At last the particular issue of the Lord’s choice of Cyrus has faded into the background, but a deeper tension in the relationship between God and His people remains to be worked through. How could God abandon Zion and still be committed to its people? As long as Zion lay in ruins, the sense of being abandoned by God would prove exceedingly hard to shake off. Some, like Daniel, would be resilient enough to rise above it. Most would sink into deep depression and find the struggle to believe and hope again long and difficult. These verses are about that struggle and the pain at the heart of it.

Zion’s lament and the Lord’s response (49:14-21): Zion’s lament in verse 14 is in the end, irrational and groundless; it simply does not accord with the facts. God, being the God He is, can no more forget His people than a mother can forget the baby at her breast (v. 15). Like a master architect, He thinks about the plans for them day and night (v. 16). Like a father who is inordinately proud of His daughter God will not rest until His people are decked out like a bride (vv. 17-18) and settled like a happy mother with her family about her (vv. 19-21). Zion’s children will return to her, and more besides; she will overflow with them. She herself will not be able to comprehend the full extent of the blessing that will break over her. The images are mixed and do not always cohere logically, but they all affirm God’s love for His people and His tireless commitment to their welfare.

The choice facing the world (49:22-26): This of course, means that the rest of the world has a decision to make. They can co-operate with God by blessing His people (vv. 22-23), or they can defy Him by continuing to persecute them (vv. 24-26). They can share in the blessing God intends to bestow on His people, or they can entirely cut themselves off from it. But they cannot claim any relationship with God that bypasses identification with His people. The picture of kings and queens serving God’s people as foster fathers and nursing mothers in verse 23 is not one of abject submission but of love and affection; inclusion rather than exclusion. The horror of gruesome defeat is reserved for the warriors and the fierce of verses 24-26 who are too proud to change. But either way, all will know, in the end, the invincible strength of God’s commitment to His people (v. 26b).

The divorce that never was (50:1-3): After this powerful affirmation, the opening verses of chapter 50 look rather anti-climactic. In fact, however, they are more like a quiet appeal at the end of a stirring sermon. The sermon began with Zion’s sorrowful lament (49:14); it ends by addressing her children (50:1), especially those who would find themselves cruelly separated from her. Has the Lord divorced their mother? No, He has not, for no bill of divorce has been issued. Has He sold her to clear a debt? No; the very suggestion that He has creditors is preposterous. The explanation for Zion’s destruction is the sin and transgressions of its people, not any cooling of affection or straitened circumstances on God’s part. Since there has been no divorce, the Lord can take Zion back, and since He has not sold her she is still His to claim as by right. Furthermore, as the Creator He has the power to make good everything He has promised her (vv. 2b-3). The only hindrance is the one that has always been there, namely, the unresponsiveness of her children to His Words and deeds (v. 2a). But the need for change is urgent, for there is the possibility of a new beginning if only God’s people will grasp it by faith and move forward into it. That is the challenge with which this sermon ends. Hardly anti-climatic, but a tense and uncertain moment, for the response the Lord seeks is apparently lacking.

Isaiah 49:14-50:3 Reflection Questions:

Have you ever felt that God has forgotten you?  How do verses 14-21 help you?

Is that something that you are going through, making it a struggle to believe and hope again long and difficult?

Does this study offer you any encouragement? How so?

Are you responsive to God’s Word? How can you improve on it?

First the Servant Himself speaks in verses 1-6. Two messages to the exiles follow in verses 7-12, drawing out implications of what the Servant has said. The movement is from the Servant Himself to the people of God who are associated with Him. With the return of the Servant the sharp rebuke of the previous chapter gives way, once more, to comfort. Strangely, although the sinfulness of God’s people is crying out for remedy, the Servant does not address them directly at all. He speaks to the world at large (v. 1).

A polished arrow (vv. 1-6): But who is the Servant? Verse three says His name is Israel. But how can this be, since, as we have already seen, a key aspect of His mission is to restore Israel to a proper relationship with God (v. 5)? We are forced back to the conclusion we reached in chapter 42, that He is a figure who embodies all that the nation of Israel was called to be, and therefore one who is truly worthy of the name – God’s perfect Servant. He is far greater than Jeremiah, or any other Old Testament prophet for that matter. He is prophet par excellence. If that doesn’t satisfy us, we shall just have to wait, because for the moment He is hidden in the shadow of the Lord’s hand, and concealed…in His quiver like a polished arrow (v. 2).

