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V e r s e b y V e r s e
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This Rock
Volume 5, Number 1
 January 1994 
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IN Exodus 20:3-6 God forbids making graven
images for the purpose of idolatry but does not forbid the making
of graven images per se. Elsewhere he commands that statues
and other graven images be carved for religious purposes. The Catholic
Church permits statues because they remind us of unseen things, but
it condemns the idolatry of statue worship.
"[The Lord said] make two cherubim of gold;
of hammered work shall you make them, on the two ends of the mercy
seat. Make one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other
end. . ." (Ex. 25:18-19).
"You shall make the tabernacle with . . .
cherubim skillfully worked" (Ex. 26:1).
"The Lord said to Moses, `Make a fiery serpent,
and set it on a pole; and every one who is bitten, when he sees it,
shall live.' So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole"
(Num. 21:8-9).
"He made two cherubim of olivewood, each
ten cubits high. . . . He put the cherubim in the innermost part of
the Temple . . . And he overlaid the cherubim with gold. He carved
all the walls of the Temple round about with carved figures of cherubim
and palm trees and open flowers" (1 Kgs. 6:23, 27-29).
"[The brazen sea] stood upon [statues of]
twelve oxen, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south,
and three facing east" (1 Kgs. 7:25).
"And on the surfaces of its stays and on
its panels, he carved cherubim, lions, and palm trees, according to
the space of each, with wreaths round about" (1 Kgs. 7:36).
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