Bible Commentaries
Isaiah 44

Verses 8-23

Israel as God’s Witness in the Assembly of the Nations

(43:8—44:23)

The prophet’s proclamation now returns to the assembly of nations (43:8-9), and then to Israel, God’s witness, and the message she is to proclaim before the world (43:10-13). This leads to a repeated proclamation that God is going to do a new thing: he has prepared a second Exodus of his people (43:14-21). That is, as soon as Second Isaiah introduces the theme of Israel’s mission among the world of nations, he turns immediately to the question of God’s salvation in order that the faith of the broken community can be restored. As background, verses 22-28 speak again of the past when Israel “burdened” God with her iniquities. That is the reason he delivered her to destruction (vs. 28). This is followed in 44:1-5 with the description of the New Israel formed by God’s Spirit. In 44:6-8 the prophet turns to the message which God wants Israel to proclaim. In the whole of the past there has been only one effective power and force in the world, and that is God himself and none other. This leads to a long insertion which in transmission has lost much of its lyric character: 44:9-20 is a satirical essay on the man-made idols of the human race. Then the prophet hears God’s appeal to Israel to return to him, after which there is a triumphant call to the whole assembly of heaven and all the peoples of the earth to break forth into singing (44:21-23).

The Nations Assembled ( 43 : 8 - 9 )

The trial scene of the nations, first introduced in 41:1-4, is again introduced. The blind and deaf nations of the world are called to assemble. The issue to be decided is the meaning of the current history and the past preparation for it. The peoples of the world are challenged to bring forth their witnesses who can give testimony that will be acknowledged as correct.

Israel’s Calling as God’s Witness ( 43 : 10 - 13 )

The mention of witnesses in verse 9 is followed by God’s direct statement to Israel: “You are my witnesses.” What Israel is to know, believe, and understand, and what she is supposed to proclaim to the world, is that the God who has declared himself to Israel and made himself known in his acts of salvation is God and God alone. There is no savior apart from him. “I am God, and also henceforth I am He; there is none who can deliver from my hand; I work and who can hinder it?” (vs. 13). In the midst of a world full of gods, this dramatic and forthright clearing out of the vast amount of underbrush is remarkable testimony. The focus of religious attention must be single. In the whole action of God in the past, as he has made himself known to Israel, there has been no other power associated with him. He alone has done it, and of this fact Israel is to be the witness before the world. His is the only effective power in the world. What he chooses to do none can hinder.

God’s New Salvation Reiterated ( 43 : 14 - 21 )

No sooner has this forthright message been given to Israel as the sum of her testimony to the world, than the prophet immediately turns back to the theme of Israel’s coming salvation. God is going to send to Babylon and break down the bars of her prison and lead a new Exodus. The concentration in verses 18-19 on the new things which God is about to bring forth as over against “the former things” should not be interpreted as though the former things were without meaning for the present. It is, instead, a matter of getting the servant of the Lord to look forward to a future which the nation assumed it did not have. A highway is to be prepared in the terrible desert, and God himself will lead his people across it. They need fear no wild animals, nor will they go without water. God will do this for the people he has formed for himself “that they might declare my praise.”

Here are gathered together in one short poem many of the themes of the prophet with regard to Israel. There is a strong and insistent emphasis upon Israel as God’s chosen people. His acts in the days of old in forming a nation for himself were not in vain; they were not annulled in the Assyrian and Babylonian destructions of Samaria and Jerusalem. Now is the time of the new Exodus, the New Israel. This is the “new thing” which will be far more glorious than the first Exodus. Central in the prophet’s words, however, is the purpose of God’s action: it is that Israel shall be his witness before the world.

