The weight of idolatry

 This week's verses are Isaiah 46:1-4:

Bel kneels down,
Nebo bends low.
Their images weigh down animals and beasts.
Your heavy images are burdensome to tired animals.
Together they bend low and kneel down;
they are unable to rescue the images;
they themselves head off into captivity.
“Listen to me, O family of Jacob,
all you who are left from the family of Israel,
you who have been carried from birth,
you who have been supported from the time you left the womb.
Even when you are old, I will take care of you,
even when you have gray hair, I will carry you.
I made you and I will support you;
I will carry you and rescue you.

In these verses God is speaking to us through his prophet Isaiah about the dangers of idolatry. He doesn't even mention the sinfulness of it, just the practical dangers that come from being involved in it. Idolatry is forbidden in the Ten Commandments, but here we see it's even a bad idea on its own.

Some background so you know where Isaiah is coming from: Bel and Nebo were Babylonian gods. Like all of Israel's neighbors, Babylon made statues of their gods. The statue was meant to give the god a physical form so they could interact with it. Sometimes these foreign cultures even worshiped the statue itself as if it was their god. But the statue couldn't do anything on its own. It couldn't even move around without someone carrying it. It was not even alive, let alone a god.

So God points out that these idols are not gods. The only thing they are capable of doing is making people tired of serving them. Babylon attached themselves to these idolatrous gods in hope of power and a better life, but in the end they became slaves of them.

He compares it to the relationship Israel has with the one true God. Israel does not make idols to worship as part of their religion. God does not wear them out with demands to be carried around and fed and clothed. Instead God feeds and clothes Israel and supports and cares for them in their weakness. It is the opposite of the draining religious bondage of their neighbors. God gives life. Idols drain it.

In modern times, we don't typically make religious statues and worship them. But we still practice idolatry. For instance, addiction is a kind of idolatry that looks for help in a substance or an activity. Hobbies and ideologies can become idols. So can your career. We turn to something other than God to provide for our needs or give us peace or joy. But then eventually that thing takes over our life and we become its slave. Maybe you can relate?

If you have a relationship with an activity or a thing or an idea, and you are "more than friends" with that activity or thing or idea, you need to stop and examine where this stands with God.  Is it an idol? Is it something that is turning into an idol? Is it something that has the danger of some day becoming an idol?

God tells us here where that path leads: it will become a burden and you will become tired, and eventually you will be trapped into serving this lifeless thing.

Luckily God offers us the alternative: give up the weight of your idolatry and let him carry you and support you and rescue you instead.