The Idols Our Own Hands Have Made Text: Isaiah 31:6-7
Introduction: The Folly of Foreign Alliances
We find ourselves in a section of Isaiah where the prophet is delivering a series of woes upon the people of Judah for their political machinations, for their trust in foreign powers, and for their fundamental rejection of the living God. The context is one of geopolitical turmoil. The shadow of Assyria looms large, a menacing and brutal empire, and Judah, in its panic, has decided to send emissaries down to Egypt to cut a deal. They are trusting in chariots, in horses, in the military might of a pagan nation, rather than in the Lord of Hosts. This is the ultimate act of political atheism.
And so Isaiah declares, "Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses, and trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong, but they do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek the LORD!" (Isaiah 31:1). This is not merely a foreign policy blunder. This is a theological catastrophe. It is a profound act of covenant infidelity. They have forgotten who they are. They are the sons of Israel, the people whom God delivered from Egypt with a mighty hand, and now they are running back to their old slave masters for protection.
This is the recurring pattern of sin in the Scriptures. The people of God are called to worship Him alone. They get into trouble. They panic. And instead of turning to God, they veer off into some form of idolatry, some compromise with the world. They look for a savior in a place other than Zion. And the idol never delivers as promised. It only gets them into deeper trouble. It is into this context of deep rebellion, this spiritual adultery, that Isaiah issues a command that is also a tender invitation. It is a call to come home.
The Text
Return to Him against whom you have deeply rebelled, O sons of Israel. For in that day every man will reject his silver idols and his gold idols, which your hands have made for you as a sin.
(Isaiah 31:6-7 LSB)
The Call to Return (v. 6)
We begin with the central command of the passage:
"Return to Him against whom you have deeply rebelled, O sons of Israel." (Isaiah 31:6)
The word is "Return." This is the language of repentance. It assumes a departure. You cannot return to a place you have never left. And Isaiah is blunt about the nature of this departure. It is a deep rebellion. The Hebrew here suggests a profound apostasy, a revolt that comes from the very depths of their being. This was not a minor slip-up. This was a calculated, high-handed betrayal of their covenant Lord.
And notice to whom the call is addressed: "O sons of Israel." Isaiah is reminding them of their identity. He is calling them back to their covenant roots. Your name is Israel, "he who strives with God." You are the sons of Jacob, the man who wrestled with God and prevailed. You are the sons of the promise. Why are you acting like sons of Pharaoh? This deep rebellion is a contradiction of your very name. To go down to Egypt is to undo the Exodus. It is to spit on the Passover. It is to say that God's deliverance was insufficient.
This is the nature of all sin. Sin is always a turning away from God to something else. It is an exchange of the truth for a lie. And repentance is the return journey. It is the prodigal son in the pigsty, coming to his senses and saying, "I will arise and go to my father." Repentance is not simply feeling bad about your sin. It is a decisive turning. It is a change of mind that results in a change of direction. And it is always a return "to Him." You cannot repent in the abstract. You must repent toward God.
And we must not miss the grace dripping from this command. God has every right to simply destroy them in their rebellion. They have broken the covenant. They have committed spiritual adultery. But instead of a writ of divorce, He sends a prophet with an invitation to come home. This is the stunning reality of God's steadfast love. Even in the face of our deepest betrayals, His posture toward His people is one of reconciliation. He commands us to do the very thing our souls were made for: to return to Him.
The Fruit of Repentance (v. 7)
Verse 7 describes the inevitable result, the necessary evidence, of this genuine return to God.
"For in that day every man will reject his silver idols and his gold idols, which your hands have made for you as a sin." (Isaiah 31:7 LSB)
True repentance always bears fruit. And the first fruit of returning to the true God is the rejection of all false gods. Notice the connection: "Return... For in that day... every man will reject." The second is the proof of the first. If you say you have returned to God but you are still keeping your idols in the garage, you are lying to yourself and to Him. Repentance means there is a house cleaning.
Isaiah identifies the idols here as "silver idols and his gold idols." He is speaking of the literal, physical idols that cluttered their high places. But the principle extends to every form of idolatry. An idol is anything you look to for what only God can provide: security, meaning, deliverance, joy. For Judah, the idols were not just the statues, but the Egyptian horses and chariots they represented. They were trusting in created things rather than the Creator.
And we are no different. Our idols may not be made of gold and silver, but they are just as real. The apostle Paul tells us that covetousness is idolatry (Col. 3:5). When you set your heart's ultimate desire on money, or power, or sexual pleasure, or political victory, or the approval of others, you have fashioned an idol. You are burning incense at a false altar. And repentance means you must tear it down.
Look at Isaiah's searing indictment: these are idols "which your hands have made for you as a sin." This is the utter insanity of idolatry. You take a lump of metal that God created, you shape it with the hands and intelligence that God gave you, and then you bow down and worship it. You worship the work of your own hands. This is what fallen man does. He suppresses the truth of the transcendent Creator and exchanges it for a god he can control, a god he has made in his own image.
The phrase "made for you as a sin" is potent. The very act of manufacturing an idol is sin. It is a violation of the first and second commandments. You have put something else in God's place, and you have tried to represent the invisible God with a visible object. This is to reduce the infinite to the finite, the Lord of glory to a trinket. And when you return to God, you will see your idols for what they are: worthless, foolish, and sinful. You will not just put them away; you will "reject" them. The word implies a loathing, a casting away with contempt. You will see them as the spiritual junk they are.
Conclusion: Rejecting Our Modern Idols
This call from Isaiah is not a dusty relic from ancient history. It is a living word to the church in every age, and especially in our own. We live in a nation that has deeply rebelled against God. We have forgotten our covenant identity. We were a nation founded on Christian principles, and we are running headlong back to Egypt, looking for salvation in our political parties, our Supreme Court appointments, our economic policies, and our technological prowess.
We have filled our lives with idols our own hands have made. We have our silver idols of materialism and our gold idols of entertainment. We worship at the altar of self-esteem. We bow to the god of sexual autonomy. We trust in the chariots of secular education and the horsemen of government programs to solve our problems. And God is calling us, the sons of the new covenant, to return.
And what will happen when we do? What is the promise? "In that day every man will reject his silver idols." A great turning to God will always be accompanied by a great turning from idols. This is the reformation we should be praying for. Not just a political shift, but a spiritual renovation. A day when Christians see the idols of our age for what they are, sinful and stupid, and cast them away with contempt.
When the church repents of her worldliness, when she stops trying to cut deals with Egypt and looks again to the Holy One of Israel, she will find her strength. When we, like Gideon, start tearing down the Baals in our own backyards, then we will be ready to face the Midianites. The call is simple and stark. Return. Turn from the idols your own hands have made. Turn from your rebellion. Turn to the living God, who did not send a prophet but His own Son to make the way home. In Jesus Christ, the invitation is sealed in blood. Return to Him.