“Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you. I will sustain you and I will rescue you.”
~ Isaiah 46:4
Hi James and Ellen,
Ask your dad and/or ma Who they believe God to be. Ask your dad and/or ma what they believe God looks like. Ask your dad and/or ma what they know about what God has done and is doing. Ask your dad/or ma what they know about what gods do. Ask your dad and/or ma what a Bel or a Nebo is. Ask your dad and/or ma to find a picture of Bel and of Nebo to show you what these two gods look like. What does Bel and Nebo look like in the pictures that your grandmaa and grandpaa found of them? Ask your dad and/or ma to look for a picture of God to show you what God looks like. Your grandpaa knows that there are no pictures anywhere of what God really looks like. Isaiah – in his Isaiah Book, wrote about God and about gods. Isaiah – in Isaiah 46, specifically reflects on Who God is and on who a couple of counterfeit, inanimate, mute gods – Bel and Nebo, are. God – as God the Spirit, is breathing on Isaiah words in what is now verse 4 to scribe in what is now known as the Isaiah Book – to tell His specially chosen guys and gals the importance of living their lives for Him –“Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you. I will sustain you and I will rescue you.”, versus living their lives for a couple of bogus, lifeless idols. As God was telling His specially chosen guys and gals that He would always take care of them, Bel was bowing down and Nebo was stooping low as these two pieces of rubbish that had been manmade from either a piece of wood, chunk of stone, lump of clay or semi-precious or precious metal, were being carted off in a wooden cart that was being pulled by oxen. Bel – or Marduk, was the chief deity for Babylonian people group’s guys and gals. Bel was the counterpart god or the corresponding deity to Baal – who was the chief god for Canaanite people groups guys and gals. The gist of the meaning of the names of Bel and Baal is lord. Nebo – or Nebu, was Marduk’s son – if you can believe that a piece of wood, chunk of rock, lump of clay or glob of semi-precious or precious metal could actually have a kid. Nebo had the assigned task – if you can believe that a piece of wood can think, a chunk of rock has a heart, a lump of clay can eat and a glob of semi-precious and precious metal can move from one place to another, of helping its worshippers to learn and write. These two dumb, phony gods would be carted off with their fanatical worshippers – as their worshippers were being carted off into exile to be slaves. Unless a guy, gal or kid is led to do so by God – as God the Spirit, changing from one worship paradigm that includes worshipping the god or gods that are central to the fabricated worship paradigm that he or she fanatically adheres to is something that just will not happen.
God uses Isaiah – who was one of His prophet spokesmen, to make the point again how valued He is to be seen and how discredited a couple of false gods will become. God is an active, functioning Being – Who has created all things and Who is ‘pulling the strings’ that are attached to all things. Lifeless gods are inert, functionless things that have been molded by guys – such as a goldsmith who melted the gold and silver that guys and gals gave to to him to make a glob out of the gold or silver for these guys and gals to worship. God – as God the Spirit, moves from one place to another place. For a piece of wood, chunk of rock, lump of clay or glob of semi-precious and precious metal to go from one place to another place, the immobile object has to be carried on guys’ shoulders or pulled in a wooden cart by oxen. God cannot be compared. Inert gods vie against what other inert gods supposedly have done or can do. Repeatedly – through His prophet spokesmen, God cajoled and wheedled His specially chosen guys and gals to worship only Him or . . . God’s specially chosen guys and gals remained stubborn-hearted by making their way of life worshipping everything else but God. As Isaiah was scribing the words in what is now the Isaiah Book, there is a sense that God– through God the Spirit, really did not have an audience other than Isaiah as Isaiah scribed His words. Your grandpaa can hear God – as God the Spirit, instructing Isaiah to scribe the words that were telling His specially chosen guys and gals that no matter how disobedient they were to Him and no matter how difficult life would get for them that He did have a good ending preprogrammed for them.
Even though your grandpaa would like God to be totally decisive in enforcing good on all that He created, your grandpaa knows that God sees what He has created through a different prism or grid. Your grandpaa cannot stop wondering why or how a perfect Being – who cannot in any way internalize the ugliness of evil acts and bad choices, just wave His omnipotent, all-powerful ‘wand’ and totally remove everything that does not fit into the parameters of good deeds and right decisions. God has the only front row seat to a continuous, unfolding panoramic melodrama that He designed and that He will see through to the end. Before the ongoing act comes to an end or before the current scene is over with – that has been taking place in the cosmic theater over the past 7,000 or so years, a whole lot of experiential learning will have taken place and will continue to take place. Even though your grandpaa cannot see the schematic that God designed to follow, your grandpaa sees two separate groups of guys, gals and kids – one group being guys, gals and kids who God specially chose or elected for Himself to ultimately become Christ-followers and who He will adopt as His kids, and the other group being guys, gals and kids who are destined for perdition who will be always minions of a fallen angel whose name is Lucifer. Now that your grandmaa and grandpaa are older and their hair is gray, they are very grateful for all the ways that God has sustained them.
Isaiah 46 (615)