Isaiah 46:8
Remember this and be brave; take it to heart, you transgressors!
Remember this
The phrase "Remember this" serves as a call to mindfulness and reflection. In the Hebrew text, the word for "remember" is "זָכַר" (zakar), which implies more than just recalling information; it suggests an active, intentional process of bringing something to mind with the purpose of influencing one's actions or beliefs. In the context of Isaiah, this is a divine imperative to recall the truths about God's sovereignty and faithfulness. Historically, the Israelites were often called to remember God's past deeds as a foundation for trust and obedience. This call to remembrance is a reminder of the covenant relationship between God and His people, urging them to remain faithful amidst challenges.

and be brave
The phrase "and be brave" is an exhortation to courage. The Hebrew word used here is "אִיתָן" (itan), which conveys strength, firmness, and resilience. In the biblical context, bravery is not merely about physical courage but also about spiritual steadfastness. The Israelites, facing the threat of exile and the dominance of foreign powers, needed to be reminded of their identity and the power of their God. This call to bravery is a call to stand firm in faith, trusting in God's promises and His ultimate plan for redemption.

Take it to heart
"Take it to heart" is an invitation to internalize and meditate deeply on the truths being presented. The Hebrew phrase "שִׁיתוּ לֵב" (shitu lev) suggests a deep, contemplative process where one allows the truth to penetrate the innermost being. In the ancient Near Eastern culture, the heart was considered the center of thought, emotion, and will. Thus, taking something to heart meant allowing it to influence one's entire life. This phrase encourages believers to let the knowledge of God's sovereignty and faithfulness transform their attitudes and actions.

you transgressors
The term "you transgressors" is a direct address to those who have strayed from God's commandments. The Hebrew word "פֹּשְׁעִים" (posh'im) refers to those who rebel or sin against God. In the context of Isaiah, this is a call to repentance for the Israelites who have turned away from God to follow idols and false gods. It serves as a reminder of human fallibility and the need for divine grace. The use of this term underscores the seriousness of their spiritual condition and the urgent need to return to the Lord. It is a call to acknowledge one's sins and seek God's forgiveness and restoration.

Persons / Places / Events
1. Isaiah
A major prophet in the Old Testament, Isaiah is the author of the book that bears his name. He prophesied to the Kingdom of Judah during a time of moral and spiritual decline.

2. Judah
The southern kingdom of Israel, which was often warned by prophets like Isaiah to return to God and forsake idolatry and sin.

3. Transgressors
Refers to the people of Judah who have turned away from God, engaging in idolatry and other sins. The term "transgressors" highlights their rebellion against God's commandments.
Teaching Points
The Call to Remember
Remembering God's past faithfulness is crucial for maintaining faith and courage in the present. Reflect on how God has worked in your life and the lives of others.

Courage in Faith
The command to "be brave" suggests that remembering God's truth should lead to boldness in living out one's faith, even in the face of opposition or personal failure.

Heart Transformation
"Take it to heart" implies a deep, internal change. True remembrance of God’s works should lead to repentance and transformation, moving from transgression to obedience.

Acknowledging Sin
Recognizing oneself as a "transgressor" is the first step toward repentance. Acknowledge areas of sin in your life and seek God's forgiveness and strength to overcome them.

God's Unchanging Nature
The context of Isaiah 46 emphasizes God's sovereignty and unchanging nature. Trust in God's eternal power and plan, even when circumstances seem uncertain.
Bible Study Questions
1. What specific acts of God in your life can you remember that encourage you to be brave in your faith today?

2. How does acknowledging your own transgressions help you to take God's words to heart more seriously?

3. In what ways can you cultivate a habit of remembering God's faithfulness in your daily routine?

4. How does the call to "be brave" in Isaiah 46:8 relate to the courage required to live out your faith in today's world?

5. How can the warnings and encouragements in Isaiah 46:8 be applied to the church community as a whole, and what role can you play in that application?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Deuteronomy 6:12
This verse warns the Israelites not to forget the Lord who brought them out of Egypt. It connects to Isaiah 46:8 by emphasizing the importance of remembering God's past acts and faithfulness.

Psalm 77:11-12
These verses speak of remembering the deeds of the Lord and meditating on His works, similar to the call in Isaiah 46:8 to "remember" and "take it to heart."

Hebrews 3:12-13
This New Testament passage warns believers to be vigilant against a sinful, unbelieving heart, paralleling the call in Isaiah 46:8 to be brave and remember God's truth.
God's Call to Exercise Right ReasonR. Tuck Isaiah 46:8
Manliness in Relation to ReligionW. Clarkson Isaiah 46:8
The Religion of Jehovah Contrasted with IdolatryE. Johnson Isaiah 46:1-13
People
Isaiah, Jacob
Places
Babylon, Cush, Zion
Topics
Assured, Bring, Consider, Fast, Fix, Heart, Memory, Mind, O, Rebels, Recall, Remember, Shamed, Shew, Sinners, Stand, Transgressors, Turn, Yourselves
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Isaiah 46:7

     5159   hearing
     5168   muteness
     5845   emptiness
     8748   false religion

Isaiah 46:5-7

     5132   biting

Isaiah 46:6-7

     7324   calf worship

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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