ROOTED - Saturday, August 2, 2025

Exodus 20:4-6
13 You shall not make for yourself an image 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 parents 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.

 Reflection: Question #47
Written By: Pastor Jesse Caro

Question: What do we learn from the Second Commandment?

Answer: We learn from the Second Commandment that God is sovereign over us, that we are his property, and his zeal for his own worship.

Continuing on the discussion of the Second Commandment from Wednesday and Thursday, I note the 47th question of Wesley’s Catechism. What do we learn: that God is sovereign over us. This is an interesting catechism, and an interesting observation I have never considered. God is jealous because he made us. He has every right to want us to be exclusively his. We have no right, in this sense, to be jealous over people. But God has a right to be jealous over us. Why? Because he is sovereign over us.

Connected to this idea is an equally interesting observation, namely that the reason we should not make idols is because we are not God over anything. We are created and God is over us. We certainly are not to make images of God such that we act as though we made Him! NO! God made us. He is God. We are not God and should not be acting as though we are, forming idols every frosty morning. Why then, simply, should we not make idols? Because we should not place ourselves in the position of God… making things. God made us. He is the Potter and we are the clay. Once again, it stands to reason that we, in America, do not make idols… at least not of wood and stone. But we do try to create for ourselves things that compete for our attention. We should be careful to remember that God created us for his purposes. We are his, and he jealously, and lovingly, demands our affection.

Prayer
Lord, may we love you with all our hearts, remembering that you created us and you jealously want our full heart and affection.