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“So to whom will you compare me, the Incomparable?
    Can you picture me without reducing me?
People with a lot of money
    hire craftsmen to make them gods.
The artisan delivers the god,
    and they kneel and worship it!
They carry it around in holy parades,
    then take it home and put it on a shelf.
And there it sits, day in and day out,
    a dependable god, always right where you put it.
Say anything you want to it, it never talks back.
    Of course, it never does anything either! (The Message).

I heard about a Keswick Bible teacher who, one year, kept saying to the gathered crowd, ‘You know this, but I’m reminding you of it anyway! I believe he was speaking on 2 Peter (see, e.g. 1:12-15/3:1).

Much of pastoral ministry involves the tireless repetition of certain basic truths. In our fallenness and frailty we quickly and easily forget, or turn away from what we know, and we are in need of constant reminders. Hopefully we may be able to find fresh and creative ways to carry out this aspect of ministry, but it has to be done!

You may have noticed that there’s quite a lot of repetition in Isaiah. Today, we are back with one of his big themes: the absurdity of idolatry. It should be patently obvious that a man-made god, sitting on a shelf, isn’t likely to do anything – other than collect dust!!

 …Jesus is both True God and Real Life. Dear children, be on guard against all clever facsimiles. (1 John 5:21: The Message).

Dear children, keep yourselves from idols (1 John 5:21 NIV).

PRAYER: Lord, I recognise the truth that the human heart is an ‘idol-making factory.’ Help me to have no other gods before you.

Bel bows down, Nebo stoops low;
    their idols are borne by beasts of burden.
The images that are carried about are burdensome,
    a burden for the weary.
² They stoop and bow down together;
    unable to rescue the burden,
    they themselves go off into captivity.

³ ‘Listen to me, you descendants of Jacob,
    all the remnant of the people of Israel,
you whom I have upheld since your birth,
    and have carried since you were born.
⁴ Even to your old age and grey hairs
    I am he, I am he who will sustain you.
I have made you and I will carry you;
    I will sustain you and I will rescue you.

In verse 20 of the previous chapter we read:

‘Gather together and come;
    assemble, you fugitives from the nations.
Ignorant are those who carry about idols of wood,
    who pray to gods that cannot save.

The theme of carrying is now repeated; it is picked up and enlarged on. The question is: do we want gods who we have to carry, or the God who carries us? Do we want a religion that is a burden to us, or the Saviour who relieves us of our burdens? This is the choice between false and true religion. In fact it has been said that here, in a nutshell we have the difference between false and authentic faith: the false is built on works, but the genuine is based on grace (Eph.2:8,9).

I think there is a special word of encouragement here to elderly believers. As we get older, we are likely to feel our physical, mental, emotional (and spiritual) vulnerability and fragility increasingly. What a beautiful picture, then, of the Lord carrying us to the end of our days. Let’s take this to heart:

“Listen to me, family of Jacob,
    everyone that’s left of the family of Israel.
I’ve been carrying you on my back
    from the day you were born,
And I’ll keep on carrying you when you’re old.
    I’ll be there, bearing you when you’re old and grey.
I’ve done it and will keep on doing it,
    carrying you on my back, saving you (3,4: The Message).

The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms (Is.33:27).

(NB also Ex.19:4; Dt.1:31;32:11; Is.63:9 for further references to the Lord carrying His people. It always has reference to the Exodus. That is the point at which Israel as a nation was conceived and brought to birth).

Bel bows down, Nebo stoops low;
    their idols are borne by beasts of burden.
The images that are carried about are burdensome,
    a burden for the weary.
² They stoop and bow down together;
    unable to rescue the burden,
    they themselves go off into captivity.

I found it helpful to look at today’s reading in a couple of other versions:

Bel and Nebo, the gods of Babylon,
    bow as they are lowered to the ground.
They are being hauled away on ox carts.
    The poor beasts stagger under the weight.
² Both the idols and their owners are bowed down.
    The gods cannot protect the people,
and the people cannot protect the gods.
    They go off into captivity together. (New Living Translation).

^1-2 The god Bel falls down, god Nebo slumps.
    The no-god hunks of wood are loaded on mules
And have to be hauled off,
    wearing out the poor mules—
Dead weight, burdens who can’t bear burdens,
    hauled off to captivity. (The Message).

