In Isaiah, chapter forty-six, verse one, “Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth, their idols were upon the beasts, and upon the cattle: your carriages were heavy loaden; they are a burden to the weary beast.” Bel, also called Merodach, as in Jeremiah fifty, verse two, (Declare ye among the nations, and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and conceal not: say, Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces; her idols are confounded, her images are broken in pieces) was the chief deity of Babylon; Nebo was the god of learning, writing, and astronomy. These gods could not keep Babylon from being destroyed.
The heathen insulted the people of God, as if their idols Bel and Nebo were too hard for Jehovah. But their worshippers cannot help them; both the idols and the idolaters are gone into captivity. Let not God’s people be afraid of either. Those things from which ungodly men expect safety and happiness will be found unable to save them from death and hell. The true God will never fail His worshippers. The history of every believer in their life is a kind of abstract of the history of Israel. Our spiritual life is upheld by His grace, as constantly as our natural life by His providence.
God will never leave nor forsake them. The Author will be the Finisher of their well-being, when, by decay, they need help as much as in infancy. This promise to Israel, enfeebled and grown old as a nation, will apply to every aged follower of Christ.
These idols were upon the beasts – That is, they are laid upon the beasts to be borne away in triumph. It was customary for conquerors to carry away all that was splendid and valuable, to grace their triumph on their return.