Isaiah's Idols: a modern application

 In Isaiah 44, the prophet makes a cutting allegory about those who worship idols. Starting in vs14 he describes a man who cuts down some trees. Some of the wood he uses to build a fire and make bread, some he uses to roast meat, and some he uses to warm himself.  Then from "the residue thereof he maketh a god, even a graven image: he falleth down unto it, and worshippeth it, and prayeth unto it. and saith, Deliver me; for thou art my god." (v. 17)  It is as if Isaiah is shaking his head at this idea. In verse 19 he says, "shall I fall down to the stock of a tree?" 

I have been thinking a lot about the challenges of artificial intelligence (AI).  Four years ago when we studied Isaiah, AI wasn't even on my radar.  Now it is beginning to permeate every aspect of society. When it first started to be readily available on a PC a couple of years ago, it was just a curiosity. I remember one night when my husband and I played around with it, asking it to make up poems, or stories, or a song on different silly topics.  Now my husband uses it every day, sometimes for hours, to work on math problems. I use it to generate illustrations for the books I write for my grandchildren, and at work to help me polish up the language in emails, or hunt for contact information. 

The thing is, when I am working with AI to generate illustrations, I ask it to draw something, and then give it suggestions for small adjustments until I get a picture I can use.  After I go through this process, which can take quite a while,  I always feel compelled to type, "Thank you," or some other polite phrase in the AI chat box. I think this is because the programmers have written the code to not only be polite, but to even compliment the user. It will say something like, "That sounds like a wonderful continuation of your story, Dee." I know the AI is a computer program, but I begin to feel like it is a person and feel compelled to treat it with respect. 

It is easy to see how a person could end up enjoying working with AI so much, that their relationship with the AI borders of idol worship.  It is even more tempting to "worship" AI than it was for the ancient Babylonians to worship idols, because AI really can do things for you that simplify your life. I had AI generate a list of local public schools, complete with addresses, and format it to be printed on Avery size 5060 mailing labels.  It did this in two minutes.  If I had done it manually it would have taken me probably an hour. AI is a powerful tool, and that is not necessarily a bad thing. Like any powerful tool, it is important to use it responsibly. 

The important thing is to remember that AI programs are made by people, just as the idol in Isaiah's allegory. They do not love you. They do not have your best interest at heart. If a student asked their mother to write a English paper for them, the mother would say "no" because they care about their child and want them to have the learning experience of writing a paper. If a student asks AI to write an English paper for them, the AI will produce one in a few moments.  

How does one worship something?  They give it attention, make offerings, or even sacrifices, as a sign of obedience. They believe it can help them, follow it's instruction, and adjust their behavior to please it. I think one of the challenges of the rising generation will be to discipline themselves not to let AI become an idol.  We should worship God, but are we also worshipping computers, the internet, social media, and AI? It is a question that we need to constantly ask ourselves. I think there are already some people who are tending in that direction.

Isaiah's Temple Vision

 This week we start the Isaiah lessons in Come Follow Me.  I did some pretty long posts about Isaiah in September and October 2025. I had the interesting challenge this week of trying to introduce Isaiah to 15-year-olds with only a 25 minute lesson.  I decided to compare the writings of Isaiah to a Magic Eye picture.  When you look at a Magic Eye picture, it looks like an baffling collage of random colors and images.  Sometimes the images give you a clue to what the "magic" image will be. In class I used images from my Disney Magic Eye book, and so there were little images of Aladdin in the Magic Eye picture that was a lamp. If you know the Disney movie, Aladdin, you won't be surprised that the hidden image is a lamp. But in order to see the hidden image, you have to unfocus your eyes and look at the picture a new way.

That is like Isaiah. You can understand more about what a prophecy means if you know the history and culture of the text, but you get a deeper meaning of the prophecy if you relax your focus and see what Isaiah is trying to saying by the image. 

