Devotional Thoughts on the Second Commandment

Notice that God only spoke to them out of the midst of the fiery mountain. The people did not see God. The same is true of Moses when he said, “Show me your glory.”

 

Example: Golden calf (the people wanted to see).

This was a blatant disregard of the second command.

 

Your sins of commission (the things that you do) and your sins of omission (the things that you neglect to do that you should do) have an impact on the lives of others, especially your own children and grandchildren.

 

Alcoholism is often passed from one generation to the next. Overburdening oneself with debt is usually passed from one generation to the next. Poor marriages are passed from one generation to the next. 

 

And yet. . . .

 

*Generational sins can be prevented through covenant loyalty with God.

 

*The cycle of sin can be broken through repentance.

Devotional Thoughts on the First and Second Commandments

The First Commandment clearly designated Yahweh, the Lord God, the personal being who brought up the people of Israel from the Land of Egypt, as the only truly divine being in the universe. While there are false gods of the pagan peoples, and while there are other supernatural beings, there is only one Supreme, Divine Being. You shall have no other gods.

 

Now we turn to the Second Commandment: You shall not make for yourself a carved image. When I was young and still living in Lenoir, I remember hearing about a church and certain preacher who took this command and browbeat his congregation about all sorts of things in their homes. He said that they could not have statues or sculptures in their homes and particular kinds of paintings. What made this stick with me, growing up in the South and in a country family, was that he said that they could not have taxidermy mounts in their homes such as deer heads. Now, I think this is silly and really is a poor job of biblical interpretation. Yet, I am uncomfortable with many of the things that people do today with certain drawings depicting Jesus. We basically have no idea what he looked like. I am uncomfortable with the icons and shrines of the Eastern Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Churches as well.

 

I have even seen investigative reporting in North Korea, which is highly dangerous. In that Evil, Communist State, the people have paintings and shrines for the Supreme Leader. They even have these things in their homes. What blew me away was how the people sang toward the paintings and even prostrated themselves before it. That totalitarian state has fostered cultic practices around the personalities of the Supreme Leaders including the veneration of images of them.

 

Biblical Faith calls for worship of the one true and living God. He is the Maker of heaven and earth and all that is in them. We shall have no other gods besides him, and we shall not make for ourselves any carved images. Veneration, that is, regard with utmost significance and reverence, is outlawed for any created thing. Because Yahweh, the Lord our God, is spirit, transcendent, and above all, we are not to attempt to make any sort of image which we think might encapsulate who he is. He is the glorious one. The whole world cannot contain him, much less a sculpture or painting or any other thing.

Devotional Thoughts on the First Commandment

God is a covenant-making God. He wants to live in relationship with us. God says in Heb 8:6 that Christ is the “Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.” The New Covenant, promised explicitly in Jeremiah 31, was sealed with the blood of Christ. God wants us to live in communion with him (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) and in community with one another. The doctrine of the Trinity says that God is one in essence and three in persons. Christians are monotheists; we only believe in one God. We know the Father through the Son, and the Spirit applies the work of the Son to our lives. The church is a Christian community, living in and according to the precepts of the New Covenant in the power of the Holy Spirit. In the New Covenant, the First Commandment still applies: “There is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.” God demands single-minded devotion. Take up your cross and follow him. You will be hated and persecuted, but great is your reward in heaven. Follow Christ. Serve him and no other.

Sermon Excerpt on Mark 9:30-37

Sermon Excerpt on Mark 9:30-37
From Wesley C. McCarter "Glory and Greatness"

We got a glimpse of Christ’s glory and coming kingdom in the transfiguration narrative (Mark 9:1-13), but the recounting of the episode regarding the demon-possessed boy just afterwards reminds us why Jesus came and why he had to go to the cross (Mark 9:14-29). Sin had to be remedied. One should point out that even in the glorious account of Christ’s transfiguration on the mountain, the Lord explained, “Indeed, Elijah is coming first and restores all things. And how is it written concerning the Son of Man, that He must suffer many things and be treated with contempt? But I say to you that Elijah has also come, and they did to him whatever they wished, as it is written of him” (Mark 9:12-13). The inner circle of disciples who witnessed the things on the mountain may have been a bit confused at first, but Jesus makes clear that “Elijah, as forerunner, did not come to prevent the Messiah's suffering and death but to foreshadow it” (Blomberg, 1992:266).

The Christian path to glory and greatness is by way of suffering, service, humility, and a willingness to associate with the same. Christ, our Lord and Savior, is a suffering servant (Mark 9:30-37). He was a man of sorrows and well acquainted with grief. Let us descend into the valley of the shadow of death with him by faith. Let us take up our crosses and follow him. Let us die with him and so live with him. Let us endure and then reign with him.