Deuteronomy 4:16-18

Now, notice this! God gave us words in order to understand Him. He allows us to describe Him in words of our own within the parameters of what He has revealed—what is in this Book. But, He strictly forbids us, and tells us to take especial care, not to make any image of Him—any statue, any painting, any drawing, any kind of picture, or representation of Him at all.

Why?

Obviously, the first reason is that it leads to idolatry. Just as this commandment says if you were to go on in Exodus 20:4. It says that you shall make no image of Him, and verse 5 says, "neither shall you bow down to one." Of course, that is primarily what He is concerned about in the second commandment—any form of idolatry.

But think about this: If we were to make a physical representation of God, whether by statue, picture, drawing, whatever, and even if it were perfect (Take Michelangelo, and you get him to make an exact representation of God in the medium of his choice, and he gets God's image down to the "freckle"—the smallest part I could think of), it would still be a misrepresentation of Him? It would be a lie!

Think about this for a minute: Even if we got an exact, perfect representation of God, it would be a lie! Why? Because any image is woefully incomplete! A picture, a statue, a drawing, whatever, cannot express the eternal, holy character of God! There is a saying, and you all know it: A picture is worth a thousand words.

What do a million words express? Something far deeper and more meaningful than a mere momentary image, because that is all an image is—a moment in time, frozen. But, what happened before? And, what happened after? Now, a statue is three-dimensional, and a picture is two-dimensional. But, God is multi-dimensional! We could say that He is at least four-dimensional because He is eternal. Add in the element of time!

Of course, we have to add in all the dimensions of His character, and what that means, and what He has planned—what He is trying to get accomplished. What He wants from each of us.

Any picture would be a lie.

Men have written billions of words in an attempt to understand God, and it is still not enough. Images are limited, and static, capturing a mere second in time. They have no depth. And, when you really think about it, you cannot learn very much from them at all. Do you know what images are best at conveying? Raw emotion! From hate to consolation, or what have you—some saccharine-love. But, images really have a hard time of expressing any kind of complexity at all.

But, you see my point. Spiritual concepts are hard to get across through images. But, in comparison, they are easy to get across in words.

Words are far more descriptive than any picture! That is precisely what God has told us to do in His Word in terms of His way of life. We are to think of them in terms of words, and reason them through with words. Discuss them with words. Teach them with words.

Deuteronomy 4:15-19

You notice that? Man will worship something. God is warning here that every man has the capability of creating his own god. It is not just those heathens over there. Every man has the capability and when we begin to understand the spirit of the law and that God wants us to worship Him in spirit and in truth, this begins to get very personal because we can carry an image, a false image of God wherever we go. We do not have to carry a leering statue with us of some kind of Buddha. That thing came out of a man's mind anyway. Might be a little more difficult to remember if you have to carry it around in your memory, but it is there nonetheless.