God, by the prophet here, designing shortly to deliver them out of
their captivity, prepared them for that deliverance by possessing them
with a detestation of idols and with a believing confidence in God,
even their own God.
I. Let them not be afraid of the idols of Babylon, as if they could in
any way obstruct their deliverance, for they should be defaced
(Isaiah 46:1,2);
but let them trust in that God who had often delivered them to do it
still, to do it now,
Isaiah 46:3,4.
II. Let them not think to make idols of their own, images of the God of
Israel, by them to worship him, as the Babylonians worship their gods,
Isaiah 46:5-7.
Let them not be so sottish
(Isaiah 46:8),
but have an eye to God in his word, not in an image; let them depend
upon that, and upon the promises and predictions of it, and God's power
to accomplish them all,
Isaiah 46:9-11.
And let them know that the unbelief of man shall not make the word of
God of no effect,
Isaiah 46:12,13.
The Folly of Idolatry.
B. C. 708.
1 Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth, their idols were upon the
beasts, and upon the cattle: your carriages were heavy loaden;
they are a burden to the weary beast.
2 They stoop, they bow down together; they could not deliver
the burden, but themselves are gone into captivity.
3 Hearken unto me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the
house of Israel, which are borne by me from the belly, which
are carried from the womb:
4 And 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.
We are here told,
I. That the false gods will certainly fail their worshippers when they
have most need of them,
Isaiah 46:1,2.
Bel and Nebo were two celebrated idols of Babylon. Some make Bel to be
a contraction of Baal; others rather think not, but that it was Belus,
one of their first kings, who after his death was deified. As Bel was a
deified prince, so (some think) Nebo was a deified prophet, for so Nebo
signifies; so that Bel and Nebo were their Jupiter and their Mercury or
Apollo. Barnabas and Paul passed at Lystra for Jupiter and Mercury. The
names of these idols were taken into the names of their princes, Bel
into Belshazzar's, Nebo into Nebuchadnezzar's and Nebuzaradan's, &c.
These gods they had long worshipped, and in their revels praised them
for their successes (as appears,
Daniel 5:4);
and they insulted over Israel as if Bel and Nebo were too hard for
Jehovah and could detain them in captivity in defiance of their God.
Now, that this might be no discouragement to the poor captives, God
here tells them what shall become of these idols, which they threaten
them with. When Cyrus takes Babylon, down go the idols. It was usual
then with conquerors to destroy the gods of the places and people they
conquered, and to put the gods of their own nation in the room of them,
Isaiah 37:19.
Cyrus will do so; and then Bel and Nebo, that were set up on high, and
looked great, bold, and erect, shall stoop and bow down at the
feet of the soldiers that plunder their temples. And because there is a
great deal of gold and silver upon them, which was intended to adorn
them, but serves to expose them, they carry them away with the rest of
the spoil. The carriers' horses, or mules, are laden with them and
their other idols, to be sent among other lumber (for so it seems they
accounted them rather than treasure) into Persia. So far are they from
being able to support their worshippers that they are themselves a
heavy load in the wagons, and a burden to the weary beast. The
idols cannot help one another
(Isaiah 46:2):
They stoop, they bow down together. They are all alike,
tottering things, and their day has come to fall. Their worshippers
cannot help them: They could not deliver the burden out of the
enemy's hand, but themselves (both the idols and the idolaters)
have gone into captivity. Let not therefore God's people be
afraid of either. When God's ark was taken prisoner by the Philistines
it proved a burden, not to the beasts, but to the conquerors, who were
forced to return it; but, when Bel and Nebo have gone into captivity,
their worshippers may even give their good word with them: they will
never recover themselves.
II. That the true God will never fail his worshippers: "You hear what
has become of Bel and Nebo, now hearken to me, O house of Jacob!
Isaiah 46:3,4.
Am I such a god as these? No; though you are brought low, and the house
of Israel is but a remnant, your God has been, is, and ever will be,
your powerful and faithful protector."
1. Let God's Israel do him the justice to own that he has hitherto been
kind to them, careful of them, tender over them, and has all along done
well for them. Let them own,
(1.) That he bore them at first: I have made. Out of what womb
came they, but that of his mercy, and grace, and promise? He formed
them into a people and gave them their constitution. Every good man is
what God makes him.
(2.) That he bore them up all along: You have been borne by me from
the belly, and carried from the womb. God began betimes to
do them good, as soon as ever they were formed into a nation, nay, when
as yet they were very few, and strangers. God took them under a special
protection, and suffered no man to do them wrong,
Psalms 105:12-14.
