Chapter Four – The Second Commandment — “You Shall Not Make Unto You Any Graven Image…”

The ancient nations, cut off from the real God, almost invariably worshipped idols. The masses needed gods near at hand—and this meant those that could be seen. So, in part because of the environment in which they lived, before God could instruct Israel how to properly worship Him, He first had to show them how not to worship Him.

Exodus 20:4-6 records the SECOND COMMANDMENT. Here is God’s explicit directive: “YOU SHALL NOT MAKE UNTO YOU ANY 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 yourself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me, and keep My commandments.”

This commandment is a very broad, sweeping, explicit prohibition intended to cover every form of false worship involving every other kind of supposed “god,” and representation of such, that human beings with creative human reasoning could devise. Like any parent whose children chose to come home to a different house and to different parents after school, the Parent who made all human beings—His children—would certainly be jealous if they went off after idols and false gods.

God specifically defined the forbidden ways that were used to worship idols. He realized human nature’s tendency to justify loopholes around His instructions.

The First Commandment forbids having other gods before the true God. The Second Commandment forbids using an image to represent the true God, or any false god. This commandment deals specifically with using physical images for worship or as representations of anything related to worship. This does not condemn the existence of statues or pictures in general—only their use for worship. Therefore, using any statue or picture to represent God is expressly forbidden. Man is to worship, bow down to and serve the Creator God. God does not allow man to transfer this same honour to an image representing Him. He strongly warned Israel of this danger.

Notice God’s specific instructions to Moses: “You shall not make with Me gods of silver, neither shall you make unto you gods of gold” (Ex. 20:23). These were God’s first words to Moses after giving him the Ten Commandments!

Again, notice Ex 20:5-6: “…for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me, and keep My commandments.” If people persist in idol worship, God will not only punish them, but also their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. No other commandment gives such detailed implications.

Plainly God hates idolatry—and directly equates it with hating Him! However, Almighty God promises to bless those who love and obey Him! Individuals who choose to obey God will not be punished for their parents’ disobedience.

God’s Warnings to Israel

Leviticus 26:1 warns, “You shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall you set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I am the LORD your God.”

In turning away from worshipping such images, Israel went against the current of the surrounding nations, as well as their carnal human nature. The natural mind seeks for some image to represent the god it worships. Human nature finds it easier to worship a physical object than to worship the invisible God. But the Second Commandment forbids using images to even assist or remind in worshipping God.

Deuteronomy 4:15-20 expands upon this in greater detail: “Take you therefore good heed unto yourselves; for you saw no manner of similitude on the day that the LORD spoke unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire: lest you corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flies in the air, the likeness of any thing that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth: and lest you lift up your eyes unto heaven, and when you see the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, should be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the LORD your God has divided unto all nations under the whole heaven. But the LORD has taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto Him a people of inheritance, as you are this day.”

Where in this command is there room for the near endless number of idols found on Earth today that appear in the very forms God here condemns?

The ancient Greeks worshipped, in their case, mostly images of men and women. Many of the nations around Israel worshipped images of various land, air and sea creatures, such as the Philistine fish god, Dagon. The Babylonians and others worshipped the “host of heaven”—the sun, moon and stars.

Here is how Moses warned Israel about idolatry: “Take heed unto yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which He made with you, and make you a graven image, or the likeness of anything, which the LORD your God has forbidden you. For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God” (Deut. 4:23-24).

Israel’s Track Record

How well did Israel listen to God’s revealed instruction? In only a matter of days during Moses’ absence, Aaron, under pressure from certain of the congregation, allowed them to mould a golden calf. The worship of the calf was followed by a celebration in which the people “sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play” (Ex. 32:1-6).

Judges 2:1-23 summarizes Israel’s record for about three centuries after arriving in the Promised Land. Less than a generation after Joshua’s death, a cycle began.. In departing from God, one of the first things that Israel adopted was idol worship.

Judges 17:1-13 and 18:1-31 record how low Israel had descended. A Levite named Micah had come to possess a “valuable” idol. He was elated to expand his collection of idols. Judges 17:6 shows the extent to which Israel had forgotten God’s ways. Notice: “In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.”

Without God’s Law, there exists no standard by which to live. Studying such accounts should help you appreciate the order and harmony that flow from obeying God’s laws.

Psalms 78:56-58 records, “Yet they tempted and provoked the Most High God, and kept not His testimonies: but turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow. For they provoked Him to anger with their high places, and moved Him to jealousy with their graven images.”