Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Isaiah 48:4

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

The past and the future (48:1-22)

Before returning to their homeland, the people are reminded of the sins that led the nation into captivity. They must not repeat former errors. The people’s chief failing was that they honoured God with their words but not with their conduct (48:1-2). Knowing their tendency towards idolatry, God gave his people advance revelations of his will, to prevent them from turning to idols for guidance. But they still stubbornly rejected his teaching (3-5).
Nevertheless, God once again tells them his plans in advance, namely, that he is going to lead them back to their land. But he makes the announcement at the last minute, as it were, for their previous history has shown that they cannot be trusted. God is not going to give them the chance to claim that idols have brought them this deliverance (6-8).
God has been very patient with his people. He likens his work with them to that of a refiner, who puts silver in the fire to burn up the rubbish and leave the metal pure. In the same way God has ‘refined’ the people of Israel, but they have proved worthless. However, for the sake of his own honour, God does not destroy them (9-11).
The God who called Israel to be his people still looks after them. The God who made the world still controls its history. He brings Cyrus to Babylon to conquer Israel’s oppressor and free the captive people (12-15). God has always spoken openly with his people, and now he does so again, by sending his messenger the prophet to make his plans known to them (16).
Because God wanted only the best for his people, he was saddened to see the suffering they had brought on themselves through their stubborn disobedience. If they had paid attention to his instruction, they would have enjoyed unbroken peace and prosperity (17-19). God is now delighted that they are about to leave Babylon and return to their land. He will protect and provide for them, but if they want to enjoy peace in their land they must live uprightly (20-22).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

"Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken ye peoples, from far: Jehovah hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name: and he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand hath he hid me: and he hath made me a polished shaft; in his quiver hath he kept me close: and he said unto me, Thou art my servant; Israel, in whom I will be glorified. But I said, I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for naught and vanity; yet surely the justice due to me is with Jehovah, and my recompense with my God. And now saith Jehovah that formed me from the womb, to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, and that Israel be gathered unto him (for I am honorable in the eyes of Jehovah, and my God is become my strength); yea, it is too light a thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth."

"Made mention of my name" This was not true of the nation of Israel, that name, having been given through Jacob in the third generation of Abraham's "seed." Gabriel, however, gave the name Jesus to the Messiah before he was born (Luke 1:31).

"My mouth like a sharp sword" This indicated that the words which would come out of the mouth of Messiah would be the instrument of his power, the words which would judge men and angels on the last day (John 12:48). This is "the word" that hurled the suns in space, that lifted up the Cross, that stilled the sea; and it is the word that shall summons all the dead who ever lived to receive the sentence of their eternal destiny on the occasion of the final judgment.

"In the shadow of his hand hath he hid me" God did indeed hide Jesus. He hid him from the wrath of Herod by taking him into Egypt and hid him from all of those who would have killed him until, in his own time, he would allow his crucifixion on Calvary.

"And he said unto me, Thou art my servant Israel, in whom I will be glorified" This is punctuated differently from the text of the American Standard Version in the text above; because the semicolon that divides Israel from the previous part of this sentence is an error. In this passage, God Almighty himself named the future Messiah "ISRAEL." We have already noted that Jesus Christ is indeed the great Anti-type of Israel; and Christ himself accepted this title in John 15:1 ff, where it is recorded that he said, "I AM THE TRUE VINE," the old fleshy Israel, the secular nation, of course, being the corrupt vine or degenerate vine as revealed in both Isaiah and Jeremiah (Isaiah 5:1-7; Jeremiah 2:21).

MEANINGS OF THE WORD "ISRAEL"

The proper interpretation of the Word of God must always take into account the Biblical pattern of using the same word for multiple meanings. See my discussion of this Biblical phenomenon in Vol. 1 of my Pentateuchal Series (Genesis), p. 15, where I have pin-pointed no less than five meanings of the word "seed." Similarly, there are no less than eight legitimate meanings of the word Israel in the holy Bible.

(1)    This was the name (Israel) given by the angel to Jacob on the occasion when he wrestled with him till daylight (Genesis 32:28).

(2)    This was the name that came to be applied to the posterity of Jacob through the twelve patriarchs.

(3)    This was the name that Ephraim and the ten tribes who seceded from the House of David usurped and claimed for themselves only (Hosea 8:14).

(4)    This was the name that applied to the kingdom of Judah, after the captivity and loss of the Ten Tribes with Ephraim in the fall of Samaria (722 B.C.).

(5)    This was the "covenant name" of the righteous remnant as distinguished from the hypocritical, rebellious majority, who made up the principal mass of those deported into captivity in Babylon.