In the infancy of their state, when they were not only foolish and
helpless, as children, but forward and peevish, God carried them in the
arms of his power and love, bore them as upon eagles' wings,
Exodus 19:4,De+32:11.
Moses had not patience to carry them as the nursing father does the
sucking child
(Numbers 11:12),
but God bore them, and bore their manners,
Acts 13:18.
And as God began early to do them good (when Israel was a child,
then I loved him), so he had constantly continued to do them good:
he had carried them from the womb to this day. And we may all witness
for God that he has been thus gracious to us. We have been borne by him
from the belly, from the womb, else we should have died from the womb
and given up the ghost when we came out of the belly. We have been the
constant care of his kind providence, carried in the arms of his power
and in the bosom of his love and pity. The new man is so; all that in
us which is born of God is borne up by him, else it would soon fail.
Our spiritual life is sustained by his grace as necessarily and
constantly as our natural life by his providence. The saints have
acknowledged that God has carried them from the womb, and have
encouraged themselves with the consideration of it in their greatest
straits,
Psalms 22:9,10,71:5,6,17.
2. He will then do them the kindness to promise that he will never
leave them. He that was their first will be their last; he that was the
author will be the finisher of their well-being
(Isaiah 46:4):
"You have been borne by me from the belly, nursed when you were
children; and even to your old age I am he, when, by reason of
your decays and infirmities, you will need help as much as in your
infancy." Israel were now growing old, so was their covenant by which
they were incorporated,
Hebrews 8:13.
Gray hairs were here and there upon them,
Hosea 7:9.
And they had hastened their old age, and the calamities of it, by their
irregularities. But God will not cast them off now, will not fail them
when their strength fails; he is still their God, will still carry them
in the same everlasting arms that were laid under them in Moses's time,
Deuteronomy 33:27.
He has made them and owns his interest in them, and therefore he will
bear them, will bear with their infirmities, and bear them up under
their afflictions: "Even I will carry and will deliver them; I
will now bear them upon eagles' wings out of Babylon, as in their
infancy I bore them out of Egypt." This promise to aged Israel is
applicable to every aged Israelite. God has graciously engaged to
support and comfort his faithful servants, even in their old age:
"Even to your old age, when you grow unfit for business, when
you are compassed with infirmities, and perhaps your relations begin to
grow weary of you, yet I am he--he that I am, he that I have
been--the very same by whom you have been borne from the belly and
carried from the womb. You change, but I am the same. I am he that I
have promised to be, he that you have found me, and he that you would
have me to be. I will carry you, I will bear, will bear you up
and bear you out, and will carry you on in your way and carry you home
at last."
The Folly of Idolatry; The Divine Prerogative Asserted.
B. C. 708.
5 To whom will ye liken me, and make me equal, and compare
me, that we may be like?
6 They lavish gold out of the bag, and weigh silver in the
balance, and hire a goldsmith; and he maketh it a god: they
fall down, yea, they worship.
7 They bear him upon the shoulder, they carry him, and set him
in his place, and he standeth; from his place shall he not
remove: yea, one shall cry unto him, yet can he not answer, nor
save him out of his trouble.
8 Remember this, and show yourselves men: bring it again to
mind, O ye transgressors.
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,
10 Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times
the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall
stand, and I will do all my pleasure:
11 Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that
executeth my counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it,
I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also
do it.
12 Hearken unto me, ye stouthearted, that are far from
righteousness:
13 I bring near my righteousness; it shall not be far off, and
my salvation shall not tarry: and I will place salvation in Zion
for Israel my glory.
The deliverance of Israel by the destruction of Babylon (the general
subject of all these chapters) is here insisted upon, and again
promised, for the conviction both of idolaters who set up as rivals
with God, and of oppressors who were enemies to the people of God.
I. For the conviction of those who made and worshipped idols,
especially those of Israel who did so, who would have images of their
God, as the Babylonians had of theirs,
1. He challenges them either to frame an image that should be thought a
resemblance of him or to set up any being that should stand in
competition with him
(Isaiah 46:5):
To whom will you liken me? It is absurd to think of representing
an infinite and eternal Spirit by the figure of any creature
whatsoever. It is to change his truth into a lie and to turn his glory
into shame. None ever saw any similitude of him, nor can see his face
and live. To whom then can we liken God?
Isaiah 40:18,25.
It is likewise absurd to think of making any creature equal with the
Creator, who is infinitely above the noblest creatures, yea, or to make
any comparison between the creature and the Creator, since between
infinite and finite there is no proportion.
