Chapter 4 Knowing God Week 5
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 our 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.”
Q: What are some ways that you try to obey this command?
Q: What do you think you can do to avoid breaking this command?
At first glance, it seems that this is an example of idol worship. Packer mentions Romans 1:23…”they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.”
The best explanation of Romans 1:23 is Romans 3:23! Falling short of God’s glory is sin.
The second commandment has always been taken to mean that the worship of God by images is forbidden.
“…or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above.” This is clearly forbidding the use of images of God in our worship. That’s why we don’t have a picture of Christ or a depiction of the Father in our sanctuary.
Packer notes that Christians have historically debated the use of pictures of Jesus for teaching children. Personally, I am in favor of using pictures for teaching children. As long as there are not images during our times of worship, I think we are fine with allowing children to color/view pictures of Jesus.
1.) Making an image of God obscures His glory? Why? Because it hides His attributes! Our God is a living God. He is real. And He is Spirit. What is God’s glory again? The manifestation of God’s unique and unending attributes. His glory must be fought for and protected in our lives. We must not exchange it for a lie! And that’s what God is forbidding in the 2nd Commandment. This is what God is jealous over…His own glory! God is motivated by His own glory. God doesn’t exist to serve us. By His nature He must praise His own glory the most. And He wired us so that we can only be satisfied when we our truly glorifying God (that’s what we talked about last week).
So let’s talk about some symbols and whether or not they are appropriate.
What about a crucifix? A crucifix is not appropriate because it does not reflect Christ as risen and glorified. It doesn’t properly express His deity!
What about a cross? A cross is appropriate because it doesn't represent a member of the Trinity. It points towards our salvation in Christ, but it is NOT a direct representation of Christ.
2.) Images mislead us, for they convey false ideas about God. Not only do images NOT contain the total truth of God, they contain errors as well.
Packer – “Psychologically, it is certain that if you habitually focus your thoughts on an image or picture of the One to whom you are going to pray, you will come to think of him, and pray to him, as the image represents him. Thus you will in this sense “bow down” and “worship” your own image; and to the extent to which the image fails to tell the truth about God, to that extent you will fail to worship God in truth. That is why God forbids you and me to make use of images and pictures in our worship.”
Which leads to the aspect of mental images. Does your mind contain an image of God when you worship?
Isaiah 55:8-9 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.”
What does this 2nd commandment tell us about God’s character?
No comments:
Post a Comment