Ten Commandments (1972)_b.pdf - Herbert W. Armstrong

The Second Commandment 35
shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven" (Matt.
5:19). Throughout the entire message called the Sermon
on the Mount, Jesus was explaining and expounding and
magnifying the Ten Commandments. He was showing
that this spiritual Law was a LIVING Law - like the law of
gravity or inertia: When you break it - it breaks you!
We have seen, therefore, that when men or nations
break the first commandment - "Thou shalt have no
other gods before me" - they automatically bring an
inevitable PENALTY of suffering and wretchedness upon
themselves and their posterity. Men cut themselves off
from the source of their being, from the purpose of life,
from the laws that would give them happiness, peace and
joy. Men cut off from the true God are empty, frustrated
and miserable. And whether by the awfulness of war,
personal violence, sickness or simply the rotting of corruptible
human flesh, the ultimate fate of all men cut off
from God is an ignominious DEATH - with no hope or
promise of eternal life thereafter (Rom. 6:23; Rev. 21:8).
Man is incomplete, then, having cut himself off from
the true worship of the true God. Yet he is to worship that
GOD alone - "Thou shalt have no othergods before me."
The Second Commandment Stated
The second commandment tells us about HOW to
worship the true God, what pitfalls to avoid in our worship,
and of the continuing blessing or penalty that comes
to our progeny as a result of the WAY in which we worship
Almighty God.
"THOU SHALT NOT MAKE UNTO THEE ANY GRAVEN
IMAGE, OR ANY LIKENESS OF ANY THING THAT IS IN
HEAVEN ABOVE, OR· THAT IS IN THE EARTH BENEATH, OR
THAT IS IN THE WATER UNDER THE EARTH: THOU SHALT
NOT BOW DOWN THYSELF TO THEM NOR SERVE THEM: For I
the LORD [Etema[J thy God am a jealous God, visiting the
iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third
and fourth generation of them that hate me; and showing
mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my
commandments" (Exodus 20:4-6).