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According to our translations, the OT describes idols as "vain" (eg, Isaiah 57:13), but the word used is the same as the word in Ecclesiastes - and is better translated as "vaporous." The point is not simply that idols are worthless, but that they are ephemeral. Idols may provide all sorts of apparent goods - pleasure, social unity, occasions for festivity. But the goods they provide are not lasting because the idols are not lasting. Idols are mist also in that they veil men from reality and from God. They will melt away before the living God, in the Day of His coming.
This might be taken two ways: When the Sun rises in the incarnation, the vaporous gods of the nations begin to pass away. And, as the gospel of Jesus spreads, it disperses the fog. To call idols "vapors" is to say that one day they will disappear.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Thursday, March 01, 2007 at 09:42 AM
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