Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Adult Sunday School Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/bb/bb20040307.htm

ISAIAH: GOD'S DIRECTIVES TO THOSE TROUBLED AT GOVERNMENTAL APOSTASY
Part XXXIII: God's Salvation THROUGHOUT Life
(Isaiah 46:1-13)
  1. Introduction
    1. We believers in Christ can testify of God's help to us in the PAST. The ways God has provided for our life's needs can fill a journal, so we find it easy to trust in His promise of the pretribulational rapture!
    2. However, it is the present and immediate future that most seems to afflict our faith! Needs we face or will soon face, if great enough, can be used to tempt us with anxiety and erode our confidence in God!
    3. Isaiah addressed this need in his message to Israel in Babylonian Captivity, and it applies to us as follows:
  2. God's Salvation THROUGHOUT Life, Isaiah 46:1-13.
    1. To the future Hebrew captives in Babylon, God contrasted His great ministry to them versus what Babylon's false gods could not achieve for their people of Babylon, Isaiah 46:1-2:
      1. God predicted the Babylonians would cart away heavy images of their gods Bel (Marduk) and Nebo (son of Marduk) when they fled from invading Persia, Isa. 46:1; Ryrie St. Bib., KJV, ftn. to Isa. 46:1.
      2. As these idols could not help themselves, but even became a burden to their Babylonian followers in this flight, God claimed neither could these gods preserve the Babylonians from the Persians, Isa. 46:2.
    2. Israel's God was to be contrasted with these false idols; instead of being such a burden to His people as were these false idols to the Babylonians, God carried Israel in every way throughout life, Isaiah 46:3-4!
      1. The Lord implied through Isaiah that, in direct contrast to Babylon's impotent false gods, He cared for His people when they were conceived and carried in their mothers' wombs, Isa. 46:3 (with 4).
      2. God revealed He cares for every individual of His people from birth until old age, Isaiah 46:4a.
      3. God planned to carry individual Hebrews of His people even when they reached old age, Isaiah 46:4b.
      4. In summary (Isaiah 46:4c), we have these facts here supplied to us by God about His care for His own:
        1. God plans to carry the people of God in their immediate futures based upon the proof He has brought them individually through conception and birth to their present ages, Isaiah 46:4c(a).
        2. God plans in the near future to carry His people through the rescues they need to overcome crises they face, and all based on His care of them since their prenatal to present lives, Isaiah 46:4c(b).
    3. Following this promise, God reiterated His greatness as God, Isaiah 46:5-7:
      1. God promised to fulfill His pledge to care for Israel as One Who is mightier than Israel's opponents, their [future] Babylonian masters and their false idols, Isaiah 46:5 with 45:1-4.
      2. God detailed the weaknesses of the false gods of Babylon to prove this promise was true, Isaiah 46:6-7:
        1. The Lord reminded Israel how the Babylonian gods that were worshipped were made by a goldsmith who weighed out and measured limited quantities of metal used to form these false gods, Isa. 46:6.
        2. Then, once these heavy gods were set up, they could not even move themselves let alone help the Babylonians who worshipped them, Isaiah 46:7.
        3. [Thus, God revealed He was far superior as the true God in comparison to Babylon's false gods.]
    4. God closed by addressing the Babylonian overlords who would intimidate their future Hebrew captives, challenging them to submit to His supremacy over them, Isaiah 46:8-13:
      1. God charged the Babylonians to recall He alone was God, 46:8-9; Bible Know. Com., O.T., p. 1101.
      2. God then detailed reasons for His claim of superiority over Babylon's false gods, Isaiah 46:10-11:
        1. God shared with the Babylonians that He was able to predict the end from the beginning, 46:10a.
        2. He told them that history would only achieve His personal agenda, Isaiah 46:10b.
        3. Then, God revealed to the Babylonians that He would use animals and men to destroy them, 46:11.
      3. God then told the Babylonians He would save Israel and elevate her to glory before them, 46:12-13.
Lesson: God asked His people who were YET to BE CAPTURED by FUTURE Babylonian overlords to recall the LENGTHS He will BY THEN have gone to bring EACH ONE of them from BIRTH to their CURRENT state as PROOF He would CARRY them OUT of Babylon and BACK to CANAAN!

Application: If dreading something in the present or immediate future, recall God's CARE for us when were MOST VULNERABLE to harm in our past, and how God has taken us from that point to the present. Armed with this focus, trust God has a PLAN for us NOW, and confidently face the future!