I’m in one of my favorite places in the world. It’s a place that allows me to think, write, and listen to the Lord as I’m in his Word. I’ve traveled to five of our seven continents (still waiting on Australia and Antarctica!), yet one of the most beautiful and calming places to me is a forest that sits in South Carolina. (Read Song of Solomon 2: A Promise if interested in an expanded story on what this place means to me.) I’ve reflected in this forest for decades and wanted to share a recent rumination.
My church is doing a sermon series on Isaiah, so I thought I’d reread the book while in the forest. Isaiah 41:12-22 jumped out at me. (If you’re able to read the verses, pause and do so now.) What the prophet Isaiah speaks about in these eleven verses is how people in his time were worshiping idols fashioned by blacksmiths and carpenters. The carpenters would cut down cedars, cypress, oak, or pine and chisel it and shape it into an idol. The very material that was used to feed and warm people was the same material bowed down to and worshiped (vv.15-17). We read those verses and think how ignorant people were to worship the same object that burned in a fire to roast their meat, bake their bread, and keep them warm. But my question is – Are we really any different?
I see a society obsessed with devices, and not with the material of the devices, but with the way the use of the devices can fuel and warm them. Research shows our brains produce dopamine, the pleasure chemical, when we get a like on social media. We get fueled and warmed. We love the dopamine boost and can bow to it.
Isaiah writes, “No one stops to think . . . ‘Half of [the idol’s material] I used for fuel; I even baked bread over its coals . . . Shall I make a detestable thing from what is left? Shall I bow down to a block of wood?’ . . . A deluded heart misleads him.” (Isaiah 44:19-20) I want so much more for the students I teach, the people in my life, and myself than for us to have deluded hearts that mislead us because we don’t stop to think.
So, think for a minute. What feeds and warms you that you also worship? Is it a hit of dopamine from social media, the entertainment from your device, the attention you seek from others, a need to be in control or heard, a fixation you have with someone or yourself, the way a romantic relationship or the hope of one makes you feel, or the need to belong or fit in? The list goes on because we’re complicated beings.
Isaiah reminds us of the good news in the midst of our idol worship. We cannot save ourselves (v.20), but there is one who made us (v.21), and he desires for his redeemed ones to return to him (v.22). If you’re in a relationship with Jesus and you recognize your idol, repent and return to him. That’s it.
How did the wood for the idols Isaiah spoke about even exist? Because of the hand of God. Everything is God’s and verse 14 reminds us of that fact. The wood used for idols grew in the forest because God sent the rain. Whatever your idol is, it’s something that is God’s and has been twisted. And in the end, the very things we worship other than God will end up recognizing his Lordship. Isaiah concludes this section saying, “Burst into song, you mountains, you forests and all your trees” (v.23). I can’t help but think Isaiah wraps up this section mentioning the trees as a way of saying – Even the wood you bow down to will bow down and praise the author of all people and things. I also couldn’t help but smile as I read this passage sitting in my forest.
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