Context for Isaiah 43:14-44:23
God’s promise to redeem His people is absolute, yet even that promise of redemption is misunderstood by most. Because of that misunderstanding, God patiently explains man’s sin and His redemption over and over so that we can understand and be saved.
This text clearly points out the uselessness of idols, mocking idols made from the same wood that is used to cook and heat. In that context, we clearly see the foolishness and the danger of idolatry.
But there is a deeper point in this description of idolatry, and it is the point of placing our faith in things that cannot save. In our modern world, few people carve idols from wood or cast them from metal in a direct sense, but how much of our attention, our thinking, perhaps even our faith is placed in the works of our hands and others.
In our material world we work to pay the bills, filling ourselves and our lives with the works of men. How much of these things do we need? Do we need any of them? At what point does what we have or do become the very same kind of idol that God warns against.
We must be very careful of such things, because it is the goal of the devil, the world, and our own sinfulness to tempt us away from our God by making our jobs, families, possessions, entertainments, or pursuits so important that they replace Him. When that occurs, we are doing the same things that the worshipers of Baal and Ashtoreth did to bring God’s wrath.
So, as Jesus told us, seek first the Kingdom of God and its righteousness. That pursuit will keep us too busy for anything else.
DLH
