GOD CREATED IN MAN'S IMAGE

EXODUS 20:4-6

MAY 7, 2006


One traveling in the Far East will likely happen upon ornate temples with curved and spiked lines in the architecture, containing a colorful image that visitors worship. Flowers and food offered before the image, along with candles burned as an act of worship, demonstrate the fear and reverence devotees have for that particular idol.
But that picture likely holds no interest to Protestant or Catholic or Orthodox Christians. Each tradition recognizes the fallacy of pagan temples and idols being representations of false gods. Yet even within Christian traditions idolatry shows up.
On a cold Sunday morning in the mid-90s, I walked into a Russian Orthodox Church in a small city about 100 miles from Moscow. Dozens of icons lined the church, each sitting on a shelf that ran the circumference of the building. These images were present to aid in worshiping God, according to their thought.
A few years later, I walked through an ornate Catholic Church in Savona, Italy. Though not a large building, it contained statues, figures, and images of Christ, the Virgin Mary, and different saints. A gold-gilded box sat upon the altar where worshipers paused to kneel and make the sign of the cross. The church sexton proudly showed us the images that were part of this church's worship.
Anyone from a Protestant tradition should be able to recognize the problem of these kinds of images as the focus of worship. "You shall not make for yourself an idol," we acknowledge and quickly dismiss the failure of these traditions in their worship. That is one reason that the Catholic Church makes the second commandment a subset of the first, thus excluding images only to other gods rather than images used in worshiping the Lord God. They complete the Ten Commandments by squeezing two commands out of the prohibition against coveting. It is a clever way to get around the clear meaning of the second commandment.
But before we gloat over our faithfulness in keeping the second commandment, we must take a closer look. While the first commandment declares whom alone we may worship, the second explains how He may be worshiped. The subject of the second commandment addresses both idolatry and what Jochem Douma calls "ideolatry" [The Ten Commandments: Manual for the Christian Life, 64]. The first has to do with physical images as substitute for or representation of the living God. The second, ideolatry, refers to mental images or the non-biblical ideas attributed to God that form thinking and content of worship for multitudes. While the images formed of wood, metal, and stone are conspicuous, the other images not seen in stone deceptively move devotees into worshiping God falsely or else worshiping a false god. God will be worshiped only as He has revealed in Holy Scripture. Beyond this one chances upon idolatry and the displeasure of an altogether Holy God. How does idolatry creep into worship even in Protestant circles?

I. Problem with idolatry
The word translated "idol" is also translated as "graven image." It carries the idea of something that has been chiseled or formed by the hands of men. All of the civilizations contemporary with Israel recognized and worshiped idols. They came in all kinds of shapes, sizes, and representations. The Apis bull of Egypt and the horned Baals of the Canaanites and the multi-breasted Asherahs of the Assyrians were mobile gods that could travel with people from one village to the next, and one battle to another. On one occasion when God had routed the Philistines on behalf of David and Israel, the biblical text asserts, "They abandoned their idols there, so David and his men carried them away" (2 Sam. 5:21). Idols could be lost or abandoned or destroyed or defiled or stolen. When that happened, the deities of these idolaters would have to be recreated by the craftsmen so that they could once again worship their images of stone, wood, and metal.
Israel's idolatrous neighbors noticed something different about Yahweh, the God of Israel. He had no physical image. He was invisible, and could not be contained in a temple or moved about by men. On that occasion when the wicked sons of Eli, Hophni and Phineas took the ark of God into battle against the Philistines, as though they were using Yahweh in the same way that the Philistines used their god Dagon for a lucky charm in battle, the ark was captured (1 Sam. 4-5). Both Israel and the Philistines learned lessons from this experience. The Philistines, as we considered in our previous study, thought that they had captured Israel's God. But what they discovered was that God had no dependence upon Israel to protect Him or to cart Him about. He reigns as Sovereign Lord, and thus brought a plague upon the Philistines so that they feared drawing near to the ark where God had revealed Himself. The ark was not God, nor an image of God. It was not to be worshiped but rather treated as holy because the Lord had set it apart as a place of atonement and mercy. The ark represented both the fierce justice and covenant mercy of the God who reigns in the heavens. Israel came to see that God is God, and will not be used as a talisman by superstitious people.
That kind of idolatry obviously has no place among Christians! But the 2nd commandment speaks to another dimension of idolatry that can be present even in attempts to worship the God revealed in Holy Scripture. "You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them."

