Commentary - Isaiah 40:18-20

Bird's-eye view

In this passage, the prophet Isaiah, having just declared the majesty of the incomparable God, turns a corner and unleashes a torrent of divine satire against the practice of idolatry. The section begins with a devastating rhetorical question that hangs over the entire argument: To whom will you liken God? The answer, of course, is no one and nothing. What follows is a step-by-step description of the idol manufacturing process. Whether it is a high-end gold-plated deity for the wealthy or a sturdy wooden god for the common man, the process reveals the central absurdity of idolatry. Men take created materials, shape them with their own hands, and then bow down to worship the work of their own hands. The thing made is worshipped by its maker. Isaiah is exposing the foolishness of worshipping a god that you have to design, manufacture, and then nail to the wall so it does not fall over.

The core of the argument is the absolute Creator/creature distinction. God is the uncreated Creator of all things, and therefore He cannot be represented by any created thing. To attempt to do so is to shrink God down to manageable size, to create a god who makes no ultimate demands, a god who is, quite literally, in our pocket. This passage is a frontal assault on all man-made religion, ancient and modern, reminding us that true worship begins and ends with the God who is utterly transcendent, the one who speaks and brings worlds into being, not the one who is spoken into being by a craftsman.

Outline

Context In Isaiah

This passage sits within the great section of comfort that begins Isaiah 40. The comfort promised to Israel is not based on wishful thinking or a change in their circumstances, but on the very character and nature of their God. The preceding verses (40:12-17) have established God's immensity. He measures the waters in the hollow of His hand, weighs the mountains in scales, and considers the nations as a drop in a bucket. After establishing this breathtaking portrait of the transcendent Creator, the prophet pivots to contrast this God with the gods of the nations. The argument is a classic reductio ad absurdum. If God is who verses 12-17 say He is, then the activity described in verses 19-20 is not just wrong, it is insane. This section serves to solidify Israel's faith by showing them the utter emptiness of the religious systems of the empires that surrounded and threatened them. Their God is the Creator; the gods of the nations are just manufactured goods.

Key Issues

Gods That Men Make

At the heart of all sin is idolatry, and at the heart of all idolatry is a violation of what we call the Creator/creature distinction. There are fundamentally only two categories of existence: God the Creator, and everything else He has made. True religion worships the Creator. False religion, in every form, worships some aspect of the creation. As Paul says in Romans, they "exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator" (Rom 1:25).

Isaiah here gives us a master class in how this works. He does not simply forbid idolatry; he mocks it. He pulls back the curtain on the idol factory and shows us the whole tawdry business. Men take things God made, like gold and wood, and use the skills God gave them to fashion a substitute god. The entire enterprise is a closed loop of creaturely activity. Man is the designer, the manufacturer, the quality control inspector, and the end-user. The idol is a projection of man's own desires, a god made in man's image. And because it is a product of the creation, it is ultimately under man's control. This is the great appeal of idolatry. A manufactured god can be moved, polished, ignored, or replaced. The living God cannot.

Verse by Verse Commentary

18 To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare with Him?

This is the central question of all true theology. The prophet throws down a gauntlet. After describing the God who holds the universe in His hand, he says, "Alright, go ahead. Try to make a comparison. Find a metaphor. What created thing are you going to point to and say, 'God is like that'?" Every attempt to answer this question with a created thing is doomed to fail. This is the bedrock principle of the second commandment. We are not to make any graven image because no image can possibly capture the reality of the invisible, infinite, and transcendent God. Any image we make will inevitably reduce God, distort His character, and lead us into worshipping the image itself rather than the God it is supposed to represent. The question is designed to produce a reverent silence.

19 As for the graven images, a craftsman casts it, A goldsmith plates it with gold, And a silversmith fashions chains of silver.

But men are not content with reverent silence. They rush in to answer the unanswerable question. Isaiah now describes the production of a top-of-the-line idol. The process begins with a base material, cast by a common workman. Then the specialists come in. A goldsmith overlays it with a veneer of precious metal to make it look impressive. A silversmith adds decorative chains, a little bling for the deity. Notice the division of labor. This is an economic activity. It is a business. People are making a living manufacturing gods. The prophet is demystifying the idol, stripping it of its aura. This thing that people bow down to is just a product, assembled by tradesmen. You are not worshipping a transcendent being; you are worshipping the output of a local workshop.

20 He who is too impoverished to make such a contribution Chooses a tree that does not rot; He seeks out for himself a wise craftsman To prepare a graven image that will not be shaken.

Idolatry is an equal opportunity employer. It is not just for the rich. The man who cannot afford the gold-plated model still wants a god of his own. So he goes for the economy version. But notice, he is still careful. He does not just grab any piece of firewood. He chooses a tree that does not rot. He wants a durable god, one with a long shelf life. Then, he does not try to carve it himself. He seeks out for himself a wise craftsman. He wants his god to be well-made. And what is the ultimate goal of all this careful selection and skilled craftsmanship? To prepare an image that will not be shaken. This is the punchline. The worshipper's chief concern is that his god might be unstable, that it might topple over. The worshipper must secure his god. Contrast this with the true God, who is the Rock, the one who cannot be shaken, and who is the one who secures and establishes His people. The idol is a pathetic inversion of reality. It is a god that needs its worshippers to prop it up.

Application

It is easy for us to read a passage like this and feel a sense of superiority over these primitive, ancient people. We do not have little statues in our homes that we bow down to. But the spirit of idolatry is alive and well. The fundamental sin described here is not metallurgy or carpentry; it is the desire to have a god that we can manage and control. And we are experts at manufacturing such gods.

We do this when we reduce God to a political ideology, whether of the left or the right. We take the raw material of our political opinions, find some "wise craftsmen" (pundits and commentators) to shape them for us, and create a Jesus who sounds exactly like our party's platform. We do this when we worship our careers, our families, or our romantic relationships. We take a good, created thing, overlay it with the gold of our ultimate hopes and dreams, and ask it to give us a meaning and security that only God can provide. We do it when we construct a theology that is safe, comfortable, and makes no demands on us, a god who is all affirmation and no judgment. We choose a tree that does not rot, a set of beliefs that will not challenge our lifestyle, and we seek a wise craftsman, a pastor or author who will tell us what we want to hear, to build us a god that will not be shaken by the hard truths of Scripture.

The question of verse 18 still confronts us: "To whom then will you liken God?" The New Testament gives us the only true answer. "He is the image of the invisible God" (Col 1:15). If you want to know what God is like, you must look at Jesus Christ. He is not a likeness fashioned by human hands, but the very "radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature" (Heb 1:3). All our man-made idols are lies. Christ is the truth. Our idols are weak and need us to prop them up. Christ is the one who upholds the universe by the word of His power. Our idols cannot save. Christ alone is our salvation. The only way to fight the idolatry in our hearts is to turn away from the gods of our own making and bow before the one true God revealed in the face of Jesus Christ.