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Chapter 2
Learning to Know
Who God Is:
Worth More than Any Earthly Wealth!
“You
shall not make for yourself a carved image …”
—Exodus 20:4-6
Even priests and pastors often leave out a vital part of the Ten
Commandment law—that preamble that gives us Good News before we even
hear the first commandment: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you
out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” That word
"Lord" is part of the name of Jesus, which means “The Lord
saves.”
God wants us to hear the Good News gospel
before we even begin to hear about the Law!
He tells you He is your God, your Savior, even before
you knew about Him, even while you were living in darkness, alienated
from Him. Jesus’ very name proclaims, I AM already your Savior! I have
already brought you out of the bondage of “Egypt,” which
is guilt, fear, and worry about the future, yes, the prison-house of
sin. What we all have needed is the knowledge of that Good News. Without
it, we cannot keep God’s holy law, but with that knowledge, we can.
Once we have seen and believed the truth of what the Son of God
accomplished by His sacrifice on the cross, we cannot worship any other
“god” instead of our one true Creator-and-Redeemer- God of the Holy
Bible. Since He reversed the “condemnation” that came on the human
race through Adam, now He treats us as though we had never sinned. He
brought us out of “Egypt,” out of the “house of bondage.” It’s
time to tell Him Thank You!
What we have always thought is the “second commandment” turns out
to be the second statement of Good News. Here it is:
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image,
or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the
earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not
bow down to them nor 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 generations of those who hate Me, but showing
mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments”
(Exodus 20:4-6).
Let’s look at the Good News that is in this
second commandment:
1. Our God and Savior is too great and
wonderful for any idol on earth to represent Him in any way. He
is the Creator of heaven and earth! The Maker of the Milky Way! The
ocean is but a teacup in His hand! And He knows every one of us, all of
our secrets, better than a mother can know her children. How could we
drag Him down to the level of any "thing" that humans could
devise?
2. He is not only “great” in the sense of
vastness, bigness, and power. He is “great” in the sense that His
love for each of us is personal and never ending. Not only did He
fling into endless space the numberless suns and worlds of the Milky
Way, He also designed and made the tiny humming bird with its delicate
wings. And Jesus told us that when one of them flies against my window
in summertime and breaks its neck and falls, that same infinite Father
in heaven looks down and notices what happened and He is sorry.
After telling us about this, Jesus said: “The very hairs of your
head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than
many sparrows” (Matthew 30, 31). Why, there’s not an astronomer on
earth who can tell you how many suns and stars are in the Milky Way! Nor
can any mother on earth count how many hairs are in her child’s head.
But although “the Lord your God” knows all your secrets and even
shameful thoughts, He still loves you!
3. Since God is Spirit, it’s impossible
that any idol or statue could represent Him. He wants us to learn to
worship Him, not some useless idol. When Mom and Dad kiss Baby
goodnight, often he wants a teddy bear in bed with him, a kind of
surrogate “Mom or Dad.” But our loving heavenly Father is too wise
to let us ever have a surrogate of Himself. No Beanie Baby “god” for
anyone who has learned Lesson Number One about the love of God!
4. The baby’s teddy bear or Beanie Baby is
clutched in bed because Mom or Dad can’t stay in the bedroom all
night. But “the Lord our God” is always with us, not down the
hall somewhere: “He
Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’”
(Hebrews 13:5). One of the names of Jesus is “‘Immanuel,’ which is
translated, ‘God with us’” (Matthew 1:23). David asks, “Where
can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? …
If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall fall on me,’ even the night
shall be light about me; indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You,
but the night shines as the day” (Psalm 139:7, 11, 12).
5. But His nearness is even greater than
David saw it to be! The New Testament reveals Jesus as One who came
so close to us that He became one of us (that’s what “Immanuel, …
God with us” means). As our Creator and Redeemer, He was utterly
without sin, but He took upon His sinless nature our sinful
nature, that He might know what it is to be tempted in all points like
as we are, yet always without sin (Hebrews 4:15). He experienced all of
our temptations and our feelings. He even tasted that bitter cup of
feeling forsaken. He cried out on His cross, “My God, My God, why have
You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46). He felt that way and conquered it,
so that we might never have to feel forsaken by God.
Why did Jesus, the Son of God, come down to
this earth?
Not simply so He might take us to heaven when we die. He has another
blessed purpose. The angel Gabriel told the virgin Mary before He was
born, “You shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people
from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). This is how the Apostle Paul
described it:
“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ
Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law
could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending
His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He
condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law
might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but
according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:2-4).
That was a greater achievement even than making the Milky Way! It’s
“easy” for the Creator to make a world or a sun; He simply speaks
the word—and it’s done. But conquering sin in fallen, sinful human
flesh? “Condemning” it there? Delivering us who have fallen, sinful
flesh from the dominion that sin has over us? That’s something God
could not do by simply saying an empty word, “I conquer sin!”
No, that would never do.
He cannot tell a lie, or claim to have accomplished something that’s
not real. So, He does it! He becomes a real Baby in Bethlehem’s
manger, a true human being, grows up as a child and a youth, meeting all
our temptations to sin, and saying “No!” to every one of them, even
until He was hanged on a cross.
And there on His cross, the devil throws his worst temptations at
Jesus, trying to get Him to sin in one tiny, almost insignificant way so
that Jesus might fail of His mission “to save His people from
their sins.” But Jesus conquered every subtle temptation!
No, no idol or image can ever represent that glorious achievement! No
angel in heaven would ever think of bowing down to an image of any kind.
