To Whom Would You Liken Me?
Isaiah 46:1-13
April 21, 2024
This morning we come across a chapter that can be
Either convicting or comforting, depending on where your faith rests.
And it really stems from your belief as to WHO IS YOUR SAVIOR?
Now, in the church, when we talk about the Savior,
• It is obvious we are talking about Jesus Christ
• But most of the time the scope of our conversation is limited to His ability to
save us from sin and God’s judgment.
But at times we are also tempted
To compartmentalize Him only to that battle.
LET ME ILLUSTRATE:
Last Saturday evening I was on social media reading posts about the Iranian attack on Israel.
• Several were posting about the attack.
• Many were declaring it the start of WWIII.
• Many were speaking of the horrors of war and doom and escalation and things
such as that.
As I scrolled through the comments, the same statements just kept being repeated over and over.
• “I wish Trump was in office”
• “I wish we could move the election up”
• “If Trump was in office this wouldn’t have happened”
• Even some bold enough to say things like, “Only Trump can save us”
Now, I feel certain that if I contacted any of those people
• And asked them of Donald Trump could save them from sin
• Or if Donald Trump could save them from hell or from the wrath of God,
I’m pretty sure the general consensus would be, “No, of course not.”
I’m fairly confident that the majority of those on my feed would still say, “Jesus Christ saves us from sin. Jesus Christ saves us from hell.
Jesus Christ saves us from the wrath to come.”
So what was that crowd talking about on social media?
• They see Donald Trump as the savior of political America.
• They see Trump as the man who can save us from a war.
• They see Trump as the one who can save us from China or Iran or inflation
or some other political problem.
And so what tends to happen is
We try to compartmentalize our saviors.
If we have a sin and judgment problem then our savior is Jesus.
• If we have a political problem then we run to Trump.
• If we have a health problem then we run to our physician.
• If we have a marriage problem then we run to our friends or a counselor.
• If we have a grief or a guilt problem then we run to a psychologist.
YOU SEE WHAT I’M GETTING AT.
We have no problem seeing Jesus as the savior from sin,
But we all too often then want to run to other saviors
To deal with our other problems.
This is precisely what is going on with the people Isaiah is confronting.
REMEMBER,
• He is speaking prophetically to a people who live over 100 years after him.
• They are a people who have been taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar and
carried into Babylon.
• They have lived in Babylon for nearly 70 years.
• For all intents and purposes they are pretty much Babylonian.
Sure, they have maintained their Jewish ethnicity.
Yes, they have maintained their Jewish worship.
But Isaiah is revealing to us here that
While they maintain a certain level of Jewish worship,
They are also prone to compartmentalize the saving ability of God.
Because when Cyrus threatens to attack Babylon
The Jews aren’t running to Yahweh,
They run to the same saviors that the Babylonians are running to.
They start running to “Bel” and “Nebo”
“Yahweh is a fine savior when we are talking about sin.
But here we are talking about Cyrus attacking Babylon,
For that we go to a different savior.”
We call that PLURALISM
It is the propensity to believe in and trust in multiple gods for salvation.
Now we don’t tend to think of ourselves as pluralists
Because we know that Jesus is the only way to the Father.
BUT LOOK,
• If you are trusting in Jesus to save you from sin,
• But Trump to save you from Iran,
• And your doctor to save you from COVID,
• And the government to save you from hunger, etc.
DO YOU NOT SEE THE PLURALISM IN THAT?
And in effect what we are doing is reducing God
From being THE savior to being A savior.
We begin to put other saviors on the same level as God
And to trust in them when we should be trusting in God alone.
THIS IS THE ISSUE THAT ISAIAH IS CONFRONTING.
• These people were afraid of the Persian invasion.
• These people were afraid of Cyrus.
• And since it appears that Babylon’s gods made them strong.
• They are running to the Babylonian gods to save them.
ISAIAH HAS BEEN CONFRONTING THIS RELENTLESSLY
• It was not the Babylonian gods who gave victory to Babylon, it was Yahweh, Israel’s God who did that.
• And it is not the Persian gods who are giving Cyrus his victories, it Yahweh, Israel’s God who is doing that.
And the whole point then is for Israel to learn
What God has been saying over and over and over and over.
Isaiah 43:11 “I, even I, am the LORD, And there is no savior besides Me.”
Isaiah 44:6 “Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: ‘I am the first and I am the last, And there is no God besides Me.”
