It’s just that the vast majority of people in my life would never think of sculpting or purchasing an object in order to worship it. It’s like Nicky Holt said last night
“If I can make it, shouldn’t it worship me?”
We just don’t “get it.”
So when we read the 2nd Commandment, “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 your 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.”Exodus 20:4-6
Most of us feel relieved. We feel kind of like Forest Gump after Lieutenant Dan invested in a “fruit company” for them. Forest knew he didn’t have to worry about money anymore... “That’s good… one less thing.”
We read this commandment and think, “That’s one less thing God asks me that I have to worry about… I got this one nailed.” but
Joy Davidman asks,
What shape is an idol?
Smoke on the Mountain, An Interpretation of the Ten Commandments, The Westminster Press; 1954.
She suggests that early idol makers weren’t trying to blaspheme, and they weren’t so barbaric to think that they could create a god.
She suggests that they were “doing theology.”
Early man did not have the long history of theological discussion to draw on that we do. They were pioneers. We use words to describe God… they used idols.
This god is strong like an elephant… not weak like a mouse… so the idol has an elephant head.
This god sees life from a bird’s eye-view… he is wise like the sight of a hawk. He is not dumb like a donkey. So the idol has a hawk head.
They were steps in the right direction. To realize that god is like this and not like that… it’s a good practice.
But things got bad.
Like some early Christians who lost sight of Christ in worshipping holy artifacts, the idols became the object of worship. The idols were the source of salvation.
Perhaps it was salvation from drought, or salvation from infertility. Whatever the salvation, there was likely an idol to supply it.
And the thing about an idol is…
You can hold it in your hand.
salvation can be in YOUR hand.
God said, “no.”
“You cannot hold me in your hand. I’ll hold you in mine.”
“You cannot contain me in your images or words.”
“I’m bigger than your theology.”
“You will worship me as I choose to reveal myself to you.”
The Hebrews stood dumbfounded.
How do we worship a god, the God, we cannot see.
(so they screwed up and made a gold YHWH bull)
Again, this commandment changed the way these people saw reality… the One True God was going to lead them step by step… they weren’t going to create an image of Him and practice trial and error, or cut and paste from other religions, to discover how to worship Him…
God is in control.
They are in HIS hands.
And so it is with us… right?
At haVen we discussed two ways we may be in breach of the 2nd Commandment.
1. Set YOUR theology aside
If we can settle our theology once and for all, then we can set the Bible and the Holy Spirit aside.
All we need to do now is to refer to our boxed and packaged systematic theology… it will lead us.
Our theology has become an idol.
If you have enough faith, God will heal you.
WHAT A THEOLOGICAL BREAKTHROUGH!!!
We used to think that God had His own Will which He was in control of… but now we know that if we can just conjure up enough “faith”, we can make God do whatever we want!!!
He becomes our genie in the sky.
Salvation is in our hands.
God won’t give me anything in life that I cannot handle.
I suppose Daniel was capable of handling the lion’s den? Israel was in total control between Pharaoh’s army and the Red Sea? I guess we don’t really need Jesus’ forgiveness through the cross, because after all, we can handle this sin situation… God won’t allow anything in our lives that we can’t handle.
Our theology can lie.
God warned Israel… I’m bigger than the theology your idols allow for me. You cannot box me into YOUR theology…
God warns us… I’m bigger than the theology your best thoughts allow for me. You cannot box me into YOUR theology.
But God has provided us with a standard for knowing Him. His Word. Is the theology that guides you through life formulated by what others have told you… or is it founded on God’s revelation of Himself.
We must immerse ourselves in the Word.
And submit ourselves to it.
We can feel like we own our theology…
God’s revelation defines us and our actions.
what is the shape of an idol?
Your theology may be an idol.
2. Salvation is not in your hands
Do you look to God for your salvation?
Do you look to God for your salvation?
That means more than a golden ticket to heaven when you die.
Is Christ your source of fulfillment? Is He your security? Does He define your identity?
The idol worshippers of the Hebrews day believed that, in the end, they could control their idols. Sure they worshipped the idols… but they had a set of rituals that would sway the intentions of their deities…
As they performed their religious activities… as they held their idols… salvation was in their hands.
Tom’s elephant godling will protect Tom from Frank… but it won’t help Frank. Frank’s turtle warrior god will help him in battle, but it won’t fight for Tom. Salvation is in their hands…
what is the shape of an idol?
*It’s in the shape of the car I’m going to get when I turn 16… just like Tom’s elephant god gives strength to Tom and not Frank, my car will bless ME with security, freedom, and status… not Joe.
what is the shape of an idol?
*It’s in the shape of my boyfriend/girlfriend who makes me feel good about myself.
what is the shape of an idol?
*It’s in the shape of my next gadget that will entertain me –because real life is so boring; that next gadget that will fulfill my life- I’ll have whatever I need at my fingertips… that next gadget that will bless me with status.
what is the shape of an idol?
*It’s in the shape of me. Because freedom… salvation… they come when I get to do whatever I want to do.
what is the shape of an idol?
It’s in the shape of whatever takes salvation – fulfillment, identity, hope, security – out of God’s hands, and places them in our own hands.
“Do we, in our hearts, believe that Christ is the Son of God and that we must follow him even at the cost of renouncing this life and all it’s pleasures? We say little about that, much about our need for Christianity to protect our treasures. Yet surely Christ was not meant to save the world for us; it was meant to save us from the world…” –Joy Davidman
and perhaps… to save the world from us.
“The real horror of idols is not merely that they give us nothing, but that they take away from us even that which we have. By the act of imagining power in the thing, we rob ourselves, and the Holy Spirit within us, of that much power. If our car alone can rush us away from danger, we have lost the power of saving ourselves by our legs. An idolater is always a spiritual paralytic. The more we look to material objects for help, the less we can… ask help from the grace of God. If we are to be saved, it will not be by wood, however well carved and polished, nor by machines however efficient; nor by social planning, however ingenious. If we are to be saved, it must be by the one power that” built man at his beginning “and that [power] he [cannot] make with his hands –the power of the Holy Spirit, which is God.”
what is the shape of an idol?
Only you
in submitted silence before God
can answer that question.
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