“What profit is an idol when its maker has shaped it?”—Habakkuk 2:18 ESV
Hideyoshi was a Japanese warlord who ruled over Japan in the late 1500s. He commissioned a colossal statue of Buddha for a shrine in Kyoto. It took 50,000 men five years to build, but the work had scarcely been completed when the earthquake of 1596 brought the roof of the shrine crashing down and wrecked the statue. In a rage Hideyoshi shot an arrow at the fallen colossus. “I put you here at great expense,” he shouted, “and you can’t even look after your own temple.”
In an instant, Hideyoshi was forced to come to terms with the futile aspects of idol-worship. He swiftly learned that idols are powerless to protect; powerless to save.
We today are not exempt from the curse of Hideyoshi’s foolishness, in putting personal trust in idols. Idolatry—and its coupled utter futility—still exists in our modern world. Only those idols that were once handmade, are now being mass-produced by the rapidity of thought in this Information Age and by its many false prophets endearingly called Social Media Influencers.
“While it is easy to believe the fact that these influencers live the picture-perfect life, it is often far from the truth. Reports over the years have unveiled startling facts about influencers. Some of them falsify information, promote brands that are harmful and mislead their followers.”
[Source: Bhattacharyya, R. (December 19, 2019). Why You Shouldn’t Believe Social Media Influencers And Their Seemingly Perfect Lives. Travel.Earth. <https://travel.earth/why-you-shouldnt-believe-social-media-influencers-and-their-seemingly-perfect-lives/>]
Pastor Steven Lawson aptly defines modern idolatry in these terms: “An idol is anything you love more than God, fear more than God, and serve more than God. Never be idle about idols in your life.”
Listen to the simple, divine, spiritual logic of Habakkuk 2:18–20, and take hold of its inspired truths:
“What profit is an idol 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. But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him” (Habakkuk 2:18–20 ESV).
When people turn from the living God, they turn away from the source of objective, unchangeable and powerful truth (Psalm 115:5–8). In so doing, they become something less than what God, their Creator, intended. They become that which is less than life, and inevitably less than human—unreal (cf. Habakkuk 2:18–20) and, of course, ungodly (2 Timothy 3:1–5). “Avoid such people!” exhorts the Apostle Paul (2 Timothy 3:5). Never be idle about idols in your life, and remember: “The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him” (Habakkuk 2:20 ESV).
—Adapted from Ron Metheny, “Why, God? Why?!: Understanding Habakkuk,” 53–55, <https://www.amazon.com/Why-God-Understanding-Habakkuk/dp/1664291873/ref>
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