Deeper Commentary
Isaiah 46:1 Bel bows down, Nebo stoops; their idols are on the animals, and on the livestock: the things that you carried about are made a load, a burden to the weary-
The gods could not save their own images. This is the referent of "their". The gods were supposed to not live on earth, but their images, the idols on earth, were their representatives. By contrast Yahweh saves what is His image, which is His blind, deaf and deformed servant Israel.
This appears to be a vision of the gods of Babylon being removed from the city as the Persians advanced. Just as Merodach-Baladan packed his idols on boats, at the approach of Sennacherib. But as I have noted elsewhere, the fall of Babylon didn't happen quite as predicted. Darius the Mede actually maintained the Babylonian gods; of whom Bel and Nebo were the popular ones; although "Bel" is the equivalent of Hebrew 'Baal' and may be a generic name. And so the potential scenario presented elsewhere, of Babylon falling, being destroyed by the fire of Divine judgment Sodom-style, and the exiles returning to Judah- just didn't come about. The various preconditions involving Judah's repentance weren't in place. And so the 'fall of Babylon' prophecies will in essence, although maybe not in every detail, be fulfilled in the fall of latter day Babylon. And this is how we are to understand this picture of the gods of Babylon being put on animals, after being carried about in the various processions earlier. The weary burdened with idols are reapplied to all heavy burdened who can come to the Lord Jesus and be relieved (Mt. 11:28).
So much of later Isaiah is taken up with mockery and criticism of the
Babylonian gods and the Marduk cult. The book of Esther, with Mordecai as
the joint hero, named as he was after Marduk, demonstrates how caught up
were the Jews with the Babylonian gods. Ezekiel repeatedly reveals the
idolatry of the captives. Isaiah was therefore an appeal for the Jews to
quit the Marduk cult and believe in the radical prophecies about the
overthrow of Babylon. The situation is analogous to how the New Testament
is full of references to the Roman imperial cult of empire worship. So
much of the Bible is like Isaiah and the New Testament- a radical,
counter-cultural call to see our present world for what it is, and to
perceive that the ways of God simply can’t be mixed in, watered down or
compromised with the way of this world. Naturally such criticisms of
Babylon and its gods would have been a very risky thing- for Babylon had
shown grace to many Jews and they were doing well in rising up the social
and economic ladder there. To speak of Babylon in the hostile way the
prophets do was a brave and unpopular thing (Is. 13,14,21,46; Jer. 50,51;
often in Zechariah). We know from Ez. 8, Jer. 44 and Zech. 5 that many
Jews had accepted the idols of their Babylonian conquerors, rather like
Ahaz did after his defeat by Assyria (2 Kings 16:10). The spirit of
ridiculing the idolatry of Babylon whilst living in it, waiting the call
to leave, is so relevant to modern Christians working, living and waiting
in latter day Babylon.
Surely the Lord had these words in mind when He bid all who are
"weary and heavy laden" to come to Him, to accept His yoke, and find rest
under Him (Mt. 11:28,29). In this case, the weariness and weight He refers
to is related to idolatry, in whatever form. Not carrying idols means
freedom and rest. "The weary" had been offered "rest" in Is. 28:12, but
they had refused: "To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith you may
cause the weary to rest". Man's restlessness and weariness is indeed
related to his idolatry. Look at the burnt out faces of materialists,
addicts... No idol ever satisfies, it always needs
carrying, and it is exhausting. In its most extreme form, we see this in
those in substance addiction; but the same essential experience is found
in all idolatry. Man wants rest and peace but refuses the only path that
leads to it: "Ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk
therein, and you shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will
not walk therein" (Jer. 6:16).
Isaiah 46:2 They stoop, they bow down together; they could not deliver the
burden, but themselves have been carried away into captivity-
"They could not deliver",
i.e. cause to escape. This is the recurrent theme- that the idols couldn't
save, only Yahweh can save, Yah-hoshua, Yah saves, "Jesus". In this God is
so unique that He becomes the only God. For elsewhere in Isaiah Yahweh
predicates divinity upon being able to save eternally.
