Isaiah 46:3 Study Bible: "Listen to me, house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, that have been borne from their birth, that have been carried from the womb;

◄ Isaiah 46:3 ►

"Listen to Me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been sustained from the womb, carried along since birth.

Study Bible

Listen to Me
This phrase is a direct call from God, urging His people to pay attention. The Hebrew word for "listen" is "שְׁמַע" (shema), which implies not just hearing but obeying and understanding. This is reminiscent of the Shema in Deuteronomy 6:4, a central declaration of faith in Judaism. It emphasizes the importance of not just hearing God's words but internalizing and acting upon them.

O house of Jacob
This phrase refers to the descendants of Jacob, also known as Israel. Historically, Jacob's name was changed to Israel after wrestling with God (Genesis 32:28). The "house of Jacob" signifies the entire nation of Israel, God's chosen people, who are being reminded of their identity and covenant relationship with God.

all the remnant of the house of Israel
The term "remnant" is significant in biblical prophecy, often referring to a small, faithful group that survives judgment or calamity. In Hebrew, "שְׁאָר" (she'ar) means "remnant" or "survivor." This highlights God's faithfulness in preserving a portion of His people despite widespread unfaithfulness or disaster, a theme seen throughout the prophetic books.

who have been sustained
The Hebrew root "תָּמַךְ" (tamak) means to support or uphold. This word underscores God's continuous provision and care for His people. It suggests a nurturing, protective relationship, where God is actively involved in the well-being of His people, sustaining them through trials and tribulations.

from the womb
This phrase emphasizes God's care and knowledge of His people from the very beginning of their existence. It reflects the intimate relationship God has with His people, knowing them and caring for them even before birth. This echoes Psalm 139:13, where God is described as forming individuals in the womb, highlighting His sovereignty and personal involvement in the lives of His people.

carried from birth
The imagery of being "carried" suggests a tender, parental care. The Hebrew word "נָשָׂא" (nasa) means to lift, bear, or carry. This conveys the idea of God as a nurturing parent, carrying His children through life's journey. It reassures the faithful of God's constant presence and support, from the very start of life, through all its stages.

Persons / Places / Events

1. House of Jacob
Refers to the descendants of Jacob, also known as Israel. This term is often used to address the entire nation of Israel, emphasizing their identity as God's chosen people.

2. Remnant of the House of Israel
This refers to the faithful portion of Israel that remains true to God despite widespread unfaithfulness. The concept of a remnant is significant in the prophetic literature, highlighting God's preservation of a faithful group.

3. God's Sustaining Care
The verse emphasizes God's continuous care and support for Israel from conception to birth, symbolizing His eternal faithfulness and providence.

Teaching Points

God's Faithfulness from Beginning to End
God has been faithful to His people from the very beginning of their existence. This truth should encourage believers to trust in God's unchanging nature and His promises.

The Importance of Listening to God
The call to "listen" underscores the importance of heeding God's voice. In a world full of distractions, believers must prioritize listening to God's Word and guidance.

The Concept of the Remnant
The idea of a remnant serves as a reminder that God always preserves a faithful group, even in times of widespread unfaithfulness. Believers are encouraged to remain steadfast and faithful, knowing they are part of God's remnant.

God's Sustaining Power
Just as God upheld Israel, He upholds His people today. Believers can find comfort in knowing that God sustains them through every stage of life.

Bible Study Questions

1. How does understanding God's faithfulness from conception to birth impact your trust in Him during difficult times?

2. In what ways can you ensure that you are actively listening to God's voice in your daily life?

3. How does the concept of a remnant encourage you in your personal walk with God, especially when you feel isolated in your faith?

4. Reflect on a time when you felt upheld by God. How can this experience strengthen your faith and reliance on Him?

5. How can you apply the understanding of God's sustaining power to support and encourage others in your community?

Connections to Other Scriptures

Deuteronomy 1:31
This verse describes how God carried Israel as a father carries his son, illustrating His nurturing and protective nature.

Psalm 71:6
This verse speaks of God's involvement and support from birth, reinforcing the theme of God's lifelong care for His people.

Isaiah 63:9
This passage highlights God's compassion and His role as a savior, further emphasizing His commitment to His people.

