Cerek, I think it's important to point out that your version of the 2nd Commandment is perhaps more reaching than originally intended. True, the writing of Rabis certainly points out that an original concern of the people was "nature worship" that could be caused by nature's beauty. But, I think even at its broadest meaning, this commandment has been more concerned with other gods and godlike images than with "sins" that have a physical minifestation one can fixate on (greed/money, etc.).
Remember, the Torah was sacred and was actually carried around by the people for generations. It was all the written law they had, so its meanings were paramount to know. I think the only tension you'll find in the 2nd Commandment around ancient times is regarding religious art.
Try to remember how important this "false images" doctrine was to a fledgling religion. Yahweh was the "mountain god" (notice everything important in the old testament happens on a mountain) among a group of gods worshipped by several nomadic tribes. The tribe that made the worship of Yahweh their only faith happened to be the Jewish tribe, and the rest is history ... or myth... whichever. But, in the early days of the religious development of a peoples that were becoming more and more monotheistic, this was an important idealogical development.
from
http://www.jewishsf.com/bk980320/torah.htm
*****************
Parashat Vayakhel notes that Bezalel was the grandson of Hur, a man killed by the Israelites for refusing to participate in the building of the golden calf. Employing the descendant of a man who objected to the fashioning of an idol in order to glorify God points to the tension between enriching or diminishing worship with art.
The Second Commandment reinforced ambivalence toward sacred art: "Thou shalt not make any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in the heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth" (Exodus 20:4). However, strict interpretation of this passage has waxed and waned over the centuries.
The Second Commandment alone cannot claim responsibility for restricting the development of Jewish representational art. Early nomadic Israelites accumulated few possessions because they constantly pulled up stakes and moved. But once Israelite society abandoned wandering, the exultation of God, centered in Solomon's Temple, allowed for massive works of art: 16-foot high cherubim (I Kings 6:23-35) and 12 cast oxen carrying a molten sea on their backs (II Chronicles 4:3-5, 9:17-19). However, the monarchy soon imported foreign idols, touching off the rage of the prophets who railed against such art forms (Hosea 8:4, 13:2, Amos 6:4).
Opposition to the foreign invaders translated into hostility to art. Thus, historical conditions, rather than any traditional aversion to art, often dictated the stringent observance of the Second Commandment.
Nevertheless, archaeological discoveries of early synagogues reveal a more lenient interpretation of this commandment. The artwork of the Dura-Europos synagogue, called "the Pompeii of the Syrian Desert," illustrates the later abandonment of a strict interpretation of the Second Commandment, allowing for freer use of human and animal figures.
********************************