How could anyone be so blind? Why would anyone bow down before a carved piece of wood, when he is burning another part of the same log in order to cook or to keep warm (Isaiah 44:18-19)? How could anyone believe something so absurd, expecting deliverance from an inanimate object?
Yes, it’s easy to see how weak, how helpless other people’s idols are. But how many of us modern people are hopelessly enslaved to alcohol or drugs, and yet insist that we can quit at any time? How many of us are placing our faith in jobs or careers, in friends or families to keep us safe and give us meaning, even though none of them can guarantee the comfort and peace and happiness that we all crave? How many of us are actually feeding on ashes and clinging to lies, with our hearts deceiving us (Isaiah 44:20)? But if we cannot deliver ourselves from our sin, who can open our blind eyes?
Jesus can. For He did not just come to bring physical healing to the blind and lame and deaf and dumb (Isaiah 35:5-6; Matthew 15:30-31). No, by paying the death penalty that all our sins deserve, He came to wipe out our transgressions. Yes, He has redeemed us from the power of sin and death (Isaiah 44:22), breaking the grip that even the most attractive of idols have on our hearts.
Moreover, He is so powerful that He can use those who do not acknowledge His authority to accomplish His will. After all, the unbelieving Assyrians and Babylonians carried out God’s judgment on His people, conquering them and carrying them off into exile. Just so, Cyrus the Persian would perform the desire of the Lord to bless His people, announcing that the Temple would be rebuilt and that God’s people would return from their exile (Isaiah 44:28; 45:13).
No, we cannot deliver ourselves from our idols. So let us return to the One Who can, the One Who made us, the One Who has redeemed us and Who is determined to bless us. And as we serve Him in the way that He deserves, let us join all creation in shouting with joy to the One Who has shown us His glory in Christ.
Isaiah 44:18-23 (NASB)
18 They do not know, nor do they understand, for He has smeared over their eyes so that they cannot see and their hearts so that they cannot comprehend.
19 And no one recalls, nor is there knowledge or understanding to say, “I have burned half of it in the fire, and also have baked bread over its coals. I roast meat and eat it. Then I make the rest of it into an abomination, I fall down before a block of wood!”
20 He feeds on ashes; a deceived heart has turned him aside. And he cannot deliver himself, nor say, “Is there not a lie in my right hand?”
21 “Remember these things, O Jacob, And Israel, for you are My servant; I have formed you, you are My servant, O Israel, you will not be forgotten by Me.
22 “I have wiped out your transgressions like a thick cloud, And your sins like a heavy mist. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.”
23 Shout for joy, O heavens, for the LORD has done it! Shout joyfully, you lower parts of the earth; Break forth into a shout of joy, you mountains, O forest, and every tree in it; For the LORD has redeemed Jacob And in Israel He shows forth His glory.
