Beware of Idols

 What does Jesus look like?  What does God the Father look like?  What does the Holy Spirit look like?

Most of your answers likely break the second commandment.  We are given some pictures and metaphors of God, but for the most part we are not given images of any of the persons of God.  Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, James, Peter, John and Jude all had seen Jesus and none of them offer a scrap of physical description (save for Revelation when we have an apocalyptic vision of Jesus with feet of brass, eyes like fire and a sword coming out of His mouth).

I firmly believe that nary a physical description of Jesus exists in the Bible because if we had these details we would end up worshipping a picture of Jesus.  If we were supposed to know, Dr. Luke could have said, "He was sort of tall" or Matthew might have said, "His hair was shorter than most."  We aren't given a description because we are prone to making and worshipping idols.

"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, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments." Exodus 20:4-6

This command certainly prohibits the worship of idols representing other gods and much ink has been spilled about that.  This command speaks against the actual idol in a yard I passed by this week, it scolds me for the times I have given a flag more reverence than I have given Christ, and it speaks against the physical things we treat as gods in our lives.  The Bible is clear that worshipping idols is evil and downright stupidly useless.

But why is commandment #1 "You shall have no other gods before me." If commandment #2 means the exact same thing?  I don't believe that it's simply a prohibition against making representations of false gods.

Making a physical representation of the real God will lead to the creation of a false god.

Consider what the Israelites did a few chapters after the recording of the Ten Commandments.  Moses, who was their intermediator between them and Yahweh, was on the mountain.  The people got tired of waiting for him and asked Aaron to make them gods.  So, Aaron fashioned a calf out of gold.  Then it says this:

"'These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.'
When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, 'Tomorrow there will be a festival to the LORD.'" Exodus 32:4b-5 (read LORD as Yahweh)

The golden calf wasn't supposed to be a different god but it was supposed to be the real God, it was an idol of Yahweh.  In the instant after making this idol, supposedly of God, they had a festival that was simply loud revelry and "running wild" (v. 25).

Alongside attempting to make idols of God Himself, we must also be wary of turning things from God into idols.  We must avoid thinking the cross in our sanctuary or on our necklace is a good luck charm.  We must not think the communion cups themselves have magical powers.  We are prone to do this.

In 2 Kings 18:4 we learn that the bronze snake that God TOLD Moses to make in the desert had been turned to an idol.  The people took a good, God prescribed object and turned it into an idol that later was called Nehushtan.

The Second Commandment is one we need to take more seriously. Does the commandment forbid objects in our worship and stained glass in our windows?  I don't think entirely.  Does this commandment prohibit our felt-board depictions of Jesus and our Easter Passion plays?  Maybe.  I don't know how to effectively do children's education, visual story telling, religious art and the like without ever attempting a depiction of our Lord.  But I do know that if the depiction becomes your perception of our Lord you are harboring an idol.  I do know that God is serious about this command even promising generations of curses and blessings based on the Israelites' keeping of the commandment.

Here's the bottom line.  We must have our perception of God the Father, Son and Spirit most and best shaped by the Word of God.  I'm not asking anyone to protest the use of the Jesus film or anything like that.  I just know that I wish I didn't have images of a long brown haired man or a giant white bearded man in my thoughts of God.  I know that my false images of God wildly miss the majesty of all He is.

This understanding of the Second Commandment took me a while to process.  I don't expect you to be any different if this is new to you (though you're likely wiser and more obedient to the Word than I). I do ask you to consider how we can avoid breaking this commandment today.