The Christian Letter, Volume One: Chapter 15
“Do not make for yourself an idol or any graven image of any likeness of any thing in Heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the waters beneath the earth. You are not to bow down to them or serve them; for I, Yahoweh Almighty, am mightily jealous, punishing the sin of fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of ones that hate Me, but showing kindness to the thousandth generation of them that love Me and keep My Commandments.” (Exodus 20:3-6).
Note: Some separate this Commandment into two, and thereby miss the first. This Command speaks against the worship of “graven mages” and “idols.” Worship is worship, no matter how slight. Having idols and glorified images is the foolishness of having mere things above the Word of Yahoweh.
Our Deliverer explained that we must not make graven images of anything, including Himself, as He is in Heaven above. A drawing of the Messiah takes our focus off Him, while wearing the tzitzit calls you to attention. At first, I thought that a drawing of the Messiah could by no means take my focus away from Him, that is, until I noticed that when I was in a room that had a drawing of the Messiah, and I prayed with my eyes open, I felt as though I were praying, not to it, but towards it somehow. If you try this and find that you, too, feel drawn toward it—it is an idol. If not—it is a useless idol. In either case, according to Scripture, we should not have it. The keeping of this Commandment is more of an image and reminder of the Messiah than any drawing could ever conjure.
I didn’t give this an opportunity the first time it was brought to my attention. I (foolishly) verbally fought with the person who showed me this. A year later, I tried it. I gave His Word a chance. Alas, I cannot give a thank you, or offer an apology to this person I met but once. They planted Scripture and He grew to great favor in my Heart. The message was true; my first approach was not.
What of the cross, a symbol we use to remember Yahoshuah’s death? Until I took a long hard look at the cross, and its use in the church, I did not view it as an idol. However, almost every church I have gone to, at one point or another, has said we should, “Kneel before the cross.” or, “Look to the cross for salvation.” but I tell you we must never kneel before anything or anyone save Yahoweh, let alone an instrument used to murder people as a sacrifice to pagan idols. Salvation came to us through the grace of Yahoweh. He sent His Son, Yahoshuah, to die and rise from the grave for the remission of sin. Many Christians say to bow to, or look at, the cross for salvation … but if we are looking at the cross for salvation we will never see it, because He is no longer there, nor in the grave. My Saviour is alive! I know this. I need not look at an empty cross to know this. I look to His Word, because He is there in His Word. Why did I remove the crosses from my life, and the praise songs to it? I was shown Scripture I had never considered before:
“And they departed from Mount Hor by the Way of the Sea of Reeds, to go around the land of Edom. But the being of the people grew impatient because of the way. And the people spoke against Elohim and against Mosheh, ‘Why have you brought us up out of Mitsrayim to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our being loathes this light bread.’ And Yahoweh sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people. And many of the people of Yisra’el died. Then the people came to Mosheh, and said, ‘We have sinned, for we have spoken against Yahoweh and against you. Pray to Yahoweh to take away the serpents from us.’ So Mosheh prayed on behalf of the people. And Yahoweh said to Mosheh, ‘Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole. And it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.’ So Mosheh made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole. And it came to be, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.” (Numbers 21:4-9).
“And as Mosheh lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so the Son of Adam has to be lifted up, so that whoever is believing in Him should not perish but possess everlasting life. For Elohim so loved the world that He gave His only brought-forth Son, so that everyone who believes in Him should not perish but possess everlasting life.” (John 3:14-16).
The snake has bitten us, and his venom is because of our sin. We will die, not because of the venom, which would not have occurred without our act, but because of the act itself. The Israelites could look to the pole, or cross, with the serpent upon it, and be saved. The serpent here is not a symbol of the devil, but it is a symbol of what our sin caused. What was the sin that caused the need to ask, to beg, for salvation from death? We spoke against Yahoweh and Moses! We lashed out at the Torah.
