It was the love of God that caused Him to limit the worship of His people to Himself alone. To tolerate worship of other gods would have turned the Israelites loose to explore a pantheon of lifeless idols utterly incapable of meeting their needs or bringing them happiness. “Worship any god you choose” would have been the most unloving thing God could have said to the infant nation of Israel—or to us today. It is God’s love for us, not selfish love, that is behind His jealous desire to be worshipped.

The Second Commandment: The Focus Rule

You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

—EXODUS 20:4–6

If the first commandment is about whom we worship, the second is about how. We must worship the right God, and we must worship Him the right way. That comes by hearing rather than seeing.

Worship from the heart is elusive and demanding. People demand gods they can see and touch. The Israelites never stopped struggling with this concept. Even as Moses received this commandment at Sinai, the people were down in the valley, melting their gold rings to create a calf idol. They threw a great party afterward, pointed to the calf, and said, “This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!” (Exodus 32:4).

What a terrible moment in the history of that nation! The people couldn’t wait for Moses to return, so they decided to take a shortcut. But God is telling us that nothing must be used to attract the eyes and thus distract the soul from Him. Pastor and author Jerry Vines explains this prohibition: “An image of God is limited. God is unlimited. An image of God is local. God is universal. An image of God is temporal. God is eternal. An image of God is material. God is spiritual. When you make an image it distorts God.”10

This explains why God provides no likeness of Himself. We are never invited to gaze upon God, but rather to listen to His voice. He has spoken. He has revealed Himself through words. He is heard but unseen. Idols, on the other hand, are seen but never heard. The prophet Isaiah mocked those who revered impotent idols:

Then the wood-carver measures a block of wood

and draws a pattern on it.

He works with chisel and plane

and carves it into a human figure.

He gives it human beauty

and puts it in a little shrine.

He cuts down cedars;