The Second Commandment

The Second Commandment :)

Old Testament:
Exodus 20:4 - Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: (KJV)

New Testament:
1 Corinthians 10:14 - Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry. (KJV)

There are numerous mentions in scripture of the second commandment in the New Testament. I think the second commandment is where I got the word "idols" that I had mentioned during my post on the first commandment. But I don't think that idols would be an inappropriate word instead of gods either for the first commandment. Anyway... I digress :)

I believe that the second commandment is expounding on the first commandment. I believe that God is reiterating his point on not having anything before Him. What would constitute a graven image? As most of us know, the Amish (the more conservative groups) believe this would include pictures. There are some who would simply say that posed pictures would be graven images while non-posed pictures would be okay, and there are others who would say any picture at all would be a graven image. Other groups of Christians would say this would mean anything that we would worship or other groups of people would worship -- an elephant or buddha for the Buddhists. And still yet, some would say this means pictures or images of what we would believe Christ to be like. This last part would link in with the pictures of "heaven above"...but I would also say that it would include pictures of what we imagine heaven might be like. The "earth beneath" part would imply that we should not paint pictures of what hell might look like.

My stance on the "graven images" portion of this verse is that photographs would be allowed AS LONG AS we do not worship these images. The moment we begin to worship images/photographs instead of Christ Jesus, they should be removed from our lives until we can re-focus back on the Lord. As for pictures of heaven and hell, I prefer those remain part of my imagination (as for the looks because we know from scripture what each place will be like) and not until I die will I know for sure what either place would be like. I was raised in a church that did have a crucifix hanging at the front, do I believe it is right? According to this scripture verse, no, but growing up I thought it to be "normal". Anyway, I think that all the crucifixes and the pictures of Jesus are made up because the Bible does not describe Jesus physically. It simply describes His personality and other characteristics about Him, but none physically. I think we will all be surprised as to how Jesus looks when we reach heaven... and until then, we should leave it to our imaginations :)

Blessings in Christ,