Introduction
We continue our series in Isaiah Yahweh Alone is God, and today that fact is on display as when a diamond is set on black velvet and pulls everyone’s attention to its brilliance. The plot thickens today.
When Isaiah starts making the predictions of chapters 1–39 around the year 740 BC, the Northern Kingdom of Israel is headed for destruction and is destroyed in 722. Isaiah’s word is fulfilled. He then predicts that Assyria would fail to capture Jerusalem in 701. God sent an angel who destroyed 185,000 of Assyria’s soldiers overnight, and the king of Assyria went home without a victory. Isaiah’s word is fulfilled. He then continues making the predictions we find in chapters 40–66 somewhere in the early seventh century (700–680 BC). These include: the fall of Assyria (612), the fall of Jerusalem and Judah to Babylon (586), the exile, the fall of Babylon to Persia (539), the Persian edict to free the exiles and send them back to Jerusalem to rebuild the city and the temple, the return of a remnant (537), and the establishment of a Messianic kingdom.
There’s a reason Isaiah is chief among the prophets. Today the plot thickens. There’s a major plot twist.
Audiences love plot twists. Back in the 90s when the movie the Sixth Sense came out, everyone was shocked when we realized that Bruce Willis’ character had been dead all along. Nobody saw it coming. They go back over certain scenes at the end of the movie, and you see them with new eyes. They pulled it off well.
Isaiah unveils a plot twist today. God commissions the pagan, yet-unborn future king of Persia as his instrument of deliverance for his people. This announcement is bewildering. But it’s in God’s unlikely ways that we receive unending hope.
A bewildering mission.
Isaiah 44:24
“This is what the Lord says—your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb:
I am the Lord, the Maker of all things, who stretches out the heavens, who spreads out the earth by myself,
As we’ve said before in this series, in Isaiah’s time, the belief that there was only one God that made all things was ridiculous. It’d continue to be ridiculous for many centuries, including Roman times. Not only was it a ridiculous idea, it came from within Israel, a nothing nation, a less-than-nothing nation.
And yet the claim remained, and it remains to this day the belief of a majority of the world population.
But it was not at all self-evident in Isaiah’s time. So when God comes out and says, I am the LORD, the Maker of all things, who stretches out the heavens, who spreads out the earth by myself, he’s staking out a claim that would be highly contested. He makes many such claims, as we will see, and lets the evidence prove him wrong.
What kinds of things does the LORD do?
Isaiah 44:25
who foils the signs of false prophets and makes fools of diviners, who overthrows the learning of the wise and turns it into nonsense, who carries out the words of his servants and fulfills the predictions of his messengers,
The LORD takes the whole system of idolatry, with its false prophets, diviners, and learned men and turns it into nonsense. But he takes the words and predictions of his servants and messengers and fulfills them.
Isaiah 44:26–27
who says of Jerusalem, ‘It shall be inhabited,’ of the towns of Judah, ‘They shall be rebuilt,’ and of their ruins, ‘I will restore them,’ who says to the watery deep, ‘Be dry, and I will dry up your streams,’
Notice how the Lord’s claim is going from universal to specific. He started with I am the Maker of all things, then he took on the whole system of false religion and said, I turn it into nonsense, and now he’s zeroing in on the apple of his eye: Jerusalem.
When Isaiah is making these predictions, Jerusalem and Judah have not been conquered yet, but neither are they thriving. The Lord is leapfrogging past their destruction and desolation to a future when Jerusalem and Judah are inhabited again, rebuilt, and restored.
How could this be possible? How could worm Jacob be rebuilt and restored?
The Lord brings up the exodus from Egypt and says, I say to the watery deep, ‘Be dry,’ and it dries up.
Jerusalem’s devastation is a nonissue.
Isaiah 44:28
who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd and will accomplish all that I please; he will say of Jerusalem, “Let it be rebuilt,” and of the temple, “Let its foundations be laid.” ’
The Lord announces by name the king he’d use as an instrument to set his people free.
Cyrus is the king of the Persians that conquered Babylon in 539.
It’s because Cyrus is mentioned by name that many scholars think that Isaiah son of Amoz could not have been the one that wrote these chapters. Isaiah pre-dates Cyrus by a good 100 years! Cyrus hasn’t even been born. We’re two kingdom falls away from his coming to power.
Yet, Isaiah’s prophecy doesn’t shy away from this fact. In fact, the whole argument the prophet makes (or rather, God makes through the prophet) is that this is one of the ways the world will know who the true God is—he can tell the end from the beginning. So that prediction is a problem for skeptics.
