Isaiah 46:1-13
Isa 46:1
Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth, their idols were upon the
beasts, and upon the cattle: your carriages were heavy loaden; they
are a burden to the weary beast.
Bel was the chief god of Babylon.
Nebo was last in the order of the gods of the Chaldeans.
He was worshipped by the Babylonians, Assyrians, and the Sabeans in
Arabia. He corresponds to the Latin
Mercury, Greek Hermes, and the Egyptian Thoth.
The terms “boweth down” and “stoopeth” means it is the end of these false
gods.
Declare ye among the nations, and
publish, and set up a standard; publish,
and conceal not: say, Babylon
is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces; her idols are
confounded, her images are broken in pieces. (Jeremiah 50:2)
The idols of Babylon were broken down and stripped of their precious
metals and placed on beasts and taken to Persia.
They were very heavy burdens for the beasts as they were to the people
who were required to worship them by ritual and sacrifice.
Isa 46:2
They stoop, they bow down together; they could not
deliver the burden, but themselves are gone into captivity.
The great gods of Babylon were totally incapable of
rescuing themselves from the onslaught of the Persians.
They were broken down and sent into captivity along with all the other
treasures which were taken by Cyrus.
This proves the point of what God had stated in the previous chapters
that there was no god beside him because if those gods of Babylon were real,
they would have defended Babylon.
Isa 46:3
Hearken unto me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of
the house of Israel, which are borne by me from the belly, which are
carried from the womb:
God now takes a lesson for the people of Israel from the
dismantling of the false gods. He
declares to Jacob and the remnant of the house of Israel which would be the true
believers within Israel that the LORD is the one who gave birth to the nation
and had guided and provided for them throughout their history.
Isa 46:4
And even to your old age I am he;
and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will
bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you.
Here God makes a promise to his people that he will not
forsake them as did the false gods of Babylon who forsook their worshippers.
God promises that he will watch over his people even to hoar hairs which
means till their hair turns gray which means from the time they are born into
the world even unto old age. He
created them and he tells them he will take responsibility to care for them as
along as they walk this earth. He
bore them and he will deliver them from the time they are born until the time
they enter glory where nothing can persecute them anymore.
Isa 46:5
To whom will ye liken me, and make me equal, and
compare me, that we may be like?
Then the LORD gives a challenge to the people and asks
them to compare him to another god.
Can they come up with one who is like the LORD among the false gods that
actually can perform what the LORD has performed?
Moses asked that same question back in Exodus.
Who
is like unto thee, O LORD,
among the gods? who is like
thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in
praises, doing wonders? (Exodus 15:11)
The people would never be able to come with any god that could even come
close to the true God of Israel.
God did this to provoke their minds into realizing that the false gods forsook
Babylon and if they were so powerful how come they could not defend Babylon?
This lesson teaches the people of God
that there is no other god that can match their God and it is futile to even try
and find one.
Isa 46:6
They lavish gold out of the bag, and weigh silver in the
balance, and hire a goldsmith; and he maketh it a god: they fall down,
yea, they worship.
Then God exposes the foolishness of the false gods and
their idols. Man takes the gold and
silver then weighs it out to make a certain size idol whether it be for the
shelf or a full size for the temple.
Then they hire a goldsmith and then he fashions the gold and silver and
creates an image. Then once the
image is created it is presented to the people and then they see the image and
in their minds they believe it represents their god so they fall down and
worship the image thinking they are worshipping some deity behind the image.
Isa 46:7
They bear him upon the shoulder, they carry him, and set
him in his place, and he standeth; from his place shall he not remove: yea,
one shall cry unto him, yet can he not answer, nor save him out of his
trouble.
Here we have the method of how the idols are taken from
the place of manufacture to the temple or home where they are to be displayed.
The Hindus in India take their idols and place them upon their shoulders
and bring them to the place they are to be displayed.
There are also ancient bas reliefs which show processions of people
carrying their gods on their shoulders.
Many times we will see Roman Catholics carrying their Mary god on their
shoulders in their pagan processions.
