False Forms

There was a time when people crafted their own gods out of wood and metal and then worshipped them. And Isaiah says this about such makers.

You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me?  No, there is no other Rock; I know not one.”  All who make idols are nothing, and the things they treasure are worthless.

Who shapes a god and casts an idol, which can profit nothing? People who do that will be put to shame; such craftsmen are only human beings.

The blacksmith takes a tool and works with it in the coals; he shapes an idol with hammers, he forges it with the might of his arm. The carpenter measures with a line and makes an outline with a marker. He shapes it in human form, that it may dwell in a shrine.

He cuts down cedars. It is used as fuel for burning; some of it he takes and warms himself, he kindles a fire and bakes bread. But he also fashions a god and worships it; he makes an idol and bows down to it.

He prays to it and says, “Save me! You are my god!” No one stops to think or say, “Half of it I used for fuel; I even baked bread over its coals, I roasted meat and I ate. Shall I make a detestable thing from what is left?  Shall I bow down to a block of wood?”

Such a person feeds on ashes; a deluded heart misleads him; he cannot save himself, or say, “Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?”

I am the Lord, the Maker of all things, who stretches out the heavens, who spreads out the earth by myself. 

(From Isaiah 44, NIV)

Our worship belongs only to God, not the things we own or make.