It reads:
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
First, we need to grasp the idea of a "graven" or "carved" image, and then move on to qualify this in the immediate context of the passage. The point of a "graven" image -- as these were extremely common in the ancient world of religions -- is what we might call a carving "in the round," or more commonly "a statue." These were necessarily three-dimensional pictures or portraits of the inhabitants of one of the three spheres mentioned in Genesis originally.
Genesis 1 portrays the acts of God in both creating, and then setting in order, the cosmos, according to a pattern reminiscent of what would later become the Solomonic Temple (which was prefigured by the more portable - but still glorious -- tabernacle of Moses, constructed under the watchful and skillful eyes of Bezalel son of Ahisamach, and Oholiab his assistant -- the mastercraftsmen.
The second commandment is thus tied directly both to the cosmos pictured in Genesis 1 -- the concept of new creation -- and to the Temple (a type of the Church). Genesis 1 and Exodus 20 then have something at which they aim -- priesthood. This is the canonically-implied backdrop to the ten commandments, which begins with deliverance from the cruel bondage of Pharaonic Egypt. Here then is the canonical point: from the moment a believer in Jesus puts His trust in the Lord as a new creation, he becomes a priest (and king) in training. It is the solemn duty of all priests of the Lord to stand up and speak out against idolatry in the land (the primary symbol of Egypt -- the golden calf -- was idolatrous). The priests must drive the idols from the land to the best of their ability before God.
Now the second commandment has several parts, which we must investigate separately, and the put together carefully with what we learn of them from our brief analysis. The tri-fold expression -- heavens above, earth beneath [the heavens], and water under the earth (oceans), take on the form of a common Aramaism (and Hebraism), which uses the three most important aspects of something to summarize the whole in a way meant to show TOTAL comprehension of the territory covered by the tri-fold expression.
This means that the second commandment the forbids the making of statues meant to represent anything whatsoever, in all the cosmos, regardless of where you might find it, and the triadic descriptor emphatically emphasizes the point, in a way similar to the Pauline use of the Greek double negative, "ou mae." This receives the various translations, "May God forbid it," "By no means!" "May it never be!" or simply "God forbid." The cottonpatch translation reads "Hell No!" in an attempt to convey the full force intended by the expression, and by way of connotation actually comes closer to the sense conveyed.
The consequences of transgression are severe and damnable. This point is not to be avoided. The second part of the commandment, "Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them," at first seems to contradict what has gone before. But in light of the rest of the canon, perfect sense can be made of this. The question arises, "why are we forbidden to do what we cannot (bow down and serve) to what we have not made (assuming that we obeyed the first part? The Book of Daniel shows that while Daniel and his faithful comrades did not make any idols, yet the state (the king) made a great idol, commanding that all men under his authority bow down and serve this idol.
So the second commandment simply explains that even when you have avoided making them, your duty goes further. You cannot bow down to, nor serve any idol that someone else has made, and would require you to serve. This was precisely the situation of the early Christians, who were commanded to burn a pinch of incense before a statue of Caesar, swearing "Caesar is Lord."
The second commandment anticipates this situation fully. It also offers the warning that the state is likely to attempt coercion tending toward idolatry that God's people must resist.
The next part, "for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;" explains that those who break this commandment, God counts among "those that hate me."
Idolatry is the hatred of God, just as the faithful worship of God is love of the Lord. God takes idolatry personally, and shows himself jealous of his prerogatives. Since He has created all things good, and given all good things to men, and no idol (false god) has, the glory to be given to God is his alone, very much like a property right. "Visiting the iniquity" means "punishing for sin" and "keeping my commandments" is a self-reflective phrase, meaning those who keep THESE commandments. These God visits with blessing, the manifesting of his love which He bestows upon His people, the obedient servants, like Daniel.
It is well also to note here that God thinks in terms of "generations," the approximate name of the book of Genesis. In both cases, of those who love or hate the Lord, the appropriate sanction falls upon the blessed or curse in a certain number of generations. In other words, blessings and curses can be, and are, inheritable. They are trans-generational because of the nature of covenants.
The phrase, "to a thousand generations" merits the synonym "forever," showing the same sense of the psalmic summary formula, "Praise the Lord, for He is good; his mercy endures forever."
God hates idols. Do not make them. If someone else does, rebuke them for it. If someone tries to get you to worship or serve them, resist. Honor God at any cost -- like Daniel and friends. For of Daniel, the word (3 times!) calls him, "O man highly esteemed by God," and that from an angel!
Now a very brief survey of our own national landscape reveals that we have at the least two sets of idols which are enormous in size. The first is the statue of liberty, and the great zeal in the U.S. for freedom without limits -- or badly defined and shifting limits (depending on the climate of the age, so the Constitution goes) -- can be understood as the offspring of that sin for which this idol stands.
In theological language, it is called "human autonomy," freedom to define good and evil apart from God's law, as one sees fit. Where this merely a large sign of some sort, it could be called the "sign of liberty." But given that it is an idol -- it necessarily stands for a kind of liberty that amounts to autonomy in the nature of the very tall case.
Likewise, the famous site of Mount Rushmore, showing four presidential busts -- portraits from the shoulders up or approimately so -- hearkens back to exactly the early sculptures of Roman emperors which appear in history of art texts. Even the Rushmore style matches the style then common, from which we have learned the appearances of men like Marcus Aurelius and others. It is called "Verism," from the Latin for "truth" or accuracy.
The wikipedia definition for verism reads,
"Verism was often used by the Romans in marble sculptures of heads. Verism shows the imperfections of the subject, such as warts, wrinkles and furrows. It zeroes in on the minuscule details of the human head. Although the marble heads themselves came from the Greeks, this style is extremely different from Greek head sculptures because the Greek would idealize the subject, and liken the subject to a god."
In other words, America has set up idols to the gods and goddess of autonomy, in direct defiance of the Word of God, wherein He promises to count those who do so haters of Himself and to visit them for their iniquities -- curse them --to the third and fourth generations. I believe that the failure of presidents to remove the idols from earth -- which is their solemn duty -- in great part accounts for the extraordinary failures of an otherwise great nation in terms of its abilities to produce, work hard, think well, and to innovate like no other nation.
And yet, our crime rates soar, relativism has overrun the universities, our manufacturing sector is all but outsourced (gone), we have the largest trade deficit in human history, and many other signs that God's disfavor is upon this nation clearly display His anger. We engage in wars that harm us, and accomplish nothing good for the country, we impose laws that injure our business sectors, our CEO's are in jail in record numbers, and the nation is simply faltering badly in many ways.
This is not due to incompetence or lack of intelligence, or anthing of the sort. When it comes to diligence, Americans put in more hours than any other nation per capita, but hate their jobs all the same. When you hate your work, you hate the better part of your life. Our songs reflect this, where countless artists sing of dreaming of the moment when work ends, and leisure begins (Take this job, It's five o'clock somewhere, etc), and clockwatching when work is supposed to be -- believe it or not -- pleasant. And it is when God blesses the fruit of your labors. But His curse makes everything ten times harder to yield the same results. Work becomes a drudgery, and yields little that doesn't get taken from us by the tax man.
The solution is simple. Put away the idols, forbid their manufacture or trade -- small idols are bad too, and the Lord has no pleasure in them -- break down the large ones, and remove them from God's presence. When the blessing of God replaces His curse, the actions will prove we should have done this generations ago.
This nation could prosper wildly, but only with obedience to God's law. For "righteousness exalts a nation, but sin disgraces any people." (Prov. 14:34). And it says, "Blessed is that nation whose God is the Lord."
And again, "Little children, keep yourselves from idols."
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