Second Commandment
Second Commandment
Exodus 20: 4-6 “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, I am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments”.
Extra Reading: Exodus 20: 1-21.
In the teaching of Jesus Christ in Matthew 5:19, he was explaining, expounding and magnifying the Ten Commandments. He was showing that this spiritual law was a living law-like the law of gravity. When you break it, it breaks you! We have learned that when nations break the first commandment-“Thou shalt have no other gods before me”-they bring an inevitable penalty of suffering and wretchedness upon themselves and their posterity. Men cut themselves off from the source of their being, from the purpose of life, from the laws that would give them happiness, peace and joy. Men cut off from the true God are empty, frustrated and miserable. Man is incomplete, then, having cut himself off from the true worship of the true God. Yet he is to worship that God alone: “You shall have no other gods before me”. The second commandment tells us about how to worship the true God, what pitfalls to avoid in our worship, and of the continuing blessing or penalty that comes our way as a result of the way in which we worship Almighty God.
The natural mind of physical man cries out for something to help him in his worship of God. He wants some physical object to “remind” him of the invisible God-some “aid” to worship. Yet, that is exactly what is forbidden in this second commandment. Jesus said, “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks” (John 4:23). You will notice that it is only the “true” worshippers who are able to worship the Father in spirit and in truth. Many others attempt some form of worship but, because they limit their worship by a false concept of God, it is largely in vain. “God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship him is spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). The moment a man sets up any representation of God, he denies that which is essential in God.
Prayer: Father God, help us not to be tempted to worship any false gods. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen!
Rev. Samuel N. Modise 
