# commentaries

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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>


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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;"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>


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<h4>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.</h4><h4>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.</h4>


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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>


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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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<h4>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.</h4><h4>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</h4>


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<h4>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- 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.</h4><h4>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>).</h4>


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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>.</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>


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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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<h4>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.</h4><h4>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.</h4>


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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.</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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<h4>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.</h4><h4>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.</h4>


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<h4>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.</h4><h4>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.</h4>


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<h4>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.</h4><h4><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</h4>


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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>


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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’.</p>


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<h4>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?</h4><h4>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.</h4>


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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.</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>


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<h4>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.</h4><h4>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.</h4>


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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.</p>


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<h4>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.</h4><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><h4>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>).</h4>


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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.</p>


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<h4>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- 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. 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.</h4><h4>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.</h4>


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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>


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<p>This shall be the sign to you from Yahweh, that Yahweh will do this thing that He has spoken- 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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<h4>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.</h4><h4>"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.</h4>


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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.</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>).</p>


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<h4>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.</h4><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><h4>&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/</h4>


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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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<h4>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.</h4><h4>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.</h4><h4>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>.</h4>


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<h4>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.</h4><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.</p><h4>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.</h4>


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<h4>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".</h4><h4>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.</h4>


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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".</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>).</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>


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<h4>Yahweh will save me- This is the idea of the Hebrew word for"Jesus", ’Yehoshua’.</h4><h4>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."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.</h4>


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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 shallrecover- 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>


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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>


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<h4>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.</h4><h4>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;</h4>


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<h4>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.</h4><h4>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>).</h4>


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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- 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>.</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.</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>


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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- 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>


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<h4>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.</h4><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><h4>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>).</h4>


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<h4>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.</h4><h4>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>.</h4><p>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><h4>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.</h4>


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<h4>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>). 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.</h4><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><h4>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.</h4>


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<h4>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>).</h4><h4>"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.</h4>&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><h4>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.</h4>


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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.</p>


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<h4>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.</h4><h4>"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.</h4>


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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.</p>


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<h4>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!- "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.</h4><h4>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.</h4>


text:
<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.</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>).</p>


text:
<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. 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>


text:
<h4>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.</h4><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><h4>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.</h4>


text:
<h4>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.</h4><h4>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>.</h4>


text:
<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’).</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>


text:
<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>


text:
<h4>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>).</h4><h4>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.</h4>


text:
<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.</p>


text:
<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>


text:
<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>


text:
<h4>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.</h4><h4>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).</h4>


text:
<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.</p>


text:
<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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<h4>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):</h4><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><h4>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.</h4>


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<h4>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- 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.</h4><h4><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.</h4>


text:
<h4>Why do you say, Jacob, and speak, Israel, My way is hidden from Yahweh, and the justice due me 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>.</h4><h4>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.</h4>


text:
<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- 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>


text:
<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>


text:
<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).</p>


text:
<h4>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- 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>).</h4><h4>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.</h4>


text:
<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".</p>


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<h4>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- 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>.</h4><h4>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).</h4>


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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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<h4>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.</h4><h4>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.</h4>


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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.</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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<h4>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.</h4><h4>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.</h4>


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<h4>But you, Israel My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham My friend- 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.</h4><h4>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.</h4>


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<h4>You whom I have taken hold of from the ends of the earth and called from its corners and said to you- 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.</h4><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><h4>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 ’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.</h4>


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<h4>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.</h4><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>).</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><h4>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.</h4>


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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.</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:).</p>


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<h4>Don’t be afraid, you worm Jacob, and you men of Israel- 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>).</h4><h4>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>). 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</h4>


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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>).</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.</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.</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- 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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<h4>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- 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.</h4><h4>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.</h4>


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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.</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- 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>


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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!’"</p>


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<h4>When I look, there is no man; even among them there is no counsellor who, when I ask of them, can answer a word- 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>.</h4><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><h4>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.</h4>


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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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<h4>Behold, My servant, whom I uphold- 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:).</h4><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><h4>He will bring justice to the nations- 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.</h4>


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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>). Christ’s instruction to 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.</p>


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<h4>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.</h4><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><h4>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.</h4>


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<h4>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". 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>).</h4><h4>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.</h4>


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<h4>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.</h4><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><h4>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.</h4>


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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.</p>


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<h4>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.</h4><h4>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>).</h4>


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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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<h4>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.</h4><h4>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;</h4>


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<h4>Let the wilderness and its cities raise their voices, with the villages that Kedar inhabits- <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.</h4><h4>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.</h4>


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<h4>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.</h4><h4>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.</h4>


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<h4>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.</h4><h4>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:).</h4>


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<h4>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- 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.</h4><h4>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.</h4>


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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- 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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<h4>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.</h4><h4>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".</h4>


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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- "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- 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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<h4>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.</h4><h4>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.</h4><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><h4>&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;</h4>


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<p>You see many things, but don’t observe. His ears are open, but he doesn’t listen- 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!’- 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.</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>


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<h4>But now thus says Yahweh who created you, Jacob, and He who formed you, Israel: Don’t be afraid, for I have redeemed you- 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.</h4><h4>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.</h4>


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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- 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. 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…</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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<h4>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.</h4><h4>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.</h4>


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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. We have here, therefore, an example of God saving people from holes which they themselves have dug.</p>


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<h4>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.</h4><h4>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>).</h4>


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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.</p>


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<h4>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- 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.</h4><h4>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.</h4>


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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.</p>


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<p>I Myself am Yahweh; and besides Me there is no saviour- 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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<h4>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.</h4><h4>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.</h4>


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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- 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.</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.</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.</p>


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<h4>Behold, I will do a new thing. It springs forth now; don’t you perceive it?- <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?</h4><h4>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.</h4>


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<h4>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.</h4><h4>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.</h4>


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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.</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- 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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<h4>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.</h4><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><h4>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>).</h4>


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<h4>I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions- 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.</h4><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.</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><h4>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.</h4>


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<h4>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.</h4><h4><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>).</h4>


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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.</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.</p>


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<h4>Yet listen now, Jacob My servant, and Israel, whom I have chosen- 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.</h4><h4>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.</h4>


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<h4>This is what Yahweh who made you and formed you from the womb, who will save you, says- 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].</h4><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><h4>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.</h4>


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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. 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.</p>


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<h4>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- 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>.</h4><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><h4>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:).</h4>


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<h4>This is what Yahweh the King of Israel and His Redeemer, Yahweh of Armies, says- 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.</h4><h4>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.</h4>


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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.</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).</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.</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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<h4>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.</h4><h4>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.</h4>


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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.</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 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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<h4>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>.</h4><h4>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.</h4>


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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>. 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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<h4>No one thinks neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, I have burned part of it in the fire- 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>).</h4><h4>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.</h4>


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<h4>He feeds on ashes- From a distance, the visual impression may have been of the man apparently eating the ashes from the coals upon which his bread was baked (:19).</h4><h4>A deceived heart has turned him aside; and he can’t deliver his soul, nor say, Isn’t there a lie in my right hand?- The deceived heart can’t recognize that they are self-deceived. That seems to be the idea of"a lie in my right hand". See on :17.</h4>


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<h4>Remember these things, Jacob and Israel; for you are My servant. I have formed you; you are My servant. Israel, you will not be forgotten by Me- Because God has not forgotten His people, they should remember Him. The fact He is so consciously aware of us ought to bring Him back to our consciousness in the course of the day. As explained on :19, Jacob was asked to"remember"the picture of the idolater, to see himself from outside of himself.</h4><h4>There is perhaps a purposeful ambiguity in the Hebrew text of <a href='B:290 44:21'>Isa 44:21</a>: “O Israel thou shalt not be forgotten of me” is rendered in the RVmg and LXX: “thou shouldest not forget me”. The fact God never forgets us should be inspiration to not forget Him in the daily round of life. To act as if God doesn’t see all our ways is to effectively deny His existence. Babylon acted as she did because she reasoned that"None seeth me::. I am, and there is none else beside me"(<a href='B:290 47:10'>Isa 47:10</a> RV). They appropriated the language of God to themselves, they played God in that they thought their ways were unseen by any higher power. And we all have a terrible, frightening tendency to do this.</h4>


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<h4>I have blotted out as a thick cloud your iniquities, and, as a cloud, your sins. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you- 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 (as in <a href='B:510 3:18-19'>Act 3:18-19</a>)- 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. Repentance and not just forgiveness is given by the Spirit (<a href='B:510 5:31'>Act 5:31</a>). 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.</h4><p>It is our knowledge of God’s mercy to us which empowers us to confidently seek to share with others our knowledge, our relationship, our experience with God. Forgiveness inspires the preacher; and yet the offer of forgiveness is what inspires the listener to respond. God appeals for Israel to respond by pointing out that in prospect, He has already forgiven them: “I have [already] blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions::. [therefore] return unto me; for I have redeemed thee” (<a href='B:290 44:22'>Isa 44:22</a> AV). Likewise Elijah wanted Israel to know that God had already in prospect turned their hearts back to Him (<a href='B:110 18:37'>1Ki 18:37</a>). We preach the cross of Christ, and that through that forgiveness has been enabled for all men; but they need to respond by repentance in order to access it. Hence the tragedy of human lack of response; so much has been enabled, the world has been reconciled, but all this is in vain if they will not respond.</p><p>The prophets appeal for their people to repent to avert God’s judgments; and yet they proclaim a message of grace, that because “I have swept away your transgressions [therefore] Return&nbsp;[repent] to me, for I have redeemed you” (<a href='B:290 44:22'>Isa 44:22</a>). The fact of God’s forgiveness leads to repentance- by grace. And yet the prophets also appeal for Israel to repent so that they might be forgiven.</p><h4>And so Isaiah urged the Jewish exiles to return to the land by saying that God had forgiven them, and on this basis He appealed for them to both ‘repent’ and ‘return’ to the land. The two terms are related. Thus He showed His grace; forgiveness preceded, not followed, repentance. <a href='B:290 44:22'>Isa 44:22</a> is clear about this: “I have swept away your transgressions like clouds [therefore] return to me, for I have [already] redeemed you”. God was angry with their sins, but kept no record of them- hence He could comfort Judah that there was actually no documentary evidence for their divorce (<a href='B:290 50:1'>Isa 50:1</a>) and therefore she could return to Him. As Paul put it, the goodness of God leads to repentance (<a href='B:520 2:4'>Rom 2:4</a>). And we are asked to show that same “goodness” of God to others, being “kind [s:w. ‘goodness’] one to another… forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you” (<a href='B:560 4:32'>Eph 4:32</a>). We too are to show this grace of forgiveness-before-repentance; but perhaps in no other area has formalized, institutionalized Christianity failed worse. If XYZ shows us she’s repented of her divorce, then we’ll forgive her and accept her in fellowship [as if, in any case, we are the ones who need to forgive her]. These are graceless and yet terribly common attitudes. The Greek word translated “goodness” is rendered “gracious” in <a href='B:670 2:3'>1Pe 2:3</a> - newly converted babes in Christ taste of this gracious goodness, and it leads to repentance.</h4>


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<h4>Sing you heavens, for Yahweh has done it! Shout, you lower parts of the earth! Break out into singing, you mountains, O forest, all of your trees, for Yahweh has redeemed Jacob, and will glorify Himself in Israel- The same Hebrew words are used about the shout of joy which went up when the foundation of the temple was laid (<a href='B:150 3:11-13'>Ezr 3:11-13</a>). But at that same time, there was a loud sound of weeping from those who realized that what was being built was simply not the temple which Ezekiel had prophesied, and was not even as glorious as Solomon’s. The shout of joy was there, but wasn’t discernible (<a href='B:150 3:13'>Ezr 3:13</a>).</h4><h4>As the whole creation would share the joy of Hosea and Gomer’s remarriage (see on <a href='B:290 1:26'>Isa 1:26</a>), so <a href='B:290 44:23'>Isa 44:23</a> and <a href='B:290 49:13'>Isa 49:13</a> use similar terms to describe how all creation could have rejoiced in the reuniting of Yahweh with His people on their return from Babylon.</h4>


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<p>Thus says Yahweh your Redeemer, and He who formed you from the womb: I am Yahweh who makes all things, who alone stretches out the heavens; who spreads out the earth by Myself- This is in contrast to how the idol maker stretches out and spreads out his plans and materials to make his idol. 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.</p>


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<h4>Who frustrates the signs of the liars- This is s:w. <a href='B:160 4:15'>Neh 4:15</a> about God frustrating the Samaritan opposition. But still the exiles didn’t make full use of all this help, in order to reestablish God’s Kingdom.</h4><h4>And makes diviners mad; who turns wise men backward, and makes their knowledge foolish- it is the idolater who has just been portrayed as foolish and mad. But the wise men of the nations of those days were all idolaters.</h4>


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<h4>Who confirms the word of His servant, and performs the counsel of His messengers; who says of Jerusalem, ‘She will be inhabited;’ and of the cities of Judah, ‘They will be built’, and ‘I will raise up its waste places’- The word of His servant could refer to Isaiah or Jeremiah. Yahweh portrays Himself as open to the counsel or advice of His messengers. Perhaps the malak in view are the Angels, and those they represented. God is open to persuasion from both Angels and even men. Confirming and performing are parallel, as are"the word"and"the counsel"."His servant"(singular) is parallel with the plural"His messengers". The singular servant is equated with His “messengers”, whose “counsel” to others is the word which is Jesus, the true servant. This theme of declaring the word occurs repeatedly in this part of Isaiah. Because “I have declared… and I have shewed… therefore ye are my witnesses” (<a href='B:290 43:12'>Isa 43:12</a>). We are to witness / declare / shew, just as the Father has done. Our unity with the Father and Son is thus reflected in our witnessing in the way they witness; and thus their witness is through us. The unity between the preacher and his Lord is therefore wonderful. Truly He is with us in our life of witness, in our obedience to His command to preach world-wide, unto the end of the age.</h4><h4>Or the servant could refer to Cyrus and his will to rebuild Jerusalem. Yahweh “performs the counsel” of rebuilding Jerusalem. But the Samaritan opposition sought to frustrate Judah’s “purpose” / counsel (<a href='B:150 4:5'>Ezr 4:5</a> s:w:), and succeeded. Yahweh allowed Himself to be limited within how His people performed His purpose. His ‘purpose’ is therefore conditional upon those whom He allows to fulfill it. Many passages in the latter half of Isaiah exult how God has fulfilled prophecy in the decree of Cyrus and the return of the Jews (e:g. <a href='B:290 44:7'>Isa 44:7</a>; <a href='B:290 44:26-28'>Isa 44:26-28</a>). But this fulfilment of prophecy turned out to be limited by the Jews’ lack of obedience to the prophecies.</h4>


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<p>who says to the deep, ‘Be dry’, and ‘I will dry up your rivers;’- The reference is to the artificial irrigation canals from the Euphrates which were dried up by Cyrus, forming a lake forty miles square, in order for him to take Babylon. The prophets present the fall of Babylon as necessary for the return of the exiles. Babylon fell, but as the book of Esther makes clear, the bulk of the exiles chose to remain in exile.</p>


