Man's disgust at his idols.
In Isaiah 2:8 the prophet had observed that one characteristic of the times was prevailing idolatry. The men who had, in their self-will and pride, turned from the living God, had taken up with idols, deities of their own imagining, which answered to the devices and desires of their own hearts, and allowed them to keep their self-will even in their religion. Divinely revealed religion and man-made religions differ in this—the first demands the surrender of self-will, the second finds expressions for, and strengthens by expression, man's self-will. That is the real reason why men constantly fall into idolatry; it keeps them in the" self-sphere." The prophet recognizes this by saying, "Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made." Then, when Jehovah arises to vindicate himself, man is humbled, and one sign of that humbling is sure to be, that his trust in his helpless, self-fashioned idols is broken. He finds out their uselessness when God's testing day comes upon him, and in disgust he is ready to cast them to the "moles and to the bats," creatures of the darkness. "God can make men sick of those idols that they have been most fond of, even the idols of silver, and the idols of gold, the most precious. The idolaters here throw away their idols because
I. IDOLATRY IS DELUSION. The calm onlooker sees that the description of idols given in Psalms 115:1-18. is strictly and perfectly true. But the worshipper cannot see this. He believes his idols can really help him, and prays to them with passionate intensity. So the man whose idol is money is deluded. He thinks his money can help him in whatever circumstances he may be placed. But sickness comes, danger comes, plague comes, earthquake comes, shipwreck comes, fire comes, death comes, and it is quite plain that he was deluded. Money is a helpless idol; it cannot aid its votaries in God's day. Point out that the root of the delusion is self-trust; a man wants to rely on something that he has, or that he has done, or that he has made. Blessed only is that man whose trust is in the Lord his God.
II. SOONER OR LATER THE DELUSION IS DISPELLED. Awakening days are sure to come for us all. The apostle teaches that all our trusts and all our works must be tried by fire;" the day shall declare them." Illustrate the dispelling of the delusions of idolatry:
1. By the proved helplessness of the idols. Baal's priests and worshippers had their eyes opened at Carmel, when there "was none that heard, nor any that answered."
2. By advancing intelligence. Illustrate from the influence of education on the natives of India. Science and geography have made it impossible to believe in the legends of their gods. The delusion is in great measure expelled, but a first result is infidelity. Christianity alone can satisfactorily take the place of discarded idolatry.
3. By Divine judgments. Illustrate by such scenes as the earthquakes at Java and Ischia, or the destruction of Pompeii. Or take a visitation of cholera or plague in an idolatrous land. Churches, temples, idols, are forsaken; public helplessness and despair prepares the way for an extension of the evil. He only can be calm whose trust is in the living God. Impress by the contrast of the calmness and confidence of the pious psalmist (Psalms 91:1-16.): "Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my Refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation; there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling."—R.T.