In Deuteronomy 4:15-24, Moses gave a detailed charge to the Israelites on idolatry. He told them that they should not try to physically represent God or serve anything they assume to represent him.
In the preceding verses, he reminded them of God’s righteous judgment on those who followed Baalpeor. He then spoke of the rare encounter they enjoyed at Mountain Horeb – where they heard the voice of God and saw the mountain blazing. However, they NEVER saw any form or shape that looked like God.
God knows and understands humans – he is our creator. He knows that as visible beings, we want to keep the memory of things we consider special, whether negative or positive. So, he warned us never to make a figure representing him. That would be idolatry.
Often, to immortalise divine encounters, we idolise them in physical, visible forms. We are eager to capture what we saw, heard, felt, and imagined in a tangible form.
Afterwards, we try to return to that experience through the things we created instead of going to God directly. We want to recreate and relive the experience through those mediums.
This is why some people worship images of Mary, Jesus, angels, and various saints, thinking they will reach God through them. But that’s falsehood and idolatry. God frowns on it. He wants us to come to him directly.
It’s interesting to note that despite the multiple encounters that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had with God, many visibly seeing God and angels, none of these Patriarchs made a graven image of God.
What can I say about the apostles who were with Jesus for three years and didn’t get a blacksmith to build anything representing Jesus that they would carry about or consult? Whenever they wanted to hear from God, they prayed and sang and answers came.
Beloved, God wants us to fear and to return to him daily, not the image of Him, an idea of Him or a sound of him. He wants to keep showing himself to the person who comes to him because there are inexhaustible depths and dimensions of him. He showed himself to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as the Almighty God, but when he came to Moses, he showed himself as Jehovah (Exodus 6:3). In our day, he has manifested himself through Jesus Christ (Hebrews 1:1-3).
No created thing, living and non, no matter how great and mighty compares to him. Don’t make any similitude of God, rather come to Him directly for daily encounters.
An image to capture divine encounters may feel good spiritually, but is God there? You saw no similitude of God, so don’t make any graven image that you think looks like Him.
God bless and keep you.
