Isaiah 44:12 Study Bible: The blacksmith takes an axe, works in the coals, fashions it with hammers, and works it with his strong arm. He is hungry, and his strength fails; he drinks no water, and is faint.

◄ Isaiah 44:12 ►

The blacksmith takes a tool and labors over the coals; he fashions an idol with hammers and forges it with his strong arms. Yet he grows hungry and loses his strength; he fails to drink water and grows faint.

Study Bible

The craftsman sharpens his cutting tool
The term "craftsman" refers to a skilled worker, often associated with artisans who create objects of worship. In Hebrew, the word is "חָרָשׁ" (charash), which can mean an engraver or artificer. This highlights the deliberate and meticulous effort put into idol-making, contrasting with the divine creation that requires no human effort. The "cutting tool" signifies the instruments used in shaping idols, emphasizing the futility of human efforts to create gods from mere materials.

and works over the coals
This phrase indicates the intense labor and heat involved in the process of idol-making. The "coals" symbolize the fiery trials and the energy expended in creating something that ultimately has no life or power. Historically, this reflects the ancient practices of metallurgy and craftsmanship, where coals were essential for heating and shaping metals.

He forms an idol with hammers
The act of forming an idol "with hammers" underscores the physical exertion and craftsmanship involved. The Hebrew root "פָּסַל" (pasal) means to carve or hew, often used in the context of idol creation. This highlights the irony of humans crafting their own gods, which are lifeless and powerless, in stark contrast to the living God who forms humanity.

and forges it with his strong arm
The "strong arm" symbolizes human strength and effort. In the Hebrew context, the arm often represents power and might. This phrase illustrates the reliance on human strength to create something that is ultimately weak and ineffective, serving as a metaphor for the futility of idolatry.

He grows hungry and his strength fails
This part of the verse points to the physical limitations and needs of the craftsman. The Hebrew word for "hungry" is "רָעֵב" (ra'ev), indicating a lack of sustenance. The craftsman's strength failing is a reminder of human frailty and dependence on God for sustenance, contrasting with the idols that cannot provide for themselves or others.

he drinks no water and grows faint
The absence of water leading to faintness highlights the essential need for life-sustaining resources, which idols cannot provide. Water, often a symbol of life and spiritual nourishment in Scripture, is absent in the process of idol-making, emphasizing the spiritual barrenness of idolatry. This serves as a powerful reminder of the living water that only God can provide, as seen in John 4:14, where Jesus speaks of the water that leads to eternal life.

Persons / Places / Events

1. The Craftsman
Represents those who create idols, symbolizing human efforts to construct false gods or objects of worship.

2. The Idol
A man-made object of worship, highlighting the futility and weakness of idolatry compared to the living God.

3. The Coals
Used in the process of shaping the idol, symbolizing the intense effort and energy expended in creating something ultimately powerless.

4. The Strong Arm
Represents human strength and effort, which are ultimately insufficient and lead to exhaustion.

5. Hunger and Thirst
Physical needs that illustrate the limitations and frailty of human efforts apart from God.

Teaching Points

The Futility of Idolatry
Idolatry is a fruitless endeavor, as it involves worshiping something that cannot sustain or fulfill human needs.

Human Limitations
The craftsman's hunger and thirst remind us of our dependence on God for strength and sustenance.

The Power of God vs. Idols
Unlike idols, God is living and active, able to meet our needs and sustain us.

The Danger of Self-Reliance
Relying on our own strength and creations leads to exhaustion and spiritual emptiness.

True Worship
Worship should be directed to God alone, who is worthy and capable of responding to our needs.

Bible Study Questions

1. How does the description of the craftsman in Isaiah 44:12 illustrate the futility of idolatry?

2. In what ways do modern "idols" manifest in our lives, and how can we guard against them?

3. How does the physical exhaustion of the craftsman serve as a metaphor for spiritual exhaustion when we rely on our own efforts?

4. What are some practical steps we can take to ensure our worship is directed toward God alone?

5. How do the additional scriptures (Exodus 20:3-4, Psalm 115:4-8, etc.) reinforce the message of Isaiah 44:12 about the nature of God and idols?

Connections to Other Scriptures

Exodus 20:3-4
The commandment against idolatry, emphasizing the exclusivity of worship due to God alone.