So, can the Israelites look to the cross only? What about Who was on it? What happened to that bronze serpent that Moses made? 2 Kings 18:3-4 tells us of Hezekiah: “And he did what was right in the eyes of Yahoweh, according to all that his father Dawid did. He took away the high places and broke the pillars, and cut down the Asherah, and broke in pieces the bronze serpent which Mosheh had made, for until those days the children of Yisra’el burned incense to it, and called it Nehushtan.”
Hezekiah, from the above verse, did what was right in the sight of Yahoweh by removing the high places, even by destroying the bronze snake that Yahoweh gave for healing. Much like the bronze snake upon a cross, the wooden cross (sometimes with an idol of the Messiah on it) has become an idol to many. But what is a Nehushtan?
A Nehushtan is anything used in worship of the creation, but not the Creator, or the deliverance, but not the Deliverer, or the grace, but not the Jealous King. We mustn’t allow past moments to become objects of worship. How many worship the dove with olive leaf, or an empty tomb, all while claiming they are “worshiping the One it points to”? We must not turn our past into our future, but nor can we forget our past. Where have you stopped? What is your Nehushtan? Did you stop at faith, or baptism, or did you stop at singing, refusing to dance? Maybe you are dancing, but even a new act today can become a stopping point, a Nehushtan, of the future. Be careful by keeping your eyes and ears on Yahoshuah as we walk with Him. It is He Who saves us; the One Who bore our cross, our sin.
2 Kings 18:5-6 tells us why Hezekiah did this, and what blessing it bestowed: “He put his trust in Yahoweh Elohim of Yisra’el, and after him was none like him among all the sovereigns of Yehudah, nor who were before him, and he clung to Yahoweh. He did not turn away from following Him, but guarded His commands, which Yahoweh had commanded Mosheh.” The people grumbled against Yahoweh and Moses, but since Hezekiah did no such thing, and since the people had forgotten the reason behind that cross, he tore it down. He tore it down so they might see the real reason we had to have that cross in the first place.
The cross has no more and no less significance than the empty tomb, or a cloud upon which He ascended, or a lake upon which He walked, or a pair of sandals of which John felt unworthy to untie before leading the Messiah into the waters. The cross has become an idol, an idol Nehushtan, an idol instrument, but His Word is alive. How much more is the symbol of fire for all He has done for us, than a cross? From leading us out of Egypt, to the tongues of fire above the disciple’s heads in the upper room of the Temple, fire could very well be some people’s Nehushtan. Don’t let it, or anything, be yours. Let our faith be action, not wood and fire, but truly seeking first His Kingdom so much so that we are known for our love, not trinkets, nor foolish words spoken against Yahoweh and Moses.
The people saw this brass serpent as a great reminder of their deliverance, and so they burnt incense to it. How many Christians are beginning to do this with the cross … even to the point of singing songs to it or about it, adorning it upon themselves, and bowing before it in prayer? Is burning incense to the cross a greater or lesser offense? If you bow down to a picture or image, you are bowing down to a picture or image, and are thereby breaking this Commandment. It’s that simple. Worship the only One Who deserves worship: Yahoweh.
The cross, a symbol of the “sun god,” from Genesis to today, is a bitter reminder of our sin and what it caused. A reminder of how many have fallen and died to snake bites because of our grumbling against the Torah of Yahoweh. When we speak against Moses, we need to look to the One Who was on the cross, in His very Word.
If the Messiah had to die by a guillotine, would we have churches bow in prayer before a guillotine? Obeisance? Even His angels would not accept such a gesture! It is time to stop turning our assemblies into museums of idolatry with these Nehushtans, these relics of our religion. The Messiah is eternal, His Word is forever, but the sun, the cross, and the blaspheming tongue that speaks against Yahoweh and Moses, shall not be in His Kingdom.
