Exodus 20:4-6
“You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.” (Emphasis added.)
This second commandment is very specific in forbidding us from idolizing, or worshipping any created ‘likeness’ or manufactured representation of God, whether it be made up of physical, tangible ingredients, or composed of mental images or verbal constructions. Nothing that we can create is to be equated with Him. None of our ideas come close to equaling the true living God or anything in His personal realm of infinite, eternal Transcendence. That should tell us how serious He was when He said the following:
Isaiah 55:7-9
“Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return (defer) to the Lord, and He will have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.
“‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts!” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
Beloved, ponder what the true, living God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is telling us! Regardless of how wise, intellectually refined, brilliant and ‘right on target’ we may think we are…when we pontificate and dogmatize about Him and His Nature, or His entire Creation and claim to comprehend His ways in dealing with it and His plans for it, we must realize and admit that the products of our deductions, inductions, studying and philosophizing will always fall far, far short of Him and the entire Truth about who and what He really IS. Even on our best day, we will be dead wrong if any of us dares to assume or imply: “I’ve arrived. I comprehend and understand God. I know how to explain Him. I understand His ways, so listen to me. I’m a supreme authority and expert in these matters. In fact, my ideas about God…ARE EQUAL TO GOD! They adequately comprehend and explain all that he is.”
How many humans throughout history have been guilty of such incredibly arrogant blindness? When we fall prey to such demonic deception and put our trust in the Sin-corrupted faculties of our souls or those of other people, we grossly overstep our God-given boundaries of Reality. God’s Perfect Nature will not accept anything that presumes to be His equal when in Truth it falls far short of His Perfection. So our own soulish faculties and their products will never pass His judgment when we’re not truly being led and instructed by His Word and Holy Spirit. Nor will such radically independent beings or their products be allowed to abide in His Perfect Presence. So we enter spiritually lethal territory whenever we feel compelled to leave our true place on the very limited side of the Chasm of Transcendence and dare to assume that we can make it over to His Perfect, eternally Unlimited side of that Chasm. Never in ourselves or by our devices do we dare try to ‘cross over’ and attempt to occupy God’s place on His Infinite, Perfect Side of that abyss. Reality forever separates our nature as creatures from the Perfect Nature of the Creator of all things.
How many of us humans have actually tried to convince ourselves that the dogmas, theologies, religious traditions and historical, political philosophies, worldviews and agendas we or other humans create are actually equal to God Himself in the way they manage to comprehend and explain Him? And how many have been so blind in these arrogant assumptions, as to feel perfectly justified when they kill, rape, pillage and destroy the lives of people who dare to disagree with them?
When people do that, are they not taking it upon themselves to think, speak, act, react and interact at a level that makes them equal to Almighty God Himself? And throughout human history, no religious or secular tradition has been totally free of this horrendous kind of thinking and behavior! It continues to happen even now! We have all sinned in this regard and have fallen far short of God’s Perfectly Righteous Truth and Reality Standards. But we will not get away with such travesties. God will call us to account for remaining independent…and for violating His first and second commandments while operating in that state!
So in light of this second commandment that God gave to the world through Israel at Mt. Sinai, we can learn much from the fathers of our Faith. Unlike most of the so-called sages, experts and gurus that this fallen world continually spawns, the fathers of our Faith actually did receive authentic, direct personal revelation from the true living God. But yet, their instinctive reactions were so humble and pure, that they remain forever different and set apart from the presumptions of the rest of the world’s so-called spiritual ‘experts,’ ‘gurus,’ ‘prophets’ and ‘authorities.’ The lifelong habitual attitudes of our spiritual fathers toward the true God, after he revealed Himself to them, set the true standard for all the rest of us…for all time!
God’s dealings with the fathers of our Faith in the beginning, were eminently direct and overwhelming. He sent His living Word and Holy Spirit to them, and the Spirit broke the natural hardness of their hearts and predisposed them to be sensitive and open to the initiatives of God’s living Word. So, regardless of what form in which God’s Word appeared to them at various times and situations, they were able to recognize Him and realize how awesome, powerful, authoritative and transcendent He really is! They received intuitive God-given knowledge from Him…that was not at all of this world. They’d never seen or experienced anything like it before! And they knew it was not within the realm of human possibility to comprehend or capture or define or systematize this awesome Being and what He was initiating with them. They were utterly overwhelmed by how awesome, majestic and utterly transcendent and ‘other’ Almighty God truly is. So their instinctive initial responses to Him were most appropriate and proper:
Genesis 17:1-3a.