2. He exposes the folly of those who made idols and then prayed to
them,
Isaiah 46:6,7.
(1.) They were at great charge upon their idols and spared no cost to
fit them for their purpose: They lavish gold out of the bag; no
little will serve, and they do not care how much goes, though they
pinch their families and weaken their estates by it. How does the
profuseness of idolaters shame the niggardliness of many who call
themselves God's servants but are for a religion that will cost them
nothing! Some lavish gold out of the bag to make an idol of it
in the house, while others hoard up gold in the bag to make an
idol of it in the heart; for covetousness is idolatry, as
dangerous, though not as scandalous, as the other. They weigh
silver in the balance, either to be the matter of their idol (for
even those that were most sottish had so much sense as to think that
God should be served with the best they had, the best they could
possibly afford; those that represented him by a calf made it a golden
one) or to pay the workmen's wages. The service of sin often proves
very expensive.
(2.) They were in great care about their idols and took no little pains
about them
(Isaiah 46:7):
They bear him upon their own shoulders, and do not hire
porters to do it; they carry him, and set him in his place, more
like a dead corpse than a living God. They set him on a pedestal,
and he stands. They take a great deal of pains to fasten him,
and from his place he shall not remove, that they may know where
to find him, though at the same time they know he can neither move a
hand nor stir a step to do them any kindness.
(3.) After all, they paid great respect to their idols, though they
were but the works of their own hands and the creatures of their own
fancies. When the goldsmith has made it that which they please to call
a god they fall down, yea, they worship it. If they magnified
themselves too much in pretending to make a god, as if they would atone
for that, they vilified themselves as much in prostrating themselves to
a god that they knew the original of. And, if they were deceived by the
custom of their country in making such gods as these, they did no less
deceive themselves when they cried unto them, though they knew they
could not answer them, could not understand what they said to them, nor
so much as reply Yea, or No, much less could they save them out of
their trouble. Now shall any that have some knowledge of, and
interest in, the true and living God, thus make fools of
themselves?
3. He puts it to themselves, and their own reason, let that judge in
the case
(Isaiah 46:8):
"Remember this, that has been often told you, what senseless
helpless things idols are, and show yourselves men--men and not
brutes, men and not babes. Act with reason; act with resolution; act
for your own interest. Do a wise thing; do a brave thing; and scorn to
disparage your own judgment as you do when you worship idols." Note,
Sinners would become saints if they would but show themselves men, if
they would but support the dignity of their nature and use aright its
powers and capacities. "Many things you have been reminded of; bring
them again to mind, recall them into you memories, and revolve them
there. O! you transgressors, consider your ways; remember whence you
have fallen, and repent, and so recover yourselves."
4. He again produces incontestable proofs that he is God, that he and
none besides is so
(Isaiah 46:9):
I am God, and there is none like me. This is that which we have
need to be reminded of again and again; for proof of it he refers,
(1.) To the sacred history: "Remember the former things of old,
what the God of Israel did for his people in their beginnings, whether
he did not that for them which no one else could, and which the false
gods did not, nor could do, for their worshippers. Remember those
things, and you will own that I am God and there is none else."
This is a good reason why we should give glory to him as a nonsuch, and
why we should not give that glory to any other which is due to him
alone,
Exodus 15:11.
(2.) To the sacred prophecy. He is God alone, for it is he only that
declares the end from the beginning,
Isaiah 46:10.
From the beginning of time he declared the end of time, and end of all
things. Enoch prophesied, Behold, the Lord comes. From the
beginning of a nation he declares what the end of it will be. He told
Israel what should befal them in the latter days, what their
end should be, and wished they were so wise as to consider it,
Deuteronomy 32:20,29.
From the beginning of an event he declares what the end of it will be.
Known unto God are all his works, and, when he pleases, he makes
them known. Further than prophecy guides us it is impossible for us to
find out the work that God makes from the beginning to the end,
Ecclesiastes 3:11.
He declares from ancient times the things that are not yet done.
Many scripture prophecies which were delivered long ago are not yet
accomplished; but the accomplishment of some in the mean time is an
earnest of the accomplishment of the rest in due time. By this it
appears that he is God, and none else; it is he, and none
besides, that can say, and make his words good, "My counsel shall
stand, and all the powers of hell and earth cannot control or
disannul it nor all their policies correct or countermine it." As God's
operations are all according to his counsels, so his counsels shall all
be fulfilled in his operations, and none of his measures shall be
broken, none of his designs shall miscarry. This yields abundant
satisfaction to those who have bound up all their comforts in God's
counsels, that his counsel shall undoubtedly stand; and, if we are
brought to this, that whatever pleases God pleases us, nothing can
contribute more to make us easy than to be assured of this, that God
will do all his pleasure,
Psalms 135:6.
