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.
10 Who shapes a god and casts an idol,
    which can profit nothing?
11 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.

As we have seen, the opening verses of this chapter proclaim a glorious future for Israel. But they will not arrive there in a straight line, as it were. There will be twists and turns along the way, and idolatry will offer considerable temptations on route

John Calvin said: “Man’s nature, so to speak, is a perpetual factory of idols.”

The people of Israel were expressly forbidden to have anything to do with idolatry (see Ex.20:1-6).

”Idolatry is the worst sin of all, because it moves God to the periphery of our lives and puts something else in his place. It gives to something else the glory that should be God’s alone. Chameleon-like, it constantly disguises itself so that we are scarcely aware of its presence, even when we are most in the grip of it…The modern world is no less given over to idolatry than the ancient one; it is just that its cruder forms were more prevalent then.’ Barry Webb: ‘Isaiah’ p.180.

Webb goes on to point out that idolatry always held a ‘fatal attraction’ for Israel because it seemed to work. When nations like Egypt, Assyria and Babylon stormed across the world, conquering and capturing peoples, they believed (and their prey tended to do so also) that it was because their gods were greater than the deities of those nations they trampled. The people of Israel had been captives in Babylon for a long time. They were vulnerable to the temptation that Babylonian idolatry had real power. However, today’s passage underlines the truth that idolatry is worthless (9a) and powerless (10).

As we will see in 44:17:

”…he bows down to it and worships.
He prays to it and says,
    “Save me! You are my god!”

The clear implication is, ‘It can’t’! In spite of appearances to the contrary, idols are impotent.

PRAYER: Thank you Lord that you are the living God – that we can speak to you and you hear and answer; you rescue and save. How grateful we are.

THOUGHT: ”The human heart is an idol factory that takes good things like a successful career, love, material possessions, even family, and turns them into ultimate things. Our hearts deify them as the centre of our lives, because, we think, they can give us significance and security, safety and fulfilment, if we attain them.” Tim Keller