“Now when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, ‘I am God Almighty; walk before Me, and be blameless. I will establish My Covenant between Me and you, and I will multiply you exceedingly.’
“Abram fell on his face… (Emphasis added.)
Airtight Faith in an Airtight God
And because they realized His infinite Magnitude, Creativity and Omnipotent Ability, they were able to abide and rest and rejoice in His Perfection and in His All-Sufficient Grace. And they could habitually enjoy the Perfection of His Finished Work of Creation, Redemption and Restoration. They knew God was infinitely Perfect and that He could be trusted with an airtight, infinite faith, regardless of what anyone else said or did, and regardless of how their circumstances looked, and regardless of what their own minds and imaginations and fleeting feelings might tell them to the contrary! They knew Him; so they were able to trust Him no matter what situation they encountered and no matter how things seemed or felt to them.
Genesis 22:6-10
“Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, ‘My father!’ And he said, ‘Here I am, my son.’ And he said, ‘Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?’ Abraham said, ‘God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.’ So the two of them walked on together. Then they came to the place of which God had told him; and Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood, and bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.” (Emphasis added.)
At the time that Abraham determined to obey God, as he was preparing to sacrifice his beloved Isaac, Isaac was already a grown man, thirty to forty years of age! He realized full well what his father had in mind. He knew exactly what was about to happen to him. And he could have easily resisted in order to save himself; but he didn’t. Isaac submitted in total trust…trust in God and trust in his father. By that time, he too knew and respected God and was willing to obey Him and accept whatever He chose to reveal of Himself to his family. The way Abraham and Isaac knew God enabled them to trust Him unreservedly…even to the death!
And…what about Jacob? How did he respond when it was his time to receive God’s revelation?
Genesis 28:10-17
“Then Jacob departed from Beersheba and went toward Haran. He came to a certain place and spent the night there, because the sun had set; and he took one of the stones of the place and put it under his head, and lay down in that place. He had a dream, and behold, a ladder was set on the earth with its top reaching to heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, ‘I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie, I will give it to you and to your descendants. Your descendants will also be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and in you and in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.’
“Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, ‘Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.’ He was afraid and said, ‘How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!’” (Emphasis added.)
So the instinctive, knee-jerk responses that came out of these three fathers of the Faith, when God’s living Word appeared and interacted with them, give good indication of what it is really like when God’s living Word really, truly initiates authentic personal interaction with Sin-corrupted children of fallen Adam. The spiritual descendants of these three men were chosen by God to be His chosen messengers and examples to the rest of the world. So notice that in His exchanges with God’s chosen Israelite vessels of communication, when God sends His living Word to reveal Himself to them, the manifestations are often so overwhelming that the Israelites, are rendered senseless and are forced to prostrate themselves in overwhelming awe and respect before God’s awesome Word. And the Word always maintained the initiative, while the stunned humans remain unable to do anything but worship the God that is speaking to them… in total awe. The living Word is the Creator and Sustainer and Supplier of all things; so naturally, He always maintains the initiative and leads those interactions with the humans. And the totally bankrupt and dependent humans respond accordingly…in stunned, overwhelmed awe:
Exodus 3:3-6
“So Moses said, ‘I must turn aside now and see this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burned up.’ When the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, ‘Moses, Moses!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.” Then He said, ‘Do not come near here; remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.’ He said also, ‘I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ Then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God!” (Emphasis added.)
Isaiah 6:3-5
“And one (of the Seraphim) called out to another and said,
‘Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His Glory.’
And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. Then I (Isaiah) said,
‘Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.’” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
2 Chronicles 7:1-3
“Now when Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the house (temple). The priests could not enter into the house of the Lord because the glory of the Lord filled the Lord’s house. All the sons of Israel, seeing the fire come down and the glory of the Lord upon the house, bowed down on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshiped and gave praise to the Lord, saying, ‘Truly He is good, truly His lovingkindness is everlasting.’” (Emphasis added.)
Matthew 17:1-6
“Six days later Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John his brother, and led them up on a high mountain by themselves. And He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. Peter said to Jesus, ‘Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, I will make three tabernacles here, one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.’ While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud said, ‘This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!’
“When the disciples heard this, they fell face down to the ground and were terrified!”
