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Exodus 20:4-6
"You shall not make for yourself an idol in the
form of anything in heaven above or on the earth
beneath or in the waters below. You shall not
bow down to them or worship them; for I, the
LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the
children for the sin of the fathers to the third
and fourth generation of those who hate me, but
showing love to a thousand {generations} of
those who love me and keep my commandments."
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April 2
No Idols
The first commandment
dealt with having no other gods before the Lord.
The second commandment deals directly with
idols. If you search for the word
worship in the
Bible, you'll find that it is more often in
connection with idol worship than worship of
God.
We don't often think of
God as being jealous because it has a negative
connotation. We are created in the image of God
and our emotions are modeled after God's.
The difference is that we use our emotions in
sinful ways. God gets angry just as we do.
But there is a righteous anger -anger over
things that anger God, and selfish anger - anger
because we were offended or hurt.
God gets jealous when we
give attention that belongs to him to other
things instead. It is not petty jealousy
that is over someone having something better
than you.
God's promises of
punishment and blessing are not meaningless.
While some of it is a matter of our upbringing,
you'll find that Christians often have Christian
parents and grandparents. And the opposite
is true as well. Those who oppose God
often have parents and grandparents who want
nothing to do with God.
The choice is still up to
us and no one will be able to stand before God
on Judgment Day and say that God caused us to
reject Him. But God does soften and harden
hearts and this is one of the reasons why God
may choose to do so. |
