Worshipping Idols

Main text:
“You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me…”

1. What is idolatry?

Worship of objects: Totem pole in Native America, Statues in Hinduism and Buddhism etc. “Idolatry consists not only in the worship of false gods, but also in the worship of the true God by images” – Charles Hodge. In its Christian Application, this means that we are not suppose to make use of visual or pictorial representation of the Triune God, or of any person of the Trinity, for the purpose of Christian worship. The commands thus deal not only with the object of worship but also the manner of worship.

2. What’s the danger of worshipping with images or ornamentals to God?
What’s the harm if a worshipper surrounds himself with pictures and statues, if they help him to lift his heart to God? One would be tempted to say that the second commandment only applies to immoral and degrading representations of God, borrowed from pagan cults and nothing more. Text suggests otherwise, “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of ANYTHING in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.” This category rules out, the use of pictures and statues, which depict God as an animal, but also the use of pictures and statues, which depict Him as, man. This also rules out the use of pictures or statues of Jesus as a man, for all the pictures and statues are made out of the ‘likeness’ of ideal manhood as we conceive it, thus it comes under the ban which the commandment impose.

3. But what, in the case, is the point of the prohibition? Is it really that important?
From the severe punishment that follows it. (the proclaiming of God’s jealousy and His severity in punishment) It shows it is. Bible shows that the glory of God and the spiritual well-being of men are both directly bound to it. Two lines of thought that will help to explain why images should not used;

1. Images dishonor God – for they obscure His glory.
a. “A true image of God, is not to be found in all the world; and hence… His glory is defiled, and his truth corrupted by the lie, whenever He is set before our eyes in a visible form…Therefore, to devise any image of God is itself impious; because by this corruption His majesty is adulterated…” Calvin
b. The point here is not just that an image represents God as having body and parts, where in reality, He has none. Then representations of Christ would be blameless.
c. The heart of the objection to pictures and images is that they inevitably conceal most, if not all, of the truth about the personal nature and character of the divine Being whom they represent.
d. To illustrate: Aaron’s made a golden calf. It was meant to be a visible symbol of Jehovah, the mighty God who had bought Israel out of Egypt – to honor him, as being a fitting symbol of His great strength. But what idea of His moral character, His righteousness, goodness and patience could one gather from looking at a statue of Him as a bull? Thus Aaron’s image hid Jehovah’s glory
e. In a similar way, the pathos of the crucifix obscures the glory of Christ, for it hides the fact of His deity, His victory on the cross and His present kingdom. It displayed His human weakness, but it conceals His divine strength; it depicts the reality of His pain, but keeps us from seeing the reality of His joy and His power.
f. In both cases, the symbol is unworthy most of all because of what it fails to display.

2. Images mislead men
a. They convey false ideas about God. The inadequacy with which the images represent God perverts our thoughts of Him, and plant in our minds errors of all sorts about His character and His will.
b. Aaron by making an image of God in the form of bull-calf led the Israelites to think of Him as a Being who could be worshipped acceptably by frenzied debauchery. Hence the ‘feast to the LORD’, which Aaron organized, became a shameful orgy.
c. Again, it is a matter of historical fact that the use of the crucifix as an aid to prayer has encouraged people to equate devotion to brooding over Christ’s sufferings; it had made them morbid/obsesses about the spiritual value of physical pain, and it has kept them from the knowledge of the risen Saviour.
3. What is the danger of mental images of God?
• There also a further realm in which the prohibition of the second commandment applies.
• Just as it (second commandment) forbid us to manufacture molten images of God, so it forbids us also to dream up mental images of Him.
• How often do we hear this sort of thing: ‘I like to think of God as the great Architect (or Mathematician; or Artist). ‘I don’t think of God as a Judge; I like to think of Him simply as a Father.”
• We know often that this sort of remark merely serve as the prelude to a denial of something that the Bible tells us about God. It needs to be said that those who hold themselves free to think of God as they like are breaking the second commandment. At best, they can think of God in the image of man – as an ideal man, or a superman.
• But God is not a man. We were made in His image, but we must not think of Him as existing as ours. To think of God in such terms is to be ignorant of God.
4. How then is our response?
• We need to ask ourselves – how far are we keeping to the 2nd commandment? We may not have bull images in the churches we attend and probably we don’t have a crucifix on our walls at home, but are we sure that the God we worship is the God of the Bible, the Triune God? Are the ideas of God such that we do not believe in the Christian God, but in some other, like the Moslem or Jew or Jehovah’s Witnesses.
• How can you tell? The test:
i. Do I look habitually to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ to show me the final truth about the nature and the grace of God?
ii. Do I see all the purposes of God as centering upon Him?
• If I can, then I can know that I truly worship the true God, and that He is my God, and that I am even now enjoying eternal life.