God Remembers His People

Isaiah 49:14-26 

14 But Zion said, "The LORD has forsaken me,
And my Lord has forgotten me."

15 "Can a woman forget her nursing child,
And not have compassion on the son of her womb?
Surely they may forget,
Yet I will not forget you.

16 See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands;
Your walls are continually before Me.

17 Your sons shall make haste;
Your destroyers and those who laid you waste
Shall go away from you.

18 Lift up your eyes, look around and see;
All these gather together and come to you.
As I live," says the LORD,
"You shall surely clothe yourselves with them all as an ornament,
And bind them on you as a bride does.

19 "For your waste and desolate places,
And the land of your destruction,
Will even now be too small for the inhabitants;
And those who swallowed you up will be far away.

20 The children you will have,
After you have lost the others,
Will say again in your ears,
'The place is too small for me;
Give me a place where I may dwell.'

21 Then you will say in your heart,
'Who has begotten these for me,
Since I have lost my children and am desolate,
A captive, and wandering to and fro?
And who has brought these up?
There I was, left alone;
But these, where were they?'"

22 Thus says the Lord GOD:
"Behold, I will lift My hand in an oath to the nations,
And set up My standard for the peoples;
They shall bring your sons in their arms,
And your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders;

23 Kings shall be your foster fathers,
And their queens your nursing mothers;
They shall bow down to you with their faces to the earth,
And lick up the dust of your feet.

Then you will know that I am the LORD,
For they shall not be ashamed who wait for Me."

24 Shall the prey be taken from the mighty,
Or the captives of the righteous be delivered?
25 But thus says the LORD:
"Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away,
And the prey of the terrible be delivered;
For I will contend with him who contends with you,
And I will save your children.

26 I will feed those who oppress you with their own flesh,
And they shall be drunk with their own blood as with sweet wine.
All flesh shall know
That I, the LORD, am your Savior,
And your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob."

Israel’s continual sin led to dire consequences and seeming abandonment by the LORD, yet still He remembered His people and did not utterly forsake or forget them.  He had written them on the hand that created and called them to Himself and reassured them that they were not forgotten.  He promised deliverance from their enemies and the returning remnant would adorn them as a bride’s gown, beautiful and made white.  This is as a type of the bride of Christ who are the people of God clothed together as His bride, delivered and washed white in the blood of Christ.  They were promised to be fruitful and multiply once more as originally tasked at creation (Genesis 1:28), Noah (Genesis 9:1), and reiterated by promise through Abraham (Genesis 15:5-6, 17:5).  God’s mercy executed His grace for restoration.  They would be amazed and thoroughly surprised at His promises for forgiveness and fruitfulness on top of that!  He would use the surrounding nations to restore His people Israel as well as have the royalty of those lands serve them where they once oppressed them.  They who wait on God’s work would not be ashamed, a great lesson for us all as God’s people in Christ even now.  The end result would be for God’s glory in deliverance of His own and punishment for those rejecting Him as they learned with all the onlooking world that the LORD is the Savior and Mighty Redeemer of His people.  Such is the effect of the gospel even today in the heavenly places as angels look on and knees begin to bow to the Sovereign Lord Jesus Christ.  God remembers and keeps His people for eternity.  God Remembers His People, both Israel and the nations called out as the Church in Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen. 

Joyfully Sing of His Mercy!

Isaiah 49:1-13 

1 "Listen, O coastlands, to Me,
And take heed, you peoples from afar!
The LORD has called Me from the womb;
From the matrix of My mother He has made mention of My name.

2 And He has made My mouth like a sharp sword;
In the shadow of His hand He has hidden Me,
And made Me a polished shaft;
In His quiver He has hidden Me."

3 "And He said to me,
You are My servant, O Israel,
In whom I will be glorified.'

4 Then I said, 'I have labored in vain,
I have spent my strength for nothing and in vain;
Yet surely my just reward is with the LORD,
And my work with my God.'"

5 "And now the LORD says,
Who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant,
To bring Jacob back to Him,
So that Israel is gathered to Him
(For I shall be glorious in the eyes of the LORD,
And My God shall be My strength),

6 Indeed He says,
'It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant
To raise up the tribes of Jacob,
And to restore the preserved ones of Israel;
I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles,
That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.'"

7 Thus says the LORD,
The Redeemer of Israel, their Holy One,
To Him whom man despises,
To Him whom the nation abhors,
To the Servant of rulers:

"Kings shall see and arise,
Princes also shall worship,
Because of the LORD who is faithful,
The Holy One of Israel;
And He has chosen You."

8 Thus says the LORD:
"In an acceptable time I have heard You,
And in the day of salvation I have helped You;
I will preserve You and give You
As a covenant to the people,
To restore the earth,
To cause them to inherit the desolate heritages;

9 That You may say to the prisoners, 'Go forth,'
To those who are in darkness, 'Show yourselves.'
"They shall feed along the roads,
And their pastures shall be on all desolate heights.

10 They shall neither hunger nor thirst,
Neither heat nor sun shall strike them;
For He who has mercy on them will lead them,
Even by the springs of water He will guide them.

11 I will make each of My mountains a road,
And My highways shall be elevated.
12 Surely these shall come from afar;
Look! Those from the north and the west,
And these from the land of Sinim."

13 Sing, O heavens!
Be joyful, O earth!
And break out in singing, O mountains!
For the LORD has comforted His people,
And will have mercy on His afflicted.

The Servant who is the fore-proclaimed Messiah, the Light to the Gentiles, is spoken of here for those who came before to be prepared and for we who have His Spirit to read and marvel at His word of our salvation!  When we read these things at first we are like the Ethiopian who Philip had to explain of whom God was speaking (Acts 8:34-35), of the prophet or of another.  These things are of the coming Servant who is the Anointed of God, not the prophets Isaiah who transcribed the message for us.  This is a Messianic prophecy of the Christ.  First we see that He was predetermined to be born, known before gestation in the womb, existing before time began (John 17:5, Colossians 1:16-17).  This announcement then was not to make Him come into being and walk among us as Immanuel, but a statement of what God had already done and predetermined to come to us in the fullness of time (Galatians 4:4-5) according to His word given us long ago.  God wanted to glorify Himself in His people as His servants, but came as our Servant of grace and mercy because of our failures to be righteous as He is.  This is the suffering Servant Jesus the Christ foretold to all God’s people.  This Messiah would bring back wandering Israel as well as add from the nations, from the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8), by His light of the gospel (Matthew 4:16).  This Redeemer is despised by man and the nations abhor Him, yet He serves by suffering and dying in our stead.  When seeing His faithfulness, many will see and worship who are chosen to do so by the LORD as verse 7 shows us.  In this predicted acceptable time He hears us (2 Corinthians 6:2) and helps by saving us from the justice of judgment in His wrath on our sin.  He preserves those He calls to Himself in His Servant so none is lost (John 17:12) because He is our New Covenant in His life given for ours (the life is in the blood), and reaches the nations with that good news of reconciliation and an eternal relationship.  He sets the prisoners of sin free and brings us out of the darkness into His marvelous light!  In His mercy and grace He provides for us and leads us for His name’s sake.  The passage leaves us with encouragement and comfort as He has shown this infinite mercy in His unwarranted goodness of grace, and our response should be joyful singing with all creation for our salvation in Him!  He has shown such undeserved mercy on we who are afflicted by sin and facing death as punishment, instead giving us life as He opens closed eyes and ears to His great work in the Messiah.  Let us joyfully sing of His mercy forever, let us sing! 

The Triune Plan of Redemption

Isaiah 48:12-22 

12 "Listen to Me, O Jacob,
And Israel, My called:
I am He, I am the First,
I am also the Last.

13 Indeed My hand has laid the foundation of the earth,
And My right hand has stretched out the heavens;
When I call to them,
They stand up together.

14 "All of you, assemble yourselves, and hear!
Who among them has declared these things?
The LORD loves him;
He shall do His pleasure on Babylon,
And His arm shall be against the Chaldeans.

15 I, even I, have spoken;
Yes, I have called him,
I have brought him, and his way will prosper.

16 "Come near to Me, hear this:
I have not spoken in secret from the beginning;
From the time that it was, I was there.
And now the Lord GOD and His Spirit
Have sent Me."

17 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 by the way you should go.

18 Oh, that you had heeded My commandments!
Then your peace would have been like a river,
And your righteousness like the waves of the sea.

19 Your descendants also would have been like the sand,
And the offspring of your body like the grains of sand;
His name would not have been cut off
Nor destroyed from before Me."

20 Go forth from Babylon!
Flee from the Chaldeans!
With a voice of singing,
Declare, proclaim this,
Utter it to the end of the earth;
Say, "The LORD has redeemed
His servant Jacob!"

21 And they did not thirst
When He led them through the deserts;
He caused the waters to flow from the rock for them;
He also split the rock, and the waters gushed out.

22 "There is no peace," says the LORD, "for the wicked."

This is an encouragement of the coming Messiah who is Jesus Christ our Lord, and the Spirit of God who sent Him in working with God our Father.  It continues the thoughts from the first half of this chapter in proclaiming God’s sovereign working and omnipotent omniscience at work throughout His people’s calling and history for His glory.  This work has not changed, but has brought in others from all nations whom He has chosen and called alongside Israel in the Christ.  He is the first and last (Isaiah 44:6, Revelation 22:13).  This was not a complete secret as Isaiah 45:19, 21-22, 23-24 has already said and been validated in Philippians 2:10-11 as a testimony to the divinity of Christ Jesus.  He has come as promised and His Spirit took His place when He arose back to the Father (John 15:26, 16:7), both sent by the Father.  This almighty LORD God laid out the earth’s foundation and spread out the heavens above by His word of creation and sustains them still, and He is speaking again here to reveal more things to come which are only hidden to those with closed ears and shut eyes.  He is speaking of His Son and Spirit to come to us in the fullness of time (Galatians 4:4-5).  Just as the LORD delivered His people from the bondage of Egypt and of Babylon, so He will deliver His people from sin’s bondage forever in the Messiah as spoken of here.  The LORD God and His Spirit have sent the Son and the Son sent the Spirit when ascending back above from below (Ephesians 4:9-10).  He as our holy Lord and Redeemer is our God who teaches from His word what profits eternally and leads His people out of the darkness of bondage to sin and death into the marvelous light of deliverance from sin’s bondage and justly due penalty.  If it were possible to keep all the commandments we could all be saved without His work to deliver us, but we are all born in the evil of sin inherited from Adam and are completely unable to do so.  Thanks be to God for his saving grace!  We therefore shout to the whole world as Israel did when being set free from captivity in Babylon, “The LORD has redeemed us!”  and not we ourselves.  Just as Israel had been led for forty years through the desert wilderness after being led out of bondage, so we look back on God’s faithfulness to all His people and shout the salvation of the gospel of the Son in the power of the Spirit of God as the Father has planned for us to do (Ephesians 2:8-10) by faith.  This good news is not effective for those who reject Him, however, as the final verse here tells us that they have no peace with God apart from trust in His word and work (Romans 5:1, John 6:29) and not their own works and imaginations.  Those who refuse to accept and acknowledge Him find no peace.  May we then tell them the good and encouraging news of the prophesied Christ of the triune God in the power and wisdom given us by the Holy Spirit of the living God as their only hope (Acts 4:12).  This is the triune plan of redemption told to us long before Christ walked among us.  

Refined for God's Glory

Isaiah 48:1-11 

1 "Hear this, O house of Jacob,
Who are called by the name of Israel,
And have come forth from the wellsprings of Judah;
Who swear by the name of the LORD,
And make mention of the God of Israel,
But not in truth or in righteousness;

2 For they call themselves after the holy city,
And lean on the God of Israel;
The LORD of hosts is His name:

3 "I have declared the former things from the beginning;
They went forth from My mouth, and I caused them to hear it.
Suddenly I did them, and they came to pass.

4 Because I knew that you were obstinate,
And your neck was an iron sinew,
And your brow bronze,
5 Even from the beginning I have declared it to you;
Before it came to pass I proclaimed it to you,
Lest you should say, 'My idol has done them,
And my carved image and my molded image
Have commanded them.'

6 "You have heard;
See all this.
And will you not declare it?
I have made you hear new things from this time,
Even hidden things, and you did not know them.

7 They are created now and not from the beginning;
And before this day you have not heard them,
Lest you should say, 'Of course I knew them.'

8 Surely you did not hear,
Surely you did not know;
Surely from long ago your ear was not opened.
For I knew that you would deal very treacherously,
And were called a transgressor from the womb.

9 "For My name's sake I will defer My anger,
And for My praise I will restrain it from you,
So that I do not cut you off.

10 Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver;
I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.

11 For My own sake, for My own sake, I will do it;
For how should My name be profaned?
And I will not give My glory to another.

The LORD refined His chosen people Israel in spite of their continued disobedience and sin, just as He promises to sanctify all in Christ even when we fail and fall because our fallen nature is so frail which we battle against.  God’s people of Judah had taken pride in calling themselves after the holy city where God met with man, yet they did not associate with His name truthfully or in living righteously as they ought.  This is a type of warning to us as well that we do not let our religious affiliation become more important than our identity in and as Christ’s redeemed ones (1 Corinthians 3:4-6).  Instead we are called as Judah of Israel to heed God’s word which has been proven over and over through fulfilled prophecy of events before they occurred, bearing witness that we did not predict the future as He had predetermined and revealed to us through the scriptures.  Like Israel before us, we also have been told and He caused us to be able to hear it by opening our deaf ears and giving us sight to use spiritual vision to see and hear all He does and wants us to do (Ephesians 2:10).  God knew His people were obstinate, hard of heart and stiff-necked, and therefore told them what would happen to prove their false gods and human reasoning and wisdom was unable to reveal what the Sovereign Lord alone could do.  The odd were completely against them even guessing one of the myriad of events He revealed ahead of time to them.  Prophetic words were proof of who God is and revealed their need of Him, as well as validating the truth of His word in all things.  He had prepared hidden things to bring them out in due times to prove this as we see ultimately in revealing the Messiah who is Christ when He had planned from the beginning of time (Galatians 4:4-5, 1 Timothy 2:6, Luke 24:25-27).  God knew that His people would harden their hearts and disbelieve Him as they continued in sin against Him and dealt treacherously with faithless deceit, having been born in sin after their father Adam (as we all are according to Romans 5:12 as a witness to us all that none is righteous in himself.  God chose to show mercy and grace with His people for His glory and for His won sake before our own, and so refines His own with tests and trials to include affliction (1 Peter 1:6-7, James 1:2-4).  He does these things for His glory as well as our good as He refines us for His sake and the honor due to His name.  May we endure and learn well from adversity and not think ourselves wiser than God by predicting what He has not said by adding our assumptions to His word (Deuteronomy 12:32, Proverbs 30:6, Revelation 22:18-19).  Like the Bereans (Acts 17:11), we who are His chosen choose to base our understanding on the scriptures alone as He refines us for his glory. 

God’s Enemies will be Revealed and Humiliated

Isaiah 47:1-15 

1 "Come down and sit in the dust,
O virgin daughter of Babylon;
Sit on the ground without a throne,
O daughter of the Chaldeans!
For you shall no more be called
Tender and delicate.

2 Take the millstones and grind meal.
Remove your veil,
Take off the skirt,
Uncover the thigh,
Pass through the rivers.

3 Your nakedness shall be uncovered,
Yes, your shame will be seen;
I will take vengeance,
And I will not arbitrate with a man."

4 As for our Redeemer, the LORD of hosts is His name,
The Holy One of Israel.

5 "Sit in silence, and go into darkness,
O daughter of the Chaldeans;
For you shall no longer be called
The Lady of Kingdoms.

6 I was angry with My people;
I have profaned My inheritance,
And given them into your hand.

You showed them no mercy;
On the elderly you laid your yoke very heavily.

7 And you said, 'I shall be a lady forever,'
So that you did not take these things to heart,
Nor remember the latter end of them.

8 "Therefore hear this now, you who are given to pleasures,
Who dwell securely,
Who say in your heart, 'I am, and there is no one else besides me;
I shall not sit as a widow,
Nor shall I know the loss of children';
9 But these two things shall come to you
In a moment, in one day:
The loss of children, and widowhood.
They shall come upon you in their fullness
Because of the multitude of your sorceries,
For the great abundance of your enchantments.

10 "For you have trusted in your wickedness;
You have said, 'No one sees me';
Your wisdom and your knowledge have warped you;
And you have said in your heart,
'I am, and there is no one else besides me.'

11 Therefore evil shall come upon you;
You shall not know from where it arises.
And trouble shall fall upon you;
You will not be able to put it off.
And desolation shall come upon you suddenly,
Which you shall not know.

12 "Stand now with your enchantments
And the multitude of your sorceries,
In which you have labored from your youth—
Perhaps you will be able to profit,
Perhaps you will prevail.

13 You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels;
Let now the astrologers, the stargazers,
And the monthly prognosticators
Stand up and save you
From what shall come upon you.

14 Behold, they shall be as stubble,
The fire shall burn them;
They shall not deliver themselves
From the power of the flame;
It shall not be a coal to be warmed by,
Nor a fire to sit before!

15 Thus shall they be to you
With whom you have labored,
Your merchants from your youth;
They shall wander each one to his quarter.
No one shall save you.

The humiliation of Babylon by the LORD for oppressing His people is revealed here through Isaiah.  This is a picture and type of the enemy of all God’s people, of the chosen nation of Israel and the chosen out of all nations in Jesus Christ the Lord of all.  The enemy’s arrogant pride will be stripped down and paraded around as the Babylonians portrayed as a naked woman walking in shame and working with her hands instead of being pampered in Royal palaces.  The enemies will be revealed on judgment day for who they really are before God and man and the LORD will be seen as the holy Redeemer of His people, just as He did here before Babylon in the sight of Israel as a testimony to the onlooking nations.  God’s people had angered Him in their continuing rejection and disbelief and He had handed them over to the enemy to refine them as gold (1 Timothy 1:20, Zechariah 13:9, 1 Peter 1:6-7).  This is a foretaste for the rest of God’s people to come from the other nations as well (Hosea 2:23, Romans 9:24-26, 1 Peter 2:10).  But when God handed them over to refine them through the discipline of their bondage, the Babylonians treated them as slaves without mercy and were then called to account by the LORD as He set the people free.  Even now God uses the unbelievers to refine His people when they stray like Hymenaeus and Alexander, but holds the enemy and all who join with him accountable for eternal judgment still.  Like those enemies of Israel here who imagined themselves untouchable and said in their hearts, 'I am, and there is no one else besides me,’ they will find everything taken away.  Their wisdom apart from God warped them into believing that nobody could see what they were doing, a continuing delusion which ignores the omnipotence and omniscience of the Holy One who is the God-who-sees everything (Genesis 16:13) to include the hearts of men and women.  The result is troubling desolation of evil returned on their own heads as they seek other gods and occult practices such as mediums, sorceries, astrologers, and fortune tellers for answers in place of God’s word.  Such are powerless and futile before God and cannot save, being consumed by fire in the end.  This is a picture of the lost who reject the Lord Jesus Christ and oppose His people, who end up in the lake of fire fore for choosing to remain in sinful disobedience and defiance of God instead of repenting and trusting what God has said and done in His Son.  This is the bad news which makes the good news understandable.  The wages of sin is death, but the free and unmerited gift of God in Christ is life forever with Him (Romans 6:23).  Why be God’s enemy and face eternal humiliation when all is revealed before the throne when the choice is revealed and can be taken to heart with such promises of forgiveness and reconciliation with God? 

The Living God Delivers and Carries Us

Isaiah 46:1-13 

1 Bel bows down, Nebo stoops;
Their idols were on the beasts and on the cattle.
Your carriages were heavily loaded,
A burden to the weary beast.
2 They stoop, they bow down together;
They could not deliver the burden,
But have themselves gone into captivity.

3 "Listen to Me, O house of Jacob,
And all the remnant of the house of Israel,
Who have been upheld by Me from birth,
Who have been carried from the womb:
4 Even to your old age, I am He,
And even to gray hairs I will carry you!
I have made, and I will bear;
Even I will carry, and will deliver you.

5 "To whom will you liken Me, and make Me equal
And compare Me, that we should be alike?

6 They lavish gold out of the bag,
And weigh silver on the scales;
They hire a goldsmith, and he makes it a god;
They prostrate themselves, yes, they worship.
7 They bear it on the shoulder, they carry it
And set it in its place, and it stands;
From its place it shall not move.
Though one cries out to it, yet it cannot answer
Nor save him out of his trouble.

8 "Remember this, and show yourselves men;
Recall to mind, O you transgressors.

9 Remember the former things of old,
For I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like Me,
10 Declaring the end from the beginning,
And from ancient times things that are not yet done,
Saying, My counsel shall stand,
And I will do all My pleasure,'

11 Calling a bird of prey from the east,
The man who executes My counsel, from a far country.
Indeed I have spoken it;
I will also bring it to pass.
I have purposed it;
I will also do it.

12 "Listen to Me, you stubborn-hearted,
Who are far from righteousness:

13 I bring My righteousness near, it shall not be far off;
My salvation shall not linger.
And I will place salvation in Zion,
For Israel My glory.

How the living God Carrie’s His people, bearing us up in adversity and our struggles!  The false gods we idolize cannot be anything but burdens to us, unable to deliver from sin or circumstance and leading only towards captivity to sin as the greatest burden like Israel’s false gods adopted from the lost peoples around their promised land.  Even now the lost are weighed down with rituals as they attempt to serve lifeless idols of their own making instead of the living God who made us with His own mighty and righteous hand.  The call to God’s people then is relevant to the rest of His people now called out of the nations in Christ.  He knew us before the creation of the world (Ephesians 1:4), from the womb (Psalm 139:13, 16), and will remain who He is and will continue to bear us up until our old age and past death itself into eternity.  He is faithful who promises (1 Thessalonians 5:24, Hebrews 10:23)!  He promises to deliver us from the evil one as we pray because He hears us and keeps us.  How then can anyone compare the living LORD God with lifeless idols of our own hands which we create to replace Him and suppose we can avoid accountability to Him?  There is none equal to Him.  None.  Manmade objects of worship are bit heavy burdens we carry that cannot speak to answer our cries for help not deliver us from any trouble, let alone save our souls from accountability for our sin against God and the resulting judgment to come.  That is clear from Isaiah’s words hers and many more throughout the scriptures.  As sinners we need to be brave enough to face the truth of our soul’s predicament and admit He alone is God, that there is none like Him, that He is in absolute sovereign control of everything and everyone, and that what He says He will most certainly make come to pass just as He always has done.  Yes, what He purposed He says and does.  We have no righteousness just like God’s people then, and we are called to listen to His word and respond accordingly.  He brings His righteousness near to us since we can never work up enough of our own (Romans 3:23, Ecclesiastes 7:20) and need His salvation which Christ brought to us in Himself.  We are to glorify God in Christ as His elect people along with Israel as the first chosen ones of us all.  May we learn from their mistakes and worship the one true and living sovereign God together with trust and reliance on His grace and lovingkindness to bear us up and through all circumstances.  The living God delivers and carries us.  Amen. 

Our LORD is the Only Savior of Anyone

Isaiah 45:14-25 

14 Thus says the LORD:
"The labor of Egypt and merchandise of Cush
And of the Sabeans, men of stature,
Shall come over to you, and they shall be yours;
They shall walk behind you,
They shall come over in chains;
And they shall bow down to you.
They will make supplication to you, saying, 'Surely God is in you,
And there is no other;
There is no other God.'"

15 Truly You are God, who hide Yourself,
O God of Israel, the Savior!

16 They shall be ashamed
And also disgraced, all of them;
They shall go in confusion together,
Who are makers of idols.

17 But Israel shall be saved by the LORD
With an everlasting salvation;
You shall not be ashamed or disgraced
Forever and ever.

18 For thus says the LORD,
Who created the heavens,
Who is God,
Who formed the earth and made it,
Who has established it,
Who did not create it in vain,
Who formed it to be inhabited:

"I am the LORD, and there is no other.
19 I have not spoken in secret,
In a dark place of the earth;
I did not say to the seed of Jacob,
'Seek Me in vain';
I, the LORD, speak righteousness,
I declare things that are right.

20 "Assemble yourselves and come;
Draw near together,
You who have escaped from the nations.
They have no knowledge,
Who carry the wood of their carved image,
And pray to a god that cannot save.

21 Tell and bring forth your case;
Yes, let them take counsel together.
Who has declared this from ancient time?
Who has told it from that time?
Have not I, the LORD?

And there is no other God besides Me,
A just God and a Savior;
There is none besides Me.

22 "Look to Me, and be saved,
All you ends of the earth!
For I am God, and there is no other.

23 I have sworn by Myself;
The word has gone out of My mouth in righteousness,
And shall not return,
That to Me every knee shall bow,
Every tongue shall take an oath.

24 He shall say,
'Surely in the LORD I have righteousness and strength.
To Him men shall come,
And all shall be ashamed
Who are incensed against Him.

25 In the LORD all the descendants of Israel
Shall be justified, and shall glory.'"

The Lord is the only just God and Savior we bow down to as our Sovereign.  In Him alone do we have righteousness and strength in our salvation.  We cannot earn it nor ever be righteous of ourselves by doing enough good to be good enough.  There is none righteous, no not even one (Romans 3:20, 23).  The captivity has been taken captive (Psalm 68:18, Ephesians 4:7-8) as the Egyptians, Sabeans, and those of Cush were by Israel and who confessed there is no other God but Him of God’s people.  The ones who worship idols as described in the first part of Isaiah 44 will confused and disgraced by the Lord when exposed by the true God of all, but the people of God will be saved eternally with no shame or disgrace in believing Him at His word and finding an endless life together with and in Him.  This is the gospel hidden to His people then but now opened up to see the gift of grace planned by God in Christ from the beginning.  God who created the world and surrounding universe established it for the purpose of making it to be inhabited by His people who would be fruitful and multiply to fill it with the knowledge of His glory and works (Habakkuk 2:14, Ephesians 3:19).  God had spoken these righteous things long ago, words of what is right for us to seek out the truth of His calling and gift of forgiveness and righteousness in the coming Messiah who is the Christ.  Those who diligently search the scriptures will see this (John 5:39, Luke 24:25-27, 32) and understand when He opens their eyes and ears to these things revealed there, which is the gospel of God become man to redeem us (John 1:1, 14, Philippians 2:10-11).  There is no other name under heaven by which we can be saved (Acts 4:12)!  Praying to any other is trust in a man-made idol that is lifeless and cannot save us.  It is futile to look anywhere else for hope besides in Jesus the Christ.  Nobody ever predicted from the beginning of time that their lifeless gods would do what God alone has done and told us of throughout the scriptures.  Only the LORD God has done it as Psalm 22:30-31 remind us as the Psalm laid out the manner of the crucifixion for us to understand His eternal working for our salvation.  There is no other God who is also our Savior by trust in Who He is and what He has done, calling us to bow the knee to Him as Lord and Savior.  The confession of those who believe Him by taking God at His word is that in Him alone they have righteousness and strength.  All others will be ashamed when they see Him face to face and are forced to bow anyway (but when it is too late for eternity).  We who are called and chosen will be glorified because we have been justified and will give all the glory to God who has done it all.  This is the gospel we preach as David foretold in Psalm 22:31 and which we now understand by faith through God’s enabling by His Spirit who lives in us even now.  He is the only Savior of anyone to whom all will bow in subjection of worship.  There is no other god or way to reconciliation with God, salvation, than Jesus Christ.  To God be the glory, great things He has done!

The LORD, the Only God

Isaiah 45:1-13

1 "Thus says the LORD to His anointed,
To Cyrus, whose right hand I have held—
To subdue nations before him
And loose the armor of kings,
To open before him the double doors,
So that the gates will not be shut:

2 'I will go before you
And make the crooked places straight;
I will break in pieces the gates of bronze
And cut the bars of iron.

3 I will give you the treasures of darkness
And hidden riches of secret places,
That you may know that I, the LORD,
Who call you by your name,
Am the God of Israel.

4 For Jacob My servant's sake,
And Israel My elect,
I have even called you by your name;
I have named you, though you have not known Me.

5 I am the LORD, and there is no other;
There is no God besides Me.
I will gird you, though you have not known Me,
6 That they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting
That there is none besides Me.

I am the LORD, and there is no other;
7 I form the light and create darkness,
I make peace and create calamity;
I, the LORD, do all these things.'

8 "Rain down, you heavens, from above,
And let the skies pour down righteousness;
Let the earth open, let them bring forth salvation,
And let righteousness spring up together.
I, the LORD, have created it.