‘The human heart by nature prefers images of God’s glory (especially the one in the mirror) above the glory of God himself (Rom.1:18-23).’ John Piper: ‘Reading the Bible Supernaturally’, p.248.

Once again, idolatry is being ridiculed and exposed. Do we want gods who have to be carried (who are burdensome), or the God who will carry us – the great burden-bearer?

Their gods could not save them, and they could not save their gods!

 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30).

Why would we prefer our idols to Jesus?

”What a friend we have in Jesus,
All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer!
Oh, what peace we often forfeit,
Oh, what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer!

Have we trials and temptations?
Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged—
Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful,
Who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness;
Take it to the Lord in prayer.

Are we weak and heavy-laden,
Cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Saviour, still our refuge—
Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Do thy friends despise, forsake thee?
Take it to the Lord in prayer!
In His arms He’ll take and shield thee,
Thou wilt find a solace there.

Blessed Saviour, Thou hast promised
Thou wilt all our burdens bear;
May we ever, Lord, be bringing
All to Thee in earnest prayer.
Soon in glory bright, unclouded,
There will be no need for prayer—
Rapture, praise, and endless worship
Will be our sweet portion there” (Joseph M. Scriven).

“Turn to me and be saved,
    all you ends of the earth;
    for I am God, and there is no other.
²³ By myself I have sworn,
    my mouth has uttered in all integrity
    a word that will not be revoked:
Before me every knee will bow;
    by me every tongue will swear.
²⁴ They will say of me, ‘In the Lord alone
    are deliverance and strength.’”
All who have raged against him
    will come to him and be put to shame.
²⁵ But all the descendants of Israel
    will find deliverance in the Lord
    and will make their boast in him.

Isaiah’s vision embraces the world God loves. It is profoundly missionary.

Many years ago, when preaching his way through this part of the prophecy, David Pawson made the point that if there is only one God, then everyone must be told about Him.

Here, God Himself calls out, through the prophet (preacher!) to the world He loves, appealing to all its people to ”Turn to” Him for salvation. He is the only one who can save. This turns my mind to Paul’s words in 2 Cor.5:20:

We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 

The apostle Paul, of course, picks up the words of verse 23 in his great Christological passage in Phil.2:1-11, and applies them to Jesus. That he does so says something important about his belief in the divinity of Christ.

This is the choice we face: we can willingly kneel before God now – turn to Him and be saved – or one day have to kneel before Him as Judge and Lord of all (24b). We will all, in the final analysis, have to admit that He is the only God there is.

“Gather together and come;
    assemble, you fugitives from the nations.
Ignorant are those who carry about idols of wood,
    who pray to gods that cannot save.
²¹ Declare what is to be, present it—
    let them take counsel together.
Who foretold this long ago,
    who declared it from the distant past?
Was it not I, the Lord?
    And there is no God apart from me,
a righteous God and a Savior;
    there is none but me.

Isaiah has a point to make and he keeps on making it. This concerns the impotence (and thus the folly) of idolatry. This is the repeated lesson, but who will be willing to take heed? You would imagine it to be self-evident that if you have to carry your god around with you, and it’s made of wood, you can’t expect all that much from it!! Isaiah emphasises the ignorance of idolaters, while also reminding us that the idols themselves are ignorant. They do not know the future and so cannot foretell it.

The expression, ”who pray to gods that cannot save”, encourages us to recognise the blessing of our own situation. We pray to the one and only God. He is the true God and He lives…and He loves to give good gifts to His children:

 “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ¹⁰ For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

¹¹ “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? ¹² Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? ¹³ If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:9-13).

I have not said to Jacob’s descendants,
    ‘Seek me in vain.’
I, the Lord, speak the truth;
    I declare what is right.

Jilly and I spent a few days last week in Boston Spa, the village where we lived and served together in ministry for a number of years. I always have a sense, when I am there, that there are many prayer ‘seeds’ still waiting to sprout, and beautify the place, like bulbs in Springtime.

On one particular day, as I was praying, I remembered a season when the above words from Isaiah 45:19 seemed to grip us in our weekly Thursday morning prayer meeting: this understanding that we do not seek God in vain. A good friend, and I, used to regularly remind one another, ‘We don’t seek Him in vain.’ We had to admit that it sometimes feels like we do, but it isn’t true. Our feelings are liars.

