Isaiah 48:3-5
3 I foretold the former things long ago, my mouth announced them and I made them known; then suddenly I acted, and they came to pass. 4 For I knew how stubborn you were; your neck muscles were iron, your forehead was bronze. 5 Therefore I told you these things long ago; before they happened I announced them to you so that you could not say, ‘My images brought them about; my wooden image and metal god ordained them.’
Here, God is rebuking ‘stubborn Israel,’ His people who have gone off and worshipped regional Canaanite deities of metal and wood rather than following God. All the things the prophets spoke of so far have come to pass; Israel as a nation is struggling, yet still they cling to tangible idols, sacrificing to them in a vain effort to change their circumstances, rather than turning back to God and trusting Him.
It’s very easy (and tempting) to laugh at the ancient Israelites for doing this. They knew the right things to do, so why didn’t they just do them? Very easy, indeed, to say these things, until we realize we are doing the same things in the present day. Our idols may not look the same as the Canaanite deities, but we still worship the gods of money, technology, and power, and we often trust in those powers far more than we trust in God. There’s a belief, subtle and insidious, that tells us if we just have enough money/technology/power, we will outrun our problems and trials–and we like to believe in that rather than trusting a God we cannot even see.
The Israelites were doing the same thing, trusting in things they could see, touch, and even create rather than really trusting the God who had brought them out of Egyptian slavery and through the wilderness. And then they wondered why their deities had “abandoned” them! God, through the prophet Isaiah, is proving that He is the only One they can trust, and the only One who has power to help them–if they can just trust in that, and stop running off after the tangible things that are powerless to change anything. We need that reminder, too.