Later in Exodus we find this description of the priests' garments: "And upon the skirts of it thou shalt make pomegranates of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet ..." (Ex. 28:33). Thus, when the priest went into the Holy of Holies, he was to take with him on his garments a representation of nature, carrying that representation into the presence of God. Surely this is the very antithesis of a command against works of art.
But there is something further to note here: In nature, pomegranates are red, but these pomegranates were to be blue, purple, and scarlet. Purple and scarlet could be natural changes in the growth of a pomegranate. But blue isn't. The implication is that there is freedom to make something which gets its impetus from nature but can be different from it and it too can be brought into the presence of God. In other words, art does not need to be 'photographic' in the poor sense."
--Francis Schaeffer, Art and the Bible
