A King Who Carries Us
Isaiah 46:1-10
"This is what you are to say... to the people of Israel: 'You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself.'"
(Exodus 19:3-4)
Worldly things, which we are tempted to admire and pursue, battle for our total attention once we succumb to them. Money, sex, success, power, security, and fame may demand that we "carry" them, work for them, become enslaved to them. They can become idols, weighing us down like the physical idols of Babylon.
Our King is quite different from idols. We don't carry Him; He carries us and promises to always do so. But He will not carry idols. If we are clinging to them, giving something other than Him priority in our lives, it is as if we are asking Him to carry us and our idols with us!
"I will bear" in verse 4 of our reading means I will put up with you. It means to relieve or to give someone a break. It is one of the characteristics of love in 1 Corinthians 13:7 - "love bears all things." It is the opposite of holding someone's feet to the fire. Rather, it is the steadfast love of our King who says, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest"
(Matthew 11:28).
INSIGHT
When I feel worried, anxious and burdened, it is more often than not because I am carrying some idol which I need to throw out.
READ THROUGH THE BIBLE IN A YEAR
Hosea 1-3
Proverbs 11
James 1-3
Isaiah 46:1-10
Gods of Babylon
1 Bel bows down, Nebo stoops low;
their idols are borne by beasts of burden.[a]
The images that are carried about are burdensome,
a burden for the weary.
2 They stoop and bow down together;
unable to rescue the burden,
they themselves go off into captivity.
3 "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.
4 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.
5 "With whom will you compare me or count me equal?
To whom will you liken me that we may be compared?
6 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.
7 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.
8 "Remember this, keep it in mind,
take it to heart, you rebels.
9 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.
10 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.’
Footnotes:
a. Isaiah 46:1 Or are but beasts and cattle
No comments:
Post a Comment