Since these challenges go unanswered, the Lord judges the idols as nothing, and their supposed work amounts to nothing (cf. 1 Corinthians 8:4). Furthermore, people who worship them are an abomination because they follow such nonentities and because in doing so they become like their gods. [source][source][source]
"It is not the idea of polytheistic idolatry that is abominable [1], but rather the act of replacing the truth with that system [2]." [3][source]
Context Summary
Isaiah 41:17-29 - What The Lord's Hand Does For The Needy
Life is not easy for any of us, if we regard external conditions only; but directly we learn the divine secret, rivers flow from bare heights, fountains arise in sterile valleys, and the desert blooms like the forest-glade. To the ordinary eye there might appear no outward change in the forbidding circumstance; but faith's eye always beholds a very paradise of beauty where other eyes see only straitened circumstances and a trying lot.
Once again our minds are brought back to the great convocation announced in the opening verses of the chapter. The idols are asked to say or do something to prove that they are divine. See Isaiah 41:21-23. There is no response; with the result that a crushing verdict is passed on them as recorded in Isaiah 41:24. On the other hand, the prophet of the Lord is prepared with His predictions of Cyrus "the one from the East," (see Isaiah 41:2 and Isaiah 44:28) which would be fulfilled before that generation had passed away. Let us give heed to the sure word of prophecy, "as unto a light that shineth in a dark place," 2 Peter 1:19. [source]
Chapter Summary: Isaiah 41
1God expostulates with his people, about his mercies to the church 10About his promises 21And about the vanity of idols
What do the individual words in Isaiah 41:24 mean?
Indeedyou [are]nothingand your work [is]nothing[is] an abomination[He who] choosesyou