Welcome to The MHB Podcast. This is Michael Baun. And welcome to my 113th episode. In this episode I want to study Isaiah chapter 46. Chapters 46 and 47 are a little bit shorter so these will be shorter episodes. I considered combining them but I think our purposes will better served if we leave them separate. The podcast is continuing to grow very rapidly. If you’ve been with me from the beginning, it’s your listening and your support that has made this work possible. I deeply appreciate you. If you enjoy this podcast and you’d like to support it, you can do so by becoming a subscriber at mhbpodcast.com.
Isaiah chapter 46 is a brief commentary contrasting the idols of Babylon with the one true God. It was God’s intention to rescue His people from Babylon in short order, so He wanted to make sure they were appropriately repulsed by the thought of idolatry and instead had confidence in Him. This is kind of like teaching your kids not to talk to strangers before you set them free to go play outside. The first step was to show Israel that their rescue would not be obstructed by Babylon’s idols. Many Jews had been living immersed in Babylonian culture so they may have had doubts about their own God and an inculcated fear of false gods. Isaiah’s words taught them not to fear idols because the truth is that idols have no power at all.
God called Israel to remember all the times He had delivered their people in the past and trust that He would do it now. This came with a warning against the temptation of making their own idols or graven images even as an act of worship of Him. God doesn’t want you to make images of Him because your fallible mind is incapable of capturing all of who He is. Instead of looking for God in an image, He wants you to look for Him in His word. Israel was commanded to seek God in His word by remembering the promises and predictions made therein – as well as God’s power to make it all happen. God wanted Israel to remember that He is sovereign and the godlessness of humanity would have no impact on His word or the execution of His divine plan. Let’s begin with verses 1-4:
Isa 46:1 Bel bows down; Nebo stoops; their idols are on beasts and livestock; these things you carry are borne as burdens on weary beasts.
Isa 46:2 They stoop; they bow down together; they cannot save the burden, but themselves go into captivity.
Isa 46:3 “Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been borne by me from before your birth, carried from the womb;
Isa 46:4 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 will save.
Bel and Nebo were two of Babylon’s long-celebrated idols. Some people think that Bel was an evolution of his predecessor Baal. It could also be that Bel emerged as a verbal reference to the more famous Babylonian god Marduk – whose story is told in the Enuma Elish. I think it’s most likely that Bel was a deified version of a human Babylonian king named Belus. It wasn’t uncommon for ancient people to remember a king by turning him into a false god. Nebo most likely came from a Babylonian prophet who was posthumously deified as well. Whatever their origin, Bel and Nebo were idols who were celebrated enough to integrate their names into several well-known Babylonian leaders: Belshazzar, Nebuchadnezzar, and Nebuzaradan for example. During the height of Babylonian power these two idols were regularly worshiped. The Babylonians ridiculed Israel and taunted them by suggesting that their God was impotent in the face of gods like Bel and Nebo.
In order to resist the discouragement levied against Israel by Babylon, God promised Israel that these idols would be brought to ruin soon enough. Cyrus was coming. It’s true that Cyrus understood the diplomatic advantages of paying respect to the gods of whatever territory he wanted to conquer. But Bel and Nebo would not get this respect from Cyrus. At the hands of Cyrus and his soldiers, Bel and Nebo would be cut down at the temple and made to lay low at the feet of the army who plundered them. Of course, idols like Bel and Nebo were richly adorned with gold, jewels, and other expensive material so Cyrus had them carried off as spoil and sent back to Persia. The Babylonians had long believed that Bel and Nebo supported them – but now it became clear that these statues couldn’t even support their own weight. They were carried by wagons and beasts of burden. You have to imagine the shock and dismay felt among the idolaters as they came to the realization that their gods were simply inanimate objects the entire time.
Statues can do nothing to help each other and they can do nothing to help those who worship them. Bel, Nebo, Marduk, Baal, Zeus, Hermes, whoever the idol was God makes clear that they are all the same insofar as they are nothing. These false gods are vacuous non-existence whose only life and meaning is projected onto them by their followers. Babylon’s gods could not help the Babylonians, and the Babylonians could not help their gods. Both went into captivity at the hand of Cyrus king of Persia. The impotence of the idols was put on such display as to remind Israel that they need not fear the gods of their captors – they need only trust in the God of Israel. There’s a scene in the Old Testament where the Philistines capture the Ark of the Covenant from Israel. It becomes such a burden to them that they are forced to return it. That’s because unlike the statues of Bel and Nebo, the Ark of the Covenant was not only an item or object. It was an item or object that was backed up by the power of God Himself.
