Posted by Chris on October 7, 2007 under Sermons
Image. The second word is a warning about making graven images. (idols = graven images). This may be a more serious word than we imagined. We are good at making images. We are a visually-oriented culture. Image is as important as language in our culture.
- Politics is becoming more and more image driven. Next year there will be a lot of talk about the possibility of a woman President or African-American President. Watch and see if there isn’t talk about what that means for America’s image. Personally, when it comes to image, I wonder if we will ever elect a fat President? The last plus-size President was Taft.
- Business is driven by image. Product sales can depend totally on image and have nothing to do with quality. And what’s even more incredible is that consumers may “know” that a product is not good quality or practical, but they will buy it anyway because of the image it projects. [Barclay cigarettes. How do you know this is Coke?]
- Entertainment is obviously concerned with image. Magazines and tabloids make money hand over fist selling us images of people who often aren’t significant except for the fact that people tend to buy pictures of them. Expectation of beauty, confidence, acceptance are imaged in the media and marketing. And we tend to buy it.
Image isn’t really wrong though; it’s just really powerful and we don’t often realize that. Images have changed the world for the better. Images taken from real moments have lasted for generations. They remind us of the joy of being human. They confront us with things that must change. They inspire courage and hope. Images are powerful and we must recognize it, for image is an important part of faith when correct. God created us in His image. However, God speaks this second word to live by and warns us not to make images of God or any other kind of god.
Graven Images
Images themselves aren’t wrong – graven images are the problem. We have to pay careful attention here or we will miss God’s point: The second word to live by is not a call to jihad that encourages us to smash up every idol, statue, and religious display. We are not the Taliban. We are not Imperialist missionaries. God isn’t telling us to go out and smash up everyone else’s graven images, rather he is warning us not to make our own. Graven or carved images are crafted deities that we can shape into whatever pleases us. They are made of wood and our own will. They are made of metal and mental assumptions. Whatever medium we use, tangible or intangible, the graven or carved image is a god that we make into our own image.
We may think it ridiculous that someone would make their own God. We might laugh right along with Isaiah (Isa. 44) when he pokes fun of the foolish fellow who cuts down a tree and uses part of the wood to heat his house and roast his meat, but carves a god to worship out of the rest. Yes, that seems silly enough. But often the gods we shape, the gods that we end up making for ourselves, the gods that compete for our loyalty are things that really seem very good …
Israel didn’t think it was ridiculous to worship the bronze snake that God had given them in the desert. When they were plagued by venomous snakes on their journey through the desert, God had Moses craft a bronze serpent and mount it on a pole. Anyone who was bitten by a snake looked at the bronze snake and they were healed (Numbers 21:4-9). That’s a good thing. But it wasn’t such a good thing centuries later when King Hezekiah destroyed it. By that time the people had been burning incense to it and gave it a name – Nehushtan (2 Kings 18). It was a gift from God, but it wasn’t God.
Israel didn’t think it was ridiculous to place their confidence in the Temple of God rather than the God of the Temple. It was truly a holy thing. Solomon himself dedicated it, and yet even as he dedicated this holy place he wondered …
27 “But will God really live on earth? Why, even the highest heavens cannot contain you. How much less this Temple I have built! 28 Nevertheless, listen to my prayer and my plea, O Lord my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is making to you today. 29 May you watch over this Temple night and day, this place where you have said, ?My name will be there.’ May you always hear the prayers I make toward this place. 30 May you hear the humble and earnest requests from me and your people Israel when we pray toward this place. Yes, hear us from heaven where you live, and when you hear, forgive.” (1 Kings 8)
The temple was God’s address, but it wasn’t God. And the people seemed to have forgotten that in the days of Jeremiah. They had become confident that God was okay with them as long as the Temple was in Jerusalem. So God had Jeremiah preach a sermon to them saying, Do you think you can rob and murder, have sex with another man’s wife, tell lies nonstop, worship the local gods -and then march into this Temple, set apart for my worship, and say, “We’re safe!” thinking that the place itself gives you a license to go on with all this outrageous sacrilege? (Jeremiah 7:8-11)
The good things that bring us closer to God can become the trickiest of idols. It’s very easy to equate these things with God and we can be tempted into thinking that when we manage these things we manage our relationship with God.
