Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Bel bows down, Nebo stoops low;
    their idols are borne by beasts of burden.
The images that are carried about are burdensome,
    a burden for the weary.
They stoop and bow down together;
    unable to rescue the burden,
    they themselves go off into captivity.
“Listen to me, you descendants of Jacob,
    all the remnant of the people of Israel,
you whom I have upheld since your birth,
    and have carried since you were born.
Even to your old age and gray hairs
    I am he, I am he who will sustain you.
I have made you and I will carry you;
    I will sustain you and I will rescue you.
“With whom will you compare me or count me equal?
    To whom will you liken me that we may be compared?
Some pour out gold from their bags
    and weigh out silver on the scales;
they hire a goldsmith to make it into a god,
    and they bow down and worship it.
They lift it to their shoulders and carry it;
    they set it up in its place, and there it stands.
    From that spot it cannot move.
Even though someone cries out to it, it cannot answer;
    it cannot save them from their troubles.
“Remember this, keep it in mind,
    take it to heart, you rebels.
Remember the former things, those of long ago;
    I am God, and there is no other;
    I am God, and there is none like me.
I make known the end from the beginning,
    from ancient times, what is still to come.
I say, ‘My purpose will stand,
    and I will do all that I please.’
From the east I summon a bird of prey;
    from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose.
What I have said, that I will bring about;
    what I have planned, that I will do.
Listen to me, you stubborn-hearted,
    you who are now far from my 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,
    my splendor to Israel.

• Isaiah 46:1-13

“Go down, sit in the dust,
    Virgin Daughter Babylon;
sit on the ground without a throne,
    queen city of the Babylonians.
No more will you be called
    tender or delicate.
Take millstones and grind flour;
    take off your veil.
Lift up your skirts, bare your legs,
    and wade through the streams.
Your nakedness will be exposed
    and your shame uncovered.
I will take vengeance;
    I will spare no one.”
Our Redeemer—the Lord Almighty is his name—
    is the Holy One of Israel.
“Sit in silence, go into darkness,
    queen city of the Babylonians;
no more will you be called
    queen of kingdoms.
I was angry with my people
    and desecrated my inheritance;
I gave them into your hand,
    and you showed them no mercy.
Even on the aged
    you laid a very heavy yoke.
You said, ‘I am forever—
    the eternal queen!’
But you did not consider these things
    or reflect on what might happen.
“Now then, listen, you lover of pleasure,
    lounging in your security
and saying to yourself,
    ‘I am, and there is none besides me.
I will never be a widow
    or suffer the loss of children.’
Both of these will overtake you
    in a moment, on a single day:
    loss of children and widowhood.
They will come upon you in full measure,
    in spite of your many sorceries
    and all your potent spells.
You have trusted in your wickedness
    and have said, ‘No one sees me.’
Your wisdom and knowledge mislead you
    when you say to yourself,
    ‘I am, and there is none besides me.’
Disaster will come upon you,
    and you will not know how to conjure it away.
A calamity will fall upon you
    that you cannot ward off with a ransom;
a catastrophe you cannot foresee
    will suddenly come upon you.
“Keep on, then, with your magic spells
    and with your many sorceries,
    which you have labored at since childhood.
Perhaps you will succeed,
    perhaps you will cause terror.
All the counsel you have received has only worn you out!
    Let your astrologers come forward,
those stargazers who make predictions month by month,
    let them save you from what is coming upon you.
Surely they are like stubble;
    the fire will burn them up.
They cannot even save themselves
    from the power of the flame.
These are not coals for warmth;
    this is not a fire to sit by.
That is all they are to you—
    these you have dealt with
    and labored with since childhood.
All of them go on in their error;
    there is not one that can save you.