Revelation 1:12-17a
“Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands; and in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His chest with a golden sash. His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters.In His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its strength. When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man!”
When God gives a revelation of great significance to the Salvation, Redemption and Restoration of the fallen human race, the recipients are invariably stunned and overwhelmed by His incomprehensible Majesty and Grandeur. And should that happen to us we too will fall to the ground stunned…face down…in total overwhelming, crushing awe. And instinctively, we will worship…and wait upon this awesome Lord to see what He wants and what He is going to do and what He will say. He, the sole Source of all created things, always leads, and all of what He has created and continues to sustain, always follows!
Acts 9:3-9
“As he (Saul of Tarsus) was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him; and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?’ And he said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And He said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, but get up and enter the city, and it will be told you what you must do.’ The men who traveled with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; and leading him by the hand, they brought him into Damascus. And he was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank.” (Emphasis added.)
John 8:12
“Then Jesus again spoke…saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the Darkness, but will have the Light of Life.”
John 21:18-19
“Truly, truly, I say to you (Peter), when you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wished; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you, and bring you where you do not wish to go.’ Now this He said, signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. And when He had spoken this, He said to him, “Follow Me!” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
The Polarity of Discipleship – God Gives and We Receive
Torah, and all the rest of Scripture, reveals that this is the way it is between God and His chosen Israelite messengers and examples. And so that is also the way it will be with all fallen human flesh. Mathematically speaking, the interchanges in this unique Master-disciple ‘Follow Me’ relationship, can be expressed in these terms:
God does 100% of the acting and giving…and we do 100% of the waiting and receiving. We depend on God and receive from Him 100% of the time in 100% of every situation, on every level. Never can we actually dare assume to speak for Him or take His place, or usurp the initiative as He interacts with us! This is the Reality the first two commandments express in just a few words.
The inspired written Word of God reveals this, and the personal experiences of those to whom He has revealed Himself throughout human history verify it. So, God’s first and second commandments help to reveal the vast difference that exists between God and His Eternal Kingdom, as opposed to this fallen world of Sin-corrupted flesh and its broken, demon-oppressed system. God notifies us that in Himself, He is everything to all of His Creation…the one and only Source of whatever is real, true and good. And He is completely and totally above and beyond us and beyond the reach of the limited capacities and abilities of any of His creatures, including the Serpent! We creatures do not have it in us to be or do or have anything that could equal our Creator, in ourselves. We may be creative to some extent; but we are not Creators like Him. We cannot make something appear out of nothingness. So we cannot duplicate or equal Him in any way.
Because it is not in our nature to operate on God’s Transcendent level in eternity, we can only receive what we are and have and are able to do, from Him. We must remain on our limited side of the infinite Chasm of Transcendence and leave the opposite side, the Eternal Perfection side of it, to Him alone. In other words, we can only reflect back to God, what He reveals of Himself to us. He is our one and only true Source; so we are intended to accept Him as he truly IS…and worship and thank and reflect and proclaim Him to the rest of His Creation. There is nothing in us that equips us to choose to comprehend and define and interact with Him, as His equals. Even our responses to Him, must first be given to us, by Him. Until He takes the initiative, we cannot be or do, or have anything to offer to Him, or to ourselves, or to anyone or anything else!
Let’s repeat that: only as God initiates and gives of Himself to us, can any creature (including the Serpent) be or do or have anything! So in the relationship between Almighty God and any creature, there can never be a ‘give and take’ dynamic as between equals. There is only one Source for everything and anything…the one and only Living God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He reigns Supreme over all that He creates. Regardless of who or what we may think we are, as we continue to exist in our current Sin-corruption and mortally wounded delusionary state of radical independence, the Truth remains constant: GOD is God; and we are not anything but what He chooses to make of us.
And, ironically, the converse of that is also true. Because of His unique Position as sole Creator and Sustainer of all Creation, God is also the Supreme Servant of, and Provider for, everyone and everything He has created! Every level of being, each speck of the created universe, each angel, human and animal of all species, relies and depends upon Almighty God to maintain everything in its existence and to make sure it has all the provision and protection and well being that it will ever need in order to operate and continue in existence. God must always provide everything; and that is why He is the Greatest Servant of All.
John 13:12-17
“So when He had washed their feet, and taken His garments and reclined at the table again, He said to them, ‘Do you know what I have done to you? You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.’” (Emphasis added.)