A great place to practice this is in Isaiah 6 when Isaiah has a vision of the heavenly council and receives his call to preach to the people of Judah. This kind of theophany was common in the Old Testament and was a sign of divine investiture. Jacob sees the vision of angels ascending and descending from heaven in Jacob 28:10-22.  Moses talks to God in the Burning Bush, but we also see his temple experience in the Book of Moses in the Pearl of Great Price. Abraham (Gen 15, 17), Ezekiel (Ezekiel 1), Daniel (Daniel 7), and others all had visions that certified that they were prophets of Jehovah. There are other accounts from non-Jewish sources of similar type visons.  Isaiah's vision of the divine council at his young age (he was probably only in his twenties) showed him and the people in his culture that he was a true prophet.

If we look at what happens in the vision, we start to see a picture emerge. Isaiah arrives at the throne room and feels unworthy to be there. "Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips." (v 6:5).  The one of the cherubim takes a coal from the altar and lays it on his lips saying "Lo, this has touched they lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin is purged."

This is a powerful image.  A Jew from Isaiah's time would be familiar with the idea that burnt offerings take away sins. They had been making offerings for the remission of sins at the temple altars for generations. 

For Christians, however, there is another image here. There is an altar, and something is taken from the altar and given to someone else who puts it to his mouth.  This every much sounds like the sacrament or holy communion. Christians ritualistically partake of the body of Christ to be purified. Christians are not used to associating the holy communion with fire, but In the New Testament, flaming tongues of fire settled on the Apostles on the Day of Pentecost. Even in the New Testament, fire is a well established symbol of God's presence. 

After this purification ritual Jehovah askes, "Whom shall I send?" and Isaiah replies, "Here I am." It is the same reply that Samuel gave the Lord when he received his call (1 Sam 3). Abraham, Jacob, and Moses all told the Lord, "Here I am." 

But what is Isaiah's call? "Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy and shut their eyes." (v 6:12 Remember that in Hebrew the heart is the center of understanding).  It sounds like God is telling Isaiah to intentionally make his prophesying difficult to understand.  It is possible that the translator just got the tense wrong for this verse? One of my podcasters suggested it could be translated as "They make their heart fat etc." If, however, Isaiah was indeed called to preach in a way that was difficult to understand, that would explain a lot. For one thing it would explain why he uses veiled imagery and obscure references. But why would anyone be called to preach in a way that was hard to be understood? Perhaps Isaiah was called to preach that way so that only a select few would be able to understand. Maybe the Lord knew that destruction was unavoidable, but Isaiah's preaching would allow those who were able to understand and believe him to escape the coming destruction. That was true of Hezekiah.  He believed Isaiah and was able to survive the attack of Sennacherib. Lehi also believed the words of Isaiah and was able to escape Jerusalem before it fell to the Babylonians. 

Going back to the Magic Eye metaphor, what is the hidden picture in this chapter of Isaiah? What does it say about God and his relationship to man? Even though Israel has been wicked for a long time, the Lord is true to his covenants, and will still keep trying to reclaim them by sending powerful prophets to declare the truth. Even after the nation as a whole rejects him and becomes captive to outside forces, those who truly seek him will receive all their promised blessings. 

Ecclesiastes: Meditating in a Charnel Ground

 I was really touched by Ecclesiastes this week. Partly because I was reading, at the same time, a novel called The Correspondent. It is about a woman coming to terms with the decline of age, and making an effort to put to rights the unresolved issues in her life. It seems like the author of Ecclesiastes is also looking back at his life from old age, but he doesn't have the satisfaction of resolving issues.  He, instead, sees all his efforts as meaningless because as soon as he dies, they will pass onto another. 

I think back to the book of Job.  In the book, Job is stripped of all his worldly possessions and even his health.  Then in the end it is all returned to him double fold. One way to look at the Job story is that it is an allegory of aging.  Do we not all begin to lose everything as we age.  Our children grow up and move away, our job ends when we retire, and we begin to lose our vitality. Eventually friends and family members of our own generation begin to die. My mother had 13 siblings and half siblings, and she has seen all of them pass away except one. Eventually when you die, you lose all your worldly possessions.  They are left behind for others to deal with or dispose of at their whim. 

