Foolishness of Idol Worship

Isaiah 44:9-20 

9 Those who make an image, all of them are useless,
And their precious things shall not profit;
They are their own witnesses;
They neither see nor know, that they may be ashamed.

10 Who would form a god or mold an image
That profits him nothing?

11 Surely all his companions would be ashamed;
And the workmen, they are mere men.
Let them all be gathered together,
Let them stand up;
Yet they shall fear,
They shall be ashamed together.

12 The blacksmith with the tongs works one in the coals,
Fashions it with hammers,
And works it with the strength of his arms.
Even so, he is hungry, and his strength fails;
He drinks no water and is faint.

13 The craftsman stretches out his rule,
He marks one out with chalk;
He fashions it with a plane,
He marks it out with the compass,
And makes it like the figure of a man,
According to the beauty of a man, that it may remain in the house.

14 He cuts down cedars for himself,
And takes the cypress and the oak;
He secures it for himself among the trees of the forest.
He plants a pine, and the rain nourishes it.

15 Then it shall be for a man to burn,
For he will take some of it and warm himself;
Yes, he kindles it and bakes bread;
Indeed he makes a god and worships it;
He makes it a carved image, and falls down to it.

16 He burns half of it in the fire;
With this half he eats meat;
He roasts a roast, and is satisfied.
He even warms himself and says,
"Ah! I am warm,
I have seen the fire."

17 And the rest of it he makes into a god,
His carved image.
He falls down before it and worships it,
Prays to it and says,
"Deliver me, for you are my god!"

18 They do not know nor understand;
For He has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see,
And their hearts, so that they cannot understand.
19 And no one considers in his heart,
Nor is there knowledge nor understanding to say,
"I have burned half of it in the fire,
Yes, I have also baked bread on its coals;
I have roasted meat and eaten it;
And shall I make the rest of it an abomination?
Shall I fall down before a block of wood?"

20 He feeds on ashes;
A deceived heart has turned him aside;
And he cannot deliver his soul,
Nor say, "Is there not a lie in my right hand?"

Such futility in worshiping what we fashion by our own hands, those which God created, and ignore our own creator who we should worship instead!  Israel’s example here should be a warning for us all, even though the form of the idols have changed from a block of wood to people and philosophies and inventions of our own hands.  We ignore our creator and are blinded in sight and heart as we run after our desired gods that do not call us to accountability and the feared consequences of our disobedience.  These elements have not changed, though there are still parts of the world who do actually worship carved idols from statues of saints and Buddha to animals and demonic figures.  These are obvious while the others are more subtle and more easily justified in carefully crafted explanations to keep the inquisitive at bay as in our western society today.  These images described by Isaiah are lifeless and utterly useless and have no value to profit the soul or living, yet men would mold and carve images to feed themselves and then to put their hearts into thankfulness to the tree they burned to cook with.  They would do better to thank their Creator for supplying their daily bread instead.  But they crafted things in their own image of a man or woman to bow before instead having “seen the fire” to worship what they mistakenly think fed them.  They are blinded in rejecting God and worshiping what He made and not Him as we should (Romans 1:21-23).  Man looks for deliverance, for salvation from his own sinful nature and consequences of sin by looking to His own works instead of God’s (John 6:29), and he ends up in dire straits by venerating dead people and animals and even his own theories of the universe and creation.  Man rejects God’s works and substitutes his own efforts and reasoning while discrediting and explaining away God’s word of truth.  He invents other messiahs and means of living forever or making the most by gaining all in this life at the exp of eternity.  Yes, the idols of our imagination are the ultimate affront to our Creator as it is written in the first commandment (Exodus 20:3-5).  They should be looking to Him for the promise of life instead by grace in sin’s forgiveness as Exodus 20:6 tells us.  The most difficult thing for us to see when we know the truth is how people cannot see or comprehend that they are worshiping dead objects and ideas instead of the Living God.  They cannot grasp what an abomination it is to reject Him in doing these things because they have hardened hearts and blinded eyes (John 9:39).  The gospel calls them to hear and see from the scriptures (Isaiah 29:18, 42:18) instead of feeding on ashes with a deceived heart to question and deny God’s word (Genesis 3:4-5, 2 Corinthians 11:3, 1 Timothy 2:13-14).  We find in 2 Thessalonians 2:11 then that many will be handed over to believer these lies and face judgment for rejecting the truth and living for unrighteousness in worship of the works of their own hands and imagination.  There are religious idols and ungodly ones which represent other gods, but they all have one thing in common: they are objects of worship made by the hands of men and not God.  God’s word of truth is the only way to be set free (John 8:32, Acts 4:12), which begins by consideration and questioning in the heart the lifeless idols we erect and worship for ourselves.  May we point others to His word of truth to rescue the perishing who are caught up in the foolishness of idol worship by venerating dead saint statues, holy relics, and other more ungodly substitutes for the Living God.  Amen!