SS11-19-06
STUDY THEME: INVITATION TO MAXIMUM LIVING. ISAIAH SPEAKS TODAY.
“LIVE IN REALITY, NOT DELUSION.” ISAIAH 40: 18-23; 41:5-7; 44:9, 18-20; 45:20-22
ISAIAH 40: 18-20, 21-23; 41:5-7; 44:9, 18-20; 45:20-22.
PLASE OPEN YOUR BIBLE TO ISAIAH 40.
Idolatry was common in the ancient world. It was the norm in most lands of O.T. times, and it was a constant temptation to the people of Israel.
Typical modern adults think of idolatry as something confined to ancient civilizations or to primitive cultures in today’s world.
They think of idolatry only as worshiping some stone or wood image. They fail to see that idolatry is alive and well in our land. If we define idols as those people, things, or practices that take the place of the one true and living God, we recognize that we too have our idols.
We use the word idol in referring to sports and entertainment figures. Many could use the same term for seeking fame, money, and pleasure. Our gods are the things we most value and seek.
The Biblical Truth is that elevating any thing above the true and living God is idolatry: and consequences of idolatry include shame, self-deception, and missing out on the life God offers.
Today people in the Unite States might not have idols before which they bow down physically. However, they can make idols out of themselves, other people, or things such as money, pleasure, power, and possessions. Certain statements might reveal an idol.
A certain activity or situation might cause one to say, “It doesn’t get any better than this.” Or one might say, “I live for this.” Some say, “Winning the lottery would solve all of my problems.”
Often people say, “I idolize her (or him)” or “My life centers around him (or her).” When these statements are literal and not just an emotional overstatement, the speakers could be revealing their idols. Christians must put God first above everyone and everything else.
God created us so that we could have a relationship with Him. Our relationship with Him depends on whether we know God as He is, as opposed to a false conception of God. If we claim to know God, but the god who comes to our minds is not the true living God of the Bible, then we are not relating to Him. The God we say we know is of our own making, which is idolatry.
So then, we must remove from our minds misconceptions of God, and we must seek to know God as He is, based on God’s self-disclosure in the Scripture.
God made us so that we become like what we love. We take on characteristics of what we adore, cherish, and worship. So to be transformed into the likeness of God’s character, we must know God as He is. We know God for who He is by what He reveals of Himself in the Bible and in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Knowing God for who He is is central to everything else in life.
One of the themes in the last part of Isaiah is idolatry. The focal verses for this lesson are drawn from some of these passages. Isaiah challenged the people who would be living in exile to think carefully about the differences between the one, true God and idols. He prophesied that in that coming time idol worshiping people would see their own security threatened and respond in fear by strengthening their idolatry.
The Lord warned the people of Judah that idolatry is inherently worthless and shameful. Proponents of false gods have been blinded to reality and are guided by self-deception. The Lord challenged those who would be living in exile, including those who worshiped false gods, to reject the false gods that could not save them and turn to Him for salvation.
PLEASE READ Isaiah 40: 18-20.
When we read the early verses of Isaiah 40, we think of its fulfillment in John the Baptist and Jesus, but what was its original setting? Vs. 1-11 promise deliverance to Jerusalem from “servitude.” Their sins had been forgiven. This fits the time of the Babylonian exile, from which God promised to deliver Judah. Isaiah looked down the centuries and recorded these comforting words.
This raises the question of how God would do this. Vs. 27 is the key to the life setting. In those days each nation had its own god or gods. When the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem, they boasted that their victory proved that their gods were superior to the Lord God of Judah.
Some of the exiles felt that the Lord had forgotten them. Verses 12-14 ask a series of questions that show that God alone is Creator and Redeemer. Vs. 15-17 show His sovereignty over all nations. This leads to the question of vs. 18: To whom then will ye liken God? Or what likeness will ye compare unto Him?
These questions assume that God is incomparable. He is unique, the only true God. But in their culture some would compare Him with their own gods. Isaiah challenged their answer by putting it to the test.
