Isaiah 46:1-13 Laying Down Burdens
Overview: Chiastic Structure of Isaiah 41-48
A study of the prophetic books like Isaiah can become a little tedious at times because it seems like so much of the narrative is redundant. The same phrase or themes are repeated often, and they are easy to dismiss because we wonder what is the point. There actually is a point, but you won’t see it unless you understand how the narrative is structured. In the case of Isaiah 41-48, the narrative is arranged in a chiasm or chiastic structure.
A chiasm is a literary structure used to build a complex argument toward a particular point. The author will introduce a series of opening statements or themes until he reaches that point, and then begins to work his way back through his earlier points with closing arguments. This is why there seems to be a lot of redundancy in the text, because the same arguments are revisited, but we can’t just skip over the closing arguments altogether because the LORD has some additional points to make.
Isaiah 41-48 focuses on the theme of God’s power. The first four chapters contain the opening arguments, and the apex of that argument is the commissioning of Cyrus in Isaiah 45a. Isaiah 45b-48 give us the closing arguments. I have outlined the statements below so that you can see how the themes mirror each other across that apex statement (1a-1b, 2a-2b, 3a-3b, etc.)
1a: Isaiah 41:1-42:25 Redemption promised
2a: Isaiah 43:1-13 Israel called as God’s faithful witness
3a: Isaiah 43:14-15 The judgment of Babylon promised
4a: Isaiah 43:16-21 Do not remember the former things; God does a new thing
5a: Isaiah 43:22-44:22 The burden of serving God; the effort of making idols
6a: Isaiah 44:24-44:28 The transcendent God of Israel (national salvation)
7: Isaiah 45:1-17 The commissioning of Cyrus
6b: Isaiah 45:18-25 The universal God of the world (universal salvation)
5b: Isaiah 46:1-8 The burden of serving idols
4b: Isaiah 46:9-13 Remember the former things
3b: Isaiah 47:1-15 The judgment of Babylon rendered
2b: Isaiah 48:1-11 Israel rebuked as a treacherous witness
1b: Isaiah 48:17-22 Redemption accomplished
In the last blog, I worked through points 8a and 8b which opened with a picture of God as a transcendent God to Israel and offers her national salvation (Isaiah 44:24-28) but then expanded to a picture of the same God who now offers universal salvation to the entire world, even as He saves Israel specifically (Isaiah 45:18-25). So, the closing argument expanded the scope of the opening argument.
Now, in Isaiah 46, God returns to a previous argument on the burdensome effort of serving idols versus serving Himself (7a). Back in Isaiah 43, God took Israel to task for being weary of serving Him with sacrifices when in fact He was the one being wearied by her sin. He then went on to point out the extreme amounts of time and effort she put into fashioning her idols. In reality, she didn’t mind putting some effort toward her own salvation. She just didn’t want to do it His way. He also pointed out that His way came with a blessing, but what profit did she gain from her idolatry? None. So, her complaint as well as her actions were utterly foolish and self-defeating.
Now He returns to this theme with another rebuke for Israel over her idolatry and points to the Babylonian deities, Bel and Nebo, as perfect examples of just how burdensome idolatry can become.
Isaiah 46:1-8
Bel and Nebo were the supreme gods of Babylon and symbols of the nation's pride in their power and wisdom. Their idols were lavishly bedecked with gold and silver and paraded through the cities of Babylonia on celebration days. And yet, for all their pride and pomp, these Babylonian gods are humbled and made to stoop and bow when God gives them into the hand of Cyrus.
God points to the weary beasts (animal and human) staggering under the heavy load of the Babylonian's pride. Those idols had no power. They could not create themselves. They had to be carried everywhere, and wherever they were set down, there they stayed. They only created more of a burden on the people instead of relieving it. The irony of the people's plight is that they would have had some relief if they had simply put down that idol and walked away. But they don't. They blindly put their shoulder to the task of carrying their "saviors" and groan like weary beasts.
"To whom will you liken Me?" God asks. Unlike Bel and Nebo, He is a God who carries His people. In fact, He considers it His duty as Israel's Creator to bear the burden of His creation and not just for a season but continuously, from the birth to old age, and He is more than willing to deliver them from those who would lay such a burden on them. (I think this is part of the reason why He forbade the people from making any image of Him. He did not want to be perceived as a god who had to be carried about. That is belittling to Him.) How comforting would it be to be carried instead of having to bear that burden? Is there even a comparison?
The main point in this contrast is that when a person turns from a dependence on God’s strength and power, they must then shoulder that heavy burden themselves or place it on another person to bear, and that burden often adds to the burden of the oppressive circumstances or makes things worse. Israel once turned away from God, claiming that the sacrificial service He demanded for her redemption was too wearying and burdensome. Instead, she now sacrifices her own well-being by carrying these burdensome idols that cannot save her. The irony is rich.
Those idols were symbolic of Babylonia's pride and offered the illusion of power and empowerment. Maybe she doesn’t want His help because she thinks she can handle it herself. Maybe she has believed the lie that she can empower herself. Maybe there is a fear of letting go of the tangible illusion to cling to an intangible God. Maybe there is shame or despair or self-pity driving her (these are all stumbling blocks, by the way). In our culture, we may not carry physical idols, but we still idolize and cling to people or things that offer the illusion of comfort, power or self-empowerment, often because they validate us as victims.
God commands Israel to listen to Him in verse 3 and then to remember in verse 8. Remember this comparison, you transgressors. There is sin at the heart of Israel's refusal to lay down her burdens and rely on God.
Isaiah 46:9-13
This next set of verses now opens with the repeated command to remember (46:9) and ends with the repeated command to listen (46:12). The repeated commands and the reversal of their order signals a chiastic structure. God is making a closing argument to the issue of idolatry.
"Remember the former things of old . . ." (46:9). Remember when I brought you out of Egypt, and I went head to head with Pharoah's gods. Remember how Pharoah's wise men and sorcerers where able to mimic Moses and Aaron in turning water to blood and bringing frogs out of the Nile? Those magicians only added to the people's plight but could not relieve it. I, as the one true God, was able to deliver you when they could not. It is no different now. I am God and there is no other. He repeats that twice for emphasis, then goes on to speak of future things. These Babylonian gods are no different from Egypt's gods. I have already determined their end and have set the wheels in motion to accomplish it by sending Cyrus (46:11).
"Listen to Me, you stubborn hearted . . ." (46:12) There is a stubbornness in Israel's refusal to acknowledge what God has done for her in the past and His ability to relieve her burden even now. God now revisits this issue of carrying burdens, only He puts a twist on it. Not only will He carry Israel through this trial, He will bring the salvation to her. Notice the interplay of "near" and "far" in the final verses.
Israel is far from God spiritually and far from her Land physically. He is the one who closes the gap between Himself and her by providing a solution to the spiritual distance, even as He delivers her back to her land physically, and He promises that this salvation is not far off. It will not delay.
The Comfort of Laying Down Burdens
In the final verses, God belabors Israel’s stubbornness. Before He can begin to offer healing and help, His people need to acknowledge that they need His help and desire it. She needs to be willing to lay down that burden, but requires some humility on her part.
We have been approaching this study from the aspect of helping a struggling person in oppressive circumstances, and it is not hard to recognize that this is really the first step in the process. Part of what is keeping them in their oppression is their pride, their belief in their own empowerment, and their stubborn insistence on shouldering the burden themselves. You really can’t do anything until they acknowledge that they need help, and this usually doesn’t happen they have exhausted all other avenues of support, relief, and comfort. And God lets them go through that breaking-down process. In truth, He cannot intervene until they have bowed to this reality because the glory for that intervention needs to be all His. He does not share His glory.