The more this Truth sinks into our minds and hearts, the more will the residue of the Serpent’s lies be broken within us and his death grip loosened. At the end of this temporal life, the hold his monstrous lies have maintained over us and the rest of the human race since the fall of our first parents in the Garden of Eden will finally be completely broken. And we will be able to trust and love and rely upon God and obey Him wholeheartedly. The Restoration of the mortal damage the Serpent did to us in the beginning, will be perfectly complete.
Genesis 3:4-7
“The serpent said to the woman, ‘You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ When the woman saw (relied upon her own very limited perspective and understanding and assumed) that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she disobeyed and separated herself from God’s living Word and) took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked (were now personally experiencing Evil and what it is and what it does to us); and (instead of repenting and returning to their Creator to be forgiven and restored) they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
And so we see in Genesis that when God’s living Word first revealed Himself to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, they responded to Him in the appropriate and proper way. They didn’t try to figure everything out; nor did they try to ‘second guess’ or ‘correct’ God. They accepted His Word as he really is…as the totally, Other’, the One that simply IS WHO HE IS, the Incomprehensible, Indefinable One. And they obeyed and followed Him. Abraham fell on his face before Almighty God…in total silence. Isaac also remained silent and was ready to obey His awesome God, even unto death. And Jacob’s response was one of stunned, humbled awe. Even he, the wily, deceiving, conniving one, was forced into silence and abject devastation. And so, the way it was with them, serves as the perfect model for the rest of us. We are not to try to define or figure out this awesome Being…we are to worship…submit…and wait upon Him at all times, for we were designed and created by Him to be one thing and one thing only…His image and likeness! Who then, beside Him, is equipped to show us and teach us who and what we are, and what we are to do…and how?
Our “Help” is NOT Needed
When our Perfect and totally Transcendent God reveals Himself to fallen flesh, He most certainly does not need our help to comprehend or define or delineate what He is or what He is doing. It would take infinitely perfect minds and faculties to do that. And only He has such a mind! For the rest of us, to even imagine doing that, considering that it is the Almighty Infinite, Transcendent Creator and Maintainer of the entire universe that we are discussing, would be even more ridiculous than trying to contain and control the enormity and magnitude of the seven seas in a thimble! The Perfect Infinite Presence of the Living God is an overwhelming prospect to us. But to God…the planet Earth and all that is on it (including us) is miniscule, compared to all else that He has created and maintains in existence! Earth is a tiny invisible speck that is hidden within the enormity of all the galaxies that are scattered and maintained by Him, across the unimaginable expanses of His universe! So, when God deals with us personally, there is nothing about Him or what He is doing that we would be able to comprehend, define, control or capture within the very tiny confines and workings of our fallen, Sin-damaged soulish faculties. Anything we would think, assume, feel, or do to try to define or describe or understand anything concerning Him and what He is doing and causing to happen, would always fall far, far short of the actual comprehension that would be required to capture, comprehend and explain the infinite, eternal depths of the actual Truth and Reality of His infinitely Perfect Presence!
Job 42:2-3
“I know that You can do all things, and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted.
‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’
“Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.”
Psalm 139:1-6
“O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, and are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, O Lord, You know it all. You have enclosed me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is too high, I cannot attain to it.”
Isaiah 1:2-4
“Listen, O heavens, and hear, O earth; For the Lord speaks, ‘Sons I have reared and brought up, but they have revolted against Me. An ox knows its owner, and a donkey its master’s manger, but Israel does not know, My people do not understand.’
“Alas, sinful nation, people weighed down with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, sons who act corruptly! They have abandoned the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they have turned away from Him!”
Matthew 3:7-12
“But when he (John the Immerser) saw many of the (smug, learned, very religious and self-righteous) Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, ‘You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance; and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham. The axe is already laid at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good (Spirit-imparted) fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire!” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
These Scriptures, inspired by the Spirit of God, and many others like them, reveal the mind-boggling infinite chasm of Transcendence that separates the Perfect, Infinite Uncreated Nature of Almighty God…from our very limited, Sin-damaged finite created nature. From His Perfection side of that chasm, God comprehends and is able to handle everything about us, for He knows and understands Himself, and all that He does, Perfectly. And He understands and knows us because we come out of Him and are fashioned by His hands. Let’s repeat that: He knows and understands everything about us perfectly! But the same cannot be said about us. We abide always on the very limited side of the infinite Chasm of Transcendence. And since we were created to be His image and likeness, we cannot know Him independently. We cannot comprehend His ways in ourselves, nor can we even know ourselves, or what it would mean to be Almighty God’s image and likeness! Only He can show us what that would be and how it could be done by the likes of us. Only He can lead us on our Exodus out of the Darkness of being trapped within the delusion caused by believing the Serpent’s lies…and into the Eternal Light of the Truth that abides within His awesome Eternal Land of Promise!
