The Foolishness of Idolatry

We all know the prohibition against idolatry.  God demands and deserves to be first in all of our lives.  But it is so easy to fall into putting other things first.  Both my devotional that I read and the Bible reading I did this morning point out this.  One of my favorite passages in the Bible regarding idols is found in Isaiah 44, beginning in verse 9.  I suggest you read it if you are not familiar with it.  Isaiah points out the foolishness of chopping down a tree, using part of the wood to burn to keep yourself warm and then making the other part of the tree an idol and worshipping it, asking the idol to deliver you.  It really doesn’t make any sense does it?  The same could be said of an idol fashioned from iron or brass.  There is no “power” in the idol.  There is no ability for the idol to do anything.  It has to be fashioned by man……and that’s the key….

You see idols are manmade.  We control them.  We take them out when we want to “play” with them.  We put them away when we don’t need them.  We cry out to them when we want them to do something for us.  Idols are manmade and “man-controlled”.  I’m no longer thinking about wood or stone but rather the idols that we can set up each day….our job, our children, our car, our hobbies…etc…  Anything that we put before God is an idol.  God will not be controlled by us.  God cannot be “put away”.  God’s greatest concern is not our own personal satisfaction, yet God’s greatest desire is always for our best and for His glory.  God and God alone has power and ability to help us and to satisfy us.  Let’s examine our hearts to make sure that God and God alone is receiving our worship and that other things and people are not idols but just tools that God can use for His glory and our good.

Have a godly, idol-free day!