9 "Woe to him who strives with his Maker!
Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth!
Shall the clay say to him who forms it, 'What are you making?'
Or shall your handiwork say, 'He has no hands'?
10 Woe to him who says to his father, 'What are you begetting?'
Or to the woman, 'What have you brought forth?'"

11 Thus says the LORD,
The Holy One of Israel, and his Maker:
"Ask Me of things to come concerning My sons;
And concerning the work of My hands, you command Me.
12 I have made the earth,
And created man on it.
I—My hands—stretched out the heavens,
And all their host I have commanded.

13 I have raised him up in righteousness,
And I will direct all his ways;
He shall build My city
And let My exiles go free,
Not for price nor reward,"
Says the LORD of hosts.

The LORD, the only God, raised up Cyrus as His instrument to cut a straight and righteous path through the nations.  He uses rulers and kingdoms of this world for His higher purpose according to His predetermined plan, and in the process teaches them and us that He alone is the God of His people whom He alone chooses.  The nations rise and fall at His word to imprison or set men free accordingly.  The God of Israel is the same Lord over all in Christ as well, and He still uses world events to turn the elect to hear His word and see His face.  He calls us by name even before we know who He is and come to know Him personally in our regeneration of that relationship.  There is no other God but Him; this He teaches us as He did God’s people before the Messiah walked among us, that we may honor and glorify Him as the only wise God (1 Timothy 1:17, Jude 1:25).  You shall have no other besides Him as the first commandment has taught us all.  Knowing Him sets us free from idolatry.  He leads and guides His chosen ones even when we cannot see Him working as certain as the sunrise to sunset of each and every day.  Yes, only He makes light and darkness in their times and assigned places (Genesis 1:16-18) and He creates peace as well as the calamity of adversity in life.  Because the LORD has created all things, He chooses to rain down righteousness to birth salvation out of His righteousness showered down upon us.  His righteousness showered on us brings His salvation to come on us as if growing out of the earth of our souls.  We see this picture in Christ’s work imputing His righteousness as our salvation by faith in His continued working as told of its beginning here.  The warning to follow is not to contend with or argue against God’s sovereign and predetermined work to challenge or question who He works in or how He forms us (Romans 9:20-21) and uses us for His glory as is fitting because He is our Maker, the Holy One of Israel and all His people.  What right have we to command how God works to fit what is comfortable to our reason as if it is we who choose what is good and evil as the first sin in Eden’s Garden set us on this path of destruction (Genesis 3:4-5) instead of taking His word to heart in acceptance with willing obedience to learn from Him what is right and wrong (Hebrews 5:14) and accepting who He chooses and how He uses each of us differently according to how we are made and to what purpose?  Just as the LORD raised up Cyrus as His instrument to free His people in His righteousness, God will direct all He chooses to do the good works prepared for us (Ephesians 2:10).  The ultimate picture here of course is Christ whose righteousness directs us to Him as the way, truth, and life to set us free at no cost to us because He paid that price Himself to set us free indeed (John 8:36)!  He alone is Lord and Sovereign King of all who delivers us.  His working is sovereign and predetermined for those He has chosen, and we are not to argue the truth of these things, but trust and obey willingly in His righteousness and calling.  

God’s Redeeming Work for His People

Isaiah 44:21-28 

21 "Remember these, O Jacob,
And Israel, for you are My servant;
I have formed you, you are My servant;

O Israel, you will not be forgotten by Me!
22 I have blotted out, like a thick cloud, your transgressions,
And like a cloud, your sins.
Return to Me, for I have redeemed you."

23 Sing, O heavens, for the LORD has done it!
Shout, you lower parts of the earth;
Break forth into singing, you mountains,
O forest, and every tree in it!

For the LORD has redeemed Jacob,
And glorified Himself in Israel.

24 Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer,
And He who formed you from the womb:
"I am the LORD, who makes all things,
Who stretches out the heavens all alone,
Who spreads abroad the earth by Myself;

25 Who frustrates the signs of the babblers,
And drives diviners mad;
Who turns wise men backward,
And makes their knowledge foolishness;

26 Who confirms the word of His servant,
And performs the counsel of His messengers;
Who says to Jerusalem, 'You shall be inhabited,'
To the cities of Judah, 'You shall be built,'
And I will raise up her waste places;
27 Who says to the deep, 'Be dry!
And I will dry up your rivers';

28 Who says of Cyrus, 'He is My shepherd,
And he shall perform all My pleasure,
Saying to Jerusalem, "You shall be built,"
And to the temple, "Your foundation shall be laid."'

The people of God are not forgotten and will be restored.  That was the message to the divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah by Isaiah who were both called His servants.  The promise was to cover their sins as if forgotten because they were not forgotten.  The redeemed of the LORD were forgiven as we are in Christ with our sins completely atoned for by our great high priest.  God called for the very heavens and earth to rejoice in song for this work of the Lord as Je called them back to Himself in the response of repentance.  He redeemed His people and glorified Himself in that work of redemption, which work He has consummated in Christ for all His people out of Israel and all the nations blessed through the faith of Abraham!  He knew them and us in the womb because He predetermined us to exist even before time began (Psalm 139:13, 16, Ephesians 1:4-6, 2 Timothy 1:9).  From there He forms us according to His word and will which we refer to as sanctification with the pattern set here in verse 24 as a comfort to us and to strengthen our trust in His sovereign grace in his working for His glory as well as our good (Romans 8:28).  What a comfort and rejoicing we find in all of scripture!  He brings our His truth and glory by confounding the philosophy and arrogance of man’s thinking.  He brings to nothing the fortune tellers and false prophets, making them go mad in their futility of thought and turning them back from causing harm to others.  He shows their foolish imaginations as empty knowledge while confirming His word of truth and understanding of His working of grace and judgment; grace for His chosen people and judgment on those who reject His word.  He confirms the words given through His prophets who have gone before up to the final messenger of His Son (Hebrews 1:1-2).  He does all He promises and gives us a future and hope in that working for the present into forever.  Just as He promised to rebuild Jerusalem and bring His people back there using the worldly leader Cyrus to shepherd them, so Jesus Christ the great Shepherd (Hebrews 13:20) will lead us and build up His church (1 Peter 2:4-5) with Him as its foundation (1 Corinthians 3:11).  This prophetic picture of the church is seen in many of the Old Testament books like Isaiah as examples for us to understand His work leading up to the Messiah who is the Christ (John 4:25) for all His people (Galatians 3:28, Ephesians 1:10).  This is God’s redeeming work for ahis people that we might hear and believe, accept and receive (John 1:12, 6:29) that work. 

Foolishness of Idol Worship

Isaiah 44:9-20 

9 Those who make an image, all of them are useless,
And their precious things shall not profit;
They are their own witnesses;
They neither see nor know, that they may be ashamed.

10 Who would form a god or mold an image
That profits him nothing?

11 Surely all his companions would be ashamed;
And the workmen, they are mere men.
Let them all be gathered together,
Let them stand up;
Yet they shall fear,
They shall be ashamed together.

12 The blacksmith with the tongs works one in the coals,
Fashions it with hammers,
And works it with the strength of his arms.
Even so, he is hungry, and his strength fails;
He drinks no water and is faint.

