Isaiah 42:8, “I am Yahweh; that is My name; My glory I give to no other, nor My praise to carved idols.”
God affirms His name. “I am Yahweh.” There is no person or thing like our God. Only God has perfect glory; He gives it to no person or thing. Though we make vain attempts to assign praise and glory to our idols—to the false gods we carve into our hearts—God’s glory and praise belong to no one but Himself.
We even make vain attempts to ascribe glory and praise to ourselves, a perpetual pattern since the Fall. Today, this narcissism masks itself as “pro-choice,” exalting our mindless self-indulgences at the cost of innocent lives. We glorify and praise our sacred autonomy as we erect idols of ourselves within our hearts, serving and pleasing no one but our selfish cravings.
This idolatry is abominable to Yahweh. As a holy God, His just prerogative is to destroy us. Instead, He chose to walk among us once more. The last time He walked among us was before He cast us out of the Garden (Genesis 3:8). Then He recapitulated this in the grace of Christ, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
In Christ, God chose to walk His glory among us not in His wrath as we deserve, but full of His grace and truth, in whom we find total redemption from our constant idolatrous behaviour.
The Lutheran Column 