when different gods attack

Isaiah 10:20
In that day the remnant of Israel, the survivors of the house of Jacob, will no longer rely on him who struck them down but will truly rely on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel.

Isaiah 19:22
The LORD will strike Egypt with a plague; he will strike them and heal them. They will turn to the LORD, and he will respond to their pleas and heal them.

This combination of verses in Isaiah has had me thinking about how when we rely on idols to help us we end up relying on those things and people which crush us. The Lord certainly crushes us to, but to build us up. When we rely on those things which are not the Lord, we are simply struck down. It is perennially sobering to realize that whatever we use and whomever we rely upon to define us that is not Christ himself becomes a burden to us, we become destroyed by what we think we ought to do and work ourselves to a point where we detest those things and people that in Christ we could love.

Our idols strike us down. We don't like to admit it. I don't like to admit it but the idols in my life have definitely struck me down and used me in the end when I thought that by turning to them I could be happy or at least forget unhappiness long enough to take some comfort. Learning to rely on the Lord even when He strikes you is self-evidently not easy, but it is an easier yoke to bear and an easier burden to carry than what my idols have asked of me in return for their receipt of worship.