In Exodus 20:4-5, God continues the Ten Commandments by giving commandment two. He says, “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them…”
So in commandment 1, God says that we should worship only him. That we should not put anything or anyone else to his level. No one else deserves our worship!
In commandment 2, he tells us not to worship an image of God. Now there are different interpretations of this verse, but my thinking is that he is NOT forbidding his followers to not make religious art. Instead, I believe he is telling his followers not to make images of Him to worship.
There is a fine line here. Religious art can be seen as symbols or they can be seen at objects of worship. In our church, we have a cross. But we do not worship the cross. It is merely a powerful symbol signifying what Jesus did for us.
However, I was recently speaking with a friend who goes to a church in a different denomination. She told me how, when they enter the church, there are two statues: one of the virgin Mary and one of Jesus. As they pass by, they actually stop and kiss the bottom of the statue.
Not only is that a really bad idea for COVID standards, but that is dangerously close to doing what God says NOT to do in Exodus 20:4.
God is not a picture. God is not a symbol. And while he is everywhere, it would be wrong to look at a picture and worship the picture, thinking we are worshipping God. God does not want that. He cannot be contained to one picture! Instead, let’s direct all our thoughts, all our prayers, and all our worship directly to him.
Thanks to what Jesus did on the cross, we can do this wherever we are at, whenever we want. So let’s worship him now. Not as a picture, not as a statue, but the very God of the universe, whom we have access to through Jesus Christ.