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.
Yesterday we spoke of the “me” as the most likely false God in our lives. Today we speak of graven and mental images that can divert our focus from the true God. This is more subtle and complex than the elevation of self and therefore more difficult to identify and overcome. Situational images such as status, power, wealth and position can quickly become the goal rather than a means to achieve a goal. Possessions often enslave us to a form of worship while vanity, pride and ego are human characteristics that take us away from communion with and worship of God. And yes, even ailments and mindsets can become the object of our attention and focus. “I can’t do that…its impossible…my infirmities are too great…I am too weak…I don’t want to do that…its not fair” are all phrases that reflect mental or attitudinal images which deny the omnipotence and power of God in our lives.
It is when we say “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”‘ that we cast down false or graven images and worship the true God. When we believe that God has given us everything we need to live according to God’s will, we replace the idols in our lives with the living God. Today, let us reaffirm our God in the words we say, the thoughts we have and the things we worship. If we do, this day, and each day will be spent in the heaven God created for us here and forever.
Affirming God,
Z gardener
Good Morning Garden 
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