JUL 21

Exodus 20:4-6
Memorise Exodus 20:4-5
"God is a spirit, and they that worship must worship him in spirit and in truth"

We now come to the second commandment, which is “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments” (Exodus 20:4-6). Quite often, we have a tendency to overlook this commandment, and regard it as being quite similar to the first, and not think too much about it. Also, we assume that since we don’t physically bow down or venerate any images or idols, we are alright. After all, it is only the Roman Catholics and Greek Orthodox churches that break this commandment, right?

Well, we ought to think again. Just like the first commandment, we realize that this second commandment also has a wide and diverse range of applications. Whilst the first commandment dealt with the object of our worship, in that it should be God alone, this second commandment deals with the manner of our worship, of how we ought to worship our one true and living God. This is important, for we realize that as the creation of God, we were actually made for the purpose of worshipping God and bringing glory to His name. He has also given us detailed instructions in His Word as to how we ought to worship Him in the right way. We cannot just worship Him in any flippant way that we desire. We must be careful that in our worship, we do not belittle God, or do things that He is not pleased with. After all, it is not about us at all, but it should be all of God.

Primarily, this commandment teaches us that God is a spirit, invisible and eternal, outside of the physical limitations of time and space. He must not be worshipped through any physical image or idol, for if we do that, we limit God and force Him into an object created in our minds. When we do so, we rob God of His glory and become like the fools that Paul described, who “changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man” (Romans 1:23). We must be very careful in the manner in which we worship God, and this commandment will teach us how.

Thought: There is a right way, and many wrong ways to worship  God.
Prayer: Lord, help me to understand the second commandment  better.