Isaiah chapter 46.
Now in Isaiah 46 we get a sharp
contrast between God, the true and the living
eternal God that created the heavens and the
earth, and the false gods that these people
were worshiping.
And the tragic thing is these people were
the Israelites, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob.
They had turned to idolatry.
And as you read the prophecy of Isaiah
and of Jeremiah, they are crying out against
the idolatry of the people, warning them that
their continued idolatry would bring upon them the
judgment of God, using Babylon as his instrument
of judgment, and that they would be going
into captivity as the result of their idolatry.
You remember Jeremiah cried out, for my people
have committed two sins.
One, they have forsaken Me, the fountain of
living water.
And they have hewn out for themselves cisterns,
cisterns that can hold no water.
Men will worship something.
Men will believe in something.
They must.
Every man has a God.
But there are some religious systems that hold
no water at all.
They just do nothing for the people who
believe, but bring them into captivity.
And so God's cry against the people.
Now it is interesting in some of the
most recent archaeological excavations.
There in Israel, above the springs of Gihon,
on that section of the hill that comes
down that was known as Ophel, which was
the site of the ancient city of Jerusalem
in David's day, and on through to Hezekiah's
time.
There in the houses that have recently been
excavated by the archaeologists.
Houses that were actually destroyed by the Babylonian
army.
Houses that have laid in ruins for 2
,500 years as they uncovered the stones and
the rubble of these houses.
Within the houses they have found multitudes of
little pagan gods.
The gods that the people had worshipped.
The gods that the people had turned to.
And thus we find actually by the archaeologists
faith just tremendous confirmation to what Isaiah is
saying.
As he is rebuking the people for their
worship of the false gods.
Now he speaks concerning two of their false
gods and they had many.
Bell boweth down, Nebo stoopeth.
Their idols were upon the beast and upon
the cattle.
Your carriages were heavy laden.
They are a burden to the weary beast.
They stoop, they bow down together.
They could not deliver the burden but themselves
are gone into captivity.
And so he speaks of their worship of
these false gods.
But he points out a great truth here.
And that is their false gods became a
burden.
Even the cattle strained under the load of
them.
For as was the custom the false gods
would be brought out of their temples or
out of their centers of worship.
Placed upon carts and driven through the streets
on the various festivals and holy days in
which they worshipped those particular gods.
Sometimes they would be born by the men
on a platform as they would walk with
the poles on their shoulders.
Now these things are not totally uncommon today.
There is a holiday in Mexico for the
Virgin Guadalupe.
And you can go down on that holiday
and you can see them as they take
the statues of the Virgin Guadalupe and put
them in these glorious chariots or carts and
all.
And they'll carry the Virgin Guadalupe through the
streets as the people kneel and bow and
genuflects and so forth and worship the Virgin
Guadalupe.
So these things are not totally unfamiliar even
in our day.
But they were very common in those days.
And here the people of God, who should
surely know better, have turned to the worship
of Bell and of Nebo.
But in reality the worship of these false
gods constituted an interesting study because these gods
couldn't even carry themselves.
They had to be carried by man.
And in man carrying them or in the
beast pulling them, they became a burden and
they bowed down and stooped those who tried
to carry them or bear them along.
Now in contrast to that, God declares, Harken
unto me, O house of Jacob and all
of the remnant of the house of Israel.
Now here's an interesting verse because the house
of, the remnant of the house of Israel,
would have been those from the northern kingdom
who, when the Assyrians conquered the northern kingdom,
fled down into Judah.
So there was a remnant.
When the northern kingdom fell, there was a
remnant from each of the tribes that escaped
and came down to Judah and became a
part of the southern kingdom at that time.
The rest of them were dispersed by the
Assyrians into the various parts of the world,
but many of them from the various tribes
came and settled in Judah after the Assyrian
invasion.
So the remnant of the house of Israel,
which are born by me, in contrast to
these people bearing their gods or carrying their
gods, God declares, I am carrying you and
I've carried you from the womb and I
will carry you till you come to the
grave, until your gray hairs, your old age.
I am he that carries you, for I
have made you and I will bear you
and I will carry you and I will
deliver you.
And so the true and the living God,
rather than having to be carried, will carry
you.
Rather than having to be supported, will support
you.
So it all depends on what kind of
a God you want.
You want a God that you have to
support or do you want a God that
will support you?
You want a God that you have to
carry or do you want a God that
can carry you?
