"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 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" (Exodus 20:4-6).
Though
this second Commandment is closely related to the first, yet there is a clear
distinction between them, which may be expressed in a variety of ways. As the
first Commandment concerns the choice of the true God as
our God, so the second tells of our actual profession of His worship; as the
former fixes the Object so this fixes the mode of religious worship. As in the
first commandment Jehovah had proclaimed Himself to be the true God, so here He
reveals His nature and how He is to be honored. "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image thou shalt
not bow down thyself to them." This commandment
strikes against a desire, or should we say a disease, which is deeply rooted in
the human heart, namely, to bring in some aids to the worship of God, beyond
those which He has appointed—material aids, things which can be perceived by
the senses. Nor is the reason for this difficult to find: God is incorporeal,
invisible, and can be realized only by a spiritual principle, and since that
principle is dead in fallen man, he naturally seeks that which accords with his
carnality. But how different is it with those who have been quickened by the
Holy Spirit. No one who truly knows God
as a living reality needs any images to aid his devotions; none who enjoys
daily communion with Christ requires any pictures of Him to help him to pray
and adore, for he conceives of Him by faith and not by
fancy.
"Thou
shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness." It is a
manifest straining of this precept to make it condemn all statuary and
paintings: it is not the ingenuity of making but the stupidity in the
worshipping of them which is condemned, as is clear from
the words "thou shalt not bow down thyself to them," and from the
fact that God Himself shortly afterwards ordered Israel to "make two
cherubim of gold of beaten work" for the mercy seat (Exodus 25:18) and
later the serpent of brass. Since God is a spiritual, invisible, and omnipotent
Being, to represent Him as being of a material and limited form is a falsehood
and an insult to His majesty. Under this most extreme
corruption of mode—image worship—all erroneous modes of Divine homage are here
forbidden. The legitimate worship of God must not be profaned by any
superstitious rites. This second Commandment is but the negative way of saying
"God
is Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in
spirit and in truth" (John 4:24).
If it
be asked, what are the duties here required? The answer is this: "The receiving, observing,
and keeping pure and entire, all such religious worship and ordinances as God
has instituted in His Word (Deuteronomy 32:46, 47; Matthew
28:20; Acts 2:42; 1 Timothy 6:13, 14); particularly prayer and thanksgiving in
the name of Christ (Philippians 4:6, Ephesians 5:20); the reading, preaching,
and hearing of the Word (Deuteronomy 17:18, 19; Acts 15:21; 2 Timothy 4:2,
etc.); the
administration
and receiving of the sacraments (Matthew 28:19; 1 Corinthians 11:21-30); church
government and discipline (Matthew 18:15, 17; 16:19; 1
Corinthians 5); the ministry and maintenance thereof (Ephesians 4:11, 12,
etc.); religious fasting (1 Corinthians 8:5); swearing by the name of God
(Deuteronomy 6:13), and vowing unto Him (Isaiah 19:21; Psalm 76:11); as also
the disapproving, detesting, opposing, all false worship (Acts 16:16, 17,
etc.); and according to each one’s place and calling, removing
it, and all monuments of idolatry (Deuteronomy 7:5; Isaiah
30:22)"—Westminster Confession of Faith.
To
this we would simply add, there is required of us a diligent preparation before
we enter upon any holy exercise (Ecclesiastes 5:1) and a right disposition of
mind in the act itself. For example, we must not hear or
read the Word just to satisfy curiosity, but that we may learn how better to
please God.
In the
forbidding of images God by parity of reason prohibits all other modes and means of worship
not appointed by Him. Every form of worship, even of the true God Himself,
which is contrary to or diverse from what the Lord has
prescribed in His Word, and which is called by the apostle "will
worship" (Colossians 2:23), together with all corruptions of the true
worship of God and all inclinations of heart toward superstition in the service
of God are reprehended by this Commandment. No scope whatever is here permitted
to the inventive faculty of man. Christ condemned the
religious washing of the hands, because it was a human addition to the Divine
regulations. In like manner this Commandment denounces the modern passion for
ritualism (the dressing up of simplicity in Divine worship), as also the
magical virtues ascribed to, or even the special influences of, the Lord’s
Supper, still more so the use of a crucifix. So also it condemns a neglect of
God’s worship, the leaving undone the service which God has
commanded.
