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Idol Worship
(Isaiah 44)

All who make idols are nothing,
as worthless as their name.
Those who would speak for them are blind
and ignorant, to their own shame.
Who shapes an idol with his hands
and calls his art a god?
A mortal’s work is powerless
as a shapeless old dirt clod.
He wastes his time who casts an idol,
profits not a thing,
except to sell it to a fool,
another ding-a-ling.
The blacksmith heats the metal
and pounds it into shape,
with muscles, forge and hammer,
til his mouth begins to gape.
He loses strength from hunger,
of thirst he faints away,
unlike the God who formed the world
and over it holds sway.
The carpenter measures with a line
and marks the work he plans;
he roughs it out with chisels
and shapes it with his hands.
Cedar or cypress or oak he cuts,
the fuel for his fire.
With some of it he warms himself
or cooks, as needs require.
But he also carves an idol
from the same tree God provides
and prays for help to this block of wood,
preferring to believe a lie.
A deluded heart misleads him;
no god but the Lord can save.
Only Christ our blest Redeemer
has power o’er the grave.

From a sermon by Lane Brown

Cora Gail Trent
www.cgtrent.com
cgtrent@att.net