A new people of God (vv. 7-13): As we move on to verse 7, however, the word Israel reverts to its normal sense, and the focus shifts back again from the Servant of God to the people of God, the surviving remnant of the nation. After the repetition of previous promises in these verses we discover new things here; the whole passage is nuanced by its close relationship to the Servant Song which follows. Of course, neither of the expressions is new to us; they were both used with reference to the Servant Himself in 42:6 and, as we saw there, they refer to God’s intention to extend His salvation to all peoples, to bless the whole world that He has created. Isaiah underlines the fact that God will achieve this great goal through the Servant Himself and through His restored people. As they are brought back into right relationship with God, God’s people become one with God’s Servant in His worldwide mission.

This means that the very idea of the people of God begins to undergo a kind of metamorphosis. Those whom God restores to Himself become a sign of His commitment to extend this same blessing to all people. The shout of praise then, in verse 13 is the “Hurrah!” of mission accomplished – a cause of rejoicing to the whole earth. But by the time we reach that point the theme of comfort for the people of God is no longer focused narrowly on the captives in Babylon. They may be its most immediate point of reference, but it reaches beyond them to embrace all people. And the key to all this is the Servant of the Lord, Israel is to understand that its entire future in God’s purposes is intimately bound up with Him.

Isaiah 49:1-13 Reflection Questions:

Why do you think the Servant addresses the world at large and not directly to His own people’s concerns?

Why do you think the New Testament Jewish people had a hard time with God offering salvation to the whole world (Gentiles)? Do these attitudes happen today?

Why do you think that the exiles found these sweeping visions from Isaiah difficult to grasp?

Conceptually, chapters 47 and 48 form one large unit dealing with the fulfillment of the Lord’s purpose to use Cyrus to free His people from captivity in Babylon. The captives are portrayed here as residents of one city but citizens of another, a tension between place and citizenship that can be resolved only by returning to where they belong. The logic of the whole unit is that Babylon is doomed (chapter 47); leave it, and set out for Jerusalem, your true home (chapter 48).

Babylon: defiant but doomed (47:1-15): The portrait of Babylon is a classic study in worldly power and arrogance. She is the queen of kingdoms (v. 5) and believes that she will remain so forever (v. 7). She has an utterly false sense of security, which leads her into self-indulgence and complete indifference to the needs of the weak and vulnerable in her midst (vv. 6, 8). She considers herself so self-sufficient that all notions of accountability are excluded. She is proud of her wisdom and knowledge (v. 10), and has perfected a form of religion (astrology) which enhances her sense of power over her own destiny without making any moral demands upon her (vv. 9b, 12-13). She is the complete symbol of worldly success. However, the virgin city will be violated (vv. 1-3, 8b-9, 12-15). In short, her sense of impregnability is a complete illusion. She is like the man who built his house on the sand, or the rich man who did not reckon on what the night would bring. Babylon is the city of destruction.

We must note two things carefully before we move on. First, Babylon here is not merely the ancient city of that name, and the poem does not simply look forward to what was to happen to it in 539 BC when Cyrus conquered it. Like Jerusalem, with which it is contrasted, it is both a concrete historical reality and a symbol, and it is the symbolic significance of Babylon which is primary here. Secondly, the sin of Babylon is not simply its pride and self-absorption, but its self-deification. Twice uttered I am, and there is none besides me (vv. 8, 10), is a direct challenge to the Lord’s identical claim in 45:5. Babylon represents humankind organized in defiance of God – the kingdom of mere mortals, in contrast to the kingdom of God. In this sense “Babylon” is still with us, and still stands under judgment of God. The historical Babylon of the sixth century BC was merely on manifestation of it.

