Damariscotta Baptist Church

 

 

Today’s passage completes Isaiah’s accusations against idols. Isaiah began by focusing on the idol’s inability to explain the meaning of the past or tell the future. He then focused on the idol’s inability to save their people or to prevent Yahweh from saving His people from them. Today, Isaiah reiterates the case that idols were unable to save, case closed.

Verses 6-8 set the stage with Isaiah claiming the absolute uniqueness of God. He then presents the charges against those who put their faith in idols and concludes with exactly what God can do and will do for them. Isaiah does all of this with an evangelical approach. As prophet he was determined to convince an apathetic, discouraged group of Hebrews not to put their hopes into things that would ultimately fail them. Instead, they were to remember who God was and who they were and wait.

We need an Isaiah today. A prophet who is determined to convince apathetic, discouraged Christians not to turn to the things of this world that will ultimately fail them.

Oh that we would listen to God’s Word and be that prophet.

The beginning of our passage sounds familiar as Isaiah again declares the uniqueness of Yahweh. He is the First and the Last and has chosen to make Himself known to a small, insignificant group of people. There is no one like Him and the Hebrews were His witnesses to this. He is a rock that does not change and provides a solace where beaten and battered people can cling.

Next Isaiah describes the contrast to this Rock.

What were the other people of the world choosing to cling to?

Worthless things,

Trash!

Which results in them becoming nothing – verse 9.

They were nothing,

because they were created by human craftsmen.

Again, Isaiah puts forth evidence for the statement that how can something made by human hands ever be the thing that saves them?

Isaiah goes into just how complex a process the making of idols really is.

It’s not easy to make a god.

Then in verses 15-17 he comes to the heart of his argument. Let’s use some common sense. How can a piece of wood be a “god” when half of the same piece of wood was also used to burn and keep you warm. Not to mention, the great amount of human effort it took to create the god. Who is in power of whom? The answer is, human made idols do not have god like powers and according to verse 18, anyone who thinks so has been mentally and spiritually blinded.

In the next two verses, Isaiah gives us God’s opinion on the subject. God calls it “detestable” which in the Old Testament means a “violation of God’s creation order.” In other words, it means to use a created thing in a way that violates its character. Everything in nature was given to humans and we are to care for things in a way that will produce a blessing, Genesis 1:28

God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

It’s a violation when we elevate nature to a place of God and bow down to something God created for a different purpose. Verse 20 claims, that spiritually speaking it is like feeding on “ashes.” Yuck.

Isaiah wraps this discourse with two verses that proclaim God’s appeal to His people. If they will remember all that He has been and will be, they do not need to fear.

God will not forget them. And as they contemplate as to whether or not it was their sins that has kept them from God for so long, they did not have to fear that either. God will forgive their offenses, and redeem them from captivity, Hallelujah!

What I have just proclaimed, would be quickly argued against were I not in a Bible believing church. Contrary to what you may think, just because you go to church and call yourself a Christian does not necessarily mean you believe in the same God as described in the Bible.

In 2018, the Pew Research Center conducted a survey of  multicultural Americans https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2018/april/we-believe-in-god-what-americans-mean-pew-survey.html

and discovered that a slim majority, only 56 %, surveyed believed in the God of the Bible. 33% believed in a “higher power” of some sort and 10% didn’t believe in a higher power of any sort.

I have many conversations where the other person allows me to believe what I believe, as long as I let them believe what they believe. Somehow both are supposed to be “correct.” Suffice it to say, I am allowed to believe whatever I would like, as long as I don’t insist they believe it as well. Isaiah was dealing with a similar situation. Those who built and worshiped their idols had a faith that allowed anyone to believe what they liked. Isaiah did not. Isaiah had access to the “truth.” Or, was the truth Isaiah was preaching no more of value than that of the Canaanites or the Babylonians?

There are two ways to look at it:

If Isaiah, the Canaanites and Babylonians were equal in their truth, than Isaiah was being too forceful and should have piped down. 
However, if Isaiah did have the truth, he should shout it from the rooftops.

If it is a dark stormy night and I know there is a collapsed highway bridge, on the road, just ahead, I would be negligent if I didn’t warn you.

The Bible tells us there is an absolute ethic that is rooted in the very nature of things and this is where Isaiah was coming from. It is the same place Jesus was coming from when He met with Nicodemus, John 3:12

I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.

Here, Jesus claims to have direct access to the truth. Not only that, Jesus claims to be the means of that truth being revealed to the world. It is with this conviction that Isaiah, Jesus and ourselves can speak with assurance about the right ways to live and the wrong ways that exist. We have seen the truth, and the truth will set us free. John 8:31-2

To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Let us remain faithful, like those who listened to Isaiah in Babylon so long ago and let us not bow down to the false gods of this world. Things made with human hands cannot save us any more today than they could then. So the god and goddess of unlimited sex, power through wealth, of alcoholic gaity, and the goddess of beauty must be seen for what they really are and rejected by Christians today. In turn, let us seek the face of the one who sacrificed His own Son, so that we may have life. He alone can redeem us and today we recognize the cost that was paid to insure our redemption.

Lord’s Supper

Deacon’s Offering

God is writing our history. He is in control. When we put our trust in Him, we are given the Holy Spirit, who abides in us and gives us increasing courage and the willingness to be rejected and ridiculed for the sake of the cross. Continue to be lights for the truth, so that others lost in the dark can find their way home to the Father.

AMEN.