Isaiah 46:1-13 The God who carries your burdens

Biblical Principles for a Better Life - Pastor Kris Davis

The prophet spoke to the people of Judah in a time of tremendous transition. They had had to get used to the notion that their homeland was no more; Judah had been taken, Jerusalem had been destroyed, the Temple had been pulled down, and they were going to have to live in exile in Babylon. It was not a happy time. They were tempted to sit down and bathe themselves in a nostalgic frenzy – how good
it was back in the day. But the prophet insisted that that was a luxury they could ill afford, and that, in fact, they were showing the symptoms of a disease called nostalgia.
The Bible tells us that if we carry around our old stuff too long, it will become an idol and it will be nothing but a burden. Isaiah tells Judah that, attracted as they were to the false gods of Canaan, they are going to wear themselves out carrying around burdensome stuff they should have gotten rid of a long time ago. Stuff that makes us feel like pack animals hauling bricks up the hillside.
In the ancient world, quite often people had household gods, statues and images of the gods they worshiped. And if they had go somewhere, they took their gods along with them. Earlier in the Old Testament there is that wonderful story of Rachel going off to be Jacob’s wife, and she hid the household gods under her skirts. Now these things were idols; you and I know that. You and I know, and the Bible knows, and, to tell the truth, these people knew it too – that God cannot be transported like so much luggage. God is a spirit and not a little chunk of stone or metal. You won’t get
charged an overweight penalty for carrying the true God with you when you travel!
The picture here is of a people who are afraid to jettison old habits and old ways. They have had to pick up and move to a new place they don’t like very much. They are not sure what the future holds. But they think they might hold on to the past. So they pick up their little statuettes and load them on their pack animals and set off on their long and lonely journey to an uncharted destination. Their idols are burdens loaded on weary animals.
Is it really any different with us? We have made ourselves into tired out, weary pack animals, beasts of burden, because we carry around with us too much stuff, and it is wearing us out.