The Construction of Idols and Identity: An exegesis of Isaiah 41:5-10 - Ministry Exchange (MX)

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Is41pap.PDF THE CONSTRUCTION OF IDOLS AND IDENTITY:
AN EXEGESIS OF ISAIAH 41: 5-10
PRESENTED TO DR. STEPHEN HAYNER
NISET 1996: OLD TESTAMENT SURVEY, "THE GOD WHO ACTS"
AUGUST 11, 1996
CURTIS CHANG
50 SAWYER AVE. - TUFTS UNIVERSITY
MEDFORD, MA 02155
CCHANG@EMERALD.TUFTS.EDU
curtis\acad\is41pap.sam

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A PARAPHRASE OF ISAIAH 41: 5-10
(5) The pagan nations have seen and fear,
the people from the ends of the earth quake.
(6) Each one helps the other,
Saying to themselves, "Fortify yourself!"
(7) The artisan fortifies the goldsmith,
the smoother with hammer encourages the striker of anvil.
They certify their finished creation, "It is good."
Together they fasten it with nails so it will not topple.
(8) But you, Israel, my servant,
Jacob, whom I have chosen,
offspring of Abraham, my friend,
(9) You whom I fastened from the ends of the earth
and called from its farthest corner,
certifying you, "You are my servant."
I have chosen you, not cast you away.
(10) Do not fear, for I am with you.
Do not look about bewildered, for I am your God.
I will establish you, I will help you;
I will hold you up with my righteous right hand.
INTRODUCTION
While the Old Testament frequently refers to idol worship, the book of Isaiah refers to the
actual construction of idols more than any other book in Scripture. With the possible exception
of the Jeremiah 10, Isaiah 40-55 as a literary unit offers unparalleled access to the details of idol
making.1 Such a concentration raises obvious questions: why does the book insert accounts of
idol construction at specific points and why those details in particular?
Modern critical scholarship has tended to avoid those questions by essentially denying the
importance of idol making for understanding Isaiah. Commentators like the form critical scholar
J. Begrich have repeatedly dismissed the idol making sections as extraneous and/or non-Isaianic
inserts. The scholarly treatment of Isaiah 41:5-10, with its description of an idol making factory
in vv. 6-7, has characterized this dismissal. Bernhard Duhm, in his influential commentary on
1
My own count of verses that refer to idol construction shows Isaiah with 27 verses, Jeremiah with 20 verses (most of them in Jeremiah
10), Exodus with 8 verses (all in the golden calf episode), Deuteronomy with 6 verses. The Psalms, Hosea, and Habakkuk have fewer than 5 relevant
verses.

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Isaiah published in 1892, removed the idol factory verses from the chapter altogether, arguing
that they bore no literary relation to the rest of the passage.2 The Revised English Bible and the
New American Bible translations follow this consensus by transposing 41: 6-7 to after verse 20 in
chapter 40. In his Anchor Bible translation of Isaiah 40-55, John McKenzie comments that
"verses 6-7 [of chapter 41] appear to be another fragment of polemic against crass idolatry i.e. the
worship of material image, which has wandered from its original place, and cannot be restored."3
Detailed studies of vv. 6-7 tend to treat the verses as simply a technical account of idol
manufacture, devoid of any meaningful relationship to the chapter. One such article insists that
"vv. 6-7 stick out like a sore thumb in chapter 41... I have no explanation for the displacement of
41:6-7 other than a copyist's carelessness."4
This paper will attempt to show that the idol making description in Isaiah 41: 5-10 actually
fits hand in glove with the meaning of the passage. By examining the historical background to the
text -- and in particular the role of idol construction -- and offering a close reading of the passage,
I hope to show that vv. 6-7 stand as an intrinsic part of the literary unit. In fact, the particular
details of idol construction lend crucial support to Isaiah's larger concern with how human beings
construct their own identity.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The Exile
The overwhelming consensus of scholars place 41:5-10 as part of the unit called
"Deutero-Isaiah" (chapters 40-55), a composition written within and for the exile community in
Babylon in the 6th century. A few conservative scholars, like J. Motyer, still advocate that the 8th
2
See Richard J. Clifford, "The Function of Idol Passages in Second Isaiah" in CBQ 42 (1980), 450
3
Revised English Bible, New American Bible, in Parallel Translations XX. The Anchor Bible: Second Isaiah (NY: Doubleday, 1968), 28
4
Aloysius Fitzgerald, "The technology of Isaiah 40: 19-20 + 41:6-7" in CBQ 51 (1989), 431

