Community Bible Study -- Isaiah

Text of Presentation, Lesson 15, Isa 45:1-25

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The LORD Delivers His Servants
“Turning to God”

Tonight’s session covers chapter 45, skipping most of chapter 44 (which we read but didn’t discuss). However, 44:6 includes a one-liner from God that we’re familiar with:

This is what the LORD says . . . : I am the first and I am the last (Isa 44:6 )

This line is familiar because God also says it in the first chapter of the book of Revelation (Re 1:17). Here it a way to reemphasize a main point in this part of Isaiah: the LORD is the all-powerful God, and the only God.

Also in chapter 44 is God’s first revelation of the name of God’s agent to deliver the Jews from the Babylonian exile (44:28). This is of critical importance, because a main point of the last 5 chapters has been that the LORD’s ability to predict the future is proof of His Godhood. Hence tonight’s session starts with 44:23 instead of 45:1.

44:23 is a call to praise, in which the “heavens" and the “earth" are called to rejoice over the salvation of the Jewish exiles . . . now to be revealed (44:24-45:7). All nature (“mountains," “forests," and “trees") is commanded to join the song of redemption. this is a change from the beginning of the book when they were called to witness Israel's rebellion (1:2). Nature, in whom God's creative “glory" is seen, is called to praise God for his greater redemptive “glory" that will be displayed “in Israel." Truly his glory fills the earth (cf 6:3). In this visual (and auditory) way, Isaiah emphasizes again that the Creator of the world is the only One who can redeem the world.

44:24-28 now detail God's redemptive plans – which Isaiah has built up to since chapter 40. He names the “one from the east" (41:2) who will be Israel's savior: Cyrus, the Persian king who will conquer Babylon and order Jerusalem's temple rebuilt (44:28).

But naming Cyrus is only the climax of a list of participles in 44:24-28 defining “I am the LORD" (44:24). God identifies Himself and His lordship by what he does. (Recall: in the Middle Eastern mindset, “God is what God does.”) God the Creator “made" everything, stretching out “the heavens" and spreading out “the earth." God the Lord of history (44:25-26a) reveals Himself through “his servants" the prophets; He makes “fools" of those who try to predict the future with magic. God the Redeemer (44:26b-28) will rebuild the ruined Jerusalem and its surrounding towns. Creator, Lord of history, and Redeemer: God can even use the pagan emperor Cyrus to accomplish His purposes.

In 45:1-8 Cyrus receives his commission from God. He is called God's "anointed" – which is the Hebrew term for Messiah (45:1). His victories will be gifts from God's hand (45:1-3), provided for two purposes: so that Cyrus might know YHWH, “the God of Israel," is “the LORD," and so that God’s work in history will be done "for the sake of Jacob my servant."

Twice God calls Cyrus "by name," emphasizing that naming Cyrus as an important act of predictive prophecy. Isaiah has repeatedly insisted God alone can tell the future; attempts to do so by idol worshipers only make them look like "fools" (44:25). His ability to name the deliverer so far in advance is the climactic demonstration of this fact. Hence although naming Cyrus is the dramatic center of this passage, the focus is really on God, not Cyrus. If Isaiah ben Amoz is not the one making a predictive claim here – if some unknown historian wrote after the fact that Cyrus was God's man – this unknown writer denies the very thing he claims! He’s not writing great theology . . . but a pack of lies!

One evidence of God's lordship is that even though Cyrus does not “acknowledge” Him (45:4-5), He knows about Cyrus before Cyrus is born. The LORD rules the world of time and space. Some scholars believe the statement that Cyrus will recognize this eventually is confirmed in the book of Daniel (cf Dan. 6:26-27) and/or by Cyrus's acknowledgment – recorded in Ezra 1:2 – that he was called by the LORD to release the Jews.

45:5-8 reiterate the power and absolute uniqueness of God. There is none like Him; His goal is that people all over the world will recognize His uniqueness. Three different times the Lord makes the statement there is no other god than He (45:5-6), and He sums things up (45:7) with a dramatic statement that nothing on earth occurs apart from Him. In this assertion, Isaiah denys the pagan understanding that good and evil (or light and dark) are two eternally coexistent principles battling in the universe. Isaiah claims there is only good and light: God. Evil and darkness exist only because God permits them to exist.

But this does not mean God is neutral; God passionately cares about the direction creation takes. He "created" the earth for "righteousness" to prevail and "salvation" to rule, delivering man from the effects of evil (45:8).

45:9-13 answer an unspoken challenge to the propriety of what God has just promised: using someone who does not know God to save God’s people. A faithful remnant during the Babylonian exile devoted their lives to studying Scripture; they would expect God to raise up a deliverer like Moses, who knew and loved the Lord and through whom God could reveal himself. But God asserts he has a right as Creator and Redeemer to do whatever He likes, and He pronounces doom ("woe," 45:9-10) on any who challenge this. It’s like a pot criticizing the potter for his design, or a baby challenging his parents for having birthed it. Furthermore, as Maker of the universe and Creator of all "mankind" – as well as Israel's "Holy One" and "Maker" – God has a right to set his "exiles free" in the way he chooses as an expression of his own "righteousness" (45:11-13)!

The phrase "I am the Lord" is repeated four times (44:24; 45:3,5,6) as God makes clear once again: He is the only God! This brings those who read and believe Isaiah into direct conflict with today’s mindset, which emphasizes tolerance as the prime virtue. In modern America we can persecute rednecks and smokers and pro-life activists, but otherwise the only thing we are allowed to be intolerant of is intolerance . . . certainly not atheists or other religions – not even terrorists masquerading as Moslems. But Isaiah wants the Jews to be intolerant. Isaiah says the “gods" of Babylon and of other religions are not gods at all, and we sin if we do not insist firmly on God's uniqueness.

