October 23, Isaiah 46
"To whom will you liken me and make me equal,
and compare me, that we may be alike?"
- Isaiah 46:5
Are you a smart shopper? Do you compare products and choose the one that will work the best and be the best value for you? Smart shoppers are informed shoppers. They have done their homework and learned the facts about the items they're comparing. Only then can a shopper know for sure that they're making the smart choice.
From Egypt (and maybe even earlier in Jacob's family) Israel struggled with idolatry. For some reason, these people who had enjoyed such blessings and favor from God were drawn to idols. From the gods of the Egyptians to the golden calf at Mt. Sinai, from the Baals in the wilderness to the Baals in Canaan, the Israelites succumbed to the temptation to worship false gods again and again. Their foolish choice of the idols over the true and living God was not from a lack of information. They had the Law and knew that God strictly forbade making or worshiping any idol. God explained the difference between himself and the idols many times. Isaiah 46 is one of those times. God pointed out the big difference between a god that worshipers must make and carry and God himself, who made them and carried them.
While the Babylonian gods Bel and Nebo were bought and built by their worshipers, God pointed out that he made, carried and saved the nation of Israel. The pagans stood up the god they had created, fell down to worship it and cried out to the idol they had made to save them from trouble. But their statue could not move from his appointed place, hear their cries or do anything to help them. God on the other hand had gone before his people. He gave them a place and put the people in the place he had promised them. God delivered them repeatedly from self-induced calamities and rescued them in pity after he heard their desperate cries for help.
When it came to speaking, the idol didn't. At all. When the idol's prophets spoke, their words were worthless. But when God spoke his words stood sure. He foretold future events and was always exactly right. His sure counsel was backed by God's unlimited faithfulness, knowledge and power. When God said it, it would happen. When he purposed to do something, nothing could stop him from doing it.
God's salvation and his righteousness were not foreign or distant from these people. His words were always right, and his deeds were right on time. God had loved, favored and guided Israel before it was a nation, through its birth out of Egypt and ever since. Now through their sin, the nation was fractured and more than half of it had gone away into captivity, never to return.
But God was still faithful to his promises and accomplishing his purpose for these people through whom Messiah would come to be the Savior not only of Jews, but of all the nations. That salvation would be first announced at and go out from Jerusalem. God would surely do this. He would do it because he loved these people and was faithful to his word. And he would do it for his glory.
Friend, you and I are no different from Israel in matters of what God has done for us. He knew us before we were born, gave us life and had blessed and protected us all, even some of us into old age. His word has always proven true and encouraged us to do what is best for us. He is faithful to his word and to his people. We wonder why Israel was so quick to abandon such a good and powerful God to embrace a mute and powerless idol. Perhaps we should ask ourselves the same question. Whatever entices us away from loving and serving God, how can we explain leaving God to embrace any other competitor for our hearts and minds?
Copyright © 2023 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Today in God's Word—October 2023
East Tallassee Church of Christ
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