"You shall not make yourself a graven 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, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to . . . those who love me and keep my commandments" (Exodus 20:4-6).
This is one commandment that we can dispense with quickly as quite irrelevant to the Truth-seeker in modern times. Or so it would seem. For who of us today is seriously involved in the worship of idols? However, we think you will see that, when broken down to its essence, this second commandment is extremely relevant to each of us. Its implication is as vital as anything we may encounter, not only in all the Ten Commandments, but in all that we deal with in our quest for Truth.
The word graven means "carved," and thus the graven image referred to the figures of stone and gold and wood that have been central in the religious practices of pagan people of all cultures. Many have been the attempts to depict God or the gods in finite form: the African fetish, the Eskimo totem, the Egyptian dung beetle, the Phoenician Baal, the Hindu Kali, the manybreasted Diana of the Ephesians, and the all-too-human gods of the Greeks and Romans. But these are no longer an influence in our Western civilization. Of course, we could consider the Judeo-Christian use of icons, scrolls, and statues as coming under the scope of the second commandment. However, as we will see, there are more important applications of a much more personal nature.
You may recall that when Moses returned from the mountain with the tablets of stone containing the Ten Commandments, he found his people engaged in a wild orgy of worship of a golden calf. In anger Moses threw the tablets to the ground and broke them into many pieces. The metaphysical implication is clear that stone tablets alone are insufficient to lead people to a higher way of life. They can so easily become graven images themselves, objects to give lip service to instead of principles to practice. So this act of Moses' breaking of the tablets seems to indicate that the stability of human life cannot be achieved by keeping the commandments alone, but only by breaking them down into their underlying spiritual essence.
As we noted in the first commandment, the fundamental principle is "I AM the Lord your God." This refers to the divine flow. Your life, your health, your love, your good . . . all come through the creative flow pouring forth from within. You are a unique individualization of the divine flow. This is why Jesus, quoting from the Old Testament, emphasized the divinity of humanity: "Is it not written in your law, 'I said, you are gods'?" (John 10:34, quoting Psalm 82:6).
However, like the Israelites of old, we have created our golden calves. The Preacher of Ecclesiastes puts it in an interesting way: "God, when he made man, made him straightforward, but man invents endless subtleties of his own" (Ecclesiastes 7:29, N.E.B.). And it is among these "endless subtleties" that we find the various forms of graven images.
In the beginning God . . . These are the most important words of the Bible. The "in the beginning" means in principle. All things have their beginning in the principle of mind-action, the Infinite Creative Process by which all things manifest. God created man . . . in the image of God he created him (Genesis 1:27). Man is created in and of this Infinite Process, with the potential to continue the process in the unfoldment of his life and the works of his hands.
When man is spiritually integrated, his life unfolds in the divine flow, and all things work for good. But when he loses sight of oneness and begins to think about and deal with two-ness, he "invents endless subtleties of his own." He conjures up all sorts of forces that have origin in his own mind, but which become factors in his life. As the ancients put it, "The slave is busy making whips for his master."
Instead of integrating ourselves with the "I AM" center within, keeping ourselves "straightforward" with the divine flow, we add a predicate to the "I AM." We vest power in persons, things, and beliefs, which then assert that power over us. All of which is to frustrate our own inner flow, which is the real sin. Every kind of sin committed by man boils down to a kind of idolatry . . . putting something before God.
Graven images take many forms. The word God is a good example. It is a symbol intended to indicate the unnamable and unknowable. Yet we think that to know the name is to know God. One may say, "I love God," and think he has fulfilled his religious obligation. But the word God is an abstraction. How can you love a word? The person may only love the idea of saying he loves God. If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar (I John 4:20). Maybe the only way you can know what you believe is by how you see yourself acting.
A window is created to be seen through. But if it is allowed to get dusty and dirty, in time it will become opaque. Now, instead of seeing through the window, we can only look at the window. It becomes an object instead of a medium. As the words and symbols of religions evolve, in time we do not look to that to which they point; we simply kneel in adoration at the window, the cross, the altar, or the word God.
This may explain the stress on breaking the first commandment. The old idea of God needs to be broken down that you may experience the Presence. When you get the feeling of oneness with the Presence, you know that there is no way to get outside it. God is the root of your being, the life of your life, the love of your love, the mind of your mind. This consciousness cannot be achieved so long as there is any kind of intermediary with God, or any involvement with religious statues, relics, or even pictures of Jesus. For these may all become graven images.
Of course, we must be realistic. Man in his spiritual immaturity has always found the need to clothe God in human form. The story is told of a little girl who was crying in the night. Her mother came to her room and said, "Don't cry, dear, God is right here with you." To which the little one replied, "But I want someone with skin-on!"
