The Folly of Idolatry

This is a sermon based on Isaiah 44:9-20, preached at an evening service on 15th July 2007

If you were to take a survey in the streets of Britain today and ask people this question, I wonder what the answers you got would be. “Which sin does the Bible condemn the most often?” Judging from what seems to get into the news headlines, people might think it was sexual sins of one kind or another, but although the Bible does condemn sexual immorality, actually such sins are not dwelt on that much, certainly not as major themes in the Bible. Other people might suggest greed, hypocrisy or cruelty, or dishonesty are the biggest sins. And of course we can’t forget “murder” what many people would consider to be the ultimate sin that anyone could commit. The point is that they will almost always choose a sin that affects other people and especially things that harm other people. Hardly anyone ever thinks about the sins we commit only against God, against God directly. But the sin that the Bible seems to take more seriously than almost any other is idolatry.

Make no mistake about it, idolatry is condemned as a terrible sin – an evil even worse than any sin against a fellow human being, bad though those are, because idolatry is a sin directly against God himself.

The Bible could not condemn idolatry in stronger terms than it does. The Bible says that idolatry is an abomination:

Ezekiel 14:6: “Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: Repent and turn away from your idols, and turn away your faces from all your abominations.

And God’s threatened punishments upon idolators could not be put in stronger terms either.

In Leviticus 26:1 God says to the people of Israel: “You shall not make idols for yourselves or erect an image or pillar, and you shall not set up a figured stone in your land to bow down to it, for I am the LORD your God.”

Throughout most of the chapter the Lord then warns the Israelites of the dire consequences if they break his commandment. By Leviticus 26:27 God “takes the gloves off” as it were and says:

“But if you will not listen to me, but walk contrary to me, then I walk contrary to you in fury, and I myself will discipline you sevenfold for your sins. You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters. And I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars and cast your dead bodies upon the dead bodies of your idols, and my soul will abhor you.”

So idolatry is not something to be taken lightly and definitely not something we want to fool around with. It must be taken deadly seriously.

In the context of the Bible as a whole, the middle section of Isaiah 44 that we’re looking tonight is absolutely typical in its condemnation of idolatry. The biblical understanding of idolatry is that it is absolute folly and something we should avoid at all costs.

Now, before we look at the passage itself, there’s one thing some of you are probably asking yourselves. What is idolatry? If it’s such a serious sin, we better get it clear what it is so we can make sure we aren’t doing it.

Theologians and preachers have defined “idolatry” a number of different ways over the years – many of which are very helpful to us when we come to ponder this subject.

The 19th century American preacher, A. W. Tozer, gave one of the widest definitions of idolatry, but with a lot of truth, when he said it was “entertaining thoughts about God that are unworthy of him.” For Tozer then, idolatry was primarily getting our thoughts wrong about God and worshipping our version of what God is like, rather than the true God revealed through the pages of Scripture and in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Another good definition I came across was from Andrew Rudd, an American Christian businessman. Rudd says that "Idolatry is finding our security, our safety, our meaning in something or someone other than God." Where Tozer emphasised getting our thoughts wrong about God, Rudd emphasises placing other things – trusting in and relying on other things, loving other things more than we love God as being at the heart of idolatry.

I think both are correct. Idolatry is both either worshipping, trusting in or loving most anything or anyone more than the LORD God and idolatry is also worshipping or imagining the one true God in a way that he forbids or in a way that makes him less or different than he really is – that is as Scripture present him to us.

Both sides of idolatry are brilliantly summed up by Augustine of Hippo, who wrote: “Idolatry is worshipping anything that ought to be used, or using anything that ought to be worshipped.”

The Bible’s own definition, which is in line with both Tozer’s, Rudd’s, and Augustine’s definitions, is probably best summed up in the first two of the Ten Commandments. According to the Ten Commandments, in other words, according to God himself, idolatry is either “having any other god” but him, whatever that is, or “making for ourselves carved images” and “bowing down to them.”

