Evening on a terraced hillside: an old gnarled olive tree, its trunk twisted with age, its branches still full of leaves and small olives, in warm low light.

Comfort My people

Isaiah 46

Who will carry you when you’re old?

13 verses≈ 3 minBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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Where we are

1–5Zion on trialJudah’s sin, the mountain raised, the vineyard’s song
6Holy, holy, holyIsaiah’s call, in the year King Uzziah died (about 740 BC)
7–12ImmanuelAhaz’s fear, the sign, the Child, the shoot of Jesse
13–23The nations judgedBabylon to Tyre: the LORD is Judge of all the earth
24–27The whole earthThe earth laid waste, and death swallowed up
28–35Woe and a KingEgypt’s help or the LORD’s, and the King in His beauty
36–39Hezekiah’s crisisSennacherib, 701 BC: the prayer, the sickness, the envoys
40–48Comfort My peopleTo the exiles ahead: Cyrus, the idols, the ServantChapter 46
49–55The Servant and ZionPierced for our transgressions; Zion restored
56–66New heavens and earthA house of prayer, the Anointed One, all things new

Babylon’s Idols

Isaiah

Dusk on a dusty road leading out of Babylon: two large carved and gilded god statues in robes roped onto heavy wooden ox carts, tipping, the oxen straining and weary.

Bel crouches; Nebo cowers.

Their idols weigh down beasts and cattle.

The images you carry are burdensome,

a load to the weary animal.

Tap to go deeper: meaning, history and related Scripture

Isaiah

The gods cower; they crouch together,

unable to relieve the burden;

but they themselves go into captivity.

God

“Listen to Me, O house of Jacob,

all the remnant of the house of Israel,

who have been sustained from the womb,

carried along since birth.

God

Even to your old age, I will be the same,

and I will bear you up when you turn gray.

I have made you, and I will carry you;

I will sustain you and deliver you.

Isaiah 46:4

God

To whom will you liken Me or count Me equal?

To whom will you compare Me, that we should be alike?

God

God

They pour out their bags of gold

and weigh out silver on scales;

they hire a goldsmith to fashion it into a god,

so they can bow down and worship.

God

A gold-plated wooden god figure standing stiff in a wall niche of a mud-brick house, dust on its shoulders, an unlit clay lamp before it, gray daylight from a doorway.

They lift it to their shoulder

and carry it along;

they set it in its place, and there it stands,

not budging from that spot.

They cry out to it, but it does not answer;

it saves no one from his troubles.

Question

Quick question

Babylon’s gods have to be loaded on animals and hauled away. Now read what the LORD says in verses 3 and 4.

What does the LORD say He does for His people?

God

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 there is none like Me.

God

Sunrise over a wide flat plain: a great eagle in flight low over the land, wings spread wide, coming out of the east toward the viewer.

I summon a bird of prey from the east,

a man for My purpose from a far-off land.

Truly I have spoken,

and truly I will bring it to pass.

I have planned it,

and I will surely do it.

God

Listen to Me, you stubborn people,

far removed from righteousness:

I am bringing My righteousness near;

it is not far away, and My salvation will not be delayed.

I will grant salvation to Zion

and adorn Israel with My splendor.

Pray

LORD, You have carried me since before I knew You. Thank You. Be the same to me when I grow old and gray; bear me up when I can’t carry myself. Your purpose will stand, so I will trust it today. Amen.

Who carries whom?

Whiteboard

Every idol has to be carried. The living God carries His people.

You’ve experienced

Isaiah 46

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A verse to carry with you

Even to your old age, I will be the same, and I will bear you up when you turn gray. I have made you, and I will carry you; I will sustain you and deliver you.

Isaiah 46:4

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