Isaiah Chapter 46 : Introduction:
A famous preacher once said that “a ship in the water is alright but water in the ship isn’t.”
Today we live in Babylon. It is not Ancient Babylon of course, however the pagan hedonistic, materialistic, idolatrous, multi-faith, immoral, violent, and pleasure loving lifestyles that characterised Ancient Babylon are a plague in western democracies today, especially in those nations that were historically associated with Biblical Judeo-Christianity.
When the LORD gave Moses the Ten Commandments He put Idolatry at the top of the list. In fact God chose to found a nation through Abraham, a nation that would be free from idolatry and be His nation and that He would be their God and reveal Himself through them to the pagan nations steeped in idolatry.
Ultimately through Israel the LORD would bring into the world the Messiah, the Eternal Word of God Himself as a flesh and blood man, one who was fully human and fully divine to bring salvation for Israel and for the whole world (Matthew 1:21) (John 1:1-3,14-15, 29) (1 John 2:2).
Idolatry was the number one sin that permeated every ancient civilization. Another famous godly man said; “Within each one of us there is a God-shaped vacuum that can only be filled with God.”
You can go to a primitive tribe anywhere in the world and you will see their ‘gods.’ God has set eternity in the hearts of men, making them aware of someone outside and a greater unseen power and presence than themselves (Ecclesiastes 3:11).
This fact in itself shows that man was created to worship their creator and enjoy a personal relationship with Him but through incoming sin have misplaced their affections on other visible things (Romans 1:18-32).
In ancient cultures these nations built idols of wood and stone and worshipped them and in reality were worshipping demons which is the reality behind all idol worship in whatever form it comes (Deuteronomy 32:16-18) (Psalm 106:36-37) (1 Corinthians 10:20).
In Isaiah Chapter 46 the LORD declares to Israel that idolatry is a burden to the unsaved that they do not recognise and that drives them on in their idolatry which never satisfies them in the end. The LORD also reminds Israel that He is the only true God who carries His people and does not burden them but cares for them as the Living Triune God!
The LORD also reminds His people that He is the God of eternity, who knows the beginning and the end of all things on earth, under the earth and in the universe itself, one who has always existed and will always exist, and that a thousand of our years on earth is as one day to Him in heaven (2 Peter 3:8).
In this chapter of scripture God compares Himself as the one and only true and living Triune God with the other ‘gods’ that are dead lifeless images incapable of any response. He also declares that His Word is final and also declares that salvation will come to Israel which was manifested in the Messiah our Lord Jesus through whom God would grant salvation to His people and reveal His splendour to Israel.
With these things in view let’s now look at this chapter in Isaiah…
Isaiah Chapter 46: Exposition:
(Vs. 1-2) “Bel bows down, Nebo stoops low; their idols are borne by beasts of burden. The images that are carried about are burdensome, a burden for the weary. They stoop and bow down together; unable to rescue the burden, they themselves go off into captivity.”
Ancient Babylon was a vast city that was so rich and luxurious and its opulence known and revered by the other nations in the whole Middle-Eastern region. The famous hanging gardens of Babylon were designated by historians as one of the Seven Wonders of the World.
The opulence and wealth of this city was so widespread that any and everything needed to please the flesh was available. It was a multi-religious, multi-faith empire that allowed religion and sexual perversion connected to it to flourish provided the deities worshiped did not usurp the divinity the kings of Babylon heaped upon themselves.
God Himself knew the true nature of idolatry and that those who were enslaved to it on the outside might laugh and indulge in their pleasures but that deep down on the inside they would never be satisfied. We know from scripture that the pleasure of sin only lasts for a season (Hebrews 11:25b), and then comes death both physical and spiritual death.
As we read in Proverbs; “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Proverbs 14:12). After physical death the unsaved face judgement. Annihilation does not exist in eternity (Hebrews 9:27).
Now idolatry is a very serious sin because it usurps the priority the LORD has to receive our worship and loyalty. Idols today come in various ways. Whatever we place more importance on than keeping centred on the LORD is an idol.