Isaiah 45:5-6 “I am the LORD, and there is no other; Besides Me there is no God. I will gird you, though you have not known Me; That men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun That there is no one besides Me. I am the LORD, and there is no other,”
Isaiah 45:18 “For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it and did not create it a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited), “I am the LORD, and there is none else.”
Isaiah 45:21b-22 “And there is no other God besides Me, A righteous God and a Savior; There is none except Me. “Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; For I am God, and there is no other.”
And even again in our chapter this morning:
(9) “Remember the former things long past, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me,”
ARE YOU GETTING THE POINT?
THERE IS NO OTHER SAVIOR!
• Quit compartmentalizing Me!
• Quit making Me equal with all the others.
• I am not just your savior from sin, I am your savior from all things.
• I am the sovereign God who has redeemed you.
You should not look to other saviors in other circumstances,
You should look to Me in all circumstances.
I AM YOUR ONLY SAVIOR.
THAT HAS BEEN THE POINT.
• Is it a spiritual problem? Look to Christ
• Is it a political problem? Look to Christ
• Is it a physical problem? Look to Christ
• Is it a financial problem? Look to Christ
• Is it a social problem? Look to Christ
• Is it a marriage problem? Look to Christ
He is not “A” savior.
He is THE SAVIOR – the only one.
NOW I’M NOT SAYING that God never uses men like your doctor or your friend or Donald Trump, clearly God is using Cyrus.
But the difference is who you think is actually doing the saving.
And just to follow on the illustration,
To say things like “If Trump was in office this wouldn’t have happened”
Is to be blindly ignorant of the sovereignty of God.
I would remind you:
• The reason Trump is not in office is because God is sovereign.
• Nothing happens outside of His sovereign control.
• God is saving His people, and He is not bound to use some politician to do it.
And to all of that pluralistic thinking:
And God would ask, “To whom would you liken Me..?”
This is the point that Isaiah is driving into our minds here.
AND THIS MORNING HE CONTINUES.
Here God commands His people to pay attention.
1. The exiles in Babylon were intending to trust in the Babylonian gods for deliverance from Cyrus.
2. God is going to reveal how foolish this is.
3. He is going to compare those gods to Himself.
4. He is doing that so that you and I will come to our senses and learn to trust Him alone in all things.
There are 3 distinctions God will make
Between Himself and the Babylonian gods in this chapter.
We would do good to extend these observations
To any other would-be savior that we might be tempted to trust.
#1 I’M NOT A BURDEN, I’M A BEARER
Isaiah 46:1-4
The chapter starts for us with tremendous visual imagery.
(1-2) “Bel has bowed down, Nebo stoops over; Their images are consigned to the beasts and the cattle. The things that you carry are burdensome, A load for the weary beast. They stooped over, they have bowed down together; They could not rescue the burden, But have themselves gone into captivity.”
As I mentioned, “Bel” and “Nebo” are Babylonian gods.
• You are familiar with men like Nebuchadnezzar and Nebuzaradan, and Nabopolassar (men all named after “Nebo”)
• Or men like Belshazzar or even Daniel who was given the name “Belteshazzar” names following after “Bel”
These are Babylonian gods and those
Which were credited with Babylon’s power and sovereignty.
These were the gods the Babylonians were turning to
When they heard of the rise of Cyrus.
WHAT WE LEARN IN ISAIAH 46 IS THAT
Apparently the Jews in exile there were turning to them too.
And that doesn’t surprise us.
• Throughout Israel’s history they were prone to worship pagan gods.
• This is where Baal worship came from.
So these are the supposed saviors of Babylon.
These are the gods who are expected to deliver Babylon from Persia.
But God here gives tremendous imagery.
1. Isaiah reveals “Bel” and “Nebo” bowing down as in defeat and submission.
2. Isaiah reveals them packed up on the back of camels and donkeys.
3. Isaiah reveals them being carted off into captivity.
The gods that supposedly took other men captive
Are themselves now being carted off into captivity.
(2) “They stooped over, they have bowed down together, They could not rescue the burden, But have themselves gone into captivity.”
And the issue of them going into captivity is certainly bad enough,
But that is NOT the main point of God here.
THE MAIN POINT IS THAT
In a time when you need your savior to deliver you,
Your savior has actually become a burden to you.
“Their images are consigned to the beasts and the cattle. The things that you carry are burdensome, A load for the weary beast.”
IMAGINE THE SCENE…
Someone has infiltrated the city and is threatening your safety.
