Religious Images, Icons, and Likenesses You shall not make for yourself an image 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 parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, Exodus 20:4-5 “Of what value is an idol carved by a craftsman? Or an image that teaches lies? For the one who makes it trusts in his own creation; he makes idols that cannot speak. Habakkuk 2:18 “Everyone is senseless and without knowledge; every goldsmith is shamed by his idols. The images he makes are a fraud; they have no breath in them. Jeremiah 51:17 It is an amazing thing how the carnal man will justify what God prohibits, even, and particularly, using His Name to do so. Neither is there any sense of shame on the part of many religious offenders when such a brazen sin as the making of images is brought to light. Instead there is outrage at those who speak according to the Law of God. These idolaters further demonstrate their contradiction as they kill (whether physically or metaphorically), in the Name of God, His servants, the brother of the Lord Jesus Christ who shine the light on their sins. The Lord told us this would happen. They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God. John 15:2 Today, thousands of years after the second commandment was given at Mount Sinai, these images are common, even ubiquitous. Despite, or because of, all the rationales that are given for having and using religious images, there remains much confusion on this matter about what God meant by His commandment, how it is to be applied, and what is the right, prosperous, and only way to life. People will say that they do not bow down to the images, as a way to justify having them, but in effect they are bowing down to them. You are making an image of God from your own conception of Him, which is not Him. So you fall short of Him, which is unacceptable to Him. While it is acceptable to men, Gods calling requires more. His face was distinctly Jewish, yes, Jewish, yet it was universal. Seeing His face, I could readily understand the meaning, value and importance of the second commandment, which says, You shall not make to yourselves any graven image or likeness of anything.... I perceived that any picture or statue man might make to portray the face of the Lord Jesus Christ would not only misrepresent Him or fall short of the true, it would be blasphemous. It would be a product of the flesh, which is, as the Bible declares, at enmity with God. Any pictures I have seen of the Lord Jesus in homes or churches or anywhere, no matter how skilled the artists, are abominable compared to the Reality. They are a lie. What it comes down to, in effect, is that we cannot make God in our image; we must be remade into His. When you shed the images you conceive, you can begin to receive Him as He is in truth, by His grace. We are always the losers when we go against His commandments. We are ever the winners when we agree with His judgments, and do them, though we must lose our lives to do so. He supplies the grace. The cross too, is a man-made image used to depict, or provoke contemplation of, the heavenly. For this reason, it too is not right. Why would the Lord want us to be carrying around a reminder of His physical means of death, anyway? What He desires is that we take up our spiritual crosses, which He gives us to do, and arranges for us to do, so that we might die to ourselves and enter into life. There is no other way. That is what He wants for us. The 2nd commandment is talking about images in the context of worship. It is not an injunction against all art, but those things made to represent that which we worship. I also wanted to tell you that complete understanding comes with obedience, not before. That is not to say that there is not conviction of truth, and faith. Without those, there can be no true obedience. But we do not truly understand everything until we step out and enter into obedience with God. We must be where He is to see what He sees. There is nothing like seeing one obey the Lord with dispatch to cheer and encourage the hearts of the saints. Truly there is great joy in heaven over one sinner that repents. Much better things, life itself, lies ahead of you, if you continue on to follow after the Lord. Blessed be His Name!
Posted on: Thu, 13 Mar 2014 05:04:54 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015