A Challenge to the Gods

7, 8. How does Jehovah challenge the gods of the nations?

⁷ Under the Mosaic Law, a repurchaser​—normally a male next of kin—​could buy a person out of bondage. (Leviticus 25:47-54; Ruth 2:20) Jehovah now identifies himself as Israel’s Repurchaser​—the one who will redeem the nation, to the embarrassment of Babylon and all her gods. (Jeremiah 50:34) He confronts the false gods and their worshipers, saying: “This is what Jehovah has said, the King of Israel and the Repurchaser of him, Jehovah of armies, ‘I am the first and I am the last, and besides me there is no God.

Isaiah 44:6

Only ‘the first and the last,’ who existed before all the false gods were thought of and will still be there when they are long forgotten, can do such a thing.