Isaiah 46:1-4. False gods, idols (here, Bel and Nebo - two Babylonian idols) stoop and need to be carried about. These idols you carry are "loaded as burdens on wearied beasts." They cannot save - they go into captivity along with their worshipers. But God has been with Israel since birth. He carried them from the womb and will remain with them, carrying them, until old age. "I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save."

When we worship idols - anything we put priority on ahead of God - they become burdens to us. We end up carrying them - devoting more and more of our time, emotions, resources, and well-being to satisfying them, even after they no longer satisfy us. Think of any addiction. We become slaves to our attachments, our idols, to sin. And they become burdens to us, sometimes very severe burdens, indeed.

Often we need to follow our idols very far down into misery until we realize that they are idols and must be given up, just as the Israelites had to endure the Babylonian exile before they realized they had turned from God. This is very unfortunate and painful, but it is the consequence of sin and the Fall. Our suffering is purging us of our attachments, better to go through it here and now than to never realize we've been sinning until it's too late!

God, the source of all life, all love, all goodness, never burdens us - he carries us, he bears the consequences of our sin, even to the point of death on the cross. Once we truly see this, filled with gratitude and joy, we start putting him first in all things, because he is first in all things! Then everything becomes easier, lighter - we realize he is carrying us - we are yoked with Jesus! The suffering does not all go away, there will always be suffering in this world, but our outlook on it completely changes. Instead of our "gods" inflicting the suffering on us, we see that the God is carrying us through this mess we've gotten ourselves into!

God did not create the world and us to suffer, we brought that on ourselves, but like a loving father, he will help us through it, while also letting us learn the lessons of it.