Our Exodus out of Satan’s Darkness and into God’s Eternal Light can only be completed and fulfilled in one way: We must be taken to our Destination…in and by and through God’s living Word made flesh…Yeshua…our Eternal Blood Covenant Representative and High Priest…and Shepherd:
Hebrews 1:1-3a
“God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the Word of His Power.” (Emphasis added.)
Matthew 11:25-30
“At that time Jesus said, ‘I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well pleasing in Your sight. All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.
“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you Rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find Rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Emphasis added.)
Ephesians 4:17-24
“So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the (radically independent idolatrous) Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. But you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
The creature can never contain or comprehend, or contribute to, the Creator. The created one can never exist or operate independently of and beyond the sphere of influence of the uncreated Maker of all things! God does not need nor does he receive anything from us; but we, on the other hand, must always receive everything from Him. God’s Word contains all of the Fullness of God within Himself. And so He also contains all of the fullness of what Creation is within Himself. So how can any of us, who are one tiny portion of God’s enormous, mind-boggling array of Creation, presume to contain the One who made us out of nothingness and sustains us all, flawlessly, in our moment-by-moment existence?
Psalm 139:7-18
“Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, even there Your hand will lead me, and Your right hand will lay hold of me. If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, and the light around me will be night,’ even the darkness is not dark to You, and the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to You. For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb.
“I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.
“How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still with You.”
The second commandment is like an unexpected bucket of ice-cold water suddenly poured over our demonically stimulated delusions. It shocks us into wakefulness, and pulls us out of the coma-like stupor into which the Serpent has kept us trapped since we were conceived and born into our mortal, highly damaged state of Sin. This commandment reveals something vitally important and essential about our interactive relationship with our Creator: We are not equipped to comprehend God. We are totally unable to understand or comprehend His Infinity. Therefore, He is not answerable or accountable to us! In order for that to be possible, we would have to be able to grasp all that He is and understand what is going on and what must be done, and why. But only God can know Himself! And we do not even come close to having His limitless range of ability and understanding, much less the authority to control or pass judgment upon Him or anything He may choose to do.
Always Relying on Him, and Him Alone
We must always rely on God’s revealed living Word, and the written Word that reveals and explains Him in human terms, in order to have a measure of faith and spiritual awareness and understanding. And we must realize that when He reveals the fact that, by nature, He is infinitely, eternally Perfect, then…we can always afford to confidently rest in total joy, peace and assurance that this Almighty Being who is Selfless Love, is perfectly capable and willing to care for and protect us and guide us into the perfect fulfillment of our true identity, nature and purpose in His Plan for His Creation, which only He is able to understand and which only He is able to bring to completion.
Isaiah 45:9-10
“Woe to the one who quarrels with his Maker—An earthenware vessel among the vessels of earth! Will the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you doing?’ Or the thing you are making say, ‘He has no hands’? Woe to him who says to a father, ‘What are you begetting?’ Or to a woman, ‘To what are you giving birth?’”
The second commandment reveals something that is very deep, something we must all take to heart. The religion of Humanism is the worship of ‘Man.’ This delusion is very common on Earth. But it is the worship of a false god. It makes the fallen, grossly limited and highly flawed human intellect and imagination of Man’s soul, to be the ultimate measure and defining mechanism of all things. And so ‘Man’ presumes to take the place of Almighty God. But the first and second commandments smash that false god, and every other idol mankind devises, to pieces. They tell us bluntly that:
Our idea of God…no matter how exalted and beautiful we may think it is…IS NOT GOD! No product of our fallen mind, will and imagination will ever even come close to equaling or comprehending the Magnitude and Reality of the living God that is our one and only Source for all that is real, true and good. And that is why He forbids humans from trying to make statues, icons or physical representations of Him. And that is also why He forbids us from idolizing and worshipping our created imaginations and intellectual systems that contain ideas about Him. But this is exactly the trap that all smug, arrogant, self-righteous man-devised, controlling false religions and atheistic philosophical presumptions and theories fall into. Our fallen flesh inherently hates the thought of having to live by faith and total trust in the credibility and integrity and trustworthiness of God’s living and written Word. It galls us to think that we must live purely by faith in His Transcendent Perfect Nature, and not at all by trusting in our own wits, opinions, perceptions, devices and feelings. But that’s exactly what the second commandment demands.
