Introduction: The Rise of Idolatry
Ol Suit.
According to the Babylonian Talmud, the provenance of idolatry was in the days of Enosh (Enos), the son of Seth. There, (in a paraphrase on Genesis 4:26 where it is written “To Seth also a son was born, and he named him Enosh. At that time people began to invoke the name of the LORD.”) Targum Jonathan says, “And to Sheth also was born a son, and he called his name Enosh. That was the generation in whose days they began to err, and to make themselves idols, and surnamed their idols by the name of the Word of the Lord” (TJ IV.18[1]). Idols, then, were first intended as intermediary representations of the Divine and, as at Sinai with “the golden calf,” were denominated by the name of the Lord (although, at Sinai, the name apparently invoked was “Elohim” and not YHVH).
Thus idolatry is represented as having arisen, not as a competitor for the worship of God but, as an “aid” to His worship. Yet it is clear that the attempt to represent God through one of His creatures was surely the door to competing systems of religion and other gods. Emphasizing His immanence to the extent that it injures His transcendence skews the view of the God who is God that we have received in Holy Scripture. It, further, seems to render God susceptible to being formed in our image instead of our being formed in and by His.
Idolatry in Isaiah
As is noted everywhere (and clearly evident from a reading of the text), the Book of Isaiah may be divided into three principle sections. These sections are chapters 1-39, 40-55, and 56-66. Explanations for the presence of these divisions vary from multiple authors to redactional processes to predictive prophecy.[2] Regardless, Oswalt suggests that a major consideration of the book is the subject of whether God is the true and living God if His people and nation are oppressed or conquered by nations which follow other gods.[3]
An additional focus concerns how God responds to the sin of His people (and their suffering in consequence of that sin) in light of His character and covenant. The themes of the condemnation of sin and the call to redemption fill the pages of this book and with and by them, a picture of God’s Messiah (9:1-7, et al) and Servant (52-53) begins to emerge. Among the most severe condemnations in Isaiah is that against idolatry.
Scattered throughout the book are numerous allusions to and attacks upon the specific sin of the manufacture and worship of idols. Perhaps the most significant of these are found in 40:18-24, 44:9-20, and 46:1-7. It will be noted that these three fall within the second division of the book.
In the attempt to call His people back from the idolatry into which they have swerved God issues a “taunt” against the idols themselves and denounces their impotence, contrasting it with His mighty power and salvation.
Stooping Gods and Weary Beasts: Isaiah 46:1-13
Bel (which is less a proper name than a title meaning “lord”[4] and came to refer to Marduk, “supreme ruler of the Mesopotamian universe”[5]) and Nebo (Nabu) were the principle gods of the Babylonians. Parallels exist between the theologies extrapolated from the myths and teachings associated with these gods and that of the Jehovah of Judaism. Not the least of these parallels is the existence of the “book (of life)” of Jehovah (Ex. 32:32-33; Rev. 22:19) and the “tablet of life” of Nebo,[6] and the claim of exclusivity of worship (Deut. 10:20; 1 Sam. 7:3; Matt. 4:10) in Judaic tradition and the words “Trust in Nabu; do not trust in any other god”[7]of the Babylonian tradition.
Ruins of the Temple of Bel, Palmyra, Syria
Motyer outlines Isaiah 46:1-13 in a particularly useful way:[8]
A The Burdening gods (1-2)
B The burden-bearing God (3-4)
C The made gods, burdens without saving power (5-7)
D The making God (8-11)
E The saving God (12-13)
This seems an eminently reasonable division of the passage and fairly communicates the issues the text is crafted to address, namely:
1. That the idols and gods rebellious Judah has chosen only weigh them down; but the God who is God waits to bear them and all their burdens.
2. That the gods which human hands can make are less than the hands that make them, but the God who is the Maker of human hands (and everything else) can rescue, can save His creation as we shall see below.
Defenseless Deities
Although an oblique reference to the pomp of their annual New Year procession may be the background in verses 1-2, Bel and Nebo are now portrayed as “stooping” and “bowing down.” Oswalt translates the Hebrew as “Bel crouches, Nebo cowers.” Whether taking these words as indicative of weariness and exhaustion (as seems most consistent with the remainder of the pericope), or as a sign of fear, defeat, and cowardice, these gods are presented in a distinctly inferior light. They cannot save those who most devoutly serve and worship them.
