Dear friends,
The second commandment requires some interpretation.
Ex 20:3 You shall have no other gods before Me. 4
You shall not make for yourself an idol of any kind, or an image of anything in the heavens above, the earth below, or the waters under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,…
But during the construction of the Ark of Covenant - craftsmen were required to make images of the Cherabim.
1 Kings 6:23
In the inner sanctuary he made two cherubim, each ten cubits high, out of olive wood. 24One wing of the first cherub was five cubits long, and the other wing was five cubits long as well. So the full wingspan was ten cubits.…
And here, Moses is instructed to make a graven image...
Numb 21:8 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Make a snake and mount it on a pole. When anyone who is bitten looks at it, he will live.” 9
So Moses made a bronze snake and mounted it on a pole. If anyone who was bitten looked at the bronze serpent, he would recover.
So the question remains - what is the second commandment referring to?
If the issue was the worship of God alone and not just referring to making images, then does that open the commandment to idols of fleshly passion in our lives?
How about objects of worship in our churches - crosses, saints, crucifixes, Mary...
Let's try and have a civil discussion about this...