In the 1st of the Ten Commandments, God says “have no other gods before Me” (Ex. 20:3). We are not to have, serve, or worship any god other than the true God. In the 2nd commandment, we learn that we are not to “make any carved image” nor “bow down to them” in worship (Ex. 20:4-5). So, commandment #1 is “Don’t worship other gods”. Commandment #2 is “Don’t worship carved images (idols)”. It seems on the surface as though God is repeating Himself.

   In taking a closer look, however, we see that God was not stuttering or stammering when He gave the Ten Commandments. The 1st and 2nd commandments are different. The 1st commandment has to do with who we worship, and the 2nd deals with how we worship.

    A good illustration of the difference between the 1st and 2nd commandments can be found in the account of Israel and the infamous golden calf incident. In Exodus 32, we find the children of Israel growing restless. Moses has been on the mountain, conversing with God for 40 days, and the Israelites decide it’s time for a new leader. They ask Aaron to make for them a god (or gods) to go before them (v. 1). Aaron obliges, and makes for them an idol, a golden calf (v. 4). Israel was breaking the 2nd commandment, but believe it or not, they were not breaking the 1st commandment.

   When the golden calf was finished, the Israelites exclaimed that the calf was the god that brought them out of Egypt (v. 4). The Israelites may have been a stiff-necked people (v. 9), but they were not so dumb as to think that the recently-made calf was the one to bring them out of Egypt. God had brought Israel out of Egypt over three months prior to that, and Israel knew that the calf didn’t even exist at the time they left Egypt. This calf could not have brought them out of Egypt, and they knew it. For them, this calf was a representation of the true God who had led them out of Egypt.

   The fact that Israel was worshiping the right God is confirmed in verses 5-6 as well. Their “feast” was done “to the LORD”. Whenever you see the word “LORD” in all capital letters, that means that it is translated from the Hebrew word “Yahweh” (or Jehovah). The word “Elohim” (God), can refer to any god, the true God or a false one. But Yahweh is God’s personal name, it is only used to refer to the God of the Bible.

   So Israel was worshiping Yahweh, the one who brought them out of Egypt. They were worshiping the right God, but they were worshiping Him in the wrong way. They were worshiping Him through the use of an idol. This was a clear violation of the 2nd commandment.

    I am certainly not the first to come to the conclusion that the 1st command deals with who we worship, and the 2nd command deals with how we worship. The great Matthew Henry (1662-1714) has this to say in his famous commentary (commenting on Ex. 20):

     “The first commandment concerns the object of our worship, Jehovah, and him only.”

     “The second commandment concerns the ordinances of worship, or the way in which God will be worshiped…”

 

    Years later, Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-1892) wrote a catechism in which he discusses the Ten Commandments (a catechism is a small book used to teach theology to children or new believers in a question and answer format).

       Question #43 asks: “What is required in the first commandment?”

      Answer: “The first commandment requires us to know and acknowledge God to be the only true God, and our God, and to worship and glorify Him accordingly.”

        Question #45 asks: “What is required in the second commandment?”

      Answer: “The second commandment requires the receiving, observing, and keeping pure and entire all such religious worship and ordinances as God has appointed in His word.”

        Question #46 asks: “What is forbidden in the second commandment?”

       Answer: “The second commandment forbids the worshipping of God by images, or any  other way not appointed in His word.”

 

 The modern Christian would certainly affirm that we may only worship the God of the Bible. Unfortunately, we are not always as careful to worship God only in the way He has told us to. In ancient Israel, the issue was the use of carved images, like the ones that were being used by the unbelieving nations around them. In our day, we may not be carving images, but often times the modern church looks to the unbelieving world for ideas of what to do in our worship services. This is a violation of the 2nd commandment. We may only worship God as He has told us to in His word.