Back to Bible Basics: The 10 Commandments #2

⁴ Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:

⁵ Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

⁶ And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.


I am not going to lie, this is a scary and a bit confusing one for me as I first read it. I guess all commandments should be scary to us though.  Does this mean we should not have anything in our homes such as stars on the outside of our house, angel statues, pictures of our animals or fish mailboxes?   Okay, nobody should have a fish mailbox, maybe Kevin VanDam, but that's it.  (Just kidding).  Or is it okay to decorate my kitchen with roosters and hens as long as I don't "bow down" to worship or exalt the napkin holder?  There may be people in other countries that still do make alters with different "deities" and actually bow down at those alters for worship.  And I certainly do not want to do anything that would cause the Lord to be jealous and punish me and every generation to my great-grandchildren because of my disobedience.  I do, however, want His mercy.

Below is a short, logical explanation that I found on YouTube that I feel speaks truth and reason.  What do you hold as your standard for the second commandment?