RULES FOR THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED
THOU SHALT NOT MAKE FOR THYSELF ANY GRAVEN IMAGE
DR. JIM DIXON
DEUTERONOMY 5:6-10, EXODUS 20-2-6
MAY 5, 2002
“Hear oh Israel, the Lord your God is one God and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might. The words which I give you this day shall be upon your heart and you shall teach them diligently to your children. You shall talk of them as you sit in your house, as you walk along the way, as you lie down and as you rise up. You shall bind them as a seal upon your hand and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them down on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” That passage of scripture is the beginning of what is called the “Shema.”
The Shema means “hear,” and that passage begins, “Hear oh Israel…” The Shema was spoken by God to the Jewish people immediately after God gave the people The Ten Commandments. The Shema was worn by Jews in phylacteries, little leather bags, little leather pouches on their left arm and between their eyes on their forehead. The Shema was recited twice a day in prayer throughout Israel. The Shema was a reminder for the people of Israel that they were to love God with all their heart. The Shema was a reminder for the people of Israel that the Words of God were to be written on their hearts. The Shema was a reminder that they were to obey the commandments of God and teach the commandments of God to their children.
It is appropriate that on this Children’s Sunday we come to the second of The Ten Commandments. “Thou shalt not make for thyself any graven image.” From this commandment we have three teachings, and the first teaching is this. An idol cannot represent God. There are those who think the second commandment has to do with idolatry as it relates to polytheism, but it doesn’t. Scholars point out that the first commandment has already dealt with polytheism. “You shall have no other gods before Me.” The third and the fourth commandments deal with monotheism, how to worship the one true God. In this second commandment we’re told that we should not worship God through idols. We are not to use an idol, an image or an icon in the worship of the one true God.
Many Bible scholars believe that the episode of the golden calf found in Exodus, chapter 32, was an episode of the children of Israel not moving into polytheism but trying to use an idol to worship the one true God. This is the warning of the second commandment. An idol cannot represent God. Nothing in the heavens. Nothing on earth. Nothing in the oceans. Nothing in the creation can represent God. God is utterly transcendent. Winged cherubim cannot represent God. A snow-white dove cannot represent God. A beloved saint and the image of that saint cannot represent God. God is utterly transcendent.
Most of you have been to the Department of Motor Vehicles to get a driver’s license and you’ve stood on the line as they’ve taken your picture, oftentimes before you’ve completely lifted your head. Most people really don’t like their picture on their driver’s license. My guess is most of you really don’t like that image of you on your driver’s license. You feel like it doesn’t adequately represent you. But of course, it does represent you. Even though it might not be adequate in its representation, it does represent you. But, you see, an idol cannot represent God at all and God hates them. God hates idols, images and icons. They cannot represent Him.
Furthermore, there’s a tendency amongst people who use idols, images and icons to transfer improperly some of the glory of God onto the image, onto the icon, onto the idol. God’s glory is usurped in this way. The worshiper tends to think that there is something kind of supernatural about the idol or about the image or about the icon. This provokes the anger of God.
In the year 726, Leo III who was the Emperor of the Roman Empire, the Holy Roman Empire, issued a decree that throughout Christendom, throughout the Christian world, idols, icons and images could no longer be used. He issued a decree that in churches and cathedrals all over Europe, pictures of the saints, pictures used in worship were all to be covered up. Thus, Leo III was called an iconoclast, an idol-breaker, an image-breaker, and an icon-breaker.
In the year 745, the Senate of Constantinople, which met at Constantinople issued an ecclesiastical rendering that agreed with Leo III. All idols, images and icons were not to be used in worship throughout the Christian world because it was a violation of the second commandment. But then, strangely, in the year 787 at the Second Nicene Council, the church of Christ reversed itself. They decided you could use an idol or an image or an icon in the worship of God as long as you don’t worship the idol, the image or the icon. You could venerate the image, the idol and the icon, but not worship it. You could worship God through it. This was the rendering of the Second Nicene Council in 787. It is unfortunate; it’s as a result of that rendering, that throughout many parts of the Christian world today, you see Christian women and men using icons, images and idols in the worship of the one true God. In light of the second commandment, it is tragic and exceedingly dangerous. An idol cannot represent God. An image cannot represent God. An icon cannot represent God. Be careful even how you use the cross.
We portray the cross here at our church, both inside the church on most Sundays, and outside the church we portray the cross. We thank God for the cross and that cross is a reminder of how our Lord Jesus Christ died for us in substitutionary atonement. But we’re not meant to use the cross as an idol in worship or an icon in worship. I’ll get e-mails. I’ll get phone calls from some of you just going crazy if there’s a Sunday where you don’t see the cross up here. I get the impression that your feeling is you can’t worship God unless you’re looking at that cross. You see, that’s a violation of the second commandment. This is so subtle and yet so important. God is utterly transcendent. He doesn’t want to be worshipped through representation—an idol, an image; an icon cannot represent Him.
The second teaching this morning is this. Idols cannot control Him. Idols cannot represent Him and idols cannot control Him. They cannot control His presence or His power.
Now, understand… idols were used to control the presence and power of God. Today you can travel to Sri Lanka, to the town of Kandy, and you will find a Buddhist temple there. That temple is called the Sri Dalada Maligawa which means “the glorious temple of the tooth.” This temple is one of the most sacred places in the entire Buddhist world. Millions of Buddhists throughout Asia and throughout the world travel to Sri Lanka to see the Sri Dalada Maligawa, the glorious temple of the tooth.
Inside that temple you will find a tooth. The tooth is set in a golden lotus surrounded by rubies in a sea of flowers. The tooth is very old and the tooth is very ugly. It is said to be the tooth of Buddha himself, taken from his funeral pyre in the 5th century before Christ. The Buddhists believe that the presence of Buddha and the power of Buddha attend that tooth. Wherever the tooth goes, the presence of Buddha goes with it, and the power of Buddha goes with it. If you can pray in the presence of that tooth, your prayer will be more effectual. Your prayer will have more power. The tooth controls the presence and power of Buddha.
You see, that’s how idols work. You understand that’s how idols, images and icons are used. Even with regard to the one true God. The thought is that through this image, through this idol, through this icon, I can in some sense control the presence and the power of God. Of course, God is omnipresent, everywhere present. We do not deny that at times He manifests His presence in a special way as in a theophany—at the burning bush or in the pillar of fire or in the glory cloud or in the Shekinah that hovered over the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies. But we can’t control the presence and the power of God. Prayer invites the presence and the power of God. It invokes the presence and the power of God but it cannot control it. Even in prayer, we can’t control the presence and power of God. God is utterly sovereign. We don’t tell God what to do and we don’t tell Him when to do it.
On May 18 in the year 1980, there was a volcanic eruption. Mt. Saint Helens exploded at 8:32 AM. You remember that, but perhaps you’re not aware of the power that was unleashed in that moment that Mt. Saint Helens erupted and exploded. The explosion was equal, scientists tell us, to 10 million tons of TNT, 10 million tons, That explosion of the mountain was five hundred times more powerful than the atomic bomb at Hiroshima—500 times more powerful. It just took the top of the mountain, the top 1300 feet, and just blew it into the heavens. Incomprehensible power.
Now, of course, the people had been evacuated because scientists knew this explosion was imminent. The people had been evacuated and yet almost 60 people died. Most of them thinking they were safe. Not aware of the fact that the explosion would send forth three hundred degree temperatures radiating at the epicenter at 200 miles per hour. People were killed 16 and 17 miles away. Sixteen and seventeen miles away, 150-foot Douglas firs were just blown to the ground. In all, 3.2 million board feet of lumber were destroyed, enough to build 200,000 3-bedroom houses. I mean, do you know… Here in Highlands Ranch, in ALL of Highlands Ranch, there are only 30,000 houses. Mt. Saint Helens, when it exploded, destroyed enough wood to build a development six to seven times the size of Highlands Ranch. Incomprehensible. Incomprehensible power.