The
idea as noted on :1 is that the idols were to be carried away out of
danger; but now there is the picture of the idols having been captured and
being now taken off into captivity. But as explained on :1, this isn't
what happened when Babylon fell to the Medes.
Isaiah 46:3 Listen to Me, house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house
of Israel, that have been carried from their birth, that have been carried
from the womb- The remnant of the whole house of Israel refers to the
repentant remnant of both Judah and the ten tribes, who were intended to
repent and return to Zion together, united by their experience of
repentance, grace and forgiveness. The contrast is with how the idols /
false gods had to be carried by their people and beasts (:1,2), but Yahweh
the true God has carried His people. This is where mere religion and true
spirituality are shown to be so different; religion often involves making
ourselves feel good by supposedly doing something for God, whereas
salvation by grace through faith is about accepting His carrying of us.
The "remnant" were those whom
Yahweh had hoped would repent, e.g. in Is. 6:9-13: "even if a tenth part
remain in it, it will be burned again, like a terebinth or an oak whose
stump remains standing when it is felled... The holy seed is its stump".
Or again in Is. 10:20-23: "The remnant [lit. the remains] of Israel,
the people who have escaped of Jacob’s household, will not again any more
lean on the one that hit it, but will lean on Yahweh, Israel’s holy one,
in truth. The remnant will turn, the remnant of Jacob, to God the warrior.
Although your people, Israel, may be like the sand of the sea, a remnant
will return for it. An end is decreed, overflowing with faithfulness".
Thus Isaiah had been asked to name his son "The remnant shall return". But
it seems from Is. 46 that even the remnant were caught up in
idolatry.
The picture of being carried 'from birth in the womb' could suggest that God was the pregnant mother who somehow had for a long time carried a child that had not come to the birth. Or possibly, had been an invalid child that from birth had to be carried. We think of the man lame from birth being carried in Acts 3:2; and in that acted parable, he represented an Israel who looked for healing in the wrong place. Earlier Yahweh had used the same image- He was as a woman who had been a long time [70 years] pregnant, but was now screaming as she came to the birth: "I have been silent a long time, I have been quiet and restrained Myself; now I will cry out like a travailing woman, I will both gasp and pant" (Is. 42:14). The pain and anxiety of a 70 year pregnancy... is a powerful image. As is the feminine image of "God". The child to be born was "the remnant"- a community of those who 'got it', who were spiritually born. But it is questionable if they ever came to the birth. And so the imagery is applied to all Christians who are "born" of the Spirit (Jn. 3:3-5).
Isaiah 46:4 And even to old age I am He, and even to grey hairs will I
carry you. I have made, and I will bear; yes, I will carry, and will
deliver-
As discussed on :3, the image of a child
who must be carried from birth is that of an invalid child. Especially in
the days before wheelchairs, a handicapped child had to be carried. This
child grows up, to grey hairs- and is still carried by God. Not like the
super mum who carries her invalid child- until she can do so no more, and
must die herself. We have here a picture of the dysfunctional and
handicapped nature of God's people. We recall that His beloved servant
Israel is presented in the witness box as blind and deaf. He carries them
from birth onwards, as the mother of a disabled child does, because He
feels a responsibility to that which He has made and "born". There is a
word play in "I will bear". He had born the child, so He must bear it for
all time. Bearing, carrying and delivering are the words of child birth,
but God does these things all our lives. But unlike a human mother, He
never gets old. This is a powerful image, and comforts us that the people
of God are imperfect, not "normal", and handicapped. But loved to the end
by the greatest parent. What a contrast with the idols, who had to be
carried and could not carry their people... Acts 13:18 continues the image
in saying that God carried Israel as a nursing father through the
wilderness. It is a mother who nurses / breast feeds a child. But God was
a nursing father for forty years... and would be pregnant with them again
fo seventy years and carry them / us their entire lives.
