You shall not make for yourselves any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them. For I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the sons to the third and fourth generation of those that hate me, and showing mercy to thousands of those that love Me and keep My commandments.
The Suzerain continues with a corollary to His first command. The act of artistic representation is not forbidden, as we note when God describes Tabernacle decorations which include such things. The terms here apply specifically to idolatry, ritual images.
This and the previous command are summed up by God explaining His attitude. He warns those who find Him or any part of His lordship odious will have, in effect, cursed their own descendants. Critical to understanding this is to realize this aims to distinguish His nation from others. Israel was not to be like other nations, where there could be no worship without some particular concrete image. God was holy, separate, different from other deities, and His people would reflect that. Nations which found reason to disparage this would find themselves on God’s hit list for a long time. Even if they capitulated, once having been an enemy, they could not become full converts until the fourth generation. That’s how long it would take to wipe away the foolish influences of previous generations.
Instead, the whole thing called for a heart-felt, personal commitment to God. The promise was that He would treat such with mercy, not the harsh strictness of the Law alone.
Reading between the lines, we know this applies to just about anything which we allow to rise up in conflict with our duty to God. When we forget the entire Created world is merely a tool for God’s revelation, and start tagging concrete things with some spooky mysterious powers, we have raised a false image.
Going even farther, we have here a direct command from God His people shall consciously embrace mysticism, which was already fundamental to their culture. Here the focus is realizing one cannot possibly make a concrete representation of God because He cannot be known. When God on the mountain told Moses he could not see His face, it was in part symbolic in saying man cannot pretend to comprehend God intellectually. Thus, the Second Commandment serves to enforce the necessity of approaching Him and all His business from outside the mere rational intelligence.
