This transcript was produced using AI and it may contain errors.

Father in heaven as we come to consider your word we would ask that you'd open our hearts and minds that you would give us patience to consider all that you have to say about your second commandment. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. I was explaining, not very well, to the men's Bible study on Thursday that one of my favorite movies ever is Fiddler on the Roof, especially the first half. I have occasion to see it every once in a while on TV and there's a 15 minute intermission and I love the first half of the movie. The second half it gets kind of dark but the first half is just a joy and there's a scene where Tevye, the star of the movie, is he's playing a poor dairyman where he hands out milk and cheese to the village people and he's sitting in the back of his wagon and he's handing out the milk and a slice of cheese and he's talking to a young man who has recently come to the village, he hasn't been there before, and Tevye says, as Abraham said, I am a stranger in a strange land, but the rabbi said that was Moses. Tevye said, as King David said, I am slow of speech and slow of tongue. The rabbi said that was Moses too. Tevye says, for a man who was slow of tongue he sure talked a lot. Moses does have a lot to say under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and certainly he has a lot to say about images and he begins the first thing that we see from Genesis in chapter 1 verse 26. God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God he created him. Male and female he created them and God blessed them. God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. So God's original design was that as human beings we were supposed to be image-bearing worshippers and we were going to have dominion over the rest of the creation and as we multiplied everywhere any other part of the creation other than humans everywhere any part of the creation looked they would see one of us ruling over them as stewards of everything that God created. But because sin entered the world through Adam our image was tarnished and Adam and Eve were banished from the garden and they then had to work the ground by the sweat of their brow and toil and children were born in great pain and labor. So this idea of the image was tarnished as well but as sin progressed throughout the world political leaders would use this image to their own ends. One example is in Daniel chapter 3. I won't read the whole chapter but at the beginning it says King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold whose height was 60 cubits. In case you don't know what a cubit is it's about 18 inches almost a half a meter and in its breath six cubits so it would be 90 feet by nine feet. He set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon then King Nebuchadnezzar said to the satraps, prefects, the governors, the counselors, the treasures, the justices, the magistrates and all the officials of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. And so these same gathered for the declaration of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up and they stood before the image and the herald proclaimed your command at O peoples nations and languages that when you hear the sound, there's a bunch of instruments, of every kind of music you were to fall down and worship the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up and whoever does not fall down and immediately worship shall be cast into the burning fire of furnace. So then they played the music and everybody bowed. Remember the command says you shall not bow down to them. Everybody bowed. Except for Daniel's three friends Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. They did not bow down to the image and Nebuchadnezzar was perplexed by this. He knew these men and he did not want to throw them in the furnace. So he called them forward, explained the situation and told them now if they're ready to bow down when the music plays, everything will be fine. But they weren't. They said to the king whether we know that our God is able to save us, but whether he saves us or not, we're not gonna bow down. Now think about that. All they're asking him to do is to bow down to this golden image. They're not asking them to mean it. They're not asking them to abandon their God. He's just saying you got you got to bow down and worship the golden image and if you do you get to live. If you don't, well then too bad. And they what did they say? They said look we're not gonna bow down. God can save us, but even if he doesn't, we're not gonna bow down. So what happened? They were thrown in and as if you've read the story, it's in Daniel 3 if you want to read it sometime. If you've read the story, you know that the king got up and looked and he said didn't we throw three men in? Now there's four. None of them are being burned and there's one like the son of the gods in the furnace with them and he called them out and they came out and they were not even singed. And as a result, Nebuchadnezzar declared that their God was God. In more recent years, dictators have used this idea of an image almost the same way. I don't know for sure if they want people to worship. They want people to know who's in charge. They don't want there to be any mistake about it and so on a place like Communist China, there were billboards, pictures of Mao Zedong everywhere. On the sides of buildings, there were statues of Mao everywhere. And the same in what was then the Soviet Union. There were statues of Stalin and Lenin so that everybody could know who was in charge in this place. Romania, I forget the man's name, same thing. The idea is the people would know who they were under. It was the same idea, only now tarnished, that God had set up in the beginning when Adam and Eve were supposed to be fruitful and multiply and fill the world with image-bearing worshipers. So this idea of the image is very front and center in scriptural writing. And Moses brought the commandments down from Mount Sinai. This is what the second commandments said. You should not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness or of anything that is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. And we're going to see this above, on, and beneath a couple of times. You shall not bow down to them or serve them for I'm the Lord your God. I'm a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers of the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me but showing steadfast love to the thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. So what's the implication here? That if you bow down to an image, you hate God. That's what God is saying. That if you hate me, this will be visited, the iniquity, on three and four generations. But if you love me to thousands of generations of you who keep my commandments. And I think the command not to bow down and worship is vital because in the passage we read in Deuteronomy, Moses warns Israel not to be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them. And just before that he's talking about the stars and the sun and the moon. So he's saying you don't make anything that represents a human. You don't make anything that represents an animal or a bird or a fish or you don't look up at the sky and the stars and the sun and the moon and bow down to worship them. Now it's important to distinguish the purpose. If it is for worship or can be construed as such as to sin. But if it means you can't create any image for any reason, then art and photography are forbidden. I'm virtually sure that's not what it means. Although some people