Relationship with God, Part 3

Introduction

XIX. Read Exodus 20:3.

A. When the mitzvah warns against believing in or ascribing to any deity but God, what does it mean?

(On the surface level, and certainly in ancient times, it might have been other named gods, such as Greek/Roman gods or other gods of the region. It could have been several on an equal plane, or several in a hierarchy (even including God), or several but with none as the First Cause and Sovereign. Today we tend not to have gods named and worshipped as then. But we do have finite things or forces or created things or forces which we worship or treat, as Paul Tillich says, as though they involve our “ultimate concern.”

B. Who or what would be such gods in our own minds, in our own day? Also, do we create notions of God that are not true to God and then worship those notions?

Discussion.

C. Why would the presence of another deity do damage to our faith and our lives, and in what ways?

Discussion.)

XX-XXXIII Read Exodus 20:4 and 20:5.

A. We’re neither to make, bow down to, nor worship/serve a graven image, an idol. 1. What do all three of these ideas mean?

(This hones to a narrower idea from the mitzvah we just discussed as to believing in other gods than God. Here the gods can take the form, in effect, of objects that we make. How could that happen? How does it happen?

We create all the time. Indeed God created. We’re made in God’s image. So, as we discussed in Genesis, we are duty-bound, as God’s partner, to create in the world. Perhaps because we’re called to do it and/or because it’s in our nature to enjoy and prize what we create, especially the more cherished or valuable it is, we come upon a line that we are tempted to cross, where the creation becomes, or comes close, to being our “ultimate concern.” Was this attitude close to what motivated the builders of the Tower of Babel perhaps?)

2. Do we create such things out of our jobs, our projects, our manufacture, our purchase?

Making things is essential to who we are. The problem is when those things become idols to us or others. Have you felt gripped enough by certain objects that you had the feeling get close to being of ultimate concern? Do we make sacrifices to such objects, as if they were God, in terms of time, obeisance, will, resources, and commitment? Do we, in effect, worship them?

(Discussion)

3. What’s separately wrong with bowing to an idol? Indeed what does it mean to bow to an idol?

(It’s possible one could argue that bowing is not worshipping, though it certainly involves an attribute of worship. It certainly appears as if it’s worship. It inclines one who does it to worship, as one might detect in the inclinations in one’s heart. There’s certainly a significant deference by one who bows to the object to which he/she bows. Is this mitzvah a hedge? Don’t even get this close to worship.

Are there objects to which we bow like this, when we think we can control it, keep it from becoming an object of worship? That extra hour on Facebook? The bonus we might “need” that takes us away from family or time that could be devoted to service of God? More time to be used for the TV or other means of so-called R&R than we, even on a liberal scale, don’t really need for rest but could rather study, worship, or take action that serves God’s purposes. Are we here bowing down to creations, even though we don’t actually worship them, or at least not quite yet?)

4. What’s wrong with all of these ways of living and behaving?

(First, and foremost, they take us away from God and our duties to God. Second, they do not comport with the unique and demanding love and service of God that are expected of us. Indeed, as we learned, loving and serving God are expected to be as much of a full-time commitment as we can make it. Making, bowing down to, and worshipping idols not only eat into that time and indeed demand quite a lot themselves; they also create competitors for our love and service of God. For people in a unique relationship with God, all this crosses an unacceptable line.)

B. Read Exodus 20:20.

1. This is generally read as forbidding the making of an image of a human being out of silver, gold, etc., whether it’s used for ornament or worship. What’s the problem you think this language addresses?

(There is a discrete problem of our making an idol of our selves. The use of gold and silver is a powerful way of describing the underlying problem. It is our material self that we usually glorify, and it is the excessive or too-rich side of that self that is often most at issue. We want wealth or power or riches or status to an inordinate degree, to the degree it gets close to becoming our ultimate concern. What an apt and beautiful way of describing this idolatry as created human images made of gold or silver!)

2. Why else would we create an image in the form of a human being in gold or silver?

(The calf was, in a way, such an object. Is the idol what we create out of anxiety, loneliness, or a fear of abandonment and a deep need for some in-lieu attachment or satisfaction?)

3. How else do we violate this mitzvah?

(Do we deify leaders or heroes or celebrities as if they were to be worshipped or serve us in some exaggerated way?

What about when we make or use pornography? By relying on pictures that one could say figuratively are of bodies “of silver or gold,” doesn’t one attempt to satisfy inappropriately an urge that can only legitimately be met through divinely blessed love?)

These uses of images of human beings do not ultimately satisfy, though there seems to be a human urge to act as if they do.)

C. Read Deuteronomy 13:17-18.

What does it mean to hold and benefit from property that is condemned here, that is, as property of an apostate city? How could we (or should we) follow the direction of this mitzvah?

(Aren’t there apostate features of all cities where we live or might live? Should we be hermits or recluses? There are certainly sects that seem to feel this way. Most of us are not prepared to go that far. Is that because we see our home communities as mixed enough, with enough redeeming features to believe that they’re not really apostate? Or are we wedded or acquiescent to their apostate ways?

Yet, doesn’t this mitzvah still speak to us, encouraging us to bring more of God’s direction to the city, to refrain from living by or supporting its heathen ways, and to reduce or eliminate its apostate character? In what ways could or do we do that, if indeed this is where this mitzvah takes us?

Discussion)

D. Read Exodus 23:13, Leviticus 24:15-16, Leviticus 22:32, Leviticus 19:12, Exodus 20:7.

1. We are not to swear by an idol, or even use its name as if we do. As we discussed, when we need to swear, it must be by God, and truthfully, and not as a purposeless oath, as if to say that what we say is given importance, and grounded in truth as is our reliance upon God. So, swearing by an idol puts the idol on an equal path with God in our minds and ways, denying God’s sole position. What idols are we tempted to swear by?

(Power, wealth, associations, ideology, “our side”? When we focus too much on impermanent centers of value and power, we, in a way, come close to naming and swearing by them. The slope from there to worship is slippery.

When we swear falsely by God’s name we put our own interests on a pedestal, undermining God with untruth and disloyalty.)

2. How could we act in a way that profanes or blasphemes God or causes people to desecrate God’s name?

(Being directly disrespectful of God or God’s teaching. Acting in ways that make us bring a bad name to ourselves and dishonor to God whom we purport to follow. Openly defying God’s ways. Asserting that idolatry is true. Failing to show devotion to God when challenged or tempted to stray. Not conducting business and other affairs faithfully, fairly, and in accord with the mitzvoth. Rather, in all we do, as much as we can, we are to sanctify God’s name.)

D. Read Deuteronomy 7:26 and 7:25.

1. What meaning do you think is traditionally given to the prohibition that we not bring abominations (generally, but not exclusively, thought to be idols) into our home? It’s something a bit new to our growing list of concerns today. And what would be wrong with it?

(It could be any ill-gotten thing by which we might benefit, generally idols, to benefit from them, to increase our wealth by having such material things of value in our possessions. Or we could think we could sell them, make money off them, and put them in the way of others to worship. Plus, whether we worship them or not (and, if we do, it would obviously now have the “advantage” of being in private), they could be seen by others and are definitely seen in the eyes of God as something we’re proud enough to own and put in our house.

What objects could these include for us?

(Any object we acquire and hold inappropriately, money we should have given as charity, objects that get close to being our ultimate concern. When we do these things, we act as if we are not yoked to God, but rather to our own greed, self-sufficiency, willingness to benefit from ill-gotten things, etc.)

2. What’s the problem with gold and silver plating of idols (whether human-made or natural); what do they represent?

(This is interpreted to be the coverings, ornaments, accessories of the idol and assumes that we’re not interested in the underlying object or worshipping it, but rather benefitting from the covering.

What could this be?

We love the glitz, the sizzle, the rich covering and want it for ourselves so much it becomes its own sort of idol. Could an object - jewelry or clothing or car be ok in and of itself - but be worrisome by virtue of what it clothes, an addiction to fashion or excessive material concern that it itself becomes a matter of concern in the spirit of this mitzvah?)

Conclusion