Isaiah 46:1

Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth, their idols were upon the beasts, and upon the cattle... they could not deliver the burden, but themselves are gone into captivity. Hearken unto me, O house of Jacob... which are borne by me from the belly, which are carried from the womb. 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. (Isaiah 46:1–4)

When the gods you must carry cannot carry you, only the God who made you can deliver.

Idols Carried Into Captivity

As God, through Isaiah, continues His charge against the idolatry of His own people, He now pictures their foolish idols being carried upon carriages and cattle into captivity. Not only is Judah taken captive to Babylon, but their dumb idols are taken captive as well. While the captives themselves would have to walk that journey, their rich golden and silver idols—which were nothing—would be carried as a burden to the weary animals.

Imagine the load of silver and gold Nebuchadnezzar took in the form of false gods when he destroyed Jerusalem in 586 B.C. As Babylon went through the cities and regions of Judah and carried the people back, they found in their homes multitudes of golden and silver idols. Many of those images were actually images of Babylonian gods.

Bel and Nebo

We read of Bel and Nebo here in verse 1. Bel signifies "Lord" or "Master" and is synonymous with Baal—the god the children of Israel served at the time of Elijah's battle with the prophets of Baal in 1 Kings 18. More than a hundred years after that, they were still bowing down to these things. Nebo was considered the son of Bel, the god of wisdom and writing. Both were Babylonian deities, and yet the children of Israel were worshiping them. Their captors were probably surprised to find their own gods in the homes of those who were supposed to worship the one true God.

These names are the root of Nebuchadnezzar ("May Nebo protect the crown") and Belshazzar ("Bel protect the king"). We were also introduced to Merodach-Baladan in Isaiah 39, whose name means "Marduk has given a son"—Marduk is Bel, and his son is Nebo. When Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were taken captive, their names were changed to Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, all associated with Babylonian gods. The Babylonians loved to incorporate their deities into their names.

Interestingly, we do something similar in our own nation, naming our children after heroes and idols—athletes, TV personalities, people we admire. These Babylonian gods were being worshiped by the children of Israel when they ought to have worshiped the one true God—the very thing God warned them about when they came into the Promised Land: don't intermix with the people around you, because they will lead you astray.

Gods That Cannot Deliver

In Isaiah 45:23 we saw that every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that God is Lord. Now here in 46:1, these two false gods, Bel and Nebo, are pictured bowing and stooping before the one true God. They are shown to be nothing, and they could not deliver the people. They stoop, they bow down together; they could not deliver the burden, but themselves are gone into captivity.

Turn to Jeremiah 2, written by a prophet who actually witnessed the Babylonian invasion. God says there:

As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house of Israel ashamed... saying to a stock, Thou art my father; and to a stone, Thou hast brought me forth... But in the time of their trouble they will say, Arise, and save us. But where are thy gods that thou hast made thee? let them arise, if they can save thee... for according to the number of thy cities are thy gods, O Judah. (Jeremiah 2:26–28)

Every city had a different god they bowed to; in another passage He says, "according to the number of thy corners are thy gods." Yet when trouble came, that's when they turned to God. And the false things people devote themselves to in this world will not save them on the day of Christ Jesus—their intellect, money, privilege, or power. No flesh shall be justified in His sight.

The God Who Carries You

In contrast, God says in verse 3: "Hearken unto me, O house of Jacob... which are borne by me from the belly... even to your old age I am he... I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you." Here is an awesome contrast. The children of Israel made idols they themselves had to carry, making sure they didn't totter over and fall. And when they went into captivity, they carried those things with them. But God is the One who formed them, carried them from the womb, sustained them to old age, and will bear, carry, and deliver them.

Anyone who charges the God of the Old Testament as lacking grace and mercy has not read passages like this. They deserved judgment and wrath, yet He calls out, "I promise I'll deliver you if you'll turn to Me." Ultimately Israel would turn to God—but not until they were in Babylon in the midst of captivity. So often that is the case with us. We refuse to turn to God when things are okay; it's only in severe trouble that we run to Him. Oh, that we would learn to turn to Him sooner.

To Whom Will You Liken Me?

