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<p>Don’t let Hezekiah make you trust in Yahweh, saying, Yahweh will surely deliver us. This city won’t be given into the hand of the king of Assyria’- Rabshakeh appears to know the very words of Hezekiah within Jerusalem, supporting the suggestion made on :10 that he was a renegade Jew. Hezekiah’s faith that the city wouldn’t fall was presumably based upon Isaiah’s prophetic words; and yet Isaiah also speaks as if the city would fall, unless there was repentance in Judah. Perhaps Hezekiah really believed that the repentance of a minority would be counted by God as enough, and that their prayers would ensure the salvation of Zion. And this huge faith in Divine grace was rewarded.</p>


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<p>Don’t listen to Hezekiah- As noted on :14, it seems Hezekiah was singlehandedly seeking to persuade the people to totally trust in Yahweh.</p><p>For thus says the king of Assyria, ‘Make your peace with me, and come out to me- LXX"If ye wish to be blessed, come out to me". Receiving peace or ’blessing’ (LXX) was what comes from Yahweh; Judah were being offered covenant relationship with a false pretender to Yahweh. All this is the stuff of the latter day antiChrist; for an anti-Christ is strictly not someone against Christ but rather posing as the Christ, a fake, imitation Christ.</p><p>And each of you eat from his vine, and each one from his fig tree, and each one of you drink the waters of his own cistern- Rabshakeh promised the Jews an Assyrian Kingdom where everyone sat under their own vine and fig tree- consciously parodying Micah’s contemporary prophecies of God’s future Kingdom (<a href='B:290 36:16'>Isa 36:16</a> cp. <a href='B:400 4:4'>Mic 4:4</a>). The Assyrian Kingdom was set up as a parody of Solomon’s, which was the Kingdom of God (<a href='B:110 4:25'>1Ki 4:25</a>; <a href='B:140 9:8'>2Ch 9:8</a>). A glance through the descriptions of the beasts- the Kingdoms of this world- reveals that they are all set up in terms of the Lord Jesus and His Kingdom. Rabshakeh was aware of Isaiah’s prophecies as he quotes from them here; see on :10. And in essence the world today offers a fake, imitation Kingdom of God.</p>


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<p>Until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards- As noted on :16, Assyria was presented as an imitation kingdom of God. The 2 Kings record adds:"a land of oil olive and of honey". The language all alludes to God’s descriptions of the promised land, which were familiar to Rabshakeh (see on :10). The allusions are to <a href='B:40 14:7'>Num 14:7</a>; <a href='B:50 8:7-9'>Deu 8:7-9</a>; <a href='B:50 11:11-12'>Deu 11:11-12</a>:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>


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<p>Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, Yahweh will deliver us. Have any of the gods of the nations delivered their lands from the hand of the king of Assyria?-"Persuade"is ’seduce’, as if the Assyrians had the one true religion and Hezekiah was seducing Judah away from it. The Assyrian inscriptions describe and portray their wars as religious wars between their god Asshur and the gods of the nations they conquered. It was perhaps this very aspect to the Assyrian boasts which as it were provoked Yahweh to action. His unique victory against Asshur when all other gods and religious systems had failed was intended to help the Gentile nations see the utter supremacy of Yahweh- and to turn to Him:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>


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<p>Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand?- Rabshakeh, knowing the prophecies of Isaiah (see on :10), may be alluding to the common prophetic theme that Judah were in fact no better than Israel, and would face the same judgment. And he knew that Samaria, the ten tribes, had trusted in the gods of the surrounding nations. Hamath and Arpad were in Syria, and so probably Sepharvaim was likewise. Isaiah 8 and <a href='B:290 10:9-11'>Isa 10:9-11</a> had condemned Israel for their trust in Syria against Assyria, and clearly their covenant with Syria had involved taking on the worship of their gods.</p>


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<p>Who are they among all the gods of these countries that have delivered their country out of my hand, that Yahweh should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?- The point of course was made: Who or what indeed were any of those gods compared to Yahweh.</p>


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<p>But they remained silent and said nothing in reply, for the king’s commandment was, Don’t answer him- The"they"appears to refer to ’the people on the wall’ (<a href='B:120 18:36'>2Ki 18:36</a>). Again we get the impression as on :14 that Hezekiah was in direct contact with the common people- despite being terminally ill at the time (see on <a href='B:290 36:1'>Isa 36:1</a>). It was unexpected that Rabshakeh should address the common people (:11,12), so perhaps the king urged them immediately to silence, whilst Rabshakeh was speaking.</p>


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<p>Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him the words of Rabshakeh- This sign of sorrow was to be turned into joy. But for now, there was sorrow. Their deep grief however suggests they didn’t believe Hezekiah’s assurances of Divine salvation; see on :3,11.</p><p>They were not part of the daughter of Zion whom Isaiah describes as laughing at the Assyrian threats.</p>


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<p>It happened, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into Yahweh’s house- Instead of devising human schemes of salvation, he does as we should, turning to God’s house, His presence, and His people.  They were not part of the daughter of Zion whom Isaiah describes as laughing at the Assyrian threats. He could have prayed anywhere, but he felt that God’s presence was there in particular:Judah’s leadership had torn their clothes but not dressed in sackcloth (<a href='B:290 36:22'>Isa 36:22</a>). Sackcloth was a sign of repentance, as witnessed by the response of Nineveh. Nineveh had repented the generation before; and it seems Hezekiah is now seeking to imitate their repentance. Nineveh was the capital of Assyria; if their repentance had been permanent, they would not have invaded Judah. Hezekiah was seeking to imitate Nineveh but make it permanent, although after the crisis passed, it seems his repentance likewise didn’t hold. God knew all this from the start, and yet still so respected the repentance of Hezekiah and Nineveh in their extremity that He still changed His threatened judgment of them. Hezekiah was aware that he had sinned by trying to buy off the Assyrians with the gold of the temple, representing faith sacrificed to human expedient; and Judah had definitely trusted in Egypt for help rather than God. His words of :3 are a recognition that the invasion was a Divine rebuke and rejection of him. But a man may be rejected by God in this life, having a foretaste of condemnation ahead of time; but still change the verdict. Hence Peter went out from the Lord’s presence and wept and gnashed his teeth, the very language of the rejected; but changed the verdict. This is the intensity of our situation, as Paul in Romans emphasizes; we stand condemned, and yet in this life we can change the verdict, by God’s grace.</p><p>This repentance by Hezekiah may be what is in view in 2 Chron. 32:26 "Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart". He repented at the time of the Assyrian invasion, but after that was resolved and he had been healed, 2 Kings and Is. 39 leave us to understand that he slipped away from personal faith. </p><p>
Is. 28:14,17-19: "hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem... the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place... when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it. From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report". This is the same idea in Hezekiah's lament that he would die by morning. His terminal illness, which was delayed by grace, represented Judah's judgment. Elsewhere the Assyrian invasion is likened to flood waters which swallowed all Judah, and left Jerusalem alone with head above water, about to be drowned. It was God's intention that Jerusalem also would fall. It didn't by grace alone, and the power of Isaiah's intercession. There is the possibility in Is. 28:22,23,26 that repentance could change the outcome: "Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts a consumption, even determined upon the whole earth [land, including Jerusalem]. Give ye ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and hear my speech... For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him". There was some repentance, shown by Hezekiah and the leadership wearing sackcloth. This and Isaiah's prayers changed the outcome.</p><p>
It was in the context of the Assyrian invasion that Is. 29:13 had described the state of Judah: "this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me". Is. 31:8,9 are clear that Judah were worshipping udols right up to the Assyrian defeat: "In that day every man shall cast away his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which your own hands have made unto you for a sin. Then shall the Assyrian fall with the sword, not of a mighty man; and the sword, not of a mean man, shall devour him: but he shall flee from the sword, and his young men shall be discomfited". Hezekiah's repentance, as well as the peoples', was therefore required because the great reforming zeal of 2 Chron. 30 had been on the cusp of emotion and had not bee permanent. That was why the Assyrian invasion came.</p>


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<p>He sent Eliakim who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz- See on <a href='B:290 36:3'>Isa 36:3</a>. Humanly speaking, sending your right hand men to a prophet was not the way out of the situation. But he realized as should we, that the only ultimate recourse is to God’s word. The covering of the leadership with sackcloth as noted on :1 was a sign of repentance, again imitating how the leadership of Nineveh repented in sackcloth and achieved a change of the Divinely promised judgment.</p>,p>Seeing Isaiah had been so critical of Hezekiah in his prophecies, we wonder whether this sending of messages to Isaiah reflects some stress or distance in their relationship. For three years Isaiah had walked naked and barefoot to plead either Judah not to trust the Egyptians and other Gentile powers. His prophecies of doom against the surrounding nations were in the context of appealing to Judah not to trust in them. But Hezekiah and the Jerusalem leadership did just that. This too would explain Hezekiah's reticence in going directly to Isaiah. </p>


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<p>They said to him, Thus says Hezekiah, ‘This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of rejection- As noted on :1, Hezekiah understood he had sinned, hence his sackcloth and desperate repentance. Isaiah has repeatedly condemned Judah for trusting in Egypt for help from the Assyrians (<a href='B:290 20:5-6'>Isa 20:5-6</a>; <a href='B:290 30:1-4'>Isa 30:1-4</a>; <a href='B:290 36:6'>Isa 36:6</a>; <a href='B:290 36:9'>Isa 36:9</a>). Those passages all say that if Judah did this, they would be rejected by God, as they were rejecting His help. And Hezekiah realizes that now those prophecies were going to come true. But the depth of his repentance meant that they didn’t; just as the destruction of Nineveh in 40 days didn’t happen, all because of human repentance. See on :1,4; <a href='B:290 22:5'>Isa 22:5</a>, which prophecy Hezekiah appears to allude to here.</p><p>Yet the grace of it all is that God knew that despite this cusp of intensity in repentance, Hezekiah would later slip away from it. But it's as if He so respects human faith and repentance that when it is displayed at specific moments, it as it were melts His heart and He responds. Even though He foreknows that intensity will not be retained.</p><p> 
The "trouble" that came upon them was the promised judgment for persistent sin. Thus the word is used often, e.g. Dt. 31:17,21. Hezekiah's reforms had only been on the surface. His covering with sackcloth in :1 was in repentance, and this is the referent in 2 Chron. 32:26 where we learn that because he and the people humbled themselves, the wrath upon Zion was deferred: "His heart was lifted up; therefore there was wrath on him, and on Judah and Jerusalem. Notwithstanding, Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of Yahweh didn’t come on them in the days of Hezekiah". I suggest this doesn't refer to any repentance by Hezekiah after the events of Is. 39. So here we have another example of the grace praised in Neh. 9:27- God by grace saved them from the "trouble" He brought upon them, when they cried to Him. </p><p>
Likewise, the word "rebuke" leads to reflection on the fact that most occurrences of the word concern God's rebuke of His people, ultimately through judgment upon Zion. His wrath against Zion was coming to a climax, again indicating that Hezekiah's reforms had been very superficial. If the "rebuke" was not from God, who was it from? Likewise "of rejection" surely refers to Divine rejection of His people. The reforms of 2 Chron. 30 and zealous keeping of Passover were therefore done on the cusp of emotion and group psychology. For the language here speaks of God's wrath coming to a peak, and only being deferred by Hezekiah's repentance.
</p><p>For the children have come to the birth, and there is no strength to bring forth- The birth of a remnant is spoken of in Isaiah in spiritual terms;"the children"here are"the remnant"of :4. The sense may be that Hezekiah sensed there had been some spiritual reformation, which he himself had done so much to bring about through his banishing of idolatry in Judah, but the final strength for the birth was lacking; they had indeed trusted in Egypt and in gold rather than in God, despite all the purging of idolatry. This was the tragedy which Hezekiah felt, as we do; that there was some genuine spirituality, but not enough. That may be the idea in <a href='B:350 13:13'>Hos 13:13</a> where the imagery is used again.</p><p>However as noted above, the wrath of God had been provoked throughout Hezekiah's reign, leading to His rebuke and rejection of His people. His reforms had therefore been hollow and shallow. But Hezekiah likes to see this as the spiritual new life of Judah having come to the point of birth- but he somehow holds God guilty for now being about to slay them, when he claims they are just about to be born. Hezekiah so often comes over as self justifying, especially in his claim to God that he has lived a sinless life and therefore the judgment of death upon is unreasonable. He likewise appears here to consider God's judgments upon Judah to be unreasonable. </p><p>
Is. 26:27,18 shows Isaiah's perspective: Judah had brought forth, but just wind. Her suffering had been in vain, because she had not repented: "Like as a woman with child, that draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs; so have we been in thy sight, O LORD. We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth". Hezekiah however twisted this to saying that she was in labour, but God had not allowed her to bring forth because of the Assyrian invasion.  </p><p><a href='B:290 66:9'>Isa 66:9</a> can be read as an implicit criticism of the words of Hezekiah at the time of the Assyrian invasion, who lamented that the children had come to be born but there was no strength to bring them forth:"Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth? says Yahweh: shall I who cause to bring forth shut the womb? says your God". God is saying that He will certainly bring forth the new nation of Zion out of their trauma at the hands of their invaders. He is not powerless, and therefore Hezekiah was wrong to imply this. Why the children were not brought forth at Hezekiah’s time was because of the lack of spirituality in the daughter of Zion, rather than because of God’s limited ability.</p>


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<p>It may be Yahweh your God- This continues the connection with Nineveh’s repentance (see on :1,3); in this case, to <a href='B:390 3:9'>Jon 3:9</a>"Who knows whether God will not turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that we might not perish?". However"your God"is a recognition by Hezekiah that Isaiah stood closer to God than he did.  We note that Hezekiah tries to get Isaiah to pray to Isaiah's God, rather than praying himself. This is the way of religion. When he reveives the letter from Rabshakeh, he himself goes to the temple and prays. But when he was personally sick and terminally ill, he turns to the wall away from all others and on his oen bed himself prays to God. This is God's intention, to lead us away from religion, step by step, and to personal engagement with Him.  </p><p>Will hear the words of Rabshakeh-"Hear"is used at times to mean ’hear and respond to’, as God in that sense ’hears’ all things and there is no need to ask Him to hear anything</p><p>Whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to defy the living God- This is not just Hezekiah trying to get God to see the situation from the viewpoint of His own glory; rather was there a real and actual spiritual dimension to the invasion. The idea of ’defying’ Israel’s God is stressed so much (<a href='B:290 37:4'>Isa 37:4</a>; <a href='B:290 37:17'>Isa 37:17</a>; <a href='B:290 37:23-24'>Isa 37:23-24</a>); although Isaiah concludes by using this word about what Judah had effectively done to their own God (<a href='B:290 65:7'>Isa 65:7</a>). Sennacherib really did despise Yahweh and wanted to impose his gods upon Judah, and this will be the dominant feature of the latter day Assyrian invasion of the land. Radical Islam would appear the obvious latter day equivalent.</p><p>And will rebuke the words which Yahweh your God has heard-"Rebuke"here is a legal word, used of legal reasoning against an accuser in court (as in <a href='B:290 1:18'>Isa 1:18</a>; <a href='B:290 11:3-4'>Isa 11:3-4</a>; <a href='B:290 29:21'>Isa 29:21</a>; <a href='B:400 6:2'>Mic 6:2</a>). Hezekiah had a strong sense of the court of Heaven; and so the answer is expressed in terms of an Angel ’coming out’ from that court room and articulating the agreed judgment (:36). This is a huge comfort; that all situations on earth are reflected in Heaven, and judged there.</p><p>Therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left’- The remnant would refer not only to the fact that Jerusalem alone remained, but to the righteous remnant within the city who were now repentant. The desire to get others to pray for issues is found throughout the Bible. But we should not draw the implication that God is as it were hard of hearing and only responds if enough of us offer enough prayers. But on the other hand, the combined prayerful requests of many of God’s children are not unnoticed by God.</p><p>In response to Isaiah’s prayer, an Angel ‘went forth’ on earth and slew 185,000 Assyrians (2 Kings 19:35). Hezekiah was aware of the court of Heaven responding to his prayer; for he had commented that God would there “reprove the words” of Rabshakeh (2 Kings 19:4). The Hebrew for “reprove” is a legal term, meaning to convict, judge, plead etc. Hezekiah knew that the court of Heaven was considering Rabshakeh’s words, and his prayer was a plea for those words to be convicted in Heaven’s court, and an answer sent out. And this is what happened. Later, we read of Hezekiah asking that same court to “remember” his good life- again using a word capable of having legal overtones, of considering witness. And God replied by saying that He had “heard” that prayer- the same Hebrew word is translated ‘to make a proclamation’, as if He had considered Hezekiah’s ‘plea’ and would respond (2 Kings 20:3,5).</p><p>
Isaiah's prayer was an amazing intercession. Is. 22:4,5 suggests Isaiah had been shown that there was to be no escape from the day of trouble coming upon Judah. Just as Hezekiah their representative was to die. But Isaiah intercedes and changed or delayed the judgment, just as happened for Hezekiah's terminal illness: "Therefore said I, Look away from me; I will weep bitterly, labour not to comfort me, because of the spoiling of the daughter of my people. For it is a day of trouble, and of treading down, and of perplexity by the Lord GOD of hosts in the valley of vision, breaking down the walls, and of crying to the mountains". Is. 22 goes on to show that they had refused the call to repent and so judgment had to come. We note Isaiah's criticism of Hezekiah's fortification work: "Ye made also a ditch between the two walls for the water of the old pool: but ye have not looked unto the maker thereof, neither had respect unto him that fashioned it long ago. And in that day did the Lord GOD of hosts call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth: and behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen, and killing sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine: let us eat and drink; for to morrow we shall die. And it was revealed in mine ears by the LORD of hosts, Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die, saith the Lord GOD of hosts".</p>


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<p>So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah- The servants of king Hezekiah are contrasted with those of the king of Assyria (:6). The situation is set up as a conflict between two kings, and in the last days the scenario will be the same- King Jesus in Jerusalem facing off against the latter day Antichrist,"the king of the north", the rosh of Ezekiel 38, the man of sin of 2 Thessalonians 2, the little horn speaking great things of Daniel 7.</p>


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<p>Isaiah said to them, Tell your master, ‘Thus says Yahweh, Don’t be afraid of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me- We too can fear words, forgetting that the only ultimate reality in all things is God."Servants"here translates a word which is almost colloquial, the idea being"lackeys". Just as the risen Lord referred to the disciples as"guys, fellas"(see on <a href='B:500 21:5'>Joh 21:5</a>), so His Father is able to relate to people on their language level too.</p><p>"Don't be afraid of the words..." connects with "Perhaps [the Hebrew may mean "surely"] Yahweh will hear the words of Rabshakeh" (:4). The idea is that we should not be put in fear by words, because Yahweh has heard those words. "Yahweh will [also] hear" is the response to "the words you have heard". </p>


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<p>Behold, I will put a spirit in him- Sennacherib retreated because God “put a spirit in him”. The AV has: “I will send a blast / spirit upon him”. Was it not that the Angel who later destroyed his army came upon him and put a spirit / disposition of mind within him that made him want to retreat? We see how God can directly affect the human spirit / mind. He can give a holy spirit, or an evil spirit. The Old Testament sets us up to understand that God can work directly on the human spirit, and then the New Testament says that He can give us a holy spirit, working again directly on the human mind and perception.</p><p>"Send a blast" is the same phrase used in1 Kings 22:23 for how God put a spirit in the mouths of the false prophets. And of how conversely He will put a new spirit in the heart of His people as part of the new covenant (Ez. 36:26).The connection with God putting a lying spirit in Ahab's prophets (1 Kings 22:20-23) could lead us to think this "news" was in fact a false rumour. For it was this kind of thing that led to Israel's enemies fleeing at various times. Thus 2 Thess. 2:11 says that  "God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie". </p>
<p>And he will hear news, and will return to his own land. I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land’- The"news"could have been of the destruction of Rabshakeh’s army; or of the approach of Tirhakah, or some other threat to his empire. The situation points ahead to how the latter day"king of the north"will likewise hear"news"(s:w. <a href='B:340 11:44'>Dan 11:44</a>"tidings"). The Lord ’caused’ Sennacherib to fall by the sword in that He put a spirit of jealousy in his sons, resulting in the murder of :38.</p>


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<p>So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah, for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish- Sennacherib was aiming for Egypt andwas attacking the fortresses on the route there; and Libnah was just south of Lachish, which he had destroyed. This is the scene we have in Daniel 11, where the"king of the north"attacks"the king of the south", Egypt, ransacking Palestine along the way, but then had to return to his own land after hearing the"tidings"of Dan 11:44. The historical invasions of Israel and Judah therefore follow a pattern; and this will be repeated in the final latter day invasion which all the previous invasions point forward to. The image of Daniel 2 stands complete in the last days, and all the beasts of Daniel 7 are incorporated into the mega beast of the last days. This is to say that the final destructive entity oppressing Israel in the last days will combine features of all her historical oppressors, including the Assyrians. We note too the difference between Rabshakeh and Sennacherib, and wonder how far this points forward to the"false prophet"of Revelation who appears to be an agent of the beast.</p>


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<p>He heard news concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, He has come out to fight against you. When he heard it he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying- Tirhakah was the dominant king in Egypt at the time. We wonder if the much criticized efforts of Judah to get"Egypt"to help them were actually directed towards Tirhakah. But we wonder why therefore God still used this person to play a part in His plan to destroy Sennacherib. Or it could be that Tirhakah was the one who had destroyed the Egyptians upon whom Judah had hoped [rather than upon their God], and so it was appropriate that he and not Egypt played a part in the Divine plan to destroy"the king of the north".</p>


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<p>Thus you shall speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, ‘Don’t let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, Jerusalem won’t be given into the hand of the king of Assyria- The king recognizes that Hezekiah does indeed trust in God, and that Yahweh was indeed his God. This may have comforted him, as we noted on :4 that Hezekiah speaks of God as Isaiah’s God rather than his God.</p>


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<p>Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly. Shall you be delivered?- This is the classic challenge to faith; no other god achieved anything, therefore, the one true God can’t either. But the point is that the gods of this world didn’t achieve anything precisely because they are not God. The ’utter destruction’ of conquered lands by Assyria is historically well attested. But the word has the sense of ’sanctified’ in a religious sense; like the latter day"king of the north", the invader thought that they were serving their God by destroying people, and the barbarity of the destruction was a sign of how far they had devoted people and lands to their God. Jihadist Islam exactly fits this scenario.</p>


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<p>Have the gods of the nations delivered them, which my fathers have destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the children of Eden who were in Telassar?- These were the very cities to which the Assyrians had deported the ten tribe Kingdom of Israel (<a href='B:120 17:6'>2Ki 17:6</a>; <a href='B:120 18:11'>2Ki 18:11</a>). The implication is that Judah would be taken there likewise.</p>


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<p>Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah?’- The kings of these cities are paralleled with their gods (:12). The parallel <a href='B:290 36:19'>Isa 36:19</a> asks"Where are the gods"of these same cities. Truly we become like that which we worship; football fans become like their idols, in spirit. And if we worship the one true God of Israel, Yahweh, then we will become like Him.</p><p>Is. 10:9-11 speaks specifically of Rabshakeh's taunts: "Is not Calno as Carchemish? is not Hamath as Arpad? is not Samaria as Damascus? As my hand hath found the kingdoms of the idols, and whose graven images did excel them of Jerusalem and of Samaria; shall I not, as I have done unto Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols?". It is clear that Hezekiah's reforms and the idol smashing of 2 Chron. 30, 14 years earlier, were all of a surface level. The Jerusalem under siege by Assyria in Hezekiah's time was full of idols. And Is. 2 lamented that the land of Judah was "full of idols". </p>


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<p>Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it. Then Hezekiah went up to Yahweh’s house, and spread it before Yahweh-&nbsp; Hezekiah responded to the threats of Assyria by sending to Isaiah, and up to :12 we have the story of the response to that. But he also himself prayed to God, and we are now reading about that here. Hezekiah read the letter- out loud, the Hebrew definitely means, even suggesting he cried it out. This parallels his spreading it before Yahweh. It was his way of expressing transparency before God, demonstrating his trust that God really saw and heard all that he was seeing and hearing.  "Spread"translates the same Hebrew word used about spreading abroad the hands in prayer (<a href='B:20 9:29'>Exo 9:29</a>; <a href='B:20 9:33'>Exo 9:33</a> etc:). It was as if the letter was the prayer. Our situation is read by God as our prayer. There are times especially in serious illness when we are too weak or mentally unclear to be able to verbalize prayer; or where the situation is so complex that we do not know what to pray for in terms of our desired outcome. And some are simply better at verbalizing than others. But the essence is our faith that God sees the situation and will respond. It was in this sense that Hezekiah spread the letter before Yahweh, as we might place an unpleasant hospital diagnosis on the kitchen table and attempt to pray, but what we are doing is bringing the situation before God and asking for His wise and powerful response.</p>


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<p>Hezekiah prayed to Yahweh, saying- As noted on :14, the situation itself was the prayer; but Hezekiah, like us, does his best to articulate things in words.</p><p>I discuss on :15 how "before Yahweh" refers to the temple (:13). Hezekiah prayed in the temple because he thought this was how God would best 'hear' him and 'see' the problem. But he was later shown that in fact God hears sincere prayer from the heart wherever it is offered, even outside the temple. 1 Kings 8:37 envisaged Israel when sick or besieged praying to God and being heard because of the physical temple: "If their enemy besieges them in their cities; whatever plague, whatever sickness there is; whatever prayer and supplication is made by any man, or by all Your people Israel, who shall each know the plague of his own heart, and spread forth his hands toward this house: then hear in heaven". Hezekiah was both besieged and sick. But he was to be taught that Solomon's envisioning of the physical temple as a kind of talisman was incorrect. Even after he is healed he immediately wants to go to the temple: "Hezekiah also had said, What is the sign that I will go up to the house of Yahweh?" (Is. 38:22). He couldn't as it were live without that temple.</p><p>
The outcome of Hezekiah's loss of faith and wrong attitude to the temple was that Judah would be destroyed by Babylon, along with the temple, and go into captivity. I suggest this is one reason for this material being put into the historical interlude of Is. 36-39. The good deeds of Hezekiah in his earlier life are not dwelt upon in that interlude. The material is used at that point because Is. 40-66 is relevant to the exiles in Babylon. The anti Babylon polemic in Is. 40-45 follows straight on from the explanation in Is. 39 as to why they are suffering under Babylon. The Hezekiah material is in order to remind them why they were in exile. It was because of Hezekiah's wrong attitude to the temple and self satisfied, partial faith. Despite earlier having been of strong faith. This was exactly the position of Judah in exile. He serves as a warning to them, and an explanation as to why the temple was in ruins and they were in exile. This is surely why Isaiah alone records Hezekiah's song of praise in Is. 38:9-20; because it is full of phrases relevant to the later exiles. Thus he says that he feels as if his life is a shepherd's tent that is being taken down (Is. 38:12). But the restored Zion will be a shepherd's tent that will not be taken down (Is. 33:20). Hezekiah in sickness was therefore Zion in destruction and exile. His sin was theirs; although there is also an element to which he, like the Lord, carried their sin. Zion too is likened to a chronically sick man. And Hezekiah's judgment of death was deferred, not removed. As with Zion's. Zion likewise pleaded "Do not take me away, O God, in the midst of my days" (Ps. 102:25) in the very words of Hezekiah in Is. 38:10. "You restore me", after confession of sin (Is. 38:16), is of course the obvious connection with the restored Zion. If they did this, then like Hezekiah they would feel as in Is. 33:24 "The inhabitant won’t say, I am sick because the people who dwell therein will be forgiven their iniquity". The connection between Hezekiah and the people is made clear in 1 Kings 20:6: "I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria".</p>


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<p>Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, who is enthroned among the cherubim- Hezekiah has just"spread"the letter before Yahweh (:14), using the same word for how the cherubim ’stretched forth their wings’ (<a href='B:20 25:20'>Exo 25:20</a>; <a href='B:110 8:7'>1Ki 8:7</a> etc:). He knows that God is in Heaven with the cherubim as it were around Him, and also in the Most Holy place of the temple where Hezekiah was. And he imagined that letter as being with God, spread out as the cherubic wings were spread out. Those wings were spread out over the mercy seat, the cover over the ark, which was sprinkled with the blood of atonement each year. This is a profound insight into prayer. Our situations are not unnoticed. They are placed as it were upon the blood of the Lord Jesus, in the very presence of God, with the cherubim overshadowing them, peering down into them. And we can understand the cherubim in this context as representing God’s Angelic might. And appropriately enough, an Angel was sent to bring about the great deliverance sought. There over our kitchen table with the troubling letter placed upon it, as with Hezekiah, there are the cherubim and the presence of Almighty God Himself.</p><p>You are the God, even You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; You have made heaven and earth- Reflection upon God’s power in creation should inspire our faith too; the God who could do that has made all men and their kingdoms, and is unlimited in what He can do for us. To let ’science’ diminish our faith in God as creator is to remove such inspiration from us. Hezekiah states that God alone is the God of all kings or kingdoms of the earth; and yet we have just learnt that those kings were identified with their idols and were no more. Perhaps Hezekiah was using the present tense as God does, speaking of the reality of the final Messianic Kingdom as being so sure of ultimately coming about.</p><p>The appeal to God as creator was still an appeal to grace alone. Is. 26:17 had said that they were beyond the mercy even of their creator: "Therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will shew them no favour".</p>


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<p>Turn Your ear Yahweh and hear; open Your eyes Yahweh and behold; hear all of the words of Sennacherib, who has sent to defy the living God- This is not to say that God is deaf and blind usually. Seeing and hearing are being used with the sense ’See, hear and respond’. God sees and hears but doesn’t respond immediately, usually; He waits until judgment day. Hezekiah is asking for an immediate response in the here and now, for the essence of judgment day to come now, just as we noted on :16 that he was in expectation of the Messianic Kingdom being established.</p><p>The appeal for God to open His eyes alludes to Solomon's prayer, that God's eyes would be open towards the temple (1 Kings 8:29,52). The statement in :14 that Hezekiah prayed "before Yahweh" could suggest he went into the temple to pray. He thus betrays a 'religious' view of the temple, as if God was obligated to hear him because he was praying in the temple, or at least, because of the temple's very existence. Perhaps this is why his prayer not to die was responded to with the comment that God had indeed seen, and once healed, Hezekiah after three days would go to the temple [to praise God for His grace]. Hezekiah therefore prayed that prayer not in the temple, but on his deathbed at home, facing the bedroom wall. He was thus being taught that God opens His eyes to sincere prayer- not simply because of the religious value of the temple. I take this to be God showing that He was not particularly in agreement with Solomon's 'religious' idea that the temple of itself would obligate God to hear prayer. And that is surely why the final judgment upon Hezekiah was that the Babylonians would come and sack Jerusalem, which included destroying the temple.  </p>


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<p>Truly Yahweh, the kings of Assyria have destroyed all the countries and their land-"Destroyed"is again the word for sanctifying and devoting in a religious sense. The king of Assyria, like his latter day equivalent, was deeply religious, and saw the cruel destruction of other lands and peoples as part of his service to God, and a sign that his god was triumphant over their gods and belief systems. This exactly fits the spirit of jihadist Islam, which I suggest is the latter day equivalent.</p>


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<p>And have cast their gods into the fire; for they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone; therefore they have destroyed them- Here we have an example of the Bible using language from the viewpoint of men on earth. They thought their gods were indeed"gods", but they were"no gods". Likewise the language of demons is used in the New Testament, but this doesn’t mean demons exist or have power in reality.</p><p>Passages like <a href='B:290 37:19'>Isa 37:19</a> almost define God by reason of His being uncreate. Whatever is created, is not God. And it follows that if we think that we have truly created anything, or that we are anything that God didn’t create, then we are in fact playing God. Understanding God as creator, in its true, deep and thought-through sense, leads to an understanding of grace. That all we have, are, were, shall ever be, is purely His gift. Likewise, to take for ourselves what is God’s is to play God. Materialism and selfishness are in this sense playing God</p>


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<p>Now therefore, Yahweh our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You are Yahweh, even You only- This alludes to the statement just made in: "You are the God, even You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth". Hezekiah is asking that his faith and understanding of God would be accepted by all peoples. Hezekiah wants people to understand and perceive what is potentially true for them. And this is really the function of all evangelism.</p><p>
Hezekiah's confident assurance to the people that the Assyrians were an arm of flesh compared to Yahweh (2 Chron. 32:7,8) is hard to square with his own apparent lack of faith at this time. He stripped the temple of its gold [faith], made alliances with Egypt, and fortified the city in his own strength- which Isaiah strongly criticized in Is. 22.  One solution is to recognize that faith and unbelief can co-exist in a "believer", and yet when speaking to others, we may give a stronger exhortation to faith than we personally believe ourselves. 
</p><p>The day when all earth’s kingdoms shall know Yahweh is the Kingdom age, as Isaiah points out elsewhere with the same Hebrew phrase (<a href='B:290 12:5'>Isa 12:5</a>; <a href='B:290 49:26'>Isa 49:26</a>; <a href='B:290 61:9'>Isa 61:9</a>). Hezekiah envisaged salvation from the"king of the north"as leading directly to the establishment of the Kingdom; and that is the scenario in <a href='B:340 11:40'>Dan 11:40</a> to <a href='B:340 12:3'>Dan 12:3</a>. Perhaps it was potentially possible; butJudah’s general lack of repentance and Hezekiah’s apostacy meant it was deferred in fulfilment. The desire for salvation was therefore not simply for the sake of personal safety, but for the wider glory of God in the earth.</p><p>There will come a day when all the world realizes that God is one (<a href='B:290 37:20'>Isa 37:20</a> Heb:)- in that they will realize that He alone is God and all else is pure vanity. Because God alone is holy, only He will be worshipped then (<a href='B:730 15:4'>Rev 15:4</a>)."The Lord alone shall be exalted in that day"(<a href='B:290 2:11'>Isa 2:11</a>; <a href='B:290 2:17'>Isa 2:17</a>).</p>


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<p>Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, ‘Because you have prayed to Me against Sennacherib king of Assyria- Answers to prayer don’t often come through bolts of revelation; in this case it was through another believer, Isaiah. And we note the power of one man’s prayer- because of this prayer, God’s word of :22 was uttered. See in <a href='B:480 2:5'>Mar 2:5</a>.The implication could be that it was Isaiah's prayer and not Hezekiah's which was answered.</p>


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<p>This is the word which Yahweh has spoken concerning him. The virgin daughter of Zion has despised you and ridiculed you. The daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at you- The remnant within the closed city of Jerusalem, likened to a protected virgin who had not been ’opened’, had hardly despised and ridiculed the Assyrians. They were terrified of them. But their faith was counted to them for more than it was; according to Psalms 2, it was God within Zion who despised and ridiculed the armies outside the walls. But His characteristics were counted to them. This is exactly the reasoning of Paul in Romans about imputed righteousness.</p><p>The idea may also be that the Assyrians had intended to enter and take Zion's virginity; but the prophetic perfect is used of how soon, the inhabitants of Zion would come out and shake their head in ridicule at the remaining Assyrians as they fled homewards. She had retained her virginity from them.</p><p>
Hezekiah's perspective differed from God's. He saw the people as children whose birth was being unjustly stopped by God through not empowering the mother. Whereas Yahweh had lamented of His people at this time "I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me" (Is. 1:2). That same chapter speaks of a time when the cities of Judah had all fallen to the invader, apart from Jerusalem. So the context is precisely that of the Sennacherib invasion. </p>


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<p>Whom have you defied and blasphemed? Against whom have you exalted your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel- Sennacherib was fully aware that he had done all these things against Yahweh; the motivation for his rage against Jerusalem was his particular hatred of Yahweh. And so it shall be in the latter day invasion, which will also be strongly motivated by religion. This verse is simply restating the truth about Sennacherib. It is addressed to him, so presumably Isaiah’s duty was to get the message to him. We wonder why God would, as it were, bother. But there are many points of contact with Pharaoh. God even tried to bring him to repentance, and perhaps this address to Sennacherib was to likewise give even him a chance. This is great encouragement to us, to never consider anyone not even worth trying with.</p>


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<p>By your servants have you defied the Lord and have said, With the multitude of my chariots I have come up to the height of the mountains, to the innermost parts of Lebanon- The intensive plurals here refer to the great mountain, of Zion. Sennacherib spoke in the present tense because he was certain he would achieve it. His intention was to desecrate the innermost parts of the cedar-of-Lebanon decorated temple.</p><p>I will cut down its tall cedars and its choice fir trees. I will enter into its farthest height, the forest of its fruitful field- This could continue the allusion to the cedar-of-Lebanon covered temple. Or the whole verse may be simply as GNB:"You sent your servants to boast to me that with all your chariots you had conquered the highest mountains of Lebanon. You boasted that there you cut down the tallest cedars and the finest cypress trees, and that you reached the deepest parts of the forests". However, an obsession with destroying the temple would fit the theme of Sennacherib’s rage against Yahweh and particular desire to destroy the temple and gain the temple mount. This would match the similar motivations of the latter day Assyrian.</p>


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<p>I have dug and drunk water, and with the sole of my feet I will dry up all the rivers of Egypt- Rabshakeh tried to cut off water from Jerusalem (hence Hezekiah’s tunnel of <a href='B:120 20:20'>2Ki 20:20</a>). Sennacherib considered victory against Egypt as just as certain; although he was clearly fazed by Tirhakah’s approach. In fact the Assyrian army was to never set foot in Egypt at this time. Perhaps the idea is that despite this, the Assyrians had dug wells and found new water sources for their army. Isaiah had criticized Hezekiah for doing this rather than trusting in God. And it would seem that Hezekiah's efforts didn't succeed anyway. </p>


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<p>Have you not heard how I have done it long ago, and formed it in ancient times? Now I have brought it to pass, that it should be yours to destroy fortified cities, turning them into ruinous heaps- This is the Divine response. Understanding predestination helps us see the frailty of all human strength and device; and Paul introduces it into his argument in Romans to likewise demonstrate that salvation is of grace and not by works."Destroy"is literally to rush upon, and the word is used of how the rushing of the nations against God’s people would be turned back (see on <a href='B:290 17:13'>Isa 17:13</a>)</p>


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<p>Therefore their inhabitants had little power; they were dismayed and confounded, they were like the grass of the field and like the green herb, like the grass on the housetops, and like a field before its crop has grown- Similar language is used in <a href='B:290 40:6'>Isa 40:6</a> of how"all flesh"is like this. The reference is to the"all flesh"of the nations around Israel whom the Assyrians had conquered, who trusted in their own human strength.</p>


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<p>But I know your sitting down, your going out, your coming in, and your raging against Me- This reflects David’s awareness that God knows our every physical movement, standing or sitting. God knew Sennacherib’s going out from his homeland and how he would return there. Sennacherib’s rage was against Yahweh; he intended to utterly subvert the true faith; see on :29.</p>


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<p>Because of your raging against Me- There was a specifically religious, spiritual aspect to the invasion; the idea was that the claims of this Yahweh were to be shown false. The motivation of the latter day Assyrian will be the same. <a href='B:340 11:40'>Dan 11:40</a> [see note there] envisages the"king of the north"likewise raging against the God of the fortress of Zion.</p><p>And because your arrogance has come up into My ears, therefore will I put My hook in your nose and My bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way by which you came- This is the language of the latter day invasion by Gog (<a href='B:330 38:4'>Eze 38:4</a>), which has this Assyrian invasion as its prototype. The Gog confederacy, of 10 nations headed by a rosh, a charismatic leader, will likewise be unsuccessful.</p><p>The languuage of coming up to God's ears usually refers to the prayers of the righteous - in the Hezekiah context, "their voice was heard, and their prayer came up to His holy habitation, even to heaven" (2 Chron. 30:27). What came up to His ears was the blasphemy of His enemies. But perhaps the idea is that the situation of His people is read by Him as their prayer. Hezekiah spread the blasphemous letter "before Yahweh"and prayed over it. This reflected faith and trust that God did in fact see and hear what was written there, and here we have confirmation of that. </p>


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<p>This shall be the sign to you. You will eat this year that which grows of itself, and in the second year that which springs from the same; and in the third year sow and reap and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit- They were besieged in Jerusalem. This sign was a medium term sign, not the short term indication of salvation they perhaps wanted. The sign was that there was the potential for the house of Judah to bear fruit"upward", to God (:31); the fruit of repentance. But there are hints later in Isaiah that this sign was not believed; they did not respect the Jubilee year, they did sow instead of trusting that the land around Jerusalem would miraculously bring forth its own fruit. And this reflects how they did not bring forth the fruit of the Spirit"upward"to God but rather of their own strength (:31). See on :32. The language here seems to suggest that the events of the Assyrian invasion and deliverance happened around a year of Jubilee, which later in Isaiah is alluded to as a type of the time of the Lord’s return and the Messianic Kingdom. It could have come then; but Isaiah 58 and other hints in later Isaiah are that the Jubilee year was not respected, they did plant instead of trusting in the Lord’s provision, and so the Kingdom was precluded from coming then. The idea of planting vineyards and eating their fruit is used in Isaiah 65 of the Messianic Kingdom; it is kingdom language.</p><p>The verse has been translated: ’Ye did eat (the first year) such as groweth of itself, and in the second year that which springeth of the same, but in this third year sow ye’. This would mean that they were now in the third year of the Assyrian invasion. Perhaps there was a three and a half year domination of Judah by the Assyrians, just as there shall be in the last days.</p>


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<p>The remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah will again take root downward, and bear fruit upward- See on :30,32. Apart from Jerusalem, Judah had been overrun by the Assyrians, so this remnant who escaped could refer to the inhabitants of Jerusalem; or it could be that"the remnant"refers to the spiritually faithful minority.</p><p><a href='B:290 4:2'>Isa 4:2</a> had spoken of how this"remnant"(s:w:) would be the basis of a revived kingdom of God in Judah, based around a Messianic"Branch","in that day"- the day of <a href='B:290 4:1'>Isa 4:1</a>, when Jerusalem would be overcome and left in ruins with hardly any men left. These"survivors"are those saved from the ruins of a desolated Jerusalem, those who"escaped"the Assyrian invasion (s:w. <a href='B:290 10:20'>Isa 10:20</a>); the same word is used in <a href='B:360 2:32'>Joe 2:32</a>; <a href='B:380 1:17'>Oba 1:17</a>, the"remnant"of <a href='B:330 14:22'>Eze 14:22</a> (s:w:). The destruction of Jerusalem was intended to elicit repentance and to lead seamlessly into a revived Zion and reestablished Kingdom of God in Israel, when again all things would be"glorious"(s:w. <a href='B:290 24:23'>Isa 24:23</a>; <a href='B:290 35:2'>Isa 35:2</a>). But this didn’t happen. Jerusalem was saved by grace, and yet Hezekiah failed to act as"Yahweh’s branch", and Judah were impenitent, unmoved by their salvation by grace</p>


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<p>For out of Jerusalem a remnant will go forth, and survivors will escape from Mount Zion. The zeal of Yahweh of Armies will perform this’- This is the language of Obadiah about the final establishment of Messiah’s Kingdom. As noted on :30, this could have happened then, if Judah had kept the year of Jubilee as intended and brought forth spiritual fruit"upward"to God.</p>


