The Second Commandment
In His own voice, God gave us the 10 Commandments – the only recorded time God expressed His law in His own voice until He spoke as the Son of God. He wrote those 10 Commandments in stone with His own finger; the Son of God taught us how those Commandments should affect us far beyond their “simple” meaning – hate equals murder; lust equals adultery, etc. The 2nd Commandment has great meaning for us today and helps explain what is wrong with our culture.
The Ten Commandments are recorded in the Book of Exodus, chapter 20, verses 2 – 17 and Deuteronomy 5:1–22.
Here is the 2nd Commandment:
4 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: 5 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; 6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. Exodus 20:4–6 (KJV 1900)
4 “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. 5 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, 6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. Exodus 20:4–6 (NIV84)
Verse 4 and first clause of verse 5:
This does not mean it is sinful to create sculpture or do wood carvings etc. It specifically means creating things intended to be DIVINE symbols or images – representing God or false gods or anything related to something or someone we WORSHIP.
What falls in these categories? The prohibition would include statues or pictures of God (or Jesus); statues or pictures of “angels”; statues or pictures of “celebrities” (famous people) if your feelings for these humans constitute “worship”; any symbol for God, Jesus or any of the characters of the Bible or even a picture of the Bible if we worship it.
(We should not make the Bible – the physical book, not its contents – an “idol”. The contents are divine, not the paper and/or leather cover.)
FOR ME (religion is personal) it includes the “cross”. We place this symbol (which is sometimes worshipped) on the buildings we construct for use by God’s people; we have a cross or pictures of a cross decorating the interior of those structures; we wear a cross on a chain around our necks or hang one from our rear-view mirrors in our cars. What does the cross symbolize to you? Should we worship the cross?
The rest of verse 5 and verse 6:
This is the part that helps explain what’s wrong with our culture.
For those who create or purchase the images or idols and those who worship or serve them, God VISITS “the iniquity of the fathers” on succeeding generations. The NIV says God will “punish” those generations.
God does not directly punish innocent children because of their parents’ sins! I think we need to look further into this scripture taking God’s nature into account.
What the NIV and many other versions translate as “punishing” the King James version translates as “visiting” – the Hebrew word paqad (pronounced paw-kad’). The word literally means “to visit, to care for or to count”.
The punishment that occurs is the fault of the parents and not overt action by God. Her is an explanatory example of the use of paqad:
1 And the Lord visited [paqad] Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did unto Sarah as he had spoken. 2 For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. Genesis 21:1–2 (KJV 1900)
God had told Sarah she would have Abraham’s child. Did God personally make Sarah pregnant? No! But what He had promised would happen, happened. He “visited” Sarah.
Other examples of God “visiting” will be found in Exodus 3:16; 4:31; Judges 15:1; Ruth 1:6; Job 35:15; Psalm 17:3, Proverbs 19:23 et al.
Does God punish children for the sins of their parents? No, but what He says will happen, happens!
Parents in our culture for the last 3 generations (120 years) have become more concerned about symbols, status, wealth, fame and prestige than about teaching the Ten Commandments to their sons and daughters. These things are their gods or idols.
It is standard today for both parents to work outside the home, accruing wealth and attempting to give their children everything they want – they prefer being friends with their children instead of teaching them. They don’t teach their children respect or manners or have rules for their children to live by. They don’t have time to teach them about God and His Commandments.
Today, we see God “visiting” the iniquities of their parents upon the children:
29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. Romans 1:29–32 (NIV84)
The good news is, that if parents, grandparents and children will turn to God and truly follow these Ten Commandments we will find God
10 …. showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. Deuteronomy 5:10 (NIV84)