13 The craftsman stretches out his rule,
He marks one out with chalk;
He fashions it with a plane,
He marks it out with the compass,
And makes it like the figure of a man,
According to the beauty of a man, that it may remain in the house.

14 He cuts down cedars for himself,
And takes the cypress and the oak;
He secures it for himself among the trees of the forest.
He plants a pine, and the rain nourishes it.

15 Then it shall be for a man to burn,
For he will take some of it and warm himself;
Yes, he kindles it and bakes bread;
Indeed he makes a god and worships it;
He makes it a carved image, and falls down to it.

16 He burns half of it in the fire;
With this half he eats meat;
He roasts a roast, and is satisfied.
He even warms himself and says,
"Ah! I am warm,
I have seen the fire."

17 And the rest of it he makes into a god,
His carved image.
He falls down before it and worships it,
Prays to it and says,
"Deliver me, for you are my god!"

18 They do not know nor understand;
For He has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see,
And their hearts, so that they cannot understand.
19 And no one considers in his heart,
Nor is there knowledge nor understanding to say,
"I have burned half of it in the fire,
Yes, I have also baked bread on its coals;
I have roasted meat and eaten it;
And shall I make the rest of it an abomination?
Shall I fall down before a block of wood?"

20 He feeds on ashes;
A deceived heart has turned him aside;
And he cannot deliver his soul,
Nor say, "Is there not a lie in my right hand?"

Such futility in worshiping what we fashion by our own hands, those which God created, and ignore our own creator who we should worship instead!  Israel’s example here should be a warning for us all, even though the form of the idols have changed from a block of wood to people and philosophies and inventions of our own hands.  We ignore our creator and are blinded in sight and heart as we run after our desired gods that do not call us to accountability and the feared consequences of our disobedience.  These elements have not changed, though there are still parts of the world who do actually worship carved idols from statues of saints and Buddha to animals and demonic figures.  These are obvious while the others are more subtle and more easily justified in carefully crafted explanations to keep the inquisitive at bay as in our western society today.  These images described by Isaiah are lifeless and utterly useless and have no value to profit the soul or living, yet men would mold and carve images to feed themselves and then to put their hearts into thankfulness to the tree they burned to cook with.  They would do better to thank their Creator for supplying their daily bread instead.  But they crafted things in their own image of a man or woman to bow before instead having “seen the fire” to worship what they mistakenly think fed them.  They are blinded in rejecting God and worshiping what He made and not Him as we should (Romans 1:21-23).  Man looks for deliverance, for salvation from his own sinful nature and consequences of sin by looking to His own works instead of God’s (John 6:29), and he ends up in dire straits by venerating dead people and animals and even his own theories of the universe and creation.  Man rejects God’s works and substitutes his own efforts and reasoning while discrediting and explaining away God’s word of truth.  He invents other messiahs and means of living forever or making the most by gaining all in this life at the exp of eternity.  Yes, the idols of our imagination are the ultimate affront to our Creator as it is written in the first commandment (Exodus 20:3-5).  They should be looking to Him for the promise of life instead by grace in sin’s forgiveness as Exodus 20:6 tells us.  The most difficult thing for us to see when we know the truth is how people cannot see or comprehend that they are worshiping dead objects and ideas instead of the Living God.  They cannot grasp what an abomination it is to reject Him in doing these things because they have hardened hearts and blinded eyes (John 9:39).  The gospel calls them to hear and see from the scriptures (Isaiah 29:18, 42:18) instead of feeding on ashes with a deceived heart to question and deny God’s word (Genesis 3:4-5, 2 Corinthians 11:3, 1 Timothy 2:13-14).  We find in 2 Thessalonians 2:11 then that many will be handed over to believer these lies and face judgment for rejecting the truth and living for unrighteousness in worship of the works of their own hands and imagination.  There are religious idols and ungodly ones which represent other gods, but they all have one thing in common: they are objects of worship made by the hands of men and not God.  God’s word of truth is the only way to be set free (John 8:32, Acts 4:12), which begins by consideration and questioning in the heart the lifeless idols we erect and worship for ourselves.  May we point others to His word of truth to rescue the perishing who are caught up in the foolishness of idol worship by venerating dead saint statues, holy relics, and other more ungodly substitutes for the Living God.  Amen! 

God's Blessing on His Chosen People

Isaiah 44:1-8

1 "Yet hear now, O Jacob My servant,
And Israel whom I have chosen.

2 Thus says the LORD who made you
And formed you from the womb, who will help you:
'Fear not, O Jacob My servant;
And you, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.

3 For I will pour water on him who is thirsty,
And floods on the dry ground;
I will pour My Spirit on your descendants,
And My blessing on your offspring;
4 They will spring up among the grass
Like willows by the watercourses.'

5 One will say, 'I am the LORD's';
Another will call himself by the name of Jacob;
Another will write with his hand, 'The LORD's,'
And name himself by the name of Israel.

6 "Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel,
And his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts:
I am the First and I am the Last;
Besides Me there is no God.

7 And who can proclaim as I do?
Then let him declare it and set it in order for Me,
Since I appointed the ancient people.
And the things that are coming and shall come,
Let them show these to them.

8 Do not fear, nor be afraid;
Have I not told you from that time, and declared it?
You are My witnesses.
Is there a God besides Me?
Indeed there is no other Rock;
I know not one.'"

There is no other God and His blessings are given to, not earned by, His people.  He chose Jacob and named him and his descendants Israel and Jeshurun, meaning ‘upright one’.  The choosing was first to Abraham and then from him to Jacob and to his offspring with a longer view to those chosen of the seed of Abraham’s faith in His seed who is Christ.  This thread runs from the beginning to end of scripture and is why these passages in Isaiah are important for we who are in Christ as chosen descendants of faith from out of all the nations.  The LORD promises to His chosen ones that He will help us because He made us for Himself in His image and for His glory, a common thread repeated often for us to understand and take to heart.  We are then to be His upright ones, holy and acceptable because we are accepted in the Beloved (Ephesians 1:6, 1 Peter 1:16).  He not only promised water to sustain the lives of His upright ones chosen in grace, but also there was a future promise of His Spirit and blessings to be poured onto their descendants, including all in Christ through the faith and promises to Abraham.  We have seen the beginning of that on the new Pentecost in Acts 2 and now on everyone reborn in Christ who follow them (Ephesians 1:13-14, 2 Corinthians 1:22).  All who thirst for Him and for righteousness come to Him (John 3:21, Matthew 5:6) to find satisfaction through their salvation.  Like God’s people then, we call ourselves by the name of our LORD, though some also name themselves as those of Israel and of the Lord Christ.  We are His because He chose us and not we ourselves.  He is our Redeemer, the only God who is the first and last (Revelation 1:8, 22:13, Isaiah 45:21-22, Philippians 2:9-11), the divine Son of God.  He as the Word of God living and powerful and written in scripture, He tells us these things which He did and will do for us to read and understand to gain a heart of wisdom and not to fear the circumstances and events of life in the world around us.  Why fear when we know the outcome and our destination of eternal life forever before His face?  We then are as Israel in that we are witnesses to these things to declare that He alone is our firm foundation and no one one thing else.  He has blessed and will bless His people.  Therefore we have no fear in the turmoil of the world.  Fear not! 