Psalm 115:4-8
Describes the futility of idols, which are made by human hands and lack life or power.

Jeremiah 10:3-5
Compares idols to scarecrows in a cucumber field, highlighting their inability to speak or move.

Acts 17:24-25
Paul’s sermon at the Areopagus, where he contrasts the living God with idols made by human hands.

1 Corinthians 8:4-6
Discusses the reality that there is only one God, and idols are nothing in the world.

Sermons

Jehovah and the Images	E. Johnson	Isaiah 44:6-28
The Irrational and the Religions	W. Clarkson	Isaiah 44:9-18
The Idolater's Jolly	J. T. Davidson, D. D.	Isaiah 44:9-20
The Vanity of Graven Images	W. S. Ayres.	Isaiah 44:9-20

People

Cyrus, Isaiah, Jacob

Places

Israel, Jerusalem

Topics

Arm, Arms, Axe, Becomes, Blacksmith, Chisel, Coals, Cutting, Drink, Drinketh, Drinks, Drunk, Faileth, Fails, Faint, Fashioneth, Fashioning, Fashions, Feeble, Fire, Forges, Form, Gets, Gives, Giving, Grows, Hammers, Heating, Hungry, Idol, Iron, Ironsmith, Iron-smith, Iron-worker, Loses, Maketh, Metal, Power, Powerful, Shapes, Smith, Strength, Strong, Takes, Tongs, Tool, Wearied, Weary, Worketh, Working, Works, Wrought, Yea, Yes

Dictionary of Bible Themes

Isaiah 44:12

     4293   water
     4318   coal
     5126   arm
     5433   occupations

Isaiah 44:8-20

6708 predestination

Isaiah 44:9-12

4345 metalworkers

Isaiah 44:9-20

     5211   art
     7324   calf worship
     8748   false religion

Isaiah 44:10-13

5273 creativity

Isaiah 44:12-13

5516 sculpture
5583 tools

Isaiah 44:12-17

8816 ridicule, nature of

Isaiah 44:12-19

5356 irony

Library

Feeding on Ashes
'He feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?'--ISAIAH xliv. 20. The prophet has been pouring fierce scorn on idolaters. They make, he says, the gods they worship. They take a tree and saw it up: one log serves for a fire to cook their food, and with compass and pencil and plane they carve the figure of a man, and then they bow down to it and say, 'Deliver me, for thou art my god!' He sums up the whole …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Writing Blotted Out and Mist Melted
'I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins.'--ISAIAH xliv. 22. Isaiah has often and well been called the Evangelical Prophet. Many parts of this second half of his prophecies referring to the Messiah read like history rather than prediction. But it is not only from the clearness with which the great figure of the future king of Israel stands out on his page that he deserves that title. Other thoughts belonging to the very substance of the gospel appear in …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Jacob --Israel --Jeshurun
'Yet now hear, O Jacob My servant; and Israel, whom I have chosen.... Fear not, O Jacob, My servant; and thou, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen. --ISAIAH xliv. 1, 2. You observe that there are here three different names applied to the Jewish nation. Two of them, namely Jacob and Israel, were borne by their great ancestor, and by him transmitted to his descendants. The third was never borne by him, and is applied to the people only here and in the Book of Deuteronomy. The occurrence of all three here …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Source of My Spirit's Deep Desire
"I will pour water on him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground." -- Isaiah 44:8. Source of my spirit's deep desire For living joys that shall not perish, The patient hope Thy words inspire, Still let Thy tender mercy cherish. On Thee my humbled soul would wait, Her utmost weakness calmly learning, And see Thy grace its way create, Through thorns and briers which Thou art burning. Gladly my inmost heart would know The love that now it faintly traces, And see the streams from Zion flow …
Miss A. L. Waring—Hymns and Meditations

To the Afflicted, Tossed with Tempests and not Comforted. Isa 44:5-11
To the afflicted, tossed with tempests and not comforted. Isa 44:5-11 Pensive, doubting, fearful heart, Hear what CHRIST the Savior says; Every word should joy impart, Change thy mourning into praise: Yes, he speaks, and speaks to thee, May he help thee to believe! Then thou presently wilt see, Thou hast little cause to grieve. "Fear thou not, nor be ashamed, All thy sorrows soon shall end I who heav'n and earth have framed, Am thy husband and thy friend I the High and Holy One, Israel's GOD by …
John Newton—Olney Hymns

Fourteenth Day for the Church of the Future
WHAT TO PRAY.--For the Church of the Future "That the children might not be as their fathers, a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God."--PS. lxxviii. 8. "I will pour My Spirit upon thy seed, and My blessing upon thy offspring."--ISA. xliv. 3. Pray for the rising generation, who are to come after us. Think of the young men and young women and children of this age, and pray for all the agencies at work among them; that in association and societies …
Andrew Murray—The Ministry of Intercession

The Nature of Justification
Justification in the active sense (iustificatio, {GREEK SMALL LETTER DELTA}{GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA}{GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA}{GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA}{GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH OXIA}{GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA}{GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA}{GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA}{GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA}) is defined by the Tridentine Council as "a translation from that state wherein man is born a child of the first Adam, to the state of grace and of the adoption of the sons of God through the second Adam, …
Joseph Pohle—Grace, Actual and Habitual

Catalogue of his Works.
There is no absolutely complete edition of Eusebius' extant works. The only one which can lay claim even to relative completeness is that of Migne: Eusebii Pamphili, Cæsareæ Palestinæ Episcopi, Opera omnia quæ extant, curis variorum, nempe: Henrici Valesii, Francisci Vigeri, Bernardi Montfauconii, Card. Angelo Maii edita; collegit et denuo recognovit J. P. Migne. Par. 1857. 6 vols. (tom. XIX.-XXIV. of Migne's Patrologia Græca). This edition omits the works which are …
Eusebius Pamphilius—Church History

Moses' Prayer to be Blotted Out of God's Book.
"And Moses returned unto the Lord and said. Oh! this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. Yet now, if thou--wilt, forgive their sin; and if not, blot me, I pray they, out of thy book which than hast written." In the preceding discourse we endeavored to show that the idea of being willing to be damned for the glory of God is not found in the text--that the sentiment is erroneous and absurd--then adduced the constructions which have been put on the text by sundry expositors, …
Andrew Lee et al—Sermons on Various Important Subjects

Centenary Commemoration
OF THE RETURN OF BISHOP SEABURY. 1885 THE RT. REV. SAMUEL SEABURY, D.D. FIRST BISHOP OF CONNECTICUT, HELD HIS FIRST ORDINATION AT MIDDLETOWN, AUGUST 3, 1785. On the ninth day of June, 1885, the Diocesan Convention met in Hartford. Morning Prayer was read in Christ Church at 9 o'clock by the Rev. W. E. Vibbert, D.D., Rector of St. James's Church, Fair Haven, and the Rev. J. E. Heald, Rector of Trinity Church, Tariffville. The Holy Communion was celebrated in St. John's Church, the service beginning …
Various—The Sermons And Addresses At The Seabury Centenary

"But if Ye have Bitter Envying and Strife in Your Hearts, Glory Not," &C.
James iii. 14.--"But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not," &c. It is a common evil of those who hear the gospel, that they are not delivered up to the mould and frame of religion that is holden out in it, but rather bring religion into a mould of their own invention. It was the special commendation of the Romans, that they obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine into which they were delivered, (Rom. vi. 17) that they who were once servants, or slaves of sin, had now …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Impiety of Attributing a visible Form to God. --The Setting up of Idols a Defection from the True God.
1. God is opposed to idols, that all may know he is the only fit witness to himself. He expressly forbids any attempt to represent him by a bodily shape. 2. Reasons for this prohibition from Moses, Isaiah, and Paul. The complaint of a heathen. It should put the worshipers of idols to shame. 3. Consideration of an objection taken from various passages in Moses. The Cherubim and Seraphim show that images are not fit to represent divine mysteries. The Cherubim belonged to the tutelage of the Law. 4. …
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion

The Unity of God
Q-5: ARE THERE MORE GODS THAN ONE? A: There is but one only, the living and true God. That there is a God has been proved; and those that will not believe the verity of his essence, shall feel the severity of his wrath. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.' Deut 6:6. He is the only God.' Deut 4:49. Know therefore this day, and consider it in thy heart, that the Lord he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath, there is none else.' A just God and a Saviour; there is none beside …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

