Sarah (not her real name) grew up in the Jewish faith. She converted, believing in Jesus, and was thrilled to attend her first Christian church. She became greatly disturbed, however, by the pictures of angels and heavenly scenes painted on the church’s windows.

Knowing the Ten Commandments since childhood, she cited part of the second one as the reason for thinking the window illustrations were wrong. The part she referred to was in Exodus 20: 4—“You shall not make for yourself a carved image—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.”

Based on that alone, her point was valid. But, overlooked was that which is said in verse 5: “You shall not bow down to them nor serve them.”

Verse 5 is the gist and the context of the commandment. It is the worship or exaltation of the graven image that is sinful. Christian related (not pagan) paintings, statues, or any other artwork, in and of themselves, are not wrong or evil when placed in the church.

They can’t be because God Himself instructed that the depiction of angels be carved in the sanctuary’s Most Holy Place (Exodus 25: 18); hangings of embroidered angels in the tabernacle (1 Kings 6: 29); and the casting of a bronze oxen in the courtyard (1 Kings 7: 25).

Carved forms and any other illustrative art are wrong items to have in the church, or anywhere else for that matter,  when they are looked at and used as items of reverence and veneration.

Unfortunately, Sarah’s upbringing overrode this explanation. Fortunately, though, she retained her belief in Jesus. However, she left the church to join with Messianic Jews in the synagogue.