“You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make yourself a graven 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; 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 upon the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.”It seems this Commandment reveals a brutal nature of the Bible God and makes the Decalogue an instrument of intolerance, persecution, fanaticism and oppression.
How can anyone worship a God who shamelessly expresses his vicious ill will in these words: “For I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, …”? What a monstrous God of the universe it must be who would make a special Commandment to emphasize his jealous and vindictive nature, and to stipulate the curse he would inflict upon his poor, helpless creatures who fail to worship him!
Since religion fashions its code of conduct upon the morality of its gods, are we to assume that the character of the Bible God is to be emulated?
Are hatred, jealousy and a vindictiveness that punishes the innocent for the wrongs of others the qualities of morality we want to inculcate in our children? Do we want our children to emulate this God, to demand continual supplication and adulation? And failing to receive this worship, are they to live in a state of continual hatred, malice and ill will, with the only purpose of their existence to vent their anger and punish those who refuse to pay homage to their vanity? Or do we want them to grow up into men and women worthy of our efforts to achieve a civilized society with high ethical standards of equality and justice?
We are concerned here not only with the truth of the words of this Commandment, but also with their value in the field of ethics and morals. These Commandments are supposed to be infallible moral guides, and since this one doesn’t appear to possess any intrinsic value in the sphere of ethics or in the realm of morals, why was it made part of the Decalogue? The answer may appear in its elements. It contains four vital features which reveal the character of the Biblical God and follow in perfect continuity the egotistical declaration of the First Commandment. These four provisions are:
1. The nature of the Bible Deity.These statements are definite and unequivocal. If the Bible Deity wrote them, did he mean them? And if he meant them, did he follow his instructions and execute his own decisions? If he wrote them and did not mean what he wrote, then he stands convicted of hypocrisy; if he wrote them and cannot fulfill the promises of his obligations and execute the provisions of his own laws, then he stands exposed as a false god!
2. Strict rules regarding the making and worshiping of images.
3. The penalties provided for disobedience.
4. The rewards to be conferred for observance.
The description that the God of the Decalogue gives of himself could not be different. His character is typical of the other primitive tribal gods that existed contemporaneously with him. If a god did not possess the ability to punish and reward, of what use was he? Primitive man wanted reward for his labor and punishment for his enemies.
The Hebrew God was created to be feared. If the wrath of a jealous person is feared, how much more terrifying must be the fear of a jealous god. Without this kind of god there could be no doctrine of special providence, and if prayers cannot be directed to a power superior to man, then the whole structure of religion must crumble. Without a god to pray to, and without prayers being “answered,” religion would lose its commodity of trade.
A volume could be written quoting indisputable Biblical passages to testify to the jealous and vindictive nature of the Bible God, but a few quotations and his own words incorporated in this Commandment should be sufficient to silence all doubt as to his reprehensible character. I quote Exodus, Chapter 34, verse 14:
14. …(for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God),…Deuteronomy, Chapter 4, verses 23 and 24:
23. Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and make a graven image in the form of anything, which the Lord your God has forbidden you. 24. For the Lord your God is a devouring fire, a jealous God.And what more conclusive than the following from Deuteronomy, Chapter 6, verses 13 to 15?
13. You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve him, and shall swear by his name. 14. You shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the peoples who are round about you; 15. for the Lord your God in the midst of you is a jealous God; lest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth.Certainly we don’t need any further testimony to prove the character of the Bible God. Even today, clergymen defend this jealous and vindictive nature as part of the true character of the Bible Deity. The Rev. G. Campbell Morgan says: “The severity of the law of God is the necessary sequence of his infinite love.” The Rev. Frederick David Niedermeyer asks:
“Is God still jealous?” and proceeds to answer by quoting him: “For I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God”! He continues,“Some Christians are ashamed of that declaration. They think it has an undesirable meaning and are sorry that it is included in the Scriptures. Therein they differ from God, for He has freely declared that He is jealous.... In the mind of the Creator there is no hesitancy whatever in proclaiming His jealousy, and He has no dislike for the word. Believers who are ashamed of it do not realize what it means...”As a result of this Commandment, man’s heart has been hardened and his brain stultified. It has made him vicious and brutal. In his attempt to imitate this Bible God, every conceivable injustice has been perpetrated. The horrors and misery that have followed can never be adequately told. Language is incapable of expressing the tortures endured by the victims of the insanely pious followers of this primitive Bible Deity.
As I said last week, “with God law is the expression of love.” We have to see God’s law with eyes that have seen His love in Jesus Christ. So, how does this Commandment apply to us in this day and age? Most of us, if not all, can sigh with relief and say that at least we haven’t broken this one; we haven’t carved out any graven images lately.
However, before we dismiss this Commandment as having nothing to do with us, we need to take a closer look at ourselves and the society in which we live. Like it or not, we live in a day and age in which image-making has reached new heights unknown to the ancient world. We are the greatest image-makers of all times. It is one of the most lucrative industries, with Madison Avenue as the symbolic center of this art form. Whether you accept this or not, the fact is our society and our lives are filled with images. A few years ago the best selling book was entitled, “Games People Play,” a penetrating look at the many masks we of the modern era wear, and the images which we construct and hide behind like children playing hide and seek. Image-making is a way of life for us.
This is true even in the area of God, for just as primitive man made images of his gods, so we today make our own images of God. We have so many ideas about God; we work away at these thoughts of ours, shaping and molding them as we go along, an idea taken from here and an idea taken from there, until we have carved out an image that fits our fancy. He is everything we ever wanted in a god, the product of our thinking and of our desires. Most often he comes out looking just like us…sharing our ideals, morals, and values. He is literally made in our image, fashioned to fit our needs, our wills, and our ways.
One of the great ironies of the Bible is that while Moses was on top of Mount Horeb those forty days receiving the Commandments from God, the people of Israel were at the base of the mountain busy melting their metal so that they could forge out a Golden Calf. They desired to worship God, as most do, but a god of their own making.
But God will have none of this custom designing of His nature to fit our idea of what God is like. He is intolerant of any attempts by man to fashion for himself an image of God. He reserves the right to reveal His nature to man, for He alone is able to give to the world an image of His nature that is true and authentic.
God has said, “you shall not make for yourself a graven image,” because He knows that any image that is manmade will always be inadequate-often in error and sometimes even evil. Only God Himself can reveal what He is like to man, and this He has done. In Colossians we read that Jesus Christ is the “image of the invisible God.” In Him God became “flesh” and in this way He made Himself visible, “for in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.” Philip said to Jesus, Lord, show us the Father;” Jesus replied, “He that has seen me has seen the Father.”
References: The Holy Bible (RSV);
adapted John H. Stevens “The Fine Art of Living;”
Joseph Lewis, “The Ten Commandments;”
also 092999, 070704.
