Isaiah 45
BBCIsaiah 45:1
- Comfort from Cyrus, God’s Anointed (Chap. 45)45:1-6 The LORD calls Cyrus His “anointed” (the same word as “messiah” in Hebrew) because the Persian monarch was a prototype of the Messiah who would give final deliverance to His people. Jehovah promises to give him victory over nations, principally Babylon, to remove all hindrances to his conquests, and to hand over to him tremendous amounts of hidden riches in secret places. Still addressing Cyrus, the LORD speaks of Himself as the only true God, who calls Cyrus by name, who surnames him as anointed and shepherd (Isa_44:28), and who equips him for his mission. God does all this for the sake of His people, and so that the whole world may know that He alone is the LORD. 45:7 Verse 7 does not mean that God creates moral “evil,” as some have claimed, based on the King James Version and other early translations. Delitzsch points out that the early “Christian” heretic Marcion, and the heretical Valentinians and other Gnostic sects, abused this text to teach that the God of the OT was “a different being from the God of the New.” Addressing the problem of evil (including calamity, no doubt), Delitzsch continues, “Undoubtedly, evil as an act is not the direct working of God, but the spontaneous work of a creature endowed with freedom.” In the present context the contrasts are between light and its opposite, darkness; between peace and its opposite, calamity. What God permits, He is often said to create. Some think that light and darkness refer to two principles which the Persians practically revered as two gods who were in perpetual conflict. (Others say that there is no evidence that Cyrus followed this religion.) As Cyrus swept forward in his campaigns, there would be peace for Israel and calamity for Israel’s foes, and God was the One who was supervising the entire operation. 45:8 The ideal conditions of abundant righteousness (or justice) and salvation (or deliverance) described here are those that would result on a small scale from Cyrus’s intervention on behalf of Israel. Their complete fulfillment awaits the Millennial Kingdom. 45:9-11 A woe is pronounced on any who would question Jehovah’s right to use a foreigner in redeeming Judah. That is like clay talking back to the potter and accusing him of having no handsof being powerless. Verse 11 should possibly be read as a question, “Do you ask Me what I purpose far in the future concerning My sons, or do you command Me concerning the work of My hands?” In other words, “What right do you have to question Me?” 45:12, 13 The same One who created man and stretched out the heavens and the earth raised up Cyrus to liberate His exiles, and build His city of Jerusalem. While the rebuilding of the city was actually accomplished later through the decree of Artaxerxes (Neh_2:8 b), it was Cyrus’s leadership that first laid the groundwork for this project by allowing the Jews to return from Babylon. 45:14-17 Israel’s former enemies will one day come to her with gifts and tribute, acknowledging that the God of the Jews is the true God and that there is no other. This promise, as well as all God’s dealings, causes the saved remnant to praise God for His inscrutable judgments and His ways past finding out. Makers and worshipers of false gods will be ashamed, whereas Israel, saved by the LORD, will never have occasion to be ashamed after the Second Coming of the Messiah. 45:18, 19 When the LORD created the world, it was not as a chaos or in vain (thfb, the same word used in Gen_1:2). He formed it to be inhabited by men, and revealed Himself to men in clear, understandable language. He did not create chaotically, nor did He communicate chaotically. Rather He revealed Himself in truth and righteousness as the absolute and supreme God. 45:20, 21 He calls on the Gentiles, toting their idols and praying to powerless gods, to produce evidence that their idols can foretell the future as He has done. Only He can do thisand He is the only just God and a Savior. 45:22-25 He invites the Gentiles to come to Him for salvation, and decrees that every knee shall bow to Him and every tongue confess Him (see Rom_14:11; Phi_2:9-11). This will find its fulfillment in the Millennium. Then men will acknowledge the Lord Jesus as the only source of righteousness and strength. All His enemies will come to Him in contrition, and Israel shall be justified and shall glory in Him, not in idols.