Week 30: What does God look like?
Back in Week 19 of Family Time, we said that worship is loving God with your entire being. The problem is that we tend to give our affection to things we can see and touch because those things seem more real. This week, we’ll learn that our invisible God is more real than any idol ever made by human hands.
Be ready to read the following passages:
Let’s start it.
Take turns describing an object in the room and have your family guess what it is. Now take turns describing the wind. Why is that more difficult?
Let’s learn it.
Trying to describe God is a lot like trying to describe the wind – neither can be seen or grasped, but each is still real. Take a quick look at the second commandment in Exodus 20:4. God commanded Israel not to make or bow down to idols. Still, the Israelites wanted to worship something they could see and touch. What happened in Exodus 32:1-4 while Moses was on Mt. Sinai receiving God’s Law?
The Israelites asked Aaron to make a god. Stop to think about that for a moment … they wanted to worship something human hands created instead of worshipping the God who created them! To make matters even worse, they gave the golden calf credit for what the Lord God Almighty had done. Do you think God was angry? You better believe He was! The answer to why He was so angry is found back in the Ten Commandments. Ask someone to read Exodus 20:5-6 to see what God said after the second commandment.
God’s jealousy for His people can be confusing at first, but it isn’t sinful – it’s righteous. He wanted Israel to protect their relationship with Him the same way a husband and wife should protect their relationship by keeping their promise to be faithful to each other. When Israel gave their love and loyalty to something else, He was jealous because their worship rightly belonged to Him. When parents turn from God and worship anything other than the Lord, their children suffer the natural consequences of not being brought up to trust and honor their Creator.
There’s another interesting part of the second commandment. God told Israel not to make an image of anything, including God Himself. Since God is spirit, He is in all places at all times and cannot be contained in an inanimate object (John 4:21.) He is too glorious and powerful to portray. Read Colossians 1:15 and Hebrews 1:3 to discover the one image God gave of Himself to the world.
If you want to know what God is like, then look at Jesus. It’s true that we don’t know today exactly what Jesus looked like. After all, there were no cameras on Earth during His lifetime. But Jesus’ outward appearance isn’t really important – it is His character and inner nature that make Him God. One day we will see Jesus in all of His glory, and fall to our knees in worship. Until then, we must guard against giving our highest love and loyalty to anything or anyone else.
Let’s discuss it.
- How do you think people worship idols or images in today’s world?
- Try to describe in your own words why it’s good that our God is too big to be contained in a gold or wooden object.
- Think of ways you can show that your highest love and loyalty belong to God. Share those thoughts with your family.
Let’s do it.
God created each of us with a desire to worship, but that doesn’t mean that you will automatically worship Him. Like the Israelites, we sometimes give our affections to the wrong things. Has something else become more important than God in your daily life? Do you love anyone more than you love Him? If you answered yes to either one of those questions, then that thing or person is becoming an idol in your life. Will you commit to loving God supremely this week? Your relationships with one another will improve as God moves into first place in your individual lives.