Is God contradicting himself? No, God condemns the practice of making false idols to be worshiped as gods as in the case of the golden calf, not images that are used to aid in the worship of God as in the case of the cherub on the Ark of the Covenant. The cherubim shall spread out its wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, their faces one to another toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim.” Make one cherub on the one end, and on cherub on the other end of one piece with the mercy seat shall you make the cherubim on its two ends. “And you shall make two cherubim of gold of hammered work shall you make them, on the two ends of the mercy seat. Just 5 chapters later in Exodus 25: 17-22 God actually commands Moses to make graven images of two cherub (angels) to be part of the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant. God is not condemning the making of all images, just images that one would worship as a false god.
In the above text God is making an direct condemnation of this practice when he says do not make a graven image of anything in heaven, the earth, under the earth and in the water. Many of the Egyptian gods were made in the images of jackals, birds and other animals.
When the Jews were under the bondage of the Egyptians there was a temptation to worship the animal like gods of the Egyptians.
In modern times those idols are: money, sex, status, etc. Throughout the history of God’s people, there is always a tendency to fall away from the worship of the One, True God and adopt the pagan practice of worshipping false idols. What they fail to do is understand the above text in its context. Many Protestant Christians will accuse Catholic Christians of making idols and quote the above text. We must worship Him in spirit and in truth, for only then do we show our love.“You Shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is the water under the earth for I the Lord your God am a jealous God….” (Ex 20:3-5). Our thoughts and our actions, therefore, must be bound by the Word of God. Whenever we imagine God in any way contrary to what He has revealed Himself to be, we are making an idol. It is easier than one might think to break this command. We show our love for God when we obey His commands: “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” But those who do not keep His law hate Him, and they (and their posterity) will suffer the consequences of such sin. And this is exactly what is involved here: our love. He will not allow us to set our love upon another. Like a jealous husband, God will allow no rival to Himself. We are not God, and He has not given us the authorization to make such representations.Īll rites that do not correspond with the spiritual worship of God are here forbidden. God choosing to manifest Himself in a physical form is far different from a human being choosing to fashion an image of the invisible God.
#YOU SHALL NOT MAKE ANY GRAVEN IMAGES LICENSE#
But this fact does not give us license to break the second commandment and fashion an image of God according to our own imaginations. Now it is certainly true that God revealed Himself in physical manifestations to the prophets and others in Old Testament times. God is insulted not only when we worship an image, but when we represent Him by any outward form, for He is spirit.
#YOU SHALL NOT MAKE ANY GRAVEN IMAGES FREE#
Consequently, we are not to make any image of Him, whether we intend to worship it or not, for, as Calvin so aptly puts it, “As soon as any one has permitted himself to devise an image of God, he immediately falls into false worship.” We should, therefore, take these two aspects of the second commandment together, not in the sense that we are free to make any graven image as long as we don’t worship it, but that we are not to make any graven image at all because as soon as we do, we are transferring to an image what should be reserved for God only: our adoration and worship. Nothing can adequately or comprehensively represent Him. God is spiritual and invisible nothing, therefore, in the earth or in the heavens above corresponds with His nature. The essence of the second commandment is that the worship of God must be spiritual so that it will correspond with His nature.
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