We pick up with a verse we left off with yesterday and then we move on from there. "The Lord says: 'These people come near to Me with their mouth and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. Their worship of Me is based on merely human rules that they have been taught.'" (Isaiah 29:13)
We spoke yesterday about how they are talking the talk but not walking the walk. They are worshiping the Lord in ways that suit themselves, not in the ways commanded by Him. This is particularly true in the northern kingdom of Israel where the citizens long ago (when the kingdom split in two) began worshiping at the golden calf sites at Dan and at Bethel. While they claimed these calves represented the Lord, He had commanded that no images ever be made to represent Him. Furthermore, He also commanded that the center of worship be at the temple in Jerusalem; no other altars are authorized for their use. Bringing offerings and sacrifices to the golden calves started the people on a slippery slope to idolatry, for many rejected the Lord altogether in favor of pagan gods.
Even in the southern kingdom of Judah, where a godly king sits on the throne for most of Isaiah's ministry, people have "customized" their religion. We still find this happening in Jesus' day when He talks about all the rules and regulations the religious leaders have added to the laws and commandments of God. The Lord Jesus calls them hypocrites, for the priests and scribes and Pharisees and Sadducees are judging others for being unable to keep the hundreds of rules they cannot keep themselves. So when the Lord says in our passage today that the people are worshiping Him according to rules made up by humans, we see that this is an ongoing issue---not only in Isaiah's day but also in Jesus' day. There is a lot of legalism in our own day and a lot of sects that appear to be operating on a "salvation by works" doctrine which is a false doctrine.
The Lord is going to show mankind that He is God alone! In this next segment we find the people believing that their dark deeds are hidden from the sight of Almighty God and that He will not take them to task for their sins. We also find them behaving as if God did not create them in the first place and that they are free to do as they please.
"Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish. Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the Lord, who do their work in darkness and think, 'Who sees us? Who will know?' You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, 'You did not make me?' Can the pot say to the potter, 'You know nothing?'" (Isaiah 29:14-16)
A potter is greater than the pots he makes. If he fashions a pot and places it on a shelf, can he not see it? Does he not know everything about it? Can the pot do anything without him, to move itself here or there? Likewise, man can do nothing without being seen by the Lord. The Lord created us and He holds us in this life; we could not even draw the next breath without Him. How then do we dare boast against Him? How can we claim we don't need Him? We didn't create ourselves. We don't have the power over life and death. We don't have power over the next life either and cannot save our souls or do anything of eternal value without Him.
The prophet says the people are starting to think the potter is just like the clay. But that is not possible, for it's obvious that a potter is something bigger, something more intelligent, something more powerful than the clay. The Lord is not a sinner like them just because He has not yet judged the northern kingdom of Israel or the southern kingdom of Judah. He is giving them opportunities to repent. Although He knows a time is coming when He must let each of these nations fall to the enemy because the people are going to keep falling farther into sin, His loving nature demands that He provide the opportunities anyway. His righteous nature demands it also; no one will be able to stand in the judgment and accuse Him of never having made the invitation to come to Him and be saved. He will be able to point to every time He sent His word to them through anyone. He will be able to point to every time when the Holy Spirit pleaded with their spirits to repent.
The Lord is greater than mankind just as the potter is greater than the clay. Just as the pot can do nothing on its own, we can do nothing on our own that's of godly significance in this world and we can do nothing on our own to save our souls.
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