Bel bows down, Nebo stoops low;
their idols are born by animals, beasts of burden.
The loads you yourselves were carrying
are now burdening tired animals.
They stoop and bow down together;
they cannot save the burden,
but themselves go into captivity. (Isaiah 46:1-2)

Though Isaiah wrote before Babylon defeated Israel, he wrote a lot about Babylon’s own future destruction. Here, Bel and Nebo, two of Babylon’s gods, get caught up in that destruction.

They’re a burden.

Not only do they fail to save any of their people, they’re taken captive themselves, and they have to be dragged along by some poor, trudging animals.

This isn’t an unusual situation, brought about by defeat; it’s a final picture of what has been happening all along. The people themselves have been carrying the loads of these gods.

How exhausting that sounds. Some mornings it’s all I can do to get myself out the door on time for work. I can’t imagine being responsible for a god.

Good news: I don’t have to be.

“Listen to me, house of Jacob,
all who remain of the house of Israel:
I have borne you from birth,
carried you since the womb.
Till your old age I will be the same-
I will carry you until your hair is white.
I have made you, and I will bear you;
yes, I will carry you and save you.
To whom will you liken me and equate me?
With whom will you compare me, as if we were similar?” (46:3-5)

My God does not need carried. He carries his own people. He made them, he saves them. He is more than capable of being responsible for himself and everyone else. There’s no comparison to these Babylonian gods, defeated, tugged along by weary animals, failures in every way.

Not only does my God carry his people when they’re helpless infants, he keeps it up their whole lives.

He never puts them down.

What a relief.

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