Isaiah Chapters 44-45/Commentary

Isaiah Chapters 44-45 44:1-5 “God speaks to Jacob, that is the nation of Israel, His chosen. As a child, the Lord formed this people ‘from the womb’, and so, like a caring parent, He will help His people; they should, therefore, not be afraid. Though Israel will suffer in a desert land (the Captivity), Jehovah will water them (symbolically speaking) and blessings will flow upon the nation from Heaven’s Holy Spirit. And others, that is the Gentiles, will be attracted to these blessings, hence, will seek identity with the spiritual children of God” (Jackson p. 87). 44:2 “Jeshurun”: A name for God’s people found in Deuteronomy 32:15; 33:5; 26 and means “ the upright one” 44:3 “I will pour out My Spirit”: Compare with Joel 2:28 and the application in Acts 2:16ff. This is not a reference to the Second Coming, but rather to the New Testament era in which many people would attach themselves to God and want to be one of His people (Isaiah 2:2-4).

44:6 Notice the various titles or names for God. He is the King, the Redeemer, the Lord of hosts, and the first and the last. Note that two individuals in verse 6 are called the LORD. Clearly, Christ is in mind, compare with Revelation 1:17.

God existed prior to the beginning of time and He will exist after the end of time.

Once again, He did not evolve, He did not have a beginning, and neither will He be succeeded. “And there is no God besides Me”: Thus completely eliminating the validity of all other religious systems. God is not one among many, as the Mormons teach.

44:7 “Who is like Me? Let him proclaim and declare it”: This is a direct challenge to polytheism, idolatry, and paganism. This challenge still stands, “Who will you see to compare with God?” “The Lord now issues a challenge to a simple but all-determined contest: let anyone (idol or man) declare something that he foretold in the past and point to its fulfillment either in the past or in the present. Who will set himself beside Jehovah to call, declare, and set in order?

Who has changed anything since God set the nations and His own in their proper state? “ (Hailey p. 371).

God is clearly making the point that one simple proof of the validity of any “god” or belief system would be the ability to predict the future. The Bible contains many predictive prophecies and God challenges anyone else to do the same.

The ability of a belief system to accurately predict the future should be one of the

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first things to demand as proof before one believes. The Bible has such proof!

Compare with Isaiah 41:21-24; 42:8-9; 46:10.

44:8 God’s people (the faithful) are not to fear the coming Captivity, because God is their Rock, “there is no stronghold, fortress, or place of refuge other than Jehovah; only He is permanent” (Hailey p. 371).

The Folly of Idolatry In this section it is pointed out concerning the idols, that the very fact that they are manufactured by human hands, is the best evidence that they are completely worthless. “In language that bristles with pointed and withering scorn, he exposes the vanity of human wisdom that stoops to the manufacture and worship of objects born of man’s imagination. As Leupold observes, it took courage to cry out so boldly against a way of life that had become deeply entrenched among all mankind” (Hailey pp. 371-372).

44:9 “Even their own witnesses fail to see or know”: The idol maker seems completely blind to the fact that obviously something that he “made”, and that needs to be nailed down so that it will not fall over, could not save him or those who worship it. Yet false religion makes fools of its adherents (Romans 1:20ff).

Many false religions or human philosophies are just like ancient idolatry, they do not make any sense, they are illogical and filled with contradiction, but people still flock to them.

44:10-12 “The utter irrationality of those who worship idols is now vividly portrayed. First, there is the description of a blacksmith making an idol. As he works, frail man that he is, he gets hungry and grows tired, and yet this weak man will create a god!” (Jackson p. 88).

44:13-17 Here God ridicules the practice of making idols out of trees that man himself has planted and raised. “With a portion of the wood a fire is kindled which is either used to warm by or to bake bread; the rest is employed in the manufacture of a god---and all from the same woodpile. Hence, part of the ‘godwood’ is burned and part of it is worshipped—even prayed to with the request, ‘Deliver me, for you are my god’. How could anyone reasonably worship a god of his own creation and disposal?” (Jackson p. 88). “A blacksmith who gets hungry while making an idol from metal, and a carpenter who has to outline his idol on wood, do not inspire confidence in their idols” (Bible Knowledge Comm. p. 1098).

