Deuteronomy 5:8-10 – Honoring God alone

The first Commandment established that God has no equal. And this God had a unique relationship with the people of Israel. For He had delivered them from their bondage in Egypt and made them His covenant people. Being His people, they must not have other gods before Him. He must always be the only God that they honor, worship, and serve.

The second Commandment demands that God should not be misrepresented. This formless God transcends all His creatures. Nothing can adequately represent Him. Therefore His people must not be like the pagans and fashion Him to look like any of His creatures and venerate it. It will be sinful disrespect to make this awesome God to look like any sea, land, sky, or ground creature. Only a warped and twisted mind will fashion hand-made idols to misrepresent God. Doing that will make a person lose touch with the genuine God. Anyone engaged in worshipping any spurious god will be led to a life of disobedience.    

In verse 9, God explicitly forbade His people to bow down and worship any man-made idol. Why? Because He is a jealous God. Venerating any man-made idol will provoke Him to jealousy. God will not overlook the offense of one who revered a false god. But will discipline him and even that person’s subsequent generations. Unwittingly, false worship is pervasive. Once a person engages in it, there is the tendency to pass this sinful practice to one’s children. This wrongful act will continue to propagate to all subsequent generations. It will do well to be reminded that our children will always emulate us. However, there is one encouragement. For the one who will act faithfully and not deviate to worship idols, God will not let him down. He, and certainly his family, will be the recipient of His loving kindness.  

The call is for us, God’s people, to stay focused, be faithful and honor Him alone. How can we apply this in our life? Don’t put anything or anyone above God. For if that happens, we will have turned that thing or that someone into our God. One way to prevent that is to make God the sole proprietor of our hearts. Guard our hearts!