Bel - Marduk
In point of fact, they are less than ineffectual; they are a positive burden on beasts and believers, alike. The text paints a vivid picture upon the canvas of the mind: “. . . these things you carry are loaded as burdens on weary animals” (v. 1b). When that to which one turns for relief becomes, itself, a wearying and useless burden, then the value of continuing one’s relationship with it might well be called into question.
It might also be asked in what way(s) these gods and their idols have become burdensome. In addition to their financial cost, physical weight and transportation, John D. W. Watts argues that idols represented false socio-economic structures. He says, “As the swastika represented the National Socialist party, or the hammer and sickle represent Marxist Communism, so specific idols represented ways of life for their adherents.”[9] As illustration of this point, he continues: “When Rachel took [the little household idols mentioned in Gen. 31:32], it was like stealing a lockbox full of land deeds.”
Watts builds on this claim, offering additional support, to drive home the point that the idols are connected to philosophical constructs of human worth and social interaction that were always at odds with the religio-cultural core springing from the heart of the worship of Jehovah. As he says, “Israel was called to see in YHWH’s covenant and the torah the symbols of a way of life that contrasted sharply with the paganism of Canaan’s idols. . . .The temptation to Israel to follow these pagan value systems was as pernicious for the ancient Israelites as it is for us today.”[10]
Nebo
Further on, Watts specifies some of the particular issues Jehovah condemned in Babylon.[11] These included a sense of invulnerability and autonomy, and the pride that spawns a sense of entitlement and privilege (Isa. 41-47). She said, “I am, and there is no one besides me; I shall not sit as a widow or know the loss of children” (47:8b). In this, Babylon stands in the stead of every empire in its hour of triumph and power. Flushed with the arrogance that is the wine of human success, how quickly nations forget the Hand that blessed them and the responsibility to shelter those less fortunate which attends all such blessings!
But now, Bel and Nebo no longer boast and strut; they bow and stoop. Now they are a burden; they not only cannot deliver their worshippers, they cannot even deliver themselves. Are they being borne along in festival procession or are they being carted away by a conquering nation? It really makes no difference for in either case they have the same vanity and vacuousness. They are exposed as frauds and imposters.
Emotional and Rational Elements of Idolatry
That humans are creatures who, in their best state, are indivisible from emotion and reason cannot be logically denied. Although they are called to chasten and discipline these elements of their natures (by, for example, the call to love the Lord supremely with all the heart and mind – Deut. 6:5, 10:12, 11:13, 30:6, Mark 12:33, et al) yet the proper function and role of emotion or reason is never denied. One can see this in the succession of fasts and feasts ordained by God in the annual cycle of ancient Israel’s rhythm of life. Fasts, being times of deep introspection when everyone from the individual to the entire nation was called back to the first principles of the Covenant and to self-examination, were times of holy solemnity and sober reflection. The feasts were near-carnivals of celebration; joyous cultural and religious festivals when the people of God jubilantly rejoiced in the benefits of their covenantal relationship with God and the blessings they received through it.
During times of spiritual declension, idolatry seems to have shaped a measure of the emotive and rational expression of the national and individual lives. Suggestions of this may be found in the declaration that the heart was involved in the pursuit of other gods (see Deut. 29:18, 30:17, 1 Kings 11:4). This pursuit of false gods was a direct violation of the instruction (found in Psalm 37:4 and elsewhere) to “take delight in the Lord” and the command (mentioned above) to love the Lord with all one’s heart.
In addition to informing the emotional part of human nature, idolatry was also often positioned to appeal to the intellectual component of the human constitution. Nebo is said to have been particularly associated with scholarship and writing, the patron of scribes.[12] As the Greeks of the Apostle Paul’s day found the message of the cross repugnant to reason and their love of a worldly form of intellectualism, so the religion involved in the worship of false gods often masqueraded as being intellectually superior.[13] Thus did idolatry captivate the mind and passions and seduce God’s people with false promises of power, prestige, and pelf.
Henk Leene said, “Men make images, and images demand divinity. In the trial with the peoples, gods are reduced to the proportions of their images: they lay claim to being greater than images, but history proves the contrary.”[14] Thus do humans ultimately diminish themselves by making gods of their own preferences and prejudices.
The God Who Can
Jehovah asks for a summary judgment based upon His past, demonstrated character. He says, in essence (and in words that remind one of Jesus’ words in Matt. 11:28), “You who are wearied by the burden of the gods you must carry; you who are worn down by the weight of religion that does not sustain or deliver; remember me! I have carried you from your birth, even before birth, while you were yet in the womb. I will carry you even in old age. I made you! I will sustain you! I will support you! I will save you! I am your incomparable God!” (personal paraphrase).
