The Book of Isaiah

Hebrew Study

Explanation

Isaiah paints a scene of Babylon's defeat: "Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth." The mighty gods of Babylon are hauled away on the backs of animals, dead weight, "a burden to the weary beast," and they "could not deliver the burden, but themselves are gone into captivity." The gods that were supposed to carry their people cannot even save themselves. Then God turns to His own people with the glorious contrast: "Hearken unto me, O house of Jacob... which are borne by me from the belly, which are carried from the womb." From the very beginning of their existence, God has been carrying them. And He promises to keep carrying them to the end: "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." Four times in one verse the promise sounds, made, bear, carry, deliver. The God who made His people will carry them all the way home.

Gospel Focus

Here is one of the sweetest contrasts in all of Scripture: false gods are a burden you carry, but the true God carries you. Every idol, whether a statue of gold or the modern idols of money, image, and self, is dead weight; it demands to be served, propped up, and hauled around, and in the day of trouble, when one cries to it, "yet can he not answer, nor save him out of his trouble" (verse 7). But the LORD says, "I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you." He is not a god we carry; He is the God who carries us. And notice the span of His carrying: "from the belly... even to hoar hairs." He carried you before you knew Him, He carries you now, and He will carry you through gray hair and death itself. This is the Shepherd who "shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom" (Isaiah 40:11), and who came in Jesus to seek the lost sheep and lay it "on his shoulders, rejoicing" (Luke 15:5). Whatever you are carrying today that you were never meant to carry, lay it down; He says, "Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee" (Psalm 55:22). Stop carrying gods that cannot save, and let the God who made you carry you all the way home.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

God repeats the challenge of chapter 40: "To whom will ye liken me, and make me equal?" There is no comparison, and the idol proves it. Isaiah traces the making of a god: men "lavish gold out of the bag," weigh out silver, and "hire a goldsmith; and he maketh it a god." Then, absurdly, "they fall down, yea, they worship" the thing they just paid to have made. They "bear him upon the shoulder, they carry him, and set him in his place, and he standeth", the god cannot even walk to its own pedestal. And once set, "from his place shall he not remove." The final humiliation is its total uselessness in need: "one shall cry unto him, yet can he not answer, nor save him out of his trouble." A god you must carry, that cannot move, cannot hear, cannot answer, and cannot save, that is every idol.

Gospel Focus

The tragedy Isaiah exposes is that people pour out real gold and real devotion on a god that "cannot answer, nor save." It is a picture of every false hope. Whatever we make our god, whatever we lavish our resources and worship upon that is not the living God, will stand mute and helpless in the day we cry to it. Money cannot answer the grave. Success cannot save from guilt. The gods we carry cannot carry us. But the God of the Bible is not like that. He hears, "the LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon him" (Psalm 145:18); He answers, "call unto me, and I will answer thee" (Jeremiah 33:3); and He saves, "whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Romans 10:13). The difference between an idol and the living God is the difference between a statue that cannot move and a Savior who came down from heaven to seek us. When you cry to the God who came to us in Jesus, He answers, because He is not a dead thing on a pedestal but the living Lord. Do not spend your gold and your heart on a god that cannot answer; call on the One who hears and saves.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

God summons His people to think clearly: "Remember this, and shew yourselves men... Remember the former things of old." The point to remember is His uniqueness: "I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me." And His proof is His command of the future: "Declaring the end from the beginning... saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure." No idol can do this; only the true God announces the end at the beginning and makes it happen. He points again to His instrument, "Calling a ravenous bird from the east" (Cyrus, swift as a bird of prey), "the man that executeth my counsel." And He seals it with a fourfold guarantee: "I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it." Then, tenderly, He turns to the "stouthearted, that are far from righteousness", the stubborn, "I bring near my righteousness; it shall not be far off, and my salvation shall not tarry: and I will place salvation in Zion." God's righteousness and salvation are not distant or delayed; He brings them near.

Gospel Focus

Two great comforts close the chapter. First, God's purpose cannot fail: "My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure... I have purposed it, I will also do it." The God who declares the end from the beginning has already announced how the story ends, and no power can overturn it. "The counsel of the LORD standeth for ever" (Psalm 33:11), and "he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:6). If God has purposed your salvation, He will complete it. Second, God brings salvation near. To the "stouthearted, that are far from righteousness", the stubborn who feel far from God, He says, "I bring near my righteousness; it shall not be far off, and my salvation shall not tarry." This is the gospel: we cannot climb up to God's righteousness, so He brings it down and near to us. Paul says exactly this of the gospel, "the word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart" (Romans 10:8), and it is fulfilled in Christ, "the LORD our righteousness" (Jeremiah 23:6), and in "salvation in Zion." However far you feel from God, His righteousness is not far off; He has brought it near in Jesus. Stop carrying gods that cannot save, remember the God who carries you, and receive the righteousness and salvation He has brought near.