Worship a God You Have to Carry, Or One Who Carries You! Isaiah 45-50

Isaiah 46:5-7 (ESV)

“To whom will you liken me and make me equal,

and compare me, that we may be alike?

Those who lavish gold from the purse,

and weigh out silver in the scales,

hire a goldsmith, and he makes it into a god;

then they fall down and worship!

They lift it to their shoulders, they carry it,

they set it in its place, and it stands there;

it cannot move from its place.

If one cries to it, it does not answer

or save him from his trouble.

God lays a challenge down to those who reject Him.  These verses are actually addressed to Babylon.  God is speaking to that evil nation to confront them with the truth of who He is.  He does so by telling them the truth about their god.  Their god is the product of their hands and must be carried by those same hands.  Imagine worshiping a god you have to carry yourself. Here is the irony.  Note what God told the leaders and people of Babylon just before these verses:

Isaiah 46:3-4 (ESV)

“Listen to me, O house of Jacob,

all the remnant of the house of Israel,

who have been borne by me from before your birth,

carried from the womb;

even to your old age I am he,

and to gray hairs I will carry you.

I have made, and I will bear;

I will carry and will save.

Do you see the irony.   God is telling them that He will care for them.  That He can save them.  But they turn to idols, made of hands, that they must carry in their hands. When we start worshiping the things we make and the things we, ourselves, have to carry, we lose out on Him carrying us.   The gods of this world have been manufactured by the hearts and minds of men who reject God.   They not only create their gods but must transport them from place to place with their own hands.  In contrast, our God carries us in His hands.  He holds us to deliver us.  We are to turn away from the gods we have to carry and turn toward the God who carries us.