(6)    In the times of the personal ministry of Messiah, the name "Israel" was reserved for a tiny handful of the fleshly nation of the Jews who were called "Israelites Indeed" by Jesus Christ (John 1:47), categorically distinguishing between them and the "sons of the devil" who at the same time they plotted the death of Christ were calling themselves "Israelites," and "sons of Abraham." (See John 8:31-50). Nathaniel, Zacchaeus, Anna, Simeon, Zechariah, Elizabeth, Joseph, Mary, the holy apostles, and that little handful of 120 people who attended that meeting in Acts 1:15 made up the total number of Israelites indeed.

(7)    The name "Israel" in our own times, and reaching back to the ministry of Jesus Christ, rightfully belongs to the true followers of Jesus Christ, i.e., his church. Paul's letter to the Galatian churches refers to them in Galatians 6:16 as "The Israel of God." The apostles are reigning over the "twelve tribes of Israel," a name applied to the church of Jesus Christ (Matthew 19:28); and the 144,000 of Revelation 7 are none other than the kingdom or church of the Messiah.

(8)    The name "Israel" in this very Isaiah 49:3 refers exclusively to Jesus Christ the Messiah. This corresponds with the fact that Christ is the "head of the church which is his spiritual body," the whole body (all the church) itself being also "The Israel of God."

The significance of this meaning of Israel in this passage is very great. Without this information, commentators are simply puzzled and checkmated as regards the discovery of what the passage means. An example of this is seen in the words of Kelley:

"The elusiveness of the servant's identity is nowhere more apparent than here (Isaiah 49:3)… He is unequivocally identified as Israel...One way out of the impasse would be to delete the word Israel, but the ancient versions will not support such a deletion… There is no easy solution to the problem of the servant's identity."Broadman Bible Commentary (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1971), 329.

All such confusion and lack of understanding disappears instantly when it is understood that "Israel" in this passage is a God-given title of Messiah himself. After all that Isaiah had already revealed about the blindness and deafness of the fleshly nation (Israel), and of their judicial hardening, and of their being no longer the noble vine God had planted, but a "degenerate vine," it is a foolish mistake indeed to try to identify that blind, deaf, hardened, hypocrite of the fleshly nation with the "Servant" who would heal that very nation.

The preposterous proposition inherent in such an identification was duly noted also by Kelley:

"If the servant, therefore, is interpreted collectively (that is, of the fleshly nation of Israel), then one is confronted with the strange anomaly of the nation effecting its own spiritual renewal. Even Muilenburg, who believes the reference here (Isaiah 49:3) applies to the nation collectively, admits that Isaiah 49:5-6 constitute the most serious obstacle to the collective view."Ibid.

Of course, such an identification of the servant as Israel in the collective sense as the whole nation is not merely "a serious obstacle" to that viewpoint, it is overwhelming proof of the error of that viewpoint.

"I have labored in vain" These words from the Messiah himself indicate that Jesus' work with the nation of Israel would be, in one sense, frustrating, unsuccessful, and in the large measure useless. The discouragement which our Lord surely encountered was first mentioned in Isaiah 42:4, but here it surfaces again. Thus Isaiah follows the pattern he announced in Isaiah 28:10; Isaiah 28:13, the same being proof that our human author here is not some "2nd Isaiah," but Isaiah himself. Regarding the apparent failure of Jesus' mission to "the physical Israel," only 120 were gathered together as his disciples after the resurrection.

These marvelous prophecies of that "Ideal Servant" reveal that Christ alone offers salvation to men. The ancient idolaters who bowed down to images made by men fed their soul upon ashes and wasted themselves in degrading and worthless activities; but, "Even so, in philosophical circles today, Bible-rejecting agnostics demonstrate a similar blindness to the great truth that the mechanism of the Universe demands a Mechanic to fashion it, and the equally great truth that neither the ancient idolaters nor our modern unbelievers can answer the all-important question: "How can I be saved"?Wycliffe Old Testament Commentary, p. 640.

Isaiah 49:5 speaks of the mission of the Servant to bring Jacob back to the Lord and to restore Israel; but in Isaiah 49:6, it is revealed that God considered such an achievement on the part of Messiah "too light a thing," that is a work not sufficiently great to be the full task of Messiah, and that his complete work would involve also his bringing light to the heathen nations of the Gentiles. "It would have been an insufficient reward for the `Ideal Servant' to have received only the conversion of Jews as a result of his labors; therefore, God gave him for his recompense the gathering in of the Gentles also, and made him the means of salvation even to the uttermost parts of the earth."Pulpit Commentary, Vol. II, p. 231.

Isaiah 49:6 reveals that Messiah's mission to the Jewish nation did not include the restoration of all of the rebellious nation, but "the restoring of the preserved of Israel, thus being a reference to the "righteous remnant" only.

The recognition on the part of the Apostles themselves appeared, not at first, but eventually, that there was "no distinction" between Jews and Gentiles, nor even between Jews and barbarians. The Great Commission was "to all creation," and "to every creature," and "all nations."

