How Am I to Worship God?


Q. What is the second law of the LORD?  

You shall not make for yourself a graven 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; 
  •  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 upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me, 
  • but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love Me and keep My commandments.

Reading the first and the second commandments, you might ask what difference exists between them, for they appear to deal with the same thing. 

  • The first commandment reads, “You shall have no other gods before Me.” 
  • The second reads, “You shall not make a graven image of any likeness...” 
Even though they appear to be the same, they deal with two different subjects. 

  • The first commandment deals with the matter of having something or someone besides God in which or whom to place our trust. 
  • The second commandment deals with the way we worship the only true God whom we trust. 
We could put it this way:
  • 1st commandment: whom we worship 
  • 2nd commandment: how we worship Him

Q. What does God require in the second commandment? 

  • We are not to make an image of God in any way,
  • nor to worship Him in any other manner than He has commanded in His Word.

Deuteronomy 4:15-19 

  • Take careful heed to yourselves, for you saw no form when the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire,
  • lest you act corruptly and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of any figure: the likeness of male or female, 
  • the likeness of any animal that is on the earth or the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, 
  • the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground or the
  • likeness of any fish that is in the water beneath the earth.  And take heed, lest you lift your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, you feel driven to worship them and serve them, which the LORD your God has given to all the peoples under the whole heaven as a heritage. 
Isaiah 40:18-25 

  • To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare to Him? 
  • The workman molds an image, the goldsmith overspreads it with gold, and the silversmith casts silver chains. Whoever is too impoverished for such a contribution chooses a tree that will not rot; he seeks for himself a skillful workman to prepare a carved image that will not totter. 
  • Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? 
  • It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. 
  • He brings the princes to nothing; He makes the judges of the earth useless. 
  • Scarcely shall they be planted, scarcely shall they be sown, scarcely shall their stock take root in the earth, when He will also blow on them, and they will wither, and the whirlwind will take them away like stubble. 
  • To whom then will you liken Me, Or to whom shall I be equal? says the Holy One. 
Acts 17:29 

  • Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. 
Romans 1:23 

  • and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man; and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. 
Leviticus 10:1-7 

  • Then Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it, put incense on it, and offered profane fire before the LORD, which He had not commanded them. 
  • So fire went out from the LORD and devoured them, and they died before the LORD. 
  • And Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the LORD spoke, saying: ‘By those who come near Me I must be regarded as holy; And before all the people I must be glorified.’ “So Aaron held his peace. 
  • And Moses called Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Uzziel the uncle of Aaron, and said to them, “Come near, carry your brethren from before the sanctuary out of the camp.” 
  • So they went near and carried them by their tunics out of the camp, as Moses had said. 
  • And Moses said to Aaron, and to Eleazar and Ithamar, his sons, “Do not uncover your heads nor tear your clothes, lest you die, and wrath come upon all the people. But let your brethren, the whole house of Israel, bewail the burning which the LORD has kindled. 
  • “You shall not go out from the door of the tabernacle of meeting, lest you die, for the anointing oil of the LORD is upon you.” And they did according to the word of Moses.
Deuteronomy 12:30 

  • take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, “How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.” 
1 Samuel 15:22-23 

  • Then Samuel said: “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams. 
  • For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He also has rejected you from being king.”
Matthew 15:9 

  • And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’” 
John 4:23-24 

  • But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. 
  • God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.
The Heidelberg Catechism Lord's Day 35

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