September 10, 2006

The Second Word: No Idols
Exodus 20:4-6

Miss Saltus was an intelligent but ornery elderly woman that my wife and I took care of when I was in graduate school—I’ve mentioned her here before. Miss Saltus, though rich and well-educated, lived in a filthy, run-down house in Green Village, NJ, with her equally unkempt cat, Mene. I thought of Miss Saltus a few nights ago, as I often do, and I regretted the fact that I do not have even a single photograph of this eccentric woman who I came to love. It isn’t that I did not try to take her picture—I actually did. Instead, the problem was simply this—Ethel Saltus hated having her picture taken. “No, no, no,” she responded whenever I pulled out a camera. “Please don’t take my picture.” And, regret it as I might, I never did.

Miss Saltus was hardly alone in her dislike—even disgust—of having her picture taken. My sister, Carol, felt the same way, as do many others. Psychologists have in fact labeled the extreme dislike or even fear of having one’s picture taken a “social phobia,” and they have similarly associated it with a so-called Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD). People who vigorously avoid having their picture taken, so the theory goes, often do so because they have an obsessive preoccupation with a perceived defect in their physical appearance. They don’t like their hair. They are either too heavy or too thin. They imagine that the mole on their neck is five times its actual size and that it is revolting to everyone who sees it. You get the point. A Body Dysmorphic Disorder that leads to a social phobia, producing people who run from cameras. “Please, don’t take my picture,” they cry.

Such an explanation might be enlightening with Miss Saltus, I suppose, who, in part because she was incontinent, was always a walking mess. I can as well appreciate this perception with my sister, Carol, who always struggled with her weight. But what about God, who seems here in Exodus 20:4 to demonstrate some sort of Body Dysmorphic Disorder and social phobia of his own. Why is he so concerned about idols—ancient photographs of a sort? He does not even have a body, does he? What is his hang-up with cameras?

It should perhaps be clarified straight from the start that this second commandment does in fact prohibit the manufacturing and using of physical depictions of God. That the prohibition similarly includes idols of foreign deities I do not deny. If God does not want anything to blur the vision between him and his people—if God is unwilling to share us with anyone or anything else, as the first commandment makes clear—then it only makes sense that he doesn’t want us carrying around pictures of previous loves in our wallets, right? “Do not make representations of any other gods,” this commandment certainly suggests. Do not make idols.

That this same commandment also and even primarily refers to images of God himself, however, though perhaps somewhat ambiguous here in Exodus 20:4, is made crystal clear in Moses’ “sermon” on the second commandment found in Deuteronomy 5. In that sermon, various symbols are used to create impressions of God—fire, clouds, black darkness and voices. Direct images of him, however, are expressly forbidden. God, this second word makes plain, does not want to have his picture taken. The question that remains, then, is why? What is the problem with idols?

At the most basic level, idols are simply inadequate to capture the splendor and majesty of God (pictures of idols). Like photographs that fail to do justice to human subjects—sometimes we cannot even recognize a person we know and love when we see a picture of them—so too do idols or images of God leave him largely unrecognizable. God, the Bible repeatedly insists, created the heavens and the earth and all that is in them, and we can learn something about his character and nature by reflecting on the world around us. We might ponder God’s remarkable imagination when we look at the multitude of faces in an airport or shopping mall. We might feel overwhelmed by God’s power and sheer “bigness” when we try to count the stars or gaze through a lens at microscopic organisms. We might sense God’s love and grace in a gentle stream or a baby’s smile. God, make no mistake about it, can be experienced in part through the work of his hands. The Bible likewise insists, however, that God is himself outside of and beyond the world that he created, and the line between the two—God and creation—must never be blurred. No idol in heaven or earth can even begin to capture what Patrick Miller calls the “wholly ‘otherness’ of God,” and all attempts to fashion his likeness result in a lessened and totally unrecognizable counterfeit. No idol can do God justice, so do not make any.

But let’s take this one step further. Idols are problematic, not only because they fail to adequately capture the breadth and depth of God, but because their intended purpose in worship is grossly inconsistent with how God works in the world. In the ancient Near East, people generally believed in what is sometimes referred to as the principle of continuity. Simply stated, the principle of continuity suggests that a direct or causal connection exists between an idol or image and whoever that idol represents. Essentially the same principle appears in various cultures today that practice Black Magic or Voodoo. If, for example, I fashion a doll that looks like you and then stick a pin into its belly, who will get sick? You will. The doll and you are in fact connected—you are continuous with each other.

In the same way, idols are thought to be connected—continuous—with the gods that they represent. The advantages to this are of course immediately discernable. If you worry that your god might not accompany you on a particular trip or adventure, take your idol along. The idol and god, after all, are directly connected. If you wonder whether or not god will watch over you in the middle of a dark and dreary night, just place the idol above your bed. The idol and god, after all, are directly connected. And if you are out of work and do not know how to put food on the table for your family, take your idol with you to the local Giant. The idol and god, after all, are directly connected. This so-called principle of continuity held such far reaching influence over even the Israelites’ immediate neighbors, the Canaanites, that they sometimes even performed sexual acts with prostitutes at the temple in order to force Baal, their fertility god, to send rain. These prostitutes, after all, were “idols” of Baal and were therefore directly connected to him. Idols, so the thinking goes, enable worshipers to coerce or manipulate the gods to do what they want.

