REQUIRED OF HUMANS: FEAR OF THE LORD
By Steve Zeisler
Fortune magazine created a stir recently with an article about successful
businessmen in their mid-life who discard the wives of their youth and marry
young, beautiful, vivacious women described as "trophy wives."
It was even satirized in a recent Doonesbury comic strip. This practice
strikes me as an outstanding example of how rejection of God's truth leads
to diminution of what is intrinsically worthwhile, while glorying in the
trivial or tawdry. A marriage that lasts a lifetime and produces children
is a work of art. It has incredible intrinsic value and is worthy of praise.
To prefer a trophy to a valuable sculpture which has been created in your
home is foolishness.
A JEALOUS GOD
Our focus today in our study of the Ten Commandments is on a statement about
the nature of God: Our God is an actively jealous God. He involves himself
in that which matters to him. The word "jealous" as it is used
of the Lord here is not defined like our common usage of the word. In our
experience jealousy is usually petty, competitive, and immature. The word,
when applied to God, has the idea of intensity. Our God is intense in his
concern that what is valuable is not trivialized, and he acts on his intensity.
Let us read Exodus 20:4-7, the second and third commandments in the decalogue:
"You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness
of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under
the earth. You shall not worship 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 fourth generation to those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness
to thousands, to those who love Me and keep my commandments. You shall not
take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave
him unpunished who takes His name in vain."
Briefly stated, the commandments in view here forbid idolatry and taking
God's name in vain. The insistence of our Lord and Creator is that we esteem
what is valuable, and he will act against those who reject such a calling.
What is ultimately the most valuable is the glory of God himself. Nothing
is worth more than the name, the reputation, the person, and activity of
God. Should we choose to tarnish him by the use of our hands or our mouth
then we have acted against an intense God who actively opposes us.
THE SECOND COMMANDMENT: NO IDOLATRY
Verse 4 begins a discussion of idolatry:
"You shall not make for yourself an idol, or likeness of
what is in heaven above or on earth beneath or in the water under the earth.
You shall not worship them or serve them."
This refers to taking the worship of God into our own hands, and thus advancing
ourselves inappropriately. The assumption is that what we create is sufficiently
worthwhile so that we begin to worship it in preference to God.
This command forbids us to make idolatry an alternative to true worship
or a perversion of it. The issue at stake is not the making of any image
at all. Some Jews and Moslems, and even Christians in various parts of the
world, have at some time said that we should never take a photograph or
make a statue, for instance, as a representation of anything in creation.
Once when I was in Jerusalem I took a photograph at a distance of some Jewish
people at the Wailing Wall. Some orthodox Jews standing nearby almost seized
my camera to forbid my taking a photograph. They believe that the second
commandment is violated by imprinting an image.
The concern of the law, however, is not creating beauty but making an image
that is specifically intended to be worshiped or served. Art is not forbidden
for believers. In fact, God directed the Jews in the Old Testament to make
representations of cherubim to cover the ark of the covenant. What is forbidden
is the making of objects to worship and serve in place of God.
To see idolatry in terms of our twentieth century experience rather than
solely the activity of ancient people, let us read a word of ridicule that
Isaiah preached in this regard:
Surely he cuts cedars for himself, and takes a cypress or an
oak, and raises it for himself among the trees of the forest. He plants
a fir, and the rain makes it grow. Then it becomes something for man to
burn, so he takes one of them and warms himself; he also makes a fire to
bake bread. He also makes a god and worships it; he makes it a graven image,
and falls down before it. Half of it he burns in the fire; over this half
he eats meat as he roasts a roast, and is satisfied. He also warms himself
and says, 'Aha! I am warm, I have seen the fire.' But the rest of it he
makes into a god, his graven image. He falls down before it and worships;
he also prays to it and says, 'Deliver me, for thou art my God' (Is.44:14-17).
What foolishness, says Isaiah. A man cuts down a tree and turns half of
it into energy. With the energy he roasts his food, bakes his bread, and
warms himself at night. It has ultimately been used up in the process and
becomes ashes that are scattered, trampled, and valued at nothing. The idolator
then takes the other half of the tree and carves it into a graven image.
He treats it as if it were a god, begging it to deliver him from his tragedy
and his sin. He calls upon this object that he has made with his own hands
to do what he cannot do for himself, mend his hurts and deliver him from
anguish. It is foolishness.
