SCRIPTURE: Isaiah 46
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
To whom will you compare me or count me equal? To whom will you liken me that we may be compared? [Isaiah 46:5]
In this chapter Isaiah is exposing the folly of comparing God to idols, or to anyone else.
Whether a hand-carved idol or a mighty king or warrior, neither can compare with God!
Statues just stand there, and strong people eventually get weak and die, but God is always God, above and beyond the flux of time and change.
We can rely on God, He will never let us down.
Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you. [Isaiah 46:4]

If Jesus were just another human teacher, claiming to have the power to change the world, He would be just like every other boastful human making that claim.
Jesus replied, “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. [John 8:54]
But Jesus is supported by God’s power and authority, His amazing claims are backed by God Himself.
While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” [Matthew 17:5]
Jesus is God with us, the only “image” of God that can help us [Colossians 1:15]; we need God’s help because our very best efforts are but idols subject to the flux of time and change.
But not Jesus – we believe that He is the eternal God embodied in time and space.
‘Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.’ ‘You are not yet fifty years old,’ the Jews said to him, ‘and you have seen Abraham!’ ‘I tell you the truth,’ Jesus answered, ‘before Abraham was born, I am!’ At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds. [John 8:56-59]

Jesus claims – and is supported by God in this – to be the great “I AM”, the Lord of heaven and earth, above and beyond the flux of time and change.
God has entered our world, become like us, to rescue us because we cannot rescue ourselves.
Our confidence in Jesus is not just as a great human hero (like Buddha or Ghandi or Martin Luther King) but in Immanuel (‘God with us’), the great I am in the flesh, the fullness of God in a body.
We are not putting our confidence in the work of human hands, or in a great human, but in God Himself.
He can be compared to God, He is counted as His equal, He is like God!
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. [Hebrews 13:8]
He is the one that says to us today: Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you. [Isaiah 46:4]

PRAYER:
Lord Jesus, thank You that You are our anchor to eternity, our eternal friend and sustainer and helper! Though everything around us is flux and change, You are our solid rock, stable and secure for all time!