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

"I have declared the former things from of old; yea they went forth out of my mouth, and I showed them: suddenly I did them, and they came to pass. Because I knew that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew, and thou brow brass; therefore I have declared it to thee from of old; before it came to pass I showed it thee; lest thou shouldest say, Mine idol hath done them, and my graven image, and my molten image, hath commanded them."

"Things from of old" What were these? They number in the hundreds, or even more. God prophesied the multiplication of Abraham's children through Isaac, at a time long before Isaac was even born; he prophesied the four hundred year period of Israel's "sojourn" in Egypt; he prophesied their delivery out of Egypt; he prophesied that they would leave Egypt with "great riches." He prophesied that they would indeed inherit the land of Canaan. Could such prophecies have been "after the event"? Preposterous! Why should Abraham have bought a tomb in Canaan many centuries before his people were scheduled to inherit Canaan? Furthermore, God prophesied that if Israel rebelled against his law, he would pluck them off the land, carry them far away, and scatter them all over the world. Did God "miss it" on any of these prophecies? They are mentioned here in order to convince Israel of the truth of God's Word. It is a measure of their obstinate "brazen faced" hypocrisy that they still needed convincing!

The tendency of Israel to idolatry was one of the principal characteristics of the chosen people. Their unbelief is indeed a marvel. It is a measure of their perversity that, "The argument from the fulfillment of prophecy, hitherto directed against the heathen (Isaiah 41:21 ff), must now be directed against God's own people, now become determined skeptics."The New Bible Commentary, Revised, p. 615.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

Because I knew that thou art obstinate - I made these frequent predictions, and fulfilled them in this striking manner, because I knew that as a people, you were prone to unbelief, and in order that you might have the most full and undoubted demonstration of the truth of what was declared. As they were disinclined to credit his promises, and as he saw that in their long captivity they would be prone to disbelieve what he had said respecting their deliverance under Cyrus, he had, therefore, given them these numerous evidences of the certainty of the fulfillment of all his prophecies, in order that their minds might credit what he said about their return to their own land.

That thou art obstinate - Margin, as Hebrew, ‘Hard,’ The sense is, that they were obstinate and intractable - an expression probably taken from a bullock which refuses to receive the yoke. The word hard, as expressive of obstinacy, is often combined with others. Thus, in Exodus 32:9; Exodus 34:9, ‘hard of neck,’ that is, stiff-necked, stubborn; ‘hard of face’ Ezekiel 2:4; ‘hard of heart’ Ezekiel 3:7. The idea is, that they were, as a people, obstinate, rebellious, and indisposed to submit to the laws of God - a charge which is often brought against them by the sacred writers, and which is abundantly verified by all their history as a people (compare Exodus 32:9; Exodus 33:3-5; Exodus 34:9; Deuteronomy 9:6-13; Deuteronomy 31:27; 2 Chronicles 30:8; Ezekiel 2:4; Acts 7:51).

Thy neck is an iron sinew - The word גיד giyd means properly a cord, thong, or band; then a nerve, sinew, muscle, or tendon. The metaphor is taken from oxen when they make their neck stiff, and refuse to submit it to the yoke.

And thy brow brass - Thy forehead is hard and insensible as brass. The phrase is applied to the shameless brow of a harloi Jeremiah 3:3; Ezekiel 3:7, where there is an utter want of modesty, and consummate impudence. A brow of brass is an image of insensibility, or obstinacy (so in Jeremiah 6:28).

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

4.For I knew that thou art obstinate. Literally it is, “On account of my knowing,” or, “From nay knowing.” Here the Lord solemnly declares by the Prophet, that it was on account of the hard-heartedness of the people that he spake of future events; as if he had said that he acted more liberally towards them than he ought to have done. Not that this was the only end which he aimed at; for we know that the chief use of doctrine belongs to believers, who gently submit themselves and cheerfully obey; but Isaiah, who had to deal with obstinate men, justly says that, if their depravity had not been incurable, God made use of an excellent remedy, by uttering many successive predictions for the purpose of ratifying his Law. Thus as he had foretold future events to the fathers, so he shews that he follows the same course, in order to conquer or soften the obstinacy and hard-heartedness of the people.

And thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy forehead is of brass. He calls their neck “an iron sinew,” because it cannot be bent. “Sinews” are indeed hard, but still they are capable of being bent; here, he says, there is no bending, because they are untameable. He next mentions “a brazen forehead,” to denote their impudence. There are two ways by which we may be kept in the path of duty; first, if we are submissive and obey good instructions or holy commandments; and secondly, if, after having fallen into any sin, we are moved by sincere shame to repent of what we have done. When these are wanting, it is a sign of desperate wickedness. These are two proofs, therefore, which he has brought forward to shew that the nation was abandoned to everything that was sinful; they were refractory, and they were impudent. And yet, when the Lord cannot cure us in any other way, he treats even our perversity with such forbearance, that he is pleased to give us warning of future events. Thus he assumes, as it were, every possible shape, in order to recall us to himself, and bring us back into the right path.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Now in chapter 48 God speaks about how that He is going to restore then under the Holy One, Jehovah's servant. And God is going to restore the house of Jacob.