In Matthew 11:20-24, Jesus delivers a similar rebuke to the stubbornly impenitent cities of Chorazin and Bethsaida who did not repent when they saw the mighty works that were done in them (kind of like God rebuking Israel for not having remembered the former things). Jesus then holds out the invitation:
When Israel leaves her Babylonian exile, idolatry is one thing to which she does not return once she is back in her land. She no longer has the burden of carrying idols, and yet the service she renders to God becomes burdensome once again, thanks to the Pharisees and Sadducees who bring her back into a form of bondage with their “traditions.” In Mark 7:9-13, Jesus rebukes these leaders for laying the burden of their man-made traditions on the people and thus making the word of God of no effect. In Matthew 23, He rebukes them for their hypocrisy in imposing burdensome practices on the people that they themselves do not practice and pronounces woes on them. Jesus warns about idolizing such men, currying their favor, or even following their example.
That was Jesus' day, and it spoke to the specific burden being levied by an oppressive and prideful authority in conflict with God. Jesus offered them that comfort of having that burden lifted when they acknowledged Him as Lord and master.
Those are some examples which fall into the specific context of Jesus' words in Matthew 11, but how do we apply that offer of rest and a lightening of our burden to our daily walk?
Bearing One Another's Burdens
Step one is the struggler being willing to lay down the burden and begin to work through the process of healing. Step two involves the transfer of that burden to another who can carry it, namely God, but also to us as His human agents. He tasks us with part of His Highway Project by asking us to bear one another’s burdens. Paul speaks of this particularly in regards to helping a person who is struggling with sin (as Israel is here in Isaiah).
A study of the prophetic books like Isaiah can become a little tedious at times because it seems like so much of the narrative is redundant. The same phrase or themes are repeated often, and they are easy to dismiss because we wonder what is the point. There actually is a point, but you won’t see it unless you understand how the narrative is structured. In the case of Isaiah 41-48, the narrative is arranged in a chiasm or chiastic structure.
A chiasm is a literary structure used to build a complex argument toward a particular point. The author will introduce a series of opening statements or themes until he reaches that point, and then begins to work his way back through his earlier points with closing arguments. This is why there seems to be a lot of redundancy in the text, because the same arguments are revisited, but we can’t just skip over the closing arguments altogether because the LORD has some additional points to make.
Isaiah 41-48 focuses on the theme of God’s power. The first four chapters contain the opening arguments, and the apex of that argument is the commissioning of Cyrus in Isaiah 45a. Isaiah 45b-48 give us the closing arguments. I have outlined the statements below so that you can see how the themes mirror each other across that apex statement (1a-1b, 2a-2b, 3a-3b, etc.)
1a: Isaiah 41:1-42:25 Redemption promised
2a: Isaiah 43:1-13 Israel called as God’s faithful witness
3a: Isaiah 43:14-15 The judgment of Babylon promised
4a: Isaiah 43:16-21 Do not remember the former things; God does a new thing
5a: Isaiah 43:22-44:22 The burden of serving God; the effort of making idols
6a: Isaiah 44:24-44:28 The transcendent God of Israel (national salvation)
7: Isaiah 45:1-17 The commissioning of Cyrus
6b: Isaiah 45:18-25 The universal God of the world (universal salvation)
5b: Isaiah 46:1-8 The burden of serving idols
4b: Isaiah 46:9-13 Remember the former things
3b: Isaiah 47:1-15 The judgment of Babylon rendered
2b: Isaiah 48:1-11 Israel rebuked as a treacherous witness
1b: Isaiah 48:17-22 Redemption accomplished
In the last blog, I worked through points 8a and 8b which opened with a picture of God as a transcendent God to Israel and offers her national salvation (Isaiah 44:24-28) but then expanded to a picture of the same God who now offers universal salvation to the entire world, even as He saves Israel specifically (Isaiah 45:18-25). So, the closing argument expanded the scope of the opening argument.