Consider the New Thing, Not the Former

Isaiah 43:14-28

14 Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer,
The Holy One of Israel:
"For your sake I will send to Babylon,
And bring them all down as fugitives—
The Chaldeans, who rejoice in their ships.

15 I am the LORD, your Holy One,
The Creator of Israel, your King."
16 Thus says the LORD, who makes a way in the sea
And a path through the mighty waters,
17 Who brings forth the chariot and horse,
The army and the power
(They shall lie down together, they shall not rise;
They are extinguished, they are quenched like a wick):

18 "Do not remember the former things,
Nor consider the things of old.

19 Behold, I will do a new thing,
Now it shall spring forth;
Shall you not know it?
I will even make a road in the wilderness
And rivers in the desert.

20 The beast of the field will honor Me,
The jackals and the ostriches,
Because I give waters in the wilderness
And rivers in the desert,
To give drink to My people, My chosen.

21 This people I have formed for Myself;
They shall declare My praise.
22 "But you have not called upon Me, O Jacob;
And you have been weary of Me, O Israel.

23 You have not brought Me the sheep for your burnt offerings,
Nor have you honored Me with your sacrifices.
I have not caused you to serve with grain offerings,
Nor wearied you with incense.

24 You have bought Me no sweet cane with money,
Nor have you satisfied Me with the fat of your sacrifices;
But you have burdened Me with your sins,
You have wearied Me with your iniquities.

25 "I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake;
And I will not remember your sins.

26 Put Me in remembrance;
Let us contend together;
State your case, that you may be acquitted.

27 Your first father sinned,
And your mediators have transgressed against Me.
28 Therefore I will profane the princes of the sanctuary;
I will give Jacob to the curse,
And Israel to reproaches.

The call first is to not remember the past but to consider the work God is busy doing for His people now, even while in captivity by and to sin.  He even pleaded with  with unfaithful Israel after assuring He would deliver them.  He reminded Israel that He is the LORD, He is holy, and that He alone is their Creator and Sovereign.  He makes a way in battle and brings defeat just as easily by His mighty hand.  After bringing forth these truths, the LORD then tells them to not dwell on the past but hear how He was about to do a new thing out of nowhere as a road in the desert or rivers in that barren place to bring forth fruitfulness.  He would give them water for their thirst just as He does to the animals (Matthew 6:26) of His creation.  He does these good things because He chose them, just as He has chosen the rest of His people in Christ of whom we are.  He formed us all for Himself that we might praise Him for who He is and all He does for us in overflowing thanksgiving.  Unfortunately, Israel had grown tired of worshiping the LORD and had not called on Him anymore.  They ceased their sacrifices of praise and were no longer thankful.  Instead they burdened God with their sinful thoughts and actions while asking to receive blessings as if expecting them while continuing in sin and disobedience.  The LORD here reminds them through the prophet that it is He who blots out their sins forever by grace in such undeserved forgiveness.  It is He who chose to forget the punishment of their sin.  He reminded them to remember Him and His working on their behalf even as they forgot Him and were no longer thankful and worshiping Him as they ought.  He challenged His people to argue their case that they would see the folly of their rationalizations and excuses, then reminded them that they have been in rebellion against Him since their first father Abraham (Genesis 12:18) who Israel came from.  This first father reference also goes back to the first father of us all in Adam through whom we all inherited sin in the Fall of mankind.  In the first Adam we all sinned and come short, and through Abraham who took God at His word and believed through the example of faith His chosen people came into being.  We then likewise should not consider the former thing of our sin more than the new thing of our salvation by faith in the seed of Adam by the faith of believing Abraham (Galatians 3:7-9), the seed and second Adam (Romans 5:14, 19) who is Jesus the Christ, our salvation by God’s choosing and His work.  May we then consider these things and praise Him as living sacrifices (Romans 12:1) of thanksgiving for such indescribable grace (2 Corinthians 9:15)! 

The Redeemer of God’s People

Isaiah 43:1-13 

1 But now, thus says the LORD, who created you, O Jacob,
And He who formed you, O Israel:
"Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by your name;
You are Mine.

2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you.
When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned,
Nor shall the flame scorch you.

3 For I am the LORD your God,
The Holy One of Israel, your Savior;
I gave Egypt for your ransom,
Ethiopia and Seba in your place.

4 Since you were precious in My sight,
You have been honored,
And I have loved you;
Therefore I will give men for you,
And people for your life.

5 Fear not, for I am with you;
I will bring your descendants from the east,
And gather you from the west;
6 I will say to the north, 'Give them up!'
And to the south, 'Do not keep them back!'
Bring My sons from afar,
And My daughters from the ends of the earth—

7 Everyone who is called by My name,
Whom I have created for My glory;
I have formed him, yes, I have made him."

8 Bring out the blind people who have eyes,
And the deaf who have ears.

9 Let all the nations be gathered together,
And let the people be assembled.
Who among them can declare this,
And show us former things?
Let them bring out their witnesses, that they may be justified;
Or let them hear and say, "It is truth."

10 "You are My witnesses," says the LORD,
"And My servant whom I have chosen,
That you may know and believe Me,
And understand that I am He.
Before Me there was no God formed,
Nor shall there be after Me.

11 I, even I, am the LORD,
And besides Me there is no savior.

12 I have declared and saved,
I have proclaimed,
And there was no foreign god among you;
Therefore you are My witnesses,"
Says the LORD, "that I am God.

13 Indeed before the day was, I am He;
And there is no one who can deliver out of My hand;
I work, and who will reverse it?"

This reminds us that the LORD alone is the redeemer of His people.  All who are called our by His name need never fear again because they are His.  The calling of God and His redemption are irrevocable (Romans 11:29).  They cannot be undone.  Some may argue that these promises were made to Israel alone, but that misses the fact that Israel through Abraham’s seed (the Messiah) was to bring people from all nations to the same redemption, the same deliverance of salvation through the Messiah.  He therefore also is with us through the flame and floods as well because He is our Savior who is the Christ of God.  Verses 10 and 11 amplify this truth that His chosen and anointed Servant is the LORD Himself as our Savior, the one who self-exists as the I Am.  Those who understand and accept this truth by faith in God’s word of truth know and believe He alone is God and Savior.  There is no other (Isaiah 45:21-23, Philippians 2:10-11).  We then are also witnesses along with the readers in Isaiah’s time that He alone is Lord and Savior, Almighty God who delivers those He has chosen and called to Himself and that the calling cannot be delivered out of His hand afterwards; His saving work is impossible to be reversed and undone.  It is eternal in the heavens by His decree accordingly to His word.  The previous verses from 4-9 bear witness to this work in His people Israel and for us.  He delivers His chosen because we are precious to Him and He loves and honors His children, giving others for us in our place and as fruit of our witness of His word and work.  We are not to fear, but trust that He works all for good in bringing others from all nations whom He chooses to Himself, just as those of dispersed Israel who are called by His name.  We also in Christ are called by that same name, created and formed for His glory and predetermined purpose.  Like the blind who have eyes and deaf who have ears, we have seen and heard as He gives us sight and hearing to understand and trust His word and working according to His word of promise.  Our justification is not in our understanding of history of our own working, but in God’s working as testified in His truth given to us through the Law and prophets such as Isaiah (Romans 3:21, Luke 24:27).  These verses then bring us back to the last four of the chapter which reveal the word and working of God through the Messiah who is God who has walked among us (John 1:14).  There is no other Savior (Acts 4:12, 10:43) who is the Redeemer of all God’s chosen people through one nation and from out of all nations who hear His word and trust His work!  We hear and trust Him for deliverance.  That work cannot be undone.  Fear not. 

