Deuteronomy 4:15 Since you saw no form when the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire, take care and watch yourselves closely, 16 so that you do not act corruptly by making an idol for yourselves, in the form of any figure-- the likeness of male or female.
I think some blasphemous words are in order at this point ( I say sarcastically). Christians and Jews alike have this innate need and/or want to make a statue of someone or something, in particular God and other “holy” things, people. I can recall in Israel once upon a time ago when I was very young there being a statue of Judith holding a sword in one hand and Holofernes’ head in another, which of course to us Jews is ironic since we don’t consider the Apocrypha canonical, but I have always found it very funny that we still know the stories very well and in most cases believe them (This statue was eventually blown up in one of the many battles in the homeland). Then of course there are the countless Jesus statues across the Christian campuses and churches everywhere (including here at Truett and oddly enough he is at the back of the building). In all of this we seem to skim over this passage in Deut., which of course most Christians skim over this book as a whole anyway, which is sad in its own right. Even sadder is our blatant idolatry, which by these two verses is what our statues are. God plainly states that we didn’t see him and so we have no clue what he looks like and could not make a accurate representation of Him nor should we God says as it would be idolatry. Now it is of course true that living people physically saw the living Jesus, but we good Trinitarians have to say God’s words are Jesus’ words and vice versa, that whole “come to fulfill the law” thing then comes into play and whether we believe that or not I am almost certain that Jesus would adhere to this anyway. The whole point of it is to not get caught up in the object rather than what is really there even if you can’t see it. All of us get into that dangerous territory of relying on praying to our cross rather than praying directly to Jesus and other things of this nature and the Hebrews were nowhere near above this and so God made sure to tell them not to make idols/statues of Him even. There is this want in all of us to have this physical representation of what we worship in some form or another, be it a cross or a sad looking Jesus statue, but I think God’s point is that we should be alright with what we have even if we can’t directly see it. Which of course brings us to saying “faith-based” which gets overused and is tiresome at times, but it is what it is. Do you have to have something to see, or are you content enough to trust in what has always been there and continues to be there, but you’ve never seen? This also applies to our human heroes as well for when we make a statue of them we start to dangerously elevate them, i.e. which is why I mentioned the Judith statue. I can recall several times one of my undergraduate teachers saying our Jesus statue was heretical and at first I did not get this or thought he was just joking (which he wasn’t), but after reading this passage I am actually picking up on what he was saying, so I guess it turns out you were right Dr. Allen ha ha (good intentions be damned ha ha ha). Of course our Jesus statue was creepy anyway because his eyes were hollow, literally, which is after all the moral of the tale; don’t make a hollowed eyed Jesus statue or a sad Jesus statue and put him at the back of the building. But really we do need to be more aware of this and its possible implications for us. God has been there all along so let’s keep our worship to him and not to a statue of him.
Kalos Elpis
Kelly M. Doolittle
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