So, why does God make such a big deal about using images to worship Him? It’s not just because He knew the history of His people. Right after God had given His people the Ten Commandments when they were gathered around Mount Sinai (v. 15), they were so afraid of His power that they sent Moses up on top of the mountain to hear the rest of the Law of God. But while Moses was gone, they made a gold-plated wooden calf and began worshipping it.

But let’s face it – we aren’t so different. It’s so easy for us to place our emphasis on material things – the things we can see and hear and touch and taste – instead of on God Himself. Moreover, since God’s creation is so amazing and wondrous, it’s easy for us to turn our attention toward the majesty and beauty of what He has made and forget all about Him (v. 19).

So it’s no wonder that God doesn’t want us to use any sort of images even if we think they will be helpful to our worship of Him – He knows how easy it is for us to become distracted and even seduced by them, to be so concerned with the architecture and artwork that we lose sight of the One Who is supposed to be the focus of our attention. No, the only visual and tactile elements God prescribes in worship are water and bread and wine – common, everyday things that are by definition impermanent.

But there’s an even more personal reason that God doesn’t want us to use images in worship: verse 24 tells us that the Lord is a jealous God. As verse 20 says, He went to all the trouble of bringing His people out of Egypt because He wanted their love and devotion for Himself alone. As a bride and groom naturally desire each other’s exclusive love and loyalty, God burns with a consuming fire of love for His people – He wants us all to Himself.

So, what is distracting you from worshipping God today? On what things, activities or relationships are you putting most of your time and attention? Why not put those things aside and just spend some time alone with God today, listening to His Word and talking with Him in prayer? Nothing could do us any more good, and nothing could be more pleasing to the One Who died for us.

Deuteronomy 4:14-24 (ESV)

14 And the LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and rules, that you might do them in the land that you are going over to possess.
15 “Therefore watch yourselves very carefully. Since you saw no form on the day that the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire,
16 beware lest you act corruptly by making a carved image for yourselves, in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female,
17 the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air,
18 the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth.
19 And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, things that the LORD your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.
20 But the LORD has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be a people of his own inheritance, as you are this day.
21 Furthermore, the LORD was angry with me because of you, and he swore that I should not cross the Jordan, and that I should not enter the good land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance.
22 For I must die in this land; I must not go over the Jordan. But you shall go over and take possession of that good land.
23 Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you, and make a carved image, the form of anything that the LORD your God has forbidden you.
24 For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.