Idolatry

ISAIAH 44: 6-8

Today I want to talk for a little while about “IDOLS & IDOLATRY”

From all I’ve read to do with this subject, Isaiah 44: is the best scripture in the entire bible on this subject, as we began to read & study these vss.we will see that Isaiah is amazed and at the same time disgusted how any one could be so blinded to the ignorance of the very idea of people worshipping a man made object.

And let me say right here that I’m certainly not trying to belittle any one because I don’t know for sure whose listening, but what my hope & pray is, is that many people might be helped from what we are about to read from the WORD of GOD.

Keep in mind here, that God is dealing with His chosen people Israel, but the truths of this subject is for any one that might be tied up in such as this.

Bible scholars agree that these verses here in Isaiah 44: are the best in the entire bible to do with exposing the ignorance of worshiping idols.

6Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.

7And who, as I, shall call, and shall declare it, and set it in order for me, since I appointed the ancient people? And the things that are coming, and shall come, let them shew unto them.

8Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have not I told thee from that time, and have declared it? ye are even my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not any.

Let me say that the God we trust in is a God of incontestable sovereignty and irresistible power. He is the Lord, Jehovah, self-existent and self-sufficient; and He is the Lord of hosts, ~~of all the hosts of heaven and earth, of angels and men.

When God would assert himself God alone he proclaims Himself Israel’s God that His people may be encouraged both to depend on Him and to triumph in Him.

. That He is eternal—the first and the last. He is God from everlasting, before the worlds were, and will be so to everlasting, when the world shall be no more.

If there were not a God to create, nothing would ever have been; and, if there were not a God to uphold, all would soon come to nothing again.

The whole idea of making idols seemed ridiculous to Isaiah "Isaiah points to the mere humanity of the craftsmen (10-11), their frailty (12) and the man-dominated conceptions governing their theology.

The reason is that the makers of these gods are mere men. Rather than God creating man, man creates gods.

This makes man superior to his gods. The fact that there are many people in this group of idol makers and worshippers does not change the fact that all of them will be ashamed by the impotence of their gods.

These vss. 9-20 on idolatry are the most powerful in the entire Bible!**** Here the prophet Isaiah, serving as the spokesman of Jehovah, shows the utter foolishness of idolatry.

." God’s claims (vv. 6-8) contrast with the folly of idolatry and the worldview from which it springs (vv. 9-20).

God’s initiative contrasts with human initiative.

Listen closely as I read all these verses, 9- 20,

9They that make a graven image are all of them vanity; and their delectable things shall not profit; and they are their own witnesses; they see not, nor know; that they may be ashamed

10Who hath formed a god, or molten a graven image that is profitable for nothing?

. Isaiah called them “nothings,” and that is what they are. They cannot help anyone.

11Behold, all his fellows shall be ashamed: and the workmen, they are of men: let them all be gathered together, let them stand up; yet they shall fear, and they shall be ashamed together.

Listen as Isaiah points out the fact that their all only weak & feeble men with all the problems of man, and here they are ,their going tomake for them selves gods.

12The smith with the tongs both worketh in the coals, and fashioneth it with hammers, and worketh it with the strength of his arms: yea, he is hungry, and his strength faileth: he drinketh no water, and is faint.

13The carpenter stretcheth out his rule; he marketh it out with a line; he fitteth it with planes, and he marketh it out with the compass, and maketh it after the figure of a man, according to the beauty of a man; that it may remain in the house **