Making a Differencewith Pastor Phil Erickson

Aug 9th, 2023 The True God or a god of Your Own Creation?

Today’s Passage – Isaiah 44 – 47 (Click on the references to listen to the audio – click here to view the text from the Blue Letter Bible website)

(Second Milers also read – John 11 – 12; Psalms 41 – 45; Proverbs 9)

Listen to this morning’s Scripture song – Psalm 55:17

Read the “0809 Evening and Morning” devotion for today, by the late Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

Read previous posts from this reading passage – “Custom Design“ and “He’s the One and Only”

I noticed two recurring themes in the reading today. God states several times through the prophet Isaiah, that He is the only God, there is none beside Him. In fact, I thought it funny when He said “I know not any” (Isaiah 44:8). Consider again these verses from today’s reading:

“Thus 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. … Fear 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.” (Isaiah 44:6, 8)

“I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me: That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else. … For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else. … Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together: who hath declared this from ancient time? who hath told it from that time? have not I the LORD? and there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside me. Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.” (Isaiah 45:5-6, 18, 21-22)

“Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me,” (Isaiah 46:9)

The other thought that is repeated throughout the passage today is that men are determined to keep making idols, little statues of metal and wood, and they pray to them and worship them, but these hunks of junk can’t do anything for them. Again, let’s look at the verses from today’s passage that demonstrate this:

“They 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. Who hath formed a god, or molten a graven image that is profitable for nothing?” (Isaiah 44:9-10 – also vs. 12 – 20)

In Isaiah 44:12 – 20, God speaks about the folly of a man who plants a tree, then cuts it down to warm his home and bake his bread, and then takes the residue of it to fashion it into a god, an idol.

“Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, ye that are escaped of the nations: they have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image, and pray unto a god that cannot save.” (Isaiah 45:20)

“They lavish gold out of the bag, and weigh silver in the balance, and hire a goldsmith; and he maketh it a god: they fall down, yea, they worship. They bear him upon the shoulder, they carry him, and set him in his place, and he standeth; from his place shall he not remove: yea, one shall cry unto him, yet can he not answer, nor save him out of his trouble.” (Isaiah 46:6-7)

Israel had the real God, the only God, yet they continuously chose to forsake Him and create gods of their own, little hunks of wood and metal. Now to be sure, there was real spiritual power behind all of these idols. Satan and his devils were the powers behind these false gods. However, when a man was bowing down and worshipping an idol, the devil was not physically present receiving the worship. He is not omnipresent as our God is. We sometimes make the mistake of assigning Satan and his demons the same attributes that rightly belong to God. Satan is powerful, certainly more powerful than a man, but he is minuscule compared to an omnipotent God. Most of the time, these idol worshippers of old were just speaking into the air, and the only One that really heard them as they were praising and praying to their idols was the true God whom they had forsaken, and He was not at all pleased that they had rejected Him and replaced Him with a hunk of wood.

Israel kept forsaking the Great God, the all powerful God, and replacing Him with these idols. Crazy! But don’t we do the same thing today? Oh, to be sure there are probably not many of us that have little statues around our homes that we bow before and worship, but we sure have a lot of idols. We replace God with all kinds of things that we worship: our money, toys, hobbies, careers, and even sometimes, our families – these are all good things given by God sometimes but they can eventually become more important to us than the God who gave them. We also sometimes dabble in sinful pleasures like immoral sexual activity, alcohol, drugs, etc. Like the idols of old, we thought we could manipulate and control them for our pleasure but eventually they enslave us and ruin our lives. When are we going to learn?

Let’s keep God – the Lord Jesus Christ – at the very center of our worship; not just on Sundays, but every day and in every aspect of our lives. Worshipping Him means that our lives are centered in Him. He is in control of everything we do. Let’s stop chasing the vanity of the idols of this world and pursue after God.