The Gods of Babylon Pt 2

0:01 All right, for the second hour, we're back in Isaiah chapter forty. I'm going to do a quick recap, not going to be able to go through everything we covered in the first hour always you know, well, it'll be uploaded, you know, soon after I get home, it'll be available. But Isaiah chapter forty, as we have talked about over and over and over, for some weird reason, after listening to one hundred sermons, sermon after sermon after sermon, wants to insert us into Isaiah forty when it's not about us. It's about Judah and Babylonia captivity. We've talked about that Isaiah. We have covered verse by verse Isaiah forty one through eleven. We've covered that there's words of comfort offered here to Judah, helping them understand that basically their time in captivity is coming to an end. We've talked about all of this, and then starting in verse twelve to seventeen, there's this section where Isaiah of course gives this message before he before they go in captivity. But God, to Isaiah, this message is given to try to demonstrate to the people who are explain to the people, teach the people of God's greatness. Of his power, of how he's in a sense incomparable to anything else. And you see this in Isaiah forty twelve to seventeen. We'll just read it quickly.

1:19 It asked a lot of rhetorical questions. Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, meeted out heaven with the span and comprehended the dust of the earth and a measure, and weighed the mountains and scales and the hills and a balance. The only one who has done that is God, meaning God is superior, greater than all of this. Who hath directed the spirit of the Lord being his counselor who hath taught him? No one has taught God. There's no one who can teach him, because he's all knowing, with whom took hey counsel, and who instructed him and taught him in the path of judgment and taught him knowledge and showed to him the way of understanding. No one. He didn't need any help, didn't need any understanding. Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as a small dust of the balance. Behold, he taketh up the aisles as a very little thing Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for burnt, offering all nichous before him or as nothing, and they're counted to him less than nothing and vanity. This is demonstrating God is greater and God and he wants to demonstrate God that the writer wants to demonstrate God's greatness to those in captivity for two reasons. The first reason was to show them that God is greater than the Babylonians who is holding them in captivity, to give him some sense of hope, peace and comfort. Second, they want he wants them to understand God's greatness and He's incomparable to anything, because they are in Babylon, and Babylon is known for all of its idolatry and all of its different gods that they have,

2:54 and it wants them to understand it because in the very next section it goes into talking about idolagry. So because that's what God is attempting to do. What I decided to do in the first hour, and we're going to complete it in the second hour, is we are looking at because it is essential that we understand the religious context of Babylon during that time and What we need to know is that Babylon was one of the most religious, our most religiously complex and idle dominated societies in the ancient world. So what we did in the first hour is we went through the basically the pantheon of gods in Babylon. There were seven major ones. The first one is mark Duk, who was the supreme god of Babylon. Not going to go through everything about him.

3:46 The second one was Ishtar. She's the goddess of love, war, fertility, and we talked about her. The third one is Nabu, the god of wisdom. The fourth of Shamash, the god of the Sun and justice. The filth one is sin which is the moon god. Number six is Nergal, the god of the underworld and the plague. And the seventh one is Tilmont, the primordial chaos goddess whom Marduk defeated to bring order to the universe. Those are the gods of Babylon. The main thing you need to take away from this is these gods were involved in every aspect of life for the Babylonians. It was it was. They were connected to the king, they were connected to justice, they were connected to the government. They were connected to truth, they were connected to wisdom, they were connected to everything.

4:38 So if you're the if you're a part of Judah and you'rept held captive within, if you're held captive within Babylon, what are you going to be influenced by all of that religious system? So when they come out of captivity, what is a great chance they're going to bring with them those religious ideas. So God God is taking the time here in Isaiah to show them the true God is greater than these other gods. All right, that's what he's attempting to do and trying to talk about. All Right. Is that a good enough summary? I hope so. All right, So that brings us to now what we're going to start in this hour. All Right, We're going to talk about the Babylonian idolatry and their worship practices. We're going to talk about the idolatry specifically and their worship practices. Okay, all right, does that make sense? All Right, here we go.

5:34 Let's talk about the role of idols and Babylon. Let's talk about the role of Babylon. The role of idols and Babylon. This entire section is going to be about Babylonian idolatry and the actual practice. Okay, so we're going to start with the role of Babylon or the role of idols and Babylon and obviously this becomes a physical representation of gods. Babylonian religion relied heavily on idols, which were believed to house the divine presence of their respective God. I need you to understand that, all right, in Babylonian thought, the idol housed the divine presence of their respective God.

6:25 All right, why is that important? How do we typically preach against the idolatry of Babylon. They built this idol. It's nothing. It's just wood, it's just gold, it's just material they came up with. How stupid are they to worship something that they built. It's ridiculous, it's meaningless, it's useless. A Babylonian would have said back, what, it's more than the gold and silver, It houses the divine presence. So you need to understand that sometimes our way, the way we sometimes speak of their religion in many cases, is not always accurate. Right. I just want you to understand that.

7:14 It's because so many times what happens you come to church, you hear a sermon, whatever the pastor says about the religious system of whatever, people have a tendency to do what just accept it. So one of the things that ticks me off when pastors speak about Satanism, drives me crazy because they almost always misrepresent it. One of the reasons I went to a Catholic universities. I got tired of hearing pastors speak about Catholicism and demonstrate they had no clue what they're talking about. From a practical standpoint, here's what I want you to understand. Whenever we speak of another religious system, what is paramount that we do that we speak accurately and we speak truthfully, right, because misrepresenting it. If I miss just represent it and then argue against it, I'm not actually arguing against the real thing.

8:04 I'm arguing against a straw man that I created to knock down. And that's an easy that's a logical fallacy. But it's a common thing people do in arguments, right, even in politics. If you're going to argue against another side, you don't fairly represent it. You create a straw man and then you can knock it down, and then you're like, look, I'm worse smarter than them because you completely misrepresented the entire idea. You always got to be accurate. So for them, an idol was more than just the materials that were used to build it. It was what a house of the divine presence? Does everybody understand it? It was a house of the divine presence. These idols were made of wood, gold, silver, and stone and were regularly maintained by priests through rituals to sustain them. So they knew what it was made of.

8:54 But they would do things to sustain the house, right, because it was just the house for the deity the same way, and we can mock it, we can mock that. But did not Israel maintain the temple. They maintained the temple and guess what they believe God's dwelt in it? Okay, right, So just it's the same concept, right, it's the same concept. Right. Just want to make sure we have a better understanding here, right. The gods were believed to dwell in the idol, meaning they were physically present in them. They believed they were physically present in them. So if so, if you would have walked up to a Babylonian like that's nothing it's just wood, gold, silver, It's nothing that would be like no, no, no, no, there's more there. Now, the question is how did the physical presence of their deity end up inside the idol?

9:56 How does it get there? Does anyone know how it gets there? They had a ritual to get it there? Right, This ritual it would be spelled mis pi, two separate words, miss p. Right, it's the ritual of miss p, the opening. It's called the opening of the mouth. It's the ritual of miss p. It's the opening of the mouth. This is one of the most significant ceremonies for idle worship. It was the mispe or the opening of the mouth ritual which activated a new idol and infused it with the divine presence. This is how the divine presence entered in by doing this ritual of miss p. That the opening of the mouth, and it activated it. So if you had an idol and it hadn't gone through that ritual, it didn't have the divine presence. If you went through the real than it did. Right. So just this is how it actually occurred. I was watching briefly just a YouTube video this morning, and I don't know the credentials of the individual. But he was mentioning this very thing, this ritual of miss P, and I was like, oh, okay, that's okay, good. I'm on, there's at least someone out there who agrees with me on this, right, because that's the ritual that did this right. Priests would perform purification

11:29 rites and cantations and sacrifice to make the idol suitable for God, to their God to dwell in. So whatever God was going to do well in it, they would do incantations, sacrifices, things opening the mouth in a sense, opening that God or opening that idol for the divine presence. So just make sure you understand that that they just telling them. It's just would go that would have been like, you don't even understand my religion. There's a God inside of it. Now, we wouldn't believe there's a God inside of it, but they they would, and they so just make sure we understand that all right now. Once the ritual was completed. Once they completed completed, miss P, guess what the idol would be treated as living deity. It would be carried in processions, it would be clothed, and then they would do an animal sacrifice in a sense in order to like feed their God. Right, So if you don't understand, miss p, you don't understand idolatry of Babylon?

12:48 Does that make sense? And I'm not by no means I am I saying it was you. I cannot prove this. I do not have the knowledge to prove this. I don't know if that was a unique thing to Babylon on the loan, but I would pretty much bet it was. It all right, I'm pretty much sure that there was some similar thing in all cultures and they because we always kind of treat it like these people bowing down to this stupid piece of metal, Like pastors tend to really speak speak down of that, like the people are stupid. It's like that's not quite the way it went. They believe there was a god inside of it. Does that make sense? So the thing is, we can disagree with the idolatry, but we want to fairly what represent the idolatry?

13:34 Do you see the difference? You can one thousand percent disagree with something, but you gotta accurately represent it. That's when I get I get so ticked off every time Christians want to yell and scream because some celebrity saying imagine by John Lennon. It ticks me off. The Christian Post just recently, I think, within the last two or three months, was going off on against someone saying, you know, I think they were mad because some liberal politician played Imagine by John Lennon. Oh my goodness, it's anti crisis evil. It's evil. It's evil. It's like, could you at least represent the song accurately. I may disagree with the message that John Lennon was trying to say, but what he was trying to say is we need to get rid of all the things that divide us. What divides us?

14:26 You tell me, religion doesn't divide us, that does. Hey wanted to imagine a world where there would be no division. There would be no heaven in hell because that's a symbol of what division with a world where there is no religion? Why, because it is divisive. Now you may disagree with him thinking that there's a way that that's ever going to happen, but you can understand why someone would like to imagine a wor where it wasn't that way. And if there's anyone who probably ultimately knew about division, when you get shot and killed in Central Park. You probably know about a device the world, right, He kind of knew how it was going. He didn't like it.

15:14 Do I agree that his solution? No? But can we all I would like to imagine a world where there would be no division. I would like to imagine a Christianity where we didn't fight about every single verse. Oh but that's satanic. No, that's Antichrist, and it's evil. It'sy. It just ticks me off that. How about we say hmm. John Lennon had a perspective on the division in the world, and his solution was, let's just remove all division. There'll be no country, there'll be no border, there'll be no this, there'll be no that. I know all the song. I'm just naming things. Okay, do we agree? I know? Maybe not? Does that make it? Can we just accurately represent it as like he was in a basement with a pentagram with a goat he cut open and he was like, oh God, the Satan has given me the song. I mean, can we just it's so ridiculous how we have to do that. Sometimes it's just like, okay, can we just discuss the song? Well, when we discuss the religion of Babylon.

16:17 We need to accurately, accurately represented. They weren't just like they just went picked up wood and built this thing and believed it was just wood and just gold. They believe something else was there. Do we disagree with that, Yes, but that doesn't that gives you some insight, right, just like Israel believed who resided in their temple God. Right, So now of course we can argue the difference, but the point is there's a similarity there. Does that make sense? All right? Now? So that's the the opening of the mouth ritual misp and uh and yeah, just know everything about that. So that's a little bit about the role of idols, that it's the opening of the mouth. I think there's probably one more thing, a couple that we'll talk about. A couple of their festivals and processions. The New Year festival is spelled a k i tu akatu.

17:14 Maybe I don't know this one. I don't even know how to say. I don't even have a clue. I didn't even bother to look this one up. It's the or to look up how to say it. I looked up information about it. But Akatuu festival, this is the New Year Festival. It was one of the most important religious festivals where Marduk's idol was paraded through the city. The king would participate, bowing before the idol and reaffirming his submission to Marduk. Now, see, once again, what do you have the mixing of the civil authority, government with religion. And I'm telling you, we've talked about how anytime that's happened in history, people die. It always goes bad, Okay, And I don't want to go back and repreach everything I did in the first hour. As I said, plenty there, all right, But yeah, that just drives me crazy that I can't stand that, all right, I can't stand it from just make sure we know that I don't like that.

18:10 I don't like it even when government leaders do it with Christianity, because inevitably then they act like God is on their side, and it always leads to all kinds of problems and issues. So daily rituals and vod presenting food, drinking incense to the gods, and they and these gods were believed to maintain cosmic balance and divine favor. Of course, everyone believes God is on their side. Everyone always does, all right, So The main thing is the Akatu festival was the New year festival, and Marduk's idol was paraded and everyone bowed down before it. Basically, all right, you had daily rituals and going on those kind of the things happening there now. Divination and astrology and babylon divination and astrology. Babylonian religion was deeply tied to divination, particularly by omens from the stars, animal introls, and dreams. So they were always trying to contact and do things to contact some kind of spirit or something to get information answers.

19:18 Astrology was developed by the Babylonians and played a major role in decision making for kings and priests. What are the stars doing? What do the stars mean? How do they have impact on our lives? The gods were believed to communicate their will through celestial movements, so by latching the stars, that would interpret that as God telling them what to do or not to do? Do this, do that? Do this? All right? There? Does that give us a good insight of the of the idolatry and religion of Babylon. Now keep that in mind because as we go through Isaiah forty, where we're getting ready to start in probably a week. Guess what it's going to be about idolatry, and you know what it's going to sound like like it's responding to everything we're reading. You know why because it was written to a specific people in a specific historical setting, and it will make perfect sense at that point.

20:13 All right, Now, so that gives us the Babylonia idolatry and worship practices. Now, let's consider why Isaiah forty attacks Babylonian idolatry. Right, I'm going to give you two passages to look at. Specifically, look at Isaiah forty. Look at verses eighteen through twenty. We'll read these Isaiah forty, eighteen through twenty. Everybody there, It ask a question, does it not to whom? Then? Will ye like in God? Or what likeness will you compare under him? Now, the idea is you should not be liking in God to anything, and there should be no likeness you're comparing to him, because he's what incomparable. I think that's the words they we use. I think that's the word we used in our outline. Right. Look in verse nineteen, the workmen melteth a a graven image. That's what we just talked about the goldsmiths spread it over with gold and cast its silver chains. He that is so impoverished that he hath no oblation, chooseth a tree that will not rot. He seeketh under him a cunning workman to prepare a graven image that that shall not be moved. That's going immediately to what idolatry. You know, when preachers preach us, you will say, these people were so ridiculous. They made this idol and they bowed down to it. How dumb can you be? Well, just remember, even though you may think

21:46 it's foolish, they're not bowing just to wood or silver or gold. They're bowing to what they believe is the divine presence of a god. Right. Just make sure we understand that, Okay, not saying we have to agree with it. The other passage is versus Isaiah forty. Look at verse twenty five. He does the same thing, basically, very similar. What does he start with again in verse twenty five? To whom then will ye liking me? Or who shall I? Who shall I be? Equal? Saith the Holy One? Lift up your eyes on high, behold who hath created these things that bringeth out their host by number. In that interesting that he specifically mentions what the host by numbers is, what the stars, the heavens, what was key to Babylonian astrology.

22:37 So what is he trying to demonstrate? God created all of that? The God of Israel is the creator of all of that, which is even almost a bigger claim. Marduk. Remember how it is in Babylonian religion, there was the goddess what was her name again, I don't have in front of me. Tamatu, right, Tamata, right, Tama Tamah Right, Tama Tiama was the goddess. She's the premortal. She's there at the beginning. She's the god of chaos, all right, She's the god of chaos and other things. Right, Tama is this god of chaos? So everything was chaos. Marduk showed up, defeated her and brought order to the universe. Right, So he just defeated a goddess and brought order. Israel is being taught, guess what, our God created everything. He didn't just bring out order from chaos. He created everything in the first place. So it's trying to demonstrate the supremacy of God so that they understand that does that make sense? All right? So, and Isaiah forty eighteen through twenty and Isaiah forty twenty five through twenty six, depending how you read this, some say this almost there's almost like a ridicule of their idolatry and contrast to the One True God, or at least it's being shown to be almost ridiculous compared to what the true God. Do

24:08 you worship the God who created everything? Or do you worship something that's part of the creation. Does that make sense? So that's what they're trying trying to be trying to demonstrate. So if you look at Isaiah forty eighteen through twenty, which we just read a minute ago, all right, I'm gonna read it from a different translation. To whom then, will you like in God? Or what likeness compare with him? An idol, a craftsman cast it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and cast it for silver chains. He who is too impoverished for an offering, chooses would that will not rot? He seeks out a skillful craftsman to set up an idol that will not move. In Isaiah forty eighteen through twenty, Isaiah in a sense is almost mocking the human made nature of idols. They are crafted by men, yet worshiped as divine. Isaiah is somewhat mocking it.

25:07 So make sure we understand that Isaiah is. But Isaiah is mocking it using whose words? God's words? Yeah, God's words, so God. So it's almost like what it's happening here is God's trying to establish. Guys. I know you've been in captivity for seventy years. I know you've been around this religion. I know from a practical sense you may think what their God is greater than me because my temple was destroyed. But I want you to know that's ridiculous. I Am the true God. That's what're trying to establish here. Does that make sense? The Babylonian priests claim their gods inhabited these statues. Don't forget that. They claim that. Isaiah emphasizes that these idols and reality are what. Lifeless and mobile and powerless is what he ultimately wants to demonstrate.

26:02 They're lifeless and mobile and power Someone has to carry it. They have to carry it right, right, so, and they know they have to carry it right. Eh. But it's going to be very hard though, to convince the people of Judah that these things are powerless. Why is it going to be hard for them to realize this? Because from a practical perspective, the God of Babylon captured Judah, destroyed the temple, and they've now been here for almost seventy years. We don't know exactly at what point they get this, but they're going to be there for seventy years, and they so from a practical standpoint, from a site perspective, it would look like the God of Babylon or the gods of Babylon are greater than the God of Israel.

26:53 And so what they're going to have to do is they're going to have to believe by faith when everything them may say otherwise. Does that make some sense? All right? Look at Isaiah forty twenty five through twenty six, which we've already read. I'm gonna read it one more time. To whom, then, will you compare me that I should be like him? Says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high, and see who created these He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name, by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power, not one is missing. Basically, like, hey, guys, I created all of this. So what is the critique being offered here? While the Babylonians worship the stars as divine beings connected to marduk Ishtar and Sin, Yahweh is presented as the one who created and controls them. See, within the Babylonian religion, marduk Ishtar and Sin would be very much connect those are three of their deities would be connected to these stars and almost as being divine beings. Almost. Well, guess what they're being told? God is the one who created and controls them. Now, from a philosophical standpoint, you could see this could be a little struggle. Well, if God controls there, if my God controls them, then how come I'm in Babylonian captivity? Right? You can see where that could raise some questions. Right, God's sovereign power over

28:24 creation makes him incomparable to the powerless Babylonian idols. So you can see in those sections those gods are being white critiqued, They're being challenged. Now this raises the question why would Isaiah then? Why why would Isaiah attack these Babylonian Why would he attack these Babylonian idols? Why would he go through this well, we see the critique, he offers, Right, we see that, but we need to consider the impact of Babylonian idolatry on the Israelites. All right, I want you to think of how it would end. So I'm just going to ask you. I've got how many here?

29:08 I got at least two? Well? Could we could probably do it a couple of different ways, but just think about it from a practical standpoint. I'll just kind of present this to you, all right, if you try to imagine you live back in that time, so you're going to have much more of a superstitious religious kind of way of thinking than our modern world. It's going to be you're going to have everything's going to be connected to a god. Everything, you know, the wind, everything in your mind. It's just the way it would have worked at that time. You get carried off into Babylonian captivity and you see all of their idols, all of their religion, and you're surrounded with it Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday night.

29:48 You're there week after week, month after month after month after month. What would be the practical implications and how it would possibly impact you. That's what I want you to think about the prac This is not theoretical. This has real world application for these people. That's why, that's why you've got to interpret the text in light of what's happening here. Right. Oh, the kids are born into it, yeah, I mean this is all they know. They've never seen the Temple, they've never seen the Jewish religious system, even at work. This is all they would know, all right, So I think we can I think this is a given they would be tempted to adopt to Babylonian worship.

30:33 I mean, I think that's a given. Right, Can we agree to that. Living in Babylon, the Israelites were constantly exposed to idle processions, sacrifices, and state sponsored religious festivals. Government sponsored religious festivals. Some Israelites may have been tempted to conform or even believe that the Babylonian gods were stronger since Babylon had defeated Judah. So there's a temptation there. There's no way to get around that. They would be tempted, no, in some cases, just to conform, right, I mean, you're in captivity. It's probably good not to take off your captors by you know. I don't believe in your God, right, your God? Your God is nothing? Okay, that probably is not gonna go well for you long term, right. I mean people say, well, I would never do that, Okay.

31:21 I understand all the big talk we like to do in church, but the reality is they've been there year after year after year after year after year after year. You may start questioning where your God even is. You may start question, I think my God took a long vacation, or maybe my God was defeated along with our entire nation. Maybe our God is dead. I know that sounds ridiculous to us, but and their way of thinking, I think that would be a very feasible possibility. So there's gonna be great temptation there. Can we agree that would be a major impact, right? Not now, I'm gonna I didn't write this one down, but we talked about in the last hour. I think a second temptation. The temptation would be to how did I put that one? To basically adopt it right, to just follow their system. I think a second one, and this is similar, would be to merge it critism, to merge Babylonian concepts with the Jewish system, and you merge it to some syncretistic religion, which is constantly I mean, it's always the impact that happens everywhere.

32:32 They did the same thing when they came out of Egypt and they wanted a golden calf. Where did they get the golden calf idea from Egypt? Right? So I think there was a concern of syncretism merging the two concepts together, and they got to just understand, there's nothing they need from the Babylonian religion. They got to leave it alone. Right. Does that make sense? All? Right? So what as Isaiah chapter forty tries to do. Well, It tries to reaffirm monotheism, and it systematically tries to review refute all of the Babylonian religious claims. Right, So let's look at some of the way. If you look at Isaiah forty twelve to thirty one, basically this is an attempt to refute all of the reclaims of the Babylonian religion.

33:16 I'll just go through some of these. God created everything, not Mark Duk, not anybody else. No other Babylonian god created an everything. Only the God of Israel. God does not need to be sustained, unlike the idols that require offerings. God alone is sovereign over all the nations. Babylonian's power is temporary, all right, So they want them to know God has created everything, God doesn't need anything, and God is sovereign over everything. That's really what Isaiah chapter forty attempts to do. Right, God created everything, God doesn't need anything, and God is sovereign over everything. That's why I want you to really get down in Isaiah chapter forty to try to argue against this idolatry in all of this.

34:11 It wants you to know that God created everything, doesn't need anything, and a sovereign over everything. All right? Does that make sense? Now? What do you think we can do here to apply this in any possible way? All right? Well, let's do this idolatry and its basic definition. If we just want to make a simple definition. How would we define idolatry in its most basic simple definition, at least from a our perspective, is when we put anything before God?

35:05 When we give our worship to anything other than God? Right worship? Would we when we put anything before and when we give our worship to anything other we put it before? We give our worship too, And our worship is our time, our focus, our love, our devotion, our passion, whatever, all right, So, so worship would really have if we put anything before God and anything we give all of our worship too, that's other than God? Right, anything before our worship to anything other than There's there's idolatry at its very simplistic idea. Right. Obviously it involves in many cases idols and other things. But at its very core, if you put anything before or if you give your worship to anything other than and I will argue by art because as from a Christian perspective, because we are born sinners, we are born by nature. What we are idolators by nature? And what is the idol of choice? Self? Right?

36:23 I know Calvin said he said something I'm paraphrasing, that the human heart is an idol factory and that we create idols. I disagree a little bit. It's not that the human heart creates idols. It's that within our heart is a sinful nature. So that we are the idol are What do we put before God us all the time, all the time. What do we give our attention, our focus, our worship, our passion to all of our thinking about us? Right?

37:05 I talked about this, I did an hour long philosophical discussion about what we can learn from dogs. And there's something dogs don't have that we have, right, and it makes that and and so they've done the study demonstrating that a dog is far more content with its life. A dog is far more happy with its life than human beings. Are we because there's something they don't have that we have. But one of the things we have is this self consciousness. We are aware of self, and we are aware, and so we have all these feelings and desires, but we are we are what overly consumed with what our self when people spend all the when people go to counseling, because we are thinking about ourselves.

37:47 When we are, however, when we have fights with one another, self self self self self Self is the God we worship, and so typically within Christianity, nobody wants to admit this God is simply the tool utilized so that we can worship ourself and then amazing God. What we ask Christians? What do we constantly say? They are wrong? They them, They're the bad people, They're the ungoly people, they're the heath they are the false teachers. Everyone else is wrong.

38:27 Everyone else does wrong. Things. God is on whose side? Our side? I'm on God's side. I go to heaven, you go to hell. I'm righteous, you're unrighteous. I have the truth, you don't have the truth. God is the very tool we use to exalt ourself. I know I'm not supposed to say that in church, but it is true. What we should do is take down the cross and put pictures of ourself up there. God is simply the oh we used to elevate us. I mean, how many times in sermons them, they them, they them, them, they them.

39:11 They are bad. They're the bad people. They're the bad people the world them. It's always condemning everyone else, condemning everything else. Everyone else is a false teacher. We have the truth, they don't have the truth. We're right, they're wrong. That's all Christianity does. Can you not see where that could be problematic? Because in a subtle way we exalt ourselves. In a subtle way, we worship ourselves. We just disguise it as we're actually worshiping God. That's the essence of idolatry, is it not. We are the idol So in modern terms, we're not so much. I know, whenever people talk about idolatry.

40:02 What do we typically turn to? Okay, it's Super Bowl Sunday, so immediately you know where sermons would go to. If they're talking about idolatry. There'll be how many people fit into the stadium they're playing in tonight. I don't even know. I don't even know. Does anybody know how big it is? What? Okay about one hundred thousand? Okay, I'll speak wrestling terms. Was it last week? It was the Royal Rumble Indiana over seventy thousand people for a wrestling show. Now, those people screamed, yelled, everything, sing along with the entrance music, everything. Just like tonight, people are gonna be yelling and screaming. They're gonna say that's idolatry, that's idolatry, that's idolatry. People are gonna be sitting watching I was listening just yesterday to a sermon. People will be watching the game on their forty five inch television. I was like, who's using a forty five inch television? They got problems there, Okay, But the point is, it's like I was like, we always think idolatry is something external. The external things are simply symbolic or symptomatic. It's just the symptom of what it self. I do something for what reason? Because it gives me pleasure, because I have fun, because it's exciting.

41:18 It's about me and what happens for some people in sports when it does. I mean certain people can't hear it. But there's a person back there teaching Sunday school right now that I'm very aware of. When they're watching the Boston Celtics and it doesn't go their way. I can hear it from upstairs. Yeah, come on, if you've ever been a sports fan, you can get come really frustrated afterwards, right, really mad. Now, in reality, they're the ones all I did. It doesn't impact me, right, they lost, not me. I didn't mess up, I didn't miss the kick, I didn't miss the shit. It's on them. Why am I getting bothered by it? But we become so connected to it.

42:05 Why don't we become so connected to it because it's we feel When they win, we feel like we won, but if they lose, we feel like we love. Right, we become connected to it because it's about self, is See, everybody wants to make it in about Oh we got to get rid of these external things. You can get rid of football, you can get rid of music, you can get rid of Hollywood, you can get rid of everything. And you don't get rid of the idol. Because it's you. We're the idol. It's just true. It's because that's that's the very What do I always say about sin? How do I always define sin? Sin is the exaltation of the eye. The middle letter of sin s It's not really that clever. It's I that's sin. I the exaltation of me. Me me, me, me, me, me, me me.

42:58 What do I I always say just about love. Everybody loves the idea of love, but love to me, we love people for what reason? Because what we get we get. We love to get. That's what we love. It's hard to love if you're not getting. If you don't receive, you tend and then go find somewhere that I can get what I want and what I need. Does that so from a modern application? Does that make sense? Now? As one source says, we may not bow down to statues of Mardeaux, but modern now look at how this says.

43:38 Modern societies has idols of power, money, technology, and self sufficiency. And I want to scream the idol is not power, money, technology, and self sufficiency. The idol is me. I want power because it makes it helps me. I want money because it helps me. I'm the idol. I don't know how it's so weird that we looking at it. It's like we walk into a room like that's an idol, that could be an idol, that could be an idol, that could be an and we point everywhere to except where here we're the idol walking into the room. All right.

44:22 So Isaiah forty reminds us that anything we rely on instead of God as an idol, anything we put before God, anything that gets our worship as an idol. So I cannot stress that enough. Or that's probably the main thing I want to focus on, is just that right there. I just want to focus on that, all right, because if I go to any of the others, then we missed that point. I just think, did they have idols, yes? Did they believe gods were inside those idols? Yes? But you see how it was so connected into their society that those idols then become why it becomes connected to our country is right. Country is wrong. We are right. They're wrong because and aroundabout way, your God is an extension of yourself, and then God gives you justification, gives you salvation, gives you for whatever you need you get from God ultimately to build yourself up. There's a little bit of truth to that, even in Christianity, right, I mean, we got to acknowledge that, right, and so it's very easy before we know it. I just want you to see how quickly you can take a God that you supposedly worship and bow and next thing you know, you've kind of simply turned that God into a tool so that you can worship yourself while you're claiming to be worshiping God. It's easy to do, and I don't have like, well, how do you fix that? You just got to acknowledge our propensity for self exaltation and self worship. We just

45:54 have to acknowledge that. I mean, I want everything to go my way, don't you. I mean, man, as soon as something doesn't go our way, what do we do? We get mad? We get angry, we get mad, we get frustrated, we get discouraged, we get depressed, we get upset, and everything in life has to go my way. And for many people that becomes a problem even with their Christianity. If God doesn't do it their way, what happens? They're mad And you can understand why, because you've almost been taught and trained that God is the key to everything going your way. That's oh. And so I just want us to see a from a practical standpoint, all of that idolatry should point to our idolatry. And whether it's an idol, whether it's anything else, those are just the symptoms of the idolatry that is us. It's not that the human heart is an idle factory. The human heart is an idol in and of itsl else, Okay, And we then look to anything to see how can we manipulate it for our own good? And again I think, I know people don't like it, but I think because of our sinful nature, that's how we do love. Right, I'm gonna love.

47:14 You because I get this, this, this, this, this, this, and if it doesn't start going my way, if I'm not getting more out of this and I feel I'm putting in, then it's amazing how you no longer are in? Well, what happened and what happened? What happened? Oh? I love you so much? Well, you know, yeah, you've done this and I'm not getting this, and I'm not getting this. Well, what happened? Yeah? You love yourself? Who do we love ourselves? So I think we can understand that, all right. So Isaiah forty's critique of Babylon is far more impacted, or let me think of this way. Isaiah Chapter forties critique of Babylon's idolatry is far more impactful when we understand the deep religious system of Babylon, how idols were crafted, worshiped, and given divine power, how Israelites and XR would have been pressured to conform, and how Isaiah directly contrasts Yahweh's supremacy with Babylon's empty gods. You can't understand Isaiah forty without understanding that idolatry. The more you see that idolatry, this is what I want us to take away is not to go those people were dumb. What I want you to see is h idolatry is very much applicable

48:44 to us because Babylon's problem, Isaiah, Israel's problems, Judas problems, and our problems are all the same. Is that we have made ourselves an idol and all these other things are simply symptoms of the idolatry that is us. Now, I know that goes against every other theory on idolatry, but I'm going to stand my ground on that because I think it's true and we have to What do we have to protect? God is trying to protect them from the idolatry of Babylon. What we need to learn from that is we must be protected and Israel as well, protected from the Babel, the idolatry of self. That's what we have to be protected from. All right. Now, I was going to go into then verse by verse study of twelve through seventeen, but obviously if I start that now, yeah, we're not going to get anywhere. So we're going to just stop now, all right, We'll stop now, right, So let's pray Lord God. We come before you this afternoon. Lord.

49:51 We are grateful that we get to learn about this history and understand this text better. But Lord, let us not forget that we have been confronted with a reality that none of us here want to admit. We have a tendency to love ourselves and worship ourselves, and we use You in order to do that. Forgive us for every time we have done that, forgive us for every time. We will do it today, tomorrow and in the future. And we are grateful that our salvation is not based on what we do, but it's based on what your son did for us. And it's in his name we pray, and God's people said