The Ten Commandments

"Many ministers have written sermons on the fifty-two Lord's Days as we find them in our Heidelberg Catechism. One of these ministers and servants of the Most High, is the late Rev. G. Van Reenen, of the Netherlands. When he was not able to preach any more because of a throat ailment, God inclined his heart to write sermons, and work while it was day. This work he continued until the day of his death in the year 1946. Rev. Van Reenen has written these sermons for the common people. In all these sermons he breathes the spirit of humility and self-denial. Throughout all these sermons he indicates the necessity of knowing by experience these three important parts, misery, redemption, and gratitude, as he himself was not a stranger thereof. Rev. Van Reenen does not know that his Catechism sermons and others have been translated into the English language. He confessed in his life not to be worthy of any honor or praise; that we may then by grace give all honor and praise to Israel's God and King, saying with the Psalmist, "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory, for Thy mercy and for Thy truth's sake." Psalm 115:1. (Pastor J. Van Zweden).

Reprinted and Translated from the Holland by the Netherlands Reformed congregations in America (1955). This series on the Ten Commandments was taken from the W. B. Eerdmans' December, 1979 edition of the book, The Heidelberg Catechism, by Rev. G. Van Reenen.

What a dreadful judgment! One moment they are healthy and the next moment they fall down dead as if struck by lightning! Such an event can overcome the dearest child of God. Sometimes the Lord takes His child home with an Elijah's wagon as it is called. Then it is no judgment, but rather a great favor, a goodness of the Lord, by which He would spare that child the death struggle.

But for Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, it was indeed a judgment. They were stricken and consumed by the fire of God's wrath. And why? What gruesome sin had they committed? Had they forsaken the God of heaven and served other gods? Oh no! They had each taken their censors and gone into the tabernacle to offer incense. They took incense prepared according to the instructions of the Lord and laid that in their censors. They did that all in the right way. But they took strange fire, that is fire that was not taken from the holy fire of the Tabernacle. That aroused God's wrath and they had to pay for their sin with their lives.

Our heart is troubled when we consider how many in our days do as Nadab and Abihu, Oh no, they are no great sinners, no atheists, no idolators; they serve the Lord, the true God, they approach unto Him, they pray to Him and thank Him, they draw near to Him, but with strange fire. They draw near to Him with the fire of their self-loving, selfish, prayers, with their carnal tears, with the strange fire of a self-willed religion. With such the churches are filled.

And how sad will their end be. Oh, sinner, God can only be approached in the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ. God wants to be served, but only in that way which He himself prescribes in His Word. He wants to be served, but in spirit and truth, not in a material and sensual way. Thus the Lord Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, "The hour cometh, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth." Our corrupt understanding thinks otherwise. It wants to serve God, but in a visible and sensual manner. But how good the Lord is! It has pleased Him to erect a dam against such worshiping, which is an affront upon His Majesty. He did so in the second commandment that now requires our attention.

You will find our text in Exod. 20:4-6 "Thou shalt not make unto thee any 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. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord 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."

Upon these words is based the subject of our Catechetical instructions as you will find recorded in the Heidelberg Catechism:

XXXV. LORD'S DAY.

A. No: for we must not pretend to be wiser than God, who will have his people taught, not by dumb images, but by the lively preaching of his word.

Dear Hearers! Again we return in thought to Mount Horeb, the same place where we tarried last week.

Then we witnessed how the Lord our Lawgiver, amidst fearful signs of His Majesty descended to proclaim the constitution of His house.

We have considered the impressive introduction, which says, "I am the Lord, thy God which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt out of the house of bondage." We called this introduction impressive because of the illustrious person speaking, Namely, Israel's Jehovah, the Lord our God. In the second place we called it impressive because of the relationship of God to His people of which it attests "I am thy God." That majestic Lawgiver is our God. Can you think of anything more precious? Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, and the people whom He hath chosen for His own inheritance." But we also called the introduction impressive because of the deliverance it calls to mind. For the Lord reminds His people that He has brought them out of the house of bondage. What a heavy yoke did the Lord break for His people.

By what a way of miracles did He lead them. And into what a glorious rest did He bring them.

Certainly, literally this applied to God's covenant people of old, but in a spiritual sense, in a more glorious and exalted sense, this applies to all God's people, the spiritual Israel.

Then we heard concerning the first commandment: what it demands, what it forbids, and whither it drives us.

Now we request your attention as we wish to present in accordance with the Thirty-fifth Lord's Day the second commandment.

1. The priceless contents,
2. The powerful argument, and
3. The excellent defence now require our attention.

The Lord grant us His Spirit both in speaking and hearing for His own sake.

Let us then first consider the priceless contents of the second commandment, and that in accordance with Question and Answer 96.

What doth God require in the second commandment? It was not without great cause, my hearers, that in the midst of His awful majesty God spoke on Mount Sinai, "Thou shalt not make unto thyself any graven image, nor the likeness of any thing."

Of what priceless content this word is becomes evident when we consider the tendency of our deeply fallen nature. That tendency is to serve and glorify the Lord in a carnal, visible and sensual manner.

Take, for example, the heathens. The apostle Paul says (Rom. 1:19) "Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God hath showed it unto them." "But they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things."

And now you must not think that all the heathens thought those images were God Himself. Some simple ones did, but there were others among the heathens who knew God is spiritual, and who testified "In Him we live, and move and have our being. (Acts 17 :28). And still their darkened heart was led to make images of the Lord in various forms. Hence that was doing what God forbids. Someone may say, "Yes, but those were heathens, of them you can expect nothing else."

Then give your attention to the people of Israel. What did they do at Horeb, a few days after the Lord had proclaimed His law? They made a golden calf and cried the one to the other, "Lo, this is your God, who has brought you up out of Egypt." Do not suppose that they thought that calf had actually delivered them. Oh, no, but they made an image, a graven image of God, of Him who had delivered them. And now we surely need not look further into the history of Israel to convince you of the fact that they were hardened image worshipers; at least until the Babylonian exile. Some one may say, "Yes, but those were the Jews."

But do you not also find that worshiping of images in the Roman Catholic Church? Not all at once, but gradually image worship crept into the church. First they had the images of the martyrs, then of mother Mary, then the image of the cross and of the crucified Christ, of the Holy Spirit, and of the Father, and all this they say to glorify and serve God.

At a Synod in 842 that abominable image worship was legalized. Is this the proof of the tendency of fallen man to serve God in a sensual and visible manner?

"Yes, you say, "but those were heretics."

But what do Protestants do? Is there no image-worship among them? Happily you do not find among us the idolatory of the papacy, but there is also a more refined image worship.

What carnal conceptions do we often have of God. What self-willed service do we offer that dear Being, Who would be served only in Spirit and truth. And all self-willed religion is nothing but image-worship. One person imagines a God Who is only love, Who threatens, but does not punish, Who is too good to strike. Another thinks of God as being solely stern justice, Who cannot be approached.

Alas! even with God's people do we find image worship. How much image-worship there is in our home, our heart, and our prayer. What hard thoughts we have of God, what disobedience, etc. And that is all image-worship. Hear what Samuel says: "Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry." (1 Sam. 15:22, 23.)

Oh people of God, by nature our heart is a breeding place of idolatry. They who learn to know their heart are not surprised at the foolishness of Israel. Alas, our heart is as a temple of images.

Do you know how it became so? It is because of our fall. Our deep fall was the first transgression of the second commandment.

Hence we also called the contents of the second commandment priceless, because of the bulwark God erects in it.

My hearers, God will not be served thus. He will not be served by pictures and images. He will not be glorified in a carnal manner. The Lord has a loathing, an abhorrence of all self-willed religion. He alone can say how he shall be served.