Then once the idol is put in place, the worshippers will make their pleas
to it but the problem is that they are crying out to a piece of stone overlaid
with precious metals. These false
idols cannot hear the supplicant nor can they give him any kind of answer or
help him in his troubles. This is
in total contrast to the true God of Israel who makes the following promise to
them.
Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and
shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not. (Jeremiah 33:3)
Isa 46:8
Remember this, and shew yourselves men: bring it
again to mind, O ye transgressors.
Then God places these lessons squarely on the people and
tells them to ponder these things in their minds that idols and false gods are
useless and vain simply because they are just pieces of stone and metal and are
incapable of any type of interaction or intervention in the lives of their
worshippers. He wants them to
realize that Babylon as a powerful empire and their gods could not save them
because they were just molded statues.
Then God calls them transgressors who have been attracted to the false
gods and have forsaken the law of God and went to false religions.
Isa 46:9
Remember the former things of old: for I am God,
and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like
me,
Then God wants Israel to remember the former things of
old, that is, when God protected and guided Israel through the times of
captivity in Egypt and how with a mighty hand he delivered them from bondage and
paved the way through the wilderness to bring them into the land of promise.
They could also remember the 701 B.C. invasion by Assyria when they were
right at the gates of Jerusalem and God had delivered them from sure destruction
and destroyed 185,000 of their army.
God wants them to ponder on these things and not forget that he is the
true God of Israel and he is the one who had orchestrated their release from
captivity and guided them all along the way into the promised land.
He wants them to realize that he alone is the one who is responsible for
them and will not forsake them as the false gods had forsaken their worshippers.
There is none like God who creates, foretells, and then brings to pass
what he has decreed. The false gods
are just that, false!
Isa 46:10
Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient
times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall
stand, and I will do all my pleasure:
When God made some type of plan or decree, he has
declared the end of that plan right from the beginning as it would be worked out
exactly as he decreed. There are
things which the LORD had decreed which are still in progress such as the saving
of all the elect which will not be complete until the last day.
God’s counsel will stand and will perform and complete everything he has
decreed in his timing even though it seems like it is taking a long time.
From the time Christ went back to Heaven in 33 A.D. the word of God was
being used to save people from all walks of the known world but it wasn’t until
1611 that the final authorized word of God was completed for the end days where
the world will be evangelized on a massive scale in every country.
It was 1578 years from the time Christ ascended to the time we received
the King James Bible. We look at
that and think that it was a long time but keep the following time versus
eternity principle in mind.
But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one
thing, that one day is with the
Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. (2 Peter 3:8)
In Heaven’s time 1578 years was only about a day and half.
Isa 46:11
Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that
executeth my counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it, I will
also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it.
God could have easily freed the captives from Babylon
after 70 years but here in this verse he tells us that he called a ravenous bird
from the east which was Cyrus.
Historians have stated that he had a nose like the beak of a hawk and a hawk is
definitely a ravenous bird. God
states that he has commissioned Cyrus to destroy Babylon and to set the captives
free so they could return to their land.
God spoke it and therefore it will come to pass in his timing and God
does everything for a purpose and not just on a whim as people do things.
God always has a purpose for what he does.
Isa 46:12
Hearken unto me, ye stouthearted, that are far
from righteousness:
Here God declares possibly to the Babylonians themselves
being called stouthearted which means “mighty, strong, or valiant.”
The Babylonians were far from righteousness because they were pagans who
worshipped false gods. This
declaration is also to the Jews among the Babylonians who were hard hearted and
were still unbelieving in their hearts despite all the teachings they have
received so far from Isaiah. There
were many in the wilderness who were hard of heart and did not believe and gave
Moses many problems such as Korah and Dathan.
Israel was only out of Egypt about 30 days and they made a golden calf,
so many of them remained unsaved and normally opposed the saved ones as is the
situation today in the churches.
Isa 46:13
I bring near my righteousness; it shall not be far off,
and my salvation shall not tarry: and I will place salvation in Zion for Israel
my glory.