Dear Friends,
Last Sunday, we talked about the theme of God as creator that we would be seeing in our reading from Isaiah this week. Today, we are reading chapter 44, in which God speaks through Isaiah of the absurdity involved in idol worship. Describing a man making an idol, God says in vs. 16-17 (NIV),
"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 man who worships an idol is able to use wood to make things for himself, like the fire he uses to cook his dinner. As a maker, the man is like the one true God who made the man in God's own image. But rather than worship the one who created him, who created the trees and animals and who gave him the ability to make things, the man makes a statue out of the very same piece of wood and bows down to the statue, calling it a god. This story is told to illustrate the upside down thinking involved in calling something that a human creates and uses for his or her own purposes a god. It begs the question, "Isn't it the one who creates that is God and not the one created?" and also the question, "Isn't it the one who uses what he has made as he wills God and not the thing that is bent to the will of another?"
Most of us aren't tempted to carve statues and call them gods. But can you think of ways we are inclined to worship what we, ourselves, have created instead of the one who created us? Money is a good example. Humans create money and systems surrounding money. And it is easy to fall into worshiping money, letting our desire for it rule over us. Can you think of other examples?
As you read Isaiah this week, continue to watch for the theme of God as creator. Take time to be in awe, not of creation itself or of what humans have built out of the materials God has created for us to use, but of God, the great maker who has called us to be his children.
A prayer,
God, I see that I am wonderfully made, and I thank you for your goodness in making me. Thank you for making this beautiful world and setting me in it. Help me to honor you in everything I do. Use me for your purposes. Amen.
Love in Christ,
Michelle
