content/07/18.md
---
pagetitle: What are the reasons annexed to the second commandment, the more to enforce it?
date: February 19, 2020
prev_url: /westminster-daily/07/17/
prev_date: Jul 17
this_url: /westminster-daily/07/18/
short_date: "0718"
this_date: Jul 18
next_url: /westminster-daily/07/19/
next_date: Jul 19
---
#### Shorter Catechism
<span class="q">Q 52.</span> What are the reasons annexed to the second commandment?
<span class="q">A.</span> The reasons annexed to the second commandment are, God's sovereignty over us,[^fnref:wsc1] his propriety in us,[^fnref:wsc2] and the zeal he hath to his own worship.[^fnref:wsc3]
[^fnref:wsc1]: <div class="esv"><h5>Psalm 95:2-3</h5> <div class="esv-text"><div class="block-indent"> <p class="line-group" id="p19095002.01-1">Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;<br /> <span class="indent"></span>let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!<br /> For the <span class="small-caps">Lord</span> is a great God,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>and a great King above all gods.</p> </div> </div><h5>Psalm 95:6-7</h5> <div class="esv-text"><div class="block-indent"> <p class="line-group" id="p19095006.01-2">Oh come, let us worship and bow down;<br /> <span class="indent"></span>let us kneel before the <span class="small-caps">Lord</span>, our Maker!<br /> For he is our God,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>and we are the people of his pasture,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>and the sheep of his hand.<br /> Today, if you hear his voice,</p> </div> </div><h5>Psalm 96:9-10</h5> <div class="esv-text"><div class="block-indent"> <p class="line-group" id="p19096009.01-3">Worship the <span class="small-caps">Lord</span> in the splendor of holiness;<br /> <span class="indent"></span>tremble before him, all the earth!</p> <p class="line-group" id="p19096010.01-3">Say among the nations, “The <span class="small-caps">Lord</span> reigns!<br /> <span class="indent"></span>Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved;<br /> <span class="indent"></span>he will judge the peoples with equity.” (<a href="http://www.esv.org" class="copyright">ESV</a>)</p> </div> </div> </div>
[^fnref:wsc2]: <div class="esv"><h5>Exodus 19:5</h5> <div class="esv-text"><p id="p02019005.01-1">Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine;</p> </div><h5>Psalm 45:11</h5> <div class="esv-text"><div class="block-indent"> <p class="line-group" id="p19045011.01-2"><span class="indent"></span>and the king will desire your beauty.<br /> Since he is your lord, bow to him.</p> </div> </div><h5>Isaiah 54:5</h5> <div class="esv-text"><div class="block-indent"> <p class="line-group" id="p23054005.01-3">For your Maker is your husband,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>the <span class="small-caps">Lord</span> of hosts is his name;<br /> and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>the God of the whole earth he is called. (<a href="http://www.esv.org" class="copyright">ESV</a>)</p> </div> </div> </div>
[^fnref:wsc3]: <div class="esv"><h5>Exodus 34:14</h5> <div class="esv-text"><p id="p02034014.01-1">(for you shall worship no other god, for the <span class="small-caps">Lord</span>, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God),</p> </div><h5>1 Corinthians 10:22</h5> <div class="esv-text"><p id="p46010022.01-2">Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he? (<a href="http://www.esv.org" class="copyright">ESV</a>)</p> </div> </div>
#### Larger Catechism
<span class="q">Q 110.</span> What are the reasons annexed to the second commandment, the more to enforce it?