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<p>Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning the king of Assyria, ‘He will not come to this city, nor shoot an arrow there, neither will he come before it with shield, nor cast up a mound against it- This is in contrast to Sennacherib’s first approach to Jerusalem, when according to his own inscriptions he did cast up a mound: ’Because Hezekiah, king of Judah, would not submit to my yoke, I came up against him, and by force of arms, and by the might of my power, I took 46 of his fenced cities, and of smaller towns scattered about I took a countless number. And I carried off as spoil 200,150 people. And Hezekiah himself I shut up in Jerusalem, his capital city, like a bird in a cage, building towers round the city to hem him in. Then upon this Hezekiah there fell the fear of the power of my arms, and he sent out to me the chiefs of Jerusalem, with 30 talents of gold and 800 talents of silver’. The fact not an arrow would be fired must be compared with how <a href='B:290 22:6'>Isa 22:6</a> had predicted the presence of the archers of Elam around Jerusalem at the invasion, who would overthrow her. It was deferred until this same nation came with the Babylonians against Jerusalem at a later date (<a href='B:300 49:35'>Jer 49:35</a>). Likewise <a href='B:290 22:7'>Isa 22:7</a> foresaw the Assyrians ’coming before’ the city; but this too was averted by the repentance and intercession of a minority. It is all a great lesson in the power of the repentance and intercession of a minority.</p><p>The promise that the Assyrians would not build forts against Jerusalem alludes to Is. 29:1-3: "Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt! add ye year to year; let them kill sacrifices. Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be heaviness and sorrow... And I will camp against thee round about, and will lay siege against thee with a mount, and I will raise forts against thee". This was averted or delayed by repentance and intercession. Is. 29:4 continues: "And thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be, as of one that hath a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust". This is the language of Hezekiah's prayer when he was terminally ill,, again showing he represented Jerusalem. </p>


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<p>By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come to this city’, says Yahweh- This unsuccessful invasion is like that of Ezekiel 38 and Psalms 2; the nations surround Jerusalem but fail to capture it because of the Lord’s presence there. Jerusalem will indeed fall in the last days and be desecrated, but the Lord will return and save Israel, establish Himself in Zion- and then there will be this unsuccessful invasion which He crushes.</p>


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<p>‘For I will defend this city to save it, for My own sake, and for My servant David’s sake’- The implication could be ’not for the sake of your righteousness, but by grace alone; for My sake, and because I respect the covenant of grace I gave David’. Perhaps this is why 2 Kings 20:6 reminds Hezekiah that his other prayer, for personal healing, is likewise because God is the God of David his ancestor: "Thus says Yahweh the God of David your father, I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Behold, I will heal you". This was by grace, and not because of Hezekiah's allusions to praying towards the temple and thereby being saved, both nationally and personally.</p>


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<p>The angel of Yahweh went out- He went out from the throne room of heaven, where the case had been as it were considered; see on :4. Isaiah 37 is shot through with allusions to the Angel cherubim destroying the Assyrian host. The Angel went out- perhaps referring to Him physically going forth out of the temple where He dwelt to slay the Assyrians outside the walls of Jerusalem. This phrase ’went out’ is nearly always used about literal physical movement, which we have seen is what&nbsp; Angels literally do. Thus in the Ezekiel visions of the cherubim, they and the lightnings"went forth", physically and literally, in performing God’s work."Let my sentence come forth from Thy presence (Angelic language); let Thine eyes (Angels) behold the things that are equal", seeing they are involved with the ’coming forth’, according to the parallelism of this verse. Similarly Job’s satan Angel"went forth"from the presence of the Lord (<a href='B:220 1:12'>Job 1:12</a>). And so it happened that there were Angels on earth, as it were. <a href='B:450 2:3'>Zec 2:3</a> also has an Angel going forth to answer the prayers concerning&nbsp; restoring the fortunes of Jerusalem (see <a href='B:450 5:5'>Zec 5:5</a> too). <a href='B:230 81:5'>Psa 81:5</a> describesthe Angel going out through the land of Egypt in order to"remove (Israel’s) shoulder from the burden". Psalms 81 is ’Angelic’, following Psalms 80, which is another such Psalm. <a href='B:650 1:14'>Heb 1:14</a> also offers support: the Angels are"sent forth"to minister to us- by answering prayers offered in the spirit of Hezekiah’s prayer here?</p><p>And struck one hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the camp of the Assyrians. When men arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies- The bodies were spoiled by the Jerusalem Jews (<a href='B:290 33:4'>Isa 33:4</a>). The agent of destruction appears to have been fire and hail (<a href='B:290 29:6'>Isa 29:6</a>; <a href='B:290 30:30'>Isa 30:30</a>), both of which may be used in the last days too.</p><p>We observe that this major event was never specifically prophesied by Isaiah in all the previous material we have in Isaiah. Hezekiah's illness and healing was intended to be programatic for Judah. Just as Hezekiah's death was determined but was delayed for 15 years by God's response to his prayer, so it could be that it was indeed God's intention to destroy Jerusalem at this point. But it was deferred, just as Hezekiah's death had been, because of the faith of a very few. We again see the openness of God. </p>


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<p>So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, went away, returned to Nineveh, and stayed there- This was due to the"tidings"he received (:7), presumably of the destruction of his army outside the walls of Jerusalem. His murder by his sons is recorded in Assyrian inscriptions, but a a space of about 20 years after his withdrawal from Judah. We enquire why God waited so long, by human standards. Surely it was because He sought this man's repentance, as with Pharaoh. </p>


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<p>It happened that as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons struck him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Esar Haddon his son reigned in his place- As noted on :7, this was caused by God putting a spirit / attitude of mind in these sons to do this. His Spirit, as today, confirmed the human spirit.</p>,p>We note the contrast between the two kings. Both go into the house of their God but with different outcomes. Likewise the three delegated representatives of the king of Assyria, Tartan, Rabshakeh and Rabsaris, are paralleled with the three representatives of Hezekiah king of Judah, Shebna, Eliakim and Joah (2 Kings 18:18). The Angelic horses and chariots thus correspond to the much vaunted horses and chariots of Assyria. In this context we understand how Rabshakeh offers a fake Kingdom of God, alluding consciously to the descriptions of God's Kingdom in Mic. 4 and Isaiah. </p>


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<p>In those days was Hezekiah sick and near death. Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, came to him, and said to him- Hezekiah reigned 29 years (<a href='B:120 18:2'>2Ki 18:2</a>), and the sickness after which he was given 15 years therefore happened in the 14th year or his reign- the very same time that Assyria invaded (<a href='B:290 36:1'>Isa 36:1</a>). Trials so often come together, in such an intense and extreme way that the situation can only be of God rather than mere bad luck or coincidence. The full title of Isaiah is given perhaps because the theme is that Hezekiah was to live because of the prophetic word.</p><p>It could be that Hezekiah shared the smiting of the Assyrians, so that his suffering [the basis of Isaiah 53] was on account of suffering the judgment upon Israel's enemies- all so looking forward to the Lord's death. And his recovery from certain death at this time was intended to encourage the people to have faith that they too could be saved from certain destruction by the Assyrians, against all odds. We likewise are often given encounters with others whose experiences are to encourage us as we pass through the same, in essence.</p><p>Thus says Yahweh, ‘Set your house in order, for you will die, and not live’-&nbsp; we should not assume too quickly that Hezekiah had no family at this stage; for he is commanded here to put in order his household ("house"is so often ’family’ rather than the bricks of a house). Indeed the very same phrase is used of how Abraham would"command his household"to keep God’s laws (<a href='B:10 18:19'>Gen 18:19</a>). Perhaps that was the idea. He was to urgently teach his household more of God’s ways as he was to soon die.</p>


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<p>Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to Yahweh- The divans, which were also beds, were arranged next to the walls. We are left with the impression of a man utterly alone with God, turning his face away from Isaiah when he had delivered the message, facing the wall- and praying to Yahweh. This contrasts with how he had gone into the temple and prayed to God regarding the Assyrian threats. He now was unable to enter the temple, he was alone, Isaiah had gone out of the room (2 Kings 20), he was alone, back to the wall, alone with God. </p>


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<p>And said, Remember now, Yahweh, I beg You, how I have walked before You in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in Your sight- Hezekiah claimed to have lived with a good conscience but was at the same time aware of his sins (<a href='B:290 38:3'>Isa 38:3</a> cp. 17); and his cutting off the gold of the temple to try to buy peace was surely a failure. Yet the conscience can be cleansed of sin, through the depth of the power of God’s forgiveness. This is not the same as forgetfulness, self-righteousness or minimization of personal failings. Paul must surely have had twinges of guilt over his behaviour at times (not least over the bust up with Brethren Barnabas and Mark, <a href='B:510 15:39'>Act 15:39</a> cp. <a href='B:620 4:11'>2Ti 4:11</a>); and yet he insists that he always had a good conscience. Paul likewise claims that the Jewish forefathers served God with a pure conscience (<a href='B:620 1:3'>2Ti 1:3</a> NIV). Yet the Jewish fathers, dear Jacob particularly, must have had plenty of twinges of guilt over their years.</p><p>Walking in truth is the term used to characterize the seed of David (<a href='B:110 2:4'>1Ki 2:4</a>; <a href='B:110 3:6'>1Ki 3:6</a>), as David personally walked in truth (<a href='B:230 26:3'>Psa 26:3</a>; <a href='B:230 86:11'>Psa 86:11</a>), and may not of itself mean that Hezekiah is saying he has not sinned; it’s as if Hezekiah assumed that because he was the seed of David, he therefore ought not to die. As will be explained on :5, the adding of days to his life was a way of saying that he was being accepted as the seed of David; and yet he failed to use those years to save his people. It could be argued that by refusing to die when asked to, Hezekiah was disallowing his being the fulfilment of the Messianic suffering servant who was to die for his people.</p><p>Hezekiah is clearly over rating his own spirituality. But to say these things at such a desperate point, facing death, indicates how strongly he was persuaded of his own righteousness. His claim to have "done good" was true (2 Chron. 31:20) but he also uses the words of Ecc. 7:20 "There is not a man that does good and sins not" [possibly written by Hezekiah in later life]. And David had said the same, that there is none that does good (Ps. 14:1,3; 53:3). Paul quotes that as evidence we need salvation by grace. The problem with the righteous is that they fail to see that they are still sinners and deserve death. Isaiah may allude to Hezekiah by saying that all our righteousness is as filthy rags before God and is only relative. Deuteronomy several times uses the term in saying that if Israel did what was good, they would not be invaded. But Hezekiah had been invaded... 
</p><p>
Throughout Isaiah 1-35, Isaiah has strongly criticized Hezekiah. For his materialism, his stripping of the temple gold and giving some of it to Assyria and some to Egypt to send horses and chariots, for trusting in Egypt, for having the Egyptian proxy Shebna in his inner cabinet, for fortifying the city in his own strength, for being proud and turning a blind eye to abuse of the poor. Isaiah had walked naked and barefoot three years trying to appeal to Hezekiah and Judah not to trust in Gentile powers. Isaiah's various prophecies against the surrounding nations are all in the context of appealing to Hezekiah not to trust in them, because they are going to be judged and rendered powerless by Assyria. Hezekiah offers no repentance to God for all this when faced with the judgment of premature death, although when saved by grace, he does marvel at God's forgiveness of him without his formal repentance. His insistence that he had served God well may therefore refer to the huge spiritual reforms and keeping of Passover which he did 14 years previously when he first became king. Rather than to a lifetime lived in that spirit. 
</p><p>
Hezekiah doesn't specifically request healing. But this is how his prayer was interpreted by God, and that was the answer given. We have here another example of how God understands the essence of our thinking and treats that as prayer. Romans 8 is clear that we know not how to pray for as we ought, but the Lord Jesus as "the Lord the Spirit" intercedes according to our spirit. Those who can't verbalize are not therefore any weaker in prayer than those to whom verbalization comes much easier.</p><p>
We note that earlier, Hezekiah had prayed for those who kept the Passover whilst unclean, and they had been "healed" according to his prayer (2 Chron. 30:20 "Yahweh listened to Hezekiah, and healed the people"). Hezekiah is here "healed" (s.w. 2 Kings 20:5,8). We wonder why he doesn't specifically request his own healing? Perhaps he was too depressed. Or just willing to accept God's will. Or perhaps it was that the peoples' plague was due to infringement of Divine law, whereas he wrongly felt he had not sinned. He therefore felt he didn't deserve his death, and pleads with God to remember his spotless life. Something is clearly wrong here in his thinking, as it is in the thinking of all who consider death to be somehow unfair.  
</p><p>
This is another allusion to Solomon's prayer. Solomon's idea was that if Israel walked before God with a perfect heart, then their prayers would be heard because of the physical temple; for Yahweh "keeps covenant and grace with Your servants who walk before You with all their heart" (1 Kings 8:23). But Hezekiah was to be shown that this was far too simplistic. God hears prayer by grace and not because of the existence of any temple. And so Hezekiah prays this prayer not in the temple; for the answer he gets assures him that in three days he will be able to enter the temple.   
</p><p>Hezekiah wept bitterly- &nbsp;Perhaps in prayer, asking God to change the outcome. For as with Nineveh, in the gap between Divine statement and its fulfilment, we can repent and change the word which otherwise would have come true (<a href='B:300 18:8-10'>Jer 18:8-10</a>). His bitterness was apparently because, as he later reflects, he felt it was unfair to cut him off prematurely, in middle age. He didn't perceive the wages of sin are death, and like many, felt wrongly entitled to life.</p><p>In 2 Chron. 30 we read of Hezekiah having to make decisions at the great Passover which he organized. Some ate it on  the second month, and others ate it unclean or with priests unclean. Numbers 9 allowed for those who were distant or travelling to keep the Passover a month later. But that legislation doesn't cover the eventuality here- that the priests were unclean. Likewise in 2 Chron. 30:18, "yet they ate the Passover otherwise than it is written". So we see how God's laws were not seen as a leash, as a letter that had to be literalistically obeyed. By contrast, contemporary Hittite laws condemned any failure to keep a festival on its specified day. The law of Moses is hereby shown to be open to interpretation and obedience according to spirit and not letter. Perhaps it was this perception of Divine flexibility that led Hezekiah to reason with God to change His plan that Hezekiah should die. </p><p>
 The bitterness may have been because he perceived, as most then did, that premature death was a judgment from God because of sin. The Psalms ask for wicked men to be cut off in their prime (Ps. 54:23; 89:45); and long life was a blessing of keeping the covenant (Dt. 6:2; 32:47). Perhaps indeed Hezekiah had sinned. And had to repent of his pride. He considered himself righteous- when measured against men. But his later psalm of gratitude, recorded in Is. 38, shows him appreciating that his sins had been cast behind God's back in forgiveness. We too experience things which help us to perceive our sinfulness, and to stop justifying ourselves by our relative righteousness when compared to men. We also could note that Hezekiah seems to have little conception of a future resurrection. He wants to be healed so he can return to the temple and do his music... </p>


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<p>Then the word of Yahweh came to Isaiah, saying- It seems from <a href='B:120 20:4'>2Ki 20:4</a> that once he reached the middle court of the palace, he was told by God to"turn again"and give Hezekiah assurance of healing. The whole incident shows the speed with which God responds to prayers, and His sensitivity to human prayer and repentance. A relatively few words from Hezekiah [unlike Moses' 40 days intercession to change God's mind] triggered this change. He is so sensitive to us. Just half an hour's prayer at the most [the time it took Isaiah to leave Hezekiah's room and walk out of the palace] triggered a Divine volte face. </p>


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<p>Go, and tell Hezekiah, ‘Thus says Yahweh the God of David your father, I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life- "The God of David your father" is mentioned because the death of Hezekiah childless would have meant that the Davidiv line of kings would have died out. God intended to end the line at this point. But He relented, deferring it until the death of Zedekiah some generations later.</p><p>
Hezekiah doesn't specifically request healing. But this is how his prayer was interpreted by God, and that was the answer given. We have here another example of how God understands the essence of our thinking and treats that as prayer. Romans 8 is clear that we know not how to pray for as we ought, but the Lord Jesus as "the Lord the Spirit" intercedes according to our spirit. Those who can't verbalize are not therefore any weaker in prayer than those to whom verbalization comes much easier.</p><p>
We note that earlier, Hezekiah had prayed for those who kept the Passover whilst unclean, and they had been "healed" according to his prayer (2 Chron. 30:20 "Yahweh listened to Hezekiah, and healed the people"). Hezekiah is here "healed" (s.w. 2 Kings 20:5,8). We wonder why he doesn't specifically request his own healing? Perhaps he was too depressed. Or just willing to accept God's will. Or perhaps it was that the peoples' plague was due to infringement of Divine law, whereas he wrongly felt he had not sinned. He therefore felt he didn't deserve his death, and pleads with God to remember his spotless life. Something is clearly wrong here in his thinking, as it is in the thinking of all who consider death to be somehow unfair.  
 </p><p>
We frequently read of a man's "days" as if there is a Divinely appointed number of says to each human life. But God can cut short a wicked man, so that he doesn't live out half his days (Ps. 55:23). With Hezekiah, God added to his days. Just as Dt. 27:20 promised that the good king would "prolong his days". Dt. 4:26 warns Israel that if they sinned, they would not prolong their days- as if the idea of prolonging was potentially there for them, but they might miss it. The very idea of years being "added" to Hezekiah suggests that an original plan was amended. So again we see God's openness and sensitivity to human prayer and behaviour, modifying plans accordingly. 
</p><p>
Kings adds more detail, denoted here in italics:"Behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the Lord. And I will add unto thy days fifteen years; and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the King of Assyria; and I will defend this city for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake"(<a href='B:120 20:5-6'>2Ki 20:5-6</a> AV). The defence of Zion at this time was predicated upon God’s grace; judgment was intended to come unless they repented, and most of them hadn’t. And so God stresses He will save Zion by grace, for His own sake and not that of His peoples’ prayer or repentance. This says something about the effectiveness of Hezekiah's prayers. The cure was not instant, it took three days; for the same reason as there will be the process of judgment between our resurrection and entrance to the Kingdom. The period between God’s pronouncement of blessing and the realization of it is for our benefit, that we might grow in appreciation. The healing enabled Hezekiah to enter the temple; from God’s perspective, the most significant aspect of his illness was that its uncleanness precluded him from entering the temple. We notice the parallel between Hezekiah’s prayer and his tears;&nbsp; God reads situations as prayers. Prayer is understood by Him far wider than simply words as lexical items. Otherwise those more able to verbalize would pray ’better’; and acceptable prayer is not related to our ability to verbalize. The healing coming after three days was perhaps to test Hezekiah. For this is why answers to prayer don't come immediately.</p><p>See on 2 Kings 19:15. I suggest there that in his prayer for national deliverance, Hezekiah had prayed in the temple, thinking that God "saw" things uttered there. But he is being taught that God 'sees' sincere prayer regardless of the temple building. And after three days, Hezekiah was to go to the temple just to praise God for His grace.</p><p>The years ’added’ to the king’s life are expressed in the words of <a href='B:230 61:6'>Psa 61:6</a>, where David felt that God would"prolong [s:w. "add to"] the king’s life [s. w. "days"]. The clear allusion to David’s words was perhaps to show that God considered Hezekiah to be the Davidic king who could have been the Messianic Son of David. But Hezekiah despised that and wasted those years in self-satisfaction. There is also a theme in Solomon’s teaching that his son would have ’days added’ (the same Hebrew phrase) to his life, because of his obedience to wisdom (<a href='B:240 3:2'>Pro 3:2</a>; <a href='B:240 9:11'>Pro 9:11</a>; <a href='B:240 10:27'>Pro 10:27</a>). Again, the idea is that the adding of days to Hezekiah’s life was confirming him as the seed of David.</p>


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<p>I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city- Yahweh had earlier stated that He would not "deliver" (s:w:) Jerusalem from the Assyrian lion (<a href='B:290 5:29'>Isa 5:29</a>). But as in Hosea, God speaks in wrath but then His grace is such that He doesn’t carry out what He threatens. He has emotion and speaks and acts in that fire of passion. That was normal in the Middle East; it is the western obsession with nicespeak and measured responses which make outburst behaviour and language appear inappropriate. Micah was contemporary with Isaiah, and he spoke of the ’deliverance’ &nbsp;(s:w:) of the city from the Assyrians as being due to the appearance of a Messianic figure (<a href='B:400 5:6'>Mic 5:6</a>):&nbsp; Here in Is 38:6, the deliverance of Hezekiah personally from inevitable death is tied up with the deliverance of Jerusalem from inevitable judgment. He surely could have been one of the possible fulfillments of the Messianic figure, which makes his failure to rise up to it all the more tragic.</p><p>We learn here that although Hezekiah's sickness and the deliverance from the Assyrians happened at about the same, Hezekiah's healing from sickness happened before the deliverance of the "sick man" of Judah from the Assyrians. It was all by grace, and Hezekiah's healing was intended to give inspiration to others to believe that the Assyrian "death" would also be removed. We likewise encounter people whose expriences of God's grace are designed to inspire us in our issues. </p>


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<p>This shall be the sign to you from Yahweh, that Yahweh will do this thing that He has spoken- 2 Kings is clear that Hezekiah asked for a sign- for there were three days before he would be able to go into the temple. This could be read as weak faith on his part- and he utters no immediate gratitude, bearing in mind that he felt at the time that by evening he would be dead [according to his later prayer of thanks]. His comment that God sending the shadow forward ten degrees would be 'too easy' rather sounds as if his request was from scepticism and unbelief. But it can be argued another way- that his request for a sign was intentionally learning from his father Ahaz's mistake in refusing a sign. The difference in possible interpretation is intentional. We can only ponder whether Hezekiah showed faith or unbelief by requesting a sign. Just as we ponder our own actions and ask the same. It seems that unlike his father Ahaz, Hezekiah had asked for this sign (:22). It is apparent that the experiences of believers are often suggestive of those of other believers. Insofar as we appreciate this, we will find strength to go the right way. Consider how Hezekiah was intended to see the similarities between himself and the earlier king Ahaz his father, and learn the lessons. They were both threatened by invasion and tempted to turn to human help (<a href='B:290 7:2'>Isa 7:2</a>; <a href='B:290 37:1'>Isa 37:1</a>); Visited by Isaiah and told to not fear (<a href='B:290 7:4-9'>Isa 7:4-9</a>; <a href='B:290 37:6-7'>Isa 37:6-7</a>). Ahaz was unfaithful by “the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the fuller’s field” (<a href='B:290 7:3'>Isa 7:3</a>); and in just the same place Hezekiah’s faith was tested and he learnt the lessons of Ahaz’ failure (<a href='B:290 36:2'>Isa 36:2</a>). Both were given a sign by God and promised deliverance (<a href='B:290 7:14'>Isa 7:14</a>; <a href='B:290 37:30'>Isa 37:30</a>). Ahaz refused to ask for a sign when offered one (<a href='B:290 7:11'>Isa 7:11</a>); whereas Hezekiah learnt, and asked for a sign (<a href='B:290 38:7'>Isa 38:7</a>; <a href='B:290 38:22'>Isa 38:22</a>). Thus his asking for a sign was not a sign of faithlessness but rather his seeking to not be like Ahaz. “The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform it” was spoken to both Ahaz (<a href='B:290 9:6'>Isa 9:6</a>) and Hezekiah (<a href='B:290 37:32'>Isa 37:32</a>).</p>


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<p>Behold, I will cause the shadow on the sundial, which has gone down on the sundial of Ahaz with the sun, to return backward ten steps. ’ So the sun returned ten steps on the sundial on which it had gone down- "The stairway built by King Ahaz", Hezekiah’s father, was part of his idolatrous sun worship which Hezekiah ought to have destroyed. It was a kind of small ziggurat. It was the Babylonians who had begun telling the time in this way; there is no mention of "hours" of the day in the Hebrew Bible until the time of Daniel. Here we have another hint at the incomplete spirituality and reformation of Hezekiah. The "songs of degrees" were written or rewritten to apply to this experience of the sun returning ten degrees or steps. There are 15 of them, matching the 15 extra years of life given to Hezekiah. It seems that 10 of the 15 songs of degrees were written by Hezekiah, perhaps connecting with how the shadow returned 10 degrees. We enquire however why the shadow returned ten degrees to symbolize how Hezekiah was being given fifteen years. One possibility is to consider that the Hebrew term for "fifteen" is two distinct words, the words for 'five' and 'ten'. God's openness is such that perhaps He is hinting that He would add five or ten or fifteen years.</p><p>
It could also be that the sundial of idolatrous Ahaz had probably been brought from Assyria, as such things were common there and had pagan associations. Hezekiah had not destroyed his father's idol- another hint that his devotion to God was far less than ideal.</p><p>
Shadows can go back if a light brighter than the sun shines upon the object causing the shadow. This was observed during the meteorite incident in Chelyabinsk, Russia, which was brighter than the sun. It is Isaiah who speaks of God's glory in Zion appearing brighter than the sun (Is. 60:19; 62:21). The intention of this was to be that Gentiles came to this light and brightness (Is. 60:3). The Babylonian ambassadors came to enquire of the sign done in the land. So it seems that the bright light of Yahweh's glory appeared in the land and changed the shadow. This is far preferrable to speculation that the earth, and the entire solar system, reversed its direction of travel. This was a foretaste to Judah, in their dark hour surrounded by their enemies, of what potentially could happen. The Kingdom of God could then have been established in some form. But Hezekiah let the ball drop. Instead of converting the Babylonians, he boasted to them. And brought judgment upon Zion. We reflect that if Hezekiah had asked to bring the shadow forward, then God had another option in view. We see here the interplay between human freewill and Divine openness. </p><p>
Is. 30:26 again parallels Hezekiah's sickness with Jerusalem's woeful state [as does Is. 33:24 "the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity"]. The healing was to be associated with a bright light, and that is what made the shadows go back: "Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound".
</p><p>"Gone down" is the word used by Hezekiah in speaking of how he feels he had "gone down" into the grave (:18). It is as if Hezekiah has died, the sun gone down those degrees, and then resurrected, brought up the same amount. He could have been a Messianic figure in a reestablished kingdom of God in Judah. The "return backward" of the sun is a phrase often used of the return of the exiles from Babylon to be part of that reestablished Kingdom. Hezekiah’s revival / resurrection was to be seen as that of his people. How the miracle happened is not the essential question; but it could have been caused by the glory of Yahweh bursting forth so that the shadow was chased back.</p><p>We must factor in the additional information from 2 Kings 20:10: "Hezekiah answered, It is a light thing for the shadow to go forward ten steps. Nay, but let the shadow return backward ten steps". Hezekiah's attitude in asking  for a sign, and the way he responds to the offer for the shadow to go forward, all hardly indicates firm faith and trust. And yet he had earlier had such faith. The Hebrew word translated "light" can mean two things, and neither of them read very nicely for Hezekiah to say this. It can mean 'easy'; and to say it was easy for the light to go forward, involving the apparent manipulation of the sun and therefore the entire cosmos, was no "light" thing for God to do. The word can by extension mean "despised" or "cursed", and is often translated like that. Hezekiah is saying that for life to be 'fast forwarded', for him to be cut off in the midst of his days by the sun advancing forward, is easy for God. But it would be harder, surely, for God to make the sun as it were go backward, to create time, to reverse the time of his life by giving him more time. And despite that unpleasant, bitter attitude to God, God responds by giving him more life. Hezekiah had faith, but so did Elijah; but faith without hope and love is nothing, as Paul says. And Elijah was removed from his ministry despite having so much faith. The reversal of time spoke only of a delay; Hezekiah's death was not removed, but delayed by 15 years. The time shift would have reminded the perceptive of Joshua's long day, when again time was as it were tampered with- in order to enable a military victory. And a similar victory was given against Assyria at this time.</p><p>
Hezekiah asks for a sign “to prove” that God’s predicted cure of him was going to happen. And when given the option of the shadow of the sun jumping forward by ten degrees, he almost mocks that as too ‘easy’. Yet this is the man with the accolade at one point that no King believed in God like he did...</p>


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<p>The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and had recovered of his sickness- LXX "The prayer of Hezekiah". "Recovered" here translates a common word for ’to make to live’. If recovery or healing was in view, another word would have been used- that used in <a href='B:290 39:1'>Isa 39:1</a>. Hezekiah uses the word in :16 "cause me to live". The idea is that he had effectively died. Whether he literally did or not is not the ultimate issue; his sickness is framed as a living death, from which he resurrected. The same word is used in :1; Hezekiah would "not live" or "not recover". But he does, such is God’s openness to change His plans in response to human prayer. The recovery was clearly a Divine ’Plan B’ and not necessarily what God had ideally wanted. Perhaps He wanted Hezekiah to die and be resurrected. Or perhaps indeed Hezekiah did not recover; he died, but was resurrected, and in that sense he recovered. The word is definitely used about resurrection in <a href='B:290 26:19'>Isa 26:19</a> and elsewhere.</p>


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<p>I said, In the middle of my life I go into the gates of Sheol. I am deprived of the residue of my years- Hezekiah understood sheol as the place where there is no "living" (:11); the grave. "The middle" is literally ’the meridian’, an allusion to the sundial which he perhaps viewed from his bed of sickness, and which was the appropriate sign to give him seeing as he watched the sun climb and decline on the steps. If it indeed was an idolatrous import from Assyria as suggested earlier, he would have had time to reflect on the incomplete nature of his purges and perhaps his own repentance. Hezekiah’s reasoning seems based around the supposition that this life is all he had to enjoy, and at 39 he felt he was in the midst of it. The perspective of eternity doesn’t seem to figure. The language of ’deprivation’ likewise seems to presume that he has a right to life, whereas sinners deserve only death. Like Job, Hezekiah is made self-centered by the reality of pain, depression and illness; and yet is saved at the same time. Those things are understood by God and seen through as surface level issues. Preemature death is clearly seen as a punishment, and all Hezekiah did was to protest how unfair that was. He failed to perceive that the wages of sin is death, and we have no right to life.</p>


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<p>I said, I won’t see Yah, Yah in the land of the living. I will see man no more with the inhabitants of the world- This may be a lament that he would not live to see Yahweh destroying the Assyrians and establishing His Kingdom; hence LXX "I shall no more at all see the salvation of God in the land of the living: I shall no more at all see the salvation of Israel on the earth". Several of Isaiah’s prophecies had suggested the literal coming of Yahweh to Zion in the restored kingdom (<a href='B:290 4:5-6'>Isa 4:5-6</a>). The Old Testament faithful feared death because it meant no communion with God. For them, life was all about daily fellowship and engagement with God; anything else was death. It was a wonderful life, and any state without that was to be feared. So their view of death reflected their view of life. Their mental lives were therefore full of communion with Him, as ours should be.</p>


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<p>My dwelling is removed, and is carried away from me like a shepherd’s tent- LXX "I have parted with the remainder of my life: it has gone forth and departed from me, as one that having pitched a tent takes it down again: my breath was with me as a weaver’s web, when she that weaves draws nigh to cut off the thread". AV "Mine age is departed"; the Hebrew for "age" is strictly ’a revolution’, again reflecting how he had been watching the revolution of time on the sundial from his bed of sickness. The reference to a tent being taken down connects with the descriptions of the permanence of the restored Zion, as a tabernacle which would not again be taken down (<a href='B:290 33:20'>Isa 33:20</a>). He believed that he would not see this; he felt his destiny was that of the "tabernacle" in Zion. We could argue that he thereby failed to perceive the role of bodily resurrection, so that he would ultimately see this. Or that he doubted that <a href='B:290 33:20'>Isa 33:20</a> was to come true. On the other hand, it could be that his identification of himself with the fortunes of Zion was positive, and was resolved by the message that he would be healed at the same time as the tabernacle would be permanently established through the destruction of the Assyrians. But he failed to live according to this faith in the final 15 years of his life.</p><p>I have rolled up, like a weaver, my life. He will cut me off from the loom- The same word for ’weaving’ is used in Isaiah of those who weaved unspiritual plans to try to avoid the Assyrian judgment (<a href='B:290 19:9'>Isa 19:9</a>; <a href='B:290 59:5'>Isa 59:5</a>). Perhaps he reflected upon his agreements with the Assyrians and cutting off the gold from the temple to pay for them. And he felt he was to be judged for that.</p><p>&nbsp;From day even to night You will make an end of me- He was at the gates of the grave (:10), feeling that he would die by the end of that night, in the morning (:13). "Make an end" is more strictly ’recompense’ (s:w. <a href='B:290 59:18'>Isa 59:18</a>; <a href='B:290 65:6'>Isa 65:6</a>; <a href='B:300 16:18'>Jer 16:18</a>). Perhaps he felt he was being judged for sin and was to receive the recompense for iniquity, in death. And yet he protests he has not sinned. We could read this as self-righteousness; or see him as the representative of God’s sinful people, the just suffering for the unjust in the spirit of the Lord Jesus, the ultimate "sufferingservant2/</p><p>Is. 28:14,17-19: "hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem... the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place... when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it. From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report". This is the same idea in Hezekiah's lament that he would die by morning. His terminal illness, which was delayed by grace, represented Judah's judgment. Elsewhere the Assyrian invasion is likened to flood waters which swallowed all Judah, and left Jerusalem alone with head above water, about to be drowned. It was God's intention that Jerusalem also would fall. It didn't by grace alone, and the power of Isaiah's intercession. There is the possibility in Is. 28:22,23,26 that repentance could change the outcome: "Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts a consumption, even determined upon the whole earth [land, including Jerusalem]. Give ye ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and hear my speech...For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him". There was some repentance, shown by Hezekiah and the leadership wearing sackcloth. This and Isaiah's prayers changed the outcome.</p>


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<p>I waited patiently until morning. He breaks all my bones like a lion. From now until tonight You will make an end of me- See on :12. Assyria was the lion, and yet Yahweh was behind that lion. He feels his destiny is tied up with that of Judah. He suffered as their representative. Therefore he is assured that his healing is tied up with the salvation of Zion from Assyria. LXX gives the sense:"I was given up as to a lion until the morning: so has he broken all my bones: for I was so given up from day even to night". The Assyrians were the lion, and Hezekiah feels that his death is as it were giving Assyria the victory. He fails to see the glory and purpose of God in wider terms, seeing his own living as indispensible to the purpose of God. See on :15.</p>


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<p>I am chattering like a swallow or a crane, moaning like a dove. My eyes weaken looking upward- He admits that his faith in the God above is weakening as he faces death."Chatter"is the word used in <a href='B:290 29:4'>Isa 29:4</a> of how Judah are to be brought down in condemnation and chatter out of the dust; he feels condemned although he is not, bearing Judah’s sins and condemnation, exactly as the Lord Jesus did. But there is no mention of faith in resurrection, as there is with Job when he feels the same, and also is presented as the suffering servant. Perhaps he alludes to <a href='B:230 84:3'>Psa 84:3</a>, where the Psalmist is also excluded from the temple, and is jealous of the swallows who can fly in there despite their uncleanness. Perhaps too Hezekiah uses this idea of birds moaning and chattering as if to say that he didn't know how to verbalize and express himself in prayer. He was just making a noise. Indeed we are not specifically told what Hezekiah prayed for, at least not whether he asked for healing and a longer life; perhaps because he didn't ask in so many words. But God saw what his spirit was and responded to that, rather than his actual words. He was given 15 years extra because God heard his prayer, in that He counted his unexpressed thoughts as his prayer. Yet we all know not how to pray for as we ought. And like Hezekiah, our prayer is heard because the spirit of it is perceived. Indeed the emphasis is that God heard Hezekiah for His sake, for the sake of His purpose with David and His grace; rather than simply for the sake of Hezekiah's prayer. "For My sake" contrasts with any idea that Hezekiah was being saved for his sake. Again we note that Hezekiah represents all Judah- for Isaiah will later state that "We all... moan bitterly like doves, for we look for salvation, but it is far from us" (Is. 59:11).</p><p>Lord, I am oppressed- This is the word used in <a href='B:290 30:12'>Isa 30:12</a>; <a href='B:290 59:13'>Isa 59:13</a> of Judah’s trust in Egypt and clever political alliances. Hezekiah is bearing Judah’s sins, but he is also aware of his own sin in cutting off the gold of the temple and allowing those sinful alliances to go ahead in his name.</p><p>Be my salvation-"Be my salvation"or AV"undertake for me"is the word used by Rabshakeh when he sarcastically asks Hezekiah to surrender to the Assyrians (see on <a href='B:290 36:8'>Isa 36:8</a>). His sickness came at the same time as the siege of Jerusalem; see on <a href='B:290 36:1'>Isa 36:1</a>.</p>


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<p>What will I say?- As the seed of David, he feels like David did when the great promises of the Messianic seed were given to him. This is the point of awe at God's grace which we should all come to. The feeling of "wow!".</p><p>He has both spoken to me, and Himself has done it- The word of Isaiah promising healing was God’s word, and had been done. It is the language of new creation, common in later Isaiah; God spoke and it was done. But Hezekiah was to later waste that wonderful potential. He marvels that God Himself had responded to his prayer so quickly. God Himself had personally been involved in the whole thing. The God who speaks through the prophets ["has spoken to me"] is the God who Himself deals with me. He is moving towards personal relationship with God, whereas he had earlier spoken to Isaiah of "Yahweh your God". </p><p>I will walk carefully all my years because of that anguished experience of my soul- Hezekiah saw Jacob’s watershed experience that night of wrestling as analogous to his own experience during his sickness:"I reckoned till morning, that as a lion he would break all my bones (cp. Esau’s approach)... I shall go softly (cp. "I will lead on softly", <a href='B:10 33:14'>Gen 33:14</a>)... for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back"(<a href='B:290 38:13'>Isa 38:13</a>; <a href='B:290 38:15'>Isa 38:15</a>). Tragically, Hezekiah didn’t keep Jacob as his hero. He succumbed to the very materialism which Jacob permanently rejected that night. Hezekiah, typical of all men, was on a cusp of gratitude and spirituality, whereby he felt sure he would live like this the rest of his days, "all my years". But he didn't. No spiritual peak is automatically retained but must be consciously retained. Hezekiah and Judah had made the same mistake at the time of the reforms of 2 Chron. 30. </p>


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<p>Lord, men live by these things; and my spirit finds life in all of them: You restore me, and cause me to live- The revival he felt was not simply of physical healing, but in spiritual restoration:&nbsp; This again suggests he was not in fact a stellar example of spirituality beforehand. But he didn’t render again according to the grace given, and he didn’t keep this natural undertaking to live spiritually"by these things", as a result of the healing and national deliverance given. LXX"Yea, O Lord, for it was told thee concerning this; and thou hast revived my breath; and I am comforted, and live"; GNB" Lord, I will live for you, for you alone; Heal me and let me live". Paul appears to apply Hezekiah's experience and insights here to each of us: "For we who live are always being delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh." (2 Cor. 4:11).</p><p>When we are seriously ill or in great calamity, we focus upon very simple ideas. God truly loves me and cares for me. My Lord Jesus will come again. He will raise me. Judgment lies ahead, but He wants me in His Kingdom. He died for me. He has a plan for me. He loves me and wishes only my eternal good. Hezekiah was driven to this when he was terminally ill. Afterwards he felt as a little child, and concluded: “by these things men live...". Yet we are all terminally ill, if only we would know it. Paul quotes from the experience of Hezekiah at this time and says that this should be the keynote of our witness (<a href='B:540 4:13'>2Co 4:13</a> cp. <a href='B:230 116:10'>Psa 116:10</a>). He was “delivered from death” and therefore promised to walk before the Lord “in the lands of the living”, believing in salvation and therefore speaking to those lands of it (RV). We all face the day when we shall be as water spilt on the ground, that cannot be gathered up; when the delicate, beautiful chandelier of human life will come crashing to the ground, when the rope holding the bucket snaps, and it falls into the well. In all these Biblical images of death, we face the tragic irreversibility of it all. Our bodies are already riddled with the cancer of inevitable decay. Today, while it is still today, we must focus ourselves upon the vital and essential realities of our faith, and away from all the peripheral issues upon which our flesh would far rather dwell.</p>


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<p>Behold, for peace I had great anguish, but You have in love for my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption; for You have cast all my sins behind Your back- This again suggests that Hezekiah’s previous life had not been of totally stellar obedience. Hezekiah didn’t have"peace"before his suffering, so we must go with other translations. LXX"For thou hast chosen my soul, that it should not perish: and thou hast cast all my sins behind me"; GNB"My bitterness will turn into peace. You save my life from all danger; You forgive all my sins". peace. You save my life from all danger; You forgive all my sins". Hezekiah had simply told God of his upright life. God healed him for His Name's sake, and for David's sake- for the sake of the sure mercies / grace promised to David. Yet when he received the healing, Hezekiah realizes his sins. His prayer changed him, but not God, who was aware of Hezekiah's sins before Hezekiah was, and responded to his need by grace and not because of Hezekiah's righteousness. God healed him, instead of turning away from him because of his self righteousness and lack of confession of sin. But it was this grace which elicited within him an awareness of his sin and God's forgiveness.Our forgiveness of others can achieve the same. And yet they like Hezekiah can not render again according to the grace given.</p><p>To cast behind the back means to despise, to take lightly and to not take seriously. It doesn't mean to totally forget. It is the term used for how Judah had cast God and His law behind their backs (1 Kings 14:9; Neh. 9:26; Ez. 23:35). This gives some window onto how God feels about our sins once He has forgiven them. He is historically aware of the sins He has forgiven but He despises them and doesn't take them seriously. The same ideas are found in how Moses "took your sin, the calf you had made... and I cast the dist thereof into the brook" (Dt. 9:21). </p>


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<p>For Sheol can’t praise You. Death can’t celebrate You. Those who go down into the pit can’t hope for Your truth- That death is truly unconsciousness, even for the righteous, is demonstrated by the repeated pleas of God’s servants to allow their lives to be lengthened, because they knew that after death they would be unable to praise and glorify God, seeing that death was a state of unconsciousness. Hezekiah (<a href='B:290 38:17-19'>Isa 38:17-19</a>) and David (<a href='B:230 6:4-5'>Psa 6:4-5</a>; <a href='B:230 30:9'>Psa 30:9</a>; <a href='B:230 39:13'>Psa 39:13</a>; <a href='B:230 115:17'>Psa 115:17</a>) are good examples of this. Death is repeatedly referred to as a sleep or rest, both for the righteous and the wicked (<a href='B:220 3:11'>Job 3:11</a>; <a href='B:220 3:13'>Job 3:13</a>; <a href='B:220 3:17'>Job 3:17</a>; <a href='B:340 12:13'>Dan 12:13</a>). And yet Hezekiah reasons as if he has no hope of future resurrection; in the grave he could have hoped for God’s truth, the fulfilment of the promises to David which were clearly in his mind at this time. It was the lack of this future perspective which led him to his final failure, of considering that"peace and truth"in his last years was a good enough reward (see on <a href='B:290 39:8'>Isa 39:8</a>). Paul warns against the misery of thinking that "in this life only we have hope in Christ". It is a malaise that affects many claiming to be Christian- they have no clear idea of any future hope, and live today according to Christian tradition but with little longer term perspective. Whereas the Bible continually emphasizes the hope of personal bodily resurrection and eternity at the Lord's return. </p>


