Deuteronomy 4:16, commentary and pictures

At Horeb Israel heard God's voice from the fire and cloud but saw no form of Him, so they were given no likeness from which to carve an image in the figure of male or female, and to make such an image would corrupt them into idolatrous worship. The prohibition guards every point against idolatry, covering any created thing that might be worshiped and served, whether human, animal, earthly or heavenly, for no figure can represent God, who alone is the living God of heaven, the enduring Creator to be served with heart and soul. It belongs to the law and covenant proclaimed at Sinai with the Ten Commandments and statutes and judgments, and the whole fourth chapter of Deuteronomy is to be carefully studied by God's covenant-keeping people as an enduring lesson on the sacredness of His law. Keeping these statutes in the heart brings blessing and prolonged days, while disobedience brings judgment, as was verified when all but two of the adults who left Egypt died in the wilderness, and the same principles are to be acted out in all service to God and one another in love, justice, tenderness and true courtesy. The charge still calls God's people to resist sinful inclination and serve Him wholly according to His Word, and those who hold it teach that multiplying pictures and photographs in homes and books corrupts His people into idolatry by attracting eye and mind and consuming the Lord's means that should go to missionary work.

Setting and Meaning

At Horeb Israel heard God's voice speaking out of the midst of the fire and cloud, but saw no manner of form or similitude of Him, and therefore they were given no visible likeness from which an image could be made. Because they saw no form when He spoke, they were not to invent a visible likeness or represent Him by any image. To make a carved image in the likeness of any figure, male or female, would corrupt the people themselves. That corrupting work leads into idolatrous worship, for the making of an image of any kind, including a likeness of male or female, turns the people aside to false worship.

The prohibition guards every point against idolatry and covers any created figure that people might worship and serve. It includes figures resembling humans, animals, birds, creeping things, fish, earthly things, and heavenly bodies. No figure can represent God, since no similitude of Him was found when He spoke. Created things are not God but testify of Him, so they are not to be represented or worshiped as God. Instead the people were to worship no image or representation but keep in mind the living God of heaven who endures forever, the Creator who demands all service, confidence, heart and soul.

Moses gave this warning just before leaving Israel as part of his instruction to preserve what they had witnessed and to obey God's commandments. It belonged to his charge to take heed, remember, and do, preparing them to resist the idolatry of the land they were about to possess. It was also part of the call to remember the law given at Sinai and to avoid the idolatrous customs of neighboring nations. Aaron violated this very principle, though he had been with Moses in the mount and had himself beheld the manifestation of God's glory in which there was nothing of which an image could be made. Knowing that no likeness could represent that glory, he yet changed it into the similitude of an ox in the golden calf, made the idol and announced its feast, which made his sin especially heinous.

Covenant Obedience Today

This warning belongs to the law and covenant proclaimed at Sinai, the covenant He commanded them to perform, even the Ten Commandments written on two tables of stone, with statutes and judgments to do them in the land, given with wonderful promises for observance to make Israel a holy people.
The whole fourth chapter of Deuteronomy is to be studied carefully by those who would belong to God's covenant-keeping people, as an enduring lesson about the sacredness of His law.
Keeping His statutes and commandments in the heart brings blessing, that it may go well and days may be prolonged on the earth, while disobedience brings judgment.
This was verified when Israel disobeyed and only two of the adults who left Egypt entered Canaan while the rest died in the wilderness, and the same vindication of God's word applies today if leaders of His people depart from His commandments.

The sacred directions spoken by God's voice tell what to do and what not to do and are to be acted out in principle in all religious service toward God and toward one another.
They are to be lived in being Christian gentlemen, loving as brethren, doing no injustice, and always showing liberality, tenderness, compassion, and true courtesy.
They express the same principles as the law of God and James 3, and their specifications never lose force because they are expressions of the mind of the infinite God.
Every word is to be cherished and preached and represented by correct principles in everything, while all who depart from them in action misrepresent the character of God, and light is sown for the righteous and gladness for the upright in heart who keep them.

God gave this lesson to bring people into right relation to Him so they do not lose heaven but see the King in His beauty and in character lawfully share Christ's glory by sharing His sufferings.
This comes by believing the Word just as given, partaking the divine nature to overcome the temptations in the world through lust, being unaffected by what any great person says, and not glorifying or lifting up any human being, but holding a faith that works by love and purifies the soul.
The charge also applies to God's people today to resist sinful inclinations and serve God according to His Word in submission wholly to His will.

The warning is applied to picture-taking and keeping magazines in the home as idolatry of humanity and earthly things.
People should spend less on personal pictures, direct that money to missionary work, and teach children to keep their minds on the living God rather than idolizing humanity or earthly things.
The verse forbids multiplying pictures and photographs in homes and in books, because that multitudinous picture-making corrupts God's people and makes them idolaters.
Spending so much of the Lord's money to produce pictures that are not essential is a species of idolatry that displeases God and consumes means that should be used in missionary effort.
Even things of apparently little consequence break the command because they attract the eye and mind and absorb the attention at the very time when attention should be given to God, while heeding what Moses was commanded to speak keeps those in sacred responsibility from weaving selfishness into sacred things and from using common fire in place of God's sacred fire in this day of test and trial.