Tag: immortal God

42.v. “Wilderness” – 7.d. Sinai – “You shall not make for yourself a carved image”

 

Exodus 20:4  “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

 Leviticus 19:4    Do not turn to idols or make for yourselves any gods of cast metal: I am the LORD your God.

 Leviticus 26:1    “You shall not make idols for yourselves or erect an image or pillar, and you shall not set up a figured stone in your land to bow down to it, for I am the LORD your God.

 Deuteronomy 4:15  “Therefore watch yourselves very carefully.

 Deuteronomy 4:23  Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you

 Deuteronomy 27:15   “‘Cursed be the man who makes a carved or cast metal image, an abomination to the LORD, a thing made by the hands of a craftsman, and sets it up in secret.’

 Psalms 97:7    All worshipers of images are put to shame, who make their boast in worthless idols;

 Isaiah 42:8   I am the LORD; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols.

 Isaiah 44:9   All who fashion idols are nothing, and the things they delight in do not profit. Their witnesses neither see nor know, that they may be put to shame.

 Isaiah 45:16    All of them are put to shame and confounded; the makers of idols go in confusion together.

 Jeremiah 10:3  for the customs of the peoples are vanity. 

 Jeremiah 10:8-9    They are both stupid and foolish; the instruction of idols is but wood!

 Romans 1:23   and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

 Revelation 9:20    The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk,

God would have no likeness made of Him, no representation that might cloud the conception of His entire separation from matter, His purely spiritual essence. (Ellicott)

As the first commandment forbids the worship of any false god, seen or unseen, it is here forbidden to worship an image of any sort, whether the figure of a false deity or one in any way symbolic of Yahweh. (Barnes)

“After declaring in the first commandment who was the true God, He commanded that He alone should be worshipped; and now He defines what is His lawful worship” (Calvin). “Thou shalt not make to thyself a likeness and any form of that which is in heaven above,” etc. עשׂה is construed with a double accusative, so that the literal rendering would be “make, as a likeness and any form, that which is in heaven,” (Brown)

There is no God but Me. Don’t worship or place in worship anything but Me. Also, don’t make an image of Me or anything else, and indeed don’t worship it. We may find this type of worship foolish and even a bit old fashion. No one in the western world would do anything like this.  Maybe some satan worshipers or others hope to find peace of mind through some eastern religion. For the most part, we think this is foolish to fashion an idol and place it in our home or church to worship it. The western world is far above this, but I might say, much further away from knowing God. The western world, for the most part, denies God, things of God, and the Word of God. They say there is no God and then live a life that is void of Him and any worship of Him.  The idolaters at least try to have a god to serve – howbeit ever so wrong and God-defying.  No, the western world is a place of self-reliant enlightenment.  In this, they find what the world has to offer pleasing and though it never seems to satisfy an inner hunger, they keep chasing after it. Their idol is things of this world and what it has to offer. Though they may not make it an animate object of worship, it is an inanimate object of worship.  

Note the verses above to those who deny and reject God and His commandments.

12.j. “Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them.”

Habakkuk 2:18  “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. Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Come to life!’ Or to lifeless stone, ‘Wake up!’ Can it give guidance? It is covered with gold and silver; there is no breath in it.” The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him.

Isaiah 42:17     They are turned back and utterly put to shame, who trust in carved idols, who say to metal images, “You are our gods.”

Jeremiah 10:3-5     for the customs of the peoples are vanity. A tree from the forest is cut down and worked with an axe by the hands of a craftsman.  They decorate it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so that it cannot move.  Their idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field, and they cannot speak; they have to be carried, for they cannot walk. Do not be afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good.”

Jeremiah 10:14-15    Every man is stupid and without knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols, for his images are false, and there is no breath in them.  They are worthless, a work of delusion; at the time of their punishment they shall perish.

Romans 1:23-25     and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.  Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,  because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

Psalms 115:4-8     Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands.  They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see.  They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell.  They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; and they do not make a sound in their throat.  Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them.

Isaiah 44:14-20    He cuts down cedars, or he chooses a cypress tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it.  Then it becomes fuel for a man. He takes a part of it and warms himself; he kindles a fire and bakes bread. Also he makes a god and worships it; he makes it an idol and falls down before it.  Half of it he burns in the fire. Over the half he eats meat; he roasts it and is satisfied. Also he warms himself and says, “Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire!”  And the rest of it he makes into a god, his idol, and falls down to it and worships it. He prays to it and says, “Deliver me, for you are my god!”  They know not, nor do they discern, for he has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, and their hearts, so that they cannot understand.  No one considers, nor is there knowledge or discernment to say, “Half of it I burned in the fire; I also baked bread on its coals; I roasted meat and have eaten. And shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?”  He feeds on ashes; a deluded heart has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say, “Is there not a lie in my right hand?”

What is in the heart of man that they should even consider the need for an idol to worship?  Why is there a desire at all?  What is it they hope to gain by it?  Ecclesiastes 3:11 “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”  Romans 1:19-20   “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.  For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”  Romans 1:28  “And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.”

Man is without excuse.  God makes Himself known to man.  He has shown them.  He has also given man the free choice to worship, honor, and glorify Him alone. Yet, man chooses to deny God and intentionally choose to make and worship man-made idols.  There is severe consequences for this choice both in this life and in eternity.  No excuse can be given.  No excuse will be accepted.  The intentional choice to deny God and honor, glorify, and worship Him has a beginning in the heart of every man that does so.  In this beginning, they make an intentional choice of self-reliance in what their hands have made or have been made by the hands of others.  They become more and more blind and deaf to God and things of God’s.  God is not mocked.  Man will reap the rewards of their decisions.  We do well to make sure things of this world do not become idols in our heart and mind.  God wants all our heart, mind, soul, and strength.