Pocket Gods and Graven Images
October 7, 2008 by zgardener
THE SECOND COMMANDMENT
Read Exodus 20:4-6.
Thou shalt not take unto thee any graven image…(exodus 20:4).
A primitive people needed to be thus instructed because they were much given to making idols of a palpable sort. We do not do these things, but whenever we give power to anything but God, we are making that thing into a graven image. For example, we give power to ailments, particularly if it is a favorite ailment. We all know people who say, “My rheumatism,” and they say it quite lovingly. Been with them a long time! Has become a conversation piece! Others say, “My indigestion.” We are making a graven image of these things. It is only when we take power away from them that we can heal them.
If you forget God and worship graven images of any kind, you are going to suffer. You can demolish a stone statue; you can burn a wooden one. The way to destroy mental images is to stop thinking of them and giving them power.
This commandment goes on to say, “For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God.” Moses does not mean that God is jealous like a man, but that God must have first place. The trouble with many pious people is that they want God to be vice-president, keeping the presidency for themselves. So the Bible uses the word “jealous” in the sense that if you give power to anything but God, you have lost God altogether. You cannot have a percentage of God. Either God is the only power or nothing at all.
It is really about who and what we are putting first in our lives. When we put God first instead of ourselves, we open the floodgates of his power and blessings in our lives. Those miraculous healing waters are always there, but putting ourselves first shuts off the flow. When we put ourselves first we live in the world we created and make ourselves into imperfect Gods. With that, we become exposed to all the human weaknesses of attitude, spirit and behavior. This subjects us to all the negative experiences in life. Let go of all the graven images and all things we put before God and let God be the master of our universe. Then we will live in the universe God created for us and will spend all our days in the garden named Eden.
Putting God first,
Z Gardener
Good Morning Garden 
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