Introduction
In each of the six chapters we have studied thus far (Isaiah 40-46) God challenged the idols and false gods to prove their power. One of the themes of these chapters was: “the captivity [of Israel in Babylonia] proves God is God because he predicted it.” His ability to predict the future is one telling difference between the God of Israel and the pagan gods.
In ch. 46 we see the ultimate proof that Israel’s God is God alone and there is none like him. This proof lies in the prediction of Cyrus, “the bird of prey coming from the east” who will come in direct fulfillment of the prediction and purpose of God.
It is Israel’s God alone who has the ability to deliver from the tragedies of life. Not only can he deliver, he will deliver. This is what Isaiah 46 teaches us.
READ Isaiah 46:1-7
Bel bows down, Nebo stoops low; their idols are borne by beasts of burden. The images that are carried about are burdensome, a burden for the weary. They stoop and bow down together; unable to rescue the burden, they themselves go off into captivity. “Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all you who remain of the house of Israel, you whom I have upheld since you were conceived, and have carried since your birth. Even to your old age I am He, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and I will save. “To whom will you compare me or count me equal? To whom will you liken me that we may be compared? Those who lavish gold from the purse, and weigh out silver in the scales, hire a goldsmith, and he makes it into a god; then they fall down and worship! They lift it to their shoulders and carry it; they set it up in its place, and there it stands. From that spot it cannot move. Though one cries out to it, it does not answer; it cannot save him from his troubles.
Verses 1-2 of ch. 46 present another caricature of the false gods. The false gods are a burden to their worshipers... “a burden to the weary” says v.1. Instead delivering the weary, they are a burden to them.
Bel is another name for Marduk who was the city god of Babylon and the hero of the Babylonian creation epic.
Nebo (or Nabu) was the son of Marduk and was the titular god for the Babylonian empire. Several Neo-Babylonian rulers have this god’s name as part of their own names, e.g., Nabopolassar, Nebuchadnezzar, and Nabonidus.
The images of these gods were paraded through the streets of the city during important festivals, such as Akitu, the Babylonian New Year festival. During this festival the entire creation epic which featured the activity of Marduk was recited or acted out. Then the statues of the gods were paraded through the streets, the king formally taking the god’s hand to signify his submission and loyalty to the god and his belief that the god would sustain and prosper him.
In verses 1-2 of our passage Isaiah lampoons these most prominent Babylonian divinities, pointing out their utter uselessness. How the mighty have fallen! Instead of being paraded through the streets with pomp and circumstance they now are loaded onto oxcarts and carried away by lowly beasts of burden into captivity. Instead of being borne high over the heads of the celebrating worshipers, they now stoop low and bow down and become weary burdens unable to do anything for their worshipers.
The pagan gods are worthless, but not so the God of Israel. Through Isaiah God says: “I have upheld [you] since you were conceived, and have carried [you] since your birth.
We have an example of Hebrew parallelism in v. 3: “the house of Jacob” and “all you who remain of the house of Israel”. The purpose of these two phrases is to remind them of their long history. Isaiah is saying, “Listen, you who go all the way back to Jacob, you who were named after your ancient ancestor Israel.”
They were “conceived” in the covenant between God and Abraham. They were born as a nation when God led them out of Egypt. Never in all that time had they ever carried their God! The pagan idols are carried on beasts of burden, but the house of Jacob has been carried by their God for its entire history. Since they were conceived he has sustained them, since their birth he has upheld and carried them.
In v. 4 God promises that he will continue to carry, uphold, and sustain them through their old age. Here is where God’s transcendence of creator over creature becomes clear.
As human beings, even though we carry and uphold our children from infancy, and a mother does everything she can to nourish and sustain her unborn child, there comes a time when we expect them to mature and be no longer dependent upon us. But we never outgrow our dependence upon God, and he never quits sustaining and carrying us.
Notice the repetition of the pronoun “I” in v. 4
- I am he... that is, the one who never changes.
- I have made you
- I will carry you
- I will bear you
- I will save
The contrast we see here was relevant not only to Israel in exile, but also to us.
As G. Campbell Morgan has stated:
“An idol is thing which a person makes, and has to carry. The true God makes the person, and carries him. When a person turns from the living God, he always makes a god for himself and that god becomes a burden; he has to carry it, and the burden is too heavy—he is heavy laden. When a person worships the true God, he worships his Maker and he is carried and so he finds rest.”What New Testament passage speaks directly to this?
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30
More than any other prophet Isaiah shows the foolishness of worshiping idols. We have seen it several times already in other chapters, especially and at length in ch. 44.
In verses 5-7 of today’s chapter Isaiah goes to great lengths to show why it is foolish to worship idols.
- The worshiper makes it himself.
- He has to hold it up.
- It can’t move.
- It can’t answer. It is deaf and dumb.
- It cannot save.
- The worshiper provides the metal for the god.
- Then he hires a goldsmith at his own expense to fashion it into a god.
- The goldsmith overlays a wooden image with dead gold that has come out of the underground.
- Then the worshiper engages in the supreme folly of bowing down and worshiping this thing that he has just had made at his own expense.
Here's a question for your further thought:
The implication of verses 3-4 is that, though the pagans must carry their gods, never in all their history has Israel had to carry her God. But what about the ark of the covenant? It was made of wood, overlaid with gold the people provided from their own treasures. The priests had to carry it for forty years during Israel's wilderness wanderings. Is there a difference? I think so.
