I Foretold the Former Things Long Ago,
I Announced Them and Made Them Known
48: 1-11

I foretold the former things long ago, I announced them and made them known DIG: For what does the prophet rebuke the nation? How might this attitude account for the LORD’s ridicule of idolatry in Chapters 40-48? Why has God gone to such lengths to announce this deliverance ahead of time? Why does ADONAI bother to save Isra’el (see 48:8; 45:14)? If He had cut her off, what would the nations assume about Ha’Shem compared to the gods of Babylon?

REFLECT: The Jews, both before and during the captivity, never gave up worship of YHVH, but many added idolatrous practices to their Judaism. Where do you feel caught between relying on biblical doctrines yet living by the values of modern idols? How might God be getting the message across to you that you can’t have it both ways? Have you ever been influenced by the rebellious attitude of other believers? How has your rebellion at times affected others? What has it cost you in terms of ADONAI’s peace and blessing in your life? Does it really matter whether we try to obey God? How so? What do these verses have to say about the grace of our LORD? If you had a choice, would you want God to be fair to you, or gracious? Why?

God’s strongest case against idolatry in Chapters 40 through 47 has been the fulfillment of prophecy. In this section God is going to turn to Isra’el, about 200 years later and say, “Look at My prophecies concerning the coming of Cyrus and the deliverance from Babylon. Were they not fulfilled exactly the way I prophesied?”

The central question of Chapters 7 to 39 was: Will you trust God? That question was asked in the context of the Assyrian threat. And here, although the threat is not the same, Isaiah shows that the issue has not changed. The same house of Jacob that doubted that they could trust ADONAI to deliver them from the Assyrians would also doubt that they could trust the LORD to deliver them from the Babylonians.

To be sure, the appeal in Chapters 40 to 47 has moved a step farther. In the earlier chapters concerning the Assyrians, the message was: If you do not trust God, destruction will come on you. Now, concerning the Babylonians, the message is: Trust God because He has unconditionally pardoned you and will break the power of those who hold you. In the same way the proofs of God’s ability to help Isra’el (and us) have also advanced. With the Assyrians, it was the inability of any other nation to help Isra’el. Here with the Babylonians, it is the LORD’s ability as Creator to master history, and the evidence of fulfilled prophecy. But the issue is the same with Isaiah. Will we respond in trust? God’s trustworthiness has been demonstrated in Chapters 7 to 39, and His grace has been offered in Chapters 40 to 48, but it is all for nothing unless we humans act on it. Trust demands surrender to our proud independence and does not come naturally to us.¹⁸²

Isaiah starts out this chapter with a rebuke and reminds the Israelites of their hypocrisy. Listen to this, O house of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel and come from the line, or waters, of Judah, you who take oaths in the name of the LORD and invoke the God of Isra’el (48:1a). What is the point of piling up all these names? It sets the stage for what follows. There is an appeal to the past: Jacob, meaning Isra’el and Judah. Who were they? They existed because of what ADONAI had done to and with their ancestors. But it was a proud claim without reality. They swear by the name of Ha’Shem and claim to trust in Him, but in reality their claim is hypocritical.

But not in truth of righteousness though you who call yourselves citizens of the holy city and rely on the God of Isra’el (481b-2) – the LORD of heaven’s angelic armies is His name (48:2). They took oaths, invoking God’s name, but they were not righteous. They thought that being citizens of Jerusalem, though they were not living there, was enough. But they were actually citizens of the holy city in name only. In reality, they were strangers to God. They thought that claiming to rely on ADONAI, even though they were not, was enough. Because many had become comfortable over the course of the seventy years of captivity, many considered it unimportant to go back to live in Judah. In that regard they had failed, nevertheless, God’s plans were not frustrated. How could Isra’el realize all the potential that her grand heritage and proud faith had to offer? By squarely facing the contradiction between her words and her actions. She needed to pay careful attention to what God had done for her in the past and learn from it.

From the beginning of Isaiah 1:2 to the end in 66:24, God, through His prophet Isaiah, addresses rebellion. And when you think about it, the Bible says that we were created to live within certain limits and our refusal to “stay within the lines,” sooner or later, results in disaster. Spiritual anarchy as a life plan never works.

Our refusal to follow the LORD’s commands is not just an ignorant missing of the mark, it is an intentional and deliberate rebellion against what we know we should do. At its deepest level, it is a rejection of a relationship of dependence upon God, a refusal to acknowledge that He has the right to declare what is right and wrong for us. This is a part of the significance of the book of Deuteronomy, which places the entire element of obedience and dependence upon God in the midst of our relationship with Him. What the Jews did when they rebelled against God was not merely disobedience, but treachery (48:8), or a breaking of faith. So in the end rebellion, stubbornness, and treachery are what sin is all about. It is entirely appropriate that Messiah should have been betrayed by one of His own disciples, because that is what God’s family has been doing to Him since the dawn of time. We have not accidentally fallen into a ditch. Instead, like the two-year old who has been told not to ride his big-wheel down the driveway into the street, and who looks to make sure that he is not being watched before he starts, we have consciously and willfully chosen to fall into the ditch.¹⁸³

The first part of the argument had to do with what the LORD had done for the Israelites in the past (48:3-6a). Throughout this section God made the case of the former prophets. I foretold the former things long ago, My mouth announced them and I made them known; then suddenly I acted, and they came to pass (48:3). It was He who inspired them, and now the prophecies had come to pass. Suddenly implies that the fulfillment of the prophecy was not always in the time or place expected (see 5:19, 46:10 and 48:14), but according to His sovereign will. ADONAI declared Himself to be both the declarer and the doer of prophecy. In other words, YHVH not only predicts, but being the sovereign God, He also brings about the fulfillment of His own prophecy. The fact that He can predict comes from His omniscience, and the fact that He can bring it to pass comes from His omnipotence. This is the sovereign God who was speaking to the Israelites.

Then He gives us two reasons why ADONAI fulfilled these prophecies quickly and suddenly. The first reason was because they were stubborn. For I know how stubborn you were; the sinews of your neck were iron, your forehead was bronze (48:4). The image Isaiah uses here is that of a stubborn animal that digs its heels, stiffens its neck and refuses to be led in the way it does not want to go. Over and over again Moses accused Isra’el of being stubborn (Ex 32:9; 33:3 and 5; 34:9; Deut 9:6 and 13, 27; 10:16; 31:27) because he experienced it over the forty years of wilderness wanderings. And in Deuteronomy 31:27 he realized that even after his death, Isra’el will continue to be stubborn. In fact, according to Dani’el 12:5-7, one of the main purposes of the Great Tribulation is to break the stubbornness of the Jewish nation so that they will come to know God. But here, He fulfilled prophecies suddenly so that Isra’el’s stubborn ways would be revealed and she might see that her precious idols had failed her. God alone made those prophecies come true.

God did not choose Jacob and his sons because they were superior, nor did He choose us because we are superior. The LORD chose Jacob and us because of His grace and because He saw our great need. Also, God must deliver His people so the world may know the Truth. Jesus said: You are right in saying I am a King. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to Me (John 18:37).

The second reason was to make sure that the idols do not get the credit, because Isra’el was prone to give it to them. Therefore, I told you these things long ago; before they happened I announced them to you so that you could not say, “My idols did them, my wooden image and metal god ordained them” (48:5). It was not Bel or Nebo (46:1) who caused the fall of Jerusalem and the exile to Babylon, it was ADONAI. Neither would they free the exiles to go home. Nor was it some creation of human intellect or cunning that announced those events to happen; it was the living God.

Before proceeding to the next stage of his argument, Isaiah sums up what he had just said: You have heard these things; look at them all. Will you not admit them (48:6a)? Isra’el did not hear the prophecy before, but now they are hearing it. And now they are obligated to proclaim that the idols failed where God succeeded. She could no longer refuse to allow the facts to persuade her. For far too long, it was as if Isra’el had said, “My mind is already made up, don’t confuse me with the facts!” That would have to end.

Next, we see the case for new prophecies (48:6b-8). From now on I will tell you of new things, of hidden things unknown you (48:6b). Isra’el had ignored the previous prophecies, so God now announces the coming of new prophecies. Having heard the predictions and witnessed their fulfillment, the people can no longer doubt that the LORD alone plans and rules the destinations of nations. They must, therefore, also believe in the new prophecies now made by His prophet. Once again, the test of a prophet was this, after successfully prophesying near events, the prophet could be trusted with success in prophesying far events. The easiest thing to do is to predict the events of a thousand years in advance because they would not be around to suffer the consequences if their prophecies were not fulfilled. It is quite another thing for a prophet to prophesy something six months to a year in advance because if the prophecy did not come true he would be stoned to death. But God here subjects Himself to the test of a prophet. He reminds them of the former prophecies that had come to pass. So now He says that since these earlier prophecies had come to pass, they could trust Him for the far prophecies. Therefore, there is an announcement of new prophecies to come.

God gives two reasons why He will predict new prophecies. They are created now, and not long ago; you have not heard of them before today. Therefore, you cannot say, “Yes, I knew of them” (48:7). The refusal to believe in revealed truth was the cardinal sin of God’s people (Amos 2:4). The LORD’s prophecies were created now, not that God had never thought of them before, but that they would be put into effect now. From Deuteronomy 30:1-5, Isra’el knew she would be brought back to the Land after captivity. After all, her living in the Land was guaranteed by the Abrahamic Covenant (see the commentary on Genesis, to see link click Eg – I Am the LORD, Who Brought You Out of Ur of the Chaldeans to Give You This Land). But until Isaiah’s prophecies were given, she did not know how God would deliver her. This was so the Israelites would not feel smug, thinking their own cunning had liberated them. They were actually spiritually insensitive.

The second reason was because of Israel’s treachery in giving credit to idols. You have neither heard nor understood; from of old your ear has not been open (48:8a). Again, the point is made that these prophecies had never been made before. Why not? Would it have been just another opportunity for unfaithfulness? But if that were true, why give them any more prophecies at all? The reason is simple: so that it will be obvious that it was the LORD at work and not the idols.

From the very beginning Isra’el was prone to idolatry. We saw this right after the exodus when she made a golden calf while Moses was up on Mount Sinai. And throughout Isra’el’s history up to Isaiah’s day, Isra’el was prone to idolatry and to spiritual adultery. Well do I know how treacherous you are; you were called a rebel from birth (48:8b). This was her treachery. God performed miracles for Isra’el, and whom did she thank? She thanked idols for performing the blessings that God alone had given her. ADONAI wanted to make sure she understood that her physical and spiritual deliverance would not come from her own goodness or planning, but from His grace.

In view of God’s firsthand understanding of Isra’el’s stubborn tendencies to idolatry (48:5) and rebellion (48:8), why had He not abandoned them (48:9-11)? He could have. He had the right to. Her sin was great enough for total destruction. So why was He going to do those new things to make her deliverance possible? Isaiah answered with a theme that began in Exodus 34 and reached its inevitable conclusion in Ezeki’el 37.

When ADONAI entered into a covenant with the people of Isra’el, His name, His reputation, became forever linked with them. For My own name’s sake, I delay My wrath; for the sake of My praise I hold it back from you, so as not to cut you off (48:9). Moses presented the argument to the LORD when God asked why He should not destroy Israel after the golden calf incident (see the commentary on Exodus Gs – Now Leave Me Alone So That My Anger May Burn Against Your People). The question was not one of legality or justice, but, more accurately, what the Gentile nations would think of ADONAI if He would abandon or destroy her. Consequently, the real question was not whether God was just, but whether He would be gracious to her. Will the nations observing God’s justice accuse Him of being fickle like all the other gods? Or would they see the One who was unlike any they had ever seen because of His incredible patience and mercy? He didn’t want to destroy Jacob, but He did hope to bring her to her senses as she experienced the fruit of her rebellion.

See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction (48:10). The purpose of the exile was to refine her so she would return to the Land in faith. The captivity was like a furnace, to test her, not to destroy her.

The story is told of a group of women that met for Bible study. While studying in the book of Malachi, they came across verse three which says: He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver (Malachi 3:3a). This verse puzzled the women and they wondered how this statement applied to the character and nature of God. One of the women offered to find out more about the process of refining silver, and to get back to the group at their next Bible study. The following week, the woman called up a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him while at work. She didn’t mention anything about the reason for her interest, beyond her curiosity about the process of refining silver. As she watched the silversmith work, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold it in the middle of the fire, where the flames were the hottest as to burn away all the impurities. The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot, then she thought again about the verse, that He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver. She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the entire time the silver was being refined. The man answered yes, that not only did he have to sit there holding the silver, but he also had to keep his eyes on it the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left even a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed. The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, “But how do you know when the silver is fully refined?” He smiled at her and answered, “Oh, that’s easy . . . when I see my image in it.”

If ADONAI would go back on His word about her return, His reputation would be defamed. So, He declared: For My own sake, for My own sake, I do this. How can I let Myself, I do this? How can I let Myself be defamed? I will not yield My glory to another (48:11). There are three reasons why God did not totally destroy Isra’el.

First, for God’s own name’s sake and for the sake of His praise. God has a covenant relationship with Isra’el and therefore is a covenant keeper, part of which marks the eternity of Jewish existence. If the Jews cease to exist, it would reflect badly on God.

Secondly, for Isra’el’s refinement. There is a time coming in which Isra’el will be tested in the furnace of affliction. In Ezeki’el 20:34-38 it is clear this furnace of affliction is the Great Tribulation. Therefore, although God judged Isra’el partially, ultimately, they will be totally refined.

Thirdly, so that Gentile nations could not claim it was their idols or gods who cut Isra’el off forever. If Isra’el were to be cut off, the Gentiles would not give glory to God, but to their idols and idolatry. The LORD would not allow that to happen. He would demonstrate His covenant relationship with them, by delivering His people against all odds, whether political or spiritual. Similarly, ADONAI declared at Mount Sinai: But I dreaded the taunt of the enemy, lest the adversary misunderstand and say, “Our hand has triumphed; the LORD has not done all this” (Deuteronomy 32:27). On the people’s part, they needed to make up their minds once-and-for-all to give Him their absolute loyalty. Is the same not true for us today?

How Can We Know When a Message
Has Not Been Spoken by the LORD?
48: 1-22

In 40:1-2 Isaiah wrote a prologue to the last section of the book. In this last section, Isaiah gives a three-point message. First, that her warfare had been completed. Each section ends with a statement about the state of the wicked. And Isaiah 48:22 says: There is no peace, says ADONAI, for the wicked. Thus, Chapter 48 ends this first section. In Chapters 40 through 47, Isaiah has been dealing with the bottom third of the Cone of Isaiah (to see link click Hl – The Cone of Isaiah). Each part deals with a servant of the LORD. In this bottom part, he has been dealing with the nation of Isra’el in captivity and sums up what has been said about Cyrus and the return to the Land from Babylon. He will not discuss these topics for the remainder of the book. Later, in the middle part, the believing remnant will arise out of the nation, and finally the point of the cone will be the Messiah who will arise out of the believing remnant of Isra’el. But in Chapter 48, Isaiah will bring these nine chapters together. It is a summary of Chapters 40 through 47, in the course of which he is going to give one of the clearest presentations of the Trinity in the entire TaNaKh.

ADONAI’s strongest case against idolatry in Chapters 40 through 47 has been the fulfillment of prophecy. But the fulfillment of prophecy carries with it certain demands and obligations. And that is what Isaiah is going to detail in Chapter 48. What God is doing here is subjecting Himself to the test of a prophet (see the commentary on Deuteronomy Dk – A Prophet Like Moses). The key test of a prophet according to Moses was that he had to prove himself by giving some near predictions. Then only if those near predictions came to pass, according to the very letter of the prophecy, only then could that prophet be trusted to be accurate on prophecy very far in the future. So here, God is subjecting Himself to the test of a prophet. In Chapters 40 through 47 He had made various prophecies; near historical prophecies regarding the coming of Cyrus and deliverance from the Babylonian captivity, and far eschatological prophecies regarding the ultimate and final restoration of the Jews under the Messiah in the Messianic Kingdom. Therefore, in Chapter 48 He is going to subject Himself to the test of a prophet. Chapter 48 is really speaking to the generation of Isra’el about 200 years later, at the close of the 70 years of Babylonian captivity. He will force the Jews of that generation to conclude that what ADONAI said concerning His near historical prophecies were indeed fulfilled; therefore, they have a two-fold obligation. First, respond to the commands of the LORD. And two, believe God regarding the far eschatological prophecies.

Go Down, Sit in the Dust,
Virgin Daughter of Babylon
Sit on the Ground Without a Throne
47: 1-15

Go down, sit in the dust, virgin daughter of Babylon sit on the ground without a throne DIG: What does the picture of a queen reduced to slavery tell you about Babylon’s past and future? Since Babylon was not destroyed, though literally conquered by Cyrus in a single day, what is the meaning of this image? What is the reason for this judgment (also see 10:12)? What does this say about God? What do you learn about the spiritual beliefs and practices of Babylon? What do you imagine they were doing as Cyrus came closer and closer? What will they inherit for all their activity? How does this highlight the truth proclaimed in Chapter 40, that there is no other God but the LORD? Of what value would this truth be for the exiles?

REFLECT: The Babylonians ignored God, mercy, and justice by hiding behind self-deification, pride, wealth, and magic. How do people today do these same things? What helped you see that these things could not be trusted? Might some of these still be tempting you today? How so? In our sophisticated and cynical age, why do you think most major newspapers faithfully print astrological information day after day? Have you ever been drawn to astrology or any other occult practice? Why? Do you think it is appropriate for believers to be involved in these things? Why or why not? During the 1950’s and 1960’s, many people predicted that the rise of science would lead to a decline in people’s interest in the supernatural, yet the sales and use of occult books and devices has risen dramatically since then. What does that show you about people? What would it take to have an effective witness to someone involved in these practices?

Seventy long years had passed since the first exiles were deported from Jerusalem (see the commentary on Jeremiah, to see link click Gu – Seventy Years of Imperial Babylonian Rule). Life in Babylon was far from oppressive (Jeremiah 29:4-7), but there were those who could not satisfy their longing for Yerushalayim (Psalm 137). For them, the day of deliverance (48:20-21) could not come soon enough. But finally, it did come with the lightening speed for which Cyrus was famous for. It was on all this that Isaiah meditated: the fall of Babylon (47:1-15), and the call for the captives to go home (48:1-22).¹⁷⁹

In October 539 BC, Cyrus advanced into lower Mesopotamia and, leaving Babylon until last, he conquered and occupied the surrounding territory. King Nabonidus of Babylon deserted the city, leaving his eldest son Belshazzar to rule as coregent. In anticipation of a long siege by Cyrus, Nabonidus had stored supplies to last for twenty years. The Euphrates River ran through the city from north to south, so the residents had plenty of water. But Belshazzar had a false sense of security because the Persian army was outside Babylon’s mighty city walls. They had constructed an exterior wall and an interior wall to fortify it. They were among the seven wonders of the ancient world. The exterior walls were 56 miles long, 300 feet high, and 25 feet thick, with a deep moat that encircled the city. The interior walls were 75 feet high, with 250 towers that were 450 feet high. The city walls were so thick that two chariots could ride on top them side by side.

Not only was the Persian army outside the city walls, but it was divided. Half was stationed where the Euphrates River entered Babylon to the north and the other half was positioned where the river exited the city to the south. But the army dug a canal from the river and diverted the water north of the city into a lake nearby. Thus, the level of the river receded and the soldiers were able to enter by going under a sluice gate. Since those areas of the wall were apparently unguarded, once inside, the Persians were able to easily conquer it. Thus, the overthrow of Babylon took place in a single day, October 12, 539 BC. Chapter 46 described the fall of Babylonian idolatry about two hundred years before it actually took place. The Babylonians, Judah’s captors, would become captives themselves. With this God brings an end to His long war with the idols of Babylon. In Chapter 47 He then turns to the fall of the city of Babylon.

First, we see the declaration of the fall of Babylon in 47:1-5. The language of this poem is harsh, almost brutal. Babylon had lorded her power and wealth over the world as though it were somehow her right, but now she would come face-to-face with reality. The opening imperatives set the tone – they are tense and abrupt. Go down, sit in the dust, Virgin Daughter of Babylon (47:1a). Babylon is called a virgin probably meaning that her city walls had never been penetrated. The city and the empire are depicted as a Virgin Daughter, someone who is young and used to luxuries, who has never had to face the harsh realities of life. Now, all that was gone forever. Although Babylon thought herself destined for a throne, her rightful place was in the dust. An act depicting great mourning (Jonah 3:6). Go down, sit in the dust.¹⁸⁰ She went from throne to dust, from pampering to poverty.

God then commanded her to sit on the ground without a throne, Daughter of the Babylonians. No more will you be called tender or delicate like a virgin. When the word daughter is used in the singular, it refers to an entire population. If the plural word daughters is used, it refers to the women of a particular nation. The population of the Chaldeans in the nation of Babylon that ruled the ancient world for seventy years will now be leveled to dust. No more will you be called tender or delicate, shielded from the realities of danger (47:1b-c). The virgin daughter will work like a slave girl. Take millstones and grind flour; take off your veil. Work at the millstones was considered the lowest form of slavery (Exodus 11:5; Jab 31:10; Matthew 24:41). The ordinary hand-mill consisted of two circular stones from eighteen to two feet in diameter and about six inches deep. The lower stone, was usually heavier and a harder stone than the upper. The upper stone was a slightly concave surface, had a peg fixed in the middle. The upper stone, with a concave surface, covered the lid of the lower that was convex. There was a pivot that rose from the center of the lower stone, on which the upper stone revolved. Near the edge of the upper stone was a perpendicular stick or handle by which it is turned, and at the center is a hole for the pivot, and also for the grain to fall through upon the stone below. As servants of the conquerors, they would have to grind the flour.

Lift up your skirts, bare your legs, and wade through the streams (47:2). As a slave, the women could no longer wear the veil and long gown characteristic of upper-class women. After Babylon’s fall, the thought that her beauty was too valued to be seen was ridiculous. There was no longer anything special about her. She would gather up her skirts and bare her legs as she worked, probably in the irrigation ditches.

Your nakedness will be exposed and your shame uncovered. I will take vengeance. The Hebrew word for vengeance, naqam, implies Babylon’s downfall was her just reward. God declared: I will spare no one (47:3). Many of them would be raped and abused. The city itself will be violated. This depicted the indescribable humiliation that Babylon was finally subjected to. She may have thought she was better than all the other nations, but she wasn’t. She was just one more human nation, subject to the same discipline as any other.

