4.3.30 6.19.2022 Honor God's Nature Exodus 20.4-6
10 Words, 2 Tablets, 1 God, 1 People: the Gospel in the 10 Commandments • Sermon • Submitted
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Entice: Commandant 2 would seem to be further away from our understanding and experience than virtually any of the other commandments. In our world Abrahamic faiths predominate. Though there are vestiges everywhere of Pagan heritage, we don’t think of them in that way. The temptation is ever present. Most human beings long to make the abstract concrete, the invisible visible, and the intangible tangible. Idolatry occurs when we succumb to the temptation to project divine attributes upon some created thing or being. In the past it was statues to which we could sacrifice. Now it is possessions for which we can lust. Let's read it and then consider some initial questions.
4 “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.
5 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,
6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
Engage:
Why is God so touchy?
Why is God so touchy?
Jealousy?
Jealousy?
Really?
Really?
It seems so petty!
It seems so petty!
He knew.
He knows us.
He knew that an idolatrous heart was ever present.
One of our deepest flaws is that our fall prevents the imaginative leap that God is a person, yet not material and corruptible and mortal as we are.
We are constantly looking for a concrete image of what our mind knows must be there, but cannot grasp. We are always looking for a representation we can see, feel, hear, touch, smell--and yes,
control.
control.
Expand: One of the persistent subtexts of the rest of the OT is Israel's near constant violation of the first two commandments.
"No other Gods!"
"No other Gods!"
"No statues,
"No statues,
No pictures,
No pictures,
No portrayals!"
No portrayals!"
The rest of human history expands upon the theme. Humans are worshipping creatures. WE will find something. A pony, a pig, a Porsche, power, prestige, wealth, riches. Why a prohibition against Idolatry? Because
we are idolaters!
we are idolaters!
Excite: Yet many have been, and all can be delivered from this instinctive desire to idolize, through the authentic, concrete presence of God with us. To get to the good news we need to begin with the bald, hard facts.
Explore:
Idolatry demeans, diminishes, and deprecates everything and everyone it touches.
Idolatry demeans, diminishes, and deprecates everything and everyone it touches.
Explain: There are three specific insults we need to consider.
Body of Sermon: Idolatry...
1. Insults Gods dignity .
1. Insults Gods dignity .
1.1 DisregardsHis Nature.
1.1 DisregardsHis Nature.
18 To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him?
19 An idol! A craftsman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts for it silver chains.
20 He who is too impoverished for an offering chooses wood that will not rot; he seeks out a skillful craftsman to set up an idol that will not move.
Living
24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
…Spirit
29 Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.
Independent of us
1.2 Devalues His Creative work.
1.2 Devalues His Creative work.
Romans 1:20–23 (ESV)
20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools,
23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
Next, scripture as well as the whole unfolding of history teaches us that Idolatry...
2. Insults human design.
2. Insults human design.
2.1 We are His Image.
2.1 We are His Image.
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
2.2 The fall defaces but does not destroy the image.
2.2 The fall defaces but does not destroy the image.
6 “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.
Finally, Idolatry
3. Insults Jesus' deity
3. Insults Jesus' deity
3.1 Of course, the Hebrews did not specifically know this. There are, however, hints scattered throughout the Hebrew scriptures. Hints about a physical, concrete, communicative presence of God. For example...
25 For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
There are many examples that illustrate Job's primitive statement of faith, incidents which sketch in detail what theologians call a pre-incarnate appearance of the Word made flesh. (Jesus, the second person of the God-head.)
In Genesis 18 three individuals visit Abraham. Abraham entertains them and one of them, in speaking to him is addressed as and speaks as God. Eventually 2 of them (presumably angels) proceed to Sodom to rescue Lot and destroy the cities of the plain, whilst God continues to speak with Abraham.
In Genesis 32 Jacob wrestles next to a creek with "God", whose name is ineffable.
Joshua 5,6 the Captain of the Lord's army addresses Joshua as God.
3.2 What the OT hints at, is of course a major theological theme of the NT.
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
3.3 We are so impatient! In both the short term and over the long haul we find it hard to wait upon God and to let Him work in His own good time. In attempting to concretely depict God we were rushing ahead of Him. He knew that at one particular point in Human history all questions about concrete depictions of God would be satisfied by the Word becoming flesh.
Idolatry corrupts our minds and prevents us from grasping not only God's true nature--but ours.
Shut Down:
The Revelation of God is cumulative, not just in terms of the story's gradual unfolding in scripture. It is cumulative in many intangible forms as well. For example, every time we look in the mirror, every time we look at another person, we gaze into the face of a defaced scale model of God. It's not the face of God...but it is a reminder, a pointer, a hint.
When we consider Jesus,
the flaws,
failures,
and faults against the image
are gone and we see God
face to face.
God made us to reflect His image. Jesus came to redeem that which was ruined by Sin. Our full, final understanding of God is Jesus upon the cross. An image of God the human mind would never create on its own.
We honor that full image in worship and reflect that full image in faithful Christian living. That is God's word for each of us who bear His image.