Throughout the Old Testament we hear God telling Israel, His chosen people, to be holy. Israel had its own laws and restrictions that were given by God for the purpose of keeping them from being like the outsiders living around them. As Isaiah is prophesying about the coming exile—a time when the Israelites will be forced to live among foreigners, when they will be the outsiders—he gets specific about some of the ungodly behavior they will encounter.
In verses 6-23, Isaiah describes those who make and worship idols. I’m always pleased when scripture is a little sarcastic and this passage gets a little snarky. A man takes a tree and with half of it he makes a fire, then makes some bread, then thinks to himself, “What should I do with the rest of the wood? I know! I’ll make an idol and worship it.” God wants His people to see the futility of worshiping something they create, how absurd it is to bow down to something they could use for kindling.
It’s as if God is saying, “That’s not a god. I’ll show you God.” God wants Israel to be different from the idol-worshiping culture around them because He is different from the idols men worship.
1. As you’re reading verses 24-28, write down some of the qualities of God that are described; attributes that distinguish Him from the other loser gods.
One quality I don’t want you to miss comes in verse 24,
“ I am the LORD,
the Maker of all things,
who stretches out the heavens,
who spreads out the earth by myself”
Did you catch it? Everything God has done, He’s done by Himself. He is not dependent on the arm of the blacksmith. He doesn’t need us to get things moving here on Earth. God is independent. We weren’t created because He was lonely. Like Israel, we were created by Him to be separate, to reflect His glory.
Just like the Israelites, we Christians are supposed to be distinct. We are called to be different because our God is different. It is no small thing to live a life that glorifies God and to resist the temptations offered by our culture. But we have an advantage the people of Israel didn’t have. In verse 3 God promises to “pour out” His Holy Spirit. Our ability to worship God doesn’t come from our strength or creativity; it comes from His Spirit that He chose to give us. By Himself.
2. Verse 28 is pretty epic. Why is it significant that Isaiah was talking about Cyrus?
3. These chapters of Isaiah have already showed us many attributes of God. One thing God is not is passive. Read chapter 45 and list all the things God is actively doing.
No comments:
Post a Comment