“Leave Babylon!” (48:1-22): Now we are in better position to understand the challenge of chapter 48, where the contrast between Babylon and Jerusalem is developed. The reference to Jerusalem as the holy city in verse 2 has symbolism associated with it also, because by the sixth century it was to be little more than a forsaken ruin with most of its citizens in exile. But for all that, it would continue to be the place God had chosen as the center of His kingdom on earth, and the announcement concerning Cyrus in the previous chapters have made clear His intention to raise it up again. It would once again be “the holy city”, not just in the sense that no evil will be found in it, but that God Himself would return to it and rule from it. The holy city was to become the symbol of their future hope – the coming of God’s kingdom. The challenge of chapter 48 is that they should live constantly in the light of that hope, expecting its realization at any moment.

The people certainly profess to be citizens of the kingdom, but their lives give little evidence of it; the old sins live on, it is as though their suffering taught them nothing (vv. 4-6). The Lord is tempted to discard altogether what is left (vv. 9-10), but there is more at stake here than their own betterment; there is the honor of the Lord’s name (v. 11). The world must know it is He, and not Babylon, Bel and Nebo, who rules the world and for that reason He will press on, regardless of how His people respond.

There is anger but also sadness in this chapter and this brings us to the heart of Israel’s sinfulness (vv. 1, 12, 16-18). God has opened His heart to them. He has given them His Law; He has spoken to them through His prophets, but they have not listened, and they are still not listening! Verse 22 is a tragic note on which to end, but it underlines powerfully the serious nature of failure to listen to God; it shuts us out from the peace of God. Isaiah has been speaking here of a situation that was to emerge after his own lifetime. The basic sins and failures he describes may just as well have been looking at himself, or even speaking directly to the church in our own day and age. We need no great imagination to recognize ourselves in his stinging rebukes. Sadly, the sins of the people of God do not alter.

Isaiah 47:1-48:22 Reflection Questions:

How does the symbolism of Babylon touch your life (now and/or in the past)?

Are you living constantly in the light of the hope of expecting Christ to return at any moment? What does that mean to you?

God has opened His heart to you, are you listening?

This whole chapter is in effect an elaboration of the last two lines of 45:20, “Ignorant are those who carry about idols of wood, who pray to gods that cannot save.” Bel and Nebo were pagan gods. Cyrus’s conquest of Babylon enhanced the status of Bel and Nebo rather diminishing it. But how different things are now; the greatness of Bel and Nebo is a distant memory, while the Lord is known and worshipped by millions. It is easy, of course, to see this in hindsight. It’s much harder to take the long view when evil is in full flight. That, however, is exactly what Isaiah does here. He asks the exiles to look beyond the present to what will finally be the case, and paints a graphic picture of the shame and disgrace that await all man-made religion and those who trust in it.

But he goes further. In verses 3-7 he asks Israel to reflect again on the fundamental absurdity of idolatry and the contrast between it and their own covenant faith. “Idolaters carry their gods,” says the Lord, “but I carry you. I have carried you since you were born, and I will never stop carrying you until your days are done.” There it is in a nutshell; false religion is based on works, true religion on grace. So it has always been and so it always will be (see Eph. 2:8-9)

The last part of the chapter, though, comes as something of a shock (vv. 8-13). Surely if God carries His people in His arms He could be expected to use only affirmative, comforting language in His dealings with them. Not so! God’s love is robust, not weak and indulgent. He cares for His people too deeply to deprive them of necessary rebuke. Rebels, He calls them, stubborn-hearted, and you who are far from righteousness (vv. 8, 12). We might think for a moment that He has turned His attention to the pagan idol-worshippers. But this is clearly not the case. Remember this in verse 8 is the sequel to listen to me, O house of Jacob in verse 3. The audience is the same.

