Episode 39: Isaiah and the Messiah Part 6: 44:1-23, Jer 10, Habbakuk 2–and Christmas Trees?

It’s crazy that this week just happened to be when this section of Scripture fell into place. Isaiah 44 contains the longest and most detailed idol polemic in all of Scripture and provides the context needed to understand Jeremiah 10:1-16 as well as Habbakuk 2 and even helps to understand Psalm 115. This week we are going to read Isaiah as well as portions of Jeremiah, Habbakuk, the Babylonian Erra Epic, Herodotus and Hittite writings in order to understand the ancient idolatrous mindset and why Yahweh was fighting so hard for the hearts and minds of His people in exile.

Transcript below, only moderately edited so please ignore the small stuff.

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Isaiah and the Messiah 6—Is 44:1-44:1-22

I hope you’ve been following this series from the beginning as we are now in part six of exploring Isaiah Chapters 40-55 in preparation for our Gospel of Mark studies that pull heavily from these chapters of Isaiah to explain and undergird the ministry of Yeshua/Jesus the Messiah. Isaiah isn’t easy to understand—very complex historically, very easily taken out of context with cherry-picked verses by anti-missionaries who want to undermine faith in the Savior, but we have been going through it verse by verse taking into consideration the literary, historical, contextual, the different voices speaking—all that jazz—in order to strip away the mystery of what Yahweh is saying through His prophet to the exiles in Babylon about their imminent freedom. Yahweh is fighting the mindsets of the grandchildren of those who were exiled for their gross idolatry, who were brought up in Babylon and know no other life, who have been living as a conquered people and who have been told by the world around them that they were conquered only because their God was conquered and that they will never go back to the Land because historically no nation has ever returned from exile. They are so deeply enmeshed in the polytheistic worldview that it has become their own worldview—especially since they were henotheists before the exile and not monotheists. As we see from the Scriptures, Israel never exclusively worshipped Yahweh until after the exile was over—before then He might have been at the top of their worship pile, but He was still one among many gods in direct violation of the first and second commandments.

Much of what we have covered so far has been Yahweh publicly challenging the nations and their gods in order to show that any other so-called are powerless and actually non-existent. It has played out with courtroom language with a summons to court, presentation of evidence and witnesses and several idol polemics delivered by the prophet in order to show how illogical idolatry truly is. The end message is—there is no hope for Israel other than Yahweh, and He is promising to deliver them, and no one will get in His way because no one can.

Hi, I am Tyler Dawn Rosenquist and welcome to Character in Context, where I teach the historical and ancient sociological context of Scripture with an eye to developing the character of the Messiah. If you prefer written material, I have five years worth of blog at theancientbridge.com as well as my six books available on amazon—including a four-volume curriculum series dedicated to teaching Scriptural context in a way that even kids can understand it, called Context for Kids—and I have two video channels on youtube with free Bible teachings for both adults and kids. You can find the link for those on my website. Past broadcasts of this program can be found at characterincontext.podbean.com and transcripts can be had for most broadcasts at theancientbridge.com.

All Scripture this week is taken from the ESV, the English Standard Version because that is what my interlinear is in. And unlike my usual MO, I will be saying Yahweh instead of God and Lord because there are so many different voices speaking back and forth in Isaiah 40-55 that it will help eliminate confusion. Otherwise, I always use titles because I don’t like to use His name carelessly or casually. Just a personal preference.

Last week we started with a “but now” which forced us to backtrack into chapter 42 and we have the exact same thing today, so we have to backtrack into chapter 43 briefly—remember that no “therefore” or “but now” or “yet” or any conjunction exists on its own and has to be evaluated within the context of what went directly before. Chapters are pesky but necessary—but we can’t be bound by them in our studies. We can’t even just study one chapter without taking what went before it and often what comes after, into context. And today is going to be heavy in simply reading Scripture—we are going to delve into Jeremiah 10 and also Habbakuk 2—plus I am going to read from the Babylonian Erra Epic.

26 Put me in remembrance; let us argue together; set forth your case, that you may be proved right.
27 Your first father sinned, and your mediators transgressed against me.
28 Therefore I will profane the princes of the sanctuary, and deliver Jacob to utter destruction
and Israel to reviling.

To review, Israel, in this mock court case, has been telling Yahweh that they have been wronged, that He is blind to their cause and deaf to their complaints, and they haven’t accepted that their exile was their own fault. But right here Yahweh flat out tells them that the entire nation—even back to Abraham and Moses and Aaron—have been sinning against Him from the start and have only themselves to blame. That would chill anyone to the bone. And yet—we have another turnaround—their sin and God’s wrath isn’t the end of the story. Let’s move on into chapter 44:

 

44 “But now hear, O Jacob my servant,
Israel whom I have chosen!

Chosen for what? As Yahweh has said repeatedly, they were chosen, for His sake, to be witnesses of His mighty works and His glory. His faithfulness, grace and power—that He is unique and the gods of the nations are fictional. He says “Hear” and what does He want them to hear?

2 Thus says the Lord who made you,
who formed you from the womb and will help you:
Fear not, O Jacob my servant,
Jeshurun whom I have chosen.

Fear not—what have we learned that means in Isaianic poetry? This is a salvation oracle. Let’s look at His promises of deliverance:

3 For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground;
I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.

Here we have two parallelisms in a row and remember that parallelism is where you have two phrases saying the exact same thing with different wording. Yahweh says He will pour “water on the thirsty land” and “water on the dry ground. He immediately follows it up with another parallelism, equating pouring out “my Spirit on your offspring” and “my blessing on your descendants.” Spirit is equated with blessing and offspring with descendants—but wait, there’s more—the two parallelisms also parallel one another and give us the key to translating some of the verses in the past chapters about pouring out water in the desert—things that never happened historically with the return from exile. The pouring out of water is equated with the outpouring of His spirit. But wait—this didn’t happen either—at least not during the return from Babylon. But Yahweh has spoken it and so it must happen—when did it end up happening? At Shavuot/Pentecost after the resurrection where the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Jewish believers in Yeshua who were gathered at the Temple to pray. We see this, of course, in Acts 2. If this was referring to the exiles, it would not say “your descendants”—it would say “you.” But as for now, the exiles are still “dry ground” spiritually, which we will see in painful detail in the writings of Nehemiah, Ezra, and Malachi. They needed the empowerment of the Spirit to truly change, but it wouldn’t be happening anytime soon.

