46:1 Bel slumps down, Nebo is stooped over: their idols are loaded upon beasts and cattle; the images you bore aloft are piled as burdens on weary animals. These are Babylonian Gods who are supposed to be saviors. They are supposed the save the people from calamity in the time of destruction and the time of judgment and instead, they themselves go into captivity with the people whom they are supposed to save. The odd thing is the people don't see this horrendous paradox that these Gods they are taking with them into captivity. What are they good for then? Why carry them around anymore? 'The images you bore aloft', or, in other words, you exalted them you adored them, 'are piled on weary animals' together with your other chattels that you are piling on. 46:2 Such gods altogether sag and bow down, unable to rescue their burden; they themselves go into captivity. 46:3 Hear me, O house of Jacob, and all you remnant of the house of Israel, who have been a load on me since birth, borne up by me from the womb: This implicates Jacob/Israel, the Lord's covenant people, in this kind of idolatry. This is their loading their idols, their Babylonian idols, their foreign idols, having to leave their inheritances with them and carrying their idols, so the Lord has been carrying them all this time and they have been a load on him because of their idolatry. If they had maintained the proper worship of the Lord, they would not have been a load; they would have been saviors themselves. 46:4 Even to your old age, I am present; till you turn grey, it is I who sustain you. It is I who made you, and I who bear you up; it is I who carry and rescue you. The 'old age and turning gray' is almost a chaos motif. It is becoming decrepit and aged. That's when the going get tough and that's when the Lord needs to carry them all the more. In a sense, he is talking about their idolatry. It is getting old and it is making them lose their spiritual vitality. 46:5 To whom will you compare me or count me equal? To whom will you liken me, that we should appear similar? He's challenging his own people, the covenant people Israelites, in connection with their idols, because the idols are supposed to represent God. We see that today. In certain churches, we have statues that represent Gods or little Gods. The true God does not compare with anything like that and it is really a desecration of his reality and his presence to try to make something out of clay or wood that actually is supposed to represent him. 46:6 They who squander gold from the purse and weigh out silver on the scales hire a smith to make them a god they bow down to and worship. 46:7 They bear it aloft, carrying it on their shoulders; when they set it in place, there it stands, unable to budge from its spot. Though they cry to it for help, it does not answer; it cannot save them from trouble. When they sit in a place, there it stands unable to budge from its spot. Though they cry to it for help, it does not answer. It cannot save them from trouble". The Lord is not like that. He is not confined to any one spot or place. He's not made by human hands; he's above gold and silver, which he himself has made and created. When people cry to him, he answers and he saves them from trouble. If it wasn't for Him they would all be wiped out by now. 46:8 Put yourselves in mind of this and come to your senses; take it to heart, you offenders. Again, appealing to them to put off their idolatry and to come out of this blindness that is caused by blindness and materialism. 46:9 Review the prophecies of the events of old! I am God, there is none other. I am divine; nothing resembles me. Review? Why? Because in the past people were idol worshippers and they came to grief. And we ought not to make the same mistakes, having the scriptures; having the word of God from those ancient times. Also, when a prophet prophesies, it comes to pass and one of the things that the servant prophesies is the destruction of Babylon, the imminent destruction of Babylon and all idol makers. Just as those ancient prophesies come to pass so the ones that the servant speak shall also come to pass. "I am God, there is none other, I am divine, nothing resembles me." 46:10 I foretell the end from the beginning, from ancient times things not yet done. I speak, and my purposes take effect; I accomplish all my will. I foretell the end from the beginning from ancient times, things not yet done, I speak and my purposes take effect, I accomplish all my will." The Lord speaks through his prophets or through his servants in the end time scenario. One of the proofs of God and that the servant is legitimate is that he foretells the truth, he foretells the future and it comes to pass. On another lever, the end is foretold from the beginning, in Israel's ancient history. Just as Israel went through certain motions in the past in its history, so will she do again in the end-time and the end-time is a kind of the mirror of the past. The way that Isaiah prophesies the future is to take events out of the past and recycle them or prophesy new versions of them, and that is how the end is foretold from the beginning. The beginning events actually foretell the end, and is a way of prophesying, a manner of prophesying that Isaiah uses. By looking into the past and seeing what happened then and especially in the book of Isaiah, he has orchestrated and composed that whole book; he is talking about the ancient King of Assyria and all that scenario and Israel's apostasy that caused a worldwide destruction and conquest by the Assyrian power and then the redemptive events that happened anciently, such as the exodus out of Egypt, the inheritance of the Promised Land by the Israelites who returned from foreign places. All of that will be repeated and all of that is foretelling the future as well as being historical or something that happened in the past. When the Lord speaks, he does accomplish all his will. Some say that prophesies of destruction and doom and gloom don't need to happen if people repent. and that is true. They don't need to happen and if they don't and, of course, there is not a lot of repentance going on today, then those prophesies will be fulfilled exactly as He said them. 46:11 I summon a bird of prey