Isaiah 40: 21
Freedom from Idolatry

April 28, 2002


We Evangelicals believe that the so-called "First" and "Second Isaiah" of liberal Biblical scholarship were written by the first and only Isaiah.  Chapters 1-35 of the book reflect the actual lifetime of Isaiah and 40 -- 66 seem to have been written prophetically before the time, but focusing on the Babylonian Captivity, a hundred years after Isaiah.  These two parts are brilliantly tied together with an historical interlude in chapters 36-39, we believe also by Isaiah.  This may be strange; for we do not see books speaking directly to events in our century but which were written a hundred years ago.  But this Book of Isaiah is no ordinary book.  The phenomenon is, after all, only a different manifestation of the supernatural gift of prophecy given to a prophet -- a gift that the liberal critics know nothing about.  And, by the way, many evangelical commentaries have shown the internal evidence that Isaiah has written all three of these sections.

I. ISAIAH DEALS WITH THE FOOLISHNESS AND WICKEDNESS OF IDOLATRY 

1. Idolatry had dogged Israel for many centuries.  And now God was punishing them -- not vindictively but correctively as is always the case in God's dealing with his beloved people, whether it be in groups or as individuals.  And interestingly, literal idolatry -- i.e. worship of actual idols -- would never again be a problem in the history of Israel or among the Jews after the return from the Babylonian Captivity in 535 B.C. But, of course, the practical-equivalent idolatry was, and is, rampant in their midst, even as it is in ours.

2. Isaiah speaks pleadingly for Israel to see idolatry for what it really is in vv. 18ff.  Notice that he is not so naive as to think that idol worshippers always worship a mere piece of wood or stone but usually profess to worship a god or some spirit who is supposedly represented by, or indwells, the wood or stone image. Notice v.18:

To whom will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him?  The idol?  A workman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts silver chains for it.  He who is so impoverished  chooses for his offering, wood that will not rot; He seeks a skillful craftsman to set up an image that will not fall.
The passage confirms the clear teaching of the Second commandment in Ex.20.4-6 that it is idolatry to worship even the unseen God with the use of statues, objects (such as crosses and crucifixes), icons, pictures, or even the consecrated communion elements.  Note well this sense in those verses. Clearly he speaks to those who thought they were worshipping the true God.  They had just "improved" on Judaism a bit, making it more "visual-friendly" they would say.  "It would attract new believers," they may have argued.
Now hopefully you have not been lured into this kind of idolatry, however good your intentions might have been.  I wonder if evangelicals are not setting up people for this by their use of altars and crosses and candles as a supposed "focuses" for worship.  This may not be something that you have been introduced to.  But it is a serious matter.
But much more common in our culture is our stumbling into the practical equivalent of idolatry with the belief (though we are not inclined to admit it) that money, possessions, political or economic power, pleasure, psychological wellness, personal comfort and well being are gods to be worshipped.  Any time we choose one of those things at the cost of obeying or following God we have slipped into this very subtle form of idolatry.
Have you ever been an idolater?  Have you made your career or your goal in life or a particular attainment of something so intense that it was elevated to a point of worship?   Have you made something other than God's will for your life your goal?  Have you made something your goal that seriously hurt your Christian life and obedience? Of course you have and I have and we have confessed our sins and proclaimed the kingdom rights of "him who sits above the circle of the earth and to whom it's inhabitants are like grasshoppers, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them as a tent to dwell in; who brings princes to naught" and brings our inappropriate plans and projects and desires to naught, also.

Let us confess our sins when we do so and ask God to deliver us from the idolatry that is on every hand in our culture and that presses in on us just as the idolatry of the nations around Israel pressed in upon them.

II. THERE IS ONLY ONE ALTERNATIVE TO IDOLATRY WHETHER IT BE LITERAL IDOLATRY OR EFFECTUAL IDOLATRY.

1. Atheism is certainly not the alternative; nor is agnosticism, which is just a more intellectually respectable version of atheism.  Experience shows that it just leads to idolatry in a different form - making the intellect and knowledge of man or his self-sufficiency or the processes of nature into the supreme being and alternatively worshipping such varied things as family, society, political structure, social perfection, education, science.

2. Materialism is not the alternative.  Philosophies that serve as a religion are not.  Science is not, whether it be the physical sciences or social sciences -- areas that are often idolatry in that they are replacements for the Creator God.

3. Only Biblical theism is an alternative.  It is the worship of a God who is infinitely greater than his creation.  He is God!   He alone is God!  The idols of the heathen are powerless.  As verses 25-26 say, He is evidenced by the greatness of his creation!  He is infinitely greater than his creation! 

And He cares for his people.  And even in the times of difficulty and trouble he is a protector and Savior of those who are his as vv. 29-31 attest:

"He gives power to the faint....  They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint."
4. This view has often been lost in the secularization of the church.  But it has also been lost in the trivialization that God corrected in v.15 or corrected in vv. 21-23.  "Behold (he is so great that -- to him) -- the nations are like a drop in the bucket and are accounted as the dust on the scales he considers the isles (probably speaking of the continents) as (being like) fine dust."  " His is the one who sits above the circle of the earth and to whom its inhabitants are like grasshoppers -- who makes the rulers of the earth as nothing."

They had trivialized God in their idolatry.  Is not this trivialization of God what people are doing who worship God with culturally inferior music and trite words and irreverent prayers? 

Do we properly conceive of God in our lives and in our worship?  In our particular church we use a very plain form of worship in which we invite the congregation to take the part of what would be the role of a worship leader in large churches; it is a great privilege that you are given, but let us approach him as the one "before whom the nations are a drop in the bucket and are accounted as the dust on the scales, to whom the isles --the continents -- are nothing" and the whole universe is a small thing.  Let us "lift up our eyes on high" -- even using the help of modern astronomy and physics in our gaze -- and see the Creator of these things, which in their unfathomable number and size and complexity still are only a very small thing compared to the God who made them and one who we worship.

O, do not ask for entertainment on Sunday morning but worship the true God in the beauty of holiness, offering up the sacrifice of your lips and of a contrite heart which is given over to the God of all glory.

And do not give your life to things that are temporal but to God who created all things and created you and knows with an infinite surety what is best for you in every area of your life in time and in eternity.

And for those who are tempted to think of our God as inadequately attending to our needs and is too busy to be bothered with the details of our lives, let us entertain the question put to his people of old:

"Why do you say O Jacob and speak you O Israel, my way 
is hidden from the Lord and my right is disregarded by my God? 
Have you not known?  Have you not heard" The Lord is the
everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth!  He does not
grow faint or grow weary.  His understanding (and knowledge 
of things) is unsearchable." 
And he -- not the idols of the heathen around us who are surely gods but are not in any sense God!

Let us not spend the years of our lives in service to idols!  Let us spend them in the worship of the only true God, the creator of the universe and of all reality and the one who will be our God and Savior and object of worship into the ages of the ages that make up eternity.  Let us worship and serve him now!

Now let us hear this whole chapter as a message from God to his people: "Isaiah 40: 1-31"

Will you now join me in the worship of God singing
Give to our God immortal praise
Mercy and truth are all his ways - Hallelujah
Wonders of grace to God belong
Repeat his mercies in your song
Hallelujah!  Hallelujah!  Hallelujah!  Hallelujah  Hallalujah!

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