Isaiah records Isra’el’s sense of relief as a result of Babylon’s defeat. She had mistreated the Israelites, but the day came when she was brought low. Seeing God’s vengeance on her captors, the Israelites would praise the LORD for they realized that relief from their bondage would come from God, not themselves. As a result, she would call ADONAI her Redeemer (see my commentary on Exodus Bz – Redemption), the LORD of heaven’s angelic armies (CJB), the Holy One of Isra’el because He had judged that evil city and empire (47:4). The beginning of knowledge is the fear of the LORD (Proverbs 1:7).

Sit in silence, go into darkness, Daughter of the Babylonians; no more will you be called queen of kingdoms (47:5). And the virgin daughter not only sits in the dust, she now sits in silence and goes into darkness. The LORD had used Babylon to judge Judah, but like Assyria she had abused her authority (Habakkuk 1:6-11). So God had pronounced His sentence upon the daughter of the Babylonians. No more would she be called the eternal queen, ruling over hundreds of lesser kingdoms subjugated by the Babylonian military. That would come to an end when she herself was subjugated.¹⁸¹ Babylon’s ill-treatment of God’s people would be the cause of her humiliation.

Next, the reasons for the judgment are given in 47:6-10. The LORD addresses Babylon. There are two reasons why He was bringing about Babylon’s judgment. First, ADONAI judged Babylon because of her treatment of Isra’el. I was angry with My people and desecrated My inheritance; I gave them into your hand, and you showed them no mercy. God made it very clear that the reason Babylon was able to take His people into captivity was because He allowed it and not because Babylon was so great. God had delivered the Israelites into the hands of the Babylonians because they had sinned against Him. He was judging His own people. Even on the aged you laid a very heavy yoke (47:6).

But Babylon said: “I will continue forever – the eternal queen!” And God replied: You did not consider these things or reflect on what might happen (47:7). Babylon’s claim to lordship over the earth gave her the idea that she could do as she pleased. But she went beyond the punishment that God had intended for Isra’el to endure. The prophet Zechariah spoke for the LORD when He said: I am very angry with the nations that feel secure. I was only a little angry, but they added to the calamity (Zechariah 1:15). Zechariah was a prophet after the Babylonian captivity and after the prophecies of Isaiah had already been fulfilled. Here God states that, yes, I was angry with My people and turned them over to the Gentile nations, but they added to the calamity because they went beyond the boundaries that I set for them. This was especially true for Babylon. It is true that ADONAI had commissioned Babylon to take the Jews into captivity, but she showed no mercy in doing so (2 Chron 35 and 36). So once again we have an example of Genesis 12:3: I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse. That is the first reason why Babylon would be judged.

Then secondly, ADONAI judged Babylon because of her self-deification. It was pride the brought Babylon down. Notice how she used the language of God Himself. Now then, listen, you wanton creature, lounging in your security and saying to yourself, “I am, and there is none besides me” (47:8a). Isaiah here paints a picture of thoughtless indulgence. Babylon assumed that wealth and position were hers by birthright. The private name of the God of Isra’el is I Am (see my commentary on Exodus At – I AM Has Sent Me To You). Also, throughout these sections of Isaiah, in Chapters 40 through 46, God says over and over: I am the LORD, and there is no other; apart from Me there is no God (45:5). This is the very thing that Babylon says of herself, “I am, and there is none besides me.” What God claimed for Himself (43:11, 44:6, 45:5-6, 14, 18, 21-22, 46:9), Babylon claimed for herself. Thus, because of Babylon’s self-deification, judgment would come to her.

Because of her self-deification, Babylon was filled with self-assurance. I will never be a widow or suffer the loss of children (47:8b). Speaking figuratively of her desolation from defeat, she stated she would never be widowed or childless. She made no other provisions because she could not imagine it. She thought that whatever happened to other empires could never happen to her. She was different, she was special. But then God told Isaiah, that she would end up being both a widow and childless because her population would be slaughtered. Both of these will overtake you in a moment, on a single day; loss of children and widowhood (47:9a). Babylon and several other nations also fell in a single day (see Gw – Then the Angel of the LORD Put To Death a Hundred Eighty Five Thousand Men in the Assyrian Camp).

They will come upon you in full measure, in spite of your many sorceries and all your potent spells (47:9b). The magical arts were highly cultivated in Babylon, but they were incapable of averting disaster. Sorceries translates kesapim, a word used in the TaNaKh here and Second Kings 9:22, Micah 5:12 and Nahum 3:4. It suggests seeking information about the future by using demons. The occult, and the demonic activity in such affairs had its beginnings in Babylon (see the commentary on Genesis Dl – The Tower of Babel). But now God tells us Babylon will cease to exist. During the Messianic Kingdom, as we know elsewhere in Isaiah, while everything is perfect and beautiful, Babylon is nothing but a wasteland (see the commentary on Revelation Er – Babylon Will Never Be Found Again). And who is living there for one thousand years? Demons!

Once again we turn to Babylon’s false security. You have trusted in your wickedness and have said, “No one sees me.” Your wisdom and knowledge mislead you when you say to yourself, “I am, and there is none besides me” (47:10). Those who say there is no God and no life to come, opt for a world without moral consequences. Their own delusional brand of wisdom and knowledge arose out of a sense of self-sufficiency and unaccountability.

The King of Tyre, because of his position of authority in Ezekiel’s day, which was 70 or 80 years after Isaiah, declared himself to be god. He copied the same thing that Babylon mimicked. I am a god (Ezeki’el 28:2). Later in Ezeki’el 28:11-19, the Adversary also said that he was god; in reference to the world, he said to Jesus, “All this I will give to you if you bow down and worship me” (Matthew 4:9). As a result, this desire to be god was found in the King of Tyre, Satan, and in Babylon as well.

Then we see the actual fall of Babylon (47:11-15). Although this prophecy by Isaiah was about 200 years in the future, it would point to the end of the punishment of Isra’el for her spiritual adultery and war with the LORD. When Cyrus defeated Babylon and her gods, the way would be cleared for Isra’el to return to the Land, rebuild the Temple and their way of life. At that time, Israel could say that her warfare had been completed (40:12 to 48:22).

The disaster would come swiftly upon Babylon. She will be caught totally by surprise when the fall comes. Disaster will come upon you, and you will not know how to conjure it away (47:11a). There will be no warnings from her gods; neither sorcery nor the occult will help Babylon in her moment of trial. She prided herself in her sorcerers who supposedly could tell the future and cast spells to influence others. So mockingly, Isaiah challenged the Babylonians to look to their sorcerers after the fall had already come. Could they conjure it away? Obviously they could not.

The Babylon that felt secure in her wickedness (ra’a) would find evil (ra’a) turning on her. A calamity will fall upon you that you cannot ward off with a ransom; a catastrophe you cannot foresee will suddenly come upon you (47:11b). When Babylon fell, all her ritual and magical arts would prove worthless. She had made her ethical choices and was going to pay for them. All her ritual was less than worthless. The LORD could not be charmed out of His righteous anger.

ADONAI sarcastically urges Babylon to turn to the witchcraft that she trusted and that got her into trouble in the first place. Keep on, then, with your magic spells and with your many sorceries, which you have labored since childhood, that is, since the nation was founded. God sarcastically stated: Perhaps you will succeed, perhaps you will cause terror (47:12). It was though God was saying, “If you don’t believe Me, go ahead and put your faith into your foolish magic. Who knows, maybe it will help you.” Maybe her sorcerers could perform some magic spell that would terrorize the hearts of her enemies and cause them to run away. Ridiculous! If they wanted terror they only needed to wait for God’s judgment. Then they would know terror.

Ironically ADONAI suggests that the astrologer and stargazers save them. Astrology was common in Babylon and she was tireless in her pursuit, more than any other nation in the ancient world. Her priests would read the intestines of sacrificial animals, her astrologers would chart the movements of the constellations. But it was all for naught. Isaiah cautioned: All the counsel you have received has only worn you out! Let your astrologers come forward, those stargazers who make predictions month by month, let them save you from what is coming to you (47:13).

Isaiah finally reveals the result of Babylon’s dependence on the magic arts – utter disaster. The fire will burn them up. They cannot even save themselves from the power of the flame (47:14a). But their work was worthless, like mere straw, they were like dried stalks of grain that burned quickly. Those sorcerers could not even save themselves, let alone Babylon. Yet, they persisted in their error. Here are no coals to warm anyone; here is no fire to sit by (47:14b). The idols will be burned, and they will be burned in such a way that they will not even provide warmth from the cold. There will be no comfort from them. Then comes the conclusion; the fall of Babylon will be total. After Chapters 46 and 47 Babylon will not be mentioned again for the remainder of the book.

That is all they can do for you – these you have labored with and trafficked with since childhood. Each of them wanders off on in their error, there is not one that can save you (47:15). The end result was that there was no savior to whom Babylon could turn. Her pride? Her glory? They were only dust and ashes. Her gods? She had to carry them. Her ancient wisdom? Gone with the wind. But by contrast, there was Isra’el. Whereas Babylon had nowhere to turn but herself, Isra’el could turn to the Holy One of Isra’el, her Savior.

Like Babylon, all mankind will also be judged. The Bible teaches that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow (Philippians 2:10a), and that all judgment has been entrusted to the Son (John 5:22). Unbelievers will face the LORD before His throne (see the commentary on Revelation Fo – The Great White Throne Judgment). Believers will also stand before Yeshua Messiah but our judgment has nothing to do with salvation (James 2:18-26), only rewards for our work for the Kingdom of God. While in this life we are building on the foundation of Yeshua Messiah who is the chief cornerstone of our faith. In Him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the LORD (Ephesians 2:20-21).

If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day of Judgment will bring it to light (First Corinthians 3:12). The building materials mentioned here are in two categories, each listed in descending order of value. The first category – gold, silver, costly stones – clearly represents high-quality materials. The second – wood, hay or straw – just as clearly represents inferior materials. Gold represents the greatest faithfulness, the most skillful and careful work done for ADONAI. But, straw represents the least, the spiritual leftovers. God wants us to build with only the best materials because only the best materials are worthy of Him, are the most effective and will last.

Ultimately the flame of God’s judgment will test what we have done. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. The wood, hay and straw are not sinful things, but spiritually inferior things. But when tested by fire, they all burn up. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. Only the most faithful, skillful and careful works of gold, silver and costly stones will survive the flame of judgment. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward of crowns (see my commentary on (see the commentary on Revelation Cc – For We Must All Appear Before the Judgment Seat of Christ). If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved – even though only as one escaping through the flames (First Corinthians 3:13-15). We build for the Lord in three basic ways.

First, we build by our motives. Therefore, judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time, each will receive their praise from God (First Corinthians 4:5).

Secondly, we build by our conduct. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or phaulos, best translated worthless (Second Corinthians 5:10).

Thirdly, we build by our service. The way we use the spiritual gifts God has given us (Romans 12:6-8; First Corinthians 12:1-11; Ephesians 4:11-13; First Peter 4:10-11), the way we minister in His name, is of greatest importance in our building. God’s solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness.” In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for special purposes and some for common use. Those who cleanse themselves from the latter will be instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work (2 Tim 2:19-21).

Bel Bows Down, Nebo Stoops Low
and They Go Off Together to Captivity
46: 1-13

Bel bows down, Nebo stoops low and they go off together to captivity HDIG: Bel and Nebo were the names of two principle gods in Babylon. What are they carrying? What happens to them? How does this compare with the LORD in 46:3-4? What do they do for the people that worship them? What things does God say He has done and will do for Isra’el? Who are the rebels in 46:8 and the stubborn-hearted in 46:12 (see 42:18-25)? How does this relate to the promises in 46:3-4? What will the people learn once more through the events that are soon to occur? The man in 46:11 is Cyrus. Although Isra’el is currently far from righteousness, how will God use Cyrus to bring righteousness near to them? Why is the LORD doing this?

REFLECT: Have you seen people today worn out and let down by the very idols to which they have devoted themselves? Has this happened to you? In contrast to the idols in 46:1-2, how have you experienced God as a Father carrying you when you were weak? Or as a Strong Man, sustaining you when you were tired? Or as a Warrior rescuing you when you were trapped? Isaiah concludes there is none like God. Based on your sampling of modern idols, what would you say comes the closest to, or even approaches God? How do you go about remembering the works of God in your life? Is there anything you could do differently to help yourself remember them? How has God brought His righteousness near to you (Rom 3:21-24; Eph 2:13)?

Throughout his prophecies, Isaiah has periodically prophesied about the city of Babylon. Sometimes he dwells on the Babylon of Nebuchadnezzar and sometimes the rebuilt city of Babylon of the antichrist. In this case he is talking about the near historical Babylon of Nebuchadnezzar and her idols. Babylon is the original source of all idolatry. It started with the Tower of Babel (see the commentary on Genesis, to see link click Dl – The Tower of Babel), and the rebellion of Nimrod (see the commentary on Genesis Di – The Line of Ham). Idolatry will end at the conclusion of the Great Tribulation where Jerusalem will become the religious capital of the antichrist and he will set himself up to be worshiped as god in the Most Holy Place (see the commentary on Revelation Dr – The Abomination That Causes Desolation), and Babylon will become his political and commercial capital (see the commentary on Revelation Em – With a Mighty Voice He Shouted: Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great).

In 44:24-28, Isaiah called Cyrus His Shepherd, and 45:1-8 saw him launch into his dazzling career. Now the heart of the matter, as far as Isra’el was concerned, was at hand – the fall of Babylon. What makes this prophecy remarkable is the fact that at the time of Isaiah’s writing, Babylon was a very small and insignificant kingdom. It would be almost a century before it would become a world power. We are given a bird’s-eye view as the phony gods of Babylon are unceremoniously carted off from the doomed city. Of course, it did not happen that way. Isaiah used figurative language while dealing with pictures and principles. His purpose is not to describe but to expose. There is no recorded evacuation of Babylon either before or after Cyrus’ assault, but in a strikingly visual way Isaiah presents the truth that Babylon’s false gods could not save her.

Because they could not save, Babylon’s idols are pictured as being taken into captivity. Bel bows down, Nebo stoops low; their idols are borne by animals, beasts of burden. The loads you yourselves were carrying are now burdening tired animals (46:1 CJB). Isaiah exposes the two key Babylonian gods as being worthless and unable to help the Jews in any way. Behind the idols of that day was satanic worship, which is becoming more and more popular in our own day. The Word of God repeatedly warns us that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the power of this dark world and against the forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore, we need to defend ourselves by putting on the armor of God (Ephesians 6:13-18).

Bel bows down (46:1a). Bel, the same title as Ba’al, or lord, is the shortened form of Bel Marduk, the Babylonian god of light. Bel is also found in the first part of Beelzebub – one of Satan’s names (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Ek – It is only by Beelzebub, the Prince of Demons, that This Fellow Drives Out Demons). There is an apocryphal book named Bel and the Dragon. The Church fathers did not include it with the canon of inspired Scripture, but it is interesting reading in a historical sense. Later, Bel Marduk became known as Jupiter in the Roman Empire. Bel was the title originally given to Enlil, the so-called father of the gods whose center was at Nippur. But Marduk, the city god of Babylon and hero of Enuma Elish (the Babylonian creation story), eventually became the chief god of southern Mesopotamia, and the title became his. But now these two most important gods of the Babylonian pantheon were seen to be stooped low as if they were in carts to be carried away. The judgment of God fell upon these gods through Cyrus.

Nebo stoops low (46:1b). Nebo, Bel’s son, was worshiped by the Babylonians, the Assyrians, and the Sabians in Arabia. He was their god of wisdom, and was carried annually to Babylon to accompany his father in the New Year processions. There he supposedly wrote on “tablets of destiny” what the coming year would hold for Babylon (but apparently he wasn’t so prophetic when it came to Cyrus). He corresponds to the Latin Mercury, the Greek Hermes, and the Egyptian Thoth. The name Nebo, or Nabu, was supposedly derived from nabah, meaning to prophesy, and the office of this deity was that of interpreter for the gods. His symbol was a simple wedge or arrowhead and the name of the planet nearest the sun, Mercury. The popularity of this god is seen in the combination of his name with the names of ancient kings: for example: Nebu-chadnezzar, Nebu-zaradan, Nebu-hashban, Nabo-nedus, Nabo-nassar, Nabu-rianus, Nabo-abus, Nabo-polassar. In light of the prominence of Nabu in these names it seems likely that Nebo, or Nabu, was the title that the kings of the Babylonian Empire chose to identify themselves with. He was the patron of the art of writing and patron-god of the Babylonian city of Borsippa, some ten miles south of Babylon.

The expressions, bows down and stoops low, evidently refer to the downfall of these idols, and of the system of idolatry of which they were the symbols. According to the prophecy this was to be accomplished by the Persian power. It is, therefore, proper to remark here, that though the Persians worshiped the sun, the moon, the earth, etc., images of gods were entirely unknown among them. Herodotus says of them, “they have no images of the gods, no temples nor altars and consider the use of them a sign of folly” (Book 1, chapter 131). Thus, it was in perfect accordance with their own customs that the Persians should destroy the graven images of other nations. To Cyrus the Persian monarch is this work of destruction (46:1).

When all was said and done, Babylon’s mighty gods were reduced to being dependent on pack animals. Their idols are borne by animals, beasts of burden. The loads you yourselves were carrying are now burdening tired animals (46:1 CJB). These two were not only the most prominent of the Babylonian gods, but also especially appropriate for Isaiah’s denunciation because they were carried in the annual New Year’s Festival procession in Babylon. This picture of worshipers carrying their gods would be especially appropriate here and in 46:7. It is as if God were saying, “How can a god that you have to carry around ever save you?” The impotence of the gods of Babylon is contrasted with the supreme power of the God of Isra’el. The former are carried away from their country into exile, while God carries His people from captivity into freedom.

They stoop and bow down together; they cannot save the burden, but they themselves go off into captivity (46:2 CJB). So utterly helpless are Nebo and Bel, that they cannot deliver themselves from captivity, and so worthless that they are counted only as burdensome images that are carried about by beasts of burden.¹⁷⁷ Isaiah says that they are burdensome, a burden for the weary. Furthermore, he tells us that they were unable to rescue the burden. These gods could not deliver Babylon from the invasion of Cyrus and the Persians. Now, they themselves go off into captivity, the property of Cyrus the Great. It is important to see here that the gods of Babylon were gods that needed to be carried. That is his main point. But in the rest of the chapter, ADONAI gives three warnings.

Now God turns the tables. The focus of His ire is not on the false gods of Babylon, but on the fragile faith of the Israelites (46:3-7). The first warning is to listen to Me, O house of Jacob, all who remain of the house of Isra’el, you whom I have upheld since you were conceived, and have carried since your birth (46:3). God’s admonition to the Israelites to listen to Him is frequently seen in the prophecies of Isaiah (44:1, 46:3 and 12, 47:8, 48:1, 12, 14 and 16, 51:4, 52:8, 55:2). In contrast to the false gods that had to be carried in ritual procession, ADONAI is seen as carrying Isra’el from the beginning and will continue to do so until the end. Carrying brings three images to mind: a father carrying his child (Deuteronomy 1:31), a shepherd carrying his lamb (Psalm 28:9), and an eagle carrying its young (Exodus 19:4; Deuteronomy 32:11).

Even to your old age and gray hairs I Am He, I am He who will [carry] you (46:4a). In 46:3 God carried His children since birth, in 46:4 the LORD says even when you are old I will carry you. The contrast is even more precise and vivid in the Hebrew text. The carts and the carriages were loaded with the weight of the idols (46:1); but we are loaded upon ADONAI. Idols are a burden, a thing to be carried; but the LORD has gladly carried us since our birth. Isra’el has changed, from the child in the womb, to the infant growing through adolescence to adulthood, to the onset of gray hairs in old age. But one thing had not changed – the burden-bearing God, who carried His people.

There will never come a time when we outgrow our dependence on the LORD. We are as dependent on Him in our old age as we were when we were infants (Psalm 71:9 and 18). Nor will there ever be a time when a wobbly old grandfather God will somehow need to lean on us, or we will need to find a young, virile God in the future. He is not subject to history; in every age He is the unchanging I Am He. The I Am is self-existent, self-dependent. He is above the changes, the limitations, the unforeseen of time and space. ADONAI can surely carry us through whatever may come our way in this life.

I have made you and I will carry you: I will sustain you and I will rescue you (46:4b). Nothing could be more comforting, for our Father loves and cares for His children. He carries every care and worry that comes our way throughout our lifetime. The Word of God encourages you to cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you (First Peter 5:7). The reason they needed to listen was to understand that God is the One who carries, and does not need to be carried. In contrast to the Babylonian idols that needed to be carried, the God of Isra’el is a God who carries the Jews from the cradle to the grave.

To whom will you compare Me or count Me equal? To whom will you liken Me that we may be compared (46:5)? And the reason it is so difficult to explain is because He is infinite and we are finite and live in a finite universe. There is nothing to compare Him to. He cannot be reduced to our vocabulary without losing all meaning. He cannot be translated into human language. This is why Jesus became a man. The only way we can know ADONAI is through Yeshua. He revealed God to us. As He Himself said: Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father (John 14:9b).

To reinforce the foolishness of any attempt at comparison, Isaiah launches into the fourth and last exposure of the contradictions of idol worship (40:19-20, 41:6-7, 44:9-20 and here). Some pour out gold from their bags and weigh out silver on the scales; they hire a goldsmith to make it into a god, and they bow down and worship it (46:6). Here God challenges all to compare Him with the Babylonian idols, all of which were made by human hands. They lift it to their shoulders and carry it; they set it up in its place, and there it stands. From that spot it cannot move (46:7a). Isaiah includes a bit of sarcasm here. This is one of several times that Isaiah belittled idols (40:18-20, 41:7, 44:9-20, 45:16 and 20, 46:1-2). All the false gods had to be carried and set in their place because they could not move. Some god! They lugged it around on their shoulders and when they got home, they put it in the corner. In other words, they are unable to save anything. Though one cries out to it, it does not answer; it cannot save him from his troubles (46:7b). This shows the absolute absurdity of idolatry. Though they might give it all their love and attention, but when all was said and done, a thing that could not help itself, could not help others.

The second warning (46:8-11). The second warning is to remember the works of God. He challenges the Israelites to remember their past and reminds them that the Jewish prophets had predicted everything that has happened to them so far. Thus, ADONAI had shaped the past and revealed the future, not the idols of Babylon, but the God of Isra’el. The real question was this: Given the astonishing nature of His claims and promises, would Isra’el believe the LORD or remain stubborn-hearted (see 46:12 below)?

Isaiah had been fighting against the sheer stupidity of idolatry. He cautioned: Remember this, fix it in your mind (found only here in the Bible), literally make yourselves firm and take it to heart, you rebels (46:8). Isra’el did and could know better – if only she would take a thoughtful account of things, as she should have already done. She needed to give it some serious thought. This is the same theme found in Deuteronomy. What was the antidote to her unbelief? Memory. Moses and all the prophets should have reminded her that when she remembered the former things, those of long ago she would see God as He really is and know that she could believe in Him. Is this not true for us also? He says, even to us today: I am EL and there is no other; I am ELOHIM and there is none like Me (46:9). He alone is God.

