Live in Reality, Not Delusion

Isaiah 40:1-46:13
Related Sunday School Lesson, Family Bible Series, Nov. 19

By the time we get to Isaiah 40, we are going to see that the preceding chapters are focused on helping the people get through the period of the Babylonian exile. This period was becoming a time of much suffering and soul-searching. They were going to have to come to grips with why they were in captivity and if the Babylonian idols were mightier than the God of Israel.

Therefore, Isaiah focused heavily on the theme of idolatry in chapters 40 and beyond. The breaking of the first and second commandments is at the forefront of Isaiah’s mind as he warns and informs the people.

Even today in our culture we have to warn our people of these same sins. While many of us have never thought about bowing down to some wooden or metal idol, we have allowed other people and things to be elevated in our life. We have done this to the extent that these people and things have taken the place that only God should have.

Here is a good working definition of idolatry that I came across: “Idolatry is elevating any person, thing, or idea (including one’s own reasoning, feelings, or personal beliefs) above the true and living God as revealed in His Word, the Bible.” When I think of idolatry in this light, many of us are closer to this sin that we first thought!

Note with me the following four questions in this week’s lesson that will help keep us from being deceived by the temptation of idolatry.

What is God like? Compare!

As a child growing up in a Georgia Baptist church I heard church members say, “You know, we Baptists just don’t know what we believe…” It began to dawn on me that if this were true, then how many of us really knew if we believed what we were supposed to believe?

Isaiah tells the people that they ought to know what God is like, lest they be tempted by some false view of Him. When the people are taken into exile, they are going to be challenged on what they had been taught about God. Now is the time for them to get this settled in their heart.

They need to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that idolatry is absurd, because no matter how ornate or simple an idol is, it is merely a thing made by a man! So it is today, even if it is material or symbolic. Anytime we believe anything about God that does not come from God’s Word, the Bible, it is absurd!

We had better compare what we hear from the media and education to what the Bible says or we too, will be living in delusion.

What feeds idolatry? Fear! (Isaiah 41:5-7)

This passage of scripture reminds us that trials and difficulties do not so much develop character but rather reveal it! Those who already have a bent toward idolatry simply go deeper into it when confronted with fear. Fear drives and deepens one’s commitment to idolatry, if idolatry is where their trust is.

The contrast seen in this passage is that God’s people are not to fall victim to this fear. Why? Because according to Isaiah 41:8-10 God is with His people. Furthermore, according to Isaiah 41:2 and 45:1, God is going to send a conqueror from the east who will overthrow the Babylonians and be used to return God’s people to their homeland. The man was King Cyrus of Persia. God’s people don’t have to fear because God always has a plan and a purpose for His people!

Where does idolatry lead? Self-deception (Isaiah 44:9, 18-20)

The most devastating and most humiliating deception is “self-deception.” Anytime we elevate a person, thing, or idea to the level of God, the worshiper has set himself up for deception and humiliation.

The Lord is warning His people that idolatry is inherently worthless and shameful. What is interesting to me is that many times believing in God is caricatured as unthinking and gullible. Yet this is precisely what you are if you put your trust in any thing, person or thinking that is not directed to the one true God! Verses 18-20 really expose the tragic leap of faith it is to trust anyone but God. No example today is better at exposing this than the faith taken to believe the absurdity of evolution and yet even many who identify themselves as Christians take this plunge!

Who can save? God alone! (45:20-22)

As a teenager in 1850, Charles Spurgeon was saved on a snowy day, when an uneducated Methodist preacher cried unto Spurgeon, “look unto me and be ye saved…” Thankfully that day, by God’s grace, Spurgeon looked and lived, just as John 3:14 reminds us!

Deaf and dumb idols, no matter what form they may take, are not the answer to man’s problems and needs. Jesus is the answer to the question of how it is that sinful men can be made right with the one and only holy God.

There is no doubt in this saved sinner’s mind that the only message we can preach today and commensurate with Isaiah’s message of chapter 45 is what John and Peter said, “neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”

The bottom line is that God invites people from all nations to repent and to come to Him alone for salvation. Anything else is not reality but delusion.