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<p>The living, the living, he shall praise You, as I do this day. The father shall make known Your truth to the children- LXX"for from this day shall I beget children, who shall declare thy righteousness". This is not to say that at 39 he had no children, for he was commanded to arrange the affairs of his household / family (:1). And yet he vows to teach the"truth"of the Abrahamic and Davidic covenant to his children in future. <a href='B:290 39:7'>Isa 39:7</a> suggests he would now have [more?] children. His children were a remarkable failure. He apparently didn’t do this. His having children after his recovery and figurative resurrection would look forward to the Lord’s spiritual achievement. But again he is focused upon the life that now is, and assumes he will have children who will take forward God’s truth- rather than any mention or implication of a faith in resurrection and a future Kingdom. David had such a faith and understanding, as did Job; Hezekiah clearly didn’t.</p><p>Hezekiah presents as childless, and now promises to tell his future children God's "truth". But this was on a cusp of emotion, because when he is told in Is. 39:7 that his sons were to be eunuchs in Babylon, he makes no appeal for this to be changed. He is just relieved that there will be peace during his 15 years. Again we see, as in the lesson of the zealous reforms of 2 Chron. 30 that didn't last, that true spirituality is not on the cusp of emotion nor the passion of a moment. Men may do fine things and make huge sacrifice at one point- but it's the long run, in spiritual terms, which God looks at. And that is also true for the high profile sins of some. </p>


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<p>Yahweh will save me- This is the idea of the Hebrew word for "Jesus", ’Yehoshua’.</p><p>Therefore we will sing my songs with stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of Yahweh- The"songs of degrees"were written or rewritten to apply to this experience of the sun returning ten degrees or steps. There are 15 of them, matching the 15 extra years of life given to Hezekiah. There are ten of those 15 songs written by Hezekiah, perhaps alluding to the ten degrees the shadow went backward.  "Our life"may refer to his children (:19). But as discussed on <a href='B:290 39:8'>Isa 39:8</a>, he still sees service to God as limited to his lifetime, "all the days of our life", clearly referring to the 15 years 'added to your days'.</p>


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<p>Now Isaiah had said, Let them take a cake of figs, and lay it for a poultice on the boil, and he shall recover- The poultice of fig leaves didn't heal him nor could it specifically give him 15 years of life. Indeed, fig leaves were an inadequate covering in Eden. God's grace saved from judgment, not fig leaves. There was no need for this, because his salvation was by a miracle. But it was perhaps given in reflection of his weak faith and needing something visible; hence :22 begins"Hezekiah also had"asked for a sign, as if the cake of figs was likewise associated with his needing visible assurances. We note it was done on Isaiah’s initiative, who perhaps perceived Hezekiah’s need for something visible.</p><p>Whatever Hezekiah's illness was, it is presented as being the result of a boil which was causing the invasion of his body with an illness which would kill him. This is analagous to the situation with Judah. An invasion was rapidly spreading which was to destroy them, and so Hezekiah's illness and the delay in his death [for he was not saved from death, but just from death at that time] speaks of the delay in Judah's judgment. Although the essence of the prophecy remained true, the fulfilment was changed in channel- from the Assyrians to the Babylonians. Perhaps Isaiah has this in view when he says in Is. 55:11 that God's word shall not return to Him empty but will achieve its intention, finally. And this is how so many prophecies are fulfilled- through a process of recaluclation and reapplication, with the essence coming true but not the letter. Likewise the judgment upon Nineveh was delayed- Nahum is clear that it did come, but much later than initially planned. </p>


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<p>Hezekiah also had said, What is the sign that I will go up to the house of Yahweh?- Or as LXX"This is a sign to Ezekias, that I shall go up to the house of God". The request for this sign could be read as a lack of faith; or an attempt to learn the lesson of his father Ahaz, who was condemned for not asking for a sign. See on :7.</p><p>The chronology in 2 Chron. 20:7-9 appears to suggest that after he was healed, Hezekiah asked for a sign that he really was healed: "Isaiah said, Take a cake of figs. They took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered. Hezekiah said to Isaiah, What shall be the sign that Yahweh will heal me, and that I shall go up to the house of Yahweh the third day? Isaiah said, This shall be the sign to you from Yahweh, that Yahweh will do the thing that He has spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten steps, or go back ten steps?". </p>


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<p>At that time, Merodach Baladan the son of Baladan king of Babylon sent letters and a present to Hezekiah; for he heard that he had been sick, and had recovered- Gentiles bringing presents to Zion is the language of the reestablished kingdom (<a href='B:230 68:29'>Psa 68:29</a>). It could have come about then, when the surrounding nations brought presents to Hezekiah; but human pride and impenitence precluded it. See on <a href='B:290 18:7'>Isa 18:7</a>. And Hezekiah and his descendants adopted the ways of those nations rather than ruling over them and helping them toward Israel’s God. <a href='B:140 32:31'>2Ch 32:31</a> describes these people as"the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon", but an unusual word is used there for"ambassadors"; it is the word usually translated"scorner"or"mocker". The idea is clearly that these men had an agenda and were not sincere. And Hezekiah was willfully duped by them, falling for their agenda and being blinded by their gifts, rather than seeking to share the ways of Yahweh with them. Hezekiah ought to have learnt not to trust in them, seeing that trust in the"princes and ambassadors"of Egypt had been proven so false just in recent history (<a href='B:290 30:4'>Isa 30:4</a>). God likewise brings situations into our lives whereby situations repeat- to test our faith and understanding.</p><p>The"letters"and ’ambassadors’&nbsp;recall the ’letter’ from the ambassadors of Assyria in <a href='B:290 37:14'>Isa 37:14</a>. He didn’t respond spiritually to this ’trial by prosperity’. Hence:"However concerning the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent to him to inquire of the wonder that was done in the land, God left him, to try him, that He might know all that was in his heart"(<a href='B:140 32:31'>2Ch 32:31</a>)."The wonder"could refer to the miracle on the sundial, or to the miraculous revival of the land physically in line with Isaiah’s prophecies:&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>Hezekiah had been warned at the start of his reign that Babylon was to become an evil empire whom Yahweh would destroy. The oracle against Babylon was given just as He became king (Is. 14:28 "In the year that king Ahaz died was this burden"). But the years had blunted the power of God's word, perhaps he had not re-read or regularly listened to Isaiah's prophecies. Babylon then would have been very small and distant, and he didn't pay attention to the prophecy- probably. And so when ambassadors from Babylon came to him, Hezekiah was easily flattered and he sought to impress them. When he should have remembered their predicted sad end. </p>


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<p>Hezekiah was pleased with them-"Pleased"is s:w."joy","to rejoice". It is used of how Hezekiah previously had rejoiced in spiritual things (<a href='B:140 29:36'>2Ch 29:36</a>; <a href='B:140 30:25'>2Ch 30:25</a>). Now he rejoices in material things, and being respected by Gentiles rather than God. His"joy"or ’pleasure’ ought to have been solely in Yahweh’s salvation (<a href='B:290 25:9'>Isa 25:9</a> s:w:). Hezekiah rejoiced"with them"; the Hebrew text is emphatic about this joy"with them". But the whole land had been charged not to rejoice at the fall of Assyria because it would revive in another form (s:w. <a href='B:290 14:29'>Isa 14:29</a>). Hezekiah is presented as totally ignorant of all this.</p><p>Hezekiah's problem was pride. Isaiah had repeatedly criticized Judah for being proud, and for their land being "filled with silver and gold" as well as full of idols and pride. Hezekiah was not an idolater, but he was caught up in the materialism and associated pride of the society in which he lived. This really is a warning to us. The Assyrian inscriptions even note his pride, e.g. "I overthrew the wide region of Judah. Its king, Hezekiah, a proud rebel, I made submit at my feet".
</p><p>And showed them the house of his precious things, the silver, and the gold, the spices, and the precious oil, and all the house of his armour, and all that was found in his treasures. There was nothing in his house nor in all his dominion that Hezekiah didn’t show them- LXX"the houses of his treasures". This sounds as if his kingdom had become like that of Egypt and Solomon, where treasure cities were associated with gross materialism and refusal of the things of God’s Kingdom. The Babylonians had revolted against Assyria, and they wanted help from Judah to form a political alliance against Assyria. But Hezekiah was taken in by the presents and attention paid to him, responding in pride rather than telling them he had nearly died because of his alliances; he ought to have told Babylon to accept Yahweh as their God, and thus be saved from Assyria as Judah had been. Presumably he agreed to the alliance; hence the judgment given, that his people would go into captivity in Babylon. He had recently been so lacking in gold that he had stripped the temple’s gold and given it to the Assyrians (<a href='B:120 18:16'>2Ki 18:16</a>). This sudden abundance of wealth may well have come from nations such as Babylon, who were eager to have Judah onside with them as a now significant and respected ally against Assyria. The wealth of the Gentiles flowed in to the liberated Zion, but only as a very weak foreshadowing of the things of the Kingdom. Human"armour"ought not to have been gloried in; for the entire message of Zion’s deliverance was that it was achieved by God’s power and grace and not at all by human strength. But the same Hebrew word is used repeatedly of the temple vessels which Hezekiah had earlier sanctified for usage (<a href='B:140 29:19'>2Ch 29:19</a>; <a href='B:140 29:26-27'>2Ch 29:26-27</a>; <a href='B:140 30:21'>2Ch 30:21</a>). But now he had removed them out of temple service in Yahweh’s house into his own house. His focus was upon his kingdom ["dominion"], rather than the things of Yahweh’s Kingdom. It was these very vessels which were to be carried to Babylon (s:w. <a href='B:140 36:7'>2Ch 36:7</a>).</p><p>Both Hezekiah and his father Ahaz had emptied the king's treasure house in attempting to buy off the Assyrian enemies (2 Kings 16:8; 18:15). But so soon after the Assyrian destruction, Hezekiah's treasure house is amazingly  and impressively full. The surrounding nations had brought huge wealth to him, and he had likely spoiled the camp of the Assyrians. Which may have been full of high value metals they had looted from other nations they had recently defeated. And Hezekiah spiritually falls flat on his face when faced with the temptation brought about by sudden wealth. His poor response, being lifted up in pride, is so psychologically credible.
 </p><p>
Is. 22:8 condemned Judah for looking to the armour in this house, rather than looking to God: "you looked in that day to the armour in the house of the forest... But you didn’t look to Him who had done this, neither did you have respect for Him who purposed it long ago". Just as Hezekiah had earlier looked to Egypt rather than exclusively to God. And Isaiah had condemned him for this. His attention to Isaiah's word was therefore superficial. He wanted Isaiah to pray for him, but he himself presents as not responding to Isaiah's word, and wanting the benefit of Isaiah's intercession rather than taking seriously God's word through Isaiah.  </p><p>
Hezekiah‘s father, King Ahaz, had stripped the Temple of all its silver and gold, as well as all the gold and silver in the palace treasury, and sent it to Tiglath-Pileser (2 Kings 16:8,9). We see how he reacted against his father's idolatry, but followed the same faithless script of his father in other ways. This again is so psychologically credible. It's how sons are with their fathers, unless they are born again and made free of all the ties that bind. But only 30 years later, Hezekiah was able to give 30 talents (or 900 kg) of gold and 800 talents (or 24,000 kg) of silver to Sennacherib. He had built up considerable wealth quite quickly- especially bearing in mind he is recorded as undertaking huge building and fortification projects, repairing the Temple, providing huge numbers of sacrificial animals for the Passover, funding a campaign against the Philistines and having enough wealth to try to buy Egyptian military support against Assyria. </p><p>
This suggests Hezekiah was materialistic and on the look out for wealth. He believed his wealth could save him- he offered money to Egypt to help him, and paid a huge amount to Assyria to leave him alone. All of which was criticized by God through Isaiah. When his wealth revived after the Assyrian defeat, again it was his undoing- because he boasted of it to the Babylonians, who clearly were covetous and thence planned to come and take it by force. Which Isaiah says, God would empower them to do because of Hezekiah's pride. That pride arose from his great and sudden wealth, which was given to him by God: "Hezekiah enjoyed immense riches and honour. He built himself treasuries for gold, silver, precious stones, spices, jewels and every kind of desirable object, as well as storehouses for his returns of grain, new wine and olive oil, and stalls for all kinds of cattle and pens for the flocks. He also provided himself with donkeys in addition to his immense wealth of flocks and herds, since God had made him immensely wealthy" (2 Chron. 32:27-29). The promised blessing upon the land, producing "of itself", seems to have been responsible for the agricultural prosperity. The lands around him had been ravaged by the Assyrian scorched earth policy. They perhaps traded their wealth for food. But we note that this wealth led him to proudly show it off to the Babylonians, who came to find out about "the wonder that was done in the land" (2 Chron. 32:31, i.e. the amazing agricultural blessing). We now understand better why God is careful about giving wealth; because it typically leads to pride and loss of spirituality. </p><p>
The Rassam Cylinder and the Taylor Prism lists what the Assyrians claim Hezekiah gave them. It includes "thirty talents of gold" as also stated in 2 Kings 18:14, but also lists many high luxury items made of ivory, and also Hezekiah's daughters. The list would suggest Hezekiah was living a high luxury life and was a lover of wealth. The Cylinder and Prism also claim the Assyrians took not only gold and silver, but also spices, precious oil and the contents of Hezekiah's well stocked armoury, "the house of his armour". But in 2 Kings 20:13 and Is. 39:2, these are the very things which Hezekiah has in abundance after the Assyrian destruction, and shows off to the Babylonians. So we can better imagine psychologically what happened. Hezekiah had amassed great wealth before the invasion, probably from transit taxes on the trade routes he had gained control of through taking the territory around Gaza [there is archaeological evidence of this]. But he gives it all to the Assyrians and Egyptians through lack of faith. But he amazingly receives it all back, and more, after the miraculous defeat of Assyria. And this lead to his pride. How often is this proved true, that wealth brings pride and lack of faith. It is hard for a rich man to enter the Kingdom. Assyrian records show how much tribute was demanded and paid by various nations over their history- records of tribute from 26 countries have been preserved. The tribute demanded from Judah was one of the highest- indicating the relative wealth of Judah under Hezekiah. This wealth was what led him to lack of faith, and is criticized by Isaiah repeatedly. Archaeological evidence, especially from Lachish, likewise indicates that Hezekiah ruled over a very prosperous and wealthy society.</p>


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<p>Then Isaiah the prophet came to king Hezekiah and asked him, What did these men say? Where did they come from to you? Hezekiah said, They have come from a country far from me, even from Babylon- Surely these were rhetorical questions aimed at rebuking Hezekiah. His reply was made in pride (<a href='B:140 32:25'>2Ch 32:25</a>). The prophetic intention had been that the Gentiles would come from far countries to Israel’s God with offerings to Yahweh, but Hezekiah sees it in terms of them coming to him with presents and respect for him. He uses the very phrase of <a href='B:50 28:49'>Deu 28:49</a>, of how a nation"from a far country"was to come and destroy Israel.</p>


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<p>Then he asked, What have they seen in your house? Hezekiah answered, They have seen all that is in my house. There is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them- Hezekiah appears to be boasting that he had boasted. His attitude is completely wrong. As in :3, these are rhetorical questions; and rather like those given to Adam in Eden, they were intended to elicit repentance. LXX"yea, also the possessions in my treasuries". Note the emphasis on"my... my:. I". The focus on his possessions and treasuries suggests the Lord quarried the parable of the rich fool from Hezekiah, who thought he had wealth to enjoy for the remainder of his days; see on :6."My house... your house"stands in contrast to the temple / house of Yahweh which ought to have been Hezekiah’s focus. All that was in his house was to be taken to Babylon (:6). The intention was that the Gentiles"from a far country"(s:w. <a href='B:290 5:26'>Isa 5:26</a>) would come to Zion and"see"or"be shown"(s:w:) God’s glory (<a href='B:290 49:7'>Isa 49:7</a>; <a href='B:290 52:15'>Isa 52:15</a>; <a href='B:290 60:5'>Isa 60:5</a>; <a href='B:290 61:9'>Isa 61:9</a>; <a href='B:290 62:2'>Isa 62:2</a>; <a href='B:290 66:18'>Isa 66:18</a> s:w:). But instead Hezekiah showed them his own glory. He precluded the fulfilment of these prophecies in terms of his kingdom being the reestablished kingdom of Yahweh.</p>


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<p>Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, Hear the word of Yahweh of Armies-"Hear"may be an appeal to repent and stop the prophesied outcome from happening in accordance with <a href='B:300 18:8-10'>Jer 18:8-10</a>.  Hezekiah is being asked to hear or be obedient to the threat of future judgment- by repenting, in the gap between the pronouncing of the prophecy and its fulfilment. But he doesn't. His final comment is that there will be peace in his time, and he is good with that. </p>


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<p>‘Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up until this day, will be carried to Babylon. Nothing will be left’, says Yahweh- This would have seemed impossible; for Babylon was one of many apparently irrelevant small powers whom both Sargon and Sennacherib had overrun, destroyed her towns, and enforced direct Assyrian rule. That in 160 years’ time Babylon would be the dominant power and would take Judah captive... appeared laughable. But God had just demonstrated that He could destroy the Assyrian army in a moment; and indeed it happened (<a href='B:120 24:13'>2Ki 24:13</a>). ’Storing up’ is surely alluded to by the Lord in the parable of the rich fool; he stored up riches only to lose them in a moment of Divine judgment, and was not rich toward God. See on :4. Just as there was "nothing" Hezekiah didn't show the ambassadors, so "nothing will be left". He showed them "all", and "all that is in your house..." would be carried away.</p>


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<p>‘They will take away your sons who will issue from you, whom you shall father, and they will be eunuchs in the king of Babylon’s palace’- There is a theme in Isaiah of conceiving, suffering pain in labour- but bringing forth in vain (<a href='B:290 26:18'>Isa 26:18</a>; <a href='B:290 33:11'>Isa 33:11</a>; <a href='B:290 59:4'>Isa 59:4</a>):&nbsp; And so did Hezekiah, in that he and his children turned away from true faith (<a href='B:290 39:7'>Isa 39:7</a>). In Isaiah’s immediate context, the application would have been to the sense that the remnant had come to the birth but there was not strength to bring forth (<a href='B:290 37:3'>Isa 37:3</a>); apart from a few individuals, there was no bringing forth of a significant repentant remnant who would be the basis for the restored Kingdom. It felt like they were still under the curse of bringing forth in pain but in vain. The pain in vain at the time of the Assyrian invasion led to Micah offering a reworked version of all this; they were to be in pain at the hands of the Babylonians, but would bring forth in Babylon in that they would there repent, and the spiritually reborn remnant would emerge and their captors therefore judged (<a href='B:400 4:10'>Mic 4:10</a>). But that possibility also didn’t work out:&nbsp; And so this idea of bringing forth but not in vain, but rather finding meaning in the resurrection of Messiah and all in Him, came to be reapplied to the birth of the Lord Jesus from the grave in resurrection; and it would characterize the establishment of the Kingdom age in Zion (<a href='B:290 65:24'>Isa 65:24</a>). Hezekiah’s immediate sons"who will issue from you, whom you shall father"weren’t permanently taken to Babylon. Manasseh was taken there but repented and returned to Judah (<a href='B:140 33:11-13'>2Ch 33:11-13</a>); but it was in <a href='B:340 1:3'>Dan 1:3</a> that"the king’s seed"were all deported there permanently. Again we have an example of a prophecy being delayed and suspended in fulfilment. This could have been because of the prayer and repentance of a minority, not least Manasseh; the spirituality of Josiah; or God’s constant pity towards His people.</p><p>Hezekiah's 'don't care' attitude is perhaps reflected in his son Manasseh, who became one of Judah's worst kings. "Manasseh" is a name without the common 'Yah' suffix. This itself indicates that Hezekiah did not want the Yahweh Name associated with his child, who was born3 years into the extra 15 years. Manasseh means 'causing to forget', and we enquire what it was that Hezekiah sought to forget. We wonder whether it was, in a word, God. But his awareness of God could not be erased, and so he wrote Ecclesiastes.</p><p> 
If his sons were to be eunuchs, then the Davidic line would end. We rather hope Hezekiah's response will be similar to his response to the news that he must die without sons; we expect weeping and intense prayer as in the previous chapter, when Isaiah gives him a hard word from the Lord. But we are disappointed. Hezekiah presents as childless before his illness, and when healed he promised to tell his future children God's "truth"(Is. 38:18). But this was on a cusp of emotion, because when he is told in Is. 39:7 that his sons were to be eunuchs in Babylon, he makes no appeal for this to be changed. He is just relieved that there will be peace during his 15 years. Again we see, as in the lesson of the zealous reforms of 2 Chron. 30 that didn't last, that true spirituality is not on the cusp of emotion nor the passion of a moment. Men may do fine things and make huge sacrifice at one point- but it's the long run, in spiritual terms, which God looks at. And that is also true for the high profile sins of some. </p>


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<p>Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, Yahweh’s word which you have spoken is good. He said moreover, For there will be peace and truth in my days- To accept Yahweh's word as "good" doesn't have to indicate much spirituality. The wicked Eli does the same when told he and his sons shall be judged for their wickedness: "He is Yahweh, let Him do what is good in His sight" (1 Sam. 3:18). He accepts the judgment as 'fair enough' but goes on impenitently. The 'goodness' perceived by both Eli and Hezekiah was simply that they would not immediately experience judgment. Men are the same today, willing to accept they have a few years to live and after that will face judgment. Often we read of God doing good in His own sight (2 Sam. 10:12). I suspect Hezekiah is alluding to that idea- God can do what He thinks good. Unlike when faced with death, he makes no attempt to reason with God. </p><p>
To say that a "word" is "good" is a Hebraism for expressing agreement. The phrase is translated "Well said" (1 Kings 18:24; see too 1 Sam. 9:10; Dt. 1:14 "The thing [s.w. "word"] you have spoken is good" and often). It's as if Hezekiah saw God offering him personally 15 years of life in return for Judah going into captivity and Jerusalem falling. And he agrees. "He said moreover, For there shall be peace and truth in my days" is surely telling us what he said within himself. Hence GNB "King Hezekiah understood this to mean that there would be peace and security during his lifetime, so he replied, "The message you have given me from the LORD is good"". He made the agreement because he thought that it was a good enough return for he himself having 15 peaceful years. This was selfishness at its acme. And so the record ends in Isaiah, inviting us to see Hezekiah as impenitent of that awful egoism. The implication is surely that  instead of 'agreeing' to the word of judgment, he should have begged for a different outcome- just as he did when he was given the 'word' of his own imminent death. But he thought only of himself, not of the wider picture of God's people. His sons becoming eunuchs in Babylon (:7) would've meant the end of the direct Davidic line of kings- but he didn't care. Self interest dominated all wider issues. 
</p><p>
Hezekiah presents as childless, and now promises to tell his future children God's "truth". But this was on a cusp of emotion, because when he is told in Is. 39:7 that his sons were to be eunuchs in Babylon, he makes no appeal for this to be changed. He is just relieved that there will be peace during his 15 years. Again we see, as in the lesson of the zealous reforms of 2 Chron. 30 that didn't last, that true spirituality is not on the cusp of emotion nor the passion of a moment. Men may do fine things and make huge sacrifice at one point- but it's the long run, in spiritual terms, which God looks at. And that is also true for the high profile sins of some. </p><p>
"Peace and truth" is translated "assured peace" in the context of assurance that judgment will not come (Jer. 14:13). Or the idea may be that real peace is experienced on the basis of the truth of God's words. And he had had that Divine word of assurance, that judgment wouldn't come in his lifetime. What should he have done? Surely appeal for Judah to repent in order to change that outcome. And to repent himself. We see here Hezekiah's focus on himself. He would be saved from shame of face during his life, and that was enough for him. He had no real care for his children or grandchildren. It was all about him. Rather like when his death is announced, he basically pleads with God "I don't want to die, I don't deserve it, I've lived a good life". He refused to accept that the wages of sin is death. And he makes no obviously discernible reference to the hope of resurrection in the future.  </p><p>
Sadly despite the warning from the example of Shebna (see on <a href='B:290 22:15'>Isa 22:15</a>) and the specific command not to just live for today and resign ourselves to an eternal death (<a href='B:290 22:13'>Isa 22:13</a>), Hezekiah at the end of his life gave in to just this same mentality. The sense is as GNB"King Hezekiah understood this to mean that there would be peace and security during his lifetime, so he replied, "The message you have given me from the LORD is good". "Peace and truth" is the language of the restored kingdom of God (<a href='B:300 33:6'>Jer 33:6</a>); and it is the same term used by Hezekiah when he failed to grasp the potential of the Kingdom being reestablished in his times; he was content with peace and truth in his times alone (see on <a href='B:290 38:18'>Isa 38:18</a>; <a href='B:290 38:20'>Isa 38:20</a>). Likewise the Jews of Esther’s time were content with "peace and truth" in their times, rather than seeing that what had happened was to lead them towards the eternal peace and truth with God of His Kingdom and not their own (see on <a href='B:190 8:13-16'>Est 8:13-16</a>; <a href='B:190 9:30'>Est 9:30</a>). And this is the abiding temptation for all believers; to be satisfied with some degree of "peace and truth" emotionally and intellectually in their lives now, but resign the far greater realities of the Kingdom to come when "peace and truth" shall be in eternal reality.</p><p>The lesson presented is that it's better not to have more life if during it you will turn away from God. This is a principle with massive implications. Life is to be lived for God, and we are to trust that His plan to get us to His Kingdom is in fact the best. Our struggle with death, illness and the apparent termination of our experience of what we think we should experience... is all subsumed beneath this acceptance.</p>


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<p>Comfort you, comfort My people, says your God- The historical interlude has demonstrated that the prophecies in Isaiah 1-36 of judgment at the hands of Assyria were ameliorated and deferred by the intense repentance and intercession of Isaiah’s school of prophets. But the interlude concludes with the bad news that the reformation was not thorough, and that Judah would go into captivity in Babylon; and therefore the earlier prophecies of judgment by Assyria would be reapplied to judgment by Babylon. But out of that there was to come a wonderful restoration of God’s Kingdom in Israel, explained in the so called ’second Isaiah’ (Isaiah 40-55). But sadly, the Jews who returned failed to allow that amazing potential to come true; the burden of the so called ’third Isaiah’ (Isaiah 56-66). This message of restoration and yet lack of human response to it is what the rest of Isaiah is about.</p><p>For "Comfort", see on <a href='B:450 1:13'>Zec 1:13</a>. This comfort is that spoken of in <a href='B:330 14:22-23'>Eze 14:22-23</a>, where we read that the exiles would be comforted when they recognized the evil of Judah’s ways and recognized that the judgment upon her had been just. But Isaiah 40 appears to be a message of unconditional comfort to the exiles- without specifically demanding their repentance. But even then, they still failed to accept it and respond; they preferred to stay in Babylon. <a href='B:290 40:1-2'>Isa 40:1-2</a> speaks a message of comfort to the exiles: “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God”. But [in full allusion to this prophecy], the exiles were like Rachael who refused to be comforted over her loss (<a href='B:300 31:15'>Jer 31:15</a>); they claimed they found “none to comfort” (<a href='B:310 1:2'>Lam 1:2</a>; <a href='B:310 1:16-17'>Lam 1:16-17</a>; <a href='B:310 1:21'>Lam 1:21</a>). But they were willfully refusing the comfort of God’s repeated word of hope and restoration. They didn’t grasp the plain teaching of the prophetic word because they didn’t want to- it demanded too much of them, and a giving up of the comfortable Babylon life. Hence <a href='B:290 43:19'>Isa 43:19</a> laments: “I am doing a new thing: now it springs forth [in the decree to return to Zion?], do you not perceive it?”. And do we "not perceive it?" time and again in our own lives, as to the potentials God is opening up?</p><p>According to Jewish tradition, Nehemiah’s real name was Zerubbabel, the branch (Sanhedrin 38a)- perhaps the same Zerubbabel as mentioned in Haggai and Zechariah. The Hippolytus Chronicle 7:3:37 even claims Nehemiah was a direct descendant of David and in the direct kingly line. His name, ‘comfort of Yahweh’, invites us to see him as the potential fulfilment of the <a href='B:290 40:1-2'>Isa 40:1-2</a> prophecy about a Messiah figure arising to the exiles, giving them God’s comfort. At the time of Judah’s redemption, while the temple had been trodden down by her enemies, the promised Messiah figure of <a href='B:290 63:1-3'>Isa 63:1-3</a>; <a href='B:290 63:18'>Isa 63:18</a> was to come from Edom and Bozrah - both code names for Babylon. The words "Bozrah" and "Babylon" have similar root meanings (’high / fortified place’). And he was to lament how the people of Judah were not with him- "of the people there was none with me". But this is the very spirit of Nehemiah, when he returns to Jerusalem from Babylon and looks around the ’trodden down’ city at night, not telling the people of the Jews about his inspection- i:e. the people were not with him (<a href='B:160 2:11-16'>Neh 2:11-16</a>).</p><p>The appeal is to preachers to call Judah back to Zion from Babylon. The word for "comfort" is that used for "repent", e.g. "no man repented of his wickedness" (Jer. 8:6). But they are being asked to repent because they have been forgiven- and not the other way around. When John the Baptist fulfilled these words, he baptized unto repentance (Mt. 3:11). It was a 'repentance baptism' (Acts 19:4) in that it was to induce them to repentance through the prevenient work of the Spirit. The preacher was being asked to comfort / repent the exiles.  
The various voices in Is. 40:1-11 may be a reflection of the court of Heaven. During that time, Zion had been as a forsaken woman "not comforted" (Is. 54:11). Now she was to be comforted, that the separation and suffering was over. Whether the preachers would fulfil this, or whether Israel would respond, is left open. Jerusalem or "Zion" in Isaiah can refer to geographical Jerusalem, but often "Zion" is used as a personification of God's people. Isaiah sketches "Zion" as a woman married to God, who needs comfort to accept His love and re-start her relationship with Him. And she is later comforted that her children will return, or at least, she will have many children and a wonderful, eternal life. This part of Isaiah begins with this call to "comfort" Zion (:2) and will conclude with her being a comforter to the newborn nations: "Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her: rejoice for joy with her, all you who mourn over her; that you may nurse and be satisfied at her comforting breasts" (Is. 66:10,11). Paul surely has this in mind when he teaches that we use the "comfort" we receive from God to comfort others (2 Cor. 1:4). "My people... your God" immediately assures them that they are in covenant relationship with God. He has not rejected them.

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<p>Speak comfortably to Jerusalem- "I shall speak to her heart" (<a href='B:350 2:16'>Hos 2:16</a>; s:w. "speak comfortably") is an idiom elsewhere used about seeking to win the heart of a woman by persuasive words (<a href='B:10 34:3'>Gen 34:3</a>; <a href='B:80 2:13'>Rth 2:13</a>; <a href='B:70 19:3'>Jdg 19:3</a>); Hosea dreamt of winning Gomer back to him by his words. This has a direct equivalent in the restoration context- for the same term is used in <a href='B:290 40:2'>Isa 40:2</a>, where God through the prophets seeks to speak to the heart of Zion and persuade her to return from Babylon to Him in Jerusalem and enjoy the married life of His Kingdom. And yet like Gomer, they either didn’t want to hear, or responded on a merely surface level.</p><p>And call out to her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received of Yahweh’s hand double for all her sins- see on <a href='B:220 7:1'>Job 7:1</a>.</p><p>
 The impression is given that the turning point from wrath to love has arrived. The language is trying to capture that point, where wrath with a loved one reverts to an overflowing love- the love that in fact was always there. This is the good news of the Gospel. Truly "the wrath of God is the love of God"; wrath and love are related. And because God has dealt with His peoples' sin, His love flows out. And that is what each of us can perceive on a deeply personal level. This is the power of the Lord's finished work for us on the cross, dealing with sin and thus effecting a change in God's rightful wrath.
"Her term of service is over, that the debt owed for her iniquity has been satisfied" (Is. 40:2) suggests a kind of transactional approach which some find inappropriate. Zion had a debt to pay she could only deal with by selling herself as a slave for a period. But they are the terms used. A debt was paid or cleared; although not necessarily by her labour! "Without money you will be redeemed" (Is. 52:3). For the language of "redemption" will be used about Zion; someone had redeemed her, had met the debt.  Is.  43:1-7; 44:22; 50:1,2; 52:3 all present Yahweh intervening and paying off the debt Himself. For that is what 'redemption' alludes to her. "He has redeemed Jerusalem" (Is. 52:9) leads in to the servant song of Is. 52 / 53 regarding the death of the Lord Jesus. God presents as both the one to whom the debt is owed, and also the redeemer from that debt. For clearly sin is presented as debt; "he cancelled the debt of all our trespasses... erasing the bond of indebtedness that stood against us" (Col. 2:14,15). Is. 50:1 is clear: "Do you think I sold you into captivity like a man who sells his children as slaves? No, you went away captive because of your sins; you were sent away because of your crimes". God did not sell them into slavery, they sold themselves, just as Elijah said of Ahab: "you have sold yourself to do evil" (1 Kings 21:20). Indeed the captivity occurred because they sold themselves to do evil (2 Kings 17:17). We likewise are "sold under sin" (Rom. 7:14).  But somehow the debt had been cleared, not by Zion's slave labour, and so she need not serve any longer. The fact the Jews chose to remain in Persia is exactly for the same reasons as people prefer to remain in bondage to sin when faced with the Gospel of redemption. How that was achieved is not at this point made clear. God could simply forgive debt. But the servant song of Is. 53 surely gives the deeper answer- it was the death of the Messianic servant which provided the technical answer as to "how" this was achieved. Is. 53:5 is clear: "The penalty we should have paid was upon him". We could render Is. 40:2: “Indeed, she will receive double from the hand of Yahweh in exchange for all of the suffering on account of her sins". This double blessing is that of Is. 61:7: "Instead of your shame you shall have double; and instead of dishonour they shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in their land they shall possess double". It is in Is. 53 that we have the explanation as to how suffering for sin can lead to this double blessing- it was through the suffering servant, representative of Israel and yet morally perfect. 
The idea of buying without money in Is. 55:1 connects with the entire theme of Yahweh being Israel's "redeemer", their go'el, the One who would pay the price of their debt, rather than them having to work as slave labour for a period. They were thus redeemed without money. Clearly the link is to Is. 52:3 "you shall be redeemed without money". God would pay, not them. This is why Is. 55:11 will go on to talk of how God's word shall achieve His intention- and the "word" immediately in view is the word of restoration of the Kingdom and eternal salvation of God's people. 
Jer. 25:12; 29:10 had stated that Judah would have to be 70 years in exile. It could be that the message of Is. 40 was that God had cut short that time. Yet the Jewish community didn't respond; and so, according to the revelations to Daniel, the time of their exile was extended. After it had apparently been potentially cut short. It's as if God was so eager to restore the relationship that He says that the 70 years contracted time for their slave labour, working to pay the debt of their sin, was now cut short because He would as it were pay the difference. "Accomplished" is the word used in 2 Chron. 36:21: "To fulfill the word of the Lord in the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land expiated [accomplished] its sabbatical years, all the days of its desolation it rested, thus completing seventy years".
The grace of God to the exiles is a foretaste of His grace to us. Time and again God speaks of the exiles in such positive language. For all that they had illingly adopted the gods of the captors, God still fondly describes them as ’Zion who dwells in Babylon’ (<a href='B:450 6:10-11'>Zec 6:10-11</a>). They were the Kingdom in embryo, waiting to just be transplanted from Babylon to Judah, just as we are the temple of God prepared symbolically in Heaven and waiting to be revealed on earth. Putting that grace another way, God proclaimed that despite all their idolatry and weakness in Babylon, Judah had ’paid off’ their guilt for former sins by their service there (<a href='B:290 40:2'>Isa 40:2</a>). We can only marvel at God’s grace, and the tragedy was that it was wasted and unperceived by them. May we do somewhat better.</p><p>Some prophecies were delayed / rescheduled in their fulfilment. Others have their intended fulfilment changed into another form. <a href='B:290 40:2'>Isa 40:2</a> speaks of how Jerusalem’s “punishment is accepted” (RVmg:), referring to how <a href='B:30 26:43'>Lev 26:43</a> had said that the land would lie desolate until her punishment was fulfilled. This passage could have come true when Judah returned from captivity. But it didn’t. It is applied to the preaching of John the Baptist in the 1st century; but again, Judah would not hear. And so once again the land lay desolate again, until now the time has arrived for the final Elijah prophet. God is seeking to fulfill His word, but He will not force the hand and hearts of men and women. Therefore prophecies are delayed in their fulfilment, as mankind is given yet more opportunities. The briefest attention to context will show that Isaiah 40 follows straight on from the account of Zion’s salvation from the Assyrian in Hezekiah’s time. The command to cry unto Jerusalem that her warfare is finished (<a href='B:290 40:2'>Isa 40:2</a>) is clearly following on from the historical account of Jerusalem’s salvation from Sennacherib’s invasion which we have just read in Isaiah 37-39. The voice in the wilderness [potentially Isaiah?] preached that all flesh was grass, referring back to how the nations around Jerusalem had been “as the grass of the field” during Sennacherib’s invasion (<a href='B:290 37:27'>Isa 37:27</a> cp. 40:6). The voice crying in the wilderness to prepare Messiah’s way therefore was intended to occur after the defeat of Sennacherib. But Hezekiah messed up, and his people turned to materialism and idols. And thus the prophecy was rescheduled to fulfillment in John the Baptist; but again, Israel would not hearken. If Israel would have received it, John would have been the Elijah prophet; but overall they didn’t, and so the whole prophecy is again rescheduled to be fulfilled in the Elijah prophet of our last days. Micah 5 speaks of Messiah being born and being smitten upon the cheek at the same time as Jerusalem is besieged and Judah has been invaded by the Assyrians. Whatever minor fulfilment this may have had in Hezekiah, it was pathetically incomplete- he wasn’t born in Bethlehem, and he wasn’t smitten upon the cheek with a rod. I read all this as meaning that Messiah could have been born and then suffered in such circumstances- but it didn’t happen. The prophecy was fulfilled in essence, although in a different context and in a different way, in the Lord Jesus. Likewise <a href='B:290 9:6'>Isa 9:6</a> speaks as if the birth of Messiah would be at a time of deliverance from Israel’s invaders; yet <a href='B:290 9:13'>Isa 9:13</a> RV implies this would only happen if they were obedient: “Yet the people hath not turned / repented”:&nbsp;</p><p>God would punish Israel at the hand of the Babylonians according to their sins, proportionate to them (Ezekiel 7 : <a href='B:330 7:4'>Eze 7:4</a>, <a href='B:330 7:9'>Eze 7:9</a>; <a href='B:330 5:11'>Eze 5:11</a>; Ezek. 8:19; <a href='B:330 9:10'>Eze 9:10</a>). Yet when Israel were punished by the Babylonians, Ezra (<a href='B:150 9:13'>Ezr 9:13</a>) realized that they had not been punished proportionate to their sins. But here Isaiah says that their judgment had been double what it ought to have been; and yet Ezra says it was less than the promised proportionate recompense for their sins. Here we have the utter, inconsistent grace of God; almost taking guilt for punishing them (cp. how God likewise takes the blame in <a href='B:290 54:6-8'>Isa 54:6-8</a>, as if He had forsaken Israel as a sweet innocent young wife). The way God restored double to Job at the end has echoes of how a thief had to restore double (<a href='B:20 22:2-4'>Exo 22:2-4</a>)- as if God in His love for Job wished to show Himself as having been somehow ‘guilty’ for taking away from Job what He had?</p><p>God had outlined a plan- He will recompense their sin double, and this would lead them back to Him (<a href='B:300 16:18'>Jer 16:18</a>). But this was to be an unrepeatable, once-for-all program that would “cause them to know mine hand… and they shall now that my name is The Lord” (<a href='B:300 16:21'>Jer 16:21</a>). This double recompensing of Judah’s sin happened in the exile in Babylon (<a href='B:290 40:2'>Isa 40:2</a>), and therefore the joyful news was proclaimed to Zion in Isaiah 40 that now the Messianic Kingdom could begin. But there wasn’t much interest nor response to the call to return to Judah in order to share in it. The exile didn’t cause God’s people to repent nor to know His Name. It wasn’t the once-for-all program which He intended. Despite the fact that there is little evidence that Jewish exiles suffered much in Babylon. They were told by Jeremiah to build houses and plant vineyards there, and were so wealthy that Haman wanted to kill them and expropriate their huge wealth. Jews were queen and prime minister of Persia in Esther's time. Many Persians even became Jews.  </p>