Any physical representation or religion or theological system that men may try to devise to express God’s Reality and Truth can’t even come close to accurately or adequately representing the Uncreated God. It will only represent us, and the puny products of our own Sin-damaged imaginations, sensations and opinions. We are not to idolize and worship any created, Sin-corrupted, limited product of any man’s devising. We must always remain aware that any idea about God, or anything else that any of us comes up with…is nothing more than a fallen creature’s product – a created thing that falls infinitely short of the true Reality of the living God who made us. So, like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, we must maintain a very humble and modest attitude and demeanor concerning our mental images and representations ABOUT GOD. We must not set ourselves up as judges over others. Nor are we to take God’s place in the lives of others. Our religious dogmas and theological propositions and pontifications that concern and try to describe Almighty God in any way, will never come close to comprehending His Living Reality! And if we don’t smash our own idols…God will!
Of course it’s true that we can’t help trying to know and understand and explore the world we live in. We have a deep hunger to try to gain understanding and to try to explain our existence and our experiences. That curiosity and hunger for wisdom are traits and drives that God Himself placed in us. But we are not to idolize those tendencies by exalting our ideas about Him, and assuming that they coincide with and actually equal His Reality. We are not to worship the products of our own intellects and imaginations! Those things are gifts and tools given to us by God. But they are never meant for us to idolize them or give them equality with Him, or use them to try to replace Him!
We must worship the true living God who can only be worshipped through the supernatural revelation and the gift of faith that the Spirit of God Himself is able to give to us. Even when it comes to our believing and responding to God in a proper way, we must depend on God Himself to give the proper response to us…to do it in and through us…by His Holy Spirit. God’s Spirit makes God’s living Word known to us as He really is. But anything short of that God-given Wisdom will be a cheap, man-made counterfeit.
Philippians 2:12-13
“So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”
God Alone is God
This is a very sensitive point for many of us who are tempted to take great pride and place exorbitant trust in our own religiosity and presumed mental brilliance. It is a temptation to assume that because we may have undergone exceptionally superior religious and academic training, we can therefore dare to claim exalted stature for ourselves and enter into positions of being acclaimed and revered as highly esteemed religious leaders, experts, teachers and authorities. This is an extremely sensitive, controversial and painful subject because it is also extremely dangerous. Such arrogance has generated enormous error, sinful arrogance and has unleashed tremendous amounts of destruction, bloodshed and devastation over the centuries…all in the Name of God! But the truth is, that those that have studied and pondered matters concerning these things…should know better. We must never fail to make this vital distinction: God alone is God, and no idea or imagination that is the product of any creature’s mind can even come close to comprehending or representing Him as he really IS! The more we truly know of the true God, the living God that revealed Himself to our spiritual forefathers…the more humbled and overwhelmed we should actually become!
Many do fall into the trap of believing and assuming that their ideas and teachings about God and His Reality and Truth are so perfect and comprehensive, that they actually begin to idolize and worship their ideas in God’s place! Wittingly or unwittingly, they presume that their understanding and ideas ABOUT God are a representation of His Reality and Truth that equals the true, Nature and Reality of the Living God who created all things! And that is why God must deal with each and every one of us that dares to try to cross over to His side of the infinite Chasm of Transcendence. We must never presume that our understanding is so infinitely great and accurate, that we have a right to cross over to His side. No beloved, regardless of how far we stretch and strain to try to grasp and understand the true God…sooner or later we reach our limit and will be able to go no further. Nothing we can do or think will ever enable us to ‘change sides’ and cross the infinite gap that separates us from God’s side of the Chasm of Transcendence. The Truth and Reality of the Infinite Living God will far surpass us. It will continue to move forward, piercing and penetrating ever onward, always further…into the boundless, infinite reaches of infinity and eternity that we will never be able to grasp or comprehend.
John 1:1-5
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was Life, and the Life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” (Emphasis added.)
