The second commandment presupposes the principle that God is a Spirit, invisible, and infinitely glorious.
Hence, while the first commandment deals with the question who and what God is, the second rather gives an answer, in negative form, to the question how God is.
The negative and prohibitive form of this commandment is : "Thou shalt not make unto thyself any graven image, nor the likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth. Thous shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them."
Now, what does one do who presumes to make an image or representation of the invisible, incomprehensible, infinitely glorious God? He looks about himself in the visible universe. From that visible creation that exists in time and space, that, therefore, is strictly finite, limited, he derives his idea. He looks at the heavens above, at sun, moon, and stars; at the things in the earth beneath: man, beast, and creeping things; or at the creatures that are "under the earth," below the surface of the earth, in the waters: the fish of the sea, and all sorts of sea-monsters. Of them he makes an image, of silver or gold, of wood or stone. And he declares that the image he made is a true representation of God, that God is like unto the image he made.
This was the sin Israel committed at Horeb, a sin which they never overcame, the consequences of which pursued them all through the desert and throughout their whole history, until, finally, they were rejected as a nation, and the kingdom of God was taken away from them. They wanted to see their "gods" that brought them up out of the land of Egypt and that would go before them. For thus they spoke to Aaron: "Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him." For these visible gods they were willing to offer their gold. For, when Aaron told them to "break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, of your daughters, and bring them to me, they willingly complied with his request. And after they had so done, Aaron "fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf." Then the people said: "These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." This god, which was supposed to be a representation of the living God, they worshipped. For it Aaron made an altar, and proclaimed: "Tomorrow is a feast unto the Lord." Unto it they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings and "sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play." Such is image worship.
It is the making of a lie about the invisible God, and worshipping that lie. The image worshipper wantonly deprives God of His glory.
For the living God is the Creator, but an image is always the representation of a creature. God is a Spirit and essentially invisible, but an image is always material and visible. God is the eternal One, but an image is the representation of a creature which drags God into the limits of time. God is immense, omnipresent, immanent and transcendent, but the image worshipper deprives God of His greatness. God is infinite in all His glorious virtues, but the image worshipper declares of a dumb image, which has neither knowledge nor understanding, which can neither hear nor speak, that it is a true representation of the God of glory. God is independent and exists of and by Himself: He is Jehovah, the eternal I AM, with whom there is no change or shadow of turning; but the image worshipper represents Him as a changeable creature, dependent on the one that made it, and that can be carried about according to the fancy of him that formed it. Image worship, therefore, is the heinous sin of dragging down the glorious Creator of heaven and earth to the level of the creature, and of depriving the Lord of glory of all His adorable virtues.
Nor must we imagine that this sin is committed only by pagans, and that it is inconceivable in the civilized, Christian world. Fact is that this sin is deeply ingrained in our sinful nature. By nature, we all image worshippers. We are always inclined to lie about God, and to deprive Him of His glorious attributes. No, indeed, we do not carve or chisel a representation of God in wood or stone, in gold or silver, as do the heathen. But we do make images of Him in our mind, in our false conceptions of Him. Many are the images of the living God formed by modern theology and philosophy. Whenever we form a conception of God that is not according to His own revelation in the Holy Scriptures, we lie about God and make an image of Him. When we conceive of God as a Being that is so filled with love that He condones sin, we deny His righteousness and make an image of Him. When we imagine a God that is so merciful that He cannot possible cast the sinner into eternal desolation as punishment for his sin, we deprive Him of the glory of His immutable justice, and form an image of Him in our mind. When, in our prayers, we attempt to approach God without seeking forgiveness in the blood of Christ Jesus our Lord, we are worshipping an image just as really as the Israelites at Horeb worshipped the golden calf. When we conceive of God as a sort of a Santa Claus, that exists to bestow all kinds of good things upon us, to fight our wars and give us our victories; as a God that must solve the problems we create in our sinful world, as One to whom we cry when we are in trouble, but for the rest forget Him, Whom we do not care to glorify and in Whose way we do not care to walk, we simply worship an image of our own making. When we deny the Scriptural truth of election and reprobation, deny that He is merciful to whom He will be merciful and whom He will He hardens; when we represent God as, in saving the sinner, being dependent on the will of man, so that the latter must open the door of his heart before God can enter; or when we conceive of Him as being gracious, in the preaching of the gospel, to all that hear, head for head, and soul for soul, we deny His absolute sovereignty, and fashion an image of God just as really as the pagans carve one in wood or chisel one in stone. If we entertain the dualistic notion that God is the Lord of all good but not of evil; that He sends us health, but not sickness, prosperity but not adversity, peace but not war, plenty of work but not times of depression, life but not death; we deny that God is the Lord of all the earth, and we worship our own lie.