Sermons

A Contrast -- Idols and God	F. B. Meyer, B. A.	Isaiah 46:1-4
Bel and Nebo	Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.	Isaiah 46:1-4
Idols Found Wanting, But Jehovah Found Faithful		Isaiah 46:1-4
Israel's Infancy and Maturer Life	F. Delitzsch, D. D.	Isaiah 46:1-4
Men Bearing Gods, and God Bearing His People	W. Clarkson	Isaiah 46:1-4
National Life -- its Stages	J. A. Alexander.	Isaiah 46:1-4
The Religion of Jehovah Contrasted with Idolatry	E. Johnson	Isaiah 46:1-13

People

Isaiah, Jacob

Places

Babylon, Cush, Zion

Topics

Belly, Birth, Borne, Care, Carried, Conceived, Ear, Earliest, Family, Hearken, Jacob, Listen, O, Remnant, Rest, Supported, Upheld, Womb

Dictionary of Bible Themes

Isaiah 46:1-4

1080 God, living

Isaiah 46:3-4

5061 sanctity of life
7145 remnant

Library

A Righteousness Near and a Swift Salvation
'Hearken unto Me, ye stout-hearted, that are far from righteousness: I bring near My righteousness; it shall not be far off, and My salvation shall not tarry.'--ISAIAH xlvi. 12,13. God has promised that He will dwell with him that is humble and of a contrite heart. Jesus has shed the oil of His benediction on the poor in spirit. It is the men who form the exact antithesis to these characters who are addressed here. The 'stout-hearted' are those who, being untouched in conscience and ignorant of …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The God of the Aged
THOSE will be peculiar circumstances under which I shall stand up to address the people next Tuesday; circumstances which perhaps seldom occur,--possibly may never have occurred before. It might have been more in order that the aged minister should himself address the people; but nevertheless, as it is his own choice, so it must be; and I shall draw my consolation from the third verse, where it is declared, that though God be the God of the close of our life, yet he is also the God of its beginning. …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 2: 1856

Whether the Seven Petitions of the Lord's Prayer are Fittingly Assigned?
Objection 1: It would seem that the seven petitions of the Lord's Prayer are not fittingly assigned. It is useless to ask for that to be hallowed which is always holy. But the name of God is always holy, according to Lk. 1:49, "Holy is His name." Again, His kingdom is everlasting, according to Ps. 144:13, "Thy kingdom is a kingdom of all ages." Again, God's will is always fulfilled, according to Isa 46:10, "All My will shall be done." Therefore it is useless to ask for "the name of God to be hallowed," …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

Of Internal Acts
Of Internal Acts Acts are distinguished into External and Internal. External acts are those which bear relation to some sensible object, and are either morally good or evil, merely according to the nature of the principle from which they proceed. I intend here to speak only of Internal acts, those energies of the soul, by which it turns internally to some objects, and averts from others. If during my application to God I should form a will to change the nature of my act, I thereby withdraw myself …
Madame Guyon—A Short and Easy Method of Prayer

Of Inward Silence
Of Inward Silence "The Lord is in His Holy Temple, let all the earth keep silence before him" (Hab. ii. 20). Inward silence is absolutely indispensable, because the Word is essential and eternal, and necessarily requires dispositions in the soul in some degree correspondent to His nature, as a capacity for the reception of Himself. Hearing is a sense formed to receive sounds, and is rather passive than active, admitting, but not communicating sensation; and if we would hear, we must lend the ear …
Madame Guyon—A Short and Easy Method of Prayer

Of Rest in the Presence of God --Its Fruits --Inward Silence --God Commands it --Outward Silence.
The soul, being brought to this place, needs no other preparation than that of repose: for the presence of God during the day, which is the great result of prayer, or rather prayer itself, begins to be intuitive and almost continual. The soul is conscious of a deep inward happiness, and feels that God is in it more truly than it is in itself. It has only one thing to do in order to find God, which is to retire within itself. As soon as the eyes are closed, it finds itself in prayer. It is astonished …
Jeanne Marie Bouvières—A Short Method Of Prayer And Spiritual Torrents

"And this is his Commandment," &C.
1 John iii. 23.--"And this is his commandment," &c. There are different tempers of mind among men, some more smooth and pliable, others more refractory and froward. Some may be persuaded by love, who cannot be constrained by fear. With some a request will more prevail than a command. Others again are of a harsher disposition. Love and condescension doth rather embolden them, and therefore they must be restrained with the bridle of authority. It would seem that the Lord hath some regard to this in …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

