“Bel bows down, Nebo stoops, their idols were upon the beasts, and upon the cattle: your carriages were heavy laden; they are a burden to the weary beast. They stoop, they bow down together; they could not deliver the burden, but themselves are gone into captivity. Hearken to 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: 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” (Isaiah 66:1-4).
The great test of our religion is twofold: Will it carry? Will it deliver? Every false religion breaks down under this simple test. A false religion, or a true one taken up falsely, has to be carried. True religion carries. A false religion cannot deliver; a true one must.
A false religion is exhibited in its blackest colours in heathendom. False gods are a burden, as our text says. They have to be carried, and they impose weariness upon their votaries. What a weight of useless, disgusting customs, what a superstitious power the heathen groans under. Mark that frenzied worshipper of a false god as she throws her offspring under the crushing wheels of Juggernaut. Tell me when a mother, loving her child with the purest affection of any of earth, is forced to do this as the direct outcome of her heathen worship, that she is not carrying a crushing burden? Or is the worshipper sick? Then he sends for a witch doctor or uses a fetish, and again the awful yoke of a false religion is clearly seen. Aye, and when death in all its terrible power closes in upon the heathen, can his false religion deliver him? Can these gods—stocks and stones—carry the soul of the worshipper into heaven, or such heaven as he dreams of? They may beat their drums, and make the night hideous with their wailings and incantations, but not all they can do will deliver that precious soul from captivity.
But to come nearer home. We live in a so-called Christian land, and yet there are untold thousands who make a profession of Christianity, and yet know nothing of its reality. All such are carrying a burden, and journeying towards captivity just as much as the dark, benighted heathen. In taking up the profession of Christianity they take it up in its outward form, and are strangers to its inward power. This outward form is a burden grievous to be borne; to the real Christian Christ’s yoke is easy and His burden light. I pity from my heart the unconverted Sunday-school teacher, district visitor, tract distributer, communicant, office bearer, or minister. If earnest, what burdens they carry. It takes real love for the Lord, and all the support He gives, to rightly take up Christian work, however simple. Only saved men and women can truly engage in it. And then when death comes, what can mere profession do for those who have taken it up? Absolutely nothing. The mere professor of a true religion goes into the same captivity as the poor deceived devotee of a heathen religion.
But to come still nearer home. Whilst true Christians must surely reach the Lord’s presence at last, yet it is possible for a true Christian to get out of touch with the living God. The Galatians did so by adopting legality, and thus grieving the Spirit. To be tossed about by every wind of doctrine, as the Ephesians were warned against, would lead to the same result. It is possible to be so infatuated with some particular teacher or school of teaching that we get out of touch with God, and in reality have a heavy burden to carry. A load of distorted truth becomes error indeed, for the worst error is that which is most like the truth.
Like an oasis in the barren desert of man’s imagination and effort is the refreshing thought of the test of the true God—that He is able to carry and deliver. He pledged Himself thus to Israel, and will He be less to us, who are His children, His heirs and joint heirs with Christ, His beloved Son? Assuredly not.
And see how tenderly God appeals to the past as His pledge for the future. He had carried His people from the womb; He would carry them to old age and hoar hairs—from the weakness of infancy to the weakness of old age, and at the end God says emphatically to them, “And will deliver you.”
And cannot we Christians testify that God has carried us up to this very moment? Has He not supported us through many trials and helped us past many dangers? Experience works hope, “and hope makes not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us.”
Then just as He has carried us in the past, so He will in the future, even to hoar hairs. And when death comes, if the Lord Jesus should tarry, we shall be delivered. In spirit we are delivered now through the work of the Lord Jesus, and by the supply of the Spirit; then it will be experimental and actual.
What a God Christ has made known to us!