“Those who lavish gold from the purse
and weigh silver on the scale hire a goldsmith, and he makes it into a
god; they bow down, indeed they worship it. They lift it upon the shoulder and
carry it; they set it in its place and it stands there. It does not move
from its place. Though one may cry to it, it cannot answer; It cannot deliver
him from his distress.” (vv.6-7)
Here in chapter 46, the theme is the
contrast between the gods of Babylon—Bel and Nebo—and Jehovah. Perhaps nothing
in all of Biblical literature is more powerful than this comparison of the
essential difference between false gods and the true God.
The prophet Isaiah pictured the gods
of Babylon (and so all false gods), as being made by men, carried by the men
who made them, set in their place by these men, unable to move from the place
where they are so placed, and incapable of answering those that worship them in
days of distress. Then he describes the truth about Jehovah very concisely as, “He makes, and
He carries” (v.4).
Looking at this comparison a little closer we see an idol is a thing, which a man
makes and has to carry. The true God makes the man, and carries him. When a
man worships an idol, he is paying tribute to something he made. However, when
a man worships the true God, he worships his Maker, and he is carried by Him - and so
he finds rest.
The Truth: “Little children, guard
yourselves from idols!" (1 John 5:21)
