02 The Second Commandment
2. 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 in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love Me and keep My commandments. [Ex.20:4-6]
The Unique Place of the Second Commandment. Roman Catholics and Lutherans wrongly lump the first two commandments together. They deal with different subjects: the first commandment deals with the object of worship — no other gods, the second deals with the form of worship — no images of God. The first opposes other gods; the second opposes self-willed worship. If you stand with your back to the idols, you must still learn to kneel properly before the Lord. The first command points to the true God, the second to true worship.
This distinction is warranted on the basis of Scripture. In many places, the people of Israel did not want to worship other gods, but they did want to make an image of Yahweh (see Deut. 4:15-18; the golden calf, Ex. 32:4; 1 Kings 12:28, etc.)
The Significance of an Image. Is this commandment still important today? Do we find images? Not like there were in Bible times, except in museums. But we do know that the sinful heart does not change. Why then did God not want representations of himself? For what sinful inclination did he command this? Well the image in Bible times represented deity. One who has an image meets the deity himself in it. The power of the deity is collected and channeled by means of the image. The comparison with electricity can be made. High voltage is dangerous. So is divine power. An image functions like a transformer — dangerous high voltage is reduced so we can use it with far less risk.
Why no Images? Three reasons:
1. To capture Yahweh in an image is to misunderstand His freedom. You may not make images on account of God’s freedom. It is an attempt to make the incomprehensible comprehensible. The craftsman seeks to control God when the reverse is true. Consider 1 Sam. 4. The Israelites had lost a battle to the Philistines. So they brought the ark into the camp — now they would win. The Philistines were frightened (1 Sam. 4:3-8). Instead, Israel suffered a second defeat and the ark was taken captive. The ark itself became no more than a wooden box as soon as the Lord no longer wished to be associated with it. He sat enthroned on the cherubim of this ark as long as He wanted to. We don’t control God. God controls us.
2. To capture Yahweh in an image is to misunderstand His majesty. You cannot make images on account of God’s majesty. When the Lord spoke to the Israelites on Mt. Sinai, he spoke while the mountain burned with fire ‘to the midst of heaven’ (Deut.4: 11-12). Images, by contrast, do not hear, eat nor smell (Deut.4: 28). Image worship evokes ridicule and sarcasm. "To whom will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare to him? Do you have to nail him down so he doesn’t fail over (Isa.40: 18; 41:7). The majesty of God is indicated in Scripture by the metaphor of darkness, by which he is covered (Deut.4: 11; 5:23) or unapproachable light, in which He dwells (1 Tim.6: 16). Darkness and light are opposites: God is so majestic he cannot be brought within man’s reach. Both are impenetrable.
3. To capture Yahweh in an image is to misunderstand His covenant (intimacy). You need not make images on account of God’s covenant. God is unapproachable, but for His people He is near. You don’t have to go far to see what he is doing (Deut.30:12-14; cf. Rom.10: 6-9). God is not tangible, yet he is closer than any other god.
Self-willed worship arouses the spirit of jealousy in Yahweh, much as jealousy is aroused in the husband who sees his wife loving another man. Instead of receiving life as a gift, they want to secure it.
The Spirituality of God and the Prohibition of Images. Many would argue in the past against images based of God’s spirituality. God is non-physical. He is Spirit and therefore he cannot be portrayed physically. But images were crafted — consider Aaron and Jeroboam — not always to make God visible, but to make the Incomprehensible one, comprehensible — to manipulate his power. In these older arguments, also, spiritual was exalted over material. Thinking is greater than seeing. But this ‘spiritual’ interpretation makes the second commandment something of a tautology — self-evident. Why then such a severe blow?
But also, what does it mean that God is Spirit. We should not portray God physically, but we do read that God has a form (cf. Num.12: 8). That God is Spirit certainly includes the message that God is power. In contrast to weak flesh, God has divine power (cf. Isa.31: 3). The contrast is not with the physical, but with what is weak and fleshly, transient and transitory. Therefore in John 4:24, when Jesus says, ‘God is Spirit’ he means that God bestows new power because the Messiah will bring an end to temple worship. The worship of God must be done in spirit and truth, in fellowship with the Messiah’s life-giving power and in fellowship with the truth that the Messiah proclaims.
God’s Own Image. Images of God may not be made, but that does not mean that Israel worshiped without images. Consider the tabernacle, the ark, the ephod, the bronze serpent, etc. The bronze serpent was not to manipulate the power of the deity, but simply a means of healing. When the bronze serpent was used idolatrously, Hezekiah had it destroyed (2 Kings 18:4). No object remains holy if used in a pagan manner. The ephod was a legitimate way of consulting the Lord, but when Gideon and Micah (Judg.8:24-27; 17:5-13) made their own, theirs were both in the service of idolatry. God could not be contained in a temple (1 Kings 8:27-53), yet the glory of the Lord departed from the temple when Judah broke covenant (Ezek.1 and Ezek. 10).