• Isaiah 47:1-15

“Listen to this, you descendants of Jacob,
    you who are called by the name of Israel
    and come from the line of Judah,
you who take oaths in the name of the Lord
    and invoke the God of Israel—
    but not in truth or righteousness—
you who call yourselves citizens of the holy city
    and claim to rely on the God of Israel—
    the Lord Almighty is his name:
I foretold the former things long ago,
    my mouth announced them and I made them known;
    then suddenly I acted, and they came to pass.
For I knew how stubborn you were;
    your neck muscles were iron,
    your forehead was bronze.
Therefore I told you these things long ago;
    before they happened I announced them to you
so that you could not say,
    ‘My images brought them about;
    my wooden image and metal god ordained them.’
You have heard these things; look at them all.
    Will you not admit them?
“From now on I will tell you of new things,
    of hidden things unknown to you.
They are created now, and not long ago;
    you have not heard of them before today.
So you cannot say,
    ‘Yes, I knew of them.’
You have neither heard nor understood;
    from of old your ears have not been open.
Well do I know how treacherous you are;
    you were called a rebel from birth.
For my own name’s sake I delay my wrath;
    for the sake of my praise I hold it back from you,
    so as not to destroy you completely.
See, I have refined you, though not as silver;
    I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.
For my own sake, for my own sake, I do this.
    How can I let myself be defamed?
    I will not yield my glory to another.
“Listen to me, Jacob,
    Israel, whom I have called:
I am he;
    I am the first and I am the last.
My own hand laid the foundations of the earth,
    and my right hand spread out the heavens;
when I summon them,
    they all stand up together.
“Come together, all of you, and listen:
    Which of the idols has foretold these things?
The Lord’s chosen ally
    will carry out his purpose against Babylon;
    his arm will be against the Babylonians.
I, even I, have spoken;
    yes, I have called him.
I will bring him,
    and he will succeed in his mission.
“Come near me and listen to this:
“From the first announcement I have not spoken in secret;
    at the time it happens, I am there.”
And now the Sovereign Lord has sent me,
    endowed with his Spirit.
This is what the Lord says—
    your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
“I am the Lord your God,
    who teaches you what is best for you,
    who directs you in the way you should go.
If only you had paid attention to my commands,
    your peace would have been like a river,
    your well-being like the waves of the sea.
Your descendants would have been like the sand,
    your children like its numberless grains;
their name would never be blotted out
    nor destroyed from before me.”
Leave Babylon,
    flee from the Babylonians!
Announce this with shouts of joy
    and proclaim it.
Send it out to the ends of the earth;
    say, “The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob.”
They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts;
    he made water flow for them from the rock;
he split the rock
    and water gushed out.
“There is no peace,” says the Lord, “for the wicked.”

• Isaiah 48:1-22

Noted Biblical Scholars, Teachers, and Preachers Comments

Isaiah 46:1 ‘Bel … Neho’: “The two most prominent gods in Babylon. Bel is another spelling for ‘Baal,’ the Phoenician chief god of Babylon. That Nebo was extensively worshiped is shown by the Babylonian proper names compounded from his: Nebuchadnezzar, Nabopolassar, and Nebuzaradan.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Isaiah 46:3-4 ‘our faith is in Him’: “The confidence of Babylon is buried among her heaps of rubbish, for her gods have fallen from their thrones. ‘Bel crouches; Nebo cowers.’ As for us, our trust is in the living God who lives to bear and carry his chosen, even in Jehovah, the only true Lord. We begin our spiritual life by faith in him, for until faith comes, we have no power to become the sons of God. Our spiritual life will have to be continued in the same way of trust in the Lord. We live by faith in the Son of God, who loved us and gave himself for us. We rejoice that we will never have to change our confidence, for our God will never be carried into captivity or torn from his throne. Our faith is built on a rock that can never be moved. Nothing in the past has shaken the foundation of our faith. Nothing in the present can move it. Nothing in the future will undermine it. Whatever may occur in the ages to come, there will always be good reason for believing in Jehovah and his faithful Word. The great truths he has revealed will never be disproved. The great promises he has made will never be retracted. The great purposes he has devised will never be abandoned. So long as we live, we will always have a refuge, a hope, a confidence, that can never be removed. ‘I will bear you up when you turn gray’ is not just a promise for those in old age. But it is also a promise to the people of God at any and every period between their birth and their death. While the Lord does not say he guarantees all his people will reach old age, he does say he has carried us from the womb and will carry us still. The Lord is good to us in all tenses and in all ways. We will not consider the mercy of God to be only for those who are near the end of their pilgrimage but also for his people throughout their wilderness journey—from the day when they first ate of the paschal lamb and left Egypt even to that hour when the Jordan was dried up and they took possession oi the land that flows with milk and honey. Our experimental dealings with God make us know that he is our gracious helper from the first to the last. Bel and Nebo disappoint their votaries, but Jehovah is our God forever and ever, and he will be our guide even to death.”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