Thus, the carved figures and pictures and medallions may be sincerely intended to comfort us and reassure us. They are symbols of the everpresent love of God. But how easily and how often we confuse the symbolic for the real. Thus we have graven images. The sad thing is that while we vest power in the image, we lose the sense of our own oneness with the power within ourselves. This is why Emerson longed for a "first-hand and immediate experience with God."
The Truth is: WHAT YOU ACKNOWLEDGE TO BE YOUR MASTER, TO THAT YOU ARE A SERVANT. This refers not just to things happening around you but to things that are established within you. It means attitudes, and this is what the commandments are about. It is as if the walls of your house of consciousness are a gallery displaying all the graven images that you have formed out of your prejudices and fears and complexes. As Jeremiah said: "You pervert the words of the living God" (Jeremiah 23:36). It is as if you actually carved these mental aberrations into stone figures that have, then, been ensconced with reverence in various alcoves of the mind. There they sit in regal splendor, asserting their power in many an unguarded moment.
Here are just a few of the most common graven images of the mind: “That's just the way he is"; “She is a weak character, what can you expect"; “You can't trust people anymore"; “Some people get all the breaks"; “With my luck"; "They never give the little guy a chance"; “For a person of my age"; “Because I was very sick as a child"; “Office politics"; "He will never make it, for he is a born loser," etc.
When you catch the idea, you might want to add to the list. It could be extremely revealing, and somewhat frightening. For these are the graven images or fixed attitudes that you may have carved into the very fabric of your subconscious mind. Within you is the unborn possibility of limitless life, and yours is always the privilege and the responsibility of giving birth to it. But as long as you acknowledge these things to be your master, you are failing to take responsibility for your life. You are frustrating your own divine potential.
If you are forever worrying about your finances, anxious about those who seem to be a threat to your position, or fearful that certain foods or conditions of the weather may be an upset to your health, then, as Jesus said, you are worshiping mammon. You are making graven images.
If you give power to good luck or bad luck, to the Dow Jones averages, what you read in the paper, the talk of the "virus going around," or the pious pronouncements of a psychic or seer, then you are bowing down to graven images.
If you give undue power to ailments or handicaps, you are making graven images. How common is it to refer almost tenderly to one's condition as "my arthritis," "my allergy," "my inferiority complex," "my penchant for failing." In many cases one may have identified with them (and as them) for so long that they have become almost as family altars before which he kneels faithfully in homage.
The commandment says: "For I . . . am a jealous God, visiting . . . iniquity . . . upon . . . those who hate me" (Exodus 20:7). Modern Bible scholarship tells us that the word should be zealous. In the Aramaic the words appear almost identical, though there is a wide disparity of meaning. A jealous God would be a human god who is emotional and vindictive. Zealous, on the other hand, connotes constant in activity, like the flow of current in an electric circuit.
The reference to God visiting iniquity on the children of the third and fourth generation of them who hate Him . . . is a figure of speech that must be broken down. It is unfortunate that the image of the wrathful and vindictive God of much of the Old Testament has never really been seen for what it is: the evidence of the limitation of consciousness of Bible writers, and certainly not a realistic picture of God. No children are ever punished for the sins of their fathers. We are not even punished for our own mistakes . . . we are punished by them. The divine flow within, like electric current, is ever supportive; but it cannot be short-circuited without painful results. Visiting iniquity on the third and fourth generation simply makes clear that if we frustrate the divine flow today, we may be in for a continuity of that frustration in the times to come.
The word hate as used in this commandment (“those who hate me") has been a problem to Bible students. For instance, in Luke 14:26, Jesus said: "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters . . . he cannot be my disciple." This seems strangely inconsistent with His own obvious love for His mother, and with His general teaching of love. There are modern sects that have made capital out of the literal implication of this statement, saying that people should abandon their parents and loved ones and follow a particular guru or "perfect master."
In the Aramaic root, the word hate means to cut off or separate. Love, on the other hand, means to hold in oneness. Jesus was referring to the need to become established in the discipline of Truth. He was concerned with those persons who make a graven image of certain relationships, becoming overly smothered in their love and dependent on their support. He was saying, "Know your oneness with the divine flow within you and let go of the tendency to lean on people."
Consistent with Bible teaching, this commandment clearly deals with the cosmic law. When you cut yourself off from the divine flow you are vulnerable to what it calls "iniquity," which could refer to any of the multitude of human challenges "to which the flesh is heir." (This is a cliché that is totally without validity, for it is not inheritance but cause and effect.) It also shows the other more supportive side of the law, the promise of "steadfast love to . . . those who love me and keep my commandments" (Exodus 20:6"). This important Bible Truth is most clearly articulated in Jesus' parable of the prodigal son, when the young man "began to be in want" (Luke 15:13, 14) because he separated himself from the father and went out into the "far country." And when he said: "I will arise and go to my father," he was soon back into the fold of his father's love in a veritable "eat, drink, and be merry" evidence of the healing flow.
