Day 208: The Futility of Idols

Isaiah 37:1-38 When Hezekiah heard of the Assyrians’ attempt to bribe the people and make mockery of the Lord, he did penance and went to the Temple to pray. Ahaz rejected the counsel of God and the advice of Isaiah, but in contrast Hezekiah sought to do God’s will and asked all the people to pray for deliverance. As Isaiah prophesied against the Assyrians, Sennacherib voluntarily gave up the siege by a divine intervention. He was later killed by his own sons. 

Ch 37:31-32 Remnant: These are the faithful of Israel who returned from exile to re-establish themselves in Judah and are beneficiaries of God’s blessings and providence. (CCC 1081)

Ch 38:1-22 Hezekiah was struck by a potentially fatal illness while in his prime. Therefore, he prayed for God’s mercy, who extended his life another fifteen years, confirming this by reversing the path or the shadow on a sundial. His prayer of thanksgiving reaffirmed his faith and trust in the Lord. (CCC 1502)

Ch 38:20 Regarding this verse St. John Paul II stated, “The Lord is not indifferent to the tears of the one who suffers, and he responds, consoles and saves, although not always in ways that coincide with what we expect. It is what Hezekiah confessed at the end, encouraging all to hope, to pray, to have confidence, with the certainty that God would not abandon his creatures” (General Audience, February 27, 2002)

Baruch 5:1-9 The restored Jerusalem ultimately would become the heavenly Jerusalem where all the redeemed would enjoy everlasting life. 

Ch 6:1-73 The final chapter of this book is the “Letter of Jeremiah,” which in some historic manuscripts is an independent book. The purpose of his letter was to encourage those in exile to keep their faith and resist the temptation to worship pagan idols. His concern was well founded since one of Israel’s recurring sins was outright idolatry or a certain syncretism between belief in the pagan gods and in the one true God. Baruch demonstrated convincingly the stupidity of worshiping inanimate objects of human fabrication. Moreover, these pagan priests were corrupt and deceptive insofar as they took payments for useless offerings and made empty promises of material blessings. These pagan religions steeped in idolatry were not governed by objective morality but rather engaged in lustful actions as part of religious practice. In summary, idols were worthless and brought shame upon every nation that worshiped them. Since the exiles knew of their powerlessness, they should have neither feared nor worshiped them; therefore, there is no room for idolatry in the life of one who worships and honors the one true God as stated by the First Commandment. (CCC 2114)

(*The Didache Bible RSV-CE Ignatius Edition, 2006)

• Ok so just like yesterday, the Book of the Prophet Isaiah is SO GOOD because we can hear the stories that WE ALREADY KNOW

• You may think that it’s just repeating the same story

• But how GOOD is it that you KNOW THIS STORY?

• You know who the King of Assyria is, Sennacherib

• He basically says, “Listen, I have defeated all these other nations that replied upon their gods. I am going to defeat you as well.”

• King Hezekiah turns to the Lord in the Temple with this letter that Sennacherib sends

• God HEARS HIS PRAYER

• God DELIVERS HIM THIS INCREDIBLE DEFEAT

• The Angel of the Lord ROUTS the camps of the Assyrians

• Later on, after God has rescued His People in Jerusalem from Sennacherib, Hezekiah gets sick

• He prays to the Lord and Isiah, who had previously said he would die and to get his house in order, now tells him he have 15 more years

• We do know what Hezekiah did with those extra 15 years and the consequences of that

• We also have this INCREDIBLE PRAYER in Isaiah Ch 38

• Fr. Mike prays it once a week 

• Isaiah 38:10, “...in the noontide of my days I must depart; I am consigned to the gates of Sheol for the rest of my years.”

• We have something called THE LITURGY OF THE HOURS

• EVERY RELIGIOUS SISTER

• EVERY RELIGIOUS BROTHER

• EVERY PRIEST 

• MANY DEACONS

• MANY LAY PEOPLE

• Pray this on a DAILY BASIS

• This CANTICLE from Isaiah Ch 38 is one of the prayers that we pray on a VERY REGULAR BASIS

• SUCH A GIFT!

