God’s Word for You

2 Chronicles 31:1 Of the First Commandment

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Wednesday, May 28, 2025

31:1 When all of this had ended, all the Israelites who were there went out to the towns of Judah, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. They tore down the high places and the altars throughout Judah and Benjamin and in Ephraim and Manasseh until they had finished. Then the Israelites returned to their own towns and each to his own possession.

Four actions are described as the people went throughout Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim and Manasseh. The first thing they did in each town was to smash the sacred stones. Sacred stones (masseba) were pillars or long stones set upright. They could memorialize an appearance of the Lord, such as when Jacob did this at Bethel (Genesis 28:18), or could mark a grave (Genesis 35:20). The Lord did not command such things, but when they were turned into shrines apart from the Lord’s tabernacle, they were no longer pleasing in his sight.

Secondly, the people cut down the Asherah poles. Asherah was a Canaanite goddess of luck and happiness. In some pottery, the goddess is shown hovering over a tree, and trees or poles set into the ground were used in connection with worshiping the goddess. These trees (or poles) were identified and vigorously cut down.

Next we come to the tearing down of high places. The high places were originally hilltops used for worship; later on these may have become artificial places such as platforms or man-made mounds where a colorful tent would be used for ceremonies or prayers. The Lord could only see this as a mockery and rival of his tabernacle, and such worship was forbidden. Tearing these places down could have been accomplished by simply desecrating them, but the verb “tear down” shows that whatever shelter, hut, or tent was present was either ripped down or burned, or both.

Finally, altars were also torn down. Some of these had perhaps once been used for godly worship in the days before the tabernacle of Moses, and some were even commanded by God (Genesis 35:1). But once the tabernacle and the temple were raised up, those other places were no longer to be used. Altars could be wrecked by brute force with large hammers, or a fire could have been started all around the stones, after which a splash of cold water would crack and ruin the stones.

The author of Chronicles doesn’t mention one additional thing: “Hezekiah broke into pieces the bronze snake that Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. It was called Nehushtan” (2 Kings 18:4). The bronze snake had been a visible reminder of God’s promises to heal the people (Numbers 21:9). It was now almost seven hundred years old. Somebody could have made a bundle taking it to “Antique Road Show.” But instead they were worshiping it as if the thing itself was a god. Hezekiah did well to break it up and destroy it.

All of these are examples of keeping the First Commandment. There are two main forms of idolatry, crass and subtle. Crass idolatry involves all of the things in this passage: false gods of stone, wood, metal that are believed to have “something of divinity.” Astrology falls into this category. Subtle idolatry is an idol worshiped in the heart above God, given a kind of divine honor (money, power, one’s own opinion, etc.). There is another distinction to be made: When a person worships God but “not divinely,” meaning in another way apart from what he demands. A modern example of this includes those who claim to worship God the Creator but refuse to worship Christ his Son as divine. Muslims, Jews, Unitarians, Universalists, and others fall into this form of idolatry.

Since this passage speaks directly about the removal of idols that were objects, it is an excellent place to remember what should be called the appendix to the First Commandment: “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them” (Exodus 20:4-5). This brings before us the question of images that are painted or carved or engraved or set in glass: Are they idols?

1, Images of created things (including invisible things) are lawful and they are not forbidden in the Word of God except when people add idolatrous worship to them or shameful or obscene imagery to them. For God himself saw to it that trees, flowers, cherubim and other images were fashioned for his tabernacle and its furnishings (Exodus 25:18-20, 25:33-34, 31:4, 35:32).

2, When images were turned into idols, it was condemned by the Lord. “Those who say to images, ‘You are our gods,’ will be turned back in utter shame” (Isaiah 42:17).

3, Images in temples or churches are harmful only if they are thought to be necessary, or if the peril of idolatry arises, or if they become an offense to the weak, or some similar abuse.

4, If none of these things occurs (and there is no reasonable anxiety that they will occur), then we can have such images, paintings, or windows or at least tolerate them, for by themselves they are adiaphora (things neither commanded nor forbidden).

5, When it comes to removing such images, if it becomes necessary for some reason, the whole leadership of the church and all of the members should approve of the removal, and nothing should be done by force or rebellion, nor as a result of the private will of a few people. But the entire church should be instructed from the Word of God about the whole matter before it is done. This is a wholesome saying: Remove the idol from people’s souls as well as from their eyes.

6, Finally, we take our example from the early church. The use of images to depict, instruct or commemorate is a free matter, “For an idol is nothing at all in the world” (1 Corinthians 8:4). And we can tolerate them in the communities, apart from our churches and homes, without objecting, just as Paul traveled on a ship of Alexandria whose figurehead was an image of the twin gods Castor and Pollux (Acts 28:11). Therefore a Christian can tolerate an image without damaging the conscience. May God grant this for Jesus’ sake.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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