Christian Living

---

In Scripture, God speaks to His people in frames of reference that we understand. As a loving Father, He pleads, promises and punishes. As a fair Judge, He describes contrasting courses of action that will lead to reward or punishment. As Creator, He rightfully claims omniscience, omnipresence and omnipotence. "for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?" Isaiah 29:16b

But sometimes our great God stoops to reason with His creation. Consider this passage concerning idolatry recorded by Isaiah in Chapter 44. A man cuts down a tree, burns part of it to warm himself, roasts meat and bakes bread on the coals to fill himself and then whittles himself a god out of the remainder! Verse 19 reads in part: "I have burned part of it in the fire; yes, also I have baked bread upon the coals thereof: I have roasted flesh and eaten it...", and then it asks the unbelievable question: "Shall I fall down to the stock of a tree?" Shall we indeed? The Book says of such a man that he is without knowledge or understanding.

And, of course, we don't whittle gods out of tree trunks, but we silently enthrone a few that we made ourselves out of equally questionable material. It is said that the trouble with making your own god is that it is of necessity smaller than yourself, and what good is a god like that? Philosophies that teach that human capability is as high as we can go; or the desire for position, fame, money, power--even the adulation of another human being--often stand between us and our God--which is the very definition of idolatry. We know deep in our hearts the fleeting nature of these things: we've watched them turn to ashes and destroy their worshippers. But too often we continue, unconsciously perhaps, to give them stubborn allegiance. It seems sad that life's brief moment should be wasted falling down to the stump of a tree.

---

PLEASE ENCOURAGE AUTHOR BELOW LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE