The Second Commandement, another in a series on the Ten...

Bear with me as I again offer a poem about The Ten Commandments. For some, an out of fashion series of Laws from God. For others, a still living statement from God. For me, the living statement continues.

Man makes idols in the stars and below...
By Peter Menkin
The personal side
of the Second Commandment:
Man is near the stars,

(how far we fly)
but really by God's grace;

we admire this creation
(and make gods of our efforts)
celestial-the stars, no idol for worship.

You shall make no graven image,
nor likeness of anything in heaven.
(Where is a height so admired?)
The word of God.

God is larger and more vast
(my mind cannot grasp)
than the stars in heaven.

You shall make no graven image,
nor likeness of any thing in the earth
(what dwells so deep, unknown)beneath.

Is this something from another
world, evil, or mysterious
(legion of forgotten and fallen)
as a devil?

What is so earthen
that it lacks the hand of our Triune God?
A tree, it's roots in the earth--
how it reaches upwards
(this by God's generosity)
and gives pleasure to the eye.

This is God's work, as are the efforts
of man at his labor
(we make idols of our work,
yet it is ours to do for the bread of our day).

Even to the depths of a mine, or deep
at sea. Make no likeness of any thing
that is in the water under the earth.

The Lord God is a jealous God.