Displaying the Ten Commandments, #2:

Not far from where I sit, a  case is being decided related to displaying the Ten Commandments in public space.  It is not the first such lawsuit, and likely won't be the last.
I am not so much in favor of the display of the Decalogue as I am opposed to the mentality that has forced the removal of similar displays.  We are on an ice-coated incline.  What I am heartily, and completely in favor of, is the display of the morality and ethic that is presented in the law received from the hand of God on Sinai in the lives of God's people today.
Take the second of those ten terse statements:

 "You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth." (Exodus 20:4)
It is a standard that the People of God in the Old-Testament habitually violated.  In fact before Moses had even returned from the mountain they had made a golden calf to represent God.
One of the clear points God makes about Himself is that He is beyond all such constructs, be they wood, gold or stone, whether they are produced in the Sinai desert, Hollywood, Detroit, or Wall Street.  (Deuteronomy 4:12, 1 Timothy 6:16)  

When Moses came down from having met with God, there was no doubt what was going on, Aaron's lame excuses not withstanding.  I fear that even a quick, casual observation of the average Twenty-first Century Christian would demonstrate a modern version of idolatry every bit as obnoxious as the reveling of the people before the calf that, according to Aaron, just came out of the fire.  

I need to ask myself, "Does my life show that I worship and obey the God, Who is other than all that is around me, or do I look way too much like everyone else--devoted to a god of human manufacture?"

Stay tuned.

It's STTA.