There is a practice in Buddhism called Meditating in a Charnel Ground. In this practice a person pictures their own end of life.  They picture themself declining in health and beauty. They picture themselves dying and their body slowing rotting away.  It the practice is sometimes even done in the places where very devout Buddhists take their bodies and lay them out in the wilderness for wild animals to consume, or in a bone house made of human remains.  The idea is that only by confronting your ultimate demise can you live your current life fully present. 

I think that is the function that Ecclesiastes plays in the Jewish Bible.  It is a way for religious Jews to confront their own mortality. It is not surprising that they choose King Solomon as their example of a person who has risen to the heights of wealth and power as their protagonists. The writer observes that even he, perhaps the greatest of all Israelite rulers, loses everything at death.  All he did, all he accomplished is left behind.  His kingdom is broken apart at his death, and even his beautiful temple is eventually ravished and destroyed.  All his great wisdom could not change the cycle of seasons, and the whims of weather. If King Solomon couldn't create anything of lasting value, than who could?  

Is there value in meditating in a Charnel Ground, or, in the case of King Solomon, realizing that everything you ever accomplished in life is fleeting and has no lasting impact? When I was younger I thought Ecclesiastes was pretty depressing, but now that I am older I find it a little bit freeing.  It is tempting as we age to try to hang onto things.  I mourned when I had to end my career. I am dismayed sometimes when I look in the mirror and see the lines on my face and my yellow teeth.  This week I as I thought about Ecclesiastes I reached a point where I just accepted that from this time forward (and actually for some time in the past) my life will be a series of letting go.  I have already let go of my good eyesight (age 40) and good hearing (age 50).  I just accept that fact that my feet always hurt at the end of the day and  so do my hips. If I can let go of those things without mourning them, I can live my life freer and happier.  Buddhists believe that grasping, i.e. trying to hold onto things, is a cause of suffering. If in old age we mourn everything we lose, we will spend our whole time mourning. It is better to accept that we will eventually lose everything, and agree with ourselves that when it is time to let something go, we just let it go. We enjoy what we have while we have it, but when it is taken away, we let it drift off like the mist in the wind. 

I also think, like the author of The Correspondent, that the best way to spend our declining years is strengthening our relationships. Are their rifts in my friendships or family relationships that I can and should mend? Are their holes in my relationship with God that need to be filled?  In the end, relationships with man and God are the only things that we carry on to the next life. That being so, why don't we spend our time on those instead of clinging to everything else? 

Psalms: New Insight

 For the past three weeks in Come Follow Me, we have been reading the Psalms.  I was (I thought) assigned to teach the only class we would have on the Psalms and in preparation I decided to listen to all 150 over the course of the three weeks.  I also decided to write down my favorites in different categories: Hope against opposition, Praise, Prayer for Mercy, Promised Faithfulness, and Lament.  I only found out the day before that we were not having a lesson due to training about the new Sunday Schedule. I was a bit disappointed, but it wasn't all for nothing. I did gain some new insights from the process.  

First, many of the podcasters I listened to talked about the Psalms as songs, like an ancient hymnal.  They talked about how they were sung as feast days and in the temple.  I think this is an important an valuable idea to remember, but it wasn't a new idea to me.  The new insight I heard from Rabbi Grover on "The Scriptures are Real" podcast. He said, "Of course the psalms were sung, but so was the rest of the Hebrew Bible." Of course I learned that when I was studying Hebrew, but it hadn't really registered.  The Hebrew Bible has every verse marked with musical notation so the Cantor and sing them correctly. Every time Hebrew Scripture is presented in synagogue, it is sung or at least chanted with a consistent intonation that is marked in the text.  So to say the Psalms were a hymnbook only makes sense to a Christian who isn't familiar with Jewish worship. 

The thing that was helpful for me this year, was to think of the Psalms as prayers instead of hymns.  All through the Old Testament up to this point we have been reading the history of a civilization as a whole.  Except for a few prophets, we haven't yet gotten a sense of what an individual's relationship with God its like. That is what the Psalms offer, a glimpse into ancient individual Hebrew's relationship with God. So, if we look as Psalms as personal prayers instead of hymns, what do we learn?