God’s Past Indictment and Judgment of Israel ( 43 : 22 - 28 )

The prophet now turns abruptly from the present and future to the past sin of Israel, reiterating the correctness of the messages of the earlier prophets. Israel has not been burdened with a heavy sacrificial system, and as a result her people have not had to bring many offerings of various types. Yet at the same time they have not brought God worship at all but have burdened him with their sins (vss. 22-24). In verses 26-28 God challenges Israel to present her case in court and let the matter be equitably decided. Every one of Israel’s leaders or mediators has sinned against God, and that is the reason why Israel was delivered to “utter destruction.” The term so translated is an old word drawn from the institution of holy war in Israel’s early days as a nation, when pagan peoples and property were to be offered up as a holocaust to God. This was a way of purifying the land, and of hallowing it for the new use to which it was to be put. The prophet proclaimed that God was using Assyria and Babylonia to bring holy war against Israel, and here the reference is to the destruction of the nation as a purifying holocaust. Nevertheless, always in the background is the statement that the punishment is past and that God has blotted out the nation’s transgressions (vs. 25).

The New Israel by God’s Spirit ( 44 : 1 - 5 )

The prophet hears God’s voice reaffirming to Israel that she is his servant, his chosen, and saying again, “Fear not.” The thought in verses 3-5 now turns to the new nation of Israel that is to be formed. God will pour out his Spirit and his blessing upon her future offspring so that they will be as numerous as grass and reeds by a flowing stream.

Israel believed that during the first period in the Promised Land, the period of the Judges, God ruled Israel directly and for periods of crisis raised up leaders and empowered them by his Spirit to do their work. In prophetic eschatology God’s new age will be a time when the New Israel will all be possessors of the Spirit. The most familiar statement of this work of God among the future people is Joel 2:28-29. In the New Testament this prophecy of the age to come is seen as having been fulfilled in Christ. The Church is nourished and formed by God’s Spirit, and her birthday is at Pentecost, when the disciples experienced the outpouring of God’s Spirit in their midst (Acts 2).

Israel’s Message as God’s Witness ( 44 : 6 - 8 )

The message to which Israel is to be witness before the world, first specified in 43:10-13, is now described again. There is no other effective power in the universe than the God who is Israel’s Redeemer, “the Lord of hosts.” If there is, let that power speak up and explain the past and the future. Yet, the people of Israel need not be afraid; God’s sole sovereignty had been revealed to them of old and they are his witness. There is no other “Rock” on which they can rely. This is the first use in Second Isaiah of one of the old words used to describe the dependability, the strength, and the protection of God. God as the “Rock” is a sure and strong refuge and protection in time of danger. (See, for example, Deuteronomy 32:4; Deuteronomy 32:15; Deuteronomy 32:18; Deuteronomy 32:30-31; 1 Samuel 2:2; and 2 Samuel 22:2-3 for earlier and very effective uses of the same metaphor, which is also common in the Psalms.)

Satire on Idols and Their Worshipers ( 44 : 9 - 20 )

The original text of Second Isaiah seems to have been interrupted at this point for the introduction of verses 9-20. Verses 21-23 could well be interpreted as a proper continuation of verses 6-8. The original poetic structure of verses 9-20, if there was such a thing, is no longer clear. Yet even if the verses owe their present expansion to the school of Second Isaiah, the spirit of the great prophet himself and some of his characteristic phrases are present. As a response to the question and its answer in verses 7-8 this section on idolatry is a remarkable satire. People who make their own gods and set them up as witnesses are in a pitiable situation. Such witnesses “neither see nor know, that they may be put to shame” (vs. 9). After a detailed description of the making of an ancient image (vss. 12-17) and of the way a human idol-maker uses part of the same wood to burn in a fire to cook his food and to warm himself, the prophet or his disciples portray the plight of the idolater with the greatest possible irony by remarking, “He prays to it and says, ‘Deliver me, for thou art my god!’” (vs. 17). People who do this sort of thing simply have no discernment whatever. They do not ask, “Shall I fall down before a block of wood?” Such a person “feeds on ashes; a deluded mind has led him astray, and he c ann ot deliver himself” (vss. 18-20).

Of course, no polytheist of antiquity would have acknowledged these words of the prophet as a fair description of his religion. The ancient idols were in no way meant to confine the great cosmic deities. They called the great gods to the mind of the worshiper and, since they were “like” the gods they stood for, they in some measure shared in the divine holiness and could be used as proper foci of attention in worship. The Israelite prophet, however, refused to acknowledge that there was any reality whatsoever behind the image. To him the ancient worshiper was trying to worship a fetish, something that had no power to do anything. We see the prophets to have been correct in this adverse judgment, because it is true that the religions about which they were speaking died with the death of the people and civilizations which had formulated them. The ancient gods died when their civilizations died!

