“There
Is No Other”
[Isaiah
46:1-13]
January
17, 2020 YouTube
We return to our look at the book of Isaiah this
morning. We will remember that we have
been introduced to Cyrus, the King of the Medo-Persian Empire, who will free
Israel and Judah from the Babylonian captivity and send them back to their land
with all the materials necessary to rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple.
Let’s remember that at this point, Isaiah is prophesying
– he is telling the people what will happen in the future – he is not just
preaching about Cyrus. We know this
because Isaiah is preaching around 700 B.C., the Babylonians take Judah into
captivity in 597 B.C, and Cyrus conquers Babylon and sets the people free
around 538 B.C. So, Isaiah is telling
the people about the punishment they will receive in about one hundred years,
and how they will be freed some sixty years after that.
In chapter forty-six, Isaiah turns back to the problem of
idolatry – which is the major problem – our major problem as well. Sin generally comes down to our putting
something in God’s place – whether it be an object we want or hold in high
esteem, or our belief that we know better about a subject than God, or a
flat-out refusal to obey God because of whatever. When we sin, we commit idolatry – it is not
just something that was done in the past with statues. John Calvin famously said that humans are
idol factories.
So, God again makes His case against idols and idolatry.
First, idols cannot bear themselves up.
“Bel
bows down; Nebo stoops; their idols are on beasts and livestock; these things
you carry are borne as burdens on weary beasts. They stoop; they bow down
together; they cannot save the burden, but themselves go into captivity.”
Judah
is going to be taken into Babylon. The chief
gods of Babylon are Bel (also called Marduk) – the god of writing and wisdom –
and his son, Nebo. And God is warning Judah
lest they start to think while they are in captivity that these so-called gods
– these idols – are actually real powers who have defeated the God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob – that they are not real – they can’t even hold themselves up.
Bel
and Nebo fall over, they break when they fall to the ground. They need to be carried around on animals –
they cannot move on their own. They are
burdens on the backs of the animals and they are burdens on the backs of the
people who worship them. They cannot
relieve anyone’s burden, for they themselves are in captivity. They can’t do anything without someone else doing
it for them.
Likewise,
the nation that are embroiled in idolatry will eventually fall. The nation whose essence – whose being – whose
purpose is following after false gods – will fall just like their gods. And it doesn’t matter whether the gods are
Bel, Nebo, money, power, sex, food, pride – whatever – it cannot stand.
Our
gods – our idolatry – our sin – will either crush us, or it will crush
Jesus. It will either leave us in pieces
under its burden, or Jesus will take the burden and give us His light burden.
Jesus
says, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart,
and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is
light” (Matthew 11:28_30, ESV).
Jesus
frees us from the burden of gods who cannot bear themselves up.
Second,
God bears up His people from conception to death.
“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; 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.”
God
tells Jacob and Israel that – unlike the idols who can’t even hold themselves
up – God has borne them up from the moment of their conception – He carries
them through the womb, and even in old age, God will carry them. God made them. God bears them. God will carry them. God will save them.
David
writes, “On you was I cast from my birth, and from my mother’s womb you have
been my God” (Psalm 22:10, ESV).
And
“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I
praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my
soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being
made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my
unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that
were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them” (Psalm 139:13-16, ESV).
And
for our salvation, God is the one who does it, as James tells us, “Of his own
will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of
firstfruits of his creatures” (James 1:18, ESV).
God
bears up His people from conception to death – including saving Israel from
physical captivity and all who believe from spiritual captivity.
Third,
idols are created in man’s image.
“To
whom will you liken me and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be alike?
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! 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.”
You
may have heard someone say that God is not real – He’s just a figment of our imagination
– something we have created in our own image to explain things we don’t
understand. That of course, is not true, but it is true that every god except
for the True God is an invention of humanity.
God
challenges Judah to compare God with the idols:
God is Self-existent, All-powerful, All-knowing, the Creator of all,
Sovereign over all, and so forth. God
goes where He wills and does as He wills.
What
about idols?
Well,
to have a nice idol, one that really “works,” you would need a good amount of
money. You would want your idol to be
gold after all – to show how able you are to bring a god into your home and to
expect only the best from it.
So,
you take your gold – to make into the idol, and your find a gold craftsman,
tell him what you want, and pay him in silver, and he crafts the idol – the god
of your dreams, and you pick it up and take it home, and it falls over – like
every other idol.
