We move on into Chapter 20 and the Lord begins giving the ten commandments.
"And God spoke all these words: 'I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.'" (Exodus 20:1-2) He reminds them who He is before He tells them what is required of them. He is the Lord---the Lord, the one and only Lord---and He wants to be the personal God of each of them. Because of who He is, they owe Him their allegiance. Because of who He is, He alone can help them through this life and supply their needs in this world. Besides that, He is the one who rescued them from slavery in Egypt. No other "god" did that. No man did it either. Because He cares for them and did mighty deeds on their behalf, they owe Him their allegiance.
Because of who He is and what He has done and what He will do, they are to worship Him alone. "You shall have no other gods before me." (Exodus 20:3) The word translated as "before" would be more accurately translated in this instance as "besides". He's not saying they can worship other gods as long as He is their chief God. He's saying they are to worship no one but Him.
In order to aid them in not falling away from Him and falling into idolatry, He forbids the fashioning of images. "You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You 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 parents 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." (Exodus 20:4-6) These verses call for closer scrutiny below.
As far as God's jealousy goes, I once heard someone explain it in a way that made so much sense to me that I believe they are correct in saying that what God means is that He is jealous for us. We naturally want the best for those we love, don't we? I'm not a parent but I can easily imagine the emotion of being jealous for my child: wanting the best grades for them, recognition for their achievements, loyal friends, relationships in which they are highly valued, the best education possible, a great job where they will be paid well and provided with advancement opportunities, a loving and stable marriage, children of their own if they want to become parents, and on and on. It's also natural for a parent to want his children to do better than other people's children. That might seem selfish to us and maybe it is, but it's human nature to want the most awesome things for those who belong to us. It's human nature to focus our hopes and dreams on those who belong to us far more than on those who don't belong to us. And I think it's God's nature to want awesome things for those who belong to Him. Remaining faithful to Him is what's best for His children. Idolatry will lead them astray and into many useless and sinful practices that will actually prevent the very best things from entering into their lives. So in that sense He's jealous not only for His children but is jealous of anything that comes between Him and His children because anything that comes between Him and His children is going to bring harm on His children. Wouldn't you be angry at anything that led your child astray, whether it be drugs or alcohol or a false religion or an abusive relationship? That's how God feels about anything that pulls us out of His will and into hurtful situations.
Next we need to talk about what He means when He says that the sin of the parents affects their descendants to the third and fourth generation. This verse is closely connected to the verses forbidding idolatry. It's closely connected to the verse about those who "hate" the Lord. Should any of the parents fall into idolatry, thereby "hating" God (shunning Him, refusing to acknowledge Him, turning to anything they can besides Him), their actions are going to affect their children, their grandchildren, their great-grandchildren, and perhaps even their great-great-grandchildren. Remember, people are still living well over one hundred years during the time of the exodus, so a person could live to see several generations of his descendants. This means the person's idolatry has the potential to influence several generations of his descendants. The children of parents who engage in idolatry are going to see their parents performing these rituals. The children are going to imitate what they see. If they don't repudiate the false gods when they become adults, they will continue these idolatrous practices in their own homes in front of their own children. It may be several generations before the members that particular family line turn back to the Lord, if indeed they ever do, but certainly it will be more difficult for the first few generations to turn away from idolatry while their great-granddaddy is still alive and still bowing down to idols. As time goes on and great-granddaddy passes away, it can become easier for successive generations to reject the idols he worshiped and seek the one true God.
We don't want to miss something huge in verse 6. Idolatry and a rejection of the Lord may be capable of influencing three or four generations, but faithfulness to the Lord and love for the Lord is capable of benefiting a thousand generations! An example of this in the world today is the nation of Israel. It began with one man, Abraham, who loved the Lord. Because this one man forsook the false gods of his homeland and gave all his allegiance to the one true God, the Lord made a promise to Abraham and to all his descendants after him. The Lord promised to make a great nation of Abraham's descendants. The Lord promised that this nation would never be wiped from the earth. We can clearly see that the Lord has kept this promise though Abraham has been dead and buried for thousands of years. The Lord has kept this promise even though not all of Abraham's descendants remained faithful to Him. This is an example of the Lord showing love to a thousand generations for the sake of a person who loved Him.
We will find many examples in the Bible of the Lord showing mercy to a person not because that person is particularly faithful to Him but for the sake of someone who is faithful to Him. The first example that comes to mind is when the Lord spared Abraham's nephew Lot from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot doesn't come across as a hero of the faith on the pages of the Bible. He comes across as a man who wants to straddle the fence, as the saying goes, with one foot in the church and the other foot in the world. He was a man willing to compromise his values to live and work in a region where he was benefiting financially. But for the sake of Abraham, who loved the Lord, the Lord spared Lot. I wonder how many times the Lord has shown me mercy simply because my mother was faithful to Him or because my grandparents or great-grandparents were faithful to Him. During the years I lived in sin, when I was refusing to bow my knees to my Maker, perhaps it was their faith and their prayers that preserved my life. It may have been for their sake that the Lord protected me and didn't let me die in my sins and didn't let me make mistakes so huge they'd follow me all my life long.
A while back one of my relatives posted a meme on Facebook that said, "Your mother's prayers are still protecting you." I think that's the truth and that it is backed up by Exodus 20:6. My mother's prayers are still protecting me even though she's been in heaven with the Lord for twenty-four years. If you had a praying parent and that parent has already gone on to be with the Lord, those prayers still cover you. The prayers your grandparents and great-grandparents prayed are still benefiting you. The prayers your ancestors (who never even laid eyes on you) prayed are still blessing you, for who knows how many times the Lord protected you simply because you had an ancestor who loved Him with all their heart? Who can say how many dangers He has turned away from our generation because preceding generations of our family honored His name? Taking this into consideration, shouldn't we be praying for the generations of our family that are yet to come?
Join us tomorrow as we take a look at the third, fourth, and fifth commandments.
No comments:
Post a Comment