Isaiah 44:6-20 WORSHIPPING FALSE GODS 6-1-13
Today I want to talk for a few minuets about "IDOLATRY"-- idolatry don't necessarily mean falling down before an image which common scents tells us is wrong, but today there are a lot of people worshipping any number of things other than the True and living God, to some it's money, to some it's their possessions and other things, that's the word, "things".
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~ Many religions even today worship some sort of image , we think of Buddha the imagine of a fat so called deity, many people in India believe a cow is holy, some of these dear people are hungry much of the time and yet rib-eye steaks are walking the streets.
~ The Catholics bow before an image of Mary, even pray to her, statues are all over the place in the Vatican in Rome, the Bible teaches that we're to pray to God alone. In the early church days they never directed their prayers to Mary, or to dead saints. This practice began in the Roman Church.
~ God loves all races of people but He is a jealous God and He will not share His glory with man made gods, or people either.
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>> Exodus 20:3-5 Thou shalt have no other gods before me. 4Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: 5Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God,--
>>Leviticus 26:1 Ye shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I am the LORD your God.
~ "idol" means a nothing, it means it's worthless.
~ "image" means a figure of ones imagination, be it on a wall, a stone or what ever.
~ No sin was more provoking to God than this, and yet His people Israel were addicted to it.
~ God is a Spirit and to worship him by an image in bowing down to it, changes His truth into a lie and His glory into shame.
>>John 4: 24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
~Not in useless repetion or images and idols.
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> Isaiah 44: 6-20; -- tells us what God thinks about false gods, listen as I read.
These verses about idolatry are the most powerful in the entire Bible.
~ In these verses Jehovah is speaking through His prophet Isaiah, revealing the utter foolishness of believing in, or the worship of so called gods.
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>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.
~ Here the oneness of God is seen by stating that beside me there is no God.
Here in verse 6 the personal name "Jehovah" is used of both the King and His Redeemer, the one referring to God the Father and the other referring to God the Son.
* Jesus said in;
> Rev. 1:17 Fear not; I am the first and the last.
>Rev. 22:13 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last
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~ An idol can never be the First, because an idol needs someone to make it, and an idol can never be the Last, because they can wear out and break.
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> 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.
~The proof of God's uniqueness is His ability to foretell the future and then bring it to pass. Anyone who claims to be able to do this must prove to God that he has already done it.
God's creation of Israel and His revelation of the future to Israel and through Israel is the great proof that HE truly is the One and only True God.
~Our beloved Bible came through His people Israel; all of the writers of the scriptures were Israelites, including Luke the writer of the gospel of Luke and also the book of Acts as well.
~~To say that Luke was not a Jew is a blasphemous denial of God's own words on the matter.
„« LISTEN--Romans 3:1-2
1What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? 2Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them (JEWS) were committed the oracles of God.
Here we're plainly told that God did not give His oracles to Gentiles. We gentiles received Gods Word FROM the Jews for our benefit unto eternal salvation, but they were originally given to JEWS. -- Therefore Luke had to be a Jew.
Psalm 147:19- 20 He sheweth his word unto Jacob, ** his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. 20He hath not dealt so with any nation: and as for his judgments, they have not known them.
This should settle that question for ever; Luke had to be a Jew.
2 Timothy 3: 16All scripture is given by inspiration of God, ----
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~God lives outside our time-domain, and can proclaim things before they happen, like Cyrus in verse 28- 45:7 over 200 years in advance, also King Josiah over 300 years before he's born in 1st Kgs. 13:1-2 & 2nd Kgs. 23:16 comes too pass. --- This shows God really is who He says He is, He's watching and directing human history as it makes its course down His foreordained path.
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> 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.
The Israelites were heading for captivity. God had told them that they would return from captivity as well as go into it, so when they did return, they would be able to witness to the world that the Lord had predicted and performed both events.
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>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.
The graven image (carved idol) is called vanity (nothingness).
Delectable things refer to the extreme adornment of idols with gold, silver, and precious stones.
The idols themselves are their own witnesses, they testify against themselves that they see not, nor know. -- Because of their helpless condition, they are ultimately ashamed, meaning to dry up). These helpless idols leave their worshipers without help or hope.
~ God points out the Idol makers themselves don't see the uselessness of idolatry, and they also will be ashamed by the failure of their gods.
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> 10Who hath formed a god, or molten a graven image that is profitable for nothing?
==Why make an idol or an image that can't do a thing?
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> 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.
~All the craftsman who makes idols, and the people that worship the idols will be put to shame, the reason is, that the makers of these gods are mere men.
~ Rather than God creating man, here man creates gods.
This makes man superior to his gods; all of them will be ashamed by the impotence of their gods.
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* Verses 12-17 describe the construction of an idol, pointing out that the very process witnesses to the inability of idols to do anything.
