Back to Basics - Part 2 - No idols

"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments." Exodus 20: 4 - 6

I am the kind of person that when I read something - I just get the general idea, or touch the surface of the matter. It is when I stop and take time, like I am doing with these series, that I tend to go deeper, explore meanings and develop new thoughts and conclusions. Are you like that, or does everything just hit you all at once? That would be amazing!

On to the topic - Our God is a jealous God!

So on the surface to me this means that we shouldn't create things to worship, like a big Buddha or the Greek god's etc. There are some other things that come to mind:

1. 
   
   These words stood out to me "any likeness of any thing that is in heaven". When I read this I thought of all of the things that we do create to represent heaven or Jesus. For example, almost every 'Jesus' I see is white, some even have blond hair. Does it say somewhere in the Bible that he is white? I am not positive, but I don't think so! Don't you think that when we create those false images of Jesus, that it could turn someone away from God? Maybe hinting a bit of Christianity's racial preferences?


2. 
   
   "Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them." Do we have idols in our lives that we worship, absolutely adore, we wish we could meet, be friends with, be just like? Are there other masters that we serve - this could tie into the first commandment - who directs the course of our lives?


3. 
   
   "...visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me." That part is scary to me... but it also makes sense in a way. For example, in my family history I do not know of someone who was a Christian. Naturally, when you raise your child, you use techniques that were taught to you, even if you don't realise it. Attributes are passed down, generation to generation. Reality TV shows us that there are families that do drugs together, multiple generations with similar failures (divorces, crimes, abuse). Thankfully we have Jesus. He can turn things around for us and for our generations, but first we have to let Him into our life and let Him change us!
   

American Idol... that name makes me laugh because it's so true. North Americans idolise celebrities like they are gods. Back in the Roman Era there was Zeus and Aphrodite. Now we have Michael Jackson & Britney Spears!

I recently heard the words "Righteous Indignation" and I think that this a great description of the meaning:

"We are supposed to feel righteous indignation when we see something wrong. God meant us to. It is a sign of spiritual health and a good conscience. If we are so tolerant and broad-minded that we can watch wrong and feel nothing there is something seriously wrong with us. God himself feels angry when he sees wrong and evil. It was in righteous indignation that he burned Sodom and Gomorrah to the ground. And it was in righteous indignation that Jesus threw the moneychangers out of the temple."1

I can't imagine the righteous indignation God feels when he sees us sinning. I don't think it's because "She's not listening to me!!" but because "I love you so much, why can't you see that!". He wants what is best for us and when we don't follow His commandments it is like spitting in His face and telling Him we know what is best for ourselves.

Have you ever thought about the universe? I try not to, because it hurts my head. But that is how we should feel about God! We can't put Him in a box, put Him in a text book, we can't know Him fully while we are on earth! We are fools to think that we have Him figured out!

We should not idolise, as it just draws our hearts and minds from God and wastes precious time getting to know Him.

1 Taken from: http://pages.prodigy.net/jmiller.cb/a115.html