The Second Commandment: “You shall not make for yourself a carved 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 on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments” (Exodus 20:4).
This commandment is intense! It’s one of only two Commandments with a threat attached to it. Clearly we are intended to hear it and to fear the consequences of breaking the Law here. But why? Why does God put such specific emphasis on this prohibition, and what does it have to do with Providence? (Before I start, I want to note that this commandment does NOT prohibit making, studying, and enjoying beautiful works of art).
Jesus gives further clarification on this commandment when He says that “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24).
What’s the implication for us? That we must know Him (see last week on the First Commandment) and that there is a right, ordered way to do so. The New City Catechism is helpful in describing how God reveals Himself through Scripture: “God is the creator and sustainer of everyone and everything. He is eternal, infinite, and unchangeable in his power and perfection, goodness and glory, wisdom, justice, and truth” (Question 2). His nature sets the tone for how we worship Him.
In other words: we don’t get to make up our forms of worship because we don’t get to make up our God.
It also means that if we abandon worship, we abandon our God.
The simple takeaway is this, then: teach your children how to worship Him as He has commanded us. Scripture is clear that regular, rightly ordered worship is 1) approaching God through the means of grace He has appointed, 2) based on Scripture, and 3) to be experienced by the people of God communally.
The only way we get to this regular, rightly ordered worship is by worshipping together with our churches. Therefore, we absolutely must raise our children in the church. We must model for them what worship in that church looks like–training them to sit, sing, listen to the Word, and love the body of believers.
To take this one step further, using a sports analogy: If corporate worship is the “game,” family dinner is a great place to practice. We can gather, sit together, share a meal, pray and sing together, and love each other (even when siblings get on each others’ nerves).
It’s not easy to take back the dinner table, but the Second Commandment is clear about what happens if we don’t train our children to love and worship God alone. We’re not the only ones who suffer, but our children do, too. For their sake, let’s do this, and encourage each other in it!
— Anderson Underwood