THE DECISION IS TO FLEE.
• You are frantically gathering your family.
• You are frantically gathering your essential supplies.
• You are loading them on your donkey so that you can flee in haste.
But you realize that you don’t want to go without your god.
You’ll need someone to deliver you and protect you on your journey,
So you want your god to go with you.
But if he is going to go, you’re going to have to pick him up,
Put him on your donkey, tie him down, and let your donkey carry him.
Your savior is nothing but an added burden.
• He can’t go if you don’t take him.
• He won’t be there if you don’t carry him.
• He is a burden.
And God responds very quickly by saying, but that is nothing like Me!
(3-4) “Listen to Me, O house of Jacob, And all the remnant of the house of Israel, You who have been borne by Me from birth And have been carried from the womb; Even to your old age I will be the same, And even to your graying years I will bear you! I have done it, and I will carry you; And I will bear you and I will deliver you.”
Do you see all the references to God bearing you or carrying you or delivering you?
What we see here should not be bizarre.
What we have is a Savior functioning like a Savior.
You didn’t create Me, “You have been borne by Me from birth.”
You aren’t carrying Me, “[You] have been carried from the womb.”
• “I will bear you!”
• “I will carry you;”
• “I will bear you”
• “I will deliver you”
DO YOU SEE THE DISTINCTION?
THIS IS WHO GOD IS
Consider the Exodus:
Exodus 19:4 “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself.”
And what has God promised to these refugees in Babylon?
I have not changed!
Isaiah 40:31 “Yet those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.”
DO YOU SEE IT?
God is not a burden, He is a burden bearer!
Psalms 55:22 “Cast your burden upon the LORD and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.”
Psalms 68:19 “Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears our burden, The God who is our salvation. Selah.”
1 Peter 5:6-7 “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.”
What an important truth to consider as you look for a savior.
So go back to our initial analogy.
“If Donald Trump was in office, he would fix this.”
Those are interesting thoughts.
• Just the other day I received an email from the Donald Trump campaign
asking me for money to help him get elected.
• Many times between now and November he will ask me for his vote.
Jesus has never asked me for campaign funds.
Jesus has never asked me for a vote.
Political leaders want to be in charge
They want you to load them on your donkey and carry them there.
JESUS IS JUST THE OPPOSITE.
He is no burden to His people, He is the burden bearer.
EVERY OTHER SAVIOR WILL EXHAUST YOU
Remember the Pharisees?
Matthew 23:4 “They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger.”
Luke 11:46 “But He said, “Woe to you lawyers as well! For you weigh men down with burdens hard to bear, while you yourselves will not even touch the burdens with one of your fingers.”
• That was the religion of self-help.
• That was legalism where they required you to do something to help them save you.
• They put the burden all on you.
BUT WHAT DID JESUS SAY?
Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Every other savior will offer salvation but expect you to carry them.
Only Jesus will save you and pull the entire load Himself.
• Only Jesus came to this earth for you.
• Only Jesus fulfilled the Law for you.
• Only Jesus bore your sin.
• Only Jesus intercedes for you.
• Only Jesus will return for you.
Every other Savior will ask you to do something for them.
Their cry is “Help me help you!”
Jesus simply says, “Come to Me and I’ll do all the carrying.”
God is not a burden, He is a bearer.
#2 I’M NOT DECORATIVE, I’M DECLARATIVE
Isaiah 46:5-11
Here we move from the function of these saviors to their appearance.
And God begins with an important question.
Indeed, it is the theme of the chapter:
(5) “To whom would you like Me And make Me equal and compare Me, That we would be alike?”
The burden comparison alone is enough to make the answer obvious.
• “Bel” and “Nebo” have nothing in common with God.
BUT GOD HAS A SECOND COMPARISON
And notice the way God describes them.
Purely as a decorative ornament.
(6-7) “Those who lavish gold from the purse And weigh silver on the scale Hire a goldsmith, and he makes it into a god; They bow down, indeed they worship it. “They lift it upon the shoulder and carry it; They set it in its place and it stands there. It does not move from its place. Though one may cry to it, it cannot answer; It cannot deliver him from his distress.”
Notice again that ALL THE VERBS of this sentence are not being carried out by the savior, but they are being carried out by men.
It is men “lavish gold” and “weigh silver”
• That is to say, the full cost is assumed by the worshiper, not the idol.
• You provide for them, they don’t provide for you.
And it is men who “hire a goldsmith” and who “makes it into a god”
• They have to create the god, the god doesn’t create them.