4 They shall spring up among the grass like willows by flowing streams.
5 This one will say, ‘I am the Lord’s,’ another will call on the name of Jacob,
and another will write on his hand, ‘The Lord’s,’ and name himself by the name of Israel.”

 

These verses really solidify for me that this is something that didn’t happen until Yeshua’s time. We have people, obviously not native-born Israelites, claiming that they belong to the Lord, calling on the name of Jacob, writing the Lord’s Name on his hand (a mark of servitude in the ancient world), and naming HIMSELF by the name of Israel. These are things that no native-born would need to do. No, this is clearly speaking of the ingrafting of gentiles who freely chose to become part of Israel through belief in and association with the Messiah of Israel. Notice that these are all acts of individuals, and not of a nation as a whole.

6 Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts:
“I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god.
7 Who is like me? Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and set it before me,
since I appointed an ancient people. Let them declare what is to come, and what will happen.
8 Fear not, nor be afraid; have I not told you from of old and declared it? And you are my witnesses!
Is there a God besides me? There is no Rock; I know not any.”

 

Last week we talked about Regnal names—kingly titles. Here we have Yahweh, His personal Name, Melek Y’Israel—which proclaims the allegiance they owe to Him, Redeemer—this is more intimate, as the go’al was close kin who would save a person from distress, Yahweh Tzva’ot—Yahweh of armies—proclaiming His might and ability to save. Of course, we have seen this proclamation over and over again—“I am the first and the last; besides me there is no god,” and the specific word is elohim here, a generic term meaning “mighty one” that often refers, in context to the gods of the nations—as it does here. Again—first and last is a reference to the ancient law of continuity where polytheistic gods do not exist apart from the system, they are not like Yahweh, outside of time and space and having created them. If the universe and time all dissolved, Yahweh would still exist because He is first and last—He alone can exist apart from what He has created. Pagans saw their gods as part of creation, dependent on it, working in cooperation with it and needing it even. They were trapped by the confines of space and time and history just like humans were. So when Yahweh says, “Who is like me?” He is literally pointing all this out—no one claims to have a god that is anything like Yahweh, He is utterly foreign to their way of thinking. That is what it means to be first and last—and He has been communicating this to His people from the beginning—they can witness that it is true! That is why they were created in the first place!

Funny quick story here. In the Septuagint, the third-century BCE Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, they didn’t include the last bit “There is no Rock; I know not any.” The reason why is because they had already begun becoming very sensitive to how Yahweh was portrayed in the Bible—and they didn’t like comparing Him to a rock—even if it was His own words.

The next bit I am going to just read straight through with only a few notes and then I am going to read Jeremiah 10:1-16 and not simply the few verses that are generally taken out of context, and Habakkuk 2. We’re going to talk about how they are very similar and how well they line up with the section of the Erra Epic which describes in detail how the idol of Marduk in Babylon was manufactured. All comments in brackets are my comments

 

9 All who fashion idols are nothing, and the things they delight in do not profit. Their witnesses (their worshipers) neither see nor know, that they may be put to shame. (the Psalm 115 curse on those who worship false gods) 10 Who fashions a god or casts an idol that is profitable for nothing? 11 Behold, all his companions shall be put to shame, and the craftsmen are only human (they are the created, not the Creator). Let them all assemble, let them stand forth. They shall be terrified; they shall be put to shame together.

 

12 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. (because he is only human) 13 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. 14 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. 15 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. 16 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!” 17 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!” (He is worshiping and depending upon something that couldn’t even create itself)

 

18 They know not, nor do they discern, for he has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, and their hearts, so that they cannot understand. (Psalm 115 again) 19 No one considers, nor is there knowledge or discernment to say, “Half of it I burned in the fire; I also baked bread on its coals; I roasted meat and have eaten. And shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?” 20 He feeds on ashes (because that’s what was done with the rest of the same exact piece of wood); a deluded heart has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say, “Is there not a lie in my right hand?”

Whoa, the right hand—remember what Isaiah said earlier, that Yahweh was holding on to Israel’s right hand, putting them at His left hand? Well, idolaters are standing at the left hand of idols. The contrast is very stark and very deliberate.

 

It looks silly to us because we get it now, how ridiculous this is. But to a polytheist, it was not so obvious. It was the context of their whole life—making idols and using them to placate, mollify, serve, and manipulate their gods. Now, I want to read from Jeremiah 10, and not just the few verses used out of context that people use in their zeal to discredit Christmas Trees, which I don’t like either but I am not going to use Scripture out of context in pursuit of an agenda—find another way, okay? I am going to read all of them and especially the ones that make it clear that this is referring to actual idols to whom people would go to seek wisdom and counsel and help.

10 Hear the word that the Lord speaks to you, O house of Israel. 2 Thus says the Lord:

“Learn not the way of the nations, nor be dismayed at the signs of the heavens because the nations are dismayed at them, 3 for the customs of the peoples are vanity. A tree from the forest is cut down and worked with an axe by the hands of a craftsman. 4 They decorate it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so that it cannot move. 5 Their idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field, and they cannot speak; they have to be carried, for they cannot walk Do not be afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good.” (no one would suggest that anyone would think it necessary to point out that a Christmas tree can’t walk or talk of do good or evil. They are compared to scarecrows for a reason—because they have been carved into the shape of a human being but people stop quoting this section once they get to the end of verse five because the context becomes clear).

(This language should sound familiar if you have listened to the whole series with Yahweh making demands that the gods of the nations do something, anything, good or bad to prove they are real)

6 There is none like you, O Lord; you are great, and your name is great in might.
7 Who would not fear you, O King of the nations? For this is your due; for among all the wise ones of the nations and in all their kingdoms there is none like you. 8 They are both stupid and foolish; the instruction of idols is but wood! (again, no one is seeking counsel from a Christmas tree) 9 Beaten silver is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz. They are the work of the craftsman and of the hands of the goldsmith; their clothing is violet and purple; they are all the work of skilled men. 10 But the Lord is the true God; he is the living God and the everlasting King. At his wrath the earthquakes, and the nations cannot endure his indignation. (the big national idols were carved from sacred wood, and covered from head to toe with beaten sheets of gold and silver and dressed up like kings and queens)

11 Thus shall you say to them: “The gods who did not make the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under the heavens.” 12 It is he who made the earth by his power, who established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the heavens. 13 When he utters his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth.
He makes lightning for the rain, and he brings forth the wind from his storehouses. 14 Every man is stupid and without knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols, for his images are false, and there is no breath in them. 15 They are worthless, a work of delusion; at the time of their punishment they shall perish. 16 Not like these is he who is the portion of Jacob, for he is the one who formed all things,
and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance; the Lord of hosts is his name.

