\nblessing goes much farther when we are faithful to him.<\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n\n We also get a glimpse of the image and nature of God when we\nlook in the mirror every morning. Genesis 1:27 says, “So God created man in his\nown image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created\nthem.” We’re made in the image of God! It is true that with some people you\nwonder if this could truly be the case. But we have to remember that this image\nof God in us is tainted, distorted by the presence of sin. It’s kind of like\nlooking at ourselves in a fun-house mirror. Still, when people are at their\nbest, when we are obeying the command to “be holy … as God is holy” (Lev.\n19:2), then we can get a glimpse of God’s nature, of who really is, when we\nobserve ourselves.<\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n\n By far the best picture of God given to us, however, is in\nthe person of Jesus Christ. The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews started his\nbook this way: “Going through a long\nline of prophets, God has been addressing our ancestors in different ways for\ncenturies. Recently he spoke to us directly through his Son…. This Son\nperfectly mirrors God, and is stamped with God’s nature” (Heb. 1:1-2a, 3a, The Message<\/em>). <\/p>\n\n This means that when we read the Gospel accounts, we can\nlearn what God is like by seeing what Jesus is like. We read and see that Jesus\nwas unselfish, to the point of dying for us. Yet, we also see that he was no\nman’s slave, but gave of his own free will. Jesus was kind, yet he most\ndefinitely was not a patsy, having his kindness taken advantage of by people.\nHe was meek, yet we learn he would not compromise his principles for the sake\nof expediency, nor for personal safety. Jesus was no wimp. He was forgiving,\nyet demanded repentance, thereby insuring that the forgiveness he gave truly\nmeant something to those who received it.<\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n\n When we study the life of Jesus, we’re seeing no less than\nthe character, the essence, the image of God put into action. Jesus is the only\nperson, place, or thing that has ever been worthy of being worshipped as God,\nbecause he shares the same essence as God. Any other way we picture God is\nbound to be incomplete, inadequate—unworthy of our adoration or of taking God’s\nplace in our lives. <\/p>\n\n What do we bow down\nto?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n Someone has said, “Every once in a while, get off the\nmerry-go-round and ask yourself these questions: 1. What am I doing? 2. What\nshould I be doing? 3. What should I be doing next? 4. What should I not be doing?”\nThis is probably valuable advice for all of us, but it is particularly\napplicable to our study of the Second Commandment.<\/p>\n\n None of us here—and probably very few people in this\ncounty—has any real problem bowing down to stone idols, golden calves, or\nthings of that sort. Yet, we still have “other gods” before the Lord God. We\nstill erect images and devote our lives to them or to their pursuit.\nPersonally, I’m no longer satisfied with the typical observation that “anything\ncan take the place of God in our lives” if we let it. That is true, but it is\nindistinct and much too easy to ignore. So, I want to mention just a few\nspecific ways that idolatry comes into play in our everyday lives.<\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n\n When I was younger, I would sometimes read my horoscope in\nthe paper and then try to keep track of what it predicted to see if the things\nin it ever came true. It didn’t take too long for me to realize that my\nhoroscope always came true and never came true—all at the same time. It was so\nvague that one could fit all the events of daily life into it, but it gave no\nspecific event that would be foretold in any reliable detail. So, like most, I\nconcluded that type of stuff was a waste of time, but nothing worse.<\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n\n However, in many ways, things like astrology and superstition\nare idolatrous. Think about it: When we say that our lives are controlled by\nthings like the movements of heavenly bodies billions of miles away or by black\ncats crossing our path, the breaking of a mirror, and so on, aren’t we\nacknowledging that something or someone else beside the Lord God is in control\nof things?<\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n\n The Psalm writer said, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who\nlive in it” (Psalm 24:1, niv). God\ncalls all people to remember that it was he who created us, who watches over\nus, who is present in our lives. So when we waste time, breath, and effort\npaying homage to “other gods” through superstitions, astrology, or other\ndivination, aren’t we violating this commandment? I think so.<\/p>\n\n How about when we hold certain people like sports stars,\nentertainers, musicians, and actors in high esteem—so high that they eclipse\nour desire for God, or for looking to godly and truly great people as earthly\nrole models? Isn’t that idolatry? <\/p>\n\n You might say, “Oh now you’re just being silly. Nobody bows\ndown to famous people and actually worships them!” This may be true, but if\nidolatry is the raising up of competitors to the Lord, robbing him of devotion,\nhonor, glory, or esteem due him, then the cult of personality that surrounds\nmany in our culture today qualifies as such. If it steals our hearts away from\nGod, it is idolatry, whether we actually bend our knees or not!<\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n\n The worst idol is our\nselfish pursuit of happiness.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n There are many more examples of potential idolatry. The sad\nfact is that any good thing can be taken too far and become idolatrous.\nHowever, probably the most dangerous temptation for us lies in the idolization\nof the “unholy trinity:” me, myself, and I. And this is where I finally bring\nin the title of this message: “Happiness Is Not the Goal of Life.”<\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n\n With just a bit of literary license, you could have the\nsecond commandment read: “Do not make yourself an idol.” That’s really not too\nfar off. It is amazing the things that we will do that we know to be wrong; but\nwe try to justify them by saying, “They make us happy!” People will pursue the\naccumulation of things, but in an affluent culture like ours, we find it pretty\neasy to get all sorts of things. Then we realize they don’t make us happy. So,\nwe concentrate on finding happiness, however we define it.<\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n\n How many marriages have been ruined in the pursuit of\n“happiness” by one or both of the marriage partners? How many children have had\ntheir lives severely messed up because one or both of their parents were seeking\na selfish vision of happiness—”finding themselves” or finding someone who they\nbelieved would make them happy? How many people over the centuries have been\ndeprived of the necessities of life because someone who held power over them\nwas pursuing happiness at their expense?<\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n\n Don’t misunderstand what I’m saying. To want be happy is not\nwrong, but to worship it is. Happiness is not a god worthy of our devotion.\nIt’s like chasing after the wind. It cannot be caught. Rather, happiness is\nfound when we find real meaning in life and make following God the goal of\nlife. Psalm 97:11 says, “Light is shed upon the righteous and joy on the\nupright in heart.” Real happiness is found living a life of devotion, of\nworship, and of service to the Lord God.<\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n\n A Hassidic rabbi once asked his students, “Where does God\ndwell?”<\/p>\n\n They thought the answer obvious: “God is everywhere, of\ncourse!”<\/p>\n\n The rabbi disagreed: “God dwells wherever people let him\nin.”<\/p>\n\n Are we letting him into our lives? Or are we worshipping\nidols? <\/p>\n\n © Derek Helt<\/p>\n\n