He had described the Lord God Creator of heaven and earth. Now he described how idols were made. God created all things, but idols were made by human hands.
Beginning in Isaiah 40, Isaiah’s tone, emphasis, and themes change. In Isaiah 1-39 the eighth century B.C. prophet spoke to Jerusalem and Judah about the problems faced by Assyria’s growing menace and God’s ultimate judgment on Judah by the Babylonians.
Beginning with Isaiah 40, the prophet began to bring messages of encouragement and comfort concerning their future after the captivity. God planned a glorious future for His people.
The prophet knew that when Babylon conquered Judah and carried the people into exile they would face two questions relating to Babylonian idolatry. Since Babylon conquered Judah, were Babylon’s idol-gods stronger than Jehovah God? Also, was idol worship a valid worship in which the exiles should join the Babylonians?
Vs. 18 begins one of the Bible’s clearest and strongest statements of monotheism---the fact that only one God exists. God cannot be compared to any person or likeness. He is unique; He is God. As God, He alone is infinite and glorious. So the correct response to Isaiah’s question “Who will you compare God with?” Is that absolutely no one compares with God. How foolish to compare Him to an idol!
God’s people needed to give serious consideration to the differences between Jehovah God and idols. In Isaiah 40 Isaiah describes God’s power and immensity, declaring that He cups the worlds’ oceans “in the hollow of his hand.” He measures the heavens with His outstretched hand. He is infinite in knowledge that all the peoples of the earth can contribute nothing. He is totally self-existent. No portrayal of God is richer, deeper, and more humbling than Isa. 40-46. Against this backdrop we see the absolute folly, vanity, and blasphemy of idolatry. Isaiah mocked with sharp sarcasm the idolatry practiced in his day, practiced even by many Israelites who knew better.
Vs. 18 has two questions designed to lead to valid reasons why God’s people should worship Him and not any kind of idol. The questions bring to mind the first two of the Ten Commandments: Have no other gods but the Jehovah God, and make no image of God.
Judah had years of experience with the teachings and experiences of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. With whom could they compare God? Who could they think of that was equal to Him? Also, what could they find or create that would be a true likeness of God? How does one make a valid, visible image of God who is invisible?
Isaiah’s questions were designed to reveal the absurdity of worshiping an idol. Through the years Israel was plagued with various forms of idol worship. Isaiah knew that in Babylon, with its heavy involvement in idol worship, idolatry would be a snare to Israel.
Through the use of satire and ridicule, Isaiah asked God’s people to analyze the thought of comparing God to an idol. The text in vs. 19 reviews how an idol—a something, not a “someone”---comes into being. For people with financial means, a smelter would pour some type of metal into a cast and make a mold. Then a metalworker plates the figure with gold. The gold plating hid the base metal out of which the idol was made.
Then the worker makes silver welds for the idol. The word welds refers either to lavish ornaments worn by rich Orientals, which were draped over the idol for decorations, or to silver chains used to suspend the idol in its house or secure it to the floor. No matter what expensive materials the rich had available to them, their man-made gods were still lifeless idols, regardless of their cost.
Vs. 20 reports on how people with little financial means made their idols. They would take a piece of wood to a skilled craftsman who shapes a pedestal into some kind of image. They chose wood that does not rot.
Wood that does not rot might refer to cedar, cypress, oak, or ash. A wooden idol would be planed at the bottom, making the bottom heavier than the top so it will not fall over. Such idols were prone to deteriorate or topple over, even if made by a skilled craftsman. If an idol leant over or fell over it was the worst of omens.
People made idols to be like what they thought a god ought to be or what they wanted their god to be. People today often try to make God into something that they want Him to be, that fits the lifestyle they desire to live, or that expresses their own definition of what is truth. We call it humanistic relativism: the O.T. called it idol worship.
Some people believe they can define God fully in human terms to the point that they can predict and control Him. When that happens, their god is not the God of the Bible but an idol of their own making.
