Isa_45
Isaiah 45:1-8 (ESV)
1 Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him and to loose the belts of kings, to open doors before him that gates may not be closed:
2 “I will go before you and level the exalted places, I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut through the bars of iron,
3 I will give you the treasures of darkness and the hoards in secret places, that you may know that it is I, the LORD, the God of Israel, who call you by your name.
4 For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen, I call you by your name, I name you, though you do not know me.
5 I am the LORD, and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me,
6 that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the LORD, and there is no other.
7 I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the LORD, who does all these things.
8 “Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain down righteousness; let the earth open, that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit; let the earth cause them both to sprout; I the LORD have created it.
This prophecy is amazing and demonstrates who God is and how he controls everything in accordance with His plan. God made Cyrus the world ruler to be his agent in punishment against the Babylonians.
Since Cyrus was not a believer he would give credit to himself for his accomplishments. We can find ourselves in the same light if we fail to recognize God’s active sanctification process in us. Caution that we don’t even claim any degree of Christian garments that wasn’t provided by Him.
God names the one that will release them from Babylon’s captivity and return them to Jerusalem. Not only will they be allowed to return to their homeland, but will be able to rebuild the temple and the walls. Some 200 years in advance this prophecy was given by Isaiah to comfort the captivities. (Just think, that when the parents named their child “Cyrus” it was not because of their creative process.)
V.45:1 – Cyrus is named as ‘his anointed one’ (H4899) – to subdue (H7286) nations (H1471)…(foreign nations).
NOTE: The ‘Sense’ (last line) that H4899 “anointed one” – H7286 (to subdue (force)) and H1471 (foreign nations).
God used the Assyrian king as the rod in his hand to fulfill His purposes toward the Northern Kingdom. (Isa. 10:5)
In 1 Kings 19:15-16 we read that Elisha anointed a Syrian king.
In Jeremiah 25:9; 27:6 it records that Nebuchadnezzar was called “my servant” to accomplish the will of God against Judah.
God brings nations into subjection!
V.1 – “to loose the belts of kings” etc. – God will unloose the sword and other instruments of war from the loins of the kings he fights making them defenseless before his advancing army.
V.1 – “open doors before him…”
H4975 – the waist or small of the back[1] (belts)
H1817 – door (two-leaved), gate, leaf, lid. [In Psa. 141:3, (doors) The gates of unidentified cities.
V.2- 3a – God rhetorically addresses this king so the prophet and the Hebrew audience can overhear what God will do through Cyrus, my servant. He starts of saying that “I, myself” will do: a) I will level the city walls. b) I will shatter the bronze doors. c) I will cut off iron bars on the gates. d) I will give you treasures.
This original audience would not experience the fulfillment of these words. But it became part of the then recorded prophecy and was to be passed down to the generations that would life in the time of the fulfilment and once again recognize that God was and is in control.
V.3b-4 – “That you may know that I, the LORD,” – This king would know who is God and know who prophetically identified him by his name. He would know that Jacob is my servant and Israel is my chosen one.
Cyrus to know that God gave him the honorable title of “my anointed one”
All this happens even though the King does not know or will not acknowledge Israel’s God.
In reference to this statement the New American Commentary writer (G. Smith) wrote:
So the thought process is: in order that this king might know who is God and know who prophetically identified him by his name and in order that this king might know558 that “Jacob is my servant and Israel is my chosen one,” God gave him an honorable title (meaning God made Cyrus “my anointed one”). All this will happen even though this king does not know or will not acknowledge Israel’s God. This suggests that God desired that this king would honor him and that he gave him every opportunity to recognize Israel’s God and the Hebrew people as God’s chosen ones, but somehow Koresh never did come to a full acknowledgment of Israel’s God. Why was this? If this Koresh was Cyrus, a Persian king, he grew up accepting the Zoroastrian religion that honored Ahura-mazda as their good god and Angra-Mainyu as his great adversary. Cyrus also explicitly honored the Babylonian god Marduk in the Cyrus Cylinder (ANET, 315–16). It is not clear who he worshipped. Some might try to make the case that Cyrus actually did acknowledge Israel’s God based on Ezra 1:1–4, but since 45:3–5 says that Cyrus did not know God, one must conclude that Ezra 1:1–4 was either Ezra’s Israelite theological slant on what Cyrus said or that the decree in Ezra was just a routine political document, much like many other documents that were composed by scribes for the numerous exiled peoples that Nebuchadnezzar had earlier settled in Babylon. Surely there is hidden within these verses the implied admonitions that people need to recognize that (a) God is the one who directs the affairs of life; and (b) the victories of life do not come because a person deserves them; they come because a gracious God gives them.[2]
- McGee writes that he thinks according to Ezra 1:2 Cyrus might have come to know the Lord.
God chose Cyrus before he knew the Lord. It is reasonable to conclude that Cyrus came to know the living and true God. “Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah” (Ezra 1:2).[3]
V.5-6 – God presents the argument of who else could do these things. The he was the only real supernatural power who controls history.
