Isaiah 40:18-20 – Idols Are Pathetic!
We have this pathetic, or really, in a way, laughable picture, in these three verses, of idols. These idols cannot do what God does. They don’t have control of the oceans and the storms. They have no command over the nations. As a matter of fact, not only can they not control these things, they did not make these things. In fact, these gods must be made. They are cast out of metal, covered in gold to look fancy, and held up by chains. People worshipped these things as if they were God. What folly!
Long ago, at the creation of the world, God made man in His own image. But man, since the Fall, is constantly seeking to remake God in His own image, so He can avoid the God who owns him and to whom he owes love. So an idol doesn’t have to be a statue or a picture. Ultimately all idolatries make an idol of one’s own self. I am God. I decide what is right and wrong, true and false, good and evil. If the Lord God is not your God, and if that is not where your life is centered, then you have an idol. Maybe you have a life dominating sin. Then you have an idol. It is what runs your life, not the living and true God. If having a spouse, or children, career, or money, or lots of leisure time and ease, for example, consume all your thoughts, then you’ve got an idol problem. If your happiness depends upon having these things and you are happy and content with them, at least for a time, and life is just trash without them, you’ve got an idol problem. In fact, if your happiness depends upon trust in anything else, or if you’re in despair without it, you have an idol problem. None of these things can deliver you. None of these things can make you right before the living and true God. All these things have carried you away from Him.
Whom do you worship? To whom have you given your life? And upon what is your happiness in this life or in the life to come based? Where is your trust? How can you know the living and true God? He has graciously and kindly sent Himself into this world in the person of His Son, who has become man, who lived a perfect life in the place of imperfect sinners, who has died the death worthy of sin, though he committed none. In the place of those who have committed sin, He paid the price of God’s justice entirely. He has said, come to me. Rely not on these other things.
Questions
- What are idols?
- What are some idols common today?
Prayer Points
- Pray that we would be trusting in Christ, not in idols.
- Use prayer points from your congregation.
- Pray for family matters.