Isaiah 44-48
There is a very stunning promise in Chapter 44 of Isaiah, which is at beginning of the section we are looking to cover this week. The chapter opens with these words, spoken by God through the prophet: “But now hear, O Jacob my servant, Israel whom I have chosen! Thus says the Lord who made you, who formed you from the womb and will help you: Fear not, O Jacob my servant, Jeshurun whom I have chosen. For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon your descendants, and my blessing on your offspring.” (Isa 44:1-3)
It seems reasonable to ask who this promise is for. Notice that is does say Jacob, and the implication is that it is directed at the nation of Jews, but in the previous chapter (Isaiah 43:22-ff) God ha called out a pronouncement against those who have not been faithful. But here in Chapter 44, the tone of the prophecy is different. There is a kindness and closeness to the ones God refers to as His chosen. In fact if you go a little deeper into the chapter, you read: “This one will say, ‘I am the Lord’s’; And that one will call on the name of Jacob; And another will write on his hand, ‘Belonging to the Lord,’ And will name Israel’s name with honor. (vs 5) It is not difficult to see that believing Gentiles could also be a part of this promise, and in fact we know that to be true because we saw the fulfilment of this promise, if not the beginning of it’s fulfilment at Pentecost. Look at the elements including in God’s promise in Isaiah 44.
- We are instructed not to have fear – why would God instruct us to have a behavior that He would not empower?
- We are told our longings would be satisfied (vs 3) – the picture of pouring water on the thirsty land brings to mind the saying of Christ and the woman at the well. Or even the sermon at the mound – blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they will be satisfied. All the other things that we hope will satisfy us, never do.
- In verse four, we are told we will flourish. We shall reproduce. We, and as the chosen of God, will grow in number. The chosen will experience uncontrolled growth – and that is the very thing that has been happening across the world.
- We will be ready to proudly proclaim that we are God’s and that Israel is God’s.
All these things are promises that are intended to bring us hope. Faith, Hope and Love. Hope is the middle child in this group of three. We can go into all kinds of thoughts about the middle child, but let’s think about what the Bible says about Hope.
Romans 15:4 For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. Romans 15:13: Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Hope changes how we perceive the future to be.
But promises can be strong or weak, depending on the source of the one who makes the promise. This is why I think that God goes into the next section where He tells more about who has made the remarkable promises. Verse 6-8 are God’s reminder of Who He is. He is the first and the last, or as mentioned in Revelation, the Alpha and the Omega. He ends this section with a question: Is there any other Rock? I know of none! Then God continues on and compares Himself to the emptiness of the idols in the world. Not just the world back then, but through out time. These are not just truths that are good for 700 years prior to Christ, but they are as true now as the day God gave them to Isaiah. God is stating facts here, although people still want to argue about if there are other gods. God, the Creator, tells us that He does not know any and God’s knowledge is complete and total. He declares reality to us.
This next section is God’s effort to save his creatures from the folly and danger of following false gods. The passage goes on to describe the lunacy of idol worship that the Israelites were falling into. Isaiah first describes a metal smith who melts metal, pours it into a mold to make an idol of it, and in the process he becomes tired. Isaiah points out what a ridiculous thing it is that a man makes a god who has no power to help him even while he is making it.
Then we read about a carpenter who carves the figure of a man out of a block of wood, then uses the chips that he has carved off the block to build a fire to warm himself. He then bows down and worships the idol, seeking deliverance from something his own hands have made. Once again I am amazed at what happens when we abandon the wisdom of God, we get very, very stupid.
When we read a passage like this we are tempted to say, “Well, I don’t do this. I’m not an idol worshipper.” And yet, we know that idols have taken on different shapes in our life, but the intent is still the same. Anything that takes our worship and adoration away from the Lord is an idol. Does that mean we can’t do anything that is fun? Of course not, but when that thing means putting God to the side, we must give it up. We must get rid of it or we fall into the state we read in verse 20: He feeds on ashes; a deluded mind has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say, “Is there not a lie in my right hand?” (Isa 44:20) Many today worship the god of sex, thinking that sex will satisfy them and fulfill their needs. But the god of sex will not deliver them. It is true we do not have idols of wood and stone any longer, but the ideas behind them remain the focus of our culture today.
