A picture is worth a thousand words. It’s an old cliché perhaps, but accu­rate in many instances. In fact, some­times a picture can be worth more than a thousand words.

Say you’re describing the outside of your house to someone. You could use a thousand words to describe its size, the shape of the roof, the loca­tion of your doors and windows, and everything else there is to know about the appearance of your house. But then show him one picture, and that person will have a much better idea of what your house looks like.

Or say the police are looking for a criminal. They have a thousand words describing his height, his com­plexion, his weight, the shape of his head, the colour of his hair, the fea­tures of his face. But none of that would be as helpful as one picture in helping them to know exactly who to look for.

A picture is worth a thousand words, or even more than a thousand words. And the reason for this is quite sim­ple: the human mind uses pictures when it thinks. Who is best at re­membering? The person who has a photographic memory. The person better able to conjure up images in his mind is better equipped to remember, because the human mind operates with images.

The Golden Image⤒🔗

The Israelites camped at Mount Sinai after escaping from Egypt must have believed that an image is worth a thousand words. They wanted to have a picture of their God. They wanted a god they could see. So they called on Aaron, who then took their gold and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf.

And he declared to the people — ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’ The Lord is the one who brought you out of Egypt. Here’s an image of Him. Oh, isn’t it so helpful to be able to see an image of this god? Isn’t it wonder­ful that we could use our gold for such noble religious purposes? My, how clever we are, making such a beauti­ful image.

Well, it only makes sense that they should use this image to help them worship the Lord. As we read in verse 5 of Exodus 32 — ‘When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, ‘Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.’’ Let’s have a festival to worship God using this golden calf, our won­derful worship aid.

Now, this is perfectly understandable, isn’t it? I mean, that’s the way our minds work. We have a better under­standing of something if we can picture an image of it in our minds. So why not use a golden image to use in worshipping God? It’s so beautiful. Wouldn’t it help God’s people in their reflection on His beauty?

There’s only one problem, though. It’s called the second commandment.

You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of any­thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God.

Oops. I guess using an image to wor­ship God is not such a good idea after all. We can’t use in our worship any image of anything in heaven above or on the earth or in the water. Well, calves walk on the earth, so that definitely rules them out.

In fact, any possible image would not be appropriate for use in wor­ship, since every possible image will conceivably fall in the category of being either from heaven above, or on the earth beneath, or in the waters under the earth. That cov­ers just about everything. No room for movement.

God Cannot Be Pictured←⤒🔗

Now wait a second, isn’t God being rather unfair here? After all, our minds use images. Wouldn’t it help us to better remember God, and therefore better worship Him, if we could use images?

No! Absolutely not! Images must never be used in our worship of God, no matter how helpful we may think they can be. True, images have their uses, but not here. Not when it comes to worshipping God. In pure worship, images are far more of a hindrance than a help. When it comes to worship, one Word, the Word of God, is better than a thousand pictures.

Why is this? Well, the reason is quite simple. It’s absolutely impos­sible for any image to give an ade­quate representation of God. There is simply no image anywhere that could possibly do justice to who God is, that could possibly do jus­tice to His greatness, to His power, majesty and glory. Every possible image falls short. And so, we are forbidden to make images of God simply because any image that we could possibly use would never even come close to actually show­ing us who God is.

The Unimaginable Attributes of God←⤒🔗

Listen to how the Westminster Con­fession describes the characteris­tics of God.

There is but one only, living, and true God, who is infinite in being and perfection, a most pure spirit, invisible, without body, parts, or passions; immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, most wise, most holy, most free, most absolute.

So, God is a most pure spirit. Could any physical image ever adequately represent the spiritual nature of God? God is eternal. Could any image cre­ated in the realm of time possibly do justice to the God who is way above and beyond time?

God is invisible. How can anything invisible be represented by something visible?

God is immutable, meaning that He is unchanging, the same now and al­ways. Well, any image we make is subject to change. Make a painting, and it can be changed by throwing more paint on it. Make a golden calf, and you can change it by melting it down, or crumbling it up into gold dust. How can anything which is so subject to change possibly represent the unchanging God? God is infinite. Could any image filling a very small segment of space possibly do justice to the God who completely and infinitely transcends space?

God is Almighty, all-powerful. Could any image created by weak human beings using their weak puny hands, using inher­ently weak physical matter, could any such image pos­sibly do justice to the God who is infinitely powerful, more powerful than we could possibly imagine? No matter how strong you might make an image, something will be stronger. But noth­ing is stronger than God.

God is most holy. Could any image made by sinful, depraved human hands possibly do justice to the God whose holiness is totally and com­pletely perfect? No.

When we consider the nature of God, when we consider who God is and what He is like, it becomes quite clear that it is totally impossible to make any sort of image of God.

Images of God Insult Him←⤒🔗

What makes it worse is that any time we try to make an image of God, it will only be insulting Him. As one of the great Puritan preachers, Thomas Wat­son says, ‘To set up an image to represent God, is debasing Him. If any­one should make images of snakes or spiders, saying he did it to represent his prince, would not the prince take it in disdain? What greater disparage­ment to the infinite God than to repre­sent him by that which is finite; the living God, by that which is without life; and the Maker of all by a thing which is made?’

You would think that all of this should be obvious. You would think it would be so clear that any image we could use would not possibly do justice to who God is. And yet, the sinful mind being what it is cannot seem to get away from using images to represent God. For example, there is that fa­mous painting on the ceiling of the Sistine chapel in the Vatican, the one painted by Michelangelo, where you have God pictured as an old man with a long flowing beard and Adam pictured as a younger man. God and Adam are reaching their arms out to each other and touching fingers. It’s an incredibly beautiful painting, but it breaks the second commandment. There are so many other paintings that picture God as an old man. How degrading of God! Not that it’s so bad to be an old man. But to portray God with a body like any human being, this is completely insulting.

Images of God Are a Lie←⤒🔗

Ah, but you might say, those paintings are just nice pictures. They’re not necessarily being used for worship. But the fact still remains, as the Hei­delberg Catechism says in Q. & A. 97, ‘God cannot and may not be visibly portrayed in any way.’ It doesn’t really matter whether images of God are being used for worship or not, they are not allowed in any circum­stance.

And besides, consider this: even if you think you would never worship an image of God, nevertheless, the next time you are worshipping, it’s quite possible that that image of God is going to come into your mind. Remember, God knows very well how we think. He knows the powerful impact images have on our minds. And He knows that any time we have an image in our mind while thinking about Him, in worship or not, then it becomes all that much more difficult to focus on the truth of who He is. We are called to worship Him in spirit and in truth, and any image of God is not truth but a lie. But what about using pictures of God to help children and others who might have a difficult time understanding who God is, like say, the simple or the mentally handicapped? Well, this still does not give us an excuse to use images. God knew there would be such people, and He did not give us the option of breaking the second command­ment for their sake. If God says we do not use images to portray Him, then we must not use im­ages, period.

At this point, look at this as a way to remember how great God is. We’re not trying to disparage pictures. They play a crucial role in human life. In our society, images are everywhere: in photo albums, in ads, on television, on YouTube. And they can be great. But God is infinitely greater. Pictures can be worth a thousand words. But they can never do justice to the God who is worth more than anything.