The Hebrew word tselem, meaning shape, resemblance, or figure, is the same word used for the carved and molded idols God forbids and for the image in which He made man. Exodus 20:4 and Leviticus 26:1 prohibit making a carved tselem, and no one doubts that such idols resemble eagles, snakes, or men in outward form. Psalm 106:19-20 uses it of the molded calf at Horeb, and Isaiah 40 and 44 mock the workman who molds, casts, and plates an image, or carves one from a tree, bows to it, and burns the other half of the wood for his fire. Isaiah sets the blacksmith who fashions an image against the God who made man in His image. The same word, along with demooth (likeness) and the Greek icon, is used of idols, of Adam's son Seth, of a Roman coin's portrait, and of God. In each case it refers to concrete form and shape perceivable by the senses. Consistency therefore requires that man's creation in God's image mean bodily resemblance, so God has outward form. Reading these words as only moral or spiritual likeness when applied to God, but as physical shape when applied to idols, corrupts their usage.

Molded images, whether idols, icons, or symbols, are human attempts to confine the invisible God to physical forms that people can understand and control. Rebellious human nature, lacking God's Spirit, fabricates them as aids to worship a god of its own invention. The second commandment, building on the first, forbids using such physical aids to worship God, and this includes statues or paintings of Jesus or Mary, crucifixes, nativity scenes, and stained-glass pictures of God or Christ. God does not condemn art or sculpture as such. Solomon placed golden cherubim in the Holy of Holies and carved angels, trees, and flowers on the sanctuary walls, and Israel worshiped none of them. What God condemns is bowing down to an image or serving it. Israel's golden calf shows the danger: when Moses was gone less than forty days, insecure Israelites molded a calf of gold to replace the Creator, reducing Him to something they could control and call on when convenient. Making and worshiping a molded image is shameful, foolish, and a lie, because no man-made form can truthfully represent the Eternal God. It is irrational for God's children (Acts 17:29) and breeds superstition, such as good-luck charms and shrines. God calls His people to worship Him directly, in humility and respectful fear, and whoever puts a visible object before Him breaks the second commandment. Unrepentant idolaters will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

The second commandment forbids making any carved or molded likeness of God, because it governs how God is worshipped. God is spirit, no man has seen Him, and the Holy of Holies held no representation of Him, so anything made to picture Him is a work of human hands and a lie. Such images limit God in the mind and change Him into a different god from the one who exists, since His attributes of mercy, graciousness, and truth cannot be carved in wood or stone. Israel's molded calf shows how this happens. The people sought a change of leaders, yet they fashioned gold into a god of Egypt and called its worship a feast to the Lord. God and Moses saw this as an attempt to define His nature and control Him by human desire, and God destroyed them for corrupting themselves. Numbers 33:52 commands the destruction of the Canaanites' molded images and engraved stones, which were worshipped things. An image begins as a symbol meant to ease worship, but people soon worship the symbol itself. Crucifixes, pictures, and statues of Christ fall under the same prohibition, as do manmade holidays and practices offered in God's name, which are false images held in the mind. Because we become what we worship, a false representation perverts God's reality and the worshipper. A person who knows God through prayer, study, and obedience needs no material representation of Him.