Vain Images

Deu 4:15 Therefore take good heed to yourselves, for you saw no kind of likeness on the day Jehovah spoke to you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire,
Deu 4:16 lest you act corruptly and make yourselves a graven image, the likeness of any figure, the likeness of male or female,
Deu 4:17 the likeness of any beast on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flies in the air,
Deu 4:18 the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish in the waters beneath the earth;
Deu 4:19 and lest you lift up your eyes to the heavens, and when you see the sun, and the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, lest you should be driven to worship them and serve them, which Jehovah your God has allotted to all nations under all the heavens.

Paraphrased: None of you saw God, just in case you might have decided to make a graven image of Him and worship it. The image WOULD BE any of these things: a male, a female, a beast, a fowl, an insect, a fish, a star, or a planet, because this is what you would see if you were to see Him. You may all see something different, but what you see would be the creation He made. (Psa 19:1)

These created things are given to everyone - all nations. His image, however, is NOT for everyone any more than His name is. He gives His name to the one He marries, as any husband does. God is telling us not only to not take His name in vain, but also to not take His image in vain. Now we see the reason for the thick layer of incense smoke inside the tabernacle. To see Him above the Ark of the Testimony would be death. God even warned Moses about gazing upon Him and He hid Moses in a crack in the cliff as He passed by. Our sinful tendency is to worship sight and not substance. This is the opposite of the faith that pleases God.