Now, in Isaiah 46, God returns to a previous argument on the burdensome effort of serving idols versus serving Himself (7a). Back in Isaiah 43, God took Israel to task for being weary of serving Him with sacrifices when in fact He was the one being wearied by her sin. He then went on to point out the extreme amounts of time and effort she put into fashioning her idols. In reality, she didn’t mind putting some effort toward her own salvation. She just didn’t want to do it His way. He also pointed out that His way came with a blessing, but what profit did she gain from her idolatry? None. So, her complaint as well as her actions were utterly foolish and self-defeating.
Now He returns to this theme with another rebuke for Israel over her idolatry and points to the Babylonian deities, Bel and Nebo, as perfect examples of just how burdensome idolatry can become.
Isaiah 46:1-8
Bel and Nebo were the supreme gods of Babylon and symbols of the nation's pride in their power and wisdom. Their idols were lavishly bedecked with gold and silver and paraded through the cities of Babylonia on celebration days. And yet, for all their pride and pomp, these Babylonian gods are humbled and made to stoop and bow when God gives them into the hand of Cyrus.
God points to the weary beasts (animal and human) staggering under the heavy load of the Babylonian's pride. Those idols had no power. They could not create themselves. They had to be carried everywhere, and wherever they were set down, there they stayed. They only created more of a burden on the people instead of relieving it. The irony of the people's plight is that they would have had some relief if they had simply put down that idol and walked away. But they don't. They blindly put their shoulder to the task of carrying their "saviors" and groan like weary beasts.
"To whom will you liken Me?" God asks. Unlike Bel and Nebo, He is a God who carries His people. In fact, He considers it His duty as Israel's Creator to bear the burden of His creation and not just for a season but continuously, from the birth to old age, and He is more than willing to deliver them from those who would lay such a burden on them. (I think this is part of the reason why He forbade the people from making any image of Him. He did not want to be perceived as a god who had to be carried about. That is belittling to Him.) How comforting would it be to be carried instead of having to bear that burden? Is there even a comparison?
The main point in this contrast is that when a person turns from a dependence on God’s strength and power, they must then shoulder that heavy burden themselves or place it on another person to bear, and that burden often adds to the burden of the oppressive circumstances or makes things worse. Israel once turned away from God, claiming that the sacrificial service He demanded for her redemption was too wearying and burdensome. Instead, she now sacrifices her own well-being by carrying these burdensome idols that cannot save her. The irony is rich.
Q: So, why don't the people lay down that burden and return to Him?
Those idols were symbolic of Babylonia's pride and offered the illusion of power and empowerment. Maybe she doesn’t want His help because she thinks she can handle it herself. Maybe she has believed the lie that she can empower herself. Maybe there is a fear of letting go of the tangible illusion to cling to an intangible God. Maybe there is shame or despair or self-pity driving her (these are all stumbling blocks, by the way). In our culture, we may not carry physical idols, but we still idolize and cling to people or things that offer the illusion of comfort, power or self-empowerment, often because they validate us as victims.
God commands Israel to listen to Him in verse 3 and then to remember in verse 8. Remember this comparison, you transgressors. There is sin at the heart of Israel's refusal to lay down her burdens and rely on God.
Isaiah 46:9-13
This next set of verses now opens with the repeated command to remember (46:9) and ends with the repeated command to listen (46:12). The repeated commands and the reversal of their order signals a chiastic structure. God is making a closing argument to the issue of idolatry.
"Remember the former things of old . . ." (46:9). Remember when I brought you out of Egypt, and I went head to head with Pharoah's gods. Remember how Pharoah's wise men and sorcerers where able to mimic Moses and Aaron in turning water to blood and bringing frogs out of the Nile? Those magicians only added to the people's plight but could not relieve it. I, as the one true God, was able to deliver you when they could not. It is no different now. I am God and there is no other. He repeats that twice for emphasis, then goes on to speak of future things. These Babylonian gods are no different from Egypt's gods. I have already determined their end and have set the wheels in motion to accomplish it by sending Cyrus (46:11).
