Thoughts
on Devotions – LD35
Q.
96
What is God's will for us in the second commandment? Q.
97
May we then not make any image at all? Q.
98
But may not images be permitted in churches in place of books for the
unlearned?
J.
V. Fesko, in The
Rule of Love,
explains that Aaron made the golden calf in order to help the Israelites worship
God – but it also implies that they would have power over God. They
could move him about, control him and worship in a way that God did
not prescribe. He describes God having an exclusive copyright to his
image. He created man in his image, but after the fall man no longer
perfectly imaged God. Prior to the fall people would have seen the
image of God in other people, but after the fall man began to worship
his own image. The Bible tells us that Christ is the exact
representation and image of God. Unlike man-made images, created to
provide control over God, Christ as the one true and legitimate image
of God - he was completely obedient to God. God has made provision
for the church to depict – remember – Christ in the sacraments.
When we supplement worship with unauthorized images we become like
the Israelites, worshiping God in a manner of our choosing –
breaking the second commandment. The second commandment's warning of
us sin points us to Christ who perfectly worshiped and submitted
himself to God. It points us to Christ since he is the perfect image
of God, and it points us to Christ in that through our connection to
Christ we are being remade in the image of God. “We do not make
images of God, for He is making images of Himself in us! In this way
Christ applies the rule of love to us by creating His holy image in
us” (p. 41).
Monday:
The
Israelites already had the ten commandments and knew that they were
to not to worship any other god but or image but God. Yet when they
doubted and threatened to get out of control, Aaron made the golden
calf seemingly as a way to focus and comfort them. A bad idea. We
too need to learn to turn toward God rather than elsewhere when we
are questioning and unsettled.
Isaiah
40:18-25
To whom can you compare God? To what image can you liken him? A
craftsman casts an idol; a metalsmith overlays it with gold and
forges silver chains for it. To make a contribution one selects wood
that will not rot; he then seeks a skilled craftsman to make an idol
that will not fall over. Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not
been told to you since the very beginning? Have you not understood
from the time the earthʼs foundations were made? He is the one who
sits on the earthʼs horizon; its inhabitants are like grasshoppers
before him. He is the one who stretches out the sky like a thin
curtain, and spreads it out like a pitched tent. He is the one who
reduces rulers to nothing; he makes the earthʼs leaders
insignificant. Indeed, they are barely planted; yes, they are barely
sown; yes, they barely take root in the earth, and then he blows on
them, causing them to dry up, and the wind carries them away like
straw. “To whom can you compare me? Whom do I resemble?” says the
Holy One.
Tuesday:
Not
only are we not to make images to worship, but we also are only to
worship as God has commanded in his Word. Aaron was just trying to
help and improve worship of God by making the golden calf – God was
not pleased.
Exodus
32:1-10
When the people saw that Moses delayed in coming down from the
mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said to him, “Get up, make
us gods that will go before us. As for this fellow Moses, the man who
brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become
of him!” So Aaron said to them, “Break off the gold earrings that
are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and
bring them to me.” So all the people broke off the gold earrings
that were on their ears and brought them to Aaron. He accepted the
gold from them, fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a
molten calf. Then they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who
brought you up out of Egypt.” When Aaron saw this, he built an
altar before it, and Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow
will be a feast to the Lord.” So they got up early on the next
day and offered up burnt offerings and brought peace offerings, and
the people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play. The
Lord spoke to Moses: “Go quickly, descend, because your people,
whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, have acted corruptly.
They have quickly turned aside from the way that I commanded them -
they have made for themselves a molten calf and have bowed down to it
and sacrificed to it and said, ʻThese are your gods, O Israel, which
brought you up from the land of Egypt.ʼ” Then the Lord said to
Moses: “I have seen this people. Look what a stiff-necked people
they are! So now, leave me alone so that my anger can burn against
them and I can destroy them, and I will make from you a great
nation.”
Wednesday:
Fearing
and honoring God involves listening to and obeying what he has
revealed to us in his Word. We must focus on the preaching of his
Word, not on methods that we think are novel or “meaningful” but
do not follow what he has told us.
1
Timothy 4:13
Until I come, give attention to the public reading of scripture, to
exhortation, to teaching.
Romans
10:14
How are they to call on one they have not believed in? And how are
they to believe in one they have not heard of? And how are they to
hear without someone preaching to them?
