Text: Exodus 20:4
Title: “No Substitutes”
INTRODUCTION
Well, we are studying the Ten Commandments as we make our way through Exodus. Last week I
gave you a memory tool to help you remember the Ten Commandments. Let’s see how much you
remember.
Exodus 20:3 (NIV) – “You shall have no other gods before me.”
Exodus 20:4 (NIV) – “You shall not make for yourself an idol…”
Exodus 20:7 (NIV) – “You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God …”
Exodus 20:8 (NIV) – “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.”
Exodus 20:12 (NIV) – “Honor your father and your mother…”
Exodus 20:13 (NIV) – “You shall not murder.”
Exodus 20:14 (NIV) – “You shall not commit adultery.”
Exodus 20:15 (NIV) – “You shall not steal.”
Exodus 20:16 (NIV) – “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.”
Exodus 20:17 (NIV) – “You shall not covet…”
ILLUSTRATION – Mark Twain told the story about a man who had memorized the Ten
Commandments. He told Mark Twain that his ambition was to go to the Holy Land, stand on the
Temple Mount and recite loudly the Ten Commandments. Mark Twain replied, “Have you ever
thought about just staying home and keeping them?” That’s the goal.
Now let’s go back to the second commandment. The second commandment is closely connected to
the first. Read text:
Exodus 20:4-6 (NIV) - “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in
heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 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 fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to
a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
ILLUSTRATION – In the movie “Castaway,” Tom Hanks plays an executive named Chuck who
works for FedEx and is flying overseas on a FedEx cargo plane when it crashes into the ocean.
Miraculously Chuck is the only survivor, and soon he washes up on a remote, uninhabited island,
and survives there for years before building a makeshift raft, escaping the island and ultimately being
rescued. But while he was still on the island, obviously over time he nearly went crazy with the
isolation. Among some of the FedEx cargo that washed up on the shore with Chuck was a FedEx
package that contained a volleyball ... a Wilson brand volleyball. Chuck uses his imagination and
begins to envision that the volleyball is a person. He cuts himself and uses some of his blood to
paint a face on the volleyball. It soon becomes clear that the castaway has developed an unusual
relationship with this volleyball, which he named Wilson. He talks to it, consults with it, and grows
dependent upon it. There’s a scene where Chuck is attempting to leave the island on the raft. He has
placed Wilson in a prominent place on the raft as if Wilson was watching over the escape. But
something happens and the ball falls off its perch into the ocean and drifts away. It is then clear how
emotionally, even spiritually attached Chuck has become to Wilson, a volleyball. Chuck is
overwhelmed with grief at the thought of losing Wilson who had become a kind of idol.
It’s hard to imagine how prevalent and how powerful idol worship was in biblical times. It wasn’t
just something that happened in OT times. It continued to be a problem for God’s people in NT
times.
1 Corinthians 10:14 (NIV) – Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry.
This is something so dangerous that the Bible tells us to flee from it … run from it.
1 John 5:21 (NIV) – Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.
This is something that is so subtle that it can easily move in, capture our heart and keep us
from worshipping God with our whole heart. So we have to guard our hearts against this.
So God wants His people to flee from idolatry. Why? There are two things you need to see about
idolatry:
1. IDOLS STAND IN THE PLACE OF GOD.
Exodus 20:4 (NIV) – “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven
above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.
Now God is getting His people ready to move into the Promised Land. But this is what they would
find as they entered the land that was populated by several pagan nations: All around the countryside
were shrines containing idols used in worshipping various gods. They were carved things. The word
for “idol” literally means “carved wood or stone.” And these idols were man-made replicas of things
found in the sky (sun, moon, stars) or on the earth (animals) or in the water (fish, reptiles or
crocodiles). These idol shrines would be found on just about every high piece of ground, or under
big trees. In other words, the temptation to worship an idol would be everywhere.
Notice v.4 says, “You shall not make for yourself an idol…” These were “designer deities.” It’s
man-made … created by ourselves for ourselves … for our needs. God says, “I don’t want you
making something or taking something that someone else has made for the purpose of worshipping
it.
So the Israelites will come into Canaan and immediately they will be surrounded by idols and
idolaters.
Exodus 20:5a (NIV) - You shall not bow down to them or worship them…
Idolatry is a person’s attempt to reduce God to something that can be manipulated and managed for
one’s own desires. For example, the pagans loved to worship fertility gods and goddesses. And
these idols would be all over the place, and pagans would go to them offer sacrifices and worship at
that idol, hoping to influence the god to make their crops and their livestock fruitful. They saw the
idol as something that served them, and their desires.
Sometimes they would worship by bowing down and kissing the idol, or eating food for the
idol. That’s right. The practice sacrificing to an idol would often involve a gluttonous,
drunken party, all done to please the idol. Many of the idolatrous practices in ancient times
involved prostitution and other kinds of sexual perversion. In certain instances, idol worship
involved the sacrifice of children to a god represented by an idol
So an idol is a substitute for the One True God. It is anything you depend upon for your well-being.
It’s anything that you build into your life that is a source of satisfaction, peace, or fulfillment other
than God.
An idol present in our lives is evidence that God is not enough for us … the promises, the
power, the provision, the protection of God is not sufficient for us in every part of life, so we
go looking for something else to satisfy us.
An idol can be things that are not, in and of themselves, bad … food, sex, possessions, clothes, cars,
houses, even family or friends. They become idols when we bow down to them for the satisfaction,
the peace, the fulfillment that they may give us.