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<p>who says of Cyrus, ‘He is My shepherd, and shall perform all My pleasure’, even saying of Jerusalem, ‘She will be built;’ and of the temple, ‘Your foundation will be laid’- See on :5. Ezekiel 34 had predicted that at the restoration, God Himself would be a shepherd to His scattered flock and through the shepherd He would use, He would"deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day"(<a href='B:330 34:12'>Eze 34:12</a>). The cloudy and dark day was the day of judgment which came upon Judah, and which resulted in them being scattered into Babylon and Persia. The shepherd who was to deliver them and get them to return from the various places of their scattering was intended to be Cyrus. <a href='B:290 44:28'>Isa 44:28</a> is crystal clear about this. God"says of Cyrus, ‘He is My shepherd, and shall perform all My pleasure’, even saying of Jerusalem, ‘She will be built;’ and of the temple, ‘Your foundation will be laid’". It was God’s intention that Cyrus repent and become a proselyte, and Yahweh would then use him to save His people"out of all places where they have been scattered". The decree of Cyrus was addressed to"Whoever is left [of the Jews], in any place where he lives"(<a href='B:150 1:4'>Ezr 1:4</a>)."Cyrus"literally means"sun"and so contrasts with the cloudy and dark day. But Cyrus let the ball drop and didn’t carry through the Divine purpose as he might have done and neither did the Jews respond as they should have done. Cyrus was Yahweh’s anointed (<a href='B:290 45:1'>Isa 45:1</a>), and so the essence of these prophecies is to come true in the last days in the person of the Lord Jesus. We could say that the prophecies are transferred from Cyrus to the Lord Jesus. LXX"Who bids Cyrus be wise, and he shall perform all my will"suggests Cyrus had a choice; he was commanded, and it seems he partially obeyed, but not enough to the Messiah figure envisaged.</p>


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<h4>Thus says Yahweh to His anointed, to Cyrus- <a href='B:290 45:1-7'>Isa 45:1-7</a> concern Cyrus and really should be read as part of Isaiah 44.</h4><p>Whose right hand I have held- There is a juxtaposition of impressions here. Holding the right hand of a person suggests they are feeble (<a href='B:290 42:6'>Isa 42:6</a>). And so Cyrus for all his might was but a feeble person empowered by Israel’s God.</p><p>To subdue nations before him, and strip kings of their armour; to open the doors before him, and the gates shall not beshut- see on <a href='B:290 40:3-4'>Isa 40:3-4</a>. Isaiah 40-55 is packed full with allusion to the Marduk cult. All that Marduk claimed to do and be, Isaiah explained as actually true, and solely true, of Yahweh God of Israel. The descriptions of Cyrus as having been anointed etc. are allusions to the way Cyrus was held to have been anointed and raised up by Marduk. Yahweh is saying that actually He, and not Marduk, had done this. The Abu-Habba collection in the British museum actually has an inscription that claims Nabonidus dreamt that Marduk raised up Cyrus (See P:A. Beaulieu, The Reign Of Nabonidus King Of Babylon (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989) p. 108). Isaiah’s point is that actually it was the God of Israel who had done this. The references to Yahweh taking Cyrus by the hand, anointing him, pronouncing his name and giving him a throne (<a href='B:290 45:1'>Isa 45:1</a>; <a href='B:290 45:8'>Isa 45:8</a>) are almost word-for-word what Cyrus claimed about Marduk in his ‘Cyrus Cylinder’.</p><h4>Cyrus was a potential Messiah figure. Cyrus was the anointed one, the ‘Christ’ of God. Anointing is especially associated with being anointed as a king in the Davidic line (<a href='B:90 2:10'>1Sa 2:10</a>; <a href='B:90 2:35'>1Sa 2:35</a>; <a href='B:100 22:51'>2Sa 22:51</a>; <a href='B:100 23:1'>2Sa 23:1</a>; <a href='B:230 2:2'>Psa 2:2</a>). Could it be that God was willing for Cyrus to become Israel’s King? Whilst the chronology is admittedly difficult, it would appear that Daniel and his group of faithful friends, possibly Ezekiel, maybe Esther, and some other prophets were in close contact with Cyrus. The enigmatic reference to Cyrus making the decision to allow Nehemiah’s mission for the Jews to return with his queen sitting near him may suggest Jewish influence upon him (<a href='B:160 2:6'>Neh 2:6</a>). Could it be that potentially, he was enabled to convert to the God of Israel and fulfill the ‘servant’ prophecies? See on :9; <a href='B:290 44:5'>Isa 44:5</a>.</h4>


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<h4>I will go before you, and make the rough places smooth- This is the language of Isaiah 40 concerning the preparation for the coming of the Messianic saviour and reestablishment of the Kingdom in Zion. But Cyrus failed to fulfill this.</h4><h4>I will break the doors of brass in pieces, and cut apart the bars of iron- Herodotus (1:179) claims Babylon had 100 massive gates, 25 on each of the four sides of the city, all, as well as their posts, of brass.</h4>


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<p>I will give you the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that it is I, Yahweh, who call you by your name, even the God of Israel- The location of hidden treasure in conquered cities was typically attributed to magicians and wise men. But here, to Yahweh. God’s mention of Cyrus’ name 150 years beforehand was intended to be the clear proof to all that His prophetic word would really come true. But :4 seems to see his ’naming’ as not so much a case of predicting his name, but giving him a name in the sense of a purpose and intended path of character and behaviour. But he ultimately failed in fulfilling this.</p>


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<h4>For Jacob My servant’s sake, and Israel My chosen, I have called you by your name. I have surnamed you, though you have not known Me- LXX suggests that despite all this Divine intention, Cyrus refused relationship with God by refusing to ’know’ Him:"For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel mine elect, I will call thee by thy name, and accept thee: but thou hast not known me".</h4><h4>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 / chosen, in whom my soul delights” (<a href='B:290 42:1'>Isa 42:1</a>). And yet here later on in the servant songs of Isaiah, “mine elect” or"My chosen"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, “mine elect”, 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”.</h4>


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<h4>I am Yahweh, and there is none else. Besides Me, there is no God- The preceding verse has spoken of Cyrus’ failure. It could be that this was related to his refusal to jettison his belief in the Persian gods of good and evil, refusing to accept that Yahweh could really be in control of all.</h4><p>This language (and in :6,12) 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.</p><h4>I will strengthen you, though you have not known Me- LXX"I strengthened thee, and thou hast not known me"continues the theme of lamenting that Cyrus refused relationship [’knowing’] with God, even though he was Divinely strengthened to do His will in restoring Judah.</h4>


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<p>That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none besides Me. I am Yahweh, and there is no one else- See on :5. This was the intended outcome of the restoration which Cyrus was used to effect. But the returned exiles didn’t make Yahweh known; instead they mixed with the surrounding nations, as Ezra, Nehemiah and the restoration prophets make clear. And so these things are all reapplied to the final work of the Lord Jesus. As will be developed on :7, Yahweh’s existence as the sole God means there is no room for the idea of a personal cosmic Satan being, nor for the equivalent ideas amongst the Persians, which the Jews were accepting.</p>


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<h4>I form the light, and create darkness. I make peace, and create calamity. I am Yahweh, who does all these things- Yatzar,&nbsp;to give"form"to previously existing matter, and&nbsp;bara,&nbsp;to"create"from nothing the chaotic darkness, were all from God. Yahweh alone had given light and success to Cyrus,&nbsp;and darkness,"evil"or calamity&nbsp;to Babylon. There seems significant evidence for believing that the idea of a personal devil first entered Judaism through their contact with the Persian religions whilst in captivity there. Rabbinic writings don’t mention a personal satan until the Jews were in Babylon, and the references become more frequent as Persian influence upon Judaism deepened. This is why the monumental passages in Isaiah [e:g. <a href='B:290 45:5-7'>Isa 45:5-7</a>], addressed to the captive Jews, point out the error of the Persian idea that there is a good God in tension with an evil god. Classically, the devil is understood to be a being with horns and a pitchfork. If we research why this should be the case, we soon find that the Bible itself is absolutely without any such images of satan or the devil. But we do find these images in pagan mythology- Pan, Dionysius and other pagan gods were depicted as having horns, long tails etc. In the British isles, let alone ancient Rome and Greece, there were traditions of ’horned gods’ being the source of evil- e:g. the Cernunnos amongst the Celts, Caerwiden in Wales, etc. In so many ways, apostate Christianity adopted pagan ideas and brought them into its theology. These horned gods, with forks and long tails, became adopted into a false Christianity as ’the devil’. But the Bible itself is absolutely silent about this- nowhere is there any indication that satan or the devil is a personal being with horns etc.</h4><h4>Isaiah’s statement that Yahweh creates both good and evil / disaster, light and darkness, is not only aimed at criticizing the Babylonian dualistic view of the cosmos. It also has relevance to the false ideas which were developing amongst the Jews in Babylon, which would later come to term in the false view of Satan which most of Christendom later adopted. According to the Jewish Apocryphal writing The Visions of Amram, human beings choose to live under the control of one of two angels. Amram has a vision of the two opposing angels who have been given control over humanity (4Q544 frg. 1, <a href='B:580 2:10-14'>Col 2:10-14</a> [Visions of Amram-b] = 4Q547 frgs. 1–2, <a href='B:580 3:9-13'>Col 3:9-13</a>). The good angel supposedly has power “over all the light”, whereas the evil angel has authority “over all the darkness”. Thus the idea of dualism – which is so attractive to all people – was alive and well amongst the Jews; and thus <a href='B:290 45:5-7'>Isa 45:5-7</a> was also aimed at the developing Jewish belief in Babylon in a dualistic cosmos.</h4><p>Of especially significant influence upon Judaism were the Persian views of Zoroastrianism. This was a philosophy which began in Persia about 600 B:C:, and was growing in popularity when Judah went to Babylon / Persia in captivity. This philosophy posited that there was a good god of light (Mazda) and an evil god of darkness (Ahriman). The well known passage in <a href='B:290 45:5-7'>Isa 45:5-7</a> is a clear warning to the Jews in captivity not to buy into this – Israel’s God alone made the light and the darkness, the good and the “evil”. He alone had the power to give “the treasures of darkness” to a man (<a href='B:290 45:3'>Isa 45:3</a>), even though such “treasures” were thought to be under the control of the supposed ‘Lord of darkness’. But Isaiah is in fact full of other allusions to Zoroastrian ideas, seeking to teach Judah the true position on these things. See on <a href='B:290 9:6'>Isa 9:6</a>.</p><h4>Apart from seeking to justify themselves, the uninspired Jewish authors were struggling with the issue we all do- how can a good and kind God do negative things? But they took the easy way out, presuming to rewrite His word in order to pass blame into a Satan figure of their own imaginations. These uninspired Jewish writings from between the Testaments repeatedly seek to rewrite Biblical history and statements in order to accommodate the Persian ideas. <a href='B:290 45:5-7'>Isa 45:5-7</a> is clear:"I am the Lord, and there is none else. I form the light and create darkness: I make peace and create evil; I the Lord do all these things". But 4 <a href='B:150 2:14'>Ezr 2:14</a> changes this to:"I have left out evil and created good, because I live, says the Lord". We have a stark choice- the inspired text of the Bible, or uninspired Jewish interpretations seeking to justify the adoption of pagan myths about Satan.</h4>


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<p>Distil, you heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness. Let the earth open, that it may bring forth salvation, and let it cause righteousness to spring up with it. I, Yahweh, have created it- <a href='B:290 45:1-7'>Isa 45:1-7</a> concern Cyrus and really should be read as part of Isaiah 44. Because of the decree of Cyrus, the land of Israel could have opened and brought forth the Lord Jesus (“Yah’s salvation”). The LXX gives the picture of cosmic joy meeting the joy of the earth beneath, resulting in the gift of the Spirit, part of the new covenant offered to the exiles in Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 20, resulting in righteousness and spirituality within the people left on the earth / land of Israel:"Let the heaven rejoice from above, and let the clouds rain righteousness: let the earth bring forth, and blossom with mercy, and bring forth righteousness likewise: I am the Lord that created thee". The new creation envisioned was to be of spiritual characteristics. Judah refused all this, and it has been applied to those in Christ today (<a href='B:540 5:17'>2Co 5:17</a>).</p>


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<h4>Woe to him who strives with his Maker- a clay pot among the clay pots of the earth! Shall the clay ask Him who fashions it, ‘What are you making?’ or your work, ‘He has no hands?’- The Jews of Isaiah’s day would have had big problems with the idea of a pagan king like Cyrus becoming&nbsp; the King of Israel and being Yahweh’s special “servant” and even Messiah; see on <a href='B:290 45:1'>Isa 45:1</a>. Folk have the same problem and resistance to the idea today. But passages like <a href='B:290 45:9-13'>Isa 45:9-13</a>, <a href='B:290 48:14-16'>Isa 48:14-16</a> and much of the material that follows the servant songs, are in fact seeking to answer objections to this- e:g. by saying that God is the potter and men are mere clay, and He will raise up precisely whom He wishes- even pagan Cyrus- to be His man, the arm of His salvation, at least potentially. We all struggle with God’s hand in our lives, seeking ways to escape this or that touch of the Divine potter. But we are but striving with our maker. He wishes our salvation, and every touch of His hand is directed toward that glorious end. On one hand we are"a pot that is like all the others"(GNB); our appearances, life experiences and path can appear more or less identical to those of the unbeliever next door. But for us, there is meaning attached to event; even if those events are not dissimilar to those of our unbelieving neighbours.</h4><h4>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>). And this was potentially true for Cyrus."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.</h4>


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<p>Woe to him who says to a father, ‘What have you become the father of?’ or to a mother, ‘To what have you given birth?’- We note how God likens Himself to both father and mother. I noted on :9 that the context here is the Jewish objection to God raising up a ’son’ like Gentile Cyrus to be the deliverer. And this challenge echoes down to our day, where we may have a gut level dislike to those clearly raised up to be Yahweh’s servants. It is not for us to thus speak to God about His children and servants.</p>


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<p>Thus says Yahweh the Maker and Holy One of Israel: You can ask Me about the things that are to come, concerning My sons, and you command Me concerning the work of My hands!- In the context of God lowering Himself to plead with a proud and apostate Israel, God invites them to"command Me":"Thus saith the Lord, the Holy One of Israel::. concerning the work of my hands command ye me. I have made the earth and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded"(<a href='B:290 45:11-12'>Isa 45:11-12</a> AV). Note the two uses of"command"and"hands". God commands the stars, His hands created them; but command ye me concerning my works, and I will answer you. We can command God and His hands will answer. The humility of the creator shows He is the creator. But we can perhaps more easily interpret this in the context of :10 along with GNB:"he LORD, the holy God of Israel, the one who shapes the future, says: "You have no right to question me about my children or to tell me what I ought to do!".</p>


