Neither shalt thou set thee up any image; which the LORD thy God hateth.
It belongs to the law recalled to Israel before crossing the Jordan, part of sacred instruction whose importance and necessity of obedience were impressed upon the people. The image forbidden is an Ashera, rendered grove in the common version, a symbol of Ashratu, the feminine counterpart of Baal. Setting up such a sacred image for worship is forbidden, in keeping with God's law and with the other passages that condemn images made for adoration and call for turning from practices that lead people away from him, while not prohibiting every picture, copy, likeness, or representation made for a proper purpose.
God hates this object because it was associated with licentious worship that leads people away from him. It is part of the church laws regulating assembling and worship given to Israel as a separate people and church, growing out of God's moral law but limited to that nation as law. With the rejection of the Jewish nation it expired as law and is not legally binding today, but its great underlying principle remains binding, as with all the civil, sanitary, social, building, agricultural, garment, Sabbath, and financial laws limited to Israel.
It belongs to the law recalled to Israel before crossing the Jordan, part of sacred instruction whose importance and necessity of obedience were impressed upon the people. The image forbidden is an Ashera, rendered grove in the common version, a symbol of Ashratu, the feminine counterpart of Baal. Setting up such a sacred image for worship is forbidden, in keeping with God's law and with the other passages that condemn images made for adoration and call for turning from practices that lead people away from him, while not prohibiting every picture, copy, likeness, or representation made for a proper purpose.
God hates this object because it was associated with licentious worship that leads people away from him. It is part of the church laws regulating assembling and worship given to Israel as a separate people and church, growing out of God's moral law but limited to that nation as law. With the rejection of the Jewish nation it expired as law and is not legally binding today, but its great underlying principle remains binding, as with all the civil, sanitary, social, building, agricultural, garment, Sabbath, and financial laws limited to Israel.