When G-d gave His Torah to the Jewish people, He emphasized in the strongest terms that He had no form of any kind. Indeed, He reminded them that when Israelites witnessed His glory firsthand, they saw no physical form to G-d, no likeness that could be physically represented. He knew full well that the nations all around Israel imagined their gods in the form of men, women as well as animals of all sorts. And while other created spiritual beings, like angels, sometimes took on various forms and even appeared as men acting on G-d’s orders or delivering G-d’s message, G-d Himself was an invisible Spirit and looked nothing like the creatures He created. What’s more, G-d wanted to make this abundantly clear to all of mankind and had Moses write the following warning down for all posterity:
You saw no form of any kind the day the L-RD spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire. Therefore watch yourselves very carefully, so that you do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man or a woman… (Deuteronomy 4:15-16)
“You saw no form of any kind”, G-d emphasized, warning of great corruption to imagine differently. When the Hebrew Bible anthropomorphically speaks of the hand of G-d, for example, it does not imply an actual fleshy hand like that of a man – rather, it’s a purely spiritual concept. G-d commanded Israelites to watch themselves very carefully in this regard. However, when Christianity burst onto the scene more than a thousand years after the great Sinai event, sweeping through the Greco-Roman world where demigods (semi-divine heroes born to gods and humans) were ubiquitous and Roman emperors were deified and worshiped, this explicit warning was discarded. Christianity declared that this same Jewish G-d, who in the Torah was so emphatic that He had no visible physical shape, especially that of a man, and warned that to imagine Him with a human or other form would lead to idolatry, decided to take on a literal physical form of a man after all. Even though in Numbers 23:19 G-d has declared that He was “not a man” or a “son of man”, Christianity presented a G-d who has changed His mind, ignored His own words, and chose to take on a shape of a human being, to become both – “a man” and “a son of man”.
He (Jesus) is the image of the invisible G-d, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. (Colossians 1:15-17)
Christ Jesus, who, being in very nature G-d, did not consider equality with G-d something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. (Philippians 2:5-7)
The Word was G-d…and became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory” (John 1:1-14).
“Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).
Prophet Isaiah, however, asks a rhetorical question:
With whom, then, will you compare G-d? To what image will you liken him? (Isaiah 40:18)
If, as Christianity teaches, G-d has indeed appeared in a form of man Jesus, if G-d has become flesh as the Gospel of John proclaims, we can finally answer Isaiah’s question – we can liken G-d to an image of a man. If through the birth of Jesus G-d took on a form of a man, we can say, to quote Philippians 2:5-7, that G-d has acquired human likeness. With Jesus, from now and into all eternity, Christianity teaches, G-d will always exist as both a spiritual deity and a human being with a definite physical form of a 30+ year old male. Protestants often condemn Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians for creating and venerating statues and images of Jesus (and other NT characters). However, they should ask themselves whether this form of idolatry, which they rightly condemn, is actually the direct result of ignoring G-d’s clear warning in His Law not to imagine Him in a form of a human being or any other creature. If Jesus is an image of the invisible G-d (as Colossians 1:15-17 proclaim), then Protestants are just as guilty of worshiping an image instead of the Creator!
Friends, we should always remember that the G-d of Israel doesn’t change (Malachi 3:6). He doesn’t change His mind, He doesn’t change His very essence to become both deity and man, nor does He contradict Himself and this is the message the Jewish people still stubbornly proclaim to the world to this day. The nations of the world have inherited from their forefathers falsehoods that are of no benefit to them; they created, glorify, exalt, sing praises and bow their knees to a god in their own image. But this god in a form of a mortal human being is not a god at all, and one day they will realize this (Jeremiah 16:19-20). Let us not ignore G-d’s clear warnings at our own peril and give His glory to another.
If you are a Jewish Christian/Messianic Jew or a Gentile Christian who has become bothered about idolatry of worshiping a man as god and has questions that need answers, you can contact me privately at jewishthoughts@gmail.com
Daily Minyan 
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