Ten Commandments (2)
A Wednesday evening Bible study.

An Inadequate View of God

Exodus 20:4-5

Jim Davis

Several years ago, there was a picture on the front cover of a magazine; it was a painting by Leslie Thrasher showing a woman buying her Thanksgiving turkey. The turkey is lying on the scales and the butcher is standing back of the counter, apron pulled tight over his fat stomach, a pencil tucked behind his ear. The customer, a lovely lady of about sixty, is watching the weighing-in. Each of them has a pleased look as if each knows a secret joke. There's nothing unusual about a butcher and a customer watching as a turkey is being weighed, but the expression on their faces indicates that something unusual is going on. Leslie Thrasher lets us in on the joke by showing us their hands. The butcher is pushing down on the scales with a big fat thumb. The woman is pushing up on them with a dainty forefinger. Neither is aware of what the other is doing.

What you see in this picture is two people trying to manipulate life to their advantage. That is what much of the religious world seeks to do. The Pharisees, Sadducees and scribes spent their lives seeking to manipulate the law to their advantage. However, the Ten Commandments remind us that there are eternal laws in the universe by which we must live for life to come out God's way. And in order for us to understand God's laws we must have a correct view of God.

We Can Not Manipulate God

We seek to manipulate God when we seek to recreate God in our own image of him.

The first commandment instructs us to put God first. The second commandment warns against the worship of the true God under some false form or with a distorted vision of his nature.

Exodus 20:3-6
"You shall have no other gods before me. "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 of those who love me and keep my commandments. (NIV)

When Aaron made the molten calf, he was seeking to recreate the God who led them out of Egypt into an image of an animal.

Exodus 32:3-5
So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt." When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, "Tomorrow there will be a festival to the LORD." (NIV)

Aaron was not trying to create a new god. He was trying to represent God in a tangible way. Aaron said, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt." Then Aaron says, "Tomorrow there will be a festival to the LORD." It is obvious that he made the golden calf to represent God. He was promoting a distorted view of God as he sought to recreate God in his own image of him. It was an effort to drag God down to their level. God created us in his own image, but we seek to recreate God into our own image of him.

Romans 1:21-25
For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator-- who is forever praised. Amen. (NIV)

When Hezekiah became king of Israel "He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called Nehushtan.) Hezekiah trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him. He held fast to the LORD and did not cease to follow him; he kept the commands the LORD had given Moses. And the LORD was with him; he was successful in whatever he undertook. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him" (2 Kings 18:4-7 NIV). The bronze serpent was kept as a reminder of how God saved them from the serpents in the wilderness. However, it became an icon with magical powers in the minds of the Israelites.

We can do the same with the Lord's Supper. Many try to change the Lord's Supper into the very presence of God through the doctrine of transubstantiation. The American Heritage Dictionary defines transubstantiation: "The doctrine holding that the bread and wine of the Eucharist are transformed into the body and blood of Jesus, although their appearances remain the same." Transubstantiation is a violation of the second commandment as one seeks to transform God into the elements of the bread and wine. We don't have to bring God down to our level to enjoy his presence, for he lives in each of us through his Holy Spirit. God's presence is more real than the bread and wine, which only serve as a reminder of what God and Christ has done for each of us.

The second commandment does not forbid Christian symbols such as a cross or a fish. It does forbid us assigning sacred powers to these symbols to ward off evil. Only when we attribute special powers to the fish or the cross do they become forbidden icons. When Samuel raised a pile of stones as a memorial to God for leading them to victory against the Philistines, he called the memorial spot Ebenezer. It wasn't a sacred pile of stones that represented God's presence at this particular place for all time; it was only a memorial.

Distorted Misconceptions of God

You don't have to recreate God into an inanimate object to violate the second commandment. A distorted mental view of God is also a violation of the second commandment.

We can distort our view of God by distorting God's law. Understanding God's grace and God's law is much like asking the question, "Which came first the chicken or the egg?" Much of the confusion in the religious world revolves around the questions: "Does God's grace come through obedience to the law? Or was the law given as a result of God's grace?" It's the age-old question of whether we meritoriously earn salvation or is salvation a free gift of God.

Many trust in their obedience to the law as the means of their deliverance from sin rather than trust in God. They trust in the legalistic code for their deliverance. In their own thinking, God becomes indebted to them. He owes them salvation because of their obedience. They have placed their trust in the law rather than God.

Luke 18:9-14
To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men-- robbers, evildoers, adulterers-- or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.' "But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.' "I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." (NIV)

The Pharisee's distorted image of God gave him a distorted view of himself. His confidence was in his own righteousness rather than in God. Jesus seeks to give us a correct view of God so that we may be able to see ourselves as we really are.

We can distort our view of God by distorting God's grace. A distorted view of God's grace can cause us to close our eyes to what is right. Some conclude that grace gives them the freedom to live in sin. After hearing about the marvelous wonders of God's grace the Romans were reaching this conclusion. Paul answers their questions about freedom to continue in sin.

