Is there any significant difference between "having no other God before me" and "not make for yourself an idol"? It seems to me that any idol I set up and worship is the equivalent of "having another god."

Would you say that these two laws are basically refering to the same thing, the one a more practical application, or am I overlooking something here?

Hi
Have a look at Arhur Pink's insight on your question -
http://www.pbministries.org/books/pink/Commandments/command_02.htm

Here is a portion from it -

Though this second Commandment is closely related to the first, yet there is a clear distinction between them, which may be expressed in a variety of ways. As the first Commandment concerns the choice of the true God as our God, so the second tells of our actual profession of His worship; as the former fixes the Object so this fixes the mode of religious worship. As in the first commandment Jehovah had proclaimed Himself to be the true God, so here He reveals His nature and how He is to be honored.

"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image thou shalt not bow down thyself to them." This commandment strikes against a desire, or should we say a disease, which is deeply rooted in the human heart, namely, to bring in some aids to the worship of God, beyond those which He has appointed—material aids, things which can be perceived by the senses. Nor is the reason for this difficult to find: God is incorporeal, invisible, and can be realized only by a spiritual principle, and since that principle is dead in fallen man, he naturally seeks that which accords with his carnality. But how different is it with those who have been quickened by the Holy Spirit. No one who truly knows God as a living reality needs any images to aid his devotions; none who enjoys daily communion with Christ requires any pictures of Him to help him to pray and adore, for he conceives of Him by faith and not by fancy.

Hope this helps.

Blessings

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J Kruger

"This commandment strikes against a desire, or should we say a disease, which is deeply rooted in the human heart, namely, to bring in some aids to the worship of God, beyond those which He has appointed—material aids, things which can be perceived by the senses."

The desire to visualize the physical appearance of the LORD Jesus is strong within the human heart. To accommodate this desire, skilled artists have painted pics that many would assume could look like Jesus, or at the least represent him.

We had a brother, Sam, now deceased, in our church who saw Jesus - he was given a vision and saw Him. After this episode, he had his wife destroy all pictures in the house 'of Jesus'. He said Jesus does not look any think at all like those pictures they had.

Back to the OP, have you ever noticed that failure to obey the first commandment will result in spiritual failures all around? One cannot observe the first and then pick and choose the rest of the nine and still be faithful to the first.

Yes, the ten commandments are a summary of what God expects of his creation...these concepts were in force from the creation, they were not new ideas when God gave them to Moses on Mt. Sinai.

Blessings.

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Sandra Miller

The Catholic Church deleted the 2nd commandment and split the 10th commandment into two commandments to make up for the deletion of the 2nd commandment.

Now, why would the Catholic Church take exception to this?

Exodus 20:4-6 You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my Commandments.

Sarah

Thank You for this answer, Jochbaptist, those are very helpful quotes and Ginny, too, good points.

Sarah, I definitely think the Catholic Church breaks that second commandment big time but in the Catholic Bible I couldn't find that commandment missing or the tenth one split up (we have one from my mother in law). Do you mean to say in practice that's what they do?