44:18 “For He has smeared over their eyes so that they cannot see”: This is not an arbitrary act, for man is responsible (Romans 1:18ff), but it does reveal that God allows men to close their eyes to the truth and that sin will not darken the reasoning ability. 44:19 None of these craftsmen or worshippers sees how ridiculous the whole thing looks. 44:20 “He feeds on ashes”: Literally this means “he herds ashes”, “a ridiculous activity suggested perhaps by the ashes

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remaining after the idolater’s fire has burned itself out” (Gaebelein p. 265). In addition, the idol maker is completely unaware that he has basically eaten half of his “god” when he made that fire with the other half of the wood. “Is there not a lie in my right hand?” They are completely unaware that what they hold in their hand is a lie! In light of this passage we should not be shocked when people in error seem completely incapable of seeing the truth, yet good hearts will forsake all such things like idolatry (1 Thessalonians 1:9).

44:21-23 “The call to remember probably embraces both the vast contrast between the true God and the idols and also the earlier reminders of His activity and power to predict revealed in the past history of His people. The promise of 43:25 is repeated, but now the people’s sins are likened to passing phenomena of the sky, blotting out the sun for a while (22). This does not mean that their sins are not serious, but it does mean that God has determined to deal with them in forgiveness. This objective work is so wonderful that the whole universe, once called to witness God’s indictment of His people’s sin (1:2), is now called on to share their exuberant joy at His redemption” (Gaebelein p. 265). In addition, the promise of forgiveness only applies to the humble and repentant.

44:24 “Before naming the coming deliverer, Jehovah again declares His own eternal greatness on which rests the fulfillment of the prophecy” (Hailey p. 375).

“I, the Lord, am the maker of all things”: In the New Testament this same truth is said of Jesus (John 1:3). “By Myself”: God is the sole Creator, and there are no other forces at work. “None of the gods of paganism assisted Him!” (Jackson p. 88). 44:25 “Causing the omens of boasters to fail, making fools out of diviners, causing wise men to draw back and turning their knowledge into foolishness”: God enjoys exposing through His providential workings of the ignorance of self-proclaimed human experts. “He will frustrate all the prognostications of those who serve idols” (Harkrider p. 106). What this means is that God does have a hand in exposing false prophets and religious quacks.

He has arranged the world in such a way that mere men cannot predict the future, and those who try end up with egg on their face, such as the false prophecies of Joseph Smith, the Jehovah Witnesses, or self-proclaimed psychics.

44:26 Contrary to popular opinion in the ancient world which seemed to think that Jerusalem, after it was destroyed would never be rebuilt, God would do exactly the opposite. The “servant” in the passage is probably Isaiah. God would fulfill and bring about what Isaiah declared. In 586 B.C., the Babylonians broke through Jerusalem’s walls, burned the houses and the temple. The temple was rebuilt in 515 B.C., and years later (444), Nehemiah went to Jerusalem to rebuild the city walls. In addition, many of the cities that were destroyed in the invasion of 586 will be rebuilt and inhabited once again. All of this will seem impossible to the generation in the captivity, but it will happen.

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44:27 “The reference to drying up the waters is ambiguous. It may be a figure for divine power, as when Jehovah parted the Red Sea. On the other hand, it could be a veiled allusion to the manner in which Cyrus would take Babylon by diverting the River Euphrates and adjacent streams so that he could invade the city underneath the massive walls surrounding it” (Jackson p. 89).

44:28 “It is I who says of Cyrus”: God predicted more than 150 years in advance the name of the specific individual who would serve His purpose of restoring Israel to her land. Wow! “To approach the Bible with an antisupernaturalistic basis and say that the references to Cyrus were added later, after he released the captives, causes the passage, as stated earlier, to lose its emphasis on God’s uniqueness in predicting the future. This would mean that God is no different from idols---the very point Isaiah is disproving!” (Bible Knowledge Comm. p. 1099).

