>>155591My point is that there is a distinction between the condemnation of worshipping other gods and the condemnation of worshipping idols.
1 And God spake all these words, saying, 2 I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me. 4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; (Exodus 20:1-5 KJV)
It is not merely idols of other gods that are condemned but any idol whatsoever. They were expressly forbidden to make idols of Yahweh.
15Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the LORD spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire: 16Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female, 17The likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the air, 18The likeness of any thing that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth: 19And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the LORD thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven. 20But the LORD hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto him a people of inheritance, as ye are this day (Deut 4:15-20 KJV).
You might say that they were only forbidden to make idols of God because he did not manifest a form that day, but that merely begs question as to why he didn't manifest a form (he had manifested a form previously when he visited Abraham). He did not want to be worshiped through images and therefore did not manifest a form lest they be tempted to make an image (there was also no utility to taking a form in this instance, unlike the visit to Abraham). God is not suddenly ok with being worshiped through images because of the incarnation (any more than he would be if Abraham worshiped an image of the form he saw), and besides, we don't even know what Jesus looked like any more than we know what the apostles looked like.
Moreover, the Bible repeatedly mocks the very idea of worshiping images as foolish and stupid because they're lifeless matter made by men. Below are just a few such passages.
“What profit is the idol when its maker has carved it,
Or an image, a teacher of falsehood?
For its maker trusts in his own handiwork
When he fashions speechless idols (Habakkuk 2:18 NASB 1995).
They shall be turned back, they shall be greatly ashamed, that trust in graven images, that say to the molten images, Ye are our gods.(Isaiah 42:17)
But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.
Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands.
They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not:
They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not:
They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat.
They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them. (Psalm 115:3-8 KJV)
They that make a graven image are all of them vanity; and their delectable things shall not profit; and they are their own witnesses; they see not, nor know; that they may be ashamed. 10 Who hath formed a god, or molten a graven image that is profitable for nothing? 11 Behold, all his fellows shall be ashamed: and the workmen, they are of men: let them all be gathered together, let them stand up; yet they shall fear, and they shall be ashamed together. (Isaiah 44:9-11 KJV) Read the whole passage from 9-20
https://biblehub.com/kjv/isaiah/44.htm 
share
download .zip
report bug or abuse
Buy me a coffee
