Isaiah 44:24 Thus saith the LORD, thy redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the LORD that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself.
Do you know what sin is more frequently condemned in the Bible than any other? Perhaps no other sin is more frequently condemned in the Bible than the sin of idolatry. We tend to think that idolatry is something in lands far off or long ago, but nothing could be further from the truth. The Bible says much about idolatry, and it would seem that it is a timeless problem. If God devoted this much ink, time, and effort to warning against idolatry, then surely we should consider the danger for us today.
In Isaiah 42-44, God is talking about idolatry and about Himself as the Creator of mankind, as opposed to idols which are a creation of mankind. God made humankind and humankind makes idols. There are so many ironies here. God tells us that those who make idols “are like unto them.” God says that idols have eyes, but they don’t see; they have ears, but they don’t hear; and they have feet, but they can’t go. Those who make idols are as powerless as their idols.
What needless vanity, shame, fear, and toil we endure when we forget Who is Creator and who is creation! God called these idols that His people were tempted to go after “profitable for nothing,” and God called the people who made these idols “vanity” or “emptiness.” We have a picture in Isaiah of how those who make idols will be ashamed. Such people exert much energy and sweat in order to create their idols. Such people live in fear because their idols cannot answer their problems.
Isaiah pictures a man going out into a forest to chop down a tree. With half of the tree, the man makes a fire and warms his hands. With what is left of that wood he makes an idol. What a fantastic and ridiculous picture! God says of such idolaters, “He feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart hath turned him aside.”
What God is saying is that when we depend on something else in place of Him to be our strength, guide, comfort, or protection, then we are buying into a shallow substitution. It is like a man who is eating ashes instead of eating bread. It is emptiness.
You are only as able as the God you serve. Some people put the dependence, love, and adoration that they should be putting into God into money instead. How able is that money? How able are the people who put their trust in money? They are only as able as the money they serve. Now money seems mighty stable in America in this day, but that is an illusion. Money makes wings. Money flies. Money does not last. Those that trust money are like unto money. They are as weak as money itself.
Those who trust in their knowledge or wisdom are only as able as the god they serve. Once they lose their capacity to reason, their memory, or their mental agility, they are nothing because that is all they had. It was all they were trusting in. Those that trust in their strength are the same. Anyone over twenty-five knows that strength is a limited commodity. God is picturing people who were formed by God but who were themselves forming idols.
No matter your need, God is able. God is sufficient. We don’t need to endure the shame, fear, toil, vanity, and emptiness of life without God. He is only an arms-length and a prayer away. We should remember that. God says, “You have forgotten Me. I have remembered you.” We need to remember God and know that He is.