It'll Hold

What profit is an idol when its maker has shaped it, a metal image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in his own creation when he makes speechless idols! Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake; to a silent stone, Arise! Can this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in it. But the LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him. (Habakkuk 2:18-20 ESV). Every year about this time I go out and double-check the stands that I typically hunt from. Some of them are wooden stands built into the timber, others are metal that are strapped and secured to a tree. I must confess I usually am much more secure sitting in the metal ones than the wooden ones. I’m not sure there’s any basis for that belief, but it’s still true. It is also true that before I climb 12-15 feet into the air with a rifle in my hands, loaded or not, I want to make sure I’m going to fall. Just looking at it and thinking “it’ll hold” is not nearly enough reassurance for me. I’m going to check and re-check it. I follow a pretty simple rule. I don’t trust completely anything man has made! Think about the products we use in our home. Among cleaning solutions, for instance, some of the most effective are the ones made with natural ingredients. Who would have thought that vinegar could clean a coffee pot, or that lemon juice would remove stains or cut grease? Do you think the Maker of natural ingredients may have known what He was doing? When we fertilize our lawn, it is the natural compost that seems to be most effective. Perhaps God’s design for nature to replenish itself helps explain this fact? Don’t get me wrong, man has done some really neat things with what God has given him. The institute of technology and the computerization of our society no doubt point to the intelligence of man. Show me an invention, however, and I suspect if you look at its origin, somewhere in the beginning you will find the fingerprint of God! When we think of the invention of the telephone, as ingenious as it is, can we not see how its operations clearly relate to the sending and receiving of sound that was already installed into God’s creation? Was it not God who first placed in His Creation the ability to hear; to speak, and to communicate? Oh, yes, man is indeed brilliant at times, but his brilliance pales in comparison to the great wonder of our God. I don’t plan to give up my telephone any time soon, or cease the use of my computer, but I will try and remember that these things will let me down. Only what God has made can be trusted completely. This is the meaning of Habakkuk’s writing today. The stuff we create can never be an adequate substitute to the One who creates! We have made far too many idols of the stuff we have made. They always disappoint. Only trust in God will satisfy. Who are you trusting today?