The accomplishment of this particular prophecy, which relates to the
elevation of Cyrus and his agency in the deliverance of God's people
out of their captivity, is mentioned for the confirmation of this
truth, that the Lord is God and there is none else; and this is a thing
which shall shortly come to pass,
Isaiah 46:11.
God by his counsel calls a ravenous bird from the east, a bird
of prey, Cyrus, who (they say) had a nose like the beak of a
hawk or eagle, to which some think this alludes, or (as others say) to
the eagle which was his standard, as it was afterwards that of the
Romans, to which there is supposed to be a reference,
Matthew 24:28.
Cyrus came from the east at God's call: for God is Lord of hosts and of
those that have hosts at command. And, if God give him a call, he will
give him success. He is the man that shall execute God's
counsel, though he comes from a far country and knows
nothing of the matter. Note, Even those that know not, and mind not,
God's revealed will, are made use of to fulfil the counsels of his
secret will, which shall all be punctually accomplished in their season
by what hand he pleases. That which is here added, to ratify this
particular prediction, may abundantly show to the heirs of promise the
immutability of his counsel: "I have spoken of it by my servants
the prophets, and what I have spoken is just the same with what I
have purposed." For, though God has many things in his purposes
which are not in his prophecies, he has nothing in his prophecies but
what are in his purposes. And he will do it, for he will never
change his mind; he will bring it to pass, for it is not in the
power of any creature to control him. Observe with what majesty he says
it, as one having authority: I have spoken it, I will also bring it
to pass. Dictum, factum--no sooner said than done. I have purposed
it, and he does not say, "I will take care it shall be done," but,
"I will do it." Heaven and earth shall pass away sooner than one
tittle of the word of God.
II. For the conviction of those that daringly opposed the counsels of
God assurance is here given not only that they shall be accomplished,
but that they shall be accomplished very shortly,
v. 12, 13.
1. This is addressed to the stout-hearted, that is, either,
(1.) The proud and obstinate Babylonians, that are far from
righteousness, far from doing justice or showing mercy to those
they have power over, that say they will never let the oppressed go
free, but will still detain them in spite of their petitions or God's
predictions, that are far from any thing of clemency or compassion to
the miserable. Or,
(2.) The unhumbled Jews, that have been long under the hammer, long in
the furnace, but are not broken are not melted, that, like the
unbelieving murmuring Israelites in the wilderness, think themselves
far from God's righteousness (that is, from the performance of his
promise, and his appearing to judge for them), and by their distrusts
set themselves at a yet further distance from it, and keep good things
from themselves, as their fathers, who could not enter into the land of
promise because of unbelief. This is applicable to the Jewish nation
when they rejected the gospel of Christ; though they followed after
the law of righteousness, they attained not to righteousness,
because they sought it not by faith,
Romans 9:31,32.
They perished far from righteousness; and it was because they were
stout-hearted,
Romans 10:3.
2. Now to them God says that, whatever they think, the one in
presumption, the other in despair,
(1.) Salvation shall be certainly wrought for God's people. If men will
not do them justice, God will, and his righteousness shall effect that
for them which men's righteousness would not reach to. He will place
salvation in Zion, that is, he will make Jerusalem a place of
safety and defence to all those who will plant themselves there; thence
shall salvation go forth for Israel his glory. God glories in
his Israel; and he will be glorified in the salvation he designs to
work out for them; it shall redound greatly to his honour. This
salvation shall be in Zion; for thence the gospel shall take rise
(Isaiah 2:3),
thither the Redeemer comes
(Isaiah 59:20,Ro+11:26),
and it is Zion's King that has salvation,
Zechariah 9:9.
(2.) It shall be very shortly wrought. This is especially insisted on
with those who thought it at a distance: "I bring near my
righteousness, nearer than you think of; perhaps it is nearest of
all when your straits are greatest and your enemies most injurious; it
shall not be far off when there is occasion for it,
Psalms 85:9.
Behold, the Judge stands before the door. My salvation shall not
tarry any longer than till it is ripe and you are ready for it; and
therefore, though it tarry, wait for it; wait patiently, for
he that shall come will come, and will not tarry."
Matthew Henry "Verse by Verse Commentary for 'Isaiah' Matthew Henry Bible Commentary".
.