1. An inferior substitute
Israel's time in Egypt etched idolatrous images in their minds. Carvings, drawings, and sculptures of a variety of images represented the pantheon of Egyptian gods. The Israelites devolved in their thinking about the transcendent God that had revealed Himself to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as one that could be represented by images similar to those in Egypt. They did not go far in the wilderness until this acute problem became obvious. While Moses communed with God on Mount Sinai, the people grew restless. "Come," they said to Aaron due to Moses' delay, "make us a god who will go before us." He instructed them to tear off the gold rings in their ears, which is rather striking language of the bloody devotion to this image that took place, and with the gold, Aaron fashioned a calf. Presenting it to them, he declared, "This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt" (Ex. 32:1-6). They were only a few weeks out of Egypt, having crossed the Red Sea by the obvious power of God, and having been fed manna in the wilderness and given water in the desert by God's might. They knew who had delivered them from Egypt, yet due to their misconception about the living God they thought that confining Him to an image would satisfy their need for worship. They substituted the golden calf for the transcendent God. They had a god that they could control. The obvious result came as "the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play," a description of the sensual worship associated with idolatry. God was made in an image "on the earth beneath," just as forbidden.
The same kind of substitute took place several hundred years later when the kingdom of Israel split, forming the southern kingdom of Judah and the northern kingdom of Israel. Jeroboam, the new king of Israel, feared that his people would return to Jerusalem to worship the living God, so he made substitutes for God in the form of two golden calves: one in Dan, the other in Bethel. Jeroboam told Israel the same thing that Aaron had said years earlier. "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem; behold your gods, O Israel, that brought you up from the land of Egypt" (1 Kings 12:28). Later the prophet Hosea alludes to the idolatrous substitutes that Israel made for the living God (cf. Hosea 4-5). References throughout the Old Testament point to Jeroboam making Israel sin through this kind of idolatrous substitute for the God that cannot be contained in images or seen by men.

2. A man-controlled object
Why make an idol? Men have a craving to see God, though to gaze upon the Immortal, Invisible God, "in light inaccessible hid from our eyes," cannot take place by mortal men. Though God made Himself known at times in theophanies, such as with Abraham, Moses, Joshua, and the three Hebrew men in the fiery furnace, God is of such glory and majesty that the finite senses cannot grasp Him. God told Moses, "You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!" (Ex. 33:20) So the Lord God covered Moses as he stood in the cleft of the rock, and the glory of His back passed by. Rare are the glimpses of some manifestation of God! Yet even with these manifestations, God in His glory was not seen until He came among us in the Incarnation. Philip said to Jesus, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us." Here the craving to see God caused him to blurt out such a request. Jesus replied, "Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me?" (John 14:8-10). The invisible God was made visible in the Incarnation, and yet even then, the New Testament does not give us a physical description of Jesus Christ, lest we stoop to crafting idolatrous images of Him. The Apostle John described, "What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life" (1 John 1:1). The Creator who became a part of the race of men that He created through the Incarnation, spoke and was heard, visible and was seen, and physically among men so that He was looked at and touched with human hands. Yet John does not attempt to go beyond this in His description, knowing the human tendency to place confidence in a graven image representing the living God instead of trusting God Himself. Calvin stated the problem: "man's nature...is a perpetual factory of idols" [Institutes, 1.11.8].
Along with this desire to see God is an even stronger desire to control God. I know that this is impossible, or else God would not be God! Yet when He can be reduced to an image, whether statue in a cathedral or image placed on the mantle or crucifix around the neck, then God is in our grasp-or so we think. The Transcendent God eludes us. We cannot put Him into our neat little box and take Him out when it is convenient for us. We cannot stuff Him into a closet when we feel the weight of conviction of sin. We cannot rid ourselves of Him through fire or destruction. He is God whether we acknowledge Him or not. He is God that calls for our worship whether we have affection for Him or not. He will not be controlled by us; rather we must bow to His authority over all of life.

3. A comfortable path
"You shall not make for yourself an idol... you shall not worship them or serve them." When God is reduced to an image, whether a crucifix or veneration offered to a statue of the Virgin Mary or one declared to be a saint by the papacy, then this kind of worship requires no serious consideration of one's life. The crucifix is grasped as though some magical elements pass through it to provide whatever the person wants. Candles are burned before images of Mary or an apostle or an altar as though God is honored by the flickering flames. Prayers are offered while kneeling before a cross or some other image as though one is closer to God due to the proximity of the image. Though many are serious about this kind of worship, they focus their attention on an image and not on the God revealed in Holy Scripture and manifested to us through His Son.
I recall sitting on an airplane on a trip across the Atlantic, and next to me was a young man that had entered the Catholic priesthood. In his hands he fingered a Rosary, while a book of prayers adorned with images of Mary and other saints became objects of his veneration. He would open the book to an image, slip the ribbon marker into its crease, pause for a moment, and then turn to another and do the same. He went through this ritual for 20 minutes or more. It left me confused as to how this would offer any consolation to the heart as the plane prepared to take off! Because of physically touching and seeing various images, he had reduced God to a mere ritual. He was an idolater and did not know it. Seeking the face of the living God without props or images or rituals requires an act of faith with intense heart-searching and attention to God's Word. He took the comfortable path as do multitudes in our day that never come to the knowledge of God through Jesus Christ alone.

