Ten Commandments: No False Images Series

NO FALSE IMAGES—Exodus 20:4-6, 32:1-6

(I began with a children’s sermon: “Can you draw God? Why not? God is more than we can describe!”)

Read Exodus 20:1-6.

(Note to preacher: NIV 1984 has the unfortunate translation “idol” not “image,” which sounds more like a different god. NIV 2011 more correctly translates as “image.” If your translation is unclear, you might want to explain.)

Catholics and Lutherans take these as one commandments (splitting #10 to make a total of 10), but most Protestants take them as two: the first is “no other gods,” and the second is “no manmade image of God.”

It would seem that few of us would be in any danger of breaking this commandment! Do we take some of our kids’ Play Doh to make an image of God, so we can worship it? Is it wrong to have a cross or picture of Jesus on the wall?

Our images of God are more likely MENTAL IMAGES.

We all have mental images of God; even people who do not believe God exists have a mental image of the god they do not believe in. We can’t avoid mental images, but if our images depart from God’s revelation about himself, the results can be disastrous.

It took less than 40 days for the Israelites to break the commandment not to construct false images of God.

Read Exodus 32:1-6.

Moses has climbed up Mount Sinai to meet with God and receive the Ten Commandments, engraved on stone by God himself. He has been gone for 40 days and nights. There was smoke and fire on the mountain for the first seven days, but that has ended. The people are getting restless. Moses represents God to them, and Moses is nowhere in sight.

The people have been away from Egypt for only a short time, and they are still inclined to worship multiple gods. They “gather around” Aaron (not in a friendly way, I suppose), and demand, “Come, make us gods who will go before us…”

Aaron panics. He doesn’t yet have a written copy of the Ten Commandments, but he remembers very clearly the first words of God from the mountain, “You shall have no other gods before me.” What is he to do? He makes an executive decision: He will try to steer the worship of the people toward the true God.

Remember, Aaron is in panic mode. The people are out of control, and they are demanding that he make gods for them. So he forms a golden calf, and the people hear him say, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” Wow! How stupid can you get? Did this hunk of metal bring the ten plagues on the Egyptians, part the sea, destroy the Egyptian armies, supply water from a rock, and send manna daily? Yahweh (or Jehovah) did that!

While the people may have heard, “These are your gods…,” Aaron might have intended something different. In the Hebrew language, “el” is the word for god, and “elohim” is the plural. Since the true God is the ultimate God, he is almost always called “Elohim” in the Old Testament. (In Hebrew, the plural form magnifies intensity, implying the ultimate in god-ness.) So in Aaron’s mind, he may have thought he was pointing the people toward Elohim, the one true God. After all, he made only one bull, not many.

Aaron was trying to make a bridge between the demand of the people for gods (elohim), and the God who brought them out of Egypt (Elohim). He was hoping that when they gazed at the golden calf, they would think of the one true God, who brought them out of slavery by his mighty hand. In fact, after unveiling the golden calf, he said, “Tomorrow there will be a festival to Yahweh (or Jehovah),” using the name God himself had given to Moses.

If Aaron’s intentions were good, the result was disastrous. Aaron chose a young bull as an image of God, probably because a bull represented strength, potency, and life-giving power. He hoped the people would make the right connections: Yahweh is powerful, and Yahweh gives life. Unfortunately, the people made a different connection to the sexual potency of the bull: “So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.” (Exodus 32:6) The Hebrew word translated “revelry” is the same word used to describe Isaac romantically caressing his wife Rebekah. I think you get the drift of the kind of party this was.

False images of God lead to false ideas of morality.

One pastor tells of being on a plane with a young woman, who quite openly talked about activities that were both immoral and illegal. After listening for a while, he asked her, “How do you square your lifestyle with God’s will, his wisdom, and his word?” She replied, “Well, MY God is the grandfatherly type, who loves me and takes care of me and tells me I’m OK…He doesn’t much care what I do.” Her distorted image of God justified a destructive lifestyle.