Exodus 25.
Yes, there were images which God instructed to set up in the order of worship in Israel. Some were listed in Exodus 25. Other were listed as part of the temple which replaced the tabernacle. Also, God instructed Moses to form a serpent of brass for the people bit by poisonos serpents to look at and be healed. Notice they were not told to bow to it, offer incense to it, or pray to it:
Exodus 20:5
“you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me...”
Leviticus 26:1
“You shall not make idols for yourselves;
neither a carved image nor a sacred pillar shall you rear up for yourselves; nor shall you set up an engraved stone in your land, to bow down to it; for I am the Lord your God.”
Judges 2:17
“Yet they would not listen to their judges, but they played the harlot with other gods, and bowed down to them. They turned quickly from the way in which their fathers walked, in obeying the commandments of the Lord; they did not do so.”
Numbers 21:4-9
“Then they journeyed from Mount Hor by the Way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the soul of the people became very discouraged on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses: ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread.’ So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many of the people of Israel died. Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, ‘We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord that He take away the serpents from us.’ So Moses prayed for the people. Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.’ So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.”
John 3:14-15
“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”
We see that the brass serpent was a picture of the cross of Christ. But what happened to the brass serpent?
2 Kings 18:4-6
“He [Hezekiah] removed the high places and broke the sacred pillars, cut down the wooden image and broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made; for until those days the children of Israel burned incense to it, and called it Nehushtan. He trusted in the Lord God of Israel, so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor who were before him. For he held fast to the Lord; he did not depart from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the Lord had commanded Moses.”
It does not say Hezekiah was a Pharisee who invented unnecessary rules (”burdens heavy to bear”). It says he followed God. One example was that he destroyed the brass serpent, the very same brass serpent God told Moses to make.
Why? Because people were offering incense to it.
Let’s see, does anyone today bow down to images of the cross, or images of Christ or other people? Well, yes, as a matter of fact they do. And it is justified by their theological writings as something we are supposed to participate in even though all of the apostles universally condemned idolatry, the Catholic catechism says that God’s laws regarding idols have changed because of the incarnation. But why did the apostles not say this? Why did they forbid idolatry? Could it be the apostolic authority claimed by the Catholic clergy is fraudulent? Could it be they have sinned in practice and in false teachings? Could they be in need of repentance yet remain stubborn in their unrepentance? Could they need to confess their sins but instead deny and cover them?