Basic HTML Version
We Shall Not Serve Any Graven Images, February 20
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.
Exodus 20:4, 5
.
Our Creator demands our supreme devotion, our first allegiance. Any-
thing which tends to abate our love for God, or to interfere with the service
due Him, becomes thereby an idol. With some their lands, their houses,
their merchandise, are the idols. Business enterprises are prosecuted with
zeal and energy, while the service of God is made a secondary considera-
tion. Family worship is neglected, secret prayer forgotten. Many claim
to deal justly with their fellow-men, and seem to feel that in so doing
they discharge their whole duty. But it is not enough to keep the last six
commandments of the Decalogue. We are to love the Lord our God with
all the heart. Nothing short of obedience to every precept ... can satisfy
the claims of the divine law.
There are many whose hearts have been so hardened by prosperity
that they forget God, and forget the wants of their fellow-men. Professed
Christians adorn themselves with jewelry, laces, costly apparel, while the
Lord’s poor suffer for the necessaries of life. Men and women who claim
redemption through a Saviour’s blood will squander the means intrusted
to them for the saving of other souls, and then grudging dole out their
offerings for religion, giving liberally only when it will bring honor to
themselves. These are idolaters
Anything that diverts the mind from God assumes the form of an idol,
and that is why there is so little power in the church today
The second commandment forbids the worship of the true God by
images or similitudes.... The mind, turned away from the infinite perfection
of Jehovah, would be attracted to the creature rather than to the Creator
God is a searcher of the heart. He distinguishes between true heart-
service and idolatry
[58]
51
The Signs of the Times, January 26, 1882
.
52
Ellen G. White
Manuscript 2, 1893
.
53
Patriarchs and Prophets, 306
.
54
Ellen G. White
Manuscript 126, 1901
.
57