I made known, or declared, the end from the beginning, from ancient times, and what is still to come (46:10a). He is not only the revealer of the things in the past, He is the revealer of things in the future. He reveals the whole sweep of human history. God says: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please (46:10b). As in creation (Psalm 33:9), so in history, ADONAI’s will cannot be hindered. Even when some particular experience sidetracks God’s people, His desire will still be accomplished. It is unalterable. The difference between Him and the supposed gods of wood and stone should have been obvious.

Once again He refers to Cyrus. From the east I summon a bird of prey; from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose (46:11a). He pictures Cyrus (whose standard was an eagle) as a bird of prey because he will devour the nations that he comes up against. What I have said, that I will bring about; what I have planned, that will I do (46:11b). His promises will be brought about because God Himself will be at work in human history to accomplish them.

There is a third warning (46:12-13). These two verses turn out to be Isaiah’s final appeal to Isra’el to accept ADONAI’s will in the matter of Cyrus. Isra’el needed to trust Him that He could and would deliver them. They were to listen and respond to God’s righteousness. Listen to Me, you stubborn-hearted, you who are far from righteousness (46:12). God first brings them to the spiritual reality that they are stubborn-hearted, or headstrong, and far from Him and His righteousness.

To continue to question God is no longer an absence of faith but a stubborn-hearted refusal to believe. We often consider stubborn-heartedness the result of arrogance, the attitude of those who do not think they need deliverance. But it may be just as much, as we see here, the response of those who recognize their need but cannot believe that the LORD can meet it. Here the unbelief seems to be focused on three questions: Is God really strong enough to wrestle His people away from the gods of Babylon? Would He want to save them at all, since their sin has been so grievous? And is the conquest of Babylon by another pagan, Cyrus, really an acceptable mode of deliverance?

It is important to notice Isaiah’s increasingly harsh tone that he uses to convince the Jewish people to take his words to heart. In 40:27 he simply asks why the people would even question God. By 42:18 Isaiah is calling them deaf and blind to the truth. In 45:9 he pronounces doom on those who presume to define what God can and cannot do. He calls them rebels in 46:8, and then stubborn-hearted here. Finally, Chapter 48 is a denunciation of those who have heard with their ears, but not their hearts. They have never heard the truth about themselves or about God (6:9-10). The LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and He relents from sending calamity (Joel 2:13; Jonah 4:2), but there is an end even to that, as the generation in the wilderness and the destruction of Jerusalem should tell us.¹⁷⁸

I am bringing My righteousness near, it is not far away; and My salvation will not be delayed. I will grant salvation to Zion, My splendor to Isra’el (46:13). The idolater makes a god in his own image; ADONAI intends to make His people in His. As a result, God calls them to righteousness. This is an evangelistic plea to believe and be saved. That has always been His will for all mankind. But Isra’el has always been the focal point of salvation. Whatever horrible things they have done, however His name has been defiled, it is through Israel that He has chosen to make His salvation known to the world. He has been faithful and a covenant keeper. Therefore, should we not believe God?

The Judgment of Babylon and Her Idols
46:1 to 47:15

The business of magic and foretelling was big business in Babylon. There were classes of priests whose business was to read the significance for the future from the shape of a sacrificial animal’s innards. These omens were carefully cataloged and recorded; their official listing ran to more than seventy tablets. When we think of the tremendous effort that went into compiling and categorizing these, we get some idea of what Isaiah is talking about. By comparison, it makes the acquisition of a Ph.D. degree today look pretty easy. At the same time, one would have to gain great skill at covering up all the wrong prognostications.

The same kind of incredible effort went into the study of the horoscope. How much time must have been spent staring into the night sky in order to find some coordination between the placement of the stars and current events. Then they had to answer to the kings and rulers as to whether to undertake certain activities. In some ways, they would have been better off if they did not have so much intelligence. They would not have had the illusion of being in control of the fates that ruled their lives and country. The amazing fact is that the horoscope is still being used today. People who deny that Jesus ever did a miracle will open the newspaper to read it. This is nothing other than a continuation of that failed Babylonian wisdom.

The word mazzaroth is the Hebrew of what we commonly call the zodiac. The word zodiac is actually a transliteration of a Greek word. But the Hebrew word zodi means the Way, which is a euphemism for being a follower of the Messiah (Acts 9:2, 19:9 and 23, 22:4, 24:14 and 22). Therefore, the original story told in the stars was the story of the Messiah, from Virgo, the virgin Mary, to Leo, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah (see the commentary on Genesis, to see link click Lw – The Witness of the Stars). But the Adversary has turned the truth of the gospel into a lie. Today we have only a corrupted understanding that goes back to the Latin, Romans, and the Greeks.

What is the attraction of the zodiac today? The same attraction that it has had for five thousand years. People think they can get control of their lives by getting a glimpse of what fate dictates will happen today. The life of faith in Messiah is vastly different. He asks us to surrender our lives and our futures into His hands for His direction, multiplication, and blessing. But we humans would rather not surrender. Too much of the time, we would rather apply our vast intelligence to getting control of the world for ourselves, just like the Babylonians.¹⁷⁶ The message in these scriptures is that Babylon would be used by ADONAI to judge Judah, but God in turn would destroy her. Her gods, mere idols, would not be able to save her from defeat in Chapter 46 and Babylon would fall in spite of her sorceries and wisdom in Chapter 47.

Turn to Me and Be Saved,
For I Am God and there is No Other
45: 18-25

Turn to Me and be saved, for I am God and there is no other DIG: What lessons from 44:24-26 are repeated here? What is the purpose of this continual contrast between God and idols? From this passage alone, what does God say about His character? His purposes? His desires? Where is 45:23 quoted in the New Covenant, and in reference to whom?

REFLECT: How do these verses form the backdrop for Philippians 2:10-11? Accordingly, who are the descendants of Israel (see Galatians 3:29)? What do these verses indicate about the ultimate purpose of God’s judgments and acts in history? God calls all types of people to come to Him. How does that affect your prayers? Your priorities? Your sense of purpose? Your hope?

Isaiah continues his near historical prophecy about the approaching deliverance for those Jews sitting in Babylon who needed hope. Yeshua is our blessed hope (Titus 2:13); He is the Creator and the Revealer. God’s creative power is proof that what He predicted about Cyrus is true. For this is what the LORD says, He who created the heavens, He is God; He who fashioned and made the earth, He founded it (45:18a). The Greek word ki, meaning for or because, shows that what follows only confirms what went before it. And what went on before it was that ADONAI was the Potter and Isra’el was the clay; He was the Holy One of Isra’el and its Maker (45:9-11). Four different verbs underscore His creative powers, and two of them are repeated twice, to make the point that the heavens and the earth are the works of His hands. He created, and fashioned, and made and founded the earth.

He did not create it to be empty, or chaotic, but formed it to be inhabited (45:18b). Some use this verse to prove that there is a “gap” between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2 (see the commentary on Genesis, to see link click Ah – The Supposed Gap Theory). I do not believe in the Gap Theory because of context, context, context. In Genesis 1:31, God saw all that He had made and it was very good. If the world had been laid waste between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 it would not have been very good. In comparison to the living God, the idols that Isra’el had been worshiping continued to disappoint them. Chaos did not exist before God, and God did not bring chaos into existence. He brought order in existence. Rather, ADONAI created the world specifically for humans to live an orderly life. Who could the Israelites trust? God’s order or the idol’s chaos?

Therefore, God communicated the truth to them by saying: I have not spoken in secret, from somewhere in a land of darkness; I have not said to Jacob’s descendants, “Seek Me in vain.” I the LORD, speak the truth. I declare what is right (45:19). Another proof that what God had said about Isra’el’s salvation is the very nature of God’s Word. He is the Revealer and speaks only what is true. Isaiah said God had not spoken in secret because everything that has happened has been prophesied. Also, He has not spoken out in a land of darkness, like what took place with the occult worship in Babylon. When the Babylonian prophets spoke, they were in contact with darkness and the world of darkness. YHVH never told Isra’el to seek Him in vain. Because whenever sinners seek God, they will find righteousness and salvation. Jesus said it this way: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened (Matthew 7:7-8).

Who could deliver Isra’el? The LORD or the gods? Far from Isra’el being concerned over whether God could deliver her from Babylon, it was the mighty Babylonians who needed to worry about whether the gods whom they had served could deliver them! Then Isaiah moved to his amazing conclusion. If Babylon wanted to be delivered from its coming destruction, it needed to look to the God of the captives, the God of Isra’el. It wasn’t like the LORD was going to secretly whisk His people back to Judah. No, it was their own make-believe gods that would utterly fail the Babylonians.

Therefore, God called the peoples of the world to come together to test His true identity. Gather together and come; assemble, you fugitives from the nations. Those fugitives seemed to look forward to the time when the judgments associated with Cyrus (45:1-3, 14 and 16) had already occurred. Those who were left after the destruction were invited to reflect on what all of it meant. Ignorant are those who carry about empty idols of wood, who pray to gods that cannot save them (45:20). Those fugitives were portrayed as carrying around sacred pieces of wood, praying to them even though all the evidence pointed to the fact that they were utterly useless.

But what about Isra’el? Would she continue to trust in her idols that got her into trouble in the first place? This was a teachable moment, and Isra’el’s great tragedy became God’s great opportunity. This was a close analogy to the ark narrative in First Samuel 4-5. There, because of the magical trust in the ark of the covenant, Israel was defeated and it taken. But that defeat then became a perfect opportunity to show the Philistines that God was not defeated just because Isra’el was. Likewise, here, Isra’el’s captivity, the result of false trust in the Temple (Jeremiah 7:3-15), among other things, became an opportunity to demonstrate the superiority of God to the idols of Babylon.¹⁷³ Isra’el was called upon to repudiate all idolatry. The idols are so helpless that they could not even carry themselves. They needed to be carried by their worshipers to their temples, and in their processions into battle (Second Samuel 5:21).

Isaiah then asked the Israelite exiles in Babylon to present their strongest case possible for idolatry. He said: Declare what is to be, present it – let them take counsel together. Who foretold the Babylonian captivity long ago? Who declared it from the distant past (45:21a)? The scene is reminiscent of Psalm 2:2 where the kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the LORD and against His Anointed One. But their cause is just as hopeless here as it was there.

Was it not I, the LORD? And there is no God apart from Me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none but Me (45:21b). ADONAI alone had the ability to predict the future accurately. That had been at the heart of all the disputes between Himself and Isra’el from the beginning (41:22-27; 43:9-10; 44:7-8). The real proof of Ha’Shem’s superiority is His sovereignty over history. To put it simply, ADONAI can make things happen, while the idols just sit there.

Therefore, both the logic and evidence presented by Isaiah were indisputable. Since the LORD is the only revealer of things that came in the past and things that were coming in the future, He is the only righteous God and Savior. The gods of Babylon will not save the Jews, only the LORD will save Jacob’s descendants. In the captivity the Israelites could count on the fact that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob would deliver them from exile by the hand of Cyrus. There is none like Him. He is the Promise Keeper, and says: I am the LORD, and there is no other (45:18c).

Isaiah continued with his prophecy, declaring that one day the Gentile nations would know the LORD in a personal way. We cannot go wrong if we remind ourselves again that Isaiah’s name means the LORD saves and conclude that the primary theme of the book of Isaiah is salvation. Isaiah 45:22, then, can serve us well as the key verse for the book as a whole: Turn to Me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other. The God of Isra’el turns to the Gentile nations and calls for them to turn to ADONAI. This phrase means to believe in the LORD and be saved. This is the consistent message of the Bible from beginning to end. In Genesis 12:3 we read: I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you. And in Revelation 5:9 it says: They sang a new song, “You are worthy to take the scroll and open its seals, because You were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.” This has always been a blind spot for the Jews (see the commentary on Acts Bg – Peter Goes to the House of Cornelius).

God swears by Himself because what He says is spoken, or uttered in all integrity, a word that will not be revoked (45:23a). What He says is true and will never be retracted. There is only one God to whom the world owes allegiance, only one by whom oaths can be guaranteed. Thus, there is only one Judge and Savior of the whole world. This has implications for Isra’el, but it also has implications for the Gentiles. All will be judged and give an account of himself to God (Romans 14:10-12), and before Him every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of the Father (Isaiah 45:23b; Philippians 2:9-11). Jesus Christ alone will judge all mankind . The Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son (John 5:23). And God alone will save all the earth. Thus, while bowing the knee may be the act of a condemned criminal, it is also that of a pardoned sinner!

The only hope for Isra’el, for the world, and for you and me continues to be the LORD. He is not the Savior of Isra’el because He is Isra’el’s God. He is the Savior of Isra’el because He is the Savior of the world. Moreover, ADONAI declares: They will say of Me, “In the LORD alone are righteousness and strength. And all who have raged against Him will come to Him and be put to shame” (45:24). The implied far eschatological prophecy given here describes the final verdict given to the spiritual rebels in the courtroom of Jesus Christ (see the commentary on Revelation Fo – The Great White Throne Judgment). For the faithful remnant, the great white throne judgment will be something to look forward to, for it will vindicate their lives. Evil will be punished and their faithfulness will be rewarded.

Recorded history will show that the vast majority of Jews have not accepted Yeshua as their Messiah. To this day most refuse to bow the knee and confess that Yeshua Messiah is Lord. But at the Second Coming, all the righteous of the TaNaKh will be saved (Romans 11:26a). At that time, during the Millennial Kingdom, when the world finally admits that its gods are nothing, all the descendants of Isra’el will be found righteous in the LORD and will rejoice in Him (Isaiah 45:25). He will be the One who vindicated them and who is glorified in them. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows (James 1:17). All that is praiseworthy is a result of who God is and what He has done for Isra’el and for us.¹⁷⁴ Will Cyrus physically deliver them from the Babylonian captivity? Yes, but that physical deliverance only foreshadows a far greater spiritual deliverance to come. We have reached a turning point in Isaiah’s book. From this point on Cyrus fades into the background and the rest of the story is dominated by the One who had chosen to use him.

The righteousness of God is seen most clearly in His gracious gift of salvation. In the middle of the nineteenth century, Charles Spurgeon, the famous preacher-evangelist, not yet sixteen years old, was converted to faith in Christ after hearing a layman’s sermon on Isaiah 45:22. It was as if YHVH was speaking directly to him, saying: Turn to Me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I Am God, and there is no other.¹⁷⁵ God was the only one who could save Isra’el from Babylon, and He is the only One who can save us from our sin.

The fact that there is only one God and only one way to heaven is just as fundamental and distasteful today as it was many centuries ago. This is a radically exclusive message. There is only one God and one Savior, and He is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Yeshua said it this way: I Am the Way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through Me (John 14:6). Wow, is that offensive to unbelievers. They say, “How narrow-minded,” or “How judgmental!” But the offense is real (Galatians 5:11). In reality, Messiah’s message is our only hope (Jeremiah 29:11-14). You must either accept it, or reject it. You cannot ignore it, for to ignore Messiah’s message is to reject it. Make a wise choice for eternal joy and happiness.

I Will Rise Up Cyrus in My Righteousness,
I Will Make All His Ways Straight
45: 9-17

I will raise up Cyrus in my righteousness, I will make all his ways straight DIG: Evidently, some people objected to the prophet’s declaration that God would use a pagan as the means of deliverance. How does God refute that objection? How does the LORD reassure the Israelites that they indeed have a future and have not merely been swallowed up in a Gentile take-over of the world?

REFLECT: Do you have any outstanding quarrels with your Maker? What are they? What should you do to resolve them? Is there anything you are worshiping right now that causes you to feel ashamed or disgraced? How did Isra’el overcome that tendency? How can you overcome it? Why does the fact that Isra’el is saved by the LORD with an everlasting salvation good news for you?

This is an address apparently directed to those who questioned the propriety of the selection of Cyrus, rather than a descendant of the house of David, as the liberator of Isra’el. When we put ourselves into the position of the Hebrew people, it is not hard to realize how difficult it would be for them to accept Cyrus as God’s shepherd, or His anointed. When they thought of returning from the Babylonian exile, they must had thought of a second exodus, manna from heaven, water from rocks, and another Moses. It was shocking for them to hear that their deliverer would be a pagan who did not even know God. They wondered out loud why ADONAI would have to use a Gentile king and an idolater like Cyrus as a means of accomplishing His plan. Therefore, God was being criticized for it here by some Jews of that day. These verses are a rebuke of those critics. Two points are made.

First, we see the absurdity of the criticism and the critics themselves. Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker, to him who is but a broken, discarded piece of pottery, or a potsherd, among the potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, “What are you making?” Does your work say, “He has no hands” (45:9)? It is like clay talking back to the potter. The clay never does that. It would be absurd. That is how God pictures these critics. ADONAI is the Creator of the entire world. He knows how best to work out His own plan. Who are these critics to criticize Him?

Secondly, nor do children have the right to question why their parents brought them into the world. Woe to him who says to his father, “What have you begotten?” Or to his mother, “What have you brought to birth” (45:10)? It is like a fetus in the womb complaining and demanding to know what is happening. Fetuses don’t do that (although they may complain after they get out) ! In the same way, Isra’el has no right to question God, her Maker.

Next, God defends His own sovereignty to do as He pleases. This is what the LORD says – the Holy One of Isra’el, and its Maker. Concerning things to come, do you question Me about My children, or give Me orders about the work of My hands? The LORD points out that no one can command God as to how He should accomplish His plan. It is His program and no mortal finite human can possibly command an immortal infinite God. ADONAI is the Maker of all that exists and He can do with it as He chooses. To emphasize this point He declares: I Am the One who made the earth, and created mankind upon it. My own hands stretched out the heavens; I organized their starry skies (see the commentary on Genesis, to see link click Lw – The Witness of the Stars). All we have has been given to us, but it isn’t ours. It belongs to our God who created it. We care for it on His behalf. So, we need to serve Him with gladness and thank Him for His good gifts (45:11-12).

Then ADONAI reaffirms and restates His current purpose with a near historical prophecy. Speaking through His prophet, He said: I will rise up Cyrus in My righteousness; I will make all his ways straight. Cyrus is going to be raised up to carry out the program of righteousness. Now he was not righteous himself, but God’s program is a righteous program. And part of carrying out His righteous program is using Cyrus as an instrument of His will. He will rebuild My City and set My exiles free, but not for a price or reward, says the LORD of heaven’s armies (45:13). As a result, Cyrus will set the Jewish exiles free to rebuild Jerusalem.

As believers, we need to be careful not to fall into the same trap that those Jews did during the life of Isaiah and that the Pharisees did during the life of Christ. Both generations put ADONAI in a box. Some of the Jews of Isaiah’s generation could not accept the fact that God could use a Gentile king and an idolater like Cyrus to accomplish His plan. Most of the Pharisees of Messiah’s generation could not accept that He did not believe in nor follow, the Oral Law (see The Life of Christ – Ei The Oral Law), or the tradition of the elders (Matthew 15:2). It was people who zealously studied the Scriptures who could not believe that Jesus could be the promised Messiah. It was people who wanted to please God who could not accept His friendship with notorious sinners. It was people who had almost made a life’s work of studying God’s ways who could not allow Yeshua to deliver people in ways that seemed to violate how ADONAI was supposed to act. Both generations were wrong, and both suffered tragic results. We need to be careful that we do not put the LORD in a box. Just when we think we have Him all figured out, He surprises us. He is God and we are not.

The rise of Cyrus will not only signal the Jewish return to the Promised Land, but also the eventual birth of the Messiah and the fulfillment of His will for both Jews and Gentiles. Isaiah clearly telescopes the entire period between the return from exile to the coming Messiah by giving a far eschatological prophecy about the Millennial Kingdom (Revelation 20:1-6) and the submission of the Gentile nations to Isra’el (see the commentary on Revelation Fk – Gentiles in the Messianic Kingdom). The Israelites did not need to worry. ADONAI’s promises to David were not swallowed up in, what seemed to be at the time of the exile, a Gentile take-over of the world. The LORD had promised David that he would rule the nations (Isaiah 9:7, 11:12-16; Psalm 2:7-12) and that they would submit to him (Isaiah 7:23; Psalm 72:8-12). As strange as it sounded to them at the time, the rise of Cyrus to power would start that process.

At the time of this prophecy, the Jews were living in Judah and thought Isaiah was a fool. But the LORD knew that about 200 years later, when they were in Babylon and in the midst of depression from their departure from the Temple and the Land, that they would need hope. In a corporate lament, the Psalmist would write: By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion (Psalm 137:1-9). So here Isaiah continues his message of comfort (40:1-11) and tells them that not only would they come back from the captivity, but one day the Gentile nations would be subject to them! Hence, ADONAI describes the submission of the Gentiles to the people of Israel as we also see in 49:23 and 60:4-9.

Isaiah then describes the submission of three Gentile nations. This is what ADONAI says: The products of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush (Ethiopia), and those of the Sabeans (a tribe in Upper Egypt lying between Egypt and the Ethiopians) – they will come over to you and will be yours; they will trudge behind you willingly, as if in chains. By coming to Israel’s Messiah, the Gentiles will come to Isra’el.

They will bow down before you and plead with you, saying: Surely God is with you, and there is no other, there is no other god (45:14). He is essentially dealing with the Northeast countries of Africa. These are the very enemies of Isra’el today. Yet someday they will submit themselves to the people of Isra’el. The reason they will come is that they will recognize that God is with them. In fact, this is a summary statement of Chapter 19, which details the submission of Egypt to the people of Isra’el. It is also a summation of Chapters 17 and 20, which deal with the submission of Ethiopia to the people of Isra’el. So, ultimately the Muslims are going to confess that ADONAI, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, is the one true God. At that time, they will know and experience the grace of Jesus Christ.

When Isaiah saw this future prophecy, he broke out in song: Truly you are a God who hides Himself, O God and Savior of Isra’el (45:15). When Isaiah says that God hides Himself, he doesn’t mean that God is being secretive. God hides Himself in the sense that His program is a mystery. When the Bible uses the term mystery, it means something that was once hidden, but has now been revealed. In other words, when Isaiah is given all this revelation about ADONAI’s program he breaks into song about how the ways of the LORD are being revealed at that time. No false god, no phony prophet could come up with such a fantastic plan. We see the same thing in Romans 9, 10, and 11 where ADONAI deals with His program with Isra’el. And much of what Paul writes about in the book of Romans has its seeds in the book of Isaiah, which he quotes rather heavily throughout. In Chapter 9 he points out the fact that Isra’el’s unbelief in the Messiah did not take Ha’Shem by surprise at all. He knew she would do so and used her disobedience for His ultimate plan. So that in Romans 10, opportunity might be given to the Gentiles to come to a saving knowledge of ADONAI.

