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idolatry certainly is the first-born of folly, the great and leading paradox, nay, the very abridgment and sum total of all absurdities. Robert South, a seventeenth-century Anglican minister, summed up idolatry. For Papists to say they make use of an image to put them in mind of God, is as if a woman should say she keeps company with another man to put her in mind of her husband. If the workman be better than the work, and none bow to the workman, how absurd, then, is it to bow to the work of his hands! Is it not an absurd thing to bow down to the king’s picture, when the king himself is present? It is more so to bow down to an image of God, when God himself is everywhere present. It is absurd and irrational for, ‘the workman is better than the work ’ “He who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house.’ Heb iii 3. God is a spiritual essence and, being a Spirit, he is invisible. If any one should make images of snakes or spiders, saying he did it to represent his prince, would not the prince take it in disdain? What greater disparagement to the infinite God than to represent him by that which is finite the living God, by that which is without life and the Maker of all by a thing which is made? To make a true image of God is impossible. To set up an image to represent God, is debasing him. 4 God is to be adored in the heart, not painted to the eye. God made man of the dust of the earth, and man makes a god of the dust of the earth. Seventeenth-century Puritan minister Thomas Watson pointed out both the paradox of idolatry and the futility of representing Yahweh by anything made with our own hands: These two forms of idolatry can be combined, or they can stand independent of each other. The Prophet Ezekiel described an idol as something men erect in their hearts: And the word of YHWH came unto me, saying, Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face.
#Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image meaning full#
The Prophet Isaiah depicted an idol as something men form with their hands: Their land also is full of idols they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made. As an infinite Spirit (John 4:24), He cannot be reduced to anything man can imagine or form with hands. The Second Commandment is all about how Almighty God intends us to perceive Him. (Deuteronomy 4:19)īreaking covenant with Yahweh 3 is at the heart of Second Commandment violations, usually identified as idolatry: Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of YHWH your God, which he made with you, and make you a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, which YHWH thy God hath forbidden thee. (Deuteronomy 4:15-18)Īnd lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them. lest ye 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 flieth in the air, the likeness of any thing that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth. Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves.
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Verses 15-18 concern Second Commandment disobedience, and Verse 19 concerns First Commandment disobedience: Moses addressed both sins in Deuteronomy 4. Second Commandment transgression is worshiping anything formed by man (for example, images of the sun, moon, or stars). First Commandment transgression is worshiping anything created by God (for example, the sun, moon, or stars).
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A simple rule of thumb can determine whether a passage is addressing First or Second Commandment disobedience. The Second Commandment (in various forms) is cited eight times in the Old Testament (Exodus 20:4-5, 20:23, 34:17 Leviticus 19:4, 26:1 Deuteronomy 4:23, 5:8, and 27:15) and three times in the New Testament (1 Corinthians 10:7, 10:14, and 1 John 5:21).īecause the First and Second Commandments both relate to worshiping false gods, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between them.
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Thou shalt not make unto 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 water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I YHWH 1 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 shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.