After describing how idols were made and some facts about idols, Isaiah turned to facts about God. He wanted his hearers to compare God and idols and come to the obvious conclusion that there is no comparison between God and idols.
Years later in Acts 17: 29 Paul was in Athens waiting for Silas and Timothy to leave Thessalonica and join him. While Paul waited he toured the city of Athens, and observed the objects of worship. He even found an alter with the inscription: “to the unknown God.” Paul proceeded to preach to the Athenians the One whom they worshipped without knowing Him.
Paul first pointed out that this God made the world and everything in it. Since He is Lord of heaven and earth, this God does not dwell in temples made with hands. Nor is He worshipped with men’s hands.
There is no creative form that is like Him, and under whose image one may represent Him visibly. God is incomparable.
One day, when Mr. Richards, missionary in India, was conversing with the natives, a Fakeer came up, and put into his hand a small stone with the impression of two human likenesses sculptured on the surface; he also proffered a few grains of rice, and said, “This is Mahadeo!”
Mr. Richards said, “Do you know the meaning of Mahadeo?” The Fakeer replied, “No.” Mr. Roberts proceeded, “Mahadeo means the Great God---He who is God of gods, and besides whom there can be no other.”
“Now this Great God is a Spirit; no one can see a spirit, who is intangible. Whence, then, this visible impression on a senseless, hard, immoveable stone? To whom will ye liken God? Or with what likeness will ye compare unto Him? God is the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy. He hath said, “I am Jehovah; there is no God beside me.” The poor Fakeer was serious, respectful, and attentive; continually exclaiming, “Your words are true.”
PLEASE READ ISAIH 40: 21-23.
In vs. 21 Isaiah expressed his consternation that the people had rejected God. I believe this was the tone with which he asked the four questions, each of which expressed disappointed surprise that anyone would prefer idols that humans had made to a personal knowledge of the Lord.
Like a parent asking a privileged child who messes up his or her life, the prophet asked the people of Judah why they turned from the true and living God to worship manmade images that were totally worthless.
The First Commandment forbids worshiping any other god than the Lord. The Second Commandment forbids using images to worship the Lord. Those who make images cannot use them to worship God, and they inevitably end up worshiping the image itself.
Isaiah left off the use of sarcasm and appealed almost impatiently to their doctrinal upbringing and the implications of their religious heritage.
Did they not know the teachings of Judaism and the instructions of the Word of God? Had they not heard? Had no one declared to them and had they not considered God’s relationship to His world and to everyone and everything in it that has existed since the foundations of the earth?
Verses 22-23 emphasize the sovereignty of God. “God is enthroned above the circle of the earth.” Not in some man-made house or shrine built by humans. From that vantage point He looks down upon the inhabitants of the earth.
When God looks down upon human beings, they appear like grasshoppers. One pictures looking out of the window of an airplane and seeing houses, cars, and people on the ground. God is so much mightier that any human, including the rulers of His people’s enemy nations.
The heavens are like a tent from which God sees all people. He made all things and rules over all things.
He moves in the affairs of nations to accomplish His will. In vs. 23 He is sovereign over the princes and the judges of he earth. He uses them to accomplish His will. The most high and mighty of them are subject to Him who is highest and mightiest. When He chooses, He brings them and their power to nothing.
Every age has its power-made leaders and strutting tyrants. They ride high for a while, but they and their power last only a short time in light of eternity. God eternal and sovereign only Jehovah God is real and therefore is worthy of worship.
Idolatry has a powerful appeal. Throughout the history of Israel up to the exile they constantly turned aside from God to idols. The best to be said of idolatry is that it shows that humans are inherently religious.
The worst thing about idolatry is that the idols become substitutes for the Lord. Thus idolatry is the rival or competitor for the devotion of people that should be reserved for the one true and living God.
PLEASE READ ISAIAH 41: 5-7.
As already noted, Isa. 40:27 shows how the Israelites felt about their exile in Babylon. They were asking skeptical questions about why the Lord would allow them to be in this plight.
