As God is bequeathing the Ten Commandments to Moses, there is a portion of the first commandment in which the Israelites are directed, “You shall not make for yourself an idol or a likeness of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth; you shall not bow down before them or serve them” (Ex 20:4-5). Other Christian traditions see this prohibition as so important that they regard it as a commandment unto itself. Catholics see it as a subset of the command to “have no other gods begore me” (Ex 20:3), in part because of a recognition that these “likenesses” are not problematic in and of themselves. Rather, it is the worshipping of a likeness which God forbids. Yet, many Christians of all stripes have perhaps read Exodus 20:4 too narrowly, when our discussion of it tends to focus on the appropriateness of statues and icons. Instead, we could look at this commandment more broadly as a divine admonishment against worshipping a static idea of who God is as though it were the Godself. In my experience, there are relatively few who would cling to a statue or an image as Ultimate Reality… but many who would cling to their collective notions of what they think God is as the supreme value. Contemplative practice helps us to release our always-too-small likenesses so that we can gradually encounter God on God’s terms, and as God is.
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Submitted by Andy Dapron