You want a God that will bring you
into captivity or do you want a God
who is able to deliver you?
And this is the contrast that has been
made between the false idols that the people
had turned to when they had turned away
from God and the true and the living
God.
Now God said to whom will you liken
me?
Now they had made their images of their
gods.
They had carved or they had made their
molds and poured in the hot metals and
had their molten images or they had carved
the likenesses of their God.
Now God said if you were going to
carve a likeness of me what would you
make me like?
What kind of a figure would you make?
What would be the likeness?
What would you liken me to?
Or to what would you try to make
me equal?
Or to compare me that we may be
like?
What kind of a comparison can you make
with God that is anything that we know
on the human level?
What are you going to make him like?
If you're going to start to carve him
out, how and in what way are you
going to carve him out like a man?
When God is a spirit where do you
start in carving the likeness of a spirit?
Now he again speaks of how they had
made their own gods in various and have
you seen some of the the idols of
these gods?
These carvings that they made and said that
is God.
These carvings that they bowed down to and
worshipped.
These carvings that they had built great temples
for.
Have you ever seen idols of Diana?
She is supposed to be God.
Many people worshipped her.
The multi-breasted Diana.
Breasts all down the front of her and
she is God.
The nourisher of life in a symbolic form
and so they say that's God and and
and so they worship this image or idol
of Diana or Ashtar.
So God said what are you going to
make me like?
Now he is talking about their making gods
for they lavish gold out of their bag
and they waste silver in the balances and
then they hire a goldsmith and he makes
a god and they fall down and worship
it.
Now he was made by a man and
yet the people are so foolish as to
fall down and worship it.
Imagine he makes a God.
Men make their own gods.
Somehow within the consciousness of consciousness of man
innate within there is the consciousness of God
and it is just a part of man's
nature to worship.
So that you'll find in every culture even
the most primitive cultures there are forms of
worship of God or of gods and in
most cases men have made gods after the
projections of themselves.
If I were God this is what I
would do.
This is how I would do it and
so they make up their legends of their
gods and they have superpower in hunting and
great cunning abilities and they worship that.
Down in the jungles of South America where
the primitive people do not wear clothing and
when the storms come their bodies are cold
and shivering.
Some of them do not make permanent dwelling
places but are nomadic.
Now these people in their minds think if
I were God I would live in that
tree because it's so big and strong and
when the wind comes and the rain descends
it doesn't seem to be affected.
It doesn't shiver with the wind like I
am shivering.
So if I were God I would be
in that tree and I would live in
that tree and so you find them worshiping
a tree and they have trees that they
have set out for special worship.
That's God.
Or the full moon that gives light in
the jungles at night and so you'll find
them out in the full moon arms around
each other in a circle as they do
their little dance and then their little chants
as they are worshiping their God.
For if I were God I would ride
there in the moon and I would give
beautiful light at night the silvery light through
the jungles and so forth and so they
worship the moon.
Now the Greeks had interesting concepts of God
and they're expressed in if I were God
I would live on Mount Olympus and I
would look down and I would see these
men down below and those earthlings, those mortals
would not have a chance with the beautiful
maidens that are there for I would use
my supernatural powers to charm them and to
bewitch them and and I would take advantage
over those mortals and so you have your
various concepts of God that men have created
in their own minds.
So here's here's the interesting thing.
He makes a God and then the people
bow down and worship it and then they
bear him on their shoulders.
This is our God.
They carry him on their shoulders and they
set him in his place and he stands
in his place and he doesn't move from
it.
Yes they will cry unto him yet he
cannot answer them nor save them out of
their trouble and yet people worship these things.
They cannot move, cannot respond, cannot talk to
them and they worship them in lieu of
worshiping the true and the living God.
That's the tragedy.
People say well I don't believe in God.
Well they don't believe what they mean is
in a God who created the heavens and
the earth and everything that is in them
and sent his son to die for man's
sins.
They don't believe in the true and the
living God but they believe in God and
they have a God but they refuse to
worship the true and the living God who
is able to help them and respond to
their needs and instead they are worshiping gods
that cannot be of any help to them
whatsoever but will only bring them into captivity.
They worship really the gods of pleasure so
many times but you give your life over
to pleasure and you're going to end up
with lust.
So many people worshiping the God of the
intellect.
You give yourself over to the God of
intellect and you're going to end up with
pride.
