Exodus 20:4-6

4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

Note how much longer the second commandment is compared with the first. The lack of brevity implies that this word needs more explanation!

An idol is an image of a spiritual being. In the Bible, these spiritual beings are sometimes called “gods;" today, we might call them “fallen angels” or “demons.” It’s interesting that when God’s faithful servants—His angels—show up in the Bible, the first reaction of their human interlocutors is to prostrate themselves in terror, which is why angels always say, “Don’t be afraid.” When in Revelation John the visionary falls on his face before the angel, the angel hurriedly rebukes him and tells him to get up!

8 I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me, 9 but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God.” [Revelation 22:8-9]

Here, the Israelites are specifically told not to make idols of anything in the universe because there is only one Lord who made everything else, including the spiritual beings. To worship the created rather than the Creator is idolatry and will always lead to spiritual slavery.

In Genesis 1, we are told that people are made in God’s image. This is the reason why we ought not make idols, because the Lord has already made us in His image. If we worship idols, we are actually diminishing ourselves and failing to live as fully human. We are, in effect, giving the glory that the Lord has uniquely bestowed on us over to dark powers for whom that glory was not meant.

Although the occult is sadly on the rise in modern America, most of us are probably not in danger of creating literal idols in the way the Israelites were. Nevertheless, the second commandment is a grave warning against being pulled into idolatry. What the Lord tells us is that sin in one generation will have effects on our grandchildren and even our great-grandchildren. And, we know from experience that this is true—sin in families affects multiple generations.

And yet look at the effect that faithfulness will have: one life of obedience will be the means by which the Lord will cover a thousand generations with grace! If we are faithful now, our actions can be a covering for those who will come after us.

Look at Abraham—his faithful obedience to the Lord is still having its gracious effect today.

Your actions matter!