1. Do not make idols (15-24)

The Lord called the people of Israel to join him in a covenant relationship. They were to be bound to him alone, and that by the word of God. Worship of idols is the rejection of what God created them to be. It is exchanging the Lord who delivered them from Egypt to the precipice of the Promised Land for the worship of this world. It is forbidden by God. He is a consuming fire, a jealous God. He wants his own to love and worship him only.

2. If from there (25-49)

Moses knew the propensity of the people to worship idols. It would be their undoing as a people, landing them in captivity far from the land they were about to inherit. But he also knew God's mercy. Even in their deepest distress, caused by their own idol worship, Moses taught them to seek God from there. The mercy of God covers sin. When we seek him with all our hearts, we will be found by him. All the things the Lord had done, and the entirety of the Law Moses was teaching them, was so they could acknowledge that the Lord is God.