The Israelites live among neighbors who practice polytheism, yet they understand that the Lord is invincible, transcendent, and therefore cannot be represented in images. When Israel gave in to the temptation of depicting God, the prophets’ protests quickly followed. This rejection of visual representations of God serves as a teaching method to help people discover him in others and creation, rather than in a statue, linked to the ban on images, which is the law regarding the altar. This law originates from a later period in the people’s history, when they had already settled in the Promised Land and had shrines in many locations, all of which hold the same religious significance. The altar should not be overly ornate, as excessive decoration distracts from the proper focus of worship, which is the heart.