Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2056
“Belbows down, Nebo stoops, theiridols were upon the beasts and upon the cattle:your carriages were heavyloaded. They are a burden to the weary beast. They stoop, they bow down together. They could not deliver the burden but themselves are gone into captivity. Hearken unto Me, O house of Jacob and all the remnant of the house of Israel, which are borne by Me from the belly, which are carried from the womb. And even to your old age I am He. And even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made and I will bear. Even I will carry and will deliver you.” Isaiah 46:1-4.
THE confidence of Babylon is buried among her heaps of rubbish for her gods have fallen from their thrones. “Bel bows down, Nebo stoops.” As for us, Beloved, our trust is in the living God who lives to bear and carry His chosen, even in Jehovah, the only true Lord. We begin our spiritual life by faith in Him, for till faith comes we have no power to become the sons of God. Our spiritual life will have to be continued in the same way of trust in the Lord, “for the just shall live by faith.”
We live by faith upon the Son of God, who loved us and gave Himself for us. We rejoice that we shall never have to change our confidence, for our God will never be carried into captivity, nor torn from His Throne. Our faith is built upon a rock that can never be moved. Nothing in the past has shaken the foundation of our faith. Nothing in the present can move it. Nothing in the future will undermine it. Whatever may occur in the ages to come, there will always be good reason for believing in Jehovah and His faithful Word.
The great Truths which He has revealed will never be disproved. The great promises He has made will never be retracted. The great purposes He has devised will never be abandoned. So long as we live, so long shall we have a refuge, a hope, a confidence, that can never be removed—
“His sovereign mercy knows no end, His faithfulness shall still endure; And those who on His Word depend Shall find His Word forever sure.”
That part of our text which says, “Even to your old age I am He. And even to hoar hairs will I carry you,” may seem to be a promise made to old age. So, indeed, it is. Many a hoary saint has made a soft pillow of this precious promise and has rested upon it with delight in the days of his decay. But yet the text, if it is rightly read, is a promise to the people of God at any and every period between their birth and their death. While the Lord does say that He will carry us to hoar hairs, yet He begins by telling us that He has carried us from the womb and that He will carry us still. All tenses meet in these verses—“Hearken, O house of Jacob, which are borne by Me; which are carried from the womb. Even to your old age I am He. I have made and I will bear. Even I will carry and will deliver you.”
The Lord is good to us in all tenses and in all ways. We shall not, alone, consider in our discourse the mercy of God to those who are near the end of their pilgrimage but that same mercy to His people throughout their wilderness journey—from the day when they first ate of the Paschal Lamb and left Egypt—even to that hour when the Jordan was dried up and they took possession of the land which flows with milk and honey. Our experimental dealings with God make us
know that He is our gracious Helper from the first to the last. When we begin with the Alpha of our life’s spelling, we find Him good. And when we come to the Omega and faintly pronounce the last letter of life, we know still better how gracious He is. Bel and Nebo disappoint their votaries but Jehovah is our God forever and ever and He will be our guide even unto death.
I. I shall begin my sermon by calling your attention, first, to the background, which is placed behind the brilliant promise which is herein given to the Lord’s people.
Observe that FALSE CONFIDENCES PASS AWAY. The Lord has made a full end of false gods and their worship. “Bel bows down, Nebo stoops, their idols were upon the beasts and upon the cattle: your carriages were heavy loaded: they are a burden to the weary beast. They stoop, they bow down together. They could not deliver the burden but themselves are gone into captivity.” Bel and Nebo were two great gods of Babylon. You get the name of Bel in the name of king Belshazzar. And the name of Nebo in the name of Nebuchadnezzar.
They were esteemed to be such great deities that their kings were named after them and professed to be their servants. Bel and Nebo stood supreme in Babylon. The Babylonian empire which served these deities was so strong as to be invincible—it carried its cruel sword into all nations and piled up the dead bodies of men in heaps—it was, therefore, dreaded in every part of the world. And not without cause. What kingdom or empire could stand against it? If you had gone to Babylon and seen its mighty walls, its lofty towers, its engines of war, its wonders of art, its multitudes of heroes, you would have thought that the worship of Bel would endure forever and that the image of Nebo would stand there to be adored of mortals as long as the world existed.