Deuteronomy 4

Moses drones on endlessly during our reading today. I listened to Thomas and the Bible's podcast on Deut. 4-6, and I recommend it. He reads every word and adds his commentary. Very amusing, especially when Moses will not shut up already. He mused about removing all repetitive text and boiling the first five books of the bible down to each item being stated only one time. He thought he'd end up with maybe 20 pages. I can't overstate how repetitive and ridiculous this book is so far. Moses says the same thing over and over again. He keeps saying the same thing. And then, he'll say the same thing again. After that, he repeats it again. Then he restates it. <stabs eye out with a number 2 pencil>

Here's a fun example. Moses is explaining the graven image commandment. Instead of just saying "no graven images" (or not saying it... recall it was already hammered into the ground in Exodus), he says this:

¹⁶ Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female,

¹⁷ The likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the air,

¹⁸ The likeness of any thing that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth

 

I GET IT. Don't make a likeness of any figure. Annnd he keeps going:

 

²³ Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you, and make you a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, which the LORD thy God hath forbidden thee.

²⁴ For the LORD thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God.

²⁵ When thou shalt beget children, and children's children, and ye shall have remained long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, and shall do evil in the sight of the LORD thy God, to provoke him to anger

²⁶ I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto ye go over Jordan to possess it; ye shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall utterly be destroyed.

²⁷ And the LORD shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the heathen, whither the LORD shall lead you.

 

If you've made it this far and are still alive, let's think about what Moses is telling us here. First, in case you didn't know, don't make a graven image! How many times do I have to tell you? And if you DO make a graven image, plan on God destroying you and scattering your brood among the nations. This is irrational and tyrannical. It is not the response of a loving and reasonable God. Verse 24 tells us that he's in fact a jealous God. Jealous of a little statue. Someone explain to me the moral and just lesson I'm supposed to be learning here. I don't get it.

 

I was raised Catholic and every church is jam packed with what appears to me to be graven images. Statues, pictures, murals, etc. How does this not break a commandment? What about those little St. Joseph statues people use to sell their houses? And why would God care so much about these images to put them in his Top 10 No No's?