While idol worship isn’t as common around here as it was in Isaiah’s days, we still have items that take our focus off of God. This daily devotional looks how God will never leave His remnant of believers but will all us to Him to serve His purpose.
Nuggets
- God is carrying the Israelites – and us.
- We can’t bring God down to our level nor make our purpose His.
- It is God’s purpose to reestablish a relationship with us.
Devotions in the Isaiah’s Message from Sovereign God series
There were many foreign idols in Isaiah’s day. God is stronger than all of them.
Around here, we generally don’t worship a metal image on a wood pedestal these days. We still, however, have idols that take our focus off of God.
God is greater than all of our idols today. Let’s see what we can learn from Isaiah.
Let's Put It into Context
“Bel crouches; Nebo cowers. Idols depicting them are consigned to beasts and cattle. The images you carry are loaded, as a burden for the weary animal. The gods cower; they crouch together; they are not able to rescue the burden, but they themselves go into captivity” (Isa. 46: 1-2 CSB)
Skinner told us that Bel and Nebo represent the planets Jupiter and Mercury. This was what the Babylonians worshiped in Isaiah’s day. Bel’s proper name was Mardock.
Nebo was Marduk’s son. His name meant prophet, and he was credited with inventing writing.
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One thing we have to remember is the power — or lack thereof — attributed to these gods. They were considered powerful on their home turf. Once they traveled to somewhere else, their powers were considered to have waned.
The gods had to get where they were going by being carried. They weren’t living, breathing things. They were objects.
They were going to be no match for God. In fact, “… they themselves go into captivity” (Isa. 46: 1-2 CSB).
God Will be with His People throughout Their Lives
“Listen to me, house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been sustained from the womb, carried along since birth. I will be the same until your old age, and I will bear you up when you turn gray. I have made you, and I will carry you; I will bear and rescue you. ‘To whom will you compare me or make me equal? Who will you measure me with, so that we should be like each other? Those who pour out their bags of gold and weigh out silver on scales — they hire a goldsmith and he makes it into a god. Then they kneel and bow down to it. They lift it to their shoulder and bear it along; they set it in its place, and there it stands; it does not budge from its place. They cry out to it but it doesn’t answer; it saves no one from his trouble’” (Isa. 46: 4-7 CSB)
God is never going to leave us. He will always carry us through our lives.
Isaiah went back to talking about the remnant. A remnant of believers is the those who remained faithful to God even when the nation of Israel did not.
However, Isaiah is still on the carrying topic. Only this time, it isn’t the false gods that are being carried.
God is carrying the Israelites – and us. Not only that, but it starts pre-birth. God carries us in the womb.
It is comforting to know that God carries us throughout our loves. He will never leave us. We will always be under His care.
Every age has its challenges. God is with us through everything. Sturgeon wrote, “The doctrine, then, is twofold: that God Himself is the same, whatever may be our age; and that God’s dealings towards us, both in providence and in grace, are alike unchanged.” It doesn’t matter if we are a rebellious youth or a despondent older person.
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Look back at the verses. Pick out all of the I will be, I will bear, I have, and I will carry in the verses.
Do you get the picture of what God has promised? We aren’t on our own. This is talking complete provision.
God isn’t just going to hold our hands and tug us this way or that. He is going to carry us. We won’t go anywhere He does not want us to go.
Ooo, baby. That means even the hard places where we are going. God has a reason for us going there. That is where He is going to teach us the most.
If God is going to rescue us, that means He will deliver us out of those hard places. They are temporary.
We go at it from the wrong way sometimes. We ask, “God, what have you done for us lately?” We should be asking, “God, what have you done previously?”
Why is that? Do we not want to have to think back? Or is it, if we don’t see God working in our lives, He isn’t? Face it, we are so focused on this life.
It isn’t about us. It isn’t about what we feel, think or see. It isn’t about us — it is about Him.
God is right there — our whole entire lives.
Jay cautioned that this doesn’t guarantee every disciple will reach old age. If we do, Jay wrote, “He will be with you even when ‘your heart and flesh fail you.’”
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We still feel the results of sin — which includes death. We aren’t entitled to anything.
Verses 5 through 7 were kind of confusing. Macculloch explained this. He said that the Israelites used images for worship.
We really are not to try to visualize God. When we do, we base it on our limited knowledge. God is much more.
What Is God’s Purpose?
“Remember this and be brave; take it to heart, you transgressors! Remember what happened long ago, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and no one is like me. I declare the end from the beginning, and from long ago what is not yet done, saying: my plan will take place, and I will do all my will. I call a bird of prey from the east, a man for my purpose from a far country. Yes, I have spoken; so I will also bring it about. I have planned it; I will also do it” (Isa. 46: 8-11 CSB)
We like to think about what God’s purpose is for our lives. But what about God’s purpose for His?
Burner cautioned us that purpose takes on a whole new meaning when we apply it to God. God never stumbled around and wondered what His purpose was. He didn’t have to figure out what He wanted to be when He grew up. He didn’t have to take an aptitude test or talk it out with some guidance counselor or teacher.
He always knew.
We have to watch out when we try to explain things based on our understanding. We have to remember we are transgressors. That is a churchy word for saying we are sinners.
We can’t bring God down to our level nor make our purpose His. He is Sovereign God.
We are to go up to God’s level. We are to change to have His character.
Burner explained how we should look at God’s purpose. He wrote, “If the purpose of God is to be viewed as it really is, we take it to be simply this: God’s foreknowledge of everything that is to come to pass, together with the operation of His influence upon that foreknowledge, in connection with those things. His foreknowledge had no beginning; His resolution, as to what He was to do, could have no beginning. From the moment He foresaw, He resolved or purposed.”
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Let’s look at it this way. “‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways.’ This is the Lord’s declaration. ‘For as heaven is higher than earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts’” (Isa. 55: 8-9 CSB).
We aren’t going to figure it out. He is Sovereign God. He is all-knowing and all-powerful.
We aren’t — even with all of our scientific knowledge.
I have been thinking about this a lot lately. God knew before He made us that we were going to disobey Him and bring sin into the world.
He made us anyway.
But what does “I am God” actually mean?
There is no other god like Him. We said that He is all-knowing and all-powerful. They are not.
God has no beginning or end. He has always been. Idols, on the other hand, were created.
But look at the last part of verse 10. “… my plan will take place, and I will do all my will” (Isa. 46: 10 CSB).
Whatever God decrees is going to happen. How do we know that? He is going to accomplish it.
God isn’t going to sit on His throne and delegate. He is going to do the work. He is a hands-on God.
Our Purpose Is Listening to God’s Voice
“Listen to me, you hardhearted, far removed from justice: I am bringing my justice near; it is not far away, and my salvation will not delay. I will put salvation in Zion, my splendor in Israel” (Isa. 46: 12-13 CSB)
Our purpose is listening to God’s voice. He wants to bring us salvation.
I know. That can be hard at times. We don’t want to listen because God is asking us to do the hard stuff. Other times, we allow the pull of the world to be greater than His pull.
The end result is we become hard hearted. The Homilist wrote that “It represents a soul dead to all that is spiritually true and good.” We shut down our feelings, especially those of tenderness.
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This translation uses the word justice. We look at justice as fairly maintaining what is right and wrong. The Holman Bible Dictionary defines it as “the order God seeks to reestablish in His creation where all people receive the benefits of life with Him.”
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Almost every other one uses righteousness. Righteousness is the result of a solid relationship with God built by a sincere life of conscientious obedience to God’s laws and commandments.
I can see both, though I lean toward righteousness. It is God’s purpose to reestablish a relationship with us. He wants us following His laws and commandments. That will bring order in our lives and we gain eternal life.
Think of it this way. Adam and Eve’s decision to disobey God allowed sin to come into the world. This separated us from Him. When we are born, we are really far away from Him.
But God wasn’t going to accept that. He wanted our relationships restored.
So, God designed the Plan of Salvation. That is where Jesus came to earth as the perfect sacrifice. Only His sin-free blood was acceptable as payment for our sins.
God did “… [bring His] justice near; it is not far away, and my salvation will not delay ..” (Isa. 46: 13 CSB). Casting Crown’s song has it entirely correct. God’s love moved first.
Related Links
Casting Crown
This was God’s purpose all along. He wanted to save us. We just have to ABCD.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
Making the Connections
Doesn’t this show how patient God is with us? We disobeyed Him, yet He is faithful and true to us.
This also shows us how consistent God’s love is for us. The idols couldn’t be consistent — they were just things. God is alive, so He can be consistent.
That means we can be confident in God. We can’t be confident in our idols of today — money, prestige, reputation. Only He can provide what He promises.
Smith really issued a challenge for us. He wrote, “It makes all the difference to a man how he conceives his religion — whether as something that he has to carry, or as something that will carry him.”
Ooo, baby. That is Truth right there. How do we see our relationships with God? Is it a duty or a privilege? Are we all in or resentful?
How Do We Apply This?
God wants to bear our burdens. But how many times do we keep them to ourselves?
Oh, we may pray, “Lord, please fix this.” But in reality, we don’t have even the mustard-seed-sized faith. We don’t think He will really answer our prayers.
We have to put our faith in the promises God has made to us. He will always do what He promises.
Father. We are humbled by the fact that You love us so much. You want our relationships restored to You. We give our lives to You. Amen.
What do you think?
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