Isa_44

1. 1 of chapter 44 starts with: “But now hear,” (H8085)

Isa441

Isaiah 44:1-5 (ESV)
¹  “But now hear, O Jacob my servant, Israel whom I have chosen!
²  Thus says the LORD who made you, who formed you from the womb and will help you: Fear not, O Jacob my servant, Jeshurun whom I have chosen.
³  For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.
⁴  They shall spring up among the grass like willows by flowing streams.
⁵  This one will say, ‘I am the LORD’s,’ another will call on the name of Jacob, and another will write on his hand, ‘The LORD’s,’ and name himself by the name of Israel.”

1. 1 of chapter 44 starts with: “But now hear,”  –  Telling the audience to ‘listen’ – ‘pay attention’ – ‘note…’

V.2 – Fear not, O Jacob…”  V.2 – “Jeshurun” (Deut. 32:15,33:5,26 – it is like “Israel, provides a contrast in meaning with “Jacob”.  Were Israel would mean “the Upright One” and Jacob would mean the “Deceiver”.  The Jacob-Israel name combination is common in chapters 41-49 to cause an awareness of this special sense to designate the people as sinful and yet as the object of the Lord’s gracious purpose of redemption.

V.3/4  the pouring out of water on thirsty land…blessing on your descendants.  Numerous progeny was considered a blessing from God as was spiritual prosperity and evidence of God’s blessings. (Joel 2:28-32)

V.5 – speaks of various races or people groups calling upon God in different verbiage.

Isaiah 44:6-8 (ESV) Besides Me There is No God…
V.6 – God announces that He is:  “I am the first and I am the last” – That He preceded creation – the beginning of all time…

V.7 – “Who is like me?” – THUS, why worship an idol?
V.8 –   “Fear not”-There is no other gods that can exert their power or interfere with God’s rule.

Isaiah 44:9-20 (ESV)   – A declaration against Idolatry

1. 9-11 – Idol makers will be shamed
2. 12-13 – Construction of an idol
3. 14-17 – Idols come from a tree
4. 18-20 – Worshippers of idols know nothing

Bottom Line is that God given strength and skill are being misused.  Sin has deprived the idolater of any sense of what is fitting.  Isaiah is well aware of the blinding effects of sin.
New American Commentary:   Part of the reason why the idol worshippers never figured out that these gods of wood were worthless is that they were blindly following accepted cultural patterns of behavior and did not spend the time to meditate or consider the implications of what they were doing (44:19). They seem to have “no knowledge, no discernment” (lôʾ daʿat wĕlôʾ tĕbûnâ, as in v. 18) of the truth. If they would stop and think all this through, someone might make the observation that this does not make any sense. How can half of the tree be used for baking bread and roasting meat to eat (drawing from 44:15a, 16) and half of the tree be used for making a god (drawing from 44:15b, 17)? How does one know which half is the god? These idol makers should have wondered if it was really honest to claim that they had made a god from the same wood that they burned for cooking. From the prophet’s point of view these idol makers were creating a “detestable thing” (or “abomination,” tōʿēbâ) that was actually just a plain old “block of wood” (bûl ʿēṣ), not a god. In one sense these idol-gods were nothing but just a simple mass of carved wood fibers, but in another sense these idols were a powerful symbol of a detestable false god.  …Those who accept sinful delusions have usually bought into the inner logic of that deceptive cultural frame of reference that blinds them from being able to see the deeper fallacies of what they believe.

Isaiah 44:21-22 (ESV)   –  A Need to Return to God
V.21-22 – the call to remember embraces the past contrast between the true God and the idols.
Isaiah 44:23-28 (A concluding Hymn –  Praise of God)
With reference to last week – here is the complete quote about ‘the worm’:   … “Henry Morris Writes this about the “Scarlet Worm:” Bible & Science tape series:  Look at the 22nd Psalm. This is the great Psalm of the crucifixion of Christ written 1,000 years before it was fulfilled. It describes in great detail the sufferings of Christ on the cross. “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” he cries out. Then down in verse 6…he says “But I am a worm (08438), and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.” What did he mean by saying “I am a worm”?…This particular worm is different from other kinds of worms. There are different kinds of worms, different varieties, but this is a particular worm. It means more than just he is not a man. Isaiah 52 says, “His visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men.” He was literally made corruption personified; he didn’t even look like a man there on the cross*; it is talking about more than that here. He says “I am a worm and no man.” This is a scarlet worm and the reason it was called that was because it had the ability to secrete a scarlet fluid which was used in making the scarlet dye that they used in ancient days. As a matter of fact, when you find the word “scarlet” in the bible, it’s the same word. “Though your sins be as scarlet,” it’s the same word exactly. The worm was identified with the crimson color. The life cycle of that worm is something like this: when the mother worm was ready to give birth to the baby worms, she would find the trunk of a tree, a post or a stick somewhere and then she would plant her body in that wood and she would implant her body so firmly in it that she could never leave it again. And then the young would be brought forth and the mother’s body would provide protection for the babies as long as they needed before they could get out and take care of themselves. Then the mother would die, and in the process, the scarlet fluid would stain her body and the body of the young and the tree and so on. The Lord Jesus said “I am like that scarlet worm.” He’s making peace through the blood of his cross; he’s bringing many sons into glory through the suffering. And this is a graphic testimony of the fact that eternal life comes out of the suffering and death of the Son of God.”