This article is the third in a series on the Ten Commandments. In the previous articles, I introduced the series with the title The Ten Commandments: A Brief Exposition. Then last week, I wrote on The First Commandment: The Object of Our Worship. Today, we will examine the second commandment:
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. Thou 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; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments (Exodus 20:4-6).
The second commandment Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image… (v. 4) expounds the manner of worship. How are we to worship? It is God who prescribes how he is to be worshipped. Not us (John 4:23-24). The Westminster Confession of faith rightly captures this saying
…the acceptable way of worshipping the true God is instituted by Himself, and so limited by His own revealed will, that He may not be worshipped according to the imaginations and devices of men, or the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representation, or any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scripture.
When we come to the second commandment, we are approaching God’s prescribed way of acceptable worship. Indeed, throughout redemptive history, God condescended to our level to make himself known (John 3:16; Romans 5:8; 1 John 4:10). In our worship of God, we don’t have the autonomy to introduce into our corporate worship, anything God has not sanctioned. Worship therefore must be according to what God has revealed in Scripture. About this, the Reformers speak of The Regulative Principle Of Worship which states “[T]he corporate worship of God is to be founded upon specific directions of Scripture.”¹
The content or manner of worship has been a subject of debate in church history with divided views on the type of music in corporate worship for example. Must we sing only the Psalms; or Psalms and hymns? What instruments are allowed in corporate worship? Can we dance or not in corporate worship? All these have been an attempt at ensuring only what God prescribes is allowed in worship. Turning now to the second commandments; we will specifically look at what is directly addressed or prescribed in worship.
The second commandment directly speaks against idolatry: “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image …. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them.” Incontrovertibly, the first command warns against idolatry. In our lives, we constantly make idols that are not necessarily graven images. Anything that takes the place of God in our lives is an idol (1 John 5:21). An interesting observation in the text is the extent of the command: “… anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water beneath.” This captures all that human beings can make idols of. In our worship of God, we are to guard against introducing anything God has not prescribed. That’s idolatry.
“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image…” also indicates that worship is spiritual and anytime we come to the worship of God, this must guide us. We are not to imagine or have any intermediaries to God than he whom God himself has ordained as a mediator (1 Timothy 2:5). Worship is spiritual because God commands spiritual worship; not that polluted by our imagination (John 4:24). Idolatry pollutes the worship of the triune God. Idolatry destroys the people of God. And so in warning his people, God expresses his jealousy over them: “for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God” We are not to read jealousy in our human understanding of envy. God’s jealousy is a zeal for his people borne out of love to protect us from idolatry. Idolatry destroys and brings the wrath of God. And God out of love protects his children from the destruction of idolatry by this command.
The command, therefore, is for our good and protection from a benevolent and loving God.
Notes
- Derek Thomas, “The Regulative Principle of Worship”, https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/regulative-principle-worship/
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