NEVER MIND THE IMAGE; FIND THE TRUTH !

The Second Commandment: You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.

The second commandment warns us away from idolatry; in the words of the King James Bible, we are warned against making any "graven image". Above all, we must not bow down to such images nor worship them.

When Moses received the commandments on Mount Sinai, the Israelites had just come out of Egypt, a land of many idols and many gods. They had become familiar with temple statues and graven images. Perhaps it is not so surprising that, restless during their long wait for Moses, they decided to make a representation of a god for themselves and fashioned a golden bull-calf to go ahead of them in their desert journey. No wonder Moses was so hot with anger that he hurled down the stone tablets on which all God's commandments were incised, had the gold calf ground to powder and sprinkled on the water and then made the Israelites drink it - and that was just the start. God's commandments were to be obeyed.

Well, of course, all that was 3,500 years ago. Surely now, in 2002, we are well past needing to be warned off idolatry. We do make graven images - there are statues everywhere, in churches and in public places - but we do not "bow down to them nor worship them". In our modern sophisticated world, we don't need to bow down in front of golden statues or the rising sun. The second commandment has served its purpose but can have no relevance to us. - Or so we may think.

It's strange how powerful idolatry must be in the human psyche. It's still there today, as powerful as ever. We've just invented new gods to bow down before, new idols to put before the one true God.

Money is the most obvious of these. Luke's Gospel tells us of the time that Jesus told the parable of the shrewd manager, ending with the observation that no man can serve two masters: you cannot serve both God and money. How often do we see today people whose lives are lived in the service of money with no thought for God? This modern devotion to the Pound, the Dollar or the Euro can bring joy on earth for some who are successful but it is a joy that can only ever be short lived. Like the rich man who filled his barn with corn and then died, their wealth is worthless in heaven as they face the judgement of God. What is money, after all, but a man-made thing? A token. A useful instrument or tool, but no more.

If money is not our particular idol, then we can creatively invent another. The cult of the personality appears to be a product of our modern media that brings global fame to pop stars and sporting personalities. With it comes a response from those devoted to their favourite star that is as close to worship as people often come. Mere humans are raised to the status of minor deities. And we have created them ourselves as surely as if we had taken tools and fashioned them from wood or stone. Pop idols and sports idols are inventions of our time, and their own time in the limelight is brief.

So God's warning about graven images is still relevant today. Our sophisticated modern society may be wonderfully advanced in some ways, but our basic needs are the same as those of the Israelites coming out of Egypt. We are all searching for the ultimate truth, the meaning of life, and many look for some tangible help, even though that may be an entirely man-made thing, like a "lucky charm" or some special carved figure. Just as children enjoy activities with dolls and toys but lay them aside when they come to maturer understanding, God wants us to grow out of that, to go beyond it, to use our minds, to listen to him and to his word. Superstitions and "graven images" can dangerously distract us from Christian growth, can seriously damage our spiritual health.

Just as dangerous for us today is that our modern sophisticated society has become more sophisticated, too, in its methods and approach. The P.R. man and the spin doctor, rather than the smith or the sculptor, see it as their prime business to create an image which we are all asked to believe in - the image is more important than the reality! Such images can be as far from the truth of the matter and therefore perhaps as dangerous to our well being in their subtle way as was the golden calf of Exodus.

The moral is: Beware of man-made images! Especially beware of making them ourselves, for we may find ourselves believing in them.

As Christians, we need to look no further than our Bible. There is one God, who transcends all man-made icons, and him alone shall we worship.

T.P.C.

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