Explore the Bible: November 1
God Acts • Isaiah 46:3-13
By Don Hicks
The theme of our Bible study today is, “God Acts.” We need to remember that the Bible begins by telling us about God’s actions. God is the first actor. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1 KJV). God always acts out His plan, which focuses on the salvation of man. God’s plan always succeeds, but man doesn’t always cooperate.
Adam and Eve left God’s plan and ate of the “the tree of knowledge of good and evil,” but Got immediately put into play His plan of action for our salvation. Verses 14 and 15 of Genesis chapter three explains God’s plan to act against Satan, that great serpent: “And the LORD God said unto the serpent, ‘Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel’” (Genesis 3:14-15 KJV).
God’s plans are always personal for us (that means me and that means you). Isaiah said it this way: “Listen to me, house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been sustained from the womb, carried along since birth” (Isaiah 46:3 CSB). God has certainly sustained me since my birth.
Actually, according to the psalmist, God began to carry and sustain me before I was born. “For it was you who created my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I will praise you because I have been remarkably and wondrously made. Your works are wondrous, and I know this very well. My bones were not hidden from you when I was made in secret, when I was formed in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw me when I was formless; all my days were written in your book and planned before a single one of them began” (Psalm 139:13-16 CSB).
It is remarkable that God has carried me from birth and before. It is a very bold claim that God is lovingly carrying us from birth and before. This Biblical truth is totally true and taught in both the Old and New Testaments.
Even more impressive to me personally is Isaiah’s emphasis on the truth that: “I will be the same until your old age, and I will bear you up when you turn gray. I have made you, and I will carry you; I will bear and rescue you” (Isaiah 46:4 CSB).
Certainly, the Prophet Isaiah was very familiar with David’s 23rd Psalm (KJV): “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. . . He restoreth my soul. . . Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. . . Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.” Isaiah wants us to know that the one true God of Israel is beyond comparison to any false god or idol. No idol will measure up to God – not even close.
The one true God of the Bible is not made of gold or silver crafted by human hands. Isaiah finds it beyond belief that someone would “hire a goldsmith and he makes it [gold poured out of a bag]into a god. Then they would kneel and bow down to it” (Isaiah 46:6). Isaiah finds it even more ludicrous that folks lift these powerless pieces of gold, silver, and wood to their shoulders and parade them around, when it is the One True God who will bear us up and carry us from before birth until our hair turns gray. God’s question through Isaiah is, “Who will you compare me or make me equal to? Who will you measure me with, so that we should be like each other” (Isaiah 46:5 CSB)?
Isaiah proclaims, “Remember this and be brave; take it to heart, you transgressors! Remember what happened long ago, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and no one is like me” (Isaiah 46:8-9 CSB).
Sounds a lot like Jesus’ words in John 14:6 (KJV): “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
Hicks is associational missions director for Jasper Association in Bay Springs.