“Remember These Things, O Jacob” ( 44 : 21 - 23 )

The precise object of the term “remember” in this section

is unclear. In the present editing of the text of the prophet it would refer to the section on idolatry and the sole Lordship of God (vss. 6-20). Yet verse 22 seems to refer back to 43:22-28. God has forgiven all of their earlier transgressions and now invites his people: “Return to me, for I have redeemed you.”

At this remarkable announcement of the graciousness of God, the prophet suddenly calls for the whole host of heaven and all that is on earth to break forth into singing (vs. 23). The great deed of God has been decided upon and can be spoken of as having been completed: “For the Lord has redeemed Jacob, and will be glorified in Israel.” The joy and the triumph of this prophetic faith and of its vision of God’s future is one of the significant characteristics of this literature.

Verses 24-25

Cyras and the Salvation of the World (44:24—45:25)

The Sovereign Purpose of God ( 44 : 24 - 28 )

This passage is unusual in its form. After an introduction, “Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, who formed you from the womb” (vs. 24a), the prophet quotes God’s identification of himself as the Lord, and this is followed by a long series of participial phrases (in Hebrew) which in English are rendered by relative clauses. First God identifies himself as the sole Creator of the heavens and the earth (vs. 24). He is one who frustrates the work of the diviners and magicians of the world, the whole vast realm of the occult art which filled the life of ancient man. In contrast, he fulfills “the word of his servant” and “the counsel of his messengers.” The latter reference is to his people Israel in their capacity as God’s servant and messenger in the world (chs. 41-43). Israel is interpreted here, however, as God’s prophet, with God’s word to be announced and proclaimed. The background of this passage would appear to be Deuteronomy 18, where Israel is told that she can have nothing whatsoever to do with all the occult arts of magic, divination, astrology, or spiritualism; instead, when God wants her to know something he will send his prophet, one of her own brethren, who will speak plainly so that all can understand. Here Israel is seen as fulfilling this office for the whole world.

In verses 26b-28 the references become more specific. Jerusalem is uninhabited and the cities of Judah are in ruins, but God promises that they will be rebuilt. He who promises this is the one who can control the great watery deep (vs. 27) which surrounds the world. Finally, the rebuilding of Jerusalem and of the Temple in that city is to follow the work of the great Persian conqueror, Cyrus, who is God’s shepherd (vs. 28). The term “shepherd” here refers to an important officer or administrator.

Cyrus, God’s Anointed ( 45 : 1 - 8 )

The name of Cyrus having been introduced in 44:28, the prophet now turns to this great figure and explains explicitly that he is the Lord’s “anointed.” Up to this time the special term anointed”—meaning anointed by the Lord—was used generally for two offices in Israel, that of the priest and that of the king, both of whom were anointed with holy oil (Leviticus 21:10; 1 Samuel 10:1; 1 Samuel 16:1; 1 Samuel 16:13). The title was especially used, however, as the theological name of the Davidic king in Jerusalem. To use the term as a title for Cyrus means that he is one whom God has especially appointed to a position of royal responsibility in the world. In the verses which follow we are informed that God has commissioned Cyrus to use his power “to subdue nations before him,” to open doors, to cut bars of iron; he will be given access to the secret places where treasure is hidden among the nations. That is, at this moment Cyrus is God’s king. Here in Second Isaiah, then, the office of the Messiah appears to have been reinterpreted. His redemptive functions in the world are assigned to Israel as God’s servant and witness; the use of the needed power and force to break the resisting and alienated powers of the world is the task given to Cyrus, the “anointed.”

In verses 2-6 God addresses Cyrus directly, giving him a commission. The power of Cyrus is actually the power of God, who has called him for the sake of his servant Jacob and Israel his chosen (vs. 4). It is God and God alone, the God who has made his identity known to Israel, who has called and empowered Cyrus, even though Cyrus does not know it. The work of Cyrus is actually another of the great works of the Lord, who creates both light and darkness, weal and woe. Here the prophet breaks forth in a hymnic form (vs. 8), calling upon heavens and earth to bring forth the righteousness which God has created, the righteousness which is God’s power used for the salvation of man.

