Pentecost Week 10 - The Second Commandment

Scripture Reading

*Explain the context: “This week, we will continue to read about God giving Israel his instructions at Mt. Sinai after God had freed them from Egypt.”

Exodus 20:4-6

---

Big Idea (For Parents)

While the first commandment is about who to worship, the second commandment is about how to worship.

---

Family Reflection

(Read aloud or summarize)

In the first commandment, God instructed his people to worship him alone. In this second commandment, God further instructs that they only attempt to contact him in worship in the way he has commanded. In other words, the first commandment is about who to worship, and this second commandment is about how to worship. In the Old Testament, God instructed Israel to worship through things like the tabernacle and temple, the priesthood, and the festivals. All those things pointed forward to Jesus (and his body the Church) in whom they are now fulfilled. Thus, our form of worship or “liturgy” is now only though Christ, as his body, according to the instructions provided in his Word. We do not attempt to contact God in worship through other means or methods. To do so would be liturgical idolatry—attempting to worship the true God in ways he has not approved.

In part, God is jealous that we come to him only in the way he provides because he knows, as Israel’s history shows, that when we repeatedly try to come to him wrongly we eventually stop coming to him at all. Liturgical idolatry (the wrong “how” of worship) leads to covenantal idolatry (the wrong “who” of worship). This is part of why the second commandment explains that God’s blessings and curses unfold generationally. Worshiping how God commands keeps many generations faithful and blessed. Attempting to worship God in other ways leads generations progressively from worshiping God wrongly to worshiping the wrong god and being judged for the same.

---

Discussion Questions

(Adjust for age.)

1- Our form of worship, or liturgy, shapes our understanding of God. What are some of the things we do in Sunday worship? What do those things teach us about the God we worship?

2- The nations who lived around the Israelites worshiped their gods through the carved images, statues, and other things God forbids here. What would worship through a lifeless wooden, metal or stone statue or painting reveal about any god who would approve of such worship?

---

Practice—Thousands of Generations

God is not stingy with blessing. He promises that those he moves to worship him rightly can expect the blessing of their true worship to flow to thousands of generations. If your family has had Christians in the generations before yours, name some and praise and thank God together for their true worship channeling blessing to you. Then, pray as a family that God would use your faithful worship to continue to bless those coming after you (whether biological or spiritual descendants) for thousands of generations to come.