God cannot be served by such sensuous images or conceptions. That God Who fills heaven and earth, Who is All-sufficient and Omnipresent, can not be portrayed by anything material or visible. "To whom then will ye liken Me, or shall I be equal?" saith the Holy One in Isaiah 40:25. Yea, to whom then will ye liken God or what likeness will ye compare unto Him? For no one hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father He hath declared Him (John 1 :18). To try to make an image of God and to serve Him in a sensuous and visible manner is an insult to the Highest Majesty. It does not enhance, but rather obscures His glory.

How will God be served? Go in the thought to the temple at Jerusalem. There you see, according to Jesus' parable, (Luke 18 :10) two men going up to pray. The one is a self-righteous, conceited Pharisee and the other a publican. He stands afar off. He dares not even lift up so much as his eyes to heaven, but, smiting upon his breast, he prays, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner." Lo, thus God wants to be served, as the publican did. He then went down to his house justified.

How would God be served? As that woman of which we read '(Luke 7) who standing at Jesus' feet wept, washing His feet with tears and drying them with the hair of her head. My dear hearers, have you ever wept over your guilt and sin at Jesus' feet? That is the religion which Jesus commends.

Do you still ask how the Lord would be served? Go then upon the way to Jericho. There you see two blind men sitting by the wayside. They heard that Jesus was passing by. Then they begin to cry out, "Have mercy on us, 0 Lord, thou son of David." The multitude rebuked them, that they should hold their peace. But they cried the more and the more earnestly, "Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou son of David." They cried thus until Jesus stood still and asked, "What will ye that I shall do unto you? Then they had but to tell of their need and the Lord gave them their desire. Lo, that is true religion.

Do you still ask how you must serve God? Do it as the spouse did in the Song of Solomon when she cried out as she embraced Jesus in faith, "My Beloved is mine, and I am His."

Once more, do as the psalmist did in Psalm 116 when he was overwhelmed with God's benefits, saying, "What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits toward me? I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord."

Do you still ask how God would be served? Do as Paul did when, running the race of sanctification, he cried out, "I follow after, if that I may apprehend it." Serve God as Jacob did when upon his deathbed he spoke, "I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord."

Thus the Lord teaches His people, by faith. To that end He regenerates them through the Holy Spirit. Then instead of carnal they become spiritual. He reveals to them God's holiness and glory, then they see that He cannot be served in a material way. Then they learn to abhor the sensuous religion of themselves and others. That Spirit teaches them how God would be served and glorified, and teaches them how they must walk.

On this side of the grave it will be full of defects, but one day they shall serve God perfectly.

Then He shall be served as the second commandment prescribes, and that not only by the angels, but also by just men made perfect. Released from all carnal thoughts and sensual religion, they shall serve Him in Spirit and in truth. Ah, child, then we shall never make or set up graven images, nor bow down to them.

But let us in the second place notice the powerful argument.

To safeguard men, and especially His people from sensuous religion, the Lord added to this commandment a powerful argument derived from His Holy nature.

"I am the Lord, Jehovah, the high exalted One. "My glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images." I am thy God. I have created and recreated thee. I have delivered and entered into a covenant with thee. I am thine and thou art mine. Thou hast freely chosen Me to be thy God and Lord. Then do not become an apostate by serving Me by a manner I do not wish.

I am a jealous God. People of the Lord, remember the moment when you made the choice of Ruth, when you gave heart and hand to the Lord, when you entered into a covenant with Him, when you subscribed with your hand unto the Lord.

Thus thy Maker is thine Husband, the Lord of hosts is His Name. And now He does not want you to go a whoring from Him with wood and stone, with gold and silver. He does not want you to seek to please Him with graven images or likenesses. He wants your heart, your spirit, your soul and your mind.