"Come unto Me, all Ye that Labour, and are Wearied," &C.
Matth. xi. 28.--"Come unto me, all ye that labour, and are wearied," &c. It is the great misery of Christians in this life, that they have such poor, narrow, and limited spirits, that are not fit to receive the truth of the gospel in its full comprehension; from whence manifold misapprehensions in judgment, and stumbling in practice proceed. The beauty and life of things consist in their entire union with one another, and in the conjunction of all their parts. Therefore it would not be a fit way …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Epistle v. To Theoctista, Sister of the Emperor.
To Theoctista, Sister of the Emperor. Gregory to Theoctista, &c. With how great devotion my mind prostrates itself before your Venerableness I cannot fully express in words; nor yet do I labour to give utterance to it, since, even though I were silent, you read in your heart your own sense of my devotion. I wonder, however, that you withdrew your countenance, till of late bestowed on me, from this my recent engagement in the pastoral office; wherein, under colour of episcopacy, I have been brought …
Saint Gregory the Great—the Epistles of Saint Gregory the Great

The First Commandment
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.' Exod 20: 3. Why is the commandment in the second person singular, Thou? Why does not God say, You shall have no other gods? Because the commandment concerns every one, and God would have each one take it as spoken to him by name. Though we are forward to take privileges to ourselves, yet we are apt to shift off duties from ourselves to others; therefore the commandment is in the second person, Thou and Thou, that every one may know that it is spoken to him, …
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments

The Power of God
The next attribute is God's power. Job 9:19. If I speak of strength, lo, he is strong.' In this chapter is a magnificent description of God's power. Lo, he is strong.' The Hebrew word for strong signifies a conquering, prevailing strength. He is strong.' The superlative degree is intended here; viz., He is most strong. He is called El-shaddai, God almighty. Gen 17:7. His almightiness lies in this, that he can do whatever is feasible. Divines distinguish between authority and power. God has both. …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

The Iranian Conquest
Drawn by Boudier, from the engraving in Coste and Flandin. The vignette, drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a statuette in terra-cotta, found in Southern Russia, represents a young Scythian. The Iranian religions--Cyrus in Lydia and at Babylon: Cambyses in Egypt --Darius and the organisation of the empire. The Median empire is the least known of all those which held sway for a time over the destinies of a portion of Western Asia. The reason of this is not to be ascribed to the shortness of its duration: …
G. Maspero—History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, V 9

Barzillai
BY REV. GEORGE MILLIGAN, M.A., D.D. "There is nothing," says Socrates to Cephalus in the Republic, "I like better than conversing with aged men. For I regard them as travellers who have gone a journey which I too may have to go, and of whom it is right to learn the character of the way, whether it is rugged or difficult, or smooth and easy" (p. 328 E.). It is to such an aged traveller that we are introduced in the person of Barzillai the Gileadite. And though he is one of the lesser-known characters …
George Milligan—Men of the Bible; Some Lesser-Known

Purposes of God.
In discussing this subject I shall endeavor to show, I. What I understand by the purposes of God. Purposes, in this discussion, I shall use as synonymous with design, intention. The purposes of God must be ultimate and proximate. That is, God has and must have an ultimate end. He must purpose to accomplish something by his works and providence, which he regards as a good in itself, or as valuable to himself, and to being in general. This I call his ultimate end. That God has such an end or purpose, …
Charles Grandison Finney—Systematic Theology

The Unchangeableness of God
The next attribute is God's unchangeableness. I am Jehovah, I change not.' Mal 3:3. I. God is unchangeable in his nature. II. In his decree. I. Unchangeable in his nature. 1. There is no eclipse of his brightness. 2. No period put to his being. [1] No eclipse of his brightness. His essence shines with a fixed lustre. With whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.' James 1:17. Thou art the same.' Psa 102:27. All created things are full of vicissitudes. Princes and emperors are subject to …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

The Shepherd of Our Souls.
"I am the good Shepherd: the good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep."--John x. 11. Our Lord here appropriates to Himself the title under which He had been foretold by the Prophets. "David My servant shall be king over them," says Almighty God by the mouth of Ezekiel: "and they all shall have one Shepherd." And in the book of Zechariah, "Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, and against the man that is My fellow, saith the Lord of Hosts; smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered." …
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VIII

Isaiah
CHAPTERS I-XXXIX Isaiah is the most regal of the prophets. His words and thoughts are those of a man whose eyes had seen the King, vi. 5. The times in which he lived were big with political problems, which he met as a statesman who saw the large meaning of events, and as a prophet who read a divine purpose in history. Unlike his younger contemporary Micah, he was, in all probability, an aristocrat; and during his long ministry (740-701 B.C., possibly, but not probably later) he bore testimony, as …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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