Hiram, the Inspired Artificer
BY REV. W. J. TOWNSEND, D.D. The Temple of Solomon was the crown of art in the old world. There were temples on a larger scale, and of more massive construction, but the enormous masses of masonry of the oldest nations were not comparable with the artistic grace, the luxurious adornments, and the harmonious proportions of this glorious House of God. David had laid up money and material for the great work, but he was not permitted to carry it out. He was a man of war, and blood-stained hands were …
George Milligan—Men of the Bible; Some Lesser-Known

A Few Sighs from Hell;
or, The Groans of the Damned Soul: or, An Exposition of those Words in the Sixteenth of Luke, Concerning the Rich Man and the Beggar WHEREIN IS DISCOVERED THE LAMENTABLE STATE OF THE DAMNED; THEIR CRIES, THEIR DESIRES IN THEIR DISTRESSES, WITH THE DETERMINATION OF GOD UPON THEM. A GOOD WARNING WORD TO SINNERS, BOTH OLD AND YOUNG, TO TAKE INTO CONSIDERATION BETIMES, AND TO SEEK, BY FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST, TO AVOID, LEST THEY COME INTO THE SAME PLACE OF TORMENT. Also, a Brief Discourse touching the …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

In the Last, the Great Day of the Feast'
IT was the last, the great day of the Feast,' and Jesus was once more in the Temple. We can scarcely doubt that it was the concluding day of the Feast, and not, as most modern writers suppose, its Octave, which, in Rabbinic language, was regarded as a festival by itself.' [3987] [3988] But such solemn interest attaches to the Feast, and this occurrence on its last day, that we must try to realise the scene. We have here the only Old Testament type yet unfilfilled; the only Jewish festival which has …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

The Song of the Redeemed
And they sung a new song, saying, Thou ... hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation ... T he extent, variety, and order of the creation, proclaim the glory of God. He is likewise, ^* Maximus in Minimis . The smallest of the works, that we are capable of examining, such for instance as the eye or the wing of a little insect, the creature of a day, are stamped with an inimitable impression of His wisdom and power. Thus in His written Word, there …
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 2

Of the Decrees of God.
Eph. i. 11.--"Who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will."--Job xxiii. 13. "He is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth." Having spoken something before of God, in his nature and being and properties, we come, in the next place, to consider his glorious majesty, as he stands in some nearer relation to his creatures, the work of his hands. For we must conceive the first rise of all things in the world to be in this self-being, the first conception …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Third Stage of the Roman Trial. Pilate Reluctantly Sentences Him to Crucifixion.
(Friday. Toward Sunrise.) ^A Matt. XXVII. 15-30; ^B Mark XV. 6-19; ^C Luke XXIII. 13-25; ^D John XVIII. 39-XIX 16. ^a 15 Now at the feast [the passover and unleavened bread] the governor was wont { ^b used to} release unto them ^a the multitude one prisoner, whom they would. { ^b whom they asked of him.} [No one knows when or by whom this custom was introduced, but similar customs were not unknown elsewhere, both the Greeks and Romans being wont to bestow special honor upon certain occasions by releasing …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

The Water of Life;
OR, A DISCOURSE SHOWING THE RICHNESS AND GLORY OF THE GRACE AND SPIRIT OF THE GOSPEL, AS SET FORTH IN SCRIPTURE BY THIS TERM, THE WATER OF LIFE. BY JOHN BUNYAN. 'And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.'--Revelation 22:17 London: Printed for Nathanael Ponder, at the Peacock in the Poultry, 1688. ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. Often, and in every age, the children of God have dared to doubt the sufficiency of divine grace; whether it was vast enough to reach their condition--to cleanse …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

The Being of God
Q-III: WHAT DO THE SCRIPTURES PRINCIPALLY TEACH? A: The Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man. Q-IV: WHAT IS GOD? A: God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. Here is, 1: Something implied. That there is a God. 2: Expressed. That he is a Spirit. 3: What kind of Spirit? I. Implied. That there is a God. The question, What is God? takes for granted that there …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

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