The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed by Brenda Rivera of Orlando, Florida from the tape, GC 1301-O, titled "Bible Questions and Answers Part 17."  A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE. ©1978. All Rights Reserved.

Question

I got a question concerning the Ten Commandments. In Exodus 20:4 it says, “You shall not make for yourselves an idol or a likeness of what is in Heaven above or on earth beneath or in the water under the earth.” And there’s relatively the same kind of statement, of God speaking to Moses, concerning the children of Israel about their standards, everyday life, it relatively says the same thing. And then in Exodus 25:19 they're talking about making an Ark of the Covenant. And it says “And make one cherub at one end, and one cherub at the other end and you shall make a cherub in one piece in the mercy seat at its two ends.” Well I take it to be angels with wings, but it’s idols, it’s seems to clash. Can you clarify it?

Answer

Well the point is this, it’s the attitude and the purpose. It’s the attitude and the purpose, O.K? Even the Lord told them to make a snake and put it on a stick, right? But at the same time in Romans 1 God condemned those who worshiped creeping things. Just because you form something doesn’t mean you worship it. They made the Ark of the Covenant, and they put angels on it, didn’t mean they worshiped those angels. That’s the issue, it’s when you make an idol to worship it and you could worship anything, you could worship a rock, you could worship your shoe, if you wanted to. If you really were convinced that your shoe was running the universe. You could worship anything you want, that’s the idea. What he’s saying there is when you effectively in your mind turn from worshiping the true God to worship a false god and then create an image which you suppose to be that false god and worship that false god. That is condemned, that is not to say that when they made the Ark of the Covenant, which was a piece of furniture, a representative piece of furniture, that they were to worship the angels, that would have been absolutely blasphemous, had they done that. So it was the heart attitude that was the issue.

Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur’s Questions and Answers" by:

Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
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