In the second command for this week, it seems that God commands the exact same thing: You shall not make for yourself an image 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 parents to the third and forth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.  (Exodus 20:4-6) In the first command God emphasizes he alone is to be worshipped.  In the second command he reveals that there is to be nothing beside him or in the place of him.  Why?  Because he is jealous (zealous) for his interests and for our love.  

The Law of Life in 10 Commands!  This is shaping up to be a great series for us that will take us all the way to Passion Week.  In the 1st command we saw God’s call to love Him with all we are – whole heart, whole soul, whole strength.  

The Israelites found out what this means when Moses was taking to long time away from them with God on Mt Sinai.  They desired to have some object that they could see and worship, so they fashioned a golden calf.  (Exodus 32)  This did not please God in the least (putting it mildly).  This command seems easy to obey because we don’t bow down to idols of metal, stone, or wood that image God or another god.  Idols seem primitive and tribal.  Yet, is that all there is to this command?

Each week we will broaden the scope of each command.  Each command of the 10 commands has a broad scope.  Are there other ways in which we place something beside God or in place of God where we might ‘bow down’ to it?  Something or someone that takes up our time, money, energy, that takes up residence in our daily life that could rise to the level of beside God or in place of God and in a very real way ‘bow down’ to it?  

See you Sunday, in the name of Jesus,

Join us this Thursday at 7:00pm at the Brewing Market in Lafayette for a discussion on Civil Government and the Christian with some dabbling into the idea of Civil Religion.  

Pastor Mark