1
Corinthians 11:23-26
For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you, that the
Lord Jesus on the night in which he was betrayed took bread, and
after he had given thanks he broke it and said, “This is my body,
which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same
way, he also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the
new covenant in my blood. Do this, every time you drink it, in
remembrance of me.” For every time you eat this bread and drink
the cup, you proclaim the Lordʼs death until he comes.
Thursday:
God
does use anthropomorphic language, and while that does give us a
picture of God acting in the world similar to a human – these word
pictures help us to understand God's character. We should not,
however take this as permission to make images of God or to worship
him through use of images.
Deuteronomy
4:15-19
Be very careful, then, because you saw no form at the time the Lord
spoke to you at Horeb from the middle of the fire. I say this so you
will not corrupt yourselves by making an image in the form of any
kind of figure. This includes the likeness of a human male or female,
any kind of land animal, any bird that flies in the sky, anything
that crawls on the ground, or any fish in the deep waters of the
earth. When you look up to the sky and see the sun, moon, and stars -
the whole heavenly creation - you must not be seduced to worship and
serve them, for the Lord your God has assigned them to all the people
of the world.
Friday:
Art
and artistic representation and decoration is not itself wrong. Art
may add to the beauty of a place of worship, but it must not
represent or take the place of our God who is Spirit and not a body.
John
4:23-24
But
a time is coming - and now is here - when the true worshipers will
worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such
people to be his worshipers. God is spirit, and the people who
worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
Saturday:
God
wants his people to believe what he tells them and to depend on his
Word and promises. He wants to rely on how he represents himself in
his Word and not to use our imaginations to depict him visually or in
ways that are not in accord with what he has revealed. We must study
God's Word to make sure that we do not emphasize one attribute of God
over others, thereby creating a false image of God (e.g., emphasizing
God's love to the extent that his holiness is forgotten.
2
Peter 1:19
Moreover, we possess the prophetic word as an altogether reliable
thing. You do well if you pay attention to this as you would to a
light shining in a murky place, until the day dawns and the morning
star rises in your hearts.
Acts
17:11
These Jews were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they
eagerly received the message, examining the scriptures carefully
every day to see if these things were so.
Reading
between the lines...
What
does it mean that Jesus is the Savior of the world? Some see Jesus
swooping down to save “souls” out of the world to some other
realm. The chosen are deposited on a life raft and can't wait to
escape the “sinking ship”. But the Bible depicts Jesus as
“earths” himself – he takes on our humanity forever. He takes
our suffering onto himself; he takes our sins upon himself. He takes
our curse upon himself, dying on the cross. Jesus does not ignore
suffering, sin and curse and he doesn't somehow make it disappear.
Instead he enters into it, owns it and puts it to death in his own
body. The head of creation dives into the pit of our making and takes
on the darkness in person. This is symbolized in the crown of thorns.
Thorns are the emblem of the curse in the Bible. Adam was told that
the ground would produce thorns and thistles (Gen. 3:18). Thorns are
the opposite of the fruitfulness that the earth is intended for; they
are opposite of the fruitfulness that God's people are intended for.
Thorns are anti-life, anti-gospel and anti-creation. What does Jesus
do? He dive headlong into the thorn bush, and enters into this
fruitless, lifeless, painful world – he wears the crown of thorns
with pride. He turns curses into crowns and a tree intended for death
into the tree of life. It is a cosmic redemption. What ever thorns
that we experience in life, Christ uses these to bring glory – we
don't know how he will do it, but cannot doubt that he will do it. No
matter how painful the thorns may be, we can trust in the one who
makes them his crown.
Matthew
27:27-29
Then the governorʼs soldiers took Jesus into the governorʼs
residence and gathered the whole cohort around him. They stripped him
and put a scarlet robe around him, and after braiding a crown of
thorns, they put it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand,
and kneeling down before him, they mocked him: “Hail, king of the
Jews!”
Isaiah
5:5-7
Now I will inform you what I am about to do to my vineyard: I will
remove its hedge and turn it into pasture, I will break its wall and
allow animals to graze there. I will make it a wasteland; no one
will prune its vines or hoe its ground, and thorns and briers will
grow there. I will order the clouds not to drop any rain on it.