- When the stone monument of the Ten Commandments was rolled out of the Alabama Supreme Court Rotunda, one of the angry protestors began screaming “Put it back!” And when he was admonished by the others to calm down he broke away from them and yelled, “Get your hands off my God!” It was the oddest of statements. Did he really mean that the 5000 lb. granite monument was his God? Was his God the idea of having that religious symbol inside the court house? Had he really read the second word on that monument?
The good things that bring us closer to God can become the trickiest of idols. It’s very easy to equate these things with God and we can be tempted into thinking that when we manage these things we manage our relationship with God …
- We do that when we equate the Bible with God. Any attempt to limit God to the pages of a book is a graven image that attempts to shape God to our expectations – to limit and reduce God – carving Him into our image.
- When we use the term “church” in place of God we run the risk of worshipping our concept of church rather than the God who calls the church and adds to the church.
- When we reduce our relationship with God to the strict observance of the Lord’s Supper and disregard the living Lord who meets us and serves us. We participate in the body and blood at the table, but when we reduce it to an “act” we have crafted a god that we can manage.
- When baptism becomes a procedure rather than a new birth in Christ, we have put our faith in the command rather than the Commander.
When we try and stamp our image of God on these very good things, they become graven images.
Notice the subtlety here … the Bible, the church, the Lord’s Supper, and baptism are all extremely important. They are all very holy. But they are not the Holy One. We are the church – not an institution apart from us – and we encounter the Holy One, the Living God when the images of word, water, bread and wine are living images, not graven images. And when we participate in these living images we share in the life of our Living God and He stamps His image on us.
God spoke the first and second words to live by because he wants us to know who he is and who he isn’t. God made us creatures with bodies and he understands our tendency to want to shape something that we can see, touch, feel and control into a God.
Thanks be to God that Christ “is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.” (Colossians 1:15-16)
The problem with graven images is that we make God look like us. The good news of God became flesh is that God makes us look like Him.
Imago Dei – In our relationship with God, He is the One who will be making images – not us.
Posted by David on October 4, 2007 under Bulletin Articles
Suffering is suffering; pain is pain. Neither are desirable. Yet, commitment to God means the person will escape neither. The enormous war in which Satan attacks God will continuously rage throughout your earthly lifetime. Each time temptation assaults you, you are the battlefield. Committing to God’s values guarantees you Satan will cause you suffering and pain at every opportunity.
He or she who dares to give life to God lives in “the tension.” “The tension” pulls us between the attractions, the pleasures, or the promises of physical well-being and the investment of physical existence in God’s values. Understanding “the tension” is relatively simple. Do we invest in physical existence, or do we invest in eternal existence?
Through suffering and pain God created our Savior. Through suffering and pain God saves us. It should not be surprising that the things which cause God’s rejoicing cause Satan’s rage. The person daring to live for God’s values dares to enrage Satan.
We should be comforted by understanding this always has been true among God’s people. The first Christians knew “the tension.” Peter told them three things. (1) Rejoice when you suffer for God’s values. (2) Never have reason to suffer for Satan’s values. (3) Never be ashamed to suffer for God’s values.
The issue is never, “Will I suffer?” Our choice is not this: to suffer or not to suffer. As a Christian, our choice is this: “With what attitude will I suffer?”
The most common statement I hear from Christian sufferers is, “It is just not fair!” Belonging to God has never been about “what is fair.” It always has been about grace. Grace saves us, and we are saved to reflect grace.
Hebrews 11:13-16, All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. ?But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.
Posted by Jeannie on October 1, 2007 under Ladies Bible Class
Hebrew title: Bereshith – “In the Beginning”
Genesis: Greek for Origin or Beginning, we see the beginning of the Universe, the world and all that it contains, human history, marriage, family, civilizations & languages, sin & death, worship, sacrifice, redemptive promise, and I suppose the list could go on. We see the birth of the Hebrew nation as God’s chosen people, through whom God will bless this sinful world with His Messiah.
We see man & woman created after God’s own image and it was good. We will see that it does not stay good. There is another force that will intervene and the whole entire collection of books that we call the Bible, from Genesis 3 to Revelation 22, will be dedicated to trying to get man back into a right relationship with God – back to the Tree of Life, back to the condition of “it was good.”
The creation account in Genesis is a classic. It is not written as an historical scientific journal of those 6 days, but it is meant to be accurate, acceptable and meaningful to all ages: to the Israelites who first came out of Egypt, to the Jews of Jesus’ day, to the crusaders of the Dark Ages, as well as to us today and to future inhabitants of this world. I believe it was 6 literal days.
Why was Genesis written? The authorship is attributed to Moses.