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<p>The voice of one who calls out, Prepare you the way of Yahweh in the wilderness! Make a level highway in the desert for our God- Isaiah begins his section on the restoration with a bold prophecy that the restoration of Zion was to be associated with a way being prepared for Israel’s God to come to them (<a href='B:290 40:1-3'>Isa 40:1-3</a>).and also for them to come to Him over. He in a sense 'came' to them in Egypt from Sinai, He went forth to redeem them (Dt. 33:2; Jud. 5:4; Ps. 88:4,8); and would have done so again to save them from Persia / Babylon. But they refused, and so God as it were 'came down' in sending His Son as the redeemer, and will do so again in sending His Son to earth to save Israel and establish His eternal Kingdom on earth. Here it is "the way of Yahweh" that is prepared; the parallel prophecy of Is. 57:14 calls it "the way of the people": "prepare the way, take up the stumbling-block out of the way of My people". The way of God is that of His people. He was going to go with them on that way from the world to Zion. They would march with Him in glory and every assurance. In a sense, He comes out from Zion to Babylon, and they come from Babylon to Zion. They travel the same path, and meet: "You meet him who rejoices and works righteousness, those who remember You" (Is. 64:5). Is. 40 opens with a picture of the triumphant march in glory from Babylon to Zion. This is a great theme in Isaiah, and it speaks of our path from the world to God's Kingdom. Yahweh goes both in front (Is. 52:12) and behind, as the vanguard (Is. 58:8). Just as He is both the one to whom Israel owe their debt, and the one who redeems them from it by paying it off. He is involved in us, including our history of sin, around and above us, all the way through.
These words are repeated in <a href='B:460 3:1-3'>Mal 3:1-3</a>, where the messenger&nbsp; was to prepare the way of Yahweh’s coming. It seems that in some sense they could have come true in the first return of the exiles along the wilderness way back to Zion, under Ezra. But over 100 years later, in Malachi’s time, the prophecy was still capable of fulfilment, if the priesthood would be purged. But finally it was all deferred in fulfilment until the coming of John the Baptist and the Lord Jesus.
The language of 'preparing a way' is clearly applied to John. He would "make ready a people prepared for the Lord" (Lk. 1:17); John came "in the way of righteousness" (Mt. 21:32). The way is the people. Yet the Lord's take on John's ministry was that it was largely a failure- John had offered Israel as children in the marketplace to play funerals, and they had refused. The Lord invited them to play happy weddings and they refused. The exiles had complained they were left with no "comforter" after the Babylonian destruction of Zion (Lam. 1:2,9,16,17,21; 2:13). Now they were offered a comforter- and they refused. They were as Rachel refusing to be comforted... The preparation of natural Israel as the way must therefore yet be fulfilled. But we as spiritual Israel are being prepared as that "way" now. 
</p><p><a href='B:290 40:3'>Isa 40:3</a>, which is quoted in <a href='B:490 3:4'>Luk 3:4</a>, speaks of “Prepare ye the way of the Lord”, whereas <a href='B:290 62:10'>Isa 62:10</a> speaks of “Prepare ye the way of the people”. Yet tragically, the way / path of Israel was not the way / path of the Lord (<a href='B:330 18:25'>Eze 18:25</a>). We are not only Jesus to this world but also effectively we are the witness to God Himself. We minister His care to others; to the extent that Paul could write both that he was a minister of God, and also a minister of the church (<a href='B:540 6:4'>2Co 6:4</a>; <a href='B:580 1:24-25'>Col 1:24-25</a>).</p><p>The message of <a href='B:290 40:3'>Isa 40:3</a> is that before the final coming of the Lord, there will be a proclamation of this by His people: “Prepare ye [plural] the way of the Lord”. As the King’s servants went ahead of him to make the path he had to travel smooth and plain [remember there were no motorways then!], so we go ahead of the returning Lord of all the earth, to prepare the way / road for Him. And yet within Isaiah, there is ample evidence that God prepares His own way: “I will do a new thing…I will even make a way in the wilderness” (<a href='B:290 43:19'>Isa 43:19</a>). Perhaps the element of unreality here, the ‘new thing’, is that the King Himself prepares His own way or road. Or again: “I will make all my mountains a way” (<a href='B:290 49:11'>Isa 49:11</a>). The connection with <a href='B:290 40:3'>Isa 40:3</a> is that in the work of preparing the Lord’s way, in the last great preaching appeal of all time in the lead up to the second coming, the Lord Himself will work with us to make that way plain and clear. In all the challenges of the latter day fulfilment of the great commission, the Lord Himself will work with us.</p><p>The whole restoration program appears to be predicated upon preachers calling out to Zion to return, both to their God and to their land. This will also be true in the last day fulfilment. The Isaiah 40 passage is therefore a command for our latter day witness to all the world, Israel especially, to prepare their way for the Lord’s coming. We are to “cry” unto Zion that “her iniquity is pardoned”, but we are also to ‘cry’ for her to repent, to be “made straight”, for the rough places to be‘made plain’; to “cry aloud…lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression (<a href='B:290 40:2-4'>Isa 40:2-4</a>; <a href='B:290 58:1'>Isa 58:1</a>). It’s exactly because we have in prospect been forgiven that we are called to repent. The forgiveness has already been granted; iniquity has been pardoned. We are to ‘cry’ out this fact; and also to ‘cry out’ for repentance. But we have to respond to that. It’s similar to how Saul/Paul was called ‘brother’ even before his conversion and baptism. The world’s redemption was achieved through the cross; but we have to appeal to the world to accept it. And in our own lives we must live out what we are preaching to others; exactly because we have already been forgiven, we need to repent of what we’ve been forgiven of, to as it were claim that forgiveness as our very own. And the same Hebrew word translated ‘cry’ occurs in the same context in <a href='B:290 40:26'>Isa 40:26</a>; <a href='B:290 43:1'>Isa 43:1</a>; <a href='B:290 45:3-4'>Isa 45:3-4</a>; <a href='B:290 48:12'>Isa 48:12</a>; <a href='B:290 54:6'>Isa 54:6</a>, where we read that it is God Himself who calls every one of Israel back to Him, just as He calls every star by its own personal name. And so in our personal calling of men and women, in our crying out to them in these last days to be prepared for the Lord’s coming, we are workers together with God. He is crying out to them, through our feeble, shy, embarrassed, uncertain words of witness. Likewise it is God Himself who makes the crooked places straight in <a href='B:290 42:16'>Isa 42:16</a>; <a href='B:290 45:2'>Isa 45:2</a> - whereas in <a href='B:290 40:3'>Isa 40:3</a>, it is we the preachers who are to do this.</p>


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<p>Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The uneven shall be made level, and the rough places a plain- The whole purpose of the Gospel is to bring down the mountains of human pride and lift up the valleys of those who lack any self-respect (<a href='B:290 40:4'>Isa 40:4</a>), thereby making an equality of attitude amongst God’s people. The vision of the Kingdom in <a href='B:290 2:2-4'>Isa 2:2-4</a> was used as an appeal for humility amongst Israel (<a href='B:290 2:10-12'>Isa 2:10-12</a>). See on <a href='B:290 2:11'>Isa 2:11</a>. If we don’t humble ourselves now, then God will do this to us through the process of condemnation at the judgment. In this lies the insistent logic of humility. The theme of ‘bringing down’ pride is a major one in the first half of Isaiah (<a href='B:290 2:17'>Isa 2:17</a>; <a href='B:290 13:11'>Isa 13:11</a>; <a href='B:290 25:5'>Isa 25:5</a>; <a href='B:290 25:12'>Isa 25:12</a>; <a href='B:290 29:4'>Isa 29:4</a>; <a href='B:290 32:19'>Isa 32:19</a>). These passages pave the way for the announcement that in man’s response to the Gospel of Christ, “Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain” (<a href='B:290 40:4'>Isa 40:4</a>). By the hills of human pride being brought down, and the giving of confidence to those so low in the valleys of hopelessness and lack of self respect, there is a levelling of all those who respond to Christ. But more than this in this lifting up of the hopeless and bringing down of the proud, there is a foretaste of what will happen in the future day of judgment. In essence, “we make the answer now” by whether or not we bring down our pride, or whether we summon the faith in God’s grace and imputed righteousness to believe that we, who are nothing, are lifted up in His sight. “Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted: But the rich, in that he is made low” (<a href='B:660 1:9-10'>Jas 1:9-10</a>).</p><p>"Prepare ye the way… make straight in the desert a highway... the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain" is similar to <a href='B:290 45:1-2'>Isa 45:1-2</a>; <a href='B:290 45:13'>Isa 45:13</a> "Thus saith the Lord to Cyrus... I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight... I will make straight all his ways... he shall build my city, and he shall let go my captives". The preparation for the restoration in Isaiah 45 becomes a type of the preparation of the way to Christ.</p>&nbsp;<p>The primary reference of the Isaiah 40 passage is to the Jews. But even more specifically, it is to be cried out “to Jerusalem”. I submit that the most specific fulfilment of the prophecy will be in our latter day preaching resulting in a remnant of Jews repenting in Jerusalem, so that the Lord’s return will be to a faithful Jewish remnant in literal Jerusalem. The ‘making straight’ is to be done in “the desert” (:3)- a description elsewhere of Jerusalem (<a href='B:290 51:3'>Isa 51:3</a>). “Every [Heb. ‘the whole, complete’] mountain and hill” (:4) which is to respond to the Gospel may refer to people on the temple mount, upon which the Lord shall “come down, to fight for mount Zion, and for the hill thereof” (<a href='B:290 31:4'>Isa 31:4</a>; <a href='B:290 10:32'>Isa 10:32</a>). The Hebrew words used here for ‘mount’ and ‘hill’ are identical in the passages. The Lord will return to Zion to find a repentant remnant there, converted by our preaching. <a href='B:460 3:1'>Mal 3:1</a>, a clearly related passage, says that when the way has been prepared, then “the Lord… shall suddenly [Heb. ‘immediately’] come to his temple”. It seems that He comes as soon as, almost to the moment, that the way is prepared. Is it going too far to imagine that when the last Jews are baptized in Jerusalem, perhaps literally on the Temple Mount, then the Lord will immediately return there, “to his temple”? Then the Lord shall “come down to fight for mount Zion and for the hill thereof”.</p><p>“Made low” in <a href='B:290 40:4'>Isa 40:4</a> is surely in the spirit of <a href='B:290 2:11'>Isa 2:11</a>, which predicts that in the day of judgment, “the lofty looks of man shall be humbled [s:w. ‘made low’], and the haughtiness of man shall be bowed down”. The experience of condemnation in the coming day of the Lord will mean that “the proud and lofty” will be “brought low” (<a href='B:290 2:12'>Isa 2:12</a>; <a href='B:290 2:17'>Isa 2:17</a>; <a href='B:290 5:15'>Isa 5:15</a>). In fact, Isaiah is full of references to the proud being ‘made low’ by judgment- the same Hebrew word is common: <a href='B:290 10:33'>Isa 10:33</a>; <a href='B:290 13:11'>Isa 13:11</a>; <a href='B:290 25:11'>Isa 25:11</a>; <a href='B:290 26:5'>Isa 26:5</a>. Perhaps Paul had this in mind when he said that our preaching is a bringing down of every high thing that is exalted against God (<a href='B:540 10:5'>2Co 10:5</a>). Our message is basically that we must be humbled one way or the other- either by our repentance and acceptance of the Gospel today, or through the experience of condemnation at the day of judgment. We’re calling people to humility. And we must ask whether the content and style of our preaching really does that. But when John the Baptist quoted and preached this passage, he interpreted it beyond a call to humility. He said that in order to prepare the way of the Lord, to make a level passage for Him, the man with two coats should give to him who had none, and likewise share his food (<a href='B:490 3:11'>Luk 3:11</a>). So the ‘equality’ and levelling was to be one of practical care for others. We have to ask, how often we have shared our food, clothing or money with those who don’t have… for this is all part of preparing for the Lord’s coming. It could even be that when there is more of what Paul calls “an equality” amongst the community of believers, that then the way of the Lord will have been prepared. And He will then return.</p><p>Isaiah 40 is a prophecy which didn’t come true as it might have done at the restoration, and so it now essentially concerns the time of the Lord’s second coming. Verses 4 and 6 contain several references to <a href='B:290 2:10-12'>Isa 2:10-12</a>, which concerns this time; v. 5 = <a href='B:730 1:7'>Rev 1:7</a>; <a href='B:670 4:13'>1Pe 4:13</a>; v:10 = <a href='B:730 22:12'>Rev 22:12</a>. Before the Kingdom comes, there must be a witness to Israel of the blessed time that is coming, comforting her (v:2) that her time of punishment for sin has now ended (this can only really have a latter day application): "O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion, get thee up into the high mountain; O thou that tellest good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up thy voice with strength…say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God! behold, the Lord God will come..." . This is the language of <a href='B:290 52:7'>Isa 52:7</a>: "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings…that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth" . We know these words of <a href='B:290 52:7'>Isa 52:7</a> apply to our preaching, according to Paul’s use of them in Romans 10; and yet they specifically refer to the latter day witness to Israel, according to Isaiah 40. Therefore it is us who should be making this witness in the last days. Not only Isaiah 40 but also <a href='B:290 57:14'>Isa 57:14</a> teach that a level way must be made amongst the Jewish people, i:e. the stumbling blocks and ‘valleys’ must be removed from their path.
The idea is that they would travel in a direct path. This is also spoken of in Is. 43:19 (“In the desert I make a way”) and Is. 49:11 “I shall turn all my mountains into a road and my highways will be raised aloft”. God would make mountains low and valleys lifted up so that they had a straight route. This connects with the cherubim of Ezekiel travelling in a straight path. All obstacles to that straight path would be removed. But Judah refused this possibility, travelling along the river plains. And so the language is applied figuratively to the preparation of a people ready for the Lord Jesus, who would achieve a far greater restoration. </p>


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<p>The glory of Yahweh shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken it- John the Baptist perceived how eager God is to forgive, and how our acceptance of that forgiveness is His glory and His salvation. John says, quoting <a href='B:290 40:5'>Isa 40:5</a>, that if men repent and ready themselves for the Lord’s coming, then “all flesh shall see the salvation of God”. But he is changing the quotation- Isaiah said that all flesh shall see the glory of God. But saving men and women is the thing God glories in. <a href='B:290 40:5'>Isa 40:5</a> had called out to a Zion about to be restored that “the glory of the Lord shall be revealed”. In other words, the temple ought to have been a re-establishment of Solomon’s, with God’s attendant acceptance of it also. However, this didn’t happen. Ezekiel saw a vision of the glory of Yahweh filling the temple (<a href='B:330 43:5'>Eze 43:5</a>), as if to show that this, in line with Haggai’s words, was what could have happened at the restoration. However, it’s fulfilment must now await the future.  And the physical coming of glory into a literal temple has been replaced by the glory of God achieved through our forgiveness and salvation.
Although the Gospels apply this language to the Lord's coming, He did not then visibly establish God's Kingdom. God's people slew their own Messiah. But the language of the Lord appearing in glory is very much applied to His second coming (1 Pet. 4:13) when these prophecies shall again come gloriously true. The literally "all flesh shall see it together". Just as Moses asked to see God's glory, so now "all flesh shall see it together". Lk. 3:6 replaces seeing the "glory of Yahweh" with all flesh seeing “the salvation of God”, Yah-shua, Yah's salvation. Thus the glory of God is His salvation. He is glorified in saving us, and glories in doing so. It's what He wants to do above all things, and this should likewise be the passion of our lives- the saving of others to His glory.
As discussed on :2, God's enthusiasm for the restoration meant that He was as it were willing to cut corners in His requirements for the exiles. Ez. 43:1-5; 44:4 clearly predicate the return of the glory to Zion upon the exiles returning and rebuilding a temple according to the specifications given. But here we sense the enthusiasm of Yahweh, speaking of letting His glory come to Zion simply if the way was prepared for it to travel over, and for the exiles to return to Zion. 
Yet there were conditions. The "all flesh" who could see God's glory is the "all flesh" addressed in :6,7. "All flesh" had to recognize they were but grass, and to recognize their "glory" was but the passing flower of the field (:6)- in order to perceive God's glory.
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<p>The voice of one saying, Cry! Another one said,What shall I cry? All flesh is like grass, and all its glory is like the flower of the field- This is like a radio play for voices. The Divine command to cry out is met by the question from the preachers as to what should be the burden of the message. Initially, it was of the mortality of humanity and that all human glory would fade. This follows on from the way Hezekiah was duped by human glory and thus disallowed the Kingdom purpose of God in his time. We shouldn’t see the mortality of man and the true meaning of the Hebrew word nephesh as a negative thing that we unfortunately have to tell people who believe their loved ones are alive in Heaven. "The voice" tells Isaiah to cry. "And I said, What shall I cry?" (<a href='B:290 40:6'>Isa 40:6</a> LXX; RVmg:). What was to be the message of Isaiah’s Gospel? The voice addresses Isaiah as "O thou that tellest good tidings", and tells him the good news he is to preach. It is that "All flesh is grass… the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever". The reality of man’s mortality is the backdrop against which we can see the eternity of God and the offer made to us through His abiding word that we really can escape from our condition. Christian preaching about "man is mortal" need not be bad news. The message can be turned into good news! For it was this message of mortality which prepared the way for men to accept Christ (<a href='B:290 40:3-5'>Isa 40:3-5</a>); the mountains of human pride are made low by this message so that we can accept salvation in Christ. <a href='B:670 1:24'>1Pe 1:24</a> RVmg. quotes these verses and concludes that we are being offered salvation through "the word of the God who liveth for ever" - the Gospel that is prefaced by the message of human mortality. God’s eternity and man’s mortality are placed side by side- and thus the way is prepared for the wonder of the fact that through "the word" of Jesus, of the Gospel, we the mortal are invited to share in that immortality.</p><p>"The flower of the field" is one of a number of connections with Psalms 103, here to <a href='B:230 103:15'>Psa 103:15</a>. That Psalm of David was clearly rewritten with reference to what could have been the experience of Hezekiah. God took pity upon him, a fading, mortal man; and he was intended thereby to grasp fully God’s eternal plan with His people. But he didn’t. It is for us, along with latter day Israel, to do so.
We could see this 'play for voices' as a way of presenting an actor who at this point is anonymous; an actor who calls Zion to return / repent and to believe the good news / Gospel of God's love. This person is again referenced in :9, "You who tell good news to Zion". Perhaps we are to understand that this anonymous preacher is in fact "the servant" of whom we shall read and hear much more later in Isaiah. Initially, it could have been Cyrus, who first told the Jews to return from exile. But he failed to live up to it, and so the later "servant" songs become increasingly relevant to the ultimate servant, the Lord Jesus.</p>


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<p>The grass withers, the flower fades, because Yahweh’s breath blows on it; surely the people are like grass- see on <a href='B:470 6:26'>Mat 6:26</a>. The blowing of breath alludes to Hezekiah’s experience in <a href='B:290 38:16'>Isa 38:16</a> (see note there). His mortality ought to have lead him to devotion to the things of God’s eternal kingdom; but it didn’t. The withering grass is spoken of in <a href='B:230 129:5-6'>Psa 129:5-6</a>, one of the songs of degrees written or rewritten by Hezekiah. There, it describes the Assyrian attackers who were blown upon Yahweh’s breath / spirit / Angel. But "the people" of Judah were no better in that they too were mortal. Unless they repented, they would likewise perish. They too were to be as withered / dried up bones and foliage (s:w. <a href='B:330 17:10'>Eze 17:10</a>; <a href='B:330 17:24'>Eze 17:24</a>; <a href='B:330 37:11'>Eze 37:11</a> and often).</p>


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<p>The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God stands forever- See on :7. The phrase for ’fading flower’ is only elsewhere used about the people of Israel fading under judgment (<a href='B:290 28:1'>Isa 28:1</a>). Only the long term prophetic purpose of God with Israel would be eternal, and it was that word of Kingdom promise uttered through Isaiah that the people were asked to identify with.
The word of God in view is that of salvation and restoration. Even though Judah disbelieved that word, it remained eternally true and we too can believe in it. The offer is still there because Judah refused it and didn't make use of it. These words of Is. 40-55 are Isaiah's equivalent of the new covenant offered through Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Judah refused it, but we can accept it now.  </p>


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<p>You who tell good news to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who tell good news to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with strength- lift it up, don’t be afraid. Say to the cities of Judah, Behold, your God!- Telling good news is the idea as in LXX of evangelizing. This message of restoration throughout Isaiah 40-66 is so often taken over in the New Testament and applied to the Gospel. The possibilities they refused due to materialism, parochialism and lack of faith... are available to us but in an even more glorious form. There seems an intentional ambiguity in the Hebrew here. We could translate "O Zion who tells good news" or "You who tell good news to Zion". The "you" is feminine, which leads us to think that it refers to Zion herself, personified as a woman in Isaiah. Zion, the believing community, were to not only believe the good news / Gospel of their redemption- but to pronounce it to others in "Zion". This is indeed how it is- part of believing the Gospel is to announce it to others. One cannot be a passive recipient of that good news if they have personally believed it; we will naturally share it with others.
"The high mountain" (AV) is Zion. "Go up" is the same word about Judah ‘going up’ from Babylon to Israel. But the majority of Judah remained in Babylon. And the majority of those who did return, only did so in order for purely personal benefit- of having their own house and land. They ‘wentup’ to the land, but not to Zion. With reference to <a href='B:290 40:9'>Isa 40:9</a>, <a href='B:440 1:7-9'>Hag 1:7-9</a> exhorted them: “Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways. Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the LORD. Ye looked for much [i:e. they expected the promised Kingdom blessings], and, lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the LORD of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house”. Their focus was on their own lands and farms rather than the glory of Zion (as <a href='B:160 13:10-11'>Neh 13:10-11</a>). They stood related to the things of God’s kingdom, but never ventured beyond their own personal self-interest. They would not accept that God manifestation rather than human salvation and pleasure was the essential purpose of their God.</p><p>The returnees were to lift up their voice with joy at Zion’s restoration. But at the very humble dedication of the temple, the younger people lifted up their voice with joy (<a href='B:150 3:12'>Ezr 3:12</a> same words), but the older men wept, as the temple was not even as great as Solomon’s, and certainly not that commanded in Ezekiel and Isaiah. "Behold your God" will finally come to literal truth in the last days, when God shall dwell in Zion (<a href='B:330 48:35'>Eze 48:35</a>), and in the person of His Son, He will "come" to Zion. But the same words for lifting up the voice are used of the need to show Jacob their sins (<a href='B:290 58:1'>Isa 58:1</a>). The call is joyful, advertising the Lord’s coming, but it is also a call to repentance; as it is today.</p>


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<p>Behold, the Lord Yahweh will come as a mighty one and His arm will rule for him. Behold, His reward is with Him, and His recompense before him- When Nehemiah speaks of them having been redeemed by Yahweh’s “strong hand” (<a href='B:160 1:10'>Neh 1:10</a>). he is using the language of <a href='B:290 40:10'>Isa 40:10</a>, regarding how Yahweh would come and save Israel from Babylon and restore them to the land “with strong hand”. Nehemiah saw the prophecy could have been fulfilled then. The way Zerubbabel (<a href='B:150 2:2'>Ezr 2:2</a>; <a href='B:160 7:5-7'>Neh 7:5-7</a>), Ezra (<a href='B:150 7:8'>Ezr 7:8</a>; <a href='B:150 8:32'>Ezr 8:32</a>) and Nehemiah (<a href='B:160 2:11'>Neh 2:11</a>; <a href='B:160 13:7'>Neh 13:7</a>) are described as ‘coming to Jerusalem’ may hint that they could have fulfilled this coming of Yahweh to Zion; they could have been Messianic figures (<a href='B:160 2:11'>Neh 2:11</a>; <a href='B:160 13:7'>Neh 13:7</a>). But the whole prophecy is delayed and deferred until the coming of the Lord Jesus to Zion. The "reward" of God will be in the fulfilment of the promises to Abraham (<a href='B:10 15:1'>Gen 15:1</a> s:w:) in salvation (<a href='B:290 62:11'>Isa 62:11</a>), at the time when Judah were restored from captivity and accepted the new covenant (s:w. <a href='B:300 31:16'>Jer 31:16</a>). This huge potential is all deferred to the last days, when the Abrahamic covenant will be finally fulfilled in the return of the Lord Jesus to earth.
If we translate as "His payment is with Him; His wages are before Him", we have an obvious connection to the ideas discussed on Is. 40:2- Israel's sin is their debt and they are therefore in slavery; but Yahweh steps in and redeems them by meeting the payment. This is the same idea as in Is. 62:11. It's as if Israel sold themselves into slavery to pay their debt, but their wages were paid by God and He actually pays off the entire amount owed, acting as their kinsman redeemer. But He is also the one to whom the debt is owed! He is thus presented as absolutely involved in both the debt and its resolution; in both our sin and our redemption from it.</p>


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<p>He will feed His flock like a shepherd, He will gather the lambs in His arm, and carry them in His bosom; He will gently lead those who have their young- The primary possible fulfillment was in Cyrus as Yahweh’s shepherd (<a href='B:290 44:28'>Isa 44:28</a>); but he failed in this role and Judah failed to be obedient sheep. So the prophecy is reapplied to the Lord Jesus (<a href='B:290 11:12'>Isa 11:12</a>), the good shepherd, operating on behalf of Yahweh Himself, who was to shepherd the scattered flock of Israel when they are gathered into the new covenant (s:w. <a href='B:300 31:10'>Jer 31:10</a>; <a href='B:330 34:12'>Eze 34:12</a>). It is God who gathers His people (<a href='B:290 11:12'>Isa 11:12</a>; <a href='B:290 40:11'>Isa 40:11</a>; <a href='B:300 31:10'>Jer 31:10</a>; <a href='B:330 34:12'>Eze 34:12</a>), whereas the Gentiles gather themselves to Him (<a href='B:290 49:18'>Isa 49:18</a>). His grace therefore appears the greater to His people, somehow forcing through His purpose with obstinate sheep. It was the responsibility of the priests and religious leaders to "gently lead" the exiles back to their God and their land, but they failed in this (<a href='B:290 51:18'>Isa 51:18</a> s:w:); and so because their was none to guide / gently lead (s:w:), God Himself had to intervene and do this through His Son (<a href='B:290 40:11'>Isa 40:11</a>; <a href='B:290 49:10'>Isa 49:10</a>).
The fact some sheep need to be carried suggests they couldn't walk. The image again suggests God's almost forcing of the Jews to return. If they wouldn't walk themselves, He would carry them. In His bosom, closest to His heart are those who are weak and can't or won't walk of themselves. But most of the exiles refused even this encouragement. But the principle abides, that the weakest are closest to His lovely heart. A smoky wick He will not quench... And He leads those sheep who are nursing, unable to keep up the pace of the others... aware of their disability. Even though the potential was that they would run and not be weary all the way from Babylon to Zion. Truly an army is known by how it treats its wounded. A man is known by his compassion for and patience with his child. This is a far cry from churches known to kick out the weak or slow ones... God by contrast was eager to restore and carry the weakest of His people from Babylon; those weak both physically and spiritually.</p>


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<p>Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and marked off the sky with His span, and calculated the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?- The evident and immense power of Yahweh in the natural creation is often cited in Isaiah as a guarantee that His plans for a spiritual ’new creation’ were just as capable of fulfilment. He was not to be seen as lacking in any possibility. "Where does my help come from? My help comes from Yahweh, who made heaven and earth" (Ps. 121:1,2). So often the immense power of God in creation is cited as a reason to trust Him. He who made all things could easily do the apparently impossible and restore Zion. The language of calculation, measuring, marking off and weighing is all that of building. He would rebuild Zion and rebuild His Kingdom. He would build according to plans, and those plans had now been released through Isaiah and the prophets. The same word for "measured" is used multiple times in Ezekiel 40-42, where Israel are commanded to measure the new temple system and build according to that measure. God had "measured" Jerusalem (s:w. <a href='B:450 2:2'>Zec 2:2</a>) and Zion; but the returned exiles refused to build according to those dimensions. So God Himself would do so, although in a different way than building a literal temple in Zion. See on <a href='B:290 44:13'>Isa 44:13</a>.</p>


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<p>Who has directed the Spirit of Yahweh, or has taught Him as His counsellor?- "Directed" is the same word translated "marked off" in :12. Yahweh’s Spirit was available without measure, without being marked off or defined by anyone. This idea is surely behind the statement in <a href='B:500 3:34'>Joh 3:34</a> that the Lord Jesus had the Spirit "without measure", without limit, not just a portion marked off for Him. There was huge, unlimited Spiritual potential to enable the restoration of God’s people, both physically and psychologically. But they didn’t make use of it, and so it was all reapplied to the Lord Jesus.</p><p>LXX "Who has known the mind of the Lord? and who has been his counsellor, to instruct him?" is twice quoted about how those with the spirit of the Lord Jesus do in fact know "the mind of the Lord" (<a href='B:520 11:34'>Rom 11:34</a>; <a href='B:530 2:16'>1Co 2:16</a>). This is the answer to the rhetorical question. The answer is not ’Nobody’, but rather ’Not idolaters, but those who worship Yahweh in spirit and truth’. As the Spirit could have been given "without measure" to the exiles, so it was given to the Lord Jesus, and shall be given to all in Him.</p><p>We can note here that the Hebrew (Masoretic) text and the Septuagint (LXX) differ significantly here, as they often do; and yet both variants are quoted or alluded to in the inspired New Testament.</p>


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<p>Who did He take counsel with, and who instructed Him and taught Him in the path of justice, and taught Him knowledge and showed Him the way of understanding?- The fact God is uncreate is cited as an example of how God’s grace toward His people was purely and totally of His own initiative. Our initiatives are never totally our "own" because they are subconscious responses to previous experience and stimuli. But God’s initiative in saving His people is quite literally, purely, solely, His very own initiative.</p><p>There are a number of passages which associate Job with Israel in general terms. It has been suggested that the book of Job was re-written and compiled by Hezekiah’s men who at the same time produced the Psalter (all under inspiration, of course). The copious connections between the suffering servant prophecies of Isaiah and the book of Job (take a glance down the A:V. margins of Job) are therefore more easily understandable- the account of Job’s sufferings and vindication amidst opposition was framed in language that pointed forward to the similar suffering (through the same disease?) and vindication of Hezekiah. The suffering servant of Isaiah refers to both Israel and the Lord Jesus, exactly as the parable of Job also does. The connections between Isaiah 40 and the book of Job are especially marked. <a href='B:290 40:14'>Isa 40:14</a> = <a href='B:220 21:22'>Job 21:22</a>; <a href='B:290 40:17'>Isa 40:17</a> = <a href='B:220 6:18'>Job 6:18</a>; <a href='B:290 40:22'>Isa 40:22</a> = <a href='B:220 9:8'>Job 9:8</a>; <a href='B:290 40:23'>Isa 40:23</a> = <a href='B:220 12:21'>Job 12:21</a>; <a href='B:290 40:24'>Isa 40:24</a> = <a href='B:220 14:8'>Job 14:8</a>; <a href='B:290 40:26'>Isa 40:26</a> = <a href='B:220 25:3'>Job 25:3</a>;&nbsp; <a href='B:290 40:27'>Isa 40:27</a> = <a href='B:220 3:23'>Job 3:23</a>; <a href='B:290 40:31'>Isa 40:31</a> = <a href='B:220 29:20'>Job 29:20</a>.</p>


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<p>Behold, the nations are like a drop in a bucket, and are regarded as a speck of dust on a balance. Behold, He lifts up the islands like a very little thing- This is not to say that God doesn’t care for people; rather is it saying that in the balance alluded to in :12, it is Israel who weigh heavily in God’s balances far more than other people. It is another way of expressing His supreme passion for His people. "The islands" may simply mean the dry land, the land upon which the nations are located (<a href='B:290 42:15'>Isa 42:15</a> understands "islands" as simply ’dry land’). "The nations" refers to political powers. Not individual persons.</p>


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<p>Lebanon’s forest is not sufficient to burn, nor its animals sufficient for a burnt offering- The context is of God protesting His especial and unique love for His people; and He may be implying that no amount of animal sacrifice would buy that love or deserve it.</p>


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<p>All the nations are like nothing before Him, they are regarded by Him as less than nothing, and vanity- As explained on :15, this is not to say that God doesn’t care for people; rather is it saying that in the balance alluded to in :12,15, it is Israel who weigh heavily in God’s balances far more than other people. It is another way of expressing His supreme passion for His people. All the might of Assyria or Babylon would not tip the scale against Israel.</p>


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<p>To whom then will you liken God?- The context implies: ’In loving His people so very much?’. But the Jews had in fact made God in the likeness of their idols, justifying idolatry as a worshipping of Yahweh. Hence LXX "To whom have ye compared the Lord?". Those who worship idols forsake that great love of Yahweh, and thereby forsake their own mercy (<a href='B:390 2:8'>Jon 2:8</a>).</p><p>Or what likeness will you compare to Him?- “Likeness” is used in the LXX in the frequent warnings not to make an image or likeness of any god, let alone Yahweh (<a href='B:20 20:4'>Exo 20:4</a>; <a href='B:50 4:16-25'>Deu 4:16-25</a>; <a href='B:230 106:20'>Psa 106:20</a>; <a href='B:290 40:18-19'>Isa 40:18-19</a>). The reason for this prohibition becomes clearer in the New Testament; the ultimate likeness of God is in His Son, and we are to create the likeness of His Son not as a mere physical icon, but within the very structure of our human personality and character. This sets the scene for God’s following condemnation of idolatry (<a href='B:510 17:29'>Act 17:29</a>), which initially was the reason why Judah preferred to remain in Babylon.</p>


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<p>A workman has cast an image, and the goldsmith overlays it with gold, and casts silver chains for it- Similar language is used in <a href='B:290 30:22'>Isa 30:22</a> of the idols which Judah were to throw away when they repented; and this is now an appeal for them to do so and leave Babylon. We have here the idols of the rich; :20 will speak of the idols of the poor. Idolatry was common to both rich and poor; reflecting how Judah in exile were idolatrous throughout society.</p>


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<p>He who is too impoverished for such an offering chooses a tree that will not rot. He seeks a skilful workman to set up an engraved image for him that will not be moved- The idea is that it will not totter, unlike the idol of1Sa 5:3-4.</p>


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<p>Haven’t you known? Haven’t you heard, yet? Haven’t you been told from the beginning? Haven’t you understood from the foundations of the earth?- We sense here the frustration of God in Isaiah. The call to repent and return to the land had been made by all the prophets, but still Judah had not heard it. They had heard, but not ’heard’ in the sense that God wants us to hear His word.</p>


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<p>It is He who sits above the circle of the earth- This may simply refer to the horizon, where earth and heaven meet, and is not to be pushed as evidence that the Bible taught a curved earth at a time when generally there was belief in a flat earth. The idea would perhaps rather be that Yahweh is enthroned at the limit of human vision and understanding; a principle ever true, no matter how advanced is human science.</p><p>And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in- As explained on :15, the idea is not that the inhabitants of the planet are irrelevant to God. Their smallness is mentioned in contrast to Yahweh’s purpose with His people, His tabernacle, which was to be eternally established in Zion. Israel in their faithlessness had considered themselves to be tiny grasshoppers compared to Gentile power (<a href='B:40 13:33'>Num 13:33</a>). Now, Yahweh puts it the other way around. It is the Gentiles who are as grasshoppers compared to the ’weight’ and significance of Israel before Him (:15).</p>


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<p>Who brings princes to nothing; who makes the judges of the earth meaningless- Both Gentile princes, such as those who accompanied the Assyrian army to Jerusalem in Hezekiah’s time, along with the rulers of the land (who are often condemned as corrupt and unspiritual) would be brought to nothing at the reestablishment of God’s Kingdom. The theme of vanity or "meaninglessness" is common in later Isaiah. In contrast to the things of the Kingdom, all else is to be seen as vain and without ultimate meaning. This was hard to accept for the Jews in exile who were now becoming prosperous in the lands of their captivity, as the book of Esther witnesses.
The princes in view are those of Persia mentioned in Daniel 10, whose influence against Cyrus' decree was overcome (not without difficulty) by the work of the Angels Michael and Gabriel. There were specific laws forcing exiles to remain in captivity. One such that has been unearthed is the Beirut Decree. "The Beirut Decree is a Neo-Babylonian text meant to ensure that deportees remained in Babylonia: it decreed death on anyone who helped a deportee leave Babylonia. The removal of its prohibition on leaving Babylonia is clearly implied in Cyrus’s declaration". And Cyrus did this in the first year of his reign. All this was directly due to God's word triumphing over man's word.</p>


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<p>They are planted scarcely, they are sown scarcely, their stock has scarcely taken root in the ground. He merely blows on them, and they wither, and the whirlwind takes them away as stubble- This is all in contrast to the Messianic root out of the stock of David, who would be eternal (s:w. <a href='B:290 11:1'>Isa 11:1</a>). Eternity and permanent meaning was and is only to be found by association with Him:&nbsp;</p>


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<p>To whom then will you liken Me? Who is My equal? says the Holy One- This is another appeal for the exiles to repent of their idolatry. So much of later Isaiah is taken up with mockery and criticism of the Babylonian gods and the Marduk cult. The book of Esther, with Mordecai as the joint hero, named as he was after Marduk, demonstrates how caught up were the Jews with the Babylonian gods. Ezekiel repeatedly reveals the idolatry of the captives. Isaiah was therefore an appeal for the Jews to quit the Marduk cult and believe in the radical prophecies about the overthrow of Babylon. The situation is analogous to how the New Testament is full of references to the Roman imperial cult of empire worship. So much of the Bible is like Isaiah and the New Testament- a radical, counter-cultural call to see our present world for what it is, and to perceive that the ways of God simply can’t be mixed in, watered down or compromised with the way of this world. Alexander Heidel analyzed the recovered Babylonian poem to Marduk Enuma Elish, discovering phrase after phrase in it which recurs in Isaiah- with reference to Yahweh exclusively (Alexander Heidel, The Babylonian Genesis (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1963). The similarities are exact, and impressive. Without doubt, Isaiah was developing a major theme in his later writings- that the true Israel of God must not have any part in the Marduk cult, and must understand all the claims made for Marduk as being untrue, and solely appropriate to Yahweh God of Israel. Consider some of the claims made for Marduk (exact references given in Heidel):</p><p>- “Marduk is King alone” (cp. “Your [Israel’s] God reigns as King!”, <a href='B:290 52:7'>Isa 52:7</a>)</p><p>- “None among the gods can equal him”</p><p>- Marduk killed Tiamat in the waters and cut him in pieces [applied to Yahweh in <a href='B:290 51:9-10'>Isa 51:9-10</a>]</p><p>-Creator of the stars (cp. <a href='B:290 40:26'>Isa 40:26</a>; <a href='B:290 45:12'>Isa 45:12</a>).</p><p>- Marduk is without comparison (cp. <a href='B:290 40:18'>Isa 40:18</a>; <a href='B:290 40:25'>Isa 40:25</a> etc:)</p><p>- Marduk was, and no other (cp. <a href='B:290 45:5-6'>Isa 45:5-6</a> etc:)</p><p>There are also mocking allusions to Marduk, showing Yahweh’s supremacy over him. Marduk was formed- but Yahweh had no god before Him and will have none after Him (<a href='B:290 43:10'>Isa 43:10</a>). Marduk had a counsellor, Ea, called in the inscriptions “the all-wise one”. But Yahweh has all wisdom and has no such counsellor (<a href='B:290 40:13-14'>Isa 40:13-14</a>; <a href='B:290 41:28'>Isa 41:28</a>). All this reference to the Marduk cult was in my opinion not merely a pointless mockery and poking of fun at the Persian culture. It was a very real appeal to the Jewish exiles to quit it, to come out and be separate; remember again and again that Mordecai [and perhaps Esther too] had adopted names reflective of the Marduk cult.</p>


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<p>Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these, who brings out their army by number. He calls them all by name, by the greatness of His might, and because He is strong in power, not one is lacking- Bringing out the stars by number may refer to the number of times the stars have been brought out, or appeared. God knows the number of times He has brought the stars out into the sky; the number of revolutions they have made. But the allusion is clearly to the promises to Abraham, that his seed would be as the stars. Also to be noted is the term "our God" (:3,8)- for part of the covenant with Abraham was that Yahweh would be "your God". In :27 we read that "Israel" is in fact "Jacob". In this way, the exiles are being directed back to the promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, which were the basis of the new covenant. They had broken the old covenant, and were being offered a new covenant as explicitly stated in Jeremiah and Ezekiel. This was to be the basis for Yahweh's restored relationship with Zion His estranged wife. 
This language alludes to the Babylonian god Marduk; the point being that Yahweh and not the god of Babylon is supreme. See on <a href='B:290 40:25'>Isa 40:25</a>. The Jews only totally quit idolatry some time later; they liked to think, as we also tend to, that we can serve the gods of our world in the name of Yahweh worship. But Yahweh is presented as supreme, and Marduk as nothing. God knew His exiled people; just as He knew every star, so He knew every exile; "nothing has escaped thee" (LXX). They were not forgotten, and neither are we. His purpose shall work out, even if it is delayed by the refusal of the majority of His people to accept and progress it.</p><p><a href='B:150 2:62'>Ezr 2:62</a> records Judah being ‘reckoned by genealogies’, using the same Hebrew word which is the hallmark of the Chronicles genealogies (<a href='B:130 4:33'>1Ch 4:33</a>; <a href='B:130 5:1'>1Ch 5:1</a>; <a href='B:130 5:7'>1Ch 5:7</a>; <a href='B:130 5:17'>1Ch 5:17</a>; <a href='B:130 7:5'>1Ch 7:5</a>; <a href='B:130 7:7'>1Ch 7:7</a>; <a href='B:130 7:9'>1Ch 7:9</a>; <a href='B:130 7:40'>1Ch 7:40</a>; <a href='B:130 9:1'>1Ch 9:1</a>; <a href='B:130 9:22'>1Ch 9:22</a>). And in this context, <a href='B:290 40:26'>Isa 40:26</a> compares God’s ‘bringing out’ of Judah from Babylon with His ‘bringing out’ the stars by their individual names, all wonderfully known to Him. <a href='B:230 87:6'>Psa 87:6</a> had prophesied something similar about the restoration of Zion’s fortunes: “The LORD shall count, when he writeth up the people, that this man was born there”. The Kingdom of God was to be the restoration of Israel’s Kingdom- but they had to actually get on and restore it rather than wait for it to come.</p>


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<p>Why do you say, Jacob, and speak, Israel, My way is hidden from Yahweh, and the justice due me is disregarded by my God?- The double mention of "Jacob... Israel" is common in second Isaiah (Is. 40:27; 41:14; 42:24; 43:1,22,28; 44:1,5,21,23; 45:4; 46:3; 48:1; 49:5-7). It was God's desire to transform the nation from Jacob to Israel as He had done with the historical Jacob- through his time of exile outside of the land. His homecoming with many children and material blessings, delivered from his enemies (Laban and Esau) is set up as the potential for the exiles returning from Babylon. But they generally preferred to stay in the soft life of Babylon. 
Israel may have felt their "way" was hidden from God in that He wasn't paying attention to them. Or they may have reasoned that God was not watching their way and thus "My judgment passes away from my God", i.e. they felt that He would not judge them according to their way. The "way" connects with the preparation of "the way" in :5. Israel's way was not at all hidden or forgotten by Yahweh. He wanted to make a glorious "way" for them to return to Zion and enjoy His eternal grace and Kingdom. It could be argued that the entire appeal of Is. 40-66, certainly of Is. 40-55, is an attempt to persuade otherwise those who feel they are too distant from God [either by His fault or theirs, according to their perceptions]. God will try by all means and arguments to persuade them of His desire to save; just as He does today, but always as it were limited by His refusal to railroad man into belief and acceptance of Him. He will even set up the scenario of God being in the dock legally before Israel's complaints and before their internal, deeply subconscious accusations. For "the justice due me..." can be rendered "My cause [a legal term] is disregarded by my God".
Time and again in the restoration prophecies we encounter statements intended to answer the skepticism felt by the exiles about the promises of redemption from Babylon (<a href='B:290 40:27-31'>Isa 40:27-31</a>; <a href='B:290 42:22'>Isa 42:22</a>; <a href='B:290 43:22'>Isa 43:22</a>; <a href='B:290 46:12'>Isa 46:12</a>; <a href='B:290 48:4'>Isa 48:4</a>; <a href='B:290 48:8'>Isa 48:8</a>; <a href='B:290 49:14'>Isa 49:14</a>). See on plainIsa 49:24. Ezekiel had to argue with the exiles in Ezekiel 18, insisting that God’s ways were just and it was their ways which were unjust. They were not suffering wrongly, there was no injustice in their exile. The link between <a href='B:290 40:27'>Isa 40:27</a> and <a href='B:220 3:23'>Job 3:23</a> is most significant. These are the words of Job in 3:23: "Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged in?". Thus Job represents Israel; and because "Israel" in Isaiah also refers to our Lord, we can make the equation Job=Israel=Jesus. The distancing between himself and God which Christ felt on the cross (<a href='B:470 27:46'>Mat 27:46</a>) is thus foreshadowed by Job feeling the same- and like Christ, it was a trial from God, not a specific punishment for sin, and related to His identification with a sinful Israel who were separated from God by their sins:&nbsp;See on <a href='B:290 30:20'>Isa 30:20</a>.</p><p>Reasoning back from the addresses to the captives in later Isaiah, it appears they thought that Yahweh was a God who just operated in the land of Israel. The captives felt they couldn’t sing the songs of Yahweh in a Gentile land (Psalms 137). They thought that now they were outside His land and far from His temple, they were forgotten by Him (<a href='B:290 49:14-15'>Isa 49:14-15</a>), their cause ignored by Him (<a href='B:290 40:27'>Isa 40:27</a>) and they were “cast off” from relationship with Him (<a href='B:290 41:9'>Isa 41:9</a>). Hence Isaiah emphasizes that Yahweh is the creator and the God of the whole planet, and His presence is literally planet-wide. Likewise there is much stress in those addresses on the fact that Yahweh’s word of prophecy will come true. Remember that there had been many false prophets of Yahweh just prior to the captivity who predicted victory against Babylon and prosperity (<a href='B:310 2:9'>Lam 2:9</a>; <a href='B:310 2:14'>Lam 2:14</a>; <a href='B:300 44:15-19'>Jer 44:15-19</a>). And the 70 years prophecy of Jeremiah appeared to not be coming true, or at best was delayed or re-scheduled in fulfilment [even Daniel felt this, according to his desperate plea for fulfilment in Daniel 9]. And so there was a crisis of confidence in the concept of prophecy, and Yahweh’s word and prophets generally. Isaiah addressed this by stressing the nature and power of that word, and urging faith in its fulfilment and relevance.</p>


