"You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments" (Exodus 20:4-6).
Senior Pastor Dr. Jaerock Lee
Of Ten Commandments, the first and second ones might sound similar to some people. However, they are different. The first one warns people of polytheism, saying "You shall have no other gods before Me." It means God is the one and only Deity and we should serve and love only Him. The second one, "You shall not make for yourself an idol", warns about idolatry. Here let's look into what idols are first and the spiritual meaning of the second commandment.
1. What is an idol?
An idol is 'an image of a god used as an object of worship'. People make images of men, animals on the ground, insects, birds, fish, the sun, the moon, and stars, or even imaginary things, with trees, rocks, metal, gold, or silver. Idolatry is to make these physical images, worship them, and serve them.
Idols were made by men and have neither life nor any ability to bless us. Men were created after the image of God the Creator. If they make idols themselves, worship them, and ask them for blessings, how ridiculous! (Isaiah 46:6-7) Furthermore, relying on amulets, worshipping dead people, or any other sorcery and magical things all belong to idol worshipping.
People make such futile images and worship them because they intrinsically feel satisfied when they can actually see and touch something.
Also, we must never make any image of God who is spirit and we must not serve it as though it were God. Some believers in God make idols and serve them. For instance, they worship a painting or an image of Jesus, or worship images of Virgin Mary or other fathers of faith. Such images of Jesus are made in the painters' or sculptors' imagination, so they are not real. Also Virgin Mary or the fathers of faith are all creatures, who are not objects of worship. If we worship or pray to these things, that is idol worshipping. Only God is the One who we are to worship and offer our prayers to.
Some people say even the cross at church is an idol. But it is a symbol of the gospel that we believe. We have the cross and look at it to remember the precious blood of Jesus and the grace of salvation. The cross itself is not an object of worship or an idol.
Also, some paintings with Jesus holding a lamb or the painting of the Last Supper are not idols in themselves. They are just paintings that show that Jesus is the Good Shepherd or that express His ministry. We don't worship or pray to the Jesus in the paintings.
Some people say even Moses made an idol. They are talking about the incident where the Israelites were being bitten by fiery serpents after complaining against God (Numbers 21) and they were dying. God had Moses make a bronze serpent and set it on a standard. By obeying the Word of God to look at this standard, they were saved. It is the antitype or foreshadowing of Jesus Christ who would save men on the cross. In other words, just as the Israelites were saved from death by looking at the bronze serpent, people on the way to death can be saved and gain life by believing Jesus Christ who was crucified.
2. What does an idol spiritually refer to?
Idols spiritually include all things that we love more than God. If we love our parents, husband, wife, children, or ourselves more than God, they are spiritually idols to us. Of course, it doesn't mean we must not love anybody else but God.
It is obvious that we should love our parents in the truth, and God also tells us to honor our parents. But if we violate the Lord's Day to honor and please unbelieving parents, it means we love them more than God. Not only will it disappoint God but also it is not true love for our parents. Only if we lead them to church so that they can receive salvation, we can say we really honor and love them.
The same applies to parents. If we truly love our children, we have to love God first and love our children within God. However hard we try, we can neither protect them from the enemy devil and Satan nor heal them of incurable diseases. Only when parents revere God and love their children in the Lord, God will protect them, give them good health and blessings in all aspects.
Only when we first love God and love all others within the love for God can we share true love with them. Thus we should not say at the church they teach that we should love only God and not love our family members without knowing the spiritual meaning.
Today, there are even some believers who love money more than God, and others violate God's commandments to keep their fame and authority. This is also spiritual idolatry. Also some are detracted from God by celebrities, sports stars, or other things, which may also be idolatry.
3. Blessings for obedience, curses for disobedience
Exodus 20:5-6 reads, "You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments."
Here, God says He is 'a jealous God'. His jealousy is different from a man's and it comes from His love while a man's jealousy is ugly, filthy, and harmful to others. If believers worship idols, God turns His face away from them, allowing the enemy devil and Satan to do their work on them. They suffer from various trials and disasters and become poor in heart. Soon they realize their wrongdoing, repent of it, and return to God.
God's jealousy is the expression of His true love to stop His children from falling into the way of destruction and to guide them to the way of eternal life. But if some still love idols more than God and worship them, it is like they hate Him. Then they will receive retribution, and it will go down to the 3rd and 4th generations. Many of them will get incurable diseases while others suffer from disabilities and mental disorders. However, if any of the descendants repent and seek God, though the ancestors worshiped idols so much and stood against God, the family will receive God's compassion and the disasters will stop.
Still when the ancestors stored up so much evil by standing against God and worshipping idols to an extreme, it is not easy for the children to believe in God. And, even though they accept the Lord, they have a spiritual cord connection with their ancestors, so they have difficulties in leading Christian lives. The enemy devil and Satan keeps on bringing charges against them and disturbs them trying to keep them from having faith in an attempt to take them to death again. But even in this kind of situation, if they repent of the sins of their fathers on their behalf with humble heart while casting off their evil and ask for the compassion of God, they will surely be protected by the grace of God.
On the other hand, those who love God and keep His commandments will receive God's grace for a thousand generations. Disasters are only to the 3rd to 4th generations, but the blessings are for a thousand generations. By seeing this, we can once again feel the love of God.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, if you revere God, your descendants as well as you will be blessed. It doesn't mean all descendants will be blessed just because their ancestors worshipped God very well. Only when they themselves love God, dwell in truth, and are not stained with idolatry could they receive all the accumulated blessings. I hope that you will never make any idol or worship any of them but love God first. I pray in the name of the Lord that by doing so you will enjoy blessings promised for a thousand generations.
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