Second Word - Exodus 20:3-4

20:3-6 - Even though there might be some disagreements with what actually constitutes the first and second “principle” or “word” or “commandment,” it’s pretty much universal what constitutes the second one, which is “thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in the heave above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.” There is an ancient reason why this concept was so far up on the list of statements but there is also a modern one because, as TB points out that this one “might be the principle most consistently violated by God’s people throughout the entirety of the Bible.” Why is that? TB suggests that is because human nature makes us a very visually oriented species and we use symbols to express ourselves and our beliefs and identities.

TB suggests a few different reasons why this principle was included and the first was because “every known god form the time Mankind turned corrupt, right on up to the time of the Exodus, had some type of familiar visible representation… and in face demanded such representation… based on some creature or object that occurred in nature. Typically is was a star, or the sun, or the crescent moon, or an animal of some kind… and in many cases it was a human form, or a hybrid animal-and-human form. The mind of that era thought that if one didn’t have a visible god-figure to worship, how could one worship at all?”

So anciently, during this time, the denial of actual physical representations of the god they worship was revolutionary and really set the Hebrews apart in terms of the new belief structure that they were following. This is setting the stage for the people to transition away from outward physical acts of obedience to actual internalization of gospel principles. Getting rid of the physical objects was a strong and necessary first step to implementing this transition and it’s taken like 3,000 years but we are getting better at it. People are slow. Maybe that’s why God talks about in verse 5 about punishing the disobedient down several generations and rewarding down several generations as well. People take a long time to learn and a long time to break what was ingrained into them in childhood, good or bad.

As far as how this applies to us in the modern day, because we aren’t as entangled with physical symbols of our worship, our idolatry becomes mental. The IM comments, “This commandment prohibits every species of mental idolatry, and all inordinate attachment to earthly and sensible things (things which appeal to the senses)… God is the fountain of happiness, and no intelligent creature can be happy but through him… The very first commandment of the whole series is divinely calculated to prevent man’s misery and promote his happiness, by taking him off from all false dependence, and leading him to God himself, the fountain of all good..” This is something that I struggle with, like seeing cars and being like “oh I’d like that” or something else like a new house or something and it gets complicated because we are supposed to work and live and support ourselves and our children. I think that the point I get where I start to get angry about stuff, or look at something and think “how do I get that,” is my personal point where I need to back off and start focusing on myself spiritually.

The IM has several paragraphs about the different things people turn into idols in their own lives and its things like property, cars, education, houses, nice cars, etc and while I get the sentiment of what they are saying, I think that there is a balance that needs to be had on a lot of these things. For instance, one of the points made in the IM was that of waiting to have children before finishing an education and maybe it’s because I grew up in a very poor household with too many kids and horrible parents that I think when to have children and how many to have needs to be a conscience decision made prayerfully and carefully, not just a “YOLO, let’s see how many we can get before something bad happens.” Additionally, the whole “don’t delay children just to get an education” effects women the most in these situations because they are the ones who are convinced to give up educational aspirations to stay home and raise the kids and I’ve seen SO MANY women who were married for 20+ years, raised the kids and now their husbands are leaving them for newer, younger wives and then these women are left 40+ years old with no education and no work history who are getting screwed by their higher powered husband’s lawyers in divorce court and are effectively left homeless and screwed for the rest of their lives. I’m not saying that the church teaching of “don’t delay children to get an education” is wrong, but I am saying that I’ve seen it back fire SO MANY times on these poor women and so that decision needs to be carefully and prayerfully made.

Anyway, but there is one statement in the IM that hit me right in the feels, “Many worship the hunt, the fishing trip, the vacation, the weekend picnics and outings. Others have as their idols the games of sport, baseball, football, the bullfight, or golf. These pursuits more often than not interfere with the worship of the Lord and with giving serve to the building up of the kingdom of God… Still another image men worship is that of power and prestige. Many will trample underfoot the spiritual and often the ethical values in their climb to success. These gods of power, wealth, and influence are quite as real as the golden calves or the children of Israel in the wilderness.” This is something that surprised me when I moved to Utah, was to see member of the church absolutely destroy each other so that they could make a few extra dollars or so that they could feed their ego. I was the victim of this about 14 years ago and I’m still super angry about it, but I’m trying to work through it. The “grinding on the faces of the poor” to make money or feel powerful, it’s something else, that is definitely hard for me to watch. I guess my point is that at this point in our human existence, in order to get the idolatry out of our lives, it's more complicated than simply getting rid of our god statues, and that we require the guidance of the Spirit to make it effective. It's probably a life time pursuit.