God of the Gadgets
Read Isaiah 13:1–18:7
Advertisement
1. This message came to me concerning Damascus: “Look, the city of Damascus will disappear! It will become a heap of ruins.
2. The towns of Aroer will be deserted. Flocks will graze in the streets and lie down undisturbed, with no one to chase them away.
3. The fortified towns of Israel will also be destroyed, and the royal power of Damascus will end. All that remains of Syria will share the fate of Israel’s departed glory,” declares the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
4. “In that day Israel’s glory will grow dim; its robust body will waste away.
5. The whole land will look like a grainfield after the harvesters have gathered the grain. It will be desolate, like the fields in the valley of Rephaim after the harvest.” . . .
7. Then at last the people will look to their Creator and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel. Isaiah 17:1-5, 7
The world stood up and took notice when the Apollo astronauts first landed on the moon. This was a truly great accomplishment because it had never been done before. But it also fed the belief that science would rescue us from all our ills.
A similar belief existed among the people living in Damascus. They made idols and placed their trust in them. Because they turned their backs on God, God gave them some bad news.
If you ever wondered whether God holds groups of people accountable, this reading should answer your question.
The people of Damascus looked to their idols and to their own strength for all the answers (Isaiah 17:8-11). They believed in gods they could see and control, not in an invisible God. God’s message to them through Isaiah was that their cities would be completely destroyed (17:1-3). The people of Damascus had turned from the God who could save them and toward themselves, as represented by their man-made gods. They forgot God’s place in the grand scheme of things.
Often we depend on technology (faster computers, more efficient energy sources, and more effective medical treatments) and our own knowledge to save us from our ills. But placing our trust in human technology rather than in God is wrong—it’s idolatry. This is not to say that good technology doesn’t have its place; it does, but not as an idol or god. We can appreciate progress, but we must never bow down to it.
