“You shall not make for yourselves an idol, nor any image of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
Moses himself made cherubim, brazen serpents, and oxen without condemnation. The sin lay not in making but in the intent: making in order to bow and worship. The command forbids images fashioned for idolatrous service, not images themselves.
AI summary
God first taught us He alone deserves worship; now He defines how. Worship must be spiritual, matching His nature, not carnal inventions born of human reason. It is folly and perversity for men to seek His presence in any visible image, since He cannot be represented to our eyes.
AI summary
God spoke these words Himself with dreadful pomp, not merely whispered through conscience or providence, but with the authority of Jehovah, the self-existent One. He bound Israel threefold: by His nature as eternal Lord, by covenant as their God, and by His power to reward obedience and punish disobedience.
AI summary
Commenting on Exodus 20:1-11