Isa_46-48

Read Isaiah 46:1-7  –  The Idols of Babylon and the One True God…
¹  Bel bows down; Nebo stoops; their idols are on beasts and livestock; these things you carry are borne as burdens on weary beasts.
²  They stoop; they bow down together; they cannot save the burden, but themselves go into captivity.
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;
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.
⁵  “To whom will you liken me and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be alike?
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!
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.
Outline for Isaiah 46 and 47:

1. The failure of the false gods versus the success of the true God (46:1–13)

A   The failed gods: “these things you carry” (46:1–7)

B   The successful God: “My counsel shall stand” (46:8–13)

2. The collapse of an idolatrous culture (47:1–15)

A   The fall of Babylon (47:1–7)

1. Their disgrace: decreed by God (47:1–4)
2. Their downfall: explained by God (47:5–7)

B   The pride of Babylon (47:8–11)

1. Their mentality: superior to all (47:8, 9)
2. Their policy: answerable to none (47:10, 11)

C   The helplessness of Babylon (47:12–15)

1. Their religion: no answers (47:12, 13)
2. Their commerce: no refuge (47:14, 15)

Bel was the patron-god of Babylon, the kings of gods and determiner of the destinies of nations.

Nebo was his eldest son, the secretary of the council of gods and custodian of the Tablets of Destiny.

Idol worship here creates great burdens on the people.

HOWEVER, there is not one moment when God is not carrying you and me along.  (Psalm 55:22 and 68:19).

Psalm 55:22 (ESV)
²²  Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.

Psalm 68:19 (ESV)
¹⁹  Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears us up; God is our salvation. Selah

V.5 – “To whom then will you liken (H1819) me and make me equal,” –

H1819 – the sense:  to compare (consider equal) or to use similitudes.

Individually we do ‘comparisons’ all the time.  In order to understand how high a particular tree we’re describing we might use the example of a ‘two-story house’.    We even compare people’s personalities saying something like ‘so-&-so’ is quick to laugh and tell jokes as ‘thus-and-so’.  We could say:  “he’s short, thus feisty” in that we’ve compared a group behavior.

The nations that look to themselves as “look how great I am” are not being preserved but destroyed by God.  Reason:  He is ‘the I am” and no other.

God has meant us to be significant and lasting.

Isaiah 46:8-13

⁸  “Remember this and stand firm, recall it to mind, you transgressors,
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,
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,’
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.
¹²  “Listen to me, you stubborn of heart, you who are far from righteousness:
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.”

1. 8-11 – Here Isaiah pokes his finger in the eye of idol worship. He shows us the absurd contrast between gods that have to be made and the God who determines all things.

John Newton wrote:

Begone, unbelief, my Savior is near,

And for my relief will surely appear;

By prayer let me wrestle, and he will perform;

With Christ in the vessel I smile at the storm.

Determined to save, he watched o’er my path,

When, Satan’s blind slave, I sported with death;

And can he have taught me to trust in his name,

And thus far have brought me, to put me to shame?

V.13 – Isaiah’s 2^nd declaration that there is to be another city.  “…salvation in Zion,”….  This city God vengeance will pass over and salvation will enter it because of God himself.   Reason:  God’s wrath fell upon Jesus, our substitute at the cross.

