Thou shalt not make thyself any graven image, or any form of what is in the heavens above, or what is in the earth beneath, or what is in the waters under the earth
The second commandment bans images. It rules out every carved or moulded likeness taken from any part of creation — sky, land or sea. It raises a question every generation has tried to dodge: if an image is only a reminder, is it still forbidden?
The command names heaven, earth and sea. One writer notes how absolute the wording is:
The language of these laws is absolute and firm. "You shall" or "you shall not." God allows no deviation. First, He allowed no other god to take His place. Nothing may be used even to represent God. No image, no likeness of anything in creation may hold any place of spiritual honour in people's minds. This is idolatry. Even pictures of this kind were forbidden (Num. 33:52).
The reach goes beyond images of God Himself to every other power, seen or unseen:
Second, they were not to try to have an image or material representation of any unseen power. God is "in heaven above," and He forbids anything claiming to be an image of Him. Many other powers exist, both invisible and visible, and they were to make no representations of these either.
At Sinai the people heard words. They saw no shape. That silence is itself the argument against images:
They saw nothing. God did not show Himself to them. He did not take any bodily shape from which they might form an image. He gave them His word, His holy commandments, so plain that a child could understand them... They were called to hear God's voice, not to see His shape — to obey His commandments, not to make an image of Him. Superstition vainly tries to honour God by forming and worshipping an image. Faith, on the other hand, lovingly receives and reverently obeys His holy commandments.
The excuse offered for images is old, and it is still in use:
They likely excused their idolatry, as many do today, by saying this was only an image made to represent God, but God forbade any such images (Ex. 20:4). In fact, though such things are claimed to be only representations, very soon the thing itself becomes the god that people worship.
Another writer answers the same excuse and names what it costs:
It is useless to say that the objects adored are only images for memory, not idols. The old heathen philosophers used exactly this excuse. They tried to excuse their superstition. They claimed that nobody thought the idols were the gods. The idols were only visible tokens that reminded them of beings above and behind them... The truth is that such visible tokens or signs deny faith. They destroy the very principle and power the Christian is told to walk in. He is called to "walk by faith and not by sight."
An idol need not be carved to exist. The shape is not the point:
Idolatry takes various shapes. So it is not a question of the shape of the thing, but of the thing itself; not the outward form, but the root or principle of it. We read that "covetousness is idolatry," and that a covetous man is an idolater. That is, a man wanting to get more than God has given him is an idolater — actually guilty of Israel's sin when they made the golden calf and worshipped it. Whatever commands the heart is the heart's idol, whatever it may be — money, pleasure, power or anything else.
Shutting out every image man makes cleared the ground for the one likeness God would give:
We cannot help seeing what the second commandment does. It clears away everything that would confuse the issue when our blessed Lord Jesus appeared as "the image of the invisible God" (Col. 1:15). In Him, and in Him alone, we find the true and perfect representation of all that God is.
The jealousy attached to this command is therefore read as jealousy for the Son:
God is jealous over His glory and will not give it to another. That only underlines the truth that the Son is one with the Father. All images that man might make can only provoke that jealousy. But here is "the image of the invisible God." He is jealous for His Son, "that all men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father."
- Likeness forbidden — the command sweeps through heaven, earth and sea. No part of creation may picture God or any unseen power.
- Likeness withheld — Israel heard a voice and saw no shape. God gave His word, not His form, so they were to obey Him, not imagine Him.
- Likeness excused — the plea that an image is "only a reminder" is as old as the heathen philosophers. The reminder soon becomes the god.
- Likeness hidden — an idol needs no carving. Whatever commands the heart is an idol. That is why covetousness is idolatry.
- Likeness given — God shut out every image man makes because He had one of His own to send. Christ is the image of the invisible God, and in Him alone we see God.
thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them; for I, Jehovah thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the sons to the third and to the fourth [generation] of them that hate me,
God forbids bowing to any image, and He gives the reason: who He is. Three hard ideas meet here — a jealous God, iniquity visited on children, and a limit at the third and fourth generation — and each is easy to misread.
The word "jealous" here is not petty resentment. It is the response of love that will not share the heart it has claimed.
He is jealous because He cannot bear any rival to have a place in the hearts of those He loves. He must have the whole heart, because He alone is worthy of it, and He alone can fill and satisfy it forever. And if His people turn away from Him and go after idols of their own making, He must leave them to reap the bitter fruit of what they have done.
The rival need not be a carved statue:
Nothing is so jealous as true love: it cannot bear rivalry. "Little children, keep yourselves from idols" is a word that is often forgotten and greatly overlooked. Anything that takes the place of Christ in the heart of a Christian is an idol, and ought to be judged and put far from us.
Verse 4 forbids the images man makes to picture God. God Himself gives one true likeness.
God is jealous about His glory being given to another, but that only underlines that the Son is one with the Father. All images that man might make can only stir up jealousy. But here is "the image of the invisible God." He is jealous for His Son, "that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father."