The problem with the power of a volcanic eruption is you can’t control it. You can’t harness it. That frustrates men. That frustrates people because people want to control power. We want to control water power and we create hydroelectric plants. We want to control solar power. We want to control atomic power. We want to control power, and if possible, we want to control the power of God. There’s just this desire in the heart of women and men to control the power of God as though He were some kind of magic genie and we could just rub the lamp and give Him a few commands. We want to be able to do that.
In Acts, chapter 8, you read the story of Simon Magus who sought to buy the power of God that he might control it, and he was condemned. You can’t control the power of God. It is awesome. You can trust it but you can’t control it. Of course, sometimes Christians try to control it and we misunderstand scripture. We think if we prayed in Jesus’ name, we’ve got Him in a straightjacket. We think if we can get two or three together and they agree in prayer, we’ve got Him in a box and He’s got to do our will. These are misunderstandings of biblical passages. We think if we can just drum up enough faith, we can control God. He’ll HAVE to do it because we really believe. A misunderstanding again of biblical teaching.
I met some years ago with a friend of mine. I was talking to him. He was kind of deep into the charismatic movement and had a fairly Pentecostal theology and was very much into the kind of “name it and claim it” brand of Christianity. I saw him and was talking to him. He could barely talk. His voice was so bad. He was so congested. I said, “Hey, you’re sick.” He said, “No, I’m NOT sick!” I said, “You’re not sick? You sure seem congested.” He said, “Well, I was healed last night. We prayed together. We agreed, and I’m healed.” I said, “Well, you sure seem sick.” He said, “Well, I still have the symptoms but God has taken the illness away.” I just laughed. I shouldn’t have, but I laughed! I said to him, “You should have asked God to take the symptoms away and leave the illness!”
How can somebody get in a mess like that? How does somebody get in such a theological mess as that? It’s because they have this theology where they think they can control God and they’re not willing to admit they can’t. There’s a certain humility we should bring to all prayer. We should pray every day and constantly. Prayer changes things and it moves the heart of God but it doesn’t control God. There’s a certain humility we must bring to prayer.
Idols cannot represent God. Idols cannot control His presence and power and then finally, idols cannot remove His presence and power. When you understand this, you really understand idolatry. Idols cannot remove the presence and power of God.
In the ancient world and even today, idols are sometimes used in seeking the presence and power of God, and idols are other times used in seeking to distance or remove the presence and power of God. People are afraid of their gods, and they use idols to keep them at bay. They lock their god in a room. They put their idol in there and close the door, and their gods won’t see what they’re doing. They have little idols of their gods and they sometimes carry those little idols on their person. Other times they don’t carry them, depending on whether they want their God around or not. This is part of understanding idolatry, the whole sense of imagery and icon in worship. Idols are used to control the presence and power of God either by seeking Him or pushing Him away. God is saying, “You can’t do that. You can’t push Me away. You can’t lock Me in a room. You can’t keep Me out of your car. I’m omnipresent and I’m omnipotent. I’m always there and I have all power. You can’t hide anything from Me.”
I had a friend who, a few years ago, committed adultery. He came to me to confess it. I said, “How could you do this?” He said that when his wife went to work, he invited this woman to whom he was attracted to his house. They had sex in his own bedroom, the bed that he shared with his wife. He said he was so riddled with guilt. There was a picture of Jesus in the room and he turned it around. He said he had a Bible by his bed and he put it away. He would do that whenever this woman came over to the house for adultery, as though he could remove God from the room, as though He could remove Jesus from the room. You cannot do that. You cannot hide anything from God. “Before Him, no creature is hidden and all are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” He sees your private life. He sees our private moments. You can hide things from your wife. You can hide things from your husband. You can hide things from your kids, people at work, friends and associates. You can hide things from all of them but you can’t hide anything from God. You cannot remove His presence and power. You don’t understand the second commandment until you understand this because that’s how idols were used.
So, the Jews understood that the first commandment had to do with exclusive relationship. “You shall have no other Gods before Me.” Exclusive relationship. But the second commandment really has to do with trust and obedience. You can’t control God’s presence and power. You just must trust Him. He doesn’t obey YOU. YOU must obey HIM. That’s why, in this second commandment, we see these words. “God visits the inequity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Him but He shows steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love Him and who keep His commandments.”
This second commandment has to do with love and hate. Do you love Him or hate Him? It has to do with disobedience and obedience. It has ultimately to do with blessing and cursing and generations.
I was amazed some time ago when I read a comparison of two individuals in history and how their lives impacted their children and their children’s children. I read about Max Jukes and Jonathan Edwards. I know most of you have heard of Jonathan Edwards. I’m sure you’ve not heard of Max Jukes. They were contemporaries. Max Jukes lived in New York City. He was an atheist, perhaps truly an agnostic. He never went to church and he never allowed his kids to go to church. His children begged him to go to church. They begged him. They wanted to go to church. Max Jukes said no.
Jonathan Edwards you know. He was a scholar and a Christian. He was the President of Princeton University. You can see his picture portrayed in Nassau Hall today on the Princeton campus. Of course, he was a preacher. Though he’s famous for that sermon, “Centers in the Hands of an Angry God,” Jonathan Edwards was not a fire and brimstone preacher. He loved people and he loved Christ. He was a missionary. He took the gospel to the Indian nations. Even those Indian men and women and children who rejected the gospel were still loved by Jonathan Edwards. Christ was present and working in him.
He went to church and always took his kids to church. This comparison is just amazing to me because Max Jukes has had 1,026 direct descendants and 300 of them have gone to prison. Three hundred have gone to prison for an average term of 13 years. Does that boggle your mind? It boggles mine. One hundred and ninety of the descendants of Max Jukes became public prostitutes. Six hundred and eighty were self-admitted alcoholics. Out of 1,026, 680 were self-confessed alcoholics. The descendants of Max Jukes have cost the state millions of dollars and contributed virtually nothing to society.
Jonathan Edwards has had 929 direct descendants. Four hundred and thirty of them have become ministers. Is that an incredible statistic? Four hundred and thirty. Eighty-six have become university professors. Thirteen have become university presidents. Seventy-five have written good books. Seven have become United States Congressmen and one became Vice President of the United States. His descendants have not cost the state anything, and they’ve contributed greatly to society.
You think of the statement of Christ “visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me…” The words of God. …”but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love Me and keep My commandments.” This isn’t just about blessing and cursing. It’s about a principal of influence that God has established in creation. There is this principal of influence that God has established in creation. There is this principal of influence that our behavior impacts the lives of our kids and their kids, and that impact is multigenerational.
Do you realize how important children are to God? How important it is to God that we rear our children in the knowledge of the Lord and the instructions of the Lord? That these rules for the road less traveled are imparted to our kids and to their kids? That’s why the Jews had the Shema. That’s why they wore phylacteries, so that they would be reminded of their obligation to their kids and to their kids’ kids.
What an opportunity we have here. What an incredible opportunity. We’ve been blessed to minister to thousands of children. Jesus said, “If anyone causes any of these little ones to stumble, it would be better for them if a millstone were tied around their neck and they were drowned in the depths of the sea.” Do you realize how critically precious each child is to God and what a responsibility it is to rear them properly as a church?
We have need of 500 volunteers just to run our Grace Place Children’s Program during the school year and 400 more volunteers during the summer. It takes 250 volunteers to run our daily Vacation Bible School Programs. One hundred twenty to one hundred fifty volunteers are going to be needed to run this new wonderful evening program that we’re going to have for children. That’s 1300 people. Of course, there are overlaps. We really need about a thousand individuals, a thousand people, just to minister faithfully to our kids. Do you understand what’s at stake and how much we need you?
I’m going to close with a word of prayer, but I’m going to ask you not to leave because we’re going to close the service in a special way. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.