Isaiah 47:1-15 (ESV)  The Collapse of an Idolatrous Culture
¹  Come down and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon; sit on the ground without a throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans! For you shall no more be called tender and delicate.
²  Take the millstones and grind flour, put off your veil, strip off your robe, uncover your legs, pass through the rivers.
³  Your nakedness shall be uncovered, and your disgrace shall be seen. I will take vengeance, and I will spare no one.
⁴  Our Redeemer—the LORD of hosts is his name— is the Holy One of Israel.
⁵  Sit in silence, and go into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans; for you shall no more be called the mistress of kingdoms.
⁶  I was angry with my people; I profaned my heritage; I gave them into your hand; you showed them no mercy; on the aged you made your yoke exceedingly heavy.
⁷  You said, “I shall be mistress forever,” so that you did not lay these things to heart or remember their end.
⁸  Now therefore hear this, you lover of pleasures, who sit securely, who say in your heart, “I am, and there is no one besides me; I shall not sit as a widow or know the loss of children”:
⁹  These two things shall come to you in a moment, in one day; the loss of children and widowhood shall come upon you in full measure, in spite of your many sorceries and the great power of your enchantments.
¹⁰  You felt secure in your wickedness, you said, “No one sees me”; your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray, and you said in your heart, “I am, and there is no one besides me.”
¹¹  But evil shall come upon you, which you will not know how to charm away; disaster shall fall upon you, for which you will not be able to atone; and ruin shall come upon you suddenly, of which you know nothing.
¹²  Stand fast in your enchantments and your many sorceries, with which you have labored from your youth; perhaps you may be able to succeed; perhaps you may inspire terror.
¹³  You are wearied with your many counsels; let them stand forth and save you, those who divide the heavens, who gaze at the stars, who at the new moons make known what shall come upon you.
¹⁴  Behold, they are like stubble; the fire consumes them; they cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame. No coal for warming oneself is this, no fire to sit before!
¹⁵  Such to you are those with whom you have labored, who have done business with you from your youth; they wander about, each in his own direction; there is no one to save you.

The virgin daughter is Babylon. But Isaiah sees Babylon as a pampered, self-indulgent, spoiled girl who has always gotten her own way. But now she suffers the shock of exile and slavery and abuse. Again, this is a picture not only of an ancient culture overrun by Cyrus; it’s a prophetic vision of our world coming under the judgment of God (Revelation 18). The virgin daughter of Babylon symbolizes success and ease and cool. But she has forgotten God. That’s a significant oversight.  (Quote:  Ray Orland)

V.5 – 7 – God will not make peace with our world for human pride is lying at the root of all its cruelties.  Pride distorts judgment.  When pride enters we lose our bearing and start overreaching.  Once we lose a sense of our sinfulness, then we become capable of any evil.

American Humanist Assoc. manifesto of 1973:  “We affirm that moral values derive their source from human experience. Ethics is autonomous and situational, needing no theological or ideological sanction.… Human life has meaning because we create and develop our futures.”

V.14 – an Illustration of the coming of the great judgment that is likened to a consuming fire.  Note the tone of sarcasm in the 2^nd half of this verse.  “…no coal for warming oneself is this, no fire to sit before!”

V.15 – concludes by telling us there is no-one to save you….  Be we do have such a one: Matthew 11:28 (ESV)
²⁸  Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Israel’s Stubbornness and God’s Purpose of Grace

Isaiah 48:1-8
¹  Hear this, O house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel, and who came from the waters of Judah, who swear by the name of the LORD and confess the God of Israel, but not in truth or right.
²  For they call themselves after the holy city, and stay themselves on the God of Israel; the LORD of hosts is his name.
³  “The former things I declared of old; they went out from my mouth, and I announced them; then suddenly I did them, and they came to pass.
⁴  Because I know that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew and your forehead brass,
⁵  I declared them to you from of old, before they came to pass I announced them to you, lest you should say, ‘My idol did them, my carved image and my metal image commanded them.’
⁶  “You have heard; now see all this; and will you not declare it? From this time forth I announce to you new things, hidden things that you have not known.
⁷  They are created now, not long ago; before today you have never heard of them, lest you should say, ‘Behold, I knew them.’
⁸  You have never heard, you have never known, from of old your ear has not been opened. For I knew that you would surely deal treacherously, and that from before birth you were called a rebel.
 

V.1- 6a – God’s charge that his people are stubborn skeptics.   “Israel” means ‘he struggle with God’. “Judah” means ‘praise’.

1. 4 – They were ‘obstinate’ and ‘stiff necked’ people.   They were stiff-necked and brazen in their attitude toward God’s word, but they had a continual tendency to attribute his acts to other gods.

The nation of Israel was proud to be a nation with God’s name.  Did many visible signs of serving God, but what type of faith was used?  What part did the heart play?

They were not really listening to God – Their profession of faith was ‘not in truth or right” – James describes what is an illustration of true faith.

James 2:14-21 (ESV)
¹⁴  What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?
¹⁵  If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food,
¹⁶  and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?
¹⁷  So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
¹⁸  But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
¹⁹  You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!
²⁰  Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?
²¹  Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?

