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45 (1). The Lord's Anointed (v.1-7)

 

The one described as "my shepherd" (44:28) is now called "my anointed" — the second Moses (Num. 12:7) is also a second David (2 Sam. 7:19-20).

 

Reasons have already been supplied for regarding the name of Cyrus as an intrusion. Verse 6 here supplies another reason: "That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the Lord, and there is none else." To apply such words to idol-worshipping Cyrus the polytheist would be the height of absurdity.

 

This man, the Lord's anointed, is one "whose right hand I have holden." Here is the name of Hezekiah woven into the Hebrew text. The entire passage is about him. Through the dramatic action of His angel (37:36), the Lord did "subdue nations before him; the loins of kings were loosed" — it is a picture of warriors with their swords unbuckled and laid aside; the overwhelmed people of Judah need fear Assyrian invasion no more (41:10).

 

A psalm of Hezekiah has a similar but even more vivid description: "For, lo, the kings were assembled, they passed by together. They saw it, and so they marvelled; they were troubled, and hasted away. Fear took hold upon them there, and pain, as of a woman in travail" (Ps. 48:4-6).

 

Sennacherib was in the habit (which Napoleon also adopted) of making his favourite generals into kings of conquered provinces: "Are not my princes all of them kings" (10:8). But, all at once, under the walls of Jerusalem, that grandiose acquisitive policy came to a dead stop.

 

Gates opened and gates smashed

 

The great "two-leaved gates", which had been fast shut to, so that the temple might be the last citadel if the invaders broke through the hastily patched up city walls (22:8-10), were now thrown open, and that permanently: "the gates shall not be shut."

 

But other doors, "the gates of brass, and...the bars of iron I will break in pieces." The forces of tyranny which had marched off hundreds of thousands of Jewish captives into bondage in Babylon, now gave way, to allow a bewildered happy people to come streaming home (compare the same language in Ps. 107:16, yet another Hezekiah psalm)*.

 

The change of pronoun — "him...thee" (v.1,2) — is now explained: "I will go before thee (the captive people returning home) to make the rugged places plain" (cp. 40:4).

 

Now, "the treasures of darkness, the hidden riches of secret places", all the remaining royal and temple treasures which had been hidden away in secret sub­terranean caverns, were brought out again to glorify the House of the Lord, and to be a permanent reminder that Jehovah is not on the side of the big battalions, but with those who are called by His Name.

 


* For Hezekiah himself there were other gates of brass which had proved powerless (38:10).

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Named by God

 

It is probable that verse 3 should read: "...that thou mayest know that I am the Lord, which call thee by thy name: the God of Israel." The allusion is to Immanuel, "God is with us". And the identical phraseology in other places (42:6; 43:1; 49:1) makes a Cyrus reference here a stark impossibility.

 

The words that follow have been misleading: "I surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me" (v.4). Here, for generations, the ordinary reader has been at the mercy of a translator who chose to turn interpreter. There is no word "though" in the Hebrew text, but just a straight "and" which, if it must be interpreted, would be better read as "when", with reference to the naming of Immanuel before birth: "I surnamed thee when thou didst not know me" (and so also in v.5); or with the allusion to the endowment of royal titles after Hezekiah was born: "Wonderful counsellor, Mighty God, Father of the Age, Prince of Peace" (9:6).

 

The vanquishing of Assyrian might vindicated Jehovah not only before His own people but through all the surrounding nations: "that they might know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside Me" (v.6) — "And many brought gifts unto the Lord to Jerusalem, and presents to Hezekiah...so that He was magnified in the sight of all nations from thenceforth" (2 Chr. 32:23). So also in another Hezekiah psalm: "The nations shall fear the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth Thy glory" (102:15).

 

In all these remarkable developments there was abundant demonstration that it is the God of Israel who "forms light and creates darkness; He makes peace and creates evil" (v.7). All the tribulation of Hezekiah's day had come at His behest, announced beforehand by Isaiah (e.g. 10:5,6) and his fellow-prophets (Joel 2; Mic. 5 etc). But the same was just as emphatically true about the great deliverance which God had wrought. It was all His work. There was purpose in it all.

 

Now consider the Messiah

 

Behind this prophecy there is more than one Purpose, for — as in all the preceding parts of it — the real intention is to exhibit the redeeming work of God's Messiah.

 

He is "the Lord's anointed" (v.1), his Christ: "I have put my spirit upon him" (42:1) — the sevenfold "spirit of the Lord, of wisdom and understanding, of counsel and might, of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord" (11:1,2).

 

The assurance: "whose right hand I have holden," echoes the promise already given to the Messiah: "I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness" (41:13).

 

The gate of His enemies

 

This heavenly leader "breaks in pieces the gates of brass" which hold his people in bondage, he shatters their "bars of iron" (cp. 42:7,22). This is the fulfilment of the great promise made to Abraham: "thy Seed shall possess the gate of his enemies" (Gen. 22:17). The greatest enemy, and the last to be destroyed, is Death. This Redeemer now holds the keys of Death and Hell (Rev. 1:18), and therefore he, and he only, can decide who shall be set free from that fortress.

 

By contrast, there is another city, which is all temple, which will be thrown wide open to all the Messiah's men — "and the gates shall not be shut" (v.1). "In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah: We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks. Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation that keepeth truth may enter in" (Is. 26:1,2).

 

The Messiah leads the way: "Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will go into them, and I will praise the Lord: this is the gate of the Lord, into which the righteous shall enter" (Ps. 118:19,20).

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The unsearchable riches of Christ

 

The promise that "I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places" (v.3) was eagerly seized by Paul to expound the wealth of heavenly blessing in Christ: "In him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Col. 2:3). God, "who is rich in mercy" (Eph. 2:4) has revealed in the gospel "the unsearchable riches of Christ" (3:8). Who can doubt that Isaiah's message was the fountain and inspiration of Paul's fine phrasing here?

 

Here also is the explanation of the otherwise mysterious inclusion of "riches" in the ascription of praise to the Lamb who is worthy to receive the seven-fold inheritance (Rev. 5:12). And that phrase: "the riches of secret things" employs in LXX a word — "invisible" — which the NT. applies only to Almighty God (Col. 1:15,16; Rom. 1:20; 1 Tim. 1:17; Heb. 11:27).

 

This man of divine privilege belongs to God from birth: "I surnamed thee when thou didst not know Me" — the Father names the Child — "I girded thee (decreed thy royal majesty; v.1; 11:5; Mt. 2:2), when thou didst not know me." From the Immanuel prophecy (7:14) onwards this language — used of Jacob and Moses, men of destiny — belongs to the Messiah: "The Lord hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name" (49:1). "I the Lord have called thee in righteousness...I have called thee by name; thou art mine" (42:6; 43:1).

 

These Messianic blessings all come unexpectedly together in another prophecy: "It is God that girded me with strength...Thy right hand hath holden me up...Great salvation (Jesus!) giveth he to his king; and sheweth mercy (the fulfilment of the Promise) to his anointed, to the Beloved, and to his seed for evermore" (Ps. 18:32,35,50).

 

Gentile nations learn this message with gladness: "from the rising of the sun, and from the west, they know that there is none beside Me" — a God who brings "evil" that men might learn to see it as their supreme good, the blessing of the God of Israel. He "forms the Light and creates Darkness", just as He did in the beginning of creation (Gen. 1:3-5). But this is a New Creation, a new and better world.