First we learn that the psalms represent communication to God about the whole range of emotions.  Some are exultant, and some depressive. Some are full of anger and thirst for vengeance, and some are full of faith in the creator. I think we can gather from this that we need not tone down our emotions when we pray.  It is not as if God doesn't already know what we are feeling and thinking. Hiding strong emotions from him is futile and only results in failure to acknowledge them in ourselves. If we confess to God all our feelings, we will process them better and improve our emotional connection with God. 

Second, we must remember that when we read the Psalms we are only getting the part that the people are saying to God.  We aren't getting his response. So when people pray that God will destroy their enemies, that doesn't mean that God wants to destroy anyone.  It only means the person praying wishes their enemies would go away. 

This is a totally natural feeling, especially for the people in the time of the writing of the Psalms.  They had no sense of security.  At any time an enemy might overrun their home, take all their possessions, and even capture or kill family members. If you lived in constant threat like that, you would probably want your enemies destroyed as well.  

We have to remember that Jesus taught "Love your enemies." Reading the Psalms we see what a revolutionary teaching that was for the Jewish people. How much of the Old Testament gives us examples of loving our enemies?  Not much.  That is why Jesus was seen as such a revolutionary, and such a threat to the established Jewish religious beliefs and practices. In summary, when there are ideas in the Psalms that go against what Jesus taught, remember where they come from and give the ancient Israelites a little grace.  Just because they are in the Psalms, doesn't mean they represent God's view of right and wrong.

So there are my insights.  I hope they are useful for someone (since my class isn't going to hear them. Ha ha.)

More Thoughts on Job

 Back in 2022, I did a long post about the Book of Job.  It contains many of the same ideas I have been thinking of this week as we have studied Job again.  Job really is a masterful work, and so intriguing. There are so many unanswered questions: When was it written? Who wrote it and why? Why was it specifically preserved in the cannon?  I think that the fact it is included in the Jewish Bible shows something about the Jewish psyche. 

None of the stories of the Old Testament are simplistic.  Each one involves layers of philosophical questions and ethical issues.  The contrast with other philosophical writings is remarkable. The Buddhist writings, for example, have clear directions in list form that if you follow, you will have a good life and draw closer to enlightenment. The stories in the Jewish Bible are messy, and often contradict each other's doctrines. None of the heroes are perfect, and none of the victories are without controversy.  The Jewish culture seems to embrace the idea that the only way to learn how to wrestle with complicated life questions is to watch others wrestle with complicated life questions. 

I think that one way to look at the Book of Job, then, (and I got this idea from one of the podcasts I listened to this week, though I can't remember which one) is to see it as an example of developmental states of a testimony. 

Innocent Enthusiasm

When the story begins, Job is a zealous follower of God. He faithfully observes religious obligation, and even does extra sacrifices for his children, just in case they have sinned. (Job 1:5).  God calls him a "perfect and an upright man, one who feareth God, and escheweth evil." (1:8)

Endurance of initial trials

When Job loses his possessions and his children, he still clings to his simple faith. "The Lord giveth and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." (1:21)

Questioning

When Job is then cursed with physical pain, in addition to his loss, he begins to question, not the existence of God, but his motivations. "Why died I not in the womb? shy did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?" (2: 11) During this period he is confronted by the philosophies of men that try to convince him that he is unworthy, and that he should give up. His friends tell him "Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished being innocent? or where are the righteous cut off?" (4:7)  Job still clings to his belief in God, but begins to question his worthiness, "If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me; if I say I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse." (9:20)

Submission coupled with mature faith

During his trials, Job finally submits to the will of God by admitting that he doesn't understand his ways. "I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee,..I have heard thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eyes seeth thee. Therefore, I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." (42: 2, 5-6)

The story of Job seems to communicate that path to mature faith is not easy. There will never be a time when we understand the reasons why terrible things happen to us or to those we love. Once we acknowledge God's supremacy in our lives--that he oversees both the good and the bad with infinite wisdom--we can find peace. 

Esther the "Hidden" Heroine

 Four years ago I made a blog post about the book of Esther that used the four fold interpretation method.  In it I explored the literal, symbolic, contextual, and secret/sacred interpretations of the story.  This time I would like to delve more into the contextual interpretation.