Merciful Grace and Willful Disobedience

Isaiah 42:14-25 

14 "I have held My peace a long time,
I have been still and restrained Myself.
Now I will cry like a woman in labor,
I will pant and gasp at once.

15 I will lay waste the mountains and hills,
And dry up all their vegetation;
I will make the rivers coastlands,
And I will dry up the pools.

16 I will bring the blind by a way they did not know;
I will lead them in paths they have not known.
I will make darkness light before them,
And crooked places straight.
These things I will do for them,
And not forsake them.

17 They shall be turned back,
They shall be greatly ashamed,
Who trust in carved images,
Who say to the molded images,
'You are our gods.'
18 "Hear, you deaf;
And look, you blind, that you may see.

19 Who is blind but My servant,
Or deaf as My messenger whom I send?
Who is blind as he who is perfect,
And blind as the LORD's servant?

20 Seeing many things, but you do not observe;
Opening the ears, but he does not hear."

21 The LORD is well pleased for His righteousness' sake;
He will exalt the law and make it honorable.

22 But this is a people robbed and plundered;
All of them are snared in holes,
And they are hidden in prison houses;
They are for prey, and no one delivers;
For plunder, and no one says, "Restore!"

23 Who among you will give ear to this?
Who will listen and hear for the time to come?

24 Who gave Jacob for plunder, and Israel to the robbers?
Was it not the LORD,
He against whom we have sinned?

For they would not walk in His ways,
Nor were they obedient to His law.

25 Therefore He has poured on him the fury of His anger
And the strength of battle;
It has set him on fire all around,
Yet he did not know;
And it burned him,
Yet he did not take it to heart.

Amidst the promises of the LORD's merciful grace we see Israel’s continuing and willful disobedience, not unlike in our own times.  People turn a deaf ear and blind eye to the good grace of God’s forgiveness and continue to rebel in order to seek their own passing pleasures and pointless reasoning to justify themselves.  God gave them over to them seek other gods for a time, but then He broke His peace and spoke again to give light to the blind to guide them and made the crooked ways straight for them to journey rightly along, out of darkness and into light.  This is a picture of our salvation where God calls us out of the darkness where we cannot see Him into the light of His truth and deliverance from sin (Psalm 107:14, Isaiah 29:18, 42:7, 2 Corinthians 4:6, 1 Peter 2:9).  Then those who trust in false gods of the work of their own hands will be turned back in repentance by God’s hand and be ashamed at ever having worshipped another besides Him, whether an idol of stone or wood or any other thing more important than Him.  May we not be so blind as to not see Him or deaf as to stop hearing His word to us as we once all were!  For the Lord’s sake of His righteousness He has exalted His word to us (John 1:1, 14, Philippians 2:9) as He did for His people in Isaiah’s time, the ones who willfully and obstinately rejected in disobedience.  Therefore, He gave them over to the plunderers and robbers because of their willful and continuing sin.  They refused to live accordingly to His word and suffered the consequences with His wrath remaining on them (John 3:18-19, 36).  Oh, that men and women would take God’s word to heart and escape the righteous wrath of God due to them!  May they find merciful grace and not continue in willful disobedience when hearing the truth of His word, the gospel of our salvation, and not imitate Israel’s disobedience. 

Predetermined Justice of the Messiah

Isaiah 42:1-13 

1 "Behold! My Servant whom I uphold,
My Elect One in whom My soul delights!
I have put My Spirit upon Him;
He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles.

2 He will not cry out, nor raise His voice,
Nor cause His voice to be heard in the street.
3 A bruised reed He will not break,
And smoking flax He will not quench;
He will bring forth justice for truth.

4 He will not fail nor be discouraged,
Till He has established justice in the earth;
And the coastlands shall wait for His law."

5 Thus says God the LORD,
Who created the heavens and stretched them out,
Who spread forth the earth and that which comes from it,
Who gives breath to the people on it,
And spirit to those who walk on it:

6 "I, the LORD, have called You in righteousness,
And will hold Your hand;
I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people,
As a light to the Gentiles,
7 To open blind eyes,
To bring out prisoners from the prison,
Those who sit in darkness from the prison house.

8 I am the LORD, that is My name;
And My glory I will not give to another,
Nor My praise to carved images.

9 Behold, the former things have come to pass,
And new things I declare;
Before they spring forth I tell you of them."

10 Sing to the LORD a new song,
And His praise from the ends of the earth,
You who go down to the sea, and all that is in it,
You coastlands and you inhabitants of them!

11 Let the wilderness and its cities lift up their voice,
The villages that Kedar inhabits.
Let the inhabitants of Sela sing,
Let them shout from the top of the mountains.
12 Let them give glory to the LORD,
And declare His praise in the coastlands.

13 The LORD shall go forth like a mighty man;
He shall stir up His zeal like a man of war.
He shall cry out, yes, shout aloud;
He shall prevail against His enemies.

How often Christ was announced long before He walked among us, and how clearly in passages like this one!  This is just cause for praise to the LORD.  God chose His Son as predetermined to come and bring deliverance from sin and its penalty, bringing justice to all nations as a judgment to determine our case in our sin’s offense against Him since Adam.  This Servant (who is the Messiah) was predetermined to be humble instead of loud and commanding, and was to be merciful and forgiving in not quenching the smallest mustard seed of faith in those he spoke with (Luke 13:19) who heard and trusted His word.  His justice brought forth truth in that it revealed we cannot do enough good works to earn God’s favor, for favor by definition is unmerited goodness given as a gift, not wages, which we call grace.  Our only wage we deserve is death (Romans 6:23) in justice measured by our standards.  Just as the coastlands waited for His law, we waited until the right time for Him to come among us (Galatians 4:4-5) with mercy in the justice He earned through His suffering and sacrifice of Himself for us as our high priest and perfectly righteous sacrificial lamb.  The creator of all called out here to His people and to us today as well to understand and acknowledge that our life and breath come from Him.  He called His Servant of righteousness to be our new covenant through the blood of His sacrifice, proven by fulfilling these promises as the divine light to give sight to the blind and set us free from sins bondage as a prison of darkness and certain death in judgment.  He alone could do this, for He alone is the LORD God (Isaiah 45:22-25, Philippians 2:9-11) who gets all the glory and honor for His work of our deliverance.  Yes, He told us the gospel throughout the Old Testament, especially visible here and later brought to our attention when He came to do this work (Matthew 12:17-21, Luke 4:17, 24:46).  Our response is to sing the new song of salvation which is not by works but by His wondrous grace to draw us out of the darkness of death into His light of eternal life in Christ in His presence and righteousness beyond all time.  Our testimony should sing out the glory of His work in this good news from the highest mountaintop to the sea!  He has done it all to prevail against our enemy (1 Corinthians 15:25-26) with a shout of a triumphant trumpet in His victory in Christ (Revelation 11:15, 1 Corinthians 15:52, 57)!  This is the justice predetermined by God, proclaimed by Isaiah, and fulfilled by the Messiah.  Amen and amen.  Come quickly, Lord Jesus!