In Romans 1:25, Paul captures the essence of the sin of idolatry is in these words about the wicked. He says they “exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever!”

Worshipping and serving the creature – any part of creation instead of the one who created them: that is idolatry.

The Heidelberg Catechism sums up so much of the Bible’s teaching in Question and Answer 95:

Q95: What is idolatry?
A95: Idolatry is to conceive or have something else in which to place our trust instead of, or besides, the one true God who has revealed Himself in His Word.

That is the sin that the Bible condemns so strongly and so often – putting anything else in God’s place, even if we try to worship God himself through other things such as images. That is the sin that our passage deals with.

Now that we’ve had a look at the background to the subject we’re discussing tonight, let’s turn now to our passage in Isaiah chapter 44. In this passage we see three distinct points that Isaiah makes about the sin of idolatry that we should consider tonight.

First, in verses 9 to 11, Isaiah makes the point that idolatry is a shameful, harmful and useless thing.

Second, in verses12 to 17, Isaiah emphasises that idolatry is totally stupid from any kind of rational point of view.

Third, in verse 18 to 20, Isaiah reminds the people that to be an idolator is to believe in a lie and to do something which is both sinful and punishable by God.

So let’s look at these three sections in turn.

First, in verses 9 to 11, the point is made very strongly that idolatry is a shameful, harmful and useless activity.

Verse 9: “All who fashion idols are nothing and the things they delight in do not profit.” In other words, idolators are “beneath contempt” as we might say. In God’s eyes they are “nothing”. The verse concludes that such people will be “put to shame” by God. Whether or not they know it, one day idolatry will be exposed as a shameful activity and even the idolators will have to acknowledge that fact. One day – even if it is only at the Last Judgment – they will stand exposed and guilty of putting the creature in the place of the Creator.

But not only is idolatry shameful, it is also harmful according to Isaiah. Those who practise idolatry will be “terrified” according to verse 11. What greater harm can a man or woman do to himself than to conduct his life in such a way that at the last he or she will be filled with absolute terror as the realisation dawns on them that the LORD God was indeed real, and His word was indeed true, and the vastness of eternity stretches before such people in never ending darkness, where they face eternal torment and abandonment in hell. “They will be terrified” Isaiah says. The greatest harm a person can do to himself is not harming his body, but harming his soul if you like – storing up God’s wrath against himself because of his sins.

Next, Isaiah points out that not only is idolatry shameful and harmful, it is completely useless. There is absolutely no benefit derived to the idolator from his or her sinful activities. It “does not profit” as verse 9 says. Other translations put it slightly differently. One old translation simply says that the idols can “do no good.” The Good News Bible states that the idols are “useless”. The New American Standard Bible says they are “futile”. The New English Translation has “worthless”. Whatever way they put it, the verse tells us that idolatry is a useless, pointless, worthless, futile activity that does not profit us or do us any good whatsoever.

Second, in verses12 to 17, Isaiah emphasises that idolatry is totally stupid from any kind of rational point of view. He points out in a series of graphic scenes that all idols are made from mere man-made materials in one form or another. How could anyone really believe that a god can be formed from the ordinary materials of everyday life – stone, wood, plaster, or paint and canvass. He is deeply scornful of such beliefs and scathing in his denunciation of them.

In verse 12, the picture is of a ironsmith working to make a so-called god out of metal with his tools, but then becoming hungry and tired and having to stop his work and take a break. Picture it, Isaiah’s saying to us. What sort of god is it that is created by a mere man, a weak artisan who gets tired while forming a god and has to take a break and get a drink of water when he feels faint. The contrast between this puny god, created by a weak human being, and Yahweh, the uncreated, eternal God whose power is limitless and who never grows tired or weary could not be greater.

