[T]he prophet revels in describing the process of idol manufacture. In addition to 44:9-20, other passages are dispersed throughout the prophetic corpus. What they have in common is the detailed descriptions of various artisans constructing an idol with wood and various materials. The finished product is established as immovable (40:20; 41:7). The passage 41:6-7 is particularly telling. Here each contributor encourages the other by exhortation and, in one case, approbation: “It is good” (ṭôb hû, v. 7). Empowerment and approbation are inextricably related (cf. Genesis 1). Nonetheless, the product is nothing, Yahweh proclaims (Isa 41:24), its creators being merely human; indeed, they too have become tōhû (44:9-11). The product is the producer, and vice versa. The true and sole source of strength comes from Yahweh, as made clear in the very next passage: “Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand” (41:8-10; cf. 35:3-4). In reality the prophet claims, idol manufacture is an enervating enterprise (44:12).
Try as they might to mimic divine activity, the idol makers are doomed to failure. Neither a rock of stability nor the arm of deliverance, the immovable idol is in fact a crushing burden on its worshipers. In a satire of the Babylonian procession of the gods, the prophet exposes the fallacy of idol worship. Fellow Israelites who worship idols are likened to beasts of burden, weary from bearing their lifeless load (46:1-7). Borne aloft in regal pageantry, the images of Marduk and his son, Nabu, require backbreaking work, and all for nothing. Such is the oppression of assimilation Israel suffers in a foreign land, requiring a new exodus toward the recovery of true worship. Idolatry is revealed for what it is, the most insidious form of self-demoralization (46:6-7). As the basis of aniconic worship, Yahweh’s incomparability is the very foundation of human dignity.
Much in contrast to these burdensome loads, the God of Zion is far from immobile. Yahweh is the bearable lightness of being: “I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save” (46:4). Yahweh’s pronouncement moves fluidly from creation to redemption. The problem with idols is that they can not move; by contrast, free and decisive movement characterizes the Rock of Israel’s salvation. Only a God on the move can redeem a people and propel them homeward. Full of unflagging energy, this God does not rest or enjoy the Sabbath (40:28). As Yahweh’s people are stuck in the rut of hopelessness and fear, their world too is construed as impassable, barren of new possibilities and bereft of human dignity. (William P. Brown, The Ethos of the Cosmos: The Genesis of Moral Imagination in the Bible [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1999], 267-68)
