No Other Image

Exodus 20:4 “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.”

Idolatry is one of the most misunderstood issue in religion. I read this little explanation on the reasons for "making an image" to worship is idolatry. There are several reasons why idolatry is forbidden. The most obvious it that the triune Creator is too great to attempt to visualize. There is no thing or experience in mortal human existence that can represent the immortal and invisible Creator. Thus, God sees any effort to “picture” Him (idolatry) as rebellion. It does not matter how we may attempt to “see” God. “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” are all totally incapable of expressing God’s person.

 

Romans 1:18-32 reveals the heart of an idolater. Those who hold the truth in unrighteousness will not glorify God as God, even though they know Him by the creation itself. Instead, they change God’s inestimable glory into an earthly creature and consciously change God’s truth into a lie. Thus, by open choice and willing rebellion, idolators worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator, thereby abandoning God for a despicable and unnatural lust, for an ungodliness that, in turn, causes them to despise the very thought of God in their knowledge. Ultimately, the only pleasure they can find is among other idolaters.

 

Paul taught the “philosophers” in Acts 17:22-29 that the heart of idolatry is rejection of God as Creator. Idolatry, in any form or practice, strikes at the heart of salvation, because “he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him” Hebrews 11:6.