This excerpt is from When Critics Ask: A Popular Handbook on Bible Difficulties (Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books, 1992). And idols are idols whether they are mental or metal. No finite image can be appropriately applied to the infinite God without qualification. Likewise, Jesus is not just any shepherd, but the Good Shepherd who gave His life for His sheep ( John 10:11 ). But each of these is appropriately qualified. THE USE OF IMAGES OR REPRESENTATIONS OF GODĮven language about God in the Bible contains images. The distinction between non-religious use of images and a religious use is important: That idolatry envisioned is evident from the fact they were instructed not to “bow down to them nor serve them” ( Ex. Rather, it was against using any image as an idol. Hence, there is no way in which the command to make them violated the commandment in Exodus 20.įinally, the prohibition in Exodus 20 is not against religious art as such, which includes things in heaven (angels) and on earth (humans or animals).
These cherubim were not given to Israel as images of God they were angels. In other words, they were not to worship any other God or any image of any god. 16).įurther, the prohibition is not against making any carved image for decorative purposes, but of those used in religious worship. Even the high priest went only once a year on the Day of Atonement ( Lev. First, there was no chance that the people of Israel would fall down before the cherubim in the most holy place, since they were forbidden to go in the holy place at any time. There are, then, several reasons why making the cherubim does not conflict with this command not to bow down to graven images.
Solution: The prohibition against making graven images was distinctly set in the context of worshiping idols. If making images of any heavenly object is wrong, then why did God command Moses to make some on the ark of the covenant? Nah.1 14 And the LORD hath given a commandment concerning thee, that no more of thy name be sown: out of the house of thy gods will I cut off the graven image and the molten image: I will make.
Problem: God clearly commanded in Exodus 20:4 : “You shall not make for yourself any carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath.” Yet here Moses is instructed by God to “make two cherubim of gold of hammered work” (v. 13 Thy graven images also will I cut off, and thy standing images out of the midst of thee and thou shalt no more worship the work of thine hands. Exodus 25:18 ff-If it is wrong to make graven images, why did God command Moses to make one?
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