II. Shape of idolatry
By now, you may be breathing a sigh of relief. "Well, I don't have a statue of Jesus or Mary on my mantle; I don't have prayer beads; I don't burn candles before images. I'm safe!" But not so fast. Idolatry comes in different shapes. "You shall not make for yourself an idol," the Lord God declares. Then He goes further to explain that we also are not to make "any likeness of what is in heaven above," this could be sun, moon, stars, or birds, or even some angelic creature for veneration; "or on the earth beneath," such as images of animals or men; "or in the water under the earth," which would have been some of the common images found in Egypt representing their gods. "You shall not worship them or serve them." The problem is not found in the image as much as it is in the worshiper who is devoted to the image. In this case, the image represents deity to the worshiper. God is reduced to stone, wood, or metal.

1. Mental conception forming physical images
These images begin in the mind. Someone has to think of them, just as Aaron did with the gold calf. If you have read through any archeological journal or even in some issues of National Geographic, you've likely seen some of the crude objects worshiped as representations of God. Just as a child might get in his mind a little stick animal that he wants to make, and then produces it with modeling clay, these gods began with mental conception and were transferred to some physical material. These gods had a beginning. They had a time when they did not exist. There's nothing transcendent or immortal or infinite about them!
Does this mean that all religious art is wrong? I certainly don't think so. There have been times that in an effort to rid the Christian community of any form of idolatry, paintings and other art work have been destroyed. It took place in the Reformation and Puritan eras. Yet we have example of artistry in the building of both Tabernacle and Temple. God described the intricate and beautiful way that the Tabernacle must be made. He provided Bezalel and Oholiab, and other skillful artisans in Israel to do the work. Moses declares these skillful persons as those "in whom the Lord had put skill, everyone whose heart stirred him, to come to the work to perform it" (Ex. 36:2). Do we think that He quit putting skill and stirring hearts to artistry for the glory of God in that era?
The rule of thumb is that art work must never substitute for the exposition of God's Word. It must never become the focus of veneration or an image that calls for worship. Art work can be helpful in visualizing scenes from biblical times. But it must not be the focus of worship. In this regard, it is best not to have it as the focal point of worship. As Douma wrote, "Religious art must be able to develop, but it develops best outside the walls of the church. Rembrandt was in his own way an interpreter of Scripture, but you must not make the Rembrandt Bible the pulpit Bible. Religious art reflects the history of exegesis, but that is different from the living preaching of God's Word" [66]. He then gives this helpful guide:
To the question about what may and what may not be represented, we would answer that art may portray whatever Scripture shows us. No one has seen God as He exists in His blinding majesty. But Abraham saw Him in human form, accompanied by two angels (Gen. 18:2-16; 19:1). Ezekiel and Daniel also saw in visions "a likeness with the appearance of a man" (Ezek. 1:26) and "the Ancient of Days... His garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head was like pure wool" (Dan. 7:9). Artists like Durer and Rembrandt, as well as those who illustrate (children's) Bibles, transgress no boundaries established by the second commandment when they convey their impressions of the evidences of God's presence that believers in biblical times were permitted to see. Appreciating this kind of art is different than worshiping the images it produces" [67].

