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: 5Thou 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; 6And
showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments — Exodus
20:4-6
In
Part 01 of the 2nd Commandment, we learned that idolatry is very wrong.
First,
because it uses human reason to describe God on their terms;
Second,
idolatry leads to the worship of creation, rather than the creator.
Third,
it is a deficient and substandard form of worship.
We
now continue to outline the case that idolatry is ‘dead wrong.’
Fourth,
idolatry makes God jealous. The Hebrew word for jealous is ken-a. This
term applies to God and God alone. It means that God has no rivals, since there
are no other gods but Him. Idolatry means that His creation, made in His image,
seek to create rivals of God through their own misdirected creative work.
Remember the distinction between covetousness (which is the subject of the 10th
commandment) and jealousy. The former seeks to obtain out of pure greed
something that belongs to someone else. Jealousy is the emotion one experiences
when they are about to lose something or someone that rightly belongs to them.
For example, Jack covets Marilyn, the wife of Joe. Joe is jealous that he will
lose Marilyn to Jack. True, Bible-based, Spirit-filled worship belongs to God
and God alone. Anything else is delving into the dangerous trap of idolatry.
Divine
jealousy is not some ego-trip; it is truly love in action. God is jealous for
us, not from us. God knows that when people focus on Him, they get forgiveness
of sins, the new birth, the gift of eternal life, and an immeasurable
inheritance. Idolatry hijacks the idolater and diverts them to a pathway of
death and destruction. Idolaters hate God and will be punished to the third and
fourth generation.The second commandment is designed to spare us of this grief.
True worshippers who love God and obey His commandments will receive great
mercy.
After
the Babylonian captivity, the Jewish people appeared to have learned their
lessons and forsook the idols of the past, like the golden calves at Bethel and
Dan. In fact, they understood the last days apostasy preceding the Messianic
kingdom would be called the ‘abomination of desolation’ (Daniel 9:27; Matthew
24:15; II Thessalonians 2:3-4). And what is this? The one-world antichrist
figure will have a statue of himself that will be set up for worship. In the
Book of Revelation, there will be an image of the beast who will come alive,
speak, and slay all who do not worship him. This is idolatry on steroids!
TO
BE CONTINUED
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