Idols and Instruments

​I love to create. I love to paint, write music, make new friendships and grow things. I love the children God formed in me, the business I get to build, and I love to make my home a welcoming place.
 
As image bearers, we were created to create. Our ability to make and build things is the evidence of the unique likeness of God that dwells within us. But everything we make has the potential to be either an instrument that enhances our worship of God, or an idol that robs Him of it. Our hands were meant to praise our Maker, not make things to praise. His first and greatest commandments make clear his refusal to share the adoration that’s rightfully His.

In Isaiah 44, the hope of God’s creation of Israel is contrasted with the worthlessness of idol construction and the foolishness of worshipping created things rather than the Creator.

Here the blacksmith painstakingly uses his God-given abilities and resources to construct a godless image and then bows down to it in utter blindness. The people worshipped figures of fake gods, then in chapter 52 would reject and disfigure the Real One. 
 
It’s easy to look down on Israel’s clinging to little statues until I realize how tight my own grip is on that relationship I formed, or the reputation I so painstakingly built. We create and worship our appearance, jobs, bank accounts, reputations, bodies, relationships, status, and possessions, calling it “The American Dream” instead of the idolatry that it is.  Idols are rarely as obvious as a household shrine or statue. In fact, the most dangerous ones are subtle and virtually undetectable. Like the blacksmith, we’re blind to the fact that we’ve become slaves to the things we created, serving them rather than using them to serve the true God. 
 
Isaiah 44:20 says the idolater feeds on ashes, misled by his deluded heart. He can’t save himself or even tell that what he is worshipping is counterfeit. But this chapter is tucked between others describing the coming One who would free us from the bondage of clinging to fake gods. He alone is able to search our hearts when we’re too blind to search them ourselves and can reveal where we’ve exchanged His truth for lies. He’s the God who answers by fire, consuming the idols that stand between us and Him if only we call out and invite Him.
 
God has created us with the capacity to serve only one master, and the freedom to choose who that master will be. One of the best ways to distinguish an instrument from an idol is to assess our reaction upon its removal. When an instrumentis taken away I can still sing an acapella song of praise. When an idolis removed, it causes distress because my made-to-worship heart is lost without its object of adoration.
 
Jesus wants to set you free today from anything holding you in bondage. Allow Him to show you any created things in your life that have become idols.
 
If the throne of our hearts is not intentionally and daily reserved for Jesus alone, we will allow the things we’ve built with our own hands to sneak in, absorbing all of our misplaced worship. But if we use this sacred ability to create for its intended purpose of glorifying God, we will hold in our hands instruments of praise. Works that give melody to our song of faith and intensify lives of praise and worship of the One True God. 

About the Author

Hi, I'm Kelly Orlowski and I'm a wife, fully-time mother, and part-time seminary student. I live with my husband and four children in Franklin, TN. A former social worker, I am the founder of Lady Crew Apparel, and passionately fight against human trafficking. I love seeing hearers become doers, and reminding doers to keep listening. 

Connect with Kelly at her website wearladycrew.com

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