Idols may be gilded with gold (v. 6a) and be beautifully crafted (v. 6b) but, though humans give their hearts and souls to them (v. 6c) they offer nothing in return . . . . nothing but the endless labor of striving to maintain their appearance of credibility and power. Walton (et al) says that “The images of deities in Mesopotamia were fed, dressed and even washed daily.”[15] But let memory be swift and accurate: review the whole record of God’s dealing with His people, from ancient times down to the present moment. His acts of faithfulness and provision are continually affirmed.
God’s ‘Bird of Prey’
To prove His claim that He is able to “carry” and “save” (v.4b) and that He will “save Israel for His glory” (v. 13), God now announces that He will bring “a bird of prey from the east.” According to Childs, this constitutes “His call of Cyrus . . . . the final evidence of God’s keeping His word of promise and fulfilling His purpose in the affairs of history.”[16] Since Cyrus’ emblem was said to be an eagle emblazoned on his standards, Childs and some others take this to be a reference to God’s use of him, a pagan emperor, to do His divine will. This would, of course, instantly show God’s superiority over the idols humans worshipped. God is able to take natural enemies of his people and cause them to do them good. But, as Oswalt states, one need not see such specificity in this reference. It is enough to recognize that God’s deliverance will come “with all the suddenness of a hawk falling on a rabbit.”[17]
God will fulfill His promise to redeem and restore His people; that He will do it may be trusted because of His past works and because He is not a lifeless, powerless creature (like the idols) but the all-powerful, ever-living Creator.
Summary
The ‘Problem of Idolatry’ is multi-faceted. It involves a corruption of the affections, of the faculty of reason, and an estrangement from the true and living God. As has been noted earlier, idolatry is able to masquerade as wisdom, personal fulfillment and material success, even nationalism. It involves a trust in and relationship to created things like that which belongs to the Creator-God, alone. It is deceitful and damning and cannot fulfill what it proposes.
The cure of idolatry is to “remember”; to call to mind the words and works of the living God and then to return to Him precisely at the point of our divergence from Him.
As the Book of Isaiah elsewhere implores, “. . . let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the LORD, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon” (Isa. 55:7).
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Bibliography
Childs, Brevard S. ‘Isaiah.’ Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press. 2001.
Gileadi, Avraham, ed. ‘Israel’s Apostasy and Restoration.’ Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House. 1988.
Leene, Henk. “Isaiah 46:8 – Summons to be Human.” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament. October 1984 9: 111-121. (accessed via EBSCO on February 22, 2011).
Motyer, J. Alec. ‘The Prophecy of Isaiah.’ Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press. 1993.
Oswalt, John N. ‘NICOT: The Book of Isaiah, Chapters 1-39.’ Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. 1986.
Oswalt, John N. ‘NICOT: The Book of Isaiah, Chapters 40-66.’ Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. 1986.
Pentateuchal Targumim, ‘The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel’ targum.info
http://targum.info/pj/pjgen1-6.htm (accessed March 01, 2011).
Van Der Toorn, Karel, Bob Becking and Pieter W. Van Der Horst, eds. ‘Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible.’ Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. 1999.
Walton, John H., Victor H. Matthews and Mark W. Chavalas. ‘The Bible Background Commentary.’ Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press. 2000.
[1] Pentateuchal Targumim, ‘The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel’ IV.18
http://targum.info/pj/pjgen1-6.htm, Accessed March 01, 2011.
[2] Oswalt, p. 17-28
[3] Ibid. p. 28
[4] Walton, et al eds. p. 630.
[5] Van Der Toorn (et al) p. 543.
[6] Ibid. p. 608.
[7] Ibid. p. 607.
[8] Motyer, p. 368.
[9] Gileadi (et al) p. 116
[10] Ibid. p. 116.
[11] Ibid. p. 119
[12] Van Der Toorn, p. 608.
[13] Van Der Toorn, p. 608: “As scribe, Nabû (Nebo) had access to secrets that others could not read, and so could control religious rites and was regarded as especially wise, although the title ‘lord of wisdom’ was more usually applied to Ea and Marduk.”
[14] Leene, p. 115.
[15] Walton, p. 631.
[16] Childs, p. 361.
[17] Oswalt, p. 237.
Blighting Burdens
Yet there is no real comparison between Jehovah and the gods of Babylon and Assyria. “To whom will you liken me and make me equal, and compare me, as though we were alike?” God demands (46:5).