Thus could we continue. But let this be sufficient to convince us that the sin of image worship dwells in our own sinful flesh, and that, according to the inclination of our evil nature, we are always inclined to worship our own lie and to deny the God that has revealed Himself in His Word in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The second commandment puts its finger on a very sore spot in our sinful nature when it warns us: "Thou shalt not make unto thyself any graven image..."
No, indeed, this does not mean that we may not make any representations of the creature as such. It certainly does not imply that the second commandment forbids all works of art, such as sculpture or painting or photography. This is not the implication of the second commandment. Of course, even in this respect we must clearly discern between the true and the false, and not at random characterize every work of art as a beautiful product of "common grace." So called "lovers of art" are apt to walk around in old Athens and admire the beautiful remains of sculpture produced by the old Greeks. They reveal, according to some, the marvel of God's "common grace." But the apostle Paul viewed these same works of art with a different eye, and "his spirit was stirred within him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry." The same judgment I would pass on much of modern art, such as e.g., cubistic painting. Nevertheless, the second commandment certainly does not forbid to make representations of creatures, or of anything at all in creation. When, in our homes, we have paintings or photographs we are not violating the second commandment. What is forbidden is to make any image in order to represent God. This is also the teaching of the Heidelberg Catechism in question and answer 97: "Are images then not at all to be made? God neither can, nor may be represented by any means: but as to creatures; though they may be represented, yet God forbids to make, or to have any resemblance of them, either to worship them or to serve God by them." ...
Ursinus, in his exposition of the Heidelberg Catechism, offers eight reasons why images should not be tolerated in the churches. These are as follows:
(1) It is contrary to the express command of God that images should be made and set up in churches.
(2) Images placed in churches have been the occasion and means of horrible idolatry in the Romish Church.
(3) God expressly commanded that idols should be removed, as well as every corruption of the true doctrine and worship of God, and in this way declared His displeasure against idolatry.
(4) Our confession of the sincere worship, and our hatred to idolatry, cannot be expressed only in words, but must reveal itself in outward actions. Hence, we ought to remove all images from our churches.
(5) The Scriptures speak in commendation of pious kings, such as Asa, Hezekiah, Josiah, who destroyed the images and idols which had been set up.
(6) We must avoid all offence, and prevent all superstition and idolatry, so that the church and ignorant souls may be preserved from danger and sin, which formerly fell upon our forefathers for their idolatry.
(7) The enemies of the church may not be given occasion by this spectacle which looks so very much like idolatry to be driven farther from a profession of the truth and to cast reproach upon it.
(8) Images have never resulted in any good to those that had them. The history of Israel plainly reveals that images were always the cause of corruption and idolatry.
To this we may add that it is always quite impossible not only to make an image of God, but even to make an image of Christ incarnate. The Catechism contrasts the use of images in the churches with the lively preaching of the Word. And that is undoubtedly correct. Suppose you have images of all the phases of the historical Jesus, as He sojourned on earth in the years 1 to 33 A. D. Would all those images together be a true representation of the Christ of the Scriptures? They would not; and they could never be. You may make an image of the Babe of Bethlehem lying in the manger; but that image could never represent the Son of God incarnate. You can make images of all the phases of the suffering of Christ on the Via Dolorosa in its different stages - images that are usually set up in the Roman Catholic Churches; but can an image of the cross possibly represent the Word of the Cross, the logos tou staurou, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them? That is forever impossible. Such an image cannot possibly serve as a book for the laity, but can only serve to cover up the gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord. God was not only in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself when the Son of God in human nature died on the accursed tree, but He also put the Word of the cross in the apostles. And the apostles proclaimed that Word of the cross. If it had not been for that revelation of God Himself, we could never have understood the cross. And that cross, arrested in one of its moments by a dumb image, is deprived of all its glory and power. And what to say of an image of the Christ in His resurrection, and in His ascension, and in His exaltation at the right hand of God? It is evident that a dumb image in wood or stone can only serve to deprive the exalted Christ of His glory and power. Hence, we must not have images in the churches, not even as books of the laity. For they can never represent the glorious gospel of God revealed in Jesus Christ our Lord. But we must have the lively preaching of the Word of God, which brings unto is the complete Christ of the Scriptures, the Son of God in the flesh, conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary, Who suffered and died for our sins, and in Whom God reconciled us unto Himself, Who rose for our justification in the glory of immortality, and Who is exalted at the right hand of God, there to make intercession for all His people. Hence, the Heidelberg Catechism is certainly correct when it states in the answer to Question 98: We must not pretend to be wiser than God, who will have His people taught, not by dumb images, but by the lively preaching of His Word."
Herman Hoeksema
The Triple Knowledge, III: 156-167
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