That God acts for the benefit of his people Israel.
Isa. 45:7 – I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the LORD, who does all these things.
V.7 – returns to the introductory themes of controlling all things… The true God! The beginning!
In stating: “I form the light, and create darkness” – it is an answer to ‘Zoroastrianism” that was practiced then by people that worshiped their God of wisdom.
Zo·ro·as·tri·an·ism – [ˌzôrōˈastrēəˌnizəm] a NOUN
a monotheistic pre-Islamic religion of ancient Persia founded by Zoroaster in the 6th century bc.
The religious philosophy of Zoroaster divided the early Iranian gods.[9] The most important texts of the religion are those of the Avesta.[10] In Zoroastrianism, the creator Ahura Mazda, through the Spenta Mainyu (Good Spirit, “Bounteous Immortals”)[11] is an all-good “father” of Asha (Truth, “order, justice,”)[12][13] in opposition to Druj (“falsehood, deceit”)[14][15] and no evil originates from “him”.
From: (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoroastrian)
New American Commentary reviews history:
God acted for the benefit of his people Israel (44:4) but also to persuade people around the globe (44:6). This is a key theme that the prophet will address again in 45:20–25 when God invites the nations to repent and be saved, for eventually at the end of time “before me every knee will bow and by me every tongue will swear” (45:23). The worldwide impact of God’s work of bringing his people back to their land is one of the greatest testimonies of God’s divine character revealed to humanity. The exodus event was similarly designed in a marvelous way so that the “Egyptians would know that I am God” (Exod 7:5, 17; 8:10, 22; 9:14, 29; 10:2; 14:4, 18), but most of the Egyptians refused to recognize God’s divine control of their lives. David’s desire was that his defeat of Goliath would cause the entire world to know that there was a living and powerful God in Israel (1 Sa 17:46). Likewise, Hezekiah’s prayer for deliverance from the Assyrian army of Sennacherib was motivated by the desire that all the nations would know by God’s defeat of Sennacherib that Yahweh was God (2 Kgs 19:19). Although these great events made people aware of God’s true power, in their arrogance and stubbornness, most people failed to submit themselves before God and acknowledge that he alone was God. Ironically God’s work through this anointed king would reveal who God was to people around the world, but Cyrus (Hb. Koresh) himself would fail to accept God himself. All God’s works testify that “I am the Lord; there is no other.”[4]
V.8 – God is the speaker! It shows God’s desire and will be brought down to bring righteousness on the earth as rain. There is to be a response to this news that God will bring his salvation to all the earth. God confirms this promise with His Name.
The scripture Isaiah 45:9-13 (ESV) God’s Sovereignty Should Remove All Doubts
Isaiah 45:9-13 (ESV) God’s Sovereignty Should Remove All Doubts
9 “Woe to him who strives with him who formed him, a pot among earthen pots! Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ or ‘Your work has no handles’?
10 Woe to him who says to a father, ‘What are you begetting?’ or to a woman, ‘With what are you in labor?’”
11 Thus says the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and the one who formed him: “Ask me of things to come; will you command me concerning my children and the work of my hands?
12 I made the earth and created man on it; it was my hands that stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their host.
13 I have stirred him up in righteousness, and I will make all his ways level; he shall build my city and set my exiles free, not for price or reward,” says the LORD of hosts.
9 – 13 God shows ‘our arrogance’
V.9 the prophet laments that the Israelites audience is unwilling to accept the plans that God has for his people.
Their dissatisfaction relates to negative experiences they must go through before the blessings.
**We the clay try to tell God how to do things or what we want to happen to us…
V.10-To get the understanding the social situation of the family is used. It is totally inappropriate for an impertinent child to question his mother and father.
V.11-13 – God addresses the misguided as they are, they complain…
V.13 – it ends with a reminder of God’s plans for his people.
NAC – THEOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS:
In the negative political crisis facing God’s people in Isaiah 44:24–45:13, there was a deep question about what God was doing (45:9–11), probably some fear about what certain diviners and wise men were prognosticating from their bully pulpits (44:25) and possibly a certain unwillingness to believe the generalizations about a future hope that Isaiah articulated (44:26a). How could these people believe that it would all work out in the end, that God would somehow make everything all right?
The three prophetic paragraphs in 44:24–45:13 provide a basis for hope in the providential plan of God. Although at times God’s hand of direction is not always evident and the outline of his plan seems to be working itself out very slowly, those who trust God can be assured that he is quietly and subtly working through the circumstances of believers and unbelievers to accomplish his will. But some will always question why anyone should believe this when the hand of God directing these affairs is so difficult to identify and understand. … Both God’s past deeds (such as creation) and his character (revealed by his names) serve as guarantees that his future plans will be accomplished. … Eventually, God’s salvation will fully arrive on earth, and the blessings of his righteousness will be evident to all people (45:8). This will be God’s work and the fulfillment of his plan, so readers in every age can rest assured in God’s promises because their faith in him is based on solid evidence about his past and future fulfillment of his plans.[5]
V.14-25 – God’s Invitation
Isaiah 45:14-16 (ESV)
14 Thus says the LORD: “The wealth of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush, and the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over to you and be yours; they shall follow you; they shall come over in chains and bow down to you. They will plead with you, saying: ‘Surely God is in you, and there is no other, no god besides him.’”