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<p>Haven’t you known? Haven’t you heard? The everlasting God, Yahweh, the Creator of the ends of the earth, doesn’t faint. He isn’t weary, His understanding is unsearchable- Quite often in Isaiah, the point is made that surely God's power is obvious. Any objection to God's saving plan is in fact speaking against what man knows subconsciously to be right and true: "Haven’t you known? Haven’t you heard?". It is surely sanctified common sense that God is omnipotent and capable of salvation. He is not blind nor weary to our situation. All technical arguments against atheism are pointless. I never once deployed them in my small part in the mission work of converting a few thousand former Soviet atheists in the 1980s and onwards. The truth of theism and of a powerful, saving God is obvious. All idols are just laughable- as Isaiah will go on to labour. There is no even slightly credible alternative to God. He says often in Isaiah to the effect "I am Yahweh". The undisputable creator, the Lord of history, past, present and future. And that is it. But humanity is so psychologically broken and blind that the spiritually obvious is not seen nor felt. Surrender to God and acceptance of His truth is therefore such a wonderful experience- for it means accepting the obvious truth which subconsciously we always saw, but have never come to personally realize. We thus feel intuitively assured that indeed we have the ultimate "truth". 
God doesn't grow weary and faint, but the exiles felt weary and faint (:30,31; the same words are used). We tend to assume that because we feel a certain way, then that is how God does. We tend to create an image of God in our minds, which is after our own image. Whereas we were created in His image. They felt weak and faint, so they assumed God was likewise. 
Because of their many years in exile, the Jews were effectively considering Yahweh to be weary, and to have made a mistake in His planning. But His power and understanding were not to be questioned. The apparent delays were due to their weakness and weariness (:30), lack of understanding and impenitence- rather than to God’s. They were in exile at the ends of the earth / land promised to Abraham; but God had created those ends of the land and was not oblivious to His people there.</p>


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<p>He gives power to the weak, He increases the strength of him who has no might- Very relevant to the great physical effort that had to be made by the handful who first set about the rebuilding. But the idea was that the weak exiles, especially in their spiritual weakness, could be empowered if they accepted the gift of God’s Spirit implicit in the new covenant.</p>


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<p>Even the youths faint and get weary, and the young men utterly fall- This can be read as a criticism. As explained on :28, the exiles considered Yahweh to be weary and limited in power, but Isaiah’s point is that it is Judah who are like that. The apparent inactivity and delay in the progression of His purpose was due to their weariness and not His. These youths, the generation born in exile who ought to have been returning to the land, are contrasted negatively against those who did wait faithfully for Yahweh’s action (:31). . Or the contrast may be with strapping young, powerful Babylonian / Persian soldiers who would be weak and weary compared to the Spirit energized exiles.</p>


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<p>But those who wait for Yahweh will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run, and not be weary, they will walk, and not faint- The weariness in view surely includes spiritual weariness. The same word is used when God laments that the exiles were "weary" of Him (Is. 43:22). 'Running' is likewise used in Dan. 12 and elsewhere of 'running' in response to God's word. The picture here is of being constantly spiritually strong; not spiritually falling, fainting nor wearing; but always running the race with joy and in the eternal flight of the Spirit. Those who waited for Yahweh's word of promise and restoration to be fulfilled would renew their "strength"- so they would be able to lift up their voice with "strength" as commanded in :9, strong in belief in the things of the Kingdom. Constantly we have the impression that it is spiritual strength and energy which are in view here. 
See on :30. Those who waited in faith for Yahweh’s action whilst in exile would be empowered both physically and spiritually to ’return’ to God and their land. As God doesn’t faint or weary, so somehow those who identify their lives with His will also keep on keeping on- even now (<a href='B:290 40:31'>Isa 40:31</a> cp. 29). Just as eagles renew the feathers of their wings, so David felt that his youth was renewed like the eagle’s in his repeated experience of God’s grace (<a href='B:230 103:5'>Psa 103:5</a>), that his soul was restored (<a href='B:230 23:5'>Psa 23:5</a>), and that a right spirit could be renewed by God within him (<a href='B:230 51:10'>Psa 51:10</a>).</p><p>Those who truly waited upon Yahweh would renew their strength; they would “mount up as eagles” (<a href='B:290 40:31'>Isa 40:31</a>), the s:w. used throughout Ezra and Nehemiah for the ‘going up’ to Jerusalem from Babylon to rebuild the temple (<a href='B:150 1:3'>Ezr 1:3</a>; <a href='B:150 1:5'>Ezr 1:5</a>; <a href='B:150 1:11'>Ezr 1:11</a>; <a href='B:150 2:1'>Ezr 2:1</a>; <a href='B:150 2:59'>Ezr 2:59</a>; <a href='B:150 7:6-7'>Ezr 7:6-7</a>; <a href='B:150 7:28'>Ezr 7:28</a>; <a href='B:150 8:1'>Ezr 8:1</a>; <a href='B:160 7:5-6'>Neh 7:5-6</a>; <a href='B:160 7:61'>Neh 7:61</a>; <a href='B:160 12:1'>Neh 12:1</a>). The idea of mounting up with wings as eagles also connects with Ezekiel’s vision of the cherubim, mounting up from the captives by the rivers of Babylon, and returning to the land. But the reality was as in <a href='B:160 4:10'>Neh 4:10</a>: “And Judah said, The strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed, and there is much rubbish; so that we are not able to build the wall”. Examination of the context shows that they had just had plenty of strength; they lost physical stamina because of their spiritual weakness. This is in contrast to how for the idolater, “his strength fails” (<a href='B:290 44:12'>Isa 44:12</a>). But the same word is used also in <a href='B:150 10:13'>Ezr 10:13</a>: “But the people are many, and it is a time of much rain, and we are not able to stand [lit. ‘not strong enough to be’] without”. Both Ezra and Nehemiah encouraged the people not to make such excuses but to get on with achieving what was truly possible.</p>


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<p>Keep silent before Me, islands, and let the peoples renew their strength. Let them come near, then let them speak. Let’s meet together for judgement- The "islands" may refer simply to the dry land inhabited by Gentiles within the eretz promised to Abraham (<a href='B:290 42:15'>Isa 42:15</a>). They are invited to accept the God of Israel, to come to Zion and realize they have no legal case against God, to accept their judgment and throw themselves upon Him. Hence LXX "Hold a feast to me, ye islands".
"Renew their strength" naturally follows on from the wonderful promise of Is. 40:31, the preceding verse. This is an invitation for the Gentiles to share this experience. The walking but not fainting with ever renewed strength is possible right now. But that position is arrived at by meeting with God in judgment ["Come near..." is a summons to judgment] and being condemned. Job had to go through the same in Job 38:3 "Brace yourself like a man, for I will question you, then you answer Me!". GNB brings out the legal allusions: "Get ready to present your case in court; you will have your chance to speak. Let us come together to decide who is right". The allusion continues in :21: "You gods of the nations, present your case. Bring the best arguments you have!". The whole idea of going to court against God is of itself bizarre. But that is what we are doing if we refuse His claims upon us. This legal language leads right on from that of Is. 40:27 where Israel likewise are asked to challenge God in court. "Draw near" is the word used in Is. 57:3 when sorcerers and other sinners are invited to "draw near" to judgment. It is the language of a court summons. These legal challenges are common in Isaiah- but we hardly read about the actual case being debated. There was just silence from the idols, indeed from all who might question God's purpose to save.
Or the renewing of strength may be a sarcastic challenge to the Gentile nations to prepare themselves to resist Cyrus. Likewise in :6 we read of them making idols to defend then from Cyrus' advance. They would not renew their strength for long but would faint, as Is. 40:31 has just explained. 
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<p>Who has raised up one from the east? Who called him to His foot in righteousness? He hands over nations to him, and makes him rule over kings. He gives them like the dust to his sword, like the driven stubble to his bow- This raising up or stirring up was done by the Spirit, as God does all things- and we seem the same today. We could render "Who has stirred up from the sun-rising (him whom) victory meets at every step?" (lit. “at his foot” cp. Gen. 30:30). "At His [God's] foot" could suggest Cyrus was following God, at His feet. His conquests were in fact just a following of God. His victories were only because Yahweh "made him rule over kings", such as the kings of Babylon, Lydia and Cappadocia. Cyrus was called in or to righteousness, to know Yahweh's Name- but didn't live up to this. He was another failed servant of Yahweh. 
The servant songs or poems of Isaiah clearly have reference to a Messiah figure who was to appear at the time of the restoration from Babylon. The early songs have potential reference to Cyrus- he is named as such. Expositors such as Harry Whittaker and J:W. Thirtle have sought to prove the naming of Cyrus as an interpolation, claiming that Isaiah has sole primary reference to the days of Hezekiah. This seems to me to be desperate. The naming of Cyrus, and the specific references to his military campaigns in the prophecies, simply can’t be gotten around. To brush all this off as uninspired interpolation and fiddling with the text of holy Scripture just won’t do. The references to Cyrus aren’t merely the mention of his name. <a href='B:290 41:1-5'>Isa 41:1-5</a> alludes unquestionably to the dramatic conquest of Sardis by Cyrus in 547 BC. The‘servant’ is described as swooping down first from the east and then from the north, trampling local rulers beneath him (<a href='B:290 41:2-5'>Isa 41:2-5</a>; <a href='B:290 41:25'>Isa 41:25</a>; <a href='B:290 45:1'>Isa 45:1</a>; <a href='B:290 46:11'>Isa 46:11</a>). This ‘servant’ was to end the Babylonian empire (<a href='B:290 43:14'>Isa 43:14</a>; <a href='B:290 48:14-15'>Isa 48:14-15</a>), enable the captive Jews in Babylon to return to their land (<a href='B:290 42:6-7'>Isa 42:6-7</a>; <a href='B:290 43:5-7'>Isa 43:5-7</a>; <a href='B:290 45:13'>Isa 45:13</a>), restore Jerusalem and the ruined cities of Judah (<a href='B:290 44:26-28'>Isa 44:26-28</a>; <a href='B:290 45:13'>Isa 45:13</a>). There can be no serious doubt that it was Cyrus who fulfilled these things. The servant is a “bird of prey from the east” (<a href='B:290 46:11'>Isa 46:11</a>)- according to Xenophon, the eagle was the emblem of Cyrus. The servant “victorious at every step” with lightning speed (<a href='B:290 41:2'>Isa 41:2</a>) surely refers to how Cyrus conquered the Medes, the former Assyrian empire, and the Lydians before taking Babylon in 539 BC. We should have no problem with a pagan king being described as God’s “servant”, for that very term is used of Nebuchadnezzar in <a href='B:300 25:9'>Jer 25:9</a>.</p><p>When Cyrus failed to "know" or have relationship with Yahweh, other possible fulfillments came into view. Another possible fulfilment was in Zerubbabel or Joshua. Isaiah 41 describes the Messianic saviour as coming to the land from Babylon, from the north and from the east. Babylon was east of Judah, and yet the approach road came down from the north. This was the way Zerubbabel and Joshua would have come; but the prophecies suffered a massive deferment to the coming of the Lord Jesus in a more figurative sense from the north and east. Zechariah 4 contained a vision of Joshua and Zerubbabel, likened to two olive trees which emptied their oil into the seven branched candlestick, representing the ecclesia of Judah. They represented the kingly and priestly offices. The whole ‘lightstand’ depended upon these two anointed ones, these providers of oil, and the fact they both in various ways failed to deliver true faith and spirituality meant that the victory over the world which the vision also prophesied could not come about; the final fulfilment had to come through the Lord Jesus, who was the ultimate Priest (cp. Joshua-Jesus) and Prince of Judah (cp. Zerubbabel).</p>


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<p>He pursues them, and passes by safely, even by a way that he had not gone with his feet- The sense is as GNB "He follows in pursuit and marches safely on, so fast that he hardly touches the ground!".</p>


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<p>Who has worked and done it, calling the generations from the beginning?- The idea of calling things which don’t exist into existence (<a href='B:520 4:17'>Rom 4:17</a>) has suggestions of creation (<a href='B:290 41:4'>Isa 41:4</a>; <a href='B:290 48:13'>Isa 48:13</a>). The new, spiritual creation is indeed a creation ex nihilo, an act of grace. Incomprehensible to the modern mind, the natural creation involved the creation of matter from out of God, and not out of any visible, concrete matter which already existed. The physical creation therefore looked forward to the grace of the new creation- creating people spiritually out of nothing, counting righteousness to them which they didn’t have, treating them as persons whom they were not.</p><p>I Yahweh, the first and with the last, I am He- First and last are terms used by the Lord Jesus of those who shall be in His Kingdom (<a href='B:470 20:16'>Mat 20:16</a>). "The last" would then refer to the last generation of God’s people. Yahweh would save the exiles along with the "first" of His people such as Abraham; for at the time of the restoration of that last generation, there would be a resurrection of all God’s true people, to form a new people would eternally inherit the reestablished Kingdom.</p>


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<p>The islands have seen and fear. The ends of the earth tremble; they approach, and come- They have been called to judgment in Zion (:1), and all they can do is try to make idols (:6,7). But these verses can also be understood quite differently. For "idols"aren’t specifically named in the Hebrew text. The idea equally could be that here we have the Divine hope that the exiles would return from the ends of the earth / land, in the territories of Assyria, Babylon and Persia, and work together in building Zion. These different interpretations are because these were the various potential possibilities or scenarios which could have come about.
The assembling and coming of the nations begs the question: Where to? The invitation in :1 is to come to court against Yahweh. Hence LXX “and came together to judgment”. They assemble and come- but foolishly construct idols to help them (:6,7). Perhaps we are to imagine them doing so outside the courthouse; in practice, the description is of the nations foolishly constructing idols with which to resist the Divinely empowered lightning advance of Cyrus. Isaiah persistently demonstrates how bizarre it is to refuse God's claims.  </p>


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<p>Everyone helps his neighbour, they say to their brothers, Be strong!- This could be read as a condemnation of entire Gentile society, stressing how they together encouraged each other in making idols (:7). Or as noted on :5, it could also be the Divine vision for the returned exiles working together in rebuilding the things of His Kingdom in Zion. "Be strong!" is the word used multiple times in the records of the restoration of Zion (<a href='B:150 1:6'>Ezr 1:6</a>; <a href='B:150 6:22'>Ezr 6:22</a>; <a href='B:150 7:28'>Ezr 7:28</a>; <a href='B:150 9:12'>Ezr 9:12</a>; <a href='B:150 10:4'>Ezr 10:4</a>; <a href='B:160 2:18'>Neh 2:18</a>; <a href='B:160 3:4'>Neh 3:4</a> and often, rendered "repair").</p>


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<p>So the carpenter encourages the goldsmith. He who smoothes with the hammer encourages him who strikes the anvil, saying of the soldering, It is good; and he fastens it with nails- This refers to the different types of people working together to build Jerusalem; the goldsmiths are mentioned specifically in <a href='B:160 3:8'>Neh 3:8</a>; <a href='B:160 3:32'>Neh 3:32</a>; "carpenter" is s:w. <a href='B:150 3:7'>Ezr 3:7</a>. Yet as explained on :5, the whole passage here also has reference to those who made idols (s:w. <a href='B:290 45:16'>Isa 45:16</a>). Instead of fulfilling the possibilities in rebuilding the temple, they instead used their skills building idols and encouraging one another in that.</p><p>That it might not totter- Used about the idols made in <a href='B:290 40:20'>Isa 40:20</a>; but also of the reestablished Zion which would not move / totter (<a href='B:230 125:1'>Psa 125:1</a> s:w:). See on :5.</p>


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<p>But you, Israel My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham My friend- As Is. 43:10 puts it, "My servant whom I have chosen". The servant here is clearly the people of Israel. It is significant that Paul takes a passage from one of Isaiah’s servant songs and applies it to us. The servant who suffered and witnessed to the world was evidently the Lord Jesus. And yet Isaiah is also explicit that the servant is the whole seed of Abraham, “Jacob”, the slowly-developing people of God (<a href='B:290 41:8'>Isa 41:8</a>; <a href='B:290 44:1'>Isa 44:1</a>), who now refer to all those in Christ:&nbsp; There are many connections within Isaiah between the servant songs, and the descriptions of the people of Israel into which the songs are interspersed. The saviour-servant was to bring out the prisoners from the dungeons (<a href='B:290 42:7'>Isa 42:7</a>), so was every Israelite “to let the oppressed go free…loose the bonds”, and to “undo the bands of the [heavy] yoke” (<a href='B:290 58:6'>Isa 58:6</a>) as Christ did (<a href='B:470 11:28-29'>Mat 11:28-29</a>); His work of deliverance is to be replicated by each of us in our witness. Whoever is in Him will by this very fact follow Him in this work. In Isaiah’s first context, the suffering servant was King Hezekiah. Yet all Israel were to see themselves as ‘in’ him, as spiritual Israel are to see themselves as in Christ. “He was oppressed”, as Israel at that time were being “oppressed” by Assyria. As they were covered in wounds and spiritual sickness (<a href='B:290 1:5-6'>Isa 1:5-6</a>), so the suffering servant bore their diseases and rose again in salvation victory.</p><p>Isaiah’s restoration prophecies are shot through with references to Abraham, directly or indirectly. Israel / Judah are called by Isaiah to be Yahweh’s chosen (<a href='B:290 41:8'>Isa 41:8</a>), fetched from the end of the land (<a href='B:290 41:9'>Isa 41:9</a>), to act like the seed of Abraham (<a href='B:290 41:8'>Isa 41:8</a>)... just like Abraham. But Abraham left Babylonia and journeyed to the promised land- and Judah likewise are bidden make that journey (<a href='B:290 44:2'>Isa 44:2</a>). By refusing to do so, they were showing themselves tonot be the seed of Abraham- they were rejecting themselves from the covenant people. I’ve shown at length elsewhere that Abraham initially resisted the call to leave Ur, he struggled with the challenge, it took him years actually to truly leave Babylonia behind and head out in faith to the promised land. So the relevance to the Jews in exile was pertinent. It’s the same with Isaiah’s allusions to Israel’s leaving Egypt. The Jews in Babylon were intended to live out the type by leaving Babylon and making the wilderness journey to the land- and God helped them in it. For example, <a href='B:150 6:4'>Ezr 6:4</a> records how God moved the local authorities to pronounce that the residents around the returning exiles should give them silver, gold and goods. This was an exact re-living of how Israel left Egypt with Egypt’s gold and silver (<a href='B:20 12:35'>Exo 12:35</a>). Yet most of the Jews didn’t want to return, they didn’t want to live out the type.</p>


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<p>You whom I have taken hold of from the ends of the earth and called from its corners and said to you- Abraham had been taken hold of and called from the ends of the land; that taking hold of Abraham was because he himself didn't respond well to God's initial call. He reflects that God "made him" leave his father's house. And the same Divine stimulus and encouragement was available to the exiles, who were being offered a "new covenant" based on the promises to Abraham. Which explains all the allusions to Abraham throughout later Isaiah. The exiles were located in the very borders and corners of the land promised to Abraham, but from there they would be regathered. If they were willing to participate in the Divine plan, which sadly most of them weren’t. They preferred to remain in exile from Him.</p><p>‘You are My servant, I have chosen you- Because the exiles refused to be Yahweh’s servant, the words were reapplied to the Lord Jesus. And so this is quoted in <a href='B:650 2:10'>Heb 2:10</a>; <a href='B:650 2:14'>Heb 2:14</a> about God taking hold of Jesus, His servant. <a href='B:290 41:10'>Isa 41:10</a> continues concerning Jesus, therefore, "Fear thou not; for I am with thee (the Angels’ words to Joshua); be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen&nbsp; thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness" (an Angel). The right hand Angel of God&nbsp; strengthened, upheld and helped Jesus spiritually as it could have done the exiles and their potential Messianic leaders like Zerubbabel. His dismay which the verse implies He had was therefore at His feeling of being spiritually inadequate to fulfill His great calling- exactly like Joshua. But as with Joshua, the Angel strengthened Him.</p><p>Reasoning back from the addresses to the captives in later Isaiah, it appears they thought that Yahweh was a God who just operated in the land of Israel. The captives felt they couldn’t sing the songs of Yahweh in a Gentile land (Psalms 137). They thought that now they were outside His land and far from His temple, they were forgotten by Him (<a href='B:290 49:14-15'>Isa 49:14-15</a>), their cause ignored by Him (<a href='B:290 40:27'>Isa 40:27</a>) and they were “cast off” from relationship with Him (<a href='B:290 41:9'>Isa 41:9</a>). Hence Isaiah emphasizes that Yahweh is the creator and the God of the whole planet, and His presence is literally planet-wide. Likewise there is much stress in those addresses on the fact that Yahweh’s word of prophecy will come true. Remember that there had been many false prophets of Yahweh just prior to the captivity who predicted victory against Babylon and prosperity (<a href='B:310 2:9'>Lam 2:9</a>; <a href='B:310 2:14'>Lam 2:14</a>; <a href='B:300 44:15-19'>Jer 44:15-19</a>). And the 70 years prophecy of Jeremiah appeared to not be coming true, or at best was delayed or re-scheduled in fulfilment [even Daniel felt this, according to his desperate plea for fulfilment in Daniel 9]. And so there was a crisis of confidence in the concept of prophecy, and Yahweh’s word and prophets generally. Isaiah addressed this by stressing the nature and power of that word, and urging faith in its fulfilment and relevance.</p><p>And not cast you away’- The exiles needed assurance of this. But it could be that as with many today in the new Israel, their conclusion that God had cast them away was an excuse for remaining in a society where they were prosperous. ’Cast away’ here is the same word as ’despise’. Judah had ’despised’ God’s laws (s:w. <a href='B:30 26:15'>Lev 26:15</a>; <a href='B:30 26:43'>Lev 26:43</a>), casting them away (<a href='B:290 5:24'>Isa 5:24</a>) and yet God had not ’cast them away’ (<a href='B:30 26:44'>Lev 26:44</a> s:w:). He did not treat them as they treated Him. And yet God did cast them away temporarily (s:w. <a href='B:290 54:6'>Isa 54:6</a>; <a href='B:300 7:29'>Jer 7:29</a>; <a href='B:350 4:6'>Hos 4:6</a>); but His message was that now they were not cast away.  The point is so laboured- they had been chosen, they were still God's chosen, they therefore had not been 'cast away' any more. Their "fear" which is continually addressed subsequently from :10 onwards is therefore their subconscious, unexpresseed [and never historically recorded] fear that they had been rejected by God. The good news to Zion was of release from fear of condemnation. And that is part of the Gospel- no fear of condemnation. This is the greatest truth to live by. Psychologically and subconsciously, that is an amazing meeting of man's deepest need and discomfort. And on the conscious level, it is the way to achieve "all joy and peace through believing". For if judgment day is always before our mind with the greatest question mark hanging over it, we have no assurance of peace and joy now. We like Israel were once cast away for our sins, but have been chosen again and are not now cast away. "There is therefore now no condemnation..." to Israel after the Spirit.
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<p>Don’t you be afraid, for I am with you- Time and again, Isaiah’s restoration prophecies told Judah that they should not fear, as Yahweh would mightily be with them in their work (<a href='B:290 41:10'>Isa 41:10</a>; <a href='B:290 41:13-14'>Isa 41:13-14</a>; <a href='B:290 43:1'>Isa 43:1</a>; <a href='B:290 43:5'>Isa 43:5</a>; <a href='B:290 44:2'>Isa 44:2</a>; <a href='B:290 44:8'>Isa 44:8</a>; <a href='B:290 44:11'>Isa 44:11</a>; <a href='B:290 54:7'>Isa 54:7</a>; <a href='B:290 54:14'>Isa 54:14</a>; <a href='B:290 59:19'>Isa 59:19</a>). But Judah feared the surrounding nations- Ezra and Nehemiah are full of this theme (<a href='B:150 3:3'>Ezr 3:3</a>), and in exile they feared condemnation. Nehemiah refused to be put in fear by the Samaritan opposition because of his faith in Isaiah’s promises (<a href='B:160 6:14'>Neh 6:14</a>). And Isaiah further spoke to Judah’s heart in <a href='B:290 51:12-13'>Isa 51:12-13</a>: “I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass; And forgettest the LORD thy maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations [s:w. re. the foundation of the temple being laid] of the earth [‘heaven and earth’ often refers to the temple]; and hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor?”. The fact they did fear meant that they had forgotten Yahweh who was so eager to re-establish their Kingdom. And they had forgotten that He was the creator of Israel, as well as the creator of the natural heavens and earth. Did the Jews live in "fear" in exile? There is no direct evidence that they did; the evidence rather is of their popularity. The "fear" may therefore refer to how when faced with the awesome reality of eternal salvation, with all that implies for me right now- man tends to fear, and fall back from it. For that Hope demands my absolute all in the here and now. And so man tends to turn up the volume of his background music, get distracted by this or that, rather than face the awesome reality. </p><p>Don’t be dismayed, for I am your God- The command not to be dismayed may be a command to not look to idols but to Yahweh as their God (s:w. :23; <a href='B:290 17:8'>Isa 17:8</a>).</p><p>I will strengthen you- Yahweh would strengthen His servant people, in contrast to the idols, which had to be strengthened by their makers (s:w. <a href='B:290 44:14'>Isa 44:14</a>). This phrase is used several times about Joshua being strengthened to enter the land and possess it; which was relevant to the exiles being encouraged to possess the same land (<a href='B:50 31:6-7'>Deu 31:6-7</a>; <a href='B:50 31:23'>Deu 31:23</a>).  If they first believed, then they would be psychologically strengthened in their path by God, just as believers are today. The word for "strengthen" is used of God strengthening the heart of Sihon ["made his heart obstinate" Dt. 2:30]; indeed the word is usually used of the strengthening of hearts / minds. </p><p>Yes, I will help you- Ezra was ashamed to ask for help against Judah’s enemies (<a href='B:150 8:22'>Ezr 8:22</a>), the implication being that he wanted that human help but was ashamed to ask for it from the King. He had initially believed those words of Isaiah, but found it hard to maintain that level of faith. But they should have had faith in the restoration prophecy’s promise: “Fear not ... I will help you” (<a href='B:290 41:10'>Isa 41:10</a>)</p><p>Yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of My righteousness- The servant, be it Israel the nation or an individual Messianic figure, would be upheld by Yahweh in order to achieve the restoration; and in the case of the likes of Cyrus and Zerubbabel, would have had righteousness imputed to them had they wished to go along with God’s program. The doubting exiles would be 'upheld' if they were somehow "in" the servant- "Behold My servant whom I uphold" (Is. 42:1). We note all this language of strengthening, helping and upholding those who dared to believe that indeed God did love and accept them and restore them. The equivalent in our days is the gift of the Spirit to those who first believe. The language is very similar to Joshua / Jesus urging God's people that they could inherit the Kingdom: "Fear not nor be dismayed, be strengthened and of a good courage" (Josh. 10:25).</p>


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<p>Behold, all those who are incensed against you will be disappointed and confounded. Those who strive with you will be like nothing, and shall perish- &nbsp;The Samaritans could have provided a fulfilment of all this, just as the prideful Assyrians were before. And yet Sanballat, Tobiah, the Ammonites and Ashdodites were “wroth” [s:w. ‘incensed’] against Judah (<a href='B:160 4:1'>Neh 4:1</a>; <a href='B:160 4:7'>Neh 4:7</a>). But they didn’t come to nothing, nor to shame, in that those very groups were the ones who married into Jewry, to the extent that Tobiah even shifted the tithes out of one of the chambers of the temple and set up his office there. But it was to be the makers of idols who were "confounded" (s:w. <a href='B:290 45:16'>Isa 45:16</a>) and only the true Israel would not be "confounded" (<a href='B:290 45:17'>Isa 45:17</a>; <a href='B:290 54:4'>Isa 54:4</a>). The sinners in Israel had refused to be confounded or ashamed of their sins (<a href='B:300 3:3'>Jer 3:3</a> s:w:) and so they would be shamed in condemnation. Repentance involves an imagination of ourselves coming to judgment day and being condemned, and feeling shame for that; that is how we shall not be ashamed. And it is the servant alone who shall not be ashamed / confounded because of His righteousness (<a href='B:290 50:7'>Isa 50:7</a>). Our identity with Him removes that shame. If we condemn ourselves, we shall not be condemned (<a href='B:530 11:31'>1Co 11:31</a>). The enemies of Israel would perish alongside the apostate within Israel, in the same judgment.</p>


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<p>You will seek them, and won’t find them, even those who contend with you. Those who war against you will be as nothing, as a non-existent thing- LXX "thou shalt not find the men who shall insolently rage against thee". Just as the Assyrians had raged against Yahweh and then be slain in a moment, so would all Judah’s enemies. "Contend" is the word used for how Assyria and Babylon ’laid waste’ Judah (<a href='B:290 37:26'>Isa 37:26</a>; <a href='B:300 4:7'>Jer 4:7</a>). "War against" is s:w. "the controversy of Zion" (<a href='B:290 34:8'>Isa 34:8</a>). World geopolitics has moved to a state where in our day as never before, Jerusalem / Zion is a key issue which will bring about the war against Israel and Jewish people. But this is going to be resolved finally and in a moment, at the return of the Lord Jesus. The idea is really of bringing a case or legal "cause" in court- s:w. :21. And Yahweh Himself will plead that cause or "war" with latter day Babylon when it falls (s:w. <a href='B:300 50:34'>Jer 50:34</a>). The Gentile opposition will be as nothing in that they will weigh as nothing on the scales of final judgment concerning Zion (s:w. <a href='B:290 40:17'>Isa 40:17</a>). The idea is not at all that people do not matter to God. God's true people will have none who "contend" legally with them. The spirit of this is surely behind Paul's challenge: "Who is he that condemns?" (Rom. 8:34). There is no legal case against those in Christ. "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's chosen ones? It is God that justifies" (Rom. 8:33). The idea of a court case with justification through the suffering servant who makes intercession is directly from Is. 53:11-13.</p>


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<p>For I, Yahweh your God, will hold your right hand, saying to you, ‘Don’t be afraid. I will help you’- This Fatherly image of help offered to a nervous child was to encourage the weak minded exiles to return to Zion and accept Yahweh’s helping hand, just as His hand had ’helped’ Hezekiah against the Assyrians (s:w. <a href='B:140 32:8'>2Ch 32:8</a>). At the restoration, Ezra believed this "help" would enable the restoration to the extent that they didn’t need any human soldiers to help them (<a href='B:150 8:22'>Ezr 8:22</a> s:w:).
Yet the same figure is used of God taking the right hand of His servant Cyrus (Is. 45:1). The servant was Jacob / Israel, but they failed. So God tried with Cyrus, and possibly with Zerubbabel. These servants also failed. And so the servant prophecies in Isaiah move on to His ultimate servant, the Lord Jesus.
</p>


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<p>Don’t be afraid, you worm Jacob, and you men of Israel-The appeal not to be fearful is because they had Yahweh as their go'el / redeemer. This connection is repeated in Is. 43:1: "Don’t be afraid, for I have redeemed you" and Is. 54:4,5: "Don’t be afraid; for... the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer". If God Almighty is our powerful next of kin and will buy us out of our debt, take vengeance on our persecutors... we have nothing to fear. "Fear not" is often used in Isaiah and usually in the context of not fearing because we shall be saved. The Christian assurance of ultimate and eternal salvation is indeed the Gospel, the good news; and ultimately removes all anxiety and fear from us.
The sense of "you worm Jacob" may be as LXX "Israel few in number". But the idea can alsobe of absolute smallness and weakness (<a href='B:290 14:11'>Isa 14:11</a>; <a href='B:220 25:6'>Job 25:6</a>). The Lord as the suffering servant on the cross felt like a worm in that He totally bore Israel’s feelings and sufferings (<a href='B:230 22:6'>Psa 22:6</a>).</p><p>I will help you, says Yahweh, and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel- see on <a href='B:290 44:2'>Isa 44:2</a>. As Hosea ‘redeemed’ Gomer in His attempt to force through His fantasy for her (<a href='B:350 3:1'>Hos 3:1</a>), so Yahweh is repeatedly described in Isaiah as Israel’s go’el, redeemer (<a href='B:290 41:14'>Isa 41:14</a>; <a href='B:290 43:14'>Isa 43:14</a>; <a href='B:290 44:6'>Isa 44:6</a>; <a href='B:290 44:24'>Isa 44:24</a>; <a href='B:290 47:4'>Isa 47:4</a>; <a href='B:290 48:17'>Isa 48:17</a>; <a href='B:290 49:7'>Isa 49:7</a>; <a href='B:290 49:26'>Isa 49:26</a>; <a href='B:290 54:5'>Isa 54:5</a>; <a href='B:290 54:8'>Isa 54:8</a>). The redeemer could redeem a close relative from slavery or repurchase property lost during hard times (<a href='B:30 25:25-26'>Lev 25:25-26</a>; <a href='B:30 25:47-55'>Lev 25:47-55</a>; <a href='B:80 2:20'>Rth 2:20</a>; <a href='B:80 3:9'>Rth 3:9</a>; <a href='B:80 3:12'>Rth 3:12</a>). The redeemer was also the avenger of blood (<a href='B:40 35:9-28'>Num 35:9-28</a>; <a href='B:60 20:3'>Jos 20:3</a>; <a href='B:60 20:9'>Jos 20:9</a>).  He could also marry a widow and raise up children by her. All these ideas were relevant to Yahweh’s relationship to Judah in captivity. As discussed on Is. 40:2, Yahweh paid the debt. That debt was owed to Him, but He did not merely say "Forget it!". He paid it in full, ultimately through the blood of His Son. As Paul often exalts in Romans, our redemption was achieved in this sense "justly". The title "redeemer" is constantly linked to "the Holy One of Israel" (Is. 41:14; 43:14; 47:4; 48:17; 49:7; 54:5). Possibly because God's supreme holiness is shown by His having redeemed / bought out Israel from the debt of their sin. He is "holy" or separate from anything or anyone else in the way He redeems in this way, and is holy or separated unto this saving redemption of His people. This is what God Almighty is all about; we are His sole passion. This amazing grace is the essence of His holiness or 'otherness'.
But the promised freedom didn’t come- even under Nehemiah, Judah was still a province within the Persian empire. And those who returned complained: “We are slaves this day in the land you gave…” (<a href='B:160 9:36'>Neh 9:36</a>). The wonderful prophecies of freedom and redemption from slavery weren’t realized in practice, because of the selfishness of the more wealthy Jews. And how often is it that the freedom potentially enabled for those redeemed in Christ is in practice denied them by their autocratic and abusive brethren</p>


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<p>Behold, I have made you into a new sharp threshing instrument with teeth. You will thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and will make the hills like chaff- This and :16 is full of reference to Daniel 2. It was as if the prophecy of Daniel 2 could have been fulfilled by Judah and their ‘Messiah’ as the stone- right then. As explained on <a href='B:340 2:44'>Dan 2:44</a>, the stone from the mountain of Babylon returning to the eretz could have had application to the returned exiles. LXX "I have made thee as new saw-shaped threshing wheels of a wagon" alludes to the cherubim; faithful Judah would become identified with Yahweh’s Angel chariot and would become the vehicle for His operations against the Gentiles. This threshing will come ultimately true in the last days (s:w. <a href='B:400 4:13'>Mic 4:13</a>).  And yet the connection is obvious with the command in Is. 40 to prepare a way for Yahweh to bring Judah back from Babylon to Zion. The command to "Prepare the way" involved the mountains being brought down- yet God says He will use Israel to do this. Time and again, He presents as so eager to do the work for them.  </p>


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<p>You will winnow them, and the wind will carry them away, and the whirlwind will scatter them. You will rejoice in Yahweh, you will glory in the Holy One of Israel- See on :15. This joy is presented as the joy of harvest; and the harvest will have been the judging of the nations of the eretz who refuse to accept Yahweh. The winnowing figure implies however that the wind would indeed take away the chaff, but the wheat would fall to the ground and be saved. Always in these figures of judgment there is an ultimately positive outcome somehow in view. Israel’s joy of harvest would therefore be in that some wheat has come out of the judgment process; some will repent amongst their enemies, and they will have learnt the lesson of Jonah, and this shall be their great joy.</p>


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<p>The poor and needy seek water, and there is none, their tongue fails for thirst. I Yahweh, will answer them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them- As the book of Esther makes clear, the exiles were prosperous in their various societies. Their spiritual thirst would be met. And as food and water were provided for Israel in their wilderness journey, so everything physically necessary would be provided for their return. Their poverty and need was spiritual, and this would be met. Just as Is. 40:31 has assured the faint and weary that they would be energized- in spiritual things. Just as rivers don't flow on "bare heights" (:18), so God would provide spiritual strength as it were out of nowhere, defying all laws of nature to do so. Am. 8:11 speaks of seeking water in the sense of seeking the spiritual strength of God's word.</p>


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<p>I will open rivers on the bare heights and springs in the midst of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water- Like Hosea with Gomer (see on <a href='B:290 1:26'>Isa 1:26</a>), Yahweh wanted to repeat the wilderness romance with which He had started His relationship with them. He wanted to again provide water in the desert (<a href='B:290 41:18'>Isa 41:18</a>); He wanted their return from Babylon across the desert to be like their exodus from Egypt and passage through the desert to the land. Hosea talks of starting a relationship again with his wife, a re-marriage; Ezekiel 37 expresses this same reality in another figure in speaking of how Israel would be resurrected, and this new person would return to Zion. <a href='B:290 41:19'>Isa 41:19</a> speaks of how God would even line their route from Babylon to Zion with trees. In the wilderness, the place where God told Moses that Israel were not His people, there God intended to again tell them that they were His people (<a href='B:350 2:1'>Hos 2:1</a>); God’s judgment against His people involved taking them into the wilderness and slaying them with thirst (<a href='B:350 2:5'>Hos 2:5</a>); and yet there, through that judgment, they would again become His people. God’s plan therefore was to bring Judah out of Babylon / Persia, and reveal Himself to them as their God on their wilderness journey home, and then return together with joy to Zion.</p>


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<p>I will put cedar, acacia, myrtle, and oil trees in the wilderness. I will set fir trees, pine, and box trees together in the desert- See on :18. God would even line their route from Babylon to Zion with trees. The myrtle was a native of Persia, the land of their exile. But it was as it were to be transplanted to Judah; it is the language of return from exile. These trees were known for their use in construction and for their use in building the temple, not for fruit. Cyrus provided all such wood for the rebuilding of the temple. </p>


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<p>that they may see, know, consider, and understand together, that the hand of Yahweh has done this, and the Holy One of Israel has created it- They would perceive that their return to the land was part of a new creation. But they didn’t at the time of the restoration, they returned seeking their own personal benefit from it, and were met by droughts, pests, opposition from the locals- and prophetic condemnation. And so the new creation became reapplied to the work of the Lord Jesus (<a href='B:540 5:17'>2Co 5:17</a>) and the latter day reestablishment of the Kingdom at the Lord’s return.</p>


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<p>Produce your cause, says Yahweh. Bring forth your strong reasons, says the King of Jacob-  This continues the legal allusions noted on :1. GNB "You gods of the nations, present your case. Bring the best arguments you have!". The following section concludes in :29 with a round condemnation of idols. The gods of the nations are arrayed in court against Yahweh. This continual polemic against idolatry is surely a tacit reflection upon the fact that idolatry continued to be a problem for the exiles in the initial generations, as the messages of Ezekiel make clear enough. It was only later that the exiles quit idolatry. The truth is that many Jews and Israelites assimilated into the areas of their captivity and accepted the gods and culture of their surrounding society.</p>


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<p>Let them announce and declare to us what shall happen. Declare the former things, what they are, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or show us things to come- The "we" refers in the context to God and those on His side. He is connected with us. He and His people face off in court against the idols and their followers. "That we may see it together" (:23) therefore refers to God and His people, "together" in the courtroom. Statements like these in Isaiah are often interpreted as meaning that God’s prophecies of the future are the ultimate proof that He is God. But I have noted throughout Isaiah and all the prophets that God’s prophecies are largely conditional; in the spirit of <a href='B:300 18:8-10'>Jer 18:8-10</a>, they are statements of outcomes which will happen if there is no repentance. Human repentance and intercession can change the stated outcomes; either completely precluding them, or resulting in their reapplication, amelioration, rescheduling or reinterpretation. So Bible prophecy would not be automatically fulfilled as stated, and therefore it would not be that compelling an argument. It would also require evidence that the original manuscripts existed from the required date, and the originals don’t exist. In the course of my missionary work, I have been involved in literally thousands of people from atheistic or Islamist backgrounds coming to faith in the Bible and the Lord Jesus. Not one of these was persuaded by"Bible prophecy". The path from unbelief to belief is, I suggest and observe, along different tracks to that. And there is in any case no Euclidean evidence for God’s existence, as faith is not based upon"seen"evidence (<a href='B:650 11:1'>Heb 11:1</a>). There may be confirmations for faith, but faith is ultimately a step taken without these things as a safety net or motivator. It is"the word of God", the message of His love in His Son, which is in our age of itself the basis for faith. All this said, the prediction of Cyrus by name at least 150 years before his time was without doubt God staking His Divinity upon being able to make a future prophecy. And He was justified.</p><p>The first half of the verse about future things matches the second half about past things- "Explain to the court the events of the past, and tell us what they mean"(GNB). The emphasis and flavour of the words used is not upon prediction ut rather explanation, of attaching meaning to event. God alone can provide such explanation of both past and future events according to the far reaching narrative found in the prophets. The idol religions explained just a few isolated incidents. This is what is unique about the one true God- that He alone attaches meaning to event, both in personal and collective life, and indeed to all human history. Whether we correctly perceive it is another question, but He alone does this and holds the masterplan.</p>


