The Bible does not say to bow down to or worship religious artefacts and statues. What may seem like an act of honouring Mary, or using a statue to focus on God, is really just deflecting from the real and tangible God that we serve.
In Hebrews 9 verse 24 the writer explains that “For Christ has entered… into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.” Which means that Jesus is with God, now. We do not need Mary to act as a mediator on our behalf before God because Jesus has done that through his death and resurrection. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that after her earthly death, Mary the mother of Jesus, became a mediator between Man and God. To believe this to be true is to dilute who Jesus is and what he has done.
At the Second Council of Nicaea in 787 AD images of Mary and the Saints were encouraged by the Roman Catholic Church to be put up and honoured alongside images and sculptures of Jesus and the cross. The Council tried to differentiate between worshiping these images and honouring them but it struggled to do so, which is in part why Mary and the Saints are worshiped by Roman Catholics alongside God, which has no biblical foundation.
Paul says of God:
The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands… we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.
Acts 17 verse 24 – 25, 29
Paul is saying that we shouldn’t limit God to a statue or a man-made thing. He is God, creator of the universe, and he invites you to talk to him directly. Not through some human object.
Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh. For in the day that I brought them (the Israelites) out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this command I gave them: ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.
Jeremiah 7 verse 21 – 23
Jeremiah is making the point that when God gave the 10 commandments to the Jewish people, he did not mention sacrifices or offerings for them to partake in. Yet here, the people are placing more importance on these rituals than on actual obedience to God. Rituals and rules do not replace obedience to God.
I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
Amos 5 verse 21 – 22
Like Jeremiah, Amos is again reminding the Jewish people that religious feasts sacrifices are not the most important things in God’s sight.