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45 (2). Righteousness — for Jew and Gentile (v.8-17)

 

Logically, because of context and similarity of phrasing, the next section of Isaiah 45 should be about the same person as the first paragraph. Modernists and trad­itional expositors alike say this must be Cyrus. But the difficulties, usually glossed over, are considerable:

 

  1. "I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways" (v. 13). The last phrase is certainly not true of Cyrus, the passage is echoed in 48:15 — but there verse 12 explicitly applies the words to "Jacob and Israel, my called."
     
  2. "He shall build my city" (v. 13). In the twentieth year of the reign of Artaxerxes Nehemiah found Jerusalem still in a ruinous condition. Haggai had made similar complaint in the second year of Darius (1:1,9). So if this prophecy was intended with reference to Cyrus, it was a false prophecy.
     
  3. "He shall let go my captives" (v. 13). The context has repeated allusion to the Exodus. But a new Exodus calls for a new Moses (v. 15: Moshiya), a fresh spoiling of the Egyptians (v. 14), another judgment on the idols of the mighty (v. 16), a re-adoption of Israel as God's firstborn (v. 11), and — to complete the parallel — another discomfited Pharaoh; and Cyrus in no way fulfils that role.
     
  4. As already pointed out (ch. 18), the prosperity of Egypt, Ethiopia and the Sabeans (v. 14) did not come to Cyrus, either of free will or by conquest. And the second half of this verse demands reference to "Israel".

 

Only Horatio Nelson can be a disciple of king Cyrus. The signals do not carry that message.

 

Contemporary fulfilment

 

Once again the language of this part of the prophecy is readily seen to spring naturally from the circumstances of Isaiah's own day. The interpolated song of gladness (v.8) is clearly in character with the rest which are so common all through Isaiah's prophecy. (5:1ff; 16:9,10; 25:6-9; 26:1ff; 27:2-4; 42:10,11; 44:23; 12:5,6; 24:15,16; 35:10; 49:13; 54:1ff; 65:14,17ff; 26:19; 52:8-10; 48:20,21; 51:11; 55:12,13).

 

This song (which has marked similarities to 55:9-11) celebrates the marvellous Year of Jubilee in Hezekiah's reign, when with a season of copious rains and sur­passing natural fruitfulness (2 Kgs. 19:29,30) God made amends to His people for the ravages of Assyrian invasion: "Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth sal­vation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the Lord have created it" (45:8).

 

According to His promise (Lev. 25:21), God was opening the windows of heaven and pouring forth a Jubilee blessing on His people.

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Complaint answered

 

Yet the perverse in Israel still found something to grumble about. Why does God allow such horrors as those which have lately come upon us? Why is it that others who are not His Chosen Race should so often appear to fare better than we? Thus the clay said to him that fashioned it: "What makest thou?" and "He hath no hands" (i.e. he is a God who does nothing). Only a spirit of rank perversity would thus question the ways of the Almighty.

 

Did not current events show only too plainly that all their ways were in the hands of a powerful, all-wise Creator: "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" (v. 12).

 

Here was neat reminder that the One who commands the host of heaven, and whose name is The Lord of hosts (v. 13), had once led forth "all the hosts of the Lord out of the land of Egypt" (Ex. 12:41). So He was hardly likely to cast them away now as irredeemable.

 

How could He, since their Leader and King was one for whom He had such high regard?

 

"I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways." Jerusalem would be exalted, and the host of captives, taken away from the fenced cities and homesteads of the land, would come joyously home again.

 

God had sold his people for nought, and had not increased His wealth one jot by the price paid for them (Ps. 44:12). And now, similarly, it was "not for price, nor for reward" (v. 13) that they were being set free.

 

Respected by the Gentiles

 

And not only rid of Assyrian tyranny, but also exalted in the eyes of the nations: "Many brought gifts unto the Lord to Jerusalem, and presents to Hezekiah king of Judah: so that he (He?) was magnified in the sight of all nations from thenceforth" (2 Chr. 32:23).

 

Isaiah mentions some of these nations who now sought friendship with the people Sennacherib had trampled on: "Egypt, Ethiopia, the Sabeans" (v. 14).

 

Many of Isaiah's prophecies have this common theme and point the same lesson: The nations bring tribute to Israel (18:7; 23:18; 60:5ff; 61:6) because Jehovah has exalted Israel (49:7; 60:10; 61:9); and this proves Him to be the true God (40:5; 44:3-5; 48:20; 49:7; 52:10; 59:17; 61:9).

 

Yet the prophet is careful to emphasize that his inspiration ranges forth far beyond the days of Hezekiah. That good king's personal vanity brought a threat of yet another captivity. However, his repentance became the ground for a long deferment of that judgment (ch. 39).

 

So Hezekiah knew that one day trouble would come. However, ultimately, "Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation: ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded without end (literally: until the ages of until)" (v.17).

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Jesus — the Lord's Salvation

 

"Saved by the Lord" is Isaiah's own name. It is also the name of Jesus. Through the former comes the message of salvation for ever. Through the latter comes the salvation itself. Every detail of this prophecy is to be read again, this time with reference to him!

 

The opening song of rejoicing (v.8) celebrates God's great blessing — a salvation which is righteousness. It is His outstanding righteous act, one by which he convicts sinners of their sin, and yet sets them free from its defilement, clothing them with a righteousness they have no right to. It is a theme which, from now on, Isaiah never tires of (45:20; 51:5,6,8; 56:1; 59:16,17; 61:10; 62:1; 63:1). Yet he never explains it. It is a glorious truth, to be received with gladness, marvelled at, rejoiced in, and to give thanks for.

 

With what deep satisfaction did the Bible-instructed mind of Paul fasten on Isaiah's ready-made matchless definition of the gospel:

 

"The gospel...is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is a righteousness of God (i.e. the righteousness God provides) on the basis of faith to every one who shows his faith in it" (Rom. 1:16,17).

 

That last expression is the apostle's up-to-date summary of the truth in Isaiah that "the skies pour down righteousness" (it is the blessing and gift of God), and men respond: "the earth opens and brings forth salvation." Yet even then the growth out of the rain-soaked ground can happen only because God has imparted fecundity and the power of irresistible growth (Mt. 13:23).

 

This lovely figure of speech has yet more to reveal. Without the pouring forth from heaven of a gracious Holy Spirit upon a young woman of Nazareth, there would be no Immanuel. Unless there be an Easter morning when the earth literally opens there can be no Melchizedek priest-king in heaven or in Jerusalem. Only thus is there righteousness and salvation.

 

Jewish grumbling

 

But Isaiah knew the contrary spirit in his people. He anticipated the reaction of Israel against the salvation Jesus brought:

 

"Woe to him that striveth with his Maker (his Potter, his Fashioner), a (Jewish) potsherd among the (Gentile) potsherds of the earth!" The NT. tells of strong Jewish resentment in the early church against the acceptance of Gentiles on equal terms with themselves.

 

"Shall the clay say to Him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or (shall) thy work declare, He hath no hands?" The Jew forgot that he himself was the special handi­work of God (note the glance back to the making of Adam; Gen. 2:7); instead he challenged God's right to fashion Gentiles in the same mould as himself*. Or he swung to another extreme and doubted whether God really had a purpose with Israel: "He hath no hands," i.e. God is no longer at work.

 


* "What makest thou?" is a brusque forbidding of further action; see Eccl. 8:4.

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Potter and clay

 

But the faithful remnant bowed in humility before God: "O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hands"* (64:8).

 

Paul adopted precisely this figure of speech in his sustained effort to persuade Jewish believers to see God's purpose with recalcitrant Jew and eager Gentile in proper perspective: 'Nay but, O man (Jew), who art thou that repliest against God (as in Is. 45). Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump (the same kind of human nature — the Jew is inherently no better than the Gentile) to make one vessel (the Gentile) unto honour, and another (the Jew) unto dishonour?" (Rom. 9:20,21).

 

This is Paul's way of saying: How can you hope to understand the ways of a God who is so much higher than yourself?

 

And this is Isaiah's argument also. What right has a child to argue with his parents (v.10). Then "will ye ask Me ** of things to come concerning my sons (Ex. 4:22), and concerning the work of my hands will ye command Me?" For, consider: "I have made the earth, and I created man upon it: my hands have stretched out (as an ex­panding universe?) the heavens, and all their host (every one of those billions of worlds) have I commanded."

 

Are the purposes of such a God to be subject to criticism or complaint? Cannot He who has fashioned such a creation bring to the birth a New Creation, those who are His sons, begotten through the redeeming work of One who showed righteousness from above and who has brought forth salvation because the earth has opened (v.8) that he might come out of the tomb?

 

Messiah's role

 

This Saviour God has "raised up (awakened — out of death?) in righteousness, all his ways are right (v.13: LXX): he shall build my city (the New Jerusalem), and he shall let go my captives," those who for their iniquities have sold themselves (50:1). This is a redemption "not for price nor reward", as judged by human captors and slave-traders. "Ye have sold yourselves for nought, and ye shall be redeemed without money" (52:3). Yet the price paid for undeserved freedom is the highest ever. Paul explains the paradox: "Ye are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God set forth to be a propitiatory sacrifice through (your) faith, by his blood (his sacrifice) declaring his righteousness..." (Rom. 3:24,25).

 

Gentiles become Jews

 

The final answer to Jewish cavil about the grace of God coming on Gentiles is that these blessed people will become Jews. The pronouns change from "him" (the Messiah) to "thee, thou" (Israel — 6 times in v.14). "They shall come after thee. In chains (which they willingly accept) they shall come over" — here the text suggests "they shall become Hebrews."

 

These new Israelites proclaim their faith: "Surely God is in thee." To be sure, He is, for Israel's Messiah is called Immanuel.

 

Yet — another strange paradox! — the God who reveals Himself to Gentiles is also a God who hides Himself from Israel: "Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour." He turns away from Israel (6:9,10,2) in disgust at their stubbornness, but only in order that he might gather them:

 

"Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation!" It had been promised by Moses after his blessings on the tribes of Israel (Dt. 33:29), made seemingly impossible by the nation's hardness of heart, and yet was re-enunciated with confidence by the apostle Paul: "And so all Israel shall be saved (both Jews and Gentiles)," for "a Deliverer shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob" (Rom. 11:26).

 

At that time the futilities of unbelief will be exposed: "makers of idols (whether ancient or modern) shall be ashamed, and also confounded, all of them: they shall go to confusion together," but this new-made Israel of God "shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end." "My salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished" (51:6).

 


* Cp. also: 29:23; 60:20; 19:25; Ps. 145:10; and especially Eph. 2:10 (alluding to which of these places?)

** ln v.10-13, no less than twelve first person pronouns!

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45 (3). "Unto me every knee shall bow" (v.18-25)

 

The God who saves is a real God, and no phoney or make-believe. It is He who created all things who also reveals Himself by revealing His mighty acts and purposes beforehand.

 

He created the earth for habitation*, not to continue "without form and void" (tohu; s.w. Gen. 1:2). In the same way, that which He speaks to men through his prophets is intelligible and intended for their instruction and betterment. His rev­elation is not at all in the same category with the heathen oracles which give puzzling ambiguous instructions spoken in a holy place [maqom) of gloom and mystery. Instead, that which God reveals proves His existence and His power, for well before the event He makes known what is to happen, and it does happen precisely thus, because he is a God at work in the world He has made. All is in His hand.

 

This renewed argumentation between the living God and the futilities of idol worship is really the next round in the contest which had been set going by the Assyrian invasion of Judah. The scornful challenge made by Sennacherib that reliance upon Jehovah was miserable folly** was to recoil on his own head in more ways than one.

 

The land of Israel was meant to be inhabited by God's own people, and neither Assyrian military might nor religious zeal for Ashur would appropriate it to that empire of tyranny, for all was under the control of Jehovah. He had declared beforehand that the Assyrian invasion would come (8:7,8; 10:5-7). He had also declared the ultimate discomfiture of that arrogant ruffian (14:24,26; 17:13,14). And so it came to pass. A just God, in the punishments He inflicts on Israel; and a Saviour, in the way He redeems His people from utter disaster.

 

The outcome of this awe-inspiring experience was to be that "all the ends of the earth" - Israel and their Gentile neighbours alike — would "look unto Me," so that unto the God of Israel "every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear (loyalty)" — a remarkable confession that "in the Lord have I righteousness and strength."

 

The real fulfilment

 

Great and impressive as all this was, it was only a prototype. This prophecy, like all that has gone before it, belongs to the Messiah. Even the renewed tirade against the folly of idol-worship (v. 18-20, especially v.20) is relevant to the sending of the gospel to Gentiles now being brought out of spiritual chaos (tohu) into the Light and Sabbath (v. 18,19) of God's New Creation, a new heavens and earth wherein righteousness will dwell (inhabit — as in v.18); 2 Pet. 3:13.

 

That emphatic phrase: "he hath established it", uses the word which comes no less than five times in the pronouncement of God's Messianic promise to David (2 Sam. 7:12,13,16,24,26).

 

There is a strange paradox about the Almighty's declaration: "I have not spoken in secret" (v.19), and the earlier assertion: "Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself" (v. 15). The divine message had been made plain enough to Israel (48:16; Dt. 30:11ff). It was only the nation's unworthiness or indifference which had brought the hiding of his face (6:2,9ff).

 

When Paul called the gospel he was preaching to Gentiles a "mystery", he did not mean an enigma, but rather that which had not been made fully clear to Israel, nor, until he began his work, published abroad to Gentiles (cp. Eph. 3:2-6).

 


* A re-pointed Hebrew text would read: "for a sabbath" (Gen. 2:1).

** See H.Gt., ch.14,15.

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Another legal trial

 

In the vindication of God — in his judgment on Israel and extension of grace to Gentiles — a court of law is once again invoked (v.20-25). Phrase after phrase has this flavour: "Assemble yourselves...draw near together...they have no knowledge...Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together...I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth...righteousness...In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified..." (cp. on 41:1).

 

In this place the chief witnesses are no longer the people of Israel, blind and deaf (43:8,10), but enlightened Gentiles: "ye of the Gentiles that have been caused to escape" (v. 20).

 

By contrast, what value as witnesses are those who "have no knowledge, that carry the wood* of their graven image in procession (46:2,7), and even into battle, as a talisman (2 Sam. 5:21 RV) — and that pray unto a god that cannot save**.”

 

Jehovah vindicated

 

The strength of the Almighty's case is that His purposes have been announced beforehand. It is an argument the logic of which the prophet rubs in with ruthless efficiency (41:22; 43:9; 44:7,8; 46:10; 48:3,14). The God of Israel foretells "from ancient time" what will come about, and in due time it happens. Therefore He is not a dumb idol which has no knowledge. Instead, his claim to be the maker of heaven and earth, the One who frames and fashions human history, must be taken seriously, especially since He has shown Himself to be "a just God (in the punishment and tribulation inflicted on Israel) and a Saviour (in offering redemption to the Gentiles)" (v.21)***.

 

The appeal follows: "look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth" (v.22). The Gentiles responded to this call "Ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God" (1 Thess. 1:9 — Paul was referring to the LXX of this Isaiah passage). Other allusions are traceable in James' speech to the council in Jerusalem: "That the residue of men might seek after (Am. 9:12 LXX) the Lord, and all the Gentiles (45:20,22)...saith the Lord who maketh these things known (RV) from the beginning of the world (45:21)...them which from among the Gentiles are turned to God (45:22 LXX)" (Acts 15:17-19).

 

Here was the fulfilment of what had been so wonderfully foreshadowed in the wilderness: "If a serpent had bitten any man, when he looked unto (s.w.) the serpent of brass, he lived" (Num. 21:9; cp. Ps. 22:27). But now it was a salvation freely offered to those in "the ends of the earth" (v.22; 49:6; 52:10).

 


* The text has a nice play here on the similarity between Hebrew for "wood" and for "counsel".

** The Hebrew of this last sentence is cleverly contrived to sound like heathen gibberish.

*** For other redemption paradoxes see Dan. 9:16; Rom. 3:26; Ps. 62:12; B.S. 10.08.

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The oath of God

 

More than this, it was a salvation long ago promised to Abraham ("declared from ancient time"; v.21): "I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth — righteousness" (v.23). The word of the angel to Abraham had been: "By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord...in thy seed shall all the nations (Gentiles) of the earth be blessed (with righteousness; Gal. 3:8)" (Gen. 22:16,18).

 

The sworn purpose of God in Christ is more certain than anything else men know. It is a word which "shall not return (as though void of power; 55:11; Jer. 23:29)... Unto Me (and not to idols) every knee shall bow, every tongue swear (loyalty)" (v.23; contrast 46:1).

 

The apostle Paul had no hesitation in using these words in two complementary, but not contradictory, senses:

 

"Why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me (Christ?) and every tongue shall confess* to God" (Rom. 14:10,11). Here, idols are pushed into the background. "To Me (and not to one another!)" seems to be the implication.

 

The Holy Name

 

But in Philippians 2 the emphasis is on the exaltation and glory of Christ: "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him the Name which is above every name: that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow...and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is LORD, to the glory of God the Father" (2:9-11). This idea, that the glorified Jesus shares the Holy Name of Jehovah becomes a commonplace in the NT.**

 

It is interesting to note how Paul used these five words with a differing emphasis — in Romans 14, "a just God" (in the day of judgment), and in Philippians 2, "a Saviour" (see v.8 there).

 

In the trial of the Lord Jesus Christ there was a poignant fore-shadowing, heavily charged with dramatic irony, of the ultimate fulfilment of this prophecy — rough Roman soldiers came bowing the knee before him and hailing him "King of the Jews" (Mk. 15:18,19).

 

But now, no irony, no mockery: "Surely, in the Lord have I righteousness*** and strength." In the final instance the words are Messiah's — the parallel in 41:10,11 proves this — but his righteousness and strength become the saving power of those who are his: "When we were without strength...Christ died for the ungodly," so that we might "receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness" (Rom. 5:6,17), and thus "be made the righteousness of God in him" (2 Cor. 5:21; cp. Phil. 3:9).

 

To him, the Saviour-Messiah, "shall he (the believer) come" — the singular verb emphasizes that men receive this salvation as individuals; yet the prophecy's conclusion is comprehensive: "In the Lord shall they be justified (righteousness!) and shall boast themselves to be all seed of Israel" (v.25). Whether Jews or Gen­tiles, they are all seed of Israel, and proud of it: "He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." Thus Paul fused together two wonderful Scriptures to the honour of Christ (Heb. 9:23,24; Is. 45:25).

 


* "Confess" here proves that Paul used the Alexandrine text of LXX. So also in quite a number of other places.

** Other examples: 1 Pet. 3:15 RV ( = ls. 8:13); Acts 2:21 (Rom. 10:13); Jn. 5:23; 12:41; 20:28; 1 Cor. 1:30,31; 10:9; Eph. 4:9; Heb. 1:6,8,4; Rev. 1:11 (14,15); 21:6,7; 22:13; 3:12,14; 19:12,16; 20:12.

*** ln Hebrew, an intensive plural "his righteousness, the finest of all."

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Unexpected N.T. links

 

Finally, a somewhat intriguing appendage to this chapter directs attention to some unexpected similarities between Isaiah 45 and two N.T. passages. First, Paul and Silas in prison at Philippi:



Acts 16


Isaiah 45

26.

The doors opened.

2.

Break in pieces the gates of brass.

26.

Every one's bands loosed.

13.

He shall let go my captives.

29.

He came trembling, and fell down

14.

In chains they shall come over,


before Paul and Silas.


and they shall fall down unto thee.

24.

In the inner prison.

19.

I have not spoken in secret,




in the dark places of the earth.

25.

Sang praises unto God.

25.

In the Lord all the seed of Israel shall




glory.

30.

What must I do to be saved? ...

22.

Look unto me, and be ye saved,


Believe on the Lord Jesus,


all the ends of the earth.


and thou shalt be saved.



34.

He set a table before them

16.

(Gentiles) keep a feast before me


(a Breaking of Bread service).


(LXX).

36.

Go in peace.

7.

I make peace, and I create evil.

38.

The magistrates feared...they

24.

All that are incensed against him

39.

came and besought them.


shall be ashamed.

 

There seem also to be remarkable similarities of idea and phrasing between the second half of Isaiah 45, and the synagogue healing of the infirm woman, as though bidding the reader of that prophecy see it as an anticipation of the gospel.

 



Luke 13


Isaiah 45

11.

Bowed together.

14.

Bow down.



23.

Every knee bow (and 46:2).

11.

To the uttermost.

17.

World without end.

12.

aooluo (pert. tense)

46:1

LXX: ekluo (pert. tense)

13.

Glorified God.

25.

LXX: Shall glorify.

17.

Glorious things.



16.

Whom satan hath bound.

13.

My captives.

17.

Put to shame.

16,24

Put to shame.

13.

Laid hands on her.

11.

Work of my hands.

16.

Daughter of Abraham.

11.

My sons.

13.

Made straight.

22.

Look unto me, and be ye saved.

24.

Come and be healed.

24.

To him shall they come.

14.

The synagogue.

20.

Assemble yourselves (LXX:sunago).
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46 (1). Bel, bow down! (v.1-13)

 

In these studies it has already become evident that sometimes the Messianic message and sometimes the contemporary relevance dominates the prophecy. Neither is ever out of sight, but sometimes the emphasis is more one way than the other.

 

Now, for a couple of chapters, special attention is focussed on the greater contest between Jehovah and the gods of Assyria.

 

From the point of view of God's man of faith the issue can never be in doubt —

 

"Bel, bow down! Nebo, make obeisance!"

 

These gods are normally associated with the religion of Babylon*, but there was no real difference between that and the fashionable cults of Assyria**. True, Marduk (Bel) was the chief god of Babylon, whilst Ashur, Nineveh's national deity, was deemed pre-eminent in Assyria. But really there was nothing to choose between them. And in Isaiah's day it was Sennacherib who thought he could challenge the reputation of Jehovah, the more so since in the days of Ahaz (2 Kgs. 16:10-18) Assyrian religion had actually become established on mount Zion, and then had been peremptorily sent packing by Hezekiah the enthusiast.

 

So, here, Isaiah resumes the gusto of his earlier withering strictures on Assyrian idol-worship with a picture of the pagan images in the invaders' camp being loaded onto waggons to be unceremoniously carted away from the field of devastation out­side Jerusalem:

 

"Their idols belong to beasts (these dumb creatures are in charge of them)...a burden to weary animals."***

 

As the weary animals bow under the fatigue of their load, so too these gods have to bow to the superior might of the God of Israel. "Unto me every knee shall bow," Jehovah had declared (45:23). And now the point was being rubbed in through the ignominious discomfiture of these idols.

 

The moderns are very fond of applying this prophecy to Cyrus's victory over the gods of Babylon; they make him the "ravenous bird from the east" (v.11). But the discovery of the Cyrus Cylinder has written absurdity across such a conclusion. For Cyrus himself prayed to Bel-Marduk for a blessing on his imperialism. Indeed he urged the people of Babylon to harness all their gods to the success of his cause. The hypothesis of a post-captivity "deutero"-Isaiah constantly runs into problems of this sort.

 

Jehovah and Israel

 

A lovely and telling contrast is made between Nebo and Bel, borne by their devotees, dragged around on carts, and Jehovah who Himself bears His people Israel from childhood as though He were their nursing-father: "In the wilderness thou hast seen how that the Lord thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son, in all the way that ye went" (Dt. 1:31).

 

So also Isaiah: "Israel...are borne by me from the belly" and are "carried from the womb" (v.3). But not just in national childhood. A superb fivefold personal pronoun intensifies the emphasis: "Even to your old age, I am he: and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry you, and will deliver you" (v.4).

 

In other words, ceaselessly all through their history God cares for them and delivers — yes, delivers! What a contrast with those images which "themselves are gone into captivity" (v.2) — taken by men of Israel harassing the retreat of these shattered bewildered Assyrian devotees.

 


* Cp. the names Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, and the rest.

** E.g. there was a temple of Nebo at Calah (Gen. 10:12), an important part of the city of Nineveh.

*** "The honoured has become the onerous".

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The tirade continues

 

With this fresh demonstration of idol helplessness putting a new point to his pen, Isaiah takes up the exposure of pagan folly with renewed zest.

 

What sort of likeness can you possibly find anywhere to the Creator of all? (v.5). See these fools pouring out their treasure, and assiduously dedicating all their finest skills to the making of a god who then has to be propped up, and who cannot stir an inch without the muscle-power of brawny unspiritual iconoclasters (v.6,7).

 

The marvel of it, then, that God's own children should be taken in by mummery of this sort! Yet even now there were in Israel those who were mesmerised by such cults. Why don't you grow up? Use your brains, and then see yourselves as grievous sinners in your Creator's sight. "Shew yourselves men: bring it again to mind, O ye transgressors" (v.8; cp. 48:8).

 

God in control

 

The suggested cure is a contemplation of the mighty acts of God, both ancient and recent — His work in Creation ("the former things of old"), and also His shaping of current events. The end had been declared from the beginning — the irresistible Assyrian invasion (8:7,8; 10:5,6), the futility of all statecraft to cope with the situa­tion (8:9,11,12; 30:1-5), the catastrophic overthrow and sensational deliverance (14:25; 17:11-14; 30:30,31 etc.)

 

The prophet now drew fresh attention to these remarkable facts: "I have spoken, I will bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it!" (v.11).

 

This "calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man...from a far country" was Jehovah's work. The far country was Assyria, the man Sennacherib, called "a ravenous bird" with caustic allusion to the god he worshipped. Nisroch (37:38) would sound to Jewish ears like "the eagle is my brother," but it could also be a Hebraised form of the name Ashur compounded with the name of Aku, the moon-god, also called Sin.*

 

There was no longer any need to take on these pagan invaders in religious dialectic. But men of Israel must be rescued from their pernicious self-reliance and wretched faithlessness. Hence the expostulation: "Hearken unto me, ye stouthearted, that are far from righteousness" (v.1 2; 48:4).

 

Let them put their trust in God's deliverance, now imminent: "I bring near my righteousness; it shall not be far off, and my salvation shall not tarry**: and I will place salvation in Zion for Israel my glory" (v.13 cp.45:21 -25). It was to be a climax that would leave all without excuse.

 

A message for later days also

 

This final exhortation took on a splendid appropriateness in NT. times when Israel, "going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God" (Rom. 10:3). But "My righteousness, My salvation" (46:13) means Jesus, the Lord our Righteousness. And he is not "far off", for "the Word is nigh thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is the Word of faith which we preach" (Rom. 10:8). "Not far off" in another sense also, for "yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry" (Heb. 10:37).

 

In Hezekiah's day, Heaven's "salvation" (deliverance) came when the people through their king went into the sanctuary of the Lord and prayed for help which they could not provide for themselves. Today, when natural Israel and an unspiritual New Israel likewise betake themselves to earnest prayer for the open display of God's "righteousness" in an evil world, then "salvation" will come, but not until. To­day, by their lack of heartfelt sincerity, prayers for the Second Coming turn that great Day into a formality, a matter of mere words. "We believe it, Lord, but not much."

 

There is need for a New Birth. God can bring this to pass, and He will: "I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and I will deliver you" (v.4). These emphatic words will yet take on another meaning.

 


* Sennacherib is probably: "Sin-Aku is on my side."

** So also a contemporary prophet: Hab. 2:3.

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The Last Days

 

Peter evidently saw the force of this prophecy for the idol-worshipping generation that will see the coming of the Lord, for his treatise on the Last Days uses the vocabulary of Isaiah here.



Isaiah 46


2 Peter 3

10.

My counsel shall stand

9.

The Lord is not slack concerning



.

his promise.

13.

I bring near my righteousness.

13.

New heavens and a new earth




wherein dwelleth righteousness.

13.

My salvation

15.

The long suffering of our Lord is




salvation.

 

 



Isaiah 46


2 Peter 3

13.

— shall not tarry (LXX: bradunō)

9.

The Lord is not slack (bradunō)

10.

Declaring the end from the beginning.

4,5

Where is the promise of his




coming?...as they were from the




beginning.

8.

Ye transgressors

17.

The error of the wicked.

8.

Bring it to mind (LXX: epistrephō)

11.

All holy conversation (anastrophē)

8.

Remember this

1.

I stir up your pure minds by way



9.

of remembrance.

8.

Bring it to mind


That all should come to repentance

 

There are also correspondences with a strongly-Messianic psalm which are difficult to account for.



Isaiah 46


Psalm 71

3.

Israel borne by me from the belly.

6.

By thee have I been holden up from




the womb.

4.

Even to your old age, I am he.

18.

When I am old and greyheaded.

13.

My righteousness... my salvation.

15.

Thy righteousness...thy salvation.

9.

I am God, and there is none like unto me.

19.

O God, who is like unto thee?

4.

I will deliver thee.

2.

Deliver me in thy righteousness.
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47 (1) Babylon or Assyria?

 

The Babylon prophecy which fills Isaiah 47 is, of course, one of the main foundations of the modern view which dates "Deutero-lsaiah" at the end of the Babylonian captivity. So an examination of this side of the problem is called for.

 

Through long centuries Mesopotamia was dominated by Babylon on the Euphrates ("leviathan the crooked serpent") and Nineveh on the Tigris ("leviathan the swift serpent"; 27:1). The cultures, languages, religions, economics, ambitions of these two cities were practically identical. In Isaiah's day, and for another hundred years, Assyria was dominant. Then, with the help of Medes, Elamites and others, Babylon utterly destroyed Nineveh (B.C. 606), and took over the imperial role for most of the next century.

 

In the time of Isaiah, because of the problems constantly created by the turbulent irrepressible Merodach-Baladan, the Assyrian kings mounted one campaign after another against Babylon. Sennacherib himself captured and re-captured the city several times over. In an attempt to quell these troublesome Babylonians, hundreds of thousands of captives were deported to other parts of the Assyrian empire (see, for example, 2 Kgs. 17:24). This policy of deportation was first invented by Tiglath-pileser III.

 

The Assyrian kings were immensely proud of their conquest of Babylon. "King of Babylon was their most glorious title (cp. "Ind. Imp." in the days of the British Raj), and, whatever the inconvenience to state affairs, they seem to have made a point of being in Babylon at the appropriate time each year in order to "take the hands of Marduk," receiving through the high-priest of that god the authority to rule the city for the ensuing year.

 

All this helps to explain — what would otherwise be somewhat bewildering — how in some OT. passages there seems to be a confusion between Babylon and Assyria, one of these names being used when the other would seem to be more appropriate.

 

Ezra refers to Darius (Hystaspes?) as "king of Assyria" (6:22). Lamentations refers to Egyptians and Assyrians (5:6) at a time when Assyrian influence had gone completely; presumably Babylonians are meant. Exactly the same switch of names comes in Zech. 10:10,11.

 

Similarly, Isaiah's prophecies against "Babylon" (ch. 13,14) are pointless, quite without any contemporary significance, if written with reference to Nebuchad­nezzar's Babylon of a century later. But once the equation of contemporary Assyria with Babylon is recognized, these chapters could hardly be more relevant. In any case, ch. 14 switches its nomenclature very pointedly from "king of Babylon" (v.4) to "the Assyrian" (v.25), thus leaving the interpreter without excuse. So it was not inappropriate for Zephaniah (2:14,15) to allude to Isaiah 13 (v.21,22) in a prophecy about Nineveh.

 

Micah, one of Isaiah's contemporary prophets, mentions the aggressor by name — "the Assyrian" (5:5); yet the "daughter of Zion" is told that she shall "go even to Babylon" (4:10) into captivity, and "there thou shalt be delivered." Following out their usual policy, the Assyrians deported great numbers of captives from Babylon, and then Sennacherib (according to the Taylor prism) rounded up 200,000 Jewish prisoners and, according to this scripture, carried them off to Babylon to fill their places.

 

Here also is the explanation of the otherwise mystifying reference in 2 Chr. 33:11: "the king of Assyria (Esarhaddon) took Manasseh,...and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon."

 

And Stephen perpetrated no howler when he turned Amos' prophecy (5:27) that God would "cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus" (the Assyrian captivi­ty of the northern kingdom) into "I will carry you away beyond Babylon (Acts 7:43).

 

All the "sons of Korah" psalms are Hezekiah psalms, yet Psalm 87 leaves Assyria out of its catalogue, and mentions Babylon as the counterpoise to Egypt.

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Other Prophets quote Isaiah

 

Nahum 3 is unmistakably about the overthrow of Assyria (v.7), yet that chapter makes great use of Isaiah 47 which is addressed to "the virgin daughter of Babylon" (3:4,5,16=47:2,3,9,15. Nahum 1:15 (=ls. 52:7) and 1:13 (=47:6d) are other examples. And Zeph. 2:13,15 very clearly refers to Is 47:8, applying the words to Assyria.

 

These facts are specially valuable as showing that Nahum, probably Isaiah's con­temporary, and Zephaniah, who came nearly a century after Isaiah, read Isaiah 47 as a prophecy about Nineveh and not Nebuchadnezzar's Babylon. They are also something of a problem to those who insist that "deutero"-lsaiah comes at the end of the Babylonian captivity, for how could Nahum or Zephaniah quote from a prophet who wrote at the end of the seventy years in Babylon?

 

There are phrases in Is. 47:1 which were surely chosen to make deliberate allusion to what the prophet had already said about Jerusalem. "O virgin daughter of Babylon" echoes the derision of 37:22: "the virgin daughter of Zion hath laughed thee to scorn." And the misery foretold for Jerusalem is promised also to "Babylon", the Assyrian enemy who caused it: "she being desolate shall sit on the ground" (3:26 = 47:1).

 

The words of 47:6 were terribly true of the cruel Assyrians: "thou didst show them no mercy; upon the ancient (people; 44:7) hast thou very heavily laid thy yoke;" but not at all true of the Babylonian captivity, when Judaean captives were able to "build houses and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them; to take wives, and beget sons and daughters" (Jer. 29:5,6).

 

Thus, whilst difficulties pile up in the way of applying Isaiah 47 to Nebuchad­nezzar's Babylon, there is no lack of reasons for referring the prophecy to the Assyrian oppressor of Isaiah's own day. This has now been shown not to be out of harmony with Biblical usage. And the modernist view of "deutero"-lsaiah has lost one of its strongest arguments.

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47 (2). The Queen City

 

Isaiah had already repeatedly denounced and derided the gods of "Babylon" itself. Reasons have been advanced (see previous chapter) why this "Babylon" prophecy should be read with reference to Nineveh, the queen city of the Assyrian empire, which in Isaiah's day was at the height of its tyranny and power.

 

Sennacherib had scoffed and jeered at the God of Jerusalem, but "the virgin daughter of Zion despised him, laughed him to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem shook her head at him" (37:22). This prophecy is an expression of that contempt which, even in the darkest hour, men of God (like Isaiah and his prophet contemporaries) were capable of.

 

"Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon; sit on the ground, there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans." From the time that Sennacherib and his minion Rabshakeh mounted their campaign of tirade against the God of Israel, the doom of Nineveh was sealed. The queen city was to become a slave, grinding meal at millstones, going into bondage in nakedness and shame (v.2). The repeated imperatives "sit...sit...sit...stand...stand" (v.1,5,8,12,13) emphasize the pointed humiliation.

 

The title "virgin daughter" is an evident misnomer as applied to the literal Babylon. This designation, so apt with reference to inviolate Jerusalem when besieged by Sennacherib, and also the confident claim that "I shall not sit as a widow" (v.8), was hopelessly unsuited to Babylon, for in Isaiah's time that city was captured by the Assyrians over and over again. In one of Sennacherib's campaigns against it (B.C. 689) — they were all of them successful — the city came in for specially rough treatment. Yet it is not possible to read this prophecy with reference to that experience, for the language simply does not fit the Babylon of Isaiah's day.

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Similar language

 

But sinister echoes of the treatment meted out to God's people during the Assyrian campaign are constantly met with here. Indeed this chapter is full of sardonic allusions to that experience and to Isaiah's prophecies regarding it (a further demonstration that the Assyrian application is the right one).



Isaiah 47


2.

Pass over the rivers

43:2

3.

Thy nakedness, thy shame

Mic. 1:8,11

5.

Into darkness (captivity)

42:7

6.

The ancient (people) The yoke

44:7


The yoke

10:27; 14:25

8.

Dwell carelessly (securely)

37:10


Not a widow

54:4

11.

Evil come upon thee.

Nah. 1:11

12.

from thy youth...not able

Gen. 10:11*

8, 10

I am, and none else beside me.

46:9

9.

Loss of children

49:21

14.

Not a coal to warm at, nor a fire to sit before

44:16


as stubble

33:11

 


* ln the time of Nimrod ("thy youth") Calah was an important part of the city of Nineveh. This Hebrew word for "able" makes a play on Calah.

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Triple condemnation

 

Three outstanding reasons are given why summary judgment must fall on the pagan enemy.

 

First, when used as instrument of retribution against God's people, its power was wielded with utterly unwarranted brutality: "I was wroth with my people, I profaned my inheritance, and gave them into thy hand: thou didst show no mercy; upon the ancient people thou hast very heavily laid thy yoke" (v.6).

 

Any attempt to apply these words to the literal Babylon either in Isaiah's day, or in the time of an end-of-Babylonian-captivity "Isaiah", fails completely (see ch.47 on this). But every word here is marvellously true regarding the Assyrian terror. Therefore "I will take vengeance, and I will not meet thee as a man" (v.3), but with angelic judgment (37:36).

 

Secondly, because of the oppressor's pride and blasphemy: "I shall be a lady forever...thou that art given to pleasure, that dwellest confidently, that sayest in thine heart, I am, and there is none beside me (cp. 46:9; here is the supreme blasphemy); I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children (i.e. of conquered territories)" (v.7,8,10).

 

"Therefore (because of this blasphemy) shall evil come upon thee...thou shalt not be able to put it off" (v.11).

 

And thirdly, because of the exaltation of a man-made religion full of pretentious hocus-pocus: "for the multitude of thy sorceries, and for the great abundance of thine enchantments (v.9, and again in v. 12)...Thy wisdom and thy knowledge hath perverted thee (v.10)...Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators stand up, and save thee..." (v.13).

 

Calendar in collapse

 

In his remarkable and fascinating book "Worlds in Collision" (p.336), Velikovsky quotes these words with reference to his thesis that in Isaiah's time both the month and the year became permanently dislocated through a perturbation of the earth's orbit brought about by the close approach of the planet Venus. He could well be right.*

 

Such an amazing phenomenon would reduce the astrological religion of Assyria and Babylon to chaos, and would involve considerable feverish activity on the part of the priest-astronomers before they were able to get their religious calendar tidy once again.

 


* Nobody except Velikovsky has ever explained why the ancient Babylonian year had 360 days (and not 365'4); Dan. 7:25; Rev. 12:14,6; and the Babylonians were pretty accurate astronomers.

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Isaiah and Nahum

 

Nahum's familiarity with Isaiah 47 is very marked:

 

v.3 Thy nakedness shall be uncovered (3:5)

v.9 For the multitude of thy sorceries (3:4)

v.14 As stubble (1:10)

v.15 Thy merchants (3:16)

v.5 Get thee unto darkness (1:8)

v.3 I will take vengeance (1:2)

v.11 Evil shall come upon thee (because of 1:11)

v.13 The multitude of thy counsels (1:11)

v.6 Thy yoke (1:13)

v.14 The fire shall burn them (3:15). Clearly there is identity of subject here.

 

Then, since by common consent, Nahum spoke about Nineveh, so, also, Isaiah 47.

 

With allusion to his earlier tirade against the fashioning of idols (44:16), Isaiah promised that the proud city and its gods would share the same fate: "Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them...there shall not be a coal to warm at, nor fire to sit before" (v.14). It was nearly a century before Isaiah and his contemporary Nahum were proved true prophets.*

 

A query arises here. If, indeed, Isaiah's prophecies are so strongly rooted in his own time, is not this 47th chapter, being a prophecy of Nineveh's destruction a century later, out of place with the rest? All at once the contemporary emphasis has got lost.

 

Does Jonah provide a clue regarding this? "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown" — long after the time of Jonah Nineveh lorded it over a mighty empire. It was the dramatic, though not long-lasting, repentance which brought deferment of judgment (Jonah 3, especially v.9,10).

 

It looks as though Sennacherib learned his lesson in Jerusalem, and accorded more wholesome respect to the God of Israel. He certainly left Judah alone for the rest of his reign, and he sent back home that great multitude of Judaean captives.

 

Perhaps this change of heart explains why Sennacherib himself survived the cataclysm which destroyed his army. For more details on this, see H.Gt., p.80.

 

N.T. allusions

 

Yet another feature of Isaiah 47 is the pointed use of it made in the Apocalypse.

 

"For she (the Babylon of the Apocalypse) saith in her heart, I sit a queen and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow" (18:7) — this is Isaiah 47:8. And the allusion to "the merchants of the earth" (18:11) is matched in 47:15. Also the plague of darkness in the beast's kingdom (16:10) has its counterpart in 47:5.

 

In recent years the easy assumption that the Babylon of Revelation is the Roman church has been seen to rest on rather precarious foundations. On the other hand copious Bible evidence has been adduced ("Rev": ch.34) pointing to equation with apostate Jerusalem.

 

At first sight any parallel (which it is certainly reasonable to look for) with Assyria seems right out of question. Yet the parallel is there. In the first century the great enemy of the gospel was not Rome but Judaism. The NT evidence for this is massive. Thus, just as Assyria sought to destroy Hezekiah and his faithful remnant but was itself destroyed, so also the bitter antagonism of Jewry to the cause of Christ led to the horrors of A.D. 70 and the end of the temple. Jerusalem the queen city became a slave**, and will yet again before Messiah's coming. Self-confidence and false religion will alike be found futile. The supreme blasphemy of Jewry today is the claim that Israel is her own redeemer: "I am, and there is none else beside me." This pride will be rebuked. "I will take vengeance."

 

Another N.T. allusion is the warning that "when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them" (1 Th. 5:3). This is reminiscent of Is. 47:11: "Desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou shalt not know."

 

But God will also save. Verse 4, re-punctuated, reads: "A Man is our Redeemer, the Lord of hosts is his Name, the Holy One of Israel."

 


* If this destiny was foretold by a "deutero"-Isaiah in the time of Cyrus, he was a false prophet, for several details in this chapter were never true of Babylon.

** This very idea was commemorated in a coin of Vespasian's.

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48 (1). Saving an Unworthy People

 

Isaiah 48 divides itself neatly into halves — v.1-11, 12-22 — thus: Verse 1: "Hear ye this, O house of Jacob, which are called by the name of Israel." Verse 12: "Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my called."

 

Right through there are constant echoes of the phraseology and ideas in ch. 40-47, and especially (as will be shown) in ch. 44,45. So it becomes a foregone conclusion that what that preceding part of the prophecy is about will be found to be the theme of ch. 48 also.

 

Modern interpretation

 

The modernists run into more serious problems here. Completely sold on the hypothesis that "deutero"-Isaiah was written in Babylon in the time of Cyrus, they find in this chapter a vexing accumulation of details which just won't fit. An auxiliary theory now invents another prophet later than "deutero" who has sought a strange kind of immortality by working oddments of his own writing — verses 1,2,4,5,7c,8b,9-11,17-19 — into what the earlier Cyrus enthusiast had bequeath­ed to him! Evidence for this? merely the subjective insight of a 19th or 20th century Hebraist, such as Cheyne.

 

Over against this fantasy is the satisfying understanding provided by the events of Isaiah's own time, the reign of king Hezekiah. What has explained ch.40-47 in greater detail than any other theory will be found equally useful here. The key fits the lock each time it is used.

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Unregenerate Israel

 

The bitter reproaches made here against Israel are no new feature (cp. 42:25; 43:24; 45:9), and later in the prophecy these are found to intensify (in ch. 56-59,65,66).

 

The reason for this is not hard to find. The great reformation pushed through by Hezekiah was neither complete nor enduring*. An entire nation does not turn over a new leaf overnight. The contemporary prophecy of Micah shows clearly enough a religious state of affairs markedly similar to that reflected in Isaiah.

 

Many of the people were ready to "swear by the name of the Lord, and to make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness" (v.1 )The same hypocrisy carried through to the time of Jeremiah: "though they say, The Lord liveth; surely they swear falsely" (5:2; cp. also Zeph. 1:5). In another place Jeremiah pleaded for a spirit of sincerity (4:2), putting points to his entreaty by quoting Isaiah's words about this very evil.

 

Yet at the same time they put an almost superstitious reliance on the holiness of their city and of their calling as God's elect nation — a strange inconsistency!: "They call themselves of the holy city, and stay themselves upon the God of Israel" (v.2). So also Micah. A withering censure of heads, priests and prophets ends with: "Yet will they lean upon the Lord, and say, Is not the Lord among us? none evil can come upon us" (3:11). What a contrast with Isaiah's exhortation: "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed (s.w. 48:2) on thee" (26:3).

 

Isaiah spoke bluntly about "thy neck an iron sinew (which refused to shrink; Gen. 32:32; Acts 7:51), and thy brow brass (instead of the gold of holiness; Ex. 28:38; cp. Jer. 3:3b)" (v.4).

 

When things went well, many in Israel were marvellously ready to say: "Mine idol hath done them, and my graven image, and my molten image, hath commanded them" (v.5). So Isaiah's repeated tirades against the folly of idols were not aimed only at the Assyrian oppressor. Israel's serpent of brass had to be dubbed Nehushtan (2 Kgs. 18:4).

 

This Jacob was "called a transgressor from the womb," so named before he was born: "one who grabs another by the heel." In due time the patriarch became Israel, but the nation which came from him showed small prospect of a like transformation, nor does it!

 

Yet now and then the words of the prophets were not without effect. In the time of the Assyrian invasion, a well-deserved retribution brought upon a nation still mostly unregenerate, God's anger was deferred and Judah was not cut off (v.9).

 

And it was to happen again when a deputation came to Jerusalem from Merodach-baladan, king of Babylon, seeking an alliance against Assyria. Influenced by the bad men of his court, Hezekiah agreed, and then was trounced by the prophets for such a lamentable lapse into dependance on an arm of flesh. "Thy sons shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon," Isaiah foretold. And Micah: "Zion shall be ploughed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps" (3:12).

 

Hezekiah, wholesome man that he was, took heed, and so also did the men of Jerusalem (2 Chr. 32:26; Jer. 26:18,19). This repentance had its effect. Again God deferred His anger, and did not cut off His people there and then (v.9).

 


* And so also in the time of Josiah, as the prophecies of Jeremiah show only too clearly.

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God at work

 

This mildness was "for his name's sake" — the emphasis comes four times in v.9,11* — the Name which had been proclaimed to Moses after the sin of the golden calf: "merciful and gracious, long-suffering...keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin" (Ex. 34:6,7).

 

But discipline there must be. Only thus could their God "teach Israel to profit" (v. 17; cp. Heb. 12:10). In their earliest days He had "chosen His people in the furnace of affliction" in Egypt (v. 10; Dt. 4:20). And so also in Hezekiah's day, and that not for the last time.

 

It was an affliction intended not to destroy but to purify. And the God of Israel made this plain by declaring the fact beforehand, thus demonstrating by fulfilment that He is a God of Purpose and Power, a God in control. It was the same argument which Isaiah had already used repeatedly (41:22; 42:9; 44:7,8; 45:21; 46:9,10), and which he now re-asserted yet another four times in the present argument.

 

"I have declared the former things from the beginning...I did them suddenly, and they came to pass" (v.3; and also v.5,6,7).**

 

Most probably, the reference is to the dramatic devastation of the Assyrian camp outside Jerusalem, foretold by God's prophets and accomplished in a night by God's angel (37:33-37). Indeed, in the very "beginning" (v.5,6,7 s.w.), before the Assyrian campaign began, its vindication of the God of Israel was declared (14:25; 17:14 etc.).

 

But the third and fourth repetitions (v.6,7) emphasize "new things...even hidden things...lest thou shouldest say, Behold, I knew them."

 

Here is intimation of a drastic new development in God's purpose with Israel, another deliverance — compared with which all the marvels and blessings of Hezekiah's time will pale into insignificance. ***Yet —an added wonder!—all that the prophet had spoken concerning those pregnant events of his own day, all that God did for His faithful servant then, would be re-enacted on a grander scale, with Messiah, the Suffering Servant, at the centre of it all.

 


* Cp. Ez. 20:9,14,22,44; and in each place contrast the preceding verse.

** Why, in these verses, should the prophet's Hebrew swither between masculine and feminine?

*** The development of these ideas deserves a fresh chapter — ch.26.

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Link with earlier prophecies

 

The linguistic similarities which abound between Isaiah 48 and the preceding chapters are very marked. This is specially true of the links with ch. 44,45.



Isaiah 48


5.

Declared from the beginning.

45:21

13.

Heaven and earth.

45:12; 44:23

14.

Assemble yourselves.

45:20


I have loved him.

45:1


He will do his pleasure.

44:28

15.

I have called him.

45:3,4

16.

I have not spoken in secret.

45:19


The Lord God, and his Spirit, hath sent me.

44:26

17.

the Lord thy Redeemer

44:2,24.

It surely follows, then, that these parts of the prophecy have the same theme. If this chapter is about Messiah and his prototype Hezekiah, then so also is the so- called "Cyrus" prophecy — and conversely. Other features of the prophecy confirm this conclusion. There is no other hypothesis than the one now being worked out, which imparts so much meaning to the details.

 

Heavens and earth

 

"Mine hand hath laid the foundations of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens." If Velikovsky's remarkable thesis is correct, that in Isaiah's time there were sensational cosmic events involving the planet Venus or the close approach of a comet to the earth*, it is easier to understand the prophet's frequent allusions to the marvels of heaven and earth, all in the hand of God (13:13; 34:4,5; 37:16; 40:12,11; 42:5; 44:24; 45:12,18; 48:13; 50:3; 51:6,13,16; 64:1; 65:17,22). Against such a background, the unwavering message of a God in control would be specially impressive.

 

The cataclysm which reduced the cocksure Assyrian to shame and silence (in his record of the campaign, cp. Taylor prism) meant also the deliverance of that multitude of captives who had been deported to Babylon: "The Lord** hath loved him (Hezekiah): he will do his pleasure on (or, in) Babylon, and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans" (v. 14).

 


* "Worlds in Collision" and "Earth in Upheaval".

** This Covenant name comes six times in v. 14-22.

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A New Exodus

 

"Go ye forth of Babylon, flee ye from the Chaldeans" (v.20). All the language (v.20, 21) is that of another Exodus, like that led by Moses out of Egyptian bondage.



Exodus

"Flee ye"

14:5

"A voice of singing"

15:1

"Utter it"

13:8 s.w.

"Redeemed"

6:6

"Waters out of the rock"*

17:6

(cp. 41:17,18)


"The Lord God hath sent me"

3:14

(v.16)

The key to the situation was one man who stood specially high in God's esteem: "I, even I, have spoken (about him); yea, I have called him: I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous." This was Hezekiah, whose birth and character and achievements had all been foretold in earlier days (7:14; 9:6,7; 11:1-12).

 

So important did the prophet deem this part of his message that he re-asserted a divine inspiration behind the writing of it: "The Lord God, and his Spirit, hath sent me" (v.16; cp. 34:16). "I am the Lord thy God, which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way thou shouldest go" (v. 17). Through Isaiah God was the instructor of both king and nation (30:20; cp. Jer. 32:33) as well as Redeemer (go'el), ransoming the people from their apparently hopeless bondage.

 

The tribulation of that time, which also was God's instruction and discipline (Heb. 12:10), would have been unnecessary if only "thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river (a vast smooth-flowing Euphrates or a tranquil gentle Jordan; contrast 57:20), and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea (the winsomeness of the sea of Galilee, so the Hebrew text suggests)." And instead of the depopulation and ravages of war, "thy seed had been as the sand" of the seashore (v.19).

 

The prophecy's conclusion — "There is no peace, saith the Lord, to the wicked" (v.22) — reads as though out of context (cp. v.20,21). But the recurrence of this refrain in 57:21 (no peace for the wicked) and 66:24 (no wicked!) makes the in­sertion appear to make a division of "deutero"-Isaiah into three parts of nine chapters each.**

 


* ln Isaiah's day, the Siloam conduit (2 Chr. 32:30; 2 Kgs. 18:17; Is. 8:6)?

** In Is. 53 this becomes important.

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