Fire on the Mountain, the Second Commandment: Authentic Worship
The Second Commandment and the God Who Tells Us How to Worship
Texts: Exodus 19:4–6; 20:1–8
Grace That Liberates, Law That Reveals
Before Israel ever hears a command, they hear a reminder.
“I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself” (Exod. 19:4).
That’s where the law begins. Not with human effort, but with divine rescue. God saves first, then speaks. Grace liberates, and the law follows. Not as a ladder to climb into God’s favor, but as a mirror that shows us who God is, who we are, and how rescued people now live.
The law does at least three things. It reveals the Lord. It slays the sinner. And it instructs the resurrected. For those brought out of Egypt, the commandments aren’t chains. They’re a path. They show what life with the living God looks like.
That’s especially true when we come to the first two commandments.
The first commandment answers who is to be worshiped.
The second commandment answers how he is to be worshiped.
The first forbids the true worship of false gods. The second forbids the false worship of the true God.
Both matter. Miss either one, and worship collapses.
“What Are You Drawing?”
I love the story about the five-year-old in a Sunday School class, drawing a picture of their favorite Bible story. “What are you drawing?” the teacher asked. “Oh, I’m drawing God”, the child answered. “But no one knows what God looks like”, the teacher gently replied. To which the little one joyufull exclaimed, “They will when I’m done!”
Now you may think you’re free of images and idols, but let me ask whether you’ve ever heard someone say something like, “Well, to me, I imagine God to be like this…” What follows is usually some drivel concocted by their own imagination - an image! - that doesn’t even vaguely resemble the God of the Bible revealed in Christ. That’s an idol. And here’s the thing - you’ve not only heard those kinds of things, you may have even said those kinds of things, falling into the trap of making an image of God formed by your own preferences rather than bowing before the God we know by revelation.
The second commandment speaks directly to that impulse.
The Heidelberg Catechism is helpful right here:
Q. What is God’s will for us in the second commandment?
A. That we in no way make any image of God nor worship him in any other way than has been commanded in God’s Word.
And then:
Q. May we then not make any image at all?
A. God cannot and may not be visibly portrayed in any way. Although creatures may be portrayed, yet God forbids making or having such images if one’s intention is to worship them or to serve God through them.
This isn’t about artistic skill or creativity. It’s about authority. God alone determines how he is to be known and worshiped.
Moreover, our imaginations are to be subjected to the revelation of himself that God makes through Scripture.
Who we worship and how we worship sets the course of our lives. Life flows from the throne of God. Get the throne wrong, and everything downstream is affected.
Everyone Worships
Worship isn’t optional. It’s not something some people do and others skip. It’s an ever-present reality. All people worship.
The question isn’t if but what.
Paul makes that clear in Romans 1. Humanity suppresses the truth, exchanges the glory of the immortal God for images, and ends up worshiping created things rather than the Creator. The result isn’t freedom. It’s decay. Worship always leads somewhere. Toward life or toward death.
And idols aren’t hard to find.
If we could run an echocardiogram on our souls, they’d show up quickly. Career. Comfort. Politics. Control. Approval. Pleasure. Even religion itself can become an idol. That’s why God doesn’t just say who to worship. He tells us how. Because left to ourselves, we will always redesign worship to suit our preferences. We’d make God in our image and worship that image the way we find fulfilling.
A Priestly People
At Sinai, God declares Israel’s identity before giving them detailed instructions.
“You shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exod. 19:6).
Worship isn’t a spectator event. God’s people aren’t an audience watching a performance. They’re priests entering his presence.
Peter picks up this language when he describes the church as a “royal priesthood” (1 Pet. 2). When we gather on the Lord’s Day, we aren’t coming to be entertained. We’re coming to offer something. Sacrifices of praise. Confession. Thanksgiving. Our very selves.
And we don’t do this reluctantly. We do it with delight. God invites redeemed sinners into his throne room and feeds them at his table.
That’s privilege afforded everyone who belongs to Christ. You are part of a priestly people.
What Worship Is
At its heart, worship is a sacrifice God commands from a heart God commends.
It’s not about us. That’s one of the hardest truths to accept. The word “worship” first appears in the Bible in Genesis 22, when Abraham, speaking of the offering up of Isaac on Mt Moriah in obedience to God’s summons, says to those with him, “The lad and I will go over there and worship, and then we will return to you.” Worship was not something Abraham initiated or invented, but a service he was commanded to offer. Worship wasn’t according to his dictates or preferences. It wasn’t something he controlled. And in that moment on Moriah that preached the gospel of God’s gift of his own Son, Abraham showed that he loved God above all other loves, that he revered God above all things, that he had resurrection faith in God’s power. God received that worship.
“How did you like worship today?”
That question feels natural, but it misses the point. What matters isn’t whether worship met our preferences, but whether it honored God’s commands. Worship is not a consumer experience. It’s a covenant act. Its not a performance by the few but a sacrifice offered by the congregation. We are gathered priests in the heavenly holy of holies, not an audience passively watching a performance.
Scripture constantly speaks of worship in sacrificial terms. Prayer is described as incense rising before God (Ps. 141:2). Financial generosity is called a pleasing offering (Phil. 4). Our entire lives are to be living sacrifices (Rom. 12:1–2).
Worship involves the whole person. Mind, body, time, resources. And the whole person is offered, not just a slice carved out for an hour on Sunday.
This is why worship shapes everything else. We don’t worship and then go live. We worship as we live.
What Worship Does
Worship never leaves us unchanged. In worship we are consumed and transformed.
False worship is transactional. That’s what Satan offers Jesus in the wilderness. Bow to me, and I’ll give you the kingdoms of the world (Matt. 4; Luke 4). It’s a deal. A negotiation. Use worship to get power.
True worship is transformational. It does not seek the self, but offers the self sacrificially.
Scripture teaches that we become like what we worship. The psalmist says idols are lifeless, and those who trust in them become like them (Ps. 115). By contrast, when we behold the glory of the Lord, we are transformed into his image from one degree of glory to another (2 Cor. 3:18).
Worship shapes our loves. Our fears. Our hopes. It consumes us, for better or worse.
This is why the second commandment matters so much. Worshipping the right God in the wrong way distorts us. God is not a tool to be used but a King to be adored.
What Worship Says
Public worship is personal, but it is never private. It always declares something.
Together, the first and second commandments say: I bow to only one.
They say:
My life is not in my own strength, but in the one who made me.
My life is not governed by superstition, but by the faithful God who speaks.
My life is not secured by the state, but by the Savior.
In the ancient world, emperors claimed divine status. To worship rightly was a political statement as much as a spiritual one.
That’s why Daniel’s friends ended up in the fire (Dan. 3). They wouldn’t bow. And in the furnace, they discovered they weren’t alone. A fourth man stood with them.
Public worship still declares loyalty today. It announces where our ultimate trust lies and what we believe is our highest good.
Only One Image Needed
The second commandment forbids images, not because God is distant, but because he has already given us the only image we need: Christ himself.
Paul writes in Colossians 1:15–20 that Jesus is the image of the invisible God. The true icon. Sent by the Father, not carved by human hands.
The only authentic image of the Triune God hung on a cross made of wood from trees he created. And through that death, he makes you and me a new creation.
We don’t need to invent representations of God. God has revealed himself fully and finally in his Son.
So we come, not with images we control, but with hearts surrendered. We come on God’s terms, trusting his Word, shaped by his commands, and transformed by his presence.
“O come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker” (Ps. 95).
That’s the call of the second commandment. Not to limit joy, but to protect it. Not to make worship smaller, but truer.