Isaiah 46 - Introduction

Chapter 46 The Gods Of Babylon Are In Disarray And They Are Borne By Men While Yahweh In Contrast Bears Men And Delivers Them.

Having led up to God's final triumph in chapter 45 we are suddenly faced with the opposite side of the picture. Yahweh is on the road to His triumph, but in contrast the greatest of the gods, the gods of Babylon, are in total disarray, being borne away on carts, or on the backs of asses, to disgrace. They are on the road to humiliation. Their makers are confounded (Isaiah 45:16). This must be so when Yahweh triumphs. It is a necessary part of the picture. Babel's growth right from the beginning meant that the world had turned away from God and set itself up in opposition to Him (Genesis 10:9; Genesis 11:1: Isaiah 13-14). So God's triumph (Isaiah 45:22) must result in Babylon's disintegration, and the humiliation of their gods. This is the reversal of Genesis 11.

Isaiah here brings out the strong contrast between Babel's gods and Israel's God, and is preparing the way for the rise of God's Servant and its consequences. Babel's gods are probably to be seen as representative of all the idols that he has been deriding, the ones about whom the greatest boasts have been made. All men revered the gods of Babylon. And it is these very gods which will be humiliated and shamed.