Yahoweh is not limited; therefore, do not put a limit, like an image, on Him. We cannot have any kind of accurate representation of Yahoweh, Yahoshuah, or Ruach HaKodesh, except His Word and prayer accompanied with action. We do not know what the Messiah looked like except that He was a plain Jew. Oddly, though, the model used for “Jesus” is the Greeks’ sculpted images of Apollo, Hermes, and other idols. Alas, anything other than the true representation of the Messiah is only a limit. A lie. Do not worship a limit or have graven images that may cause others to stumble. Look only to His Word for Him, and the Holy Spirit’s cry in His home, your very being. What would the Holy Spirit say? Scripture:
“For they enraged Him with their high places, and moved Him to jealousy with their carved images.” (Psalms 78:58).
“I am Yahoweh, that is My Name, and My esteem I do not give to another, nor My praise to idols. See, the former predictions have come, and new ones I am declaring; before they spring forth I let you hear them.” (Isaiah 42:8-9).
“Guard yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of Yahoweh your Elohim which He made with you, and shall make for your yourselves a carved image in the form of whatever Yahoweh your Elohim has forbidden you. For Yahoweh your Elohim is a consuming fire, a jealous El.” (Deuteronomy 4:23-24). We have forgotten, but let us remember the way of a servant; let us not love Him our way unto His jealousy.
“All are put to shame who serve carved images, those boasting of matters of naught. Bow yourselves to Him, all you mighty ones.” (Psalms 97:7).
“Now then, since we are the offspring of Elohim, we should not think that the Elohim is like gold or silver or stone, an image made by the skill and thought of man. Truly, then, having overlooked these times of ignorance, Elohim now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has set a day on which He is going to judge the world in righteousness by a Man whom He has appointed, having given proof of this to all by raising Him from the dead.” (Acts 17:29-31).
I have heard people say, “That is just gold, silver, and stone. I use a pencil or paint.” Read these Scriptures again, and do not allow Satan to whisper into your ear, “Surely He did not mean any image of Him.”
However, in each of us, there burns a passion for art, and so many of us feel the need to display our faith. There is a way to have art that displays your faith—if you know what your faith is. In Revelation the Menorah is a symbol of the Messiah, yet many Christians today actually loathe the idea of such a thing in their house. As you may have already guessed: I don’t. Atop our piano sits a seven-branched Menorah that is a bronze replica of the temple Menorah. We lit it just last night, burning olive oil and enjoying stirring conversations of Yahoshuah, of Elohim. There also sits a reprint of a very old Jewish marriage certificate written in Chinese, as well as a painting depicting a family sitting around the table, enjoying the Sabbath evening. Yet, the art in your house needn’t always be based upon the Biblical faith, such as His Word, it can also be photographs of family and trips. Many will argue this. They would not want a “Jewish” painting, or they might claim that it was a Nehushtan, though the Menorah will be in His Kingdom, as will the Sabbath. Alas, so often, what is presented within Christian homes is not of their denomination anyway, as the art’s root is frequently based in sun worship, and Satan’s desire of angelic worship.
“And it came to be, as He was saying this, a certain woman from the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, ‘Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts which You sucked!’ But He said, ‘Blessed rather are those hearing the Word of Elohim and watching over it!’” (Luke 11:27-28). Mary worship is common, but praise rightly goes to the Saviour, Yahoweh, Who hath blessed us with His Word. Listen to the Word, O church. Listen and cherish what you hear. From Mary, to saints drawn in the image of pagan idols, and angels with the sun deity’s halo, to alleged doctrines, graven imagery and idol worship are all equal to the worship of astrological signs and horoscopes. After all, the world will know us by our love—not trinkets or ideas.
The only angels who would appreciate images of themselves are the fallen angels. So what, then, do those figurines represent? Beautiful though they were, their hearts have faded into the darkness of coveting their own worship. Only One, Yahoweh, is humble enough to be worshiped, and He does not desire alleged images of Himself. Let us not break the second Commandment by making a mental image of what He looks like, nor Who He really is without cherishing His Word. Considering His Word, take a moment and read Ezekiel 14:1-11. We find what we seek. If we have no idols we’ll be able to honestly seek Yahoweh. With but one coin before the eye of a greedy man, the universe disappears; with but one idol, so to does the face of Yahoweh.