An oft overlooked component of the promises to Abraham which are the core of the Gospel is that “I will be your God”. Land and eternal life in the future, blessings... these are indeed wonderful. But the King of the Cosmos is my God. Oh how rich the promise. So often we read that God is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I take this to mean that He was there for them, through every moment, He was their God, He alone is without beginning and has immortality in Himself. This continuity in God over history is therefore an encouragement to us that He likewise is the continuous One in our lives too. Israel in captivity felt God had forgotten them; and so they are comforted that they are individuals “which have been borne by me from the belly, which have been carried from the womb: and even to old age I am he, and even to grey hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; yea, I will carry, and will deliver” (Is. 46:3,4). Note how God, who is presented as male, likens Himself to a woman here. As He carried us in the womb, so He will carry us when we are old and grey haired. True to human parenting experience, the baby is always the father’s little baby, even in grey hairs. And this wonderful comfort is so simply because “I am he”. This is an evident reference to God’s Name, YHWH. The mystery of the Name is partly because the declaration of it in Ex. 3:6 implies grammatically that He is, was, and shall be. This was intended to be a great comfort to Israel in Egypt, who again had felt that God was somehow distant, looking the other way, leaving them in their aloneness. The same Name, the promise of God’s abiding presence and purpose with us, provides comfort to every one of His people.
God is likening Himself to a woman who carries a child in her womb, then
bears it, and then carries it as a baby, but
still carries it when
the child is an old man. Incidentally, this simile is proof enough that
God is not somehow 'anti-women'. The God of all knowledge is aware of
a
fundamental psychological phenomena in all men; the fear, however passive
and buried, of being without their mother; the fear of loneliness, the
fear of eternal separation from the woman who bore and carried them. From
the president to the happy village grandfather, this sense is there.
Perhaps David appreciated this when he referred to a man weeping at his
mother's funeral (not his father's) as the ultimate cameo of
grieving and desolation of soul (Ps. 35:14). And yet God says that He is
in some ways the eternal mother, the one who bore and carried us in
babyhood, but the One who will yet carry us when we are gray headed and
once again unable to walk. Yet He is also the everlasting Father, through
His Son (Is. 9:6). It's a picture of exquisite beauty. Our relationship
with God as the One who will never leave us is the
only
answer to what philosophers call 'the existential problem'; the awareness
that has come to every thoughtful soul, the terror of being so alone as we
get older, the dread of being without our human roots, of becoming the one
to whom others (e.g. our children) look to as their background and root,
whilst we ourselves have no tangible link with our past. This
problem is defined by C.S. Lewis in The Inner Ring: "I believe
that in all men's lives at certain periods...one of the most dominant
elements is the desire to be inside the local Ring and the terror of being
left outside". This horror of existential loneliness can
only
be met by our sure knowledge that we have a very personal relationship in
the Kingdom of God with our Heavenly Father, who will never ever leave us,
and will preserve us unto His eternal Kingdom.
Isaiah 46:5 To whom will you liken Me and make Me equal, and compare Me, that we may be alike?- This seems addressed to the idolaters within Judah, who were not denying Yahweh but making Him "equal" to the idols by claiming to worship Him through worshipping them.
Isaiah 46:6 Some pour out gold from the bag, and weigh silver in the
balance. They hire a goldsmith, and he makes it a god. They fall down-
yes, they worship- The idea is that people pay in gold to a
goldsmith, and he then makes that gold into a god, after keeping part of
it for himself as wages. This explains the Divine cameraman zooming in on
the handover of the gold pieces to the goldsmith. This recalls the picture
in Is. 44:15-17, of a man cutting down a tree, using half for an idol and
the other half for firewood. The purpose of presenting this bizarre
picture was to enable the audience to perceive the utter foolishness of
idolatry, although the person caught up in it can't perceive it. And that
is a feature of idolatry to this day.
The creation of idols was something done only under the supposed command of the gods. It seems there is extensive allusion to Marduk here, the Babylonian god whom many of the Jewish exiles had worshipped. We recall "Mordecai", named after Marduk. The ninth to the eighth century Babylonian Erra Epic has Marduk listing the necessary elements for the remaking of his living image: the help of the carpenter-god Nin-ildu, the smith-god Ninagal and Gushkin-banda, 'Creator of god and man', the god of gold working. The entire Babylonian mythology is being mocked here. And it was exactly the cult of Marduk which the Jewish exiles were still involved with.