That powerful argument is also derived from His stern righteousness. Attempting to make something like Him, or serving Him in a sensual manner, the Lord calls a hating of Him. And those who hate Him He will punish, and that to the third and fourth generation. And the Lord has abundantly shown that this is no empty threat. Take for example,

Korah, Dathan and Abiram, who sank alive into the pit, with all their possessions. And how terribly did the Lord punish Ahab for his image worship by destroying his entire posterity. And was not idolatry and image worship the reason why the Lord sent the people of Israel to Babylon? And do we not see even today that the Lord visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the fourth generation of them that hate Him?

This caused the enemies among Israel who misinterpreted this truth to exclaim, "The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge." But the Lord says, "The soul that sinneth, it shall die."

We must remember there are different kinds of sins: there are personal sins, family sins, church sins, national sins and there is a sin of the whole world, that is the sin committed by Adam and imputed to all people. Thus God visits the sins of a country and a nation to the entire nation.

But if the children break away from the sins of their parents, the Lord spares them. Thus the children of the wicked Korah, who would have no fellowship with the sins of their father, but had separated themselves from him, were not sent alive into hell with their father, but were appointed as singers in the Temple, and that of the sweetest and tenderest psalms, such as Psalms 42, 44, 49, 84, and 85 which were all for the sons of Korah. Thus the Lord also dealt with the son of the wicked Jeroboam, in whom was found some good thing toward the Lord God of Israel, and the Lord took him into His glorious heaven. Again, that powerful argument to safeguard men and especially His people from image-worship is derived from His rich mercy. His mercy extends to thousand generations. But: For them that love Him -Who are they? They are those who are regenerated in whose heart love is shed abroad. They are those who can say with John, "We love him, because he first loved us."

They are those who keep His commandments, who consecrate themselves to the Lord, who as Abraham do not withhold their only son from Him.

To such then He shows His rich mercy. The Lord Jesus says: (John 14:21) He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him." Such, then, are blessed of the Lord, to them He shows His mercy for many generations.

How richly was Abraham's family blessed! And there still are richly blest families to whom God shows His rich mercy for their father's sake.

Let us in the third place observe the excellent defense. "Are images then not at all to be made?" so ask the papists and also Luther. Question 97.

The Roman Catholic and the Lutheran churches persistently transgress this commandment of the Lord.

A severe struggle was waged in the Christian Church, especially in the East concerning the honoring of images. At first image worship was condemned. At the Council of Constantinople in the year 754, the image worship was condemned because it robs God of His honor, for He alone is worthy to receive the honor of being worshiped. Still the church of Rome insisted on having its way. The Council of Trent, held in 1545 to 1563, has confirmed the having and worshiping of images. Their purpose is to glorify God and to attract people, because those images are as books for the laity, (We prefer calling them members.) The Romanists say they differentiate between honoring and worshiping; but the ignorant crowd does not differentiate; in practice they certainly do worship the images.

The Instructor gives an excellent answer. "God neither can nor may be represented by any means," says the Instructor very truly.

As we have already said, God cannot be represented. God is a Spirit, no man has ever seen Him. Also at Mount Sinai Israel saw no similitude and in neither the tabernacle nor the temple was any image of God to be found. The Infinite God cannot be represented. What the Roman Catholic church makes of it is a caricature, an insult to God. Neither may it be done. God will not permit insignificant mortals to make an image of Him.

But nor is it necessary. God has revealed Himself in the Son of His love. My dear hearers, our precious Lord Jesus is the image of the invisible God. He is the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person. He that hath seen Him hath seen the Father. God grant that we often, yea, always look upon Him as He lay in Bethlehem's manger as He crept in Gethsemane, as He stood before Pontius Pilate, as He hung on Golgotha's cross, as He arose in Joseph's garden, as He ascended from the mount of Olives, as He sits at His Father's right hand.

He who has seen Him, thus with an eye of faith for his own soul, that privileged one has seen God so precious and so glorious that a whole gallery of Papist images are unnecessary, yea, loathsome to him.