such as the Amish do not permit photographs of themselves for that reason. But you see Moses said and the passage you read into it around him before, don't look up at the sky and bow down and worship the moon, the stars and the sun. But he doesn't say don't look up at the sky because God said to Abraham look at the stars, count them if you can. So will your children be. So it wasn't the looking at the stars and the sun and the moon that was forbidden, it was worshiping them. He says lest you raise your eyes to heaven when you see the sun and moon stars and all the hosts of heaven be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them. Bow down and serve is worship. The phrase bow down and serve indicates worshiping a false god or an idol or worshiping the true God falsely. So when God says you shall not make any grave in images, he's talking about images which are used for worship. He's not saying you can't make a statue ever or you can't make a painting or you can't take a photograph. You shall not make any grave in images for the purpose of worship. You shall not imagine God to be other than he is. One writer says what comes to your mind when you think about God is the most important thing about you. That's why Moses says beware, be very careful not to be drawn away. Be very careful that you don't do these things. Now if we weren't suspect of these things, if they weren't possibly likely to happen, then he wouldn't have to say be very careful. That's what he says right at the beginning. He says since you saw no form that day, beware lest you act correctly. Now why does Moses emphasize this? Egypt was full of images used for worshiping their many gods. The Apis bull as depicted in this in an Egyptian statue is likely to be the pattern that was used for the golden calf the Israelites made at Mount Sinai. Remember Moses had gone up to get the Ten Commandments and he delayed in coming down and the people were starting to get antsy and so Aaron collected their gold, their bracelets, their necklaces, the rings, anything they had that was gold and he put it in a fire and melted it down and fashioned a golden calf which was similar to what they were used to in Egypt and said this is your God who freed you from Egypt. So interestingly when Moses confronted Aaron he said well we put all the gold in the fire and this bull jumped out which I think is meant to be humorous. Israel had been enslaved for 400 years and having been freed God is jealous to teach them how to live like free people. So first he tells them no other gods then he tells them that I am your God, I am your husband, my love for you is ravishing and complete and I view any other God as an act of adultery. So first he says I'm your only God you should not have any other. So the first command concerns worshiping the true God the second command is concerned with worshiping the true God truly and so he says don't make any images. Now we read Paul's speech in the Areopagus in Athens and he reiterates this. He says we ought not to think of the divine being as gold and silver or stone an image formed by art and imagination of man. So again he is teaching in Athens and this is multiple thousands of years later the same thing because they were not believers because they did not have God's teaching they were subject to the same sort of thing that the Egyptians were they had multiple gods they had a God for almost everything and just in case they missed one they had the unknown God. Now some people say well this proves that Paul is giving the approval to the artistic expression here and he's not against artistic expression he's against the artistic expression which fashions images of God. So what is he doing? He's using what the pagan culture has produced to preach the gospel. See and look this is what you've done let me explain the truth the unknown God is you are worshiping by mistake the true God he uses the pagan cultural icons and presents the truth. So what about today? I had a conversation with a friend last night and we talked about something maybe you've heard of it maybe you've even seen it called the chosen and this is a cinematic rendition of some of the life of Jesus there's a lot of things added into it there's people who think it's the greatest thing ever and there's people who Christians I mean and there's Christians who have dire warnings against it because it violates the second commandment among other things. His argument was my friends well look millions of people are seeing a positive image of Jesus and some people are coming to Christ so that can't be bad. Well if you have a picture in your mind of Jesus other than he is it's a sin. What about all those people that are being saved? Well let's ask this question for husbands if your wife came to you and said yeah I know that committing adultery is wrong but every time I do ten people get saved would you be okay with it? Remember you shall not bow down to them or serve them for I the Lord your God am a jealous God. I don't think any husband would be satisfied with that explanation I shouldn't say any almost any husband would be satisfied with that explanation and I don't think God is satisfied with that explanation. My friend got upset he said he said I think people should have the humility to admit they might be wrong about this. I said well you weren't showing any humility and he said yeah you're right I'm not you caught me in a bad moment. So we'll talk about it again but there's so many things in our culture that is so against God and Jesus and the Bible that when something seems like it's for it we want to latch on which is understandable but as Moses said be careful be careful but the Bible does talk about the image of God the true image of God and the passage we read from John in verse 8 Philip said show us the Father Lord and it's enough for us Jesus said I've been with you so long you still do not know me Philip whoever has seen me has seen the father how can you say show us the father you realize how astounding that is Jesus the man is standing there with his disciples he's in the last day of his life on earth and he says to them if you have seen me you have seen the father if you've seen me you've seen God if you've seen me you've seen the image of the invisible God which is exactly what Paul calls him in Colossians he is the image of the invisible God the firstborn of all creation for by him all things were created in heaven on earth visible and invisible whether the thrones or dominions or rulers authorities all things are created through him and for him Jesus is the image of God and whether Moses knew it or not I have to think when God inspired him to write the words in the first five books of the Bible and warning against images it's because he knew that the real image is only begotten son was going to come to earth in Philippians chapter 2 verse 9 says therefore God has highly exalted him Jesus and bestowed on him the name that is above every name so the name of Jesus now here listen to this every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth remember all the prohibitions were nothing that's above the earth on the earth or under the earth no images but here every knee should bow that's in heaven on the earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father Jesus is the image of God he's the image of the invisible God Hebrews chapter 1 says the exact representation of his nature and he has come to bring redemption to us the tarnished image bearers so that we can worship in spirit and truth let's pray father thank you thank you for your word thank you for your commandments pray in Jesus name amen