Jerry Sittser from his book ‘The Will of God as a Way of Life’ taught:
The second commandment affirms that God must be given the freedom to be who he is; it therefore forbids us from reducing God to an idol. Again, idols were a common occurrence in the ancient world. The ancients made, used, and worshiped idols because they wanted their gods to take on concrete form. Idols allowed ancient people, as they still do today, to control, manipulate, and avoid God. Idols reduce God down to a more manageable size. But what good is God if he is nothing more than a product of human imagination?
Not that the people of Israel couldn’t use images and sacred objects in their religious life. It depended on how they were used. On the one hand God condemned Aaron and his people for making golden calves because they ascribed deity to them: “These are your gods, O Israel,”Aaron said, “who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”7 On the other hand, God commanded Moses to build an Ark of the Covenant to symbolize his presence. The Ark was a rectangular box, covered in pure gold, having two angels worshiping a space that was empty. Ironically, the empty space reminded the people of Israel that God could not be reduced to an idol.
Idolatry undermines God’s ultimate purpose. When we reduce God to an idol, we make God into our own image which reverses what God intended when he made us into his image. In the end, violation of the second commandment diminishes both God and the self. As God gets smaller, so do we, for the kind of God we worship will determine the kind of people we become. Speaking of idolaters, the apostle Paul writes, “For although they knew God they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their senseless minds were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools: and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling a mortal human being or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles.”8 But if we treat God as he is, we allow him to conform us to his image. Idolatry diminishes God; true worship transforms the self. ~Jerry Sittser, the Will of God as a Way of Life (Zondervan: Grande Rapids, Michigan, 49530) 69-70