WORSHIP AND SERVE
Likewise, in contemporary society we will take a natural material, whether
it is silicon or metal alloys, and will fashion it into a useful product,
much like the idolator makes a graven image. Our desire in doing so is that
the product of our hands will be greater than we are so as to deliver us
from our state of need and contamination. It is not wrong to create, for
we ought to surely use our hands to interact with the world to yield art
and technology. However, it is wrong for us to worship and serve the things
which we have made.
To worship is to ascribe value to an object. The original English word was
"worthship." That which has worth or value in your sight is that
which you worship. Worship has nothing to do with candles, organ music,
folded hands, and closed eyes. It is anything that you value above other
things so that you serve it through the amount of energy and time you expend
in its advancement. In that way, the object has power to command obedience
from its worshiper. If you worship that which has been made by human hands,
then you are guilty of idolatry because only the Lord God himself and his
glory is worthy of worship and service.
Idols in the ancient world were usually human in form, or were intermingled
with animal parts like the sphinx in Egypt which had a lion's body and a
man's head. Even when the idol was fashioned as an animal it was in order
to transfer the capability of the animal--his strength, stamina, or potency--to
the person.
MODERN IDOLS
To understand what in twentieth century creation has the potential to be
an idol, let us examine the products of our hands. When I was younger, I
worked during the summers at a place which utilized heavy industrial machinery.
Huge cranes with claw buckets would reach down into a mass of metal objects,
pick up tons at a time, and move them from place to place. I remember watching
a crane operator, a hefty man with big leather gloves on his hands, grasp
the lever in front of him, and pull it back. The huge bucket on the crane
swung around, a great metal claw dropped down, and the hand of the machine
closed just as the man's hand had closed. With our technology we have recreated
human arms that can do thousands of times more than what the ordinary man's
hands can do.
A friend was telling me that she had joined a health club recently. There
is magnificent equipment for working out, and mirrors everywhere. She had
gone to one of the "priests" in the health club and gotten special
vitamins and diet supplements to help in her fitness regimen. One of the
things they determined which she should concentrate on was "thigh sculpture,"
since she was not happy with the appearance of her thighs. Particular machines
have been invented to convert the human thigh to an ideal shape. It struck
me how closely the creation of a human body, a shape that will give well-being
to a person, is to the ancient idol that was carved in wood or stone.
Modern weapons are another example of this phenomenon. Ancient man would
throw a spear at a target with his own physical strength supplying the energy.
Now man presses a button and the spear is replaced by a missile which will
go 5,000 miles at a time. It is merely an extension of the human body on
a grander scale. We make things that emulate ourselves, hoping that they
can deliver us. We give them far too much value, and begin to serve them
as a result. We must be careful to dismiss any notion that our extended
capabilities can save us from our sin.
If you have ever looked at a satellite dish carefully, you will notice that
they look like human ears cocked at the heavens. It is as if we are trying
to make ourselves bigger by interacting with what goes on far beyond. We
want to listen in from thousands of miles away, strengthen our communication
by bouncing sound off satellites in the heavens. Our hearing is expanded
and we place our hope in our methods of mass communication. We are not unlike
the ancient idolators. We fashion with our hands vaguely human shapes that
we call on deliver us.
A friend of mine worked a large computer company some years ago, in the
heyday of growth and glory in the industry. Going right from college, this
brilliant young man began to give his life to the "company store."
He said it had nothing to do with money, and in fact never paid much attention
to his salary. As a result of the excessive hours he spent on the job, his
wife left him. Later, he realized what drove him was his sense that he and
the team working on a project would save the world. The idea was prevalent
that human ignorance could be stamped out by these marvelous machines, that
no one ever needed to want for knowledge and education again. This time
it was not ears or arms that were developed, but the making of human minds.
Not only did these workers want to bury IBM as one of their goals, but they
were going to save the human race. It was not until long into the process
that he looked up one day and saw what he had become. As a result he came
to Christ because he realized that he had worshiped something that did not
deserve worship. Men had made it with their hands and they had called out,
"Deliver me!" They gave incredible value to that which did not
deserve it.
IDOLATRY FOR GOD'S SAKE
Not only do we make with our hands and accomplish with our energy those
things which we worship as an alternative to God, but there is a more subtle
problem for us as Christians. We may try to use idols of a sort to aid us
in the worship of the true God. The error is that we attempt to put God
in our debt by this kind of manipulation. The ancient Jews had that problem
as well. When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the original Ten Commandments,
he found that in their impatience for his return the people of Israel had
asked Aaron to lead them in worship with a golden calf. Thus, on the day
they received God's commandments they violated them by making an idol. Aaron
proclaimed to the people, "This is your God who brought you up out
of Egypt." This was not Baal, or Molech, or some other Canaanite god.
