Who hath formed a god, or molten a graven image that is profitable for nothing?
A god shaped by human hands, whether molten or carved, yields no profit at all, being utterly useless and without power, benefit, or ability to deliver those who make it. It stands in chapters in which God unfolds His purpose for His people, warning them not to turn away from Him to lean upon finite human wisdom. Over against such idols stands the true God who made heaven and earth, and His works enable people to discern the difference between their idols and their Creator, laying a foundation for the spiritual truths of Scripture.
Such image-making exposes ingratitude, for people take valuable materials provided by God and fashion them into objects of worship, treating their own handiwork as divine instead of honoring the Creator and rendering Him thanks. The same powerlessness appears when people carry images of saints and pray to them for protection from the danger of the cholera plague, for such images cannot save those who trust in them. Fashioning an idol of wood or stone is as easy and as real as making an idol of false doctrines and theories, for by misrepresenting the attributes of God Satan leads people to conceive a false character and to enthrone a philosophical idol in the place of Jehovah.
This modern idolatry includes thousands who deify nature while denying the God of nature, and the god of many professedly wise men, philosophers, poets, politicians, journalists, polished fashionable circles, colleges and universities, and even theological institutions is little better than Baal, the sun-god of Phenicia. Though in a different form, idolatry exists in the Christian world today as truly as among ancient Israel in the days of Elijah, while the living God as revealed in His Word, in Christ, and in the works of creation is worshiped by but few.
A god shaped by human hands, whether molten or carved, yields no profit at all, being utterly useless and without power, benefit, or ability to deliver those who make it. It stands in chapters in which God unfolds His purpose for His people, warning them not to turn away from Him to lean upon finite human wisdom. Over against such idols stands the true God who made heaven and earth, and His works enable people to discern the difference between their idols and their Creator, laying a foundation for the spiritual truths of Scripture.
Such image-making exposes ingratitude, for people take valuable materials provided by God and fashion them into objects of worship, treating their own handiwork as divine instead of honoring the Creator and rendering Him thanks. The same powerlessness appears when people carry images of saints and pray to them for protection from the danger of the cholera plague, for such images cannot save those who trust in them. Fashioning an idol of wood or stone is as easy and as real as making an idol of false doctrines and theories, for by misrepresenting the attributes of God Satan leads people to conceive a false character and to enthrone a philosophical idol in the place of Jehovah.
This modern idolatry includes thousands who deify nature while denying the God of nature, and the god of many professedly wise men, philosophers, poets, politicians, journalists, polished fashionable circles, colleges and universities, and even theological institutions is little better than Baal, the sun-god of Phenicia. Though in a different form, idolatry exists in the Christian world today as truly as among ancient Israel in the days of Elijah, while the living God as revealed in His Word, in Christ, and in the works of creation is worshiped by but few.