A New Way of Knowing God

One of the most unique things about the religion of the ancient Hebrews was the prohibition against making images of the Divine. The two things all ancient religions had in common were sacrifice and images. Israel shared sacrificial rites similar with other religions, but they prohibited the creation of sacred images. Israel had a correct instinct that to make an image of God is to misrepresent God. Israel was taught by God that they didn’t know enough about God to make an image of God. So Israel had a Torah, but no icons -- no representative images revealing what God is like. But then something wonderful happened! The most wonderful thing of all happened! The Word, Wisdom, Logos, Logic of God became flesh…a baby…a human being! Who is Jesus? The perfect icon of God. The exact imprint of God’s nature. With the coming of Christ we have a new way of knowing God!