They felt that He was either weak or uncaring. One of the questions was answered in vs. 1-26. God is sovereign Lord over all. He was not defeated by the gods of the Babylonians, which were made by humans.
Isaiah 40: 28-31 offered the assurance of renewal of the strength of true people of faith.
In Isaiah 41 God is the speaker. Through Isaiah He announced the future Israel faced. Following the Babylonian captivity, He would raise up a ruler from the east, who He later identified in Isa. 45: 1 as Cyrus of Persia to defeat the nations and deliver Israel from captivity.
Cyrus would march through the land and conquer many nations. Nations would fear him. They would seek comfort from each other. They would turn to their idols and even make more idols, seeking help and protection from them. Fear would drive them to more idol worship.
God’s use of Cyrus and the pagan nation of Persia implies He is Lord of history and sovereign in the events of mankind. He used Assyria against Israel and Babylon against Judah. He used Cyrus of Persia to bring deliverance to Judah from captivity in Babylon by defeating Babylon and permitting the exiles to go home.
The islands mentioned in 41:5 were the nations to the west of Judah around the Mediterranean Sea and extending even into the continent of Europe. They would hear of Cyrus’s exploits and would be afraid with a fear that would cause them to tremble at what the future held for them.
Cyrus and his powerful army would approach each nation in its path and defeat them one by one. Even today real or imagined threats often will produce crippling fear. The fearful will turn to their god---that which they believe and hope will come to their aid. Some foolishly believe that money, other people, power, knowledge, or a host of other things rather than Jehovah God can solve all their problems. Fear drives idolaters to their idols and strengthens idol worship. Fear will also drive true worshipers of God to God and will strengthen their faith and hope in God.
People were seeking help from any possible source. Vs. 6 records how each one helps the other. Nations sought alliances with each other, hoping to be able to resist Cyrus’s advances. People would say to each other: Take courage! However, that would not stop Cyrus’s advance.
Vs. 7 reveals another source to which the nations would appeal---their idols. Having no god but their idol-gods, nations would turn to their idols for help.
The craftsman and the metalworker were the workers employed in making idols. Each worker would encourage his fellow-workers as they sought to make more and better idols that might help them against Cyrus.
An ironic statement occurs at the end of vs. 7. The workers fasten the idol they make with nails so that it will not fall over. The implication is that they could see the incongruity of making an idol to help them, yet needing to nail it to the floor to keep the idol from toppling over! Fear fed their idol worship.
The way people react to threats to their security reveals what or who they trust in for help and security. Any other source of help or hope than Jehovah God offers only false hope. False sources of hope only produce more fear and keep people from turning to God for help and hope.
PLEAE READ ISAIAH 44: 9, 18-20.
Idolatry is the worst of sins because it shoves God out of our lives and puts something else in His place. Idol worshipers in ancient times gave glory to lifeless things, glory that was the Living God’s alone. Today’s world is just as idolatrous as yesterday’s world.
The Lord’s case against idolatry came to a climax in Ch. 44.
In vs. 9-20 God railed against idolatry. He heaped withering scorn upon the idol makers. These 12 verses are the most striking of all God’s protests against the makers of idols. We see that God is deeply offended by idolatry and that idolatry is absurd!
Vs. 9. Having declared in vs. 6, “There is no God but Me.” God stated in vs. 9 that “all who make idols are nothing and what they treasure does not profit.” Their witnesses (either the idols made or their makers) have no power of sight or understanding. There are some serious charges in the verse. Calling a group of people “nothing” is a powerful accusation. They were “nothing” because their works were “nothing.”
The irony and sarcasm of verses 18-20 are more blunt. Although these idolaters believe themselves to be wise and perhaps even progressive, they do not comprehend and cannot understand. The reason? God has shut their eyes…and their minds because of their rebellious disregard of Him. As a result they cannot see…they cannot understand.
