8869. 'You shall not make for yourself a graven image' means no product of self-intelligence. This is clear from the meaning of 'a graven image' as that which does not come from the Lord but from a person's self. A product of one's own understanding is meant by 'a graven image', and a product of one's own will by 'a molded image'. Having either kind as a god or venerating it is loving all that comes from self more than anything else. People who do this do not at all believe that any of their intelligence or wisdom flows in from the Divine; for they attribute it all to themselves. And everything else happening to them which they cannot attribute to themselves they relate to fortune or to chance; they altogether refuse to recognize God's providence in such matters. They suppose that if some higher power is present it lies within the natural order, to which they ascribe all things. They do, it is true, say with their lips that some God and Creator has stamped such things on the natural order; but in their hearts they refuse to recognize any God higher than the natural order. This is what those people are like who at heart attribute everything to their own prudence and intelligence, and nothing to God. And those of them who love themselves venerate their own abilities. They also wish to be venerated by others, indeed to be venerated as gods, openly so if the Church did not forbid it. These are 'the makers of graven images', and the images themselves are what they hatch from their own understanding and will, and wish to be venerated as things that are Divine.

[2] The fact that those things are meant by 'graven images' in the Word is clear from places where they are mentioned, as in Jeremiah,

Every person has been made stupid by knowledge; every metal-caster has been filled with shame by his graven image, for his molded image is a lie; and there is no spirit in those things. Jeremiah 10:14; 51:17.

Because 'a graven image' means that which does not originate in the Lord but is a product of self-intelligence, the words 'every person has been made stupid by knowledge' and 'every metal-caster has been filled with shame by his graven image' are therefore used. And because what is hatched from self-intelligence does not have within it any spiritual life, which comes solely from the Lord, the words 'and there is no spirit in those things' are also therefore used.

[3] In Habakkuk,

What profit is a graven image since its image-maker has graven it, a molded image and a teacher of lies, since the image-maker trusts in the thing he himself has made, when he makes dumb gods? It has no breath in it. ¹ Habakkuk 2:18-20.

Here 'a graven image' stands for what is hatched from self-intelligence and has no life at all from the Lord within it.

[4] In Jeremiah,

A drought on its waters, and they will dry up! For it is the land of graven images, and they glory in idols. ² Therefore the ziim dwell with the iim, and the daughters of the owl dwell in it. Jeremiah 50:38-39.

This refers to Chaldea and Babel. 'A drought on its waters, and they will dry up' stands for truths that have no life at all in them, 'the ziim and the iim and the daughters of the owl dwell' stands for evils and falsities, and so for things which inwardly belong to death This is why the words 'the land of graven images' are used.

[5] In Isaiah,

Makers of the graven image, all are vanity; and their most desirable things are profitless. And they are their own witnesses; they do not see, nor do they know. Isaiah 44:9-11.

'Makers of the graven image' stands for those who hammer out teachings which are not products of truths from the Word but products of self-intelligence, in reference to which teachings the words 'their most desirable things are profitless' and 'they do not see, nor do they know' are used. Verses 12-16 of that chapter go on to refer to the art of conceiving ideas and of using reasonings to hatch them from self-intelligence - ideas which they wish to be recognized as Divine. Regarding these the following is said finally,

The rest of it he makes into a god, his graven image. He venerates it, bows down [to it]. And yet they do not know or understand; and their eyes do not see, so that their hearts do not understand. Isaiah 44:17-18.

'They do not know, do not understand, and do not see' stands for the absence of truths and forms of good within; for inwardly nothing that is the outcome of self-intelligence has either truths or forms of good in it, only falsities and evils, since it is the outcome of the person's proprium. The fact that the proprium is fundamentally evil, see 210, 215, 694, 874-876, 987, 1023, 1044, 1047, 1581, 3812 (end), 4328, 5660, 5786, 8480.

[6] In the same prophet,

To whom will you liken God, and what image will you compare with Him? The craftsman casts a graven image, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts silver chains for it. Whoever is too impoverished to make this oblation ³ chooses a piece of wood that will not rot; he seeks for himself a wise craftsman to make ready a graven image that is immovable. Isaiah 40:18-20.

'A graven image' cast by a craftsman stands for false teachings that spring from the self, and 'a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts silver chains for it' stands for the fact that it uses reasonings to make the falsities in those teachings look like truths.

[7] In the same prophet,

I Jehovah have called You in righteousness, to open the blind eyes, to bring the bound out of prison, out of the dungeon-house those who sit in darkness. I am Jehovah, that is My name; and My glory I will not give to another, nor My praise to graven images. Isaiah 42:6-8.

