1. Judges 6:31 Gideon's father Joash mocks Baal. But Joash replied to the hostile crowd around him, “Are you going to plead Baal’s cause? Are you trying to save him? Whoever fights for him shall be put to death by morning! If Baal really is a god, he can defend himself when someone breaks down his altar.”
2. 1 Samuel 5:2-5. After the Philistines had captured the ark of God, they took it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. Then they carried the ark into Dagon’s temple and set it beside Dagon. When the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord! They took Dagon and put him back in his place. But the following morning when they rose, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord! His head and hands had been broken off and were lying on the threshold; only his body remained. That is why to this day neither the priests of Dagon nor any others who enter Dagon’s temple at Ashdod step on the threshold.
3. 1 Kings 18:27: Elijah’s sarcastic taunts. During the famous showdown on Mount Carmel, the pagan prophets slash themselves and scream to Baal, but nothing happens. At noon Elijah began to taunt them. “Shout louder!” he said. “Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.”
4. Psalm 115:4–8: The Silent Senses. These verses methodically strip idols of all power, listing mouths that cannot speak, etc. Also note the sting in the tail.
But their idols are silver and gold, made by human hands.
They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but cannot see.
They have ears, but cannot hear, noses, but cannot smell.
They have hands, but cannot feel, feet, but cannot walk,
nor can they utter a sound with their throats.
Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them.
5. Psalm 135:15–18: The Echo. This psalm duplicates the mockery from Psalm 115 almost word for word.
The idols of the nations are silver and gold, made by human hands.
They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but cannot see.
They have ears, but cannot hear, nor is there breath in their mouths.
Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them
6. Isaiah 44:9–20: The Lumberjack Analogy. The longest and most famous idol satire in the Bible. All who make idols are nothing,
and the things they treasure are worthless.
Those who would speak up for them are blind;
they are ignorant, to their own shame.
Who shapes a god and casts an idol, which can profit nothing?
People who do that will be put to shame; such craftsmen are only human beings.
Let them all come together and take their stand; they will be brought down to terror and shame.
The blacksmith takes a tool and works with it in the coals;
he shapes an idol with hammers, he forges it with the might of his arm.
He gets hungry and loses his strength; he drinks no water and grows faint.
The carpenter measures with a line and makes an outline with a marker;
he roughs it out with chisels and marks it with compasses.
He shapes it in human form, human form in all its glory, that it may dwell in a shrine.
He cut down cedars, or perhaps took a cypress or oak.
He let it grow among the trees of the forest, or planted a pine, and the rain made it grow.
It is used as fuel for burning; some of it he takes and warms himself,
he kindles a fire and bakes bread. But he also fashions a god and worships it; he makes an idol and bows down to it.
Half of the wood he burns in the fire; over it he prepares his meal,
he roasts his meat and eats his fill. He also warms himself and says, ‘Ah! I am warm; I see the fire.’
From the rest he makes a god, his idol; he bows down to it and worships. He prays to it and says,
‘Save me! You are my god!’
They know nothing, they understand nothing; their eyes are plastered over so that they cannot see,
and their minds closed so that they cannot understand.
No one stops to think, no one has the knowledge or understanding to say,
‘Half of it I used for fuel;I even baked bread over its coals, I roasted meat and I ate.
Shall I make a detestable thing from what is left? Shall I bow down to a block of wood?’
Such a person feeds on ashes; a deluded heart misleads him; he cannot save himself, or say,
‘Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?’
7. Isaiah 46:1–7: The Exhausted Beasts. Isaiah mocks the chief gods of Babylon, Bel and Nebo. Instead of the gods carrying the people, the heavy metal statues become a massive burden that exhausts the poor donkeys and oxen forced to cart them around.
Bel bows down, Nebo stoops low; their idols are borne by beasts of burden.
The images that are carried about are burdensome, a burden for the weary.
They stoop and bow down together; unable to rescue the burden, they themselves go off into captivity.
'Listen to me, you descendants of Jacob, all the remnant of the people of Israel,
you whom I have upheld since your birth, and have carried since you were born.
Even to your old age and grey hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you.
I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.
‘With whom will you compare me or count me equal? To whom will you liken me that we may be compared?
Some pour out gold from their bags and weigh out silver on the scales; they hire a goldsmith to make it into a god, nd they bow down and worship it.
They lift it to their shoulders and carry it; they set it up in its place, and there it stands. From that spot it cannot move. Even though someone cries out to it, it cannot answer; it cannot save them from their troubles.
8. Jeremiah 10:3–16: The Scarecrow Analogy. Jeremiah compares impressive-looking pagan idols to helpless garden fixtures: For the practices of the peoples are worthless;
they cut a tree out of the forest, and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel.
They adorn it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so that it will not totter.
Like a scarecrow in a cucumber field, their idols cannot speak; they must be carried because they cannot walk. Do not fear them;they can do no harm nor can they do any good.’
No one is like you, Lord; you are great, and your name is mighty in power.
Who should not fear you, King of the nations? This is your due. Among all the wise leaders of the nations and in all their kingdoms, there is no one like you.
They are all senseless and foolish; they are taught by worthless wooden idols.
Hammered silver is brought from Tarshish and gold from Uphaz. What the craftsman and goldsmith have made is then dressed in blue and purple – all made by skilled workers.
But the Lord is the true God; he is the living God, the eternal King. When he is angry, the earth trembles; the nations cannot endure his wrath.
‘Tell them this: “These gods, who did not make the heavens and the earth, will perish from the earth and from under the heavens.”
But God made the earth by his power; he founded the world by his wisdom
and stretched out the heavens by his understanding.
When he thunders, the waters in the heavens roar; he makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth. He sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses.
Everyone is senseless and without knowledge; every goldsmith is shamed by his idols. The images he makes are a fraud; they have no breath in them.
They are worthless, the objects of mockery; when their judgment comes, they will perish.
He who is the Portion of Jacob is not like these, for he is the Maker of all things, including Israel, the people of his inheritance – the Lord Almighty is his name.
9. Habakkuk 2:18–19 Shouting at Stone. Habakkuk mocks the sheer futility of speaking to rocks: “Of what value is an idol carved by a craftsman? Or an image that teaches lies? For the one who makes it trusts in his own creation; he makes idols that cannot speak. Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Come to life!’ Or to lifeless stone, ‘Wake up!’ Can it give guidance? It is covered with gold and silver; there is no breath in it.”
10. Hosea 8:4-6 4 They set up kings without my consent; they choose princes without my approval.
With their silver and gold they make idols for themselves to their own destruction.
Samaria, throw out your calf-idol! My anger burns against them. How long will they be incapable of purity?
They are from Israel! This calf - a metalworker has made it;
it is not God. It will be broken in pieces, that calf of Samaria
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