Aaron's action called for the Israelites to express themselves in worship
by making an idol for the sake of the true God.
I think we have some danger in this regard as well. For example, too many
times we create ten-step lessons that are designed to put God in our debt.
By reading the latest Christian best seller on parenting, for instance,
we assume that God owes us trouble-free children. Instead of humbly bowing
before a living God and depending on him and his wisdom to lead us we think
we have created something that we can hold in our hands so as to force him
to act. We believe we have localized him and built a channel that he has
to run down to serve us. Routines and patterns can often be an attempt to
manipulate God, and I think that is a problem of idolatry as well.
The Bible can even serve the same function. We love the Bible in this church,
and expend ourselves in studying and meeting to discuss it. However, it
is possible to have the Bible become so central that God is placed on the
periphery. Our efforts to control this body of information on the page becomes
that which excludes the living God. We think we can understand and thus
own God by dominance of the scriptures. Jesus spoke to this issue in John
5: "You do not have his word abiding in you. For you do not believe
him whom he sent. You search the scriptures, for in them you think you have
eternal life, and it is these that bear witness of me."
The scripture must lead us to humble obedience, worship, and love for the
glory of God. The Bible cannot be an end in itself.
The glory of God is so valuable that we must not do anything to trivialize
it, thereby diminishing it. We must not think that anything that we are
capable of creating or any association of human beings is capable of building
that which deserves our worship and service. God alone deserves that.
THE THIRD COMMANDMENT: RESPECT GOD'S NAME
Let us turn to the third commandment found in Exodus 20:7:
"You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
For the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes his name in vain."
The concern here is for our speech rather than what we do with our hands.
Unlike our culture's use of names, the name of God was a very serious notion
for the ancient Semitic people. A name stood for the person, and gathered
up the reputation and the personality of the individual. Therefore, any
time that we diminish and trivialize the name of God by making it lower
and less respected we reduce the glory of God. He takes very seriously this
issue of protecting what is valuable and will act in his intensity. No one
should ruin the name, and therefore the reputation of God himself.
There are a number of ways to take the name of the Lord in vain. Clearly,
using God's name as a swear word would be one example. Taking oaths such
as, "By God, I'm going to finish this project by Tuesday!" is
also an offense. If you do that, you had better be finished on Tuesday because
you have attached the name of God to a promise of action on your part. That
is why Jesus said that we ought not take an oath by God's name. Since no
human can control circumstances, the name of God must not be attached to
a promise that might not be kept. Let your yes be yes and your no be no,
but do not make an oath. If by chance you do make an oath then keep the
promise because the name of God is at stake. You have attached the name
and reputation of God to some announcement of activity on your part.
TEACH THE TRUTH
James says that teachers of the word of God will be held to a stricter standard
than others. A teacher is anyone who imparts God's word to others. It not
only includes those who stand before a congregation, but anyone who says,
"thus saith the Lord" in any setting. Teachers will be judged
strictly because of the importance of accurately saying what God has said.
If they do not, they have reduced his standing in the eyes of others. Once
again, it is wrong to diminish the name and reputation of God.
Recall David's experience of being chased in the wilderness by Saul. David
knew that he was to be king. Yet as long as Saul remained alive, David refused
to harm him even though his own life was threatened. More than once he had
opportunity to kill Saul to save his own life, but he refused to do so.
Although David's advisers justified killing Saul in order to save the kingdom
from ruination, David would not because Saul was the Lord's anointed. He
was content to let God deal with the king in his own time and his own way.
From a human standpoint, Saul perhaps deserved to be killed. However, as
long as he was in an office to which the name of God was attached, David
refused to dishonor the name of God by doing so. The Lord's reputation was
at stake.
DECLARING GOD'S ACTIONS
I think another way in which God's name and reputation can be tarnished
is with casual usage, such as "God told me to do this," or "God
led me to do this," or "The Spirit directed this." I am not
suggesting that God does not act in our lives and the Spirit does not direct,
but one who makes such a statement is responsible for telling the truth.
I am concerned about some Christians today who are focused on seeing God
do miracles of healing and dramatic works of power. They will report effervescently
about a particular miracle that God did, or a dramatic powerful intervention
of God. Certainly the Lord does dramatically and powerfully intervene in
human lives, but if you proclaim that he did something, then he better have
done it. Otherwise you have tarnished his reputation by claiming for him
something that is not true, thus causing other people to regard him less
seriously. He is a jealous, intense God who will act against those who would
diminish his glory.
