Chapter 46

2021 - Only two sentences of notes on this chapter prior to today.  And I am pretty worn out today, so there may only be two when I am finished!

2021 - First four verses contrast God with the gods of Babylon.  Those gods must be "carried" on oxen, they do not transport themselves.  If Babylon is captured, her gods are captured also and taken into captivity.  Not so with God.

Vss 5-7 are similar, but talk about gods that a goldsmith makes with his hands, and then he falls down and worship what he has himself made.  And it stays where he puts it.

2021 - Here is more to go with the thoughts of chapter 45:

9 remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, [Isa 46:9 ESV]

All God is saying here is that He is the ONLY God, and there are NONE like Him.  He is NOT saying what He is like, nor what limits He has.  Oh my...over and over I see it now.  This God we worship is the only God there is, but that in no way limits how He can present Himself to us!  Does Islam believe it was truly God in the burning bush?  Do they allow Him to show Himself that way?  Was it God in the fire on Mt. Sinai?  Can God "show" Himself in this way?  Then why not as an infant child?

The gods, the idols of Babylon, have to be carried on the backs of pack animals.  They cannot even move themselves.  vs 3, in contrast says it is God who carries Israel.  God carries His people, they do not carry Him!!!  What a contrast!

Again, God points out that only He can predict "the end from the beginning".  This is the ultimate test of deity.  This is why fortune tellers and such are so hated by God.  They pretend to stand on ground that is exclusively His.  Only He can do this.

2022 - In this chapter - and several other places - God's primary proof of his existence, of the FACT that he is God and there are no other Gods, is his ability to say what is going to happen - days in advance, years in advance, millennia in advance - and then it actually does happen, and so far without exception.  If being able to accurately, errorlessly predict the future in this way is NOT a God thing, then why can no one else do it successfully?  The Bible is full of God's predictions of future events.  The only way to argue against this "proof" of deity is say the Bible is a retroactive document.  You have to say that after things happened, someone went back and inserted it as a prophecy - in every copy of every scroll and book and chapter in existence at the time so that no contradictory  copies that did NOT contain that prophecy can exist.  You would need - and I am willing to bet that Josh McDowell has - a list of verifiable fulfilled and secularly verified historical events that were predicted in the Bible and actually happened.  Such as the Babylonian captivity, and the 70 year time span and the end of it overseen by Cyrus.  This is a huge point.  Only God - a real, existing, true to life God - could do this without error.  If you want to disprove God to me, show me a prediction that did not come true.