August 22, 2011
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Birthday reflections ~ "Keep me an infant" (Isaiah 46:1-4)
Isaiah 46:1 Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth, their idols were upon the beasts, and upon the cattle: your carriages were heavy loaden; they are a burden to the weary beast. 2 They stoop, they bow down together; they could not deliver the burden, but themselves are gone into captivity. 3 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: 4 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.From Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on Isaiah 46:
II. That the true God will never fail his worshippers: "You hear what has become of Bel and Nebo, now hearken to me, O house of Jacob! 3, 4. Am I such a god as these? No; though you are brought low, and the house of Israel is but a remnant, your God has been, is, and ever will be, your powerful and faithful protector."1. Let God's Israel do him the justice to own that he has hitherto been kind to them, careful of them, tender over them, and has all along done well for them. Let them own, (1.) That he bore them at first: I have made. Out of what womb came they, but that of his mercy, and grace, and promise? He formed them into a people and gave them their constitution. Every good man is what God makes him. (2.) That he bore them up all along: You have been borne by me from the belly, and carried from the womb. God began betimes to do them good, as soon as ever they were formed into a nation, nay, when as yet they were very few, and strangers. God took them under a special protection, and suffered no man to do them wrong, Ps. cv. 12-14. In the infancy of their state, when they were not only foolish and helpless, as children, but forward and peevish, God carried them in the arms of his power and love, bore them as upon eagles' wings, Exod. xix. 4; Deut. xxxii. 11. Moses had not patience to carry them as the nursing father does the sucking child (Num. xi. 12), but God bore them, and bore their manners, Acts xiii. 18. And as God began early to do them good (when Israel was a child, then I loved him), so he had constantly continued to do them good: he had carried them from the womb to this day. And we may all witness for God that he has been thus gracious to us. We have been borne by him from the belly, from the womb, else we should have died from the womb and given up the ghost when we came out of the belly. We have been the constant care of his kind providence, carried in the arms of his power and in the bosom of his love and pity. The new man is so; all that in us which is born of God is borne up by him, else it would soon fail. Our spiritual life is sustained by his grace as necessarily and constantly as our natural life by his providence. The saints have acknowledged that God has carried them from the womb, and have encouraged themselves with the consideration of it in their greatest straits, Ps. xxii. 9, 10; lxxi. 5, 6, 17.
2. He will then do them the kindness to promise that he will never leave them. He that was their first will be their last; he that was the author will be the finisher of their well-being ( 4): "You have been borne by me from the belly, nursed when you were children; and even to your old age I am he, when, by reason of your decays and infirmities, you will need help as much as in your infancy." Israel were now growing old, so was their covenant by which they were incorporated, Heb. viii. 13. Gray hairs were here and there upon them, Hos. vii. 9. And they had hastened their old age, and the calamities of it, by their irregularities. But God will not cast them off now, will not fail them when their strength fails; he is still their God, will still carry them in the same everlasting arms that were laid under them in Moses's time, Deut. xxxiii. 27. He has made them and owns his interest in them, and therefore he will bear them, will bear with their infirmities, and bear them up under their afflictions: "Even I will carry and will deliver them; I will now bear them upon eagles' wings out of Babylon, as in their infancy I bore them out of Egypt." This promise to aged Israel is applicable to every aged Israelite. God has graciously engaged to support and comfort his faithful servants, even in their old age: "Even to your old age, when you grow unfit for business, when you are compassed with infirmities, and perhaps your relations begin to grow weary of you, yet I am he--he that I am, he that I have been--the very same by whom you have been borne from the belly and carried from the womb. You change, but I am the same. I am he that I have promised to be, he that you have found me, and he that you would have me to be. I will carry you, I will bear, will bear you up and bear you out, and will carry you on in your way and carry you home at last."
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Keep me an infant so I might hear
Your Spirit's whispers loud and clear:
"Jehovah birthed you from sin's tomb,
Who else carried you from the womb?