It may be a fixation with what we watch on television or over the internet; it may well be a fixation with money, wealth, prominence, power, prestige, promotion at work and having an abundance of material possessions and even sport can become an idol.
Anything that becomes an addiction becomes an idol. The one addicted becomes a slave to that which has mastered him (2 Peter 2:19).
There is nothing wrong with having money, living in a comfortable home, having a successful career, enjoying some movies although circumspection and discernment is needed, or following a favourite football team, or a personal relationship with others within scriptural boundaries of course.
There is nothing wrong with driving a car or having material possessions, however when these things become the priority over our loyalty to the LORD and doing His will they become idols.
If we do not avoid idolatry then eventually we will become enslaved to those things we submit to in our lives instead of submitting to the LORD and at that point we open ourselves up to demonic influences, that spiritual stronghold that only the blood of Messiah can break when it is confessed and surrendered by faith into God’s hands to deal with it (1 John 1:9) (1 John 2:1-2).
We are to live by faith and repent by faith. True repentance has everything to do with our will and even though it will affect our feelings or emotions to a lesser or greater degree, it is not these that are the barometer of that spiritual work of the Holy Spirit within us.
When by faith and with a desire to be an obedient child of God by surrendering our will in to God’s hands and that ‘idol’ which we are having trouble deliverance comes. In his first epistle the apostle John ends his letter with; “Dear children, keep yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:12).
Idolatry not dealt with will bring a burden deep down on the inside of those embracing it and hinder spiritual progress. It produces a burden that weighs them deep down on the inside bringing the idolater into captivity to what he or she has become enslaved to.
It is only the Lord Jesus that can break the power of idols in our lives when we want to be free from that which we have been clinging to, and has been weighing us down with guilt and weariness of soul and spirit.
Idolatry not dealt with will ultimately distance us from the sense of God’s presence. Heartfelt confession will restore the sense of God’s presence (Psalm 32:1-5).
God is always willing to cleanse us and to spiritually restore us when we repent and seek to make Him the No 1 priority in our lives, seeking with the help of the blessed Holy Spirit to cling to the LORD. God wants to pardon us and deliver us from all and every act of sin including the sin of idolatry.
As Isaiah also says; “Seek the LORD while He may be found; call on Him while He is near. Let the wicked man forsake his own way and the unrighteous man his own thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that He may have compassion, and to our God, for He will freely (abundantly) pardon” (Isaiah 55:6-7).
As the Messiah our Lord Jesus said; “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:28-29).
And so we read what the LORD now says to His people in regards to the fact that He is the only true and living God and who is the only one that can care for His people.
(Vs.3-4) “Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all you who remain of the house of Israel, you whom I have upheld since you were conceived, and have carried since your birth. Even to your old age and grey 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.”
God Himself declares that from the time He birthed the nation of Israel through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, that He had upheld them as a nation and carried them and that there were those advanced in age that had proven this to be true in their walk with Him.
He also declares that He is the one who will always sustain His people because He has created all men for He knows our frame; He is mindful that we are dust. (Psalm 130:14). He is reminding Israel that He is the only one who can sustain them both spiritually and physically and rescue them from those who are stronger than they are.
Indeed does not Rabbi the apostle Paul also remind us that our Triune God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us (Ephesians 3:20).
Indeed the LORD says who can compare or even compete with Him, most certainly not those wicked entities in the unseen spiritual realm that hover over and around those idols that we are confronted with every day that produce in us at times heaviness of spirit through manifold temptations (1 Peter 1:6).
C.H. Spurgeon likened this experience to being chained to a corpse. Rabbi the apostle Paul knew this when he said that in his flesh dwelt no good thing worthy of God’s approval (Romans 7:18).
Now the LORD continues to compare those ‘gods’ with Himself as being the only true and living and eternal Triune God who does not change…
(Vs.5) “To whom will you compare Me or count me equal? To whom will you liken Me that we may be compared?
There is no comparison at all! There is no one in the heavens, on earth and under the earth and in the whole universe itself and beyond who can compare with our Triune God. He who holds all things together by the powerful word of His Son (Hebrews 1:3).