The power and the faithfulness of God is why Israel was called to trust in Him. And it’s why you should trust in Him today. Bel and Nebo lost their power at the same moment the Babylonians lost their power. That’s because military might along with technological and economic prowess was the only power Babylon ever had. There was no divinity behind their projects. God is nothing like these idols. Even when God’s followers are brought down into the dust, His own power and His own character remains unchanged. While Israel was in exile they may have been incredibly weak and may have taken the brunt of all types of insult and injury. But Israel’s God was still just as omnipotent, faithful, and loving as He always was. This means that your life could be a dumpster fire of a mess but the character and nature of your God remains unchanged. And it will always remain unchanged. He is your Rock. He is the Cornerstone of your foundation. He is your Protector, your Provider, and your Savior.
I think these next thoughts may be helpful to you if you are going through a difficult time. They remind you that God has been with you even before you were born. They’re also helpful if you are soaring on the heights of your success. They remind you that the life you’ve built is made of the resources God has given you. Israel was at a low point so in order to restore a healthy perspective of God, Isaiah reminded them of all that He has done for their people. He has been kind to them, watchful over them, and compassionate towards them. It was by God’s grace, promise, and mercy that they were given birth. God shaped them into a nation by giving them the constitutional framework necessary for a stable civilization. Quite literally, the good inside of you and the good among you is dependent on and derivative of God Himself. Without God there is no such thing as good.
One of Israel’s chief problems was that they consistently failed to have the perspective to see that they weren’t always powerful. There was a time when the nation of Israel was nothing but a few sojourners at the mercy of a cold, hard world. But God took these few sojourners under His special protection and providence – shaping them and growing them into a nation that endures to this day. God’s Law exists for two primary purposes. The first is to show us the distinction between ourselves and our holy God. It’s like a mirror that reveals our sinful nature and humbles us into recognizing our need for Christ as Savior. The second reason was to pull Israel up out of the quagmire that was pagan civilization. Life inside pagan civilizations was nasty, brutish, and short. But the Israelites were saddled with the same fallen nature that produced these societies. So God had to give them object lessons to teach them how to step out of that.
The kind of love that it takes for a holy God to step down into the worst of humanity so that He can redeem us is incomprehensible. One of the best analogies is found in Scripture as the story of Hosea and his wife Gomer. Gomer prostitutes herself and Hosea literally waits behind a line of men who go in to use her so that when it’s his turn he can get her out of there. It is incomprehensible how much God loves you. Even Moses failed to have the patience to put up with the stiff-necked nature of Israel, but God carried them through the wilderness anyway. So He urged them to look back and see how they have been on His mind from the beginning and how He has carried them this far.
If you’re in a hard spot of your life it will pay massive dividends to your own peace of mind if you literally focus on your blessings. Think of all the ways God has blessed you and continues to bless you. It’s really important that you do this because here’s the thing: you’re going to have struggles and hardships every day for the rest of your life. The difference between joyful, peaceful people and miserable people is whether or not they choose to ruminate on those struggles. It is objective fact that your very life is the product of extremely small odds. If we changed even the smallest details of earth’s planetary composition all life would cease to exist. So to just be alive is a gift that we may not have the capacity to fully appreciate this side of eternity. And if you live in a developed society then each day you reap the benefits of men and women who conquered mountainous challenges before you. Gratitude and humility are necessary ingredients to peace of mind and contentedness.
All of that can be experienced without even arriving at the miraculous benefit of the Holy Spirit. If you belong to Christ then God’s Spirit indwells you and shapes that which is good in you. Christ called the Holy Spirit our Comforter and our Advocate. Our natural life is sustained by God’s providence and our spiritual life is sustained by God’s grace. Acknowledging that God has carried you from before you were born grants you the necessary perspective to have peace of mind in difficulty and humility in success. Peace of mind because you have faith that God will continue to carry you and protect you into eternity. Humility because you have faith that all of your gifts, success, and the fruit of your work is brought on by the grace of God flowing through you.
God wanted Israel to have this perspective so they would trust Him and stay away from idolatry once Cyrus set them free. So He fortified their perspective by telling them that not only has He carried them this far, but He will never leave them and He will continue to carry them. God is the first and the last. He is the author of your life from beginning to end and with God you can ensure well-being at the finish line. God was there with you when you were a helpless infant and God will be there with you when old age, decay, and infirmity make you helpless once again.
This is something that’s really important for you to know if you are entering old age. As you grow older and are able to do less worldly things, many of your relationships are going to change. Even the people who love you the most are going to have to balance their care-giving toward you with the care-giving of themselves and their families. This is not optional. Entropy mandates that if we don’t move forward and take care of ourselves we will die. Unfortunately, many people get this balance wrong and end up committing their loved one to a nursing home. Nursing homes are necessary sometimes, but in many cases the nursing home is a consequence of the elderly being incapable of adapting to the changed relationship or the caregiver being incapable of adapting. The reality is that we are eternal souls who currently exist in a temporal world. We have to accept that earthly relationships change and evolve. Accepting it is the first step to approaching it with wisdom and proper adaptation, thereby moving forward with maximum possible well-being.
But there is one relationship that does not and will not change as you grow older. That is God’s relationship with you. God is infinite and He never changes. He is the same to you on your last days as He was on your first days. Whether you recognized it or not, you needed God just as much during your prime as you do during your old age. What’s more is that God sees past the infirmities of old age and when God looks at you – He sees the eternal version of you. He has walked with you all of your life and if you let Him He will bear you up and carry you home at last. Let’s read verses 5-13:
Isa 46:5 “To whom will you liken me and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be alike?
Isa 46:6 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!
Isa 46:7 They lift it to their shoulders, they carry it, they set it in its place, and it stands there; it cannot move from its place. If one cries to it, it does not answer or save him from his trouble.
Isa 46:8 “Remember this and stand firm, recall it to mind, you transgressors,
Isa 46:9 remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me,
Isa 46:10 declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’
Isa 46:11 calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it.
Isa 46:12 “Listen to me, you stubborn of heart, you who are far from righteousness:
Isa 46:13 I bring near my righteousness; it is not far off, and my salvation will not delay; I will put salvation in Zion, for Israel my glory.”
This passage reinforces the claim that Israel will be delivered and Babylon will be destroyed. The prediction is insisted upon for the conviction of idolaters as well as for those who oppressed Israel. Since Israel had lived immersed in Babylonian culture, some of the Jews began chasing after idols or falling into the temptation of crafting God Himself into an idol. You still see this happen today when people generate images of Christ. The truth is we don’t know the specifics of what He looked like – and that’s intentional. We are warned against trying to craft images of God because our finite minds are incapable of grasping the entire scope of His reality.
In addition, we’d be fundamentally incapable of creating an image that is purified of our own sinful nature. Essentially speaking, our images of God pollute the reality of God. There’s nothing we can look at to even gain a frame of reference for describing God’s appearance accurately and totally. Everything we have and everything we see is created. It’s illogical to compare any creature with the Creator. During the time of Christ’s incarnation, He certainly did have a describable appearance – but that description is withheld from us for a reason. Humanity already struggles with racism and claims of superiority based on immutable physical characteristics. Imagine how much further we would abuse this if we had a photograph of God.
Ancient people spent an obscene amount of money and resources when it came to idolatry. The statues and images they produced were often covered in gold and adorned with all manner of expensive material. These productions came at the expense of their own families and their own estates. So you can imagine the insanity of it: they’d spend all of their resources on material to make an idol instead of stocking up for the next difficult season. Then they would pray to this idol for deliverance from that difficult season. It was literally painful confusion. Christians today, generally speaking, have the opposite problem. Most studies indicate that only about 5% of Christians tithe regularly. But I’m actually optimistic about this figure because I think many Christians are going to start supporting para-church ministries like podcasts.
On top of the great cost of idolatry, the idolaters went to great pains in setting them up exactly how they saw fit. These objects could be quite heavy and every time you relocated you’d have to transport it yourself. They also had to fasten them down because if the idol fell over it was considered a sign of the god’s impotence. You can really start to see the role reversal that is the heart of idolatry here. Humanity creates the idol and therefore sits on the throne. Humanity controls the destination of the idol and therefore sits on the throne. Humanity fastens down the idol, deciding on his own terms when he will answer to it, and therefore sits on the throne. Idolatry is all about humanity pretending to be God.
You could give these people an out by suggesting that they resorted to idolatry because they simply knew nothing about the real God – but that’s just not true. Remember, these passages of Isaiah were written 200 or more years before Israel went into exile. God always sends a prophet to warn His people of incoming judgments and to encourage them to repent. How much more are we on the hook for not knowing about God? We’ve been given the privilege of the full counsel of God in Scripture. The Bible is the bestselling book of all time – and continues to be the bestselling book each year by a substantial margin. I want to be careful in the sense that I’m not suggesting all Christians are required to be Bible scholars. There wouldn’t be a need for pastors or shepherds if everyone was a shepherd.
But I am suggesting that this spiritual but not religious trend that’s cropping up in the West flirts dangerously with idolatry. When it comes to the meaning of life and the questions of eternity, are you really so bold as to think you can look inside yourself for answers? Those who do this are creating their own gods in the same way the ancient idolaters did it with the golden statues – and it’s equally illogical today as it was back then. Just think about this for a minute.
I imagine most people would agree that human beings are temporal, vastly ignorant, and prone to malevolence. I’ll be the first to admit that the power of good inside of us exceeds that of the power of evil – but the evil is still inside of us. You might hear someone prattle on about how most people are good and the world isn’t that bad – but then this same person locks their door at night and is afraid to walk down that dark alley. The thought that most people are good and the world isn’t bad is an ideological response to the fear of accepting reality. So given that we are bent and corrupted in this way, how could a god who is derivative of us possibly be a good god? Yet that is the god each person produces when they claim to be spiritual but not religious.
This type of worldview is fully antithetical to reason and civility. Again and again God emphasized the senselessness of idolatry. Packaged with these emphatic declarations is a call for Israel to be civilized men and women instead of primitive savages. God desires for us to act and think with reason, bravery, and wisdom. The idolater is an example of a human being who is not using his or her own faculties to their fullest capacity. The worship of idols is unbecoming and does not fit with the dignity and nobility that comes with having God’s image shaped into us. God called Israel to remember how they used to be at the height of their societal and individual development. God gave them the freedom to repent and recover that lost civility.
It’s actually possible for a society to become less civilized at it moves across time. This becomes a real problem when the forces that destabilize a society mask themselves as progressive and tolerant – when in truth they are neither of these things. They are not progressing toward a higher civilization, rather they are regressing into primitive tribal behavior patterns. They are not seeking to love their neighbor by extending mercy and tolerance, rather they are canceling their neighbor in a merciless quest for power. We should always be careful to prevent bad actors – whether they are on the left or the right – from hijacking terms like progress and tolerance.
The one thing Israel needed reminded of repeatedly was that God is God and there is no other. This is the same central idea that we ourselves need taught to us over and over again. The pattern maintains that once a civilization becomes strong enough the collection of individuals begin thinking they no longer need God. To resist this temptation we should be careful to remember history properly. We should remember all the things that God has done for us individually and collectively that no one else could do. If you really sit back and reflect on your life you’d be surprised by how many miracles you’ve forgotten. You’ve had days where God steered you away from the worst calamity of your life without you noticing it. You’ve also had many days where you did in fact receive the gift you desired most. The problem is we tend to forget these things and these things are easily eclipsed by the times God failed to give us what we wanted. Israel was rescued from slavery in Egypt by many miraculous works of God. God called them to remember it so they could remember how much they need Him.
Another way for us to remember that we need God by considering prophecy and our own inability to see the future. God has declared the end from the beginning. This means His plan was written from the very start. He told Israel what their end would be. He’s told us what our end will be. When you think about it the mystery of death has been solved for us in the Scriptures. I don’t know about you but I still catch myself feeling bothered with the sense that I don’t know what will happen when we die. Even though I know what the Scripture says, I’ve never personally died so I don’t exactly know what will happen in the sense that I know my eyes are brown. But the fact is we don’t have to suffer the anxiety of this particular unknown because God has revealed it to us – we just have to trust His word. What would your life be like if you knew you were going to live on eternally in heaven with God? I’ve heard many Christians say this, and I agree with them in the sense that I believe I’ll live on eternally with God. But it still takes faith on my part. How much easier and more relaxed would the rest of your days become if you had the faith to fully accept eternal life? Having such faith is one of the keys to a joyful and peaceful mind.
