Isaiah 46:9b I am God, and there is none like me.
I think most Americans are becoming somewhat cynical. If you look at advertisements from the 1930’s to the 1950s, they are very plain and open. They are making great claims about their products. Today, most of those have gone the way of the dodo bird. We use humor and other things, but everyone is a little cynical about the actual claims of any company advertising a product. That is why when you get a phone call where you don’t recognize the number, you may be skeptical about who is on the other end of the line. That is why when you get emails from people you don’t know making great claims, maybe offering to make you rich, you are rightly skeptical. So people are very skeptical today. They are skeptical because of fraud.
In Isaiah 46, God is talking about a fraud, a cosmic fraud of Babylon and the idols she trusted. They were shown to be frauds. It is interesting to note that when Babylon conquered God’s people, they brought the temple treasure before their deities as if to say, “Our god has given us victory over Jehovah.” That was naïve at the very best. God was using Babylon to chasten His people.
In chapter 46, God is speaking of what will come when Babylon is taken captive herself. When that happens, beasts of burden, mules, camels, and whatnot, will be carrying that which has been stolen from Babylon to a far country. Basically, He shows us what the difference is between God and a fraud and between God and the idols that could not save Babylon.
You see four things here. First, you have to ask yourself, “Who has the burden?” In verse 1 the Bible says, “They are a burden.” That is, the idols were literally being packed up and carried out by beasts because they could not walk out on their own feet. They had hands that could not handle, feet that could not walk, eyes that could not see, mouths that could not speak, and no brain that could tell people the future or how to negotiate life. So, anything I am depending upon that is more of a burden than it is a relief of burden is a fraud. It is not God. It may be money, plans, or another person that we are depending on to do things only God can do. If my source of dependence is itself a burden, then it is a fraud.
Second, who carries or delivers the burden? In verse 2 the Bible says, “They could not deliver the burden, but themselves are gone into captivity.” Babylon bowed down to their idols and now their idols were bowing down together. They couldn’t even deliver the burden of Babylon, the idols themselves were gone into captivity. So, who delivers the burden? God is the only One Who can deliver for you what God can deliver.
Third, who made whom? We make idols; God made us. In verse 6 we read about these people who would hire a goldsmith, and the goldsmith would make a god. Let me tell you that any god that you can make is not worthy of the name. Jehovah, God Almighty, the Creator, created us. We are creations. We can only make idols. So, who made whom?
Finally, who knows the future? This is the big one because this is something we find through a variety of prophecies in Isaiah, that is, God claims over and again, “These are the things I told you would happen and they have happened. These are the things I’m claiming will happen…,” and at this point in 2022 we can see that they were things that came to pass because God knows the future. Verse 10 says, “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.”
Whom do you know who knows the future? What investment can you make that is totally immune to the future? I’m not saying it is wrong to have money, friends, or to take advice. I’m saying that only God can be God. There is only one God. There can only be one God. In verse 5, God asks, “To whom will ye liken me, and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be like?” The answer is no one.
God is not a burden; God delivers the burden. God made you, and God knows the future. There can only be one God, and we find him in the book of Isaiah.