“Gather together and come;
    assemble, you fugitives from the nations.
Ignorant are those who carry about idols of wood,
    who pray to gods that cannot save.
21 Declare what is to be, present it—
    let them take counsel together.
Who foretold this long ago,
    who declared it from the distant past?
Was it not I, the Lord?
    And there is no God apart from me,
a righteous God and a Savior;
    there is none but me.

Isaiah has a point to make and he keeps on making it. This concerns the impotence (and thus the folly) of idolatry. This is the repeated lesson, but who will be willing to take heed? You would imagine it to be self-evident that if you have to carry your god around with you, and it’s made of wood, you can’t expect all that much from it!! Isaiah emphasises the ignorance of idolaters, while also reminding us that the idols themselves are ignorant. They do not know the future and so cannot foretell it.

The expression, ”who pray to gods that cannot save”, encourages us to recognise the blessing of our own situation. We pray to the one and only God. He is the true God and He lives…and He loves to give good gifts to His children:

 “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

11 “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:9-13).