Habakkuk 2:18-19 has a short section as well that is useful:

“…when its maker has shaped it, a metal image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in his own creation when he makes speechless idols! Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake; to a silent stone, Arise! Can this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in it.”

Now, let’s compare this to the Erra Epic. Tablet 1 contains the following imprints. In context, Erra, the warrior god, is challenging Marduk, the king of the gods, because the idol in Marduk’s temple had lost its luster. Marduk explains that he left his dwelling when he caused the great flood. Everything in () is my commentary.

 

(Marduk speaking)

“As to my precious image (aka idol), which has been struck by the deluge that its appearance was sullied
I commanded fire to make my features shine (because it is overlaid with gold) and cleanse my apparel (evidently it wears clothing)

When it had shined my precious image and completed the task
I donned my lordly diadem and returned…. (when his idol looked suitable again, he returned his essence to it)

…I sent those craftsmen down to the depths, I ordered them not to come up
I removed the wood and gemstone and showed no one where…..
Where is the wood, flesh of the gods, suitable for the lord of the universe, (every culture I have come across seemed to believe that only certain kinds of wood were suitable to be the “flesh” of an idol – in this case, the wood is from the “mesu” tree)
The sacred tree, splendid stripling, perfect for lordship,
Whose roots thrust down a hundred leagues through the waters of the vast ocean to the depths of hell,
Whose crown brushed Anu’s heaven on high?
Where is the gemstone that I reserved for {damaged}?
Where is Ninildum, great carpenter of my supreme divinity, (Ninildum is the idol maker)
Wielder of the glittering hatchet, who knows what tool, (although we would think of a hatchet only in the hands of a lumberman, in this case the hatchet is the tool of a crafsman – hatchets are way smaller than axes and oftentimes in ancient languages they had one word for tool and context determines which one is being referenced)
Who makes it shine like the day and puts it at subjection to my feet?
….
Where are the choice stones, created by the vast sea, to ornament my diadem?” (big city gods were crowned with real crowns just as they were dressed with real clothing)

I am also going to include a quote from Trevor Bryce’s excellent work, Life and Society in the Hittite World, p 157—He writes, ‘In the latter part of the New Kingdom, the statues of the gods set up on bases in the sanctuaries of their temples were life-sized or larger. They were made of precious and semi-precious metals – gold silver, iron, bronze – or else of wood plated with gold, silver, or tin and sometimes decorated with precious materials like lapis lazuli.’  We have actual information on the statuette of the goddess Iyaya, ‘The divine image is a female statuette of wood, seated and veiled, one cubit (in height). Her body is plated with gold, but the body and the throne are plated with tin.’

So, we see a lot of similarities between the Era Epic, which is taking this project absolutely seriously and the Bible, which is not. But both are describing the same exact phenomenon—the creation of an idol out of sacred wood, covered with hammered precious metals, clothed in the finest fabrics, ornamented with precious gemstones, and polished until it shines, etc. I understand that a lot of people hate Christmas trees and want to discredit them, but that isn’t what this is about. It just isn’t. And I think the people who originally taught this knew it because I don’t see any other reason for ignoring most of the text and the other prophetic passages that go with it. Also, a dead tree wasn’t a symbol of fertility—that’s what sacred groves were for. When good kings came to power, they cut down the sacred groves—not to bring the trees inside, but to burn them outside the city gates in order to defile them. The first rule of sacred tree club is don’t cut down the sacred tree—or it isn’t sacred anymore. A dead tree isn’t a fertility symbol unless you carved it into an Asherah or one of the other fertility goddesses. Throughout Assyrian and Babylonian and Egyptian art, we see carved representations of people around trees with what looks to the untrained eye like boxes and ornaments and some ministries have colorized them to enhance the effect—but I have seen one of these up close at the St Louis Museum and have verified what ancient Near Eastern Scholars and archaeologists say—they are people using pinecones (you can see that it is a pinecone from up close) to pollinate the Tree of Life and the “boxes” are actually baskets they are filling with the fruit of the Tree of Life. We know this because we have cuneiform tablets and other writings of the mythologies giving testimony to this. If we want to be against Christmas trees, we can point out the waste of resources involved and the gross commercialism of the holiday in general and the terrible debt racked up that cannot be said to be done in the Name of our Messiah. But Christmas trees really aren’t more than five hundred years old and Germanic, not ancient Near Eastern. Let’s not use the Bible out of context in order to serve agendas—it is dangerous business and, I believe, disrespectful to the precious Word we have been gifted with. We can’t criticize people for saying, “That’s not what that means to me” and then turn around and do it ourselves. Okay, lecture over. Back to the text:

21 Remember these things, O Jacob, and Israel, for you are my servant; I formed you; you are my servant; O Israel, you will not be forgotten by me.
Remember what things? Well, the language isn’t entirely clear so we have a couple of choices. Either (1) He is telling them not to forget how ridiculous idols are. I am not extremely fond of that option, or (2) all the deliverances of the past that He has been reminding them of. Maybe that’s it. Or (3) what He tells them in His next breath—namely “you ARE my servant. I FORMED you.” Then he repeats “you are my servant” and then “you will not be forgotten by me.”

I think this is the right option because He tells them to remember and then He says they will not be forgotten. There is a definite chiastic structure here, which I can’t explain on the radio. I need charts and I could pretend to have a chart here but that would just be rude. So what is the result of not being forgotten by Yahweh?

