Thought from today’s Bible reading from 2 Kings 18:9-19:37; Psalm 46, 80, 135.
The children of Israel were repeatedly warned about following the gods of the nations around them. God’s people must still guard against this today (1 John 5:21). The following passage contains another warning about the danger posed by idols.
“The idols of the nations are but silver and gold, the work of man’s hands. They have mouths, but they do not speak; they have eyes, but they do not see; they have ears, but they do not hear, nor is there any breath at all in their mouths. Those who make them will be like them, yes, everyone who trusts in them” (Psalm 135:15-18).
All idols are simply the inventions of man. Therefore, they are dumb, blind, deaf, and dead. But the interesting thing about these dumb, blind, deaf, and dead idols is that those who invent them “will be like them.”
- They will be dumb, unable to speak the truth, either out of ignorance from never learning the truth or from neglecting the truth out of devotion to their idol, or being unable (or unwilling) speak the truth because doing so would force them to condemn their beloved idol.
- They will be blind, unable to see the foolishness of their devotion to their idol, and the greatness of the one, true God.
- They will be deaf, having closed their ears to the truth. Since an idol is an invention of man, it allows him to do as he pleases, eliminating the need to listen to instruction or rebuke.
- They will be dead in sin (the sin of idolatry in particular, as well as a host of other sins that it introduces) and separated from God, the source of life and the only author of eternal life.
Rather than being like an idol, we should strive to be like the one, true, living God (Matthew 5:48; 1 Peter 1:15-16). If there is any idol that exists in our lives, we must get rid of it so we can serve God faithfully.
Tomorrow’s reading: Isaiah 49-53
[I’m using the Chronological reading plan on the Bible Gateway website if you’d like to follow along, too.]
Daily Notes & Observations contains all 365 articles from this series and is available in paperback from Gospel Armory.