So notice the responses Abraham, Isaac and Jacob gave to God’s Self-Revelation. Never in all their dealings with God and what He revealed of Himself to them, did they ever respond by creating a religion, or a theological system or clergy academies through which to presume to convey (in systematic ways that make sense to fallen human intellects) what God had revealed to them about Himself. They truly did know God…but always in very limited ways. So they realized that no one should look to or depend on them in order to come to know God. They knew that every other human would have to depend on God for this personal revelation, just as they always had to depend on Him. God must reveal Himself to the rest of us, personally and directly, just as He revealed Himself to them, because only He knows Himself!
Job 38:3-5
“Now gird up your loins like a man, And I will ask you, and you instruct Me! ‘Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding, who set its measurements? Since you know. Or who stretched the line on it?”
Psalm 49:20
“Man in his pomp, yet without understanding, Is like the beasts that perish.”
Psalm 111:10
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom; a good understanding have all those who do His commandments; His praise endures forever.” (Emphasis added.)
Matthew 16:13-17
“Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His disciples, ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’ And they said, ‘Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.’ He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you (neither yours, nor that of anyone else), but My Father who is in Heaven!’” (Emphasis added.)
John 15:6
“If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.”
When Abraham, Isaac and Jacob received visitations and revelations of Almighty God through His living Word and Holy Spirit, they were profoundly prostrated, humbled, and always totally dependent before Him. What He revealed to them of Himself was not something they could have deduced or imagined with their Sin-corrupted and damaged human faculties. God always had to lead them, and they were always in the position of having to follow His lead. And when we do dare to become independent and go off on our own, then bad, distasteful and potentially disastrous things will soon follow. And then we will have to depend on God to deliver us from them.
And consider Joseph…
Joseph knew that God was abiding with him and working through Him in astounding, world-impacting ways. Yet never did he presume to put himself forward as a foremost ‘expert’ or ‘oracle’ who dared try to explain or define the God who was obviously with him during his years in Egypt. These fathers of the Faith never developed arrogant inflated egos. They did not see themselves as ‘special elevated beings’ or ‘experts’ when it came to knowing God and His ways. They did not exploit the privileges they’d been given by trying to create a special status for their God-chosen positions; nor did they try to draw special attention to themselves and their households. They didn’t turn their personal experiences with God into a business enterprise, nor did they enshrine themselves in the world of academia by converting what they had been shown into a systematized, arcane discipline or ‘secret mystical treasure trove of inside knowledge’ to which they alone possessed the keys. Never did they try to control other people or run anyone else’s life or give the impression that only they could impart God’s Truth and Wisdom to others…for a price.
Instead, they continually directed all attention to God alone. They gave Him all of the credit and glory. And they left it to all other men to seek after God for themselves, so that He could reveal Himself to each and every one of us, just as He had done with them. They knew that we are all totally dependent on Him, just as they always were. And they knew that the way He chooses to reveal Himself to any of us through His Holy Spirit, is His business, not ours. God gives His Holy Spirit to those who believe, obey and trust upon His living and written Word. And the Spirit makes God’s Word ever more real, and alive, and actively fruitful within us and through us, as God alone chooses.
Acts 3:11-16
“While he (the paralytic that was just healed) was clinging to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them at the so-called portico of Solomon, full of amazement. But when Peter saw this, he replied to the people, ‘Men of Israel, why are you amazed at this, or why do you gaze at us, as if by our own power or piety we had made him walk? The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His servant Jesus, the one whom you delivered and disowned in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release Him. But you disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, but put to death the Prince of Life, the one whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses. And on the basis of faith in His Name, it is the Name of Jesus which has strengthened this man whom you see and know; and the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect health in the presence of you all!’” (Emphasis added.)
So, the second commandment reveals that true, authentic knowledge of God – the knowledge God requires and desires all of us to have, can never be derived from other creatures. It can never be ‘used goods’ or ‘second hand information’ or ‘leftovers’ from someone else’s feast of revelation. It must always be intimately, directly, electrifying, living, experiential, Spirit-given personal knowledge. It is not enough to read or learn or hear ABOUT God in abstract, theoretical terms, from other Sin-corrupted highly limited creatures that are just as needy and empty in themselves as we are! And we are not even to look to or rely upon our own personal intellectual devices! God wants us to know Him, personally and directly, with no created go-betweens getting in the way. That is why He sends His living Word and His Holy Spirit to abide in us and with us and among us. And that is why we must make our own personal choices and responses to the Living God and be personally accountable to Him.
Joshua 24:14-15
“Now, therefore, fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Emphasis added.)
And this is why it is not enough simply to go ‘to synagogue,’ or ‘to church’ in an attempt to learn ‘about’ God, and leave it at that. God intends for His True Israel to become ‘living stones’ that together, make up His own Living Temple in which He is free to abide and interact and give of Himself to each one of us. Human go-betweens are never enough. If we become dependent on created things to be our sources of knowledge concerning God, they will begin to take His place, in very subtle and perhaps unintentional, but nevertheless very real, idolatrous ways.
No Substitute for Intimacy and Communion with God Himself
Revelation 3:15-22
“‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth. Because you say, ‘I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,’ and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, I advise you to buy from Me (directly and personally) Gold refined by Fire so that you may become rich, and (rely on Me to provide you with) White Garments (of God-given Righteousness) so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and (let My Spirit serve as the) eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will (Personally feed and) dine with him, and he with Me. He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My Throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His Throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
Jeremiah 31:33-34
“‘But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,’ declares the Lord, ‘I will put My Law (Torah) within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,’ declares the Lord, ‘for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.’”
Remember what we’ve been saying about God’s Holy, Infinitely Perfect Nature and Standards of Righteousness. He will only accept what is in accord with His Nature’s Perfection. There is nothing we can do in ourselves, by ourselves and for ourselves that will pass such awesome standards! And that also holds true for the Eternal Truth and Reality and our knowledge and experience of Him. All must be Perfect. And so, only God can impart such Perfection to us. And this is what He has done, and continues to do, in and through His Perfect living Word who became flesh. He had to become one of us, in order to legally represent us and act in our name and in our place, in God’s Eternal Blood Covenant. And this is why our ‘Marching Orders’ that are listed elsewhere on this website are so important. The Eternal Covenant makes Yeshua’s Humanity and our redeemed, Blood-washed humanity one (echad). And God’s living Word makes us one (echad) with the Father and His Holy Spirit. And so only in the Word and by the Word, can all that pertains to us be transformed into something that is Perfect, and totally pleasing and acceptable to Almighty God. God Himself must become our Perfection!
Hebrews 3:1-11
“Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession; He was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was in all His house. For He has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, by just so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house. For every house is built by someone; but the builder of all things is God. Now Moses was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later; but Christ (God’s living Word made flesh) was faithful as a Son over His house—whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end!
“Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, ‘Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me, as in the day of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tried Me by testing Me, and saw My works for forty years. Therefore I was angry with this generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, and they did not know My ways’; as I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
When the Bride that Almighty God has in mind for His beloved Son, the Lamb, agrees to ‘Marry’ Him…that is, become one with Him, in Spirit and in Truth…there will be no mistrust left in her. She will trust Him completely, with no reservations whatever. It will be a fulfillment of the trust Abraham, Isaac and Jacob came to have in Him. Then, the Bride will no longer hold anything from Him, reserving it for herself. Everything will belong to Him. She will no longer be bashful or shy or keep any part of herself from His gaze or touch. She will finally be ready to give herself completely and become utterly one with God’s Word…absolutely and completely His. And God will be able to do with His beautiful, perfect creation, as He pleases.
And when they finally come together to consummate their Eternal Union and abide as one forever, there will certainly be no created ‘go-betweens’ to stand between the Lamb and His Bride, not even her own former pet ideas and imaginations. There will be no need for such things. He will remove all of that from her…so that she will finally be able to become Echad with Him, as He really IS. And that moment is what Almighty God has been waiting for…in Eternity…since before He created the universe, and those of us who abide in it!
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined, according to His purpose; who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory. In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.
Ephesians 1:3-23
“For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as Head over all things to the Church, (His living Covenant Family members) which is His Body, the Fullness of Him who fills all in all.” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
He is Worthy of Our Praise!
Glory to God, for His Lovingkindness is everlasting! How Perfect are His ways! How deep and great and pure and eternal is His Love for His Word…and for the beloved image and likeness of His Word!
John 17:22-26
“The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.
“O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me; and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”
Deuteronomy 6:4-9
“Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart (not just on your walls or in your books or within your imaginations and intellects). You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” (Amplification and emphasis added.)