In verse 13, Isaiah’s satirical take on the idol makers, switches from the worker of metal to the carpenter working in wood. He lists all the skills and tasks the carpenter has to complete from measuring and cutting wood, to carving and shaping it, to going out and finding new timber or even planting trees to produce timber in the future. But then the absolute folly of idolatry is laid bare in withering terms. What could be more stupid? What could be more ridiculous than to cut down a tree and use part of the wood to burn as fuel in a fire (in other words to fulfil mundane tasks of everyday life), and use another part to fashion a so-called “god” and worship it. It is, as far as Isaiah is concerned, absolutely absurd to pretend that one lump of wood is a god who can help you (“Deliver me, for you are my god!” Isaiah has the idolator saying to his wooden idol) while another lump of wood is no more than fuel to cook your dinner or heat your house.

Third, in verse 18 to 20, Isaiah reminds the people that to be an idolator is to believe in a lie and to do something which is both sinful and punishable by God.

Isaiah says in verse 20 that the idolator has a “deluded heart”. Another way of saying this, as Paul does in Romans 1, is to say that the idolator has exchanged the truth of God for a lie. The lie is that the idol deserves to be worshipped and that the idol can somehow help or deliver the idolator, neither of which are true.

But instead of recognising the truth, the idolator lacks knowledge and the ability to discern truth from falsehood (verse 18): “They know not, nor do they discern, for he has shut their eyes so that they cannot see, and their hearts, so that they cannot understand.”

Notice that it’s God himself who leaves sinners like idolators in their sins. There is a dark and sombre teaching that runs through Scripture that God is sovereign over evil and sinners, and when he chooses, he sometimes leaves sinners in their sins to serve his own ends. It is not a truth we find palatable, but nevertheless it is true that God shuts the eyes of sinners to that they cannot see, and their hearts so that they cannot understand.

We find the same truth expressed in Exodus, in God’s dealings with Pharaoh when Israel was held in captivity in Egypt. Consider that God sent Moses to command Pharaoh to free the Hebrew slaves, but at the same time God hardened Pharaoh’s heart so that he would not obey and thereby store up more of God’s punishment against himself. In Exodus 9:16, God says to Pharaoh, “But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.” We may find it difficult to grasp, but God’s word is clear – God raised up Pharaoh so that he could harden his heart and show him his power through the plagues and judgment he passed on Egypt.

Jesus’ teaching also has this dark thread running through it. In Matthew 11:27, Jesus says, “No one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” In other words the power lies in God’s hands and Christ’s hands who comes to see the truth about God and who doesn’t.

Jesus even says in Mark chapter 4, verses 11 and 12 that the purpose of telling parables is in part to conceal the truth from those he does not want to save. Christ said “For those outside everything is in parables, so that ‘they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven.’”

This is one reason, along with the total sinfulness of the human heart, that Isaiah can conclude in verse 20 of our passage that the idolator cannot deliver himself from God’s punishment for his sins or recognise the lie of the idol he holds in his right hand.

The idolator, like any other sinner, cannot save himself. But the good news of the gospel is that God can save even idolators. He can bring them to see the truth, and recognise the lie of idolatry. By nature, we are all of us idolators in some respect. All of us have at one time or another entertained thoughts about God that are unworthy of him. All of us have found our security, our safety, our meaning in something or someone other than God at some point in our lives.

Now, you might be thinking, “not me” when I say that. You might be saying to yourself: all this talk about idolatry in Isaiah’s time is all very well. Then it was true – the people of Israel in exile in Babylon were turning away to the gods of the Babylonians. Or at least worshipping them as well as their own God. They made statues of metal and wood, they worshipped idols, they were guilty of idolators all right, but can the same be said of people in our day?

Well I have to say that I think this generation is every bit as idolatrous as any past generation in history.

For one thing, the old fashioned kinds of idolatry are not confined to history as we sometimes make believe. The old fashioned worship of idols of metal and wood is very much still with us. Millions of people in the world follow false religions and worship idols. Hinduism and Buddism are religions steeped in physical idolatry – statues and shrines and such like. Islam and Judaism though to be commended for their strong stance against physical idols and images, are nonetheless idolatrous religions. They are ideological idolators, worshipping a false god of human invention rather than the true, Triune God, revealed in the Bible. Even within Christianity, millions are guilty of idolatry, worshipping statues of Christ, or Mary or the saints. All of these God condemns as idolatry and God calls those involved in such things to leave those idols and come to him to worship in spirit and in truth instead.

