Why do Catholics create and worship statues and images when God condemned the making of and worship of statues? In Ex 20:4-5 the Bible says, “You shall not make for yourself a graven image, of 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 down to them or serve them”.
I remember being seventeen years old and reading this for the first time. I remember putting my Bible down in shock, thinking, “Surely, Pope Benedict has read this? Why hasn’t he banned statues and images in the Catholic church?”
It was perfect timing, because just a few weeks later, Catholic apologist Tim Staples would arrive in Sydney and clear this up for me. Tim showed me that God could not be forbidding the making of statues and images in an absolute sense, because if He did, He would be contradicting Himself. We know this because just five chapters later, God commands the making of statues and graven images!
In Ex 25:18-20, when God gives Moses the instructions for constructing the Tabernacle, He commands him to make two golden Cherubim to be stationed on either side of the mercy seat. The mercy seat is where God will descend in the holy of holies and dwell among the people. This was the holiest of holy places. And what does God want in there, on either side of Him? Massive statues of angels! In Ex 26:1, God also commanded images of cherubim to be woven into the curtains of the Tabernacle.
Once the Israelites had settled in the Promised Land, King David gave the plans for the construction of the Jerusalem Temple to his son, Solomon (see 1 Chron. 28:9-19). David’s plan for the temple was “By the writing of the hand of the Lord concerning it all.” In other words, God gave the construction plans to King David. He was not free to build it as he pleased. Due to his sin, God forbade David from building the Temple; it was to be the duty of his son, Solomon, who would carry out the construction of the Temple instead.
In 1 Kings 6:11-13, God tells Solomon to remain faithful to his commandments concerning the construction of the Temple. If he does, God will not forsake his people. But if the Temple displeases God – he fails to carry out the construction according to the design given to Him – he and his people will be forsaken.
So, how does Solomon build the Temple? In 1 Kings 6:23-35, we read that he builds two fifteen-foot statues of cherubim in the holy of holies, and carved images of palm trees and flowers on the walls. In 7:29, there are lions and oxen carved into the Temple frames.
I don’t know about you, but this seems to me like Solomon has broken God’s commandments by creating statues and images in the Temple, doesn’t it? We should expect that God will forsake Solomon and his people for this, right?
Wrong.
In 1 Kings 9:1-3, when God sees the Temple, He says that He has consecrated it to Himself, meaning he was pleased with it. Now, remember that God gave clear instructions to David on how the Temple was to be constructed. If God was pleased with the Temple and consecrated it to himself, that could only mean that Solomon carried out its construction according to the “writing of the hand of the Lord concerning it all”. This means that graven images and statues were part of God’s plan for the Temple, the central place of worship for the Israelites and the dwelling place of the Most High God!
The key to interpreting Exodus 20:4-5 is that God was not condemning the making of images and statues in an absolute sense; if He did, He would be contradicting Himself, as we have just seen. So what was he condemning? The making of statues and images for the purpose of bowing down to them and serving them. A statue or image that is made with the intention of bowing down to it or serving it implies that it is being created as an object of worship, as an idol.
In the culture of that time, pagans would construct images of things in the heavens above (such as the sun, moon, and stars) or things on the earth (like sheep and cattle) and worship them as gods. This is what God was prohibiting: the making of idols to be worshipped instead of Him.