Tried and tested Job through his great affliction and trial came to understand this great attribute of our Triune God when, after the LORD had revealed His eternal creative presence and sovereignty over all He had created, Job declared; ““I know that You can do all things, And that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted” (Job 42:2).
Now the LORD continues to reveal the absolute futility of idolatry.
(Vs.6-7) “Some pour out gold from their bags and weigh out silver on the scales; they hire a goldsmith to make it into a god, and they bow down and worship it. They lift it to their shoulders and carry it; they set it up in its place, and there it stands. From that spot it cannot move. Though one cries out to it, it does not answer; it cannot save him from his troubles.”
A man or a woman striving through life not wanting to have anything to do with God may become rich and have material wealth in abundance and have accolades and honours heaped upon them by man.
They may work hard at building a reputation, a business, a relationship, a movie career and storing up their treasures on earth. However, when the chips are down and adversity and trouble come their way such as sickness, bankruptcy, poverty, a broken relationship or a career that has come crashing down, can their ‘idols’ save them? Can their idols save them from trouble?
This is why we see God reminding Israel of the fact that those idols they embraced had no power to rescue them in times of adversity or when their enemies attacked them.
Undoubtedly when the Hebrew exiles taken from Jerusalem back to Babylon saw the grandeur and opulence of Babylon they were over awed with its architecture and culture. In the end only a remnant were spared and came back to Israel.
It is interesting to note that historically the city of Babylon was never destroyed but atrophied over time. Even in the time of the Greek Empire Alexander the Great was so enamoured by the grandeur of the City of Babylon that for some time he made his headquarters in that city.
In the Book of Daniel we see a faithful remnant of three Hebrews who did not bow down to Nebuchadnezzar’s golden idol. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who, when faced with a fiery furnace said to the king; “If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up” (Daniel 3:17-18).
They had their deliverance either from the flames or through the flames. In their case the pre-incarnate Messiah kept them in and through the fire but not from it (Daniel 3:24-25).
(Vs.8) “Remember this, fix it in mind, take it to heart, you rebels.”
Her we read where the LORD warns Israel about idolatry and that those who indulge in it He designates as rebels. God says they were “to remember” describing; “to “recall, keeping in remembrance, to make a record, and to make a memorial.”
He says also that they were “to fix it in mind” describing; “a turning back to what they know is the right thing to do before God and to commit it to memory and themselves to this action and not allow it to be idle.”
They were “to take it to heart” describing; “surrendering to God every inclination, resolution, the determination of their will and the seat of their appetites, emotions and passions, and to be courageous to continue doing it keeping in mind that not to do so would make them rebels.”
Now the LORD tells them what they were to take to the very seat of their affections, to remember what He had done for them in the past and what He always does according to His good, acceptable, wise and perfect sovereign will.
He now tells them what they are in fact to remember, to keep in mind, and to take to heart.
(Vs.9-10) “Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me.”
In spiritual matters it is so easy to forget what God has done for us in the past. We become busy with daily life and everyday are confronted with idolatry through the published media, the television and the internet all designed by the prince of the power of the air (the atmosphere) to distract us from our relationship with the LORD.
When we are faced with difficulties, trials and tests it is so easy to forget, however it is spiritually healthy for us in such circumstances to remember how the LORD has delivered us and taken care of us in the past. He has promised never to leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5).
A major event for the Israelites to always remember was their divine protection under the blood of the lamb from the angel of death and of their deliverance out of slavery in Egypt and how the LORD swept away Pharaoh and the whole Egyptian army in the Red Sea (Exodus Chapter 14).
This awesome event of course is a picture of our salvation as New Covenant believers in that Egypt is a type of the world with its luxuries, passions, desires and self-centred self- gratifying ambitions and the hot bed for the sins of the flesh and rampant idolatry.
The blood of the Passover Lamb splashed on the doorposts of the Israelites homes in Egypt represents the blood of the Messiah that atones for our sins and that cleanses the doorposts of our hearts, that justifies us before God and protects us from the wrath to come (Romans 5:9).
