Westminster Larger Catechism, Question 106
Question 106
What are we specially taught by these words before me in the first commandment?
These words before me, or before my face, in the first commandment, teach us, that God, who seeth all things, taketh special notice of, and is much displeased with, the sin of having any other God: that so it may be an argument to dissuade from it, and to aggravate it as a most impudent provocation: as also to persuade us to do as in his sight,: Whatever we do in his service.
Scripture references for paragraph 1
Berean Standard Bible. Public domain text and source credits.
Ezekiel 8:5-185“Son of man,” He said to me, “now lift up your eyes to the north.” So I lifted up my eyes to the north, and in the entrance north of the Altar Gate I saw this idol of jealousy.
6“Son of man,” He said to me, “do you see what they are doing—the great abominations that the house of Israel is committing—to drive Me far from My sanctuary? Yet you will see even greater abominations.”
7Then He brought me to the entrance to the court, and I looked and saw a hole in the wall.
8“Son of man,” He told me, “dig through the wall.” So I dug through the wall and discovered a doorway.
9Then He said to me, “Go in and see the wicked abominations they are committing here.”
10So I went in and looked, and engraved all around the wall was every kind of crawling creature and detestable beast, along with all the idols of the house of Israel.
11Before them stood seventy elders of the house of Israel, with Jaazaniah son of Shaphan standing among them. Each had a censer in his hand, and a fragrant cloud of incense was rising.
12“Son of man,” He said to me, “do you see what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the darkness, each at the shrine of his own idol? For they are saying, ‘The LORD does not see us; the LORD has forsaken the land.’”
13Again, He told me, “You will see them committing even greater abominations.”
14Then He brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of the LORD, and I saw women sitting there, weeping for Tammuz.
15“Son of man,” He said to me, “do you see this? Yet you will see even greater abominations than these.”
16So He brought me to the inner court of the house of the LORD, and there at the entrance to the temple of the LORD, between the portico and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs to the temple of the LORD and their faces toward the east; and they were bowing to the east in worship of the sun.
17“Son of man,” He said to me, “do you see this? Is it not enough for the house of Judah to commit the abominations they are practicing here, that they must also fill the land with violence and continually provoke Me to anger? Look, they are even putting the branch to their nose!
18Therefore I will respond with wrath. I will not look on them with pity, nor will I spare them. Although they shout loudly in My ears, I will not listen to them.”
Psalms 44:20-2120If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god,
21would not God have discovered, since He knows the secrets of the heart?
1 Chronicles 28:99As for you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve Him wholeheartedly and with a willing mind, for the LORD searches every heart and understands the intent of every thought. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever.
Source and edition
Westminster Larger Catechism. NonlinearFruit/Creeds.json, Unlicense. Creeds.json, English transcription
Unlicense. Source transcription.
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