This commandment is a prohibition against making images or likenesses of Yahweh. God forbade idolatry itself in the first commandment.
This commandment was necessary for at least three reasons.
1. Any material representation of the Lord slanders Him. He is greater than anything humans can conceive in our minds let alone make with our hands.
2. By making and using images of Yahweh the worshipper would gain a sense of control over Him. God is the Creator, and we are His creatures. He is also sovereign over all. Rather than accepting his place as subject creature under the sovereign Creator, the person who makes an image of God puts himself in the position of creator. In effect he puts God in the place of a created thing. He usurps God's sovereignty. Since God made man in His image it is inappropriate for us to try to make God in our image much less in the image of an animal.
3. It is easy for anyone to confuse an object that represents a deity with that deity. Instead of worshipping the god the object represents, people have always transferred their worship to the object. This is our natural tendency as material beings who give preference to what we can see over what we cannot see.
We can identify several benefits of observing this commandment.
1. Obedience tends to preserve the relationship between God and man as one that love characterizes (v. 9). Images that represent God can divert love from God Himself to the image that represents Him.
2. God also intended this commandment to cast Israel constantly back on its knowledge of Himself. What God has revealed about Himself is much greater than anything that His people could represent in material form.
3. Obedience would also preserve Israel's distinctiveness in the world. Israel alone in the ancient Near East did not make images of her God.77If the Israelites made images of Yahweh, the other nations would have perceived Him as just another god.
4. God also intended to preserve love for Himself in the succeeding generations of His people (vv. 9-10). God is jealous when we commit to (i.e., love) something other than Himself. He disciplines people who do not love Him ("hate me", i.e., rebel against Him, v. 9), but He blesses those who do. Apostasy has effects on succeeding generations. Rebellious, God-hating parents often produce several generations of descendants who also hate God (cf. Exod. 20:5; 34:6-7). Children normally follow the example of their parents. Note that God's blessing exceeds his discipline a thousand fold.
Is this commandment one God wants us to live by even today? It deals with the problems we human beings have with understanding the nature of God and our proper relationship to Him. The nature of man and the nature of God have not changed. Consequently almost everyone acknowledges that this commandment is one that God intended to affect His people of all ages, not just those living in Israel in Old Testament times (cf. Acts 17:24-28).78
