Isaiah 46 and idolatry

"The Case Of The Spinning Statue"

The ancient Egyptian statue was housed in a sealed case in a London museum; no
one could get to it who wasn't authorized.  Yet regularly the 3,800-year-old
statue was found in a different position, spun around as it were.  What could be
the explanation?

Theories abounded.  Some speculated that the statue was the object of some curse
that transcended time.  Others believed that a spirit had entered it, causing it
to move around.  Maybe it was a magnetic field causing the movements.

Now it appears the mystery has been solved.  By using an accelerometer,
specialists have discovered that vibrations are to blame.  Outside the museum
cars and trucks rumble down the streets, and closer still are the footsteps that
fall as people tour the facility.  These activities have been determined to be
the cause of the statue's spinning.

It's not unusual to hear stories of "haunted" houses.  Some are convinced that
otherwise inanimate objects are animated by spirits, either friendly or hostile.
A squeaking door or flapping shutters stir the imagination.  When daylight comes
we realize our emotions carried us to unjustified conclusions.

Others have reached unjustified conclusions in a religious setting.  Idols have
been frequently found throughout history, and people have prayed to these
statues and made offerings of food or money to them.  What's going on here?  Is
there really something about these objects that's alive?

Isaiah addressed the folly of idolatry: "They lavish gold out of the bag, and
weigh silver on the scales; they hire a goldsmith, and he makes it a god; they
prostrate themselves, yes, they worship.  The bear it on the shoulder, they
carry it and set it in its place, and it stands; from its place it shall not
move.  Though one cries out to it, yet it cannot answer nor save him out of his
trouble" (Isaiah 46:6,7).

Those statues were not even spinning.  If they moved at all it was because
people were moving them.  And yet people bowed down to them and cried out for
help?!

Trust placed in anything other than God is futile.  Listen to God appeal through
Isaiah to common sense: "Listen to Me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of
the house of Israel, who have been upheld by Me from birth, who have been
carried from the womb: ... I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and
will deliver you" (Isaiah 46:3,4).

Instead of putting our trust in statues (or other "things") that cannot carry
us, wouldn't it be wiser to put our trust in the One who has carried us from
birth?

Timothy D. Hall