There’s another problem. This time the problem is for people of faith. God says of Cyrus, He is my shepherd and will accomplish all that I please. Time out. God calls a pagan king my shepherd? Yes! Cyrus, a pagan, is going to say of Jerusalem, Let it be rebuilt, and of the temple, Let its foundations be laid.
This is trippy. And yet this is a big part of the plot of Isaiah’s vision.
What kind of mission does God give to Cyrus?
Isaiah 45:1–7
“This is what the Lord says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of to subdue nations before him and to strip kings of their armor, to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut: I will go before you and will level the mountains; I will break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron. I will give you hidden treasures, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel, who summons you by name.
For the sake of Jacob my servant, of Israel my chosen, I summon you by name and bestow on you a title of honor, though you do not acknowledge me. I am the Lord, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God. I will strengthen you, though you have not acknowledged me, so that from the rising of the sun to the place of its setting people may know there is none besides me.
I am the Lord, and there is no other. I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the Lord, do all these things.
God calls Cyrus his anointed.
This is the word translated Messiah, and it was used mainly in connection with the kings of Judah in the line of David.
Why would this pagan king now be given this name? The Lord’s anointed was the person chosen by God to bring about God’s gracious purposes for Israel and for the world.
The last king in the Davidic line had been blinded and carried off to Babylon. But God is not limited by anything in order to achieve his purposes, and if he was to use a pagan king to propel his purposes forward, so be it. There’s a limited scope within which Cyrus is God’s anointed.
What was God going to do for Cyrus?
Take hold of his right hand to subdue nations, strip kings of their armor, open doors before him, level mountains, break down gates of bronze, cut through bars of iron. God would give him treasures and riches.
But more important than what God would do is why he’d do it? There are three reasons: (1) So that Cyrus would know who is God, (2) for the sake of Israel, and (3) so that people everywhere would know God.
In verses 3–4 he says, so that you may know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, who summons you by name. For the sake of Jacob my servant, of Israel my chosen, I summon you by name and bestow on you a title of honor, though you do not acknowledge me.
Then in verse 6 we read, So that from the rising of the sun to the place of its setting people may know there is none besides me.
God is doing all this even though Cyrus, as a pagan king, did not acknowledge the Lord. The Lord says it again in Verse 5, I will strengthen you, though you have not acknowledged me. So it’s nothing about Cyrus himself that caused the Lord to choose him. It’s the Lord’s sovereignty at work. It’s the fact that he alone is God.
Verse 5 I am the LORD, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God. And again in verse 6b–7 I am the LORD, and there is no other. I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the LORD, do all these things.
The oracle began with God’s claim that he is the Maker of all things in the natural world and ends with his claim that he does all these things in the political sphere.
This is quite the plot twist. A pagan king, over 100 years after the time of Isaiah’s prediction, Cyrus by name, would be raised up by God to shepherd his people back to their homeland, Jerusalem, and rebuild his temple.
What should be the response to this announcement?
Isaiah 45:8
“You heavens above, rain down my righteousness; let the clouds shower it down. Let the earth open wide, let salvation spring up, let righteousness flourish with it; I, the Lord, have created it.
The response is a lyrical verse, almost like a song. You heavens above, rain down my righteousness; let the clouds shower it down. Let the earth open wide, let salvation spring up, let righteousness flourish with it; I, the LORD, have created it.
The point of this bewildering mission given to Cyrus is God’s righteousness and salvation, that is, God’s deliverance of his people, in Israel and around the world.
Remember, God is the creator of all things, and he’s the only one who can deliver from trouble. He’s our Redeemer.
But if heaven and earth respond with sheer excitement, how do God’s people respond?
A bewildered people.
Isaiah 45:9–10
“Woe to those who quarrel with their Maker, those who are nothing but potsherds among the potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you making?’ Does your work say, ‘The potter has no hands’?
Woe to the one who says to a father, ‘What have you begotten?’ or to a mother, ‘What have you brought to birth?’
These verses start with the word Woe. It’s a funeral cry. It’s a death wish to quarrel with [our] Maker.
How are the people quarreling with their Maker? They’re questioning his choice of Cyrus to bring about the exiles’ deliverance. They’re bewildered by God’s choices.
If God was going to set the exiles free and bring them back home, why couldn’t he do it like he did it in Egypt, displaying his power to control and manipulate nature for the good of his people? Plagues of frogs, locusts, gnats. Splitting the sea. That would be a welcome deliverance! Why can’t the return from exile be like the escape from Egypt? Why use Cyrus at all?