Secondly, there are those who are not guilty of what we might call “old-fashioned” idolatry – image worship and so on, but nevertheless commit idolatry daily by putting other things in the place of God. As someone once said with a lot of truth: “Today's idols are more in the self than on the shelf.” In other words, modern idols tend to be internalised – they are in the mind and in the heart, rather than carved images of gods made of metal, wood or stone.

In Western countries in particular, millions of people worship fame, money, power, sex, and pleasure (sometimes all them together!). And they build their lives around obtaining as much of these things as possible. In effect they believe in these things rather than the true God and they devote their lives to serving them, rather than serving him.

There’s no doubt that some people have a religious devotion to their favourite footballer, or actor, or pop singer. Such people are treated almost as living gods. Others take their sacred text as the Tabloid newspapers and can’t get enough of news and gossip about the rich and famous.

For other people, money and gaining as much of it as possible is clearly their god. Almost everything else in some people’s lives is put secondary to gaining success in business. Business is business and everything else comes second. It’s not just individuals who succumb. The whole country is governed on the basis of making sure the great god Economy is kept happy, never mind the human cost. If something is deemed right for the Economy then it is right, and any politician who argued otherwise – for example that people’s welfare should come first, would be laughed out of Parliament.

People will do almost anything to get on television and become famous. Look at programmes like Big Brother. Not that long ago, people were famous for having a talent – even if that was playing football very well or being able to write songs and sing them. In the last ten years, the cult of the celebrity who is famous merely for being famous and by regularly appearing in the papers and magazines. And they become a person that other people look up to and aspire to be. It doesn’t matter if you’re only famous for appearing at the right parties and film premieres, and for getting your picture in the papers – as long as you’re famous for something, anything.

One way or another, we’ve all been idolators, and we still fall into that sin from time to time, even as Christians.

But just as surely as God condemns idolatry as a sin, he also offers salvation to sinners through Jesus Christ, even for idolators. He could not put it more strikingly that he does in Ezekiel 36:25-28:

“I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your filthiness, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.”

This is God’s promise to every idolator who will turn away from his idols and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Yet though God promises to save us from idolatry, he does not promise to save us as idolators. Indeed the Scriptures are clear that no idolator can enter into the kingdom of God. Very near the end of the Bible, in Revelation 22:14-15, we read: “Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.”

So we must resist the temptation to fall into idolatry every day – whatever idolatry our particular character and make-up is drawn towards. I would never kneel down and worship a statue, but I know I can be tempted to make an idol of the intellect and knowledge. Someone else might be immune from worshipping any other god but the God of the Bible, but nevertheless can be tempted to let the pursuit of money dominate their lives rather than living in a relationship of love with God. Another might have little interest in money, but their life is really controlled by a number of superstitions – making sure this or that or the other is avoided in case it brings bad luck. We all of us have our temptations, and our weaknesses. None of us can truly say we have never been jealous of another person, can we? Even the apostle Paul, who believed he had obeyed 9 of the 10 commandments knew he had broken the tenth and coveted. But you see the Bible calls covetousness a form of idolatry in Colossians 3:5. So everyone has been an idolator at some point in their life.

But though we differ in the form idolatry might take in our lives, we are as one in the solution to that temptation. Every day we must consciously put idolatry to death. We must deliberately set about murdering it in our lives whenever we feel the temptation to make something into an idol coming our way. And in the place of our idols we must keep God much in mind, walking closely with him in trust and loving, thankful, obedience. Every day is a fight against our idols with Christ as our Saviour, our Companion and our Friend. We do not always succeed but we keep on fighting, knowing that we are more than conquerors through him who loves us, and in Christ we shall be victorious.