Furthermore, in Romans 11 Paul says that not all Jews have rejected the Messiah, so throughout this present dispensation there is always going to be a believing remnant of Jews who will believe in Yeshua Messiah. At the end of Romans 11:25-32, Paul declares that ADONAI’s program with Isra’el will ultimately be fulfilled. He says the day is coming when all Isra’el will be saved (Romans 11:26). After Paul reveals this information about God’s program, he too breaks out in song in Romans 11:33-36. So, both Isaiah and Paul declare that the LORD’s ways are thoroughly unsearchable. It is a plan that is magnificent. It is ADONAI’s plan, and no one, on their own, cannot discover it. It has to come by revelation.

The last two verses in this section are commentary on the previous statements, and are in the context of the millennial Kingdom. All the makers of idols will be put to shame and disgraced; they will go off into disgrace together (45:16). During the Great Tribulation, the occult will reign freely as the restraining influence of the Spirit of God will have been removed from the earth. Any unbelieving Gentiles who are born during and live in the Millennial Kingdom will be put to shame and disgrace because of the idols they have trusted in. They will not be ashamed of themselves for trusting in idols because they still have unrepentant hearts, but nevertheless, they will go into disgrace together. There is a play upon words in this verse. Notice the term disgraced or confused. The Hebrew word for confusion is babel. It is also the name for Babylon. The source of idolatry and occult worship, and therefore the source of confusion, ultimately goes back to the city of Babylon. But that will not be the case for believing Isra’el.

But Isra’el will be saved by the LORD with an everlasting salvation. Jeremiah would later emphasize that God had said: I have loved you with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3). Jesus would announce: I tell you the truth, whoever believes [in Me] has everlasting life (John 6:47). In contrast to all the Gentiles who went through the Great Tribulation, the LORD said of Isra’el, “You will never be put to shame or disgraced, to ages everlasting (45:17). The good news for believers, is that if Isra’el cannot lose her salvation because of her sin, neither can you lose your salvation because of your sin! The only kind of salvation ADONAI gives is everlasting salvation (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Ms – The Eternal Security of the Believer).

Isra’el, who used to be prone to the idol worship of the Babylonian gods, would never be put to shame or disgraced (confused) by idols again (Isaiah 54:4; Romans 9:33, 10:11; First Peter 2:6). Consequently, the righteous of the TaNaKh, and those who repented and accepted Jesus as the Messiah at the end of the Great Tribulation (see the commentary on Revelation Ev – The Basis for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ), will enjoy ADONAI’s everlasting salvation.

This is What the LORD says to Cyrus His Anointed
45: 1-8

DIG: In the past, only Israelite kings were called God’s anointed. What is the significance of the LORD’s using this title for a pagan king? Why does God give victory after victory to Cyrus? Since no other deported people ever maintained their ethnic and religious heritage, how will the re-establishment of the Jews fulfill these purposes in 45:6-8? Several times in this section Ha’Shem repeats that there is no God but Him. Does ADONAI’s deliverance of the Jews from Babylon by the hand of a Persian prove this claim? How so? What does this communicate to the Jews? What does 45:6 communicate to the Gentile nations? Persian religion taught that a god of light and a god of darkness were in perpetual warfare with each other. What light does this shed on 45:7? What are the implications of 45:7 (Job 2:10, Amos 3:6, and Romans 11:36)?

REFLECT: Do you think that the LORD still shapes all of history around the purpose of saving His people? How might the purpose of God be traced in some recent world event? From this passage, what should be your response to that event? Think about the continued existence of the Jews, despite their long history of persecution and oppression, even today – what does that show us of ADONAI? In what ways are the actions of Cyrus like the work of Messiah? What other Christ-like figures today do you think God might be using to accomplish His purpose?

This chapter begins with Cyrus as the last chapter ended with him. Here, ADONAI talks directly to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of (45:1b); however, this message is not really addressed to the Persian king. It was meant for the downtrodden Israelites who could not see how God’s promise of restoration could possibly happen. The great issue was convincing the LORD’s people that He could rescue them.

From the famous Cyrus Cylinder, discovered by the Assyro-British archaeologist Hormuzd Rassam in 1879, we have learned that Marduk, the chief god of Babylon, was highly displeased with the Babylonian king Nabonidus’ cruelties. Therefore, he called upon Cyrus to conquer Babylon, and restore the proper devotion to himself. So there was a dramatic difference between Marduk’s supposedly calling Cyrus and ADONAI’s calling of him. Marduk supposedly chose him because of his admirable qualities, strength and leadership skills. But with God those traits did not matter. What really mattered was the God of Isra’el had summoned him by name (45:3), even though Cyrus did not acknowledge Him (45:4), so that men and women everywhere would know the LORD (45:6). As a result, Cyrus’ mission was solely dependent on the nature and character of ADONAI, not the calling of Marduk. It is not the perfect man that would save the world, but a holy God.

Cyrus was named almost two hundred years before he was born. I believe there are three reasons. First, primarily for identification. When Cyrus did appear on the scene, there would be no misunderstanding about whom Isaiah had spoken about. Secondly, Cyrus would be the man responsible for a decree that would return the Israelites to the Land. Thirdly, it would prepare the Israelites for the coming of Messiah. If in two hundred years Isaiah’s near historical prophecy about Cyrus was accurate, then God could also be trusted that His future prophecy about the One born of a virgin, Immanuel (to see link click Cb – The LORD Himself Will Give You a Sign), would also be accurate.

This is what the LORD says to His anointed (45:1a). If Isaiah’s hearers were shocked earlier at Cyrus’ being called God’s shepherd (44:28), they must have been even more so at his now being called My anointed. This title had previously been reserved only for priests, prophets, and kings of Isra’el. Could God possibly use a Gentile to accomplish His purposes? Yes! That is exactly the point that Isaiah is making. God is not the LORD of Isra’el alone; He is the God of the whole world. Israel’s election is not for itself, and thus neither is its deliverance necessarily to be effected by itself. It is this sense in which anointed is used here; Cyrus has been especially chosen and empowered to carry out the purposes of God. In that sense he is God’s chosen instrument through whom God’s gracious purposes will be accomplished, especially that through him God will be revealed to the world. To subdue the nations before him and to strip kings of their armor, to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut (45:1c). The true Messiah will bring spiritual deliverance to Isra’el, but Cyrus, pointing us to the true Messiah, would bring physical deliverance to Isra’el.¹⁷⁰

Isaiah describes God’s work on behalf of Cyrus. I will go before you and will level the mountains; I will break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron (45:2). It is God who will go before the conqueror and prepare the way for him. It is God who declares that He will ensure his victories over impregnable cities. We have many extra-biblical records to support this. When Cyrus began his conquest he was unstoppable, and supposedly unconquerable cities like Sardis were captured easily. Isaiah describes the victory Cyrus will have over Babylon because God talks about the gates of bronze and the bars of iron. According to the Greek historian Herodotus, Babylon had 100 gates around the city all made of bronze. Yet, God declares that these bronze gates will be powerless to stop Cyrus and he will be given Babylon as part of his conquest. In addition, God will give him victory over the nations before him, which included Croesus and the Lydian Empire.

As reported by Herodotus, the thing Croesus was famous for was his wealth. In fact, the legend of the king with the golden touch actually comes from Croesus. Midis was another name for him, but Croesus was actually his Greek name. Croesus had his headquarters in the city of Sardis. There he hid his gold in underground tunnels. That is why God says: I will give you treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places. Yet, Cyrus was able to defeat Lydia with ease, and all the wealth of Croesus, in the billions of dollars by today standards, went into the pockets of Cyrus the Great. Thus, God declared that He would conquer Babylon and Lydia, the two major empires that Cyrus conquered to establish the Medo-Persian Empire.

In Matthew, Yeshua tells us that: The kingdom of Heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field (Matthew 13:44). The possession of wealth often becomes a problem in the east, because of its insecurity. With every man being his own banker, ingenuity is taxed to devise some plan of concealment, or to find some place where money, jewels, and other valuables may remain free from molestation or suspicion. Sometimes these treasures are hidden in secret closets in the house, or in vaults under the house; sometimes they are buried in the field, in a spot unknown to all save the owner. It frequently happens that the owner goes away and dies before the time of his intended return, his secret dying with him. Times of war and pestilence carry off great numbers, who leave treasures concealed; no one knows where. There are, no doubt, deposits of immense value thus buried in different parts of the east. These facts illustrate the text. Other references of a similar character are made in different parts of the Bible, showing how ancient and how widespread is the custom of hiding treasures (Joshua 7:21; Job 3:21-22; Proverbs 2:4; Ecclesiastes 5:12).¹⁷¹

Then God gives three reasons why He would use Cyrus to free the Jews from Babylon and bring them back to the Land. First, God would use Cyrus for Cyrus’ sake. I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the LORD, the God of Isra’el, who calls you by name (45:3). God is giving Cyrus, a Gentile monarch, an opportunity to know the LORD. To some extent, Cyrus did recognize that the God of Isra’el was aiding him. But he did not submit himself to the God of Isra’el; in other words, he was never a true believer in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Cyrus was polytheistic; he simply included the God of Isra’el with all his other gods. He gave the LORD credit for victory, but he also gave Marduk, the god of Babylon, credit for victory. So ultimately, he did not make ADONAI his only God, the one true God. He had the opportunity to know the LORD, but he didn’t take it.

The second reason why God is going to use Cyrus is for Isra’el’s sake. For the sake of Jacob My servant, of Israel My chosen, I call you by name and bestow on you a title of honor. But even though Cyrus would enjoy a special relationship with God (43:1), and was honored by the LORD, he still was not a believer for he did not acknowledge ADONAI as the true God (45:4). Because of God’s covenantal relationship with Isra’el, He promised that Cyrus would be His human instrument to end the Babylonian captivity after 70 years.

The third reason is for the world’s sake. I am the LORD, and there is no other; apart from Me there is no God. I will strengthen you, though you have not acknowledged Me, so that from the rising of the sun to the place of its setting men may know there is none besides Me. I Am the LORD, and there is no other (45:5-6). I will, so that all nations may know the Lord. Here Isra’el is regathered in belief (27:12-13) with the key purpose that the entire world would know Him. However, in the days of Cyrus that never happened. Yet, God says that He is going to use Cyrus for the ultimate accomplishment of this third purpose; that all nations would know Him. Cyrus has long been dead, and the day when all nations will know ADONAI is still in the future. So how will God use Cyrus for this? God is going to bring the Babylonian captivity to an end so that the Jews can go back to the Land. Then Messiah could be born in Bethlehem. After He is born, and leaves after His First Coming, He will come back a second time. At that time, all nations will know the LORD. So in that sense, God is using Cyrus to accomplish the ultimate goal that all nations will know Him. Someday, because of Cyrus, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Philippians 2:10-11).

The climax of this section speaks to the fact that nothing and no one compares to the LORD. Here Isaiah spells out exactly what he means when he says that there is no other God. If any questions still remained in the minds of the Israelites of the uniqueness of ADONAI, he would put them to rest. He chose two polar opposites in the realm of nature and history to make His case. Here, Isaiah declares that the LORD, as Creator, is ultimately responsible for everything in nature, from light to darkness, and for everything in history, from good fortune to misfortune. No other gods or forces can effect anything.

First, Isaiah addresses nature and speaks against the very religion of Persia, of which Cyrus is a part. Zoroastrianism was their religion and was a religion of dualism. It said there are two independent forces, the god of light and peace and the god of darkness and calamity. There was a duel between good and evil, with no god ever having complete control. But here God speaks directly against this dualism. He says that He is the God of both light and darkness. ADONAI says: I form the light and create darkness (45:7a). He was answering Zoroastrianism that worshiped the god of light. It was as if God was saying to those devotees, “I want you to know that light is no god. I created it!”

Secondly, He addresses history by saying: I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the LORD, do all these things (45:7b). The Bible here says that God created disaster. Some have interpreted this as God creating evil. But there is a basic misunderstanding as to the usage of the Hebrew word ra (short a). It is used in classical Hebrew in two different senses. It could mean evil in the sense of sin, but it can also mean evil in the sense of disaster or calamity. That is the way it is used in reference to God. The Bible makes it clear that God is not the author of sin and James argues that in detail. God does not create sin, nor does He tempt anyone to commit an act of sin (James 1:13-15).

But, Ha’Shem certainly does cause disaster such as the flood of Noah, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and other physical judgments. That is the meaning of the text in reference to ADONAI. It is also true that Satan’s ability to do evil is within the permissive will of God. What the Adversary could or could not do to Job, his family, and his property was based on what YHVH permitted him to do. As the LORD of heaven’s armies, He can do anything, even use the schemes of Satan, to fulfill His near historical purposes and desires. And His desire was to use Cyrus to free the Jews from Babylon and bring them back to the Land.

But there was also a far eschatological purpose for God’s calling of Cyrus. When the messianic Kingdom is established on the earth (see the commentary on Revelation Fh – The Dispensation of the Messianic Kingdom), the heavens above will figuratively rain down righteousness on the earth (45:8a). God’s holy standard of righteousness will be followed. The inspired prophet declared: Let the clouds shower it down. Let the earth open wide, let salvation spring up like a great harvest, and let righteousness grow with it. I, the LORD, have created it (45:8). For this to happen the Israelites needed to be sent home to Judah; to be sent home to Judah, Babylon had to be defeated; for Babylon to be defeated Cyrus needed to become the LORD’s anointed. That was the big picture.

In the prospect of this ultimate and saving purpose of the mission of Cyrus, in other words, the redemption of Isra’el and the conversion of the Gentiles, heavens and earth will then be summoned to bring forth and pour down spiritual blessings according to the will and in the power of the LORD.¹⁷² Isaiah says it is the work of God. This verse is actually a prayer that interrupts the flow of the prophecy and serves to highlight an important feature of Chapters 40 through 48, the people’s unbelief. Isaiah is praying that the prophecies given in 44:24 through 45:7 might begin the process of delivering every person from the consequences of his or her own sin, if only he or she will allow Him to do it. When that happens people everywhere will know ADONAI, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea (Habakkuk 2:14).

Cyrus is My Shepherd
and Will Accomplish All that I Please
44: 24-28

Cyrus is My shepherd and will accomplish all that I please DIG: What truth about God is stressed here? How do these truths confirm the promises given? As an exile who had no freedom to leave Babylon, much less consider rebuilding Jerusalem, would you have responded to these promises with hope or with cynicism? In light of this, how might the exiles feel as they heard rumors of Cyrus’ conquests and approach to Babylon? What does that imply about the relationship between God’s actions and Cyrus’ plans?

REFLECT: Here the LORD is emphasizing the faithfulness, the surety, the reliability and the promises of His written Word through the prophets, His messengers. If you are a believer, His Word contains promises to you about your future with Him. What do you believe about these promises? Some have said, “The Bible says it, I believe it, and that does it!” Does that characterize you? Or do you have doubts? As you read about God’s promise of deliverance to the Israelites from the Babylon Captivity, and His faithfulness to them, how does that make you feel about His faithfulness to you?

The second half of the book of Isaiah is a message of comfort. Here God announces through His prophet the deliverance of the Jews by a Persian emperor named Cyrus. In the Hebrew text this is all one sentence. It is one of the longest sentences in the Hebrew text. First, he describes the LORD’s authority by saying: This is what ADONAI says (44:24a). We see that phrase again in 45:1, 11, 14 and 18. It is usually used to bring about confidence in the promises of God to redeem and deliver. This phrase underscores that these are the very words of God.

Then the LORD asserts: I am your Redeemer (44:24b, also see 43:14). He is Isra’el’s go’el, the Next-of-Kin, pledged to take and bear her every burden as His own (see the commentary on Ruth, to see link click Ax – Ruth and Boaz on the Threshing Floor). She is His family by His will. James, Yeshua’s half-brother, wrote to the twelve tribes scattered among the nations saying: He chose to give us birth through the Word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of all He created (James 1:18). Isaiah then describes Isra’el’s special relationship with the LORD ten times by starting each sentence with the word who.

(1) Who formed you in the womb (44:24d). In the abortion debate people often argue about exactly when life begins. The Bible is very clear that life begins in the womb (Psalm 139:13-16; Isaiah 43:1, 7 and 21, 44:2 and 24; Jer 1:5 and 20:17). David would say: From my mother’s womb you have been my God (Psalm 22:10b). 

In a mother’s womb were two babies. One asked the other: “Do you believe in life after delivery?” The other replied, “Why, of course. There has to be something after delivery. Maybe we are here to prepare ourselves for what we will be later.”

“Nonsense” said the first. “There is no life after delivery. What kind of life would that be?”

The second said, “I don’t know, but there will be more light than here. Maybe we will walk with our legs and eat from our mouths. Maybe we will have other senses that we can’t understand now.”

The first replied, “That is absurd. Walking is impossible. And eating with our mouths? Ridiculous! The umbilical cord supplies nutrition and everything we need. But the umbilical cord is so short. Life after delivery is to be logically excluded.”

The second insisted, “Well I think there is something and maybe it’s different than it is here. Maybe we won’t need this physical cord anymore.”

The first replied, “Nonsense. And moreover if there is life, then why has no one ever come back from there? Delivery is the end of life, and in the after-delivery there is nothing but darkness and silence and oblivion. It takes us nowhere.”

“Well, I don’t know,” said the second, “but certainly we will meet Mother and she will take care of us.”

The first replied “Mother? You actually believe in Mother? That’s laughable. If Mother exists then where is She now?”

The second said, “She is all around us. We are surrounded by her. We are of Her. It is in Her that we live. Without Her this world would not and could not exist.”

Said the first: “Well I don’t see Her, so it is only logical that She doesn’t exist.”

To which the second replied, “Sometimes, when you’re in silence and you focus and listen, you can perceive Her presence, and you can hear Her loving voice, calling down from above.”

If you are a believer in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, I would caution you to believe in, and follow, the LORD’s Word to you rather than the lies of our current generation.

(2) Who had made all things (44:24c). Not only has the LORD made Isra’el, but He has also made all things without any assistance or advice (40:12-14 and 21-22). The fact that ADONAI is Isra’el’s Maker suggests that He would protect her and not see her destroyed. All creation has a relationship with God, but the people of Isra’el have a special relationship with Him. She is, after all, the apple of His eye (Deuteronomy 32:10c).

(3) Who alone stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth (44:24d and 51:13). Regarding stretching out the heavens (see the commentary on Genesis Ak – So God Made the Expanse Between the Waters), and for laying the foundations of the earth (see the commentary on GenesisAl – God Called the Dry Ground Land and Gathered the Waters He Called Seas). In other words, His continuing work as the Creator guarantees that He is in sole charge of everything (40:26), and there is no other God (Ps 96:5).

(4) Who spread out the earth by Myself (44:24e). And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He rested from all the work of creating that He had done (see my commentary on Genesis Aq – By the Seventh Day God Had Finished His Work). The point is that ADONAI is responsible for the existence of the world as we know it.

(5) Who foils the signs of false prophets (44:25a). The Hebrew word for false prophets here means babblers. It is used in Isaiah 16:6, Job 11:3 and Jeremiah 48:30 in the sense of idle talk. But here and in Jeremiah 50:36 it is used of exaggerated claims of fortunetellers. They made false prophecies by their relationship with the demonic world and makes fools of diviners, or those who try to figure out the future by asking their gods of wood and stone. In both cases Ha’Shem is the frustrater of the occult. The false prophets are exposed because, like Hananiah (see the commentary on Jeremiah Et – The False Prophet Hananiah), what they prophesy does not come to pass.

(6) Who overthrows the learning of the wise. Regardless of what age they live in, the wise think they are hot stuff. I don’t know where you live, but there’s plenty of that going around in my neck-of-the-woods. But the Bible says: Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him (Proverbs 26:12). Isaiah had warned against this earlier (see Bi – Woe To Those Who Are Wise In Their Own Eyes). The LORD always turns man’s wisdom into nonsense (44:25b). The counselors of the king of Babylon who said God could not release His people would be proven foolish when God’s predictions were fulfilled. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength (First Corinthians 1:18-25).

Adoniram Judson graduated at the top of his class in college, and then he headed to New York City to seek fame and fortune as an actor and/or writer. He had left the God of his father, thinking he was beyond such “primitive notions.” But such a life was empty for him. He was disillusioned, so he headed back to his home in Plymouth, Massachusetts, stopping for a night at a wayside inn. Adoniram had trouble sleeping that night, because a man in the next room was critically ill and moaning and groaning in pain. Obviously, his neighbor in the next room was dying. In the darkness of his room, Adoniram thought about the possibility of his own death and whether he was prepared for it. At times during the long hours he thought about returning to the Christian beliefs of his father, but then he imagined what his college friend Jacob Eames would say about his father’s faith. How he ridiculed God and anyone who would believe in such nonsense. He waited for morning to come so that the terrors of the night would be forgotten. Early the next morning, Adoniram went to the innkeeper.” That poor old man in the next room. How is he?” he asked. He passed away early this morning,” came the reply. “And he wasn’t old at all. He was a young man, about your age.” For some reason, Adoniram asked, “What was his name?” It was a rather stupid question, because Adoniram certainly didn’t know anyone in that section of the country. The innkeeper replied, “His name was Jacob Eames.” It was Adoniram’s college friend whose skepticism had turned Adoniram against the faith of his father. Dazed, Adoniram Judson returned to Massachusetts and to his father where after three months of a mental and spiritual battle, he “made a solemn dedication of himself to God.”

(7) Who carries out the counsel of His servants and fulfills the predictions of His messengers (44:26a). So, while the prophets of the Babylonian deities were frustrated because their predictions did not come true, ADONAI was able to confirm the words of His prophets, or His messengers. Isaiah insists that the LORD forms His own counsel and communicates His plans and desires through His prophets. God’s plans, unlike the king’s advisors, are not determined by stars or shapes of animal intestines, but by His holy character. His ultimate purposes are always good because God alone is good (Mark 10:17-18). Meditate on Psalm 34:8; 119:68; 2 Thessalonians 1:11 and James 1:17).

(8) Who says of Jerusalem, ‘It shall be inhabited’ of towns of Judah, ‘They shall be built,’ and of their ruins, ‘I will restore them’ (44:26b). ADONAI is the One who prophesies the return from Babylon. Through the prophets, His messengers, He said Jerusalem would again have people living in it, and indeed it would! The true prophet of God always conveys the certainty of His divine will (Deuteronomy 18:20-22).

(9) Who says to the watery deep, ‘Be dry, and I will dry up your streams’ (44:27). This watery deep is an allusion to the crossing of the Sea of Reeds (see my commentary on Exodus Ci – The Waters Were Divided and the Israelites Went Through the Sea on Dry Land). Can the LORD really restore Jerusalem, as He had said? It was as if ADONAI was saying, “Consider the exodus. If I can dry up the great watery deep, is there anything I can’t do?” God removed all Pharaoh’s obstacles, and in the same way all obstacles for the Israelites to return to Jerusalem would be removed.