We ought to have that same concern today. Islam is the fastest growing religion in America – and many Hindus and others from Eastern religions come here because of economic opportunity. There is intense political pressure – emanating from well-funded anti-Christian groups like the ACLU – to eliminate Judeo-Christian values from our society as a way to “welcome” these people. But Isaiah would say the opposite; this is not the time to dilute our faith and claim other faiths "contain a lot of the truth too." This is the time to share the Judeo-Christian values which have made America what it is!

The grace we have received gives us no grounds for feeling superior to those who have not responded to this grace; Jesus commands us to love unbelieving neighbors as ourselves (Lk 10:27-37). Hence we must not be rude or vicious with persons of other faiths or of no faith . . . but neither should we confirm them in their error! Nevertheless, since this puts us out of step with postmodern political correctness, we can expect persecution . . . and we’re already experiencing it!

The balance of chapter 45 sums up God's superiority over the idols by contrasting God's ability to save with the inability of the idols. 45:14 paints a picture of people from the ends of the earth coming humbly to Israel, admitting Israel's God is the only God. The gods of the idol makers fail and leave them in “disgrace" as they “go off" into captivity (45:16). But God's people are not “disgraced"; they are “saved" from captivity (45:17).

The reason is that God is the sole Creator of the universe, and he created it for a saving purpose, revealed in his promises to Jacob's descendants (45:18-19). Though His essence may be hidden (cf 45:15), His desire for relationship with mankind has been revealed over and over as he has "spoken" to them, inviting them to “seek" him (45:19).

The idol makers, described as “fugitives from the nations," are called before God (45:20). Everyone knows the idols have failed; their worshipers have been carrying useless hunks of wood. The LORD asks who predicted this; He alone did; He is the only God (45:21).

One might now expect gloating or words of judgment (as in 44:9-20), but instead – in a surprising illustration of grace – God gives an invitation to these people from the “ends of the earth" to “turn" to the Lord "and be saved" (45:22). God's ultimate purpose in this conflict with the idols is to save the idol worshipers, not destroy them. As with Israel, his ultimate purpose in judgment is redemption.

If he is the only God, he is also the only Savior. And if he created mankind and the world for good, he is the One to whom everyone must eventually turn to realize the purpose of their lives. But this is not an offer of universal salvation. Some accept God's offer and come; others refuse . . . and suffer "shame" and defeat (45:24).

One interesting thing we learn from this and previous chapters is that any impression the Old Testament Jewish faith was narrow and ethnically based is wrong; worldwide outreach was always part of “core Judaism.” YHWH is sole Creator and the only God of the whole world, so God's purposes are not just for Israel, but for the whole world; Israel is only the means by which those purposes are realized. The motivation that impels Christians to go to the ends of the earth is an Old Testament idea: that there is only one God and only one Savior; and the ends of the earth wait for him. The new thought introduced by Christianity was the concept of meeting God directly in Jesus the Messiah . . . that the image of the invisible God our Savior is manifested in Jesus, the Son of God.

It’s also interesting that 45:20 speaks of “ignorant” people who go around carrying “idols of wood.” No 21st century Americans carry idols around with them . . . yet when we talk about someone “burdened with guilt” and “burdened with cares,” we use the same adverb we would use for someone “burdened” by carrying a bundle of wooden statues wherever he goes. We worry about things like a job, a house, a car, a love relationship, and other things that enhance our self-image. We don’t call them “gods,” but the concept is the same, because they provide our sense of identity and meaning in life. Yet many suffer from burnout or breakdown because of overriding concerns about these things. Some borrow to the hilt live and beyond their means – like the tragic-comic Stanley Johnson in a TV commercial, who brags of all the good things he has, but laments “I can barely pay my finance charges; someone help me!” Stanley Johnson’s “toys” control him; they are a devastatingly heavy “burden.”

Isaiah has an answer to modern “burdens” . . . the same answer he gave 2700 years ago. We must put our burdens down and turn things over to God. The issue is whether we’re willing to trust God with the things we feel are so necessary to give us identity and meaning to life. Yet when we relinquish these things into God's hands, we begin to experience God carrying us. Meaning, purpose, identity, and fulfillment are ultimately things only God can provide in any case; so if we refuse to turn these things over to God, we effectively make them our idols.

So why is it so difficult to trust God with our lives? We’re not sure we’d like God’s choices. As ridiculous as it sounds, this really means we are afraid God will do a worse job directing our lives than we do! But we are just doing the same thing the Jews did during the Exile: allowing our fears to keep us from knowing God's care and deliverance.

We close with a comment about "righteousness." The Lord's righteousness and human righteousness are paralleled in 45:24-25. We are told righteousness is in the Lord and that the descendants of Israel will be found righteous in the Lord. What does this mean? The best illustration may be the story in Genesis 15 that Abraham was accounted righteous because he believed the incredible promises of God (Gen. 15:6). Abraham did the one right thing a human can do: He believed God. That’s also what the exiles are called upon to do: to believe God's promises and not cast away their faith. In God they can "be found righteous" if they believe what he says (45:25) . . . and so can we.

But this “righteousness" also means an ongoing life of faith. We do the “right" thing when we turn to God if faced with an impossible obstacle – believing he will carry us through it or around it or over it. To try to surmount it in our own strength or to allow it to defeat us is definitely not “right," because God's intention is that we should be "more than conquerors." So the life of faith is the life of righteousness. And as we live in constant surrender to God and trust in his promises, we will discover His plan of transformation for us, so that our behavior is more and more like His: righteous.