In verse 5 He says, "To whom will ye liken me, and make me equal...? 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... they bear him upon the shoulder, they carry him, and set him in his place, and he standeth... one shall cry unto him, yet can he not answer, nor save him out of his trouble."

You go to a skilled goldsmith and lavish gold and silver, and it is still insufficient. It may be valuable to man, but it has no power. You carry it on your shoulder, set it in its place, and there it stands until someone else carries it. As Psalm 115 says, eyes they have but they do not see, ears they have but they do not hear. It cannot answer, cannot save you. Who will you liken Me to? God is incomparable—His power, grace, mercy, love, patience, forgiveness, redemption.

There Is None Like Our God

After crossing the Red Sea and seeing the Egyptian army destroyed, Israel sang in Exodus 15:11, "Who is like unto thee, O LORD, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?" Did you know that each of the ten plagues dealt with a different Egyptian deity? They worshiped frogs; they worshiped the Nile. Every plague showed their gods were nothing while the one true God had power over all.

Scripture echoes this again and again. Deuteronomy 32:4: "He is the Rock, his work is perfect... a God of truth and without iniquity." 1 Samuel 2:2: "There is none holy as the LORD... neither is there any rock like our God." 2 Samuel 7:22: "thou art great, O LORD God: for there is none like thee." 2 Samuel 22: "who is God, save the LORD? and who is a rock, save our God?" 1 Kings 8:23: "there is no God like thee, in heaven above, or on earth beneath."

Our God is an awesome God, and none compares to Him. Yet we try to fashion images comparable to Him. You may say you don't fashion an image—but in your mind's eye you imagine what God is like. People say, "My God would never do…" and fill in the blank. That's not the God of the Bible; that's a god you've fashioned, a graven image. If you have to carry your god around, He's not worth worshiping.

Remember, and Mourn

Verse 8: "Remember this, and shew yourselves men: bring it again to mind, O ye transgressors." This phrase "shew yourselves men" is a hapax legomenon, used only once in the Old Testament, so it's hard to define. The Vulgate reads "take shame to yourselves," the Syriac "consider within yourselves," the Septuagint "groan or mourn within yourselves." It's as if God says to His idol-worshiping people: remember and mourn your sinfulness, the things you have done in turning from Me.

These people thought they were fine with God because they had the temple, the sacrifices, and the priesthood—yet they worshiped Bel and Nebo all week. Back in Isaiah 1 God said their incense was an abomination, their feasts putrid to Him, because they thought all was well while continuing in wickedness. "Come, let us reason together... though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow."

Declaring the End From the Beginning

Verse 9: "Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else... 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." Earlier, in Isaiah 43:18, God said, "Remember ye not the former things"—because there He spoke of a new work of redemption. Here He says remember, because He wants them to recall where they have fallen from and who He is.

In my opinion, this is one of the greatest proofs of God's divine power: His prophetic revelation, like a divine fingerprint on the Bible. God says, "I've shown you what's going to happen before it comes to pass—and it happens. And I've told you what happened in the past, which no one else could." Who could tell us what happened before God said, "Let there be light"? Only the One who was there—and He has.

Cyrus, the Ravenous Bird From the East

Verse 11: "Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country... I have purposed it, I will also do it." Once again God points to Cyrus, king of Persia, who would deliver them from Babylon—named more than 150 years before. Cyrus would not have sensed the Lord's calling; he had no clue God was directing him. Yet God was behind the scenes.

How awesome it must have been when Cyrus entered the palace in Babylon and was likely met by Daniel, who showed him what Isaiah and Jeremiah had written about him 150 years earlier. It had to blow his mind: "Your God spoke about me before I was ever born?" God was sovereignly orchestrating his life.

Living With Expectancy

God still works sovereignly in our lives today. As Paul said in Ephesians 2, God has prepared beforehand good works that we should walk in them. When we grasp this, it transforms how we live. We wake up asking, "Lord, what do You want me to do today? Who do You want me to talk to? What meetings have You orchestrated before the foundation of the world?" Do we live like that?