(10) Who says of Cyrus, He is My shepherd (44:28a). This verse now clears up the hints that first appeared in 41:23 and 41:25. Who was it that the LORD called from the north and the east to subdue the Gentile nations and to set His heavyhearted people free? It was the Persian emperor Cyrus. In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia (538 BC), in order to fulfill the word of YHVH spoken by Jeremiah, God moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and to put it in writing:

This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: ADONAI, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and has appointed me to build a Temple for Him at Jerusalem in Judah. Anyone of His people among you – may his God be with him, and let him go to Jerusalem in Judah (Ezra 1:2-3a). As a result, the first return of 49,897 exiles under Zerubbabel (with the intention of rebuilding the Temple) took place that same year (Ezra 2). Two years later in 536 BC, the bronze altar and Temple foundations were built (Ezra 3:1 to 4:5).

It is important to understand that Cyrus was not a true believer in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. ADONAI accepted and understood this fact when He declared: You do not acknowledge Me (45:4b). The concern of the Persian king was to establish strong buffer states around his empire that would be loyal to him. Also, by having his subjects resettled in their own countries he hoped to have the gods in various parts of his empire praying for him to his gods Bel and Nebo. The famous Cyrus Cylinder (538 BC), which records his capture of Babylon and his program for repatriating his subjects in their homelands, includes this damning statement, “May all the gods whom I have resettled in their sacred cities daily ask Bel and Nebo for a long life for me.” Therefore, we can see that the fulfillment of Jeremiah’s words: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill My gracious promise to bring you back to this place (Jeremiah 29:10), were totally God’s doing.

The title that Isaiah gives him here is My shepherd. Cyrus will look after the interests of Isra’el as a shepherd looks after his flocks. By calling him My Shepherd, the Spirit of God indicates that Cyrus is going to perform shepherd duties for Isra’el. ADONAI will not only give them the right to go back to Jerusalem, but actually provide for them to do so. The whole argument against the idols is that they cannot tell the future. Nothing they supposedly said in the past can remotely explain the present, and nothing they could possibly say today is more than a mere rehash of the past.

And He will accomplish all that I please; he will say of Jerusalem, ‘Let it be rebuilt,’ and of the Temple, ‘Let its foundations be laid’ (44:28b). In addition, God says that Cyrus will accomplish all that I please. That which Cyrus has ordained and decreed, Cyrus will carry out. What has the LORD decreed? Concerning Jerusalem, let it be rebuilt; concerning the Temple, let its foundations be laid. Josephus, the ancient Jewish historian, who wrote about 75AD to 80AD, said that it was this passage that Dani’el the prophet showed to Cyrus the Great. When Cyrus read the prophecy and understood that his name was prophesied about 200 years earlier, ADONAI moved his heart and Cyrus issued the decree for the Israelites to go back to the city of Jerusalem.

God, through Isaiah, gives a near historical prophecy that clarified the allusions that first appeared in 41:2-3 and again in 41:25. Who was it that the LORD called from the north and the east to terrify the nations and return His people to the Land? It was Cyrus the Persian emperor. Remember that Cyrus was named and identified almost two hundred years before this prophecy was made. Yet, God was so specific that He was able to name the very Persian monarch that would bring an end to the Babylonian empire, and give the Jews the right to return to Judah. The contrast to the idols is stark. They could do no such thing.

One can only imagine what the Israelites thought when ADONAI called that pagan king, My shepherd. They believed that only David could shepherd God’s people (2 Samuel 5:2; Ezekiel 34:23). How could this be? The next three files tells the story. In Ic – This is What the LORD says to Cyrus His Anointed; Id – I Will Rise Up Cyrus in My Righteousness, I Will Make All His Ways Straight; and Ie – Turn to Me and Be Saved, For I Am God and there is No Other. God will give both a near historical prophecy concerning the coming of Cyrus, and, to reassure Isra’el of His ultimate plan for them, a far eschatological prophecy about her place in the Messianic Kingdom. They could rest assured; the calling of Cyrus was all part of their ultimate redemption.

Even if the house of David had fractured their relationship with the LORD (7:13, 39:7), He would find a new way to keep His Covenant with them (Deuteronomy 29). In an ironic twist that only the LORD could orchestrate, just as a foreigner, Ruth, became an ancestress of David (Ruth 4:13-22), the foreigner Cyrus was a snap-shot of the Davidic Messiah who would say: I am the good Shepherd (John 10:11).

The Deliverance by Cyrus the Great
44:24 to 45:25

ADONAI, the Redeemer of Isra’el and the Creator of the universe, has appointed Cyrus to accomplish His plans for His people. In this near historical prophecy, God names the man that He is going to use to deliver the Jews from Babylon (see the commentary on Jeremiah, to see link click Gu – Seventy Years of Imperial Babylonian Rule). Isaiah is living 150 years before Cyrus comes on the scene. Throughout Chapters 40 through 44, the LORD has been hinting of a man coming from the east and from the north, because one of Cyrus’ parents was Persian from the east and the other one was Median from the north. But God’s prophecies in those five chapters were becoming more and more specific. Throughout His hinting of the coming of Cyrus, without actually naming him so far, ADONAI has been comparing Himself with false idols and false prophets. This was to show that idolatry, especially Babylonian idolatry, is incapable of prophesying and predicting anything. But the LORD will predict everything in detail and everything He predicts will come true. Now in 44:28, God will specifically name the deliverer Cyrus.

The rise of Cyrus, king of Anshan (a city in Persia), was swift and impressive. When he came to the throne in 559 BC, Persia was subject to Media. By 549 BC, he was strong enough to rebel, kill the Median king Astyages, and found the Medo-Persian Empire. In the next few years he pushed out its boundaries dramatically. He first moved west, conquering King Croesus of Lydia in 547 BC and subduing Asia Minor (now Turkey). Then he turned east to extend his rule into northwest India. By 540 BC he had brought much of the former Babylonian Empire under his rule and was threatening Babylon itself. It fell to his general Gubaru without a fight in 539 BC, and seventeen years later Cyrus himself entered the city. There was no bloodshed; the previous king, Nabonidus, and his son Balshazzar, were deeply unpopular with the people of Babylon, many of whom regarded Cyrus as a liberator. For those who had been brought to Babylon against their will, the advent of Cyrus proved to be a blessing. He reversed the Babylonian policy of deportation and quickly embarked on a policy of repatriating displaced people and restoring their places of worship, the captives from Jerusalem being one of the first groups to benefit. The substance of his decree permitting their return is recorded in Ezra (see the commentary on Ezra-Nehemiah Ai – The Decree of Cyrus).¹⁶⁸

This important passage bursts upon us rather surprisingly at this point. The surprise is that Cyrus should be spoken of as the LORD’s shepherd (44:28) and His anointed (45:1), immediately after a passage in which idolatry had been so strongly condemned. For Cyrus himself was an idolater! But there is an important lesson here. ADONAI may disapprove of idolatry but use an idolater for some good purpose. The fact that He uses someone in a specific way does not mean that He approves of that person’s lifestyle. Because the LORD uses the Adversary’s evil schemes to achieve His own godly purposes, it should not surprise us that He could use a pagan king. As a result, we should not stand in judgment of  God’s actions nor draw wrong conclusions from them. His use of Cyrus to shepherd His people home was a stunning demonstration of that sovereignty.¹⁶⁹

I Have Swept Away Your Sins Like the Morning Mist,
Return to Me for I Have Redeemed You
44: 21-23

I have swept away your sins like the morning mist, return to Me for I have redeemed you DIG: In contrast to the idols that can do nothing, what things has God done for Isra’el? In turn, what does He call upon the people to do? What does He mean by it? The LORD has redeemed Isra’el before they returned to Him. What does that say about His nature? Who has to take the first step in the salvation process? Why?

REFLECT: Is your worship life more characterized by singing and joy, or ritual and dullness? Why? What helps you move toward joyful worship? Our faith is based on the faithfulness of Yeshua Messiah and not some here-today-and-gone-tomorrow theological fad. Can you remember the times that God has proved Himself faithful to you? When? Or is it difficult to think of anything? Why?

Here Isaiah repeats one of the great themes of the fifth book of Moshe, to remember: You are to remember everything of the way in which ADONAI led you these forty years in the desert, humbling and testing you in order to know what was in your heart – whether you would obey his commandments or not (Deuteronomy 8:2, also see 8:11 and 18, 9:7). At the foot of Mount Sinai, the Israelites were to remember as a means of motivation to obedient living. God asked them to remember what He had faithfully done for them in the past. Here in Isaiah, it is not so much the specific acts of the LORD that are to be remembered, but His very nature. Nevertheless, the meaning is the same. They were to remember the character of ADONAI as He had revealed Himself to them in the past, and they were not to chase after every current theological fad blowing in the wind, but remember His faithfulness.

Remember these things, O Jacob, for you are my servant, O Israel (44:21a). Then ADONAI asks the people to remember what God had done for them, with the intent of motivating them to obedient living. He uses the name Jacob because he had twelve sons that became the twelve tribes of the nation; his name is representative of all the tribes. But after Jacob wrestled all night with the LORD and his name was changed to Isra’el (see the commentary on Genesis, to see link click Hw – Jacob Wrestles with God) ADONAI said: Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Isra’el because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome (Genesis 32:28).

Therefore, ADONAI spoke of the nation as being His faithful servant, depending on Him. He declared: I have made you, you are My servant (44:21b). This is no ordinary servant but a bondservant. Doulos is a Greek word that means bondservant. In the New Covenant times it was not uncommon for a freed slave to voluntarily re-enter servitude to a master whom he loved. This servitude was called bond-service. Only a freed slave could be a bondservant, and once he (she) had chosen to become one, he (she) could never be freed again. Neither could he (she) be bought or sold, and he (she) served his (her) chosen master until death. When a freed slave chose bond-service, he (she) was taken to the front entrance of the house, and his (her) right ear was laid against the door post. A nail was driven through his (her) ear, and an earring was placed in it. That earring was a symbol to all of the servant’s choice and of his (her) immunity to being sold. ADONAI wanted Isra’el to willingly choose to be His bondservant.

Furthermore, He declared His unwavering devotion to her when He said: O Isra’el, I will not forget you (44:21c). In the worship of dead idols everything depended on the devotee, but here, everything depends on the living God. But even if Isra’el would forget, the LORD declares for all the ages: I will never forget you (see Ip – Zion Not Rejected). This verse refutes the belief by some today that the Church has replaced Isra’el (replacement theology), and all the promises given to Isra’el are now transferred to the Church.

Paul and Peter spoke of themselves as being bondservants to Messiah (Romans 1:1 and Second Peter 1:1). And a servant to Christ does not seek to be served, but rather has a focus of serving others (Matthew 20:28; Mark 10:45). And as believers, we need to be conformed, literally pressed or molded, into the likeness of Yeshua (see the commentary on Romans Cl – Our Bodies and Redemption).

Here it is not so much specific acts of God that are to be remembered, as are certain concepts about Him. Yet, the sense is the same. Life is to be lived on the basis of reflection on the character of ADONAI, not human psychology. So, when the LORD says remember these things, He is saying, “Remember all the evidence that you have witnessed – I am superior to idols.” No idol could possibly save them. God, not the idols, would redeem His people, for He had redeemed her for a special purpose (see my commentary on Exodus Bz – Redemption); to declare to the world that the LORD was the one and only ADONAI. Therefore, she must not interpret the Babylonian exile to mean that Ha’Shem had forgotten her. But physical deliverance was not her greatest need. The real cause of the exile was sin. And until that sin was addressed, not only forgiven but corrected, the real significance of the exile would not be realized. Then, and only then, could He sweep away their offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist (44:22a).

The final phrase starts with, return to Me. The Hebrew word return, shuv, is the key word in Jeremiah (see the commentary on Jeremiah Ac – The Book of Jeremiah From a Jewish Perspective: Key Word). It has two forms. The first form means to turn away from, backslide or apostatize. But the second form means to repent, to return or turn back. Here, ADONAI is telling Isaiah’s spiritually wicked generation to turn around and go in a different direction. Why? Because their redemption had already taken place, opening the door for a return, making Isra’el’s redemption both possible and effective.

For I have redeemed you (44:22b), underlines the importance of the human response to God’s plan. Isra’el is captive, both to Babylon and to her sins. She can do nothing to deliver herself. The first step is up to God. If she is to be bought back, redeemed, God alone must do that. But how will Isra’el respond to the LORD’s first step? His making the first step does not in itself produce a response. Isra’el must be willing to act in faith (Genesis 15). As long as Isra’el lies down in hopelessness and despair, the coming of Cyrus, or even the coming of the Messiah, will be in vain. This is why God says not to fear and not to believe that they are forgotten. He said: See, I have engraved you on the palms of My hands (49:16). This is a figurative way of expressing that ADONAI will never forget Isra’el. The greatest danger of the exile would not be that God would be unable to act on their behalf, but that Isra’el herself would fail to respond in faith to His first step. Like a man wooing or courting his bride, God is always the initiator and we are always the responders.

We can say no to God and make it stick. The LORD can open the door for us, but we have to walk through it. As much as He loves us, He will not violate our free will. The unique thing about love is that it cannot be forced. You cannot make someone love you. The exciting thing about love, however, is that when someone loves you, they choose to love you. That’s what ADONAI wants, He wants us to choose Him over the Adversary and this world. But the Ruach Ha’Kodesh is a Gentleman; He will not kick down the door to your heart. He can only be invited in. What’s your choice?

In the far eschatological future God’s redemption of Isra’el will cause all of creation to rejoice. All idolatry will ultimately cease because it will be shown to be what it is – folly and futility. But the One God, who works in history, who is eternal, will prove Himself to be all that He has claimed when the restoration of Isra’el comes. Why? For ADONAI has redeemed Jacob (44:23b). The Hebrew verb has redeemed is a prophetic perfect, meaning an action still in the future but as certain as if it had already happened. He displays His glory in Isra’el (44:23c). At that time, all of creation will rejoice along with Him. The Hebrew verb displays is an imperfect, indicating a continuing statement of fact. It is with Isra’el that the LORD chooses to adorn Himself.

This section ends with the hymn of praise. ADONAI wanted Isra’el to focus on their hopeful future to motive them to turn from their idol worship. He tells them to sing for joy, O heavens, for the LORD has done this; shout aloud, O earth beneath. Burst into song, you mountains, you forests and all your trees (44:23a). When ADONAI accomplishes redemption for Jacob, the curse will be lifted from the whole of creation (Romans 8:19-21). The idolater cut down trees to make an idol, but redemption frees them to burst into song for the true God. The prophet calls for all nature to join in song in celebration of the marvelous redemption of God’s people, a redemption that is fraught with the greatest consequences in the religious history of the world. The heavens and earth are invited to sing for joy.

The emphasis on ADONAI’s redemption of His people is completely appropriate to precede the Cyrus oracle that follows (see Ia – The Deliverance by Cyrus the Great). The cycle will be complete when heaven and earth themselves participate in the redemption (65:17-25, 66:22-23). It is clear that this blueprint of redemption is progressively revealed in Isaiah and includes a lot more than merely the Babylonian Exile and return. Though it does provide the background for the larger picture of Israel’s ultimate redemption (Psalm 96:11-13).

We can’t imagine what our Redeemer has in store for us. The Spirit of God gives us a few clues, but it is like a person blind from birth trying to comprehend color. Imagine if you lived in a world of darkness – then could suddenly see. Imagine if you lived in a world without taste – and suddenly could taste a wonderful holiday buffet with all the trimmings. Imagine if you lived in a world without sound – then could hear beautiful music. How awesome is THAT! That is a little bit of what it will be for those who have been redeemed by the Lamb. That is a little bit of what it will be for those who are children of God.

All Who Make Idols are Nothing
and the Things They Treasure are Worthless
44: 6-23

Central to the redemption and restoration of Isra’el is the uniqueness of God. He alone controls human history and is neither surprised nor stymied by Isra’el’s spiritual adultery. The people are in captivity for one reason: their broken covenant with the LORD. This was foretold. However, His uniqueness means that the idols that Isra’el had been worshiping could do nothing to prevent Him from delivering them when He chose to do so. The deliverance was also told of in advance. To all that had already happened, and to all that would happen, Isra’el was a witness. This section caps the entire argument. It begins with the superiority of the LORD and the futility of idolatry in 44:6-20, then Isaiah explains that ADONAI is Isra’el’s only Redeemer in 44:21-22, and finally a hymn of praise in 44:23. Through it all, God’s Spirit, through Isaish, drives the final nail of persuasion through the hearts of idolaters. It is foolish to compare the living God to dead idols.

We face the challenge of idolatry in our own age just as Isaiah did in his. The question for contemporary believers, especially young ones, is whether we will confront our society as directly as Isaiah and the rest of the prophets of Isra’el did theirs. Young people are under terrific pressure to conform to the anti-God culture of today. Many times they are being encouraged to look at the past, especially at their parents, with contempt. They have been encouraged to flaunt their defiance of all authority, as though authority is an evil thing.

Let the young believers in Messiah today refuse to bow down to the false idols of this world just as believers did in Babylon 2,700 years ago. The meaninglessness and pointlessness of life in a world where the LORD has been shut out is clearly seen in the media today. We are already reaping the bitter fruits of the view that this world is all there is. Can things made with human hands save us from ourselves any more today than they could then? Not at all. Therefore, believers must reject all the gods and goddesses of unlimited sex, the god of power through wealth, the god of the drunkard’s party scene, and the gods and goddesses of physical attractiveness today as we seek the face of God more than anything else. He alone can free us from the dungeons in which those gods and goddesses abandon us at the end of the day. These are the lies of Satan and they are as old as the world itself. This requires much courage. ADONAI is writing our history and no one else please delete and He who holds our future in His hand. When we choose to follow Him as our Lord, He writes our name in His Book of Life and promises to always be with us (see my commentary on Hebrews, to see link click De – Believer’s Behavior in Relations to Ourselves). So we can dare to be different, and continue to be lights for the truth so that others lost in this dark world can find their way home to God our Father.¹⁶⁶

For I Will Pour Out My Spirit on Your Offspring
and My Blessing on Your Descendants
44: 1-5

For I will pour out My Spirit on your offspring and My blessing on your descendants DIG: What is the prophet emphasizing by saying but now? Since the Spirit of God seems to have been given only to Isra’el’s leaders in the past, what is the significance of the promise in 44:3?

REFLECT: Is the “flower” of your spiritual life still in seed? Breaking ground? In full bloom? How so? How do you typically let others know that you are a believer? What new “show and tell” idea does 44:5 suggest?

One can have little doubt of the connection between 44:1-5 and 43:22-28. Not only are certain words and concepts repeated, but the opening, but now, emphasizes the relation of contrast of what has just been said about Isra’el’s condition and what ADONAI nevertheless promises. Once again, as in 43:25 but on a larger scale, the grace of God is emphasized. He reminds His people that their sin has freed Him from any obligation to act on their behalf. They cannot demand anything from Him. But that does not mean that He will not act on their behalf. It only means that what He does is pure grace. It is a free gift flowing from His love for them.

Earlier Isaiah dealt with the restoration of the exiles returning back into the Land from Babylon (43:14-21). Now he summarizes two restorations. The first is the near historical restoration from the Babylon of King Nebuchadnezzar (44:1-3a). These verses speak of the restoration from Babylon, which came in 536 BC. He announces again the return of God’s grace to Isra’el.

Again, the prophet emphasizes God’s choosing: But now listen, O Jacob, My servant, Israel, whom I have chosen (44:1). Being chosen was part of God’s unconditional promises to Abraham: I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you I will curse; and all the peoples on earth will be bless through you (Genesis 12:2-3). The doctrines of unconditional election, where God chooses us (Acts 13:48; Romans 8:29-30; Ephesians 1:4-5 and 11, 2:8; First Thessalonians 2:13;Second Timothy 1:9), and free will, where we choose God (John 3:16; 6:29 and 40, 11:25-26), seem to be mutually exclusive. How can the relationship between the LORD’s sovereignty and mankind’s limited free will be explained? I believe they are an antinomy. That is, two truths, both of which are proven true by Scripture, but, from man’s viewpoint, cannot be reconciled. A good example would be the Trinity. The Bible teaches that ADONAI is one (Deuteronomy 6:4), yet at the same time is three distinct Persons. That is antimony.

This is clearly seen in Romans 9 and 10. In Romans 9, election is viewed from ADONAI’s perspective – absolute predestination; however, in Romans 10, we see election from mankind’s standpoint – free will. Predestination says, “You were chosen by the LORD before the foundations of the earth,” while free will says, “I can say no to God and make it stick.” Both of these viewpoints are true and that is the antinomy. Romans 9 is like someone looking at the predestination side of a pitched roof of a house but can’t see the other free will side; while Romans 10 is like looking at the free will side of the roof and not being able to see the election side. But when God looks down on the house from on high, He sees both sides of the roof.

Salvation is ADONAI’s doing, not man’s (Ephesians 2:8-9). Though it is an act of grace (Roman’s 11:5-6; 2 timothy 1:9), based on His will (Ephesians 1:5, 9, 11), a person is responsible to believe (Ephesians 1:13). YHVH chose you to be saved . . . through belief in the truth (Second Thessalonians 2:13). The purpose of His election is to make believers blameless. This Greek word amomous, means without blemish and is used eight times in the B’rit Chadashah (Ephesians 1:4; 5:27; Philippians 2:15; Colossians 1:22; Hebrews 9:14; 1 Peter 1:19; 2 Peter 3:14, Revelation 14:5). In the Septuagint it is used of sacrificial animals; only those without blemish could be offered to God. The emphasis of predestination is more on the “what” than the “who” in that the believer’s predetermined destiny is their being adopted as full-fledged sons and daughters of God through Yeshua Messiah, the Agent of the adoption.

It is a joy to think of predestination/election in the way God intended it to be thought of: not as referring to “personally salvation”; but rather as “God’s plan” (Ephesians 1:11) for the salvation of all who chose holiness through the blood of Christ. Through His blood we have redemption. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace (Ephesians 1:7). The blood of Christ was poured out on the cross/altar, taking our place, just like the lamb that was slaughtered for the sins of the Israelites (Leviticus 1:4). For He chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight (Ephesians 1:4). When the emphasis is taken off the “who” gets in and then the emphasis is put on to the “what qualifies” someone to get in – the light is thrown onto God, for it is God’s plan of redemption by adopting those who hope in Christ (Ephesians 1:12) as their Lord and Savior. All who hear and believe, God makes holy for adoption: Having believed, you also were included in Christ, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation (Ephesians 1:13a, b). Praise to God is the natural response for His gift which grantees our salvation’s inheritance. Having believed you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession – to the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:13c-14). The joy is all about ADONAI and what He did. Joy and praise for God’s planned pathway in Christ’s blood which gave us holiness so we could be adopted and sealed (Ephesians 1:3, 12, 14).

