THOU SHALT NOT WORSHIP ANY GRAVEN IMAGE FULL

God is not a material Being God is an invisible Spirit. God cannot be apprehended by the senses. 1 Corinthians 2 intimates that without the teaching of God’s Spirit, we can never know God.

THOU SHALT NOT WORSHIP ANY GRAVEN IMAGE FULL

He appeared to Moses in the burning bush, and to Job in the whirlwind-but no human being has seen God in His full essence (See John 1:18). It is true that God revealed Himself to men for brief periods of time in various physical forms. And since sight sees only objects of the material world, God cannot be seen with the material eye. These passages teach that God does not have a material or bodily nature. The benediction in 1 Timothy speaks of God as “eternal, immortal, and invisible.” In Colossians 1:15 we read about the image of the invisible God. God is a spirit (John 4:24) and a spirit does not have flesh and bones (Luke 24:39). In His full essence, God has no material substance and no bodily form, and so God cannot be seen. The God of the Bible has revealed himself as an all-powerful eternal Being who is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and yet righteous and just in all His doings. There may be some truth in each of these descriptions of God, but none expresses all the truth. Every time you want to have some fun, he is there with his stick to prod your conscience. Still others think of God as a man with a big stick. He tries to calm you when you are afraid, and so forth. Others think of God as being like a little old lady down the street. Some think of God as being like a grand old man who did some wonderful things for Moses and the Children of Israel many years ago, but in our day of science and progress he is simply out-dated. Man’s worship of God can never be correct until he holds in his mind a right concept of God.

The Commandment Forbids the Misrepresentation of God.

The Second Commandment says “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.” There are wrong ways to worship the true God and we must be alert to such erroneous forms of worship. The First Commandment forbids false gods the Second Commandment forbids false worship of the one true God! The First Commandment says “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” There are false gods and we must not worship them. in the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve them.” The Second Commandment is somewhat related to the First Commandment. The Second Commandment says “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or. This is pretty good evidence that the Ten Commandments are intended to continue to be a regulator of Christian behavior. When Paul tells children to obey their parents, he reinforces the instruction in the New Testament by quoting the Fifth Commandment (Ephesians 6:2). It is just as much a part of New Testament doctrine to preach obedience to God’s moral law as it is to proclaim the death of Jesus Christ. Now that Jesus Christ has died and given Himself for our sins-and loved us while we were yet sinners-we respond with a corresponding love to Him. When we read that “love is the fulfilling of the law” (Romans 13:10), we are not being told that love has displaced the Commandments, but that love provides a motive by which we can obey them. The truth is that the Old Testament (as well as the New Testament) is full of God’s grace dealing with penitent people, and the New Testament (as well as the Old Testament) is full of God’s moral law.

Some erroneously equate the Old Testament with law and the New Testament with grace. Karl Menninger) wrote a book entitled “What Ever Became of Sin?” He says, “Where are the preachers who ascend Mount Sinai and confer with the Almighty and come back to us with the Tables of Stone under their arms?” Preaching against sin is not a popular task. Many who claim to be Christian can’t even name the Ten Commandments, much less attempt to live by them. As we honestly look at these laws, we say, “I am guilty of this and I am guilty of that”-and seeing our guilt, we say, “I must do something about it”-and thus the Law becomes a schoolmaster to drive us to the Savior, Jesus Christ. They help us see how sinful we are and show us the extent of our failure to obey God’s laws. The Ten Commandments were given that every mouth may be stopped and that all the world may become guilty before God (Romans 3:19). They spell out in a concise way what sin really is. The Commandments are God’s rules for life. Each one of the Commandments is repeated and expanded in the New Testament. The Ten Commandments are the essence of God’s moral law.

Thou shalt not worship any graven image