Isaiah 46:10 ‘God has no past?’: “God has no past! Now l want you to hear that. And l want you to shake your head hard here, because this is an idea that the old Church Fathers knew, but that we, their children, don’t seem to care much about. God has no past. You have a past; it isn’t really very long, although you may wish it wasn’t so long. But God has no past and no future. Why doesn’t God have a past or a future? Because past and future are creature words, and they have to do with time. They have to do with the flowing motion of time. But God is not riding on the bosom of time. Time is a little mark across the bosom of eternity. And God sits above time, dwelling in eternity: ‘from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God.’
It is a wonderful thought that God has already lived all of our tomorrows. God has no yesterdays and no tomorrows. The Scriptures say, ‘Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever’ (Hebrews 13:8), but it’s not His yesterday—it’s yours and mine. Jesus Christ the Lord is the One who came out of Bethlehem, out of Judea, whose goings forth have been even from everlasting. He can’t have yesterdays and tomorrows, because yesterday is time and tomorrow is time, but God surrounds it all and God has already lived tomorrow. The great God who was present at the beginning when He said, ‘Let there be’ and there was, is also now present at the end, when the worlds are on fire and all creation has dissolved and gone back into chaos—and only God and His redeemed saints remain. Remember that God has already lived our tomorrows.
“I wonder if that could be the reason that men can prophesy. The ability to foretell with precision an event that will take place 3,000 years from now—how can that be? It might be that a prophet in the Spirit is up in God, seeing as God sees, ‘the end from the beginning.’ So God way up there takes the end from the beginning and looks down. And that’s where we ought to be—not down here looking up through the clouds, but up looking down.”

• A. W. Tozer, The Attributes of God II

Isaiah 47:1-3 ‘O virgin daughter of Babylon’: “The prophet depicted Babylon as a virgin, in the sense of never before having been captured. Babylon sat like a royal virgin in the dust, experiencing complete humiliation. The ‘throne’ was gone, taken by Persian power, and the empire never recovered from being robbed of its power, its people, and its name. The former royal virgin is depicted as a slave woman forced to exchange royal garments for working clothes; she must lift her garment to wade through the water as she serves like a slave traversing the river in her duties. Such duties in the east belonged to women of low rank, providing fitting imagery for Babylon’s fall into degradation.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Isaiah 47:4 ‘Babylon will fall’: “In v.4 we again encounter the recurring title Holy One of Israel. When God expresses himself as the Holy One, he acts in redemption or in judgment, as he does here.”

