FBC Morning Light – June 21, 2022

A good Tuesday morning to you. You know, we're reading in a wonderful contrast in the book of Isaiah today.

So if you're following along in the Bible reading passages for the morning light devotions, then today you're in Isaiah chapters 45 through 48.

And in chapter 46, the chapter opens with this stark contrast.

We saw a contrast yesterday between the opportunity that we as New Testament saints have to enter boldly into the throne of grace, and Old Testament believers, well, they could never enter into the

Holy of Holies. Well, here's another contrast, and this one is drawn by God himself. So listen to these first four verses of chapter 46.

The Lord says, through Isaiah the prophet, "...Bell bows down, and Nebo stoops.

Their idols were on the beasts and on the cattle. Your carriages were heavy -loaded, a burden to the weary beast."

Now notice that the idols of the pagans are being carried on these carriages.

You might think of them like a cart that's being hauled by some beasts, some animals.

They stoop, they bow down together. They could not deliver the burden.

The animals were so wearied from the heavy weight of these idols in the carts that they couldn't deliver the burden, but have themselves gone into captivity.

"...Listen to me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been upheld by me from birth, who have been carried from the womb, even to your old age.

I am he. Even to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear.

Even I will carry, and will deliver you." Do you get the contrast here? The pagan, the unconverted person has his idols, and he has to carry those idols around with him everywhere he goes.

If he's going to find any hope of satisfaction, any hope of deliverance from his dilemmas, he's got to be carrying his idol around with him, whatever that idol might happen to be.

People make idols out of physical objects these days, their career, their material possessions, or whatever, thinking that those things will give them satisfaction and fulfillment in life, and so forth.

They look to those idols to provide those things, and they just don't.

But they have to bear the burden of those idols everywhere they go, and they're looking to those idols that they carry with them to give them that sense of satisfaction.

In the Old Testament era, at the time that this passage was written, the idols were very physical and very literal, sort of like the

Buddhas and so forth that you might see primarily in Asian countries, but even here in the

States. Those Buddhas have to be carried around until they get stuck in a place, a shrine or whatever.

But the picture here is that the beasts of burden have to carry the idols, and the idols can't bear the burdens of those who have made them, who've made the idols.

They can't deal with it, they can't do it. They stoop, they fall. It's even illustrated by the stooping and the falling of the animals that can't carry them, and the cart falls over and the idol falls to the ground.

But in contrast to that is our God. He says, you don't carry me,

I carry you. And he says, I have carried you from birth,

I have carried you from the womb, and I will do so to your old age.

He says, I am He, and even to gray hairs I will carry you. Then he says this, and again he's contrasting with the pagan.

I have made, God says, and I will bear, even

I will carry and will deliver you. So no, we don't carry our

God around. We don't put him in a car and haul him somewhere when we go on a trip.

No, he carries us, he bears us, he who made us carries us.

So if you know Christ as your Savior, one of the marvelous truths of Scripture is that you were chosen in him before the foundation of the world, and from your birth, from the womb,

God has carried you every step of the way, carried you to the place where you heard the gospel, and you were converted, and you came to faith in Christ.

And he's been carrying you ever since, and he will carry you to the grave and beyond.

He will bear, he will carry, he is your God, he who has made you.

Aren't you glad that we're not dependent upon gods that we carry around, that we craft, and that we make?

How futile would that be? So our Father and our God, we thank you for this wonderful promise from your

Word that you carry your people whom you have made, and I pray that we would rest in that in this day.

We pray in Jesus' name and for his sake, amen. All right, have a wonderful Tuesday.