"Listen to Me, you stubborn hearted . . ." (46:12) There is a stubbornness in Israel's refusal to acknowledge what God has done for her in the past and His ability to relieve her burden even now. God now revisits this issue of carrying burdens, only He puts a twist on it. Not only will He carry Israel through this trial, He will bring the salvation to her. Notice the interplay of "near" and "far" in the final verses.
"Listen to Me, you stubborn-hearted, who are far from righteousness: I bring My righteousness near, it shall not be far off; My salvation shall not linger. And I will place salvation in Zion, for Israel My glory." (Isaiah 46:12-13 NKJV)
Israel is far from God spiritually and far from her Land physically. He is the one who closes the gap between Himself and her by providing a solution to the spiritual distance, even as He delivers her back to her land physically, and He promises that this salvation is not far off. It will not delay.
The Comfort of Laying Down Burdens
In the final verses, God belabors Israel’s stubbornness. Before He can begin to offer healing and help, His people need to acknowledge that they need His help and desire it. She needs to be willing to lay down that burden, but requires some humility on her part.
We have been approaching this study from the aspect of helping a struggling person in oppressive circumstances, and it is not hard to recognize that this is really the first step in the process. Part of what is keeping them in their oppression is their pride, their belief in their own empowerment, and their stubborn insistence on shouldering the burden themselves. You really can’t do anything until they acknowledge that they need help, and this usually doesn’t happen they have exhausted all other avenues of support, relief, and comfort. And God lets them go through that breaking-down process. In truth, He cannot intervene until they have bowed to this reality because the glory for that intervention needs to be all His. He does not share His glory.
In Matthew 11:20-24, Jesus delivers a similar rebuke to the stubbornly impenitent cities of Chorazin and Bethsaida who did not repent when they saw the mighty works that were done in them (kind of like God rebuking Israel for not having remembered the former things). Jesus then holds out the invitation:
"Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." (Matthew 11:28-30 NKJV)
Q: We know the nature of Israel’s burden in Isaiah, but how does this translate into Israel’s experience in Jesus’ day? Who are the heavy laden of whom He is speaking?
When Israel leaves her Babylonian exile, idolatry is one thing to which she does not return once she is back in her land. She no longer has the burden of carrying idols, and yet the service she renders to God becomes burdensome once again, thanks to the Pharisees and Sadducees who bring her back into a form of bondage with their “traditions.” In Mark 7:9-13, Jesus rebukes these leaders for laying the burden of their man-made traditions on the people and thus making the word of God of no effect. In Matthew 23, He rebukes them for their hypocrisy in imposing burdensome practices on the people that they themselves do not practice and pronounces woes on them. Jesus warns about idolizing such men, currying their favor, or even following their example.
That was Jesus' day, and it spoke to the specific burden being levied by an oppressive and prideful authority in conflict with God. Jesus offered them that comfort of having that burden lifted when they acknowledged Him as Lord and master.
Q: How do His words extend now to us, first in regards to shouldering a burden placed on us by oppressive authority (even one that demands to be idolized), or even burdensome religious practices?
Q: How can leadership become idolized?
There are some religious sects and cults that bring their followers into a form of bondage by demanding they lift up their leadership to a position of power that rivals God’s place in the believer's life. Congregations can idolize their pastors or leadership, or a church leader can demand to be idolized by keeping an iron grip on his congregation and not allowing any teachings except those that parrot his own beliefs, even when those beliefs are not in line with biblical instruction. This is how many cults form, when its leader is given power over the lives of congregants to the extent that they dictate who may or may not be admitted to membership or even associated with it. The apostle John addressed an instance of this in his third letter in regards to Diotrephes, who put people out of the church for receiving the apostles. Paul addresses the issue of sectarianism in the Corinthian church (1 Corinthians 1:10-17). The Corinthians were squabbling over which leader they held as authority: Paul, Apollos, Cephas, or Christ.