“Cyrus, founder of the Persian Empire, first came to the throne of Anshan in Eastern Elam in 559 B.C. In 549 he conquered the Medes and became the ruler of the combined Persian and Median Empire. In 539 he conquered Babylon (Daniel 5:30) and the very next year issued a decree that the Jews could return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple (2 Chron. 36:22-23; Ezra 1:1-4). In doing this Cyrus was serving God’s purpose as if he were God’s shepherd” (p. 1099).

44:28 “And of the temple, ‘Your foundation will be laid’”: “The foundation was laid in 535 B.C. (Ezra 3:8ff). Cyrus died, however, in about 530 B.C., and it was not until around 516 B.C. that the temple was completed (Ezra 6:14). How minutely accurate is Isaiah’s prophecy!” (Jackson p. 89).

Chapter 45 45:1 God, who is in control of national affairs (Daniel 2:21; 4:17), will uphold the hand of Cyrus and enable him to conquer kings and subdue nations. He is the Lord’s anointed in the sense that he has been designed to carry out of God’s purposes of bringing judgment upon the wicked and freedom to captives.

45:2 “God will prepare the way for him as he vanquishes cities that seem impregnable with their doors of brass and bars of iron” (Jackson p. 89). In the massive walls surrounding Babylon, there were one hundred gates of brass (Jacob Abbott, History of Cyrus the Great, p. 192).

45:3 “I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden wealth of secret places”: “The Roman writer Pliny (Natural History 33,3) mentions that Cyrus accumulated vast quantities of gold and silver in his conquest of Asia” (Jackson p. 90). In conquering Asia, Cyrus defeated the kingdom of Lydia, whose ruler, Crosesus, was proverbial for opulence. “That all these victories were for the sake of little Israel is one of the ironies of God’s control of history. What to man is

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laughable is nevertheless true, for God’s ways are not our ways” (Gaebelein p.

270).

45:3 “So that you may know that it is I” 45:4-5 “Though you have not known Me” “Here too it is said that God’s support of Cyrus has as its purpose that he might know that Israel’s God is the Lord. Yet twice over it is denied that Cyrus acknowledges him. In the Cyrus Cylinder, the king attributes his victories to Marduk, god of Babylon; yet in Ezra 1, Cyrus is quoted as asserting that the Lord had given him dominion. Clearly Cyrus used the names of deities without any sense of exclusiveness. Josephus (Antiq. XI, 5 (i.2) recorded that ‘these things Cyrus knew from reading the book of prophecy which Isaiah had left behind two hundred and ten years earlier’” (Gaebelein p. 270). “This is a proper place to raise the question of how, if Cyrus did not know Jehovah, he was able to assert that Jehovah had given him his victories and had charged him to return to Jews to Judah and rebuilt the temple (Ezra 1:1-2). The most reasonable answer is that, given his interest in religion and the Jewish writings, he had himself read this passage in Isaiah, or it was pointed out to him by Daniel, the counselor of kings, who continued into the third year of his reign (Daniel 10:1)” (Hailey p.

379).

45:5-7 “Jehovah providentially employed the monarch’s services, even though the king ‘had not known Jehovah’, i.e. by training, education, etc.; he had not grown up in the ways of the one, true God. The conquests of Cyrus, over the other nations, and under the hand of Jehovah, will be a marvelous demonstration of the fact that the gods of these heathen places are no match for Israel’s God; there is none else, besides Jehovah there is no God. God’s use of Cyrus, however, will argue for the Lord’s uniqueness—from east to west. This will also suggest the general principle of Jehovah’s sovereignty—in nature (He controls light and darkness) and in political events upon the earth (He creates conditions of peace and calamity” (Jackson p. 90). Please note that these verses undermine polytheism which believed that certain gods were responsible for light while others were in charge of darkness. The true God is in charge of everything!

45:7 “Creating calamity”: That is, the verse is not teaching that God creates moral evil, but just as God intervenes to bring an absence to strife and thus create peace, God also intervenes and brings calamity or judgments upon sinners (Amos 3:6).

45:8 Here the skies are instructed to rain righteousness upon the earth which will result in salvation. This indicates a time in which God’s standards will be clearly proclaimed and that salvation will follow like a great harvest. We see this happening when the gospel is preached (Colossians 1:23; Acts 2:41).

