This chapter is packed full of great stuff! It begins with a beautiful picture of how God sees His future people. He said, "I will pour out My Spirit on your offspring" (44:3) and the people would write on their hand, "Belonging to the LORD" (44:5). There would be blessings in abundance and they would have a prominent, outward mark of Who owned them. Do you and I have that mark today? Is it written on our hands, "Belonging to the Lord"?
Sometimes a cartoon can zero in on some very serious matters. A cartoon exaggerates issues to show their fatal flaws, inconsistencies, and mostly their ridiculous nature. Isaiah 44:9-20 reminds me of a cartoon. Here is a man who cut down a tree. Half of it he uses to serve himself by building a fire to warm himself and cook food. The other half he carefully makes an idol for HIMSELF to serve! Some of the language found here makes me laugh because God is showing how ludicrous these people are in their thinking. "Aha! I am warm, I have seen the fire," the man says to the burning wood. "Deliver me, for you are my god," he says to the other half of the tree. God says they have no understanding to even say, "I fall down before a block of wood!" Hello.
But maybe we need God to draw us a cartoon of us. Where are our fatal flaws? What does God see in someone today to maybe say, "He doesn't even have enough understanding to see his path is going to hell." Maybe it wouldn't be so funny if it was us in the spotlight.
God wanted them to know, "I have formed you, you are My servant" (44:21). You don't make gods - God makes you. It's completely backwards.
Nathan