He couldn’t do it! And neither can you or I if we have an adequate
understanding of the righteousness of Christ our Savior.
Once we know this Good News, we want to sing
the “Hallelujah Chorus” forever!
The second commandment is not a stern warning of doom if we bow to an
idol, it is Good News that we simply could never get involved in any
idol worship or even idol “veneration” if we remember what a
wonderful God and Savior we already have.
“I am … a jealous God,” He says. Why? Because He loves us! A
husband who truly loves his wife is “jealous” if she strays from him
to give her attentions to some other man. Our Lord and Savior (whose
name is “the Lamb”) has come so close to us that He is eagerly
awaiting the glorious day when it can be said, “Let us be glad and
rejoice, … for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife [His
church] has made herself ready” (Revelation 19:7). Such “jealousy”
is holy.
That day will come once His church chooses to believe how good this
Good News is, and permits Him to “cleanse us from all unrighteousness,”
for the “fine linen” in which the “wife” is dressed at the
wedding feast is “the righteous acts of the saints” (see 1 John 1:9;
Revelation 19:8).
But here the Good News gets even better.
Look at the promise of His forgiveness in the second commandment.
Although He has to “visit” the iniquity of evil fathers upon the
children if they choose to continue to hate righteousness, refusing to
learn any of the lessons of grace their fathers could have known, still
the Lord shows “mercy to thousands [of generations], to those who love
Me and keep My commandments.”
One day is a 365th fraction of a year. In Isaiah 61:2 the Lord says
that His “vengeance” is as one “day,” but His grace is
365 times as great—it’s a whole “year” long.
He loves to forgive!
He delights in mercy! The Bible says that He has “fun” being kind
to sinners, redeeming them, saving them from ruin, treating them
generously. “He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor
punished us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high
above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him”
(Psalm 103:10, 11). Note: it does not say that His mercy is “great”
toward people who do everything just right. No, His mercy is great
towards sinners who “fear Him,” who call upon Him. Joel says,
“Whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved” (Joel 2:32).
Luke says that Jesus’ enemies criticized Him for He “receives
sinners” (Luke 15:2). But that’s why Jesus is so wonderful!
When they said that about Him, He responded by telling the story of
the one sheep that was lost, and how the Good Shepherd left the 99 that
were “safe” and went in search of the one that was lost. That’s
Jesus, looking for you, unworthy or sinful as you may be.
In fact, while we have “fun” going to Disneyland or playing golf
or fishing or playing games, Jesus has “fun” seeking out
discouraged, broken-hearted people who have messed up their lives,
wandered far away, lost their marriages or homes perhaps, alcoholics, or
drug addicts or criminals who have lost hope, and by the Holy Spirit He
whispers words of encouragement to them. Micah 7:19 says He “will cast
all our sins into the depths of the sea.” It’s as if He says, “I
am ‘the LORD your God,’ your Savior. My very name ‘Jesus’ has a
built-in special meaning, ‘I will save you from your sins.’
And those sins that have brought you so much heartache and guilt, I have
cast behind My back, far deeper in the ocean than the wreck of the
Titanic; no one will ever be able to find them again.”
When Peter was sinking in the waves, he cried out to Jesus, “Lord,
save me!” And Jesus heard that prayer immediately, caught him by the
hand, and lifted him up. He will never refuse anyone:. “All that the
Father gives to Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will
by no means cast out” (John 6:37).
You may ask, “But how can I be sure that ‘the Father’ has
predestined me to be saved?” The truth is that the Father has
given you to Jesus! He “desires
all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1
Timothy 2:4). He has already paid the penalty of your sins, died the
second death that your sins would have to “pay” for. And even though
“the wages of sin is death, … the gift of God is eternal life in
Jesus Christ our Lord,” your Lord (Romans 6:23).
Every word that God says is important.
He has no fine print like lawyers who can wriggle out of a contract.
He has given the gift to you, not merely “offered” it
provided you first do everything right to deserve it. You don’t deserve
it, I don’t either, for Adam gave us “condemnation” but Christ is
the One who has already given us “grace.” “To each one of us grace
was given according to the measure of Christ's gift” (Ephesians 4:7).
Grace brings with it a special “gift”—“justification of life”
(Romans 5:15-18). The Father treats the world of sinners as though they
have not sinned, “not imputing their trespasses to them” (2
Corinthians 5:19). You have wondered why He doesn’t strike some wicked
criminals with lightning; it’s His grace, purchased for the human race
by Christ’s sacrifice.
But when you realize the truth about that amazing grace, you simply cannot
go on living a life of sin. It’s not fear that motivates you; it’s
grace. "The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all
men. It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions,
and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present
age" (Titus 2:11, 12, NIV). You keep the Second Commandment. “You
shall have no other gods before Me.” It’s a guarantee!
So, again the Ten Commandments become Good
News.
God is tired of writing them in stone. That’s fruitless work! Now
He wants to write them in human hearts, so our greatest joy is to live
in harmony with Him and in harmony with the great universe where His
love prevails for all eternity. He will write His commandments in our
hearts, if only we will make a choice to let Him do so.
Now we have come to that era of human history which the Bible describes as "the time of the end" when God's blessed work in human hearts will be finished. "Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever" (Daniel 12:4, 3). This is the time that Jesus describes in these solemn words: "But take heed to yourselves, lest your eharts be weighed down with … cares of this life, and that Day come unexpectedly. For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch therefore, and pray always …" (Luke 21:34-36).
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