Are images then not at all to be made? All creatures may be represented, because they are finite. Thus many likenesses were found in the tabernacle and temple even on the mercy-seat. Were not the likenesses of two cherubim placed on it? But those likenesses may not be honored, much less may we serve God by them.

No, the Lord is not opposed to art and science. Could we but say that art and science are not opposed to God! But so very often they are. As a result of sin art and science are at the service of Satan, of the world and of sin. See the products of literature, sculpture, painting and drawing! What filthy, lying, vulgar books, paintings and images there are. They are loathsome. It is no wonder that the arts and sciences are discredited by God's people, with what is truly good and beautiful there is so much that is filthy and destructive.

But Rome does not yet yield. Hear Question 98: "But may not images be tolerated in the churches, as books to the laity?"

The papacy holds that the people, — called the laity in distinction to the clergy-need, in addition to the preaching, visual instruction by means of images. Therefore they call those images "books to the laity."

The Instructor again gives an excellent answer: "We must not pretend to be wiser than God."

And that is precisely what man wants. He has fallen so low, he is so stupid and foolish, that he wants to be wiser than God. Man wants to tell God what to do and what not to do and how to do it.

Nevertheless, not the church, but God Himself chooses the means to be used for bringing up the people that He has sovereignly chosen, and that He wishes to save, to the true knowledge of God which is indispensable to their salvation.

While in Old Testament times it pleased Him to instruct His people by means of sacrifices and shadows, according to His wisdom and sovereignty He gave the church of the new covenant other means to teach them to salvation. Certainly, the Lord could have used images, but it pleased Him to use only a crucified Christ, in Whom by faith He gives them to see everything they need to meet in peace Him against Whom they have sinned.

No, indeed, not by dumb images will He teach His people. They are lying teachers. Look at the images in the churches and homes of the Roman Catholic people, do they teach you saving knowledge of self, of Christ and of God? If you speak to those people who always are kneeling before those images, you will find not one-tenth of the knowledge of the truth that you will find with an only mediocre catechumen.

"I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst of water, but of hearing the words of the Lord."

Dear hearers! God gave us His Word, that dear Bible, that precious book of comfort. That is our book of instruction. That glorious book we have received from our God. And is not this clear evidence of the foolishness and enmity of Rome? Those poor people, who also have a soul for eternity, may, yea must stare at those dead images, but may not read in the Bible, the book that could make them wise unto salvation, You see, then they would become too wise.

For in that dear word of God, that is written by the Holy Ghost with His own hand, as it were, that is a living and everlasting word, He has revealed to us all that is necessary for us to know for our salvation and our peace with God.

In that Word the Lord has clearly recorded the life history of us all. As a memorandum of our baseness and wickedness the Lord has recorded therein the entire history of our forsaking of God in our heart and our life.

But in that same Word He also unfolds to us the blessed secret, namely, how the Lord Who cannot let any sin go unpunished, can, and will become the God of a guilty sinner.

Yea, that same Word in which almost every page declares, "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God," also teaches us to testify with humility of heart, "But there is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou hast be feared."

Nay, people of God, the Lord did not give you dumb images, but He wrote for us a living Word, a Word, in which He disclosed. to us the council of peace, the covenant of redemption, a Word in which He disclosed the blessed secret of His Father heart.

The Lord instructs us by His Word, a Word that gives us counsel when we are in despair, comfort when we are comfortless; a Word that is a light for our path and a lamp for our feet when we walk in darkness; a Word in which He calls to sinners, "Come now and let us reason together; though your sins be as scarlet, though they be red like crimson, I will make them white as snow, and pure as wool. In that Word the Lord instructs us; from what principle, according to what rule, and to what purpose we must know and serve God.

And He gives Interpreters with it! He sends and qualifies people to explain that Word. Here also we see the goodness of Him Who has no need of us, but Whom we need so much.