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<p>I have made the earth, and created man on it. I, even My hands, have stretched out the heavens; and I have commanded all their army- See on :5,11. The creation of the earth / land in view is specifically the new creation of His Kingdom restored in the land of Israel, the eretz promised to Abraham. He had created that land and had returned "man", His people, upon it. The same power which commands the stars (LXX) commanded each of the exiles to return. They were moved around from captivity to Judah just as the stars are moved. We see here again how "stars" represent Israel, a theme seen early on in Joseph’s dreams</p>


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<h4>I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will make straight all his ways- LXX suggests this was more of a command, which he failed to obey fully: "I have raised him up to be a king with righteousness". He was to be the king of righteousness but wasn’t. And it was a prophecy reapplied to the Lord Jesus. For the picture of ways being made straight is that of Isaiah 40 about the preparation of Messiah’s path to the restored Zion.</h4><p>He shall build My city, and he shall let My exiles go free, not for price nor reward, says Yahweh of Armies- For no human benefit at all to Cyrus:&nbsp; This is as clear a prophecy as any could wish. God categorically stated that Cyrus would be raised up by Him in order to release the captives in Babylon, and to enable the building of Jerusalem (<a href='B:290 45:12'>Isa 45:12</a>); all because God had formed the land [AV “earth”] of Israel to be inhabited and not to be left without His people dwelling upon it. And this happened; the captives were released (although most preferred to stay put in Babylon), and the building of Jerusalem was enabled (although the work was not done very enthusiastically by Judah, and they preferred to build their own houses rather than Yahweh’s).</p><h4>Cyrus operated "not for price nor reward", for no personal advantage. This helps explain <a href='B:290 52:3'>Isa 52:3</a>: "You were sold for nothing; and you shall be redeemed without money". They were "sold for nothing" in that God had no personal benefit from the exile of His people; He did this to them for their spiritual benefit, not for any gain for Himself. Their redemption likewise would be according to His grace, and not because of any transaction between God and man. This was reflected in the way Cyrus commanded the Jews to return and provided all that was materially required to rebuild the temple, but "not for reward", for no personal benefit.</h4>


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<p>Thus says Yahweh: The labour of Egypt, and the merchandise of Ethiopia, and the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over to you, and they shall be yours. They will go after you. They shall come over in chains and they will bow down to you. They will make supplication to you: ‘Surely God is in you; and there is none else. There is no other god- But the Egyptians and Ethiopians didn’t come and fall down before Judah, as the Queen of Sheba had before Solomon. Nor did they accept Yahweh as the only God, and ditch their idols. The idea was that the Jewish exiles in the lands of the South would return, and their captors would come with them, wishing to invert what had happened by showing themselves to now be servile to the Jews and their God. But instead, the returned Jews worshipped the idols of Egypt, and married their women (<a href='B:150 9:1'>Ezr 9:1</a>). And thus Israel were ashamed and confounded in the future (cp. :17). So the essence of these things is reapplied to the conversion of the Gentiles in the last day.</p>


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<p>Most certainly You are a God who has hidden Yourself, God of Israel, the Saviour’- <a href='B:290 30:20'>Isa 30:20</a> describes the reestablished Kingdom as a time when Judah’s repentant eyes would "see" the God who had taught them through the sufferings of defeat and exile (see note there). Their eyes would no longer be blinded, they would see and perceive the ’hidden’ God who had tried to teach them through all their afflictions. Meaning will finally be attached to event, and the problem of evil resolved finally. God had as it were ’hidden’ Himself during the exile (<a href='B:290 45:15'>Isa 45:15</a>; <a href='B:400 3:4'>Mic 3:4</a>); but now He would be revealed to them. Just as Cain was exiled to the east of Eden (which I have suggested was the eretz promised to Abraham) and been hidden from God’s eyes in his exile (<a href='B:10 4:14'>Gen 4:14</a>; <a href='B:50 31:17-18'>Deu 31:17-18</a>; <a href='B:50 32:20'>Deu 32:20</a> s:w:), so with Judah. The hidden things belong to God and only some are now revealed to us, but in the day of exile’s end, all those things, the meaning attached to the events, will at last be revealed (<a href='B:50 29:29'>Deu 29:29</a> s:w:). Then there will be no need for Jeremiah’s Lamentations and struggles about the exile, all developed in the story of the suffering Job, who felt God hidden from him (s:w. <a href='B:220 3:23'>Job 3:23</a>; <a href='B:220 13:24'>Job 13:24</a>) just as God was to hide His face from Zion at the time of the Babylonian invasion (Jer 335) and exile (<a href='B:330 39:23-24'>Eze 39:23-24</a>). Therefore all human attempts to see the hidden God were doomed to failure, as Job was finally taught (<a href='B:220 34:29'>Job 34:29</a> s:w:). But the glorious truth of <a href='B:290 30:20'>Isa 30:20</a> is that finally, the Divine teacher will not be hidden any more and our eyes shall see Him and His ways, as Job did at the end (<a href='B:220 42:5'>Job 42:5</a>). And yet Isaiah and his family / school of prophets did look or see the hand of the God who was hiding Himself from Judah (s:w. <a href='B:290 8:17'>Isa 8:17</a>). At the restoration, there was to be no need for Judah to feel that their way was "hid from Yahweh" (<a href='B:290 40:27'>Isa 40:27</a> s:w:) any more, as it had been during the exile "for a little moment" when God hid His face (<a href='B:290 54:8'>Isa 54:8</a>). Their eyes would see / perceive. But tragically, the exiles didn’t; God reflected that "I hid me::. and he went on proudly in the way of his heart" (<a href='B:290 57:17'>Isa 57:17</a>). Their sins continued to hide His face from them (<a href='B:290 59:2'>Isa 59:2</a>; <a href='B:290 64:7'>Isa 64:7</a>). See on :19.</p>


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<p>They will be disappointed, yes, confounded, all of them. Those who are makers of idols will go into confusion together- LXX "All that are opposed to him shall be ashamed and confounded, and shall walk in shame: ye isles, keep a feast to me". This walking in shame is applied to the rejection at the last day of those who have refused the things of the Lord Jesus and trusted in the equivalent of "idols" in their generation (<a href='B:730 16:15'>Rev 16:15</a>). It was to be the makers of idols who were "confounded" (s:w. <a href='B:290 41:11'>Isa 41:11</a>; <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. See on :14.</p>


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<h4>Israel will be saved by Yahweh with an everlasting salvation- The "eternal age" of the Kingdom of peace could have come at that time, with the Messianic son of Isaiah as the father of that eternal age (see on <a href='B:290 9:6'>Isa 9:6</a>). But it didn’t. An eternal Messianic kingdom could then have been established; Judah were urged to repent and allow it to happen in <a href='B:290 26:4'>Isa 26:4</a>. And the same potential was there for the exiles who returned from Babylon (<a href='B:290 45:17'>Isa 45:17</a>; <a href='B:290 65:18'>Isa 65:18</a>). And the "father" of that could have been a Messianic figure who arose in Jerusalem. But these potentials have been reapplied and rescheduled to the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus to be established in Zion in the last days.</h4><p>You will not be disappointed nor confounded to ages everlasting- Or, "ashamed". See on :14,16. Yahweh had promised support for them if they returned to the land; He would preserve them on the way. Consider <a href='B:290 50:10'>Isa 50:10</a>: “Who is among you that feareth the LORD, that obeyeth the voice [s:w. Ezra 1 :1 re the proclamation of Cyrus] of his servant [i:e. Cyrus, <a href='B:290 45:1'>Isa 45:1</a>], that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the LORD, and stay upon his God”. Yet Ezra was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers to guard them on the journey only because he had earlier told the king that Yahweh would be with them (<a href='B:150 8:22'>Ezr 8:22</a>), as if he really did want the support but was ashamed to ask for it. He disallowed Isaiah’s prophesy that the restored Israel would never be ashamed [s:w. <a href='B:150 8:22'>Ezr 8:22</a>; <a href='B:150 9:6'>Ezr 9:6</a>] nor confounded (<a href='B:290 45:17'>Isa 45:17</a>; <a href='B:290 49:23'>Isa 49:23</a>; <a href='B:290 54:4'>Isa 54:4</a>). Nehemiah accepted such support when he came up from Babylon (<a href='B:160 2:9'>Neh 2:9</a>).</p><h4>The same Hebrew words for “ashamed [and] confounded” in :16,17 occur in <a href='B:150 9:6'>Ezr 9:6</a>, where as a result of Ezra realizing that Judah had married the local women and broken covenant with Yahweh, he admits: “I am ashamed and blush [s:w. ‘confounded’] to lift up my face to thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased:::.". The words of Isaiah 45 could have had their fulfilment in the time of Cyrus; the surrounding nations could have come and worshipped before Judah, and the whole earth quit their idols and look unto Yahweh as a just God and a saviour. But Judah would not. Judah in the new temple would not “defile” Yahweh’s Name any more (<a href='B:330 43:7-8'>Eze 43:7-8</a>); but they were lazy to keep the uncleanness laws, they did defile Yahweh by touching dead bodied and then offering the sacrifices (<a href='B:440 2:13-14'>Hag 2:13-14</a> s:w:), just as Israel previously had been defiled by touching the dead bodies of their kings and then offering sacrifices (<a href='B:330 43:7'>Eze 43:7</a>); but now, Judah thought they were above God’s law, and therefore did exactly the same things which had caused the temple to be destroyed in the first place. The promise that Yahweh would dwell in the new temple was conditional on them not touching dead bodies (<a href='B:330 43:9'>Eze 43:9</a>); but <a href='B:440 2:13'>Hag 2:13</a> makes it apparent that they did this very thing at the time of the restoration.</h4>


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<h4>For thus says Yahweh who created the heavens, the God who formed the earth and made it, who established it and didn’t create it in vain, who formed it to be inhabited: I am Yahweh; and there is no other- 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]. And we too can take the simple encouragement- that God has created His Kingdom, with all the careful planning involved, so that it should be inhabited. He is not playing hard to get, nor indifferent to the progress of His plans. He wants us to be there.</h4><h4>If "the earth" is ’the land’ of Israel and "the Heavens" refer to the temple (see <a href='B:110 8:30'>1Ki 8:30</a>; <a href='B:140 30:27'>2Ch 30:27</a>; <a href='B:230 20:2'>Psa 20:2</a>; <a href='B:230 20:6'>Psa 20:6</a>; <a href='B:230 11:4'>Psa 11:4</a>; <a href='B:650 7:26'>Heb 7:26</a>; <a href='B:100 15:15'>2Sa 15:15</a> etc:) then God is saying that if the temple and land remained uninhabited, His creation of them would be in vain- hence His plan of restoration. The references in Isaiah’s prophecies of the restoration to God being the creator of Heaven and earth would therefore be reminders that it was equally in His power to create the new Heavens and earth of the people of Israel/the temple.</h4>


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<p>I have not spoken in secret, in a place of the land of darkness. I didn’t say to the seed of Jacob, ‘Seek Me in vain’. I, Yahweh, speak righteousness. I declare things that are right- The idea of the first sentence may be that He had not spoken this word to the exiles in "the land of darkness", Babylon or ruined Judah, just for the sake of it. It was not "in vain", the prospect of the Kingdom was attainable. Perhaps this is God’s response to the complaint in :15 that He was hiding Himself. He is urging the exiles as He urges us- that His promise of eternal salvation is for real, He has promised it to us in "truth" ["right"] and for all our sin and dysfunction and separation from His ultimate perfection of holiness, His righteousness is not impugned by His wonderful offer to us.</p>


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<h4>Assemble yourselves and come. Draw near together, you who have escaped from the nations- The ’bringing / assembling’ and ’drawing near / gathering’ of the exiles (s:w. <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:&nbsp;The LXX and GNB suggest that the group in view are the minority of the peoples of the Babylonian empire who were to repent and turn to Yahweh: "people of the nations, all who survive the fall of the empire" (GNB). They were intended to join the repentant exiles in a restored, multiethnic Kingdom of God in Judah. This possibility of course didn’t happen, human impenitence was to such an extent, and so it looks forward to the final establishment of the Kingdom in the last days.</h4><h4>Those have no knowledge who carry the wood of their engraved image, and pray to a god that can’t save- Again idols are characterized by being unable to save; Yahweh’s ultimate salvation of man from death is what makes Him God.</h4>


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<h4>Declare and present it. Yes, let them take counsel together- This is legal language, inviting any opposed to God’s purpose with Jacob to present their hard evidence in court. But Isaiah’s lengthy prophecies of the restoration must be compared against the sad reality of what actually happened. The prophecies exude a wonderfully positive and joyful spirit, which contrasts with the defeatism of the returnees. And one cannot help but wonder whether we as individuals and therefore as a community have really lived the life of joy which the NT promises for those who truly believe. <a href='B:290 45:20-21'>Isa 45:20-21</a> is an example: “Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, ye that are escaped of the nations [i:e. Babylon and all the 127 provinces of Persia]:::Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together”. These are the very words used to describe how the local opposition ‘took counsel together’ to frustrate the work of the Jews (<a href='B:160 6:7'>Neh 6:7</a>). Yahweh is exultantly saying: ‘Let them do it::. let them get on with it, nothing can prosper against you and your work!’. But instead, the Jews took the opposition so seriously.</h4><h4>Who has shown this from ancient time? Who has declared it of old? Haven’t I, Yahweh? There is no other God besides Me, a just God and a Saviour; There is no one besides Me- Justice and salvation were not part of the idol worship systems or theologies. And those idols had no histories of prophetic statements and intentions:&nbsp;</h4>


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<h4>Look to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other- LXX "ye that come from the end of the earth", as if referring to the exiles returning from the boundaries of the eretz promised to Abraham. They were to look to Yahweh in repentance, "turn to Me" (LXX) in repentance; and if they looked, then the blindness of their eyes would be removed by God’s Spirit acting in their hearts, according to the promise of the new covenant. But they continued to look / turn to other gods, and so Yahweh’s face remained hidden from them because they were not looking to Him (s:w. <a href='B:50 31:18'>Deu 31:18</a>), turning or ’looking’ to Yahweh the back and not the face, so that He would remain hidden from them (:15; <a href='B:300 32:33'>Jer 32:33</a> s:w:).</h4><h4>The altar "Jehovah-Nissi" connected Yahweh personally with the pole / standard / ensign of Israel (<a href='B:20 17:15'>Exo 17:15</a>). Yet nissi is the Hebrew word used for the pole on which the brass serpent was lifted up, and for the standard pole which would lift up Christ. Somehow Yahweh Himself was essentially connected with the cross of Christ. “There is no God else beside; a just God and a Saviour (Jesus)::. look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth” (<a href='B:290 45:21-22'>Isa 45:21-22</a>) is evident allusion to the snake on the pole to which all Israel were bidden look and be saved. And yet that saving symbol of the crucified Jesus is in fact God Himself held up to all men.</h4>