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century Isaiah of chapters 1-39 composed the entire work. A review of the issues involved in
dating are beyond the scope of this paper, but the exilic dating seems to me most persuasive and
will be assumed for the rest of the paper.5 The view taken for granted is that Isaiah 41:5-10 is
part of a body of work faithful to (and probably containing much of) the original message of the
8th century Isaiah, but composed probably by Isaiah's disciples to speak to the exiles late in their
Babylonian captivity. That date (mid to late 6th century) and setting is in fact suggested by Isaiah
40: 1-2: "Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry to
her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid."
The exilic community's need for comfort was undeniable. They had been deprived of all
the most visible aspects of their national identity: land, temple, and king. The period was certainly
one of collective angst, shaped by the fundamental questions of "Who are we? Where are we
headed?" The old answers that had been given for centuries -- that they were God's chosen
people designated for a special purpose -- seemed devoid of any supporting evidence. As J.
Bright has noted, "Even the best of the people, those who had received the prophetic word, were
plunged into despair, fearing that mortal sin had been committed, and that Yahweh had cut off
Israel off in his wrath and canceled her destiny as his people."6 Severed from their roots and
placed as a tiny minority in the bowels of a true world power, the community must have been
tempted to adopt aspects of the surrounding Babylonian culture, a culture which proclaimed its
customs and worldview as dominant.
But as the audience of Isaiah 41:5-10 looked out at Babylon in the mid to late 6th century,
they would have witnessed a nation suddenly feeling its own foundations shaking. Babylon and
5
J. Motyer, The Prophecy of Isaiah, (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 1993), 28-34. See W. Lasor, D. Hubbard, F. Bush, Old Testament
Survey, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1982), 365-378 for a discussion of the issue from the perspective of evangelical scholars. Their
conclusion, shared by me, is that "one cannot dispute that the viewpoint of ch. 40-66, in general, does not anticipate the Exile, but rather stands within
the Exile." (pg. 374).
6
J. Bright, A History of Israel (Philadelphia: Westminister Press, 1981), 348

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the surrounding pagan nations themselves faced a most disturbing threat to national security. In
the prelude to vv. 5-10, Isaiah describes a rising "victor from the East" who "tramples kings under
foot [and] makes them like dust with his sword" (41:2-2). The conquest is so swift that the victor
is described as "scarcely touching the path with his feet" (41:3). The description fits Cyrus the
Persian, an equation which Isaiah 45 makes more explicit. Starting from about 550, Cyrus
suddenly emerged onto the world stage from east of Babylon, swept westward to take over the
Median empire, and in a series of lightning-quick invasions, conquered nation after nation in Asia
Minor. In a span of only several years, Babylon's century-old hegemony over the region
evaporated. It stood isolated and vulnerable to the Persian onslaught.7
The Role of Idols and Idol Construction
In the ancient Near Eastern worldview, a people's amorphous sense of itself as a nation
found concrete expression in its idols. The idols, of course, represented national gods, like
Babylon's Marduk and Nebo. But an idol was much more than simply a religious symbol. In the
Mesopotamian mind, the distinction between a symbol and the spiritual reality behind that symbol
did not exist as clearly as it does in the modern Western mind. Nor was the national god held as
an entity clearly distinct from the nation itself. For instance, as part of his coronation ceremony,
Sargon II probably physically grasped the stone hand of the statue of Marduk.8 Even Babylonian
socio-economic practices derived legitimacy from the actual placement of the idols vis a vis one
another.9 As William Holladay notes, "Not only was the image understood to sum up the reality
of the god, but the god, in turn, was understood to sum up the whole national enterprise and its
ideology."10
7
Bright, 354-360.
8
J. Finegan, Myth and Mystery: An Introduction to the Pagan Religions of the Biblical World, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1989), 29
9
J. Watts, "Babylonian Idolatry in the Prophets As a False Socio-Economic System" in Israel's Apostasy and Restoration, (Grand Rapids
MI: Baker, 1988),
10
Isaiah: Scroll of a Prophetic Heritage, (NY: Pilgrim Press, 1978), 142-143. See also M. Halbertal and A. Margalit , Idolatry
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992), 40-41 for an excellent discussion of the Mesopotamian equation between image and reality,