• Eugene E. Carpenter, Asbury Bible Commentary

Isaiah 47:9 ‘In a moment, in a day’: “Babylon did not decay slowly, but went from being the wealthy lady, the unconquered virgin, the proud, invincible mother of many, to a degraded slave woman in the dust who lost her throne, her children, and her life. It happened in one night, suddenly and unexpectedly, when Cyrus and the Persian army entered the city (cf. Dan. 5:28, 30). loss of children, and widowhood. Babylon did lose its inhabitants, many of whom were killed and taken captive under Cyrus. This prophecy was fulfilled again when Babylon revolted against Darius. In order to hold out in the siege, each man chose one woman of his family and strangled the rest to save provisions. Darius impaled three thousand of the revolters.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Isaiah 47:14 ‘curse of Babylon’: “This verse is part of a terrible description of God’s judgment on Babylon. The prophet had clearly written out the indictment of the Lord against that tyrannical people, and having proved their guilt, he pronounced their sentence. He accused them of showing no mercy to the Lord’s people whom he had given into their hands because of his judgment on them. He charged them with pride and boastfulness. He testified against their boldness and presumption; for they were given to pleasures and lived carelessly, expecting no difficulties. On account of these iniquities, the destruction of Babylon was to be sudden, terrible, and complete. They were to be so utterly destroyed that there would not be one single comfortable memory connected with their state. There would be a fire to consume them but none to keep them warm. The burning should not be as when wood crackles in the flame, when glowing ashes or a charred log may be left, but they should be as stubble, utterly consumed, without vestige or remembrance. We have great evidence of the truthfulness and divinity of Scripture furnished by such prophecies that have been fulfilled. In the good providence of God, there have been dug out from mounds of rubbish and heaps of decayed matter and slabs and stones, bearing in their carvings and inscriptions, the most amazing proofs of what the Lord has spoken through his prophets. It is a truth beyond dispute that God’s justice is not partial and that the description of the destruction he awards to one class of sinners is a most fair picture of what he will do with others. For God has two or three ways of dealing with men in his justice. He judges through his righteousness, and he awards vengeance to impenitent people by an established and invariable rule. For us today the ruin of Babylon is a representation and a metaphorical description of the destruction that will surely come on impenitent sinners—in that day when the Lord Jesus returns from heaven to judge his enemies and to rid himself of his adversaries.”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

Isaiah 48:6 ‘new things’: “From this point onward, the prophecies of Messiah’s first and Second Coming and the restoration of Israel have a new distinctiveness. Babylon becomes the Babylon of Revelation (v. 20), and God uses Isaiah to communicate truths about the messianic kingdom on earth and the new heavens and new earth that follow it (e.g., 11:1-5; 65:17). Verse 7 indicates that God had never before revealed these features about the future.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Isaiah 48:9-11 ‘God’s mercy extended’: “This passage illustrates divine love. First, it illustrates the conversion of the sinner; second, the reclaiming of the backslider. God’s mercy was extended to both sinners and backsliders in Old Testament times just as it has been in the church age. The record of the Old Testament indicates that the people of Israel in all their generations were full of evil. Finally, the Lord appeared to grow weary of keeping his house among such ungracious children and unfaithful servants, and so he broke up the house altogether. He gave up his temple to be destroyed, the whole land to be ravaged, and the inhabitants to be carried they exhibited hardness of heart, so that even the eyes away captive into Babylon. The Lord was angry with his heritage, and therefore he gave his holy and beautiful house to the fire, and the carved works for it were broken down with hammers, while the whole Jewish state was utterly shattered so that the whole kingdom disappeared. Yet such is the immutability of God in his affection that he had not long sent his people into captivity before his heart yearned toward them again. The Lord looked for a reason in their past conduct for him to show mercy but found none. He looked at their present character for a plea and found none, for even while they were under the rod of mercy could see no reason for favor in them. What should the Lord do? He would not act without a reason: there must be something to justify his mercy and show the wisdom of his way. Since there is none in the offender, where would mercy find her plea? Behold the inventiveness of eternal love. The Lord falls back on himself, and within himself finds a reason for his grace. He would do it for his name’s sake, and he would not give his glory to another. Finding a motive in his own glory that was bound up in the existence of Israel, and would have been compromised by their destruction, he turned to them in love and kindness. Cyrus wrote the decree of emancipation, the Israelites came back to the land, and once again they enjoyed the fruits of the promised land.”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