• For Fr. Mike to read it to us since he’s normally alone when he prays it every day

• Baruch Chs 5 and 6

• MAN!

• OH GOSH!

• LOVE IT SO MUCH!

• In Baruch Ch 5 we get ENCOURAGEMENT

• Baruch 5:1-2, “Take off the garment of your sorrow and affliction, O Jerusalem, and put on forever the beauty of the glory from God. Put on the robe of the righteousness from God...because he is going to redeem you…and bring you back home”

• Remember Baruch is a compatriot of Jeremiah

• And that time of EXILE is GOING TO COME TO AN END

• BUT ALSO…

• Baruch Ch 6 is the LETTER OF JEREMIAH TO THE CAPTIVES

• They are in Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar is King

• Here is what Jeremiah THROUGH Baruch wants to remind the people of

• They are going to be surrounded by IDOLS

• And the IDOLS ARE NOT REAL

• So a couple of things

• FIRST, they are going to be tempted to TURN AWAY FROM THE LIVING GOD

• DON’T DO THAT!

• SECOND, they are going to be tempted to be DAZZLED BY THESE FALSE GODS

• Why?

• Because they are made of gold and silver

• So they might be tempted to worship them

• THIRD, even if they are not tempted to turn away from the living God or tempted to worship false idols, they might be TEMPTED TO BE SUPERSTITIOUS ABOUT THESE FALSE IDOLS

• Jeremiah is saying, “Yeah, do not be superstitious. This is what people do. But here is the deal.”

• Baruch 6:17, “For just as one’s dish is useless when it is broken, so are the gods of the heathen, when they have been set up in temples. Their eyes are full of dust…”

• People have to wipe them off

• THEY ARE NOT REAL

• SO DO NOT FEAR THEM

• It happens again and again

• They are NOT GODS

• SO DO NOT FEAR THEM

• DO NOT FEAR THEM also means DO NOT BE SUPERSTITIOUS OF THEM

• You may not be tempted to WORSHIP THEM

• You may not be CAPTIVATED BY THEM

• BUT…

• You might be SUPERSTITIOUS and want to dash some incense in the fiery bowl of one of these false idols

• Maybe I’m not going to worship it, but I’m not going to walk by without doing some superstition here

• That can be true for EVERY ONE OF US

• ALL THREE OF THOSE TEMPTATIONS

• TEMPTED TO TURN AWAY FROM WORSHIPING GOD LIKE HE HAS ASKED US 

• TEMPTED TO WORSHIP FALSE IDOLS

• TEMPTED TO GIVE FALSE IDOLS POWER

• BY BEING AFRAID OF THEM

• BY BEING AFRAID OF SUPERSTITION

• BY BEING AFRAID OF SOMETHING THAT HAS NO POWER TO RULE US

• SOMETHING THAT HAS NO POWER THAT WE DO NOT GIVE TO IT

• Here is Baruch who closes his book reminding those people in EXILE that, “You have a God who knows you. He is the true and living God. You belong to Him. He belongs to you. Do not be afraid of ANYTHING or ANYONE ELSE.”

• SUCH GOOD WORDS FOR US TO HEAR TODAY!

• Tomorrow we start the Book of Consolation in Isaiah 40 (We do have to finish Isaiah 39 first 😉)

• Even though in the Book of Woe, Isaiah had been pretty encouraging!

• Thank you, Isaiah!

• We are also beginning the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel

• Fr. Mike is praying for YOU!!

• PRAY FOR FR. MIKE

• PRAY FOR EACH OTHER

Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven we give you praise and glory. We thank you for your Word. We thank you for revealing your heart to us and we give you praise this day and every day, confident that you hear our prayers and you know our needs and you meet us now. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.”