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<p>Declare the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods. Yes, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and see it together- LXX"declare ye to us the things that are coming on at the last time". See on :22. It could be inferred from this that what is unique about the one true God, Yahweh of Israel, is that He is responsible for both good and evil, as stated in <a href='B:290 45:5-7'>Isa 45:5-7</a>. As today, false and mistaken religious systems suggest a good God or gods, and an evil one or demons. The idea of"good and evil"being created by God&nbsp; goes back to the simple statement in <a href='B:10 2:9'>Gen 2:9</a> that it was God who created the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The synthesis of all experience, positive and negative, as coming from one God... is what makes Him so unique amongst all religions and belief systems. The popular belief in Satan as a cosmic being separate from God, and of God as only interested in giving us prosperity... is sadly missing out fundamentally in understanding the unique nature of Yahweh.  "Dismayed" is possibly sarcastic, or may just mean effectively 'to stare'.</p>


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<p>Behold, you are of nothing, and your work is of nothing. He who chooses you is an abomination- The idols and their supporters have been charged in :23 and asked to"declare"their answer. But there is silence; see on :26. And so this is the judgment pronounced, and the conclusion that any who chooses them is like them,"an abomination". Their silence is connected with their judgment- they are nothing. Nothingness and vanity is a major theme in later Isaiah. As explained on <a href='B:290 40:17'>Isa 40:17</a>, the idea is not that any persons are irrelevant to God; but that their weight is insignificant in the scale of judgment. They have no argument, and so nothing to add to the scale."Of nothing"is the phrase translated"without man"in describing the utter desolation to come upon idolatrous Judah (<a href='B:290 6:11'>Isa 6:11</a>; <a href='B:300 4:7'>Jer 4:7</a>).</p>


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<p>I have raised up one from the north, and he has come; from the rising of the sun, one who calls on My name; and he shall come on rulers as on mortar, and as the potter treads clay- The one aroused from the north could refer to Nebuchadnezzar and the one from the east would be Cyrus. Or as explained on :2, Cyrus came from both the north and the east. But evidently the intended, possible fulfilment just didn’t happen; for although he was indeed used by God, he did not"call on My name". He, along with the revived, repentant community of exiles, could have come upon the feet of iron and clay of the Daniel 2 vision and destroyed it. For that image had a fulfilment as the Babylonian empire, headed up by Nebuchadnezzar. But the fulfilment has been deferred until the return of the Lord Jesus. He will come from Heaven, the figurative “north”, rather than literal Persia / Babylon; the essence will be gloriously fulfilled, but not every literality. And so it may well be with the prophecies of the temple and worship system which was to be restored:&nbsp;"I have raised up... he has come"is an example of the prophetic perfect; Cyrus was still 150 years in the future, and the Lord Jesus yet further in the future.</p><p>The Divine hope was that Cyrus would accept the Holy One of Israel (Is. 41:25 "I have raised up one from the north...  one who calls on My name...") although initially Cyrus is the one God had called who knew Him not (Is. 45:4 "I have called you by your name... I have surnamed you, though you have not known Me"). Although Cyrus initially didn't know God's Name, he would come to a point when he did "call on My name". That was the hope, but it seems it didn't happen. We could read Is. 45:4 "yet you have not known Me" as a Divine lament that Cyrus did not respond to Yahweh and enter personal relationship with Him. It is repeated again in Is. 45:5.</p>


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<p>Who has declared it from the beginning, that we may know? And before, that we may say, ‘He is right?’. Surely, there is no one who declares like this. Surely, there is no one who shows, surely, there is no one who hears your words- LXX"there is no one that speaks beforehand, nor anyone that hears your words". As explained on :22, the idea is not simply that God foretold Cyrus (:25) in advance and was thereby justified as God because His prophecies came true. Rather is the force of"declared"that He had explained and given meaning to events of history, rather than simply meaning ’He has predicted this’. It is that metanarrative built into history by Yahweh which is"right"or ’righteous’."Nor anyone that hears your words"may be a reference to the silence of the idols and their supporters in court as suggested on :24. Hence GNB"None of you said a word about it; no one heard you say a thing!".</p>


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<p>I am the first to say to Zion, ‘Behold, look at them;’ and I will give one who brings good news to Jerusalem- LXX"I will give dominion to Sion, and will comfort Jerusalem". This is the scene of <a href='B:290 40:9'>Isa 40:9</a>; <a href='B:290 52:7'>Isa 52:7</a>, where Zion is comforted with the message that now she can return and the Kingdom of God will be reestablished. The initial possibilities of fulfilment failed, and so it is the Lord Jesus and perhaps the latter day Elijah ministry announcing Him which is in view. But His message would only be"good news"for the humble and penitent (<a href='B:290 61:1'>Isa 61:1</a> s:w:)."I am the first to say to Zion"may be a reference, in the context, to how God had conceived this plan"at the first". Hence GNB"I, the LORD, was the first to tell Zion the news; I sent a messenger to Jerusalem to say, ’Your people are coming! They are coming home!’". Is. 61:1-3 more precisely defines the "Zion" to whom the good news / Gospel is addressed as those who mourn in Zion: "Yahweh has anointed me to preach good news to the humble... to comfort all who mourn; to appoint to those who mourn in Zion, to give to them a garland for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness". And the Lord surely alludes to this when He pronounces blessing upon those who mourn. The Gospel / good news is only good news to those who mourn in repentance. </p>


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<p>When I look, there is no man; even among them there is no counsellor who, when I ask of them, can answer a word- "No counsellor among the idols" (LXX). This continues the legal allusions noted on :1 and :21. "None of them had a thing to say; not one could answer the questions I asked" (GNB). The idols were silent in court. We note that in the court case, God speaks directly and not through any advocate or "counsellor". There are many mocking allusions to Marduk, showing Yahweh’s supremacy over him. Marduk was formed- but Yahweh had no god before Him and will have none after Him (<a href='B:290 43:10'>Isa 43:10</a>). Marduk had a counsellor, Ea, called in the inscriptions “the all-wise one”. But Yahweh has all wisdom and has no such counsellor (<a href='B:290 40:13-14'>Isa 40:13-14</a>; <a href='B:290 41:28'>Isa 41:28</a>). All this reference to the Marduk cult was in my opinion not merely a pointless mockery and poking of fun at the Persian culture. It was a very real appeal to the Jewish exiles to quit it, to come out and be separate; remember again and again that Mordecai [and perhaps Esther too] had adopted names reflective of the Marduk cult. See on <a href='B:290 40:25'>Isa 40:25</a>.</p><p>In the context of this section, the gods / idols are being asked to answer up, and they are silent; see on :23,26. The"no man"who can answer anything may simply mean ’there was none’, i:e. none of the gods who are being questioned in court. Hence GNB"When I looked among the gods, none of them had a thing to say; not one could answer the questions I asked".</p><p>And yet another take is possible. God sent His prophets to appeal to Israel for repentance. They could have lead to repentance. But Israel would not. The marriage feast was totally ready and waiting for the Jewish people; they could have had it. But they didn’t want it, and so the course of human history was extended. Therefore finally God sent His Son. The Lord Jesus Himself was amazed that no other man had achieved the work which He had to; and therefore He clad Himself with zeal and performed it (<a href='B:290 41:28'>Isa 41:28</a>; <a href='B:290 50:2'>Isa 50:2</a>; <a href='B:290 59:16'>Isa 59:16</a> cp. <a href='B:730 5:3-4'>Rev 5:3-4</a>). God knew that salvation in the end would have to be through the death of His Son. But there were other possible scenarios for the repentance and salvation of mankind, which no man achieved. And so, as in the parable of the servants sent to get fruit from the vineyard, there was left no other way but the death of God’s only Son.</p>


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<p>Behold, all of them, their works are vanity and nothing. Their molten images are wind and confusion- LXX"For these are your makers, as ye think, and they that cause you to err in vain". The idols and their supporters have been charged in :23 and asked to"declare"their answer. But there is silence; see on :26. And so this is the final judgment pronounced. Their silence is connected with their judgment- they are nothing. As explained on <a href='B:290 40:17'>Isa 40:17</a>, the idea is not that any persons are irrelevant to God; but that their weight is insignificant in the scale of judgment. They have no argument, and so nothing to add to the scale."Confusion"is tohu, the word used in <a href='B:10 1:2'>Gen 1:2</a> of how the earth / land was"without form", and then the Spirit / wind (s:w:) moved upon it. Here we have again the presence of"wind"(s:w:). Now the idols have been declared vain and non-existent, a new creation can begin. There is always this positive hint in the Divine judgments pronounced.</p>


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<p>Behold, My servant, whom I uphold- The servant" here is clearly Israel, initially.  “You are my witnesses, said the Lord, and My servant whom I have chosen" (Is. 43:10). But the servant is blind and dumb (:19), useless for service. And so these servant prophecies came true in the Lord Jesus, who was the Israel whom God intended; and the later references in Isaiah [after Is. 53:10 "he shall see his offspring, and shall prolong his days”] are to "servants" plural, because He was representative of a new, true Israel "in Him" (e.g. Is. 54:17 "This is what YHWH will do for his servants- I will vindicate them, says the Lord”). The servant, be it Israel the nation or an individual Messianic figure, would be upheld by Yahweh in order to achieve the restoration; and in the case of the likes of Cyrus and Zerubbabel, would have had righteousness imputed to them had they wished to go along with God’s program (<a href='B:290 41:10'>Isa 41:10</a> s:w:). . If God Almighty "upholds" anyone or anything- they will surely succeed in their mission. The tragedy is that the initial iterations of the servant (Israel, Cyrus etc.) failed... they disregarded such huge potential help. "Uphold" is a legal idea, for this section follows on the court room scene at the end of Is. 41. God's case to justify His people is upheld even though they are sinners.</p><p>My chosen, in whom My soul delights- The reason why there are no accusers against us, not even our own sins, is because we are “God’s elect” (<a href='B:520 8:33'>Rom 8:33</a>). The supreme chosen one of God was of course the Lord Jesus, “mine elect, in whom my soul delights” (<a href='B:290 42:1'>Isa 42:1</a>). And yet later on in the servant songs of Isaiah, “mine elect” clearly refers to the people of Israel (<a href='B:290 45:4'>Isa 45:4</a>; <a href='B:290 65:9'>Isa 65:9</a>; <a href='B:290 65:22'>Isa 65:22</a>). The true Israel of God are therefore those counted as somehow “in” the elect one, the singular servant of God, Messiah Jesus. Those baptized into Him are therefore His elect. And how do we know we are “God’s elect”? If we are baptized into Christ, “mineelect”, then for sure we are. And further, we have heard the call of the Gospel, we have been called- so, we are God’s elect, His chosen ones. Of course the objection can be raised that the whole idea of calling or election may appear unfair. Indeed, the Greek word for “elect” can carry the idea of ‘the favoured / favourite one’:&nbsp; There is no ultimate injustice here. The chosen One is the Lord Jesus, beloved for the sake of His righteousness, His spirit of life. Those who respond to the call to be “in Him” are counted likewise. And all this is the way, the method used, in order for God to be the one who counts us as right in the ultimate judgment- for “It is God that justifies”.</p><p>I have put My Spirit on him- The Isaiah 42 passage concerning Jesus as preaching to the Gentiles is quoted in the Gospels from the LXX. But this reads: “Jacob is my servant, I will help him: Israel, is my chosen, my soul has accepted him... he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up his voice... but... He shall shine out, and not be discouraged” (<a href='B:290 42:1-4'>Isa 42:1-4</a> LXX). The passages primarily exhorts Israel at the time of their living in Babylon to live up to their role as a missionary nation; they didn’t need to cry or lift up the voice in preaching, because their own example and being would be the witness. They would “shine out” as the light of the Gentile world in which they had to live. But they failed in this; and yet the prophecy came true in the Lord Jesus, the true servant of Yahweh. But the prophecy still has to be fulfilled in us, the servants of the Lord, as those in Christ, as we live through our Babylon years. See on :5.</p><p>He will bring justice to the nations-  "Justice" can be understood not as social justice but as the legal judgment arising from the court case just described at the end of Is. 41. The judgment was that the idols of the nations were vanity and Yahweh would save His people. This bringing forth of justice, or declaration of the sentence (s:w. <a href='B:230 17:2'>Psa 17:2</a>), will be"unto truth"(:3). The result of the judgment will be"truth". Mercy and truth are associated with the Abrahamic covenant. The idea may be that through their condemnation and judgment, they will learn Yahweh’s ways and accept covenant relationship with Him. That was the prophetic vision for a remnant of all the nations in the eretz; they were to join a repentant Israel and Judah in returning to the land to form a multiethnic people of God in the restored Kingdom. But they didn’t repent and so this has been deferred to the last days.</p>


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<p>He will not shout, nor raise his voice, nor cause it to be heard in the street- When Paul wrote that “the servant of the Lord must not strive” in his preaching ministry (<a href='B:620 2:24'>2Ti 2:24</a>), he was alluding back to how the servant song described the Lord Jesus in His preaching as not striving or lifting up His voice in proud argument (<a href='B:290 42:2'>Isa 42:2</a> cp. <a href='B:470 12:19'>Mat 12:19</a>). We are the servant in that we are"in Christ". All that is true of Him is to be true of us."Shout"is always used in Isaiah of shouting or crying in distress, condemnation or disappointment in human strength (<a href='B:290 19:20'>Isa 19:20</a>; <a href='B:290 33:7'>Isa 33:7</a>; <a href='B:290 46:7'>Isa 46:7</a>; <a href='B:290 65:14'>Isa 65:14</a>). The idea may be that He will not cry like this, but rather be heard by Yahweh and bring blessing to others. Yet the verse is quoted in <a href='B:470 12:19'>Mat 12:19</a> about the teaching style of the Lord Jesus. The Lord didn’t shout out in the streets who He was. He wished His followers to follow His example in&nbsp;showing&nbsp;the message to the world just as He did- in who He was (<a href='B:470 12:18'>Mat 12:18</a>). The Lord Himself withdrew from controversy with the Pharisees and instructed His recent converts not to spread the Gospel in an unseemly way, because it was written about&nbsp;Him personally&nbsp;that&nbsp;“he shall not strive nor cry; neither shall any man hear&nbsp;His&nbsp;voice in the streets". In other words, the true preacher of Christ is solidly identified with Him by the very act of preaching. Truly "we are ambassadors for Christ" (<a href='B:540 5:20'>2Co 5:20</a>) in our witnessing. His voice is our voice.
The Lord understood these words of Isaiah to mean that He should cease from controversy with the Pharisees at that point. He withdrew from the Pharisees in order that His voice not be heard in the streets, and so that He would not quench a smoldering wick: "The Pharisees went out and took counsel against him, how they might destroy him.  And Jesus perceiving it withdrew from there; and many followed him and he healed them all, and charged them that they should not make him known. That it might be fulfilled which was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, saying: Look at My servant whom I have chosen... He shall not strive, nor cry aloud, neither shall anyone hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he shall not break and a smoking wick he shall not quench" (Mt. 12:14-20). He withdrew from controversy with the Pharisees at that point so that He would not quench a smoking wick. He realized that exposure to argument and controversy is carcinogenic to faith. But at other times He did engage with the Pharisees, as often recorded in the Gospels (especially Mt. 23). But at this point He "withdrew from there" and from the Pharisees, lest the weak, bruised faith of others not be destroyed completely. In the context, His miracles were powerful enough; further argument was unnecessary and would be destructive to the faith of others. We are in Him and are to act with a similar wisdom and sensitivity. For how we treat the spiritually weak, those with just the last or slightest spark of spiritual life, is a litmus indicator of spirituality and Christ-likeness. We are saved exactly because of His especial patience with us the weak; including the smoking wicks, those who fill the house with more smoke than light or heat, the people kicked out because they are seen as a pain to the rest of us. The reed plant is easily damaged; people are weak, sensitive and vulnerable. Bruising is the language of suffering; a bruised reed is a hurt person. The servant would seek to bring them to life, to work with the hurt and the weak. The immediate context of Matthew's quotation of these words is that the Lord had cured a man with a withered hand, perhaps analogous to the bruised reed (Mt. 12:9-13). The Lord Jesus was the strongly burning light of the world; but He showed His supremacy by His patience with the smoking wick. He was the shoot that grew up strongly from dry ground (Is. 53:1); who had patience with the bruised reed that was wilting.</p>


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<p>He won’t break a bruised reed. He won’t quench a dimly burning wick. He will faithfully bring justice- "Bruised reed" in <a href='B:290 36:6'>Isa 36:6</a> is better "broken reed", and this is the very phrase used here about how the Messiah, the Lord Jesus, would not break a "bruised / broken reed" (<a href='B:290 42:3'>Isa 42:3</a>). Egypt were a broken reed, recently broken in battle and now useless to save Israel. They were too weak to uphold the weight of Judah if they were to lean upon it for strength. God turns the figure around- He as it were is in need of man, He wishes to trust upon us; and although we are broken reeds, we will not be crushed nor will He be disappointed. He so wishes to work with us.</p><p>The events of the crucifixion were so packed with fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy and shadows that the Lord’s discernment of them must have given Him a wonderful boost of strength, in knowing who He was and where He was destined. For example, when they put a broken reed in his hand as a mock sceptre, His mind would have flown to the Messianic <a href='B:290 42:3'>Isa 42:3</a>: “A bruised reed shall he not break…he shall bring forth judgment”, as they mocked him for his apparent inability to do.</p><p>The Hebrew words used in <a href='B:290 42:3'>Isa 42:3</a> suggest this is a reference to the candlestick; the words respectively mean a shaft / stem, and a wick. Little strength, little light (if the reference is to the reed which took oil to the lamps of the candlestick), little heat- but all the same, the Lord Jesus seeks to fan it into life rather than walk away in disappointment; and by doing so, sets a challenging example to many of us, whose most frequent complaint is the weak state of the brotherhood’s members. If the reference is to a damaged and smoky candlestick, this becomes the more poignant- for the candlestick was a clear symbol of Israel and then of the ecclesias (<a href='B:730 1:12-13'>Rev 1:12-13</a>; <a href='B:730 1:20'>Rev 1:20</a>; <a href='B:730 2:1'>Rev 2:1</a>).</p><p>When judgment is finally cast out by mercy at the last day, then the dysfunctional candlestick will be quenched or destroyed in condemnation. Note how the metaphor of quenching a fire is used here for condemnation; but in another metaphor, condemnation is spoken of as the very opposite- unquenchable fire. This is sure proof that we are not to read ’unquenchable fire’ as literal.</p>


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<p>He will not fail nor be discouraged until he has set justice in the earth, and the islands will wait for his law- LXX "He shall shine out". He the perfect, brightly burning lamp would continue to shine, despite the weakness of the candlestick of God's people. The Lord’s patience with the useless candlestick of Israel and the weakness of the ecclesia (see on :3) will be "until" His final victory over judgment. That happened in one sense on the cross, but in another sense it will only happen when death is swallowed up in victory at the day of judgment. Until then, both He and us are to patiently bear with the damaged and dysfunctional ecclesial candlestick. But in that day, those elements of the candlestick which refuse to give light to the house will be "broken", the Greek in <a href='B:470 12:20'>Mat 12:20</a> meaning ’broken in pieces’- the language of condemnation (<a href='B:470 21:44'>Mat 21:44</a>).</p><p>Ezra, Nehemiah, Joshua, Zerubbabel... all overlooked the encouragement of <a href='B:290 42:4'>Isa 42:4</a> concerning the servant-Messiah: “He shall not fail nor be discouraged”. Of course, the Lord Jesus Himself, along with these earlier potential Messiahs, could have failed and been discouraged. This was a conditional prophecy, if ever there was one. But the Lord Jesus made it real and live in His own experience; the others assumed, as we so often do, that these kind of scriptures are meant for someone other than us. Just as so many in the world assume that the good news of the Kingdom applies to us who preach it, and it must be very nice for us…but refuse to let the personal reality of it sink in for them.
"Justice" can easily be misunderstood as some reference to social justice. But the original word continues the frequent legal allusions in Isaiah. The word is used of a judicial decision or sentence (Num. 27:21; Dt. 16:18; 1 Kings 3:28; 20:40), the case presented for litigation (Ez. 23:24; 1 Kings 3:11; Job 13:18) and the execution of the sentence (Jer. 7:5; Ez. 18:8). Hence there is the parallel in this verse with "the islands shall wait for His law". God's judgment throughout all the judicial allusions in Isaiah is that He will save His people and judge all others. This judgment of salvation for God's people is to be effected through the Servant, who will not falter [NEV "fail"] until this has been achieved. We think of the Lord setting His face to go up to Jerusalem and die there to effect all this, unflinching and utterly determined for our salvation. "Discouraged" is the same word as "bruised" in :3. He would not falter nor be bruised or otherwise weak, in order to save those who do falter and easily bruise. And that is really the ultimate indicator of spirituality; to love and be patient with others who are weak in ways that we are strong.</p>


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<p>Thus says God Yahweh, He who created the heavens and stretched them out, He who spread out the earth and that which comes out of it- The simple fact we are created by God means that we are responsible to God in some sense, and therefore liable to His judgment. The stretched out hand of God is used as a figure both for His judgment of man (<a href='B:290 31:3'>Isa 31:3</a>) and also for His creation of man (<a href='B:290 40:22'>Isa 40:22</a>; <a href='B:290 42:5'>Isa 42:5</a>; <a href='B:290 44:24'>Isa 44:24</a>; <a href='B:290 45:12'>Isa 45:12</a>; <a href='B:290 51:13'>Isa 51:13</a>). The knowledge that we are created by Him makes us responsible to His judgment, and we have to look at our bodies, our lives which He has created… and act accordingly.</p><p>He who gives breath to its people and spirit to those who walk in it- This is the same phrase regarding how God’s Spirit is given or "put" (s:w:) in the Messianic Saviour figure of :1. The idea is that all the people in this new system will also have the Spirit put within them; and the ame phrase is used of the Spirit being potentially "put" or "given" in the restored exiles (<a href='B:330 37:6'>Eze 37:6</a>; <a href='B:330 37:14'>Eze 37:14</a>). They were to all have the Spirit of the servant saviour. This has now come to fulfilment in the spirit of Christ being the sustaining force in the new creation, and will be more literally manifest in the reestablishment of the Kingdom at the last day.</p><p>But the reference is also to the simple fact that God created the heavens, earth and man upon it. And this means we should use our lives to come into covenant relationship with our creator (:6). God "wrought us" as He did in order to enable us to have this longing. According to the Bible, the spirit of man is God’s. He gave us that life force, and at death "the spirit returns to God who gave it" (<a href='B:250 12:7'>Ecc 12:7</a>). If we seriously believe this, then we will see death as an opportunity to give back to God what He gave us, namely our very life force. If in our lives we followed this principle, realizing nothing we ’have’ is really ours but His, and therefore we were open handed with our possessions and knowledge of Him, freely giving it out as it were to Him, then giving back our life force to Him will be but a natural progression from this way of living. And thus we will see immortality not as something we personally crave for our own benefit, but rather a further opportunity to reflect back to Him, to His glory. Thus understanding Bible truth about death affects how we face death and eternity, and therefore radically influences our lives now.</p>


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<p>I, Yahweh, have called you in righteousness, and will hold your hand and will keep you, and make you a covenant for the people, as a light for the nations- The hands of God’s servants were held or [s:w:] strengthened at the return from exile (s:w. <a href='B:150 1:6'>Ezr 1:6</a>; <a href='B:150 6:22'>Ezr 6:22</a>; <a href='B:150 7:28'>Ezr 7:28</a>; <a href='B:160 2:18'>Neh 2:18</a>; <a href='B:160 6:9'>Neh 6:9</a>). They could then have fulfilled the Kingdom prophecy of <a href='B:290 35:3'>Isa 35:3</a> that the weak hands would be strengthened (s:w. "hold"). This taking by the hand would supremely have been through entering the new covenant; to give the hand was to enter covenant (s:w. <a href='B:300 31:32'>Jer 31:32</a>). But these potentials were refused by the exiles. And so they became fulfilled in the Lord Jesus personally, who became the essence of the covenant and the light of the world.
The servant was not literally a covenant nor a light, he was to be the one who dispensed that covenant and light. He was the "messenger of the covenant" (Mal. 3:1), the mediator of the new covenant with Israel / God's people. This was supremely fulfilled in the Lord Jesus, as we celebrate in taking the cup of the new covenant in His blood. It was ultimately through the Lord's blood that He was made a covenant for us God's people. We note how "the people" are parallel with "the nations". The idea surely is that the new covenant mediated by the servant would redefine God's people as those of all nations who accepted that covenant. Quite possibly the Lord alludes here when declaring all His people are being both the salt of the earth [the land of Israel?] and the light of the world (Mt. 5:13-16). Salt is often connected with covenants; insofar as we are in the Lord Jesus, we too are for a covenant for the people and a light to the world.</p>


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<p>to open the blind eyes, to bring the prisoners out of the dungeon, and those who sit in darkness out of the prison- There are many connections within Isaiah between the servant songs, and the descriptions of the people of Israel into which the songs are interspersed. The Saviour-servant was to bring out the prisoners from the dungeons (<a href='B:290 42:7'>Isa 42:7</a>), so was every Israelite “to let the oppressed go free... loose the bonds”, and to “undo the bands of the [heavy] yoke” (<a href='B:290 58:6'>Isa 58:6</a>) as the Lord Jesus Christ did (<a href='B:470 11:28-29'>Mat 11:28-29</a>); His work of deliverance is to be replicated by each of us in our witness. Whoever is in Him will by this very fact follow Him in this work. In Isaiah’s first context, the suffering servant was King Hezekiah. Yet all Israel were to see themselves as ‘in’ him, as spiritual Israel are to see themselves as in Christ. Significantly, Isaiah 40-53 speak of the one servant, whereas Isaiah 54-66 speak of the plural “servants” who fulfill in principle the work of the singular servant.</p><p>Those who are thankfully redeemed in Christ, now lovingly reconciled to Him, are described as blind, starving prisoners, bound in the darkness, awaiting execution (<a href='B:230 107:14'>Psa 107:14</a>; <a href='B:290 42:7'>Isa 42:7</a>; <a href='B:290 49:9'>Isa 49:9</a>; <a href='B:290 61:1'>Isa 61:1</a>; <a href='B:450 9:11'>Zec 9:11</a>). Our prayers should be like those of a man on death row in a dark dungeon, waiting to die, but groaning for salvation (<a href='B:230 102:17'>Psa 102:17</a>; <a href='B:230 102:20'>Psa 102:20</a>):&nbsp; This is the extent of our desperation. We are “the poor” (Gk. ‘the crouchers’), cringing in utter spiritual destitution (<a href='B:470 5:3'>Mat 5:3</a>). Sadly the Jewish exiles failed to perceive that the wealth and soft life of Babylon was in fact a dark dungeon. And so as many today, they failed to perceive the good news of deliverance from it. The spiritually blind would be healed, but yet the Lord would lead the blind out of Babylon to Zion (:16)- despite their refusal to be healed. Despite having resisted His efforts described here in :7 to make the blind see. Such was and is His enthusiasm to save even those who don't get it. Is. 29:19 has clearly defined blindness and deafness in spiritual terms: "In that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll, and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see. Once more the humble will rejoice in the LORD; the needy will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel".</p>


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<p>I am Yahweh; that is My name. I will not give My glory to another, nor My praise to engraved images- The implication is that the Jews had tried to praise Yahweh through praising their images. They never rejected Him, and yet they accepted idol worship. They achieved this in their conscience, as we can be tempted to do, by reasoning that idol worship was done in the name of Yahweh worship. But praise of Yahweh is because of His unique characteristics or Name, which no other idol has. Therefore as His Name is, so is His praise world-wide (<a href='B:230 48:10'>Psa 48:10</a>); beyond the barriers of distance and language, those who know the Name are united in praise. <a href='B:290 42:8'>Isa 42:8</a> speaks as if God’s Name is itself His praise, so strong and inevitable is the link between knowing His Name and praising it. Therefore "Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name" (<a href='B:230 29:2'>Psa 29:2</a>) suggests that the Name of Yahweh demands praise from us. To simply declare the Name is of itself to praise (<a href='B:650 2:12'>Heb 2:12</a>). This explains why at least 15 times in the Psalms and often elsewhere, praise is to be given to God’s Name (<a href='B:230 7:17'>Psa 7:17</a>; <a href='B:230 9:2'>Psa 9:2</a>; <a href='B:230 44:8'>Psa 44:8</a>; <a href='B:230 54:6'>Psa 54:6</a>; <a href='B:230 61:8'>Psa 61:8</a>; <a href='B:230 69:30'>Psa 69:30</a>; <a href='B:230 74:21'>Psa 74:21</a>; <a href='B:230 99:3'>Psa 99:3</a>; <a href='B:230 113:1'>Psa 113:1</a>; <a href='B:230 135:1'>Psa 135:1</a>; <a href='B:230 138:2'>Psa 138:2</a>; <a href='B:230 142:7'>Psa 142:7</a>; <a href='B:230 145:2'>Psa 145:2</a>; <a href='B:230 148:5'>Psa 148:5</a>; <a href='B:230 148:13'>Psa 148:13</a>; <a href='B:230 149:3'>Psa 149:3</a>).</p>


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<p>Behold, the former things have happened, and I declare new things. I tell you about them before they come up- As explained on <a href='B:290 41:22'>Isa 41:22</a>, the emphasis and flavour of the words used is not upon prediction but rather explanation, of attaching meaning to event. God alone can provide such explanation of both past and future events according to the far reaching narrative found in the prophets. The idol religions explained just a few isolated incidents. This is what is unique about the one true God- that He alone attaches meaning to event, both in personal and collective life, and indeed to all human history. Whether we correctly perceive it is another question, but He alone does this and holds the masterplan.</p>


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<p>Sing to Yahweh a new song- We sing the “new song” now, because we sing / meditate of the “new things” which will be in the Kingdom. In that day, we will “sing a new song” (<a href='B:730 5:9'>Rev 5:9</a>; <a href='B:730 14:3'>Rev 14:3</a>). And yet this is undoubtedly picking up on the way in which we can now sing the ‘new song’, every morning (<a href='B:230 33:3'>Psa 33:3</a>; <a href='B:230 40:3'>Psa 40:3</a>; <a href='B:230 96:1'>Psa 96:1</a>; <a href='B:230 98:1'>Psa 98:1</a>; <a href='B:230 144:9'>Psa 144:9</a>; <a href='B:230 149:1'>Psa 149:1</a>). Likewise, all things will be made new at the Lord’s coming (<a href='B:730 21:5'>Rev 21:5</a>), and yet those in whom the new creation is worked out already have all things made new in their spiritual experience (<a href='B:540 5:17-18'>2Co 5:17-18</a>). The life that He had and now lives is the essence of the Kingdom life. Who He was and is, this is the definition of the Kingdom life. It’s why one of His titles is “the kingdom of God” (<a href='B:490 17:21'>Luk 17:21</a>). And it’s why it can be said that we‘have’ eternal life now, in that we can live the essence of the life we will eternally live, right now.</p><p>And His praise from the end of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that is therein, the islands and their inhabitants- The frequent mention of the ends of the earth / land is understandable, because the exiles were located, both those of Israel and Judah. They along with the repentant remnant of the Gentiles were intended to unite together as a new multiethnic people of God in a restored Kingdom:&nbsp;</p>


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<p>Let the wilderness and its cities raise their voices, with the villages that Kedar inhabits-The picture is of the villages along the direct path from Babylon to Zion bursting into praise as the exiles travelled that way, having accepted Israel's God.  <a href='B:290 21:13-16'>Isa 21:13-16</a> mentions these areas as those who will have remnants who survive and are envisaged as repenting and turning to Yahweh. Even remote Bedouin villages will accept Israel’s God.</p><p>Let the inhabitants of Sela sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains!- "The inhabitants of the rock"; the reference is probably to Petra, which like "Sela" means "rock". Even Edom, the sworn enemy of Israel and Yahweh, would ultimately have a remnant who turn to Yahweh; although this and :12 may be an invitation for them to do so, a call for their repentance.</p>


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<p>Let them give glory to Yahweh- Connecting with <a href='B:290 42:8'>Isa 42:8</a>, the "them" is those who have now quit idolatry.</p><p>And declare His praise in the islands- The same phrase only in <a href='B:230 51:15'>Psa 51:15</a> about David’s praise of Yahweh after his repentance; and it again is repentance which is in view here.</p>


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<p>Yahweh will go out like a mighty man, He will stir up- Yet Yahweh would "stir up" Cyrus (s:w. <a href='B:290 41:2'>Isa 41:2</a>; <a href='B:290 41:25'>Isa 41:25</a>; <a href='B:290 45:13'>Isa 45:13</a>), so this could have been fulfilled through that "mighty man". But he failed. The "mighty man", the gibbor, therefore became reapplied to the Lord Jesus (<a href='B:290 9:6'>Isa 9:6</a> s:w:). But He will act through the stirring up of a repentant Judah (s:w. <a href='B:290 51:9'>Isa 51:9</a>; <a href='B:290 51:17'>Isa 51:17</a>; <a href='B:290 52:1'>Isa 52:1</a>), seeing that no man would be ’stirred up’ (s:w. <a href='B:290 64:7'>Isa 64:7</a>). All the potential candidates had refused the Divine nudges to be stirred up.</p><p>Zeal like a man of war, He will raise a war cry. Yes, He will shout aloud, He will triumph over His enemies- The Hebrew word translated "zeal" in the context of God’s zeal for us (<a href='B:290 9:8'>Isa 9:8</a>) really means the jealousy which flares up in a man for a woman (the same word is in <a href='B:40 5:14-15'>Num 5:14-15</a>; <a href='B:240 6:34'>Pro 6:34</a>; <a href='B:260 8:6'>Son 8:6</a> etc:). That jealousy burning like fire (<a href='B:230 79:5'>Psa 79:5</a>) is His passion for us His people. He is a jealous God in His zeal for us; and therefore any other relationships with the things of this world cannot be contemplated by us. That zeal of God will be poured out upon us at the second coming, resulting in a consummation with Him as the wife of His covenant (<a href='B:290 42:13-14'>Isa 42:13-14</a>; <a href='B:290 64:1'>Isa 64:1</a>). This is a figure which would be unseemly for a man to devise. But this is His passion for us, which the humility of God drives Him to use; and surely it will one day be revealed. To use this very figure of a man in love and consummating his relationship in marriage is so apparently inappropriate that it reflects the humility of God in even considering the use of it. We are God’s heritage, His reward / wages (Heb:), His recompense for all His labour for us (<a href='B:230 127:3'>Psa 127:3</a> Heb:).</p>


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<p>I have been silent a long time, I have been quiet and restrained Myself; now I will cry out like a travailing woman, I will both gasp and pant-The "long time" refers to the 70 years exile. This is as nothing to God but due to His great sensitivity to His peoples' exile, He felt the time to have dragged. Tragically they considered He had forgotten them. But in fact this was just the warrior of :13 becoming increasingly stirred to wrath until He bursts out in power. Or, matching the male image with a female image, until a woman goes into the last stage of labour and delivers her child.
The image of a woman in childbirth is of a person at the absolute maximum extent of human possibility, physically and mentally- gasping and panting, totally focused upon the end result of giving birth. This is the amazing picture of God's efforts to give birth to His people spiritually. Our spiritual birth is His maximum focus, the focus of an otherwise unbounded God, with all mental and physical possibilities. God Almighty gasping and panting for our sakes... is an amazing figure. 'Breath' is 'spirit', the same words in Hebrew. The gasping and panting in heavy breathing involves a lot of breath going out from the woman- and that breath surely represents God's Spirit, given to us, and represented in its most extreme form in His Son dying with a conscious outbreathing of His breath towards His weak and confused people, located as it were before His cross. Within Isaiah, it is the breath of God which destroys the nations and prepares the way for Judah's exodus from Babylon (Is. 40:7,24 "He blows upon them and they wither"). The tragedy was that all this Divine effort was ignored or not used by His people. The image of childbirth is also inevitably that of pain. The pain of God for our sakes is again a hugely powerful image, again coming to full term in the physical sufferings of His Son. 
Insofar as we realize that God is not passive, but has feelings toward us far more deep and passionate than we can ever know, so far we will realize that life with Him is a daily, passionate experience. It cannot be ‘the same old scene’. Consider the passion of God: “For a long time I have kept silent, I have been quiet and held myself back. But now, like a woman in childbirth, I cry out, I gasp and pant” (Isaiah 42). “How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? My heart is changed within me; All my compassion is aroused” (Hosea). The prophets are full of such passionate intensity. The prophets are not just predictions of the future. They reveal the passion of God’s feelings for His people. At the very time when He condemns them for their adultery against Him, their ingratitude, their worthlessness, He cries out His belief in the blessedness He will one day grace them with.</p><p>God’s long term ’holding His peace’ at Israel’s sins resulted in a build up of internal forces within God: "For a long time have I held my peace... restrained myself, now will I cry out like a woman in travail, I will gasp and pant" (<a href='B:290 42:14'>Isa 42:14</a>; <a href='B:290 63:15'>Isa 63:15</a>; <a href='B:290 64:12'>Isa 64:12</a>). God crying out, gasping, panting... leads straight on, in the context, to the suffering servant. This is the same idea as God’s heart growing warm and being kindled in internal struggle about His people in <a href='B:350 11:8-9'>Hos 11:8-9</a>. And all this went on supremely at the time of the crucifixion of Jesus. We note His eagerness to compare Himself to a woman in labour, who stereotypically was veiled from male observation and identity with. There is a juxtaposition of images here; the male warrior crying a war cry in :13, and now a woman crying out in the pain of triumphant childbirth. And yet we may note that the analogy to a woman crying out in labour pains is in the first person, unlike the figure of the warrior. "I will both gasp and pant" is a far more direct identification of Yahweh with the woman- an analogy perhaps shocking to the initial audience.</p>


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<p>I will destroy mountains and hills and dry up all their herbs. I will make the rivers islands and will dry up the pools- 
The bringing down of hills and mountains was required in Is. 40 in order to create a way for Yahweh and His people to come from Babylon to Zion. That way wasn't prepared in that the people didn't repent. Now God in His zeal to force through His plan says that He will do this. Just as in :7 the intention was to make the blind see and then lead them out of Babylon; whereas in :16 God decides to bring the people out whilst they were still blind.
This looks forward to the literal changes in the eretz promised to Abraham spoken of in Isaiah’s ’little apocalypse’ in Isaiah 24. Politically this will mean the collapse of all mountains or nations within that territory. God’s mountain of the Daniel 2 vision is to be over all. We note that "islands", a common word in Isaiah, here simply means the dry land where non-Israelite people live within the eretz.</p>


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<p>I will bring the blind by a way that they don’t know, I will lead them in paths that they don’t know. I will make darkness light before them, and crooked places straight. I will do these things, and I will not forsake them- This is the message of Isaiah 40; that a&nbsp; way would be made for the exiles to return. This is the scene of <a href='B:300 31:8'>Jer 31:8</a>, where the blind and limping Jacob and his family are brought back to the land from exile in the east. The literal way or path was also to be a spiritual path which they had not then yet known; for the blindness here is essentially spiritual (:18). It was all by grace; they would be returned despite their unbelief and impenitence. Their crooked ways would be made straight in that God would as it were make their ways straight.</p><p>But this huge spiritual potential was unused by the few exiles who did return. And so these things are reapplied to the way of the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus warned that the blind cannot lead the blind- and explained what He meant by adding that "The disciple is not above his master: but every one when he is perfected shall be as his master" (<a href='B:490 6:39-40'>Luk 6:39-40</a>). We are all learners of the one Master, and not leaders. Only if we are perfect can we be leaders of the blind- for it is Jesus personally who was prophesied as leading the blind (<a href='B:290 42:16'>Isa 42:16</a>). Hence we read in <a href='B:470 23:10'>Mat 23:10</a>: "Nor should you be called ’Leader,’ because your one and only leader is the Messiah".</p>


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<p>Those who trust in engraved images, who tell molten images, ‘You are our gods’ will be turned back. They will be utterly disappointed- The idea may be that any who left Babylon for Zion but continued trusting in their idols would be turned back to Babylon.  "Turned back" is the phrase used in <a href='B:230 129:5'>Psa 129:5</a> of the Assyrians who hated Zion being turned back to their own land. But it also applies to thosewithin Judah who were idolaters. Their judgment will be at the same time as that of their national enemies. For they worshipped the same idols as their enemies. But the term essentially means ’to backslide’ in moral apostasy (<a href='B:290 50:5'>Isa 50:5</a> s:w:). How they lived in their lives will be how they are at judgment day. They will not suddenly appear as different people. "Utterly disappointed" is better ’greatly shamed’, the shame of condemnation, of realizing that all human political help has come to nothing (s:w. <a href='B:290 30:5'>Isa 30:5</a>; <a href='B:300 2:26'>Jer 2:26</a>); that the way and trust of a lifetime has come to nothing:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>


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<p>Hear, you deaf, and look, you blind, that you may see- The paradox is that Israel considered Yahweh to be blind and deaf, feeling that their way was hidden or not seen by Him (Is. 40:27). God's response to this was to ask "Have you not heard?". It is blindness to think that God is blind, deafness to think that God is deaf. Hence the challenge "Do you not know? Have you not heard?" that God is in fact hugely aware of and active for His people. Isaiah began with the challenge to hear, listen and understand (Is. 1:3; 6:9,10). This highlights the grace of how God would bring the blind [spiritually blind, in the context of Isaiah] from Babylon to Zion (:16). Their blindness was willful, but still God would seek to bring them to His Kingdom despite their lack of understanding. A far cry from the typical idea practiced in many Christian denominations, that lack of understanding their doctrinal positions is a deal breaker for relationship with God. Israel was God's servant but was a blind servant (Is. 41:8; 42:19). But the Messianic servant of God, ultimately the Lord Jesus, would lead the blind and give sight to them. He was of quick understanding in spiritual things; and thus through His work as their representative, their blindness was dealt with. And yet they still had to make the effort to even want to be cured. We note that blindness and deafness are only put together like this here in Isaiah. The conditions are not particularly linked medically. It was a deafness to God's word which made them blind. And it has been observed that those who are both blind and deaf are the most difficult people to work with or care for. But this was and is Israel.
The Hebrew has the idea of 'Look so that you can see'. LXX "Look up, ye blind, to see"; if there was a desire to see, shown by looking up; then they would see. These are the spiritually blind of :16, the exiles who by grace were to experience the psychological transformation of the Spirit which is part of accepting the new covenant. But they must have the desire to see and hear; and the exiles didn’t even have that (see on <a href='B:290 48:8'>Isa 48:8</a>). And so this becomes true of a new, repentant Israel in our days and the last day:&nbsp;</p>