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The physical idol stood so completely as the embodiment of a nation's identity that the
definitive sign of a nation's collapse was the capture or toppling of its idols. The Babylonians
themselves had amassed quite a collection of such foreign idols in their conquests.11 Since the
physical state of an idol was so crucial to the people's security, Cyrus's menacing advance toward
Babylon provoked a flurry of activity around the idols. Herodotus reports that Croseus, king of
Lydia (which was tied with Babylon in a defensive alliance against Cyrus) prepared for Cyrus's
imminent invasion by busily attending to the sites of the gods Delphi and Amphiaraus.12 Repair of
the idols probably took place throughout the region as part of the royal effort to curry favor from
the deities and steady the local populace.
As Cyrus finally advanced on Babylon itself, the manufacture and installation of idols in
the immediate vicinity also increased. Along with concentrating his military forces within the city,
King Nabodinus erected increasing numbers of idols, even removing the statues belonging to
outlying cities and ensconcing them in the capital. That the removal of idols had the reported
effect of demoralizing the outlying cities points to the pressing demand for a greater supply of
idols in a time of crisis.13 It is not hard to suppose, then, that the historical crisis surrounding
Isaiah 41:5-10 was marked by feverish idol construction throughout the region.
In summary, the historical context of Isaiah 41:5-10 is one of widespread anxiety about
national identity. The exiles of Israel had lost all the visible signs of their nationhood and faced an
insecure future. This insecurity could only have intensified as they heard the pagan nations
themselves fearing their own disintegration. And the note of fear was struck by the hammers and
tongs of workmen busily constructing more idols to bolster the anxious populace.
which the authors term as much more a "metonymic" relation rather than a symbolic one.
11
La Sor, et. al., 386. Holladay, 141
12
Cited by J. Muilenburg, Interpreters Bible, vol. V. (New York:Abingdon Press, 1956), 451
13
Bright, 360

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EXEGESIS OF ISAIAH 41: 5-10
Literary Context
The literary context of the passage is a string of questions God submits for judgment. The
author employs the motif of the court scene found throughout Isaiah and the Old Testament, a
court where God acts both as judge and prosecutor.14 The series of questions in chapter 40 are all
variants of "Who created the natural order?" (40:12,13,18,25). These and other cross
examinations (40:27 "Why do you say, O Jacob...") are aimed directly at Israel. Interestingly,
another account of idol construction similar to vv. 6-7 is inserted in the middle of these questions
(40:19-20).
Chapter 41 opens with God summoning the "coastlands" ('iyyim) for yet another court
case. This does not mean the passage is literally meant to address specific coastland nations. The
term is a generic term to refer to all pagan nations, as evidenced by the ABC/A'C' parallel
construction of 40:5: "The coastlands ('iyyim) have seen and are afraid / the ends of the earth
(qatash 'erets) tremble."15 The court summons to the 'iyyim is a literary device that continues the
world-wide scope of the cosmic court case begun in chapter 40. The real audience, as v. 8 makes
clear, remains Israel.
However, the judgment moves from the issue of who is behind the natural order to who is
behind the political order (vv. 2-3). Who is the ultimate force behind Cyrus's disturbing rampage?
The answer is the same: "Who has performed and done this, calling the generations from the
beginning? I, the Lord, am first, and will be with the last" (v. 4). Yahweh, the creator and
controller of nature in chapter 40, also creates and controls human history.
14
Y. Kaufmann, The Babylonian Captivity and Deutero-Isaiah, (New York: UAHC, 1970), 108-110
15
See also Motyer, 126

