Thursday
Thursday
The Divine Burden Bearer
You whom I have upheld since you were conceived, and have carried since your birth. Even to your old age … I am he.
Isaiah 46:3–4
Isaiah’s satire about idolatry reaches its climax in chapter 46. We are introduced to Babylon’s two chief deities—Bel (also named Marduk) and Nebo (Bel’s son). Their manufacture by a goldsmith is described (vv. 6–7), after which their worshipers lift them onto their shoulders, carry them away, and hoist them into position, from which they cannot move or speak.
Suddenly Babylon is overthrown by Cyrus the Persian, whose soldiers begin at once to plunder the city’s temples. “Bel bows down, Nebo stoops” (v. 1). That is, these dead-weight idols are ignominiously snatched from their pedestals and carried headfirst like corpses into the street. Here they are loaded onto carts and carried away. How are the mighty fallen! The gods that had been proudly carried shoulder high in religious processions are now cartloads of useless rubbish, a burden to their worshipers.
The laughter in the prophet’s voice subsides, and in the silence God speaks. In effect, he says, “I am not like Bel and Nebo. I do not need to be carried. I am the living and the lifting God. I have carried you from before your birth, and now even when you turn grey I will carry you” (vv. 3–4 paraphrase).
So the question before us today is, who is carrying whom? Is religion to us an uplift or a burden? Is God himself even a burden to us? Jesus Christ is depicted in the New Testament as the world’s supreme burden bearer. He has borne our sins (see Isaiah 53). He also bears our sorrows. As Peter wrote, “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (1 Pet. 5:7). It is a major tragedy if we reverse our God-given roles, for then we attempt to carry him when he is committed to carrying us!
For further reading: Isaiah 46:1–9