So, this blog post has been stirring in my heart for quite some time! Pastor Larry is currently going through a series on the 10 Commandments, and back in December he preached on the second commandment:
4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. Exodus 20:4-6 (ESV)
The sermon can be found here It really is a good word for all of us! Haven't we all struggled with understanding God's ways? I am SO tempted to worship God for who I WISH Him to be, not who He actually is. My prayer in the last few months has been to truly worship God rightly no matter what comes my way.
I have always understood the first commandment about having no idols. I am convinced that much of our sin can be summarized by the term "idol worship"...finding ultimate satisfaction in something or someone other than God. It is a commandment that convicts me daily, and I am so thankful that the commandments are mirrors that show us our sinfulness and need for Christ! But the second commandment...never quite understood what "creating an image" of God was until recently. Essentially, the commandment is to not imagine God. Don't give in to the world's ideas of God. (i.e. that He isn't really in charge, that He is only good when He gives us what we want, He is loving so He is okay with sin, etc.) Seek to know what He has revealed through creation, the Bible, and Christ rather than make up your own ideas of what you think He is like. Here is how Pastor Larry summarized the commandment:
"The first of the Ten Commandments focuses on worshiping the right God. The second commandment then seems to focus more on worshiping God rightly, on worshipping Him for Who He truly is and not for who we imagine Him to be."
There are TONS of passages that lead us to a greater understanding of our place before the Lord. Here are several with some of my insights. :)
*Romans 11:33
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
*Isaiah 40:12-14, 18
Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand
and marked off the heavens with a span,
enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure
and weighed the mountains in scales
and the hills in a balance?
Who has measured the Spirit of the LORD,
or what man shows him his counsel?
Whom did he consult,
and who made him understand?
Who taught him the path of justice,
and taught him knowledge,
and showed him the way of understanding?
To whom then will you liken God,
or what likeness compare with him?
*Isaiah 55:8-9
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
God is so big! So often we maximize the qualities we want to see in Him, and minimize the qualities that make us uncomfortable. We want a God that we can control, and sadly we often make Him lower than He is by trying to mold Him into what we THINK He should be like. Friends, today is the 3 month anniversary of Zoe's passing. Three months ago, at this time I was expecting to be two months from meeting my baby girl. I was expecting to be big and round and probably complaining of these facts. I was expecting to be feeling her kick and buying her things. I was expecting to be cleaning out Caleb's play room and readying it for a baby. Instead, my belly is empty. Oh, but my soul is not! These past three months have been absolutely heart-wrenching as we mourn our daughter and what could have been....but, God...He is so big...so big. There is so much about Him we can know, but so much about Him we can't know, and that's okay. Heaven will be so much sweeter when we know Him fully!
Praise Him today, friends, ALL of Him.