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The Structure of the Passage
In vv. 5-7, then, the passage begins with a description of the pagan response to the verdict
of history Yahweh himself has passed. Verse 8, "But you, Israel...," reveals the true purpose for
depicting the courtroom drama and its aftermath: a direct message from God that will define just
how unique His people is vis a vis the pagan nations, Vv. 9-10 then completes the contrasting
definition.
The comparative nature of the passage -- and the integral part the idol factory scene plays
-- can be best observed in its chiastic structure.
A (vv. 5-6a) - The Universal Insecurity
B (vv. 6b-7) - The Pagan Response: The Idol Factory Creates and Certifies
C (v. 8) - Israel's Identity Declared
B' (v. 9) - Divine Response: God Creates and Certifies
A' (v. 10) - God's Assurance
The chiastic links are drawn most tightly by the parallel diction:
A
A'
The people "look" (ra'ah)
Do not "look about bewildered" (sha'ah)
"fear" (y'are)
"fear" (y'are)
They "tremble" (charad)
I will "fortify" (amats); I will "uphold" you
(tamask)
They [must] "help the other" ('azar)
I will "help" ('azar)
B
The workers "fasten" (chazaq) the idol
B'
I "fastened" (chazaq) you
He "certifies" ('amar) the idol
I "certify"('amar) that "You are my servant"

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The Pagan Construction Project
As the structure reveals, the passage takes the basic form of a comparison between two
creation accounts. The author underlines this comparison for the Jewish audience by contrasting
how the workers from the ends of the earth (qatash 'erets) in vv. 5-7 can only create a statue of
metal, while God has already created in Israel a nation of flesh and blood from qatash 'erets (v.
9). This evocation of Israel's identity via the patriarchs' pilgrimage from distant lands will reach
its height in the middle of the chiasm, when the writer refers to the patriarchs.
As the product is completed, each side also declares or issues ('amar) a "certificate of
manufacture" testifying to the product's true identity. The pagan certification is phrased with the
highly suggestive declaration in v. 7, "It is good (towb)," appropriating the same phrase issued by
God on the birth certificate of the world in Genesis 1. The connection seems to be deliberately
drawn. In his purely technological analysis of the construction procedures described in v. 7,
Fitzgerald argues persuasively that the craftsman is certifying that the completed statue stands
soundly enough in the base for final installation.16 However, if the author merely wanted to
communicate the sense of "standing soundly," a more appropriate term would seem (at least to
this Hebrew illiterate poring through a concordance and dictionary!) to be kuwn, which Strong's
Dictionary defines as "to be erect... made ready, right, set, be stable."17 The author seems to have
gone out of his way to intimate that the idol makers seek to arrogate the divine role of ultimate
creator and identifier. The factory scene reinforces that accusation by deliberately listing several
types of skilled artisans like charash (a mason or metal fabricator), tsaraph (refiner), or pttiysh
(goldsmith). This listing directly echoes -- albeit with a ridiculously hollow tone -- the
16
Fitzgerald, 436, 443-444. It should be noted that the NKJV, REB, and the NJB all miss what I perceive to be the intended reference to
Gen. 1. Those versions translate the line as variously, "It is ready for the soldering" or "he declares the soldering to be sound." The NRSV and the
NIV both translate the line , "It is good."
17
Strong's Dictionary word number 3559 (from Quickverse 3.0). Kuwn would certainly have been in the author's repertoire, appearing in the
Isaianic corpus in 30:33.