So many people are worshiping the God of
power and their whole life is dedicated to
the power principle and they end up with
greed.
So God speaks out about these false gods.
They cannot answer you.
They cannot move.
They cannot even carry themselves.
Now remember this God said and show yourselves
men.
Just bring it into mind again you transgressors.
Remember the former things of old.
For I am God and there is none
other.
I am God and there is none like
me.
For I have declared the end from the
beginning.
There is no God that is able to
declare the end from the beginning.
There is no religious system outside.
Well there just is no religious system really
that has been predicated upon the ability of
God to declare from the beginning what the
end of the matter or a situation is
going to be.
And from ancient times the things that are
not yet done.
At that time of Isaiah's writing there were
prophecies that still had not been fulfilled.
Saying my counsel shall stand and I will
do my pleasure.
So God has already established what shall be.
That cannot change.
God said I will do my pleasure.
Calling and now he refers back to chapter
45 where he said that Cyrus the king
of the Medo-Persians would be his instrument
in releasing the children of Israel from their
Babylonian captivity.
Now that's a hundred and fifty years before
Cyrus was born.
That's why God is declaring this.
Hey I there's no God like me.
I'm declaring you before it happens what's going
to happen.
I'm naming the fellow before he is ever
born.
He doesn't know me but I'm calling him
by his name.
And his name is Cyrus.
And he's going to allow you to be
released from your captivity.
And so referring back to that prophecy of
Cyrus he said calling a ravenous bird from
the east.
The man that executes my counsel from a
far country I have spoken it and I
will also bring it to pass.
I purposed it and also I will do
it.
Now you go ahead and read the history
and you'll find that God did do it.
He purposed it.
He did do it.
And Cyrus was the name of the Medo
-Persian king that gave the decree that the
children of Israel might return from their captivity
in Babylon.
Giving unto the children of Israel that permission
to go back and to rebuild the temple.
Hearken unto me ye stout hearted that are
far from righteousness.
I bring near my righteousness it shall not
be far off and my salvation shall not
tarry.
I will place salvation in Zion for Israel
my glory.
And so God promises that their salvation their
righteousness will be placed in Zion.
Now in chapter 47 God speaks of the
judgment that is going to come against Babylon.
Now this is before Babylon ever conquered them.
But God has declared that Babylon shall conquer
them.
But because of the treatment that Babylon gives
to the people of God.
She herself though used as an instrument of
God in judgment against his people will also
be brought into judgment by God.
Come down and sit in the dust oh
virgin daughter of Babylon.
Sit on the ground.
There is no throne oh daughter of the
Chaldeans for thou shalt no more be called
tender and delicate.
Take the millstones and grind meal.
Uncover thy locks and make bare the leg.
Uncover the thigh.
Pass over the rivers.
For thy nakedness shall be uncovered.
Yea thy shame shall be seen.
And I will take vengeance and I will
not meet thee as a man.
He's going to meet them as a God
in judgment.
As for our Redeemer the Lord of hosts
is his name.
The holy one of Israel.
Sit thou silent and get thee into darkness
oh daughter of the Chaldeans.
For thou shalt no more be called the
lady of kingdoms.
For I was wroth with my people and
I have polluted mine inheritance and given them
into your hand.
But you did not show them mercy upon
the ancient that is the very old men.
You have laid a very heavy yoke.
So the Babylonians were not really kind to
their captives.
They were very hard on the people of
Israel when they took them captives.
And even upon the old men.
They laid very heavy burdens made them bond
slaves and made them work hard.
And so because of their treatment.
He said you have said I will be
a lady forever.
So that you did not lay these things
to your heart.
Neither did you remember the latter end of
it.
Therefore hear now this.
Now that are given to pleasures.
That dwell carelessly.
That say in your heart I am and
none else beside me.
I shall not sit as a widow.
Neither shall I know the loss of children.
These two things will come upon thee in
a moment in one day.
The loss of children and widowhood.
They shall come upon thee in their perfection.
For the multitude of your sorceries and for
the great abundance of your enchantments.
For you have trusted in your wickedness and
you have said none seeth me.
Now God speaks of the judgment that is
going to come against Babylon because of their
treatment of his people.
You remember Jesus spoke when he returns to
the earth.
He said then will I gather together the
nations for judgment.
And I will separate them as a shepherd
separates the sheep from the goats.