V.6-8 – God looks ahead to ‘new things’ – future outpourings of grace.  God will use creatives ways to accomplish his will that we can’t foresee.

We could question: –  Why does God love us so much?  Why does he put up with us?  –  V. 9-11

Isaiah 48:9-11

⁹  “For my name’s sake I defer my anger, for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off.
¹⁰  Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction.
¹¹  For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another.

This is an important statement that reveals God’s ultimate motive in all his loving ways.  The base: it is for the sake of his name.   He will not give his glory of his grace to any idol of our moral logic.   (Ezekiel 36:22-32)

Quote from Ray Orland:  Not only does our performance not secure us in God’s favor, it’s our lousy performance that God uses to display his favor. He loves us for reasons that make sense only within the logic of the divine nature. He loves us with what seems to us like one windfall of mercy after another. God must love his kind of love, because he calls it his glory. His mercy to sinners through Jesus Christ is what sets him apart most impressively from the idols. It takes no one less than the one true God sacrificially and eternally to disconnect what we deserve from what we get.

Do not think of God as a frustrated deity scratching his head as we checkmate one divine move after another. We do grieve his loving heart, but we do not defeat him. Take all our sins and gather them together into one vast stinking pile of garbage, and God is still the King of an infinitely greater realm. He is, in himself, “at home in the land of the Trinity.” He has no need that we could satisfy. He is a personal vastness who rejoices to give. And out of his fullness we all receive, grace upon grace (John 1:16).

This gospel is the only message true to the glory of God. He still confronts us with our sinfulness. The most striking feature of Isaiah 48 is its confrontational tone. All the commentators mention it. But what sets God apart from the vengeful idols of our minds that demand everything and forgive nothing is the dying love of Christ for sinners who don’t even listen to him carefully. God will never give that glory away, whatever it takes—even death on a cross.

Isaiah 48:12-22  –  How Does God Work With Us?

¹²  “Listen to me, O Jacob, and Israel, whom I called! I am he; I am the first, and I am the last.
¹³  My hand laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens; when I call to them, they stand forth together.
¹⁴  “Assemble, all of you, and listen! Who among them has declared these things? The LORD loves him; he shall perform his purpose on Babylon, and his arm shall be against the Chaldeans.
¹⁵  I, even I, have spoken and called him; I have brought him, and he will prosper in his way.
¹⁶  Draw near to me, hear this: from the beginning I have not spoken in secret, from the time it came to be I have been there.” And now the Lord GOD has sent me, and his Spirit.
¹⁷  Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the LORD your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go.
¹⁸  Oh that you had paid attention to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea;
¹⁹  your offspring would have been like the sand, and your descendants like its grains; their name would never be cut off or destroyed from before me.”
²⁰  Go out from Babylon, flee from Chaldea, declare this with a shout of joy, proclaim it, send it out to the end of the earth; say, “The LORD has redeemed his servant Jacob!”
²¹  They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts; he made water flow for them from the rock; he split the rock and the water gushed out.
²²  “There is no peace,” says the LORD, “for the wicked.”

Isaiah leaves us with four assurances.

#1 – God will never fail to be God.  He is ‘first’ and ‘last’.   V.12:  “Listen”

1. 12-13 “I am he: I am the first, and I am the last.”

#2 – assurance  (Jesus will be sent.)

V.14-16  – “assemble, all of you , and listen!  –  God is wanting us to hear what he has for us to know and learn.

God’s greatest involvement with us is hinted in verse 16.  “…And now the Lord GOD has sent me, and his Spirit.”

Who was sent?

Jesus who has been empowered with a great sword.

Chapter 49 will make it clearer.

V.17 – God teaches us!

#3 –  assurance:  God is teaching us what really matters and He is leading us forward.

In awakens in us a willingness to gladly suffer the loss of all things in order to gain Christ.  Who else would lead us to a place that we become the benefactors of a great reward; everlasting life with Him.

V.18-19 – are we listening?   We have that choice.

The nation of Israel wasn’t removed as ‘his nation’, but their refusal to listen and obey prevented them receiving the fullness of covenant blessings instore for them.

#4 – assurance “Peace”

V.20-22 – That is our path forward if we will listen?