Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel
and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts:
“I am the first and I am the last;
besides me there is no god.

Isaiah 44:6

Throughout the Bible, including the book of Isaiah, we read the proclamation from the LORD in the verses above – “I am the first and the last; besides me there is no god.”

Still, the people then invested their time into making new gods. The iron worker (v12) melts down metal, forms with it under his own strength, but that “god” can’t even help the man who grows tired forming the god. The wood worker, chops down a tree (v13-17), He uses part of the wood to build a fire, warms himself and roasts a meal to satisfy his hunger, then uses what is left to make into a “god, his idol and falls down to it and worships it.”

Paul recognized the outcome of denying the one true God –

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

Romans 1:21-23

Of course we don’t literally make idols in the way described above, but people still make idols of the heart when we put our faith and confidence in something other than the one true God. Depending on anyone or anything else for fulfillment is a dead end road of idolatry. There is a reason John Calvin claimed that the human heart is a perpetual idol factory.

Throughout the Old Testament we read of how people sacrificed for idols. In the extreme, even children were sacrificed to Molech. But we wouldn’t do such things, right? But have we sacrificed for an idol of the heart? Have we, maybe unwittingly, sacrificed to the idols of career by making the goal of success a priority over our family for example?

It’s good to evaluate our hearts from time to time to see if something, even a good thing, might be challenging the one true God for His place in our lives.