The
Scriptures have set us bounds for worship, to which we must not add, and from
which we must not diminish. In the application of this principle we need to
distinguish sharply between the substantials and the
incidentals of worship. Anything which men seek to impose upon us as a part of
Divine worship, if it be not expressly required of us in the Scriptures—such as
bowing the knee at the name of Jesus, crossing ourselves, etc.—is to be
abominated. But if certain circumstantials and modifications of worship are
practiced by those with whom we meet, even though there be
no express Scripture for them, they are to be submitted unto by us, providing
they are such things as tend to decency and order and distract not from the
solemnity and devotion of spiritual worship. That was a wise rule inculcated by
Ambrose: "If thou will neither give offense nor take offense, conform
thyself to all the lawful customs of the churches where thou comest." It
is a grievous breaking of this commandment if we neglect
any of the ordinances of worship which God has appointed. So too if we engage
in the same hypocritically, with coldness of affection, wanderings of mind,
lack of holy zeal, or in unbelief, honoring God with our lips while our hearts
are far from Him.
This
Commandment is enforced by three reasons. The first is drawn from the Person who
pronounces judgment upon those who break it. He is described by His
relationship, "thy God"; by the might of His power, for the Hebrew
word for "God" here is "the Strong One", able to vindicate
His honor and avenge all insults thereto; and by a similitude taken from the
state of wedlock, wherein unfaithfulness results in summary
punishment—He is a "jealous God." It is the Lord speaking after the
manner of men, intimating that He will not spare those who mock Him.
"They
provoked Him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked they Him
to anger.... They have moved Me to jealousy with that which
is not God" (Deuteronomy 32:16-21 ff).
Secondly, a
sore judgment is threatened: "visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon
the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me."
"Visiting" is a figurative expression, which signifies
that after a space of time, in which God appears to have taken no notice or to
have forgotten, He then shows by His providences that He has observed the evil ways and doings
of men.
"Shall
I not visit for these things? saith the Lord: and shall not My soul be avenged
on such a nation as this?" (Jeremiah 5:9, and cf.
32:18; Matthew 23:34-36).
This
was designed to deter men from idolatry by an appeal to their natural
affections. "The curse of the Lord righteously rests not only on the
person of an impious man, but also on the whole of his
family" (John Calvin). It is a terrible thing to pass on to children a
false conception of God, either by precept or by example. The penalty inflicted
corresponds to the crime: it is not only that God punishes the child for the
offenses committed by the parents, but that He gives them over unto the same
transgressions and then deals with them accordingly, for the example of parents
is not sufficient warrant for us to commit sin.
Thirdly, there
is a most blessed encouragement to obedience, in the form of a gracious
promise: "Showing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me, and keep My
commandments." To the same effect He assures us,
"The
just man walketh in his integrity: his children are blessed after him"
(Proverbs 20:7).
Love
for God is evidenced by a keeping of His commandments. Papists contend that
their use of images is with the object of promoting love,
by keeping a visible image before them as an aid; but God says it is because
they hate
Him. This promise
to show mercy unto thousands of the descendants of those who truly love God
does not express a universal principle, as is clear from the cases of Isaac
having a godless Esau and David an Absalom. "The Legislator never intended
to establish in this case such an invariable rule as would
derogate from His own free choice...When the Lord exhibits one example of this
blessing, He affords a proof of His constant and perpetual favor to His
worshippers" (Calvin). Observe that here, as elsewhere in Scripture (Jude
14, for example), God speaks of "thousands" (and not "millions," as men so
often do) of them that love Him and who manifest the
genuineness of their love by keeping His commandments. His flock is but a
"little" one (Luke 12:32). What cause for thanksgiving unto God have
those who are born of pious parents, whose parents treasure up not wrath for
them, but prayers!