Graven Images

The Second Commandment and the Question of Graven Images

Let's pray and get started, if you want to open up your Bible, Exodus chapter 20. And you can put a finger on Numbers 21, we're going to kind of attack a question. But let's pray. Lord Jesus, again, we ask that You would send Your Spirit upon us, so that we may understand Your Word.

Help us to understand what it is that You've revealed, and in understanding Your revelation, that we may know You, know what You have done for us, and know what it means to walk in the freedom of the gospel, so that we may keep Your law.

We ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. All right, Exodus chapter 20. Now, those of you who've spent any time in, let's say, Baptist churches, or just evangelical churches, or kind of Calvinist churches, what is the second commandment, according to them?

Love yourself more than the God.

Love yourself more than God. No, that would be quite weird. Okay, that would...

Not make idols.

Ah, there we go, not make idols. In the Reformed wing of the Christian church, the second commandment is this. You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers and the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love and keep my commandments.

So, in the Reformed camp, general evangelical camp, the second commandment is you shall not make for yourself any graven images. What's the second commandment in Luther's small catechism? Do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.

What's wrong with us? Why aren't we getting with the program? Can't you just see here? We got to get rid of all graven images. That's the second commandment. And this actually gets to, you know, one of the major differences in the Protestant Reformation between Lutherans and those in the general Reformed or Anabaptist wings of the Protestant Reformation.

And that is that the Lutherans have kept the historic numbering of the Ten Commandments and the Reformed camp has, let's just say, they're working with a modified version of the Ten Commandments. So, if you're familiar with the early history of the Presbyterian church, and there are still some churches like this within the Presbyterian movement, what are they known for?

Any stained glass? What did you say, staunch? They're known for staunchness, okay? In many of the ancient Presbyterian churches, if you will go into their prayer house, white walls, no stained glass, any kind of liturgical art at all.

No, no depictions of Jesus on the cross, none of that. And they go back to this and they say, the commandment is you should not make for yourself any graven images. So this is their understanding of the Second Commandment.

And they think this is the Second Commandment. We would beg to differ and we'd let Scripture interpret Scripture so that you can understand. So the question is, there we have Norwegian Jesus up there with his light feathery hair.

I mean, he'd really look good in puka shells and some surfboard shorts, but anyway, I grew up in Southern California, he really looks like he blends. Anyway, but there's Norwegian Jesus. Now, are we sinning by having liturgical art and a depiction of Christ in our church?

If we were to have a cross with the actual body of Christ on it, it goes from being a cross to being a crucifix. Is that sinful? No, it's not. But the question is, well, how do we know that it's not sinful?

Are you prepared to be able to like say, listen, let's open up the Bible and let's compare this idea. Now, those of you who keep track of what's going on in popular, you know, American Christianity, maybe you listen to Christian radio.

What's the big movie that came out this week? The Shack. Oofta is right. The Shack. Do I need to do a lesson on why, what's wrong with that? Do I need, all I need to say is like, okay, listen, God the Father is depicted as a woman.

Already we've got a problem. I mean, the theology in this book is a train wreck. And the theology that has come into the movie because it's based on the book is a train wreck. And William Paul Young is not a sound Bible teacher.

He is a postmodern emergent. Yeah, he's a postmodern emergent. And I would say he's got his own thing going on. He's got his own theology.

He was on the radio or something.

Yeah, if he shows up and does a public appearance, I'd love to be in the audience just to be able to ask a question.

But yeah, so he was talking about how this came about and why it came about and everything.

Yeah, so there are some people, there are some within visible Christianity, we'll kind of put it in that term, who will not go to see the movie and it has nothing to do with the theology of William Paul Young.

You know what it has to do with? It has to do with the fact that there's human beings playing the character of God. And they would see that as a breaking of their understanding of the second commandment, making a graven image.

So with that group, you can't go and see The Passion of the Christ. You can't watch the Jesus movie. And if you're really consistent, not only do you not have Jesus on the cross, you probably don't even have a cross.

And those little nativity scenes where they have little baby Jesus, you can't do that either. That's a graven image. Now I want to take a look at the commandment itself. And we're going to take a look at what it's prohibiting and what it's not.

And we're going to work with this assumption. Is there ever a time in Scripture where God commands somebody to sin? No, that's contrary to the character of God. God tempts no one. He would never command somebody to sin.

So keep that in mind. Alright, so here's the commandment. Let's pay attention to the details. You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth.

