Sermon Tone Analysis

Forbidden Worship

Our worship must not reverse God’s order

Last week, we began Deut 4, where Moses is continuing his speech to the younger generation of Israelites, the ones who were young at the beginning of the wandering in the desert, as well as some who were born during that time.

Moses had commanded obedience, ultimately the obedience being to God, because the commands Moses was giving were from God, not from Moses.

After speaking on the topic of obedience and making a strong case for why the Israelites needed to remain obedient to God, now Moses moves into an extended portion of his speech on idolatry, which is our study this morning.

Moses will explain to the people why they are not to make idols, some of the consequences of idolatry, and finally, what to do if you are guilty of idolatry.

So as I read be aware of those three themes in today’s passage.

The reasons we must not make or worship idols, the consequences of worshiping idols, and what to do if we are guilty of worshiping idols.

And hopefully as we study this passage together this morning, we will all find an application in our own lives in regards to this very important topic.

A constant reminder is found throughout scripture, and that constant reminder is that we are supposed to give ourselves constant reminders to serve and obey the Lord.

So here Moses says, “Watch yourselves very carefully.”

Remember he had just previously made a dissertation on the importance of obedience, and in light of that, he puts in a therefore.

So in light of the importance of obedience, therefore, watch yourselves.

Watch yourselves in this particular way, he will be going on, that you do not fall into idolatry.

Paul now begins to give reasons why idolatry is wrong.

Now, sometimes we are simply told to obey something, even though we may not understand the reasoning.

But here Moses is giving us reasoning.

God is reasonable with us.

Isaiah 1.18 says Come, let us reason together.

So Moses begins to explain why making idols is an affront to God.

He starts out saying that first of all, you do not have a picture or image of God to make an idol of in the first place.

You saw no form.

God did not reveal himself to the people as a creature.

They only heard his voice from the midst of the fire.

So first off, if we are determined to make an idol of God, whether an image or a statue, the only way we could come up with any ideas is in our own mind.

Never mind that Michaelangelo and others have depicted God in human form, here we can clearly see that this is forbidden.

He isn’t an old man reaching his finger out as portrayed in the Sistene Chapel.

Having no form, God is spirit, scripture tells us.

Jesus said: John4.24

Since God has no form, people are not supposed to act corruptly by making a carved image.

Now Moses gives several specific examples: male or female, likenesses of animals, likeness of birds, fish, and so on.

then he continues to say not only should you not make images of things on the earth, but also things above:

This is very interesting, the specific examples Moses gives here.

In fact, if you have done any amount of study of the creation account in Genesis, some of this language seems familiar.

I believe Moses here is intentionally drawing us back to the creation, so that we can make a proper association and understand his reasoning of why we must not engage in making idols that represent the things of the creation.

Created things should not be worshiped over the creator, so Moses says don’t worship the sun and stars, because they are created.

Sounds like day one and day four of the creation.

He says don’t worship fish or birds.

Sounds like day five of the creation.

He says don’t worship animals, or people, male or female.

Sounds like day six of the creation.

So in the creation account, we see again and again that God created.

He created, theologians say, ex nilo, out of nothing.

He spoke the world into existence, so there is nothing in all creation that deserves our worship, but only the one who is the creator.

Idolatry makes a mockery of God’s order of things.

God was above man, above heaven and earth and all creation.

He put man in dominion over the earth, meaning that animals and all of nature is subject to the care and concern of man.

We are supposed to take care of it.

Subdue it.

So what happens when you take the order God set and reverse it?

Idolatry is taking that which is supposed to be lower than man, subject to man, under the care and concern of man, and turning it into an object of worship.

No one who worships the creation can also properly worship the creator at the same time.

When we marvel at a massive building, we wonder who the architect is.

When we experience a well-planned community, where the roads and traffic, the utilities, the parks, everything is ordered and beautiful, we realize that there is a talented person or team overseeing all of it to make it work so well.

When we see a beautiful garden, we give the gardener credit for her work and understanding of plant life to make it so beautiful.

When we see other artistic expressions, we give credit to the artist.

If we made out that the building was greater than its architect, or the community greater than the overseers, or the garden greater than the gardener, or the art greater than the artist, we diminish the talent, the hard work and the creativity of those responsible for the beauty in our lives.

And to place any of God’s creation on a pedestal to worship it, to make it to be the thing of wonder, rather than the God who spoke it into existence, is affront to God, and insult.

it is cosmic treason to make out that the creation itself deserves any kind of worship rather than the creation.

And according to scripture, this really ends up being the great charge against mankind.

In Romans 1, Paul writes about what is bringing God’s wrath on the world, because of the unrighteousness of the world, Paul writes, God is revealing his wrath.

And what is the culmination of the sins that bring God’s wrath?

Idolatry.

This is what ultimately brings God’s wrath on the sinful, that they have ignored him, but chosen to worship the creation.

There is no excuse, nature cries out to us that there is a creator.

But mankind gives no thanks to the creator, or any honor.

They exchange the glory of God for images.

This is the reversal of God’s proper order of things.

He is on top, man under him, and creation under man, and idolatry reverses this.

They take the lowest thing and make it the highest thing.

The created things become objects of worship rather than the Creator.

Not only does man place nature above man, it places nature above God.

And sometimes they idolater will claim they are worshiping God in this, because in worshipping the creation they worship him, but this cannot be true.

Why?

Because of the clear commands of scripture not to do it.

If God is God, and his word tells us not to worship the creation, then we ought not to worship it.

When I come home and one of my daughters shows me a picture she has made, I praise her, not the picture.

I say great job to her, not the picture.

Anyone creative will tell you, if they can admit it, that they very much desire to be recognized for their work.

So many artists end up frustrated because their work never gets noticed.

Some people take it for granted.

The artists in the family is expected to do some free work for friends.

And this is what is called presumption.

You are my family member or friend, you have this talent, I hope you will use it to benefit me.

Or the mechanic in the family who is expected to fix everyone’s stuff just for the privilege of helping.

We can understand this when we are the one being presumed upon, but we don’t understand it as well when we are the one doing the presuming.

If humans, who ultimately are created, can be frustrated by those who are presumptuous, how much more must it frustrate God when we presume upon Him?

We presume he needs our help, or we presume he would be happy to have us worship his creation.

Or we presume upon his kindness, mercy, and grace.

Let us not be presumptuous people, not with each other, of course, but certainly not with God.

The ultimate slap in the face to God is that we think he has a face to slap, or that we think we know better than he does about how we are to go about worshiping him.

Moving further into our passage, Moses gives further reason why these people, the Israelites, are not to make idols.

Egypt, like many pagan nations, was filled with false gods.

They worshiped just about everything you could think of.

In fact, there were many temples to various animals who were worshiped as gods.

It was sort of like going to the zoo, only you worshiped the animals.

SO maybe one temple has a bull.

It would always be a first born.

You would go to see the bull, lay down a gift of food or money, and bow down to it, supposedly for some favor that god would do for you.

It was always the first born.