Pharaoh is a type of the god of this world Satan. Moses is a type of the Messiah our Lord Jesus who leads us out of the Egypt of this world, from under the power of its overlord Satan and leads us to the Promised Land. When the waters of the Red Sea swept over the Egyptians the water severed the Israelites from Egypt.
The Israelites being led by Moses safely through the path God opened for them in the red Sea represents the Messiah taking us out of the Egypt of this world into the Promised Land which is exemplified in Christian Baptism (1 Corinthians 10:1-4). The water cut the Israelites off from Egypt.
Through baptism we show that we have died to the old way of living according to the appetites, desires and ambitions of the Egypt of this world through the new spiritual rebirth from above into the new life of the Kingdom of God (Romans 6:1-7) (2 Corinthians 5:17).
Throughout their wilderness journey for 40 years, God provided for the Israelites in miraculous ways.
The daily provision of manna (Exodus 16:35), quail (Numbers 11:31-32), and water (Numbers 20:11) were constant reminders of His faithfulness. Additionally, they had the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night to guide their travels, signifying God’s continual presence (Exodus 13:21-22).
These things they were to remember. What ‘god’ or ‘idol’ (unseen wicked principality) had done anything like that for them? What can this world offer of eternal and lasting value? Can the ‘gods’ of the ‘Egypt’ of this world deliver anyone from sickness and death?
Godly Job in his afflictions and destitution of everything including his health had his perspective of life deepened through his time of affliction.
As we read; “Then Job stood up, tore his robe, and shaved his head. He fell to the ground and worshiped, saying: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD.” In all this, Job did not sin or charge God with wrongdoing” (Job 1:20-22).
He came to understand that the best thing to hope for in this dying and decaying temporary world was one’s eternal destiny in the presence of the one and only Triune God.
As we also read what Job said; “When He is at work in the north, I cannot behold Him; when He turns to the south, I cannot see Him. Yet He knows the way I have taken; when He has tested me, I will come forth as gold” (Job 23:9-10).
Stripped of all comfort this world could offer his eyes were fixed on eternity and on the pre-incarnate Messiah His umpire in heaven. He declared; “Even now my witness (umpire, advocate) is in heaven, and my advocate is on high” (Job 16:19).
And again we read what he said; “As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, And at the last He will take His stand on the earth. “Even after my skin is destroyed, Yet from my flesh I shall see God; Whom I myself shall behold, And whom my eyes will see and not another. My heart faints within me!” (Job 19:25-27).
Next time you are passing through a situation that requires a total trust in the LORD remember what He has done for you in the past and how He has protected you from yourself, from daunting situations and from circumstances that threatened to overwhelm you and even sustained you through that time of infirmity of body and soul.
Even if we have nothing else in this world, even if it seems our prayers go unanswered, we have the hope of eternity stamped on our hearts by the Spirit of God Himself who has sealed us for the day of redemption, that day when we will be free from poverty sickness and death and from the very presence of sin itself which so easily can entangle us as we sojourn through the Egypt of this world with its lures, its idols and passions.
It was the late David Wilkerson who used to say; “God still has everything under control” and He does you know! God Himself goes on to declare to Israel…
“I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.”
There is great comfort for us as New Covenant believers in Messiah in that our Triune God is absolutely sovereign in everything that happens on earth in the universe, in heaven and under the earth in Sheol.
He whom inhabits eternity where time as we know it down here does not exist, where there is no past, present or future. He makes known what will happen and has made what has happened having eternal foreknowledge of all things including the very deepest thoughts and inclinations and intents of the seat of our affections (the heart).
As it is written; “man looks only on the outward appearance but God looks upon the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).
God knows the future and how things will end and we see this amply revealed from the Book of Genesis to the Book of Revelation.
Everything that is happening in this world is under His control. There are many things we cannot fathom or understand in this life, why there is such suffering in this world which cannot be adequately explained even though we know it is a result of the presence of sin and the wicked perverted work of Satan.
