Wednesday, September 19, 2007

By Faith... Or Not? Israel's Exodus and Conquest, Part 25 of 41

TEXT: "You shall not make for yourself a carved image -- 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 nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments" (Exodus 20:4-5).

IDEA: God hates idolatry.

PURPOSE: To help listeners realize the power of idolatry.

When I was growing up, I wasn’t particularly drawn to the Ten Commandments. I had never murdered anyone. I had not committed adultery. And I was comforted by the fact that the second commandment was not to make graven images. I had never done that, and I could not imagine that this commandment would be much trouble to anyone I knew.

As we go through Hebrews 11, the writer forms an honor roll of people of faith. If you were to ask what commandment they found most difficult to keep, I think the answer would be the second commandment.

One of the things that people listed in Hebrews 11 had to fight against again and again was idolatry.

I. Not only had I not broken that commandment, I didn’t understand the commandment.

I didn’t know what a “graven image” was.

I didn’t know what it meant when the commandment said, “I the Lord your God am a jealous God punishing the sins of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me.”

Does that mean, if your great-grandfather or your great-grandmother committed some sin, like going too far on a date or telling a lie to their parents, would you get punished for it? If A commits the sin, then D generations later gets the whip.

What does the commandment mean when it talks about “those who hate Me”?

II. What does the commandment mean?

You can’t use any image of any kind to represent God to help you with your worship.

When the commandment talks about punishing the sins of the father to the third and fourth generation, what particular sin do you think God has in mind? In that commandment it is clearly the sin of making an image of God.

If the children do what the parents and grandparents and great-grandparents did, they too will be punished. That is striking because as you read through the Old Testament, every generation got mixed up with idols.

When the commandment talks about “those who hate Him,” it means those who make God their enemy.

“Hate” was the language of the ancient world for those who were against you, and “love” was the word used for those who were for you. For example, kings compiled lists of other kings who were allies (they loved him) and those they thought were against them (they hated him).

Those who made idols and worshiped them made themselves God’s enemies.

God’s deepest desire is to show love for His people for uncountable generations. Those who worship idols stand in the way of God’s love.