I'm going to pause there because you're going to notice that there's a period. If this were a blanket commandment against all graven images, let's say for instance that maybe you grew up in California and you have a thing for the humpback whales because everybody loves the humpback whales.

They're quite majestic. If you've ever gone on a whale sightseeing tour and seen them, they're ginormous. They're huge and they smell bad too. You don't want to get too close to the blowhole. That's just what I'm saying here.

They don't use little mints. They need Tic Tacs like by the ton. But anyway, it kind of smells fishy. But let's say you have a thing for the humpback whales and you decide that you are going to have on your wall artwork dedicated to showing humpback whales in their native habitat.

So maybe you have this beautiful majestic picture of a humpback whale swimming through the kelp beds off the coast of California. And you can see the light beams coming through the water. If this was a blanket prohibition against that, would that be a sin to have that on your wall?

Yes, absolutely. How about a carved wooden image of a humpback whale majestically sitting as the centerpiece of your coffee table? Yeah, that would actually be prohibited. Now that's on the earth beneath.

But what if the thing you really loved were elephants? And so you had pictures of elephants and carved elephants in your room and you kind of had the Africa motif going on in your house. Would that be permitted?

No.

What about if you're into chubby little cherubim? I don't know why cherubim are always chubby. But you get those little chubby baby cherubim with the little wings?

They're so cute.

The precious moments, chubby cherubim. Is that forbidden as well?

Okay.

So if we were to look at this just without any paying attention to details, just stark, this is the way it's going to be, that means pretty much.

All artwork.

Done.

You can't have it. Oh yeah, no stuffed animals. Those have got to go. Although, I'm not sure if that is actually a creature of the deep.

But it's something and she loves it.

Right, yeah. Yes?

I've been to the Hutterite colony.

Oh yeah.

Okay, so I've been in their church and it is pews.

Yeah.

That's it. There's no music. There is nothing. Their homes, there is nothing on the walls. They do have family pictures but they basically have them put aside. I mean, there is nothing. So, and I'm trying to think of what their Lutheran or whatever it is and I don't know what they are.

But this, they're taking it.

They're taking this kind of at face value without any.

Definition. Because when they're in church, they cannot have anything to look at because then you're not focusing on God. Because they say, well, there's a picture of Jesus and all, the cross. They say, no, because you're looking at something and you're thinking about something and you're not thinking.

About God.

Now, there is a religion that is notorious in this sense, as far as the graven images and images regarding these things. And that's Islam. Most of the artwork of Islam is geometric patterns. Have you noticed that?

Is that how come they do all that fancy stuff on their hands?

That's actually, I think, Indian culture. It's Muslim?

Okay.

No, they're not tattoos. They're kind of like temporary.

But they use all the drawing.

And it's all geometric. It's all geometric. So, at face value, if we believe this is the second commandment, all artwork, gone. But then the commandment goes on. So, you shall not make for yourself a carved image of any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth.

And here's the next part. You shall not bow down to them to serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers and the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

And so, it's the second part of this that makes us believe, along with kind of the church, Catholic for millennia, that this is actually a subset of the commandment, you will have no other gods before me.

Does that make sense? This isn't a stand-alone commandment. This is, in fact, a subset of the first commandment, having no other gods before me. Now, how do we know this? Can we say this confidently?

Well, I want you to open up to Numbers 21, and we're going to work with the assumption that God would never command someone to.

Sin.

That's contrary to the nature of God. Numbers 21, starting at verse 4, we hear this shocking report about the children of Israel in the wilderness. Are you ready? Numbers 21, verse 4. From Mount Hor, they set out by the way to the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom, and the people became impatient on the way, and the people spoke against Moses and against God.

Here's how it went, and I know this is the tone.

Why have you brought us out here in Egypt to die in the wilderness?

We know this is true because we've all been in this car, right?

There's no food, no water. We loathe this manna.

So, the Lord's solution is the Lord sent fiery serpents. Nechashim Seraphim in the Hebrew. Among the people, these are the bronze desert adders, and one of the reasons they're called fiery serpents is because if they bite you, the venom literally makes you feel like you're on fire from the inside out.

That's one of the ways that neurotoxin works.

Okay,.

So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people. They bit the people so that many of the people of Israel died, and the people came to Moses and said, we've sinned. We've spoken against Yahweh and against you.

Pray to the Lord that He take away the serpents from us. So Moses prayed. He prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, make a fiery serpent. Set it on a pole. Everyone who is bitten when he sees it shall live.

So, Moses said, God, the second commandment says, you shall not make a graven image. Why would you have me do that? Notice that's not what the text says.

Yeah,.

That's the Roseboro version here to make a point. Notice, no protest on the part of Moses. Moses doesn't go, dude, no, man, second commandment, man. He doesn't do that. Moses goes, and he made a bronze serpent.

He set it on a pole, and if the serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. It is a nechashim seraphim, one of the creatures of the earth.

Yeah.

If you just take that subset of the first commandment in a blanket way, this would have been sinful for Moses to make, and it would have made God contradict Himself. So the issue then is this. It's not that Scripture forbids artwork, paintings, stained glass that depict Jesus or one of the apostles or the saints or one of the stories of the Bible.

Scripture does not forbid that. What Scripture does forbid is the creation of an image for the purpose of bowing down and worshiping it as if it were God. Does that make sense? Now, keep this in mind.

Does anyone know the fate?

Yes.

I love what you just said there. We're going on a gospel detour here. Hang on a second here. You just said that in your Bible it has a picture of the bronze serpent, and it looks like it's crucified, that it's on a crucifix.

Do you know why? Let me show you another text. Go with me to John chapter 3. John chapter 3. This is our gospel text for next Sunday. This is the famous Nick at Night passage of Scripture. Nicodemus at Night.

Let's do this in context because I think the context is going to be very helpful. John 3 verse 1. There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus at night.

You see, this is the Nick at Night passage. This man came to Jesus by night and said, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher from God, for no one can do the signs that you do unless God is with him.

And then.

Jesus said to him, Amen, Amen. I say to you, unless one is born, and I'm going to give the Greek word here. It's important to review this. The Greek word is anothen. Unless one is.

Anothen,.

He cannot see the kingdom of God. Now, why did I just not translate the word? Here's the reason why. The Greek word anothen can mean one of two things, and it can only mean one of two things. Are you ready?

It can either mean born from above, or it can mean born again. That's its only two definitions. Which one do you think Jesus is talking about? From above. But watch what Nicodemus thinks. He thinks he's saying born again.

Jesus said, unless you are anothen, born, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to him, how can a man be born when he's old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? That's silly.

Jesus answered, Amen, Amen. I truly say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Do not marvel that I have said to you you must be born again. Actually, that you must be anothen. Is it born again or born from above? From above. Because if you're born of the Spirit, you're born from where?

From above. The wind blows where it wishes. You hear its sound. You do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. So Nicodemus said, how can these things be?

Jesus answered him, are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Amen, Amen. I say to you, we speak of what we know, we bear witness of what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony.

If I have told you of earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you of heavenly things? Notice now Jesus is really clear. He's talking about above. No one has ascended into heaven except he who has descended from heaven, the Son of Man.

That's Jesus' favorite name for himself. And here's the important verse. Watch this. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.

In other words, that serpent in the wilderness is a type in shadow of Jesus. And here's how the typology works. Children of Israel, they sin against God. God sends a curse. They're bitten by serpents.

Moses prays. God doesn't take away the curse. He saves them through the curse by sticking a snake on a crucifix, on a cross. And if you look at it, then you're saved. You won't die. We, we read this in our Old Testament text today, because of the serpent in the Garden of Eden, we are all snakebit.

If you're not sure about this, the perfect way to test to see whether or not you're snakebit is to read the Ten Commandments and ask this simple question. Have I kept these perfectly? If you haven't kept these perfectly, you are snakebit.

So, how is it that we, being snakebit by the, watch this, fiery serpent, the serpent who's going to spend eternity in the fires of hell, how is it that we, being snakebit by the fiery serpent, are saved?

Well, by believing in Jesus. We look to the one who was put on the tree, just like that serpent. And so the idea then is that the bronze serpent is a depiction of a curse and Jesus becomes a curse for us because it says in Scripture, cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.

So then the idea then, your picture, your depiction of that serpent on a cross, you said it looks like a crucifix? It does, and the reason why is because it did, and it's supposed to, because that's a picture of Jesus that we see in Numbers 21.

Yes?

It seems like those people assaulted a snake on the altar. They would be tempted to worship that.

Because it's healing them. Now it's funny that you would say that.

But you shouldn't be worshiping that because it's an image.

Okay, see now it's funny that you would say that because it's like you read my mind. We're like on the same wavelength, dude. So here's the issue. Was Moses sinning by obeying God to make a graven image?

