READING: Isaiah 42-44
It’s easy to teach about the problem of idolatry, for all believers should know that there is only one God and that anything we place above Him is now an idol. We often know that truth in our head, but we don’t always live that way in our lives. Instead, we often do something that really makes little sense: we worship that which we make.
That’s what the people in Isaiah’s day were doing, too. In fact, the Word of God describes their idolatry quite clearly: “The blacksmith takes a tool and works with it in the coals; he shapes an idol with hammers, he forges it with the might of his arm. . . . [The carpenter] measures with a line and makes an outline with a marker; he roughs it out with chisels and marks it with compasses. He shapes it into human form, human form in all its glory, that it may dwell in a shrine. . . . He also fashions a god and worships it; he makes an idol and bows down to it” (Isa 44:12-15).
It actually seems silly, doesn’t it? Yet, the people sometimes so deceived themselves that no one stopped to think, “Shall I bow down to a block of wood?” or “Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?” (Isa 44:19-20).
Lest we judge Isaiah’s hearers too severely, however, we cannot ignore our own tendencies. We, too, sometimes worship our possessions, our homes, our cars, our toys, our dollars. We speak against idolatry with our lips while we also hold tightly in our hands things that have only temporary value. We claim to find our security in God even when we cannot fathom the idea of not having all the stuff we’ve worked so hard to gain over the years. We cling to that which doesn’t really matter.
We worship stuff we make, but the only true God is the One who made us.
ACTION STEPS:
- Search your heart for idolatry today. What “stuff” would you not want to give up?
- Remember this thought: when we form our own idols, we’re not much different from the people Isaiah described in today’s text.
PRAYER: “God, help me to see my idolatry, confess it, and turn from it.”
TOMORROW’S READING: Isaiah 45-48
