18 to whom then will you liken God,
or what likeness compare with him?
19 an idol! A craftsman casts it,
and a goldsmith overlays it with gold
and casts for it silver chains.
20 he who is too impoverished for an offering
chooses wood that will not rot;
he seeks out a skillful craftsman
to set up an idol that will not move. – [isaiah 40:18-20]
God is incomparable, and worthy of worship.
bob dylan once sang, “you’re gonna have to serve somebody. well, it may be the devil, or it may be the Lord, but you’re gonna have to serve somebody”.
there is a truth there in those lyrics, in that we daily decide whether we will serve God. If we are not actively serving God, then bob dylan is correct in that we are actively serving Satan.
we all tend to fool ourselves into thinking there is ‘in-between’ – that although we may not be serving God, we are certainly not serving satan! yet this is exactly what the Bible teaches we are doing when not serving God.
i have heard it said that satan’s most effective scheme is not to have us actively bow down and worship him (not right away anyhow), but rather to make us useless, ineffective, and keep us on the sidelines. if we consider ourselves members of God’s kingdom but do nothing, say nothing, and life quietly ignoring God then satan has us right where he wants us.
the israelites to whom isaiah writes were building wooden idols like the nations around them, and points out the absolute foolishness of serving created things. what benefit is there is worshipping a piece of wood that someone else crafted and built? seeking out wood that will not rot and making sure it ‘will not move’, because a wooden idol could fall over if not built correctly. How utterly foolish to believe that a carved piece of wood is any substitute for the God who created the universe with a word. what a satanic deception, to think that we can worship something created in the place of God almighty.
may we never make the same mistakes, placing anything at all in the center of our lives in exchange for worship of the one true God! it’s true that we gotta worship somebody, so may we daily choose to worship the Lord who reigns eternal, gives, life, hope, peace and joy, and not gives our hearts to any useless thing this temporal earth has to offer.
~ jason soroski