So what then is the reason for the strong language the Lord uses? The answer lies in His reference to Cyrus as a bird of prey in verse 11, probably reflecting again the shocked response which Isaiah expected the Lord’s choice of Cyrus to evoke. How could it be right for God to choose such a man, and how could He have His people’s best interests at heart in doing so? But such a response is equivalent to rebellion against God, for it calls into question not just His sovereign freedom, but His goodness – and that is to strike at the very heart of the covenant relationship. It was because He loved Israel that the Lord chose her in the first place, and because of that same love that He had carried her ever since. How dare they doubt His goodness? The strong language is shocking, but it is the language of loving discipline rather than rejection. It is intended to jolt the people of God out of a very dangerous and sinful state of mind, and has their ultimate good in view. However many rough patches there may be in His relationship with them along the way, it is the Lord’s grace rather than their sinfulness that will triumph in the end; He will grant salvation and splendor to His people (v. 13). The two problems that have to be overcome are their circumstances and, more importantly, their heart condition. Both will be taken up afresh in our next study of chapters 47 and 48.

Isaiah 46:1-13 Reflection Questions:

What are some man-made religions today in the 21^st century?

Where in Exodus does God talk about carrying His people?

What have you learned about God’s character from this study?

We have now reached one of the grandest moments in the book. Cyrus fades into the background and the whole scene is dominated by the uniqueness and glory of the One who has chosen to use him. The Lord alone is God, and salvation is to be found in no-one else. Cyrus’s mission will demonstrate this fact, and one day people everywhere will acknowledge it. There are two speeches by the Lord in this passage, and two short responses by Isaiah.

The first speech, in verse 14, is addressed to Jerusalem, as indicated by the use of the singular pronoun “you”. But here Jerusalem stands for the people of God – the citizens of Jerusalem – scattered by their enemies, but destined to return. The astounding assertion of this speech is that they will rule the world! The rich agricultural products and other merchandise of the Nile valley will flow into Jerusalem, and the tall Sabeans, the inhabitants of its most remote upper regions, will come like prisoners in a victory parade, confessing that there is no God but the One who reigns in Jerusalem. Like the Magi who came to worship Jesus, they represent all that is remote and exotic in the world, while Egypt represents everything cultured, rich and oppressive. Although the imagery is commercial and military, what is ultimately in view is a conquest that is intensely spiritual in nature, the final triumph of the truth about God. This victory, the Lord declares, will be achieved through Jerusalem, His people whom He is soon to restore to their homeland.

Isaiah’s response (vv. 15-17) is like a grasp of amazement at the sheer audacity of God! No-one who saw the captives from Judah struggling to rebuild their shattered lives in Babylon would guess their significance. They were not a nation – scarcely even the remnant of one, since all their national institutions had been destroyed. God’s purposes, for the present, were hidden in them (v. 15), but would one day become visible. Then the tables would be completely turned; idolaters, presently so powerful, would be put to shame, while God’s people, presently weak and insignificant, would be saved with an everlasting salvation (vv, 16-17). Jesus later made the same point in His teaching about the kingdom of God. Paul put it, “the saints will judge the world”.

Great care is needed in talking about the hiddenness of God. It can suggest that He has deliberately made Himself and His purposes obscure, so that people are driven to seek Him by superstitious, occult means. Nothing could be further from the truth, however, as the Lord’s second speech makes absolutely clear (vv. 18-24). Religious superstition in all its forms, especially idolatry, is quite inexcusable (v. 20b), for God has spoken to His people (and through them to the world) truthfully and clearly, making possible an open and trusting relationship with Him (v. 19). He has also backed up His words through the prophets with actions, such as the raising up of Cyrus, that confirm His claim to be the only God and Savior (v. 21). So people everywhere have been put on notice; one day they will all have to bow the knee to the Lord and confess the truth about Him (vv. 23-24a). The question is whether they will do so now. The salvation He offers must be understood in the light of verses 16-17. It is a share in everlasting salvation, the final state of blessedness He has in store for His people Israel, and escape from everlasting shame and disgrace that will be the lot of idolaters. What an offer! Isaiah’s response (vv. 24b-25) is simply a quiet, respectful summary of it. The hidden God has revealed Himself, and the implications are awesome.

The ultimatum that has come from the throne of heaven is universal in its scope (all you ends of the earth) and yet intensely personal in its reference (every knee, every tongue). And it contains a great imperative within it: such news must be published! The fate of men and women everywhere depend on it. In the final analysis, the vision of Isaiah is a profoundly missionary vision.

