Remember the former things of old; for I [am] God, and there is none else; [I am] God, and there is none like me;
Isaiah 46 opens with carts hauling Babylon's great gods away, and against that picture God tells His people to remember who He is. He speaks to people who had swapped Him for idols, and His question is simple: do you carry your god, or does your god carry you?
Before God says there is none like Him, the chapter has already shown why. An idol depends on someone to make it, and once finished it becomes a burden instead of a help.
Here idols stand against the LORD, but they cannot compare with the true God for a moment. The LORD is the Maker, but an idol has to be made, and once made, instead of carrying others it has to be carried. Once it stands in its place, it cannot move, cannot answer a cry of need, and cannot save anyone from trouble.
The command has a target. It lands on those who had gone after other gods, and the memory God asks for is a memory of His own past acts.
God calls the transgressors — those in Israel who had turned aside to idols — to remember these things and to act like men. Let them remember how God has acted in the past. Let them admit that there is no other God but the LORD, and none like God. He declares the end from the beginning. He brings His counsels to pass and carries out His plans. What God has said, He will bring about. What God has planned, He will do.
This is not a one-off statement. It runs as a refrain through several chapters of Isaiah.
Over and over the Holy Spirit repeats this all-important fact in chapters 43 to 46. No fewer than ten times it sounds out with force: There is none else! Israel's God is the only God! He created Jacob! He formed the nation! He redeemed her! He called her by name: "You are Mine!" So she can bear witness not only against idols, but to the only God.
God does not just claim to be unique. He points to something no idol can do: He announces what has not yet happened, even the man He will call from far away, and He says it to people at their lowest point.
Isaiah 46 brings the complete humiliation of Bel and Nebo, the chief idols of Babylon. They showed themselves more powerless than the animals that carried them. They could not save, and they went into captivity themselves. Again the LORD, in His patient love toward Israel, stands in contrast with the image that could not move or speak or save. He was giving proof, while they lay in the misery their sins had brought on them, and above all their idolatry, that the LORD is God, and there is none else, and none like Him. He declares the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things not yet done. He would soon show it by calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of His counsel from a far country.
If no rival exists, then nothing outside God can block Him and nothing inside Him can shift. Long delay is not failure.
God appeals to His people through the prophet Isaiah to remember the former things of old, because He is God and there is none else. He is God and there is none like Him. He declares the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things not yet done. He says, "My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all My purpose." So no one can frustrate His counsels, however long He may delay carrying them out. His purposes will not collapse through a change of mind in the One who formed them.
Carved images are not the modern temptation, but the structure of the choice has not changed. What we serve either holds us up at the end or lets us down.
The same contrast exists around us today. It is still a fair question — do you go your way carrying the things you idolise, or does your God carry you? The idols of the modern English-speaking world are not images but subtler things, such as money, pleasures, and cravings. Yet as life draws to its close they let you down. The God we know, revealed in our Lord Jesus Christ, carries us through to the finish. The love that will never let us go holds us in its embrace.
- Remember — The call goes to people who had drifted to idols. The cure is to recall what God has already done.
- Remember whom — God makes, carries, and saves. An idol has to be made, has to be carried, and cannot answer a cry.
- Remember the proof — He declares the end from the beginning, and calls the man of His counsel from a far country.
- Remember the promise — He has no rival and no change of mind. So His counsel stands, however long He delays.
- Remember today — Money, pleasure and craving let go at the end. The God revealed in Jesus Christ carries His own to the finish.
declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure;
Isaiah 46 opens with a picture. The gods of Babylon are strapped onto pack animals and hauled away. Against that, God sets Himself — the One who carries His people, not a god His people must carry. Verse 10 is His proof of identity — He tells the end while it is still the beginning, and what He has planned He will do.
The verse belongs to a contrast running through the chapter. Human hands make one side of that contrast. The other side made everything.
Idols are set here against Jehovah, but they cannot be compared with the true God for a moment. Jehovah is the Maker. An idol has to be made. Once it is made, it does not carry others; others have to carry it. Once it is set in its place, it cannot move. It cannot answer a cry for help. It cannot save anyone from trouble.
Why does God rest His case on announcing what has not yet happened? Because no counterfeit god can fake that for long.
This is a side point, but it matters enormously for the subject we are looking at. Nothing proves divine intelligence more plainly than telling the future. This is the main challenge the Old Testament brings against the false gods. No wonder it could only strike them dumb, however loudly they had claimed before to deliver messages from the gods. While it was only a matter of confusing the people who came to ask, they could fool them with answers that meant two things at once. But Isaiah shows, in the sharpest and hardest words, that they had no power at all to reveal the future.
The scale of that claim is what should strike us: not vague hints, but detail fixed in advance.
Our study of prophecy should press on our hearts how great and majestic God is. He has the sovereign right to form His own purposes and absolute power to carry them out. So He can announce the end from the beginning thousands of years in advance, with complete certainty, down to the smallest detail.
Two things could ruin a promise. Someone stronger could block it, or the one who made it could lose interest. Neither applies here — and delay is not evidence against it.
So no one can defeat His plans, however long He waits before carrying them out. And His purposes will not fall through because the One who formed them changes His mind.
The verse does not float free of history. The next line points to a near case, Cyrus, a man God would raise up. From there the prophecy reaches far ahead.
And here is the true God, who acts and speaks, and foretells things that soon come true. The "bird of prey from the east" is surely another reference to Cyrus, whom He would raise up to carry out His purpose in the near future. The prophecy then moves from what was fairly near to God's final purpose, which was far off. At last God will place salvation "in Zion." That speaks of His stepping in with mercy. And the redeemed Israel who will enjoy it will display the glory of the God who has brought it about.
Put God's declared purpose next to human planning. The two are not in the same class.
Human cleverness can produce a bewildering run of theories and plans, but they all carry the same fatal mark of complete instability. One generation lays out its theories and drives its plans with huge energy, only for the next generation to throw them out completely. But God alone can declare "the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done," and He can say, "My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose."
A settled plan is not cold theory. It changes how a believer walks through unsettled times.
Those who dwell on God's purpose can go quietly through this world of unrest and uncertainty. They know for sure that nothing can stop God accomplishing all He has set His heart on, or stop what He is doing to bring it all to pass. Kingdoms on earth break up and pass away. The great institutions people build dissolve. The cold hand of death removes those who have stood out in world affairs, and their memory soon fades. But the purpose of God remains.
- Contrast — Someone has to make an idol, then carry it, and it can neither answer a cry nor save. The God speaking here made everything and carries His people.
- Credential — He sets one test: tell the future. Nothing proves divine intelligence more plainly.
- Counsel — No one can frustrate His plans, however long He delays them, and He will not change His mind about them.
- Case study — Cyrus, the bird of prey from the east, is the near proof. Behind it stands the far purpose: salvation placed in Zion.
- Comfort — Human plans are unstable, and the next generation throws them out. God's purpose remains, so His people can go quietly through an uncertain world.