And to those on the right hand I
will say come you blessed with the father
inherit the kingdom that was prepared for you
from the foundations of the earth.
For I was hungry you fed me thirsty
and you gave me to drink and so
forth.
Lord when do we see you hungry when
do we see you thirsty in as much
as you did it unto my brethren.
The least of my brethren you did it
to me.
And so the nations will be judged for
their treatment of God's people the Jew.
Be careful about speaking against the Jew.
For God has chosen them.
And God has said I will bless those
that bless thee and curse those that curse
thee.
To those on his left he said depart
from me ye workers of iniquity into everlasting
judgment that was prepared for Satan and his
angels.
For I was hungry and you did not
feed me thirsty and you did not give
me to drink.
Naked and you did not clothe me.
In prison you did not visit me.
Lord when do we see you and not
help you out in as much as you
did it not to the least of these
my brethren you did it not to me.
Now here because of the ill treatment of
his people though God was angry with the
Jews and had a cause against them.
Because they had polluted the name of God
by their false worship.
Yet though he gave them over into the
hand of the Babylonians they did not show
them mercy.
And thus God's judgment and heavy hand.
Now one of the things the Babylonians were
saying notice here is that our kingdom is
going to last.
I will be a lady forever.
The Babylonian kingdom will endure forever.
We will never be widows.
We will never lose our children.
Our husbands will never be slain in battle.
And we'll never have to face widowhood.
And God said you've said these things and
you've lived in pleasure and you've lived carelessly.
But in a moment in one night you're
going to be both the loss of children
and become widows.
Now you remember when Nebuchadnezzar had this dream
that troubled him.
He could not remember the dream.
He felt it had significance and so they
called in all the wise men astrologers soothsayers
and so forth to interpret for him the
dream.
These astrologers were very active in Babylon at
that time.
In fact we get a little kick against
them down in verse 13.
Astrology was a very popular thing.
They had those that could tell your horoscope
and tell you when to do what according
to the influence of the stars upon your
lives.
And finally Daniel was brought in.
And Daniel said to him now the other
night before you went to sleep.
In your mind you were wondering what is
going to happen to my great kingdom and
what is going to happen to the world.
And so the God who dwells in heaven
has shown unto thee what is going to
happen to your kingdom and what is going
to happen to the world.
For in your dream you saw this great
image.
It had a head of gold, chest of
silver, stomach of brass, legs of iron, feet
of iron and clay with ten toes.
And as you watch this great image there
came a rock not cut with hands.
It hit the image in its feet and
the whole image fell.
It crumbled and there grew from the rock.
The rock grew into a mountain that covered
the whole earth.
He said God has shown to you the
kingdoms that are going to rule over the
earth and you Nebuchadnezzar are the head of
gold.
But your kingdom is going to be replaced
by an inferior kingdom as silver is inferior
to gold.
That kingdom will be replaced by a yet
inferior kingdom, the stomach of brass, as brass
is inferior to silver.
And that will be replaced by iron which
is hard and stamps everything to pieces.
And the final kingdom will be of ten
kings as iron and clay are mixed together.
It will not have the power of the
iron but they will be mixed together and
it is during the time of these ten
kings that the Lord of heaven shall come
and set up a kingdom that shall never
end.
Nebuchadnezzar said I proclaim that there is no
God in all the earth like the God
of Daniel that is able to reveal dreams
and secrets and tell things that are going
to be.
Acknowledge God but turn right around and he
commanded that they build a huge idol 90
feet tall of all gold.
Now that huge idol of all gold was
a direct defiance to what God had just
declared.
Now there are a lot of people who
proclaim well there's no God like the God
of heaven and then they go do their
own thing or they defy him.
And he was defying God with this huge
idol.
And as Isaiah declared here their attitude is
Babylon will live forever.
Babylon will never be destroyed.
Babylon will never be conquered.
It's the eternal kingdom.
It'll rule forever.
But the prophecy is here is in a
moment, in a day the kingdom will fall
and Babylon fell in one night as Daniel
came in before Belshazzar and interpreted to him
the writing that was on the wall.
For your kingdom has been weighed in the
balances you're found wanting and this night thy
soul shall be taken from thee and your
kingdom will be divided among the Medes and
the Persians.
This night and that night Cyrus the king
of Persia came under the walls of Babylon
where they had diverted the river Euphrates up
into the city and that night Belshazzar and
all of his lords were slain.