You still must pick it up and move it from
place to place – no matter how much it cost.
And
if you pray to it, it still does nothing – it cannot hear – it cannot act – it
is utterly impotent.
Paul
rebukes the men at the Areopagus, “Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to
think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by
the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now
he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on
which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed;
and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead” (Acts
17:29-31, ESV).
What
have you made into an idol? Have you compared its ability and stability to God?
Are
you impressed with your body and your health?
Are you sure you will never get sick?
At the very least, we should expect to die and keep that thought before us,
so we do not put too much hope in ourselves and our physical selves. Covid is out there.
What
about our money? Do you have a good
savings? Is your account insured by the government? I’ve said before that that promise is only as
good as the government – if the government fails or falls, your money will be
gone. We are to be wise with our money,
but to put our hopes in it is foolish – it can be gone in a moment.
Has
your intellect got you this far and you will continue to rise up through the
ranks because of your great mind? There are so many diseases that affect the
mind – to put your hopes in it is foolish.
Nothing
we have or are compares with God. God is
always greater in every way. To put
anything in God’s place is to invite failure and destruction.
Idols
are created in man’s image – whether they are physical or non-physical – they
fall and turn to dust, but God, the One True God, does not.
Finally,
consider the Providence of God.
“Remember
this and stand firm, recall it to mind, you transgressors, remember the former
things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none
like me, 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,’ 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.”
The
Providence of God is God’s plan and purpose.
And God takes Judah as a man and shakes him: “Remember this! Stand firm! Recall this! You sinners know very well what I am talking
about – don’t pretend otherwise – remember your history – remember all you have
been taught from the beginning until now!”
God shocks them to attention.
Think
how we sit before our screens and let them wash over us. We passively receive what they flash at
us. But are we listening with our
minds? Are we remembering what has
happened in our past? Are we remembering
what has happened throughout all of history since the Creation? Do we think about all the things that God has
done? All that has been recorded in the
Bible for our good and instruction?
God
says, “I am God. There is no other
god. They are all idols – false gods. I
am God. There is none like Me.”
Gods
says that before the Creation He determined everything that would happen from
beginning to end. This is His plan that
is unfolding right now. God has not been
thwarted and He cannot be thwarted.
What
God has said will happen. What God has
planned will come to pass.
This
was a comfort to Judah, and it should be a comfort to us – God has planned
everything out – there are no surprises for God – God doesn’t ever have to go
to “Plan B.” God has such knowledge and
power that everything is coming to pass exactly as God determined it would
before the Creation.
In
fact, God tells Judah that it was His plan from before the Creation to call a
bird from the east – Cyrus – thousands of years before he existed – to conquer
Babylon and set the people of God free after they had served their exile.
Here
this truth in the preaching of Peter, “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus
of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and
signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know—this
Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God,
you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men” (Acts 2:22-23, ESV).
The
devil thought he had won – but he had accomplished God’s plan.
Our
text ends:
“Listen
to me, you stubborn of heart, you who are far from righteousness: 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.”
God
tells Judah that they are sinners and they have stubbornly acted against God,
and that is why they will go into exile, but that obstacle is not great enough
to keep God from doing exactly what He has always intended to do: God will bring righteousness to His people,
He will bring salvation to His people.
Salvation will come to Jerusalem and Israel will be the glory of God.
That’s
our sure hope – it is hope because it hasn’t happened in all its fulness yet, but
it is sure because it is the will and plan of God – not of us – not of idols.
Paul
writes, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has
blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even
as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be
holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to
himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to
the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved” (Ephesians
1:3-6, ESV).
Paul
continues telling us what the Only God is doing for us – and all who believe:
“For
this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven
and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant
you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so
that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and
grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is
the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ
that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God”
(Ephesians 3:14-19, ESV).
Idols will always fail and fall. But God – there is no other – the Only God –
bears us up through our entire life and He guides all of His plans to their
completion. He saves us to His Glory
through His Son, Jesus, and we are His forever – and one day we will be
received into the fullness of His Kingdom, righteous and holy with Him forever.
Let us pray:
Almighty God forgive us for sinning against You. Forgive us for the idols we turn to. Strengthen us by the Holy Spirit that we
would turn from temptation and refuse to sin.
Help us to look to You Alone, believing that You are bringing all things
to pass exactly as You have ordained – including the eternal salvation of Your
people. And we ask this in Jesus’ Name,
Amen.
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