Was God commanding Moses to sin? No. So this helps us understand that this subset of the first commandment is not a stand-alone commandment. It's a subset of the first, you will have to know they're gods, and the making of the graven images is in the context of.

Idolatry.

That's the context. Now, it just so happens that, well, the children of Israel did end up falling off the rails. Let me explain. 2 Kings 18. Let's find out the fate of this bronze serpent. In the third year of Hosea, son of Elah, king of Israel, Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz, the king of Judah, began to reign.

He was 25 years old when he began to reign. He reigned 29 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Abi, the daughter of Zechariah, 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, broke the pillars, cut down the Asherah, and broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made. For until those days, the people of Israel had made offerings to it and called it Nahushtan,.

Which sounds.

A lot like bronze serpent. So there you go. So you'll notice.

What was.

Given as gift, what was given as a blessing to get the children of Israel through the curse. They, in their wickedness, turned it into an idol and as a result of that, God had to take the gift away from them.

So Moses didn't sin in making the bronze serpent. God did not command Moses to sin, but the later generations did sin when they said, Oh, this is Nahushtan. Oh, we're going to make offerings to Nahushtan.

And they turned it into an idol. And at that point, it's time to take your toy away. And the right thing to do would be destroy it. So the idea then is that we see that artwork, depictions of saints, whatever, that these can be good gifts used for the purpose of discipleship, instruction, embellishing and helping to teach the faith, or they can become something that is abused and crosses the line into idolatry.

And the issue here, and you'll notice this then, that within the Reformed and the Anabaptist wings of the Protestant movement, I think that they were really, truly overreacting to very real idolatry that was taking place in the churches in the medieval period.

I.

Don't know how else to describe some of the things I've seen happening in particular churches regarding their religious heart. And so this is an overreaction. Now keep this in mind. The opposite error of an error is still an error.

Two wrongs never make a right. But see, we as human beings oftentimes, we have this thing that we do. We see something that's wrong. And we not only see that it's wrong, we have a visceral, emotional sense of, I can't stand this thing, I hate it.

And so our solution is to react in such a way that we end up in the opposite error. Now I'm going to give you an example. Let me give you a text first, so we're not doing this controversially. 1 Corinthians 11.

This is one of the easier passages to kind of bear this out. 1 Corinthians 11, verse 17. The Apostle Paul writing to the church in Corinth says this. They're abusing the Lord's Supper, by the way. It's so bad.

It's so bad that the poor are being exed out of receiving the Lord's Supper. Could you imagine if Kongsvinger ordered itself in the pews based upon how much money you make? You poor people, you're in the back pews.

We need to see your W2s and then we're going to figure out where you're going to get to sit. And then when it comes time for the Lord's Supper, if you're not making a particular amount of money, we're going to make sure that you don't get to the Lord's Supper.

And here's how we're going to make sure of it. When we get up there, we're going to eat and drink the whole thing, even if that means we're getting inebriated. I mean, that's really messed up. I've heard of some messed up churches but not quite like this.

So here's what he says in the following instructions, I do not commend you because when you come together, it is not for the better, it's for the worse. For in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and I believe it in part.

For there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. When you come together, it is not the Lord's Supper that you eat, for in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal.

One goes hungry, another gets drunk, and his exclamation is, what? Do you not have houses to eat and drink in, or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you?

Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not. Now, real quick, here was the Lord's Supper wine or grape juice? How do you know?

There,.

In this text. Was it wine or grape juice? Wine. And you know this because they got drunk. Now, I bring this up to kind of make this point. In Christianity, there are some who say that if alcohol ever crosses your lips, that would be a sin.

And they judge people accordingly. So, oh, you're a Christian who enjoys a beer with dinner sometimes and has wine. Well,.

Hmm,.

You're not really a Christian now, are you? On the other end, you have the libertines, the antinomians, who basically say, listen, Christ has set us free. We're forgiven. So, let's party like it's 1999.

Who cares if I can't drive home? Because Jesus loves me. Are either of those positions biblical?

What.

Does Scripture teach us?

That.

Alcohol, like many things, is a gift given by God.

So is food.

But any of God's gifts can turn into an idol. And that includes alcohol. It includes sex. It also includes art. And food. Oh, yeah. That's right. Oh, yeah. Yeah, there's this wonderful documentary called How Beer Saved the World.

And I'm not joking. I mean, it's a very modern thing to be able to drink water without dying or getting really sick from it. And drinking alcohol was a very important part of the ancient world to keep you from actually getting dysentery and things like that.

