June 26, 2026

Images, idols, created in image of God not other way, idols from stones, shaping God, he is the stone. Put away your images, be the image of God. Joshua, put away the gods. Ezekiel - let every man put away his images. Jacob - put away foreign gods.

We know that God created man and woman in His own image – after His likeness created He them. An image is a visual representation of something, in this case, we are made after the pattern of God - literal children of the same race. It’s ironic, then, when we consider the frequent pattern of idolatry in the Old Testament. God created us after His image, yet man frequently took stone (one of the symbolic representations of Him) and hewed it into a graven image of another, thus attempting to shape gods after the image of man. And not the man shaped after our Heavenly Father, but the natural man that is an enemy to God – our passions and the body we were given to tame.

These images, or idols, often reflected augmented caricatures of specific passions of the natural man. For example, Ahab and Jezebel lead the Kingdom of Isreal to worship Baal and Asherah. Baal was known as a fertility god and many of the rituals included gross perversions of the law of chastity, not to mention children sacrifices. Asherah was also related to impure sensuality, and even more blasphemous was frequently referred to as a wife to Yahweh, or Jehovah.

The creation of idols adds even more context to the ancient command not to build altars out of hewn stones. Figuratively, as we alter stone into what we think is best, we shape God after our own image. Literally, as we take anything given to us, and place it above our covenants with God, and therefore above Him, we are saying that we know best, or that what our Heavenly Father has designed for us is not what we want. We choose to allow the body to control the spirit, and in so doing relinquish all that God has in store for us.

I love the symbolism here. We must be wise and build upon The Rock of our salvation, the leader of the rock that was cut out of the mountain without hands that will roll forth until it covers the earth. No other rock shaped by man, no other passion, pastime, or sin will lead to the everlasting joy of eternal life. Our hearts are the rocks that represent our will. They come shaped after the image of our Heavenly Father and become chipped and hewn as we navigate our fallen state in mortality. The ultimate question, the trial of existence, is whether we will continue to shape our heart into the image we want, or will we recognize that our hewing has broken the heart and return it to our Savior, along with a contrite spirit, so that He can heal it through the power of the Atonement of Christ, and once again create us in His image.

Joshua, Ezekial, Jacob and other prophets pleaded with their family and people to put away their images and foreign gods. We can put away our images and be the image of God.

We've been given a body, and the body is the test. We are here to tame the body, with the help of Christ, to become like Father. Can we tame passions and harness the body.

Isaiah - ye have sold yourself (Goliath) - cannot enable and subsidize our self destruction

I found it interesting that David's stone did not kill Goliath, but Goliath's own sword was the instrument that brought about his death. I love this symbolism. The Lord is always there for us. He will do nothing save it be for our benefit. He will never abandon us. The Rock does not kill, but the sword of our own hand will cause our spiritual death if we do not yield to the enticings of the Holy Spirit.

He will not sell us, but He cannot stop us from selling ourselves. He will not enable us or subsidize our self-destruction.

Isaiah 50:

1 Thus saith the Lord, Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.