Alternative temple

Idols are substitutes for the true God. But as Isaiah describes the construction of idols in his idol polemic in Isaiah 44, the idol emerges equally as an alternative temple, an alternative “meeting place” between God and man.

The echoes of the temple texts are numerous. Isaiah refers to iron and wood workers ( charash ), employing a term translated as “engraver” in the tabernacle texts (Exodus 28:11; 35:35). Carpenters and builders repair the temple (2 Kings 12:11), and in Isaiah they form idols. The wood-worker makes his idol of cedar and cypress, materials for the temple construction; like Hiram of Tyre, he “cuts cedar” (Isaiah 44:14; cf 1 Kings 5:6). Moses and David were both shown a model ( tabnit ) that they followed in building the Lord’s sanctuary (Exodus 25:9; 1 Chronicles 28:19); the idolater also has a tabnit , but it is the tabnit of a man (Isaiah 44:13).

Like the golden calf, which was a substitute for the living leader and mediator Moses, the idols in Isaiah are constructed as a substitute for the temple, and idols are ultimately counterfeits of the living Temple Jesus.