And when it comes time for this newly formed god to spring into action
And do something remarkable on behalf of his people,
WELL, IT WILL NEED A LITTLE HELP.
“They lift it…”
“carry it”
“They set it in its place”
It can’t do anything.
“Though one may cry to it, it cannot answer; It cannot deliver him from his distress.”
You know what we call that?
A STATUE
• It is nothing but decoration.
• It is ornamental.
• It is art.
It may have value based upon the amount of gold on it.
It may be pretty based on the skill of the sculptor.
It may be functional as an accent piece in a room.
But as far as doing any real saving it is pointless.
• “it cannot answer”
• “it cannot deliver”
AND THAT IS WHAT YOU COMPARE TO GOD?
That is what you call a savior?
That is what you put on the same level as the God of the universe?
And as you might notice,
God is not amused by the comparison.
(8-9) “Remember this, and be assured; Recall it to mind, you transgressors. “Remember the former things long past, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me,”
You notice first of all that
God has a title for these Jews in captivity who are trusting in other gods.
God calls them “you transgressors”
• What is a transgressor?
• What is the difference between that and other sin?
A transgressor is one who violates a covenant or an agreement.
It is a sin of betrayal.
God made the terms of His conditions very clear at Sinai.
Exodus 20:1-6 “Then God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before Me. “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.”
Part of the agreement was:
• You don’t worship other gods.
• You don’t compare Me to other gods.
But that is exactly what they have done.
By trusting in other saviors they have in effect
Put those false gods on the same level as the true God.
AND THE TRUE GOD IS NOT AMUSED.
So three times in two verses he calls for them to check their memory.
• “Remember”
• “Recall it to mind”
• “Remember”
Remember what?
“the former things long past”
You need to stop and go through your spiritual and historical rolodex
And think about all that I have done.
Creation, the flood, the choosing of Abram, the Exodus, manna, parting the Red Sea, miracle after miracle, giving the Promised Land, and on and on and on.
You won’t find any of these gods who ever did anything like I have done.
So you need to go through your memory
And when you do, you will “be assured”.
Be assured of what?
That “I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me”
• You have forgotten that there are no other gods.
• You have forgotten that there are no other saviors.
• You just go about crying out to them like they can save you, and they can’t!
And once again God calls to mind
HIS ABILITY TO SOVEREIGNLY CONTROL ALL EVENTS.
(10-11) “Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, ‘My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’; Calling a bird of prey from the east, The man of My purpose from a far country. Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, surely I will do it.”
THERE IS A CONTRAST FOR YOU.
Your god can’t answer and your god can’t deliver.
But I on the other hand, not only know the answer,
But I am the sovereign One who decreed what is happening.
I not only can deliver,
But I am the One who is delivering by sending Cyrus that “bird of prey from the east, the man of My purpose from a far country.”
Not only do I know what I’m doing.
Not only do I know what is going on.
I am the One declaring it!
I am the One delivering you through it!
DO YOU SEE THE DIFFERENCE?
• They are decorative, but I am declarative!
• They are nothing but art, I am the sovereign orchestrator of all things.
Can you name a political leader who will answer your questions?
Can you name a political leader who knows how to fix this?
If we’ve learned anything over the last 4 years,
We know what it is for a man to be in a position
That is nothing more than a decorative position or a token position.
Does anyone really believe that our president is in control of all things?
They are not saviors, stop trusting them.
God is the only true savior.
They are a burden, He is a bearer.
They are decorative, He is declarative.
#3 I’M NOT CARRIED AWAY, I’M COMING NEAR
Isaiah 46:12-13
We saw it up in verses 1-2
“Bel has bowed down, Nebo stoops over; Their images are consigned to the beasts and the cattle. The things that you carry are burdensome, A load for the weary beast. They stooped over, they have bowed down together; They could not rescue the burden, But have themselves gone into captivity.”
Those false gods were loaded up on donkeys and carried away into exile.
A lot of help they turned out to be.
• Just when you needed them, they were conquered.
• Just when you needed them, they were nowhere to be found.
• Just when you needed them, they lost an election.
BUT THAT IS NOT GOD!
(12-13) “Listen to Me, you stubborn-minded, Who are far from righteousness. “I bring near My righteousness, it is not far off; And My salvation will not delay. And I will grant salvation in Zion, And My glory for Israel.”
Again the command to listen.
And this time an accusation of being
• “stubborn-minded”
• And “far from righteousness.”