Many want to know the future especially in today’s world that is rapidly deteriorating spiritually, physically, socially, economically and racked with disease, war, famine, earthquakes, ecological disasters and famines all being “the birth pains” that must precede the Second Coming of Messiah to bring to birth the Messianic Kingdom on earth for 1,000 years! (Matthew 24:6-8).
In these last days the LORD is revealing His end-time prophetic purposes for this world and Israel is His prophetic time-clock for the nations.
No matter what Satan does, no matter what the political leaders of nations conjure up, no matter how many antichrists arise and the ultimate Antichrist who is coming, God will sweep them all away in His divine wrath (Proverbs 10:25) (Zephaniah 1:2-3) (Proverbs 21:7) (Psalm 73:19) (Psalm 58:9) (Psalm 90:5) (1 Samuel 12:25) (Matthew 24:36-41).
In the end His purposes will stand when all else has failed and He will do all that He pleases to do according to His infinitely wise, loving, good, acceptable, and perfect will. Job understood this when he exclaimed; “I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted” (Job 42:1-2).
The nations may rage against the LORD and his anointed Messiah our Lord Jesus being God the eternal Son who will be enthroned in Jerusalem, but in the end our Triune God will have the last laugh over there futile plans, dashing them to pieces and by His Son ruling over them with a rod of iron (Psalm Chapter 2).
As it has been said; “God does what He wants, when He wants, in whatever way He wants and with whomsoever He wants and asks no man’s opinion!” Even creation itself and the birds of the air will respond when He summons them for his purposes. As we read…
(Vs.11) “From the east I summon a bird of prey; from a far-off land, a man to fulfil my purpose. What I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do.”
God sets up kings and deposes them (Daniel 2:21). It is God who judges. He puts one down and exalts another (Psalm 75:7). He is sovereign in the time of elections when political leaders are being chosen by the people.
Can we make room for the sovereignty of God in all things in the heavens, on earth and under the earth?
God summons even the birds and especially He will do this when He judges the armies of the Islamic Antichrist who will fall on the mountains of Israel and whose bodies will become a feast for the birds of the air (Ezekiel 39:17-20) (Revelation 19:21). As it has also been said; “Man proposes but God disposes!”
For us as New Covenant born again Bible believers in Messiah it is comforting to know that when the man of sin is revealed and the saints are persecuted in every nation that God will say to this wicked man indwelt by Satan. God always says; “This far and no more!”
When the Rider on the White Horse appears coming in the clouds of heaven with the armies of heaven in His train He will bring His fiery judgement all those who have persecuted His people and rebelled against Him (Psalm Chapter 45) (Isaiah 63:1-6) (2 Thessalonians 1:6-10) (Revelation 1911-21). Once again God makes this proclamation “What I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do.”
And finally we read…
(Vs.12-13) “Listen to Me, you stubborn-hearted, you who are far from righteousness. I am bringing my righteousness near, it is not far away; and my salvation will not be delayed. I will grant salvation to Zion, My splendour to Israel.”
At the time God was speaking through His prophet Isaiah, also known as the evangelist of the Old Testament, and once again speaking through him to announce the salvation that was coming to Israel in the Messiah.
He who is the eternal pre-incarnate Word of God Himself, who would be manifested at His incarnation as a flesh and blood man and tabernacle among us to bring Salvation to Israel and to the whole world (John 1:1-5, 14-15, 29).
At the time of this prophecy in Isaiah chapter 46 Israel by and large were “stubborn hearted” and “far from righteousness.” To these God was saying that He would bring to Israel the perfect image of His righteousness revealed in His eternal Son as Israel’s’ only saviour and Messiah.
While there were centuries between the time Isaiah lived and the Messiah lived in time down here, in eternity it was already an established reality in that the Lamb of God was slain from before the foundation of the world (1 Peter 1:19-20) (Revelation 13:8).
Even from the Garden of Eden Satan was already judged and defeated in eternity and in time on this earth his defeat was fully manifested at the cross (Genesis 3:15) (Colossians 2:15).
