The Book Of Isaiah. Day 197, The Foolishness Of Idolatry, Part Two

We continue on with the passage we began yesterday. The Lord is pointing out how illogical it is to make idols and worship them. As we closed yesterday He was speaking about a craftsman who cuts down a tree and uses part of it to carve an idol and part of it to build a fire for warmth and cooking. This is where we pick up today.

"Half of the wood he burns in the fire; over it he prepares his meal, he roasts his meat and eats his fill. He also warms himself and says, 'Ah, I am warm; I see the fire.' From the rest he makes a god, his idol; he bows down to it and worships. He prays to it and says, 'Save me! You are my god!'" (Isaiah 44:16-17) This man has cut down a tree and used parts of it for common purposes and used part of it to make an idol. How then can the idol be holy? How can it help him? The tree was far more useful for heat and for cooking than to make a useless image. 

"They know nothing, they understand nothing; their eyes are plastered over so they cannot see, and their minds are closed so they cannot understand. No one stops to think, no one has the knowledge or understanding to say, 'Half of it I used for fuel; I even baked bread over its coals, I roasted meat and I ate. Shall I make a detestable thing from what is left? Shall I bow down to a block of wood?" (Isaiah 44:18-19)

To use another example of how foolish this is, I like to make clay ornaments. So suppose I take a block of clay and make some ornaments out of it but then I take the rest of the block of clay and make it into an image to represent some sort of deity, then I bow down to it and worship it. How foolish this is! How can I worship something my own hands have made? How can I worship something that is made of earthly material?

The Lord says of the one who worships what his hands have made: "Such a person feeds on ashes; a deluded heart misleads him; he cannot save himself or say, 'Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?'" (Isaiah 44:20) The craftsman cannot see that he is lying to himself. He's holding on tightly to the image in his right hand (the right hand being the place of honor) and asking it to help him. But no answer is going to come. The idol is no more helpful to him than the ashes left from the fire---the fire which was made from the same tree.

Anything or anyone we worship other than God is a lie. We are clinging to something that cannot help us, cannot forgive us, cannot save us, cannot give us a beautiful eternal life. Most of the idols of today's world take a different form than they did in Isaiah's day. People today worship relationships, possessions, prestige, money, power, substances, immorality, and the list could go on and on. Because they have neglected to put the Lord at the center of their lives, they are empty inside---they are feeding on ashes. Ashes will not only fail to fill a person up, but they can actually be toxic. Wood ash can contain carcinogens, along with heavy metals such as zinc, nickel, copper, lead, chromium, arsenic, cadmium, and mercury. If a person eats ashes frequently, health issues will be the result. If a person worships something or someone other than God, spiritual health issues will be the result. 

Let's not feed on worthless and harmful things. Let's feed on the eternal truth of the word of God and let's give our hearts wholly to Him. He is the source of everything we will ever need.