Exo 20:4-6 - 3"You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
Deut 5:8-10 - 8"You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 9You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 10but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
The Second Commandment prohibits Israel from making any idol of Yahweh in the form of anything in heaven or earth. In the book of Deuteronomy, this has already been expounded by Moses with urgent solicitation in his call to decision in 4:15-20 & 25-28.
Owen Barfield calls this "the unheard-of injunction" and, given the prevalence of idol-making among every one of ancient Israel's neighbours, "perhaps the unlikeliest thing that ever happened."1
From the logic of the commandments, we can safely conclude that this command concerns the making of an image of Yahweh rather than other deities, for, if Israel obeys the First Commandment (i.e., worships Yahweh only) it is still possible for her to make an image of Yahweh. But, if she disobeys the First Commandment and worships other god/s, then the Second Commandment is irrelevant. The temptation that this commandment seeks to curb is for Israel to worship to Yahweh alone but then goes on to make an image of Him to represent His presence.
The reason for the prohibition is given in the next verse (which in the book of Deuteronomy has already been noted in Moses' call to decision in 4:24,but is now re-stated with renewed rigour): it is because "I, Yahweh your God, is a jealous God." Popular parlance does not help us appreciate the nature of God as 'el qanna, "a jealous God." The adjective conjures up images of social and emotional instability, of overindulgent suspicion, of distrusting possessiveness, insecure yearning or resentful rage. Such popular usage of the adjective, however, forgets that the word also denotes a healthy, necessary kind of passion that makes a person asserts and demands his right to what is properly his. We protect what we care about. A person who lacks such a passion we call a wimp. Or he is so oppressed and beaten he has no say in the matter. Yahweh, however, is no wimp; by this commandment Yahweh is pictured as a God who has the final say in all things, and is passionate about protecting His integrity. He is a God who would not allow His glory to be ground into humiliation by being depicted as something that will always be less than what and who He trully is, the Supreme Lord of all things. Portraying Yahweh by an image inadequate to capture all that He is is misrepresentation, a slur on His integrity. Lesser gods have no say in how they are represented—or mis-represented—by the imaginative foibles of even lesser humans. Yahweh alone is big enough to care enough about His glory not to allow such slurs on Him.
Yahweh alone is big enough to care enough about His glory not to allow such slurs on Him
The signature, 'el qanna, is further elucidated here by means of a comparison between Yahweh's attitude towards those who hate him and those who love him: "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." From the context, we recognize, of course, that "those who hate me" are those who would disobey the commandment just enunciated (i.e., those who dare misrepresent Him by idolatry) and "those who love me" as those who observe all His commandments. This verse has also often been taken as a springboard for the teaching (often referred to as "generational sin") re-popularized in recent years by many tele-evangelists that God will visit the sins of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation. The basis for this teaching, however, is dubious. Aside from the specific meaning of the expression here, there is "no clear biblical example of a punishment deliberately exacted because of the sins of a previous generation." More tellingly, while this was precisely the sin that Israel committed with such glaring abandonment at Sinai in their worship of the golden calf. The punishment of the next generation of Israelites would have been a stellar example if this concept of God punishing the children for the sins of the fathers has any merit, but not only were they never punished for their parents' sin of idolatry, they were blessed with the conquest of the promised land!
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Low Chai Hok
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