BECAUSE THEY ARE!
BECAUSE WE ARE!
When God said that men “go astray from birth” and that “all their thoughts are only on evil continually” He knew what He was talking about.
We are so prone to run after other saviors.
And what is worse, we continue to run after other saviors
Even though they never seem to save us.
Politician after politician; doctor after doctor; advisor after advisor…
Their track records are terrible,
But we keep running to them like this time they will figure it out.
And then we have God who has never failed,
But we seem to never want to trust Him.
WE ARE SO FOOLISH.
1. Earthly saviors are nothing but burdens,
2. Earthly saviors are powerless
3. When you need them, they are in court fighting for their own salvation.
THEY AREN’T ACCESSIBLE TO YOU.
When is the last time any politician listened to you about anything?
• They AREN’T NEAR.
• They AREN’T ACCESSIBLE.
• They are CARRIED AWAY.
BUT NOTICE HOW OUR GOD IS SO DIFFERENT.
“I bring near My righteousness, it is not far off;”
What a great statement!
Paul wrote:
Romans 10:5-9 “For Moses writes that the man who practices the righteousness which is based on law shall live by that righteousness. But the righteousness based on faith speaks as follows: “DO NOT SAY IN YOUR HEART, ‘WHO WILL ASCEND INTO HEAVEN?’ (that is, to bring Christ down), or ‘WHO WILL DESCEND INTO THE ABYSS?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).” But what does it say? “THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART”—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;”
Could you imagine:
If obtaining righteousness and salvation depended on you climbing up into heaven and convincing Christ to come down to earth to fulfill the Law and die in your stead?
Could you imagine how impossible it would be if that was required?
Sort of like trying to get in touch with your congressman
And convincing him to act on your behalf?
Could you imagine:
If your salvation or righteousness depended on you going down into the grave and taking possession of the crucified Christ and raising Him to life and bringing Him up from the grave?
How impossible would salvation be if that is what was required?
Sort of like trying to get a carnal and depraved politician
To change his view on some moral issue?
How miserable would it be if that is what was required?
If you had to get to your savior and convince him to save
And then you had to go to him in his defeat and rescue him
While he was trying to save you?
HOW PATHETIC!
And yet, that is what we do every time we turn to another savior.
But God isn’t distant like that, He came to us.
“But what does it say? “THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART”—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;”
• It is called the incarnation where He took on human flesh and entered our world.
• It is called the resurrection where He secured our victory by rising from the dead.
You didn’t do it for Him, He did it for you.
And look at what God says here in Isaiah.
(13) “I bring near My righteousness, it is not far off; And My salvation will not delay. And I will grant salvation in Zion, And My glory for Israel.”
Who is God bringing near?
Who is coming for Israel?
THE ANSWER: CYRUS
But now, one more time, what did God call Cyrus?
Isaiah 45:1 “Thus says the LORD to Cyrus His anointed, Whom I have taken by the right hand, To subdue nations before him And to loose the loins of kings; To open doors before him so that gates will not be shut:”
• Is Cyrus the Messiah? No
• Is Cyrus the Christ? No
But he is a prophetic type of the Messiah or Christ who is to come.
CYRUS IS A PICTURE OF JESUS.
• He is the One whom God raised up to go and set the captives free without cost.
• He is the One whom God sent to save His people form their oppressors and to
usher them safely home.
HE IS A PICTURE OF JESUS.
And the obvious question God has for the Jews in captivity Is:
Would you rather have His savior or the ones the Babylonians are using?
1. Do you want a savior who is a burden or one who bears burdens?
2. Do you want a savior who is decorative or one who is declarative?
3. Do you want a savior who is carried away or one who is coming near?
And we can easily answer for them.
• They’d be dumb to cry out to “Bel” or “Nebo”.
• They’d be foolish to trust in those useless gods.
• That is a “no-brainer” to us when we look at their predicament.
WELL LOOK AT OUR PREDICAMENT
• Look at today.
• Look at your sin.
• Look at the calamity of our day.
1. Do you want a savior who is a burden or one who bears burdens?
2. Do you want a savior who is decorative (ceremonial) or who is declarative?
3. Do you want a savior who is carried away (distant) or who is coming near?
Friend, you want Jesus Christ.
• He is the only Savior.
• He is our only hope.
• He sets captives free.
• He delivers prisoners.
Determine today not to trust in other saviors, but to put your trust in Jesus Christ in every area of your life that needs saving.