from the east, from a distant land the man who performs my counsel. What I have spoken, I bring to pass; what I have planned, I do. One of the things that God has foretold and that is part of his plan that he conceived before the creation of this world in chapter forty it says: "who has comprehended the spirit of the Lord that a man should let him know his plan?" Chapter forty is talking about the creation of the earth, and of nations, and of Israel, and of exalted people in Israel; that whole creation from beginning to end, from the time that the earth was just dust. "Who has compiled the earth's dust by measure?" I've been quoting from chapter 40:12,13. It is all according to plan. That plan was conceived by God before the creation of this earth. Part of that plan was the coming of the Lord's Servant at a critical time of the earth's transition period where it would go from a lesser state to a paradisiacal state; from a fallen, or carnal state, as typified by the code name Babylon, and by the idolatrous economy and lifestyle that that name represents, from that state to a paradisiacal state. The servant's coming is instrumental or critical to that transition. So, 'the bird of prey from the east' is the man who performs my counsel who comes from a distant land', those two lines are parallel there. Why 'bird of prey'? That's a metaphor describing the man that is mentioned there and 'bird of prey' as we have already seen, like Cyrus he comes upon the wicked and idolaters of the nations like a bird of prey and reduces them to chaos, as we have already seen. Isaiah uses a new conquest of the world, like that of Cyrus, a military conquest, in which those nations are reduced. The Lord gives the servant power over the nations to un-gird them, to reduce them to non-entities, and that is why we have the 'bird of prey' image. "The man who performs my counsel." Like Abraham who followed the counsel of the Lord. It is a rhetorical link with Abraham. Another way to translate that is 'the man I have foreordained'. He was chosen like Jeremiah before he came out of the womb, he was chosen, or before he entered the womb he was chosen to perform his mission upon the earth. 'He comes from the east'. We have already seen that before in chapter 41:2, 25. He comes from the east or the northeast and this servant resembles in many respects the angel from the east in the Book of Revelation. Through his agency 144,000 servants of God are sealed up. Pretty soon, in the fifties we will begin to read about these other servants that emerge out of the category Zion/Jerusalem . They assist this servant is performing his redemptive mission upon the earth. We might say that this 'bird of prey from the east' is also the angel from the east in the Book of Revelation, because they essentially do the same thing. 46:12 Hear me, you stubborn-hearted, who are far from righteousness: 46:13 I have brought near my righteousness; it is not now far off—my salvation shall no longer be delayed. I will grant deliverance in Zion, and to Israel my glory. have brought near my righteousness, it is not now far off, my salvation shall not be delayed. They are stubborn hearted because they are into idolatry; that's why they are far from righteousness. Righteousness means keeping the law of God, the law of the covenant, and observing all his word, which they have not been doing, that is why he brings the servant near. He brings near his righteousness. Righteousness being a metaphor that describes the Lord's servant as we saw in chapter 41:2. He is called Righteousness. He comes from the east in chapter 41:2 also, and this is the end of a chiasm that begins in chapter forty one, it actually begins at the end of chapter forty. …there the coming of the righteousness from the east , the person righteousness, chapter 41: 2 that chiastic structure of chaos/creation motifs righteousness from the east in chapter forty two parallels righteousness coming from far away, in fact, from the east in verse eleven, this passage in this chapter, but it is the same individual. Meaning that the servant is a paradigm of righteousness. If the people will hear the servant as they would hear Moses or a prophet of God, then he will teach them righteousness; he will teach them God's law and word and how to abide by that. If they do so, they become righteous themselves. As they emulate the servant to the degree that they become righteous and begin to personify righteousness also. "I have brought near my righteousness, which is not now far off, and my salvation shall no longer be delayed." From here on out we will see the pairing of righteousness and salvation in quite a few instances. Generally, you get the idea that righteousness is a precursor of salvation; salvation can't come until righteousness is established. Meaning that the people must become righteous before the Lord can come and save them. He can't save anybody who is not righteous. They don't qualify. On another level righteousness is a precursor or forerunner of salvation, which is the Lord himself personifies salvation. As we have already seen in several instances, and continue to see, before the Lord comes to save his people in the end-time of the world, the servant has to fulfill his mission of righteousness—establishing righteousness. Then the Lord can come. When the servant comes it is a sign that the Lord is coming. 'My salvation shall no longer be delayed'. This is it. This is the time to choose to serve God or not. "I will grant deliverance in Zion and to Israel my glory". Deliverance in Zion, as we have already seen in the case of Hezekiah and his people, will happen again. That salvation in the days of Hezekiah, or that deliverance was a type of a future deliverance. When the Lord's people are under siege they will be delivered in Zion in the end of days. 'To Israel, my glory', because Israel will ascend, those who are faithful in the Jacob/Israel category will ascend to the next highest level, to a more glorified state. Also the Lord sheds his glory upon all those who are His. When he comes to rule upon the earth, the glory of the Lord will rest over his people and over the temple. You have to measure up to a Zion/Jerusalem level in order to merit the Lord's deliverance in the last days.