Romans 6:1-2, 15
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? . . . What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! (NIV)

A false opinion of God may leave us believing that God is slack toward sin. But nothing could be farther from the truth. How could God be a God of compassion if he allowed us to live destructive life styles sin forces upon us?

We can distort our view of God by failing to understand God's longsuffering. God is not a tyrant who can wait to punish us for our sins. "Then the man who had received the one talent came. 'Master,' he said, 'I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.'" (Matthew 25:24-25 NIV) How many of us have this kind of false image of God. It may lead us to think we are humble because we can admit that we can't live up to God's expectation of us, but we have violated the second commandment by a distorted view of God.

Such a distorted view of God prevents us from doing the work of God. It is wrong to believe that we must measure up to a certain standard before we are acceptable to God. We must realize a compassionate God accepts us where we are and he is longsuffering to those who fail. This view of God makes it possible for us to begin serving him wherever we are.

In the story about the prodigal son Jesus was seeking to give his hearers a correct view of the God. Both the prodigal son and the elder brother had a distorted view of God. After squandering his inheritance, the prodigal son was going home to hire out to his father as a hired servant. But he was accepted back as his son. The elder brother couldn't understand how his father could accept his brother back after he squandered his inheritance. Both needed a correct view of God.

We can distort our view of God when we believe we must praise God to gain his blessings. True praise recognizes what God has done, is doing, and will do.

God's praises must be sung because God has already blessed us. Praise is the result of reflecting upon what God has done. It was Israel's deliverance from Egypt that was to be the motivating factor in keeping the law. Moses prefaces the Ten Commandments with this statement. "And God spoke all these words: 'I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me" (Exodus 20:1-3 NIV). This concept is found throughout the Old Testament.

Deuteronomy 8:1-11
Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land that the LORD promised on oath to your forefathers. Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you. Observe the commands of the LORD your God, walking in his ways and revering him. For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land-- a land with streams and pools of water, with springs flowing in the valleys and hills; a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey; a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills. When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. (NIV)

Throughout these verses Moses seeks to motivate Israel because of what God has done for them. God humbled them, tested them, gave them permanent clothing and shoes, and their feet did not swell as they walked the harsh terrain of the Sinai desert. Then Moses writes to encourage Israel to praise God after they inherit Canaan, "When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you." It is obvious that true obedience and praise comes from hearts that understand what God has done for them.

If our praise is for the purpose of receiving God's blessing our praise is self-serving. It is interesting to note that Moses is encouraging them to praise God after they receive their inheritance in the land of Canaan and not in order to receive their inheritance. This did not nullify the fact that they would have to cross the Jordan River and conquer the land of Canaan. Forty years earlier Israel had learned that they couldn't receive the inheritance without crossing the Jordan River through faith in God's promises. The gift was theirs for the taking, but without God's intended blessing it would have been impossible.

Exodus 20:5-6
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 of those who love me and keep my commandments. (NIV)

God's unfailing love is the basis of our love and praise. God's deliverance hasn't come to us because we earned it and God's continued blessings don't come to us because we earn them. Our praise of God is because of God's unfailing love that saved us and will continue to keep us saved. These concepts motivate our praise and obedience.

Psalms 33:18-22
But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine. We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love rest upon us, O LORD, even as we put our hope in you. (NIV)

We "wait in hope for the Lord" because we understand his unfailing love. Praise is the result of placing our hope in God who will never fail us (Hebrews 13:5).

The only way to truly praise God is to give your life to him. Some churches teach that one is baptized because one has already been saved, while others teach that one must receive baptism in order to be saved. Baptism should be seen as the place where we surrender our lives to God out of appreciation for what God has done and what he will continue to do for us. This is the place where we receive forgiveness of our past sins and assurance of our future forgiveness.

We distort our view of God when we think that God is only concerned about what we do on Sunday. Church attendance is only a small portion of our lives and it does not relieve us of the responsibility to praise God every other day of the week. I think it is sad when we measure a person's faithfulness solely by church attendance.

Matthew 5:23-24
"Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift. (NIV)

I think Jesus would like to tell some to go home and straighten out their lives, and then you can come back to worship.

We distort our view of God when we think that God is responsible for all the bad things that happen. We must understand that Satan is out to destroy us and God is out to save us. Death entered into this world through sin, which Satan brought into the world (Romans 5:12). Satan is out to bring death to every circumstance we find ourselves in, while God is seeking our ultimate deliverance regardless of what Satan does.

Conclusion:

An inadequate view of God will leave us in misery as we seek to conform God to our own way of thinking. It would be the height of foolish to seek to confine an omnipotent, omniscience, and omnipresent God to the confines of human existence and thinking.

Our inadequate views of God do not obligate him to live up to those views.