Who, if not you?
When, if not now?

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
You shall have no other gods before me.
You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.”

Red carefully, these are more than mere commandments.
This is a contract! A ‘covenant’, actually.

The framing seems to be rather one-sided. ‘Take it… or else!’
Nevertheless, a contract is a contract. Both sides need to trust each-other. Otherwise, the whole thing is a sham.

On the other hand…
The heavy lifting in this contract is to be performed by the nominally weak side.
God’s promises are of the ‘negative’ kind. What He will do if His partners don’t fulfill the contract, while it is the people who are supposed to actually do whatever is to be done. It’s the people who must refrain from having other gods, from making images and from worshiping them.

In fact, everything we know about God comes from people. It’s the people who speak/write about Him and it’s the people who worship Him.
Every deed ever made in His name has been performed by people.
In this sense, the god we know about, this God – or, more precisely, This Image of a god, is a human creation. A human artifact!

Ooops!
A situation which is very much in contradiction with the second clause of the contract…
But still respects the first. It’s the same God who brought Israel out of Egypt!
The same God who had made Man in his image… And if God made Man in his image, then… Man is a reflection of God! Which God must be a reflection of His own reflection, right?

Then what do we have here? And where is this whole ‘team’ headed?

Nobody knows where they are going!
But ‘who are they?’ is simple.

For as long as the covenant is being kept, for as long as the people remain together and act as a team…

The key concept in this covenant is two tiered. As far as we understand the situation.

‘God made man in His own image’.
This means that all men have been created equal. Have been made in the same image…
Furthermore, each (hu)man harbors a divine spark. Each individual has been made in the image of God!

Secondly, but in no way any less important, for things to continue people must maintain a single ‘image of God’. A single Weltanschauung. So that all people might connect to the same reality.
‘You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything…’ ‘You have already been given an image. You! Look at yourself and you’ll see Me’.
Furthermore, ‘you shall not make for yourself…’ has a deeper meaning. ‘Don’t be presumptions enough to believe that you know enough to build your own image of things’.
Quite a scientific attitude, actually. One that teaches Man to be humble. To be aware of his limitations…

So. Can you ‘keep a good company’?
Can you ‘weed out’ the trouble makers while remaining able to look beyond the surface of the things?
Can you weed out the aberrations while maintaining your ability to evolve?
Can you figure out the greatest gift God made possible? Freedom?