Hear ye this, O house of Jacob, which are called by the name of Israel ( Isaiah 48:1 ),

You are called by the name of Israel.

The name of Israel literally means governed by God. Beautiful name. A man governed by God, Israel. It was a name that was given to Jacob by the Lord after Jacob had wrestled all evening and finally surrendered weeping and crying. He said, "Please don't go before You bless me." And He said, "What is your name?" He said, "Heel catcher." He said, "You won't be called heel catcher any more, you're going to be called, 'A man governed by God.'" All his life he had been a supplanter. All of his life he had lived by his wits. All of his life he was conniving, living on the border, crooked, scheming. "You're no longer going to be a schemer, conniver. You're going to be a man governed by God." And so the name Israel is a beautiful name because it means a man governed by God. "And so you've been called," He said, "by the name of Israel."

and are come forth out of the waters of Judah, you have sworn by the name of the LORD, and you make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness ( Isaiah 48:1 ).

You've been called by the name, but not in truth. You've sworn by God, but not in righteousness. You haven't really been governed by God. You've only got the name, but it's not a reality.

This is an unfortunate thing and it exists so prevalently today. There are so many people calling themselves Christians. So many of the Hollywood sect calling themselves Christians. So many of the Washington sects calling themselves Christians. But you read of their activities and it is anything but Christian. So they take the name. You've been called by the name of Israel. You've taken the name "Governed by God" but God isn't governing your lives. You've not submitted your life to God. You take the name of Christian but you're not living as Christ. You're living after the flesh and your moral impurities and in your cesspools and yet you say, "We are Christ-like." It's not Christ-like at all. So God is rebuking them for taking the name, when in reality it isn't taken in righteousness nor in truth.

For they call themselves of the holy city, and they stay themselves on the God of Israel: The LORD of hosts is his name. I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of my mouth, and I showed them; I did them suddenly, and they came to pass. Because I knew that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew ( Isaiah 48:2-4 ),

Or your iron muscles in your neck

and your brow is brass ( Isaiah 48:4 );

The hardheaded, stiff-necked bunch of people, God is saying. Can't get anything through your skull. It's like brass. You're so stiff-necked.

I have even from the beginning declared it to thee; before it came to pass I showed it you: lest you should say, My little idol did this, and my graven, and my molten image, has wiped them out ( Isaiah 48:5 ).

Now God declared what He was going to do to Babylon and God declared how He was going to bring them from their captivity, lest when this did happen, God told them in advance, lest that when it did happen, they'd hold up their little idol. "Well, my little god, he delivered us. Isn't that wonderful?" And they start giving credit to their idols again. And so God spoke of the whole thing in advance so that they would know that He was the one who had accomplished it by telling them in advance.

Now you have heard, see all this; and will not ye declare it? I have showed you new things from this time, even hidden things, and you did not know them. They are created now, and not from the beginning; even before the day when you heard them not; lest you should say, Behold, I knew them ( Isaiah 48:6-7 ).

In other words, I've told you things before they happen. Now they are happening, but I've told you already lest you should go, "I knew it was going to be. Of course, you can figure that out." There's a lot of people that still take this attitude towards the things of God. "Well, it's obvious it's going to happen, you know. Does God really know?"

Yea, you did not hear; yea, you did not know; yea, from that time that your ear was not opened: for I knew that you would deal very treacherously, and you were called a transgressor from the womb ( Isaiah 48:8 ).

I knew you and I knew that this would be.

But for my name's sake will I defer my anger, and for my praise will I refrain for thee, that I do not cut you off ( Isaiah 48:9 ).

"Now it's only my own mercy and grace that I don't cut you off." And God could very well say that to each of us. You've been stiff-necked. You've been hardheaded. And yet God has put up with you and only for His name's sake He hasn't cut us off.

Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; but I have chosen for thee the furnace of affliction ( Isaiah 48:10 ).

So their refining was to come through great affliction. And so that great affliction that they experienced in Babylon was a part of God's refining process for these people. God chose the furnace of affliction as the refining agent. And tell me, what people of earth have experienced more affliction than the Jews? They are persecuted almost wherever they have gone. They've been persecuted. They've been hated. And God declares that He has chosen the furnace of affliction.

But for my own sake, even for my own sake, will I do it: for how should my name be polluted? and I will not give my glory to another ( Isaiah 48:11 ).

