Isaiah 44:9-20

b. SHOWS THE FRAUDULENCE OF FALSE GODS

TEXT: Isaiah 44:9-20

9

They that fashion a graven image are all of them vanity; and the things that they delight in shall not profit; and their own witnesses see not, nor know: that they may be put to shame.

10

Who hath fashioned a god, or molten an image that is profitable for nothing?

11

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

12

The smith maketh an axe, and worketh in the coals, and fashioneth it with hammers, and worketh it with his strong arm: yea, he is hungry, and his strength faileth; he drinketh no water, and is faint.

13

The carpenter stretcheth out a line; he marketh it out with a pencil; he shapeth it with planes, and he marketh it out with the compasses, and shapeth it after the figure of a man, according to the beauty of a man, to dwell in a house.

14

He heweth him down cedars, and taketh the holm-tree and the oak, and strengtheneth for himself one among the trees of the forest: he planteth a fir-tree, and the rain doth nourish it.

15

Then shall it be for a man to burn; and he taketh thereof, and warmeth 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.

16

He 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:

17

and the residue thereof he maketh a god, even his graven image; he falleth down unto it and worshippeth, and prayeth unto it, and saith, Deliver me; for thou art my god.

18

They know not, neither do they consider: for he hath shut their eyes, that they cannot see; and their hearts, that they cannot understand.

19

And none calleth to mind, 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?

20

He feedeth on ashes; a deceived heart hath turned him aside; and he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?

QUERIES

a.

Why the question of verse ten?

b.

Why the detailed description of the work?

c.

How have their eyes been shut?

PARAPHRASE

Those who carve out graven images and call them gods are all fools, These idols which they are so proud of are worthless. All those who make testimonies to idols are as dumb as the idols because they have blinded themselves to the truth about their gods. Who but a fool would create something with his own hands and call it a god when he knows it cannot be greater than himself. All those who join with this fool who has made his own god will also be shown to be fools. Yes, and included in this group of fools are the workmen who manufactured the idolthey stand right alongside the other fools. The foolishness of the making of idols is seen in the exhaustive amounts of energy craftsmen waste in manufacturing gods which cannot see or know. The iron-smith has had to first make his tools to work the metal which covers the wooden image. Then he uses these tools, working long, hard, exhaustive hours working and reworking the metal. He foolishly works himself so long over the forge he gets weak and almost faints. Before he wastes this much energy, the carpenter has gone to great lengths to sketch the image on a block of wood, shape it with his tools, sketch some more, work it some more, and what does he end up withsomething in the image of man. Even if it is in the image of the most masculine of men, it is still a man-image and then it is put into a man-made temple. But before the carpenter has wasted all his energies in producing the mere image of a man to call his god, the woodsman has wasted time, energy and money planting trees, cultivating them, selecting just the right one. Then he cuts it down and half of it may be used to make an idol and half of it may be used to fire an oven for cooking meals. Yes, as stupid as it may sound, a man will take a tree and with half of it he will build a fire and warm himself and cook his meals and with the other half of it he will carve himself an image of man and fall down before it and worship it., Incredible as it may sound, a man takes half a tree and builds a fire, cooks his meal, stands right there in front of the fire and says, Oh, that feels good, I feel that heat warming me; then, with what is left of that same tree, he carves an idol and falls down and worships, praying to it, Deliver me, oh my god! Such idiocythey act like they do not have any brains at all. Apparently they have never reflected a moment on how stupid such an action is! They have plastered shut their own eyes so they cannot see and they have plastered shut their hearts so they cannot understand. These fools never stop to really think all this out with any perception. They never reason this way: Now, part of this tree I have burned in the fire and cooked my meal on! Does it make sense to take the other half of a piece of fuel and make it into something as deprecating and shaming to good sense as an idol? They never stop to think: Shall I, a living, thinking, feeling being, fall down to a chunk of wood and call it a god? The fool who makes idols, so easily reduced to ashes, has been deluded by his own choice. He really does not want spiritual deliverance and so finds none and it never occurs to him to say, Isn-'t this all a big lie?

COMMENTS

Isaiah 44:9-17 GRAVEN IMAGES: There are a number of Hebrew words for idol; -alilim (a thing of nought); atsabbim (an image of grief); gilulim (a filthy image); tsirim (images of stone); teraphim (images) and others. The word used in verse nine is pesel which means specifically graven thing or sculpture. The object of the pesel or sculpture was to make some material into a representation of the invisible God to be worshipped and thus it was an idol. The word translated delight is also interesting; it is hkamudyehem which means desirable, delectable, precious, darling. Their graven images were more than ornaments! They venerated, pampered and worshiped those pieces of stone and chunks of wood much like the ignorant masses of India worship cows and the Buddhists of Japan worship statues of bronze and gold.

