Devotional #97

Question 97. Are images then not at all to be made?

Answer: God neither can, nor may be represented by any means (a): but as to creatures; though they may be represented, yet God forbids to make, or have any resemblance of them, either in order to worship them or to serve God by them (b).

(a) Isaiah 40:25: To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One.

(b) Exodus 23:24-25: you shall not bow down to their gods nor serve them, nor do as they do, but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their pillars in pieces. You shall serve the LORD your God, and he will bless your bread and your water, and I will take sickness away from among you.
Exodus 34:13-14, 17: You shall tear down their altars and break their pillars and cut down their Asherim (for you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God) . . .you shall not make for yourself any gods of cast metal.”
Numbers 33:52: then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you and destroy all their figured stones and destroy all their metal images and demolish all their high places.
Deuteronomy 7:5: But thus shall you deal with them: you shall break down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and chop down their Asherim and burn their carved images with fire.
Deuteronomy 12:3: You shall tear down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and burn their Asherim with fire. You shall chop down the carved images of their gods and destroy their name out of that place.
Deuteronomy 16:21: “You shall not plant any tree as an Asherah beside the altar of the LORD your God that you shall make.
2 Kings 18:3-4: And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that David his father had done. He removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah. And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan).

For your personal reflection:
The first commandment speaks with regard to the proper object of worship – God, alone.  The second commandment speaks of the manner in which we worship.  Can images of God detract from, or actually replace, true worship of God?  Why?  Why not?