Man as Image of God. In the image of deity, the deity is represented. This doesn’t mean resembled, as in a good likeness, but the image is endowed with the power of the deity. So with Adam and Christ — they do not resemble God (the Father), but in their actions and authority, they show forth God Himself. The temple of God is similar to the image of God. The ‘temple of God’ is applied to both the congregation (1 Cor.3:16) and to us bodily or personally (1 Cor.6:19). The image of God, therefore, indicates God’s desire to dwell with man and to have His power radiate through man. There are conditions for this image — man must be endowed with understanding and volition, exalted over the animals, thereby in a position to exercise dominion. These conditions are not the image itself. Fallen man does not retain the image. When God’s wrath rests upon man, we can hardly say that His Spirit continues to dwell in him. Just as God can withdraw from his ark, so he can from man — who was created as His temple and image. The image of God can be restored to man. But although fallen man no longer bears the image of God, he was still has the conditions to have that image. No matter how estranged from God and His service man becomes, he remains a temple. The temple may be empty, but it still exists (see Gen.9:6 and Jas.3:9). That man functions as the image of God is not decisive for us in ethical deliberations (e.g. abortion, euthanasia, etc.), but that God wants him to function as His image.
No Cultic Images, but Visual Arts. Images were not uniformly prohibited; it came down to the purpose behind their use. Samuel erected a monument to the triumph of the Lord (1 Sam.7:12), Jacob placed a memorial pillar on Rachel’s grave (Gen.35:20), etc. Even the tabernacle and temple enjoyed the benefits of the visual arts — the candlestick, golden bells and pomegranates, etc. Visual arts are in no way condemned by the second commandment.
Sanction and Blessing. To the second commandment are appended a sanction and a blessing. If the head of the family turns away from Yahweh to worship images, his entire family will be swallowed up in his self-willed worship. His sin becomes their stumbling. The opposite is also true. All the way to the most extended generation imaginable, God will show his favor to those who are faithful to Him and keep His commands. David’s house continued for generations, even though they were punished for Solomon’s sins (1 Kings 11:34, 38-39). That this blessing and curse are added to this commandment is significant. Lying and stealing are serious crimes, but turning your back on the Lord to practice self-willed religion is most serious. But these blessings and curses don’t hold true automatically. Pious Jehoshaphat had a godless son Jehoram (1 Kings 22:43; 2 Kings 8:16-18). Three godless sons and a godless grandson (2 Kings 22-23) succeeded God-fearing Josiah.
Iconoclastic Campaigns. Historical Information
Images Today. Is this prohibition relevant today? Yes, because behind the image lies a perspective. People suppose that by means of an image they can control and manipulate divine power. People imagine they can fashion gods in images in such a way that they automatically enjoy divine favor on their own plans. So the image gives from to a mental image and you cannot eradicate mental images through an iconoclastic campaign of any kind. There is one small step from ancient image worship to modern self-determined worship, in which God is worshipped in a way different from what he has commanded in His word.
What about books for the laity? On many French cathedrals, you will find important stories from the Old and New Testaments carved in stone. The people were illiterate and would receive limited understandings of the Bible from these murals. But the laity in the sense of illiterate people do not exist anymore. We must advance the reading of Scripture. Illustration and image can stimulate that reading, but can never be a substitute for it. What is decisive is that the preaching of the Word and the congregation’s response to that preaching continue to capture the congregation’s attention. Living preaching can be contrasted with fixed images. An image fixates something. A sermon is moving. What a minister says wrongly one Sunday, can be corrected the next. Religious art should develop, but outside the walls of the church. And what may be portrayed is whatever Scripture shows. (What about Jesus in the stable or the apple in Paradise?)
Rigid Forms. The image fixates more so than the word that can be corrected. Many things, besides statutes and paintings, in the church can conflict just as much with the second commandment. Take liturgy: KJV only, only Genevan tunes, a particular style of preaching, etc. The decisive element no longer is the living preaching, but the things that make us safe and secure. But then, fixed forms are not wrong, much less fixed formulations. The Apostles Creed has been around for thousands of years, but because it echoes Scripture, it is good. The confessions are iconoclastic — they remove images, not introduce them. At critical points in her history, the church has thrown out images of God by saying to the heretics: God is not as you portray Him, because He has revealed Himself in His Word differently.
Mental Images. John Calvin stated that human understanding is a perpetual idol-making factory. The mind and spirit of men begets the idolatrous image — regardless if it subsequently takes the shape of wood or stone (1.11.8). We fashion God according to our own understanding. Psalm 50:21 — "We imagined that God was just like them." A person leads his own life, imagining that God bestows His approval automatically. Man creates God in His image, ready to serve Him — evangelism. Consider Psalm 94 — Yahweh does not see... Then we begin to justify sin - e.g. homosexuality. We imagine God to be a Santa Claus figure, when really it is fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. We can also make him into the image of Scrooge — someone who prefers the death of the godless (cf. Rom.4: 5).
As long as human understanding serves as the workshop where images of God are crafted according to our own imaginations, we are summoned by the second commandment to return to God’s Word — the image that continually destroys our images.