The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, and majestic in his radiant splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him today and what came to my heart and mind in Isaiah 44:15-17,
"It [wood from a tree] is used as fuel for burning;
some of it he [any idolator] takes and warms himself,
he kindles a fire and bakes bread.
But he also fashions a god and worships it;
he makes an idol and bows down to it.
Half of the wood he burns in the fire;
over it he prepares his meal,
he roasts his meat and eats his fill.
He also warms himself and says,
'Ah! I am warm; I see the fire.'
From the rest he makes a god, his idol;
he bows down to it and worships.
He prays to it and says,
'Save me! You are my god!'"
The inspired satire Isaiah provides here is something to behold.
One who rejects God and displaces him with something of his own making reveals himself to be a half-wit. Even the materials, the effort, the time required for making useless replacements for God are only available to the unbeliever from God himself.
What is attempted here is to pass off things that are common for everyday life and gilded a bit, as a replacement for our magnificent God of manifold perfections: our Creator, Sustainer and Savior. He is also the great Judge who will call anyone to account before his throne of judgment for such things.
The very fabric of societal upheaval today as represented in the demand for the changing of norms, of ethics, farcical concepts of gender, the rewriting of history, of what passes for "justice" today are all efforts to displace God within society today, because he himself has been rejected. Rejected by those who displace him with their own concoctions, "for the better good." It is nothing more than the simple idolatry of Isaiah's day.
some of it he [any idolator] takes and warms himself,
he kindles a fire and bakes bread.
But he also fashions a god and worships it;
he makes an idol and bows down to it.
Half of the wood he burns in the fire;
over it he prepares his meal,
he roasts his meat and eats his fill.
He also warms himself and says,
'Ah! I am warm; I see the fire.'
From the rest he makes a god, his idol;
he bows down to it and worships.
He prays to it and says,
'Save me! You are my god!'"
The inspired satire Isaiah provides here is something to behold.
One who rejects God and displaces him with something of his own making reveals himself to be a half-wit. Even the materials, the effort, the time required for making useless replacements for God are only available to the unbeliever from God himself.
What is attempted here is to pass off things that are common for everyday life and gilded a bit, as a replacement for our magnificent God of manifold perfections: our Creator, Sustainer and Savior. He is also the great Judge who will call anyone to account before his throne of judgment for such things.
The very fabric of societal upheaval today as represented in the demand for the changing of norms, of ethics, farcical concepts of gender, the rewriting of history, of what passes for "justice" today are all efforts to displace God within society today, because he himself has been rejected. Rejected by those who displace him with their own concoctions, "for the better good." It is nothing more than the simple idolatry of Isaiah's day.
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!
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