Indeed Israel is the vineyard of the Lord who commands armies, the
people of Judah are the cultivated place in which he took delight. He
waited for justice, but look what he got - disobedience! He waited
for fairness, but look what he got - cries for help!
Matthew
13:22
The seed sown among thorns is the person who hears the word, but
worldly cares and the seductiveness of wealth choke the word, so it
produces nothing.
2
Cor. 12:7
The seed sown among thorns is the person who hears the word, but
worldly cares and the seductiveness of wealth choke the word, so it
produces nothing.
We
sometimes imagine a certain glory with martyrdom, but that
demonstrates that we really don't know what we're talking about.
Richard Wurmbrand gave a first person account of Communist
persecution of the Romanian church. Often they would arrest a pastor
and spread rumors that he was a sex offender and then release him to
be killed by a mob. The pastors did not die a noble death but
vilified as pedophiles. Wurmbrand points out that those who die for
Jesus are often considered scum and not as dying for Jesus. But even
in shame martyrs for Christ share a deep fellowship with their Lord –
the shame of Jesus' death was a key element of his sufferings. Jesus
was mocked and considered a blasphemer. He is not seen on an altar
with those benefiting from his sacrifice bowing before him. Instead
he is mocked mercilessly. They robe him, crown him and proclaim him
king, while at the same time mocking him, spitting on him and
punching him in the face. If Jesus was just a man this would be bad
enough, if he was a king it would be treason, but what kind of God
subjects himself to this? He doesn't simply die, he is tortured and
spit on. Here is a God who cares nothing for appearances or earthly
glory, nothing is beneath his dignity – there are no depths that he
will not plumb to save us.
Mark
10:33-34
“Look, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be
handed over to the chief priests and experts in the law. They will
condemn him to death and will turn him over to the Gentiles. They
will mock him, spit on him, flog him severely, and kill him. Yet
after three days, he will rise again.”
Matthew
27:27-31
Then the governorʼs soldiers took Jesus into the governorʼs
residence and gathered the whole cohort around him. They stripped him
and put a scarlet robe around him, and after braiding a crown of
thorns, they put it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand,
and kneeling down before him, they mocked him: “Hail, king of the
Jews!” They spat on him and took the staff and struck him
repeatedly on the head. When they had mocked him, they stripped him
of the robe and put his own clothes back on him. Then they led him
away to crucify him.
Scrivener
tells a story of a person claiming that Jesus was a hypocrite, but
could produce no reason for the claim. Yet it is almost the defining
characteristic of humanity. We cover our faults and present ourselves
as good people. Acturally, everyone is a hypocrite except Jesus.
Jesus set the bar so high that he might have been prone to hypocrisy,
but he in fact exceeded the standards he set. He said that you must
love your enemies, that you must be perfect even as God is perfect.
Yet Christ's enemies could find no charge that would stick. The
clearest example of his integrity is seen in the hour of his death
when he prayed for forgiveness for those who were killing him. The
teacher who made the highest demands, love your enemies, obeys it in
the most difficult circumstances. He is as good as his word, but his
word is not a word of judgment – he cries for mercy on us
hypocrites and those who kill him. The righteousness of Christ does
not make him less sympathetic to sinners, but more – this is why
he hangs on the cross. His death is not for the pious but for those
who cause his death. And his prayer seems to be answered specifically
– the next feast in which the crowd would have gathered was the
feast of Pentecost. Two months later this crowd would have been back
in Jerusalem and would have heard Peter's Pentecost sermon. Acts 2
records that 3000 people responded in belief – an amazing answer to
Christ's prayer. 3000 people repent and are baptized for the
forgiveness of their sins – which traces back to the cross and this
prayer – the Father forgives the people who killed his son. From
the midst of suffering the wrath of God for us, he loves us and
prayers for our forgiveness.
Matthew
5:48
So then, be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Luke
23:32-34
Two other criminals were also led away to be executed with him. So
when they came to the place that is called “The Skull,” they
crucified him there, along with the criminals, one on his right and
one on his left. But Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they
donʼt know what they are doing.”
We
sometimes use the saying “giving up the ghost” as something comes
gasps its last and comes to an end. In the Bible the phrase describes
death. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are all said to have given up the
ghost – they breathed their last breath. In Old English, breath,
spirit and ghost were one word. We breath our last and our spirit
returns to God. We are not in a “circle of life” - more of a
semi-circle. Adam was told “dust you are and to dust you will
return.” The life of the flesh only produces more flesh – we
cannot generate spiritual life from our own resources – we are
perishing. What does the son of God do when he sees his handiwork
perishing. He comes to perish too – and he too “gives up the
ghost.” But death could not hold Jesus, the author of life – he
punches a hole through death and comes out the other side in the life
of the Spirit. Giving up the ghost was not a defeat but and opened
the for us to have his Spirit forever.
Ecclesiastes
12:7
and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the lifeʼs breath
returns to God who gave it.
John
19:30
When he had received the sour wine, Jesus said, “It is completed!”
Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
Jesus
would have us believe that his death was a success – but nothing on
Good Friday looked victorious. “It is finished” in Greek means it
is covered, it is paid for! Since the giving of the promise in
Genesis, God's plan for redemption has been in process and how on the
cross comes to completion. The old order is finished and the new
order – new birth for the world is raised up. On the 6th
day Jesus declares that it is finished; on the Sabbath he rests; and
on Sunday a whole new world begins.
John
19:28-30
After this Jesus, realizing that by this time everything was
completed, said (in order to fulfill the scripture), “I am
thirsty!” A jar full of sour wine was there, so they put a sponge
soaked in sour wine on a branch of hyssop and lifted it to his mouth.
When he had received the sour wine, Jesus said, “It is completed!”
Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
Jesus
offers resurrection and it's the last thing that we expect. Living on
in immortal material life is the stuff of fairy tales. Jesus came to
reverse the way of he world. On the first Easter the women came to
the tomb to mark and ending, but instead were witnesses to a new
beginning. Jesus puts the old order to death, and the new order with
the promise of new life fulfilled. He is raised to life in the same
body because he comes to fix this world – as his body is restored
and glorified, this world will be restored and glorified. He
completes his work on the sixth day, earns his Sabbath rest and on
the first day of the week brings life and immortality.
Matthew
28:1-6
Now after the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary
Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. Suddenly there
was a severe earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descending from
heaven came and rolled away the stone and sat on it. His appearance
was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards
were shaken and became like dead men because they were so afraid of
him. But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; I know
that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here,
for he has been raised, just as he said. Come and see the place where
he was lying.
1
Cor. 15:14-19
And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is futile and
your faith is empty. Also, we are found to be false witnesses about
God, because we have testified against God that he raised Christ from
the dead, when in reality he did not raise him, if indeed the dead
are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then not even Christ
has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is
useless; you are still in your sins. Furthermore, those who have
fallen asleep in Christ have also perished. For if only in this life
we have hope in Christ, we should be pitied more than anyone.
John
set the bar high for proof of Jesus' resurrection – he doesn't
believe the eye witness accounts of others and wants to see the nail
marks and put his hand into the gash in Jesus' side. A week later the
proof comes when he is confronted by Jesus and is given more than he
bargained for. Jesus seems to be proud of his wounds and sees them as
badges of honor and invites Thomas to inspect his wounds, and in
seeing Jesus' wounds has his proof. He cries out “my Lord and my
God” - it is personal for Thomas. Is it personal for us? Jesus says
we are blessed when we believe without the the concrete proof that
Thomas demanded. We can have a more “blessed” experience by
trusting the eye witness proof in the Gospel document – the
Scriptures are better than a “Thomas experience”! A miraculous
experience may impress you today, but in the long run may cause more
doubt than belief. It is better to trust the eye witness accounts. We
should read our Bibles expectantly and see Jesus in the sacred story
– and experience it as an appearance of Christ, responding in
worship – exclaiming, “my Lord and my God!”
John
20:24-31
Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the twelve, was not with them
when Jesus came. The other disciples told him, “We have seen the
Lord!” But he replied, “Unless I see the wounds from the nails in
his hands, and put my finger into the wounds from the nails, and put
my hand into his side, I will never believe it!” Eight days later
the disciples were again together in the house, and Thomas was with
them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them
and said, “Peace be with you!” Then he said to Thomas, “Put
your finger here, and examine my hands. Extend your hand and put it
into my side. Do not continue in your unbelief, but believe.”
Thomas replied to him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him,
“Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are the people
who have not seen and yet have believed.” Now Jesus performed many
other miraculous signs in the presence of the disciples, which are
not recorded in this book. But these are recorded so that you may
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by
believing you may have life in his name.