"How could dying flesh beget eternal life?
My grace made you to be Christ's wife!"Surely I will bear you up and out,
My child, be not afraid; do not doubt."
Keep me an infant so I might begin
To see nothing good dwells withinKeep me an infant so I might be humble
Self-assurance fail, collapse and crumbleKeep me an infant so I might embrace
The chief cornerstone, chosen and preciousKeep me an infant so I might bless
Jesus Christ as my whole righteousnessKeep me an infant so I might profess
Trust in Christ, no confidence in my fleshKeep me an infant so I might sanctify
Reckon myself dead to sin, to God aliveKeep me an infant so I might die
Through Christ really live and sin mortifyKeep me an infant so I might self disdain
Count loss for Christ whatever was gainKeep me an infant so I might be weak
For Your Spirit ask, knock and seekKeep me an infant so I might recall
Though hard I work, Your grace works allKeep me an infant so I might be thirsting
Always Your pure spiritual milk drinkingKeep me an infant so I might rely
On Your Word for You do not lieKeep me an infant so I might rest
In Your yoke during the fiery testKeep me an infant so I might remain
Dependent on Your heavenly rainKeep me an infant so I might know
Your eagles' wings carrying me belowKeep me an infant so I might cast off Baal
Bow to the only God who never will fallKeep me an infant so I might lean
On the one true God who is unseenKeep me an infant so I might proclaim
Your full sufficiency for Your fameKeep me an infant so I might decrease
So You and my joy might ever increaseKeep me an infant so I might be contrite
And see Your countenance shining brightKeep me an infant so I might see
All praise and glory belongs to TheeKeep me an infant so I might declare
Christ carried me from womb to hoar hairsKeep me an infant so I might run
By Your Spirit till my earthly race is done
Keep me an infant so I might hear
The Spirit's whispers loud and clear:
"Jehovah birthed you from sin's tomb
Who else carried you from the womb
"How could dying flesh beget eternal life
My grace made you to be Christ's wife!"Surely I will bear you up and out,
My child, be not afraid; do not doubt."Luke 18:17 Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein.
"You have been borne by me from the belly, nursed when you were children; and even to your old age I am he, when, by reason of your decays and infirmities, you will need help as much as in your infancy."
Related:- Psalms 71 and 121
- Blessed dependence ~ "Leaning upon her beloved"
- Naphtali News: God speaking to me about my failures & the one thing needful (a post on the Holy Spirit)
- Why not pray for the baptism of the Holy Spirit?
- trusting the eagles' wings (reliance on the Holy Spirit)
- Blessed are the poor in spirit
- my Anchor
- O, Lord, I have need of endurance today (yet You are here with me in the midst)
- Encouragements to press on: the Creator upholds His new creation
- Tonight I am weak . . .
- the children of God will never say of Him: "Got stood up big time!"
- He's not dropping us! (Isaiah 46:3-4)
- "As your days, so shall your strength be"
- "Dependence" by William Cowper
- when we're being shaken: let us look unto JESUS!
- God works through bad economies for good: A retrospective (my testimony)
- I sought ... yet You kept seeking me (Your plans can never be aborted)
- keeping the passover (celebrating my second birth)
- Thank you, Lord Jesus, for . . . (Letter 30 on assurance & fighting for joy)
- God speaking to me about my failures: I can sing in my barrenness when I consider Jesus
- Kingdom-Obsessed People don't keep looking in the rear view mirror at past hurts, # 5
- All things (even bad things) work together for good...
HumanNewborn.JPG found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:HumanNewborn.JPG / CC BY-SA 3.0
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Comments (3)
very nice
Beautifully written. Never thought about it this way before.
@dmcx2010 - Thank you!
@ANVRSADDAY - Thanks, Frank. We're raised by our earthly parents to grow up and become independent and mature. In contrast to that, the life of a Christian is our continuing to learn we are totally dependent on Christ for all things; such dependence is a mark of the mature believer.