This is God's government of the world now, and its effects are easy to see.
What we get in Exodus 34 is not sovereign grace bringing a soul to eternal life, but governmental power, and we may see it at work every day around us. For if a man wastes his fortune, or ruins his health by intemperance of any kind, his children suffer for it. This is an invariable principle.
That is a different question from where a child spends eternity:
It is always true that our children will suffer because of our disobedience to God. This does not affect the question of eternal salvation. Any one of the children may still call on the Lord and be saved. But their parents' wrongdoing will still mark their lives on earth.
The threat does not reach every descendant. It reaches those who carry on their fathers' hatred of God.
He has Himself assured us that He "visits the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation." But then He adds a most necessary guard, without which the words would be misread: "of those who hate Me." Elsewhere the Lord condemns, in the strongest terms, the proverb Israel had taken up from just such a misreading: "The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge" (Ezekiel 18). He not only says but swears that they will have no reason to use such a proverb. The son will not bear the father's iniquity, and the father will not bear the son's.
Some took this verse to mean that all suffering traces back to someone's sin. Jesus answered that when His disciples asked who had sinned to cause a man's blindness.
The question the disciples raised may seem odd to us. But it expressed thoughts that were common among the Jews, based on Exodus 20:5, which speaks of the iniquity of the fathers being visited on the children. The Lord's reply shows that affliction may come with no element of punishment in it. It may come simply so that God's work may be displayed.
Sinai states the terms; it does not supply the remedy.
Least of all should Israel forget that Jehovah is God armed against sin. He is a jealous God, who visits the fathers' iniquity on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Him. He shows mercy to thousands of those who love Him and keep His commandments. But how could the sinner appear before God armed with such terrors? Not a word to that effect appeared in the ten words God spoke that day. It was meant to fill the heart of man with terror because of his sins. But it is the goodness of God that leads to repentance; it is faith in our Lord Jesus that gives assurance of salvation.
- Jealous — God's jealousy is love refusing a rival; He asks for the whole heart because only He can fill it.
- Image — man's images degrade God; the Son is the one likeness God gives, and God is jealous for His honour.
- Government — "visiting the iniquity" means consequences running down through families on earth. It is not a verdict on a child's soul.
- Limit — the words "of those who hate Me" fence the threat in, and the answering promise of mercy is the way out.
- Gospel — Sinai can terrify a sinner, but it cannot clear him. Assurance comes through faith in the Lord Jesus.
and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.
The second commandment does not end with the warning about children suffering for their parents' sin. It ends with a promise: steadfast love, or mercy, "to thousands." How far does that mercy reach? And what does it mean to love God and keep His commandments?
The first half of the commandment is what most readers remember. But it does not stop there. Its last words show another side of God's character.
This is so serious that people's sin would bring suffering on their children. It reaches to the third and fourth generation of those who hate God, those who despise His commandments. On the other hand, His character is such as to show mercy to those who love Him and keep His commandments. So, though God is perfectly holy and righteous, He is not harsh and cruel, but compassionate.
Some later complained that God was making them suffer for their fathers' sins. One writer answers them straight from this half of the commandment.
They admit that their fathers ate the sour grapes, but not themselves. But the commandment says something quite different. Those who love God and keep His commandments have in it the definite assurance that God will show them mercy. So they could not fall under the opposite rule of inheriting their father's sins.
Mercy also runs on into a family's future. One writer finds that same promise elsewhere in Scripture: a man will live to see his grandchildren.
The promised blessing is widened still further: "Yes, you shall see your children's children!" So the favour of God will rest on the descendants of His people. This is just what He promised at the giving of the law — showing mercy to thousands of those who love Him and keep His commandments.
The ten commandments fall into two halves. One writer shows that both halves ask for love.
Looking at the commandments together, we see that the first four relate to God, and the last six to man. That is, they define responsibility towards God and towards man... So God laid two things on Israel: love to God — perfect love to God, perfect according to their capacity — and love to their neighbour, measured by the standard of self-love.
That standard is higher than it first sounds. One writer asks who could ever claim to meet it.
What a law was this! Who could dare to say that the one absorbing object of his heart and soul is God? — and that his entire strength is devoted to God's pleasure? This law is a perfectly righteous one, but man in the flesh is totally incapable of obeying it. The Lord Jesus is the only one who has done so.
The mercy is real. But one writer points to what these words never told a sinner.
Least of all should Israel forget that the LORD is God armed against sin. He is a jealous God. He visits the fathers' iniquity on the children, to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Him. And He shows mercy to thousands of those who love Him and keep His commandments. But how could the sinner come before a God surrounded by such terrors? How was he to get rid of his sins to stand before Him? Not a word to this effect appeared in the ten words God spoke that day. He said little then, but every word was beyond doubt overwhelming and fatal to the guilty. It was meant to fill man's heart with terror because of his sins. But it is the goodness of God that leads to repentance; it is faith in our Lord Jesus that gives assurance of salvation.
