Make No Image

Out of the ten commandments God gave the people of Israel, one dealt with the making of images of God.  Of all the things to require for this newly formed nation, why would a prohibition against physical images of God be so important that it constituted  one tenth of the commands?

The people were leaving a culture with a deep spiritual component.  The Egyptians surrounded themselves with images of all their gods and goddesses and  worship also was a regular aspect of Egyptian life.  The people Israel knew that the God who had rescued them from their lives of slavery in the land of pharaoh was not an Egyptian god. He was the God of Abraham their progenitor; He was the God of promises made to Abraham.  But the God of Abraham, their God, didn’t have a form; He did not have a physical aspect.  Physical representations of the gods of Egypt and the worship that was paid them involved seeing the god’s image and the giving of offerings.  How could a mere human hope to give Abraham’s God food and offerings if there was no place where His image dwelt; if He was unseen?

The instructions given to Moses were “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…”

Pretty clearly, the creating of any image from any source is forbidden.  But doesn't this prohibition stifle worship?  What does one do in order to pay respects to God?  How can I indicate that I believe He is God if there is no thing  to see and bow before? 

Can you picture this?  Having only ever seen people worship images, what would the worship of God look like?   The people of Israel had kept alive the promises and words given by God to the patriarchs; they knew God was to be honored. 

Now the people are a newly formed nation.  They are learning how to be free people, how to worship an unseen God.   But again the question remains, why did God forbid the use of images?

How could an image hurt or dishonor God?  By its very nature an image is a created thing;   created by a human who forms the shape and puts it in the place of honor.  To be fashioned by a person is to be man made… How can God be man made?  Even the likeness of God created by a person reduces God; as though His image can be reproduced.  As humans we are called to be worshipers, not creators of God.

An image is also limiting in physical scope.  Since God is not limited in His being, how can an image capture him, because an image with dimensions is inherently limiting.  The limits go beyond just size and mass. They extend to the very stuff of the image.  Should the image be gold or marble or both?  But God is neither a precious metal nor a beautiful rock.   All the materials available with which to fabricate an image are things produced by the God one is hoping to represent. Think about having some of your handiwork being used to express the totality of who you are.  That does not do justice to the entirety of you, and it cannot do it for God.

Temples are often used to house the image of a god.  This means the place where the god is located becomes the place of worship.  The god becomes tied to a specific place at a specific time.  This is limiting because the gods become associated with places and cultures, eras and the elements.   There is no way to make an image that reflects a universal and timeless god.  One ends up with a god attached to one nation or one people, one natural element,or one period in history. 

No matter what image is selected to represent the god; a bull, an owl, a nurturing woman; none can express the full extent of the power, wisdom and care of a God who is infinite in capacity.  Whatever representation is chosen focuses on the strength of the image while ignoring other aspects of the god.  For example, the golden calf made by Aaron in the desert shows the promise of strength and virility, but it indicates nothing of wisdom, love, mercy or justice.  Nothing created can show the full range of abilities or the character and person of the God of the universe.

 
I certainly don’t know all the reasons God had in forbidding the making of an image of Himself.  But I do know that when I create an idea of Him in my mind, I am making an image and so am limiting Him.  When I try to fit Him in a box of my making, so that He can be tamed, I am limiting Him.  When I ignore what He has told me of Himself and substitute what I want to believe, I have limited Him.  In effect each one of us limits God when we insist on defining Him.   “He just wants me to be happy.”  He doesn’t want me poor.”  “He wants me to be successful.”  Each time we create an image of God we are lying about Him because our image omits things that are true about God and adds things that are not true.    We are very good at glossing over the hard to understand parts of God because we don’t agree with or understand them.  We omit His purity, justice, omniscience and holiness when we sacrifice Him on the altar of our happiness and comfort.  We each need to step back, repent and remember HE is beyond our understanding, beyond our full knowledge.  He exists of and in Himself, we are because He is. Not the other way around.