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<h4>I have sworn by Myself, the word has gone out of My mouth in righteousness and will not return, that to Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall take an oath- The Divine hope was that the repentant exiles would enter the new covenant, and take an oath to Him. But they didn’t, and so these things are reinterpreted with reference to the work of the Lord Jesus, and believers bowing before Him. Romans 14 quotes these words about how the new Israel will come from all nations to the judgment seat of the Lord Jesus at the last day. There’s one thing which the sheer height of the Lord’s exaltation leads us to. "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him::. that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow::. and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord::. wherefore::. work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" (Php_2:9-12). These words are alluding to <a href='B:290 45:23-24'>Isa 45:23-24</a>: ":::unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. Surely, shall one say, in the Lord have I righteousness and strength". We all find humility difficult. But before the height of His exaltation, a height which came as a result of the depth of the degradation of the cross, we should bow our knees in an unfeigned humility and realization of our sinfulness, and thankful recognition of the fact that through Him we are counted righteous. We will be prostrated in the day of judgment before Him, and yet will be made to stand. We therefore ought not to judge our brother who will likewise be made to stand in that day- to his Master he stands or falls, not to us.</h4><h4>In Php_2:10, the Lord Jesus is said to have been given power over all beings in heaven, earth and the nether-world. The Romans understood the world to be divided into these three spheres of the cosmos. But this passage is based upon <a href='B:290 45:23'>Isa 45:23</a>, which says that God has total supremacy (see on :5-7)- and this has been granted to His Son. As I understand it, Paul is reasoning that if God is all powerful, and if that power has been given to the Lord Jesus, then whatever cosmology there is around, e:g. belief in a nether-world, well, in that case, Jesus has all power over that as well. The same argument applies to demons. If they exist, well the essence is that they are well and truly under the Lord’s control and aren’t essentially powerful. Paul doesn’t so much ridicule the idea of a nether-world, rather he takes the view, as Jesus did in His dealings with the demon issue, that God’s power is so great that their existence is effectively not an issue.</h4>


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<h4>They will say of Me, ‘There is righteousness and strength only in Yahweh’. Even to Him shall men come- These will be the thoughts of us each as we are bow before the judgment seat of the Lord Jesus, which is in view in :24. Then we shall appreciate as never before the meaning of imputed righteousness.</h4><h4>And all those who were incensed against Him shall be disappointed- 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 et up his office there. But at the last day, all the Lord’s enemies shall be ashamed ["disappointed"] in the shame of condemnation.</h4>


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<p>In Yahweh shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory- <a href='B:290 45:20-25'>Isa 45:20-25</a> calls for the Jews to return from Babylon and come unto Him in Zion; but the majority remained in Babylon, and so these words were delayed in fulfilment; Romans 14 quotes them about how the new Israel will come from all nations to the judgment seat of the Lord Jesus at the last day. But had Jewry returned from Babylon as they had been asked, they would have come to their Messiah there and then. "All the seed of Israel" suggests the ten tribes also were intended to return; but they too preferred their exile to restoring the Kingdom in Zion.</p>


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<h4>Bel bows down, Nebo stoops; their idols are on the animals, and on the livestock: the things that you carried about are made a load, a burden to the weary- This appears to be a vision of the gods of Babylon being removed from the city as the Persians advanced. Just as Merodach-Baladan packed his idols on boats, at the approach of Sennacherib. But as I have noted elsewhere, the fall of Babylon didn’t happen quite as predicted. Darius the Mede actually maintained the Babylonian gods; of whom Bel and Nebo were the popular ones; although "Bel" is the equivalent of Hebrew ’Baal’ and may be a generic name. And so the potential scenario presented elsewhere, of Babylon falling, being destroyed by the fire of Divine judgment Sodom-style, and the exiles returning to Judah- just didn’t come about. The various preconditions involving Judah’s repentance weren’t in place. And so the ’fall of Babylon’ prophecies will in essence, although maybe not in every detail, be fulfilled in the fall of latter day Babylon. And this is how we are to understand this picture of the gods of Babylon being put on animals, after being carried about in the various processions earlier. The weary burdened with idols are reapplied to all heavy burdened who can come to the Lord Jesus and be relieved (<a href='B:470 11:28'>Mat 11:28</a>).</h4><h4>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. Naturally such criticisms of Babylon and its gods would have been a very risky thing- for Babylon had shown grace to many Jews and they were doing well in rising up the social and economic ladder there. To speak of Babylon in the hostile way the prophets do was a brave and unpopular thing (Isaiah 13, 14, 21, 46; Jeremiah 50, 51; often in Zechariah). We know from Ezekiel 8, Jeremiah 44 and Zechariah 5 that many Jews had accepted the idols of their Babylonian conquerors, rather like Ahaz did after his defeat by Assyria (<a href='B:120 16:10'>2Ki 16:10</a>). The spirit of ridiculing the idolatry of Babylon whilst living in it, waiting the call to leave, is so relevant to modern Christians working, living and waiting in latter day Babylon.</h4>


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<p>They stoop, they bow down together; they could not deliver the burden, but themselves have been carried away into captivity- The idea as noted on :1 is that the idols were to be carried away out of danger; but now there is the picture of the idols having been captured and being now taken off into captivity. But as explained on :1, this isn’t what happened when Babylon fell to the Medes.</p>


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<p>Listen to Me, house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, that have been carried from their birth, that have been carried from the womb- The remnant of the whole house of Israel refers to the repentant remnant of both Judah and the ten tribes, who were intended to repent and return to Zion together, united by their experience of repentance, grace and forgiveness. The contrast is with how the idols / false gods had to be carried by their people and beasts (:1,2), but Yahweh the true God has carried His people. This is where mere religion and true spirituality are shown to be so different; religion often involves making ourselves feel good by supposedly doing something for God, whereas salvation by grace through faith is about accepting His carrying of us.</p>


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<h4>And even to old age I am He, and even to grey hairs will I carry you. I have made, and I will bear; yes, I will carry, and will deliver- An oft overlooked component of the promises to Abraham which are the core of the Gospel is that “I will be your God”. Land and eternal life in the future, blessings::. these are indeed wonderful. But the King of the Cosmos is my God. Oh how rich the promise. So often we read that God is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I take this to mean that He was there for them, through every moment, He was their God, He alone is without beginning and has immortality in Himself. This continuity in God over history is therefore an encouragement to us that He likewise is the continuous One in our lives too. Israel in captivity felt God had forgotten them; and so they are comforted that they are individuals “which have been borne by me from the belly, which have been carried from the womb: and even to old age I am he, and even to grey hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; yea, I will carry, and will deliver” (<a href='B:290 46:3-4'>Isa 46:3-4</a>). Note how God, who is presented as male, likens Himself to a woman here. As He carried us n the womb, so He will carry us when we are old and grey haired. True to human parenting experience, the baby is always the father’s little baby, even in grey hairs. And this wonderful comfort is so simply because “I am he”. This is an evident reference to God’s Name, YHWH. The mystery of the Name is partly because the declaration of it in <a href='B:20 3:6'>Exo 3:6</a> implies grammatically that He is, was, and shall be. &nbsp;This was intended to be a great comfort to Israel in Egypt, who again had felt that God was somehow distant, looking the other way, leaving them in their aloneness. The same Name, the promise of God’s&nbsp; abiding presence and purpose with us, provides comfort to every one of His people.</h4><h4>God is likening Himself to a woman who carries a child in her womb, then bears it, and then carries it as a baby, but still carries it when the child is an old man. Incidentally, this simile is proof enough that God is not somehow ’anti-women’. The God of all knowledge is aware of a fundamental psychological phenomena in all men; the fear, however passive and buried, of being without their mother; the fear of loneliness, the fear of eternal separation from the woman who bore and carried them. From the president to the happy village grandfather, this sense is there. Perhaps David appreciated this when he referred to a man weeping at his mother’s funeral (not his father’s) as the ultimate cameo of grieving and desolation of soul (<a href='B:230 35:14'>Psa 35:14</a>). And yet God says that He is in some ways the eternal mother, the one who bore and carried us in babyhood, but the One who will yet carry us when we are gray headed and once again unable to walk. Yet He is also the everlasting Father, through His Son (<a href='B:290 9:6'>Isa 9:6</a>). It’s a picture of exquisite beauty. Our relationship with God as the One who will never leave us is the only answer to what philosophers call ’the existential problem’; the awareness that has come to every thoughtful soul, the terror of being so alone as we get older, the dread of being without our human roots, of becoming the one to whom others (e:g. our children) look to as their background and root, whilst we ourselves have no tangible link with our past. This problem is defined by C:S. Lewis in The Inner Ring: "I believe that in all men’s lives at certain periods:::one of the most dominant elements is the desire to be inside the local Ring and the terror of being left outside":&nbsp; This horror of existential loneliness can only be met by our sure knowledge that we have a very personal relationship in the Kingdom of God with our Heavenly Father, who will never ever leave us, and will preserve us unto His eternal Kingdom.</h4>


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<p>To whom will you liken Me and make Me equal, and compare Me, that we may be alike?- This seems addressed to the idolaters within Judah, who were not denying Yahweh but making Him "equal" to the idols by claiming to worship Him through worshipping them.</p>


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<p>Some pour out gold from the bag, and weigh silver in the balance. They hire a goldsmith, and he makes it a god. They fall down- yes, they worship- The idea is that people pay in gold to a goldsmith, and he then makes that gold into a god, after keeping part of it for himself as wages. This explains the Divine cameraman zooming in on the handover of the gold pieces to the goldsmith. This recalls the picture in <a href='B:290 44:15-17'>Isa 44:15-17</a>, of a man cutting down a tree, using half for an idol and the other half for firewood. The purpose of presenting this bizarre picture was to enable the audience to perceive the utter foolishness of idolatry, although the person caught up in it can’t perceive it. And that is a feature of idolatry to this day.</p>


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<p>They bear it on the shoulder, they carry it, and set it in its place, and it stands, from its place it shall not move: yes, one may cry to it, yet it can not answer, nor save him out of his trouble- This sounds like the processions in Babylon where the idols were carried through the streets on the shoulders of men, and then placed in high places and worshipped. Clearly Isaiah 40-66 was addressed directly to the returning exiles who would’ve been familiar with this scene; Isaiah was prophesying all this after Hezekiah had sinned and the captivity had been prophesied in Isaiah 39. Isaiah has so many detailed allusions to Babylonian life and beliefs that it’s impossible to think that it was all written in Hezekiah’s time, with no reference to the Babylonians. We find the specific names of Babylonian idols (<a href='B:290 46:1-2'>Isa 46:1-2</a>), ceremonies and processions known only in Babylon (Isa 467), omens (<a href='B:290 44:25'>Isa 44:25</a>), magic and astrology (<a href='B:290 47:1-2'>Isa 47:1-2</a>; <a href='B:290 47:12-13'>Isa 47:12-13</a>). Time and again there is specific reference to leaving Babylon and returning to Judah (<a href='B:290 40:3-11'>Isa 40:3-11</a>; <a href='B:290 42:15-16'>Isa 42:15-16</a>; <a href='B:290 48:20-22'>Isa 48:20-22</a>; <a href='B:290 49:9-12'>Isa 49:9-12</a>; <a href='B:290 52:11-12'>Isa 52:11-12</a>).</p>


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<p>Remember this, and show yourselves men; bring it again to mind, you transgressors- LXX has this as a call to repentance from idolatry by the exiles in Babylon: "Remember ye these things, and groan: repent, ye that have gone astray, return in your heart". They were to “remember this” that they already knew, and “bring it again to mind” that God is really the great eternal, and His Name is as it is, and they should have had no part in the idol processions spoken of in :7.</p>


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<p>Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like Me- The exiled Jews ought to have had no part in the idol worship of Babylon spoken of in :7. They should have perceived that the magnitude of Yahweh made all other gods and idols of no significance. Our strength against idolatry in its modern forms is likewise found from appreciating the greatness of our God.</p>


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<p>Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done; saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure- The emphasis on this (e:g. also <a href='B:290 41:26'>Isa 41:26</a>) is understandable seeing that such a specific prophecy regarding the 70 years captivity was to be given and fulfilled. But 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>Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man of My counsel from a far country; yes, I have spoken, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed, I will also do it- 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 clearly have 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 Lydiansbefore 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>. See on :7. Cyrus failed to live up to his potential (see on <a href='B:290 45:4-5'>Isa 45:4-5</a>) and so the prophecies came to be applied to the Lord Jesus, who was far more fully "the word made flesh" (<a href='B:500 1:14'>Joh 1:14</a>), which is perhaps the idea of "the man of My counsel", the man who would fulfill God’s purposes and prophetic word in totality.</p>


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<p>Listen to Me, you stout-hearted, who are far from righteousness- Despite this laboured and repeated assurance, the exiles were stout hearted, which is how they are described in <a href='B:330 2:4'>Eze 2:4</a>. 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 <a href='B:290 49:24'>Isa 49:24</a>. It was the invaders of Zion who were the stout-hearted who were to be destroyed (s:w. <a href='B:230 76:5'>Psa 76:5</a>); the hard hearted amongst God’s people were and are to&nbsp; be destroyed at the same time as them, facing the same judgment for having the same heart.</p>


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<h4>I bring near My righteousness, it shall not be far off, and My salvation shall not wait; and I will place salvation in Zion for Israel My glory- This connects back to <a href='B:290 5:19'>Isa 5:19</a>, where we read that the Jews mocked Isaiah and his God, saying "Let Him make speed, let Him hasten His work, that we may see it; and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come, that we may know it!". There was clearly opposition to Isaiah’s prophecies. The idea of judgment coming would have been mocked in these kinds of words. But we wonder whether this is really a verbatim quotation from these people; or whether God read their thoughts as effectively saying this, and as being the real implication of their positions. For there is no evidence that Judah abandoned Yahweh; rather did they claim obedience and loyalty to Him, although they claimed the same about their idols whom they worshipped in His Name. But God was not deaf to their words, or the implications of their thoughts and actions. He in fact heard their mocking ’prayer’, because He here says that He will "come near" (s:w:) in fulfilment of His counsel or words.</h4><h4>But, perhaps intentionally, these words can be read another way. This idea of bringing salvation near is in the context of the hard hearted Jews being "far" from Yahweh’s righteousness. It’s as if God wishes to somehow force through His plan of saving them, bringing near the salvation which they pushed far from them. But even then, they refused it. He has the same enthusiasm for human salvation today.</h4>


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<p>Come down and sit in the dust, virgin daughter of Babylon; sit on the ground without a throne, daughter of the Chaldeans: for you shall no more be called tender and delicate- The Ras Shamra texts include a section on the fall and death of Baal, another form of the Babylonian "Bel" of <a href='B:290 46:1'>Isa 46:1</a>. Although written in Ugaritic, this section has amazing similarities with the poem of Isaiah 14 about the fall of Babylon – e:g. “The death of Baal” includes lines such as “From the throne on which he sits::. how hath Baal come down, how hath the mighty been cast down!”. Isaiah’s message was therefore: ‘Forget those stories about Baal being cast down; what’s relevant for us is that mighty Babylon, which tempts us to trust in her rather than Yahweh God of Israel, is to be cast down, let’s apply the language of Baal’s fall to the kingdoms of this world which we know and liveamongst’. Another such example is to be found in <a href='B:290 47:1'>Isa 47:1</a>: “Come down and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon; sit on the ground without a throne”. This is almost quoting [albeit through translation] from the ‘Death of Baal’ poem.</p>