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45:9-10 Some in Israel may have complained about being delivered by a heathen king (Cyrus), but such a complaint is equal with a broken piece of pottery arguing with the potter or children arguing with their parents as to why they were conceived. “Woe to the one who quarrels with his Maker”: A verse that every atheist or critic of the Bible needs to read. Arguing with God only brings condemnation.

45:11-12 God challenges His critics to question Him concerning the future destiny of His people. 45:13 “I have aroused him in righteousness”: That is, to execute God’s righteous will, to accomplish a righteous purpose. “Without any payment or reward”: “Nor was Cyrus motivated by monetary influences; the fact is, amazingly, he even helped finance the project (Ezra 1:4,7; 6:5)” (Jackson p. 91). Thus there is no ground for complaint against God’s work. This purpose would be righteous, and Cyrus would do all of this for free. “The latter fact therefore underscores still further the divine origin of all these events” (Gaebelein p. 272).

45:14-17 “In the balance of this chapter, there is an emphasis upon how Israel’s deliverance will impact the Gentiles and thus influence their attraction to the true God. Three African nations (Egypt, Ethiopia, and the Sabeans) are said to ‘come over’ to Israel. Their allegiance is figuratively described in terms of ‘chains’.

They urgently request an identification with the Lord’s people in order to have association with the only God (14). The prophet then praises God but acknowledges that Heaven’s ways are secret, i.e., man cannot analyze the methods of the Lord (15; Romans 11:33). Those who refuse to confess Jehovah as true God, but who instead continue to serve idols, shall surely be put to shame (16). On the other hand, Israel shall be redeemed with an ‘everlasting salvation’” (Jackson p. 91).

45:18 “And did not create it a waste place”: The earth was not created to be an empty and barren planet, but rather it was designed for human habitation.

“Isaiah 45:18 is sometimes used as a proof-text for the ‘gap theory’, i.e., the notion that there is a vast span of time between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 (which accommodates the long ages of evolutionary chronology). It is argued that this passage declares that the creation was not formed a ‘waste’, but that Genesis 1:2 declares that it was a ‘waste’, hence it must have become such as a consequence of Satanic rebellion. There is utterly no basis for this view---not here nor elsewhere. Isaiah’s declaration merely affirms that it was not Jehovah’s purpose that the original creation of the first day remain empty, but that it be fashioned for habitation” (Jackson p. 96).

45:19 When God speaks He does so openly and clearly. God had not told Israel, “Seek Me in a waste place”, that is, “Seek me in vain”. God’s purpose was that Israel was to avoid spiritual and moral confusion and not live in it. Just like God had provided for every physical need of man (45:18), God also provides for every spiritual and moral need (2 Peter 1:3). And when God speaks, He only speaks

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what is true and just. “He has not left man without the ability to know Him (Acts 17:26-28)” (Harkrider p. 108).

45:20-22 Notice that God invites everyone and not just Israel or the returning remnant from captivity, all the nations are invited as well. Once again “God challenges the heathen to declare something and then bring forth its fulfillment (41:22-23; 43:9)” (Hailey p. 385). All the predications of the nations have failed, only God’s claim has stood the test (22).

45:23 God swears by His own nature, because He can swear by none greater (Genesis 22:16; Hebrews 6:13-20). God’s word, His purpose, shall stand, it shall not be taken back! This is an important truth: when God speaks, what He predicts will happen. Eventually every knee will bow before God (Romans 14:11; Philippians 2:9-11).

45:24 “Men will come to Him”: Yet the next phrase makes it clear that all men will not come in humble submission. All will not be saved, but all will be forced to acknowledge that He is God. 45:24 “And all who were angry at Him will be put to shame”: To this day people remain angry at God for a variety of reasons, some simply are angered by the exclusive claims of Christianity, yet they will not be vindicated, rather they will be ultimately ashamed of their arrogance.

45:25 “In the Lord all the offspring of Israel will be justified”: Those who are the true Israel (Galatians 3:26-29) will be justified—accounted as righteous.

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