I wonder how often God desires to work in us, but we turn away. He stirs our heart to speak to someone, and we press it down: "They'll think I'm crazy." I confess I've done that. I was once in a local restaurant when a woman came in who was clearly undergoing chemotherapy for cancer. I was stirred by the Lord to go pray for her—and I wish I could tell you I did. I kept thinking she'd think I was crazy. God accomplishes His work in spite of our failures, but we forfeit the joy and blessing of obedience.

Have you read C. S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters? In it the senior demon advises that as soon as the client begins to think about spiritual things, remind him of earthly things—that he's hungry, that he's tired. How often, as soon as our mind turns to prayer or worship or God's word, suddenly we're so hungry. We're diverted from the very thing God set before us. There is an enemy seeking to hinder God's workers.

I heard of a new believer driving through a wealthy community in Newport who felt stirred to yell "Jesus loves you!" into a mailbox. He thought it was the stupidest thing he'd ever heard, but he obeyed—looked around, opened the mailbox, shouted it, and drove off. A man came running out of a driveway, stopped him, and asked what he'd said. When the believer explained, the man broke down crying: "I was going to take my life. And I heard you yell, 'Jesus loves you.'" How often would we say, "That can't be the Lord; that's foolish"? Yet God is sovereignly working a plan He had in place before the foundation of the world.

Hearken Unto Me

So what is God's counsel to us? Those words at the start of the passage—"Hearken unto me"—are important. Sometimes we need to deny ourselves so we can hear His still small voice. As we saw earlier in Isaiah, "thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it." But many other voices drown it out, so we must set our minds on things above. Verse 12: "Hearken unto me, ye stouthearted, that are far from righteousness: I bring near my righteousness; it shall not be far off, and my salvation shall not tarry."

It's sad to realize such gracious calls went unheeded. They rebelled, stiffened their necks, hardened their hearts, and ultimately went into captivity. Zechariah 7:11 says, "they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears... they made their hearts as an adamant stone... Therefore came a great wrath from the LORD of hosts." If they had heard and heeded, they would have found grace and mercy.

You and I now hold a prophetic revelation for this world—God's gospel. Many rebel, stiffen their necks, and harden their hearts, and a day of wrath is coming. In Acts 7, Stephen said, "Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost," just before they killed him. So God's word to us is Hebrews 3:15: "To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts." Proverbs 29:1 warns, "He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy." Even so, in Isaiah 48 God says, "for my name's sake will I defer mine anger." God is so gracious.

Judgment on Babylon

In Isaiah 47 His attention turns to Babylon: "Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon... thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate. Take the millstones, and grind meal... thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance." In spite of Israel's treachery, He graciously predicts Babylon's destruction, which would result in Israel's redemption.

Babylon would be dethroned. Grinding meal at the mill was the hardest labor given to slaves and captives, a punishment. Their bare legs, exposed thighs, and nakedness all picture shame as they are carried into captivity in the Medo-Persian Empire. Though God used the armies of Medo-Persia, it was still God imposing this destruction—just as He used the Assyrians as the rod in His hand in Isaiah 10.

Bruising One, Blessing Another

We often struggle with how God can bruise one and bless another through the same act—Babylon destroyed, Israel saved. We saw this in Isaiah 45:7: "I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things." God brought light and peace to His undeserving people, and darkness and calamity to Babylon.

We see this in our own redemption. Isaiah 53:4–6: "Surely he hath borne our griefs... he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him... the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." Jesus was completely undeserving of judgment, yet God placed our sin upon Him and poured out His wrath, that we'd be saved. One receives calamity; the other receives blessing. Both Israel and Babylon were guilty, but God in His grace extended grace to His children.

Why Babylon Was Judged

Verse 5 continues to Babylon: "Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness... thou shalt no more be called, The lady of kingdoms. I was wroth with my people... and given them into thine hand: thou didst shew them no mercy; upon the ancient hast thou very heavily laid thy yoke." Babylon said, "I shall be a lady for ever," not laying these things to heart. So God declares that loss of children and widowhood will come upon her in one moment, in their perfection, for the multitude of her sorceries and enchantments.