Many of the prophecies in Scripture have been fulfilled exactly has predicted. Including what we read here in Isaiah. These fulfilled prophecies are an attestation to the reliability of each unfulfilled prophecy. A robust study of prophetic history gives us confidence that God is who He says He is and that He will carry out His plan to the letter. This includes the fulfillment of your own destiny when you are brought home to reside with God forever. If you invest your hope and your comfort in God’s plan for the world and for yourself then you will have abundant satisfaction in seeing that He will see it through. Peace will wash over you as you understand that neither the powers of Hell nor the powers of humanity can do anything to change the course of divine destiny.
These particular predictions about Cyrus delivering Israel from captivity were examples to God’s people of fulfilled prophecies. They’re also examples for us today. The idea that God called a bird of prey from the east is likely a reference to Cyrus’s standard which was an eagle. The Romans used an eagle as well. And the United States uses an eagle. I don’t know what it is about world superpowers and eagles. God called Cyrus from the east and Cyrus became the executor of God’s counsel. As we know, God empowered the successes of Cyrus although Cyrus had little if any knowledge of God. So even people who disbelieve in God or know nothing about Him are used by Him to achieve His purposes. You could even be militantly against God and He will still use your own actions to promote His cause. This was the case with Saul the Pharisee who persecuted Christians until he encountered the risen Christ on the road to Damascus. That experience flipped him and led to him writing a significant portion of the New Testament.
Something else you should know about God is that He has many purposes and designs that He has not revealed to us by way of prophecy. With that said, every single part of prophecy which He has revealed is in His purposes. It’s kind of like if I told you I had lunch and McDonald’s and gave you the receipt. You might not know the plan for the rest of my day – but you definitely know that McDonald’s was part of the plan. God takes direct ownership of His word and of His plan. Regarding His word He says: I have said it, and I will bring it to pass. Regarding His plan He says: I have purposed, and I will do it. So when it comes to God’s ultimate design there is no intermediary at work. The tasks which were the hardest and had the most at stake He simply did Himself when He sacrificed Himself on the cross. You can take comfort in this by knowing that if you love God and love your neighbor then He won’t allow anyone or anything to take you away from Him.
Despite the indictment against idolatry and the bold assurances of God’s will, there still existed those who opposed His counsels. There were two groups of people who fell into this category. The first was the obstinate and arrogant Babylonians. They were in large part merciless over their Jewish captives and they didn’t value justice or righteousness. Many of them vowed to detain the Jews despite their pleas to God and despite God’s prophecies about Cyrus. They were distant from the truth of God and they lacked compassion because of it.
The second group of people who opposed God’s counsels were the Jews who were not humbled by the exile. Some of them remained proud despite their long-suffering under the hammer and furnace of slavery. They were given God’s promise of deliverance the same as everyone else, but it’s likely that they just didn’t believe it. Their unbelief made them feel like God was at a great distance from them and their faithlessness actually made this distance greater. Their lack of faith prevented them from accepting God’s grace and His good gifts to them. This was similar to how many of their forefathers lacked the faith to enter into the Promised Land upon being rescued from Egypt. It’s also the same case with the Jewish elite who rejected Christ and His gospel. They sought righteousness by way of stubborn legalism and searching God’s law. But they were so busy searching God’s law that they missed God Himself.
For the two groups of people who opposed divine sovereignty, God had this message: Salvation is coming for all of God’s people. Humanity may fail to give them justice but God will absolutely bring justice. Salvation will come to Jerusalem and make it a place of defense and safety for all who choose to come there. God’s salvation of Israel and of His people will greatly glorify and honor Him. Out of Zion Christ the Redeemer will come and the gospel shall emerge.
The final promise of this chapter is directed at all of us. God’s righteousness is near, much nearer than we think. Perhaps it is nearest during our darkest moments and when we are being persecuted the worst. For those whose hearts are given over to evil, whose desire is to kill, steal, and destroy this is presented as a warning. Behold, the Judge stands before the door. But for those who are humble of heart and faithful, whose desire is to love God and love their neighbor this is presented as a promise. God’s final work of salvation will not delay any longer than is necessary for you to become ready for it. So although it is not yet here for you – wait for it patiently. God is coming for you and for all of us and when the time is right He will not delay.
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