Out of the Furnace

“But Yahweh has taken you and brought you out o the iron furnace, from Egypt, to be a people for His own inheritance, as today.” – Deuteronomy 4:20 (LSB)

What does it mean to created in God’s image? The work of Peter J. Gentry has been immensely helpful in this regard, as well as the work of Jeffrey J. Niehaus. Gentry has successfully argued that the “image of God” in Genesis 1:26 refers to God’s creation of man to be his representation to the world (see Kingdom Through Covenant by Gentry and Wellum). Thus, mankind is the image of God, and therefore ought to rightly represent God to the world. Niehaus has demonstrated that Ancient Near-Eastern religions commonly held to a belief that the God or gods of their nation would establish an image within the nation to represent that deity to the world (see Ancient Near Eastern Themes in Biblical Theology by Niehaus). The difference between the other ANE religions and that of the Israelites, however, was the image. The Israelites were to have no images in their temple to represent God to the nation and the world. Why is this? Because the Israelites themselves were God’s image to the world. Thus, they ought to have acted as Yahweh’s representation to the world.

What does all that have to do with Deuteronomy 4:20? Notice how that verse is nestled between, on the left bookend, verses 10-11, where the people are assembled before Yahweh at a mountain burning with fire up to the heavens, and between the right bookend of verse 24, where Yahweh is described as a consuming fire and a jealous God. A mountain on fire, an iron furnace, and a consuming fire. Think of these three images as the pillars upholding the theological building of Deuteronomy 4:10-24. The contents between the pillars illuminate the theology these pillars are upholding. Verse 12 tells us that the nation heard the Lord’s voice, but saw no form. Then, verses 13-14 reveal that the voice of the Lord declared the Ten Commandments, and the voice spoke to Moses to instruct the people on how to live in the land. Because the people saw no form but only heard a voice, the nation ought not to make any graven image in the form of any figure, whether it resemble land creatures, sky creatures, sea creatures, ground creatures, or the planetary bodies (vv. 15-19). These are given to the nations to make images for worship (v. 19b). Not so with Israel. Rather, verse 20,”Yahweh has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, from Egypt, to be a people for His own inheritance, as today.” Moses would not enter the promised land to shepherd the people there (vv. 21-22), so they must keep themselves from making a graven image in the form of anything (v. 23). Why? Because the Lord is a consuming fire (v. 24).

Notice how the pillars of this passage are descriptions of a consuming fire of one sort or another. Sandwiched between these fiery images are commands to not make any form, graven image, figure, or likeness. If the Israelites were going to disobey God and make any sort of image, how would they do it? We don’t need to speculate, for they committed this very crime. “And [Aaron] took [the gold] from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made it into a molten calf” (Exodus 32:4). Aaron made a graven image in the likeness of a calf. How did he make the graven image? “And I said to them, ‘Whoever has any gold, et them tear it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf” (Ex. 32:24). Graven images are made by melting gold in a fire and then molding that gold in the fire, and once the image is formed, you pull it out of the fire. So, out of Egypt, the iron furnace, God has brought forth His people, that is, His image. The people are commanded to not make any graven images from iron furnaces as representations of their God because God Himself has made them to be His image pulled out from the iron furnace of Egypt.

I believe all of Scripture points to Jesus. He is the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15). Christians have been raised up with Christ Jesus (Col. 3:1), that we might be restored fully to that image which rightly represents God to the world (Col. 3:10-11). Now, in this day, under this New Covenant era inaugurated by Christ, God is forming His people into the restored image of God, by bringing them forth from Christ, not from Egypt, that Christ may be all in all.