15 Truly, you are a God who hides himself, O God of Israel, the Savior.
16 All of them are put to shame and confounded; the makers of idols go in confusion together.
Who inherits the earth: Matthew 5:5 (ESV)
5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Isaiah 45:17-19 – Israel is saved!
17 But Israel is saved by the LORD with everlasting salvation; you shall not be put to shame or confounded to all eternity.
18 For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (he is God!), who formed the earth and made it (he established it; he did not create it empty, he formed it to be inhabited!): “I am the LORD, and there is no other.
19 I did not speak in secret, in a land of darkness; I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, ‘Seek me in vain.’ I the LORD speak the truth; I declare what is right.
Isaiah 45:20-25 Assemble yourselves…
20 “Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, you survivors of the nations! They have no knowledge who carry about their wooden idols, and keep on praying to a god that cannot save.
21 Declare and present your case; let them take counsel together! Who told this long ago? Who declared it of old? Was it not I, the LORD? And there is no other god besides me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none besides me.
22 “Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.
23 By myself I have sworn; from my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return: ‘To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance.’
24 “Only in the LORD, it shall be said of me, are righteousness and strength; to him shall come and be ashamed all who were incensed against him.
25 In the LORD all the offspring of Israel shall be justified and shall glory.”
This is an interesting read to provide ideas of how God has worked in the past that reveals some of the ways of God. New American Commentary:
The bold declarations about God in 45:14b–15 are probably the confession of faith made by the foreign people who will come to Jerusalem. Their four professions are that they emphatically believe that: (a) God is with the Israelites; (b) there is no other God;595 (c) God hides himself; and (d) the God of Israel is a Savior (45:21). The basis for these beliefs is unknown and unstated in this account (possibly through personal experience, talking to Israelites, a divine revelation, and the movement of the Spirit among them), but somehow these nations will understand truth about God that was partially hidden from them in earlier days.
In what sense was the God of Israel hidden from the foreign nations? The hithpa’al participle could express a passive idea “the one who was hidden” or a reflexive meaning “the one who hid himself.” This is not a complaint against God for not helping people in trouble, which are so frequent in Psalms (10:1, 11; 13:1; 27:9; 30:7; 55:1; 69:17; 88:14; 89:46; 102:2; 143:7), but a reflection on how God’s action can sometimes be unusual, unexpected, and somewhat beyond the human understanding of the common person. Of course when the foreign nations worship idols and follow vain superstitions, this prevents them from understanding the works and the true nature of God. Even the Israelites needed a divine revelation that explained how several strange coincidences worked together to eventually accomplish the will of God. If there was no divine explanation of God’s acts and plans, many of God’s ways would still be hidden from human understanding (Rom 11:33; 1 Tim 6:16; the story of Esther). Having gained some understanding of God’s hidden ways, the nations now can admire the skill and ironic results that God’s action produces. Sometimes those events that initially appear to be unusual and have disastrous circumstances actually turn out to work perfectly together to accomplish his will. Apparently the nations that previously did not perceive the hand of God working in Israel will come to recognize that God truly dwells with this people. In the past the Egyptians came to recognize the hand of God fighting against them in the middle of the Red Sea when the wheels of their chariots came off (Exod 14:23–25), and the soldiers that were left of Sennacherib’s army suddenly recognized the power of God’s hand when the angel of God killed 185,000 soldiers in one night (37:36–38). In the eschatological period God will reveal himself in new and exciting ways that will cause many rebellious nations to turn to God (cf. 19:18–25). The reference to God as a “Savior” (môšîaʿ, as in 19:20) suggests that the nation’s observation of the saving power of God will have a major impact on opening their eyes. At that point God’s ways and his will for all humanity will no longer be hidden from their eyes and they will respond (cf. chaps. 60–62). [6]
[1] Strong, J. (2009). A Concise Dictionary of the Words in the Greek Testament and The Hebrew Bible (Vol. 2, p. 75). Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.
[2] Smith, G. (2009). Isaiah 40-66 (Vol. 15B, p. 256). Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[3] McGee, J. V. (1991). Thru the Bible commentary: The Prophets (Isaiah 36-66) (electronic ed., Vol. 23, p. 71). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
[4] Smith, G. (2009). Isaiah 40-66 (Vol. 15B, p. 257). Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[5] Smith, G. (2009). Isaiah 40-66 (Vol. 15B, p. 267). Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[6] Smith, G. (2009). Isaiah 40-66 (Vol. 15B, p. 267). Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers.