Do You Serve That Which is Made by Hands?

We all serve someone. Employees serve their managers, and managers serve the company owners. Those in love serve their lovers. Some even serve wealth and power. All these things pass away. All these things are made by human hands. All these are idols.

Thus says the LORD: To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him?  The idol! a workman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold, and casts for it silver chains.  He who is impoverished chooses for an offering wood that will not rot; he seeks out a skillful craftsman to set up an image that will not move. Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?  It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in; who brings princes to nought, and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing. Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when he blows upon them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble. 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. Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is hid from the LORD, and my right is disregarded by my God”?  Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary, his understanding is unsearchable.  He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.  Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

Isaiah 40:18-31

Our focus on the power and promise of God during our 2024 Daily Lenten Journey has been for a purpose. Everything on the earth passes away. Even the strongest buildings fade in time. At every turn God has promised us He would change our future. He promises to save us from time.

Today’s lesson from the prophet isn’t just about the promise of God. Again, we hear God promise Abram that his descended would be too many to count. Today’s lesson is to reminds us that despite God’s promise we continue to serve that which is made with hands. We serve idols.

This past Sunday the Church commemorated Saint John Climacus and his famous treatise “The Ladder of Divine Ascent” which began with the call to renounce the world. Everything in the world is created. God is the only uncreated being in the universe. We are called to serve God.

The reason we keep failing isn’t because we are not willing to serve. We fail because we serve something that itself has an expiration date. How can something like wealth and power, which ends when the world ends, save us? It cannot save us. Only God can save us. We serve idols.

If Great Lent is going to be of any benefit for us, we must realize we are serving the wrong thing. Take a minute and think about what you serve today. Do you serve God or something worldly? If you serve something made with human hands, don’t be surprised when it lets you down.

Even when we serve each other, as God commanded, we get let down. The difference when we serve each other, is we are serving God’s command. Even when those who we serve let us down, because we obey God in the first place, He comes through for us when they don’t.

The only way to serve God, Who is not created, Who will never end, is to trust His promise.