PASTOR RYAN LADEN – DEVOTIONALS
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Mankind is a creative lot. When we need something, we most often find a way to solve this problem. This makes sense as we were created in the image of the Creator of all things. It is in our design to seek solutions and to innovate and invent. Normally, this is a great attribute. But like all good things, it can be twisted and turned into something destructive.
Humanity seems to lack the ability to stop itself from creating alternatives for the one true God, the I AM, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Gad and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. When some element of the biblical God does not suit our desires or fit within our new societal norms, we have been all too ready to invent a new form of the Lord, one of our own making.
In the second commandment, the Lord calls his people to turn away from this destructive creativity and to return to worship of the only giver of real and lasting truth.
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)
What
What is it that the Lord is explicitly prohibiting his people from doing in this command?
We are being told to say no to our creative desires as it comes to the formation of any form of representation for Yahweh, the I AM.
Futility
The language used here shows the futility of such an exercise. If we can use our God-given skills to form or shape an object of our own making, it would therefore be of no use to us if we were intending it to function as our sovereign or master.
The Prophet Isaiah spoke about the odd thinking that must take place for a person to craft their own god and then believe that their invention will actually be of any benefit to them.
This is a longer passage, but it is worth the read!
10 Who shapes a god and casts an idol, which can profit nothing? 11 People who do that will be put to shame; such craftsmen are only human beings. Let them all come together and take their stand; they will be brought down to terror and shame.
12 The blacksmith takes a tool and works with it in the coals; he shapes an idol with hammers, he forges it with the might of his arm. He gets hungry and loses his strength; he drinks no water and grows faint. 13 The carpenter measures with a line and makes an outline with a marker; he roughs it out with chisels and marks it with compasses. He shapes it in human form, human form in all its glory, that it may dwell in a shrine.
14 He cut down cedars, or perhaps took a cypress or oak. He let it grow among the trees of the forest, or planted a pine, and the rain made it grow. 15 It is used as fuel for burning; some of it he takes and warms himself, he kindles a fire and bakes bread. But he also fashions a god and worships it; he makes an idol and bows down to it.
16 Half of the wood he burns in the fire; over it he prepares his meal, he roasts his meat and eats his fill. He also warms himself and says, “Ah! I am warm; I see the fire. ”17 From the rest he makes a god, his idol; he bows down to it and worships. He prays to it and says, “Save me! You are my god!”
18 They know nothing, they understand nothing; their eyes are plastered over so they cannot see, and their minds closed so they cannot understand. 19 No one stops to think, no one has the knowledge or understanding to say, “Half of it I used for fuel; I even baked bread over its coals, I roasted meat and I ate. Shall I make a detestable thing from what is left?
Shall I bow down to a block of wood?”
(Isaiah 44:11-19 NIV11)
Self-deception
Before we assume that we would never be so thick as to bow down to the works of our own hands and call our creative output Lord, just keep in mind what sway the other works of humanity hold over us.
Are we not intoxicated by money, an invention of humanity? Does not political ideology lead us into all kinds of extreme thinking and action even though it has its origin within the minds of men?
We are all capable of incredible feats of self-deception. We can “redefine” the Lord using the terms of our modernity and redefine the morality of scripture to suit the spirit of our times without ever becoming aware that we are building a new version of the biblical god.
We need to allow the second commandment to chastise us, cleanse us, and challenge us to see where we too have bought into a version of the Lord that does not come from the truth of his word.
The danger is real. Be on your guard.
In Christ,
Ryan Laden
PASTOR RYAN LADEN
Works at MTN. CHURCH
Former Senior pastor at Warnbro Community Church
Studies at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary
Studied at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary
Studied at Baylor University
Studied at Texas Tech University
Went to Castle Hills First Baptist
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