becomes debased and the need for careful obedience becomes undermined. This commandment was given against the background of idolatry in which images were used as instruments of worship. The command explicitly says, ‘You shall not bow down to them or serve them.’ Though the use of images and statues can be said to focus the thoughts of the worshippers upon the deity, almost inevitably people begin to feel that in some way the god, or his spirit, is located in or with the image. So they act as if that