Commandment No. 2 HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE ME

Commandment No. 2     Have No Other Gods Before Me

Our study module on Commandment No. 2 tackles the problem of idolatry.  

Webster defines idolatry as (1) the worship of a physical object as a god; and (2) immoderate attachment or devotion to something.

Idolatry divinizes what is not God. It comes largely in four forms: Idolatry of graven images, idolatry of the self, obsession, and sorcery. It makes us want to achieve our goals by relying on the power of a creation, not on the power of the Creator. Commandment No. 2 forbids it.

² I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. ³ You shall have no other gods before Me. EXODUS 20

Idolatry of Graven Images

Idolmakers portray God in three-dimensional human forms, even with different faces. That is dishonesty. Some idolmakers portray God in animal forms. That is dishonesty made even worse.

²¹ God is spirit. JOHN 4

³⁹ A [spirit] has no flesh and bones. LUKE 24

Idolmakers act as if they have seen God and they are making a representation of what they have seen. That is dishonesty. The fact that they portray God in different faces is proof enough that they have not seen God.

³¹ No one has seen Him, no one can describe Him. SIRACH 43

Moses saw “the form of God” but not the face of God (Numbers 12:8).

¹⁹ [God said to Moshe] I will cause all My goodness to pass before you, and in your presence I will pronounce the name of Adonai. ²⁰ But My face you cannot see, because a human being cannot look at Me and remain alive. ²³ …You will see My back, but My face is not to be seen. EXODUS 33 cjb

⁴⁶ No one has seen the Father except the One who is from God; only He has seen the Father. JOHN 6

¹⁸ No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made Him known. JOHN 1 

The question is, if nobody has seen the face of God, to whom belongs the face in the idol? And if the face does not belong to God, why do people look at it while praying?

God’s True Form

Idolatry of graven images projects a distorted notion of God.

¹⁸ Of what value is an idol, since a man has carved it? Or an image that teaches lies?  HABAKKUK 2

Let us have a clear idea of how God really looks like:

§  The vision of Prophet Ezekiel

²⁶ Above the expanse over [the heads of the four living creatures] was what looked like a throne of sapphire, and high above on the throne was a figure like that of a man. ²⁷ I saw that from what appeared to be His waist up He looked like glowing metal, as if full of fire, and that from there [what appeared to be His waist] down He looked like fire; and brilliant light surrounded Him. ²⁸ Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around Him. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. EZEKIEL 1

§  The vision at the Exodus

⁹ Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Isra’el went up ¹⁰ and saw the God of Isra’el. Under His feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire, clear as the sky itself… ¹⁷ To the Israelites the glory of the Lord looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain. EXODUS 24

²¹ By day the Lord went ahead of the Israelites in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light; so they could travel by day or night. EXODUS 13

§  The vision of Apostle John at Patmos

¹³ ...and among the lampstands was someone like a Son of Man, dressed in a robe reaching down to His feet, and with a golden sash around His chest. ¹⁴ His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes were like blazing fire. ¹⁵ His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of rushing waters. ¹⁶ In His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance. REVELATION 1

More or less this is the picture: God is a spirit with a form like that of a man. The form has no tangible body. In lieu of a physical body is an intangible body full of fire (Ezekiel 1:27, Exodus 24:19). The fire is not of color yellow or blue but white.

The intangible body emits an aura of light whose radiance contains “all the colors of the rainbow” (Ezekiel 1:28).

Prophet Daniel had a vision of God. He described God’s clothing “as white as snow; the hair of His head was white like wool” (Daniel 7:9). A river of fire pours out, flowing from His presence (Daniel 7:10 nlt).

⁵ God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all. 1 JOHN 1

² He wraps Himself in light as with a garment. PSALM 104 

¹¹ The Lord God is a sun. PSALM 84

¹⁷ God [is the] Creator of all light, and He shines forever without change or shadow. JAMES 1 tlb

God has a throne of sapphire (Ezekiel 1:26) which sits on a “pavement made of sapphire, clear as the sky itself” (Exodus 24:9). A rainbow, resembling an emerald, encircled the throne (Revelation 4:3). God and His throne and the pavement of sapphire all seem to be carried by a fog or cloud. 

⁹ The Lord said to Moses, “I am going to come to you in a dense cloud.” EXODUS 19

The Scripture’s depiction of God is no different to what the apostles saw of Y’shua at the transfiguration. His face shone like the sun and His clothes became white as the light (Matthew 17:2)—bright as a flash of lightning (Luke 9:29).

“I am the Light,” said He in John 9:5. Saul of Tarsus saw the light and it made him blind (Acts 9:9). 

Revelation 1:16 says, “His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.” Verse 14 says, His eyes were like blazing fire.” The writer, Apostle John, had an out-of-body experience and saw the Son of God in His heavenly kingdom.

¹⁹ The eyes of the Lord are 10,000 times brighter than the sun. ECCLESIASTICUS 23

¹⁶ [God] lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. 1 TIMOTHY 6

What we are saying here is that the likeness of God as biblically described does not resemble the idols being peddled to man.