God says, Woe. It doesn’t go well for those who quarrel with their Maker. Then he says, Those who are nothing but potsherds among the potsherds on the ground. Picture broken pottery pieces telling the potter what he should do.
Does the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you making?’ This is a ridiculous scenario. Now, we might say, But people are not clay! People are not pieces of pottery. True. But the prophet’s point is that the distance between pottery and potter is much shorter than the distance between people and God. Pottery-and-potter compare creation to creation. People and God compare creation to the Creator. Which chasm is bigger?
Does your work say, ‘The potter has no hands’? So now the question is more pointed because the prophet turns directly to the audience and asks, Does your work say, ‘The potter has no hands. The potter has no skill?’ Of course, not. Our work doesn’t question us.
The ridiculous questions continue in v 10, Woe to the one who says to a father, ‘What have you begotten?’ or to a mother, ‘What have you brought to birth?’
It’s kind of like when the toys in Toy Story get upset at Andy, their human owner. We love Woody and Buzz, but we don’t care much about Andy. This is humanism’s problem with God. In humanism what matters most are humans, just as in Toy Story what matters most are the toys. Humanism sees God the way Toy Story sees Andy—it’s not about Andy, it’s about the toys. In humanism, life is not about God; it’s about humans.
In the case of the exiles, Isaiah says to them, You’re quarreling with your Maker. You, the creature, are questioning his choices for how to run his world.
Here’s how God responds.
Isaiah 45:11–13
“This is what the Lord says—the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker:
Concerning things to come, do you question me about my children, or give me orders about the work of my hands? It is I who made the earth and created mankind on it. My own hands stretched out the heavens; I marshaled their starry hosts.
I will raise up Cyrus in my righteousness: I will make all his ways straight. He will rebuild my city and set my exiles free, but not for a price or reward, says the Lord Almighty.”
God says, Concerning things to come, do you question me? . . . Do you give me orders? And then he explains how he’s in charge of nature and history.
He says, It is I who made the earth and created mankind on it. My own hands stretched out the heavens; I marshaled their starry hosts. God is asserting his sovereign control over all of nature. Nature is his sphere. Nature is like clay in his hands.
But so is history. In v 13 he says, I will raise up Cyrus in my righteousness: I will make all his ways straight. He will rebuild my city and set my exiles free.
Just as God maneuvered nature to take Israel out of Egypt, so he’s maneuvering history to take the exiles out of Babylon.
Make no mistake, the God of the Bible has total control over nature and history.
It can seem more comforting to us to think of nature and history as completely chaotic and impersonal. There is neither Creator nor Redeemer. We’re in the universe all alone. Everyone’s out for themselves. The strongest survive.
God says, I will raise up Cyrus. God puts kings in thrones and dethrones them.
Does this truth give us license to say that we know what God is doing in history and nature at all times? No, it does not. We can say that God commands the heavens and the earth and the course of human events. We can say, more specifically, that in the case of Cyrus he put him in power for the specific purpose of pulling his people out of Babylon and making known that God alone is God. We can get that specific about Cyrus because God tells us explicitly. But for other events of world history and the movements of nature, woe to us if we presume to know down to the detail what God is doing.
That remains in his hidden counsel. That’s his prerogative.
Let’s look finally at a bewildering God.
A bewildering God.
Isaiah 45:14
This is what the Lord says:
“The products of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush, and those tall Sabeans—they will come over to you and will be yours; they will trudge behind you, coming over to you in chains. They will bow down before you and plead with you, saying, ‘Surely God is with you, and there is no other; there is no other god.’ ”
This vision is expressed in economic and military terms, but the greater point is that idol-making nations will come and surrender before the true God. Surely God is with you, and there is no other; there is no other god.
Since the coming of Christ, this confession has been on the lips of person after person, nation after nation.
False gods have fallen into oblivion and disfavor. Jesus Christ has increased in fame and renown.
But the exiles had to return to Jerusalem because Jerusalem would be the birthplace of the new world.
Can you imagine how difficult it would’ve been for the exiles to embrace such lofty visions of their exalted place in the world when they were the dregs of Babylon?
Isaiah 45:15–19
Truly you are a God who has been hiding himself, the God and Savior of Israel. All the makers of idols will be put to shame and disgraced; they will go off into disgrace together. But Israel will be saved by the Lord with an everlasting salvation; you will never be put to shame or disgraced, to ages everlasting.
For this is what the Lord says—he who created the heavens, he is God; he who fashioned and made the earth, he founded it; he did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited—he says:
“I am the Lord, and there is no other. I have not spoken in secret, from somewhere in a land of darkness; I have not said to Jacob’s descendants, ‘Seek me in vain.’ I, the Lord, speak the truth; I declare what is right.