Because of this they continued to craft their idols. It didn’t occur to them how ridiculous they were. With the same wood they roasted their dinner and made their idols. What they held in their hands was no different from the ashes left when the fire had burned and cooled.
The idolater was incapable of seeing that the idol he held in his hand, the object of his own making of which he was so proud, was actually a lie. His self-deception led him to worship idols.
Proponents of false gods are blind to reality and are guided by self-deception. Those who put their trust in idols make a long and tragic leap of faith into self-deception. People today take on the qualities of the object of their worship. If that object of worship is an idol—a person, thing, or idea they elevate to the level of God—the worshipers set themselves up for humiliation. Their minds are blinded; they cannot understand what is right or fitting.
Because idolatry is an insult to God and is conceived in sinful rebellion and moral deception, it breeds greater darkness and self-deception. For this reason God made clear the perversity of sin He wants His people to see the folly and ruin idolatry brings on those who turn to false gods and remain true to the living God.
PLEASE READ ISAIAH 45: 20-22.
God’s message in these verses was a challenge to those who would be living in Babylonian exile. His challenge also was extended to those worshiping idols anywhere. He urged them not to look to idols for deliverance, for idols cannot save. Only God can save. God invited people from every nation to turn to Him for salvation.
God’s invitation to come to Him was issued to fugitives from the nations as well as to fugitives among His people from the Babylonian captivity. When Cyrus defeated Babylon, he released people in exile to return to their countries.
They had to make decisions about their future. God described those fugitives as those who carry their wooden idols, and pray to them for help. However, an idol cannot save, for it is lifeless and has to be carried about. Their idols had not kept them from being defeated, and they had not delivered them from captivity.
The scene pictured in vs. 21 is a courtroom scene. The Lord invited the idol worshipers who were fugitives from many nations and from Israel to present your case before Him. They were given an opportunity to tell God why they believed in and worshiped idols.
In fact, they could pool all of their reasons and take counsel together in advocating the validity of their idol worship.
God put forth His key argument why they should turn to Him and worship Him instead of their idols. He asked, “Who predicted this…Who announced it that Cyrus of Persia would defeat Babylon and permit captives to return to their own nations.”
God had said that the prophets whose prophetic messages came true proved they were messengers of the true God. With the return under Cyrus, God’s prophecy came true, thus proving that He was God.
No message that reportedly came from an idol ever came true. God declared that He and no one else was God, a righteous God and Savior. He will always do right and deliver those who turn to Him.
Vs. 22 is a great verse, setting forth God’s universal invitation for all the ends of the earth to turn to Him and be saved. His reasoning was simple, yet glorious: For I am God, and there is no other. Isaiah declared this truth many times. The first step was for those who heard his voice to turn to Him.
They had been going away from Him. In the N.T. this step is called repentance. They must do the turning in answer to His invitation, but He alone can save.
Be saved is passive tense: God the Savior will save those who turn from sin and idols to Him. Everyone is included in the invitation regardless of nationality or spiritual condition. There is only one God and therefore only one Savior. In the N.T. Matt. 1:21 that Savior is identified as Jesus Christ. For according to John 1: 14 “He is God in the flesh”
Today, Christians need to witness clearly as to who God is and who He can save. Faith in anyone or anything else is false hope.
Although people believe there are many gods that can save a person, the Bible declares that the Lord God is the only Savior.
NEXT SUNDAY THE LIFE QUESTION IS “WHAT’S SO URGENT ABOUT RECEIVING GOD’S OFFER OF NEW LIFE IN CHRIST?” A.V. DAUGHERTY altav@swbell.net
SUMMARY:
Believing that there is only one God---the God of the Bible---is essential to experiencing fully the life and relationship God offers to us. Elevating any person, thing, or good or bad idea above the true and living God as revealed in God’s Word is idolatry.
No idol is God. Fear needs to drive us to God, not to an idol. Idolatry leads to further self-deception in other areas of life. Only God can save. Therefore, we must trust in God alone and avoid all forms of idolatry.