Introduction: We need metal workers and carpenters, although much of the work is done by robots these days. We have a credenza which was inherited from my wife’s great aunts. I have a ‘bought, assembled by me,’ desk. You guess which is the better quality! Some people like to worship God by walking in beautiful places. Some people although they don’t call them ‘idols’ are so committed to their jobs, with a choice of jobs much wider than blacksmithing and carpentry, that they let their work or their sport or whatever becomes their goal in life, to become their ‘god’. The family man does everything so that his kids have everything. The philosopher thinks that he has found out the secret to true life. The business man makes his bank account his god. The politician makes his visions ‘god’.
Today God is speaking about two men to whom he has given the skills and gives us a very necessary lesson in how we can turn a well made car into our god, or a bankbook into an idol, a purpose for living, becoming the very centre of our ‘worship’! I think that God is a pretty good, in fact, a masterful author. He gets his point over very well!
All who fashion idols are nothing, and the things they delight in do not profit. Their witnesses neither see nor know, that they may be put to shame. Who fashions a god or casts an idol that is profitable for nothing? Behold, all his companions shall be put to shame, and the craftsmen are only human. Let them all assemble, let them stand forth. They shall be terrified; they shall be put to shame together.
The ironsmith takes a cutting tool and works it over the coals. He fashions it with hammers and works it with his strong arm. He becomes hungry, and his strength fails; he drinks no water and is faint. The carpenter stretches a line; he marks it out with a pencil. He shapes it with planes and marks it with a compass. He shapes it into the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, to dwell in a house. He cuts down cedars, or he chooses a cypress tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it. Then it becomes fuel for a man. He takes a part of it and warms himself; he kindles a fire and bakes bread. Also he makes a god and worships it; he makes it an idol and falls down before it. Half of it he burns in the fire. Over the half he eats meat; he roasts it and is satisfied. Also he warms himself and says, “Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire!” And the rest of it he makes into a god, his idol, and falls down to it and worships it. He prays to it and says, “Deliver me, for you are my god!”
Comment: This passage commends the work that both the people who are used as illustrations perform. Smithies and carpenters are basic parts of communal life! But they cross swords with God when they think that they can make their own gods or make gods to be sold for profit! The language is not modern, but the problem is! And the end result is described as ludicrous! The carpenter for instance having spent years to find the perfect wood, no doubt makes something beautiful – good on him for a job well done! But then he carves a beautiful idol, and eating a meal cooked over the splinters and leftover bits from his work prays to his beautifully carved ‘art-piece’. Delightfully ludicrous!
Deut 6: 13-15 – It is the LORD your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear. 14 You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you— 15 for the LORD your God in your midst is a jealous God—lest the anger of the LORD your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth.
Prayer: Thank You for work. I gladly declare that You are my God.