20 They transformed the beauty of His ornaments into pride, and they made the images of their abominations and their detestable things with it; therefore I will make it an abhorrent thing to them. 21 I will give it into the hands of the foreigners as plunder and to the wicked of the earth as spoil, and they will profane it. 22 I will also turn My face from them, and they will profane My secret place; then robbers will enter and profane it.
23 ‘Make the chain, for the land is full of [m]bloody crimes and the city is full of violence. 24 Therefore, I will bring the worst of the nations, and they will possess their houses. I will also make the pride of the strong ones cease, and their holy places will be profaned. 25 When anguish comes, they will seek peace, but there will be none. 26 Disaster will come upon disaster and rumor will be added to rumor; then they will seek a vision from a prophet, but the law will be lost from the priest and counsel from the elders. 27 The king will mourn, the prince will be clothed with horror, and the hands of the people of the land will [n]tremble. According to their conduct I will deal with them, and by their judgments I will judge them. And they will know that I am the Lord.’”
I’m stuck on this first verse (v. 20), because it seems everything else spirals out from there. They first became proud of these “ornaments” and then began to make idols and other abominable images. From there, God gives those things as plunder to the wicked, to foreign nations, who will profane it even further. The feast of Belshazzar comes to mind, where he brings the goblets taken from the temple for His own dining pleasure.
That very night, the kingdom is snatched from his hands by foreigners also, but that’s getting ahead of ourselves a bit. So what exactly does this first verse tell us? They became proud of the works of their hands, valuing them above God Himself. These ornaments and utensils of the temple were made my human craftsmen, but in reality were gifts from God. For their very talents were God ordained, as we can see in Exodus 31.
The chapters preceding that detail all the things they were to make, and I imagine Moses might have been thinking, “Me Lord? You want me to make all these amazing things?” Certainly, God could have given him the skills, but He didn’t. God gave Moses the plans, and then filled specific craftsmen with the Spirit of God so that they could carry out the work.
Now here we are, centuries later, and the people are so proud of these things. What did they have to do with them? Not much, in fact, nothing at all. But it isn’t much of a stretch to see that we can have the same pride rise up in us. We get done with a project and go, “Wow, look what I just did!” Well, slow down, as we all must realize we can only do the things we do because God gave us the abilities in the first place.
If we stop and thank Him first, it will put us in a much better place. Certainly, we like to share good things, and that can even be encouraging to others. But keep it all in perspective, as everything we do, every accomplishment and achievement, is a gift from God. Don’t let it swell your head, but remember to have a thankful heart, and revel in His goodness instead.