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<p>Who is blind, but My servant? Or who is as deaf as My messenger whom I send? Who is as blind as he who is at peace, and as blind as Yahweh’s servant?- see on <a href='B:290 44:2'>Isa 44:2</a>. The spiritual transformation of the blind and deaf was to be on account of their identification with the servant of Yahweh who was representative of them in their blindness. This may have had potential fulfilment in Isaiah, but Judah refused this. The sending forth of Isaiah was the sending forth of God’s word to His people (s:w. <a href='B:290 6:8'>Isa 6:8</a>; <a href='B:290 9:8'>Isa 9:8</a>). Isaiah like the Lord Jesus and like us, was the word made flesh. The man became his message; there was a congruence between him personally and the word preached. In the immediate context, Isaiah himself was the servant messenger sent forth (s:w. <a href='B:290 42:19'>Isa 42:19</a>; <a href='B:290 48:16'>Isa 48:16</a>; <a href='B:290 61:1'>Isa 61:1</a>); but he was largely rejected, and Jewish tradition has it that Isaiah was sawn in two by Hezekiah’s son Manasseh (<a href='B:650 11:37'>Heb 11:37</a>). And so the messenger came to fulfilment in the Lord Jesus.</p><p>The servant-Messiah is described as being blind and deaf (<a href='B:290 42:19'>Isa 42:19</a>)- just as those who returned from Babylon were called blind, yet having eyes; deaf, yet having ears (<a href='B:290 43:8'>Isa 43:8</a>). They had the potential to see and hear; and the servant-Messiah likewise was at that time deaf and blind, but had the potential to see and hear with the vision and words of Messiah. It is hard to understand these words otherwise. So we conclude that another reason why the restoration didn’t turn into the promised Messianic Kingdom was simply due to poor leadership. Heldai, Tobijah and Jedaiah returned from Babylon and were intended to be leaders who would crown Joshua / Jesus as the Messiah-Priest-Branch who would rebuild Jerusalem. But nothing is heard of them further. Perhaps it is to them that <a href='B:450 11:8'>Zec 11:8</a> refers: “Three shepherds also I cut off in one month; and my soul loathed them…then said I [on God’s behalf], I will not feed you: that that dieth, let it die”. They had gone into captivity because of poor shepherds, and now at their return they again lacked men willing to be their Saviours; and God is saying that He would not do the shepherding job which He had delegated to others. It could be that Heldai, Tobijah and Jedaiah all died in one month as a result of Zechariah’s prophecy at the time of <a href='B:150 5:1'>Ezr 5:1</a>. Or it could be that the three potential shepherds who failed were Zerubbabel, Joshua and Nehemiah.</p><p>And so the blind and deaf servant came to be fulfilled in the Lord Jesus. Because the Lord on the cross truly felt a sinner, He felt forsaken by God. This is to me the explanation of one of Scripture’s most enigmatic verses: “Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind, that ye may see. Who is blind, but my servant? Or deaf, as my messenger that I sent? Who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the Lord’s servant?"(<a href='B:290 42:18-19'>Isa 42:18-19</a>). The Lord Jesus, as the servant, was to share the blindness and deafness of an obdurate Israel. He identified with us even in our sinfulness; and yet He was the blind who was perfect; and this is the very thing that empowers the spiritually blind to see.</p><p>Jeremiah mourned Israel’s lack of spiritual sensitivity and failure to live up to their potential- they had eyes, but didn’t see (<a href='B:300 5:23'>Jer 5:23</a>), they wereGod’s servant, but a blind one; His messenger, but unable to hear any message (<a href='B:290 42:19'>Isa 42:19</a>). So the prophets weren’t satisfied just because a minority responded to their message of God’s love. They were heartbroken because the majority rejected it. I suspect we tend to think that 1 response in 1000 is good, 1 in 10,000 isn’t bad. But what about the other 999, or 9,999, who receive our tracts, hit our websites, hear our witness- and don’t respond? Is our witness in the spirit of the prophets? Are we happy that the tiny minority respond, and don’t spare a thought for the tragedy of the majority who don’t? Not only their tragedy, but the tragedy for God?</p><p>&nbsp;There is a real paradox here: a blind servant, or slave. What master would keep a blind servant? Only a master who truly loved him, and kept him on as his servant by pure grace. Yet this useless blind servant was God’s servant and messenger- even though the blind were not acceptable as servants or sacrifices of God under the Law (<a href='B:30 21:18'>Lev 21:18</a>; <a href='B:30 21:22'>Lev 21:22</a>)! God uses His spiritually blind servant people to proclaim His message to the world. The disciples, still blind to the call of the Gentiles, were sent out to preach to the whole world! And we too, blind as we are, are turning men from blindness to light. Paul points out the humility which we should therefore have in our preaching: there are none that truly understand, that really see; we are all blind. And yet we are"a guide of the blind, a light to them that sit in darkness"(<a href='B:520 2:19'>Rom 2:19</a>). Therefore we ought to help the blind with an appropriate sense of our own blindness. The first century Jewish Christians failed utterly in this. And sadly much of our earlier Christian preaching was not accompanied by an awareness of our own limited spiritual horizons and vision:&nbsp;
The Lord Jesus was the servant who was ultimately "at peace" [AV "perfect"] with God personally. "At peace" or AV "perfect". This could as well be translated "he who has repaid / paid again". This would continue the figure of Israel's debt having now been paid by God, they are themselves counted as having paid it- and yet they were blind to this grace.</p>


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<p>You see many things, but don’t observe. His ears are open, but he doesn’t listen-The idea is that by grace their eyes and ears had been forced open, but still they refused to perceive the obvious grace and salvation action of God. Possibly this provides the explanation and context for :21. Their eyes had been opened to how God would make His law glorious in that they could accept the new covenant. But still they refused.  LXX"Ye have often seen, and have not taken heed; your ears have been opened, and ye have not heard". If they desired to see and hear, then the gift of the Spirit would have opened their eyes and ears (see on :18). But they didn’t show any desire to be spiritually perceptive. And so the opening of eyes didn’t happen. The gift of the Spirit works likewise today. The Corinthians were given the Spirit, but were not"spiritual"(<a href='B:530 3:1'>1Co 3:1</a>) because they refused its operation. And this can be true of all who have been baptized and potentially received the gift of the Spirit.</p>


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<p>It pleases Yahweh, for His righteousness’ sake, to magnify the law, and make it honourable- GNB"The LORD is a God who is eager to save, so he exalted his laws and teachings, and he wanted his people to honor them. But now his people have been plundered; they are locked up in dungeons and hidden away in prisons". The context speaks of God’s attempt to open the eyes of His people to His law; we could read this with GNB as meaning that God tried to make them obedient, but they refused. But we can read with AV that Yahweh"is well pleased for his righteousness’ sake", and the referent would be the blind and deaf righteous servant of :19, the representative Lord Jesus, who identified with their blindness but Himself was righteous."He will magnify the law"(AV) would then refer to His perfect obedience to the law and honouring it in His own person, whilst also representative of sinful Judah.</p>


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<p>But this is a robbed and plundered people. All of them are snared in holes, and they are hidden in prisons. They have become a prey, and no one delivers; and a spoil, and no one says, ‘Restore them!’- "Restore" or "Return!". None amongst their prophets or leaders grasped the message of Isaiah, and encouraged the people to "return". See on :21. They need not have remained in the holes and prisons of captivity, but they refused the saving work of the representative servant. And the exiles in Persia, as the book of Esther makes clear, didn’t perceive their prosperity as actually being in holes and prisons, spiritually snared by their own materialism. See on <a href='B:290 49:24'>Isa 49:24</a>. Israel as a nation are often spoken of as being in prison in a Gentile world (<a href='B:230 79:11'>Psa 79:11</a>; <a href='B:230 102:20'>Psa 102:20</a>; <a href='B:290 42:7'>Isa 42:7</a>; <a href='B:290 42:22'>Isa 42:22</a>; <a href='B:290 49:9'>Isa 49:9</a>); just as Joseph was. Prison and death are often associated because a spell in prison was effectively a death sentence, so bad were the conditions. Israel being in prison is therefore a symbol of a living death.  And yet they were materially prosperous, so much so that Haman sought to kill them to expropriate their considerable wealth; there was a Jewish queen and prime minister of Persia, according to the book of Esther, and the Jews were popular. Jeremiah had told them to build houses and plant vineyards there. They were not literally abused and in prison- this language is clearly symbolic of their spiritual deprivation. Indeed a city called al-Yahudu, 'the city of Judah', has been unearthed which suggests the Jews were extremely prosperous in Babylon. This of course is why they generally failed to respond to the call of Cyrus to leave and return to Judah. Just as blindness and deafness are used in spiritual terms here in Isaiah, so is the language of imprisonment and abuse: "to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness" (:7). The paradox is that they who had taken Babylon's wealth to themselves were in fact being spiritually plundered by Babylon.</p>


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<p>Who is there among you who will give ear to this? Who will listen and hear bearing in mind the time to come?- In the first instance, this is an appeal to the exiles to repent."The time to come"could refer to their further suffering, or to the wonderful Kingdom which potentially they could have a part in if they repented (s:w. <a href='B:290 41:23'>Isa 41:23</a>). But they retained their deaf ears (see on :18), refusing to have them opened. And so the appeal becomes a timeless one, for all who would seek to have a part in the restored Kingdom.</p>


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<p>Who gave Jacob as plunder, and Israel to the robbers? Didn’t Yahweh, He against whom we have sinned? For they would not walk in His ways, and they disobeyed His law- LXX"For what did he give to Jacob up to spoil, and Israel to them that plundered him? Did not God do it against whom they sinned? and they would not walk in his ways, nor hearken to his law". This is in answer to the skepticism of the exiles encountered by Ezekiel, who considered they were suffering unjustly and the entire deportation had been unfair.</p>


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<p>Therefore He poured the fierceness of His anger on him, and the strength of battle; and it set him on fire all around, but he didn’t know; and it burned him, but he didn’t take it to heart- See on :24. The tragedy was that those taken into captivity weren’t reformed by their sufferings, and now their children likewise refused to"take it to heart"and repent. Here we have another connection with Job, the book which appears to have been rewritten for the exiles with Job as representative of both the exiles and the righteous servant."Have you considered My servant..."(<a href='B:220 1:8'>Job 1:8</a>) is the same phrase here"take it to heart". The book of Job was therefore written as a way of appealing for the repentance of the exiles and for them to contextualize their own sufferings.</p><p>The Hebrew term for not laying to heart is commonly used in lament of how Israel saw all these things, but refused to lay them to heart. The same phrase is used like this in criticism of Israel in Is. 57:1,11; Jer. 12:11; Zech. 7:12, and in the frequent pleas for them to set their heart on God's words (Ez. 40:4; 44:5; Mal. 2:2 "If you will not lay it to heart"). All these passages are in the context of the exiles. It is one thing to tick boxes and hear ideas, but faith means setting these things in our hearts as a truth to live by.</p>


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<p>But now thus says Yahweh who created you, Jacob, and He who formed you, Israel: Don’t be afraid, for I have redeemed you- We could translate "And now thus says Yahweh the one creating you Jacob and the one forming you Israel". See on Is. 44:24. It is the new creation of Israel that is in view. So often, the fact Yahweh is creator is presented as a reason to trust Him for help (Ps. 115:15; 124:8 "Our help is in the name of Yahweh, who made heaven and earth"; 134:3; 146:5,6 "Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help... who made heaven and earth"; Is. 42:5; 45:18; Jer. 10:11,12). To minimize His creative power through faithless scientific theory simply takes away our grounds for personal faith. The restoration prophecies stress the connection between creation and salvation:  Is. 42:5,6 "He who created the heavens and stretched them out, He who spread out the earth and that which comes out of it... I will hold your hand and will keep you"; Is. 43:1 "thus says Yahweh who created you, Jacob, and He who formed you, Israel: Don’t be afraid, for I have redeemed you"; Is. 44:24-28 "Thus says Yahweh your Redeemer, and He who formed you from the womb: I am Yahweh who makes all things". Any fears about our final salvation should be assuaged by the reflection that God can do and create anything- what He has done physically is the guarantee He can do it spiritually. The God who created the heavens and the earth is the God who created his people through His acts of salvation. This is why Isaiah's argument often mocks the gods of the nations because they were not the creators, and therefore unable to save. This is why the Psalmist of Ps. 121 looks to the mountains, each with their own supposed deity, and reflects that his help comes from Yahweh who is the sole creator of heaven and earth.</p><p>The exiles feared they were not good enough to be redeemed. But Yahweh desperately wanted them; He had in prospect redeemed them, but it was now for them to respond. And this is how it is with His appeal to people today. He not only created us but"formed"us for the moment at which we accept His redemption. Our entire biography and genetic prehistory, even including our own sins, was all part of that formation of a person to come to an optimal point at which they can say"Yes"to Him. By saying"Yes"we realize that nothing was random, meaning was attached to every event, leading to that moment of Divine-human encounter.
"I have redeemed you" is discussed on Is. 40:2. Yahweh Himself is the go'el of His people, He had paid the price to redeem them from slavery. </p><p>I have called you by your name. You are Mine- God’s Name is over His people (<a href='B:50 28:10'>Deu 28:10</a>). So to bear God’s Name is to recognize His complete ownership and even conquest of us. And yet there’s a significant twist to all this in <a href='B:290 43:1'>Isa 43:1</a>:"I have called you by your name, because you are mine". It seems like a slip- we expect God to say that He has called us by His Name, because we are His. But no- He wishes us to bear both His Name and our own name, He doesn’t wish to subsume us beneath His ownership and manifestation to the point that we are not significant as persons. We expect the creator, owner and redeemer of someone or something to name it with His name. But God dashes that expectation- He says instead that we are called by our name. In this we see the extent to which God has created us so that we might have real, personal existence and salvation, not merely to as it were extend Himself. In this we see a profound insight into the utter depth of God’s outgiving grace.</p><p>And the huge importance God gives to human personality and individual character- to the human person. This is profound comfort as we live out our lives in an increasingly dehumanized world, where the value of the human person is progressively negated.
Having been created and called by God is a guarantee that He will continue to work us to save us. None of us can deny either of those basic realities, and neither could Israel. To name something implied ownership- "You are mine" because He had called them and named them. 
</p>


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<p>When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned, and flame will not scorch you- Earlier in Is. 40-42 God has envisaged the exiles travelling from Babylon to Zion over a road which goes directly as the crow flies, with any intervening valleys or hills levelled; with trees planted along the road and ample provision of food and water in the desert. Now we learn that they will calmly cross any water sources in their way, in fact they would pass through any bush fire or other barrier they might encounter. Yahweh had promised that He would lead His people on that wilderness journey from Babylon to Zion just as He had earlier led His people from Egypt to the same promised land. <a href='B:300 31:2'>Jer 31:2</a> had encouraged them that Israel “found grace in the wilderness” before, and they would do again, “When I go to cause [Israel] to go to their place of rest” (RV). God had promised in <a href='B:300 31:9'>Jer 31:9</a> that He would bring Israel on their journey from Babylon to Judah along the fertile crescent- He would “cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble”:&nbsp; This is why Isaiah’s prophecies of the restoration from Babylon are shot through with allusion to the exodus and wilderness journey (e.g. <a href='B:290 43:2'>Isa 43:2</a>; <a href='B:290 51:10'>Isa 51:10</a>; <a href='B:290 63:11'>Isa 63:11</a>). Daniel’s friends were not burnt by the flames, and they were intended to be understood as representative of all the exiles.</p>


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<p>For I am Yahweh your God, the Holy One of Israel your Saviour. I have given Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Sheba in your place- Sheba is LXX Syene, confining the geographical areas to what we know as Egypt. Isaiah 40-66 is full of encouragement to Judah in Babylon to “fear not” and make the move back to the land. They are encouraged that “I have redeemed thee…thou art mine…for I am the Lord thy God… thy saviour; I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee” (<a href='B:290 43:1'>Isa 43:1</a>; <a href='B:290 43:3'>Isa 43:3</a> AV). As a reward for allowing the Jews to return, the kings of Persia were given Egypt, Ethiopia and Seba. At least, that is the usual commentary. However, according to Herodotus these campaigns were failures that ended in disaster. The Jews were doubtful as to whether God would really accept them now, after all their sin; and they were trapped in the good life, and the difficulty of uprooting from the world they were in. They were just like us! They had to be reminded that their Saviour had paid the ransom to redeem them, and therefore they must do their part and leave. And the blood of Jesus should work a like inspiration for us, all too loaded down with our burden of sin, unworthiness, spiritual dysfunction…
Another take is that as :4 explains, "I will give people in your place"- in that other nations were not given the chance of salvation. By grace they were passed over, at this time- for unresponsive Israel. </p>


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<p>Since you have been precious and honoured in My sight and I have loved you; therefore I will give people in your place, and nations instead of your life- As a reward for allowing the Jews to return, the kings of Persia were given Egypt, Ethiopia and Seba (:3). All this was by grace, for the exiles were not responsive. God’s grace is prevenient in the sense that He takes the initiative, as all true lovers do. Their preciousness was"in My sight", in the eyes of the lover, imputing righteousness to them which of themselves they didn’t have. To be ’precious in the sight’ of someone means to save them by grace (s:w. <a href='B:90 26:21'>1Sa 26:21</a>; <a href='B:120 1:13'>2Ki 1:13</a>; <a href='B:230 72:14'>Psa 72:14</a>):&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>


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<p>Don’t be afraid; for I am with you- This is said so often, in allusion to Joshua and Israel being encouraged to re-enter the land and possess it. It was primarily relevant to the exiles in Babylon / Persia who feared to return and doubted Yahweh’s abiding presence with them. But it now is encouragement to all who wish to enter the Kingdom.</p><p>I will bring your seed from the east, and gather you from the west- The ’bringing’ and ’gathering’ of the exiles (<a href='B:290 43:5'>Isa 43:5</a>) would have been primarily fulfilled at the restoration (same words in <a href='B:160 1:9'>Neh 1:9</a>). But most of the exiles remained in the lands of their captivity, just as people resist the Gospel’s call today. They had to themselves bring and gather themselves (<a href='B:290 45:20'>Isa 45:20</a>; <a href='B:290 49:18'>Isa 49:18</a>; <a href='B:290 60:4'>Isa 60:4</a>), so that God would confirm this by bringing and gathering them (<a href='B:290 43:5'>Isa 43:5</a>; <a href='B:300 31:8'>Jer 31:8</a>; <a href='B:330 34:13'>Eze 34:13</a>; <a href='B:330 36:24'>Eze 36:24</a>; <a href='B:330 37:21'>Eze 37:21</a>; <a href='B:450 10:10'>Zec 10:10</a>). And so today with all who wish to be in God’s Kingdom; our desire to be there and first moves towards it will be confirmed many times over by God’s work through His Spirit.</p>


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<p>I will tell the north, ‘Give them up!’ and tell the south, ‘Don’t hold them back! Bring My sons from far, and My daughters from the ends of the earth- The points of the compass may just give the impression of a general regathering from all around. But we note the promise to regather the Jews from"the south", Egypt, to where they fled in faithless fear. And in Jeremiah’s time, against the specific commandment of God not to go there, and with God having said that those who fled to Egypt would die there. We have here, therefore, an example of God saving people from holes which they themselves have dug.</p>


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<p>each one who is called by My name, and whom I have created for My glory, whom I have formed, yes, whom I have made’- Yahweh speaks of the returnees as if they were a new creation, created by Him along with the heavens and earth of the temple which He had stretched out in Zion (<a href='B:290 43:7'>Isa 43:7</a>; <a href='B:290 44:2'>Isa 44:2</a>). He did not form this new land / heavens of the kingdom and temple of Israel in vain- He created it to be inhabited (<a href='B:290 45:18'>Isa 45:18</a>). But the Jews acted like the old creation. And the promise of new creation was deferred until the time of Jesus (<a href='B:540 5:17'>2Co 5:17</a>). Judah for the most part declined to inhabit / dwell in the new heavens and earth [the same word in <a href='B:290 45:18'>Isa 45:18</a> is frequently used re. how the returnees dwelt in the cities of Judah]. Every one of the exiles was formed personally to return to the land; Gods formative hand likewise has been at work in the biography and genetic prehistory of everyone who encounters the Gospel.</p><p>Paul saw more potential in the Jewish mind for Christ than other races; thus he speaks in Romans 11 of how the natural branch which has been cut off [Israel] will be more effectively grafted back into the olive tree than the wild Gentile branches. This of course has similarities with the Lord’s teaching about Himself as the vine, whose unfruitful branches had been cut off (<a href='B:500 15:2'>Joh 15:2</a>). Israel “much more” than the Gentiles can be grafted back in, whereas Gentile converts do this “against nature” (<a href='B:520 11:24'>Rom 11:24</a>). In the context of Israel’s final repentance, God speaks of how every one of the Jewish people has been potentially created for His glory, because they carry His Name (<a href='B:290 43:7'>Isa 43:7</a>). Although Israel have been “quenched as a wick” for their sins (<a href='B:290 43:17'>Isa 43:17</a> RVmg:), we are to realize that the wick is still smouldering, and are to follow the Lord’s example of never totally quenching it but instead seek to fan the wick of Israel back into life (<a href='B:290 42:3'>Isa 42:3</a>).</p>


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<p>Bring out the blind people who have eyes, and the deaf who have ears- See on <a href='B:290 42:19'>Isa 42:19</a>. The servant-Messiah is described as being blind and deaf (<a href='B:290 42:19'>Isa 42:19</a>)- just as those who returned from Babylon were called blind, yet having eyes; deaf, yet having ears (<a href='B:290 43:8'>Isa 43:8</a>). They had the potential to see and hear; and the servant-Messiah likewise was at that time deaf and blind, but had the potential to see and hear with the vision and words of Messiah. It is hard to understand these words otherwise. They refused to allow the spiritual potential available to be unleashed upon them; see on <a href='B:290 42:18'>Isa 42:18</a>."Bring out"is the same word in <a href='B:290 42:7'>Isa 42:7</a>, and putting the passages together we get the idea that the exiles were as blind people, who were to be both freed from prison and also given their sight.
This is the language of the court room, as GNB: "Summon my people to court. They have eyes, but they are blind; they have ears, but they are deaf!". The deaf and blind Israel were God's star witness- to His grace. His initial plan had been to open their eyes in Babylon, and for them to leave Babylon for Zion (Is. 42:7). They refused to open their eyes, or have their eyes opened. And so God decided to take them out of Babylon whilst blind and guide them by the hand over unknown [to them] roads (Is. 42:16). Yet they remained wilfully blind, as Is. 42 laments. He even forced their eyes and ears open, but still they refused to see and hear (Is. 42:18-25). And now they are presented as the star witness to His grace and power to save. They are blind and deaf; possibly we are to suppose they are dumb as well. The Hebrew word translated "deaf" essentially means 'to hold your peace', to be silent. So the idea of dumbness is also present in the word. They said nothing, but their very existence was proof of God's grace. Because according to the terms of their covenant with Him, He was to have destroyed them as a nation because of their apostasy. But He had not done so. The blind, deaf and dumb servant is Yahweh's witness. And it turns out that those taking Yahweh to court either remain silent, or their witnesses are idols which are also blind, deaf and dumb.
The summons and gathering of Israel to court as witnesses connects with their gathering from Babylon in :5,6. They were gathered from Babylon in order to appear in court as witnesses to God's gracious purpose to save them. And it was this gracious salvation which made Him unlike any of the other gods, who had no grace, patience, forgiveness nor salvation.
</p>


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<p>Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the peoples be assembled. Who among them can declare this, and show us former things? Let them bring their witnesses, that they may be justified; or let them hear, and say, That is true- Verses 8-13 are a court scene, with God as both judge and defendant. The nations are asked to attend, and provide witnesses. The nations provide no witnesses; whereas God provides Israel as His witnesses (:10,12). He describes them as His servant (:10)- whom we have just learnt in Is. 42:18-21 is considered by God as blind, deaf and useless. But this blind and deaf servant is in fact a witness to God's grace. The idea of being God's witnesses is transferred to us; we are to witness to the whole world because we are witnesses of God's grace in the Lord Jesus (Lk. 24:48). The case to be tried is whether God can redeem His weak and sinful people and establish them in His Kingdom- the issue echoes down to our day, in that the case is whether God can really save someone as weak as me. There are no witnesses against this, not one, throughout the whole world. Israel are God's witnesses- not simply is their existence a witness to God, as these verses are sometimes misunderstood by over eager apologists for God. Rather they are witnesses to His saving grace. Their continued existence despite their sin, and the absolute possibility of their restoration into God's Kingdom- that is the essential witness to God's grace. Not simply a witness to His existence, but more specifically, witnesses to His power to save. We miss so much if we merely read the following court scene as meaning 'Israel still exists, there are Jews on the earth today, therefore God exists'. That is not really the point. Elsewhere, God cites "the former things" as witnesses of Him and of His saving purpose for Israel. What were the former things? "The former things shall be forgotten" (see on :18; "the former things shall not be remembered", Is. 65:18)- all the sin and failure. But it was how God dealt with Israel's "former things" which were the witness to Him as He is and was and always shall be- the God who saves sinners by grace. In this sense Israel were to remember their former things, their sins and God's gracious forgiveness of them (Is. 44:20,21). Is. 46:8,9 is clear about this: "Remember this, and show yourselves men; bring it again to mind, you transgressors. Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like Me". Only Yahweh would forgive so much sin, "the former things"; no other god would have done. There is none like Him in His forgiveness of His people.
His declaration of the future likewise was proof of His case- even before it was fulfilled. For the fact He even predicted a future with Him for Israel was evidence- of His saving grace to Israel. For otherwise His appeal to 'I have made prophecies about the future' makes no sense. The fact He has prophesied about the future doesn't of itself prove anything nor make Him God- because it had not been fulfilled at that point. There was no evidence provided by that of itself. But the fact He had a future with Israel, or wanted to have a future with them, was there and then a witness of His abiding, saving love toward Israel. The fact God speaks of a future with Israel was right then an evidence of the truth of the legal case against Him- He was with His people still and intended to be, whereas no other god would stick with their people and intend to do so in the future. So it is not that simply prophecy of future events makes Yahweh so distinctly "God".
The idea of these verses is not that 'Israel still exists therefore God exists, they are witnesses to His existence'. Many small nations have survived through the millennia [Latvians, e.g.], and this argument in fact makes a mockery of apologetics [not that God and His word need apologetics]. Israel is instead a witness to God's gracious power to save sinners. That is what we all need to reflect upon and believe.  
The very fact God saw a future for Israel, a future with Himself, was the huge proof that He is a God who saves and forgives His people. He doesn't cut them off from being a people, even though He legally should and could have done. And at times, as we see in Hosea, He did say in His emotional wrath that it was all over. This is in fact the same message as Jeremiah's- that after the exile, the people of God had a future. And a glorious future. The fact He had this future planned for them was and is the evidence of His unfailing grace to His people. Thus "For thus says the LORD: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope" (Jer. 29:10,11). Note the gift of a future to a people who stood condemned to non-existence as a nation. This is the "future" that God has in view in later Isaiah. Likewise "Thus says the LORD: “Keep your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears... they shall come back from the land of the enemy. There is hope for your future, declares the LORD, and your children shall come back to their own country" (Jer. 31:16,17). Note that these promises in Jeremiah of a "future" are specifically to the exiles, the same audience as Isaiah 40-66.
This leads us to the difficult question: 'So what is the current status of Israel with God?'. The answer is multi faceted because there are so many Bible verses to fit into the picture. Interpretations vary from those who would say God is done with Israel, having told them "You are not My people" and declared a new Israel, Israel after the Spirit, open to all who become the seed of Abraham by baptism into the Lord Jesus, Abraham's singular seed. And indeed, "they are not all Israel who are of Israel". The other end of the spectrum is Christian Zionism, arguing that Israel today are God's people and enjoy His blessings in their land, despite their rejection of His Son. My synthesis of it all is that indeed, faith and baptism into the Lord Jesus is critical for now being God's Israel, and He is not in relationship with Israel. But they are "beloved for the fathers' sakes", and "What advantage has the Jew? Much every way...". There is a major teaching in Rom. 9-11, backed by the OT scriptures Paul quotes to make his case, that finally, "all Israel [natural and spiritual] shall be saved". "Has God cast away His people?" is given a resounding "No", but partly because God has redefined His "people". At times God did speak in His wrath, "Lo Ammi", 'You are not My people'. But He relented. That was the wrath of love. His love for Israel is indeed eternal, but it is the love of a man for his former wife, despite him being now in another relationship. And Paul also goes on to argue that natural Israel will finally be returned to God- quite separately to the fact He has redefined "My people". The redeemer shall indeed return to Zion, to the remnant in Jacob who have turned from ungodliness. Finally natural Israel will be restored to relationship with God, the marriage will be re-established. As Paul exalts at the end of Rom. 11, this will be a spectacular triumph for God's saving grace. Israel do have "a future", when finally all the former things of millennia of rebellion, ingratitude and sin shall no longer come to mind. And in Isaiah, Yahweh challenges any other god to demonstrate anything similar to that level of grace, forgiveness and love. So the fact God still ultimately has a future for natural Israel is the parade example of His grace. Yahweh shall eternally be vindicated as the God of love and saving grace. 
The language of this court case has many similarities with Akkadian documents relating to court cases. There are many records of summoning others to court, and challenging them to produce witnesses. But this would be done if those being summoned were those who had made a claim against the defender. There are at times 'voices' in Isaiah, most clearly seen in Is. 40. Quite possibly :8,9 here are 'voices' calling the nations to the court case. Yahweh is as it were under accusation, and so those who were disputing Him were being asked to come to court with their witnesses that He was lying. They had taken Yahweh to court- that is why He is the defendant. The very idea of "God in the dock" is absurd, but that is what we are doing if we doubt His power to save His sinful people. The issue under dispute was whether God could save His people from their sins and the consequences of those sins- exile in Babylon. The Akkadian documents would suggest that in such a case, those summoned would have to pay a penalty if in fact they could not prove their case or if they simply failed to present any witnesses. And there was indeed a judgment penalty for them. Paul in Romans surely has this scene in mind when he too presents God in the dock... and "Let God be declared true, and every man [found] a liar". C.S. Lewis in his book God in the Dock gets all this so clearly.

Isaiah especially is full of restoration prophecies; but Isaiah especially carries repeated statements that God can predict the future, and that His prophetic word will surely come to pass. These repeated statements are surely to encourage Judah to believe the restoration prophecies, and to see that what was prophesied really would and could come to pass- but it required their response! And yet as discussed on <a href='B:290 41:22'>Isa 41:22</a>, the emphasis and flavour of the words used is not simply upon prediction but rather explanation, of attaching meaning to event. God alone can provide such explanation of both past and future events according to the far reaching narrative found in the prophets. The idol religions explained just a few isolated incidents. This is what is unique about the one true God- that He alone attaches meaning to event, both in personal and collective life, and indeed to all human history. Whether we correctly perceive it is another question, but He alone does this and holds the masterplan.</p><p>Thewonder of Israel’s God was not so much that He declared future things in a way that could be understood before they happened, but rather that He ‘declared’ the meaning of past events. There is a certain enigma to Israel’s history, both as history, and also sociologically, psychologically, indeed in every way. It is that enigma which is declared in God’s word, enabling Israel to make sense of what happens to them by their reflection, after the event, upon God’s word. Likewise it seems that only once the events have happened can we look back with true understanding into God’s word and understand. This was in fact the case with a number of the predictions of the Lord Jesus (<a href='B:500 2:19'>Joh 2:19</a>; <a href='B:500 3:14'>Joh 3:14</a>; <a href='B:500 11:50'>Joh 11:50</a>; <a href='B:500 21:18'>Joh 21:18</a>). They would have remained enigmas, until after the event. And then, all would have been so clear.</p>


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<p>You are My witnesses, says Yahweh, With 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, neither will there be after Me- This language alludes to the Babylonian god Marduk; the point being that Yahweh and not the god of Babylon is supreme. See on <a href='B:290 40:25'>Isa 40:25</a>. The Jews only totally quit idolatry some time later; they liked to think, as we also tend to, that we can serve the gods of our world in the name of Yahweh worship. But Yahweh is presented as supreme, and Marduk as nothing. God’s people are here asked to believe very basic things about Yahweh; but those things would preclude belief in any other god. Their conversion was to be used to bring others to incorporation in God’s new, multiethnic people. Hence LXX"Be ye my witnesses, and I too am a witness, saith the Lord God". The invitation is to be witnesses.
"That you may know" surely refers to the nations gathered at the court case, indeed, to all spectators at it of all time. God's extreme grace to Israel, witnessed in their continued existence as His servant, showed "that I am He". His grace to them helps us "understand" Him. It showed the essence of His Name, Yahweh, I am, which is essentially His personality and characteristics. "With My servant" is hard to understand; the idea seems to be that the fact Israel continued to be "with" God, still His servant although blind and deaf, was all part of their witness to His power to save. Thus CEV "My people, you are my witnesses and my chosen servant". </p>


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<p>I Myself am Yahweh; and besides Me there is no saviour- No other god would or could have forgiven and saved a people like Yahweh did. And this grace, salvation and forgiveness was fundamentally a part of Him: "I Myself am Yahweh" who does this.
This continues the appeal noted on :10 to quit belief in any other god. Yahweh’s Name is declared as His character- merciful, truthful, judging sin, patient etc. (<a href='B:20 34:5-7'>Exo 34:5-7</a>); but above all, in being a personal saviour. This is why"Jesus", ’Yah saves’, is the quintessence of what God is all about. He who will be who He will be, manifesting His characteristics as He does so, must have His way in us too. Babylon and Nineveh were condemned for having the attitude that “I am, and there is none beside me” (<a href='B:290 47:8'>Isa 47:8</a>; <a href='B:430 2:15'>Zep 2:15</a>). Their self-perception was a parody on the Name and being of Yahweh: He alone can say “I am, and there is none else” (<a href='B:290 43:11'>Isa 43:11</a>; <a href='B:290 44:6'>Isa 44:6</a>; <a href='B:290 45:6'>Isa 45:6</a>; <a href='B:290 45:21'>Isa 45:21</a>) and seek to be who He is. He alone can seek to articulate the characteristics that make up His Name onto the lives of others, and onto the things that comprise His Kingdom. We are not to be who we are; to ‘just be yourself’; to ‘just do it’, as foolish slogans and adverts encourage us. We are here to show forth His mercy, truth, judgment of sin, patient saving of the weak etc:, not our own personality. We are, in the very end, Yahweh manifested to this world, through our imitation of the Lord Jesus.</p>


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<p>I have declared, I have saved, and I have shown; and there was no strange god among you. Therefore you are My witnesses, says Yahweh, That I am God- See on <a href='B:290 44:26'>Isa 44:26</a>. The allusion is to Israel’s earlier salvation from Egypt. Although there were ’strange gods’ carried by them, clearly it was Yahweh alone who saved and who declared / showed the meaning of their entire history; see on :9.</p>


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<p>Yes, since the day was I am He- The idea may be that"from this time forth I am he", i:e. they were to repent and never again have idols, but accept"Yahweh", ’I am who I am’, ’I am that I am’, for who He was and is; and not just in Name only.</p><p>And there is no one who can deliver out of My hand. I will work, and who can hinder it?- Even the rumours the exiles must have heard of Samaritan opposition were to be discounted. Every conceivable encouragement was given to the people, to go up and be part of the Kingdom work; nothing could stand in their way, if only they would go forward in joyful faith. They had been redeemed, they simply had to believe this and act as if they had been saved from Babylon and translated into the Kingdom which was to be established. The similarities with us are exact. &nbsp;The dramatic story of Job thrice uses the same phrase as in <a href='B:290 43:13'>Isa 43:13</a>, concluding that"who can hinder…?"God’s way (<a href='B:220 9:12'>Job 9:12</a>; <a href='B:220 11:10'>Job 11:10</a>; <a href='B:220 23:13'>Job 23:13</a>). The exiles were to understand that no human opposition or discouragement can turn back or hinder God’s purpose to save His people, even if they are as Job in suffering. His saving and restorative purpose will not be hindered, if we wish to identify with it.</p>


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<p>Thus says Yahweh your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: For your sake I have sent to Babylon, and I will bring all of them down as fugitives, even the Chaldeans, in the ships of their rejoicing- GNB probably has it right: "Israel's holy God, the LORD who saves you, says, "To save you, I will send an army against Babylon; I will break down the city gates, and the shouts of her people will turn into crying". Clearly the fulfilment was in the shouts of Belshazzar's party being abruptly ended by the fall of the city to Darius. The fall of Babylon was envisioned as happening so that the Jewish exiles might return to Judah. All in world geopolitics was to be for their sakes. But many of them remained there and prospered in the Persian administration which took over after Babylon’s fall. LXX"and I will stir up all that flee, and the Chaldeans shall be bound in ships". Babylon fell so that Persia would take over the administration of the 127 provinces where the Jews were scattered, and would allow them to return to Judah (<a href='B:290 43:14'>Isa 43:14</a>). The cup of judgment which Judah drunk for 70 years was passed to Babylon (<a href='B:290 51:22'>Isa 51:22</a>). This accounts for Isaiah’s repeated and detailed emphasis on the coming fall of Babylon for Judah / Israel’s sake (e.g. Isaiah 47). Although they had sinned, Yahweh showed His gracious love for His people by bringing down Babylon (<a href='B:290 48:14'>Isa 48:14</a>). “For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee [Cyrus] by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me “ (<a href='B:290 45:4'>Isa 45:4</a>). Likewise the iron curtain came down to allow preachers of God’s Truth to take it to those once in darkness. And English has become the lingua-franca of the world, enabling Christian preaching to now penetrate societies literally world-wide:&nbsp;See on <a href='B:150 2:1'>Ezr 2:1</a>.</p>


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<p>I am Yahweh your Holy One, the Creator of Israel- your King- Because Yahweh God was Israel’s creator, therefore He ought to have been their King. They should not have remained in the lands of their exile under a human king. If we really believe His creative authority over us, then He will rule in every aspect of our lives. Realizing that God is a"faithful creator"should inspire us to commit the keeping of our lives to Him in time of suffering (<a href='B:670 4:19'>1Pe 4:19</a>).</p>


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<p>Thus says Yahweh, who makes a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters- Again, the salvation of Israel from Egypt was to be believed in as a real prototype of their deliverance from exile; and when Israel refused that, of our deliverance from this world and into God’s Kingdom. What seems uncharted waters and an impossible, confusing journey will in fact become pain; a path and way appears, which we are to enthusiastically follow. The impression that the path to the Kingdom is hopelessly complex and hard to discern is only because of human lack of faith. For the Christian, the fact we have been brought through the waters of baptism is proof enough that God will continue to bring us through the rest of the journey. </p>


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<p>who brings forth the chariot and horse, the army and the mighty man (they lie down together, they shall not rise; they are extinct, they are quenched like a wick)- This recalls the glorying of the Song of Moses over the Egyptians. And so it could have been for God’s people in exile. No political nor military power could stand between them and restoration inGod’s Kingdom. And likewise in our path towards that same Kingdom which they refused. We note that Egypt was quenched like a wick, but the Lord Jesus sought to fan the smouldering wick of Israel into full flame.</p>


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<p>Don’t remember the former things, and don’t consider the things of old- The returned exiles are encouraged to forget their former sins as God also has done. This was the basis for their lack of faith and need for constant assurance not to be afraid but to believe in God’s desire to restore them. And yet Isaiah's prophecies several times explains that only God "knows" the former things. He alone understands the real dimensions of our sins and has dealt with them. Maybe the idea is that we are to forget them, to entrust our past to God- knowing that our past includes multiple sins and failures. And yet the contrast is stark with Is. 46:9 "Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else". So perhaps the idea is that Israel were not to simply focus upon their halcyon past, of God's dramatic interventions at the Red Sea and so forth. The miracle at the Red Sea and the call of Abraham are alluded to as the "former things" (Is. 43:18; 44:7). They were to in addition look forward to the glorious future when there would be the greatest Divine intervention, in the establishment of His Kingdom. And that is a challenge to the new Israel too. Grammatically, we would have here a case of "Not A but B" meaning 'Not so much A but more B'. The past has been dealt with, and that includes all our sins, all the things we cannot put the clock back for and re-live and make different choices than we did. </p>


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<p>Behold, I will do a new thing. It springs forth now; don’t you perceive it?- As discussed on :9, the "former things" of :18 were Judah's sins; they are contrasted with the "new thing" being created. Surely Paul has this in mind in 2 Cor. 5:17, when he says that in the new creation, old things are passed away. Those "old things" are the things of sin and life in sin; the "new things" are their antithesis. For that is just what Is. 43:18,19 is saying.
The "new thing" promised in Is. 43:19 was the new covenant of Jer. 31:22,31, a new heart and a new spirit within them (Ez. 36:26), being called by a new name (Is. 62: 2) and the creation of a new 'heavens and a new earth' (Is. 65:17). But that "new thing... springs forth now; don't you perceive it?" (Is. 43:19). It could have happened to the exiles, indeed God made it start to spring forth then. But they refused it. It has been offered to the world now, and so few of us grasp it. Those who do and are baptized into the new covenant "walk in newness of life".   
<a href='B:290 40:1-2'>Isa 40:1-2</a> speaks a message of comfort to the exiles: “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God”. But [in full allusion to this prophecy], the exiles were like Rachael who refused to be comforted over her loss (<a href='B:300 31:15'>Jer 31:15</a>); they claimed they found “none to comfort” (<a href='B:310 1:2'>Lam 1:2</a>; <a href='B:310 1:16-17'>Lam 1:16-17</a>; <a href='B:310 1:21'>Lam 1:21</a>). But they were willfully refusing the comfort of God’s repeated word of hope and restoration. They didn’t grasp the plain teaching of the prophetic word because they didn’t want to- it demanded too much of them, and a giving up of the comfortable Babylon life. Hence <a href='B:290 43:19'>Isa 43:19</a> laments: “I am doing a new thing: now it springs forth [in the decree to return to Zion?], do you not perceive it?”. And do we"not perceive it?"time and again in our own lives, as to the potentials God is opening up, and His desire to save us?</p><p>I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert- See on <a href='B:290 40:3'>Isa 40:3</a>. The exiles’ fears about the way back were allayed: “I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert” (43:19). They were constantly encouraged that as God had redeemed His people from Egypt through the water, fire and desert, so He would and could redeem them from their Egypt. &nbsp;Water could have followed Judah through the desert journey from Babylon to Zion. But they hankered after a human army to protect them, and most of them wouldn’t even begin the journey. Is. 40 had asked Israel to make that way back to Zion, through repentance. But God now goes a step further in saying that He will make the way- all they had to do was walk the journey. It's the same with us.</p>


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<p>The animals of the field shall honour Me, the jackals and the ostriches; because I give water in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to give drink to My people, My chosen- The water that came from that one rock tasted as if God had opened up fresh springs and torrents in the desert (<a href='B:230 74:15'>Psa 74:15</a> NAS). It always tasted as if it was just gushing out of the spring; and this wonder is commented upon by both David and Isaiah (<a href='B:230 78:15-16'>Psa 78:15-16</a>; <a href='B:230 78:20'>Psa 78:20</a>; <a href='B:230 105:41'>Psa 105:41</a>; <a href='B:290 48:21'>Isa 48:21</a>). It was as if the rock had just been struck, and the water was flowing out fresh for the first time. In this miracle, God clave the rock and there came out rivers (<a href='B:420 3:9'>Hab 3:9</a>; <a href='B:230 78:16'>Psa 78:16</a>; <a href='B:230 78:20'>Psa 78:20</a>; <a href='B:290 43:20'>Isa 43:20</a>). Each part of Israel’s encampment had the water as it were brought to their door. And so it is in our experience of Christ, and the blessing enabled by His sacrifice. The blessings that come to us are deeply personal, and directed to us individually. He died once, long ago, and yet the effect of His sacrifice is ever new.</p><p>This amazing redemption of Israel from exile was intended to elicit repentance from the areas of the Gentiles within the eretz promised to Abraham, whose cities were now inhabited by jackals. The intention was that they would return with God’s people. This didn’t happen, but will at the last day.</p>