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<p>Take the millstones, and grind meal; remove your veil, strip off the train, uncover the leg, pass through the rivers- As I have noted elsewhere (see on <a href='B:290 46:1'>Isa 46:1</a>), the fall of Babylon didn’t happen quite as predicted. Darius the Mede actually maintained the Babylonian gods; of whom Bel and Nebo were the popular ones; although "Bel" is the equivalent of Hebrew ’Baal’ and may be a generic name. Many within Babylon supported him, and the Babylonians didn’t go into captivity across "the rivers", having to lift up their skirts and bare their legs to cross them. And so the potential scenario presented elsewhere, of Babylon falling, being destroyed by the fire of Divine judgment Sodom-style, and the exiles returning to Judah- just didn’t come about. The various preconditions involving Judah’s repentance weren’t in place. And so the ’fall of Babylon’ prophecies will in essence, although maybe not in every detail, be fulfilled in the fall of latter day Babylon. And this is how we are to understand this picture of Babylon being led into captivity.</p>


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<p>Your nakedness shall be uncovered, yes, your shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance, and will spare no man- See on :2. This scenario didn’t totally come about when Babylon fell to the Medes. The population wasn’t destroyed, there was very little bloodshed. But the language of Babylon’s judgment here and in :2 is very similar to that of Israel’s judgment. The idea is that what Babylon did to Judah was to be done to them, finally. This is the theme of Revelation, where the judgments upon Israel are related to the final judgments upon the beast system which has judged her.</p>


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<h4>Our Redeemer, Yahweh of Armies is His name, is the Holy One of Israel- The sad thing is that the redemption of Israel made possible through the fall of Babylon wasn’t accepted by them; and they remained in exile, for the most part. 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.</h4><h4>LXX "Thy deliverer is the Lord of hosts, the Holy One of Israel is his name" would suggest that Yahweh was ready to deliver Babylon- this therefore could be read as a call for her to repent, which is also in view in <a href='B:300 51:9'>Jer 51:9</a>.</h4>


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<p>Sit in silence, and go into darkness, daughter of the Chaldeans; for you shall no more be called the mistress of kingdoms- Darkness is the imagery of condemnation. "Mistress" implies she is a whore awaiting judgment. Again, the language of Judah’s judgment, ’sitting in silence’, is applied now to Babylon (<a href='B:310 2:10'>Lam 2:10</a>; <a href='B:310 3:28'>Lam 3:28</a>). But the mistress of kingdoms was to be destroyed as Sodom was (<a href='B:290 13:19'>Isa 13:19</a>); and that didn’t happen at the fall of Babylon to the Medes. This, as noted on <a href='B:290 46:1'>Isa 46:1</a>, was a potential scenario that was delayed until the latter day fall of Babylon the whore as described in Revelation.</p>


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<p>I was angry with My people, I profaned My inheritance, and gave them into your hand: you showed them no mercy; on the aged you have very heavily laid your yoke- Nebuchadnezzar was God’s servant. Babylon were not condemned for executing God’s judgments upon Judah; but for their subsequent bloodlust and showing no mercy, and abusing those such as the elderly who were not the primary objects of the Divine judgment. This abuse of the elderly was particularly noted by God (<a href='B:310 4:16'>Lam 4:16</a>; <a href='B:310 5:12'>Lam 5:12</a>). It was their subsequent pride and pretending to Yahweh (:7) which were the reasons for judgment falling upon them.</p>


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<p>You said, ‘I shall be a mistress forever;’ so that you did not lay these things to your heart, nor did you remember the latter end of it- This also is the criticism made of Judah (<a href='B:460 2:2'>Mal 2:2</a>). Babylon was intended to reflect and repent; <a href='B:300 51:9'>Jer 51:9</a> suggests Babylon was only judged because she was offered a chance to repent which she refused. I noted on <a href='B:290 46:1'>Isa 46:1</a> that her fall to the Medes was not executed with the full extent of the judgments then pronounced upon her; and maybe that was because some of them did repent.</p>


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<h4>Now therefore hear this, you who are given to pleasures, who sit securely, who say in your heart, ‘I am, and there is none else besides me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children:’- The implication is that Babylon would hear the prophecies of her destruction and mock them; and apply the very language of Isaiah about Yahweh "I am, and there is none else" to themselves (<a href='B:290 45:6'>Isa 45:6</a>).</h4><h4>We bear the Name of Yahweh / Jehovah, by reason of our baptism into it. His Name is declared as His character- merciful, truthful, judging sin, patient etc. (<a href='B:20 34:5-7'>Exo 34:5-7</a>). 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.</h4>


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<p>but these two things shall come to you in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood; in their full measure shall they come on you, in the multitude of your sorceries, and the great abundance of your enchantments- It could be argued that because the level of destruction spoken of here didn’t happen to the people and city of Babylon when the Medes took it, therefore the prophecies apply to the king and royal family of Babylon, who were slain by Darius the Mede. The queen was therefore left literally a widow. But even that was but a primary fulfilment; the final fulfilment would be in the destruction of the sorceries of latter day Babylon (<a href='B:730 18:23'>Rev 18:23</a>). But even that will only be because she refuses the invitation to repent of them (<a href='B:730 9:21'>Rev 9:21</a>).</p>


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<h4>For you have trusted in your wickedness; you have said, ‘No one sees me’; your wisdom and your knowledge, it has perverted you, and you have said in your heart- The condemnation of Babylon’s wisdom and knowledge alludes to the contrast between the wisdom of Daniel in the court of Babylon compared to the false knowledge of Babylon’s wise men. God could have condemned Babylon for a whole host of sinful actions; but His essential, repeated reason was because of how they spoke in their hearts (<a href='B:290 47:10'>Isa 47:10</a>; <a href='B:430 2:15'>Zep 2:15</a>; <a href='B:730 18:17'>Rev 18:17</a>). And He gave the same reason for His condemnation of Tyre (<a href='B:330 28:2'>Eze 28:2</a>) and Edom (<a href='B:380 1:3'>Oba 1:3</a>).</h4><h4>I am, and there is none else besides me’- Babylon acted as she did because she reasoned that “None seeth me:::I am, and there is none else beside me” (<a href='B:290 47:10'>Isa 47:10</a> RV). They appropriated the language of God to themselves, they played God in that they thought their ways were unseen by any higher power. And we all have a terrible, frightening tendency to do this.</h4>


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<h4>Therefore evil will come on you; you won’t know when it dawns: and mischief will fall on you; you will not be able to put it away: and desolation shall come on you suddenly, which you don’t know- This sudden desolation refers only primarily to the sudden fall of Babylon to Darius as described in Daniel 5. As explained on <a href='B:290 46:1'>Isa 46:1</a>, the city and people of Babylon weren’t suddenly destroyed. According to <a href='B:300 51:43'>Jer 51:43</a>, the king was already deeply concerned at the advance of the Medes and was feeble at the news of the enemy advance. Hence we should give due weight to the discovery by Layard of inscriptions which say that Babylon opened her own gates in surrender. There was much support for Darius the Mede within Babylon; both the Babylonian Chronicles and the Cyrus Cylinder describe Babylon being taken "without battle". So the main fulfilment of this must yet be future.</h4><h4>"Mischief" is literally ’wretchedness’. Paul in <a href='B:520 7:24'>Rom 7:24</a> felt “wretched” (s:w. LXX). The Greek word is elsewhere used about the feelings of the rejected before God’s judgment (<a href='B:660 5:1'>Jas 5:1</a>; <a href='B:730 3:17'>Rev 3:17</a>), likewise in the LXX (<a href='B:290 47:11'>Isa 47:11</a>; <a href='B:400 2:4'>Mic 2:4</a>; <a href='B:360 1:15'>Joe 1:15</a>; <a href='B:430 1:15'>Zep 1:15</a>). Paul feels as if he is even now standing before the judgment seat of God, and is condemned- yet suddenly he rejoices that he is in fact amazingly saved by Christ. This is the very theme of the earlier sections of Romans- that we are suddenly declared right, justified, as we stand condemned in the dock before God. This lends weight to the suggestion that Romans 7 is indeed autobiographical of Paul, declaring the process of his own conversion, yet telling the story, as it were, in terms which present him as personifying every Jew under the Law.</h4>


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<p>Stand now with your enchantments, and with the multitude of your sorceries in which you have laboured from your youth; if so be you shall be able to profit, if so be you may prevail!- See on :13. "Laboured" is literally "wearied", as AV. The way of the flesh is a weariness, both for Babylon and the unfaithful within Judah (<a href='B:290 43:22'>Isa 43:22</a>).</p>


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<p>You are wearied in the multitude of your counsellors: let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up and save you from the things that shall come on you- Babylon ought to have learnt from the humiliation of her sorceries and wise men before the Divine wisdom of Daniel. We too see God working in the same way today; lessons are taught to people which they don’t learn, and therefore harder judgment comes.</p>


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<p>Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame: it shall not be a coal to warm at, nor a fire to sit before- The fire would burn so totally that not a live coal would be left (as in <a href='B:290 30:14'>Isa 30:14</a>). This suggests a supernatural cataclysm bursting upon Babylon, after the pattern of Sodom’s destruction (<a href='B:290 13:19'>Isa 13:19</a>). But as explained on :1, this didn’t happen when the Medes took Babylon. The prophecy was reapplied to the final fall of Babylon described in Revelation.</p>


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<p>Thus shall the things be to you in which you have laboured: those who have trafficked with you from your youth shall wander each one to his place; there shall be none to save you- The idea is that the people from the nations within the Babylonian empire would leave Babylon and return home- including the Jews. But this didn’t happen; see on <a href='B:290 46:1'>Isa 46:1</a>. The Jews were intended to flee Babylon before she fell (<a href='B:290 48:20'>Isa 48:20</a>), but they didn’t; and so God put another plan into operation, whereby the fall of Babylon was to lead to all the foreigners there, including the Jews, thereby being freed to return to their ancestral homelands. But still the Jews remained, as the book of Esther testifies. God tried then and tries now, by all means, to bring His chosen people to His Kingdom. Human resistance to His efforts is tragic. He must have pleasure in we weak sinners who have at least said "Yes" to His plans.</p>


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<p>Hear this, house of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel, and have come forth out of the waters of Judah; who swear by the name of Yahweh, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth nor in righteousness- The exiles did not reject Yahweh, but as explained on :5, they were heavily involved in idolatry as well, apparently justifying this as a form of Yahweh worship. They called themselves by the name of Israel and swore by the name of Yahweh, and identified themselves as the people of Zion (:2). The emphasis is upon their naming of themselves, whereas God had wanted to place His Name upon them; see on <a href='B:290 44:5'>Isa 44:5</a>. And so we have here a powerful warning to nominal Christians, who use the culture and nomenclature of the true faith and yet whose hearts may be far from it.</p>


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<p>(for they call themselves of the holy city, and rest themselves on the God of Israel; Yahweh of Armies is His name)- As so often, form had dominated over content. As explained on :1, the exiles were very culturally loyal to Zion and proclaimed their "rest" or trust in Israel’s God; and yet as explained on :5, they were heavily involved in idolatry as well, apparently justifying this as a form of Yahweh worship. And they didn’t want to return to Zion and reestablish Yahweh’s Kingdom. And so He reminds them that He, the God of Israel, is Yahweh of Armies. His unlimited power articulated through His Angelic hosts could actually bring about in practice the restoration of the Kingdom.</p>


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<p>I have declared the former things from of old; yes, they went forth out of My mouth, and I showed them: suddenly I did them, and they happened- This sudden action of God may refer to the sudden fall of Babylon described in Isaiah 47. See on :5. This is being cited as an encouragement to the exiles to see the powerful hand of their God in human history, to realize this was in fulfilment of His prophetic program, and they could take it further. His prophetic words had come out of His mouth; this was the intimacy achieved in the Divine-human encounter through the words of inspired prophets. "The words of the prophets are written on the subway wall", read en passant, heard, treated as ordinary and incidental::. but the wonder of Divine inspiration, the fact these words and ideas dropped from the mouth of God was overlooked then as it is now.</p>


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<p>Because I knew that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew, and your brow brass- This hard hearted attitude of the Jews is commented upon by Ezekiel, who lived amongst these Jewish exiles in Babylon. God took into account their skepticism and hard hearts, and had therefore made amazing prophecies ahead of time, predicting Cyrus by name 150 years before (:5). We see here God’s earnest desire to convince even the hard hearted, and not to just turn away from them if they rejected Him, but to construct His purpose ("project" may be a better word) in order to somehow still incorporate them within His salvation purpose. It’s similar to how He mapped out the path of Israel through the wilderness lest they see war and be discouraged&nbsp; (<a href='B:20 13:17'>Exo 13:17</a>). He could have justifiably reasoned that what they had seen in the plagues and at the Red Sea ought to have been enough to motivate anyone to follow Him for the rest of their lives. But He was and is sensitive to our sins and unjustifiable weaknesses; and we should be likewise to others.</p>


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<p>Therefore I have declared it in advance to you from of old; before it came to pass I showed it to you; lest you should say, ‘My idol has done them, and my engraved image, and my molten image, has commanded them’- See on :4. This is a tragic reflection of the deep seated belief in idols amongst the exiles. It took some generations for them to quit idolatry, and I have noted throughout the book of Esther the extent of idolatry amongst the Jewish exiles. Ezekiel’s ministry was to the exiles already in Babylon, and he frequently condemns their idolatry. It seems that the decree of Cyrus for the restoration and the "sudden" fall of Babylon (:3) were ascribed by the Jews to their idols. Hence the repeated emphasis that God had predicted these things, and even named Cyrus, well in advance. He and His prophetic word were to be given the credit, and not the idols.</p>


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<p>You have heard it; see all this; and you, will you not declare it? I have shown you new things from this time, even hidden things, which you have not known- LXX "Ye have heard all this, but ye have not known: yet I have made known to thee the new things from henceforth, which are coming to pass". As explained on :5, the exiles knew the prophetic words of Isaiah about the fall of Babylon and the decree of Cyrus and the restoration; but they attributed these events to their idols. They had heard but not known God’s word in their hearts. And this is the challenge to all Bible readers; as to whether we are just hearing or reading God’s word on a surface level, or whether we really know these things in the Hebraic sense of ’knowing’.</p>


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<p>They are created now, and not from of old; and before this day you didn’t hear them; lest you should say, ‘Behold, I knew them’- see on <a href='B:560 1:9-10'>Eph 1:9-10</a>. LXX "say not thou, Yea, I know them". Their attitude to the prophecies was that ’Sure, we know all that stuff’. But it was surface level reading and hearing; they refused to perceive the wonderful reality, that the events connected with Cyrus, the fall of Babylon and the decree for restoration had all been foretold and were all part of Yahweh’s saving purpose. As noted on :3, "The words of the prophets are written on the subway wall", read en passant, heard, treated as ordinary and incidental::. but the wonder of Divine inspiration, the fact these words and ideas dropped from the mouth of God was overlooked then as it is now.</p>


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<h4>Yes, you didn’t hear; yes, you didn’t know; yes, from of old your ear was not opened- Their deafness to the real import of the prophetic word (see on :5-7) was their own fault, but they were confirmed in this by not having their ears and eyes opened by God. And yet He was willing and eager to open their ears (see on <a href='B:290 42:18'>Isa 42:18</a>; <a href='B:290 43:8'>Isa 43:8</a>). But they didn’t hear or know as intended because they didn’t want to; they were unwilling for their narrative of life and self-identity in the prosperity of Babylon and Persia to be so radically interrupted.</h4><h4>For I knew that you dealt very treacherously, and were called a transgressor from the womb- The allusion is to the naming of Jacob from the womb. He was a heel-catcher, and treacherous. Their treachery is described in the word used of Babylon and Assyria’s treachery against them (<a href='B:290 33:1'>Isa 33:1</a>; <a href='B:310 1:2'>Lam 1:2</a>). And it is used of their marital unfaithfulness against Yahweh (<a href='B:300 3:11'>Jer 3:11</a>; <a href='B:300 3:20'>Jer 3:20</a>; <a href='B:300 5:11'>Jer 5:11</a>). Knowing that this is how they would be, Yahweh had still entered a relationship with them, exactly as Hosea did with the unfaithful Gomer. Hosea’s relationship with her reflected that of God with an Israel who likewise were "treacherous" to Him (<a href='B:350 5:7'>Hos 5:7</a>; <a href='B:350 6:7'>Hos 6:7</a> s:w:). His foreknowledge of their sins was thereby an even greater display of His passionate love, hope and grace toward His people.</h4>


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<h4>For My name’s sake will I defer My anger, and for the sake of My praise will I refrain for you, that I not cut you off- "Cut off" is the word used of how 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>). But the Jews then cut down cedars and made idols from them (<a href='B:290 44:14'>Isa 44:14</a> s:w:), acting like the Babylonians, and ignoring the great grace shown in Yahweh’s averting or deferring the threatened Assyrian destruction of the temple by cutting down its cedars. See on <a href='B:290 48:9'>Isa 48:9</a>. But by not immediately judging His people for their unfaithfulness to Him (see on :8), God’s grace as it were earns yet more praise for Him; from us, the spiritually discerning.</h4><p>Even though so classically undeserving, Israel were saved "for His Name’s sake" (<a href='B:230 106:8'>Psa 106:8</a>; <a href='B:330 20:9'>Eze 20:9</a>; <a href='B:330 36:22'>Eze 36:22</a> etc:)- and the same applies to the New Israel, baptized into the same saving Name of grace. They were not punished according to their sins for the Name’s sake which they carried, and so will it be with us (<a href='B:290 48:9'>Isa 48:9</a>)- but we have to treat others baptized into the same covering Name in this same way as we are treated!</p><h4>The usage of the idea of restraining anger, like the use of the terms ’remembering’ and ’forgetting’, suggests that God is so fully willing to enter into our kind of time; for a Being cannot forget and remember simultaneously, an element of time is involved. Likewise at times we read of God being slow to anger (<a href='B:20 34:6'>Exo 34:6</a>), at others, of Him not restraining His anger, or restraining it (<a href='B:230 78:38'>Psa 78:38</a>; <a href='B:290 48:9'>Isa 48:9</a>; <a href='B:310 2:8'>Lam 2:8</a>; <a href='B:330 20:22'>Eze 20:22</a>), and holding His peace (<a href='B:290 57:11'>Isa 57:11</a>; <a href='B:230 50:21'>Psa 50:21</a>), and being provoked to anger by the bad behaviour of His covenant people (<a href='B:50 32:21'>Deu 32:21</a>; <a href='B:230 78:58'>Psa 78:58</a>; <a href='B:290 65:3'>Isa 65:3</a>; <a href='B:300 8:19'>Jer 8:19</a>). God clearly has emotions of a kind which are not unrelated to the emotions we experience, as beings made in His image. But those emotions involve a time factor in order to be emotions. We read of the anger of God "for a moment" (<a href='B:230 30:5'>Psa 30:5</a>; <a href='B:290 54:7-8'>Isa 54:7-8</a>), and of His wrath coming and going, leaving Him "calm" and no longer angry (<a href='B:330 16:42'>Eze 16:42</a>). When we sin, we provoke God to anger- i:e. at a point in time, God sees our sin, and becomes angry. This is attested many times in Scripture. But it’s meaningless if God is somehow outside of our time and emotions.</h4>


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<p>Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction- LXX "I have rescued thee from the furnace of affliction", just as Daniel’s friends had been. They were representative of all the exiles. But despite that ’rescue’, they refused to leave Persia. Nor would they perceive their prosperity in Babylon / Persia as in fact a furnace, a living out of condemnation. They chose for the most part to remain in it. The idea may be that despite the refining fire of the affliction of exile, they had still not become as silver; the dross was not removed. This is the tragedy of Israel’s long history; so much fire, but the dross still held on to, and not removed. And it is so in the lives of so many associated with the new Israel.</p>


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<h4>For My own sake, for My own sake, will I do it; for how should My name be profaned? I will not give My glory to another- We sense here the struggle within God, which we see too throughout Hosea, especially in <a href='B:350 11:8'>Hos 11:8</a>. They had been unfaithful and treacherous to Him, and His anger was kindled (:8,9); they needed to be judged. But He had refrained the expression of that anger (:9). On one hand, He cannot let His Name be profaned; but on the other, He will not give His glory to another. This conflict is at the very heart of His being, for His "own sake". The fact the pole of His grace and mercy emerges stronger than the pole of His anger and judgment is not to say that He is simply soft hearted. That triumph of mercy over judgment is the result of real conflict and tension within the heart of God Himself, at the very core of His character.</h4><h4>God will not let His Name be polluted by His people (<a href='B:290 48:11'>Isa 48:11</a>; <a href='B:330 20:9'>Eze 20:9</a>). But God polluted His people (<a href='B:290 47:6'>Isa 47:6</a>). They did pollute His Name (<a href='B:300 34:16'>Jer 34:16</a>; <a href='B:460 1:7'>Mal 1:7</a>). God invites us to see His efforts to stop His Name being polluted as somehow defeated by the extent of Israel’s pollutions. This theme comes out clearly in Ezekiel: they polluted Him, but He strove lest His Name should be polluted. Here is the extent of freewill which God gives man to sin- and also the extent of the hopefulness of God. It’s as if He didn’t imagine they would pollute Him as much as they did.</h4>


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<p>Listen to Me, O Jacob, and Israel My called: I am He; I am the first, I also am the last- 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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<h4>Yes, My hand has laid the foundation of the earth, and My right hand has spread out the heavens: when I call to them, they stand up together- 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 theydidn’t have, treating them as persons whom they were not.</h4><h4>In the same context of Babylon’s apparent might being brought down by God’s hand, God reasoned that He would perform His will against Babylon, and this should be believed because His hand had created the heavens and earth (<a href='B:290 48:13-14'>Isa 48:13-14</a>). Likewise He taught Job the futility of having such metaphysical doubts about Him, of the joy there is all around us in creation regardless of our personal suffering…through an exposition of His power as creator. All this is why the disciples were inspired to faith that their prayers for deliverance would be answered by the recollection of the fact that God has created all things and therefore nothing is too hard for Him (<a href='B:510 4:24'>Act 4:24</a> RV).</h4>


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<p>Assemble yourselves all of you, and hear; who among them has declared these things? He whom Yahweh loves shall perform His will on Babylon, and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans- 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. 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. “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>). World geopolitics are manipulated for the sake of God’s people. And yet we can refuse to participate in the program, as the exiles did. 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>. But "Israel would not". I explained on <a href='B:290 46:1'>Isa 46:1</a> and <a href='B:290 47:11'>Isa 47:11</a> that Cyrus did not particularly destroy "the Chaldeans" as envisaged in these prophecies. He did not respond to Yahweh’s love and refused to "know Him". And so these things are more fully to be realized in the fall of latter day Babylon at the hand of the Son of God’s love, the Lord Jesus.</p>


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<p>I, even I, have spoken; yes, I have called him; I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous- The Jews of Isaiah’s day would have had big problems with the idea of a pagan king like Cyrus becoming&nbsp; the King of Israel and being Yahweh’s special “servant” and even Messiah; see on <a href='B:290 45:1'>Isa 45:1</a>. Folk have the same problem and resistance to the idea today. But passages like <a href='B:290 45:9-13'>Isa 45:9-13</a>, <a href='B:290 48:14-16'>Isa 48:14-16</a> and much of the material that follows the servant songs, are in fact seeking to answer objections to this- e:g. by saying that God is the potter and men are mere clay, and He will raise up precisely whom He wishes- even pagan Cyrus- to be His man, the arm of His salvation, at least potentially. His way was made prosperous, potentially; the "way" to the restored Zion of Isaiah 40 had been potentially prepared.</p>


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<p>Come near to Me and hear this: ‘From the beginning I have not spoken in secret; from the time that it was, there am I’. Now the Lord Yahweh has sent me, with His Spirit- 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; his prophetic word about Cyrus and the restoration was published and not spoken in secret, and he was sent in the power of the Spirit to authenticate his message. And in Isaiah, 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>); hence GNB "Now the Sovereign LORD has given me his power and sent me". 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>


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<h4>Thus says Yahweh, your Redeemer, the Holy One 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.</h4><h4>I am Yahweh your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you by the way that you should go- LXX "I have shewn thee how thou shouldest find the way wherein thou shouldest walk". The way to Zion had been prepared (see on Isaiah 40), but they had to walk in it. They were being led in that way, potentially, just as many are today- but they refused to walk in it. The idols and the Gentile nations amongst whom they lived would not "profit" them (s:w. <a href='B:290 30:5-6'>Isa 30:5-6</a>; <a href='B:290 44:9-10'>Isa 44:9-10</a>); but as the book of Esther makes clear, they were profiting well, apparently, from remaining amongst them. But the only real "profit" would be if they quit all that and returned to Zion. But they saw no "profit" in being forgiven and restored as God’s people (s:w. <a href='B:220 35:3'>Job 35:3</a>).</h4>


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<h4>Oh that you had listened to My commandments! then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea- This was the potential possible if they had repented and returned to Judah:&nbsp; The promises to Abraham (:19) and the coming of the Messianic seed of Abraham could have been fulfilled; but because Israel chose to be wicked, there was no such peace: “There is no peace… unto the wicked” (:22).</h4><h4>Because of His capacity to imagine, to see possible futures, God feels rejected both by His children and by His wife at the same time. Hence the poignancy behind His words of regret here, seeing what could have been. Likewise "Oh that they would have a mind such as this always" (<a href='B:50 5:29'>Deu 5:29</a>), "O Israel, if you would but listen to Me"(<a href='B:230 81:8'>Psa 81:8</a>; <a href='B:230 81:13'>Psa 81:13</a>). It’s as if He could see the potentially happy future which they could’ve had stretching out before Him.</h4>


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<p>your seed also had been as the sand, and the offspring of your body like its grains: his name would not be cut off nor destroyed from before Me- The promises to Abraham and the coming of the Messianic seed of Abraham could have been fulfilled then, had they repented (:18). The offspring of their body could have been as sand grains; they really could have personally been as Abraham. Likewise for us, the receipt of the promises to Abraham means that we stand absolutely with him (<a href='B:550 3:27-29'>Gal 3:27-29</a>). But the LXX reads as if despite their refusal of these things, all the same God would not totally reject them: "Neither now shalt thou by any means be utterly destroyed, neither shall thy name perish before me".</p>


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<h4>Go forth from Babylon, flee from the Chaldeans; with a voice of singing declare, tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth: say, ‘Yahweh has redeemed His servant Jacob’- The idea in <a href='B:290 47:15'>Isa 47:15</a> was that the people from the nations within the Babylonian empire would leave Babylon and return home- including the Jews. But this didn’t happen; see on <a href='B:290 46:1'>Isa 46:1</a>. The idea here is that the Jews were intended to flee Babylon before she fell, but they didn’t; and so God put another plan into operation, whereby the fall of Babylon was to lead to all the foreigners there, including the Jews, thereby being freed to return to their ancestral homelands. But still the Jews remained, as the book of Esther testifies. God tried then and tries now, by all means, to bring His chosen people to His Kingdom. Human resistance to His efforts is tragic. He must have pleasure in we weak sinners who have at least said "Yes" to His plans.</h4><p>“Come out from among them and be separate” (<a href='B:540 6:17'>2Co 6:17</a>) is picking up the language of <a href='B:290 48:20'>Isa 48:20</a>; <a href='B:290 52:11'>Isa 52:11</a>; <a href='B:300 50:8'>Jer 50:8</a>; <a href='B:450 2:7'>Zec 2:7</a> concerning the return of the exiles from Babylon. The edict of Cyrus for the Jews to return to the land was reapplied to God’s command to us to leave the spirit of Babylon, the Gentile world, and go up to do His work. The returned exiles are us. God told His people to flee from Babylon, to come out of her and return to His land and Kingdom (<a href='B:290 48:20'>Isa 48:20</a>; <a href='B:290 52:7'>Isa 52:7</a>; <a href='B:300 50:8'>Jer 50:8</a>; <a href='B:450 2:7'>Zec 2:7</a>). Babylon offered them a secure life, wealth, a society which accepted them (<a href='B:190 8:17'>Est 8:17</a>; <a href='B:190 10:3'>Est 10:3</a>), houses which they had built for themselves (<a href='B:300 29:5'>Jer 29:5</a>). And they were asked to leave all this, and travel the uncertain wilderness road to the ruins of Israel. They are cited in the NT as types of us in our exit from this world (<a href='B:540 6:17'>2Co 6:17</a>; <a href='B:730 18:4'>Rev 18:4</a>). Those who decided to obey God’s command and leave Babylon were confirmed in this by God: He raised up their spirit to want to return and re-build Jerusalem, and He touched the heart of Cyrus to make decrees which greatly helped them to do this (<a href='B:150 1:2-5'>Ezr 1:2-5</a>). And so the same Lord God of Israel is waiting to confirm us in our every act of separation from the kingdoms of this world, great or small; and He waits not only to receive us, but to be a Father unto us, and to make us His sons and daughters (<a href='B:540 6:18'>2Co 6:18</a>).</p><h4>The command to flee Babylon must be compared with <a href='B:290 52:12'>Isa 52:12</a>: "For you shall not go out in haste, neither shall you go by flight: for Yahweh will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your vanguard". Although the exodus from Egypt was in many ways a pattern for the exiles to leave Babylon, in distinction from then, they would not "go out in haste" (s:w. <a href='B:50 16:3'>Deu 16:3</a>). They would not be persecuted in Babylon, leading them to flee. Rather they were to "flee" from Babylon spiritually (<a href='B:290 48:20'>Isa 48:20</a>) of their own volition and desire.</h4>


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<h4>They didn’t thirst when He led them through the deserts; He caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them; He split the rock also, and the waters gushed out- Just as everything had been provided for them when they left Egypt, so they need not worry about the logistics of returning to Judah. The practical issues which loom in the minds of those confronted with the Gospel of the Kingdom will all likewise be dealt with by the God who desperately wants us to say "yes". But the exiles generally said "no", and so these things are reapplied and reinterpreted to&nbsp; new Israel who say "Yes" to the invitation to participate in the restored Kingdom of God in Judah. The Lord Jesus spoke of how out of Him would come "living water", not still well water, but bubbling water fresh from a fountain (<a href='B:500 4:11'>Joh 4:11</a>; <a href='B:500 7:38'>Joh 7:38</a>). And He invites His people to drink of it. It was this kind of water that bubbled out of the smitten rock. <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> describe it with a variety of words: gushing, bursting, water running down like a high mountain stream, "flowed abundantly"::. as if the fountains of deep hidden water had burst to the surface ("as out of the great depths", <a href='B:230 78:15'>Psa 78:15</a>). So the Lord was saying that He was like the rock, and we like Israel drinking of what came out of Him.</h4><h4>We note here that the rock gave water throughout the wilderness journey (<a href='B:290 48:21'>Isa 48:21</a>). This would surely necessitate that the giving of water at Horeb was not a one-off solution to a crisis. There is a word play in the Hebrew text of <a href='B:290 48:21'>Isa 48:21</a>: "He led them through the Horebs [AV ’desert places’]" by making water flow from the rock. The Horeb experience was repeated for 40 years; as if the rock went on being smitten. Somehow the water from that smitten rock went with them, fresh and bubbling as it was the first moment the rock was smitten, right through the wilderness. It was living, spring water- not lying around in puddles.</h4>


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<p>There is no peace, says Yahweh, for the wicked- "The wicked" are the Jewish exiles of :18 who refused the potential peace with God which was offered if they repented and returned to Judah to reestablish His Kingdom of peace.</p>


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<h4>Listen, islands, to me; and listen, you peoples, from far: Yahweh has called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother has He made mention of my name- The previous chapter has concluded with a lament over the Jewish exiles’ refusal of the Gospel of the reestablished Kingdom in Judah. Now, "the servant" addresses the Gentiles. Cyrus had failed to "know Yahweh". And so the invitation to participate in the Kingdom is made to "your peoples", "the Gentiles" (LXX). The servant now takes on a different identity; it is "Israel" (:3), but this is clearly a title for a Messianic figure, ultimately the Lord Jesus. His personal preexistence is clearly ruled out here: "Before I was born, the LORD chose me and appointed me to be his servant" (GNB).</h4><p>But all those of the new Israel who are "in" Israel-the-Messiah also have the words of the servant songs relevant to them. For all true of Him becomes true of us. And so there are a number of instances of where these Old Testament Messianic Scriptures are applied to Paul in the context of his preaching Christ. The servant known from birth (<a href='B:290 49:1'>Isa 49:1</a>; <a href='B:290 49:5'>Isa 49:5</a>)= <a href='B:550 1:15-16'>Gal 1:15-16</a> [choice from birth, calling, ministry to the Gentiles]; “I have laboured in vain…” (<a href='B:290 49:3'>Isa 49:3</a>) = “That I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain” (Php_2:16; <a href='B:530 15:58'>1Co 15:58</a>); “Yet surely my judgment is with the Lord” (<a href='B:290 49:4'>Isa 49:4</a>) = “He that judgeth me is the Lord” (<a href='B:530 4:4'>1Co 4:4</a>); “Him whom man despiseth” (<a href='B:290 49:7'>Isa 49:7</a>) = “We are despised” (<a href='B:530 4:9-10'>1Co 4:9-10</a>; <a href='B:540 4:9-10'>2Co 4:9-10</a>); “The Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you” (<a href='B:290 49:7'>Isa 49:7</a> RSV)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;= “A chosen vessel” (<a href='B:510 9:15'>Act 9:15</a>); <a href='B:290 52:15'>Isa 52:15</a> = <a href='B:520 15:21'>Rom 15:21</a> [here Paul appropriates a prophecy of how the news of the crucified Christ would spread to those who had never heard it. He didn’t just read those verses as prophecy; he saw in them an imperative to fulfill them. This is an example of where prophecy depends to some extent upon us to fulfill it. The 19th century brethren understood the prophecies of Israel’s return to the land like this- they collected funds to enable it; <a href='B:290 49:8'>Isa 49:8</a> “In an acceptable time have I heard thee” = <a href='B:540 6:2'>2Co 6:2</a>; <a href='B:290 53:1'>Isa 53:1</a> = <a href='B:520 10:16'>Rom 10:16</a>; <a href='B:290 49:6'>Isa 49:6</a> = <a href='B:510 13:47'>Act 13:47</a>; <a href='B:290 43:5'>Isa 43:5</a> = <a href='B:510 18:9-10'>Act 18:9-10</a>.</p><h4>At times, the prophets are paralleled with Israel- Jeremiah was a&nbsp;“prophet to the nations” (<a href='B:300 1:5'>Jer 1:5</a>), and yet this was Israel’s role, as stated here in <a href='B:290 49:1'>Isa 49:1</a>. Both the prophets and Israel are described as “the servant of the Lord”. But God and Israel were in the process of divorce, as they knew. The prophets were both on God’s side, and Israel’s. They were torn men. Just as God Himself was. He appeared “like a man confused” (<a href='B:300 14:9'>Jer 14:9</a>).</h4>


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<h4>And He has made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of His hand has He hidden me: and He has made me a polished shaft; in His quiver has He kept me close- <a href='B:290 51:16'>Isa 51:16</a> uses the same language about an individual who would restore Zion. Whatever primary application this may have had to Cyrus, Zerubbabel, Nehemiah etc:, they clearly failed. And so the words are reapplied to the Lord Jesus. It would appear from these statements that the Lord Jesus was protected and specially guided by the Angel in the first thirty years of his life: "In the shadow of His hand (an Angelic phrase) hath He hid me, and made me a polished shaft; in His quiver hath He hid me". The word ’quiver’ comes from the word for an astrologer, in the sense of being something that conceals knowledge. Thus the Angel hid the true identity of Jesus, so that "flesh and blood" alone could not recognize that He was God’s Son (<a href='B:470 16:13-17'>Mat 16:13-17</a>). "The Lord" that passed by Moses and hid him with his hand in the cleft of the rock was an Angel.</h4><p>But as explained on :1, the Messianic Servant, ultimately the Lord Jesus, includes all who are "in" Him. Thus Paul’s description of each of us as the warrior of the Gospel in Ephesians 6 composites together various descriptions of Messiah’s clothing in the servant songs (<a href='B:290 11:5'>Isa 11:5</a> = “loins girded with truth”; <a href='B:290 49:2'>Isa 49:2</a> “mouth like a sharp sword”; <a href='B:290 52:7'>Isa 52:7</a> “bring good tidings / publish salvation” = “the preparation of the Gospel of peace”; <a href='B:290 59:17'>Isa 59:17</a> “breastplate of righteousness”; <a href='B:290 59:17'>Isa 59:17</a> “helmet of salvation”). We are to be Christ to the world.</p><h4>The idea of Messiah being "hidden" connects with other similar prophecies. The restoration prophecies continually refer to an individual called "the righteous one"- the references are somewhat masked in the English translations which speak simply of "righteousness", but it is evidently ’the righteous one’ who is being addressed rather than abstract righteousness. Consider the statements of intent about this Person: The righteous one would be prepared and kept hidden by Yahweh (<a href='B:290 42:6'>Isa 42:6</a>); he was to be raised up to rebuild Zion and release the captives from Babylon (<a href='B:290 45:13'>Isa 45:13</a>); he is pictured as near / approaching (<a href='B:290 51:5'>Isa 51:5</a>), called to Yahweh’s footstool in Zion (<a href='B:290 41:2'>Isa 41:2</a>); he was to be "brought in" to the temple at the end of the 70 weeks prophecy (Dan 924); then, Jerusalem would be known as the habitation of the righteous one (<a href='B:300 50:7'>Jer 50:7</a> and often- AV "habitation of justice"), the intention of <a href='B:330 48:35'>Eze 48:35</a> would be fulfilled, in that Jerusalem would be known as the city where Yahweh dwells; the righteous one of Yahweh would then "go out" in blessing to the surrounding nations. Hence <a href='B:300 33:16'>Jer 33:16</a>; <a href='B:300 23:6'>Jer 23:6</a> etc. outline God’s intention that after the restoration, the rebuilt Zion would be named "The Lord our righteous one" because Jerusalem would be the habitation of the righteous one (<a href='B:300 31:23'>Jer 31:23</a>; <a href='B:300 50:7'>Jer 50:7</a>). This is similar language to the restoration prophecies of Isaiah- the surrounding Gentile world would see / perceive / believe in "the righteous one" who would reign in the rebuilt Zion (<a href='B:290 62:2'>Isa 62:2</a>). The impression seems inescapable that at the time of the restoration, God had prepared a Messiah-figure, hidden (as it were) in Yahweh’s quiver (<a href='B:290 49:2'>Isa 49:2</a>), not revealed to Israel, who could have restored Judah, rebuilt Zion and converted the surrounding Gentiles. It could be that this person was Zerubbabel, Ezra, Nehemiah or some other known historical figure. Or it could be that this person was prepared, waited in the wings, but was never used by God. He could have been revealed to Judah by the anonymous messenger of Isaiah 40. But all these prophecies had to be reapplied- to the Lord Jesus, with John the Baptist and later the latter day Elijah as the announcing messenger.</h4>


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<p>And He said to me, You are My servant; Israel, in whom I will be glorified- As noted on :1, the servant is now no longer Cyrus, who had failed to "know Yahweh" and live up to his potential. And Israel had refused the potentials of responding to the Gospel. So now Yahweh was to be glorified in an individual servant, in whom "Israel" could be comprehended if they became in Him. It all looks forward to the entrance into the Lord Jesus of all baptized into Him, thereby becoming the true Israel of God and Abraham’s seed (<a href='B:550 3:27-29'>Gal 3:27-29</a>).</p>


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<h4>But I said, I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity- The LXX makes the allusion to idolatry clearer: "I have given my strength for vanity and for nothing". The Messiah, "Israel", was totally representative of His people, even in their sinfulness. This representative identification with them was to be the basis of their ultimate salvation.</h4><h4>Yet surely the justice due to me is with Yahweh, and my reward with my God- The idea may be "my work should be my recompence". Even if we feel our work for God has not been successful, we were the ones rewarded by doing it, it was itself our blessing. "My reward is with my God" recalls the feelings of Nehemiah, who perhaps could have been this Messianic figure in an initial sense: "Remember me, O my God, for good" (<a href='B:160 13:31'>Neh 13:31</a>; "my God" is a common theme in Ezra and Nehemiah). <a href='B:290 49:4-6'>Isa 49:4-6</a> seems to foresee how the returnees would be discouraged in their work of rebuilding, and at the fact that not all God’s people had been gathered back. And yet even then, provided they had the right spirit, the Kingdom blessings could still come. Isaiah 49 goes on to comfort the servant that the remainder of Israel would be regathered, and that the broken down walls of Zion were continually before Yahweh (<a href='B:290 49:16'>Isa 49:16</a>).</h4>


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<h4>Now says Yahweh who formed me from the womb to be His servant- The application of these words to the Lord Jesus precludes any idea of His personal preexistence. <a href='B:290 49:5-6'>Isa 49:5-6</a> contains a prophecy concerning Christ as the light of the world, which he fulfilled (<a href='B:500 8:12'>Joh 8:12</a>). He is described as meditating on “the Lord that formed me from the womb to be his servant”. Christ was therefore “formed” by God in Mary’s womb, through the power of His Holy Spirit. Mary’s womb was evidently the place of Christ’s physical origin.</h4><p>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.</p><h4>To bring Jacob again to Him, and that Israel be gathered to Him (for I am honourable in the eyes of Yahweh, and my God has become my strength)- LXX "I shall be gathered and glorified before the Lord". Israel had refused to be regathered to the land, they had not obeyed the command to be gathered (s:w. <a href='B:290 43:9'>Isa 43:9</a>; <a href='B:360 2:16'>Joe 2:16</a>); but this individual servant would be, and thereby the true Israel "in Him" would be regathered. The verb for “gather” can be used in two senses, either “to gather in” or “to take away,” “gather off” (e:g. <a href='B:330 4:9'>Eze 4:9</a>). Response to the Messiah figure would lead to one of these two gatherings- to salvation, or condemnation.</h4>


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<h4>Yes, He says, It is too light a thing that you should be My servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel- This could have come true at the restoration. <a href='B:290 49:6'>Isa 49:6</a> speaks of the reestablishment of the tribes of Israel and the ‘establishing’ of the land (<a href='B:290 49:8'>Isa 49:8</a>). The intended boundaries of the tribal cantons are given in Ezekiel 48. There was perhaps a renewed awareness of which tribe each captive was from, after the genealogical records were burnt at the fall of Jerusalem. Note the references to Judah (<a href='B:150 10:23'>Ezr 10:23</a>), Benjamin (<a href='B:160 3:23'>Neh 3:23</a>), Manasseh <a href='B:150 10:33'>Ezr 10:33</a>) and Joseph (<a href='B:150 10:42'>Ezr 10:42</a>; <a href='B:160 12:14'>Neh 12:14</a>). But the land wasn’t laid out again according to tribal boundaries as envisaged in the prophecies of Isaiah and Ezekiel. The few who returned were content with their little farms, and didn’t rise up to a wider vision. And how much potential achievement for us as a community is disabled by our parochial, selfish, self-satisficing attitudes…?</h4><p>The servant was encouraged that although His mission was primarily to Israel and they had refused His work (:5), He was not to be discouraged because the project of salvation was to be extended to the Gentiles. The idea seems to suggest that the extent of this purpose had to be revealed to the Lord Jesus in order to save Him from disappointment with His mission to Israel, as if His conception of His work had to be enlarged. This would be appropriate for someone with human nature.</p><p>I will also give you for a light to the nations, that you may be My salvation to the end of the earth- The Lord was to save the Gentiles, even "the ends of the earth / land" promised to Abraham, where the exiles were located. And yet He died to save Israel rather than everyone in the Gentile world (<a href='B:290 49:5'>Isa 49:5</a>; <a href='B:290 53:8'>Isa 53:8</a>; <a href='B:550 4:4-5'>Gal 4:4-5</a>), He was “a servant to the circumcised"(<a href='B:520 15:8'>Rom 15:8</a>),"the consolation of Israel", unto them was born a saviour (<a href='B:490 2:11'>Luk 2:11</a>; <a href='B:490 2:25'>Luk 2:25</a>), and therefore He had to be exactly representative of them. For this reason it was theologically necessary for Jesus to be Jewish in order to achieve the work He did. We are only saved by reason of becoming in Christ and therefore part of the Israel of God (<a href='B:550 3:27-29'>Gal 3:27-29</a>). The Jewish basis of salvation is absolutely fundamental to a correct understanding of the Gospel.</p><h4>I explained earlier in this chapter that the Messiah as"Israel"was an individual in whom the true Israel of God would be found, through mutual identification of Him with them and they with Him. And so Paul takes this prophecy concerning how Christ personally would be the light of the whole world, and applies it to himself in explanation of why he was devoted to being a light to the whole world himself (<a href='B:510 13:47'>Act 13:47</a> - although <a href='B:510 26:23'>Act 26:23</a> applies it to Jesus personally). Paul even says that this prophecy of Christ as the light of the world was a commandment to him; all that is true of the Lord Jesus likewise becomes binding upon us, because we are inHim. Note that Paul says that God has commanded us to witness; it wasn’t that Paul was a special case, and God especially applied Isaiah’s words concerning Christ as light of the Gentiles to Paul. They apply to us, to all who are in Christ.</h4>


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<h4>Thus says Yahweh, the Redeemer of Israel, and His Holy One- 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.</h4><p>To him whom man despises, to him whom the nation abhors, to a servant of rulers- LXX"Sanctify him that despises his life, him that is abhorred by the nations that are the servants of princes". This Messianic servant would sacrifice His life and be abhorred by the nations; so that the nations would come to worship Him. This is exactly what was and shall be achieved through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus.</p><h4>Kings shall see and arise; princes, and they shall worship; because of Yahweh who is faithful, even the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you- The leadership who had despised the suffering Servant would arise from their thrones and bow in homage before Him.</h4>


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<h4>Thus says Yahweh, In an acceptable time have I answered you, and in a day of salvation have I helped you; and I will preserve you, and give you for a covenant of the people, to raise up the land, to make them inherit the desolate heritage-"The people"is"the nations", the Gentiles. Gentile salvation is however connected with restoring the land (of Israel; <a href='B:290 49:6'>Isa 49:6</a>), and allotting (<a href='B:50 21:16'>Deu 21:16</a>) the desolate heritages. The latter chapters of Ezekiel stress how Israel were to “inherit” the land; yet the same word is used in other restoration prophecies, about Messiah causing Israel to “inherit” the land again after their return from “the north country” (<a href='B:450 2:12'>Zec 2:12</a>; <a href='B:450 8:12'>Zec 8:12</a>; <a href='B:290 49:8'>Isa 49:8</a>; <a href='B:300 3:18'>Jer 3:18</a>). When Judah returned from the “north country”, then Jerusalem would be the universally recognized “throne of the Lord” (<a href='B:300 3:17-18'>Jer 3:17-18</a>). The Kingdom could have come when Judah returned from Babylon. It was therefore potentially possible for the returning exiles to inherit all the land outlined in <a href='B:330 47:13-21'>Eze 47:13-21</a> and share it out between the 12 tribes. But they grabbed every man for himself, his own farmstead, his own mini-Kingdom. They had no interest in the wider vision, nor in subduing extra land; and the majority of the Jews didn’t even want to inherit it; they preferred the soft life of Babylon, the Kingdom of men rather than the Kingdom of God. And thus the Kingdom made possible was never actually fulfilled at that time.</h4><h4>&nbsp;The vision is of a multiethnic people of God; the restoration of the Kingdom in Israel is connected with the salvation of Gentiles. The ’help’ and ’preservation’ of the Servant was ultimately through the strengthening and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. But all that is true of the Messianic Servant is true of those in Him; hence His Name is"Israel". And so this verse is quoted about us in <a href='B:540 6:2'>2Co 6:2</a> in the context of our being preachers, labouring with God. This is the language of the Lord’s preaching, which freed men from the prison house (<a href='B:290 61:1-2'>Isa 61:1-2</a>). Yet because we are in Him, we too have His ministry; our words too can make men inherit the Kingdom, and free men from their bondage. “We are witnesses [through being] in him” (<a href='B:510 5:32'>Act 5:32</a> RVmg:). As the Lord in Isaiah’s servant songs was the suffering, saving, atoning servant, lifted up to give salvation world-wide- so are we. For we are in Him.</h4>


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<h4>Saying to those who are bound, ‘Come out!’- This is the same word as in <a href='B:290 48:20'>Isa 48:20</a>"Go forth of Babylon". But they chose to remain there.</h4><p>To those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves!’- They could have had a deliverance similar to that of Israel from the darkness of Egypt (<a href='B:230 107:10'>Psa 107:10</a>; <a href='B:230 107:14'>Psa 107:14</a>), but they preferred darkness to light. Just as they did before the captivity, they put darkness for light (<a href='B:290 5:20'>Isa 5:20</a>). Thus they refused the work of the saving Servant, who wanted to bring them out of that darkness (<a href='B:290 42:7'>Isa 42:7</a>), and preferred to remain in the darkness of condemnation (<a href='B:290 47:5'>Isa 47:5</a>).</p><p>And so these things have been reapplied to the work of the Lord Jesus. 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>). The Lord in the Sermon on the Mount clearly understood this deliverance of the prisoners to refer to His work with a new Israel; since the Jews in Babylon had preferred to stay in their comfortable prison of exile, and didn’t perceive it as a place of spiritual darkness.</p><h4>They shall feed in the ways, and on all bare heights shall be their pasture- The idea is that there would be abundant provision for them, with pasture even on the beaten paths and bare heights where usually there wouldn’t be. The idea here and in :10 was and is that absolutely all their needs would be abundantly provided for on the physical and spiritual journey to the restored Kingdom.</h4>


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<h4>They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun strike them: for He who has mercy on them will lead them, even by springs of water He will guide them- 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>).</h4><h4>This repeats the assurance of <a href='B:290 48:21'>Isa 48:21</a>. Just as everything had been provided for them when they left Egypt, so they need not worry about the logistics or"the way"of returning to Judah. The practical issues which loom in the minds of those confronted with the Gospel of the Kingdom will all likewise be dealt with by the God who desperately wants us to say"yes". These words are repeated about the faithful of the new Israel in <a href='B:730 7:16'>Rev 7:16</a>.</h4>


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<p>I will make all My mountains a way, and My highways shall be exalted- This repeats the message of the highway to the restored Zion being prepared in <a href='B:290 40:4'>Isa 40:4</a>.</p>


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<p>Behold, these shall come from far; and behold, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim-"Sinim"my simply refer to the uttermost border of the eretz promised to Abraham,"Sin"being on the southern border with Egypt (cp. <a href='B:10 10:17'>Gen 10:17</a>). LXX"And others from the land of the Persians", GNB"and from Aswan in the south". The tragedy of the book of Esther is that at its conclusion, the Jews were established in Persia in prosperity. They refused to use all this potential. The refusal of the exiles to respond led to the reapplication of this to the worldwide gathering in of Gentiles from all over the globe.</p>


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<h4>Sing, heavens; and be joyful, earth; and break forth into singing, mountains: for Yahweh has comforted His people, and will have compassion on His afflicted- The ‘singing’ of the heavens refers to Judah’s intended joy at the restoration (cp. <a href='B:290 48:20'>Isa 48:20</a>). See on <a href='B:290 54:2'>Isa 54:2</a>. As the whole creation would share the joy of Hosea and Gomer’s remarriage (see on <a href='B:290 1:26'>Isa 1:26</a>), so <a href='B:290 44:23'>Isa 44:23</a> and <a href='B:290 49:13'>Isa 49:13</a> use similar terms to describe how all creation could have rejoiced in the reuniting of Yahweh with His people on their return from Babylon.</h4><p>The temple still lay “waste” (<a href='B:440 1:4'>Hag 1:4</a>; <a href='B:440 1:9'>Hag 1:9</a>) just as it had lain “desolate” [s:w. <a href='B:300 33:10'>Jer 33:10</a>; <a href='B:300 33:12'>Jer 33:12</a>] after the Babylonian destruction. The ‘restoration’ was in fact not really a restoration at all, in God’s eyes. Thus Ezra sat down desolate [AV “astonied”] at the news of Judah’s apostasy in marrying the surrounding women; using the very same word as frequently used to describe the ‘desolate’ Jerusalem that was to be rebuilt (<a href='B:150 9:3'>Ezr 9:3</a> cp. <a href='B:290 49:8'>Isa 49:8</a>; <a href='B:290 49:19'>Isa 49:19</a>; Isa 543; <a href='B:290 61:4'>Isa 61:4</a>). He tore his priestly garment (<a href='B:150 9:3'>Ezr 9:3</a>), as if he realized that all Ezekiel’s prophesies about those priestly garments now couldn’t come true (s:w. <a href='B:330 42:14'>Eze 42:14</a>; <a href='B:330 44:17'>Eze 44:17</a>; <a href='B:330 44:19'>Eze 44:19</a>). <a href='B:290 58:12-13'>Isa 58:12-13</a> prophesied that the acceptable rebuilding of Zion was dependent upon Judah keeping the Sabbath acceptably; and yet Nehemiah’s record makes clear their tragic abuse of the Sabbath at the time of the restoration; and this therefore meant that the rebuilding of the temple and city were not going to fulfill the Messianic prophecies about them which existed.</p><h4>Comfort and compassion from God can be given by Him, and yet refused. And again we have an abiding warning to us, as the new Israel, not to waste or disregard all the potential comfort there is from God, not least in our day through the ministry of"the comforter, which is the Holy Spirit".</h4>


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<h4>But Zion said, Yahweh has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me- See on :25. AV"my Lord", as if referring to Yahweh as her husband (<a href='B:290 50:1'>Isa 50:1</a>; <a href='B:290 54:6'>Isa 54:6</a> cp. <a href='B:10 18:12'>Gen 18:12</a>). But as explained on :13, Yahweh had not forsaken them; it was they who refused to avail themselves of the comfort of His love.</h4><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><h4>The sufferings of Christ on the cross have connections with the punishments for Israel’s sins (e:g. being offered gall to drink = <a href='B:300 8:14'>Jer 8:14</a>; <a href='B:310 3:5'>Lam 3:5</a>). Israel were temporarily forsaken by God because of their sins (<a href='B:290 49:14'>Isa 49:14</a>; <a href='B:290 54:7'>Isa 54:7</a>), and therefore so was Christ. Christ was chastened with the rod of men"and with the stripes of the children of men", i:e. Israel (<a href='B:290 53:5'>Isa 53:5</a>; <a href='B:670 2:24'>1Pe 2:24</a>; <a href='B:400 5:1'>Mic 5:1</a>), in His death on the cross.</h4>


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<p>Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, these may forget, yet I will not forget you!- And yet in anger God said He would destroy Israel’s children and walk away from them and forget them (<a href='B:350 9:12'>Hos 9:12</a>). Unlike the stone faced gods of the Gentiles, Yahweh had emotion and passion, and internal conflicts. And His word reveals them to us. This"compassion"was only to be shown when Israel repented (s:w. <a href='B:50 30:3'>Deu 30:3</a>) and would not be shown if they were impenitent (s:w. <a href='B:290 9:17'>Isa 9:17</a>; <a href='B:290 27:11'>Isa 27:11</a>; Isa 557). But although they had not repented, Yahweh still felt that fatherly"compassion"toward them (<a href='B:290 49:15'>Isa 49:15</a> s:w:). He is unafraid of appearing to contradict His word, such is the passion of His love.</p>


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<h4>Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of My hands- The idea may be that Israel were as the lines graven on a man’s palm, with which he was born. Thus from absolute eternity, we were the great"all things"to Almighty God, intimately connected with Him, part of His very own person- He the God of all, all past and future creations. But God’s hands are His creative members; on those hands were the walls of Zion, and so all His actions were geared towards the final salvation of Israel. Their rejection of such great Divine passion and interest was and is the tragedy of the cosmos. And the marks in the palms of His Son will apparently remain eternally, He still appears looking like a lamb with the wounds of His slaughter upon Him (<a href='B:730 5:6'>Rev 5:6</a>). &nbsp;</h4><h4>Your walls are continually before Me- The broken down state of the walls was continually in God’s mind throughout the exile, as they were in Nehemiah’s mind too. Or perhaps the walls of a restored Zion, those spoken of in Revelation 21, are in view. The ultimate hope of Israel, of their restoration, was ever before God. But at the time of the restoration, very few of His people cared about the state of the walls; such was the distraction of materialism.</h4>


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<p>Your children make haste; your destroyers and those who made you waste shall go forth from you- LXX"And thou shalt soon be built by those by whom thou were destroyed, and they that made thee desolate shall go forth of thee". The idea was that a repentant remnant of Gentiles would return with the repentant exiles and work in the rebuilding of Zion. But this didn’t happen. And so it is all given a reapplication to Gentiles building in Zion, the new Jerusalem.</p>


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<h4>Lift up your eyes all around, and see: all these gather themselves together, and come to you- All these prophecies of Isaiah were because when the Gentiles came to Zion after the Assyrians were destroyed, they were supposed to gather together to Judah’s God. But Hezekiah became influenced them, and therefore Judah went into captivity in Babylon and only after repentance were to be restored. Now the situation was to be repeated; and the Gentiles would again be gathered to Zion, but now they would permanently join themselves to Israel’s God.</h4><p>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. The ’bringing / coming’ and ’drawing near / gathering’ of the exiles (s:w. <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><h4>As I live, says Yahweh, you shall surely clothe yourself with them all as with an ornament, and dress yourself with them, like a bride- As if they were the girdle worn by a bride- which Judah had forgotten to wear, so slack were they in their attitude to their Heavenly husband (<a href='B:300 2:32'>Jer 2:32</a>). The conversion of the Gentiles was to be to the glory of God’s people.</h4>


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<p>For, as for your waste and your desolate places, and your land that has been destroyed, surely now you shall be too small for the inhabitants, and those who swallowed you up shall be far away- This is exactly relevant to the situation in Judah after the first break in the rebuilding; the walls were broken down by the Samaritans, but Nehemiah was raised up to lead more back with him from Babylon and rebuild them. And yet sadly, this too failed, for Judah were still unwilling to completely forsake Babylon. “Thy walls are continually before me [even during the 70 years captivity]… [even while in captivity they were thinking that Yahweh had forgotten them, :14]…thy builders (RVmg:) make haste…thy land that hath been destroyed [by the Babylonian scorched earth policy] shall even now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants…then shalt thou say, Who hath begotten me these, seeing I am barren, an exile…?” (<a href='B:290 49:16'>Isa 49:16</a>; <a href='B:290 49:19'>Isa 49:19</a>; <a href='B:290 49:21'>Isa 49:21</a> RV). This all implies there would be a population explosion at the time of the restoration. But there is no evidence this was the case. All this was potentially true; but it didn’t come to pass in reality.</p>