Colossians 3:5c (NIV) – “Greed (covetousness), which is idolatry.” Why? Because it
seeks satisfaction in things and in stuff, and not in God.
There’s a reason this is important for people who worship the One True God.
Exodus 20:5b (NIV) - For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God …
God is a jealous God, unwilling to share His praise with any other.
Isaiah 42:8 (NIV) – “I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another or my
praise to idols.
I remember as a new Christian struggling with this idea. I read this verse in my Bible and all I could
think about was the jealousy that a boyfriend feels when his girlfriend is talking to or attracted to
another guy. Does God really have petty feelings like that? Is he like a jealous lover?
God is a jealous God, but not that He is envious of these idols. No, they’re really nothing and
God knows it. He is jealous over us in that He loves us, He created us, and He means for us to
find our satisfaction in Him, not in anyone or anything else. So anytime we seek after ultimate
satisfaction from something He has created, it becomes an idol.
In fact the Bible sometimes equates idolatry with committing spiritual adultery. God is saying, “I
love you so much. I have brought you to Myself in an exclusive relationship. I do not want you
giving devotion to other people or things that rightfully belongs to me.
ILLUSTRATION – Maybe you can envision it this way: There is a God-seat in every soul. God
created us that way. And that God-seat is reserved for Him, and for Him alone, because He alone is
God. When He is in the rightful place in our lives, in that God-seat, our lives are fulfilled and
satisfied in Him. God wants us to delight in Him, and when we do, He delights in us, and pours His
peace and joy and love into our lives. And this is a deliberate act on our part to give that God-seat to
Him, the only One who rightfully deserves to sit there. This is called worship.
But if we don’t trust God to be for us and do for us all that He says He will be and do for us,
then we put something else in the God-seat of our life. And when anything or anyone but God
is in the God-seat it immediately becomes an idol.
Idolatry occurs because we do not believe He is sufficient for all our needs. The problem is one of
unbelief.
Hebrews 11:6 (NIV) - And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who
comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
How does God reward us for earnestly seeking Him? He allows us to find Him and to be
satisfied completely in Himself.
So idols stand in the place of God. But there’s something else.
2. IDOLS GET IN THE WAY OF GOD.
The blessings of God do not come into our lives when He is not on the God-seat. See vv.5b-6.
Idolatry blocks the flow of God’s peace, joy and love into our lives. We settle for the false peace, the
false joy, the false love that comes from idols.
Now there are several things about idolatry that are repugnant to God.
• Idolatry is untrue. Just stop to think about this. There can only be one God. A God by
definition is something that is supreme. If there are multiple gods, then they are really not
God. Idolatry in many cultures today is outright superstition.
Habakkuk 2:18 (NIV) - “Of what value is an idol, since a man has carved it? Or an
image that teaches lies? For he who makes it trusts in his own creation; he makes idols
that cannot speak.”
• Idolatry is ungodly. There is an element of the demonic in all idolatry. In ancient times
church members had the opportunity to purchase meat that had been offered as sacrifices to
idols. Portions of those sacrifices were put up for sale in the market. The Corinthians had this
problem, and Paul exhorted them:
1 Corinthians 10:19-20 (NIV) - Do I mean then that a sacrifice offered to an idol is
anything, or that an idol is anything? 20 No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to
demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons.
Though idols have no power, Satan does. And he gets in the game of idolatry.
• Idolatry is influential. It’s amazing how many times the Bible speaks of people who are
influenced by others into idolatry. Idolatry gets in the way of God working because it corrupts
by influence from one generation to the next and keeps them from God’s blessings.
1 Corinthians 12:2 (NIV) - You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you
were influenced and led astray to mute idols.
The Israelites were forbidden to intermarry with the pagans who occupied Canaan when they
went in to possess it. The Lord knew that if they married into pagan, idolatrous families, they
would be influenced to worship those idols. And it happened so often. That’s why God gave
the Israelites the command when they went into the Promised Land to destroy all these idol
shrines. Do not leave one standing. They are an untrue, ungodly influence.
This is the explanation for the words in vv.5-6. God is so serious about our devotion to Him and our
exclusive worship of Him, He ultimately punishes those who refuse to worship and obey Him alone.
And He rewards those who seek Him and Him alone.
Exodus 20:5b-6 (NIV) - I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the
sin of the fathers 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.
Idolatry can have a powerful and destructive effect on future generations.
Now there are some who read verses like this in the Bible and they extract from this a belief in what
is called “generational curses” … the belief that bad things happen to us not because we choose to
sin, but because someone up the line in our ancestry sinned. And we are somehow cursed because of
that sin. God doesn’t arbitrarily punish children or grandchildren for the sins of their ancestors.
However, the sad consequences of sins of our parents or grandparents can be experienced by
later generations if we don’t repent. In biblical times in wasn’t unusual for four generations to
live as extended family, and thus have a great opportunity to influence and affect one another.
This means that God will punish each generation for repeating the sins of the preceding generation.
You cannot blame it on someone else. If one generation keeps doing the same things that the
preceding generation did, God will continue to deal severely with them in judgment.
But God’s real desire is to show His love … His steadfast love … His covenant love … one of the
most important words in the OT. There’s a big difference between 3-4 generations and a thousand
generations. God desires to have this kind of loving relationship with His people for a thousand
generations. And that results from our devoting ourselves completely to God … no substitutes for
Him in our lives … no obstacles to Him in our lives.