Isaiah faithfully recorded that this is what the LORD says: He who made you, who formed you in the womb (see 44:24), He will help you (44:2a). Life beings at fertilization because God, who made you, already has a plan for your life before you are born. The Psalmist, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, would say: For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be (Psalm 139:13-16).

What is it that their Maker wants the Israelites to hear? Do not be afraid of the consequences of sin in this world (44:2b). In other words, do not fear mankind, but do fear Me (Luke 12:4-5)! The fear of ADONAI is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 9:10). The promise to blot out and forget stands (43:25), but cancelled sin leaves no room for fear: I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world (John 16:33). Regardless of her state, God still held Isra’el close to His heart and would continue to do so. For God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable (see the commentary on Romans, to see link click Da – The Redemption of Isra’el).

O Jacob, My servant (see Hl – The Cone of Isaiah), Jeshurun, whom I have chosen (44:2c). Here God uses the name Jeshurun, which is another name for Isra’el. The ending of un is a diminutive of affection. The world may be related to yasar, meaning the upright one. Imagine that, the LORD called these people, sinners from the beginning (43:27), the upright one. Jeshurun is used only three times in the Bible (Deuteronomy 32:15, 33:5 and 26). Deuteronomy is called the book of the Covenant. While the first four books of Moshe merely spell out God’s commandments to Isra’el, the fifth book of Moses is the covenantal agreement between God and the nation of Isra’el. If she would keep the commandments, she would be blessed. But if Isra’el disobeyed the commandments, she would be cursed. Ultimately they were cursed by captivity, and dispersion (see my commentary on Jeremiah Gu – Seventy Years of Imperial Babylonian Rule). By calling upon Isra’el as Jeshurun, God is reminding Isra’el of His love and His covenantal relationship with her. And that is why the Jews are ultimately indestructible. Not because they have merit, but because the God of Isra’el has merit. He is the One who keeps His promises.

Secondly is the far eschatological restoration from MYSTERY BABYLON (see the commentary on Revelation Dd – The Woman was Drunk with the Blood of God’s People). For I will pour water on the thirsty Land, and streams on the dry ground (44:3a). The image of water in a dry Land is prominent in Isaiah 12:3, 30:25, 32:2 and 15, 33:21, 35:6, 41:18, 43:20, 51:3, 55:1, 66:12). When God pours out His Spirit, both the thirsty Land (35:1-4) and the thirsty people, the righteous of the TaNaKh (43:20) will be brought back to life (Isaiah 32:15; Joel 2:12-14 and 28-29).

The Jews understood that the pouring out of the water symbolized the pouring out of the Holy Spirit. They had a ceremony called the pouring out of the waters performed during the Feast of Tabernacles, not so incidentally the only feast that will be celebrated during the messianic Kingdom (Zechariah 14:16-19). It was the highlight of the festival (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Gp – On the Last and Greatest Day of the Feast). On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice: Let anyone who is thirsty come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them. By this He meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified (John 7:37-39).

Therefore, the sequence of Isaiah’s message from 43:8 to 44:5 indicates that Isaiah expected the saving acts of ADONAI, to which the holy ones (Psalms 16:3 and 34:9) would be witnesses (43:10 and 12, 44:8), would culminate with the infusion of the Holy Spirit in God’s people. That sequence is: you are My witnesses (43:8-13), the deliverance from Babylon (43:14-21), deliverance based upon grace not merit (43:22-28), and here, the outpouring of the Ruach resulting from the fulfillment of the Abrahamic promises (see above in 44:1). This shows that Isaiah looked forward to the day, if not the specific details, of Shavu’ot (Acts 2:41).

The final restoration at the end of the Great Tribulation, then, will come upon a different generation than the descendants of those who first came from Babylon (see my commentary on Revelation Ev – The Basis for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ). He says: I will pour My Spirit on them because that final restoration will be preceded by Isra’el’s national regeneration. There is going to be an outpouring of the Spirit of God upon every Jew living at that point (Zech 12:10 to 13:1). At that time, God’s blessing will be on their descendants (44:3b).

Furthermore, there is going to be a rapid increase in Isra’el’s population. They will spring up like grass in a meadow, like popular trees by flowing streams (44:4). When Yeshua Messiah returns there will be the spiritual renewal promised by the prophets. Ezeki’el said it this way: I will make a New everlasting Covenant of peace with them (Jeremiah 31:31-34), I will put My Sanctuary among them forever. My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be My people. Then the nations will know that I the LORD make Isra’el holy, when My Sanctuary is among them forever (38:26-28).

In addition, the effects upon the Gentiles are described. One will say, “I belong to the LORD;” another will call himself by the name of Jacob; still another will write on his hand, “The LORD’s,” and will take the name Israel (44:5). Not all unbelieving Gentiles will be killed at the end of the Great Tribulation. Millions upon millions will enter the Kingdom (20:1-6). They will experience Messiah’s reign from Jerusalem in peace and will have until their hundredth birthday to accept Him as LORD of their lives or die (see Kq – The Wolf and the Lamb Will Feed Together, and the Lion Will Eat Straw Like the Ox). Because ADONAI specifically forbids tattoos (Leviticus 19:28), this writing on the hand must symbolize the personal commitment to Him, as if saying to themselves and others, “I belong to the LORD.” Throughout the Jewish dispersion, Jews were often forced to convert to Christianity by the Gentiles. And when that happened they were often forced to change their names from Jewish names to Gentile names. But Isaiah says that the day is coming when the Gentiles will change their names from Gentile names to Jewish names.

But for believers in Yeshua today, hope does disappoint us because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Spirit of God, whom He has given us (Romans 5:5). He loves us so much that He gave His one and only Son, the whoever believes in Him shall not perish by have eternal life (John 3:16b). And for those who accept His offer of salvation, the LORD takes His indescribable and undeserved love and pours it into our hearts of those who believe in Him (First Corinthians 15:3-4) by the Ruach Ha’Kodesh. Poured out refers to generous outpouring to the point of overflowing. ADONAI does not measure out His love in tiny drops but in immeasurable, tsunami like torrents.

Out spiritual security is not in our ability to live godly lives, but in the power of the indwelling Spirit of God in make us godly. The Greek word for power is dunamas, where we get our English word dynamite. Only God can make believers godly, and the Spirit’s leading us in a dynamic way into godliness is one of the great evidences of salvation. For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you live in fear again (Romans 8:14-15a). Praise the LORD, as the children of God we do not have to live in fear!

I Blot Out Your Transgressions for My Own Sake
43: 22-28

I blot out your transgressions for My own sake DIG: With what attitude do you imagine the exiles carried out their religious practices? What does that show about their view of God? Although the LORD has not wearied them with His demands, how have they wearied of Him? In spite of their attitudes, what has God done for them? What does the LORD say about Himself in these verses? What does ADONAI mean by blotting out sins for His own sake?

REFLECT: In your worship life, are you lavishly giving yourself to God? Or callously wearying Him with meaningless rituals? When has it been different? What accounts for the change? In your service to the LORD, are you wearying yourself for Him? Or are you wearying Him?

ADONAI will show favor on Isra’el and bring the Jews back from Babylon, but it is not on the basis of Israel’s merit. Isra’el is unworthy of God’s goodness. She did nothing to please Him while in Babylon and did not call upon His Name. On the contrary, she grew tired of calling upon His Name and always burdened Him with her sins. Isra’el also stopped the sacrifices. Being captive in Babylon, Isra’el could not bring sacrifices to the Temple in Jerusalem. The purport of the accusation, therefore, cannot be blame for not doing the impossible, but rather to contrast the LORD’s treatment of His people with their behavior towards Him. In the absence of sacrifices, Isra’el should have attuned her mind and heart to the true service of ADONAI and acted in the Spirit, if not the letter of the prescribed sacrificial ritual. But, some of Isaiah’s hearers believed that any deliverance from Babylon would be deserved in the light of their acceptable worship of Him.

Instead, God declares that Isra’el had burdened Him with their sins and bothered Him with their offenses. Yet, you have not called upon Me, O Jacob, you have not bothered yourselves for Me, O Isra’el (43:22). The double use of the pronouns Me . . . Me, emphasizes the need to convey the correct interpretation. Although the Israelites had been formed for the purpose of praising the LORD, they had not done it. Why not? Were they bothered by the LORD’s excessive demands? How could they be, since they did not conform to what God really wanted? ADONAI is saying that although they may have thought they were giving Him acceptable worship, they were not, and that is the reason that He was so tired of their unacceptable worship (1:11-14, 66:3; Jeremiah 7:5-10; Hosea 6:6; Amos 4:4-6; Micah 6:3-8).

As far as God was concerned, they had shut Him out. As a result, what they thought of as worship, the LORD viewed as mechanical, aloof repetition. Earlier, Amos had prophesied: I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies. Even though you bring Me burnt offering and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps (Amos 5:21-23). Then Isaiah had said to the rebellious nation: When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen (1:15a). Finally, Yeshua would say it this way: They worship Me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men (Matthew 15:9). Sin always takes you further than you want to go and costs you more than you wanted to pay!

Regardless if one lives before the cross or after the cross, faith always saves. In fact, without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6a). Bringing a sacrifice to the bronze altar (see the commentary on Exodus, to see link click Fc – The Sin Offering) for a sin offering did not forgive the sin of the Israelite; the faith of bringing a sacrifice to the bronze altar forgave the sin. ADONAI is always looking for internal change, not external ritual. Micah said it this way: He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God (Micah 6:8).

You have not brought Me sheep for burnt offerings (see the commentary on Exodus Fe – The Burnt Offering), nor honored Me with Your sacrifices. I have not burdened you with grain offerings (see the commentary on Exodus Ff – The Grain Offering) nor wearied you with demands for increase (43:23). Rituals themselves were not what ADONAI wanted, so He could say here and elsewhere that He had not commanded them (Amos 5:25-26; Jeremiah 7:22). What He really wanted was a people with whom He could have fellowship because their collective hearts reflected His own. The rituals were useful representations of lives surrendered to Him, but the symbols themselves could not save.

You have not brought any fragrant calamus for Me (43:24a). Calamus is possibly sweet, fragrant cane (Exodus 30:23 and Jeremiah 6:20). You have not lavished, literally saturated, on Me the fat of your sacrifices (43:24b). The people had certainly drenched the bronze altar with fat, the most desirable part of the sacrifice and hence the part reserved for God (Leviticus 4:26). But it was all for show. But you have burdened Me with your sins and bothered Me with your offenses (43:24c). God had not burdened and bothered His people with tiring, worn out ritual; they had burdened and bothered ADONAI with their sins and transgressions. It was as if the Ruach Ha’Kodesh was saying to the Israelites, “Your carefully planned rituals are useless because they do not reflect a broken heart. You are not crushed by your sin. You have no change of heart and are merely going through the motions.” Their efforts to manipulate God had failed. They had refused to release the steering wheel of their lives to the King. They were sitting on the throne of their own hearts and they stubbornly refused to get off. But even though they were sinful and stubborn, they were still the apple of His eye (Deuteronomy 32:10). God’s remedy was, and always is, grace.

So, yes, ADONAI would return Isra’el to the Land from which they had come, but it certainly was not because they had earned it. Well, then why? Their return would be on the basis of His grace. God would forgive them on the same basis that He forgives us. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast (Ephesians 2:8-9).

No sooner was the need diagnosed, than the remedy was given: I, even I, am He would blot out your transgressions (deliberate rebelliousness), for My own sake, and remember your sins no more (43:25). To blot out their sins meant to wipe them clean. After King David was confronted with his twin sins of murder and adultery (Second Samuel 11) by the prophet Nathan (Second Samuel 12:1-13a), he cried out: Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion, blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin (Psalm 51:1-2). Sin leaves a mark that only ADONAI can wash away. And not only does He wash our sins away, but He remembers them no more (Jeremiah 31:34), as if throwing them into the depths of the sea (Micah 7:19b).

Therefore, the only reason God will show favor to Isra’el is on the basis of His grace. He announces that He will blot out, or forgive Isra’el’s sins. Notice that the LORD says He will do this for His own sake. Not for Isra’el’s sake, as if she earned this forgiveness, because nothing Isra’el had done, or could do, would qualify them for forgiveness like this.

But there is a fundamental problem in both Isra’el and ourselves. We humans do not like grace; we like to feel that we deserve everything we get. We want to be able to say that our good behavior has earned favorable treatment for us before the bar of God. Interestingly, the same verb, my praise, that occurred at the end of 43:21 occurs here, your innocence, at the end of 43:26. But here instead of recounting the praise of ADONAI, the people were recounting all their good deeds, and by association, the mistreatment they have suffered at the hands of God. This is always the way it is. Until we recognize our need for grace, all of our energies, energies designed for the praise of the LORD, will be spent in fruitless self-justification.¹⁶⁴

Therefore, to make sure it is not on the basis of Isra’el’s merit, God again issues a challenge to her. The easiest way to understand these next few verses is as a brief court scene in which the accused is given the opportunity to establish his or her innocence. ADONAI said to the Israelites: Convince Me that you have earned forgiveness on your own. Review the past for Me, let us argue the legal matter together, state the case for your innocence and show Me that you have not sinned against Me (43:26). But there is only silence because Isra’el’s history was one of sin. But the LORD answered as if in rebuttal.

The prosecution’s case was then stated. Before Isra’el can be judged, she must be confronted with the hopelessness of her case. God said: Your first father sinned (43:27a). Adam was the first father of mankind, but Abraham was the first father of the nation of Isra’el. He was the first one to be called a Hebrew (Genesis 14:13). Tracing their sin back to Abraham did not get them off the hook however. In biblical thought, their guilt increased with each succeeding generation (Matthew 23:31-32, 35-36).

Then God added that Isra’el’s spokesmen, their prophets and priests, had also rebelled against Him (43:27b). Those who interpreted the LORD’s word, spoken or written, to His people also had their faults and sins. We only need to read about the lives of Moses, Samson, David, Solomon, Hezekiah or Josiah to be reminded of this ugly fact. Nor could anything glorify their transgressions as is typical of heroic literature. Their stories are distasteful and embarrassing, and their sins had deadly consequences. These could not be sugarcoated.

For example, as we read about Abraham’s life we will find that God appeared to him seven times, each time to develop faith in his life. But this does not mean he was faultless. The fact of the matter is that he failed many times. ADONAI gave him seven tests and he fell flat on his face on four of them. First, he stayed in Hebron when he should have gone to the Promised Land (11:31b). Secondly, he left Palestine, went to Egypt, lied to Pharaoh, and picked up an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar (12:10-20). But then Abram turned down riches from the King of Sodom and passed that test; if he were going to be rich, it would be from God and not from man. Thirdly, he listened to his wife instead of waiting on the LORD, which resulted in the birth of Ishmael and untold problems (16:1-16). And fourthly, his lapse of faith continued as he refused to trust ADONAI for his and Sarah’s safekeeping when he lied to Abimelech (20:1-18). Abraham’s last two successful tests occur at the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the offering of his son Isaac. But he still failed four of seven times. However, like Simon Peter, he got up, brushed himself off, learned from his mistakes, and started to follow the LORD again in faith.

Rather than being of any merit, from the very beginnings of Israel’s history, there was the characteristic of sin right from her very first father Abram, later renamed Abraham (Genesis 17:5). So here is the fork in the road. If Israel chose the route of self-justification, they were lost. If we chose the same route, we are lost also.

Because of the persistent sinfulness of Isra’el, God had no other choice but to judge her. By His very nature, He cannot tolerate sin. Utterly disgusted with them, He said: I will disgrace the dignitaries of your Temple (43:28a). The priests had led the nation astray and the disgrace the LORD described here is the judgment of defilement. It would have been particularly horrible for them because they had spent their entire lives concerned with supposedly being holy (Isaiah 65:2-5 and Leviticus 10:3). Now ADONAI Himself would disgrace them with defilement of the Temple (see the commentary on Jeremiah Gb – The Destruction of Solomon’s Temple on Tisha B’Av in 586 BC).

Furthermore, God said that I would consign Jacob to destruction and Isra’el to scorn (43:28b) when they went into exile (see the commentary on Jeremiah Dd – Isra’el Will Serve the King of Babylon Seventy Years). This term destruction refers to the cherem judgment of the LORD, which literally means devoted to destruction. Before the battle of Jericho, ADONAI said to Joshua: Keep away from the devoted things, so that you will not bring about your own destruction by taking any of them. So, they devoted the city to the LORD and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it – men, women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys. Then they burned the city and everything in it (Joshua 6:18, 21, 24). When God used this word, He was signaling that the nation had sunk so far into sin, that there was no further justification for its existence. The irony here is that the destruction was particularly applied to the Canaanites and Amalekites, the enemies of Jacob’s family who sought to prevent the fulfillment of ADONAI’s promises to them (Joshua 6:17; First Samuel 15:21). The Most Holy Place had become unholy in the LORD’s eyes and Jacob had become Canaan. Isra’el, created to witness to the glory of God by sharing in that glory (Exodus 19:5-6), had been turned over to the greatest mockery possible. The nation had not merely sinned; it had become the very opposite of what it was meant to be. Far from its behavior providing some justification for deliverance, that behavior gave ample reason for its complete abandonment. Nevertheless, the LORD will not allow that to happen. Why not? Solely because of His own grace.¹⁶⁵

In Chapter 43 we have seen a brilliant and devastating satire against idolatry. Unfortunately, this will become a reoccurring theme until the seventy years of the Babylonian rule had been completed. The human heart has a way of turning from God to some idol. Today, we do not go after graven images like the Israelites did, but we need to understand that anything that a person gives himself or herself to instead of ADONAI is an idol. It can be wanting to accumulate money for its own sake, seeking fame or self adoration. Or it could even be good things in life that we abuse, like pleasure, sex, alcohol, or a career. Even our families or our ministries can become idols. In fact, anything that we replace God with in our lives is an idol. The LORD said: I Am a jealous God (see the commentary on Exodus Dl – You Shall Not Make For Yourselves an Idol). That means if there is anything between you and Him, He wants it out of the way no matter what or who it is. As we leave this chapter, we leave the darkness of judgment and move into the light of the coming Messianic Kingdom and the promise of the Ruach ha-Kodesh.

I Am the LORD, Your Holy One,
Isra’el’s Creator, Your King
43: 8-21

I am the LORD, you holy One, Isra’el’s creator, your king DIG: Although Isra’el has been blind and deaf to the LORD in the past (42:18-20), what is the purpose for which He will lead them out of Babylon (44:10, and also see 41:20)? What will that act of deliverance communicate to the nations? With what attitude do you imagine this witness will be carried out? What contrasting attitudes has God found in the Babylonians, in the wild animals, and in Isra’el (43:14, 20 and 22)? With what attitude do you imagine the exiles carried out their religious practices (43:22-28)?

REFLECT: When has ADONAI worked to the good in your life despite your blindness and deafness? How would you explain to a non-believer what the LORD has done for you? What should be our motivation in witnessing to others of God’s grace in our lives? When has God seemed like a dusty memory to you? At those times, what helps you get in touch with Him? How might recalling the acts of ADONAI in your past give you courage to face the present and future? What has God done in your past that you especially can look to as evidence of His presence with you? What “streams in the desert” are bubbling up for you now? What new thing has the LORD done in your life? What is He doing now? What former things from your past, in 43:18, do you have difficulty forgetting? How might 43:25 help?

ADONAI invited Isra’el, still spiritually blind and deaf (42:20, 48:8), to be brought before the nations. Lead out those who have eyes but are blind, who have ears but are deaf (43:8). Imagine a litigant depending on the blind to testify on what they had seen and the deaf to what they had heard! So why can Isra’el serve as a witness? In spite of Isra’el’s blindness she can testify that God predicted the events that will come to pass 150 years later. Even though Isra’el did not believe the prophecies at the time they were given, they must now testify that the prophecies were given and are in the process of being fulfilled.

God calls the Gentile nations to produce the strongest case for idolatry to see if they can compare with what ADONAI has done. All the nations gather and the peoples assemble (43:9a). In theory, Isra’el is supposed to be dependent upon God. In theory, the nations are supposed to be dependent upon their idols. But rather than being consistent and worshiping her God alone, Isra’el was prone (up to the point of the Babylonian captivity) to worship the idols of the Gentiles. Now, both are called before God’s courtroom scene.

Here God calls upon the nations to produce their case concerning the validity of the worshiping of idols. Which of them foretold this and proclaimed to us the things of the past (43:9b)? It is obvious that the idols could not predict the future, so instead, ADONAI wanted them explain the significance of the things that have happened in the past in order to validate that they were indeed gods. Let them bring in their witnesses to prove they were right, so that others may hear and say, “It is true” (43:9c). If they can do this, then idolatry would be valid. If idolatry is valid, then Isra’el would be justified in worshiping the idols. But if they were silent about both the past and the future, then Isra’el should turn away from her idolatry and worship God alone.

God then turned to His people, who perhaps thought they would merely be interested spectators at the trial, with the shocking realization that He would rest His claims of deity on their testimony. “You are My witnesses,” declares the LORD, “and My Servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe Me and understand that I Am He” (43:10a). The opening pronoun, you, emphasizes that the Israelites, and no one else, were to be His witnesses, and that point is highlighted when He said: declares the LORD. This was no casual, offhand statement, but a profound word directly from ADONAI. These three verbs know, believe, and understand detail the progress of faith, extending from initial experience of the LORD through dependence on Him, to an understanding of His nature and ways.¹⁶¹ So now God asks Isra’el to speak the word to these Gentile nations that have gathered whether ADONAI has prophesied or not.

The Jews are asked to be witnesses to three things: First, that the LORD is the only true God. He has no competitor or equal. He alone is God. ADONAI alone holds this unique position. Before Me no god was formed, nor will there be one after Me (43:10b). Before the gods were made, He was, and after all the gods are gone, He will be. Consequently, what Isra’el is called to learn is that ADONAI is not merely great or loving, or just or powerful, but much more than that. He is the only One to whom all of creation must come to terms.

Secondly, of all the religions in the world only the Messiah guarantees salvation. I, yes I, am ADONAI; besides Me there is no Savior, there is no Savior (43:11). Other religions assemble quite a program, but they certainly do not guarantee salvation. The LORD said: Besides Me there is no M’falti (the Savior or Deliverer). Free! Free indeed! Through M’falti, I am eternally released from the hands of my enemies, from all kinds of bondage, accusations, curses, and every sin that so easily entangles me. Then God brings up the subject of idolatry.