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> 12The smith (iron worker) 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.
~ The iron worker who forms a god spends a lot of time and effort on it, it's an exhausting process.
~ But the True God didn't grow weary making man, and because God made the Israelites they didn't need to grow weary ether.
>Isaiah 40:28 Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? --
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>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.
The whole idea of the carpenter craftsmen was to create a god in the closest possible likeness to man, the highest form of life.--he made it to appeal to the eye, so it might remain in a person's home.
~~Here a carpenter instead of a blacksmith is the craftsman. ~ This could have been one idol, first carved out of wood and then adorned with metal, or Isaiah may have had in mind two different idols, one metal and the other wood.
~Idol-making is a process involving many steps and requiring much work and human skill.
~The idol makers in Ephesus had a good income until Paul come on the scene and said that these idols of their pagan goddess Diana was nothing, read Acts 19:, caused a big riot.--these statue worshippers today are worshipping the same goddess they were back in Ephesus, they just don't know it.
~ The doctrine called humanism is only an abstract form of this age-old effort. "We will be God, and God will be us."
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>14He heweth him down cedars, and taketh the cypress and the oak, which he strengtheneth for himself among the trees of the forest: he planteth an ash, and the rain doth nourish it.
~JEHOVAH God's rain gives it nourishment.
~Here a man plants an ash tree, a fast growing tree, with the intentions of making a god out of it one day "for himself." -- This so called god to be will be cared for by its human creator during the entire process. ~
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~Notice, the tree itself had to be carried out of the forest where it grew among other trees; it had no more virtue or value than the others.
~ It may have been a cedar, or a cypress, or an oak.
~He may have had an eye on it some time before for this use, so he strengthened it for himself that is; he possibly used some kind of brace, or maybe fertilizer to make it stronger and grow better than other trees.
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> 15Then shall it (same one) be for a man to burn: for he will take thereof, and warm himself; yea, he kindleth it, and baketh bread; yea, he maketh a god, and worshippeth it; he maketh it a graven image, and falleth down thereto.
~Most of us know what "kindling" is. ~ I've always thought of it as small little strips or pieces of wood, preferable pine for the purpose of starting a fire.
~ The craftsman uses one piece of wood to make an idol and another piece out of the same tree as fuel to warm and cook with.
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> 16He burneth part thereof in the fire; with part thereof he eateth flesh; he roasteth roast, and is satisfied: yea, he warmeth himself, and saith, Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire:
~ The piece he burns does him more good than the piece he worships; the piece burned serves man and delivers him from the cold and hunger.
~ Instead of thanking the Creator for the wood, the idolater uses what the Creator has made to make a god in his own image, and that he gives thanks too.
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>17And the residue thereof he maketh a god, even his graven image: he falleth down unto it, and worshippeth it, and prayeth unto it, and saith, "Deliver me; for thou art my god."
~The leftover piece becomes the idol. How can the result of human effort and care, an idol, put forth any effort and care for its builder?
~ This man expects help from gods that cannot help themselves.
The utter stupidity of idolatry and pagan religion is exposed here, here is the most sever attack in the entire Bible on idolatry.
~What is worse is not only that the pagan would worship this so-called god, but that he prayeth unto it and expects it to deliver him.
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>18They have not known nor understood: for he hath shut their eyes, that they cannot see; and their hearts, that they cannot understand.
~ How could the idol makers fail to see what is so obvious about the ignorance of idolatry? Because God has shut their eyes and shut their hearts.
~~ Some one might ask, is this unjust of God? --- No because they first loved the darkness and chose their blindness, and then the LORD gave them what they wanted.
* It is the same way that God hardened the heart of Pharaoh.
>>Exodus 3:19-20 And I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go,*** no, not by a mighty hand. 20And I will stretch out my hand, and smite Egypt with all my wonders which I will do in the midst thereof: and after that he will let you go.
>>Exodus 8:15 But when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened his heart, and hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had said.
~We are told that he hardened his own heart. God's part in this was to bring to the surface that which was already there.
* So God did not harden Pharaoh heart against his will, the same truth applies to verse 18 of our text --
>>18They have not known nor understood: for he hath shut their eyes, that they cannot see; and their hearts, that they cannot understand.
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>19And none considereth in his heart, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, "I have burned part of it in the fire; yea, also I have baked bread upon the coals thereof; I have roasted flesh, and eaten it: and shall I make the residue thereof an abomination? Shall I fall down to the stock of a tree?" --- A block of wood.
> 20 He feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, "Is there not a lie in my right hand?"
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~ They feed themselves with hopes by worshipping these idols; their worship goes no further than the sight of their eyes. -- Feeding on ashes is evidence of a depraved spiritual appetite. It is a sign that the soul is overpowered by bad habits when men worship only what they can see.
