"All who make idols are nothing, and the things they treasure are worthless. Those who would speak up for them are blind; they are ignorant, to their own shame." (Isaiah 44:9) I presume that the artisans who produced idols were well-respected among the idol worshiping populace. But since an idol is nothing (as the god it represents is not real) then the idol maker is nothing either.
"Who shapes a god and casts an idol, which can profit nothing? People who do that will be put to shame; such craftsmen are only human beings. Let them all come together and take their stand; they will be brought down to terror and shame." (Isaiah 44:10-11) Will they be able to defend themselves in the judgment? Will their idols stand up and testify on their behalf?
An idol, in contrast to the living God, has to be created. This should cause people to stop and think about how that, if a deity needs a person to create an image of it, can that deity be very powerful? The living God was not created by anyone; He created all things. He points out the foolishness of worshiping what human hands have created. "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. He gets hungry and loses his strength; he drinks no water and grows faint." (Isaiah 44:12)
The blacksmith is so hard at work serving his false god that he doesn't even take a water break while he forges the image. If his deity existed, could it not prevent him from growing thirsty and faint while he works on its behalf? Or would his deity not have compassion on him and insist that he refresh himself? At the very least, if this god existed it would want him to be strong enough to finish the work. But it does nothing to help him.
Next the Lord talks about carved images, which are equally as foolish as cast metal images. "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 in human form, human form in all its glory, that it may dwell in a shrine." (Isaiah 44:13) The carpenter cuts down a tree, which was created by God. He carves it into the shape of a member of the human race, also created by God. Nothing the carpenter is using or fashioning is anything that was not made by God. The carpenter's deity didn't create any of this.
The carpenter considers only what he has made out of the tree to be holy; the rest of the tree he uses for other purposes. "He cut down cedars, or perhaps took a cypress or oak. He let it grow among the trees of the forest, or planted a pine, and the rain made it grow. It is used as fuel for burning; some of it he takes and warms himself, he kindles a fire and bakes bread. But he also fashions a god and worships it; he makes an idol and bows down to it." (Isaiah 44:14-15)
The Lord is trying to get people to use the logic He gave them. If a tree is useful for making a fire, for cooking, for building---in other words, for common purposes---how then can an idol made from it be holy? How can the idol be useful? The wood is useful for other purposes but not as an object of worship. And surely if the deity existed, no craftsman could do it justice by making an image of it. If the deity existed and had created the materials the craftsmen are using, how would this god be honored by man using materials the god created in order to make an image of it that will fall short?
The Lord commanded human beings not to make an image intended to represent Him. Nothing could possibly come close to depicting His glory. An effort to do so would reduce Him in man's eyes. Man would be making Him in their image rather than remembering we are made in His image. We would begin to think He is a lot like us instead of being motivated to be more like Him. If God is like us, then what is the motivation to be any better than we are? But instead He calls us to look to Him and to rely on Him to be something more than we could ever be on our own.
Our next study session will continue presenting the case against idolatry but we will close today by thinking about what the Lord---the one true God---wants from mankind. He wants a relationship with us. He wants our love and our trust. He wants the best for us, which is something we can never have if we worship someone or something other than Him.
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