There are some religious sects and cults that bring their followers into a form of bondage by demanding they lift up their leadership to a position of power that rivals God’s place in the believer's life. Congregations can idolize their pastors or leadership, or a church leader can demand to be idolized by keeping an iron grip on his congregation and not allowing any teachings except those that parrot his own beliefs, even when those beliefs are not in line with biblical instruction. This is how many cults form, when its leader is given power over the lives of congregants to the extent that they dictate who may or may not be admitted to membership or even associated with it. The apostle John addressed an instance of this in his third letter in regards to Diotrephes, who put people out of the church for receiving the apostles. Paul addresses the issue of sectarianism in the Corinthian church (1 Corinthians 1:10-17). The Corinthians were squabbling over which leader they held as authority: Paul, Apollos, Cephas, or Christ.
Q: How do religious practices become a form of bondage?
Some sects demand a tremendous number of rites that a believer has to perform to have a relationship with God or even salvation. Those who dispense those rites assume power over their people—power that they should never have—and their followers give them that power out of fear that they will lose their place in heaven. Any time fear enters the equation, it is because power is being given to someone or something that rivals God. If part of your person’s struggle springs from the bondage of a church whose leadership has adopted these kind of oppressive, controlling practices and inserted themselves into the relationship between God and the believers, it is important to address the fear of leaving that church. Those burdens can be hard to lay down because of the fear over losing their salvation. I think this is why God draws attention to the "near" and "far" aspects of His salvation here in Isaiah.
Some sects demand a tremendous number of rites that a believer has to perform to have a relationship with God or even salvation. Those who dispense those rites assume power over their people—power that they should never have—and their followers give them that power out of fear that they will lose their place in heaven. Any time fear enters the equation, it is because power is being given to someone or something that rivals God. If part of your person’s struggle springs from the bondage of a church whose leadership has adopted these kind of oppressive, controlling practices and inserted themselves into the relationship between God and the believers, it is important to address the fear of leaving that church. Those burdens can be hard to lay down because of the fear over losing their salvation. I think this is why God draws attention to the "near" and "far" aspects of His salvation here in Isaiah.
Q: Who approaches whom in regard to righteousness?
Q: Though we are not Israel, do we have the same experience of being far from God and yet brought near? Yes, we do. Paul writes about this extensively in His letter to the Ephesians:
"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them . . . But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace . . . And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father." (Ephesians 2:8-18 NKJV)
We have peace and access to God the Father through Christ and the Spirit alone. No other intermediary is mentioned there, and anyone who inserts themselves into that relationship or demands that we perform any kind of rites or works to secure our salvation does so to their peril. This should be a comfort and peace to us.
Q: Do we have any cultural or even family “traditions” that are burdensome or cause anxiety? I think of gift-giving at Christmas. God never intended for a memorial of His Son's birth to become the grand end-of-year event driving a capitalist economy.
Those are some examples which fall into the specific context of Jesus' words in Matthew 11, but how do we apply that offer of rest and a lightening of our burden to our daily walk?
Q: Is there a heavy burden that you are bearing in your life that is keeping you in bondage? (You might ask this of the person you are trying to comfort.)
Q: Is this a burden that God asks you to bear or is it one that He offers to carry for you?
Q: What do you need to do to put down that burden?
Bearing One Another's Burdens
Step one is the struggler being willing to lay down the burden and begin to work through the process of healing. Step two involves the transfer of that burden to another who can carry it, namely God, but also to us as His human agents. He tasks us with part of His Highway Project by asking us to bear one another’s burdens. Paul speaks of this particularly in regards to helping a person who is struggling with sin (as Israel is here in Isaiah).
"Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For each one shall bear his own load." (Galatians 6:1-5 NKJV)
Q: What does Paul mean when he says bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ?
Q: What attitude do we need to have when we begin to help a struggling person with sin in their life?
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