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descriptions of God in the preceding chapter as the master artisan of the universe. The men who
measure out stone blocks or weigh gold ingots dare to usurp the one who "measures oceans in the
hollow of his hand" and weighs mountains and nations "on the scales" (40:12,15).
And the object that the idolmaking impulse invariably turns toward is one's self. Creating
a stable idol is equated with creating a stable sense of self. The passage conveys this dynamic by
taking advantage of the semantic range of the word chazaq. Chazaq can be used to mean both
emotionally strengthening a person and physically fortifying a structure. Thus, in v. 6, the author
uses the word to describe how the pagan nations turn inward and say to themselves: "Fortify
yourself (chazaq)!" And in the very next verse, the idol workers fasten (chazaq) the idol while
they simultaneously fortify (chazaq) themselves. In contrast, of course, the divine creator in verse
9 fastens (chazaq again) Israel with their special identity out of the undifferentiated "ends of the
earth."18 The real construction site, then, is located not within the temple, but within the people
themselves.
The pagan construction project, however, is doomed to fail. The usurpers can never
fasten an identity with any stable foundation. After all, if an idolater's need for a sturdier identity
stems from weakness within that person's very self, how can he hope to create stability by his own
efforts? How can an unsteady hand steady itself? The author points to this problem by making
another verbal link between the idol makers' internal condition and their building project. The
workers come from the "ends of the earth" so weak that they are trembling and quaking (charad).
Yet, these quaking workers somehow still seek to fasten this idol that will not shake or fall
(mowt)! Any autonomous creation of self will fall because chronic instability is built into the
project.
18
The author's intention to load extra meaning on the word is demonstrated especially by his choice to describe God as "fastening" Israel
from the ends of the earth. The verb more commonly used to describe the divine election is bachar (to choose) which is used, for instance, throughout
Deuteronomy (i.e. 7:6-7, 14:2).

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The author seems to imply that identity can only be secured by a source truly external to
one's self. The deception of idolatry, of course, is that it provides such an external foundation;
this is why the tangible presence of an idol statue is so important to pagans. But by focusing on
idol making, Isaiah explodes that deception. The true existential source of idols is simply the
shaky self.
The only true foundation can be built by Another, one who stands fully stable Himself and
has already laid the foundation of the very universe (40:26). The passage again uses particular
verbs that emphasize the contrasting sturdiness of God's construction project. In verse 10, God
promises to "harden or establish" (amats) Israel. Like chazaq, amats is used to describe both
physical construction (see Isaiah 44:10 and 2 Chronicles 24:13) and emotional support. God's
action is also phrased as tamask, "holding you fast so can stay up." Even God's election of Israel
is phrased to connote divine construction: bachar in 41:8 echoes the parallel idol making passage
in 40:18-20, where the idol maker chooses (bachar) proper material so his idol "will not topple"
(mowt: same in 41:7).
In summary, by depicting an idol making factory in contrast to God's creation, the author
offers a critique of the pagan response to insecurity. If Israel is at all tempted to adopt the
Babylonian worldview, the passage exposes that option as a failure. In the process, the author
actually contributes an important insight into the phenomenon of idolatry. Idolatry is more
commonly condemned in Scripture as false worship: placing one's trust or allegiance in something
other than God. But focusing on the practice of idol making highlights an even deeper level of
sin: the human attempt to supplant God as ultimate creator and definer of self.

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Identity of Israel
The idol making scene also sets up a powerful description of how God creates Israel's
identity. The enduring attraction of idol making is the offer of control. One can enjoy the illusion
of being the one choosing, creating, and defining rather than being the one chosen, created, and
defined. The absence of control over one's own identity is conversely the enduring trait of how
God identifies His people. From the middle of the chiasm in verse 8, God suddenly appropriates
all the active verbs. The only action assigned to the people is negative: "Do not fear, do not look
around bewildered" (v. 10).
In v. 8, God -- not the autonomous self -- points to three pillars of Israel's identity He has
built. Each would have restored the fragile exilic community back to its historical foundations.
The first appellation, "Israel, my servant" (ebed) reaffirms not only their name as a nation, but also
their national destiny. Ebed connects the present community to God's mandate from the Mosaic
era that Israel be his ebed nation (i.e. Exodus 32:13, Deut. 9:27). The designation also hints at
chapters 49-53, which will expand on the title of "servant of God" in unprecedented ways.
The second name, "Jacob, whom I have chosen," also addresses the exiles' sense of
rootlessness. The title, "Jacob," was used as a shorthand for the whole patriarchal tradition.19
This tradition, which emphasized God's promise to multiply the patriarchs' descendants, would
have reassured the tiny minority. God has already shown his ability to craft a great nation out of
meager material. Moreover, Israel need not fear that they have been rejected (ma'ac) by God.
They still bear the mark of the chosen.
The final identity that God affixes to Israel, "offspring of Abraham, my friend," is
especially meaningful. At the most immediate level, the title completes the tracing of Israel's
19
E. Conrad, "Isaiah and the Abraham Connection" in AJT, (vol. 2:2 1988), 387

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foundations back to Father Abraham himself. But the identification with Abraham would have
encouraged the exiles in a more subtle way. For according to Scripture, Abraham himself had
dwelt as an exile in roughly the same region. As an exile, he had trusted God to bring him to a
home in the promised land. Certainly some listeners would have heard an intimation that
Abraham's "offspring" would eventually follow in his footsteps to return to that land.
The particular phrase, "friend (ahab) of God" is very unique; as a phrase, it appears only
one other time in the Old Testament, also in reference to Abraham, and interestingly, also in a
book dated to the Exile (2 Chronicles 20:7). The common usage of ahab tends to refer to the
type of friendship experienced between humans. The word connotes a special sense of
"belovedness, affection, and intimacy" that seems deeper than the more widely used word for
friend, rea'. Designating Israel as the offspring of one who could relate to God this intimately
would have been a powerful affirmation of Israel's special standing.
The list of three titles in fact seems to follow a pattern of increasing intimacy with God. It
moves from "servant" to "chosen" to "friend", or alternatively as one commentator has noted,
from a political entity to a patriarchal tradition to an individual.20 The pattern appears important
enough for the author to repeat again, with an exchanged phrase that further elucidates the special
ahab friendship:
v. 8
"...Israel, my servant"
vv. 9-10 "certify you, 'You are my servant.'"
"...Jacob, whom I have chosen"
"I have chosen you"
"...Abraham, my friend"
"I will hold you up with my righteous right hand"
This pattern of deepening intimacy emphasizes the deepening levels that undergird Israel's
identity. At the absolute base of the foundation, Israel is a friend, personally held by God Himself.
Israel's nationhood and tradition -- as important as they are -- ultimately point to a direct, close,
20
J. Walsh, "Summons To Judgment: A Close Reading of Isaiah XLI 1-20" in VT (vol XLIII, 3, 1993), 363

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and immediate relationship with God. The exiles may have lost their political status, their land,
and their temple, but they still "are" because they are loved by God.
Indeed, each of the titles in the pattern is significant only in the context of relationship.
"Servant," "chosen," and "friend" have meaning only as servant, chosen, and friend of Another.
Thus, Isaiah continues his treatment of human ontology begun in the idolmaking section. While
people can never define themselves, they can know their true selves in relationship. We only
know who we are, the passage concludes, in friendship with the One.
And since God is the creator of all that is natural, any attempt to craft a self outside of
relationship with our creator will invariably seem artificial. It will feel false, a fabrication. In
other words, personhood apart from a personal relationship with God will ultimately be
impersonal. The last line of the passage (v. 10) depicts natural personhood in vivid contrast to
artificial im-personhood. While the "friend of God" is held up by the very "right hand of God,"
the product of artifice is held up by iron nails.
RELEVANCE OF ISAIAH 41: 5-10 FOR MINISTRY TODAY
Several authors have recently commented on how our current era resembles the Exile.21
Our national identity as the people of the "American Dream" feels shaken as the promise of
unlimited progress and prosperity seems indeed like a distant land that only our ancestors knew.
Debt, AIDS, and environmental disasters loom on the horizon, threatening to disintegrate
existence as we have known it. And those of a rigorous Christian faith can feel like a besieged
minority; we look about and see an increasingly pagan society that has shaken loose from the
21
J. Middleton and B. Walsh, Truth Is Stranger Than It Used to Be, (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 1995), chapter 6. See also Andy Crouch,
"Forgive Us Our Debts, As We Forgive Our Debtors: the Gospel and My Generation," (unpublished, 1995), 7-10

Page 14
centuries-old pretense of cultural Christianity. On a worldwide scale, post-modernism is
deconstructing all the foundations of objective truth and morality.
The average college student experiences these epochal changes most profoundly in her
sense of self. Middleton and Walsh aptly summarize the current experience of Exile:
With the loss of our secure modern self-image, we are submerged in a
postmodern crisis of immense proportions. These days more and more
people are asking themselves [the] question, 'Am I crazy?' And though
the answer may not come back a resounding YES! many of us are honest
enough to admit, 'I'm just not feeling myself anymore'... [The]
postmodern self finds itself asking again, 'Who am I?' The question will
not go away.22
The most popular answer to this crisis has been, "You are who you choose to be!" The ethos of
"You are your own rock" and "Express Yourself" rules the thought of the day and the commercial
airwaves at night. The bookshelves are lined with titles like "Uncovering The Sacred Self,"
"Make The Most of Who You Are," and other explicit manuals for the construction of self.
But the actual experience of autonomous creation proves its own falseness. As Robert
Bellah has documented, the one who conceives of his own identity as merely a product of his
choice invariably is the one most needy of pre-fabricated identities.23 As Middleton and Walsh
explain: "A constantly reconstructible self with no stable core requires a world of fleeting images
to provide material for its reconstruction. Having no substance in itself, the saturated self must be
constantly fed with images that it can take up, mimic, be entertained by and then discard.
Television, of course, is custom-built for this task."24 The electronic media thus acts as today's
idol factory, busily crafting identities and nailing them on our screens.
But these pre-fabricated images prove as unstable today as idols were in Isaiah's day.
They ultimately feel artificial and contrived. It is no surprise that this generation, which possesses
unprecedented autonomy to define the self, also hungers insatiably for a sense of genuineness and
22
Middleton and Walsh, pp. 51-52
23
Habits of The Heart, (Berkeley: Univ. of Ca. Press, 1985)
24
Middleton and Walsh, 54

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naturalness. Tired of the cool surface of electronic metal and nail, we long for the warm hand of
a friend.
My intention is not to repaint the postmodern landscape. I merely wish to point out that
our era presents nothing truly new, and our ministry does not need to be original. The prophets
of the exile already stand as models of faithful witness to an era of decentered identities. And in
particular, I believe Isaiah's distinctive focus on idol making -- and not merely idol worship --
helpfully guides our eyes as we analyze our ministries.
My own experience these past six years has demonstrated (to me, at least) the importance
of Isaiah's subtle but helpful distinction between idol making and idol worship. As an
undergraduate at Harvard, I was the beneficiary of a ministry philosophy that emphasized
repentance from idol worship. Scripture study and teaching exposed ways we falsely believed in
the rewards of worshiping money, power, academic achievement, sex, or any other idol of the
Harvard pantheon. Instead, we were called to believe that following Jesus, the true God, would
provide ultimate satisfaction for our deepest hopes. Indeed, the hallmark of the ministry
philosophy was enlightened self-interest as the explicit motivation for obedience of Jesus. In its
classic Doctor analogy, we were motivated to obey Jesus' "prescriptions" in order to obtain true
health. Moreover, along the lines of that analogy, repentance meant faithfully obeying the regimen
over an extended period of time (ultimately our whole life).
This ministry and philosophy changed the trajectory of my life and the lives of many of my
peers. It contained -- and still does -- much of the Gospel's truth, and I still follow much of it in
my current ministry. However, this ministry philosophy assumes throughout a relatively strong
sense of self. Enlightened self-interest only works if there is a "self" in place. The power of the
ministry's call away from false idols to obeying the true God rested on harnessing well defined

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ambitions, desires, and hopes -- all central components of identity. Even the Doctor analogy
perhaps unintentionally conveys this sense: the patient-doctor relationship, after all, is one of our
society's most strongly bounded exchanges, with clearly defined roles. And it is generally
assumed that the patient arrives at the doctor's office with enough agency and will to follow the
prescriptions over time.
This assumption of a strong self carried over into ministry strategy. For instance, my
staffworker believed strongly that the team setting itself served as a key discipleship tool. His
metaphor was a tumbler: solid selves rubbing against each other to produce a more polished
disciple. It is no surprise that our ministry enjoyed the most success with students like myself:
individuals who entered as motivated, relatively strong personalities, and could withstand and
benefit from bumping against others like themselves.
To put it in grammatical terms, a ministry focused on combatting idol worship tends to
assume that the main problem -- and choice -- lies in the object (idol or Jesus) and the verb (to
practice idolatry or discipleship), not the subject. But weakly constructed subjects seem the norm
as I have moved to a campus more representative of the wider student population. With such
weak subjects, appeals to their "enlightened self-interest" dissipate into the confusion of "Who is
my self? What do I really desire?" Prescriptions for discipleship that I outline are received by
students as means to gain my approval, in the hopes that I will tell them who they are. And
sustained action in any direction -- let alone the obedience of difficult commands -- is frequently
drowned by emotional turmoil. And simply putting these individuals into a team setting can
produce just more bruises and breaks. In short, if my ministry is to successfully direct students
away from idols to Jesus, my ministry must also facilitate the formation of their basic sense of self.

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While I am still trying to flesh out exactly what this means for my ministry practice, Isaiah
41: 5-10 points me in an important direction. First, my friendship with my students will be the
most powerful vehicle for any of my efforts. If idols are so attractive because they provide a
tangible incarnation of the self-constructed identity, then the Body of Christ (and its sacraments)
provides the equivalent for the God-constructed identity. People only come to know who they
are in relationship. Thus, as a leader within that Body, I need to offer them the type of
identity-forming friendship that God offers. As their friend, I need to affirm, remind, and call out
their true created selves.
But lest I allow myself to be made into the students' idol, I must constantly bring them to
the cross of Christ. Scripture makes clear that the divine construction of human identity finds
final completion only in our union with Christ, joining in his death and resurrection (Romans
6:5-11). As I befriend, pray with, counsel, and teach students, I must repeatedly bring them into
the real presence of our crucified Lord. Only as they take their place with Jesus -- bringing to the
cross the pain, sin, and false selves from their past -- will they become the servant, the chosen, and
the friend of God. In the end, His nails are the only ones that hold any of us up.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bellah, Robert, Habits of The Heart, (Berkeley: Univ. of Ca. Press, 1985)
Bright, John A History of Israel (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1981)
Clifford, Richard, "The Function of Idol Passages in Second Isaiah" in CBQ 42 (1980)
Conrad, Edgar, "Isaiah and the Abraham Connection" in AJT, (vol. 2:2 1988)
Crouch, Andy, "Forgive Us Our Debts, As We Forgive Our Debtors: the Gospel and My Generation,"
(unpublished, 1995)
Finegan, Jack, Myth and Mystery: An Introduction to the Pagan Religions of the Biblical World, (Grand
Rapids, MI: Baker, 1989)
Fitzgerald, Aloysius, "The technology of Isaiah 40: 19-20 + 41:6-7" in CBQ 51 (1989)
Halbertal, Moshe and Margalit, Avishai, Idolatry (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992)
Holladay, William, Isaiah: Scroll of a Prophetic Heritage, (NY: Pilgrim Press, 1978)
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