For the Hebrew prophet nothing goes on in the world that is not under God’s control. The great conquerors of ancient time are able to do what they are doing only because they form part of the over-all purpose of God in history (see also 10:5-11). The work of Cyrus was indeed a saving work in the sense that he allowed the oppressed peoples of the Babylonian empire to return to the homes from which they had been exiled, if they wished to do so.

Who Dares Deny God’s Sovereignty? ( 45 : 9 - 13 )

At this point it is as though the prophet hears someone scoffing at the tremendous assertions being made about the effective power and purpose of the God of Israel. He utters, therefore, a true ironic lament or “woe.” The pronouncement of a funeral lament over someone who has done something wrong is used by the prophet as a device for announcing divine judgment. One does not enter into an argument or a contention with his Maker any more than an earthen vessel does with its potter. The clay does not talk back to the one who is fashioning it any more than one challenges parents to explain what they are doing when they bring children into the world. In verses 11-13 the prophet quotes God directly in answer to those who question him , and again he hears God reiterate that he is the Creator of the whole world, of the heavens and the earth and all their host. It is he who has aroused Cyrus, and he “will make straight all his ways.” He does so because Cyrus is going to set the exiles of Israel free and rebuild the city of Jerusalem but “not for price or reward.” It is indeed true that under Cyrus and Persian rule these precise things happened and a little province of Judah with a rebuilt city of Jerusalem and Temple within it was created. The greatest of the Persian monarchs can be said to have been among history’s most enlightened imperialists. The Persian policies and accomplishments would appear to faithful Israelites as the work of their Lord. He alone among the gods of the world is the sole Creator and Determiner of destiny, the Lord of time who has put purpose into human events.

“Turn to Me and Be Saved, All the Ends of the Earth” ( 45 : 14 - 25 )

The prophet’s vision now turns to all the peoples of the earth and the effect upon them of God’s work in Cyrus and in Israel. In verses 20-21 the theme of the assembly of nations appears again (see ch. 41; 43:8-13). Here it is to be noted that the purpose of this vision of a world assembly is to proclaim to everyone that God alone is the effective Director of human destiny, whereas the gods of the nations are nothing but dumb idols. Thus, in verses 14-17 the nations of the world, having been subdued by Cyrus, are in complete religious confusion. At the same time they will see how Israel has been saved by the Lord, and Israel will not be put to shame for all eternity. Then they will turn to Israel and bow down to her, saying, “God is with you only, and there is no other, no god besides him” (vs. 14). Verse 15 is not clear. The translators interpret it as an interjection of the prophet: Of a truth God is one who hides himself; that is the reason he has not been known to the nations. It can also be argued, however, that the verse is simply a continuation of the concession of the nations: “Truly, thou art a God who hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Savior.” That is, the God of Israel has made himself known only in Israel. In this sense he has hidden himself from the world. To learn of him mankind must come to Israel, who as God’s prophet will proclaim his name and his will.

In verses 22-23 the great invitation to the nations is given: “Turn to me and be saved ... By myself I have sworn, from my mouth has gone forth in righteousness a word that shall not return: To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.’ ” That is, God’s word with the purpose of salvation of mankind has gone out into the world and will not return until it has accomplished its purpose. In the course of time everyone who is alienated from God will turn to him , because only in him is there saving righteousness and the power to do what he wills.

In Second Isaiah the missionary role of Israel and God’s determination that the whole world shall be his Kingdom is more clearly and forcefully set forth than in any other part of the Old Testament. The Christian Church has read these verses as having been fulfilled in Christ in the mission of the Church. As a matter of fact, this is still the Christian hope. God has not finally fulfilled this great vision of universal redemption. Both Jews and Christians, therefore, share a faith in the God who one day will remove the world’s alienation from him. (For another hymn which has the same vision, though in another context, see 2:1-4 and compare Micah 4:1-4.)