There is yet another important aspect of the graven images implied in the second commandment: the false attitudes we hold about ourselves. Paul referred to this as seeing ourselves in a mirror darkly. It follows as night the day that one with a positive self-image sees himself as capable and confident, and he tends to draw experiences and relationships commensurate with his self-evaluation. On the other hand, one with a poor self-image sees himself as weak and worthless. He underbids himself in the marketplace and experiences a continuity of injustices, bad breaks, and heartbreaking problems.
Genesis says: God created man in his own image. It is a great Truth to take seriously. Make it real by affirming: God created me in His own image. You are God's image of man in the form of you. Affirm this often and the poor self-image will begin to fade away, to be replaced by a healthy awareness of your rightful place in the divine flow. You will have a growing confidence that you have been endowed with divine potential and the power to fulfill.
To be created in the image of God means that "in the beginning" (in principle) you were formed as an idea in Infinite Mind. You can never be less than the God-idea in expression. Because you live and move and have your being in Infinite Mind, you are endowed with creative power to form and shape things and to look upon them and say, "It is good." Paul referred to this image of God in you as Christ in you, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27). Christian tradition has mistakenly equated the Christ with Jesus. The Christ is the divine image in man, while Jesus is one who brought that image to full expression.
Jesus did say: "He who has seen me has seen the Father" (John 14:9). But He meant, "The divinity you see in me is the evidence of God expressing through me." He said, "No one is good but God alone" (Luke 18:19). He was trying to make it crystal clear that the God-power that expressed in and through Him is the same power that indwells every person. He kept His life in sharp focus, releasing the full potential of the divine image within, while most persons "light a lamp and put it under a bushel" (Matthew 5:15) and thus base their lives on the "endless subtleties" of human consciousness.
Self-image psychology has interested many persons in improving their personality by changing their self-image. It is an approach that has been helpful to many . . . but it is fraught with much self-delusion. Too often it deals with trying to change the image in the mirror, and suggesting the kind of image one may want there. This might lead to trying to be like someone else. But you can never be someone else, no matter how you admire or envy him.
No matter where you are in consciousness, or how poor your evaluation of yourself, you do not need a new self-image. What you need is to let go of the graven image of yourself that you have carved into the fabric of your subconscious mind, and to know and release your own divine image. It has never changed through all your life. It is that perfect idea of you formed in the mind of the Infinite.
You are a unique creature with the image of God stamped upon you. You may not be expressing it, but there is no one on earth quite like you. Your work is not to get a new self-image but to release your true God-image, to open out a way whence the imprisoned splendor may escape (Browning). As Meister Eckhart might put it, the need is to let God be God in you, and let God unfold as you.
You could conceivably change your self-image and become outgoing and friendly . . . while behind this pasted-on facade might be the same feeling of self-rejection you have tried to escape from. The problem has not been solved through glossing it over with a "new image." Actually, it could be that the new self-image is a graven image that might further frustrate the flow of your good.
Instead of trying to shape a self-image that conforms to the things or attributes you yearn for, how much better to know that your own divine image is ever seeking expression in you and as you. A beautiful statement of the Bible that is almost universally misunderstood is John 3:16 (A.V.): For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son. Fundamental Christianity has insisted that this refers to Jesus. Meister Eckhart gives the clue to its meaning: God never begot but one son, but the eternal is forever begetting the only-begotten. There is that of every person that is begotten of many sources: his parents, heredity, the influences of his environment, the styles and trends of Madison Avenue, etc. The image thus projected in the person's life may be synthetically carved to form the personality that obscures the true son-of-God self within. But the "only-begotten son" is that which is begotten only of God, the divine pattern and the creative potential to express it. In other words, "God so loved you that He gave you that which is begotten only of Him."
In meditation, take time to get acquainted with the true you, that of you that is begotten only of God, created in His image-likeness. The endless subtleties and graven images of the mind will fade away into nothingness. Make your commitment to the spiritual ideal that is commended to you in the second commandment, perhaps in a way such as this:
I will remember that I am forever in the flow of God as my resource of life, love, substance, and wisdom. I will not bow down before any other power over my life . . . for I will know that there is only one presence and one power . . . God, the good, omnipotent. I will keep myself in the awareness that God loves me with an everlasting love, and that in His supportive love He has endowed me with the power and potential of divine sonship. And I will have a mighty faith that, when this God-image becomes my self-image, when the within of me shall become the without of me, then truly the Kingdom will have come, the divine will will have been done, in the earth of human experience as it is in the heaven of potentiality.
© 1987, Unity Books
Reprinted with permission.
