The Ten Commandments: #2 - No Imitations of God

We summarize the true substance of each of the commandments which we have been discussing one commandment at a time at our Deep Dive studies.

The SECOND COMMANDMENT: Exodus 20:4-6 

"You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments." 

The following are the flavors of what this commandment really means based on our cross-reference examples of how it is obeyed and how it is disobeyed.

This commandment has two important facets. First, God hates any man-made imitation or caricature of God. Deuteronomy 4:15-21 further explains what this means, "...you saw NOT FORM on the day that the Lord spoke to you from Horeb...beware..."

Statues or icons, pictures or even the crucifix should just remind or inspire us when we come to God in prayer. But once they become THE objects of worship, the second commandment is violated. A modern-day violation of this commandment is when one has an opinion of God that is NOT ENTIRELY based on the Bible. You may believe in a God who is love that he never punishes or annihilates sinners or violators. This is false based on the Bible and is an idol. When we paint any caricature of God either by art, or opinion and it is based on our personal belief of who God is, that becomes an idol.

The second facet concerns the JEALOUSY of God against violators. God's jealousy is so much worse than human jealousy even of the "Fatal Attraction" kind. When man gets violated, he gets revenge only against the violator. BUT when God gets violated, he THREATENS and makes good on His threat, "I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me". So, God curses not only the violating generation but he even carries it over the next generations (with an "s"!!!)

All these means that we need to KNOW THE GOD OF THE BIBLE PERSONALLY AND FULLY.

Violators beware!