These words refer to the Lord. They declare that He is Jehovah, that He is the Source of all wisdom, and that none at all springs from man. Their reference to the Lord is self-evident, as is the truth that He is Jehovah; for they declare that Jehovah has called Him in righteousness, and then 'I am Jehovah, that is My name; and My glory I will not give to another'. The truth that He is the Source of all wisdom which has to do with life is meant when it says that He is to open the blind eyes, bring the bound out of prison, and out of the dungeon-house those who sit in darkness; and the truth that no wisdom at all springs from man is meant by 'My praise I will not give to graven images'.

[8] Ideas belonging to self-intelligence are also meant by 'graven images' in the following places: In Isaiah,

And there came the chariot of a man (vir), a pair of horsemen. And he answered and said, Babel has fallen; and all the graven images he has broken to the earth. Isaiah 21:9.

In the same prophet,

Then you will judge unclean the covering of the graven images of your silver, and the clothing of the molded image of your gold. You will throw them away like a menstruous rag; a piece of dung it will be called. Isaiah 30:22.

In Jeremiah,

Why have they provoked Me to anger through their graven images, through foreigners' idols? ⁴ Jeremiah 8:19.

In Hosea,

[As] they have called themselves, so they have gone for the sake of themselves. They sacrifice to the baals, and burn incense to graven images. Hosea 11:2.

In Moses,

Cursed is the man who makes a graven or a molded image, an abomination to Jehovah, the work of a craftsman's hands. Deuteronomy 27:15.

Notes de bas de page:

5660. 'And we are causing other silver to come down in our hand to buy food' means that the mind is set on acquiring good through truth from some other source. This is clear from the meaning of 'silver' as truth, dealt with just above in 5657, and as 'silver' means truth, some other truth and therefore truth from some other source is meant by 'other silver' (for no other truth that is genuine truth exists apart from that received from the Lord, who gives it freely, so that there is no other source than He from which real truth is derived); and from the meaning of 'causing to come down' as a mind set on acquiring - on acquiring the good of truth, which is meant by the grain they bought. The story told in the sense of the letter implies that the other silver came to Joseph, for the purchase of food from him and so from no other source. But the internal sense is not subject to any limitation set by the story told in the sense of the letter indeed it is not concerned with that sense, only with the real matter under discussion here, which is this: If they were to make themselves subservient like slaves owing to the fact that some truths were freely given within the exterior natural, they would from some other source acquire good through truth. This idea also forms the train of thought in the internal sense, for immediately after this the words 'we do not know who put the silver in our pouches' are used, meaning their lack of belief because they did not know where truth present in the exterior natural came from.

[2] Something like this happens in the next life in the case of spirits who are being introduced by means of truths into good, especially into this - that everything good and true flows in from the Lord. When they learn that everything they think or will flows into them, so that they themselves cannot be the source of their thinking and willing, they fight all they can against the idea. For they believe that, if this idea is true, they cannot have any life within themselves that is entirely their own and that all delight is therefore destroyed, for they make the existence of separate selfhood vital to delight. Furthermore those spirits think that if they do not have any power entirely their own to do what is good and to believe what is true, they must let their hands hang down, not do or think anything on their own initiative, and wait for influx. They are allowed to go on thinking in this kind of way until they reach the point when they almost decide that they do not want to receive what is good and true from such influx but from some other source which does not involve their being deprived in this manner of their selfhood. Sometimes they are even allowed to make enquiries about where they may find that kind of goodness and truth. But when after this they do not find such goodness and truth anywhere, those who are being regenerated come back and freely choose to let the Lord lead their will and thought. They are also told at the same time that they are going to receive a heavenly selfhood such as the angels possess, and along with this the gift of everlasting bliss and happiness.

[3] As regards this heavenly selfhood, it is a product of the new will conferred by the Lord. It is different from the selfhood properly man's own, in that those who have received that heavenly selfhood no longer see only themselves in every single thing they do or in every single thing they learn about and convey to others. Instead they see their neighbour, the general public, the Church, the Lord's kingdom, and so the Lord Himself. The ends they have in life are what undergo change; for ends which have lower things - namely self and the world - in view are removed and higher ones introduced to replace them. Ends in life are nothing else than the actual life in a person, for a person's ends in view are the things that his will desires. They are also the actual loves present in him, for what a person loves is what his will desires and what constitute his end in view. The person who is given a heavenly selfhood enjoys too a state of serenity and peace, for he trusts in the Lord and believes that no evil at all can come to touch him, knowing too that no strong evil desires can molest him. More than that, those who have received a heavenly selfhood enjoy true freedom; for being led by the Lord constitutes freedom since one is then led within the sphere of good, from good, and to good. From this it becomes clear that they enjoy bliss and happiness, for nothing exists to disturb them - no self-love at all, consequently no enmity, hatred, or vengeance at all; nor any love of the world at all, consequently no deceitfulness, fear, or unease at all.