Thursday, April 3, 2025
With whom will you compare God? What likeness will you set up for comparison with him? An idol?—something that a smelter casts and a metalworker plates with gold and makes silver chains for? Isaiah 40:18-19 CSB
Who Is Like The Lord?
Meriam-Webster defines an idol as 1.) an object of extreme devotion; 2.) a representation or symbol of an object of worship. Anything we treasure more than God, whatever we run to fulfill our deepest needs and give us the joy and peace we are looking for, or whatever drives our thoughts and actions can become an idol. Many times we run to or create idols to numb ourselves against a painful experience or circumstance.
We substitute idols for God and we believe for a moment that they can fill the void in our hearts. But we awake to discover that they have simply left a bigger hole as they have taken part of our hearts with them. Most of the time when we replace God with an idol we don’t even realize what is happening. We might not consciously think to ourselves, "I am going to worship this car or drugs or money or things instead of God." We believe we can handle all of it – God and our idols. We think we can have a relationship with God and still keep our idols. But the reality is that when we create an idol, it can quickly take over the throne of our heart. You may feel like you don’t love anything or anyone more than God but we can tell what we worship when we look at how we spend our money and our time.
Tim Keller stated in his book, Counterfeit Gods, an idol is “anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, and anything that you seek to give you what only God can give.”
Idols lie. The inanimate, lifeless objects speak loudly in our hearts and in our heads, making promises they have no ability to keep. They promise we will be happy if we have just one more _____, or a certain car, or more drugs, alcohol, sex, a bigger house, more clothes, or even more exercise. We think they can give us fulfillment, happiness, confidence and even love. We imagine these manmade relics offer what only the creator of the universe and the creator of man can fulfill. The One who made the one who made them is the only true hope for the longing we expect them to fill. We even realize they fall short and still, we try again, or try another one, until we come to the end of ourselves, our resources, and our people. When we stand surrendered before him, then God can work with us. Then we turn to Him and realize that He is the one we were seeking all along.
With whom will you compare God? What likeness will you set up for comparison with him? Nothing and no one can ever compare to our God. He never plays games with us. He is always near, and we don’t have to grope around in the dark to find Him. When we are His children, if we live and move and exist in Him, there will be no room in our hearts for idolatry. Fill your heart and mind with Him and you will find what you are looking for.
The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’ Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man. Acts 17:24-29