Isaiah’s response is so on point. He’s like, This is unreal! Truly you are a God who has been hiding himself.
God is audacious! The nerve of God to make such lofty declarations when the people that bear his name were without land, without king, without power, without a national identity—except that they belonged to Yahweh.
Isaiah says, You’ve been hiding yourself! You’re promising an everlasting salvation to your people who are in the dumps. Yet, you continue declaring, I am the LORD, and there is no other.
Isaiah 45:20–25
“Gather together and come; assemble, you fugitives from the nations. Ignorant are those who carry about idols of wood, who pray to gods that cannot save.
Declare what is to be, present it—let them take counsel together. Who foretold this long ago, who declared it from the distant past? Was it not I, the Lord? And there is no God apart from me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none but me.
“Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.
By myself I have sworn, my mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked: Before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear. They will say of me, ‘In the Lord alone are deliverance and strength.’ ”
All who have raged against him will come to him and be put to shame. But all the descendants of Israel will find deliverance in the Lord and will make their boast in him.
The Lord is emboldened after announcing how he is using Cyrus. He says, Who declared it from the distant past? Was it not I, the LORD?
He calls the whole world before him, the ends of the earth, and says, Ignorant are those who carry about idols of wood, who pray to gods that cannot save . . . Turn to me and be saved . . . for I am God, and there is no other.
It’s the fact that he brought this event to pass that proves that he alone is God. When Assyria was in power, God used Isaiah to predict Assyria’s downfall and Babylon’s downfall and Persia’s rise with Cyrus. But it’s not just Persia’s rise. It’s that the pagan king of Persia, upon rising to power, would issue an edict to send the exiles home.
He couldn’t do it fast enough.
Look at Ezra 1:1–4
In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and also to put it in writing:
“This is what Cyrus king of Persia says:
“ ‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. Any of his people among you may go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of the Lord, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem, and may their God be with them. And in any locality where survivors may now be living, the people are to provide them with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with freewill offerings for the temple of God in Jerusalem.’ ”
Most of Isaiah’s prophecies are today a matter of historical record. The only ones yet to be fulfilled are those that envision the culmination of God’s kingdom in all its splendor. Cyrus came to power and sent the exiles home, the exiles that had the hardest time believing that God could or would do it. And he sent them with silver and gold and goods and livestock.
If God is for us, who can be against us?
I meet people of all ages who for different reasons have given up hope. Sometimes, they’ve been betrayed, and the wound runs too deep. Sometimes, they’ve done things they’re ashamed of beyond words, and they think at best God tolerates them, at worst he can’t stand them.
I once met with someone whose whole demeanor felt like he had just walked out of a courtroom after receiving a guilty verdict, like there were accusing glances all around him. Dejected. Self-doubting. Impossible to cheer up.
And I wonder if that’s you.
This whole section of Isaiah is written to a people who are refusing to hope because they’ve experienced unimaginable despair. The judgment of God for their sin fell on them, and they would not stand.
So God’s word comes to them, again and again, announcing God’s new thing, and they struggled mightily to believe.
And I wonder if you struggle mightily to believe God.
Nature is in his hands. Think of the plagues of locusts, frogs, darkness, boils. Think of the Red Sea splitting open. Why such display of power? So that his chosen people might go free from oppression. Nature is in his hands.
History is in his hands. Think of his raising of Cyrus and putting it in his heart to decree that the exiles from Judah should return home and that their temple should be rebuilt. History is in his hands.
Your life is in his hands. And he has good for you. You can trust him.
The exiles had to return to Jerusalem because Jerusalem is the city of God’s king. God’s kingdom would launch from Jerusalem.
His messianic kingdom would spring up from Jerusalem. His Messiah would take God’s people from the ends of the earth out of spiritual exile with the price of his own blood.
And because of his great humility and sacrifice onto death, even death on a cross, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
Do you realize that this is what God said about himself in Isaiah? Before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear.
But when the reign of Jesus Messiah begins, it is he who receives this high honor.
Jesus died for you, so that you’d have no condemnation for sin.
Why do you refuse to hope? Why do you question your Maker like a pottery vessel questioning the potter? Why is your demeanor like that of a convict when it should be that of a child on their way to a candy store, or an adult on their way to a vacation at the beach?
If God is for us, who can be against us? He moved heaven and earth and history to give us an everlasting salvation in Jesus our Messiah.
Hope in him. Hope in him. Hope in him.