Dr Paul Allen

English: Asa destroys the idols and forbids worship in local shrines (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) “Indeed you are nothing, and your work is nothing he who chooses you is an abomination” (Isa. 41:24). The passage before us condemns those who are foolish enough to worship idols. It exposes the futility of putting something in the place of God , for if we think rationally about it, nothing created can be the cause of our existence. Nothing created can know itself perfectly from beginning to end. Nothing created has any power over itself, much less power over those things it does not understand. Isaiah knew that when the Jews were taken into exile they would be mocked by the Babylonians and Persians for their devotion to Jehovah . They would be ridiculed as being simple-minded and naive. To help prepare the Jews, Isaiah reminded them through this prophecy that those who worship idols are the foolish ones. Did idols foretell the fall of the Assyrians?  Did idols foretell th...

Image via Wikipedia "So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel ; and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel." ( Ezekiel 39:7 )   This wonderful name of God , "the Holy One of Israel," was often used during the days of the later kings of Judah .  It occurs three times in the book of Psalms ( Psalm 71:22 ; 78:41 ;  89:18 ) and then no less than 27 times in Isaiah .  The name then occurs three more times ( Jeremiah 50:29 ;  51:5 ;  Ezekiel 39:7 ), with the final one being our text above (where the preposition is translated "in").  This unusual pattern can be written equentially as 3+3 3 +3 = 33, perhaps reflecting a divinely ordained design to suggest the Holy Trinity .   The strong emphasis on this particular name during the later period of Judah 's kingdom probably was because of the prevalent unholiness of the nation during those ye...