Religious Images and Christianity

Doesn't statue and image worship violate Exodus 2-:4-5?

Orthodox and Catholics do not worship statues, icons, holy images or anything created. Only God is to be worshipped, to worship anything created is to commit the very serious sin of idolatry. In Exodus God prohibits the making of images for the purpose of worshipping them. But God does not prohibit image making altogether. In Exodus 25:18-19, God commands Moses to make statues of angels (cherubim). In Numbers 21:8 God again tells Moses to make a bronze serpent (seraph), which the Israelites had to look upon in order to be healed. The Church has long under stood this event to be a pre-figurement of Jesus being raised up on the cross. The Jews also used many carved images in the Temple, including cherubim, oxen, lions, palm trees, and flowers (1 Kings 6 and 7).

Orthodox and Catholics uses statues and other holy images to call to mind the holy people they represent: Jesus, the angels, and the saints. For the same reason , protestants use Christmas nativity scenes to depict the same holy people; Jesus, the angels, and the saints. Catholics and the Orthodox simply use statues and images in devotions all year round.

The rejection of statues and other images in Church devotional life is a heresy known as "iconoclasm". It was first seen in Christianity in the eight century when the evil Emperor Leo the Isaurian, influenced by the new religion of Islam founded in 622 AD, began attacking the use of statues and icons in the Church. This destruction of sacred images was also seen recently in the defacing of Buddhist statues and temples by the Taliban. In the second Council of Nicea in 787 AD the Church condemned this heresy. It did not resurface again until the reformation.

The word “Worship” is a source of unnecessary confusion when used regarding images, statues, etc. To Worship has never been reserved for the supreme adoration that may be given only to God. It is a general word denoting some more or less high degree of reverence and honor, an acknowledgment of worth, like the German Verehrung ("with my body I thee worship") in the marriage service; A magistrate is "Your worship", and so on. The worship of images when understood properly is not sinister by any means but rather a humble and pious way of honoring God.

Consider finally this section from the Catechism on Holy Images:

1159 The sacred image, the liturgical icon, principally represents Christ. It cannot represent the invisible and incomprehensible God, but the incarnation of the Son of God has ushered in a new "economy" of images:
Previously God, who has neither a body nor a face, absolutely could not be represented by an image. But now that he has made himself visible in the flesh and has lived with men, I can make an image of what I have seen of God . . . and contemplate the glory of the Lord, his face unveiled.
1160 Christian iconography expresses in images the same Gospel message that Scripture communicates by words. Image and word illuminate each other:
We declare that we preserve intact all the written and unwritten traditions of the Church which have been entrusted to us. One of these traditions consists in the production of representational artwork, which accords with the history of the preaching of the Gospel. For it confirms that the incarnation of the Word of God was real and not imaginary, and to our benefit as well, for realities that illustrate each other undoubtedly reflect each other's meaning.
1161 All the signs in the liturgical celebrations are related to Christ: as are sacred images of the holy Mother of God and of the saints as well. They truly signify Christ, who is glorified in them. They make manifest the "cloud of witnesses" who continue to participate in the salvation of the world and to whom we are united, above all in sacramental celebrations. Through their icons, it is man "in the image of God," finally transfigured "into his likeness," who is revealed to our faith. So too are the angels, who also are recapitulated in Christ:
1162 "The beauty of the images moves me to contemplation, as a meadow delights the eyes and subtly infuses the soul with the glory of God." Similarly, the contemplation of sacred icons, united with meditation on the Word of God and the singing of liturgical hymns, enters into the harmony of the signs of celebration so that the mystery celebrated is imprinted in the heart's memory and is then expressed in the new life of the faithful.

1192 Sacred images in our churches and homes are intended to awaken and nourish our faith in the mystery of Christ. Through the icon of Christ and his works of salvation, it is he whom we adore. Through sacred images of the holy Mother of God, of the angels and of the saints, we venerate the persons represented.

Sources: Catholic Encyclopedia and Catechism of The Catholic Church