A graven image is any image that elevates or lessens what is depicted, thereby taking our focus off the true image. A figurine of a “cute little devil” makes him into something sweet, and not a horrid demon. An attempt to make the devil vile and disgusting makes those who rebel fall harder into the darkness of rebellion. We cannot make the devil look as good as he portrays himself, or as vile as he really is. The same could be said about a woman in a model magazine, who has been touched up with lighting, makeup, and computer enhancements. It hurts other women and makes men blind to the truth that beauty has nothing to do with looks. What about a picture of “Jesus” holding a sheep, while wearing a soft pink and white designer Greek dress? What does this do? What can it teach? The teachings of the Messiah are in Scripture, not doodles!
The Egyptian taskmasters’ idols were animals, insects, rivers, and so forth. However, if they lived today their idols would likely be sports cars, athletes or movie stars, brand name clothes, and other indicators of artificial social stature. The Egyptians’ idols became plagues to them, and so, my friends, have America’s. Taskmasters make sure you work two shifts, seven days a week, so you can pay for all your expensive toys you just can’t do without. Our national idol, yes, “In God We Trust,” puts us on the constant edge of war, if not in war. If there is anything in your life that prevents you from obeying Yahoweh with all your heart, mind, and soul, then it is an idol to you, and no matter how you try to justify it, it is an idol in the Father’s face.
Another idol to many is a game of tossing around a pigskin football on Sabbath. Many men care more about the score of the game than about their wife who needs them, or the dusty Bible on the counter, Whom they need. Perhaps an idol could be the cleanliness of your home. Do you care more about what touches the floor than who touches the floor? Remember Matthew 25:40? What about talking on the phone to all your friends? Did you pray today? What about money? Does not a single flower from the kingdom of Heaven contain more beauty than you could ever buy? How about lust? Do you desire Yahoweh’s will more than sin? Do you go wherever normality is, or do you follow the Guide? Do you have idols before Him?
Exodus 32:1-8 gives us an understanding of this Mitzvah (Mitz-vah / Commandment). The Israelites had spent their entire lifetime worshipping the idols of Egypt. Much like the Christians of today, it was difficult for them to envision a Deliver they could not see. So they returned to their familiarity and fashioned an idol. They were familiar with two Egyptian cow idols. They fashioned one of them using gold, and then bowed to worship them. The Father of love and grace was so enraged at this that He wanted to incinerate us all. He, the Great I AM, had brought us out of certain death, through the Red Sea, and had tended to our every need, even that of food, and this is what we did. Are we really better today? Christians make an image, a painting, of a Greek man and say, “Here, O Christianity, are your gods.” Are we any different? Let us learn from the Word and avoid the same pitfalls of those before us.
Note: The true Mt. Sinai has been found on the east side of the east branch of the Red Sea. It is complete with a large platform of an altar with two Egyptian cow idols carved all over it (hence the bowing down to multiple idols, but only one mentioned that was made of gold), carved sandal imprints in the rocks, a mountain with a burnt top, and a large stone split in two (that is a good two or more stories tall) with water erosion coming from it in a land that gets less than an inch of rain every ten years. We have a faith, indeed, but it is a faith with many evidences.
We, too, may desire to return to what is familiar, but I encourage you all to seek to the Father’s desires. Kids are not dumb enough to say: “I prayed about it and I don’t feel led to. I know you told me to clean my room and do my homework, but I don’t feel led to. The spirit hasn’t moved me.” So why should we give this excuse to our Father?