The time when Israel’s Messiah would bring them eternal salvation was not being delayed as God in eternality had already fixed a time when He would manifest Himself to Israel and to the Gentile nations through one man being His one and only begotten Son visibly manifested in flesh who radiated the very glory and splendour of God the Father and full of His unmerited, unearned favour and truth (John 1:14).
Epilogue:
Only our Triune God Himself is the one and only true God, He who will not tolerate idolatry in His people. He who knows that the idols of this temporary life down here in the Egypt of this world have no eternal value whatsoever, and that in times of great calamity cannot help anyone.
Only our Triune God can uphold all who through the spiritual rebirth from above have had conceived in their hearts the very life of God Himself, having in reality become partakers of the divine nature through the indwelling Holy Spirit using the Word of God as the instrument of His divine power and presence (John 3:3) (2 Peter 1:4).
Only our Triune God knows the end from the beginning being the Alpha and Omega and declares to all men what He knows and has planned for all of eternity, and whose purposes stand and as the one who does whatever He pleases to do and asks no man’s permission!
He has brought His salvation near through His one and only begotten eternal Son the Messiah our Lord Jesus, the eternal Word of God Himself who became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14).
Only our Triune God has brought the light and life of salvation to Israel in the Messiah our Lord Jesus and the one who at the end of this present age will be revealed to His faithful remnant in Israel chosen by God’s unmerited favour and foreknowledge to be saved and to co-reign with the Messiah on earth (Revelation 5:10).
Once more Israel will have a king sitting on David’s throne and ruling with a rod of iron over the nations that have survived His Second Coming. Is the Messiah our Lord and Saviour sitting on the seat of your affections? Is He sitting on the throne of your life?
Have you been spiritually reborn from above? Have you repented, having been supernaturally changed by the Holy Spirit deep down on the inside from a Messiah hating, Messiah rejecting way of life to a Messiah loving, Messiah accepting way of life?
Have you been to Him for cleansing and forgiveness of all of your sins through faith in Him and in His blood shed for you to atone for your sins? He who is the undefiled spotless Passover Lamb sacrificed for us, and by that same faith have received the very righteousness of God being the righteous nature of the Messiah Himself (1 Corinthians 5:7) (Romans 3:21-26) (Philippians 3:9) (1 Corinthians 1:30-31).
Our Triune God has brought his salvation near, He is no longer far away but ready and willing to pardon and to cleanse you from all and every sin by the pure blood of the Messiah untainted by sin that can remove the darkest and deepest stain of sin (Hebrews 9:14).
As that old hymn goes; “Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are you fully trusting in His grace this hour? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are you washed in the blood, In the soul-cleansing blood of the Lamb? Are your garments spotless? Are they white as snow? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? (1 John 1:7-9).
Our Triune God is going to grant salvation to Israel at the end of this present age and gather to Himself His faithful remnant to co-reign with Him on earth and to be with Him after that in the New Jerusalem which will descend from heaven at the end of the 1,000 year Messianic Kingdom (Revelation 21:1-4).
Indeed our Triune God wants us to have the light of life the Messiah Himself our Lord Jesus dwelling and shining in our hearts for time and for eternity being the only fire escape from hell and the lake of fire prepared for the devil and his angels, and the place where those who have rejected salvation will end up (Matthew 25:41) (Revelation 14:9-11; 21:8).
The Messiah our Lord Jesus said; “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).
Our Triune God is saying to both the unsaved and the backslider in heart “My salvation will not be delayed” to those who seek Me with all of their being. He knows the plans He has for us and is more willing to activate them in us than our willingness to receive them, so gracious and tender is He towards us, who by nature and birth are great sinners and rebels in his sight (Jeremiah 29:11-12).
Indeed as Isaiah writes; “Seek the LORD while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way And the unrighteous man his thoughts; And let him return to the LORD, And He will have compassion on him, And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon” (Isaiah 55:6-7).
If you are as yet unsaved or have spiritually backslidden and desire to turn back to the LORD then He our Triune God is still saying to you “My Salvation will not be delayed” Selah.