The folly of worshipping any god other than the true God is that people deceive themselves. They are left dissatisfied, feeling, they have been feeding on ashes. The soul, as well as the body, needs food. The soul looks for that which satisfies. But those who look for satisfaction in drugs or sex later discover that they have been feeding on ashes. They have been deceived, failing to recognize that there is “a lie in their right hand.” The right hand is the symbol of what you grasp, who you look for help from. But those who follow idols are unable to see that they will not satisfy, but will leave a taste of ashes in the mouth. Some businessmen worship the god of power. They are climbing the corporate ladder to the top, seeking honor and recognition. When they have all they want, however, they will find it has turned to ashes. There are even some who worship things that are good – but anything that is worshipped that is not God is wrong and will turn to ashes. We can value good things, but worshipping them is wrong.
The only hope, as this passage makes clear, is found in the God who formed us. God says: Remember these things, O Jacob, and Israel, for you are my servant; [remember the ashes upon which you have been feeding]I formed you, you are my servant; O Israel, you will not be forgotten by me. I have swept away your transgressions like a cloud, and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you. (Isa 44:21-22)
God knows what we need and He pleads with His people to find their satisfaction in him. He pleads for them to turn from these false values and seek his face and his forgiveness, which he has already provided for them, having “swept away their transgressions like a cloud.”
Now Isaiah switches gears a bit and some believe that after verse 23, the closing verses of Chapter 44 belong with Chapter 45. The text gets more predictive because this section was written 150 years before the person who is named in the text is born. It is as if someone predicted President Reagan’s name 150 years before he was born and before the US was even birthed as a nation, and told you what he was going to do. This prophecy has been fulfilled by the coming of Cyrus the Great of Persia, the conqueror of Babylon. Isaiah foresaw and described the threat of Babylon, that great empire of the ancient world. Even though Babylon had not yet come into prominence as a world power, Isaiah sees beyond its rise under Nebuchadnezzar and his conquering of much of the world, to the time when the Persians shall rise and Cyrus the Great will come and take Babylon captive. Cyrus is actually named here in this prophecy, 150 years before his birth.
Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, who formed you from the womb: “I am the Lord, who made all things, who stretched out the heavens alone, who spread out the earth — Who was with me? —
who frustrates the omens of liars, and makes fools of diviners; who turns wise men back, and makes their knowledge foolish; who confirms the word of his servant, and performs the counsel of his messengers; who says of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be inhabited,’ and of the cities of Judah, ‘They shall be built, and I will raise up their ruins’; (Isa 44:24-27)
This is anticipating the seventy years of captivity in Babylon and God’s promise to raise and restore Jerusalem, even naming the one who will do this. Who says of Cyrus, “He is my shepherd, and he shall fulfill all my purpose’; saying of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be built,’ and of the temple, ‘Your foundation shall be laid.'” [Ignore the chapter division here and read right on.] Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, (Isa 44:28-45:1a)
God calls Cyrus his “anointed,” which is the word “Messiah.” He does so because Cyrus would be his instrument to deliver Israel from Babylonian captivity. I read that this was the only time in the Bible that God called a non-believer His “anointed”. Cyrus prefigures the great Deliverer who was yet to come, God’s true Messiah, who would fulfill these words in an even greater way. The prophecy goes on to say that God says to Cyrus, “I will go before you and level the mountains, I will break in pieces the doors of bronze” (Isa 45:2a). It is good to remember that God uses who He wants. He clearly states in verse 4: I have given you [Cyrus] a title of honor though you have not known Me. World leaders will unknowingly do God’s will, even when they don’t know Him.
This is a remarkable confirmation that God is the architect of history. He is in control, whether men realize it or not. He regulates the affairs of nations and He takes full responsibility for all that they ultimately do, even though they do not recognize this. What an encouragement this ought to be to us when we see the high and the mighty of earth making their little plans and making great promises of what they are going to do. Let us know without a doubt that even if realize that even if our man or our woman does not win the election, earthly governments can only do what God says they can do. Here God uses a king who does not even know him to be his instrument to deliver Israel and put them back in the land.
God gives another very important reminder in Verse 7: I form light and create darkness, causing well being and creating calamity. (Isa 45:7)
In the phrase “causing well being and creating calamity,” God is speaking of circumstances; that he is behind the circumstances of calamity, as well as of blessings. We must learn to view the problems of this world such as terrorism in the light of the fact that God can and will use even these large scale disasters to bring about His purposes. It doesn’t mean we just placidly accept everything that is bad, but we are prepared to accept the flow of history knowing the Author who is writing history. As the moral Judge of the universe, God says that he takes responsibility even for disasters but as the Savior of man he also is behind the blessings that come our way. Isaiah strongly sets forth the fact that God is in total control of all of life.