2. Imaginative perceptions framing spiritual thoughts
But having addressed idolatry, let us consider what Douma has helpfully termed, "ideolatry" [64]. Not all images are carved into stone or wood. Some are frozen in the imagination and consequently frame one's thoughts about God. Some take on dramatic touches and become substitutes for worshiping God in spirit and truth. From this standpoint, if the mental perceptions are not informed by Scripture, we may be utilizing mental idolatry to worship God. This is what is found most often in Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, and other churches that have no affinity for the icons and images in Orthodox and Catholic churches.
Philip Ryken explains, "We make an idol whenever we worship an image rather than listening to the Word" [Written in Stone, 80]. Here is where the explosion of visual images in our day has poured into the church. Ryken points out the prevailing view, "Instead of simply talking about God [as through teaching, preaching, and even singing the Word], we need to show people something. But that impulse is idolatrous" [80]. The Apostle Paul declared, "How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent? ...So faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ," i.e., the gospel (Rom. 10:14-17). Though the Roman Empire had no shortage of the visual arts that could have been employed in Christian work and worship, the one constant we see in the New Testament is upon the preaching and teaching of the gospel. Yet in a day of tepid Christianity, greater emphasis is put on film clips, drama, and other forms of entertainment in worship rather than the authority of the Word proclaimed. Ryken further states, "What the image always wants to do in worship is to distract us from hearing the Word. The crucifix, the icon, the drama, and the dance-these things are not aids to worship, but make true worship all but impossible. In a visual age, we need to be all the more careful not to look at the image, but to listen to the Word" [81].
Additionally, mental conceptions of God as a cosmic Santa Claus or a celestial being that craves our attention or a helpless deity that can't get along without us or a soft-touch that really will not send anyone to hell or one that is not truly omniscient or omnipotent, such images in the mind focus the worshiper on a false god and not the God revealed in the Bible. What we believe about God affects the way we worship. If the content of our thoughts or the content conveyed in a worship service is not regulated by Scripture, then it is idolatrous worship. That's why we give close attention to the content of what we sing as well as what we expound concerning the Lord God. Jesus defined the parameters of worship: "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth" (John 4:24). Not only is there the subjective element of spirit, as we through the mediation of Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit worship God, but we must do so according to "truth." Truth refers to the way that God has revealed Himself in Scripture and how He has prescribed worship. That's why our Baptist and other evangelical forefathers adopted the "regulative principle" of worship, which Derek Thomas defines as, "nothing must be required as essential to public worship except that which is commanded by the word of God" [Give Praise to God: a Vision for Reforming Worship, 75]. Ligon Duncan has further explained the regulative principle, "that worship in its content, motivation, and aim is to be determined by God alone. He teaches us how to think about him and how to approach him. The further we get away, then, from his directions the less we actually worship" [Give Praise to God, 27]. The subjective element in worship is never acceptable apart from right understanding of objective truth. What you think about God affects the way that you worship Him.

III. Reason for prohibition
This command adds further explanation as the rationale for turning from any kind of idolatry in the worship of the Lord God.

1. Divine jealousy
Typically, we think of jealousy in a negative way. But the way that it is used here, "for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God," points to His zealousness for His glory, holiness, and honor. It is the appropriate kind of jealousy that a married man has for his wife and the purity and honor in their relationship; that as she is one with him in marriage, he does not pass her around to other men. As believers, we are in union with the Lord through Jesus Christ. Our God is therefore jealous for the integrity and honor of this union as expressed in worship. If we worship a false understanding of God or attempt to worship God through images or even stoop to the worship of images, then that which belongs wholly to the Lord has been given to another. He is therefore jealous for the glory that rightly belongs only to Him.

2. Divine action
The seriousness of rightly worshiping God is found through Him "visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me." To fail to worship God as He has prescribed is considered hatred by our Lord. He visits this kind of iniquity, or twisted, perverted disobedience, by His judgment. As Brian Edwards has rightly stated, "Anything we honour in the place of God is idolatry; anything that commands our attention more that the call of God to holiness or service" [The Ten Commandments for Today, 89]. His judgment continues on those demonstrating their hatred of Him by careless, willful disobedience.
Yet we are also reminded that God is faithful as a covenant keeping God, showing mercy and grace to all that love Him in truth: "but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments." Here the reference to loving God and obeying Him focuses on how we worship Him. Can we brush off discussions about worship as though it doesn't really matter how one worships God? He does not accept any form of idolatry, physically or mentally, as appropriate to His nature as the holy and unchanging God. "Lovingkindness" is the Old Testament equivalent to grace. Here's the implication. God's grace triumphs over our sinful, idolatrous hearts. Would you love God and obey Him? You can only do so through the abundant grace that He gives to you through Jesus Christ.

Conclusion
Idolatry can easily slip into the mental images that we have framed for God. The poet William Cowper expressed the prayer that I trust all of us would pray: "The dearest idol I have known, whate'er that idol be, help me to tear it from thy throne, and worship only thee" [quoted by Edwards, 89]. Through Jesus Christ who has redeemed us from the curse of sin and its stranglehold on our lives, let us tear away the idols of mind and heart, and devote ourselves in passionate worship of our God!
 

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