22 I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you.

I HAVE blotted out your transgressions, remember that is pescha, willful and rebellious high-handed offenses that are not covered by the sacrifices. That word translated as blotted out can also be translated swept away, which makes more sense when the process is being compared to dispersing a cloud. We also see included in all this that the chattat sins, the unintentional sins, being swept away like a mist. So we have Yahweh forgiving not only the greatest of their offenses but also the least—this is a total and complete forgiveness. Again, we keep coming across this radical grace that is being extended to the exiles, who certainly aren’t repentant before Him and most of them won’t even end up leaving exile—they will choose to stay, and those who do go back, a lot of these guys marry pagan women. Although we don’t see them engaging in idol worship again, Malachi has them doing plenty of other horrible things. And yet, God extends this amazing grace to them and forgives it all for His own sake, which He says repeatedly—not because they are deserving but because He created them to be His witnesses and unless He wipes the slate clean, He is not going to have any witnesses.

He says, “Return to me for I HAVE redeemed you.” Again, speaking of the future as though it is already a done deal. Although they cannot see their redemption, it is absolutely real. He is calling on them to acknowledge the reality of His salvation before they can even see it—while they are still wallowing in denial as to their culpability in this whole terrible mess.

And we just aren’t that much different today, are we! So often when something terrible happens to us we blame it on Satan, or on other people being jerks when really it is often the natural consequence of our own insufferable actions. We behave boorishly on social media, and they exile us from their wall by unfriending or blocking us, and we say “They can’t handle the truth!” Well, more likely they can’t handle our incessant caterwauling. No one wants to be preached at all the time in their own cyber living room and especially not by people who really don’t know as much as they think they do and aren’t as mature as they think they are. If we exhaust people, they are going to preserve their peace by giving us the boot. Nothing mysterious or mean-spirited and not necessarily an aversion to the truth—just an aversion to us. Well, that’s how the Israelites were treating Yahweh. They were sitting in a well-deserved exile, and first they called Yahweh blind and deaf to their rights, and then they feigned complete ignorance at having actually earned their exile—blaming in on His incompetence instead—and they didn’t worship Him in exile as they should have, but heaped their sins up in His face and yet He forgives because He is kinder, more patient, more everything good and grace-filled than we are. He is the God who remembers, and who forgives. He is just unreal.

 



Episode 37: Isaiah and the Messiah 4–Is 42

This week we will be covering Isaiah chapter 42, where we will be introduced to the one whom Rabbi David Kimchi, Abarbanel and two of the Targums identify as the Messiah. This is a clear allusion to Yeshua/Jesus as the idealized version of Israel as servant–neither blind nor deaf nor rebellious nor violent toward the oppressed, but a bringer of the Law to the ends of the earth. Exciting stuff!

Transcript below, just barely edited–so just ignore any grammar and spelling mistakes please.

hey there! This is part three of my series on Isaiah and the Messiah. Last week week we entered into the disputation, the beginning of the courtroom drama where God challenged the people of the nations and their gods to sit in court with Him and be judged as to who is and is not all-powerful, who can foretell future events AND make them happen, and who can do the impossible—namely, bring back a nation from exile, into their own land, without them rising up in revolt or by actually doing much of anything to make it happen. It is also a message that continues the theme of comfort and promise. It is spoken to a people who have been beaten down by almost seventy years of exile in the Babylonian Empire, who have come to wonder whether or not God is even there anymore, whether He wants to rescue them or even can anymore given the ancient Near Eastern belief that when a country is conquered and a Temple destroyed, that the God/gods of that country are also defeated and destroyed. Did Yahweh survive the destruction of Jerusalem and Judah? Is he able to save? Does He want to save? How will He save?

We are covering this because the Gospel of Mark explores the ministry of Yeshua/Jesus from the unique vantage point of being a fulfillment of his “way discourse” aka the “Isaianic New Exodus” and if we don’t know chapters 40-55 of Isaiah, so much of the beauty of Mark is lost. Also, as this section of Isaiah is misused by anti-missionaries in order to undermine faith in Yeshua, covering it verse by verse in the original context, I hope, will protect people from being deceived.

Hi, I am Tyler Dawn Rosenquist and welcome to Character in Context, where I teach the historical and ancient sociological context of Scripture with an eye to developing the character of Messiah. If you prefer written material, I have five years worth of blog at theancientbridge.com as well as my six books available on amazon—including a four-volume curriculum series dedicated to teaching Scriptural context in a way that even kids can understand it, called Context for Kids—and I have two video channels on youtube with free Bible teachings for both adults and kids. You can find the link for those on my website. Past broadcasts of this program can be found at characterincontext.podbean.com.

All Scripture this week is taken from the ESV, the English Standard Version, because that is what my interlinear is in. And unlike my usual MO, I will be saying Yahweh instead of God and Lord because there are so many different voices speaking back and forth in Isaiah 40-55 that it will help eliminate confusion. Otherwise, I always use titles because I don’t like to use His name carelessly or casually. Just a personal preference.

Over the last three weeks, we have been introduced to a number of different characters who are speaking and being spoken about. Obviously Yahweh is the first and most prominent voice, followed by the emergence of an anonymous voice who I call “heavenly council member #1” followed by the prophet Isaiah, then another anonymous council member. That was Is 40 and in Isaiah 41, last week, we were introduced to the nations, who only spoke to one another in the background as they tried to subvert the plans of Yahweh, and to the warrior “servant” who will be identified later as King Cyrus of Persia who does not arise until 150 years after the events of Is 39.

So let’s get on with it! Yahweh is speaking here and will continue through verse nine:

2 Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.

 

But, you know, there were no chapters when the Bible was written, so why is Yahweh saying, “Behold my servant” here—because it isn’t out of nowhere. When we left off last week, Yahweh had just verbally laid into the nations because their representatives, their gods, were powerless, empty, nothing. They had nothing with which to counter Yahweh’s plans to set His people free from exile, their plans were irrelevant. It’s like He was saying, “Okay, your representatives are nothing, but behold, my servant…BOOM…here’s what my servant (abdi, singular, personal possession) is and what my servant will do. First of all, I will uphold him, maintain him—and he is my chosen and my soul delights in him.”

Sideline here—targums Codex Reuchlinianus and Codex Nuremberg, as well as both David Kimchi (12/13th century) and Abarbanel (15th century), deeply respected Jewish Biblical scholars, all identify the servant in Is 42:1 here as the Messiah. The targums, of course, were Jewish authored Aramaic paraphrases of the Bible which were read in synagogues and fall, timeline-wise, between the Septuagint (3rd century BCE) and the Masoretic text (8th century CE) of the Hebrew Scriptures that we use today. The targums show us how Jews of the first century generally interpreted the Scripture, and they can have some pretty wild stuff in them and some of them violently disagree with one another because that is the nature of commentary.

of course, Matthew the Gospel author would agree as he used this verse to describe Yeshua’s baptism

Matt 3: 16 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; 17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

And I want to point something out here, and I will re-emphasize this every week. And I got this clarity from a brilliant scholar named Ben Worthington III. There is this idea floating around out there that the Apostles used Isaiah in order to justify what they believed but I disagree. I believe that they found in Isaiah an explanation for what they had experienced firsthand. Like, when Yeshua finally ascended to the Father, they were like, “what the heck just happened,” and they went and searched the Scripture and read Isaiah and they were like, “oh dang, heck yeah, I see it now.”

Continuing on with the verse, after “I will put my Spirit on him” it reads “he will bring forth justice to the nations.” Mishpat—right rulings, an ordered and right way of living, justice to the oppressed. This is not describing any gentile king, nor does it describe Israel, who instead of bringing justice to the nations became even more unjust than the nations around them and. After the exile, legislated a separation from Gentiles that made taking justice to them all but impossible. In fact, they became irrelevant historically. This is why the targums and Kimchi and Abarbanel saw not Israel as a people, but the Messiah as this chosen servant. Israel was and is a chosen servant, but one that failed in its mission. Therefore we are going to be seeing, and commentators have seen, a perfect representative of Israel who is a son of Jacob, a son of Israel, who will fulfill and complete Israel’s mission on earth.

2 He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street;

This phrase is not about staying indoors and whispering, it is about having no worldly authority to speak and proclaim. He won’t be standing on a street corner alongside heralds with trumpets blowing, making announcements for whatever earthly authority has everyone under their thumb. This guy is going to be someone obscure. So, of the two servants mentioned so far, the warrior servant or Israel—this definitely doesn’t describe Cyrus. Does it describe Israel, as a people? Possibly, they certainly had no real street cred with anyone after the exile.

3 a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice.

 

Needless to say, not Cyrus. Is this Israel, Israel idealized, or another servant?

4 He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his law.

The coastlands, as we have discussed previously, means “the ends of the earth” and “the islands” when we see it, means the exact same thing. So, the ends of the earth wait for the servant’s law. This, after he has established justice on the earth. This is certainly not Cyrus, who never established justice on the earth and the nations were certainly not longing for his law. Nor can the servant be Israel as a whole because to establish justice on the earth is the business of kings in the ancient Near East, as is the institution of laws. It could be a king of Israel who is also king of the earth.

5 Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it:

I love this type of verse—God is re-introducing Himself as a God who is distant and also intimate—describing Himself as the maker of the heavens and the earth and yet close enough to give breath to every living creature. Easily overlooked but totally awesome. Also, just interesting trivia here, when it says “flattened out the earth and what comes from it,” that’s actually blacksmithing language, like He hammered it out in a forge. In essence, He is comparing Himself even to the idolmakers—except they create emptiness, and He creates everything of value. His battle with the idol makers and His polemic against them never really strays very far from the forefront of what He is saying.

6 “I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you;
I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations,
7  to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.

So much here. Yahweh is speaking to the servant, whoever it is—not Cyrus and not Israel in general either and here is where it really gets proven, here and especially when we bring it into context with verses 18 and 19. Yahweh has called the servant in righteousness. Like Israel, who was taken in Yahweh’s left hand, this servant who will be given as a covenant for the people. And a light for the nations. This servant will open blind eyes and deliver people from bondage—specifically those who are sitting in darkness. Yahweh will save and deliver through the agency of this servant. He is already taking credit for it. This will be His doing, His will, His plan.

8 I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols.

And what He does will not be attributed to carved idols and no foreign gods will be able to take the glory of this salvation from Him.

9 Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth
I tell you of them.”

This goes back to the disputation with the idols that we saw last week in chapter 41—He alone can call the future forth before it happens. The gods were silent when challenged to do the same. They couldn’t do it in the past and they are just as blind about the future.

Remember two weeks ago when we talked about the Law of Continuity? Where there was no such thing as a “new thing” because the future was completely bound up in what had always happened in the past? Israel can’t be delivered from exile because no exiled people had already returned? To declare it as if it had already happened, before the fact, was a “new thing.” So there’re the end to exile, at the agency of Cyrus, but there is also this other servant that Cyrus does not meet the minimum qualifications for.

The prophet, in response to this “new thing” replies with a “new song”—the two are connected. A new thing requires a new song of praise to Yahweh.

10 Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise from the end of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that fills it, the coastlands and their inhabitants.
11 Let the desert and its cities lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar inhabits; let the habitants of Sela sing for joy, let them shout from the top of the mountains.
12 Let them give glory to the Lord, and declare his praise in the coastlands.

End of the earth, those who go down to the sea, coastlands and their inhabitants. Desert dwellers of Kedar—that’s in Arabia, habitants of Sela—the Septuagint translates this as Petra in Jordan. These are Gentiles and not Jews. This is, for all intents and purposes, the entire world as far as Biblical lyrical poetry is concerned. The Gentiles will be praising God.

13 The Lord goes out like a mighty man, like a man of war he stirs up his zeal; he cries out, he shouts aloud, he shows himself mighty against his foes.

This is unmistakable warrior language here—Yahweh the warrior—and we are going to see echoes of this in the Gospel of Mark used to describe Yeshua’s battles with demons. It is so evocative—a warrior marching to battle, getting himself all psyched to meet his enemies on the battle lines, shouting and screaming. Think about the movie 300 except with only one warrior who is way scarier. Now Yahweh becomes the main speaker again and the word “I” will be repeated over and over again through verse 16, over ten times.

 

14 For a long time I have held my peace; I have kept still and restrained myself; now I will cry out like a woman in labor; I will gasp and pant.
15 I will lay waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their vegetation; I will turn the rivers into islands,
and dry up the pools

 

Verse 14 (repeat it) isn’t really comparing Him to a woman, that language is really reserved for the Ruach, the Spirit—no, this is portraying the intensity of birthing something—something new—going back to verse 9. The intense screaming of a woman driven by love and instinct to bring forth life in the midst of pain. There is nothing half-hearted about a woman in the midst of giving birth. Then in verse 15 He is also portrayed as having supremacy over nature, He can create and He can destroy in His wrath.

16 And I will lead the blind in a way that they do not know, in paths that they have not known
I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground.    These are the things I do, and I do not forsake them.

This is such tender language, such a diversion from the Yahweh warrior, but again, we saw the exact same thing last week in Is 40:10-11, where one moment He is a mighty warrior and the next He is a gentle shepherd. Yahweh is reminding His people that He is not one or the other, but both. Here He is leading the blind in a way they do not know, and who are the blind? We’ll get to that in a bit here.

17 They are turned back and utterly put to shame, who trust in carved idols, who say to metal images,
“You are our gods.”

18 Hear, you deaf, and look, you blind, that you may see!

POW! Idol polemic again. He portrays Himself as a mighty warrior and a gentle guide and then BAM—contrasts those who trust in Him with those who trust in idols. I love verse 17—in the Hebrew it literally says that they will be shamed with shame. Dang. Yeboshu bosheth. Yahweh is making them look like blind fools and referring back to Psalm 115 where everyone who worships idols becomes like them, blind, deaf, and powerless. But that is His people because they were living as idolaters before the destruction of their home and they are still believing that Yahweh isn’t able to save them because of Babylon and its gods! He is literally saying, in modern terms, “Open your eyes, guys! It’s time to wake up and smell the coffee!”

But more than that. This has been building for a long time. Since Is 40:27, which I will read again before repeating the last verse and going forward again.

Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God”?

I can’t remember if I mentioned it during the first week but this is flat out an accusation that Yahweh is blind, because they are saying that they are hidden from Him, He can’t see them, and that He is deaf, because He is not listening to their petitions about what justice they figure they have been denied.

Just wow. Let’s just review. They got themselves into this mess, as detailed in Is 1-39 and many, many other places. Ezekiel even ate bread cooked over dung and played army men for over a year just to show their parents what big trouble they were in and Jeremiah, let’s not even review what he said and what they did to him. Yet they haven’t learned. They haven’t been worshiping Him in exile, they are believing Him to be powerless, defeated, etc. They are calling Him blind, deaf, and disinterested.

So let’s do this again and move on.

18 Hear, you deaf, and look, you blind, that you may see!

19 Who is blind but my servant, or deaf as my messenger whom I send?
Who is blind as my dedicated one, or blind as the servant of the Lord?
20 He sees many things, but does not observe them; his ears are open, but he does not hear.

Israel can’t be that chosen servant leading the blind and removing blindness because they are still blind. We aren’t doing a “blind leading the blind” scenario here. Despite the fact that they are servants, and yes, verse 19 is plural where it says “who is blind but my servant”—servant is plural and not singular. Yahweh is saying, “I am not blind, you’re blind. You’re my servants, but you are blind. I chose you to be my messengers to the world, but you are deaf.” Nowhere is their servant status, their chosen status, ever revoked or denied, but it is clear that they have been cursed with a blindness that leaves them unable to fulfill their calling as God’s people. And the worst part of it is that they, as a nation, have seen and recorded and preserved evidence of extraordinary wonders that are unparalleled in history and even in mythology. The Exodus account, the defeat of their enemies so many times when they didn’t even have to lift a finger. Miracles galore. Elijah and Elisha. Moses.  They were without excuse. They say “many things” but paid no attention. They have ears that work just fine, but they aren’t listening. And because of this, they are howling about how unjustly they have been treated by a God who is really not impressing them—but only because they truly are spiritually blind and deaf. Exile has taught them nothing. And so what do we do with this?

Is 6: 8 And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”

9 And he said, “Go, and say to this people: “‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’
10 Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”
11 Then I said, “How long, O Lord?” And he said: “Until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is a desolate waste,
12 and the Lord removes people far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.
13 And though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned again, like a terebinth or an oak, whose stump remains when it is felled.” The holy seed is its stump.

So, in the midst of the worst of their idolatry, Yahweh sends Isaiah, whom we see here being commissioned in the year that King Uzziah died, which scholars say happened sometime around 740 BCE, give or take a few years—so, around the same year when the Assyrian captivity of the northern Kingdom of Israel began.  It’s as though that issue is squared away, they were cut off and now Yahweh is focusing on the sins of Judah in the form of oppression, idolatry, deception, faked worship, etc. The chapter before this is called the Song of the Vineyard, where all of Judah and Jerusalem are soundly condemned for their wickedness and Yahweh tells them that He has finally had enough and He is calling down judgment in the form of destruction through the nations.  Isaiah serves as Yahweh’s prophet through the reigns of four kings—Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. Uzziah was a good king, but he famously committed the arrogant sin of taking a censor filled with incense into the Holy Place in the Temple where it is forbidden for anyone but priests to go and he was stricken with leprosy for the rest of his life. It was in the year of his death that the blind and deaf curse of Isaiah takes place. So, we have Isaiah speaking this prophecy/curse on the people that they will keep on hearing, but will not understand the past and they will keep on seeing, but they will not perceive what is going on now.

They have been blessed and cared for like no other nation on earth, before or since. They have experienced the miraculous—but they just still don’t get that God is jealously demanding their exclusive allegiance. They don’t get that worshiping Him half-heartedly is not enough—they are treating Him as the pagans treated their gods, who were not loved but simply cared for. They are not behaving with the expressed loving-kindness, patience and generosity of God. They have failed to be image-bearers. When they get into trouble with other nations, being tested, they unfaithfully (untrustingly) send money and items from the Temple of Yahweh to other nations in order to enlist their aid. I hope you know how insulting that is—and even the good kings were guilty of it time and again. You just do not loot the Temple of Yahweh to enlist humans to fight your battles—can anything possibly be more insulting? They were saying to Yahweh, “You are powerless and we don’t trust you” long before the exile. They just didn’t understand or perceive their special position, and because of this, they could not make Yahweh’s Torah great. Who can possibly be impressed with the instructions of a God whose own people are constantly giving away His own Temple treasures? Back to Is 42, where the prophet once more starts speaking:

21 The Lord was pleased, for his righteousness’ sake, to magnify his law and make it glorious.

Of course, law here is Torah but law is not as good a word as instructions because law is a harder word than Torah—our conception of the word law is very Greek in nature as hard do’s and don’ts whereas Torah means instructions, which is a word associated with wisdom in judgment. If not working on the Sabbath is a law, for example, then it can be regulated that not lifting a finger is more important than saving a life or changing the tire on a car when you see a family stranded on the side of the road in the middle of July in Texas. But instruction, under the banner of loving God and one’s neighbor, leaves room to breathe and do what is right instead of what is legislated. You can change that tire and be a blessing to that family, in the name of Yahweh, and have done better than if you legalistically stayed in your car and did nothing to help them. This is what Yahweh’s wisdom is—teaching us to love God and one another. I always say that the Torah is full of examples of the bare minimum requirements for keeping us safe from one another and, of course, Yeshua taught us to go above and beyond all that, Torah on steroids. So, Israel was to magnify this instruction by keeping it to the point that all the world would marvel at the glory of God’s love and wisdom. Of course, it didn’t happen. Despite all they heard and saw, they behaved as though they were blind and deaf and so a spiritual blindness and deafness fell upon them. And, just for the record, let’s not pat ourselves on the back for being all that and a bag of chips either. But, as a punishment, to teach them to respect Yahweh, He destroyed everything and sent them into exile so they could learn how good they had it before under Him and-as we keep seeing, they are still not getting it.

22 But this is a people plundered and looted; they are all of them trapped in holes and hidden in prisons;
they have become plunder with none to rescue, spoil with none to say, “Restore!”

The point of all this is that no one and nothing they have trusted in is able to save them, or cares to save them. They put their faith in nations, and a nation destroyed not only them but all the nations to which they used to turn for help. They put their faith in other gods, who are emptiness and nothing. No one, as the verse says, is there to restore them—specifically to send them back home.

23 Who among you will give ear to this, will attend and listen for the time to come?

Yahweh here is challenging them to finally listen and face the truth of what has happened—their ears work fine but they have to be willing to not only trust that Yahweh can and will deliver them back home, but they need to accept why they are in exile in the first place. Now, this next part is just maddening:

24 Who gave up Jacob to the looter, and Israel to the plunderers? Was it not the Lord, against whom we have sinned, in whose ways they would not walk, and whose law they would not obey?

That’s right. Yahweh wasn’t conquered. The Jews are in exile not because someone overcame Yahweh, but because Yahweh ordained it and gave Nebuchadnezzar the authority and ability to do it. If they don’t finally understand that and humble themselves, then it will all have been for nothing and the cycle will just start over again. “Jacob” was given over. Looted. Plundered. Not only with Yahweh’s permission but by His command. They sinned against Him for hundreds and hundreds of years, they refused to walk according to His commandments, and would not live with the kindness and generosity borne out of gratitude for being released from slavery in Egypt. They became more like Pharaoh themselves than like Yahweh.

25 So he poured on him the heat of his anger and the might of battle; it set him on fire all around, but he did not understand; it burned him up, but he did not take it to heart.

What was Yahweh’s response to this affront to His kindness? He poured out wrath on His people, hoping they would finally see that they had sinned against Him and had earned their punishment, but as we know from Jeremiah, they were stubborn to the end, even imprisoning Jeremiah for suggesting that it was their own fault. Jerusalem and Judah burned to the ground, along with the Temple—and yet it says that they still didn’t hear what the prophets had been saying and see the truth of what was going on around them. They didn’t take it to heart that it was their fault, their consequence for how they had treated Yahweh and one another. Nothing could possibly be more tragic and heartbreaking. If that didn’t work, what would?

Well, next week, we go to chapter 43 which begins, in English, with the two words, “But now”—is there hope on the horizon?



Confronting a Devastating Doctrine: Are Children’s Toys Graven Images? Of Course Not.

I guess it was just a matter of time, but I had two sets of parents ask me about this in one week – sending me supporting websites proclaiming this. It’s the natural consequence of the internet community’s preoccupation with potential paganism and probably the most devastating manifestation of it that I have seen thus far. A person with a blog, website, you-tube or vimeo account yet with no academic credentials whatsoever can put out a very convincing and passionate argument, on the surface, as to why this or that is pagan and people  will assume that they are experts. Fear does that, and the internet preachers excel in injecting fear into an audience that is increasingly terrified of its own shadow – unable to live in the modern world or even to open their eyes for fear of contamination (Messiah and the Jerusalem Talmud Sota 22b describes such people as “blind” (blind guides in Messiah’s case Matt 23:16.24) – those men who were so concerned with their righteousness that they would injure themselves by walking into a wall with their eyes closed rather than risk seeing a beautiful woman).

As I have been, since August, increasingly transforming my ministry into equipping children and their families (so they can better teach their children and grandchildren whether in the home or in a classroom setting) into an understanding of scriptural context and character, this is something that I need to address before any more young lives are needlessly hurt.

If you want to know the counterfeit bill when you see one, you familiarize yourself with real money. In the same way, if you want to know what isn’t pagan, you familiarize yourself with what is actually pagan. I have been intensely studying ancient near eastern and first century religion for quite a while now. I wanted to understand all the references in the Bible to it, I wanted to know what was pagan (the worshiping of graven images) versus what was just cultural (i. e. anointing feet with perfumed oil), or decorative (i. e. palm trees, or ankhs), or organisational (i. e. dividing groups of priest’s workload into set times during the year), or legal (for example, a good law is a good law even when pagans have the same law). I also did this because I saw people who started out searching out pagan references in culture then getting upset over elements of the worship of YHVH because they were also used in pagan rites (i.e. sacrifice, incense, etc). Familiarizing myself with what the other cultures did and why they did it made it increasingly easy for me to spot the false forms of worship, and I was also able to rule out a lot of things that do not fall into that category. People obsessed with ‘paganism’ are walking away from the worship of the one true God because they do not understand what constitutes idolatry and they overreact and see the Temple service as simply another aspect of what was going on in the ancient world. However, an in depth study of what actually was going on, instead of a surface understanding, shows that there is absolutely nothing whatsoever ‘pagan’ about the worship of YHVH. I will prove the same about children’s toys, that they are in no way pagan.