And even this would not be sufficient, but the dear Lord adds His power to the Word. See, for example the first great Christian Pentecost. Three thousand people from all tongues and nations, bow before God and cry out, "What must we do to be saved?" This was the fruit of the simple preaching of Peter, but made effectual by the Holy Spirit. So it was also with Lydia, whose heart was. opened at the preaching of Paul, and also with the jailer.

But what further need have we of witnesses? You yourself, child of God, and we, are living witnesses to the truth of the answer of the Instructor: "God will have His people taught, not by dumb images, but by the lively preaching of His Word.

Come, let us sing Psalter No.260 st. 3, 4, 5.

Oh, how happy our forefathers were when God Almighty intervened to deliver His church from image worship.

They say it was not right of our forefathers, and perhaps that is so, I am not certain about it, but I can understand very well, that when the Romish fetters fell from their hands, that their free hands took the mallet to crush the images by which they had so long angered and provoked God.

It is surprising that the images were crushed every time God gave a reformation. What did Moses do with the golden calf? What did Gideon do with the altar of Baal? What did Hezekiah do with the brazen serpent?

And it is still thus. I have read that the Spirit of God is converting people in Russia. And the first of all they take the images and relics out of the churches and, sometimes walking in procession, cast them into the river.

And what should our fathers have done with those images? Surely, they could not let them remain in God's house of prayer. Where then should they have kept them? Frankly, I think those iconoclasts (image brakers) did a good deed. Of course, there were also bad elements among them, for, alas, there is always chaff among the wheat.

And what did the papacy do? It crushed no images, but living people, by the thousands, and that solely because they wanted to serve God according to the second commandment and according to their conscience.

"Not by dumb images, but by the lively preaching of His Word." Yea, to hear the preaching of that Word our fathers went through fire and water, for that they gave their money and possessions, for that they jeoparded their lives.

There are still people, also in our country, who travel miles to heard the lively preaching of the Word of God, to whom that is worth everything. Wherever God's servants preach the Word of God in simplicity, they find interested hearers.

There is much complaint, and that there is much reason to complain of the neglect of the public ministry of the Word is a sad fact, but we must also say that often the preaching contributes to that neglect. What good does it do a poor, simple, uneducated, hungry soul to listen to a learned discourse, a discourse full of beautiful metaphors and learned terminology? Give those people bread, bread for their souls, bread to satisfy their hunger after God. The minister's worship for his images is nothing to them. They need the "lively preaching of the Word."

"The lively preaching" need not be a preaching with much commotion. No, but it is a preaching in which the way of God is plainly and clearly portrayed, and the life of a child of God is sketched according to the Word of God. The sermon can never be too simple, and a calm preacher is very desirable.

Dear child of God, how sweet and good it is when your soul may be lively under the lively preaching of His Word. That is medicine for your soul. Such a sermon is balm for your wounds; it is food and drink for your spiritual life, it is sustenance upon your way.

Then God is to you as they that take off the yoke on your jaws and laid good meat unto you. Then you sing with David, "The habitation of Thy house is ever my delight." Then you sing, "Sweeter are Thy words to me than all other good can he." Then you are as a watered garden. Then instructed in His holy law to praise His Word you lift your voice.

Now a person who honors or worships images never feels thus. Oh, it is such a poor god whom the Roman Catholics serve. And they also have a soul just like ours, and they also are going to their long home, but not to the Father's house. Oh, that there might still be a prayer and a sigh in our heart for those poor, deceived people. Lord, open their blind eyes for the abominable deception of their teachers of lies.

But it shall be terrible for those people who are dead, and remain so under the lively preaching of His Word. Alas, poor sinner, as dead wood, as a fire-brand, you will soon be cast into the unquenchable fire. Oh, that God would still have mercy on you for Jesus' sake. Become like unto an image yourself, like unto the image of God. Then you will for ever be satisfied with God's likeness

Amen.