Isaiah 48:16 ‘sent Me’: “It was not the prophet who spoke but the Messiah, the Servant of the Lord whom the Lord God and the Holy Spirit will send for the final regathering of Israel and establishment of His kingdom as described in 61:1-7. Each person of the triune Godhead is mentioned here (cf. Gen. 1:26; Matt. 3:16, 17).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Isaiah 48:19 ‘like the sand … like the grains of sand.’: “Because of Israel’s disobedience, God’s promise to Abraham to multiply his descendants (Gen. 22:17) has not yet been finally fulfilled. Even though the nation was temporarily set aside during the Babylonian captivity and during the dispersion before A.D. 1948 and will suffer deadly assaults in the coming time of Jacob’s trouble (cf. Jer. 30:7), God will be true to His promise.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Isaiah 48:20 ‘Go forth from Babylon!’: “The worldwide proclamation of deliverance, along with the statement that ‘the LORD has redeemed … Jacob,’ shows that it is not the return of a meager fifty thousand Jews from historic Babylon while most stayed in that pagan land, but the final redemption of the nation as Zechariah spoke of it in Zechariah 12:10-13:1 and Paul in Romans 11:1, 2, 25-27. A redeemed Israel is to make a complete separation from the final Babylon and its wicked system, and proclaim to the world the Lord’s grace toward the nation. John repeats this command in Revelation 18:4.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Isaiah 48:22 ‘a final warning’: “Many scholars view v.22 as out of place. It would so appear. However, it may well be intended as a final warning to those who scoff at the idea that God could and would deliver captive Israel.”

• Eugene E. Carpenter, Asbury Bible Commentary

 

My Thoughts

These chapters begin with the reality that false gods, fashioned by human hands, require a beast of burden to travel around.  This mental image is then compared to God who has carried His people around and continues to carry us around (at least in caring for us).  God answers prayer, but when has a lump of stone or wood ever answered your pleas?  Never.

I am sitting in a house full of junk.  The boys do not want it, or they would have already taken the junk.  Thus, it is not treasures, although most of it brings back memories.  It is glorious junk.  And I will either have to get the junk man to cart it away or rent a dumpster for a few weeks.  Then, I can get a rental truck and move the rest into storage in Tennessee, except for the things that I need to keep going – bed, chest of drawers, and a desk for the computer with bookshelves.  I might reassemble my wife’s portable wardrobe to have a little closet space.

And as I work through that, I will be reminded of these verses.  The stuff that is made by man needs someone to carry it, while we are carried in the arms of God.

God is God.  There is no other.  God answers prayer.  God keeps His promises.

Then in Isaiah 47, God speaks of the fall of Babylon.  He paints the picture of their pride, with pride being too small for a word.  They were insane with their feelings of invincibility.  I wonder if they had a plan for a thousand-year Reich as Hitler did?  Maybe their plan was for an even longer period.

Then God shifts from false god worship to the forms of worship.  Sorceries, potent spells, and magic will not save them.  Astrologers cannot even save themselves from the power of the flame.  The reflection questions above speak of an “innocent” reading of a daily horoscope, but do we trust the stars God created or do we trust God?  Anything other than God is idolatry.

In Isaiah 48, having worked in the metals industry for many years, I love the analogy rather than simply saying that Israel was stiff-necked and bull-headed (or should that be mule-headed?).  Their neck is made of iron and their forehead made of bronze.  That makes the arthritis in my neck in the morning seem rather limber and free to move.  He goes on to say that they will be refined, but not as silver.  They will have affliction.  Compare this to James 1, which starts that we should count it Joy in our trials.  The epistles speak of suffering, trials, tribulations, and troubles.

Have you ever thought about how trials, tribulations and troubles all begin with “TR”?  When I started journaling, at least my version of journaling, I had lines for prayers, blessings, events, what I “wrote”, ideas of things to write, and Triple “tr”.  When I filled one moleskin notebook, I dropped the triple “tr” line.  Why give the devil his due?  If a trial occurs, it is only a big prayer request.  And the only day that I noted a “triple ‘tr’” in the new journal, under prayer requests was when my wife passed away.  A headache, even a migraine, is a simple prayer request, but to be a trial, tribulation, or trouble, it must be something major.

As God continues to describe himself through the prophet Isaiah, He mentions first and last, as Jesus did when He appeared before John in Revelation 1.

The last bit of Isaiah 48 is a strange swirling prophecy.  Cyrus is not mentioned, but Cyrus will return the remnant to Judah, yet Jesus is only mentioned as a poetic reference, the Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.  That is why I call this a swirling prophecy.  To the Jews in exile, they would look forward to Cyrus and the return to Judah, but for the Christian, Cyrus’ part in God’s plan is past tense, and we look toward Jesus, the Redeemer, who paid the price for our sins on Calvary, and who sits at God’s right hand, interceding for us.  Unravelling this short passage is tricky, in that some things refer to Cyrus, some to Jesus, and some to both.