For example, what if someone equated nuns with young girls because of their virginity and called all young girls nuns? Context tells us that this is a ridiculous train of thought. In the same way, we cannot equate wives with prostitutes simply because neither are virgins – we need the context of the nature of the sexual relationship in order to discern the difference between the good and the bad. If someone looks at me and my sister in law and says, “Oh look, they gave birth to twins,” because we both have sets of twins, they would also be incorrect. In context, my husband and I adopted our sons whereas my sister in law gave birth to her daughters. When I talk about my “Twin” you would imagine someone who looks just like me and grew up with the same experiences, not an African American RN from Chicago who I have never actually met in real life. Surface knowledge alone will give rise to our active imaginations, but rarely to an accurate assessment of the situation.

Think of a first semester med school student, diagnosing themselves to death. They have a certain amount of surface knowledge and to a certain extent they are limited to appearances – but they lack the overall context that enables them to rule out certain possibilities, and to filter out unimportant data. In a few years, they will no longer have that problem and because they have context, we go to them when we are ill. We see the same thing in computer or automobile repair. If I have limited experience and I hear a sound or get a fatal exception error then I figure it’s broken because I lack the context to know what is really going on.

People who want to shout the alarm are not always legitimate watchmen, usually they aren’t – they are people who got excited about something, felt like they had to warn everyone, mistook that excitement for the leading of the Spirit and stirred up fear. They are generally not experts, and generally they haven’t even checked their facts because they assumed that the people from whom they got the information did the hard  verification work themselves and checked their facts using legitimate sources

So what are the facts on toys vs graven images? After being approached by a parent who was terrified that they were being commanded to bonfire their children’s toys (even their Legos, from the website they sent me), I knew that this had to be addressed. Are toys idols? What does the word idol even mean because Christianity has seriously redefined it so that it can be practically anything. If someone likes something too much, we don’t call it an obsession or a dangerous distraction or an addiction – nope, it’s an idol. We have watered down something with an actual meaning into an over-spiritualization – like the Pharisees did with Sabbath-breaking – it came to mean too much, and was not uniformly enforced, making a mockery out of the day. Sabbath breaking had the potential to become whatever a person wanted it to be – if they had an audience and had been given the authority. These days you don’t even need the authority, and social media provides everyone with an audience.

What is a toy – a toy is a natural function of childhood, modified through form.  A child without a ball will kick a rock or a can, one without a sword or toy gun will use a stick or their finger, a child without a doll will fuss over a rolled up blanket, or a family or neighborhood baby, one without a swimming pool will go to the river or lake to play. The toy is a functional item that serves a purpose, shaped by the culture a child was raised in – sword vs gun is a perfect example of that. Function, and not form, is what separates a toy from a graven image. Function, and not form, is also what separated idolatry from cultural expressions of respect, decorative motifs, organisational strategies, and laws. Function is what, for example, separated the Tabernacle in the wilderness and later, Solomon’s Temple, from the Parthenon – a temple is not bad because the form is used elsewhere – it is the actual function that determines whether or not it qualifies as ‘pagan.’

The same exact form can serve different functions and so we must be crystal clear on what the intended function is.

Graven images cannot simply be defined on the surface as an image that is engraved – as though the English language description conveys intention and function. The Commandments were engraved in stone – including the one telling people not to make graven images.

A graven image was, specifically, an object carved or molded out of clay, stone, metal or wood for the purpose of being embodied by the essence of a god, through a magical ceremony conducted by professional priests. The purpose for the embodiment with the god’s spirit was so that the god could be worshiped – which in pagan religions specifically meant to be cared for through washing, dressing, anointing, feeding it real food and drink, setting it into its throne, where it can be petitioned, adored, fed again, undressed and put to bed so that the god would not starve to death and their function in the universe would not fall into chaos. Modern day idol worshipers can tell you this – someone who was Hare Krishna just gave me an education on some things a few weeks back.

asherah

The above is an idol, an actual idol. Mishnah Tractate Sanhedrin  Chapter 7 Mishnah 7 (some versions list it as Mishnah 6), which was written when people still did this all over the world, is a reflection of this. It will tell you exactly what constituted idolatry (I recommend the Kehati commentary otherwise it is confusing). They knew because they lived in an idolatrous world, they had the context. Legos don’t qualify as graven images, nor did the cherubim in the Temple, or the Menorah, or the bulls holding  up the Molten Sea, or baby dolls, or any children’s toys. No one played with idols, they were set up in shrines and treated like the gods that they represented, but they themselves were not the gods, everyone knew that. They didn’t get set aside, ever. They were cared for not for fun, but by professional priests who were charged with keeping the god alive and healthy and hopefully, doing their job and mostly leaving the people alone (a bored god was a dangerous thing).

Toys serve a specific function that is completely at odds with idolatry. But more than this, I want you to think about the spiritual danger of taking that which is beloved and destroying it simply because someone on the internet tells you to and instills you with fear. We aren’t being careful enough about who we believe and listen to – we are assuming that people wouldn’t have a website unless they had legitimacy – but these days anyone can have a website. You need time and sometimes money, that’s it. A $30 little webcam will get you free access to the people on you-tube. Social media also gives you unfettered access to people – but you don’t need to have any expertise, you only need to sound convincing. The article I read on toys was full of manipulative fear tactics, but not full of any real information. The authors defined what a graven image, an idol, was, and then expanded their own definition so that it could include and exclude things at their own convenience. Idols, however, are real life constructs serving real life purposes, worshiped with real life intentions and we can’t just ignore that real life context and manipulate the words to suit our own agendas. I honestly pity the people who have put this stumbling block in front of children, who are knowingly subjecting them to the horror of watching their toys burned in the yard – and blaming God for it. It’s just cruelty under the illusion of zeal, but it is rooted in a lack of knowledge of the actual situation, and the resulting overreaction.

But frankly, it was inevitable, because we have created an online culture where everyone has a pulpit and people try to undermine the experts for this or that reason if the experts present facts that are in disagreement with agendas based on, in this case, theories. I ignore a lot of stuff on social media because it is outside the scope of my ministry, but this is where I draw the line and I am speaking up because my studies have given me a certain measure of expertise – at least compared to the people who came up with this devastating doctrine. This is hurting children, needlessly, but it is the logical consequence of listening to whoever is speaking the most persuasively and inducing the most fear and presuming that they must know what they are talking about.

Edit: 2/13/16 My brother Ryan White posted this blog explaining this same concept this morning.