The tabernacle and all its furnishings had definite functions, but at the same time they were highly symbolic and were meant as constant reminders of God’s presence with his people. The ark was the focus of this presence. It signified the presence of God, or more precisely the presence of God’s glory, with his people. (Ex. 25:10-22; Num. 7:89)
In 1 Kings when the ark was brought into Solomon’s new temple and the priests who had carried the ark and put it in place withdrew, the glory of the LORD, visibly manifested as a cloud, filled the building so that the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud (1Kings 8:6-10).
Stored in the ark were the tablets of the law, Aaron’s rod that had budded, and a gold jar of manna. Therefore, in all the years to come, the ark was a reminder of God’s past dealings with Israel and of his continuing presence with them. (Heb. 9:4)
God gave Israel specific instructions that the ark was to be carried only by the priests and it was never to be touched by anyone else. See in 2 Sam. 6:1-7 the account of what happened when men tried to transport the ark on an ox cart (just like the pagans carried their gods in Isaiah 46).
The ark was never meant to be an idol, and when Israel treated it as an idol as they went to war against the Phillistines they were soundly defeated and the ark was taken from them (1Sam. 4:1-11).
And once the ark was brought into Jerusalem and placed in the inner sanctum of the temple, it was never afterward brought out to be adored or even seen by the people. It could never serve as a detraction from the reality of the unseen God.
The ark was not an idol but rather a symbol of God’s presence, of his glory, and of his atoning grace.
Having shown that unlike the pagan gods he is able to save, God now moves on to declare his righteous purpose.
READ Isaiah 46:8-13
“Remember this, fix it in mind, take it to heart, you rebels. Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will accomplish all of my purpose, calling a bird of prey from the east, the man to fulfill my purpose from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it. Listen to me, you stubborn-hearted, you who are far from righteousness. I am bringing my righteousness near, it is not far away;and my salvation will not be delayed. I will grant to Zion, for Israel my glory.
What is God asking them to remember? They are to remember the impotence of the idols and that he, their God, has always rescued them and has always announced in advance what he would do.
- “Remember,” he says.
- “Fix it in mind”
- “Take heart, you rebels”
A rebel is someone who persists in unbelief.
Application: When we doubt that God can carry us through a tragedy, can sustain us through a difficult time, we are rebels.
What is the antidote to unbelief? Memory. Go all the way back as far as you can go and remember all that God has done in history, as well as all he has done in your own life. Can you not entrust your present moment to such a God?
Isaiah asks Israel to remember that their God is the one who:
“Made known from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will accomplish all of my purpose, calling a bird of prey from the east, the man to fulfill my purpose from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it."
Surely this passage makes it perfectly clear that both the exile and the deliverance from it by Cyrus were predicted long before the events.
God is able to make known “the end from the beginning” because they are both part of his plan and his wishes. He can predict the future because the future is what he has already determined.
Verse 11 speaks of a specific event yet to happen long after Isaiah wrote of it, that is the conquering of Babylon by Cyrus, king of Persia.
The fact that Cyrus “from the east, a bird of prey” will conquer Babylon is so because it is part of God’s plan. And because he has planned it, it will happen. God summoned Cyrus. He comes onto the stage of history only because God calls him.
Note the parallelisms of v. 11.
- a bird of prey = a man to fulfill my purpose.
- I have spoken = I have purposed.
- I will bring it to pass = I will do it.
Isaiah ends this section with the same words with which he began it:
“Listen to me” (v. 3, 12). In v. 12 the hearers are called “you stubborn-hearted, you who are far from righteousness.”
“Listen.” What are they to hear? That the righteousness of God is NEAR. It is not far away. Furthermore, they don’t have to come and find it. It is God’s gift. “I will grant salvation,” he says. God will bring it near and will not delay.
Righteousness here refers to God’s actions on behalf of his covenant people. He will act “rightly” toward them and will be faithful to his covenant promises to deliver them from their enemies. His righteous acts on their behalf are undeserved for they are “far from righteousness,” that is, they have not acted “rightly” toward God. They have been unfaithful and stubborn-hearted, not having the “right” action of faith. They have failed to remember and believe God’s promises.
Even so their faithful God will act rightly toward them and grant them salvation.
I will grant salvation to Zion, for Israel my glory. (v.13)
As E. J. Young has put it:
“This action is for the sake of Israel, for if God does not act, Israel cannot be saved... Of itself Israel is stubborn of heart and far from righteousness. The nation will be the glory of the Lord when his righteousness is brought near to them and they have received of his salvation. Then will it appear to all the world that the God of Israel is a God of grace who saves the stubborn of heart and those far from righteousness. Through saved Israel—the glory of the Lord—will be seen the Lord of glory, the savior of his people."
Conclusion
What idols do you and I have? What burdens are we carrying that are killing us because they have replaced God in our lives?
- A career?
- Another person?
- Need for recognition?
- Health?
- Financial success?
Isaiah’s message is that we must stop carrying these burdens and let the One who is carrying us anyway carry them for us.
Are you and I willing to entrust all these issues that seem so important ot us into God’s hands? If we don’t relinquish them to him we make idols of them. They become a burden, and we become afraid.
The exiles were afraid and hopeless because they had stopped trusting God.
Only when we recognize that identity, purpose, and fulfillment are things that in the truest sense only God can provide—only then will we experience God’s care and deliverance.
Are you afraid that God will do a worse job of directing your life than you can do?
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matt. 11:28-30
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