When all has been Heard

Isaiah 44:9-20

As one reads verses 9-20, it is difficult for people living in the U.S.A. or any Western culture to grasp the worship of, or even being the fabricator of something a person would bow down to and worship.  But it was not so in the time of Isaiah, for most of the nations around them had some form of idol made by a craftsman and worshipped by its people.  As people who read and study the Scriptures, we recall King Solomon who first married a beautiful Jewish girl, the love of his life, but sometime later he married Naamah, an Ammonite princess and next he entered a political alliance with the Pharaoh of Egypt and married his daughter, and allowed her to bring in her gods.  We do not know the mind of Solomon, but one must wonder and see the changes, after the infestation of idols into his home and his kingdom.  He became very open to the pagan and immoral influence of women, in that he had a total of 700 wives who were princesses and 300 concubines, who turned his heart from the LORD.

King Solomon’s worship was not in their idols, but that is not to say he did not worship false gods, for Solomon had an idol much like many in and out of the Church today and in the time of Paul the apostle.  You find this idol in your home, at school, in church, in the market place, it goes where you go, for it is worship of self, it is placing self first.  It’s a sneaky little idol, it loves to look good, it will work hard on its performance in order to be accepted by others, it will serve in order to gain acceptance, and yes, it will put self before all others if it can do it in a manner that make others believe it’s better than both God and the person knows to be true.

My teacher Bill Gilham would often state: “God never intended for you to get your needs 

met through your own resources.  The flesh is incapable of supplying what God intends 

to supply Himself.”  So how does a Solomon, or someone like you and me remove this idol 

from its control over our lives?  That question is a good starting point, and a beginning point is 

examining ourselves to see if we pass the test laid out in 2 Corinthians 13:5, (“Examine 

yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith.  Test yourselves.  Or do you not realize 

this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? – unless indeed you fail to meet the 

test!”)  Once you passed the test, your next step is found in Romans 12:1-3,  “I appeal to you 

therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy 

and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but 

be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will 

of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.  For by the grace given to me I say to 

everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think 

with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.”   

(Romans 12:1-3 ESV)

What was common to Solomon is communal to all mankind; we love being in charge, 

running the show, or as old blue eyes sang, “I did it my way.”  It does not require intelligence 

to understand the world is trying to mold you to get you to conform to its patterns, but the 

Holy Spirit is willing to transform you and place into you the attitude and heart of Christ, 

who loves you and lives in you, that is, if you passed the test.  God has sent the Helper 

(the Holy Spirit) to guide you into all truth, but God will not force you to develop habits that 

produce Godly character, and so if you want to do so you must begin to renew your mind.  

 I’ve found it to be very helpful in understanding my kind of flesh; it likes to be first, it likes to 

be right, it likes to be noticed, and it likes you to think better of me than God and I know to 

be true.  And God desires for all flesh is not to make it better, but to kill it.  Not to kill you, but 

to renew your mind so you look to God in all things, not to yourself.  King Solomon came 

to this conclusion: “The end of the matter, all has been heard. Fear God and keep his 

commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.”

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice