Easter Island Statues

QUESTION: What is the significance of Easter Island Statues?

ANSWER:

Easter Island is most notable for the volcanic rock statues that adorn the rim of the island. The Easter Island statues rise to over 14 feet and their weight exceeds 14 tons. Carved by the early Polynesian settlers and transported to the banks of the coast via logs, 250 of these figures gaze out to sea with oversized features and bland expressions. The statues are called moai and stand upon huge rock platforms called ahu. Some are set up as shrines while others are distributed around the island looking out to sea as if they are an army protecting the interior. Scattered about the island in quarries, on roads and amongst other locations, 600 more statues have been left in various stages of completion.

The Easter Island statues don’t look like regular human bodies. They have large, rather blunt facial features with squared heads and short stocky builds for their height. Some have painted eyes while some only have empty sockets. The statues represent the creativity of the early masons. As time went on, the figures were replicated generation after generation, until the culture changed or died out.

The inhabitants of Easter Island had tried to bring physical substance to the gods they worshipped. The question begs asking, “How can something created out of rock possibly be a ‘god’ that can be called upon for help?” Even if a ‘god’ were created out of wood, that same piece of wood is something that could still be burned for fuel!

The true God of life does not need a physical replica for us to worship Him. He is alive and lives within those who believe in His Son! We cannot contain Him as cultures so often try to do. Most of the time, these ‘idols’ or statues we have created come from our own desires, and we allow them to take precedence over the one true God. The gods of television, work, other people, sex, and drugs are some of the gods that people worship.

The Easter Island statues are silent reminders of those people who once put their faith in lifeless stones rather than the true God for salvation.