Thoughts on Isaiah 44

Today's reading: Isaiah 44; Revelation 10-11

Isaiah's declaration of the foolishness of idolatry is not aimed at the nations who are chasing after other gods, but is an indictment against Israel for following after the nations when they are the ones who should know better.

After talking about the foolishness of worshipping a piece of wood or metal, Isaiah says this of the worshipper:

They know not, nor do they discern, for he has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, and their hearts, so that they cannot understand. No one considers, nor is there knowledge or discernment to say, “Half of it I burned in the fire; I also baked bread on its coals; I roasted meat and have eaten. And shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?” He feeds on ashes; a deluded heart has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say, “Is there not a lie in my right hand?”

While Isaiah calls what the worshipper of the idol is doing foolish, he also tells us that he is not to blame for his own ignorance. God has explicitly "shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, and their hearts, so that they cannot understand." This puts me in mind of what I wrote a few months ago about Paul's words in Acts 17 about God overlooking the times of ignorance. When the nations were divided at Babel, and given over to the lesser gods, they were no longer God's people. My speculation on Paul's words in Acts 17 is that since God gave the nations over to the lesser gods, they would rightly have been following them instead of Yahweh. But when God condemns those lesser gods in Psalm 82 for not leading the nations they were charged with in justice and equity, the people of those nations could rightly have been expected to follow their consciences and stop short of following their gods into injustice and debauchery.

But regardless of whether my speculations on the fate of the nations is right or not, what Isaiah is saying here in Isaiah 44 is that these idol worshippers don't have the ability to recognize the futility of what they are doing. Isaiah doesn't bring this up to bash the nations, but to contrast them with Israel who has been given the eyes to see the futility, and is running headlong into it nonetheless.

Unlike the rest of the nations, God explicitly revealed Himself to Israel. Israel only existed because of God's sovereign choice to miraculously make a nation out of a geriatric couple, miraculously rescue that nation from slavery in Egypt, and miraculously intervene many times in their history to protect and maintain them in the face of pressure from geopolitical rivals. On top of that, God directly showed Himself to Israel in the wilderness at Mount Sinai, and gave them the Law as the foundation of their nation. Israel should know that there is one God above all the other gods, and they should know that any god of wood or metal is not that sovereign Lord who created them. The nations may be running blindly into futility, but Israel is covering her own eyes in order to follow in their footsteps.

Ultimately, the contrast Isaiah is cutting here would be like a parent pooping in their pants because they see their toddler do it. It doesn't matter how young you are, pooping in your pants is disgusting and you shouldn't choose to do it. A toddler, however, is not able to understand that, and so they do it in ignorance until they learn. You don't fault the toddler for pooping in their pants because they don't know any better, but that doesn't make it a good thing. But while the toddler is too young to understand, the parent certainly is not, and you would be right to be disgusted with such a choice by a grown adult. 

This is Isaiah's point. The nations do this foolish thing because God has blinded them to their own foolishness, stopping them from recognizing it, but that doesn't make it a good thing to follow after. Israel knows better, and so her following after the nations in this is inexcusable.