<span class="q">A.</span> The reasons annexed to the second commandment, the more to enforce it, contained in these words, 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; and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments;[^fnref:wlc1] are, besides God's sovereignty over us, and propriety in us,[^fnref:wlc2] his fervent zeal for his own worship,[^fnref:wlc3] and his revengeful indignation against all false worship, as being a spiritual whoredom;[^fnref:wlc4] accounting the breakers of this commandment such as hate him, and threatening to punish them unto divers generations;[^fnref:wlc5] and esteeming the observers of it such as love him and keep his commandments, and promising mercy to them unto many generations.[^fnref:wlc6]
[^fnref:wlc1]: <div class="esv"><h5>Exodus 20:5-6</h5> <div class="esv-text"><p id="p02020005.01-1">You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the <span class="small-caps">Lord</span> your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. (<a href="http://www.esv.org" class="copyright">ESV</a>)</p> </div> </div>
[^fnref:wlc2]: <div class="esv"><h5>Psalm 45:11</h5> <div class="esv-text"><div class="block-indent"> <p class="line-group" id="p19045011.01-1"><span class="indent"></span>and the king will desire your beauty.<br /> Since he is your lord, bow to him.</p> </div> </div><h5>Revelation 15:3-4</h5> <div class="esv-text"><p id="p66015003.01-2">And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying,</p> <div class="block-indent"> <p class="line-group" id="p66015003.19-2">“Great and amazing are your deeds,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>O Lord God the Almighty!<br /> Just and true are your ways,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>O King of the nations!<br /> Who will not fear, O Lord,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>and glorify your name?<br /> For you alone are holy.<br /> <span class="indent"></span>All nations will come<br /> <span class="indent"></span>and worship you,<br /> for your righteous acts have been revealed.”</p> </div> </div><h5>Psalm 95:2-3</h5> <div class="esv-text"><div class="block-indent"> <p class="line-group" id="p19095002.01-3">Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;<br /> <span class="indent"></span>let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!<br /> For the <span class="small-caps">Lord</span> is a great God,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>and a great King above all gods.</p> </div> </div><h5>Psalm 95:6-7</h5> <div class="esv-text"><div class="block-indent"> <p class="line-group" id="p19095006.01-4">Oh come, let us worship and bow down;<br /> <span class="indent"></span>let us kneel before the <span class="small-caps">Lord</span>, our Maker!<br /> For he is our God,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>and we are the people of his pasture,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>and the sheep of his hand.<br /> Today, if you hear his voice,</p> </div> </div><h5>Exodus 19:5</h5> <div class="esv-text"><p id="p02019005.01-5">Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine;</p> </div><h5>Isaiah 54:5</h5> <div class="esv-text"><div class="block-indent"> <p class="line-group" id="p23054005.01-6">For your Maker is your husband,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>the <span class="small-caps">Lord</span> of hosts is his name;<br /> and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>the God of the whole earth he is called. (<a href="http://www.esv.org" class="copyright">ESV</a>)</p> </div> </div> </div>
[^fnref:wlc3]: <div class="esv"><h5>Exodus 34:13-14</h5> <div class="esv-text"><p id="p02034013.01-1">You shall tear down their altars and break their pillars and cut down their Asherim (for you shall worship no other god, for the <span class="small-caps">Lord</span>, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God), (<a href="http://www.esv.org" class="copyright">ESV</a>)</p> </div> </div>
[^fnref:wlc4]: <div class="esv"><h5>1 Corinthians 10:20-22</h5> <div class="esv-text"><p id="p46010020.01-1">No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?</p> </div><h5>Ezekiel 16:26-27</h5> <div class="esv-text"><p id="p26016026.01-2">You also played the whore with the Egyptians, your lustful neighbors, multiplying your whoring, to provoke me to anger. Behold, therefore, I stretched out my hand against you and diminished your allotted portion and delivered you to the greed of your enemies, the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your lewd behavior.</p> </div><h5>Jeremiah 7:18-20</h5> <div class="esv-text"><p id="p24007018.01-3">The children gather wood, the fathers kindle fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven. And they pour out drink offerings to other gods, to provoke me to anger. Is it I whom they provoke? declares the <span class="small-caps">Lord</span>. Is it not themselves, to their own shame? Therefore thus says the Lord <span class="small-caps">God</span>: behold, my anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, upon man and beast, upon the trees of the field and the fruit of the ground; it will burn and not be quenched.”</p> </div><h5>Deuteronomy 32:16-20</h5> <div class="esv-text"><div class="block-indent"> <p class="line-group" id="p05032016.01-4">They stirred him to jealousy with strange gods;<br /> <span class="indent"></span>with abominations they provoked him to anger.<br /> They sacrificed to demons that were no gods,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>to gods they had never known,<br /> to new gods that had come recently,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>whom your fathers had never dreaded.<br /> You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>and you forgot the God who gave you birth.</p> <p class="line-group" id="p05032019.01-4">“The <span class="small-caps">Lord</span> saw it and spurned them,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters.<br /> And he said, ‘I will hide my face from them;<br /> <span class="indent"></span>I will see what their end will be,<br /> For they are a perverse generation,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>children in whom is no faithfulness. (<a href="http://www.esv.org" class="copyright">ESV</a>)</p> </div> </div> </div>
[^fnref:wlc5]: <div class="esv"><h5>Hosea 2:2-4</h5> <div class="esv-text"><div class="block-indent"> <p class="line-group" id="p28002002.01-1">“Plead with your mother, plead—<br /> <span class="indent"></span>for she is not my wife,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>and I am not her husband—<br /> that she put away her whoring from her face,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>and her adultery from between her breasts;<br /> lest I strip her naked<br /> <span class="indent"></span>and make her as in the day she was born,<br /> and make her like a wilderness,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>and make her like a parched land,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>and kill her with thirst.<br /> Upon her children also I will have no mercy,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>because they are children of whoredom. (<a href="http://www.esv.org" class="copyright">ESV</a>)</p> </div> </div> </div>
[^fnref:wlc6]: <div class="esv"><h5>Deuteronomy 5:29</h5> <div class="esv-text"><p id="p05005029.01-1">Oh that they had such a mind as this always, to fear me and to keep all my commandments, that it might go well with them and with their descendants forever! (<a href="http://www.esv.org" class="copyright">ESV</a>)</p> </div> </div>