Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you. Isaiah 46:4
When the gods of Babylon failed to keep themselves or their idol-worshipers from being carried into captivity, the Babylonians saw that coming, right?
Did they really think that idols that needed to be carried could stop the enemy from carrying them away? Isaiah 46 details the idol-making process. First bags of gold and silver are carried to the goldsmith to be crafted into a false god. Then the idol is lifted to someone’s shoulders and carried home. Once home it’s carried to a stand where it will stay until someone rearranges furniture and moves it again (vs. 1-2, 6-7). There is a whole lot of carrying going on!
Ridiculous. Foolish. And so much easier to see and identify in Old Testament people than it is in our own hearts and lives.
We carry on about how we need this or that for things to be happy and well, instead of resting in the sufficiency of God’s great grace. We carry on about headlines, heartaches, and hard times as if God is no longer on the throne. We can carry on as if we carry the weight of the world, rather than trusting the One who made the world and carries it in His hands.
Let’s be real. Idolatry is not limited to goldsmith shops. John Calvin said, “Our hearts are idol making factories.” Anytime we have greater affection for anyone or anything than we do for God, we commit idolatry. Anytime people or things become our greatest priority, we are idolaters.
Idols can be our children, careers, calendars, cash, need for control, and more. Like Matt Smethurst writes, “An idol is less a bad thing than it is a good thing gone bad.”
In the middle of Isaiah’s prophecy about Babylon’s idols, God says, “With whom will you compare me or count me equal? To whom will you liken me that we may be compared?” (Isaiah 46:5). No one! God is the greatest!
God made you and carries you. You will never be carried away because nothing can separate you from the grip of His hand. Nothing! Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39).
Are you carrying idols or running to the One who carries you?