Isaiah 46:7 They bear it on the shoulder, they carry it, and set it in its
place, and it stands, from its place it shall not move: yes, one may cry
to it, yet it can not answer, nor save him out of his trouble-
Again we have irony being used; the idols had to be carried by
their people, whereas Yahweh carried His people (:3,4). This
sounds like the processions in Babylon where the idols were carried
through the streets on the shoulders of men, and then placed in high
places and worshipped. Clearly Is. 40-66 was addressed directly to the returning exiles
who would've been familiar with this scene; Isaiah was prophesying all
this after Hezekiah had sinned and the captivity had been prophesied in
Is. 39. Isaiah has so many detailed allusions to
Babylonian life and beliefs that it’s impossible to think that it was all
written in Hezekiah’s time, with no reference to the Babylonians. We find
the specific names of Babylonian idols (Is. 46:1,2), ceremonies and
processions known only in Babylon (Is. 46:7), omens (Is. 44:25), magic and
astrology (Is. 47:1,2,12,13). Time and again there is specific reference
to leaving Babylon and returning to Judah (Is. 40:3-11; Is. 42:15,16; Is.
48:20-22; 49:9-12; 52:11,12).
Isaiah 46:8 Remember this, and show yourselves men; bring it again to
mind, you transgressors- LXX has this as a call to repentance from
idolatry by the exiles in Babylon: "Remember ye these things, and groan:
repent, ye that have gone astray, return in your heart".
They were to “remember this” that they already
knew, and “bring it again to mind” that God is really the great eternal,
and His Name is as it is, and they should have had no part in the idol
processions spoken of in :7. The idol makers of Is. 44:19 are
criticized because "No one takes this to heart". The idol makers of Is.
46:8 are asked "You transgressors, take it to heart". The appeal for
repentance suggests it is the Jewish exiles who are in view; they were
making the idols.
Isaiah 46:9 Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is
none else; I am God, and there is none like Me- The exiled Jews ought
to have had no part in the idol worship of Babylon spoken of in :7. They
should have perceived that the magnitude of Yahweh made all other gods and
idols of no significance. Our strength against idolatry in its modern
forms is likewise found from appreciating the greatness of our God.
Elsewhere, God cites "the former things" as witnesses of Him and of His saving purpose for Israel. What were the former things? "The former things shall be forgotten" (:18; "the former things shall not be remembered", Is. 65:18)- all the sin and failure. But it was how God dealt with Israel's "former things" which were the witness to Him as He is and was and always shall be- the God who saves sinners by grace. In this sense Israel were to remember their former things, their sins and God's gracious forgiveness of them (Is. 44:20,21). Is. 46:8,9 is clear about this: "Remember this, and show yourselves men; bring it again to mind, you transgressors. Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like Me". Only Yahweh would forgive so much sin, "the former things"; no other god would have done. There is none like Him in His forgiveness of His people.
Isaiah 46:10 Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times
things that are not yet done; saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will
do all My pleasure- The emphasis on this (e.g. also Is. 41:26) is
understandable seeing that such a specific prophecy regarding the 70 years
captivity was to be given and fulfilled. Bu
Isaiah 46:11 Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man of My counsel
from a far country; yes, I have spoken, I will also bring it to pass; I
have purposed, I will also do it-
Literally, a raven. This was an
unclean bird. The idea is continually that the ones God uses as His
servants are far from ideal and not morally qualified. But still He calls
them to His service. God thus addresses the Jewish difficulty of
having a Gentile saviour in Cyrus.