What I learned this year was that the name "Esther" in Hebrew אסתר,  has as its root the word that means "hidden."  As is often the case in the Hebrew Bible, the meaning of the name is the meaning of the story.  Esther's true cultural identity is hidden from the king. He does not know that she is a Jewess until the big reveal at the end of the story.  I think there is an additional significance to her name as well. 

In my original blog, I stated that the story of Esther occurs during the time of the Jewish captivity. That is not strictly true.  Instead, she is a member of the diaspora.  In other words, she is living in Persia about 75 years after the time of Cyrus the Great freed Jews to return to Jerusalem.  The majority of the Jews taken into captivity did not return, but chose to stay in Babylon or other areas. Esther is one of these. 

Esther is therefore "hidden" from the center of Jewish worship, i.e. the Temple. As a result, God's power and influence, which is centered in Jerusalem once more, is "hidden" from those in the diaspora. In fact, although the story talks about Esther fasting and praying for deliverance, none of the words for "God" appear in the entire book. He is not overtly credited for helping Esther or saving the people. 

Yet, the people were saved. God's help is implied throughout the story. When Esther is chosen as queen, when Mordecai thwarts the assassination attempt, when the king can't sleep and asks to be read the history of his reign, all these elements of the story that lead to the salvation of the Jews are understood to be divine intervention, without being outwardly identified as such.

The story of Esther answers a few questions: Does God still watch over his people when they are away from the center of worship?  What does that aid look like?  What does it look like to be a worshiper of Jehovah in the diaspora?  The answer the story gives is that God still loves and watches out for his people, but in subtle, yet powerful ways as long as they live standards of high moral character and religious devotion.

Ezra and Nehemiah: the Influence of Empire.

 We studied books of Ezra and Nehemiah in Come Follow Me this week.  I did a pretty good (and long) post about it four years ago and I don't have a lot to add here.  

The main thing that I noticed as I read (beside what I wrote in my earlier post) is how the rise of empires stabilized the region.  Before the captivity, all disputes seemed to be solved through warfare. This or that tribe would attack a different tribe, and then that tribe would unite with their neighbors to rebuff the attack. It is hard for a small tribe like Judah to experience prosperity when their resources are constantly being used for military campaigns.

In the stories in Ezra and Nehemiah, when there is a dispute, the lawyers send letters to the central government to mediate.  Once the authoritative ruling comes back, the question is basically settled. There is none of the tribal inter-fighting that you see earlier. In Nehemiah, the workers felt some peril from their neighbors, (Nehemiah 4:7) but it was nothing like the long sieges and massive attacks we hear about in Kings and Chronicles. 

After the Assyrians took over the whole region in the 700 BCE, there were a series of "superpowers" that dominated the levant. As one conquered the previous ruler, they took over control of the whole region.  Israel was never again an independent state, Here is a very rough timeline (remember that the BC numbers are counting backwards down to zero)

700's BC Assyria

600's BC Babylonians

500-400 BC Persians (Cyrus was the first Persian)

300-100 BC Greeks (Think Alexander the Great)

100 BC -300 AD Romans (Julius Caesar and his successors)

Even though the Jews were not independent, the stability of the imperial system allowed the Jewish culture to grow. The empires after Assyria did not try to do away with regional cultures and allowed for easier trade and a general growth of wealth and prosperity.  This was especially true of the Greek and Roman empires. Herod the Great who built the massive temple complex that existed in Jesus' time was able to do so because he was a vassal ruler under Rome. The Jewish hierarchy of Priests, Scribes and Pharisees developed in this period, underneath their Greek and then Roman overlords.

It all led up to the perfect conditions for Christianity to spread throughout Europe. Even though Rome is seen as the "bad guy" in most of the New Testament, the Pax Romana allowed Paul and other early church leaders to travel safely and extensively around the Mediterranean to spread the "good news." 

It is easy to draw a comparison between these events to the events leading up to the restoration of the gospel in the 1800's. Just as the Reformation and founding of America allowed the religious freedom needed as an incubator of the Gospel in the latter days, the stability of the Roman empire enabled the rise and spread of Christianity throughout Europe. Both show God's hand and foreknowledge in accomplishing his work.