You see, the Bible says, "To whom much is given, much is required." To sin against revealed light is far worse than to sin in total ignorance. "For he who knew the will of God and did it not will suffer many stripes. Yet he who knew not the will of God yet did things worthy of many stripes shall be beaten with few. For unto whom much is given, much is required" ( Luke 12:47-48 ).

Now the greater your knowledge of God, the greater the revelation of God to your life, the greater is the sin if you sin against that knowledge and revelation. And these people have been chosen as God's instrument to bring light to the world; to bring God's truth to the world. They had received the oracles of God. They had received the ordinances of God, the statutes, the law. God had committed unto them all of these things. And yet they turned from the true and the living God and they've began to worship the gods of the Canaanites. They began to worship Baal and Molech and Mammon. They began to make their idols and bow down to them and worship them. And thus their sin was greater. And thus the judgment more severe as God chose the furnace of affliction to purify these people again as a people unto Himself and for His own sake God said, "I will do it, because you polluted My name; and I will not give My glory to another."

Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my called; I am he; I am the first, and the last. My hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens: when I call unto them, they stand up together ( Isaiah 48:12-13 ).

Now God is saying, "Hey now look, you've been worshipping these dumb little idols that can't speak. They can't hear. They can't move. You got to carry them around. I am the true and the living God. I have brought the furnace of affliction. I've chosen this as a refining instrument. Now listen to Me, listen to Me, for I am God. I'm the first and I'm the last." In Revelation we read, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end" ( Revelation 1:8 ).

"My hand also laid the foundation of the earth, and again My right hand hath spanned the heavens." What does that mean? That God measured the universe with the span of His right hand.

Now when I was in school, we were taught that the universe was about four billion light years in diameter. By the time I graduated from college, we were taught that the universe was six billion light years in radius. It had increased tremendously in my schooling years. Now there are some scientists who have proclaimed that they have discovered galaxies fifty billion light years away. Now I really don't know how they know that it's that far. But that is what the claim is. Of course, you see, there's a lot of exaggeration and guesswork that is done in the name of science. And just some true fraudulism such as the Piltdown man, the Java man. Absolute frauds. But these things are done in the name of science.

And I was talking with a famous archaeologist and scientist one day about the dating of the age of some of these fragments of skulls and so forth that they had found. And so he said to me, "Well now, Charles," he was my professor and he was a tutor for a while. He took a great interest in me and I gained much from him, Dr. Albrow. He said, "Now, Charles," he said, "if we were, say, digging out here in the area of Sabina Canyon, and as we are digging we come upon a skull." He said, "We are needing money for our further digging and exploration. And so we want this to be an important find. Now they have already found skulls of Indians that they have dated in this area as having been here four thousand years ago. So if we say this skull is two thousand years, it's not news because they know that Indians have been here for four thousand years because the last guy said his skull was four thousand years old. That's where he got his headlines. So in order that we might get notoriety and attention for our find, I examine it carefully, I take fragments and send it to the carbon dating laboratories and I send them to enough until I get the age that I want." And he said, "I make the proclamation, 'We have found a skull that is five thousand years old, proving that Indians were here five thousand years ago.' All of a sudden we've got the oldest skull that was ever discovered and news, everybody wants to know about it and everybody is interested." And he said, "then it's easy to get money for further digging and explorations." He said that's how most of the skulls are dated.

Now the same is true if the scientist would say, "We've discovered a new galaxy. It's six billion lights out." Go away. They've already discovered them twelve billion light-years out there. So some guy really went out on the string the other day. He found one fifty billion. It's going to take something to beat him now. But supposing he is correct. Now from his find, fifty billion light-years, they have developed a whole new theory of the universe. And that is that the universe is continually and constantly expanding clear on out. In other words, the present theory, the Big Bang, everything went out and as it finally reaches the effigy it will start to pull back together and finally, all of the stars and the black hole will be drawn and sucked into this big gravitational black hole that's here in the universe. The reason why it's a black hole, because the gravitational pull is so strong the light can't escape from it. And so everything's going to be gobbled up by this big black hole until the atoms will be compacted so tightly in this gravitational pull. The big black hole, something will go wrong and it'll explode again and the whole thing can start over and out on one little planet under ideal conditions an amoeba may develop in the ooze. And in billions of years a new man may again stand upon a new planet in this whole new universe, you know. And start guessing how old are the fossils that he found.

Now if indeed the man found a galaxy fifty billion light years away, all he did was make God that much bigger. I thought He was big when He could span the universe of twelve billion light-years with His right hand. God said, "I spanned it with my right hand." That is, He measured... How big is God? "Now God, I've got this horrible problem. It's so big. I don't know if even You can work this one out, God. I need to lift this trunk. It's so heavy." Oh, if we'd only realize the greatness of our God. "Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel, I am the first, and the last. My hand laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand spanned the heavens. When I call, they stand. I say, 'Hey,' and they come to attention." My, it's going to be glorious to be in heaven and watch God order things around.

All of ye, assemble yourselves, and hear; which among them hath declared these things? The LORD hath loved him: he will do his pleasure on Babylon, and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans ( Isaiah 48:14 ).

I've loved My people. I will do My pleasure, but I will bring out on the Chaldeans and the Babylonians My judgment.

I, even I, have spoken it; yea, I have called him: I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous ( Isaiah 48:15 ).

Now verse Isaiah 48:16 , one that really jumped out at me.

Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there I am: and now the Lord GOD, and his Spirit, hath sent me ( Isaiah 48:16 ).

Who is this speaking? It would have to be Jesus. You remember when Jesus was talking with the Pharisees? And they said, "We are Abraham's children." He said, "If you were the children of Abraham then would you believe Me? Because Abraham rejoiced to see My day and he saw it." They said, "What are You talking about? You're not even fifty years old and You say that Abraham saw You?" And Jesus said, "Before Abraham was, I am" ( John 8:56-58 ). Now you have much the same here. "From the beginning, from the time that it was, I am. There I am. And now the Lord God and His Spirit hath sent Me."

Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel ( Isaiah 48:17 );

None other than Jesus Christ.

I am the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that you should go. O that you would have hearkened to my commandments! then had your peace been as a river, and your righteousness as the waves of the sea ( Isaiah 48:17-18 ):

"If you only had listened," the Lord said. "I'm the One who has taught you to prosper." God has put it in them that uncanny ability to prosper. "I have led you in the way that you should go. Oh, if you'd only have hearkened to My commandments! Then your peace would have been as a river." The people, it is interesting, many of them are angry with God because of that furnace of affliction that they have gone through. But that has only come as the result of their not obeying the commandments of God. Had they only obeyed.

Now, even today, they are seeking to affect before God a righteousness not of the covenant of the law but of their own making, a righteousness of works. As on Yom Kippur they balance their good deeds with their evil and offer their good works unto God for an atonement for their sins. And yet, God's covenant said, "Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins" ( Hebrews 9:22 ). And so God says, "Hey, if you'd only listened, if you'd only obeyed My commandments, your peace would have been as a river."

Thy seed also had been as the sand, and your offspring of thy bowels like the gravel thereof; his name should not have been cut off nor destroyed from before me. Go ye forth of Babylon, flee ye from the Chaldeans, with a voice of singing declare ye, tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth; say ye, The LORD hath redeemed his servant Jacob. And they thirsted not when he led them through the deserts: he caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them: he clave the rock also, and the waters gushed out. There is no peace, saith the LORD, for the wicked ( Isaiah 48:19-22 ).

Now if you'd only obeyed the commandments, your peace would have been like a river. But there is no peace for the wicked.

"

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Israel’s inveterate unbelief 48:1-5

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

The former failure 48:1-11

This section recapitulates the revelation that Yahweh predicts the future, so that when the event He predicts happens, people will recognize that He is the only true God. He can cause new things to happen because He alone is the Creator. This prophecy has been the source of much critical attack on Isaiah. [Note: See Oswalt, The Book . . . 40-66, pp. 270-72, for discussion.] Again, the critics’ disbelief in God’s ability to predict the future and then bring it into being is the problem.

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

God had done this because His people were stubborn when it came to trusting Him. If He had not done this, they would have concluded that some idol had been responsible for the turn of events. They, like all people, resisted trust in a sovereign God, preferring rather to make their gods in their own image and so control them. People are by nature like animals, in that they often refuse to go a certain way, simply because their Master wants them to go that way. The "neck of iron" pictures unwillingness to bow in submission. The "brazen forehead" represents an opinionated person with a closed mind, or a shameless person who persists in sin.

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

Because I knew that thou art obstinate,.... Or "hard" a, hard hearted, an obdurate and rebellious people, contradicting and gainsaying:

and thy neck is as an iron sinew; stiffnecked, inflexible, not compliant with the will of God, and his commands; unwilling to admit his yoke, and bear it:

and thy brow brass; impudent, not ashamed of sin, nor blushing at it, refusing to receive correction for it, having a whore's forehead. This the Lord knew and foreknew, and therefore declared before hand what would come to pass unto them; who otherwise would have had the assurance to have ascribed them to themselves, or their idols, and not to him.

a כי קשה אתה "quod durus tu es", Pagninus, Montanus; "te durum esse", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Vitringa.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      1 Hear ye this, O house of Jacob, which are called by the name of Israel, and are come forth out of the waters of Judah, which swear by the name of the LORD, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness.   2 For they call themselves of the holy city, and stay themselves upon the God of Israel; The LORD of hosts is his name.   3 I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of my mouth, and I showed them; I did them suddenly, and they came to pass.   4 Because I knew that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass;   5 I have even from the beginning declared it to thee; before it came to pass I showed it thee: lest thou shouldest say, Mine idol hath done them, and my graven image, and my molten image, hath commanded them.   6 Thou hast heard, see all this; and will not ye declare it? I have showed thee new things from this time, even hidden things, and thou didst not know them.   7 They are created now, and not from the beginning; even before the day when thou heardest them not; lest thou shouldest say, Behold, I knew them.   8 Yea, thou heardest not; yea, thou knewest not; yea, from that time that thine ear was not opened: for I knew that thou wouldest deal very treacherously, and wast called a transgressor from the womb.

      We may observe here,

      I. The hypocritical profession which many of the Jews made of religion and relation to God. To those who made such a profession the prophet is here ordered to address himself, for their conviction and humiliation, that they might own God's justice in what he had brought upon them. Now observe here,

      1. How high their profession of religion soared, what a fair show they made in the flesh and how far they went towards heaven, what a good livery they wore and what a good face they put upon a very bad heart. (1.) They were the house of Jacob; they had a place and a name in the visible church. Jacob have I loved. Jacob is God's chosen; and they are not only retainers to his family, but descendants from him. (2.) They were called by the name of Israel, an honourable name; they were of that people to whom pertained both the giving of the law and the promises. Israel signifies a prince with God; and they prided themselves in being of that princely race. (3.) They came forth out of the waters of Judah, and thence were called Jews; they were of the royal tribe, the tribe of which Shiloh was to come, the tribe that adhered to God when the rest revolted. (4.) They swore by the name of the Lord, and thereby owned him to be the true God, and their God, and gave glory to him as the righteous Judge of all. They swore to the name of the Lord (so it may be read); they took an oath of allegiance to him as their King and joined themselves to him in covenant. (5.) They made mention of the God of Israel in their prayers and praises; they often spoke of him, observed his memorials, and pretended to be very mindful of him. (6.) They called themselves of the holy city, and, when they were captives in Babylon, purely from a principle of honour, and jealousy for their native country, they valued themselves upon their interest in it. Many, who are themselves unholy, are proud of their relation to the church, the holy city. (7.) They stayed themselves upon the God of Israel, and boasted of his promises and his covenant with them; they leaned on the Lord,Micah 3:11. And, if they were asked concerning their God, they could say, "The Lord of hosts is his name, the Lord of all;" happy are we therefore, and very great, who have relation to him!

      2. How low their profession of religion sunk, notwithstanding all this. It was all in vain; for it was all a jest; it was not in truth and righteousness. Their hearts were not true nor right in these professions. Note, All our religious professions avail nothing further than they are made in truth and righteousness. If we be not sincere in them, we do but take the name of the Lord our God in vain.

      II. The means God used, and the method he took, to keep them close to himself, and to prevent their turning aside to idolatry. The many excellent laws he gave them, with their sanctions, and the hedges about them, it seems, would not serve to restrain them from that sin which did most easily beset them, and therefore to those God added remarkable prophecies, and remarkable providences in pursuance of those prophecies, which were all designed to convince them that their God was the only true God and that it was therefore both their duty and interest to adhere to him. 1. He both dignified and favoured them with remarkable prophecies (Isaiah 48:3; Isaiah 48:3): I have declared the former things from the beginning. Nothing material happened to their nation from its original which was not prophesied of before--their bondage in Egypt, their deliverance thence, the situation of their tribes in Canaan, c. All these things went forth out of God's mouth and he showed them. Herein they were honoured above any nation, and even their curiosity was gratified. Their prophecies were such as they could rely upon, and such as concerned themselves and their own nation and they were all verified by the accomplishment of them. I did them suddenly, when they were least expected by themselves or others, and therefore could not be foreseen by any but a divine prescience. I did them and they came to pass; for what God does he does effectually. The very calamities they were now groaning under in Babylon God did from the beginning declare to them by Moses, as the certain consequences of their apostasy from God, Leviticus 26:31; Deuteronomy 28:36; Deuteronomy 29:28. He also declared to them their return to God, and to their own land again, Deuteronomy 30:4; Leviticus 26:44; Leviticus 26:45. Thus he showed them how he would deal with them long before it came to pass. Let them compare their present state together with the deliverance they had now in prospect with what was written in the law, and they would find the scripture exactly fulfilled. 2. He both dignified and favoured them with remarkable providence (Isaiah 48:6; Isaiah 48:6): I have shown thee new things from this time. Besides the general view given from the beginning of God's proceedings with them, he showed them new things by the prophets of their own day, and created them. They were hidden things, which they could not otherwise know, as the prophecy concerning Cyrus and the exact time of their release out of Babylon. These things God created now,Isaiah 48:7; Isaiah 48:7. Their restoration was in effect their creation, and they had a promise of it not from the beginning, but of late; for to prevent their apostasy from God, or to recover them, prophecy was kept up among them. Yet it was told them when they could not come to the knowledge of it in any other way than by divine revelation. "Consider," says God, "how much soever it is talked of now among you and expected, it was told you by the prophets, when it was the furthest thing from your thoughts, when you had not heard it, when you had not known it, nor had any reason to expect it, and when your ear was not opened concerning it (Isaiah 48:7; Isaiah 48:8), when the thing seemed utterly impossible, and you would scarcely have given any one the hearing who should have told you of it." God had shown them hidden things which were out of the reach of their knowledge, and done for them great things, out of the reach of their power: "Now," says he (Isaiah 48:6; Isaiah 48:6), "thou hast heard; see all this. Thou hast heard the prophecy; see the accomplishment of it, and observe whether the word and works of God do not exactly agree; and will you not declare it, that as you have heard so you have seen? Will you not own that the Lord is the true God, the only true God, that he has the knowledge and power which no creature has and which none of the gods of the nations can pretend to? Will you not own that your God has been a good God to you? Declare this to his honour, and your own shame, who have dealt so deceitfully with him and preferred others before him."

      III. The reasons why God would take this method with them.

      1. Because he would anticipate their boastings of themselves and their idols. (1.) God by his prophets told them beforehand of their deliverance, lest they should attribute the accomplishment of it to their idols. Thus he saw it necessary to secure the glory of it to himself, which otherwise would have been given by some of them to their graven images: "I spoke of it," says God, "lest thou shouldst say, My idol has done it or has commanded it to be done," Isaiah 48:5; Isaiah 48:5. There were those that would be apt to say so, and so would be confirmed in their idolatry by that which was intended to cure them of it. But they would now be for ever precluded from saying this; for, if the idols had done it, the prophets of the idols would have foretold it; but, the prophets of the Lord having foretold it, it was no doubt the power of the Lord that effected it. (2.) God foretold it by his prophets, lest they should assume the foresight of it to themselves. Those that were not so profane as to have ascribed the thing itself to an idol were yet so proud as to have pretended that by their own sagacity they foresaw it, if God had not been beforehand with them and spoken first: Lest thou shouldst say, Behold, I knew them,Isaiah 48:7; Isaiah 48:7. Thus vain men, who would be thought wise, commonly undervalue a thing which is really great and surprising with this suggestion, that it was no more than they expected and they knew it would come to this. To anticipate this, and that this boasting might for ever be excluded, God told them of it before the day, when as yet they dreamed not of it. God has said and done enough to prevent men's boastings of themselves, and that no flesh may glory in his presence, and, if it have not the intended effect, it will aggravate the sin and ruin of the proud; and, sooner, or later, every mouth shall be stopped, and all flesh shall become silent before God.

      2. Because he would leave them inexcusable in their obstinacy. Therefore he took this pains with them, because he knew they were obstinate, Isaiah 48:4; Isaiah 48:4. He knew they were so obstinate and perverse that, if he had not supported the doctrine of providence by prophecy, they would have had the impudence to deny it, and would have said that their idol had done that which God did. He knew very well, (1.) How wilful they would be, and how fully bent they would be upon that which is evil: I knew that thou wast hard; so the word is. There were prophecies as well as precepts which God gave them because of the hardness of their hearts: "Thy neck is an iron sinew, unapt to yield and submit to the yoke of God' commandments, unapt to turn and look back upon his dealings with thee or look up to his displeasure against thee; not flexible to the will of God, nor pliable to his intentions, nor manageable by his word or providence. Thy brow is brass; thou art impudent and canst not blush, insolent and wilt not fear or give back, but wilt thrust on in the way of thy heart." God uses means to bring sinners to comply with him, though he knows they are obstinate. (2.) How deceitful they would be and how insincere in that which is good, Isaiah 48:8; Isaiah 48:8. God sent his prophets to them, but they did not hear, they would not know, and it was no more than was expected, considering what they had been. Thou wast called, and not miscalled, a transgressor from the womb. Ever since they were first formed into a people they were prone to idolatry; they brought with them out of Egypt a strange addictedness to that sin; and they were murmurers as soon as ever they began their march to Canaan. They were justly upbraided with it then, Deuteronomy 9:7; Deuteronomy 9:24. Therefore I knew that thou wouldst deal very treacherously. God foresaw their apostasy, and gave this reason for it, that he had always found them false and fickle, Deuteronomy 31:16; Deuteronomy 31:27; Deuteronomy 31:29. This is applicable to particular persons. We are all born children of disobedience; we were called transgressors from the womb, and therefore it is easy to foresee that we shall deal treacherously, very treacherously. Where original sin is actual sin will follow of course. God knows it, and yet deals not with us according to our deserts.