The truth of the previous verse is made clear here. In an allusion to the challenge of the gods, God declares that He alone had revealed the future and made it known. I have revealed and saved and proclaimed – I, and not some foreign god among you. You are My witnesses, declares the LORD, that I Am God (43:12). Isra’el worshiped the god Bel, but Bel did not rescue the Jews from Babylon. Isra’el worshiped Ba’al, but Ba’al did not rescue the Jews from Babylon. Isra’el worshiped the Ashtoreth, but the Ashtoreth did not rescue the Jews from Babylon. Only one Person is going to redeem the Jews from Babylon, and that is the One God of Isra’el. So, they must now witness to the fact that the LORD is the only Savior, for all the other gods the Jews had been prone to worship had failed to redeem them from Babylon. It was as if God was saying, “As long as you will avoid idolatry and turn away from that will which will lead you away from Me, I will bless you.”

Thirdly, no one can stop God. Yes, and from ancient days I AM He. No one can deliver out of my hand. When I act, who can reverse it (43:13)? From the first day of creation, He was the only God and whatever He chose to do, no other god could hinder. It was God who worked out the Babylonian captivity. And all the worship of the Bel, Ba’al, or the Ashtoreth could not save the Jews from it. So Isra’el, the blind witness, is called to worship. God asks: When I act, who can reverse it? The implied answer was, and is, of course, “No one!”

Yeshua quoted 43:10 when He said to His disciples: You will be My witnesses (Acts 1:8), and He was using the term in the same sense that Isaiah used it. He was calling on His disciples to give evidence from their own personal experience that Jesus Christ was who He said He was. John also did that (1 Jn 1:1-3). It is interesting that God does not command us to be His witnesses. He simply declares the fact: you are My witnesses.

Being a witness means that a person has a vital, first-hand experience of Christ that has transformed the way he or she lives. Like it or not, we have been changed. If this is not the case, there is nothing to witness to. That person is a blind witness, just like Isra’el, with no knowledge of God or His ways. This is demonstrated by the sons of Sceva, who were evidently trying to minister out of a secondhand knowledge of Messiah. Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish priest, were doing this. One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?” Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding (Acts 19:14-16).¹⁶² The only way to be an effective witness for Jesus is to have a personal relationship with Him. We are the evidence of the transforming power of ADONAI. Being witnesses is not something we do, it is something we are.

Then Isaiah revealed to the Israelites their deliverance from Babylon in 536 BC, a near historical prophecy given about 150 years beyond Isaiah’s own day. He started out with a promise of the coming liberation. Three things should be noted here. First, God says that He is the only Redeemer that Isra’el will ever have. This is what the LORD says – our Kinsman Redeemer (43:14a). He is both willing and able to redeem them (see my commentary on Exodus, to see link click Bz – Redemption).

Secondly, although the people had not fulfilled their obligations, He will buy them back at the cross; He is the Kinsman Redeemer (see my commentary on Ruth Ax – Ruth and Boaz on the Threshing Floor), and by position He is the Holy One of Isra’el (43:14b). The same unique moral qualities that made ADONAI not One to be mocked in Chapters 1-39, make Him uniquely able to save those who call on Him in Chapters 40-66. Therefore, the two sections of the book complement each other on the nature and holiness of God. Yes, humanly speaking, it was Cyrus that overthrew Babylon. But it was actually the LORD working behind the scenes that had, in reality, liberated the Israelites. If He used human instruments, that was well and good, but it was ADONAI who was actually at work.

And thirdly, ADONAI spells out the judgment on Babylon. Why will these mighty events occur? For your sake I have sent the Medes and the Persians to Babylon to destroy it. These two nations were consolidated under Cyrus the Great to bring about the fall of the Babylonian Empire. Thus, the Babylonians will become fugitives on their own ships in which they took pride (43:14c). They learned how to navigate the Euphrates River down to the Persian Gulf. And since they were able to do the very thing the Assyrians before them were unable to do, they took great pride in this. But now Isaiah says that the very thing in which they take pride in will be their means of escape when Babylon is conquered by the Medo-Persian Empire lead by Cyrus.

Then God describes Himself as the Holy One who will judge Babylon, saying: I Am the LORD, your Holy One, Isra’el’s Creator, your King (43:15). God takes responsibility for bringing Isra’el into existence. Every anti-Semite should take note of this. He is her King. When Yeshua Messiah came to earth and made His claim to Kingship, the believing remnant knew He was claiming to be Immanuel . . . God with us (Matthew 1:23). Isaiah prophesied that the LORD would judge Babylon because she mistreated Isra’el and He is Isra’el’s Creator, her King.

ADONAI makes plain that the reason for the coming miraculous deliverance from Babylon was not because of who the Israelites were, but because of whose they are (see 43:10-13). It was because they belong to the LORD, and because of what sort of God He is, that the end of the Babylonian Captivity was to come to an end. The four descriptions in 43:15 are a miniature TaNaKh theology. In short, He is ADONAI who revealed Himself at Mount Sinai (see my commentary on Exodus Db – The Revelation at Mount Sinai), He is Holy One who had called the Israelites to be holy because I, the LORD, am holy and have set you apart from the nations to be My own (Leviticus 20:26), He is Israel’s Creator who had called them into existence from nothing, He is their King whom they owe their complete allegiance.

Verses 16 and 17 give an unusually long introduction to verse 18. The introduction is made up of a series of statements identifying ADONAI as the speaker by His actions. This kind of introduction is common in Chapters 40 through 45. Its purpose is to establish both the context and credibility of the surprising announcement of the new thing in 43:18-21.

Then Isaiah presents a contrast between the former thing, or old deliverance and the new thing, or the new deliverance. This is what the LORD says – He who made a way through the Sea of Reeds, a path through the mighty waters (43:16). Here Isaiah alludes to the parting of the waters in the Sea of Reeds by which the Jews crossed away from Egypt. The old deliverance concerns the Exodus; the new deliverance concerns the return from Babylon in 536 BC. First, look at the old deliverance. Then the Ruach Ha’Kodesh alludes to the destruction of the Egyptian army. Who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together, and they lay there never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick (43:17). This is military terminology illustrating how a general commands. ADONAI, not Pharaoh, was the commander of the Egyptian army and He drew them out to destruction, never to be seen again.

But then He announced a new deliverance, which was deliverance from Babylon. Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past (43:18). God calls upon Isra’el to no longer concentrate on the miracles of the old deliverance of the Exodus, but to concentrate on the miracles of the new deliverance, the return from Babylon. For Isra’el, the glorious saving event of the past had become a straitjacket into which every other act of God was forced. As a result, the Israelites were frequently unable to recognize the LORD’s new actions when they came. He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him (John 1:11). It was as if Isaiah was saying, “Remember, ADONAI has done many things, but do not limit the way He did them. Why? Because He is the Creator. He does not need to do things the same way twice. Of course, He is consistent, but His methods can always be new. If we make an idol of His methods, we might miss His blessings.” The past can teach and illustrate but it must not bind. The LORD always has greater things in store for us; He is revealed in the past; however, He is always more than the past has revealed.

The former things were those events that had already been predicted and fulfilled in the past (41:22, 42:9, 43:9, 46:9, 48:3); here, clearly the exodus. God was predicting a new exodus that should not be made to conform to the previous one but allowed to stand on its own. So, then He announces: See, I am doing a new thing and promises to prosper the way home. Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland (42:19). Looking with eyes of faith, the new thing seems to be exploding right before the prophet’s very eyes. Like the blindness of their imminent judgment, Isaiah is amazed that the Israelites do not recognize it.

There is a song entitled, “Give Me That Old Time Religion.” And in the song it says, “It was good for the Hebrew children, and it is good enough for me.” But it wasn’t good enough for the Hebrew children. The faith of Abraham was not adequate for them; ADONAI had something more. The LORD had to deliver them from the bondage of Egypt and show them something new. The Red Sea would part, Mount Sinai would explode with fire and with the voice of God. Commandments would be given and there would be new lessons learned in the wilderness. The song says, “It was good for Paul and Silas.” The truth is that the old-time religion was not good enough for Paul and Silas. For years Paul wanted it to be good enough, until he met Jesus on the road to Damascus. He wanted to keep the old wineskin of Jewish tradition, but Yeshua was bursting the seams of that wineskin. New wine had come and new wineskins were called for. You can’t have the old-time religion. Your mother’s faith will not do, it has to be your faith. Your father’s faith is not adequate, you have to have your own experience with the LORD. In fact, your faith, the faith used to get you by several years ago, will not do for today. If your faith has not grown since you first met Christ as a kid, the wineskin has dried and become brittle. It will not do for the new thing that God wants to do in you today. You can’t remain static. You can’t stay where you are. Yesterday’s experience will not do for today. Your faith must be current. In 43:18-19, ADONAI says: Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.

In the process of returning from Babylon, God will again perform miracles, such as providing water in the desert and streams in the wasteland to give drink to My people, My chosen (43:20). Earlier, Isaiah had said that when the Messiah came there would be a spiritual refreshing. It would be like water gushing forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert (35:6b). The Messiah could not be born in Babylon, He was to be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2). The return of the exiles to Isra’el would be, in a sense, a spiritual refreshing because it would be from there that Christ would come.

It is perhaps hard for us to fully appreciate what a frightening prospect this journey must have been to those who faced it. First, it was across unknown territory. Most of those who were young and fit enough to travel would have been born in the exile, and although Babylon was not their true home it would have been the only place they knew. The wilderness represented a break with even that limited security. Secondly, Jerusalem was a long way off, between 500 and 900 miles, depending on the route. The returnees could expect to be traveling for at least four months through harsh terrain, in which they would be vulnerable not only to exhaustion but also to attack by bandits. The wilderness meant hardship and danger. And what could they expect on arrival? A reception with open arms? A land flowing with milk and honey? No. They would arrive to see a devastated land, and would face the difficult task of rebuilding their lives from scratch. In a different way the wilderness was just as frightening as captivity in Babylon.¹⁶³ How would they make it? How would they survive? As we shall see next, it would only happen for them the way it only happens for us. The grace of God is, in reality, the only thing that can carry us through.

Isaiah saw the purpose of the nation and why the Messianic people were formed. God says the people were formed for Myself, that they may proclaim My praise (43:21). The Israelites were created, formed, and chosen to be ADONAI’s witnesses (43:10, 44:8), and this continues to be the function of His people today. Paul tells us: For you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light (First Peter 2:9). We have been formed to worship Him. The potter and the clay motif (Isaiah 41:24-26; Jeremiah 19:1-3; Romans 9:20-22) reminds us that we can face the troubles of life with confidence – even when, as here, we are the causes of our own misfortune by rebellion and disobedience. The pressures of life are the loving touches of the Potter’s hand as He perfects what He has planned.

I Have Created You, O Jacob:
Fear Not, for I Have Redeemed You,
You are Mine
43: 1-7

I have created you, O Jacob: fear not, for I have redeemed you, you are mine DIG: Compare 42:23-43:2 with Romans 3:19-24 and Ephesians 2:11-13. What does the “but now” in each of these passages emphasize about your relationship with God? In what ways do you see Yeshua Messiah as your Kinsman Redeemer?

REFLECT: Which side of the “but now” are you on? If you were to set these passages to music, what type of music would you use for the material before ”but now”? For the material afterwards? What waters or fire in 43:2 seem to be fearfully close to you at the moment? What does it mean to you that the LORD says He will be with His people through these things? How have you experienced that in the past? Why doesn’t He just let us avoid them? How does it make you feel to know that while you were still a sinner, Christ died just for you (Romans 5:8)?

Spiritually deaf and blind, Judah had ignored and disobeyed the Torah (42:18-25). As a result, the Israelites would have to endure the exile (see the commentary on Jeremiah, to see link click Gu – Seventy Years of Imperial Babylonian Rule) until her hard service had been completed (Hd). In this section, however, the Ruach Ha’Kodesh revealed that God was not through with Isra’el. Denying that the LORD has a future purpose for her is the same as unbelief. In the B’rit Chadashah, Spirit of God asks the question: Did God reject His people? And His answer is: By no means (Romans 11:1)! And the fact that He is not through with her is clearly seen in this chapter.

Once again Isaiah will prove himself as a prophet. Remember, according to Deuteronomy 18, the way you test a prophet is to first see if his near historical prophecies are reliable, then you can trust his far eschatological prophecies. But here Isaiah will start out with the opposite motif, a far eschatological prophecy of the final deliverance from the Babylon of the Great Tribulation.

He starts out with the promise of redemption. Chapter 42 ended with a question. Who handed Jacob over to become loot, and Isra’el to the plunderers? Was it not the LORD, against Whom we have sinned (42:24)? The reason for the Babylonian captivity and the worldwide dispersion of the Jewish nation is because Isra’el had sinned. She had sinned by committing spiritual adultery (see Hosea) and breaking the Torah. Therefore, God had turned her over to robbers to be plundered. Chapter 43:1 starts out by saying: But now, In contrast to former days when God had turned Isra’el over to robbers, as God looks to the future through His prophet Isaiah, He sees the coming time when Isra’el will once again return to Him and be fully redeemed. In contrast to the end of Chapter 42, in Chapter 43 we have the return of grace. God has not forgotten, nor is He unable to deliver His children that He brought into existence. Isra’el need not fear; redemption is absolutely certain.

The kinsman redeemer concept of the Torah is embedded in the first four verses (see the commentary on Ruth Ax – Ruth and Boaz on the Threshing Floor). If a Jew got himself so far into debt that he could not pay, according to the Torah, there was only one option. He had to sell himself into slavery for a period of seven years. After the seventh year, the sabbatical year, he would be released. But after selling himself into slavery there was another option. Another man could come and pay the redemption price to free that man out of slavery. Three stipulations were required for one to be the redeemer of a slave. First, he had to be a near relative or kinsman redeemer. Secondly, he had to have the price of redemption. He had to be able to pay the debt off. Thirdly, he had to be willing to pay the price. The Torah did not require the kinsman redeemer to pay the price; it only permitted him to do so. It was left up to the man’s free will. All three stipulations are spelled out in 43:1-4. Because of Israel’s sin against Ha’Shem, He had sold her to robbers and had become a slave to the Gentile nations. But now God is going to function as the Kinsman Redeemer.

The first requirement was that of being a kinsman. Whatever misfortunes life may have brought the Israelite, no one needed to be ensnared in them forever. A way was made for a family member, a friend, or even oneself to pay back the debt, to set the slave free, to commute the sentence. In ADONAI’s world chance did not have the last word. The verb ga’al means redeemer (35:10). The LORD made Himself Next-of-Kin of the people He created. They are His family and He shoulders all their needs as if they are His own. They would be redeemed by Him (see my commentary on Exodus Bz– Redemption).

Whatever Judah’s blindness and deafness was in the past, ADONAI said that they were to forget that and concentrate on whose they are. But now, this is what the LORD says – he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Isra’el: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine (43:1). This is about as clear as it can be. It was God who created, formed, and redeemed Jacob. I do not think you could be confused about God’s unconditional love for Isra’el unless you deliberately wanted to be confused. The LORD declared: I have called you by name. This expression in Hebrew always means being called for a specific task. You will find this to be true everywhere in the TaNaKh. Have redeemed and have called are prophetic perfects, expressing a future action with absolute certainty as if it had already taken place. The latter verb indicates the creation of a special relationship between God and Isra’el. He also adds you are Mine, meaning that there is a special, intimate relationship between ADONAI and Isra’el. Because of this relationship, God fulfilled the first requirement of the redeemer – that of being a kinsman.

The second requirement was the willingness to pay. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you (43:2a). When the Israelites passed through the Red Sea, the Angel of God, the Second Person of the Trinity, who had been traveling in front of Isra’el’s army, withdrew and went behind to protect them (Psalm 105:39; and also see my commentary on Exodus Ci – The Waters Were Divided and the Israelites Went Through on Dry Land). This Angel of God would eventually become the Suffering Servant of Isaiah (see Hp – Here Is My Servant, Whom I Uphold). He was pierced for our transgressions on the cross, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed of our sins (53:5). In other words, He was willing to pay the price.

When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze (43:2b). The prophet Dani’el and his three Jewish friends experienced this first hand. As some of the best and brightest of Judah, Hanniah, Mishael and Azariah, had been given the Babylonian names of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Dani’el had also been renamed Belteshazzar. They had been taken captive and exiled in Babylon. Because they refused to worship the idol of gold set up by King Nebuchadnezzar (Dani’el 3:16-18), they were thrown into the blazing furnace that was heated seven times hotter than usual (Dani’el 3:19). But they were not alone in the fire, one like the son of the gods was with them (Dani’el 3:25). Although Nebuchadnezzar did not know the Son of God, he did recognize that the Person appearing with the three Jews was God in human form. That preincarnate Messiah would ultimately pay the redemption price: For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). After the king of Babylon called for them to come out of the furnace he and his royal court realized that the fire had not harmed their bodies, nor was a hair on their heads singed; their robes were not scorched, and there was no smell of fire on them (Dani’el 3:26-27).

Like Dani’el and his friends, God said to the Israelites of Isaiah’s day: When you walk through the fire you will not be burned (43:2). The same can be said of us. To refine and purify us, God sometimes uses the furnace of affliction. He didn’t say if. And Peter said: Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. None of us knows when we’ll be called on to walk through the fire or how hot the furnace will be. But we do know this: ADONAI’s purpose for the flames is to purify us, not to destroy us (even though the world might just do that). Sometimes, the only way God hurries holiness is by turning up the heat.

The third requirement was the ability to pay the price of redemption. The redemption price was the nations mentioned in 43:3 and mankind in 43:4. Now the LORD gives His own names to Isra’el as an indication of His support for His people no matter what may come in the years ahead. For I am ADONAI, your God, the Holy One of Isra’el, your Savior; I give Egypt for your ransom, Cush (Ethiopia) and Seba in your stead (43:3). As much as Isra’el is the LORD’s, the LORD is Israel’s. That was what the Covenant was all about (see my commentary on Exodus Dd – The Mosaic Covenant), Isra’el was committed to God, and incredibly, God was giving Himself to Isra’el.

In 43:3 He mentions three names; Egypt, Ethiopia, and Saba. These are three nations all in the continent of Africa. So, God was willing to sacrifice an entire continent like Africa to bring about the final redemption of Isra’el. For I am ADONAI. Here God calls Himself ADONAI, and whenever you see this name, it is always describing God as a covenant keeper, your God, uniquely Isra’el’s God; the Holy One of Isra’el, your Savior, the One who is both willing and able to pay the price of redemption.

Since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you, I will give men in exchange for you, and people in exchange for your life (43:4). The reason God will pay the price is because Isra’el had been precious and honored in His sight, and because He loved her. In spite of Israel’s sinfulness she has been precious, honored, and loved in God’s sight. For those reasons, God is both willing and able to pay the price of redemption.

There is a chiastic relationship, or a parallelism, in these verses where the first letter is parallel to the second letter, and so on, with the letter C being the key point:

A I have created and formed you; fear not, you are Mine (43:1)

B When you pass through the rivers and through the fire, I will be with you (43:2)

C For I Am ADONAI, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior (43:3)

C Because I love you, I will give people in exchange for your life (43:4)

B Do not be afraid, for I Am with you and will bring you back from the ends of the earth (43:5-6)

A I created everyone who is called by My name for My glory (43:7)

Isaiah describes the final, worldwide regathering of the scattered exiles. Three major points are made in these three verses. First, we are told that this regathering is from the four corners of the world. Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west. I will say to the north, “Give them up!” and to the south, “Do not hold them back.” (43:5-6a). Isaiah is not prophesying about the return from Babylon because that was from only one area of the world. Isaiah is describing the far eschatological regathering after the Great Tribulation in preparation for the Messianic Kingdom.

Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth (43:6b). In words similar to those of 11:11-12, 27:13, 49:12 and 60:4, ADONAI promises to bring Jacob’s children back from every corner of the earth. This promise confirms the same promise Moses made in Deuteronomy 30:3-6. Furthermore, this regathering will be aided by the Gentile nations who will be called upon to bring the Jews back (see Dl – The LORD will have Compassion of Jacob).

But perhaps the most significant thing is that God views the final gathering of Isra’el on the magnitude of the original creation of man. Everyone who is called by My name, whom I created for My glory, whom I formed and made (43:7). The only time you see the words created (Genesis 1:27), formed (Genesis 2:7) and made (Genesis 1:26) together is in the creation passages. They were brought into existence for one purpose, to glorify ADONAI. Consequently, the people of God could not be left in exile. His name was on them. Whatever would happen to them or not happen to them was directly attributable to Him. If they were disgraced, He would be disgraced. They are called by His name, they belong to Him, they are part of His family (Deuteronomy 28:10; Jeremiah 14:9, 15:16; Ezeki’el 36:20).

In the final analysis, Isra’el, had sinned. But one of the fundamental principles of the Kingdom of God is that His grace precedes everything else. The most concise statement of this truth in the New Covenant is found in Romans 5:8. But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. That is, the LORD did everything necessary to deliver us from the consequences of our sin before there was any indication that we would respond to Him. The Adversaries lie that God is somehow holding out on us; that in some way He doesn’t really love us and want the best for us, is refuted by this one verse. The LORD’s character radiates free, self-giving love, without the slightest taint of selfishness, the “what’s in it for me” attitude of the human nature. The ultimate proof of that is the cross. ADONAI comes to us in Messiah, offering Himself to us (53:10). There is nothing we have done or ever could do to merit such an offer. It is free. It is the grace of God.¹⁶⁰

The Coming Deliverance from Babylon
43:1 to 44:5

The last of the seven sections of Isaiah are Chapters 40 to 66, the Book of Comfort. The redemption and restoration of Isra’el are the basic themes throughout these last 27 chapters. That is why this last section is also sometimes called the Book of Consolation. It is consoling for Isra’el to understand that, despite all she has endured, she is still the beloved people of God, and that a bright future is in store for her. Isra’el will pass unscathed through fire and water, mighty nations will take her place in bondage and Israel’s scattered children will be gathered from the farthest corners of the earth and brought back to their homeland.

The Book of Comfort started out with a prologue in Chapter 40:1-11. Then in 40:2 Isaiah gave us an outline of the remainder of the book. The first part of this outline was that her hard service is completed. The LORD had been at war with Isra’el because of her sin. Now that her hard service had been completed, consolation was about to come in Chapters 40 through 48. ADONAI is doing several things throughout this section. On the one hand, Isaiah prophesies concerning the coming deliverance from the Babylonian captivity under Cyrus the Great (see the commentary on Ezra-Nehemiah, to see link click Ah – Cyrus Decrees: Rebuild the Temple). He was speaking prophetically because Judah had not yet gone into exile when Isaiah lived. That would come 150 years later (see the commentary on Jeremiah Gu – Seventy Years of Imperial Babylonian Rule). At the same time, He prophesied about Israel’s final deliverance through the Great Tribulation and the final restoration of the Messianic Kingdom.

