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“Remember these things, Jacob,
    for you, Israel, are my servant.
I have made you, you are my servant;
    Israel, I will not forget you.
²² I have swept away your offenses like a cloud,
    your sins like the morning mist.
Return to me,
    for I have redeemed you.”

Barry Webb writes that there is need for ‘constant vigilance, for the danger of idolatry in one or another of its enticing forms is always with us. Remember, Isaiah says, remember the truth (21). Our eyes and ears are constantly bombarded with lies about God, and attractive alternatives to serving him, and we will be swamped by them unless we constantly call the truth to mind. This is where meditation on Scripture is such a strengthening thing for us, for it is full of the greatness and glory and faithfulness of God. But what if we do stray, and slip into idolatrous patterns of thought or behaviour (and which of us does not from time to time)? Return, says Isaiah, to the one who redeemed you (22). We are all going to need a lot of forgiving on our way to our final rest, and the great news of the gospel is that it is available to us. The one condition is that we return and seek God for it when we stray.’ ‘Isaiah’, p.181.

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. ⁹ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:8,9.

Where we live, in Coverdale, from time to time we see a morning mist hovering over the river valley. Though it can linger for a time, it can also dissipate quickly. It is there one hour, and gone the next! What a heart-warming picture is painted in verse 22a. Our besetting (and depressing?) sins vanish as we authentically confess, repent and trust in the blood of Jesus. If we still see them, we don’t have to. God doesn’t.

Amazing grace!

¹² 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.
¹³ 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.
¹⁴ 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.
¹⁵ 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.
¹⁶ 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.”
¹⁷ 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!”
¹⁸ They know nothing, they understand nothing;
    their eyes are plastered over so they cannot see,
    and their minds closed so they cannot understand.
¹⁹ 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?”
²⁰ 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?”

‘Israel learned in Babylon the futility and folly of idolatry. How easy it is to trust something other than the Lord, including the things we manufacture.’ Warren W. Wiersbe: ‘With the Word’, p.479.

This long passage is one of the greatest take-downs of idolatry to be found anywhere in Scripture. In its detailed description of how a god is made it shows the whole thing is a farce; it is laughable, absurd, stupid. Whoever would worship an idol?

We also see the delusion behind idolatry. But as Paul writes in Romans 1, this is a lie people want to believe rather than accepting the obvious and inconvenient truth about God:

 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, ¹⁹ since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. ²⁰ For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

²¹ For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²² Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools ²³ and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. Romans 1:18-23.

In verse 25 he adds:  They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

Furthermore, he says in verse 28:  …they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God…

People may feel it is more convenient to hold on to a lie than turn to the true and living God and be changed, but the consequences are ultimately disastrous.

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