The Futility of Idolatry

In the summer of 1986, William Murray, a writer for The New Yorker magazine, visited Sperlonga, Italy, a very old fishing village on the western Italian coast about 75 miles [121 km] southeast of Rome. One morning, while Murray was standing at a refreshment bar sipping coffee, he met a middle-aged man named Fernando De Fabritiis. During their conversation, Mr. De Fabritiis, who has lived in Sperlonga all his life, told a rather amusing story that he has known since childhood.

“A man has a grove of pear trees, but one of these trees fails to produce, so he chops it down and he sells it to a carpenter,” tells De Fabritiis. “The carpenter carves a statue of St. Joseph out of it and gives it to the local church. The man who owned the tree goes to the church one Sunday, where everyone is praying to the statue of St. Joseph. The man refuses to pray. He knows that piece of wood. ‘It couldn’t make a single pear,’ he tells everybody. ‘How will it produce a miracle?’”

Mr. De Fabritiis’ tale is very similar to the illustration Jehovah God used to teach ancient Israel the utter futility of idolatry. Why not take your Bible and read it at Isaiah 44:14-20?