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<p>The people which I formed for Myself, that they might show forth My praise- Both as individuals and collectively, the whole biography and even genetic prehistory of God’s people has been prepared by God in their formation, so that they might encounter God’s salvation at an optimal point for them to give the maximum glory to Him (<a href='B:290 43:21'>Isa 43:21</a>)."Formed"is the word for the potter working on clay, used of how God fashions human hearts or psychologies, working on the deeply internal fabric of the human being (<a href='B:230 33:15'>Psa 33:15</a>). The ’forming’ in view is not only"in the womb"(<a href='B:290 44:2'>Isa 44:2</a>; <a href='B:290 44:24'>Isa 44:24</a>) but throughout their whole psychological and genetic formation. It is possible to strive with our former or"maker"(<a href='B:290 45:9'>Isa 45:9</a>), to be unresponsive to His touch of us the clay. The Messiah figure, ultimately the Lord Jesus, was the ultimate case of being"formed"by Yahweh’s hand (<a href='B:290 49:5'>Isa 49:5</a> s:w:), implying He too was clay, of human and not Divine nature. It is the word used of God forming man from the dust (Gen. 2:7), and forming the earth (Jer. 33:2). What is implied here is a new creation. 
The blind, deaf and dumb Israel had been formed to praise the grace of their God. "That they might..." implies intention, that may not be realized. The next verses lament that Israel had not responded to God's love, and were not praising Him as intended. So "That they might show forth My praise" is surely a statement of God's intention and hope, that they might respond to His formation of them for Himself. And that hopeful intention wasn't realized in them, at least not at that time nor as God had hoped at the time.
</p>


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<p>Yet you have not called on Me, Jacob; but you have been weary of Me, Israel- Despite all the formative handling of the Divine potter, all the stimuli and potential granted by grace (:21), Jacob had refused to respond. They were weary of God, and God was wearied with their sins and insincere worship (s:w. :23,24). We have here the language of God and Israel falling out of love, despite such love on His side, and such wonderful potentials.</p>


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<p>You have not brought Me of your sheep for burnt offerings; neither have you honoured Me with your sacrifices. I have not burdened you with offerings, nor wearied you with frankincense- There was no temple in Babylon, and so God seems to be saying that although He did not command sacrifices to be offered whilst they were there, He had hoped they would see through religion and offer Him sacrifice anyway, doing the best they could in the situation, rather than making excuses that they had no temple in which to sacrifice. He was disappointed they didn't. 
God had not given His people wearisome laws and regulations; but they were"weary of Me"(:22 s:w:). They perhaps made the complaint many do today- that God is boring, ritualistic, imposing of unreasonable demands and ceremonies. But actually that is but an excuse for personal unbelief and lack of commitment; for He insists here that His laws and principles are not like that. And if He says they are not, then it is not for us to claim otherwise. The exiles would have justified not sacrificing by saying there was no temple. But although God did not specifically command them [’burden them’] to keep the feasts in exile, He would have accepted their offerings. And there is evidence that there was a"little sanctuary"in Babylon where they could have offered sacrifice (see on <a href='B:330 11:16'>Eze 11:16</a>). But they didn’t offer them.</p>


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<p>You have bought Me no sweet cane with money, nor have you filled Me with the fat of your sacrifices- God didn’t demand incense nor offerings (:23), and yet He notes that they didn’t bring them to Him."Sweet cane"is what was burnt to create incense. It’s as if God still hoped they would thus express their love for Him, even in exile and away from the temple system. But they didn’t, and instead burdened Him with their sins.</p><p>But you have burdened Me with your sins- God speaks of being burdened by Israel’s sins- and yet this is a prelude to the passages which speak of the Lord Jesus bearing our sins on the cross (<a href='B:290 53:4'>Isa 53:4</a>; <a href='B:290 53:11-12'>Isa 53:11-12</a>). We even read of God being wearied by Israel’s sins (<a href='B:290 7:13'>Isa 7:13</a>; <a href='B:300 15:6'>Jer 15:6</a>; <a href='B:330 24:12'>Eze 24:12</a>; <a href='B:460 2:17'>Mal 2:17</a>). Even though God does not"grow weary"(<a href='B:290 40:28'>Isa 40:28</a>) by nature, it seems to me that in His full entering into His people’s situation, He does allow Himself to grow weary with the sins of those with whom He is in covenant relationship. It was this kind of capacity which God has which was supremely revealed in His ’sharing in’ thecrucifixion of His Son.</p><p>You have wearied Me with your iniquities- When Israel were weary of God, He wearied them (<a href='B:290 43:22'>Isa 43:22</a>; <a href='B:290 43:24'>Isa 43:24</a>). Because they turned their back on Him (<a href='B:300 2:27'>Jer 2:27</a>), He turned His back on them (<a href='B:300 18:17'>Jer 18:17</a>). At the very time Israel put God to the test at Marah (<a href='B:50 6:16'>Deu 6:16</a>), God responded by testing them (<a href='B:20 15:25'>Exo 15:25</a>).</p>


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<p>I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions- This eager statement of forgiveness is juxtaposed with the clear statement in :24 that God is weary with their sins and their lack of love to Him. Yet He goes right on to say that He forgives all that. "I, even I, am He" who does this- only the "I am", Yahweh, He alone would act like this. No other God would do so. 
Yahweh here prophesied of what He would achieve through the crucified Christ: “I am, I am: He that blots out thy transgressions” (<a href='B:290 43:25'>Isa 43:25</a> LXX)."I am"alludes to the Yahweh Name. He declares His Name as being supremely demonstrated in His forgiveness of our sins through and in the Lord’s cross. We read in <a href='B:400 6:9'>Mic 6:9</a> that when the Lord’s voice calls to the city demanding repentance, “the man of wisdom shall see [perceive] thy name”- i:e. repent. We come to know God’s Name in practice through the cycles of sin-repentance-forgiveness by God which we all pass through. It is through this process that we come to know the very essence of God’s Name. Thus <a href='B:290 43:25'>Isa 43:25</a> LXX:"I am ’"I AM", who erases your iniquities". We come to know His Name, that it really is ("I am") all about forgiveness and salvation of sinners. Forgetting the Name of Yahweh was associated in David’s inspired thinking with a wrong attitude in “the secrets of the heart” (<a href='B:230 44:20-21'>Psa 44:20-21</a>). By contrast, remembering / being aware of the Name affects our innermost being, the secrets of our heart, the hidden self which others don’t see.</p><p>For My own sake- The idea may be that He would forgive them by grace alone, and not because they had repented or somehow compensated for their sins. He was so zealous to almost force through His saving purpose with them that He would forgive them anyway. This kind of one sided forgiveness and outpouring of love is commonly seen in relationships where one party is far more deeply committed and loving than the other one. This is so passionately felt by God that He goes on to legally challenge Israel to prove Him wrong; the final verses of this chapter record Israel's historical failures and impenitence. But rather like intending to open their blind eyes and lead them out of Babylon, but then deciding to lead them out as blind men anyway, so here God is at the very limit of how far He can force His way upon Israel. He now declares that He forgives them purely for His own sake. And reminds them in the next verses of how impenitent they have been. </p><p>And I will not remember your sins- God imputed His righteousness to them, because He had unconditionally forgiven them. Instead of calling upon them to mourn, as in first Isaiah, second Isaiah calls upon them to rejoice and accept His grace. They are to repent because God had forgiven them- not repent so that He might forgive them: “I, I am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake [i:e. not for the sake of your repentance or righteousness]… I have swept away your transgressions like a cloud [therefore] return [repent] to me, for I have [already] redeemed you” (<a href='B:290 43:25'>Isa 43:25</a>; <a href='B:290 44:22'>Isa 44:22</a>). This is God’s grace in its essence. As they sat by the rivers of Babylon, even as they later became caught up in the politics and business of Babylon, God’s heart broke for His people. And He announced this utter grace- that He had forgiven them, even though they’d not really repented, and counted them as righteous. And therefore He begged them to “return”, not only to return to Him in repentance in their hearts, but to show this by ‘returning’ to the land. And, so tragically, they preferred to stay in Babylon, for the most part. His grace was poured out to them… and Israel would not. All we can resolve in our hearts is to feel for God in this tragedy, and to realize that these very same prophecies of grace have been applied to us. And it’s for us to respond to them.</p><p>We read of God ‘remembering’ His covenant (<a href='B:20 2:24'>Exo 2:24</a>; <a href='B:30 26:42'>Lev 26:42</a>; <a href='B:300 14:10'>Jer 14:10</a>; <a href='B:300 14:21'>Jer 14:21</a>); and of God ‘not remembering’ or forgetting the sins of His covenant people (<a href='B:290 43:25'>Isa 43:25</a>; <a href='B:300 31:34'>Jer 31:34</a>). If words mean anything, this surely implies that sins which God once remembered, He then stops remembering and ‘forgets’. Such language seems on one hand inappropriate to the God who by nature doesn’t have to forget and can recall all things. But He has willingly entered into the meaning of time which is experienced by those with whom He is in covenant relationship. He allows Himself to genuinely feel it like it is. The ’gap’ between God stating His plan and its actual fulfillment is the opportunity for men and women to plead with Him, as Moses did, as Abraham did regarding Sodom (<a href='B:10 18:17-22'>Gen 18:17-22</a>), as so many have done... and He is most definitely open to human persuasion.</p>


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<p>Put Me in remembrance, let us plead together. Set forth your case, that you may be justified- LXX continues the connection with God not remembering their sins in :25:"But do thou remember, and let us plead together: do thou first confess thy transgressions, that thou mayest be justified". The stress would be on the idea that although God had forgotten their sins, they were not to forget them but to remain ever aware of His gracious forgiveness. God wants them to accept His forgiveness and justification of them; but for them to do so, they needed to first of all be convicted of their own lack of justification. And so He invites them to put forth a legal case that they are not sinners and don’t need justification by grace.</p><p><a href='B:290 62:6-7'>Isa 62:6-7</a> speaks of watchmen [= the prophets, <a href='B:330 3:17'>Eze 3:17</a>; <a href='B:300 6:17'>Jer 6:17</a>; <a href='B:420 2:1'>Hab 2:1</a>] set upon Jerusalem’s walls as watchmen ’putting God in remembrance’, keeping no silence [in their prophesying] until Jerusalem was established. For the link between the prophets and standing on a watchtower, see <a href='B:420 2:1'>Hab 2:1</a>. Is this not a reference to Malachi, Haggai and Zechariah prophesying as the basis upon which the newly built walls of Jerusalem would be preserved, and the city develop into the Messianic Kingdom hoped for? Note that the rebuilt Jerusalem of Ezra’s time and the latter day Jerusalem are the same thing in Isaiah; the Kingdom could’ve come then. Watchmen upon the walls were looking for something- for the approach of the Messianic messenger with good tidings of Judah’s full return from captivity, of which Isaiah had spoken in <a href='B:290 52:7-8'>Isa 52:7-8</a>. But most of Judah preferred to stay in Babylon, took up a collection for the few who did return… and no Messiah could appear with that news. God had promised this- but He here asked to be put in remembrance of His promises (<a href='B:290 43:26'>Isa 43:26</a>), i:e. He asked for those watchmen to be His ‘rememberancers’, even though He cannot in that sense forget them (<a href='B:230 119:49'>Psa 119:49</a>; <a href='B:300 14:21'>Jer 14:21</a>). In all this we see an exquisite picture of how God works with men, how His promised faithfulness and omnipotence all the same has built into it a requirement for human prayerfulness and response. The reality was that the watchmen / prophets of Israel were blind, ignorant and sleepy (<a href='B:290 56:10'>Isa 56:10</a>).</p>


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<p>Your first father sinned, and your teachers have transgressed against Me- This is in the context of God desperately appealing to Israel to accept His forgiveness and justification. He forgives them for His own sake (see on :25), &nbsp;He would forgive them by grace alone, and not because they had repented or somehow compensated for their sins. He was so zealous to almost force through His saving purpose with them that He would forgive them anyway. This kind of one sided forgiveness and outpouring of love is commonly seen in relationships where one party is far more deeply committed and loving than the other one. And so in line with this, God tries to help them as it were feel less bad about their sins, blaming the situation partly upon Adam their first father, and upon their bad teachers, and then in :28 upon their princes. This is desperate argument, but God comes over as that desperate for them to accept His love.
Their "intercessors" (Heb.) were also sinful, the same point made in Hebrews regarding the Lord being the only perfect priest.</p>


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<p>Therefore I will profane the princes of the sanctuary; and I will make Jacob a curse, and Israel an insult-"I have profaned the princes of the sanctuary"- put forth"as polluted from the priesthood"(Ezr 262). This is tacit proof enough that the restoration from Babylon failed to be the potential restoration prophesied. Indeed, the behaviour of the Jews at that time attracted further curses and judgment. LXX"And the princes have defiled my sanctuaries: so I gave Jacob to enemies to destroy, and Israel to reproach". As explained on :27, this blame of the princes is an almost desperate attempt to help Israel feel not quite so shamed for their sins and to get them by all means to accept God’s forgiveness.
We must be aware how Is. 44 continues. Having cursed Jacob and threatened even more judgment than the exiles had already, experienced, Is. 44 begins "Yet...". Despite this, God would still desperately pour out His Spirit upon them to still try to win them back. They were not to fear His wrath and condemnation, for even then there was a way out: "Yet listen now, Jacob My servant, and Israel, whom I have chosen. This is what Yahweh who made you and formed you from the womb, who will save you, says: Don’t be afraid, Jacob My servant; and you, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen. For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and streams on the dry ground. I will pour My Spirit on your seed, and My blessing on your offspring" (Is. 44:1-4).</p>


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<p>Yet listen now, Jacob My servant, and Israel, whom I have chosen- There is huge significance in the "Yet...". For it follows right on from God's terrible condemnation of Jacob in Is. 43:28 (see notes there). We note the parallel of "Jacob... Israel", suggesting God's hope that Jacob would yet eventually mature to Israel as did the historical Jacob. "The God of Jacob / Israel" is Yahweh's most frequently used title. There is quite some stress on Israel having been "chosen" (Is. 41:8-20; 43:1-13,19-21; 44:1-5; 49:1-7). They were "chosen" not because of their goodness but simply because of Divine grace (Dt. 7:6,7; 14:2). This chosing or election of Israel is much laboured by Paul in Romans; the "chosen" are not chosen for their righteousness, in fact, quite the opposite. So many 'good' and nice secular people were not chosen, but we were. The apparently random [to human eyes] 'chosing' is to be seen as a sign of God's utter grace. We cannot doubt that we have been chosen, for whoever is chosen is called, and we have all heard the call of the Gospel. Paul connects the idea of being chosen with grace, and being counted righteous as a result of that grace. Isaiah here does the same. Israel have just been bitterly condemned by God at the end of Is. 43; "yet" they are chosen, and in :2 they will be called "Jeshurun", the upright one. This was by imputed righteousness alone, and would be effected by the gift of the Spirit (:3). Paul's argument in Romans is so clearly an exposition, or almost a repeat, of what we have in Is. 44. Conviction of sin (at the end of Is. 43), nuanced by our calling / election, after the pattern of Jacob, objects of God's sovereign love and grace, the work of the Spirit and imputed righteousness through being "in" the suffering, perfect servant. 
The appeal for Jacob to"listen"is asking for the exiles to repent. They had been chosen, but only their repentance would make that calling actual. It’s the same with those who hear the Gospel today, having been chosen from the beginning.</p><p>It is significant that Paul takes a passage from one of Isaiah’s servant songs here and applies it to us. The servant who suffered and witnessed to the world was evidently the Lord Jesus. And yet Isaiah is also explicit that the servant is the whole seed of Abraham, “Jacob”, the slowly-developing people of God (<a href='B:290 41:8'>Isa 41:8</a>; <a href='B:290 44:1'>Isa 44:1</a>). There are many connections within Isaiah between the servant songs, and the descriptions of the people of Israel into which the songs are interspersed. The saviour-servant was to bring out the prisoners from the dungeons (<a href='B:290 42:7'>Isa 42:7</a>), so was every Israelite “to let the oppressed go free... loose the bonds”, and to “undo the bands of the [heavy] yoke” (<a href='B:290 58:6'>Isa 58:6</a>) as Christ did (<a href='B:470 11:28-29'>Mat 11:28-29</a>); His work of deliverance is to be replicated by each of us in our witness. Whoever is in Him will by this very fact follow Him in this work. In Isaiah’s first context, the suffering servant was King Hezekiah. Yet all Israel were to see themselves as ‘in’ him, as spiritual Israel are to see themselves as in Christ. “He was oppressed”, as Israel at that time were being “oppressed” by Assyria. As they were covered in wounds and spiritual sickness (<a href='B:290 1:5-6'>Isa 1:5-6</a>), so the suffering servant bore their diseases and rose again in salvation victory.</p>


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<p>This is what Yahweh who made you and formed you from the womb, who will save you, says-  Again and again, the fact God created us, physically and spiritually, is the guarantee He wants to save us. He has been forming us as a potter forms clay into a vessel, and bringing us to that moment where we consciously say "Yes" to Him. The exiles were at that point, but declined. Yahweh speaks of the returnees as if they were a new creation, created by Him along with the heavens and earth of the temple which He had stretched out in Zion (<a href='B:290 43:7'>Isa 43:7</a>; <a href='B:290 44:2'>Isa 44:2</a>). He did not form this new land / heavens of the kingdom and temple of Israel in vain- He created it to be inhabited (<a href='B:290 45:18'>Isa 45:18</a>). But the Jews acted like the old creation. And the promise of new creation was deferred until the time of Jesus (<a href='B:540 5:17'>2Co 5:17</a>). Judah for the most part declined to inhabit / dwell in the new heavens and earth [the same word in <a href='B:290 45:18'>Isa 45:18</a> is frequently used re. how the returnees dwelt in the cities of Judah].</p><p>"Save"is more often translated"help". This Fatherly image of help offered to a nervous child was to encourage the weak minded exiles to return to Zion and accept Yahweh’s helping hand, just as His hand had ’helped’ Hezekiah against the Assyrians (s:w. <a href='B:140 32:8'>2Ch 32:8</a>). At the restoration, Ezra believed this"help"would enable the restoration to the extent that they didn’t need any human soldiers to help them (<a href='B:150 8:22'>Ezr 8:22</a> s:w:).</p><p>Don’t be afraid, Jacob My servant- The way God showed grace and imputed righteousness to Jacob even before his birth is shown here. From the womb, Jacob was chosen to be God’s servant; and yet Jacob coolly said that only if God did what He promised, would he agree to serve Yahweh, and have Him as his master. Earlier in the same servant prophecies, the servant Jacob is described as a useless servant:"Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger that I sent? who is blind as he that is perfect (Jacob was a perfect / plain man, <a href='B:10 25:27'>Gen 25:27</a>), and blind as the Lord’s servant?"(<a href='B:290 42:19'>Isa 42:19</a>). Although the servant is worse than useless (a deaf messenger), he is seen as perfect by his Divine Master. And the servant prophecies are primarily based on Jacob (note, in passing, how often they associate the servant Jacob with idol worship, which seems to have been an earlier characteristic of Jacob). Consider too the allusions to Jacob in Isaiah 53; a man of sorrow and grief, despised of men, who would see his seed. As Christ felt a worm on the cross (<a href='B:230 22:6'>Psa 22:6</a>), so Jacob is described (<a href='B:290 41:14'>Isa 41:14</a>). That even in his weakness, Jacob prefigured the Lord in his time of ultimate spiritual victory, shows in itself the way God imputed righteousness to him at the time.</p><p>And you, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen- The uncommon title"Jeshurun", ’the upright one’, is used for Israel because they were being asked to repent and thereby live up to who they were intended to be; to realize their potential to which they have been chosen or called at the beginning.
But a big theme here is of imputed righteousness; having condemned Israel at the end of Is. 43, now God is going on to pour out His eternal love for them. Many languages form the diminutive, the 'fond' form of a personal name, by adding a suffix; '-y' in English [Mark = Marky], '-chik' in various Slavic languages, '-ina' in Latvian, '-ette', '-ou', or '-on' in French. In Hebrew, this is achieved by adding '-on' or '-un'. It seems to me that 'Yisraelun' is the fond, diminutive form of 'Yisrael'. Hence LXX renders 'Jeshurun' as "Beloved Israel". The God who has just so bitterly condemned His people now calls them by their diminutive.</p>


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<p>For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and streams on the dry ground. I will pour My Spirit on your seed, and My blessing on your offspring- Ezekiel 20 and Jeremiah 31 make it clear that the exiles were intended to accept a new covenant, seeing they had broken the old covenant. That new covenant involved the gift of the Spirit, a heart of flesh rather than of stone, the psychological working of God within them. This is symbolized here as water and streams. This is the time spoken of in Is. 32:15 when "the Spirit is poured on us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is considered a forest". They were the"dry ground", and out of that dry ground there could have arisen the Messiah figure of <a href='B:290 53:1'>Isa 53:1</a>. In the end, they refused the operation of that gift and Zerubbabel, the branch from Babylon (out of the dry ground) let the ball drop. And so these things were applied to the Lord Jesus and the gift of the Spirit in Him (<a href='B:500 7:38-39'>Joh 7:38-39</a>)."My Spirit"and"My blessing"are parallel. The blessing promised to Abraham was of Yahweh being their God, and not only an eternal inheritance of the land. That"blessing"is understood in <a href='B:510 3:25-26'>Act 3:25-26</a> and Galatians 3 as the gift of the Spirit, the transformation of the hearts of the seed of Abraham so that they might become like the singular seed, the Lord Jesus, and thereby be prepared and made appropriate for the blessing of eternal inheritance of the land.</p>


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<p>And they will spring up among the grass, as willows by the watercourses- LXX"And they shall spring up as grass between brooks, and as willows on the banks of running water". The returned exiles, or [later] all who wished to become part of God’s restored Kingdom, would be empowered by the water of the Spirit (see on <a href='B:290 44:3'>Isa 44:3</a>) to"spring up"on what had previously been dry ground (<a href='B:290 44:4'>Isa 44:4</a>). That Spirit would be articulated partly through the prophetic word (<a href='B:290 55:10'>Isa 55:10</a> s:w."bud"AV). This will be the restored Eden, where Yahweh had caused the vegetation to"spring up"(s:w. <a href='B:10 2:5'>Gen 2:5</a>). This springing up or growing would be in the fulfilment of the promises to David of the establishment of the Kingdom of his seed (s:w. <a href='B:100 23:5'>2Sa 23:5</a>; <a href='B:230 132:17'>Psa 132:17</a>). But the springing up would be of a community of people, the plural seed who were"in"the singular Messianic seed. And this is now experienced through baptism into the Lord Jesus (<a href='B:550 3:27-29'>Gal 3:27-29</a>). It is"righteousness"which would"spring up"(s:w. <a href='B:290 61:11'>Isa 61:11</a>); the work of the Spirit would result in the seed becoming righteous through their spiritual transformation. And yet it will also be on account of their status as"in"the"branch of righteousness"which will"spring up"(<a href='B:300 33:15'>Jer 33:15</a>). The work of the Spirit will be, and is, to transform the plural seed in practice into what they are by status in the Messiah- righteous. And it is this power, this gift, this Divine ’causing’ us to be righteous, which every spiritual person so thirsts for. Is. 32:15-17 likewise sees the gift of the Spirit as producing the fruits of the Spirit, arising like good fruit from the previously dry ground: "the Spirit is poured on us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is considered a forest. Then justice will dwell in the wilderness... the work of righteousness will be peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and confidence forever". Yet the language here clearly recalls that of Num. 24:4, where God sees Israel as willows planted by the waters; He sees them as righteous when they were not. There is also clear allusion to the description of the righteous in Ps. 1:3: "He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither". But this is all imputed righteousness, given God's strong words of condemnation for them at the end of Is. 43.</p>


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<p>One will say, ‘I am Yahweh’s’ and another will be called by the name of Jacob- And another will write with his hand ‘to Yahweh’, and honour the name of Israel- If we apply this to the Jewish exiles, the idea may be that they quit idolatry and their Babylonians names like "Mordechai" or "Esther", and renamed themselves with Hebrew names that included "Yah". Although at the time of the restoration not all knew their genealogy, they were accepted in any case, being surnamed with the Name of Jehovah and that of Jacob. And this has been applied to us in that “The Lord knows them that are His” (<a href='B:620 2:19'>2Ti 2:19</a>). See on <a href='B:290 48:1'>Isa 48:1</a>.</p><p>It would be thanks to Cyrus that the seed of Abraham would be redefined- Gentiles could become part of the covenant seed by saying “I belong to Yahweh” or writing Yahweh’s Name on their hand (<a href='B:290 44:3'>Isa 44:3</a>; <a href='B:290 44:5'>Isa 44:5</a>). See on <a href='B:290 45:1'>Isa 45:1</a>. This didn’t actually happen- but the prophecy was reapplied to the way that Gentiles became part of Abraham’s seed through baptism into the Name (<a href='B:550 3:27-29'>Gal 3:27-29</a>). The later servant poems / songs in Isaiah appear irrelevant to Cyrus, but applicable to the nation of Israel as God’s “servant”, or to one particular “servant”. Perhaps this is reflective of the way that Cyrus didn’t live up to his potential, and the ‘servant’ prophecies became capable of other potential fulfillments?&nbsp; And yet <a href='B:290 44:28'>Isa 44:28</a> states: “Of Cyrus he says, ‘He is my shepherd; he will fulfill all my purpose’”. This is typical of prophecy which is conditional, even though the conditions aren’t stated. It is observable that all the servant songs / poems have language and terms which repeat throughout them- it’s as if one person could have fulfilled them all, they could’ve been relevant to one person, but in reality this didn’t work out.</p><p>The Name of Jacob / Israel is here paralleled with Yahweh. Remember how Jacob in his doubt promised God:"If God will be with me... then shall Yahweh be my God"(<a href='B:10 28:20-21'>Gen 28:20-21</a>); and at the end, Yahweh was Jacob’s God. God seems to recognize this by describing Himself as the God of Jacob / Israel so very often. His joy, His sheer delight at Jacob’s spiritual achievement is recorded throughout the Bible. The way God describes Himself as"the God of Israel"(201 times) or"the God of Jacob"(25 times) infinitely more times than anyone else’s God is proof enough that God saw His relationship with Jacob as very special."God of Abraham"occurs 17 times;"God of Isaac"8 times;"God of David"4 times. Remember that whenever we read"Israel", we are reading of the man Jacob and his children. That God was the God of mixed-up, struggling Jacob is a sure comfort to every one of us. God is not ashamed to be surnamed the God of Jacob (<a href='B:650 11:16'>Heb 11:16</a> Gk:).
But quite possibly we have here the Divine hope and intention that the Babylonians and other Gentiles would be converted to Israel's God, and would accompany His people out of Babylon to Zion. Just as some Egyptians decided to join Israel in the exodus. GNB points up the allusion to how people of the time wrote or tatooed the name of their god on their bodies: "One by one, people will say, 'I am the LORD's.' They will come to join the people of Israel. They each will mark the name of the LORD on their arms and call themselves one of God's people". "One by one" is a fair rendering of "This one will say... another will call... another will write on his arm". It suggests no conversion en bloc but true conversion, which axiomatically is of individuals, one by one, entering personal relationship with Yahweh. The idea of 'inscribing his hand ‘To Yahweh’' is an allusion to the practice of branding slaves with the name of their owner, and the religious custom of tattooing sacred marks on the person (Lev 19:28). Paul may allude here in saying that he bears on his body the marks of the Lord Jesus, and the faithful are presented as having the marks of the name of God on their foreheads.</p>


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<p>This is what Yahweh the King of Israel and His Redeemer, Yahweh of Armies, says- The "King of Israel" title may be an allusion to how the conquering power of Babylon considered themselves as "King of Israel" and all the territories they had conquered. Just as Cyrus, servant of Marduk, was effectively "My servant". So in fact Yahweh and not the king of Babylon / Persia was the actual "King of Israel". As Hosea ‘redeemed’ Gomer in His attempt to force through His fantasy for her (<a href='B:350 3:1'>Hos 3:1</a>), so Yahweh is repeatedly described in Isaiah as Israel’s go’el, redeemer (<a href='B:290 41:14'>Isa 41:14</a>; <a href='B:290 43:14'>Isa 43:14</a>; <a href='B:290 44:6'>Isa 44:6</a>; <a href='B:290 44:24'>Isa 44:24</a>; <a href='B:290 47:4'>Isa 47:4</a>; <a href='B:290 48:17'>Isa 48:17</a>; <a href='B:290 49:7'>Isa 49:7</a>; <a href='B:290 49:26'>Isa 49:26</a>; <a href='B:290 54:5'>Isa 54:5</a>; <a href='B:290 54:8'>Isa 54:8</a>). The redeemer could redeem a close relative from slavery or repurchase property lost during hard times (<a href='B:30 25:25-26'>Lev 25:25-26</a>; <a href='B:30 25:47-55'>Lev 25:47-55</a>; <a href='B:80 2:20'>Rth 2:20</a>; <a href='B:80 3:9'>Rth 3:9</a>; <a href='B:80 3:12'>Rth 3:12</a>). The redeemer was also the avenger of blood (<a href='B:40 35:9-28'>Num 35:9-28</a>; <a href='B:60 20:3'>Jos 20:3</a>; <a href='B:60 20:9'>Jos 20:9</a>). All these ideas were relevant to Yahweh’s relationship to Judah in captivity. But the promised freedom didn’t come- even under Nehemiah, Judah was still a province within the Persian empire. And those who returned complained: “We are slaves this day in the land you gave…” (<a href='B:160 9:36'>Neh 9:36</a>). The wonderful prophecies of freedom and redemption from slavery weren’t realized in practice, because of the selfishness of the more wealthy Jews. And how often is it that the freedom potentially enabled for those redeemed in Christ is in practice denied them by their autocratic and abusive brethren.</p><p>I am the first, and I am the last; and besides Me there is no God- The sense may be as in <a href='B:290 41:4'>Isa 41:4</a>:"I Yahweh, the first and with the last, I am He". First and last are terms used by the Lord Jesus of those who shall be in His Kingdom (<a href='B:470 20:16'>Mat 20:16</a>)."The last"would then refer to the last generation of God’s people. Yahweh would save the exiles along with the"first"of His people such as Abraham; for at the time of the restoration of that last generation, there would be a resurrection of all God’s true people, to form a new people would eternally inherit the reestablished Kingdom.</p>


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<p>Who is like Me? Who will call, and will declare it, and set it in order for Me, since I established the ancient people? Let them declare the things that are coming, and that will happen- The emphasis and flavour of the words used for"call... declare... set in order"is not upon prediction but rather explanation, of attaching meaning to event. God alone can provide such explanation of both past and future events according to the far reaching narrative found in the prophets. The idol religions explained just a few isolated incidents. This is what is unique about the one true God- that He alone attaches meaning to event, both in personal and collective life, and indeed to all human history. Whether we correctly perceive it is another question, but He alone does this and holds the masterplan.
The language of the court continues; as LXX "And who is like me? Let him stand and proclaim...". The 'past' aspect of God's evidence is that He established Israel as His people long ago, despite foreknowing all their sin and rebellion. The future aspect of His evidence is that despite all that, He still accepts them as His people and has an eternal love and hope for them.  </p>


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<p>Don’t fear, neither be afraid. Haven’t I declared it to you long ago, and shown it? You are My witnesses. Is there a God besides Me? Indeed there is not. I don’t know any other Rock- LXX"ye are witnesses if there is a God beside me". The experiences with the Assyrian destruction ought to have demonstrated this. The gods of Assyria couldn’t save them, neither could the local deities whom Judah had trusted in at the time. Yahweh alone is the God of salvation. As developed on :9, this is the imagery of the courtroom. Israel are called as witnesses to Yahweh, and the idols are called as witnesses for the idolaters. We note the balance of the equation. Yahweh is not parallel with the idols, with the idolaters. Israel are called as Yahweh’s witnesses, and the idols are called as witnesses for the idolaters. Those idolaters were therefore making themselves God, by creating gods (:9). The court case is over whether Yahweh can indeed save His people. There was no God like Yahweh who forgave and saved His people by grace. God was a rock to Israel in that He was faithful to them- the allusion is to Dt. 32:4 "[He is] the Rock... for all His ways are justice; a God of faithfulness". God's faithfulness to Israel despite their unfaithfulness is what makes Him rock like. No other god was such a "Rock" to their people. </p>


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<p>Everyone who makes an engraved image is vain. The things that they delight in will not profit. Their own witnesses don’t see nor know, that they may be disappointed- In the imagery of the court case, Israel are witnesses to Yahweh, and the idols are witnesses to themselves. See on :8. The witnesses, the idols, cannot see nor understand anything. As discussed on Is. 43, Israel are also a silent witness- blind, deaf and dumb. But their very existence is a testament to God's saving grace and abiding desire to save Israel. The silence of the idols is different. After all, God is in the dock, accused of being unable to save. But no witnesses can say anything to condemn Him nor prove the case- that He is in fact unable to save. Indeed the idols are mocked, along with those who make them and trust in them. We can get in the spirit of this- considering anything else than God and His salvation to be a laughable, pathetic and absurd thing. Even though the world worships such idols.</p>


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<p>Who has fashioned a god or moulds an image that is profitable for nothing?- The verse runs on from :9; they are disappointed who fashion their own gods. In the context, the idols have been called as witnesses, but they are silent in the witness box. They are not profitable, they can give no helpful testimony to the case. See on :8. Yahweh is continually presented as the former, creator and moulder of His people; and Israel are thereby witnesses to Him and His work (:8). This is the problem with playing God, which is the modern form of idolatry. We set ourselves up as creator, rather than allowing His hand to form and mould us in His image and likeness rather than us creating things in our own likeness.</p>


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<p>Behold, all his fellows will be disappointed; and the workmen are mere men- &nbsp;LXX"and all by whom they were made are withered". The reference is to the idol makers of the previous verse. There is an emphasis upon the idol maker having"fellows"and their being shamed"together", twice emphasized. The idea is that idolatry is because people group together, it is a group function; idolatry arises out of groups of people together.</p><p>Let them all be gathered together. Let them stand up. They will fear. They will be put to shame together- This continues the courtroom analogy discussed on :8. They are to stand up to receive their judgment, and then go to the shame of condemnation together.</p>


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<p>The blacksmith takes an axe, works in the coals, fashions it with hammers, and works it with his strong arm. He is hungry, and his strength fails; he drinks no water, and is faint-"Works"is the same word as"makes [a god]"(:15). In our days, the works of our hands are the equivalent of making gods and idols. The picture is of a man working hard to make, work, mould, shape and plan an idol. Isaiah has used all these ideas about God’s formative work with His people. Their strength failed in the work, whereas God’s power in working with us is limitless. His strength in working for us doesn’t fail. The "strong arm" of the idol maker contrasts ironically and pathetically with the "strong arm" of Yahweh who saves His people, and the descriptions of God found in Isaiah: His strength never fails nor does He ever grow faint. Nor is He in need of food and water (Is. 40:10 etc.). </p>


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<p>The carpenter stretches out a line. He marks it out with a pencil. He shapes it with planes. He marks it out with compasses, and shapes it like the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, to reside in a house- The contrasts are not simply between Yahweh and the idols, but specifically between Yahweh and the creators of idols. The issue at stake is 'Who has creative power? And what is the nature of their creation?'. Yahweh is presented as natural and spiritual creator of His people through forgiveness and gace, and of a new heavens and new earth, a restored Kingdom of God on earth. The wonder of all that is so magnifident compared to the creation of the idol creators- a dumb piece of carved wood, which cannot speak nor save its creator.
The creation of idols was something done only under the supposed command of the gods. It seems there is extensive allusion to Marduk here, the Babylonian god whom many of the Jewish exiles had worshipped. We recall "Mordecai", named after Marduk. The ninth to the eighth century Babylonian Erra Epic has Marduk listing the necessary elements for the remaking of his living image: the help of the carpenter-god Nin-ildu, the smith-god Ninagal and Gushkin-banda, 'Creator of god and man', the god of gold working. The entire Babylonian mythology is being mocked here. And it was exactly the cult of Marduk which the Jewish exiles were still involved with. 
"To reside in a house" refers to an idol shrine or even a "temple" (CEV). The contrast is with Yahweh who would dwell within His own temple.
The contrast is with the description of Yahweh as having planned as a workman the entire cosmos, and then made it. See on <a href='B:290 40:12'>Isa 40:12</a>. Instead of allowing Him to work on them to make them after His mental image, they were creating gods in their own image and likeness. As they stretched out a line to plan an idol, Yahweh worked on a far grander scale, stretching out His line over the entire cosmos (<a href='B:220 38:5'>Job 38:5</a> s:w:). But the phrase ’stretching out a line’ is nearly always used about Yahweh’s condemnation of people (<a href='B:120 21:13'>2Ki 21:13</a>; <a href='B:290 34:11'>Isa 34:11</a>; <a href='B:310 2:8'>Lam 2:8</a>; <a href='B:450 1:16'>Zec 1:16</a>). As we will also see on :14, the idolaters were in fact measuring out condemnation to themselves.</p>


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<p>He cuts down cedars for himself, and takes the cypress and the oak- I noted on :13 that the language of idol construction is also that of condemnation; their behaviour was their own condemnation. And here too, the Assyrians had threatened to cut down the cedars of the temple (<a href='B:290 37:24'>Isa 37:24</a>; <a href='B:290 2:13'>Isa 2:13</a>; <a href='B:290 10:34'>Isa 10:34</a>). And the Babylonians actually did this (<a href='B:290 14:8'>Isa 14:8</a>). For the Jews now to cut down cedars and make idols from them was therefore acting like the Babylonians, and ignoring the great grace shown in Yahweh’s averting of the threatened Assyrian destruction of the temple by cutting down its cedars. See on <a href='B:290 48:9'>Isa 48:9</a>.</p><p>And strengthens for himself one among the trees of the forest. He plants a fir tree, and the rain nourishes it- Yahweh would strengthen His servant people, in contrast to the idols, which had to be strengthened by their makers (s:w. <a href='B:290 41:10'>Isa 41:10</a>). The tree used for idolatry had been nourished by rain from Yahweh.</p>


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<p>Then it will be for a man to burn; and he takes some of it, and warms himself. Yes, he burns it, and bakes bread. Yes, he makes a god, and worships it; he makes it an engraved image, and falls down to it- This whole account of idolatry seems to be poking fun at the foolishness of the worshipper. But this is all to lead up to the statements in :19,20, that the mind of the idolater refuses to perceive the obvious. And this is because they"did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate (or, undistinguishing) mind"(<a href='B:520 1:28'>Rom 1:28</a>; cp. <a href='B:290 29:10'>Isa 29:10</a>). This is in contrast to how the Spirit of God works to give a spiritually perceptive mind; and the promise of that Spirit has been offered earlier in this chapter. Now we are being shown the opposite process; how God works to confirm men in their blindness.</p>


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<p>He burns part of it in the fire. With part of it, he eats meat. He roasts a roast, and is satisfied. Yes, he warms himself and says, Ah! I am warm, I have seen the fire- The idea is that he uses part to make an idol (:17), and of the other part, he uses part of that for firewood for warmth and part for roasting a meal for himself. Or as ESV"Half of it he burns in the fire. Over the half he eats meat". See on <a href='B:290 46:6'>Isa 46:6</a>.</p>


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<p>The rest of it he makes into a god, even his engraved image. He bows down to it and worships and prays to it and says, Deliver me; for you are my god!- See on :16. This is the word used by Rabshakeh in saying that no god could"deliver"from the Assyrians (<a href='B:140 32:13'>2Ch 32:13</a>). And yet the unfaithful Jews had trusted in those very gods for deliverance. It is therefore Jewish idolaters who are in view here. They were so self deceived that they could not deliver themselves (:20 s:w:) because those who worship idols become like unto them; dumb and unable to engage with the issues of eternity.</p>


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<p>Theydon’t know neither do they consider: for He has shut their eyes that they can’t see; and their hearts that they can’t understand- This is the situation in <a href='B:290 6:9-10'>Isa 6:9-10</a>: "Make the heart of this people fat. Make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn again, and be healed". But that was spoken about the Jews; the suggestion is that now it is idol makers amongst the Jewish exiles who are being addressed. And yet to daub or seal the eyes alludes to the custom of the bride having her eyes sealed or daubed, and then unsealed by the bridegroom as he stands before her. This was particularly done in arranged marriages. So again we see the silver lining; their eyes were closed in judgment, but so as to be opened to see the bridegroom before them. This is the meaning of Israel's eyes being opened to the Lord Jesus as their Christ. This is in contrast to how the Spirit of God works to give a spiritually perceptive mind; and the promise of that Spirit has been offered earlier in this chapter. Now we are being shown the opposite process; how God works to confirm men in their blindness. Such people are receiving now the essence of their condemnation, alluding to the Eastern custom of sealing up the eyes of offenders.</p>


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<p>No one thinks neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, I have burned part of it in the fire- The idol makers of Is. 44:19 are criticized because "No one takes this to heart" [NEV "no one thinks"]. The idol makers of Is. 46:8 are asked "You transgressors, take it to heart". The appeal for repentance suggests it is the Jewish exiles who are in view; they were making the idols. Man is asked to be mindful, to take things to heart, rather than live life spiritually numb, acting and thinking without taking anything to heart. "Thinks" is literally 'to call to mind'; and it is God's people who were asked to 'call to mind' their folly in the land of their exile (Dt. 4:39; 30:1; 1 Kings 8:47). It is the exiles who were intended to see the folly of their making of idols when they had such a wonderful one true God.  We are programmed to shy away from the ultimate realities, in the same way as men hid their faces from the terror and dastardly horror of the crucifixion of God’s Son (<a href='B:290 53:3'>Isa 53:3</a>), and as"none considereth in his heart, neither is there knowledge nor understanding"to realize the idiocy of worshipping a piece of wood as an idol (<a href='B:290 44:19'>Isa 44:19</a>).</p><p>Yes, I have also baked bread on its coals. I have roasted meat and eaten it. Shall I make the rest of it into an abomination? Shall I bow down to a tree trunk?- The idolater failed to look at himself from outside of himself. This is an important ability to have, and it is the Biblical record which serves as a mirror, that we might see ourselves for who we really are (<a href='B:660 1:23'>Jas 1:23</a>). Yet the majority are so caught up in the narrative of their own lives which they spin in their own minds that they&nbsp; fail to achieve self-examination and self-awareness before God.</p>