Throughout this section Isaiah constantly talks about idolatry. It was because of idolatry that the Jews went into exile in the first place. But during the Babylonian captivity they were cured of idolatry, and since their return from Babylon, idolatry has ceased being a problem for them. When ADONAI judged Babylon, as we will see in Chapters 46 and 47, for subjugating the Jews, He will also judge the gods of Babylon.

Hear, You Deaf; Look, You Blind, and See!
42: 18-25

Hear, you deaf; look , you blind, and see DIG: What things have the exiles seen and heard but failed to notice? What was the result? What was God’s original plan for the northern kingdom of Isra’el? For the southern kingdom of Judah? How have they failed to live up to it? What have they become instead? If you were in exile, what comfort would you find in this passage?

REFLECT: Are there times in your past when you were deaf or blind to the obvious will of the LORD? How was it obvious, now that you look back on it? Did ADONAI give up on you? If God needed to gain your attention today, where would you place yourself on the scale of 1 (deaf) to 10 (all ears)? Are there areas of your life where you might still be turning a deaf ear or a blind eye to the LORD? What lesson for the future could you learn here?

After stating that God would deliver His people in 42:10-17, ADONAI now addresses the people’s present condition. The dispute was not between God and idols as in 41:21-29, or between the LORD and idol worshipers as in 41:1-7, but between ADONAI and His own people. Why has God been so blind to the sufferings of His people? Why has He been so deaf to their cries? In His grace He had given them the Torah, but they had refused to believe it, they were not willing to walk along the path laid out for them. Then when the punishment came for their rebellion, they refused to learn the lessons that the LORD was trying to teach them. To all this, it was as if Isaiah was saying, “It is not God who is blind and deaf, look in the mirror, it is you!”

ADONAI called attention to Judah’s condition by saying: Hear, you deaf; look, you blind, and see (42:18)! Who is blind but my servant, and deaf like the messenger I send? Who is blind like the one committed to Me (42:19)? In verse 18 blind and deaf are plural, but in verse 19 blind is singular. The plural looks back to 42:7 and 16, where the blind are the lost Gentile nations. Since verse 19 is singular, this points to nation of Judah, God’s servant. It was as if the LORD was asking them, “Can the blind lead the blind?” How could Judah lead the pagan Gentile nations into the truth if she was blind herself? Later, when the Israelites sat on the banks of the Euphrates River in Babylon they probably wondered what had happened to them. Why were they exiled from the Land and their Temple? Isaiah would answer their question by saying that they were spiritually deaf and blind to the Torah. When Ezra would finally lead the people back to the Promised Land, this question would ultimately lead to the formation of the Oral Law (see my commentary on The Life of Christ, to see link click Ei – The Oral Law), by building a fence around the Torah.

But as an encouragement, God points out that her spiritual blindness will be healed in the future. Her future spiritual health would be in sharp contrast to the state of Judah in Isaiah’s day. Theirs was not the total darkness of the Gentile world. ADONAI would say to them: You have seen many things. Isra’el had been given the Torah; but unfortunately, she paid no attention to it. Judah had been given the prophets; but even though her ears were open, she heard nothing (42:20). And because of that, there were two results.

First, came the necessity of punishment. Why? Because for God’s own sake, His righteousness demanded punishment for sin (42:21a). The meaning here is steadfastness and purpose. God acts in accordance with His predetermined plan. Secondly, the Torah had to be upheld. It specified that if the Israelites lived according to God’s righteous commandments He would bless them. In that sense the Torah would be great and glorious because it would reveal His righteousness to the Gentile nations (42:21b). Therefore, if the Torah had to be upheld it demanded punishment because it clearly stated chastisement was the result of disobedience. What was their punishment? They would be driven out of the Land (Deuteronomy 28:49-53).

The Israelites where in an utterly helpless position. But this is a people whose cities would be plundered and looted (also see Ezeki’el 7:21, 26:12, 29:19), all of them trapped in pits or hidden away in prisons. They have become plunder, with no one to rescue them; they have been made loot, with no one to say, “Send them back” (42:22). In the future they would be plundered and looted by the Babylonians. They will be hidden away in pits or hidden away in prisons with no one to rescue them except for the LORD. And just as sure as night follows the day, judgment follows spiritual blindness. Far from influencing the Gentile world, the Gentile world ended up influencing her! Through her failure of making the Torah great, Judah had lost her status in the world and her protection of ADONAI. That was the truth taught in the Song of the Vineyard (5:1-7): no fruit equaled no protection! Far from being the ones who could assist in the deliverance of the lost through the Torah, they themselves needed deliverance.

Which of you will listen to this or pay close attention in the time to come (42:23)? The judgment of Judah and Isra’el in this section is in light of her state of deafness. Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor His ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not choose to listen to you any more (59:1-2). Who was really deaf here? A man told his doctor that he thought his wife was going deaf. The doctor told him to conduct a simple test. When the man reached the front door of his home, he called out, “Honey, is dinner ready?” Hearing no response, he walked inside and repeated himself. Still no reply. On the third try, when he was immediately behind her, he finally heard her say, “For the third time, yes!” ADONAI had sent Isaiah to prophesy to Judah about her impending judgment, but the message had fallen on deaf ears.

Was it that the LORD could not protect them? No, the LORD demanded judgment, and here the judgment is described. Isaiah points out that the Israelites must indeed learn their lesson. What exactly was the lesson? Who was the cause of their suffering? Perhaps the immediate cause was the Gentile nations. Assyria. Babylonia. Medo-Persia. Greece. Rome. The Arabs. Nazi Germany. Soviet Russia today. But Who is the ultimate cause? The answer is that God is the ultimate cause of their suffering. He is the one who handed Jacob (or Judah) over to become loot and Isra’el to the plunderers because of her sins (42:24a). The means of judging Judah or Isra’el has always been to turn them over to the Gentiles. Now these Gentile nations are sinful, wicked nations, and because God punishes sin, He eventually ends up punishing those Gentile nations also. But God uses their wickedness to discipline Judah and Isra’el.

Why did God judge and discipline them? Was it not ADONAI they sinned against (42:24b)? Grammatically, the only answer was, “Yes.” They would not follow His ways; they did not obey His commandments. They had an unsubmitted, rebellious will. Why the dispersion after the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD? They were still blind to their sin and His ways. That is why God would send His Servant to open their eyes.

So, on account of their sins and disobedience to the Torah, God’s anger was against them. So He poured out on them His burning anger, the violence of war (42:25a). The theme of Chapters 40-48 is that her hard service had been completed. Here the prophet brings out the fact that for centuries God has been disciplining Judah and Isra’el. When Israel was assimilated by Assyria, or when Judah was sent into exile in Babylon, they thought ADONAI was deaf when they cried out to Him. They were actually the problem.

But Isra’el’s response was that even though God enveloped them in flames, they did not understand. Isra’el did not know who was disciplining her because of her deafness. Even though God consumed them, they did not take it to heart (24:25). You can talk to rabbis today, and this is still very true. If you ask them why the Jews were dispersed, the answer that you get is that God dispersed them for the purpose of spreading Judaism throughout the world. The discipline of ADONAI did not cause the nation to repent and return to Him. They still would be blind to their sin and His ways. We know this because of the reaction of the religious leaders of the nation when Messiah presented Himself (see Gl – The Three Messianic Miracles). But did that thwart the purposes of the LORD? Never. It did not frustrate the purposes of God for Judah. She would be regathered into the Land as seen in the coming deliverance from Babylon from 43:1 to 44:5.

Could it be that the LORD is trying to tell you something but you aren’t listening? Let’s examine ourselves carefully. ADONAI speaks to us through His gentile whisper (1 Kgs 19:11-12), and His Word: All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Tim 3:16). His voice isn’t audible, but if you are paying attention, it is unmistakable. We need to listen with both our hearts and our brains to hear Him.

Sing to the LORD a New Song,
His Praise from the Ends of the Earth
42: 10-17

Sing to the LORD a new song, His praise from the ends of the earth DIG: Who is encouraged to sing a new song to the Servant? What places does the prophet call upon here? Who are all these people singing to the LORD? How does this widespread call relate to the mission of the Servant in 42:6-7? How is God like a mighty man? Why does He first shout the battle cry, then gasp and pant? Why does Isaiah finish the good promises here with a warning?

REFLECT: How do you acknowledge the blessings in your life that ADONAI provides? Is it hard for you to picture the LORD as a warrior (Josh 5:13-15; Num 21:14)? How has God turned darkness into light for you?

Victorious over His enemies, the LORD is praised at His Second Coming. The prophet gives the reason why even the idol worshipers, the enemies of God, must now recognize His greatness and stop their foolish ways. This is the first of four Servant Songs (49:1-6, 50:4-9, 53:13 to 53:12). Here the prophet Isaiah calls the whole world to sing to the LORD a new song of praise (42:10a). The outburst of praise literally begs to be asked what triggered it in the first place. His praise from the ends of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that is in it, you islands, and all who live in them (42:10b). It is especially noteworthy that the entire earth is called on to give this praise in the form of a new song. Surely it is prompted by the previously announced coming of the Servant of the LORD (to see link click Hp – Here Is My Servant, Whom I Uphold).

The entire earth should rejoice at that news. Let the desert and its towns raise their voices; let the settlements where Kedar lives rejoice. Let the people of the Sela sing for joy; let them shout from the mountaintops (42:11). Kedar (21:16-17) is in the north (Syrian) Arabian desert, and Sela was a city in Edom. The earth (the islands and the desert) joins its people (all who live) in praise because the creation itself will be released from bondage of corruption. Rabbi Sha’ul tells us so: The creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed (First John 3:1-2). For the creation was subject to frustration, not by its own choice but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God (Romans 8:19-20).

The call to praise reaches its climax at this point. Exactly because the Servant will be coming, the Ruach HaKodesh encourages all those living in Isaiah’s day to give glory to the LORD and proclaim His praise in the islands, or the outermost reaches of the earth (42:12). Why? In light of the promise of new revelation to come, Isaiah calls the whole world to sing a new song. This repeated call to praise introduces the cause of all this overflowing joy. It is the triumph of the mighty man, the tender warrior, ADONAI.

Why? Because the LORD will march out like a mighty man (see the commentary on Genesis Ec – When Abram Heard Lot Had Been Taken Captive, He Went in Pursuit as far as Dan). He will not come meek and mild as the Servant came in 42:1-4. But when Jesus comes again at His Second Coming (63:1-6) like a warrior He will stir up His zeal; with a shout He will raise the battle cry and will triumph over His enemies (42:13). The comparison of ADONAI to a warrior is one of the oldest in the Bible (Exodus 15 and Judges 5). He battles on behalf of His people. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that Isaiah should identify Him in this way here and elsewhere in the book (28:21, 30:30-31, 31:4, 59:16-18, 63:3-4; also see Zechariah 9:14 and 14:3). It will not be the Persian, Cyrus, who will ultimately deliver Isra’el, the Servant by His mighty arm (30:32, 48:14, 51:9, 52:10, 53:1, 59:1)

Isaiah sings as God speaks again and promises new prophecies. Now God gives that new prophecy He promised to give back in 42:9, which is a far eschatological prophecy about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. The rabbis teach that this section refers to the return of the exiles. For a long time I have kept silent, I have been quiet and held myself back. Isaiah had prophesied for many years and then there seemed to be a period of silence. There does appear that many years elapsed between Chapter 39 and Chapter 40 of Isaiah. The first 39 Chapters may have been written when Isaiah was a young man and then Chapters 40 to 66 were written when he was an older man. But to be sure, all of Isaiah was written by the same prophet.

ADONAI, seemingly silent for a long time (the whole history of the Gentile world), will act in judgment though, humanly speaking, it will be painful for Him. With the change to the first person, God Himself speaks of His coming battle for His people. But now, like a woman in childbirth I cry out, I gasp and pant (42:14). The rabbis teach that the LORD was crying out against the injustice done to Judah. They teach that God will no longer tolerate the sufferings of His people and the continued ruin of their country.

When Christ returns His silence will be broken and the earth will be judged. The old order of things will be ended. He declares: I will lay waste the mountains and hills and dry up all their vegetation (42:15a). The mountains and the hills will be devastated. I will turn rivers into islands and dry up the pools (42:15b). We know that when the LORD returns the earth with bloom with abundance. The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom like the lily (35:1a CJB). Even the Negev will blossom. So this verse cannot be speaking of a literal drying up. Consequently, we must interpret it in a figurative way and assume that God will dry up the places where people do not revere Him.

Just as the LORD will do unheard of things in the judgment of the wicked in order to set His people free, He will do unheard of things in their deliverance. He will guide those who have faith, trust, and belief in Him, giving them light and healing. I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them and make the rough places smooth (42:16a). The word blind in this verse is in the plural, pointing to the unenlightened Gentile world out of which He will lead His Servant, and those whom He chose to illuminate. He will heal their spiritual blindness. He will lead them to spiritual truth. These are the things He will do; He will not forsake them in any way (42:16b). This is the way ADONAI leads His own. You and I are blind to the future, but He is not, and He will lead all who put their trust in Him.

However, those who trust in idols will be judged. Although there will be unsaved people living during the Great Tribulation (see the commentary on Revelation Fc – The Sheep and the Goats), idol worship will not be tolerated. This final note was aimed at the idol worshippers during Isaiah’s own day. It was as if he was saying to them, “There will be a day, in the time to come (42:23), when you will regret worshipping idols of mere stone and wood.” Those who say to images, “You are our gods,” will be turned back in utter shame (42:17, 44:9 and 11, 45:16). Ultimately their trust was in themselves and what they could do. We see this today in the New Age notion that somehow mankind can discover the god within. That god is the way of works, not by grace. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast (Ephesians 2:8-9). Many are the woes of the wicked, but the LORD’s unfailing love surrounds those who trust in Him (Psalm 32:10). When all else fails, trust God!

Here Is My Servant, Whom I Uphold
42: 1-9

Here is My Servant, whom I uphold DIG: In Isaiah’s time, a king’s servant stood in a position of great importance. What terms express this servant’s relationship to God in 42:1-7? His mission? His character? Who is the servant referred to here? Why will God’s Servant not shout or cry out (Proverbs 8:1-4 and 9:13ff)? What is meant by a bruised reed and smoldering wick (36:6)?

REFLECT: In what ways does Yeshua fulfill this picture of God’s Servant? Which of those qualities have you experienced recently? When was the last time you felt like a bruised reed? Looking back on it, how did Messiah find a way to let you know that He was right there with you? How did He treat you with tenderness even if you did not recognize it as such at the time?

As the Cone of Isaiah comes to it’s point (to see link click Hl – The Cone of Isaiah), the LORD is speaking and He presents the Servant, the Messiah, to the nations of the world and to Judah in particular. Not coincidentally, the Trinity is in view here. Evidence from the TaNaKh that ADONAI is indeed a Trinity is found in the fact that only three Persons are ever called God, and no more than three Persons are ever seen together. There are four examples of the Trinity in Isaiah; the first is seen here in 42:1. The Trinity can also be seen in 48:12-16, again in 61:1, and also in 63:7-14. The doctrine of the Trinity is a fundamental belief of the Church. Those who deny the Trinity expose themselves as either being a member of a cult, like the Jehovah’s Witnesses, or merely believing in false doctrine like non-messianic Jews. One cannot be saved and not believe in the Trinity.

Here is My Servant, whom I uphold, My chosen one in whom I delight; I will put My Spirit on Him and He will bring justice to the nations (42:1). Six things are said about the Servant. First, God says He is My Servant, His special Servant (John 4:34 and Philippians 2:5-8). Secondly, He is the One that God upholds (Mark 1:12-13). Thirdly, He is God’s chosen (First Peter 2:4-6). Fourthly, ADONAI says: You are My Son, whom I love; with You I am well pleased (Luke 3:22). Fifthly, God says: I will put My Spirit on Him (42:1a). Sixthly, He will bring justice to the nations (42:1b).

The second Person is the Speaker’s Servant, or as He says My Servant. And the third Person is said to be My Spirit. Here is a passage where there are three and only three Persons, no more and no less. Three times Isaiah describes the placing of the Spirit on the Messiah: once in 11:2, a second time here in 42:1, which is also referred to at the baptism of Christ in Matthew 3:16-17 and Luke 3:22, when Ruach Ha’Kodesh came down upon Him in the visible form of a dove, and a third time in 61:1. This passage deals with the public ministry of the Servant. And finally, what is said about the status of the Servant is that He will bring justice to the (Gentile) nations (42:1b). This He will do at the Second Coming.

Then we have the manner of His ministry. He will not shout or cry out, or raise His voice in the streets (42:2). So, while the apostles will be active in street evangelism, Jesus will not. Matthew connects the quietness, the soft-spokeness of the ministry of Yeshua with the prophecy of Isaiah here. Matthew 12:15-21 quotes 42:1-4 with some minor variations, relating it to Messiah and His ministry in Isra’el. As the LORD’s Servant, the Messiah, did what Isra’el could never do. He perfectly carried out the will of the Father so that people everywhere could believe. This is an example of the B’rit Chadashah interpreting the TaNaKh.

In addition, the way that He will conduct Himself is described. A bruised reed He will not break. This phrase means He will not crush the oppressed. He will help the oppressed, not crush them. He will be characterized by mercy, truth, and justice. Those who come to Him for help will be accepted and treated with great tenderness.¹⁵⁹ And a smoldering wick He will not snuff out (42:3a). The smoldering wick refers to those who have lost all hope. He will not snuff out our hope; on the contrary, He gives us hope.

Finally, we are told that the Messiah will succeed in His ministry. Four statements are made to that effect. First, He will not falter or fail. Second, He will not be discouraged till He establishes justice on the earth (42:4a). If there was any time that Jesus should have been discouraged, it was when Isra’el rejected Him as the Messiah and said He was demon possessed (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Ek – It is only by Beelzebub, the Prince of Demons, That This Fellow Drives Out Demons). Yet, God says that He will never be discouraged. Nor do we find any discouragement in the statements that Christ makes during His ministry. Third, in faithfulness He will bring forth justice (42:3b). Justice has not yet been done on the earth. But when Messiah returns at the Second Coming, distant lands will put their hope in His Torah (42:4b). Back in Chapter 2 Isaiah stated that when Messiah reigns from Jerusalem, the Torah will go forth from Jerusalem. So distant Gentile lands will wait for the fulfillment of this prophecy.

The fact that Jesus is compassionate and mends broken lives does not mean that the lives of believers will be without sorrow. After all, Yeshua made it quite clear when He said to His disciples: In this world you will have trouble (John 16:33). Yet many times when trouble comes, it is easy to forget that Jesus, a man of sorrows (53:3), is still right there with us even if we cannot feel His presence because of our overwhelming pain. Sometimes nothing consoles me when I am in pain. Praying or reading my Bible does not even give me relief from my torment and I feel guilty about that. But despite my feelings, as I look back on my time of trouble, I can see that He is a Promise Keeper and there really are His footprints in the sand as He carried me through it.

This is what God, ADONAI says: He who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and all that comes out of it, who gives breath to its people, and life to those who walk on it (42:5). The one who called the Servant to establish His Kingdom on the earth was in fact the Creator of the earth. As a result, the Servant’s ministry would not be something new, but would be, in fact, the renewal of the creation. The exclusive use of participles points us to the identical descriptions of God earlier: He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in (40:22). Equally important is the fact that the Servant is the One who gives breath or spirit, to us. His concern for us is seen next as One who brought us into being and sustains us with every breath we take.

God the Father then commissions the Servant. He promised His Servant full and constant support in the accomplishment of the mission entrusted to Him. I, ADONAI, have called You in righteousness (42:6a). The call to the Servant comes from God and is translated in righteousness. Then comes the promise. I will take hold of Your hand (the Father will sustain Him). I will keep You and will make You to be a Covenant for the people (42:6b). The word people is singular here, so God is talking about a united northern kingdom of Isra’el and southern kingdom of Judah. The relationship of the Servant to the Jewish people is to be very intimate. Yeshua Messiah is to be the One who will fulfill the Jewish covenants. He will be the mediator of the covenants and is the basis for the teaching of Messiah in the different feasts of Isra’el.

He is not only the mediator and the maker of the Covenant, He is also the essence of the Covenant itself. God says: You will be a Covenant. The Covenant God is talking about is the New Covenant. Soon Isaiah will mention the New Covenant in two places (54:10 and 61:8). But it is Jeremiah who gives us the details (Jeremiah 31:31-34). It is also mentioned in Ezeki’el 16:60. Therefore, we have three of the four major prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezeki’el that mention the coming of a New Covenant. Therefore, the concept of a New Covenant is found within the pages of the TaNaKh. Even though God said: I will make a New Covenant with the house of Isra’el and with the house of Judah (Jeremiah 31:31). ADONAI declares that the Servant will restore the tribes of Judah and bring back the faithful of Isra’el that He has kept (49:6c). This is part of the condition of the New Covenant that is made with the Jewish nation.

The Gentiles would also benefit. God the Father said: I will also make You a light for the Gentiles (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Au – Jesus Presented in the Temple), that You may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth (Isaiah 42:6c, 49:6 and Luke 2:21-40). So anyone who receives salvation, Jew or Gentile alike, would receive it from the Messiah or the Servant of the LORD. In relationship to the united kingdom of Isra’el, the New Covenant will ultimately lead to her final salvation and restoration (see Kp – My Chosen People Will Inherit My Mountains). To open eyes that are spiritually blind and to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness (42:7). For centuries the Gentiles had dwelt in darkness because they did not have the Scriptures. Only when the gospel moved out of the land of Isra’el to the Gentiles, did they finally receive light (see my commentary on Acts Az – The Good News Spreads to Samaria). This is exactly what Luke 2:28-32 and John 8:12 state regarding Christ; that, although He came initially for the Jews, the Gentiles would also benefit because He came to be their light.

Here God said: I am ADONAI, that is My name (see the commentary on Exodus At – I Am Has Sent Me To You), I will not give My name glory to another or My praise to idols (42:8). The name of ADONAI, or the LORD, implies that He is a Covenant Keeper. He faithfully carries out His promises. The fact that He alone is the Covenant Keeper of all “other gods” is the uniqueness of His glory. God said I will not give my Sh’khinah glory to another or my praise to idols. No idol will ever be the Covenant Keeper.

Because God alone transcends the world, He alone can explain the course of history. See, the former things have taken place, and new things I declare; before they spring into being I announce them to you (42:9). God says that some of His earlier prophecies, or the former things in the book of Isaiah have taken place, or have been fulfilled. Especially prophecies dealing with the Assyrian invasion and destruction. But He now announces that He has new things, or prophecies, to declare. And as God fulfilled His former predictions, so will He bring His new ones to realization. God, unlike idols, can tell the future, and this divine ability adds to His glory.