Spoke 2

Isaiah 46 - The Idols Stoop!

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. They stoop, they bow down together; they could not deliver the burden, but themselves are gone into captivity.

Isaiah 46.1f

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.

Jeremiah 50.2

Duality, Division, Image and Reflection are the themes of Spoke 2 - common to both the Bible Wheel and the Inner Wheel of Isaiah. This manifests in the prohibition of images and idols in the Second Commandment, and it is a major theme found linking Inner Wheels > Isaiah 2 and Exodus, as well as Inner Wheels > Isaiah 24 and Jeremiah. The expected correlation between Isaiah 46 and I Corinthians is mediated primarily through direct links to the Book of Jeremiah which itself is profoundly integrated with I Corinthians through the ideas of God's Glory, Wisdom, and Power, as discussed in Glory in the Lord.

The passage from Isaiah 46 is an example of divine humor - the mocking of the idols that bob up and down as they are carried on the backs of animals, as if they were in the act of worship rather than the object of it. This links directly to the Spoke 2 theme of the Second Commandment which prohibits both the making of idols and the bowing down to them. The two passages quoted above are also linked by a very simple KeyLink since they are the only verses in all the Bible that mention the idol Bel. This is a weaving of Thread 1 (Bible Wheel) with Thread 2 (Isaiah - Bible Correlation) so now we see a Spoke 2 KeyLink between Cell 24 of the Bible Wheel and Cell 46 of the Inner Wheel of Isaiah. We can write these links using modnotation to make the correlation clear. The link is between Cell 46 (46 = 2₃ i.e. Spoke 2, Cycle 3) of the Inner Wheel of Isaiah and Cell 24 (24 = 2₂ i.e. Spoke 2, Cycle 2) of the Bible Wheel:

	Spoke 2 KeyLink Set: (Bel, idols)
	PIsaiah( 23 ) PBible( 22 )

Here is an image of what is going on:

The Red Dot represents Book 24 (Jeremiah) and the Blue Dot represents Isaiah 46 on Spoke 2 of the Inner Wheel of Isaiah. This is a very interesting KeyLink that only appears when we integrate Thread 1 (Bible Wheel) with Thread 2 (Isaiah - Bible Correlation). If we were studying only one or the other of these two Threads then this pair of verses would not form any kind of geometric link because in the Bible Wheel, Isaiah is on Spoke 1 and Jeremiah on Spoke 2, and in the Isaiah - Bible Correlation, Isaiah 46 corresponds only to 1 Corinthians. But when we unite Thread 1 and Thread 2 we can see that these verses are linked thematically and geometrically, with the linking theme itself integrated with the Second Commandment and the meaning of the Second Letter!

There is yet a deeper connection between these passages. They both use the relatively rare word (Etsab, Idol) which appears only 17 times in all the Bible, and only once in Jeremiah and twice in Isaiah. And yet despite its rarity - it appears only three times in Isaiah and Jeremiah combined - this is the word translated as idols in the two verses above! This means that the KeyLink based on the name of the idol Bel also by the KeyLink based on the name of the idol Bel. As an aside, the numerical weight of (Etsab, Idol) is 162 which coincides exactly with the number of letters in the Second Commandment. Cf. GR 162.

Yet this is but the beginning. Continuing in Isaiah 46, verses 3f:

They stoop, they bow down together; they could not deliver the burden, but themselves are gone into captivity. Hearken unto 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.

This is a beautiful promise! Rather than we carrying some dead and dumb idols, God promises to carry us through all the days of our lives. There is also another KeyLink between this verse and the opening verses of Jeremiah. Searching the entire KJV for all verses containing the word belly and womb within a couple verses of captive or captivity yields exactly two verses; Isaiah 46.2f quoted above, and this from Jeremiah 1.3f:

It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month. Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.

Thus, we have another KeyLink between Spoke 2 of the Inner Wheel of Isaiah and the Bible Wheel:

	Spoke 2 KeyLink Set: (belly, womb, near captiv*)
	PIsaiah( 23 ) PBible( 22 )

Continuing with Isaiah 46 we find the fundamental Spoke 2 theme of Duality explicitly brought to the forefront (v. 5f):

To whom will ye liken me, and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be like? They lavish gold out of the bag, and weigh silver in the balance, and hire a goldsmith; and he maketh it a god: they fall down, yea, they worship. They bear him upon the shoulder, they carry him, and set him in his place, and he standeth; from his place shall he not remove: yea, one shall cry unto him, yet can he not answer, nor save him out of his trouble.

The idea of comparison is the fundamentally dualistic. It relates to the ideas of Image and Reflection as is made perfectly clear by the Lord's statement that there is none who is like him. The relation to the Second Commandment, where God explicitly prohibits having any other gods or making any images - is made explicit when God moves directly from asking "To whom will you liken me" to mocking the makers of idols.

Finally, the identity of God Almighty is declared with perfect clarity in Isaiah 46.8f

Remember this, and shew yourselves men: bring it again to mind, O ye transgressors. Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure: Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it. Hearken unto me, ye stouthearted, that are far from righteousness: I bring near my righteousness; it shall not be far off, and my salvation shall not tarry: and I will place salvation in Zion for Israel my glory.

Questions? Comments? Join the discussion on the Bible Wheel Forum!