Isaiah is shaming the foolishness of the people who make and worship idols as much as he is the idols themselves! Those who make them are tohu, void, empty, vain people. Their witnesses is reference to the idolaters who are the only witnesses the idols could have. The idols are dumb and so are those idolaters (the people) who testify to them. It must have taken a great deal of courage for Isaiah to make such scathing public rebuke of idolatry. It had been instigated and approved by Ahaz and was practiced by the majority of the population. The prophet presents a sarcastic question: Who but a fool would fashion something with his own hands and call it a god when it cannot ever be more than it isa piece of wood or stone? In Isaiah 44:11 Isaiah offers both a prediction and a challenge. He predicts that idolaters will someday be acknowledged as the fools they really are. His prediction has come true. Idolatry stands discredited as utter folly in most of the world today. The discrediting of idolatry is due fundamentally to Christianity, not science! Science is due to Christianity! Isaiah challenges that if all the idolaters and idols could be gathered together in one great mass meeting to substantiate the truthfulness of idols, they could present no evidence or verification. Their images would still remain dumb, unable to speak, hear or see and unable to deliver, save or act at all!

Our author now begins (Isaiah 44:12-17) one of the most satirical, comical passages of the Bible! This is the graphic, ludicrous picture of the idol-smith as seen from God's perspective. We must understand that most idols were composites of wood and metal. First, a wooden image was carved with the desired features. Then molten metal (gold, silver, bronze, etc.) was poured over the wooden image and the metal is then polished and worked again into the desired product. All this craftsmanship required proper tools and so Isaiah begins his picture describing the hot, exhausting, famishing work invested by human beings in just the tools to make idols. All that human energy to make tools to make something that is nothing! Then the craftsman hkarash (artificer, engraver, probably from the root, to scratch), spends long hours sketching, measuring, shaping, remeasuring, shaping again and the end product is the image of a man! Perhaps it would be the most masculine man with the most perfect features the craftsman could fashion, but still the image of man. Water cannot rise above its level. So, the human cannot produce the divinenot even an image of the divine! And the image of man is not alive. It is only an image of the features of mannot man! Most idols are much more decadent than that because they are images of beasts and creeping things!

The prophet has described the process of idol-making in reverse order. In Isaiah 44:14-17 he describes the initial steps in the formation of a graven image. Even before the craftsmen begin there is much human energy exerted on a project of nothingness. The woodsman must spend time deciding on the proper tree (only the best will do for one's god). Then much energy and time is invested in hewing down the tree, sectioning it and hauling it to the craftsman. But before all this long years of time has been invested in planting, nourishing and protecting the sapling until it was time to harvest it for idol-making. The destiny and existence of this god was totally dependent upon the circumstances of weather and growth and man's whims of selection and harvesting it should appear absolutely idiotic to think the thing formed was a god! But that isn-'t all! After planting a sprout, watching it grow into a sapling, then a tree, then taking all the pains to select, harvest, transport, and sell to the craftsman, one watches as the craftsman takes half of the log for a god and casts the other half aside for cook-wood! How utterly incredible! Out of the same log a man makes a god and fuels a fire to cook his meal or warm his body! What supernatural guidance did the craftsman use to decide from which half to make a god and which to burn in the fire? Why couldn-'t the half in the fire have made a god equally as well as the other half? There is an interesting use of the word raiyth from the root raah to see. The Hebrews used see often to mean feel, experience. The idea is the contrast between feeling the warmth of the fire made by the same wood the man falls down before to worship as a god! How senseless! He has just felt the warmth from the fire of the wood and now he cries out, Deliver me, to part of the same wood! How can men and women be so stupid?

Isaiah 44:18-20 GULLIBLE IDOLATERS: Lange says the tahk (shut, plaster shut) of Isaiah 44:18 should be considered as the nominal form and take as its nearest qualification the word -aeyneyhem which is 3 pers. pl. masc. In other words, they plastered their eyes shutnot God. It is apparent from the context that the idolater exercised his own choice in knowing or not knowing the utter stupidity of idolatry. The Hebrew lo-yashyiv el-libbo means literally, carry not back into the heart, and is translated in the ASV none calleth to mind. Evidently these idolaters once had understanding about the vanity of idols, but they did not carry it back into their hearts. They rejected any willing reflection or investigation of their practices. They refused to come to the light lest their deeds be exposed (cf. John 3:18-20). It certainly was not because they were incapable of understanding the stupidity of their practicethey simply did not want to carry it back into their minds. To-'evah is an abhorrence or an abomination. Its evaluation comes from God, not from man. Men who make them think them darlingGod calls them abominations! Idols insult God and degrade and eventually destroy men whom God made in His own image.

The man who makes idols of wood and metal which are so easily reduced to ashes has been led astray from truth by a heart overpowered with self-delusion and cannot be saved nor does it ever occur to him to say, Isn-'t all this a big lie? The most enslaving delusion is self-delusion, because it has to do with selfish feelingsnot objective truth. There does not seem to be any hope for these idolaters of Isaiah's people unless they are willing to investigate what is outside their own feelings and desires. As long as men accept only what agrees with their feelings and desires, and are unwilling to accept that something may be valid truth outside their own autonomous selves, they cannot be saved. God is transcendent. He is the objective Object. He is the eternal Person. He is truth, outside of and beyond man. His being, objectivity and truthfulness must be validated by His revelation of Himself. Man cannot reduce Him to man's limited experience for man can rise no higher than himself (as evidenced by his idols)!

QUIZ

1.

What is a graven image?

2.

How would you characterize Isaiah's mood in this dissertation against idol-making?

3.

What is a carpenter?

4.

How does the idol-maker see the fire?

5.

What is the meaning of none calleth to mind?

6.

Why is the idol-maker unable to evaluate idolatry as a lie?