Because drinking the water.

Would get you killed.

There's just no way around it. So here's the idea. What is the prohibition when it comes to this gift? The prohibition is getting drunk. Taking this gift to the point where you are hammered is absolutely forbidden by Scripture.

But oftentimes what ends up happening in Christianity is because we live in times where we see people.

Abuse a gift.

What was prohibition? You know what prohibition was? Prohibition was an overreaction to the drunkenness of basically the pioneer days of America. Do the history about this area. What were the settlers doing in the dead of winter?

Drinking.

Themselves under the table. There was nothing else to do. There was no television. I have an idea. Let's drink a whole thing of scotch. See what happens. But what also happened as a result of that alcoholism.

Listen to the.

Stories of the people who had family members here. What do they tell the stories about? Abuse and beatings and yelling and screaming and even sexual abuse that go along with it. This is the dark seedy past of the American frontier.

And what's the reaction against it? Prohibition. Fine. We're going to get rid of the whole thing.

Now.

You can't have no alcohol. How long did that last? It didn't last at all. So we as human beings oftentimes we overreact to something that's wrong. But always remember the opposite error of an error is still an error.

So when you take God's good gifts and abuse them, that's sin. When you take God's gifts and you say, I'm going to make my own law. I'm now going to create a man-made rule that says you're not even a Christian unless you obey what we believe regarding these things.

That's equally a sin. Let me give you a governing text here also. And this will be as we talk about this concept. I want you to look at Romans 4 .15. Kind of a governing concept here. Romans 4 .15. Here's what it says.

The law.

Brings wrath. But where there is no law, there is no transgression. Where there is no law, there is no transgression. So let me ask.

You. As.

Christians, are we allowed to play cards?

Never mind.

Well, what card game are you playing?

That was a sin.

Yes, it was. That's right. Yeah, that's right. I mean...

This was the.

Wish.

Yeah.

I am not making this up. I had friends in high school. I would go to my friends' homes. And there's their straight-laced mother, Stepford Wife-esque type woman and their straight-laced father. And I would go into the room and we'd be talking or doing our thing.

And then my friend would go like this. And they'd pull out a baggie. And the baggie didn't have marijuana or cocaine in it. The baggie had bicycle.

Playing cards.

And it's like, whoa.

And they couldn't.

Go to dances. That's right.

They couldn't listen to music.

They couldn't play cards. That's right.

They couldn't go to the movies.

You couldn't hold dice either. You couldn't have dice.

Very sinning.

I burned. I burned the Beatles' White Album.

Shame. Oh.

I've repented of this. Okay, so here's the idea. Does a Christian have freedom to play cards? Does a Christian have freedom to listen to the Beatles? Of course. Are you not a Christian if you play cards?

Yeah. Are you a Christian if you play cards? You can do it either way.

Okay.

No.

See, here's the deal.

Okay.

This falls under the category of freedom. And so what I'm trying to explain to you is that there are certain gifts that we have freedom. Now, let me talk about sex real quick. Because our culture is like obsessed with sex.

I don't understand why everyone's so obsessed with sex. It just doesn't make any sense. But in our culture, I mean, the young kids coming up, the millennials, have absolutely no morals whatsoever when it comes to sex.

Now, is the solution, well, we as Christians well, we just hate it. Sex is nah!

No!

The idea is this. We understand that Scripture teaches that this is a gift from God and it is to be used in the context only of Christian marriage.

Period.

So what becomes a sin the day before a couple is married and I'm going to say this and this is not provocative, this is actually how Scripture describes it. What is a sin the day before the wedding becomes a good work the day after the wedding.

Does that make sense? Yeah, that's right. The shakers did not believe in sex. And it's actually kind of tragic if you read the stories about them that what they were encouraged to do what the shakers were encouraged to do so couples were taught to not sleep in the same bed and if they were having the temptations, you know, to be together as a couple, they were to get on their knees and pray until it passed.

There are no more shakers. They cease to be.

Yeah. Yeah.

On some of this case we can take it too far.

Yes.

Yes you can.

If you gamble more than you can afford that will hurt your family and cause other things similar to it upsets the emotions of the drinker where he gets mean and ugly or her or whoever. And like you say with sex but within moderation if you use it in the correct context all of these things can be a blessing.

It can be an entertainment.

Yes.

Drinking can be an entertainment also but not till you're.

Drunk.

So I find it a little amusing that our forefathers and I know what you're talking about.

Is extremely material.