The Ten Commandments, Part 2
“Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them; for I, the LORD thy 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.” (Deuteronomy 5:8-10)
God said we mustn’t make graven images to anything in heaven, including Himself. A drawing of Christ takes our focus off Him. Many people, including myself at one point, may disagree with this. They’ll say, “It helps remind me of Him.” Try this exercise to see if this is true for you as well. Go into a room that has a picture of Christ and pray. I pray with my eyes open, so please do the same this time. Pray for about twenty minutes or however long you’d like to. Now, are you done? Please try it before reading on! How many times did you look at the picture and feel as though you were praying, not to it, but towards it? This may not have been an issue for you and if so, then great! But if it was or not, if you want to follow the commandments then it’s time to change. God’s creations proclaim His glory! Things, are just things. All of our attempts to put trinkets, pictures, or graven images in our life to remember Him by are pale in comparison to what He has given us to remember Him by. The same is true for those who dress up or have items so others will know what they stand for. The world will know us by our love…not trinkets. In fact, now that I have taken a few months to chew on this that the Lord has given me, all things become shadows in comparison to God’s creation, which is a constant reminder. You see, if we use the excuse that we need graven images as a way to remember, then we must forget Him sometimes. If we throw them away and then look towards His creations as something to remind us of His presence…then we don’t forget, because they’re all around us as testimonies to His greatness. Just don’t turn these things into idols as well. Christ is real and living in our hearts; the Greek god Zeus is just a statue. Let’s not turn Christ into what Zeus is, a graven image, nor anything else for that matter, other than King of our lives.
There is also the cross, a symbol we use to remember Yehoshuah’s (Jesus’) death. Until I took a long hard look at the cross, and its use in the church, I did not view it as a graven image. However, almost every church I have gone to, at one point, has said we should, ‘Bow before the cross’ or, ‘look to the cross for salvation,’ but I tell you we must never bow before a manmade item, let alone one used to murder people, nor should we ever look to a stick for salvation because, friends, it isn’t there. Salvation came to us through the grace of Yehovah (God). He sent His Son Yehoshuah (Jesus) to die and rise from the grave for the remission of sin. The church says to bow to, or look at, the cross for salvation…but if we are looking at the cross for salvation we will never see it, because Christ is no longer there, nor in the grave! If I were to look at a cross I would be looking there for a dead Messiah. My Savior is alive! I know this. I need not look at an empty cross to know this. I look to His Word because He is there in His Word...not on the cross.
Numbers 21:4-9 reads, “They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!" Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, "We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us." So Moses prayed for the people. The Lord said to Moses, "Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live." So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived.”
In the old time they needed to look to something. In the old church perhaps men needed the cross to look at and bow before…I am uncertain. Perhaps they were weaker than me…perhaps they were stronger than me, either way, I do not profess judgment. However, we see that 2nd Kings 18:3-4 says, “He [Hezekiah] did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David had done. He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it.” How many Christians are beginning to worship the cross…even to the point of singing songs to it and bowing before it? Hezekiah, from the above verse, did what was right in the sight of the Lord by removing the high places, even by destroying the bronze snake that God gave for healing. We look to the cross for healing just like the Israelites did the bronze snake, but much like the bronze snake the cross has become an idol to many. If you bow down to a picture or image…you are bowing down to a picture or image. It’s that simple. Worship the only One who deserves worship…that is our King, our Salvation.
God is not limited, so therefore do not put a limit like an image on Him. We cannot have any kind of accurate representation of Christ, God, or the Holy Spirit except through His Word and prayer. Anything other than the true representation of Christ is only a limit. Do not worship nor have graven images. Look only to His Word for Him…and the Holy Spirit’s cry in His home, your very being.
Is it worth the time it takes to start loving Christ enough to get rid of the things and graven images in our lives that are taking the focus from Him? Let’s turn to His Word and see. “For they provoked Him to anger with their high places, and loved (or moved) Him to jealousy with their graven images.” (Psalm 78:58) “I am the LORD; that is My name. And My glory will I not give to another, neither My praise to graven images. "Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them.” (Isaiah 42:8-9) “Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the LORD your God which He made with you, and make yourselves a graven image or the likeness of any thing which the LORD thy God hath forbidden thee. For the LORD thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God.” (Deuteronomy 4:23-24) “All who worship images are put to shame, those who boast in idols-- worship Him, all you gods!” (Psalm 97:7) “Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone--an image made by man's design and skill. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.” (Acts 17:29-31) It would appear to be worth the effort. But may I speak from my experience? It is worth the effort, friends, for now I look far beyond the scope of what man can fathom, and to say He is glorious would not do Him justice.