The folly of a block of wood (Isa 44:18-44:20)

“They do not know anything.

They do not comprehend.

Their eyes are shut.

Thus they cannot see.

Their minds are shut.

Thus they cannot understand.

No one considers this.

No one has knowledge.

No one has discernment to say.

‘I burned half of it in the fire.

I also baked bread on its coals.

I roasted meat.

I have eaten meat.

Shall I make the rest of it an abomination?

Shall I fall down before a block of wood?’

He feeds on ashes.

A deluded mind has led him astray.

He cannot save himself.

He cannot say.

‘Is not this thing in my right hand a fraud?’”

Second Isaiah explains the moral of this tale of the idol carpenter maker. These idol makers do not know or understand what they are doing. Their eyes and minds are shut, so that they cannot see or understand. These carpenters do not consider that they used part of their precious wood to make a fire to keep them warm and cook on. They then made their abominable wooden idol out of the rest of this wood. Do they not realize that they are bowing down to a block of wood? They have deluded minds. They have been led astray. They eat ashes. They do not understand that what they have made with their right hand is a fraud.

The dominion of Yahweh (Ps 22:29-22:31)

“To him, indeed!

Shall all who sleep in the earth bow down.

Before him

Shall bow all who go down to the dust.

I shall live for him.

Posterity will serve him.

Future generations will be told about Yahweh.

They will proclaim his deliverance

To a people yet unborn.

They will say that he has done it.”

This psalm ends with everyone on earth who goes to sleep bowing down to Yahweh. Anyone who lives or dies will bow down to Yahweh. David or the psalmist will live for Yahweh. Also posterity and future generations will learn about Yahweh and serve him. They will proclaim his deliverance to each new generation, even to those not yet born. They will tell about all that he has done.