But once redeemed, the exiles must leave Babylon, as we must repent of our sins.

The final admonishment was not just for Babylon, or Persia, Greece, or Rome.  There will be no peace for the wicked.

My mother always said, and I mean often, “There is no rest for the wicked and the righteous don’t need it.”  The first half comes from Isaiah 48:22, but the second half is the exact opposite of so much of the Scriptures.  It violates the Fourth Commandment.  It was my mother’s mantra of work, work, work, until you work at sleeping, because there was more work, work, work the next day.  Even sleeping became a restless chore.  And she seemed to get great enjoyment from her misery.  Was she wicked or was her obsessive compulsive disorder the sin from which she could never turn away?

But when God commands His people to leave Babylon, He is saying for us to repent.

Some Serendipitous Reflections

“Isaiah 46:  1. Have you seen people today worn out and let down by the very ‘idols’ to which they have devoted themselves? How so? When has this happened to you?
“2. By contrast, how have you experienced God as a father carrying you when you were weak? Or as a strong man sustaining you when you were tired? Or as a warrior rescuing you when you were trapped?
“3. Isaiah concludes ‘there is none like God’ (v.9). Based on your sampling of the modern idols, what would you say comes closest to, or is even equal to God (v.5)? If someone were to observe your lifestyle this past week, what would he think about your answer?
“4. How has God brought righteousness near to you (v.13; see Ro 3:21-24; Eph 2:13)? Why?
“Isaiah 47:  1. In our sophisticated and cynical age, why do you think most major newspapers faithfully print astrological information day after day? Have you ever been drawn to astrology or any other occult practices? Why? Do you think it is appropriate for Christians to be involved in these things? Why or why not?
“2. During the 50’s and 60’s, many predicted that the rise of science would lead to a decline in people’s interest in the supernatural, yet the sales and use of occult books and devices has risen dramatically since then. How do you account for that? What does that show about people? What would it take to have an effective witness to someone involved in these practices?
“3. The Babylonians ignored God, justice and mercy by hiding behind pride, wealth and magic. How do people today try hiding from God? What helped you see that these things are not to be trusted? Might they still tempt you? How so?
“Isaiah 48:1-11 Stubborn Israel:  1. The Jews, both before and during the captivity, never gave up the worship of the Lord, but many added idolatrous practices to their Judaism. Where do you feel caught between relying on Christian doctrines yet living by the values of modern idols? How might God be getting across the message to you that you can’t have it both ways? What, if anything, do you want to change in order to honestly call upon the Lord in ‘truth and righteousness?’
“2. How have you been influenced by the rebellious attitude of other Christians? How has your rebellion at times affected others? What has it cost you in terms of God’s peace and blessing in your life?
“3. Since God saved the exiles anyway, does it really matter whether we try to obey God? How so?
“Isaiah 48:12-22 Israel Freed: 1. In what ways is Cyrus’ deliverance of the Jews from Babylon like the deliverance from sin that Jesus has won for his people? How did you first respond to the news that, because of what Jesus has done, you are free from enslavement to sin (Ro. 8:1-3)? How do you respond now’? Why?
“2. What are some bad reasons people witness to others about Christ? What is the one good reason (v.20)? How might grasping the goodness of the gospel encourage others to listen? What will help you grasp that goodness afresh?
“3. Paul compares the water from the rock (Ex 17:6; Isa 48:21) to the life of the Spirit that flows from Christ (1Co 10:3). In your life, is the water of the Spirit gushing, trickling, dripping or turned off? Why? What would help increase the flow?”

• Lyman Coleman, et al, The NIV Serendipity Bible for Study Groups

Isaiah 46 and 47 have one set of questions.  Isaiah 48 has two sets of questions as noted above.

Substitute whatever group for any reference to a small group or ask who could come to your aid.

If you like these Thursday morning Bible studies, but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Thursday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.