It is a reminder to the Hebrews and to us that God made us, cares for us, and has not abandoned us even when we are not what we should be, even when life is not what it should be.
God has made a promise to redeem man to Himself and He is faithful.
As we study we will see generation – the beginning of man in chapters 1 & 2;
degeneration – the fall of man in chapters 3 – 11; and then regeneration – hope provided for mankind in chapters 12 – 50.
Throughout Genesis we see life as it is and was. Sin is not glossed over. Yet we will see faith and obedience under trying times.
What do you suppose that Moses hoped that his fellow Israelites would learn from the book of Genesis? Do you think they debated whether or not God created the world in 6 days? Remember that God gave this book to them through Moses while they were sojourners between Egypt and the Promised Land. God is about to give them the land of Canaan where Baal has been the supreme god of choice. The Israelites are about to be faced with questions of faith as they meet other cultures and other beliefs. God is telling them, “not only am I the God that gives you land, crops that you did not plant, homes that you did not build, I am the God that created that land. You have not earned it, I do not owe it to you, but as the Creator, it is mine to give. All that I give mankind is a gift. You and your people are uniquely bonded to Me through your father Abraham.”
What do we learn from Genesis? I’ve 7 things to share.
- God. This is a book about God. In the beginning, God created. God is in action. We do not have a passive, unattached God at all. This is a God who works to have a relationship with what He has lovingly created. We see the nature of God: His creativity, strength, sovereignty, wisdom, anger, and compassion.
He is called by His generic name Elohim, “God” in the 1st chapter. Then in chapter 2:4 we see Yahweh Elohim, “Lord God.”
- We learn about the nature of Man after Satan enters the world. We were made in God’s image, but having a mind of our own, we are fickle. We innately know there is something bigger than us. And we may marvel that some civilizations used to worship goddesses like Aphrodite, but then we spend thousands of dollars and hours upon hours on our personal appearances. Or be amused that some once worshiped the god Narcissus, but be very hung up on our own self esteem. Or we may acknowledge Jehovah God, and we can worship Him one day and stab our neighbor in the back on the next.
- Which leads us to the next thing we learn in Genesis: Sin. In all its ugliness and the pain that it causes, we cannot escape it. All of the suffering on earth is the result of sin. Genesis brings us face to face with sin which leads us to confess that we, too, are indeed a sinner and we disappoint our Creator.
- We learn about God’s Promises and Covenants. God did not wind up the hands of time on this earth and then step back and watch what would happen like some kind of experiment. He stayed interactive with a purpose. God has always wanted man to have a right relationship with Him. We will see the covenant made with Noah. And the three-fold covenant made to faithful Abraham and his lineage that continues to bless mankind today. Praise God that He is a Promise Keeper. Therein lies our hope,
knowing that He is faithful to keep the promise to us of eternal salvation.
- Blessings and Curses show up frequently in Genesis. Blessing is the work of God, giving the power to thrive. Cursing is the result of man’s rebellion.
- After mankind is led to sin, we see the introduction of Suffering. Being God’s chosen people does not exclude anyone from pain. Ask Sarah about suffering. Or Isaac. Joseph was well acquainted with the condition. Whether brought about by our own sin or someone else’s, suffering should teach us all to rely upon our Heavenly Father.
- Family is all important in Genesis. In our study, we will witness some unbelievably mixed up family dynamics as we deal with our own family dilemmas. Moses stressed this point to the Israelites. Even if the family was dysfunctional, if God was present at all, there was love. Jesus stressed this when He summed up what God wanted from man: Love God and love your neighbor. Brotherhood.
Community. Family. Fellowship. We are meant to help each other on our sojourn here on earth. I think that is why you will find this class an important part of your week.
I think you will find this old, ancient book very relevant to your life. We need the belief of Noah, when others don’t believe. A belief that might have others mocking us.
Like Abraham, we all need to step out with the assurance to follow God to that unknown land and receive His promises.
We need the faith of Joseph who endured persecution, separation from his beloved father, slavery and imprisonment, who despite all that, became a savior to his family & many others and was able to forgive all the wrongs that he had endured because he knew His God.
From our Making the Connection [applications] into the New Testament segment of our lessons beyond Genesis, we will see that God has a Promised Land awaiting us also, if we are ready to have a right relationship with Him.
Genesis is the beginning of the story of redemption. It will be a source of knowledge and devotion for you. Join us as we go back to the beginning. Back to when it was very good. Back to God.