Seen in that light, how shall we evaluate the proud boasts of men that they are in control of their own destiny? God takes that up in the very next passage, at Verse 9, Chapter 45: “Woe to him who strives with his Maker, as an earthen vessel with the potter! Does the clay say to him who fashions it, “What are you making?” or “Your work has no handles?” (Isa 45:9) It would be ridiculous if clay were to say to the potter, “I don’t like the way you’re doing this. This design does not appeal to me at all.” The questions continue but cover the same theme. Woe to him who says to a father, “What are you begetting?” or to a woman, “With what are you in travail?” [as though these events were under human direction.] Thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker: “Will you question me about my children, or command me concerning the work of my hands? I made the earth, and created man upon it; it was my hands that stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their host.” (Isa 45:10-12)
This is the God with whom we have to deal. How incredibly arrogant of man to criticize the workings of a God like that! This passage is designed to humble man in his proud confidence and to show him how dependent he is upon the God whom he dares to criticize. C.S. Lewis well has said, “When you argue against Him you are arguing against the very power that makes you able to argue at all: it is like cutting off the branch you are sitting on.”
From this passage we learn that human folly takes many forms: either self-sufficiency — man imagining that he is God and that he can run the world — or idolatry, where man trusts something else as god other than the true God. Either one, according to this account and as confirmed by history, results in slavery and tragedy. That is a remarkable statement of what the Scriptures declare — that throughout history, behind the rise of slavery and bondage, is this inevitable substituting of the supreme will of an egoist for the mind of God. God’s answer is found in Verses 22-23 of this same chapter: “Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. (Isa 45:22-23)
But this is the out which God offers to mankind: “Look to me.” Do not look to science, or to technology. These are fine in themselves, they give certain creature comforts, but they cannot deliver you. They cannot satisfy you or meet your need. If you pursue them they will turn to ashes. God is the only Deliverer from human hurt and failure.
We can move quickly through Chapters 46, 47, and 48, because they deal with the same subject, the historic fall of Babylon. The idols of Babylon are judged in Chapter 46.
In Chapter 47 the prophet looks beyond historic Babylon to mystery Babylon, referred to in the book of Revelation; that strange combination of religious powers which in the last days challenges the truth of God; and, as Revelation describes, is the source of all occult practices. Look at these verses: Stand fast in your enchantments and your many sorceries, with which you have labored from your youth; perhaps you may be able to succeed, [this is rich sarcasm] perhaps you may inspire terror. You are wearied with your many counsels; let them stand forth and save you, those who divide the heavens, who gaze at the stars, who at the new moons predict what shall befall you. (Isa 47:12-13)
Here is God’s view of astrology and horoscopes, all such attempts to rely upon the stars as a guide for life. Behold, they are like stubble, the fire consumes them; they cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame. No coal for warming oneself is this, no fire to sit before! (Isa 47:14)
They are absolutely useless when it comes to truly directing life. The section closes in Chapter 48 with a wonderful appeal again from God. Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go. O that you would hearken to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea; your offspring would have been like the sand, and your descendants like its grains; their name would never be cut off or destroyed from before me.” (Isa 48:17-19)
Many times (like Jesus weeping over Jerusalem), God is saddened by the fact that men in their resistance to Him will not come to him and be set free. The chapter and the section close with this revealing word: “There is no peace,” says the Lord, “for the wicked.” (Isa 48:22)
The wicked are not necessarily murderers and criminals. They are anyone who has any god other than the one God. God is Lord of his own earth and heaven. He is the One to whom we must look for life, liberty, joy and peace. Yet men turn their backs on this God who can supply all they need, and walk off into restlessness and lack of peace.
God gives this warning in 48:17-18 – I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go. If only you had paid attention to My commandments! Then your well-being would have been like a river And your righteousness like the waves of the sea.
How many people wander restlessly around and around the same course, seeking something new, something different. Ultimately there is nothing left for them but to go back into the house. When they do, they will not find a harsh Judge but a loving Father who says, “Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God and there is no other. By myself I have sworn, from my mouth has gone forth in righteousness a word that shall not return:” (Isa 45:22-23a) Here is something as inevitable as anything in all of life. This is a solemn word of God. ‘To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.’ Only in the Lord, it shall be said of me, are righteousness and strength. (Isa 45:23b-24a)
If you are seeking peace, I urge you to read those words again. These are not empty promises. Remember the One who promised. God means this. He does speak peace to a troubled heart, to those who feel empty, lonely, miserable and rejected. God offers to “pour out water upon those that are thirsty and streams upon the dry ground.”