And the whole point about graven images in the Sinai narrative is precisely an issue with misunderstanding who the Lord was who brought them out of Egypt and that which followed, "you shall have no other gods...". Remember when Aaron elevated the golden calf what he said... "behold the God who brought you out of the land of Egypt."
That's perhaps consistent with the Lutheran understanding of the matter, but it is misleading analysis from the Reformed perspective; and it seems to soft-pedal the base issue regarding the golden calf. It was not misunderstanding that swept the people away, but rebellion; which Aaron dressed up in false and comfortable worship.
The substance of the 2nd commandment (as we number them) addresses the distinct and highly significant question of the proper worship of the true God. Proper worship of the true God is as vital a question as elimination of all rivals to the one true God. This commandment is the cornerstone of the Reformed or Regulative principle of worship.
God is not to be worshipped except by those means which he has himself authorized. He may not be worshipped "sincerely" under any pretended zeal. The Reformed deny: that God may be worshipped by any means, provided it does not cross a specific prohibition. But, we must do all that God requires, and only that which is required; for this is his pleasure.
The pains God took with his worship in the case of national Israel dominates the Torah. "And look that thou make them after their
pattern, which was shewed thee in the mount," Ex.25:40. The latter half of Exodus, the entire book of Leviticus, are focused on the Tabernacle institution, and those who ministered in it. Lev.10 tells the tale of the "strange fire" which was offered on the altar, which God punished by swift and merciless judgment. Why? The Lord had not commanded it, v1.
Dt.12:29-32, "When the Lord thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land; Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. Thou shalt not do so unto the Lord thy God: for every abomination to the Lord, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.
What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it."
Jer.7:31, "And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which
I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart." Note the terms by which the idolaters of Judah are condemned: yes, they were not to be idolaters, and so were guilty of the first commandment. But this form of worship (so contrary to nature, indeed) was never to be indulged
because it had not been commanded them of God! It had no positive warrant, and never would have had it since it never even entered the heart of God.
Being the moral law, and not confined to the limits of the Sinai administration--the law written on the heart since creation--the strictures on worshipping God only on his designated terms continue, so far as the Reformed confess,see WCF 21:1. We often argue over where those limits lie; but except for those who ignore or are ignorant of this point, we agree that God has charged a peculiar propriety with respect to his worship.