That, I hardly need to say, is not a biblical view of God, is it? The God of the
Bible, in love with but distinct from his creation, cannot be coerced or manipulated. There is no magical formula to chant or mysterious chain to pull, no direct connection between him and any created thing that enables us to force his hand. Try as we might—and we often try pretty hard—we cannot control God. We cannot make him do what we want. I recognized this with particular clarity one day when I sensed as a parent that a child of mine was attempting to manipulate me! Children are great at this—I was, too. Children quickly learn what they need to say or do to manipulate mom or dad, and parents often fall for it. Not God. He stands his ground and stays the course, always acting in ways that are consistent with his purposes and nature.

One final thought concerning the fundamental intent of this second word. I suspect that Walter Harrelson is right in suggesting that this commandment has as much to do with how God’s people live their own lives as it does with fashioning and using idols. In a sense, Israel’s acceptance of idols would be an abdication of their own role in the world. Human beings, Genesis 1:27 makes clear, were created in the image of God. Males and females were formed uniquely to reflect the glory and majesty of God. Nothing else in creation has a similar capacity to do that—not bulls, falcons or frogs. Not even lions or bald eagles. This second word, then, turns around and points its finger directly at God’s people. “Do not make idols of God. Instead, be the idols of God.” Do not pass your God-given responsibility on to images made by human hands.

Few of us, if any, carry “idols” or images of God around with us. We perhaps enjoy beautiful art and are moved by various symbols, but would anyone here dare to create a tangible facsimile of God himself? If not, is this second word without meaning for us? On the contrary—we have much to learn. For one thing, while it might be true that physical representations of God do not play a role in our lives and worship, we often run the risk of lessening God by incarcerating him in idols constructed of words, traditions, songs, beliefs and even selected biblical texts. We make, in other words, what Goran Larsson refers to as “spiritual images of God that harden into inner idols.” If the initial point of this second word is to encourage us that God is infinitely greater than any idol that human hands might construct, then it is equally true that God is far greater than even our mental constructions typically allow.

It is, of course, inevitable that our thoughts and ideas about God fall far short of capturing his glory—he is, after all, beyond compare. It is equally true, however, that we are often satisfied with such limited constructions and show little interest in expanding them. We maintain our traditions, defend our beliefs and guard our views, many of which are based upon the same songs, stories, texts and experiences that we have rehearsed since childhood. We have God figured out, neatly situated in a theological box that we have ourselves constructed. If, as I have been suggesting, these so-called Ten Commandments are rooted in grace rather than law—God freed his people from Egypt before ever asking them to follow these instructions—then the heartbeat of this second commandment is this: God does not want us to limit and restrict him. God is not an “object” to be defined, but a living being to be known and experienced. He wants us, while retaining our sense of rootedness, to keep our eyes open to new expressions, new ideas, new symbols, whether in our individual spiritual lives or in our corporate journey as a congregation.

This second word, furthermore, offers both an exhortation as well as a word of profound assurance when it insists that God cannot be coerced or manipulated. By way of exhortation, this prohibition of idols tells us to stop trying to force God’s hand. Stop searching for the magical words and rituals that will convince him to work in your heart and life. Stop forcing your own will on God and let him run your life as he plans. And perhaps most importantly, stop trying to make God care about you.

But in this second word is also a refreshing word of assurance. To say that God cannot be coerced or manipulated, please understand, is not to suggest that God is either disinterested in his creation or unconcerned about our welfare. Quite the contrary, God is totally aware of and eager to intervene in our situation. Just remember his words to Moses in Exodus 3:7:
I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmaster. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them….
This second word prohibiting idols not only reminds us that we cannot manipulate God, but also assures us that we do not have to. God is a God of grace who led his people out of Egypt and who continues to lead his people this very day. He responds to us, not as a result of our coercion, but out of his intense love.

And finally, this second word graciously reminds us of our own standing and calling as God’s people. We, not figures carved out of wood, chizzled out of stone, or fashioned out of clay, have been created in the image of God. We are the ones who bear in our being the capacity to most brightly reflect the glory of God in the world. Stop making and using idols, this commandment announces. Instead, seek to be godly in your own lives. Build the church as a visible representation of the kingdom of God in the world. We are his image, his idol. We are the temples of his Holy Spirit. Rather than fashioning wood and stone, we must cooperate with God in fashioning our own lives so that we do him justice in the world. Preventing the making of idols is an ongoing reminder to God’s people that we ourselves are called to be his image in the world.

God doesn’t want us to make and use idols—he does not want us to take his picture. But unlike Miss Saltus, Carol, and countless others in the world, God does not suffer from some sort of Body Dysmorphic Disorder or social phobia. Instead, he prohibits the taking of his picture out of love and grace. “Do not make idols,” he says, “because I want your understanding of me to keep growing and growing.” “Do not make idols,” he continues, “because I want you to stop trying to manipulate me. My love and care are already yours.” And finally, God instructs us not to make idols because he has chosen us—his church around the globe—to be his image in the world.