On Idols

Deut 4:15 "Take care ful heed to yourselves, for you saw no form when the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, lest you act corruptly and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of any figure: the likeness of male or female..."

John 20:29 'Jesus said to him, "Thomas, because you have seen Me, you believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." '

I am an artist and a natural skeptic, so it may not be surprising that I am more comfortable with things that are visible and tangible. And this tends to run counter to my faith in a gracious and faithful yet invisible God, but that's life for you; you just can't pick your God. Of course any image we might construct will be flawed by our limited understanding, plus God is not here to be our Cosmic Errand Boy, and I think this is the crux of the matter with the sin of idolatry.

But let's not be too hasty to cast aspersions on the characters of the Old Testament, we are in very much the same situation with our God and Savior Jesus Christ. Many attempts have been made to pictorialize Jesus, and while the artist is sincere it must be accepted that any such portraits are flawed due to human limitations. Let's face it, the many paintings and sketches of the "Anglo-Saxon Jesus" just don't cut it. It's not the real Jesus folks. And if my research is correct, some sincere Christians may have fallen into the snare of hanging on their walls portraits of Sananda the New Age Jesus, aka Matreiya. (Sorry, but just google images> "sananda jesus" and see what you get.)

I think it's the wisdom of God not to have Jesus remain on earth. As wonderful as this would be, Jesus had to leave for the Holy Spirit to do His work in our hearts, apart from what we see and touch. We'll just have to trust the scriptures of the apostles who did see and touch Jesus as evidence enough.

But here's the point that I'm trying to make: the Scriptures are our connection with the real Jesus. When we read the Bible, we get a crystal clear view of Jesus that God intended for us to see, namely His character. And being called to be conformed to the image of Christ, I'm so thankful that we don't have to assume ridiculous visual caricatures of our Lord. But we have an opportunity to become something much more meaningful by His grace.