The context of the “Thou shall not make a graven image” passages is dealing with the worship of false things. Exodus 20:4 states that no one is to make an image of what is in heaven, so that you may not worship them or bow down to them (20:5). This is reiterated in Leviticus 26:1. The Deuteronomy passages, contextually, are dealing with the same thing: an admonition against worshipping a false image. God does not want people bowing down before idols and worshiping false gods.
- Shall not make graven images
- Exodus 20:4-5, “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. 5 “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me.”
- Leviticus 26:1, “You shall not make for yourselves idols, nor shall you set up for yourselves an image or a sacred pillar, nor shall you place a figured stone in your land to bow down to it; for I am the Lord your God.”
- Deuteronomy 5:8, “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.”
- Deuteronomy 27:15, “Cursed is the man who makes an idol or a molten image, an abomination to the Lord, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and sets it up in secret.’ And all the people shall answer and say, ‘Amen.’”
- Shall make graven images
- (Exodus 25:18)–“And you shall make two cherubim of gold, make them of hammered work at the two ends of the mercy seat.”
- (Exodus 37:7-8)–“And he made two cherubim of gold; he made them of hammered work, at the two ends of the mercy seat; 8one cherub at the one end, and one cherub at the other end; he made the cherubim of one piece with the mercy seat at the two ends.” See also, Exodus 26:1,31; 36:8; 1 Kings 6:23-35.
The instruction by God to make cherubim, which are angels in heaven, is not for the purpose of worship at all. Instead, it is a representation of the heavenly realm where God dwells, and the angels are about the throne (1 Samuel 4:4; Hebrews 9:5). The Cherubim were placed on the Ark of the Covenant – in the Holy of Holies in the temple (2 Chron. 3:10). There, they would never become objects of worship because they were not public artifacts to which the general populace would become familiar and thereby risk falling into idol worship.