As I wrote this short piece this morning, I remembered a song by Graham Kendrick: ‘In your way and in your time.’ Note the last verse especially:

”In your way and in your time
That’s how it’s gonna be in my life
And in your perfect way I’ll rest my weary mind
And as you lead I’ll follow close behind
And in your presence I will know your peace is mine
In your time there is rest, there is rest

In your way and in your time
That’s how it’s gonna be in my life
Dear Jesus, soothe me now till all my strivings cease
kiss me with the beauty of your peace
And I will wait and not be anxious at the time
In your time there is rest, there is rest

And though some prayers I’ve prayed
May seem unanswered yet
You never come too quickly or too late
And I will wait and I will not regret the time
In your time there is rest, there is rest.”

For the Lord is God,
    and he created the heavens and earth
    and put everything in place.
He made the world to be lived in,
    not to be a place of empty chaos.
“I am the Lord,” he says,
    “and there is no other.
¹⁹ I publicly proclaim bold promises.
    I do not whisper obscurities in some dark corner.
I would not have told the people of Israel to seek me
    if I could not be found.
I, the Lord, speak only what is true
    and declare only what is right. (NLT).

I have not said to Jacob’s descendants,
    “Seek me in vain.” (from verse 19, NIV).

The prayers of Israel were not in vain. We too may affirm that God does not tell us to seek Him in vain. As we pray we can absolutely count on His publicly proclaimed bold promises. His ”very great and precious promises” (2 Peter 1:4). The ‘Berean Standard Bible’ says His ”precious and magnificent promises.”

‘…God has spoken to his people (and through them to the world) truthfully and clearly, making possible an open and trusting relationship with him (19). He has also backed up his words through the prophets with actions, such as the raising up of Cyrus, that confirm his claim to be the only God and Saviour (21). Barry Webb, p.186.

God is faithful. His Word is dependable. His promises are rock solid. What a blessed people we are. Why would we fail to seek Him with everything we have?

Truly, O God of Israel, our Saviour,
    you work in mysterious ways.
¹⁶ All craftsmen who make idols will be humiliated.
    They will all be disgraced together.
¹⁷ But the Lord will save the people of Israel
    with eternal salvation.
Throughout everlasting ages,
    they will never again be humiliated and disgraced.

No-one who saw the broken, shattered Jewish captives in Babylon could have guessed God’s ultimate purposes for these people. It must have felt to them that the Lord had ”been hiding himself” (15: NIV). His ways truly are mysterious. But our God can bring about great reversals (none more so than the resurrection of Christ); and although their immediate rescue was to be effected by the ‘temporary Messiah’, Cyrus, the ”eternal salvation” spoken of here, will be effected only by ‘the Servant of the LORD’ – their Messiah, Jesus.

In a wonderfully hope-filled section of Romans (chs.9-11), Paul lifts our eyes to expect a day when ”all Israel will be saved” (11:26). Let us pray for that day, with all that it will mean for worldwide evangelism.

I remember David Pawson telling a story about a Jewish lady who was converted. He said words to the effect that in five minutes she was teaching him the Bible! So just think of the impact when the nation as a whole turns to their Messiah.

 This is what the Lord says:

‘The products of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush,
    and those tall Sabeans –
they will come over to you
    and will be yours;
they will trudge behind you,
    coming over to you in chains.
They will bow down before you
    and plead with you, saying,
“Surely God is with you, and there is no other;
    there is no other god.”’

We may well think about the magi, coming to worship Jesus.

‘We have now reached one of the grandest moments in the book. Cyrus fades into the background and the whole scene is dominated by the uniqueness and glory of the one who has chosen to use him. This magnificent poem reverts to the thought of 45:6-7 and develops it. The LORD alone is God, and salvation is to be found in no-one else.’ Barry Webb: ‘Isaiah’, p.185.

The embattled Jewish exiles in Babylon will one day be ”…the head, and not the tail” (Dt.28:13). Although the imagery used here is commercial and military, what we witness is the outcome of an intensely spiritual battle. It represents the final triumph of the truth of God. The Kingdom of God will ultimately prove victorious over every enemy.

PRAYER: Lord God, I want to pray today that your presence will so fill your people individually, and your church corporately, that many who do not know you will be drawn to you, in us.