Isaiah 45:14-25 Reflection Questions:

Where in the New Testament does Jesus talk about the meek inheriting the earth?

Where does Paul talk about “the saints will judge the world”?

How are you sharing the “good news” of “eternal salvation”?

Do you think God is hidden?

This important passage about Cyrus bursts upon us rather surprisingly and shockingly at this point. The surprise is that he should be spoken of as the Lord’s shepherd (v. 44:28 and His anointed (v. 45:1), directly after a passage in which idolatry has been so comprehensively condemned. For Cyrus himself was a pagan idolater. As we shall see in verses 45:8-13, the Lord’s choice of such a person was to cause Israel considerable bewilderment. But surely there is an important lesson here which the very placement of this passage serves to drive home. God may disapprove of idolatry but use an idolater for some good purpose. The fact that He uses someone in a specific way does not mean that He approves of that person’s total lifestyle. We should neither stand in judgment on God’s actions nor draw wrong conclusions from them, but praise Him for His sovereignty (v. 45:8). His use of Cyrus to shepherd His people home was a stunning demonstration of that sovereignty.

There has been constant reference to creation and redemption in the preceding chapters. Now these two great themes are woven together in a powerful statement by the Lord of His total mastery of the historical process (vv. 44:24-28). In a sense nothing new is said here; it is more like a summary of all that is already “on the record”, so to speak. But the concentration and power of it are impressive, building to the climactic announcement of verse 28. That this pagan emperor, identified by name, will fulfill so exactly what the Lord has announced beforehand will be the final proof that the Lord is indeed who He claims to be. The fact that Cyrus did in fact do just that is a matter of historical record. The Lord’s claims have been vindicated; He is indeed the Creator and Redeemer, not just for Israel, but of the whole earth.

While Cyrus himself is addressed in verses 45:1-7, the words are not primarily intended for him, but for those who were to wait anxiously for his arrival in Babylon. These verses disclose exactly what is in God’s mind concerning him: how God regards him, what help He will give him and why. Three things are said about Cyrus’ mission in these verses: It would be accomplished by God’s help (vv. 1-3a); it would be accomplished for the sake of God’s people (v. 4); and it would be accomplished so that all (v. 6), including Cyrus himself (v. 3a) might know that the Lord alone is God. In short, God was going to use Cyrus to put His people back in Jerusalem, so that from there, the place He had chosen to be the center of His kingdom on earth, the truth about Him might become known everywhere. In the longer plan of God, of course, it was to Jerusalem that Israel’s true Messiah, the Son of David, eventually came to fulfill His mission, and it was from there that the gospel went out to the whole world.

What an appropriate response verse 8 is to the announcement of Cyrus’s mission. God commands the heavens and the earth to respond by bringing forth righteousness and salvation. This echoes the original creation commands of Genesis 1, but what is in view now is the new creation – the new heavens and the new earth – that will eventually emerge from what Cyrus will accomplish. The restoration of Jerusalem would be only the first step, of course, but God can see what it will lead to. No wonder He is enthusiastic!

Sadly though, God’s people do not share His enthusiasm. They cannot see past the fact that Cyrus is a pagan, and because God’s chosen way of working does not fit their own notions of what is proper, they cannot rejoice in it. They are trapped in small-mindedness, like the Pharisees of later times. And God, we sense, can scarcely contain His exasperation with them in verses 9-10. It is often hard to move beyond theologizing to trusting, but we must do so if we are to exercise the kind of faith which God requires of us and without which we cannot please Him. Theological insolence is the blight of religion in every age, and God is rightly angered by it. But He is not deterred by it. He stoutly defends His sovereign freedom as Creator to use anyone He pleases, and the rightness of His choice of Cyrus (vv. 11-13). But how sad that He has to press on with His good plans for His people in the face of their complaints instead of to the joyful strains of their praise!

Isaiah 44:24-45:13 Reflection Questions:

Have you lost your enthusiasm about God’s ultimate plan? Why or why not?

What does this study say to you about being judgmental of others?

Are you trapped in small-mindedness or are open to the sovereignty of God?

Are you working with or against God’s plan? In what ways will you improve on this?