The servant songs or poems of Isaiah clearly have reference to a
Messiah figure who was to appear at the time of the restoration from
Babylon. The early songs clearly have reference to Cyrus- he is named as
such. Expositors such as Harry Whittaker and J.W. Thirtle have sought to
prove the naming of Cyrus as an interpolation, claiming that Isaiah has
sole primary reference to the days of Hezekiah. This seems to me to be
desperate. The naming of Cyrus, and the specific references to his
military campaigns in the prophecies, simply can’t be gotten around. To
brush all this off as uninspired interpolation and fiddling with the text
of holy Scripture just won’t do. The references to Cyrus aren’t merely the
mention of his name. Is. 41:1-5 alludes unquestionably to the dramatic
conquest of Sardis by Cyrus in 547 BC. The ‘servant’ is described as
swooping down first from the east and then from the north, trampling local
rulers beneath him (Is. 41:2-5,25; Is. 45:1; Is. 46:11). This
‘servant’ was to end the Babylonian empire (Is. 43:14; Is. 48:14,15),
enable the captive Jews in Babylon to return to their land (Is. 42:6,7;
Is. 43:5-7; Is. 45:13), restore Jerusalem and the ruined cities of Judah
(Is. 44:26-28; 45:13). There can be no serious doubt that it was Cyrus who
fulfilled these things. The servant is a “bird of prey from the east” (Is.
46:11)- according to Xenophon, the eagle was the emblem of Cyrus. The
servant “victorious at every step” with lightning speed (Is. 41:2) surely
refers to how Cyrus conquered the Medes, the former Assyrian empire, and
the Lydians before taking Babylon in 539 BC. We should have no problem
with a pagan king being described as God’s “servant”, for that very term
is used of Nebuchadnezzar in Jer. 25:9.
Isaiah 46:12 Listen to Me, you stout-hearted, who are far from
righteousness-
Despite this laboured and repeated assurance, the exiles were stout
hearted, which is how they are described in Ez. 2:4. Time and again in the restoration prophecies we encounter statements
intended to answer the skepticism felt by the exiles about the promises of
redemption from Babylon (Is. 40:27-31; Is. 42:22; Is. 43:22; Is. 46:12;
Is. 48:4,8; Is. 49:14). See on Is. 49:24. It was the invaders of Zion who
were the stout-hearted who were to be destroyed (s.w. Ps. 76:5); the hard
hearted amongst God's people were and are to be destroyed at the
same time as them, facing the same judgment for having the same heart.
God criticises His people for being far
away from righteousness, but then immediately He goes on to assure them of
His grace and insistent attempts to save them. For He says that although
they have stepped far away from His righteousness, He will cause His
righteousness to draw near to them (:13). They were "far" from
righteousness but He would make that righteousness not "far" from them
(:13).
Isaiah 46:13 I bring near My righteousness, it shall not be far off, and
My salvation shall not wait; and I will place salvation in Zion for Israel
My glory-
GNB "Listen to me, you stubborn people who think that victory is far away. I am bringing the day of victory near" suggests that Israel thought it was still far off, but God says He has speeded it up. God began in Is. 40 by saying that He had paid the debt of His people and thus brought to an early end their period of servitude. But as we know from Haggai, they liked to think that the day of restoration was still far off and it was not the time to build the temple. Because they wanted to build their own houses first.
This connects back to Is. 5:19, where we read that the Jews mocked Isaiah and his God, saying "Let Him make speed, let Him hasten His work, that we may see it; and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come, that we may know it!". There was clearly opposition to Isaiah's prophecies. The idea of judgment coming would have been mocked in these kinds of words. But we wonder whether this is really a verbatim quotation from these people; or whether God read their thoughts as effectively saying this, and as being the real implication of their positions. For there is no evidence that Judah abandoned Yahweh; rather did they claim obedience and loyalty to Him, although they claimed the same about their idols whom they worshipped in His Name. But God was not deaf to their words, nor the implications of their thoughts and actions. He in fact heard their mocking 'prayer', because He here says that He will "come near" (s.w.) in fulfilment of His counsel or words.
But, perhaps intentionally, these words can be read another way. This idea of bringing salvation near is in the context of the hard hearted Jews being "far" from Yahweh's righteousness. It's as if God wishes to somehow force through His plan of saving them, bringing near the salvation which they pushed far from them. But even then, they refused it. He has the same enthusiasm for human salvation today.
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