Now Isaiah here is talking 150 years before
the king Cyrus was born.
He's talking really well in advance of the
attitude that would prevail in Babylon.
Declaring that they would not have mercy on
the people of God thus Babylon was to
be judged and in a moment in one
day they would experience the loss of their
children and widowhood.
For they shall come upon thee the Lord
said verse 9 and their perfection for the
multitude of your sorceries and for the great
abundance of your enchantments for you have trusted
in your wickedness and none and they you
have said no one sees me.
So many times we think that our sin
is done in secret we say nobody sees
me but when Nebuchadnezzar was walking through the
gardens he heard a voice and it said
the watchers have been watching you and you've
not been behaving yourself and you're going to
get cut off and he came to Daniel
he said oh what's this all about and
he says walk carefully oh king you're in
a bad way because of the pride of
your heart you've exalted yourself against God you
see he made this golden idol he was
defying God he was lifted up with pride
and so he said walk softly before the
Lord that you might continue your days upon
the earth and for a year he behaved
himself and he walked softly but at the
end of the year as he was walking
through the hanging gardens one of the seven
wonders of the ancient world he said is
this not the great Babylon that I have
built and he heard that voice for the
watchers were still watching and they declared because
you have been lifted up in pride you
are going to be driven forth with the
wild beast for seven seasons until you know
that the God in heaven rules over the
earth and he sets into the kingdoms those
whom he will and Nebuchadnezzar went insane and
lived with the animals out in the field
like a wild beast until his hair grew
like feathers and his nails grew like claws
until seven seasons had passed over him until
he knew that the Lord of heaven reigned
over the earth and set up the kingdoms
and set on the kingdoms those whom he
would you say none sees but
there are watchers and God sees thy wisdom
and thy knowledge it hath perverted thee you
said in your heart I am and there
is no one besides me beside me therefore
shall evil come upon thee thou shalt not
know from whence it rises and mischief shall
fall on thee and thou shall not be
able to put it off and desolation should
come upon you suddenly which you will not
know stand now with your enchantments and with
a multitude of your sorceries wherein you have
labored from your youth if so be that
thou shall be able to profit if so
be that you may prevail for thou art
wearied in the multitude of their of thy
counsels now you remember oh nebuchadnezzar calling the
counselors the wise men soothsayers astrologers and so
forth and here again let now the astrologers
and the stargazers the monthly prognosticators stand up
and save thee from these things that shall
come upon thee I am really amazed in
a world of science in which we live
where we have made such positive scientific advancement
and we've come to know so much about
the universe in which we live I am
amazed that in this world of modern technology
that most of the newspapers publish a daily
horoscope which is superstition and
comes from the ancient religions in Babylon the
charting of a person's life the monthly prognosticating
of a person's highs and lows and and
positive signs and so forth all has superstitious
origin as though the stars and the position
of the stars have some kind of a
mystic influence over our lives and people seek
to govern their activities by the position of
the stars in heaven how ridiculous can you
be and yet people have to believe in
something and it is amazing the foolish things
that people believe in when they've rejected the
truth of God you see the bible declares
that professing themselves to be wise they've become
fools the minute you rule God out of
your life you are open and susceptible to
every foolish thing and men can believe the
most stupid things when they once reject God
for the bible speaks that God will give
them over to a delusion that they may
believe a lie rather than the truth you
don't want to believe in God all right
Mr. Wise guy we'll show you how wise
you are and God lets people believe in
such stupid foolish ridiculous things once they've rejected
him and I look at these what can
you say that won't get into trouble these
professed wise people and I read
of some of their actions and activities and
all and I think and they are supposed
to be so smart but it's because once
you have put God out of your life
you are open and susceptible to every kind
of gimmick religious or otherwise and so people
are looking into psychic phenomena and into the
occult and so forth having rejected God they're
open they're susceptible to anything and they're gullible
ready to believe anything and professing themselves to
be wise God has allowed them to become
fools for their foolish minds are darkened and
because they do not want to retain God
in their minds God gives them over to
minds that are reprobate and void of God
so that men end up in the pit
behold they shall be as stubble the fire
shall burn them they will not deliver themselves
from the power of the flame there shall
not be a coal to warm at nor
fire to sit before it thus shall they
be unto thee with whom you have labored
even your merchants from your youth they shall
wander everyone to his quarter none shall save
thee all of these wise men and astrologers
they won't be able to save themselves much
less you