Following the second commandment: Is our personal image of God accurate or idolary?
"You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth below," (Exodus 20:4) is the second commandment that God gives to Moses on Mt. Sinai. This commandment forbids creating and worshiping idols or images.
But if we look deeper, this commandment is also addressing our own personal image of God. Believers and non-believers alike have a tendency to create an idea of God in their minds that, while partially true, may not be biblically accurate. If the image of God that we create in our imagination is the one that we worship, could that be a form of idolatry?
One problem is that we often imagine God to be like Jesus, which he is, but we think of Jesus as only a meek, mild, gentle, and kind man. Yet it was Jesus who threw the merchants out of the temple and verbally confronted the religious leaders. He was slow to anger, but at times demonstrated severe judgement of others. Jesus was a combination of passion, power, and purity, which is exactly how God has revealed himself throughout the Bible. He is a jealous God, a just God, and a gracious God.
As finite beings, we cannot imagine the infinite God adequately because he is greater than we can ever comprehend. As a result, we tend to scale God down to a manageable size. The second commandment forbids us from imagining God to be like ourselves or lower than he actually is. Obeying the second commandment includes controlling our imaginations and accepting God as who he says he is and not as we prefer to think of him.
Comments
This is a really good article that asks a question commonly overlooked. I know myself at times can minimize God to my apprehension of him and I think this is common among a lot of believers. The key is to remember what the very nature of God is not what we think he is.
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