The prophet Habakkuk lived at this time. Looking at wicked Judah, he cried out, "God, You've got to do something." In Habakkuk 1:5, God answered that He was raising up the Babylonians—a work Habakkuk wouldn't believe. Twenty seconds after saying "we're wicked, deal with us," Habakkuk objected: "Wait—the Babylonians are more wicked than us!" Imagine praying for God to intervene in our nation, and He answers, "I am going to raise up Iran to destroy America." That's the seriousness of it. God said He would judge His people by Babylon, and then judge Babylon too, and be merciful to His people.

God's ways are totally different than ours. That's part of why He doesn't show us everything He will do in our lives—if He gave us the whole roadmap, all of us would say, "Whoa, on line 32 of page 7, I don't like this." But we don't realize what God brings through line 32. The next lines wouldn't come without it.

Sins That Mirror Our Nation

Verses 10–11 declare evil and desolation will come suddenly upon Babylon, which she will not foresee. Why is Babylon judged? She showed no mercy and laid heavy burdens on captives (v. 6); displayed pride and disregarded God's word (v. 7); was given to pleasure-seeking and lived carelessly with false security (vv. 8–9); was filled with sorcery and enchantments; trusted in wicked things (v. 10).

Do we not see these in our own nation? This is why Billy Graham and others have said, "If the United States does not experience the judgment of God, God will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah." I believe we have already begun to see the beginnings of God's punishment in His removing His hand of blessing and protection. Read Job: God removed the hedge, and the enemy was able to come. God cannot bless sin.

Judgment always begins with the house of God first, as 1 Peter teaches. This judgment on Babylon was sudden and took them unaware—much like 9/11 did nine years ago. Though it was carried out by Islamic terrorists, I believe it was in some way the result of God removing His hand of protection because of sin. Not the specific sin of those in the towers or the Pentagon. As Jesus said in Luke 13 about the tower that fell, "Suppose ye that they were sinners above all... I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." We need to repent.

None Shall Save Thee

Verse 12: "Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries... if so be thou shalt be able to profit... Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things." Turn to them and see if they can help—I tell you, they cannot.

Verse 14: "Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame: there shall not be a coal to warm at, nor fire to sit by... none shall save thee." All their prognostications will be mere fuel for the fires of judgment. This is no coal to warm by. False religions may seem to offer warmth, but the fire of God's judgment is an all-consuming, unquenchable fire.

How many underestimate it, saying, "I won't mind hell, all my friends will be there, we'll have a party." That is ignorance and foolishness. Some say, "We'll ski on the lake of fire." Don't make that deadly mistake. Whatever you have labored for and trusted in, if it is apart from God, those last four words stand as a sobering challenge: none shall save thee. The things of this world will not save you from the coming wrath of God. There is refuge in no other than Jesus Christ.

Prophets to Our Generation

We have been given the awesome opportunity, privilege, and responsibility to share this reality—to be, as it were, prophets to our generation. Isaiah received God's word in a still small voice and penned it to his people and to the nations, seeking to turn them from the all-consuming fire. In our day we have God's complete revelation, given to a world in darkness that desperately needs to turn to Christ before the wrath of God comes.

And it will come. All the things man trusts in will not save him: none shall save thee. There is salvation in no other name than Jesus Christ. Isaiah knew this 700 years before Jesus was born—his very name means "Jehovah has saved." Judgment will one day come to this whole world, and perhaps more judgment to our nation. May we be those who stand and proclaim: there is salvation in the Lord.

Closing Prayer

Father, we ask that You would help us keep in memory the sober words here in Isaiah, and give us boldness by Your Spirit to share these truths with those we come in contact with daily. Quicken our hearts that we would not overlook the people You sovereignly set in our path. Help us to see as You see, to step away from our schedule, our calendar, our plans when You set before us an opportunity to share who You are with those who so desperately need it.

Lord, You are not willing that any should perish; You take no joy in the death of the wicked. When Babylon was destroyed and Sodom and Gomorrah consumed, You were not in heaven grinning—Your heart was heavy, filled with grief. We thank You that You have been gracious to us. Enable us to be gracious to those we meet, even those we consider enemies. And as we meet them with Your grace, give us Your word to share with them, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.