Isaiah Reveals The Folly of Idolatry (Isaiah 44:10-20).
Note the contrast of this passage with what precedes it. Isaiah brings out that while it is Yahweh Who formed Israel, the idol is merely fashioned by its owner (Isaiah 44:2 with Isaiah 44:9-13). While Yahweh can pour forth that which produces growth, the idol is a part of what is grown. While Yahweh is the first and the last, the idol is but a spare bit of wood, and has had to be grown, and then shaped, and is even then something that could easily be turned to ashes.
‘Who has fashioned a god,
Or casted a graven image that is profitable for nothing?
Behold all his fellows will be ashamed,
And the craftsmen, they are simply human (‘they are of men').
Let them all be gathered together,
Let them stand up.
They will be afraid.
They will be ashamed together.'
So let them consider the people who make these profitless gods and graven images. Even their own fellow producers of gods will be ashamed of what they have done, and as for the makers of these gods themselves, they are simply human, not having any divinity. How can they then make a god? So let them gather together and stand up to establish their case. They will not be able to do it. Instead they will be apprehensive, indeed, they will together as a group be filled with shame and confusion.
‘The blacksmith takes an axe, and works in the coals,
And fashions it with hammers, and works it with his strong arm.
Yes, he is hungry and his strength fails,
He drinks no water and is faint.'
He gives an example of the folly of it all. (It should be noted that many intelligent heathen writers were just as critical of the ‘gods'). Here is the blacksmith working away on the god, with axe, and coals, and hammer, and strength of arm, but then he becomes weak because he has not eaten, or faint because he has not drunk some water. But can he turn to the god for strength? No, for the god cannot help him. Such is the god. It is made by man's instruments and strength, and by a man who cannot keep going without food and water, and it is not able to sustain him. And it lies there useless until he has refreshed himself.
‘The carpenter stretches out a line,
He marks it out with a pencil,
He shapes it with chisels,
And he marks it out with compasses,
And he shapes it after the figure of a man,
Containing the beauty of a man, to dwell in the house.'
He continues to describe how these gods come into being. They are the careful work of a human carpenter, who uses all his tools and ingenuity and makes it so that it looks like some man pleasing to the eye in order to take its place in the temple or on the god-shelf. They are but an idea from a carpenter's brain. Note the emphasis on the carpenter's activity. It is all his doing. Any beauty it has comes from him.
‘He hews down for himself certain cedars,
Or takes the cypress and the oak,
And makes one of the trees of the forest,
To grow strong for himself.
He plants a fir tree, and the rain nourishes it.
Then it will be for a man to burn,
And he takes of it and warms himself.
Yes, he kindles it and bakes bread.
Yes, he makes a god and worships it.
He makes a graven image and falls down to it.
He burns part of it in the fire, with part of it he eats flesh,
He roasts roast and is satisfied,
Yes he warms himself and says, “Aha, I am warm. I have seen the fire.”
And of the residue of it he makes a god, even his graven image.
He falls down to it and worships, and prays to it,
And says, “Deliver me, for you are my god.” '
And what are these gods made of? They are made of trees which a man plants for himself, waits for it to grow strong, and then cuts down for his own use. They are the product of the rain, and are made of the same wood with which he warms himself by the fire, with which he cooks his meals, with which he bakes his bread, with which he roasts his roast.
He takes a great deal of trouble to get solid trees for all these purposes, using different branches for different purposes, for this is the purpose for which he has grown them, and one of them then becomes a god!
For when he has used the remainder of the branches he takes another odd bit of the tree, a branch that is left over, and makes an idol of it. To the branch in the fire he comments how pleasant it is to be warmed by it, the branch is serving him; to the branch of which he makes his idol he prays for deliverance. He is serving the branch. What folly! He talks to both, and one serves him and he serves the other, and they came from the same tree. And it was he who has decided which one will do which. And why do these men do this? Because they are spiritually blind.
‘They do not know, nor do they consider.
For he has closed their eyes so that they cannot see,
And their hearts so that they cannot understand.
And none brings it to mind,
Nor does he have the intelligence or understanding to say,
“I have burned part of it in the fire, yes I have also baked bread on its coals,
I have roasted flesh and eaten it,
And shall I make what remains an abomination?
Shall I fall down to the stock of a tree?” '
Such people do not stop and consider what they are doing. And this is because God has closed their eyes preventing them from seeing, and their hearts, preventing them from understanding. He has done this, not directly, but by how He has made them, with the result that they do not use their intelligence, they cannot be bothered to stop and think and consider their folly, the folly of falling down to the stock of a tree, the same tree that they have also burned up for domestic purposes.
‘An abomination' is the term regularly used for idols.
‘He feeds on ashes.
A deceived heart has turned him aside,
So that he cannot deliver his soul, or say,
“Is there not a deceit in my right hand?” '
‘He feeds on (over) ashes.' This may be an abbreviated way of saying that the part of the tree that cooked his food has now turned to ashes while he feeds (i.e. he ate ‘over ashes', because the fire smouldered on until it became but ashes), while the bit that made the idol is still in his right hand, and yet could just as easily be tossed in the fire and become ashes. He does not see that that too could just as easily have been ashes had he used that bit for cooking. Where would the god be then? But his heart is so deceived that he does not have the sense to see that the god is but a deceit. This maintains the previous contrasts.
Or it may signify that what he feeds on spiritually is but ashes, it has nothing left in it that is worthwhile. It is like ashes to the mouth. It is only fit to be spat out. ‘To feed on ashes' may even have been a well known proverb signifying feeding on what is totally unsatisfactory.
Either way the main point is that his heart is deceived by something that could by nature become ashes. And this source of potential ashes has turned him aside from the living God so that he is unable to deliver himself from its grip and recognise that it is but a lie, a deceptive thing. ‘He cannot deliver his soul.' That is he is so deceived that he cannot deliver his inner self from this thing that has taken hold of him. He is a slave to a piece of wood, that could easily be turned into ashes. He has been blinded by the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4).