Read Isaiah
41-42 & Colossians
1
To discover:
As you read consider how
God acts for Israel ’s
good.
To ponder:
Chapter 41 begins with God commanding silence from the
nations, and calling them in their weariness, no doubt through suffering and
anxiety, to strengthen and meet with God for judgement. The LORD then tells of
how, just as he has called every generation to fulfil his purposes, he has
displayed his righteousness in calling a ruler in the east to serve him by
pursuing, subjecting and destroying nations, and remaining unscathed in doing
so (41v1-4). This almost certainly refers to the Persian Cyrus (see 45v1), who
would be God’s means of judging Babylon
amongst others. As we have seen throughout, God uses even the evil motives of
the rulers of the world to execute his justice.
In response
the earth is said to tremble, with people encouraging each other to be strong
and make new idols to turn to for help (41v5-7). Yet here, God encourages Israel
himself, telling her she need not fear, as she is his chosen servant, descended
from his friend Abraham. He therefore promises to strengthen and uphold Israel
in the face of this threat. His “righteous right hand” probably refers to the
fact that this reflects his commitment to do right by his promises to both
Abraham and Israel
(41v8-10). So God states that all who rage against Israel will be ashamed by
defeat and destruction, and reiterates his promise to help the small nation of
Israel because he is her redeemer – presumably, referring to the relationship
he entered into with her through the Exodus (41v11-14). What specifically God
will do, is make Israel like the sledge used to separate wheat from the chaff,
but with focus on them reducing the hills to nothing. As in 40v4 this probably
refers to him enabling the people to return home across the mountains from
their exile in Babylon with ease –
as they did after Cyrus’ decree that they could. And so they would rejoice in
the LORD (41v15-16). All this reflects our ultimate protection because of God’s
commitments to us in Christ: Nothing can separate us from his love, and he will
bring us to the glory to come with equal ease.
41v17-20 may
look to the final state when the new creation will thrive. But more likely, it
is figuratively describing how God will not forsake his people, but enable
those in exile who thirst in their need of better life to then thrive, causing
others to recognise that this miraculous transformation was from God. Here,
again, God calls the nations’ idols to give evidence that they are actually
gods and so can predict the future from past events, or do anything at all so
that they should be feared. It’s a challenge to Isaiah’s hearers not to put
their trust in idols as they face the rising threat of Persia
(as in 41v7), for they are not only worthless, but less than nothing in the
sense that they actually lead astray. Those choosing them are “detestable”
because they give false gods the honour and trust that God alone is due. We
should view the self-conceived gods of our day in this way too.
Here Cyrus’
attack of Babylon from the north is
predicted. He calls on God’s name probably only in the sense that he
acknowledges Israel ’s
God as he would have those of the other peoples he conquered (see Ez 1v2-4).
And the point of the prediction would be that when the events happen it would
be recognized that no-one else but God foretold it. Indeed, he challenges the
idols to say which of them predicted it, stating that none can answer, so
proving that they and their images are nothing (41v25-29). We should see the
fact that all these things came to pass as proof that Israel ’s
God is the one true God too.
So far
Cyrus and Israel
have been described as servants (41v2, 8). 42v1 introduces a third. Like the
second he is chosen, and like the first, he executes justice. But he is
different: He will receive strength from God, be delighted in by him, and act
justly with respect to all nations in the power of his Spirit. He will not do
this in a way that oppresses the weak, and he will continue until justice fills
the entire earth will all peoples hoping in his law, ie. trusting it to provide
the order and wellbeing law should bring (42v1-4). The descent of the Spirit at
Jesus’ baptism presents him as this servant. And with great solemnity, God
declares that he is the creator and states that in his righteous commitment to
his promises, he has called this servant to embody a new covenant agreement
between him and his people, and to be a light for Gentiles, which probably
implies his teaching (as 42v4) flowing from Israel to the nations, enabling
them to escape the darkness of evil and ignorance. This suggests 42v7 is
primarily figurative, as Jesus himself taught (Jn 9v39).
In the
light of all this, God affirms that he alone is the LORD and will not give his
glory to others by having people praise idols. The point seems to be that as
people see his reality proved by his former predictions about Cyrus coming to
pass, they should turn to him from idols in readiness for these “new things” he
is predicting about the coming servant (42v8-9). So the islands of the world
(ie. distant places across the sea) are called to sing a new song to God, as
are closer lands (eg. Kedar, that borders Israel ).
In particular they are to glorify God for marching in judgement against his
enemies (42v8-13). Here God speaks personally of how he has held this judgement
back in silence, but now he will cry out like a woman in childbirth, suggesting
his judgement will lead to the birth of a new order. So he will destroy the
earth, implying those in it, whilst also guiding the spiritually blind out of
their darkness into a place of stability, described as smooth ground they can’t
stumble on. The key mark of those who will not experience this salvation, is
that they trust in idols not the LORD (42v15-17).
Now a blind
and deaf servant is described (42v18-19). Whereas the previous servant brought
light, this one is in darkness like the Gentiles (see 42v6-7), and in what
follows, is clearly Israel
(as 41v8). The people have seen God’s acts (in Judah ’s
exile), but don’t see or hear their significance. For the sake of his
righteousness being witnessed by the nations in Israel ’s
adherence to the law, he made their law great and glorious (as Deut 4v6-8). But
instead of displaying its goodness, they disobeyed, provoking God’s judgement,
and leaving them plundered and imprisoned by Babylon .
And so God asks who from Israel
will listen to Isaiah, acknowledging that it was the LORD who brought this
about in his burning anger (42v20-25). Today many still baulk at the idea that
God was behind these events. But he wants to stress he was, so that we prepare
for the judgement to come by coming under the rule of his Spirit-anointed
servant, Jesus Christ.
Praying it home:
Praise God that in
Christ he brings light into our darkness. Pray that many would turn from idols
to the light of Christ.
Thinking
further:
None
today.
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