Week 26 Jeremiah
I’ve been tracking the things that Jeremiah prophesied against. Since idolatry was one of the top-ranked problems I was thinking about idolatry. So Psalm 115 surprised me because it talked about idols:
They have mouths, but cannot speak
Eyes, but they cannot see…
Ears, but cannot hear
Noses, but they cannot smell…
Hands, but cannot feel
Feet, but they cannot walk.
Idols have none of the normal sensory capacities a person does. As far as being human goes, idols are sub-human.
But 115 says something unexpected: those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them.
I guess I shouldn’t have been caught off guard. A couple of weeks ago Isaiah was talking about a carpenter going into the forest, cutting down a cypress tree and carving it into a god. Then what happens? He bows down to it and worships. He prays to it.
His icon gains the carpenter’s trust. Eventually he’ll become like what he made.
What’s he becoming if he’s becoming something less than human?
This is a pretty worrisome question.
The bible contrasts an idol’s nothing with the Lord’s something.
The bible says I can devolve to a point where I prefer the nothing to the something.
I have the capacity to trade in being human, and once that’s done I can start working at becoming nothing.
Notes: quotes from Psalm 115:4-7, 8; Isaiah 44:17 (NIV & NASB versions)