"You shall not make for yourself a carved image—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; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. (Ex. 20:4–6).
The first commandment runs through the entire decalogue. It is indeed the basis of all the other commandments, and they are all but the drawing out of this one.
This commandment grows naturally out of the first. That forbids having any God but one; this ....We are to worship Him in person, and not some substitute for Him, nor to attempt to worship Him through something else.
Whoever gets acquainted with God, must be lost in wonder and adoration, and it is not possible for him to think of making something to represent Him, for he sees that He is an infinite God, with an infinite variety of manifestations."
E.J. Waggoner
The first commandment runs through the entire decalogue. It is indeed the basis of all the other commandments, and they are all but the drawing out of this one.
This commandment grows naturally out of the first. That forbids having any God but one; this ....We are to worship Him in person, and not some substitute for Him, nor to attempt to worship Him through something else.
Whoever gets acquainted with God, must be lost in wonder and adoration, and it is not possible for him to think of making something to represent Him, for he sees that He is an infinite God, with an infinite variety of manifestations."
E.J. Waggoner