The 1st and 2nd Commandments
Deuteronomy 5:6-10 (NLT)
“You must not have any other god but me."
“You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind, or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me. But I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those who love me and obey my commands." Deuteronomy 5:6-10 (NLT)
Pastor’s Blog
The 10 commandments are to loving God as a legal wedding contract is to marriage. They are not just laws to be legalistically obeyed, rather they are intended to be acts of responsive love. They are not acts, the obeying of which earn or merit God’s love and approval. They a response, acts of trust flowing out of the recognition that God notices, cares for and loves us. God initiates, we respond.
The 10 commandments are gifts from God showing us how life works. When we trust and obey life is good. When we don’t trust and disobey, life can seem good for a while, but it ultimately becomes a deadened life. These commandments are therefore God’s means of protecting us from what deadens and destroys. They are also a means of saying I will provide for you. You do not need to go elsewhere or seek to manipulate your world to get what you want. “I, your Lord, will provide”.
The first Commandment, like all the rest, is relational. Marriage is the analogy. Because Kathy loved me, I pledged to her my faithfulness in marriage. Obeying this “command” is my way of honoring our relationship. I don’t pursue other women just because I’m legally bound not to or because I’m told not to. I’m a “one woman man” because I love and trust Kathy. I’m also a “one God man”, yes for a wide variety of reasons, but centrally because God’s faithfulness to me has elicited my faithfulness to Him.
The second commandment forbids the worship of images, not only of other gods, but also of the One True God of the Bible. Any image of Yahweh (the Hebrew word for God) would necessarily place human limitations on Him. Therefore the only representation allowed for God was words. Images cause us to be tempted to “idolize” or depend on the the image or object instead of God Himself. This opens the door to the danger of “practicing magic”, not so much in the obvious sense, but by making out of icons more than are. Images, icons, artifacts are objects, memory tools, reminders. They have no special powers and we are told by God to trust Him, to not reduce him to anything less than He is.
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Wow, very good explaination of the second commandment. I never quite looked at it that way. If I may ask, where does that put your thoughts on all those bracletes, etc. that are around saying "Jesus is the Way", and others? I have alway been on the fence, but it does seem "iconic" by your explaination. Not trying to start a contraversy, just trying to stay as close to the Real God as possible!
ReplyDeleteDeut 6:8 "Tie them (the 10 commandments) as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates"
ReplyDeleteNow, if we begin each day with bowing down to our doorframe, we are in trouble-
The reverse can be true as well, I think and that is attaching 'evil' meaning to objects or things 'created'. For instance, in the 1500's frogs were symbols of evil. This can lead to superstition, which is, in its base form, idolotry. Its giving the 'thing' power.
We worship the Creator, not the created. Thankfully, we have a creator, who desired, still a relationship with us. Thank you, Jesus.