Commentators differ on how far this mercy reaches. Some read it as mainly a matter of how God governs families here on earth. A child harmed by a parent's sin, one writer notes, "can still be saved eternally by receiving Christ as Saviour" (Leslie M. Grant).
- Character — The clause exists to show what God is like: holy and righteous, yet "not harsh and cruel, but compassionate."
- Contrast — Judgment reaches three or four generations; mercy reaches thousands. The commandment tips the scales toward kindness.
- Certainty — For those who love God, this is a "definite assurance of mercy," not a fear of inheriting a father's sins.
- Cost — The love it asks for is total: heart, soul and strength. "Man in the flesh is totally incapable of obeying" it. Only the Lord Jesus has kept it.
- Completion — Sinai promised mercy, but it never told a sinner how to get rid of his sins. Faith in the Lord Jesus gives that assurance.
Thou shalt not idly utter the name of Jehovah thy God; for Jehovah will not hold him guiltless that idly uttereth his name.
The third of the ten commandments turns from what Israel must not worship to how they must speak. No one may use God's name as if it were empty. With the two commands before it, this one guards the truth of who God is, and it ends with a warning: God will not treat the breaker as innocent.
The commandments before this one deal with God's uniqueness and with images. This third one deals with His Name.
The third requires the hallowing of His Name — that which stands for what He really is as revealed. These three commandments guard the great primary truth on which all others rest, for faith and practice.
Israel could not see God. What they had of Him among them was His Name.
In the third place the name of the Lord is safeguarded. Though the LORD Himself was unseen, He had made His Name known. If they used His Name in an unworthy way, they would soon disregard His supreme place among them.
"In vain" means emptied of weight. The clearest case is an oath sworn in God's name by a man who never intends to keep it.
An oath invoking God's name is a most serious matter. Elijah made such an oath to Obadiah, "As the LORD of hosts lives, before whom I stand" (1 Kings 18:15), and he kept that oath. But men will often dare to use God's name when they do not even intend to keep their word. That is completely in vain, and it is gross evil… In fact, the Lord Jesus goes further than the law, by telling us, "Do not take an oath at all" (Matt. 5:33-37). By the time the Lord Jesus came, man had proved so untrustworthy that his promises about the future were worth nothing.
Once serious use decays, careless use follows.
A person may do this seriously or lightly. He may seriously swear by God that he will do a certain thing, and then not do it. People are so irresponsible that this becomes common. Then they use God's name lightly, and they no longer care how offensive their talk is.
Profane speech is not the whole of it. The command also reaches the person who ties God's name to an idol.
To take His name in vain is not only saying it in vulgar oaths. Something else offends God just as much, if not more: tying His name to idols. The Egyptians did this. They gave one or more of the divine attributes to the sun, to the moon, and to each of their idols… Is this not the most offensive part of idolatry — giving the glory of God to another, and His praise to carved images? (See Isa. 42:8.)
The same principle presses on anyone today who claims the Lord as his own. A confession of His name and a life of evil cannot stand side by side.
All who name the Name of the Lord must depart (or "withdraw") from iniquity. We must not link the Name of the Lord with evil in any form… In a day of confusion it is no longer enough that a person confesses the Lord. We must test his confession. The test is this: do we submit to the authority of the Lord by departing from iniquity? To remain in association with evil and name the Name of the Lord is to connect His Name with evil.
The verse carries its own penalty. Words are not a small matter. A profession with nothing behind it is what this command exposes.
Can anything be emptier, by its very nature, than professing God's name without constantly turning to His word and obeying His will? Even a human law has a penalty when it is broken… Can men who profess the true God forget how solemn an everlasting judgment is — a judgment not for godless deeds only, but for godless words? Can they act as if they were independent of God, as if their tongues or anything else were their own?
Only One kept this command perfectly — in His speech and in His vows.
Sadly, out of the heart of man, among other evils, comes profanity. The Father's name was always on our Lord's lips, but never in a light way. He taught and practised in absolute perfection that petition, "Hallowed be Your name."… But He could say, "I must perform my vows to you, O God" (Ps. 56:12). What vows they were! — to glorify God about sin; to seek and to save the lost; to lay the eternal foundations of redemption deep, firm and broad; to bring many to glory.
- The Name revealed. It stands for what God really is as He has made Himself known, so this command guards the truth all the others rest on.
- The Name emptied. Swearing by God with no intention of keeping your word empties His name. Careless, offensive talk is the next step down.
- The Name misattached. Tying His name or His attributes to idols gives His glory to another. That offends Him as much as any vulgar oath.
- The Name carried. Everyone who names the Lord faces one test: does he withdraw from evil? Staying with evil ties His Name to it.
- The Name hallowed. God will judge godless words as well as deeds. Only Christ kept the Father's name always on His lips, never lightly, and He paid every vow He made.