“It doesn’t mean that to me.” Christians often use this favorite phrase to excuse their idolatry, much like the Israelites did when they made a golden calf: “And Aharon saw and built an altar before it. And Aharon called out and said, ‘Tomorrow is a festival to Yahoweh.’” (Exodus 32:5). It didn’t mean idolatry to the Israelites—it was a festival unto Yahoweh—but Yahoweh wanted to kill them all for such a display of idolatry. Who, then, does it matter to?
“The carved images of their mighty ones you are to burn with fire. Do not covet the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, lest you be snared by it, for it is an abomination to Yahoweh your Elohim.” (Deuteronomy 7:25).
Other idols I once had was music that was, in fact, evil. What must be done with old idols? You cannot sell them, for by doing so you have done far more harm than good. In a sense, we must burn them with fire. Destroy the evil in your life or you will be ensnared by the desire to obtain more idols for gold. Yahoweh was wise in this. Yahoweh always is.
“And at the completion of all this, all Yisra’el who were present went out to the cities of Yehudah and broke down the pillars, and cut down the Asherim, and tore down the high places and the altars, from all Yehudah, and Binyamin, and in Ephrayim and Menashsheh, even to completion. Then all the children of Yisra’el returned to their own cities, each to his possession.” (2 Chronicles 31:1).
You become richer when what you have is truly yours to have. Let go of the false idols. This may take time, but allow the time to take.
Once upon a time, there was a small village with an idol in the middle of it. A missionary came to the village and saw the idol and he destroyed it. The villagers were mad at this and built another one, only this time a little bigger. Again the missionary smashed the idol and again the villagers built another one, only this time a little stronger. Again the missionary smashed the idol and again the villagers built another one, only this time a little bigger and stronger still. The missionary was exhausted and could no longer smash the idol. It had grown stronger and taller than he was. He then shared a message of love in the foundation of Heaven’s desire, and, because of this, the people quickly forgot the idol. The idol became unkempt, and soon the birds had nests in the ears that could not hear; the mouth that could not speak became full of leaves; vines had covered the eyes that could not see; the arms that could not lift fell on the feet that could not walk, becoming shelter for rabbits, and, in the passing of a generation, no one remembered the idol’s name, save by the name of where the preacher first came.
Sometimes we have to tear down the idol for them to even know it is one, but always leave some for them to take down. Don’t rob them of the joy! Let the part you tear down be torn down by your quoting His Words as He gives them. Then, His Spirit, in His followers, will tear down the high places that they had unknowingly once set up in their hearts.
“and the Philistines took the ark of Elohim and brought it into the house of Dagon and set it by Dagon. And the Ashdodites rose early in the morning and saw Dagon fallen on its face to the ground before the ark of Yahoweh. So they took Dagon and put it in its place again. And they arose early the next morning and saw Dagon fallen on its face to the ground before the ark of Yahoweh, and the head of Dagon and both the palms of its hands cut off, on the threshold, only Dagon itself was left of it.” (1 Samuel 5:2-4).
“The idols of the gentiles are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. They have mouths, but they do not speak; They have eyes, but they do not see; they have ears, but they do not hear; also there is no breath in their mouth. Those making them become like them, everyone who is trusting in them.” (Psalms 135:15-18). Save this! Save this: Give Him a chance by living the Father’s desire.
In Exodus 32:20 Moses ground up the golden calf and made the Israelites drink it. Drinking gold would give you diarrhea. Sometimes it is not worth going through the leftovers of our old religious system to get the gold out of it. Rather, we should leave it all behind and look to His Word, which is more precious than gold, and does not require all that digging through the … leftovers. “Who brings the clean thing out of the unclean? No one!” (Job 14:4).
Start again. Start over. Look to the Word as your base of truth, not the world, not the church, and not even yourself. Look to the Word. The truth stands, but all the idols, even the ones we claim are unto to Yahoweh, shall fall. Let us, therefore, worship rightly.
Be Blessed and be a Blessing
Shalom
-Valentine Thalken Billingsley
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Additional Scripture References:
Nahum 1:14, Deuteronomy 4:15-31, Isaiah 45:20-22
