“The Law that Liberates: the Ten Commandments Today”: (2) “Cutting God down to size” (Exodus 20: 1-2, 4-6)

In the Book of Exodus, chapter twenty, we read verses one and two, and four through six, from the New Revised Standard Version:  

 

Then God spoke all these words: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery;... 

 

You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.

 

A successful businessman attended a church service one day. The sermon that morning, as it happened, was on the topic of the Ten Commandments. He sat quietly through the sermon, and the rest of the service that followed. On arriving home, he went into the bathroom, lit up a cigar, and looked at his reflection in the mirror. He took a deep puff on his cigar, looked himself straight in the eye, and said, “Well, at least I’ve never made a graven image.”

 

This is one of three jokes that I know about the Ten Commandments. One interesting thing about the joke is that it’s the only one that doesn’t focus on the commandment about adultery. Another interesting thing about this joke is that the businessman in the bathroom was probably wrong. He probably made - and worshipped - many graven images in his lifetime. In many ways, we all do.

 

As we hear in Exodus:

 

You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them ...

 

In its earliest understanding, this commandment focused on the gods worshipped by the Israelites’ neighbours.  

• These gods were very tangible. Their images were made by human hands, fashioned from wood, or stone, or clay. Their worshippers associated the physical image with the actual god in a real way.  
• These gods were also very local. They were located in specific places. They were worshipped by specific communities of people. These gods were believed to be concerned only for these limited communities.  
• These gods were also concerned for limited areas of human life. Communities worshipped one god for agriculture, and another god for commerce. There was one god for war, and another god for fertility.
• As well, these gods were not very demanding. They were there to give the worshipper success in what the worshipper wanted, with no ethical demands. 

 

These gods were very limited, gods of a very manageable size, small-g gods, godlets.

 

When the early Jews were commanded against making these idols, it was a warning against trying to cut God down to size, against trying to turn the Big-G God of liberation into just another small-g godlet. They were warned “Don’t just pray to a god of agriculture for good harvests – or to a god of fertility for many descendants - if you don’t want the living God to challenge you to practice social justice in your personal and national lives.”

 

However, people generally being rather literally-minded, this command soon focused on the actual images. And so, for centuries within Judaism, there has been – and still is – a great reluctance to use the images of people o other living creatures in religious art. Synagogues today are often decorated with great restraint. 

 

This is not just a Jewish concern. Some groups within Christianity also have a tradition of reluctance to use the images of people or other creatures within a worship setting. This is particularly so with groups whose origins were within Calvinism or the Puritan movement in Britain.

 

And, as well, Islam has also received from Judaism a strong aversion to images of this sense of restraint in the use of human or animal images in worship settings. Muslims probably go the furthest today in avoiding the use of these images.

 

But, I do not think that this commandment today is really about the use of visual images in religious settings.

• I do not believe this commandment is about what happens when a worshipper prays in front of a crucifix or a statue of a saint in a Roman Catholic church.
• I do not believe this commandment is about what happens when a worshipper prays in front of an icon in an Eastern Orthodox church.
• I do not even believe this commandment is about what happens when a worshipper prays or meditates in front of a statue in a Hindu or Buddhist temple.

An educated worshipper in any of these traditions knows that the physical image is essentially a visual aid, and not the actual object of devotion.

  

When we limit this commandment to such activities, we miss a great deal of its point, its point against trying to cut God down to size.

• There are many who worship a god who is only concerned for a limited community of people, a godlet whose love is limited to people of a single race, a single nation, or a single religion. They have made an idol, a small-g god.
• There are many others who worship a god who is only concerned about limited areas of human life, a godlet (for example) who is concerned about issues of personal morality but not about issues of social justice. They have made an idol, a small-g god.
• There are many others who worship a god who is just there to give what the worshipper wants, with no ethical demands, a godlet who promises material prosperity without a call to practice justice. They also have made an idol, a small-g god.

 

It is very easy to violate this commandment without carving a statue and putting it up on a pedestal. All we have to do is to take something that is far less than God and lift it up as an object of worship. People worship some strange things: ... the race of which one happens to be a member, ... the nation of which one happens to be a citizen, ... the gender of which one happens to be a member, ... scientific and technological progress, ... market economics, ... other economic systems, ... theological systems, ... and so on. People worship the strangest things, with some disastrous results.

 

And this may well explain the comments at the end of this commandment, about future generations being punished for the sins of an earlier generation. When people make an idol out of a race, or a nation, or an economic system, or some notion of progress, the result of the idolatry causes a sense of resentment on the part of those who are damaged or, at least, excluded by idolising the race, nation, or system. This resentment often affects events years, decades, or centuries later. Historically, a future generation is punished for the sins of its ancestors.

 

As I said, people worship the strangest things. This commandment challenges us not to cut God down to size, but to affirm the one Living God that has a far greater love and concern than any small-g godlet of our own making.

 

Then God spoke all these words: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery;...

 

You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.

 

 

In the first post in this series of articles, there is a general introduction to the series.