A friend with whom I went to college was deaf in one ear and 75 percent
deaf in the other. Soon after she became a Christian, she was invited to
a healing service. In the midst of an emotionally charged service, she responded
to the call of the Christian "healer" to step forward.
After she told her story, he laid his hands on her and pronounced her healed.
She was thrilled, and enthusiastically told everyone that she had been healed.
For two days she seemed like a different person, but by the third day her
hearing was back to the place where it had been before. After she had worked
through her pain, she later related to me that she had become so excited
and hopeful that the 25 percent hearing that she had in one ear gave her
much more information than it usually did. She tuned in more effectively
to what was going on around her, and was able to understand. She read lips
and body language and was unaware that she was doing it. She genuinely believed
herself to be healed, and she proclaimed what God had done to other people.
Finally, when the energy had drained from her, and she realized her ability
to hear had not changed, there were a number of people who ridiculed the
whole experience. It is similar to the way that Jim Bakker and others have
made the choice to assert God's name in such a way that he is made a fool.
Any individual who has the temerity to say that "God has healed you"
had better be certain. Otherwise, he is guilty of the very thing against
which Moses is speaking in the Ten Commandments, ruining the reputation
of God.
In effect, we take God's name in vain any time we indulge ourselves. Thus,
when we act unbecomingly and are identified as Christians who supposedly
march under the Lord's banner, we have taken God's name and made it lower
in people's estimation.
As I was unloading garbage at the dump recently, I had the dilemma of disposing
some paint cans. I did not know what the rules were, but it struck me that
it was possible that they might be toxic, and I should find out what was
appropriate before I threw them away. It seemed like too much of a hassle
though, and I toyed with the idea of tossing them onto the pile with the
rest of the garbage. Just then a man who works at the dump walked around
from behind the pile and said, "Reverend, how are you doing today?"
I once coached his son and it had made an impression on him that his son's
coach was in the ministry. I asked him what I should do with the paint cans
and he explained the procedure for disposal.
I was thinking of that incident in this case. I was close to indulging myself
by taking the expedient way, even though my conscience had raised the question
for me. This nonbeliever identified me with Jesus, however, and I realized
that it was the Lord's name that would suffer as well as my own.
"WATCH YOURSELVES LEST YOU FORGET"
Let me summarize. There are some who have chosen foolishly to treat marriage
as if baubles and ornaments were more valuable than a work of art. It is
wrong to exchange something magnificent for something tawdry. That kind
of wrong valuation is like a graffiti artist painting over the Mona Lisa.
It is grievously wrong when choices are made to tarnish the most valuable
thing of all, the glory of God. To trivialize him by worshiping and serving
that which man can make with his hands and obeying what it calls us to do
in place of God makes us idolators. If we diminish the glory of God with
idolatry or drag his name and reputation through the mud, then we must stand
face-to-face with an intense God. He will not be made small by our irresponsible
use of his name and glory.
The first of the Ten Commandments says that we should have no rivals to
our Lord. The second and third commandments say, in effect, that we must
not trivialize him. Thus, the first three pronouncements are about our responsibility
as God's covenant people to him. There must be no rivals or diminishment
of God. We need to hear the word of God and examine ourselves fully in light
of these things and see perhaps if we have made choices that break the law.
In the first message of this series, I stated that the law cannot save us;
it only exposes us by teaching us about ourselves.
If we see ourselves falling short in light of this examination, then we
can begin the process of appealing to God for forgiveness, so that our full
repentance will lead to effective rebirth and recreation. We must let the
search light of the law tell us about ourselves so that we will not give
way either to idolatry or to diminishing the name of God.
What do you worship and ultimately value? What do you daydream about when
your mind wanders? What do you long for? What do your children emulate about
you as you see them growing up? That will teach you about your values. What
do you obey? What is it in your life that has the right to command you to
act, speak, and perform? Make no idols that you should worship and obey.
For our benediction, I want to read from the preaching of Moses:
"So watch yourselves lest you forget the covenant of the
Lord your God which he made for you and make for yourselves a graven image
in the form of anything against which the Lord your God has commanded you.
The Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God" (Deut.4:23,24).
Catalog No. 4182
Exodus 20:4-7
Third Message
Steve Zeisler
September 10, 1989
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