Isaiah 41

Isaiah 41:8

Isa. 41:8. “Chosen.” This epithet especially belongs to Jacob rather than to Isaac or Abraham, because God ‘chose’ him before Esau his brother, though they were children of the same parents and twins in the womb together, and though Jacob was the youngest; and chose them before they were born, or either of them had done good or evil.

Isa. 41:18-20

Isaiah 41:18-20

Isa. 41:18-20. “I will make the wilderness pools of water - I will plant in the wilderness the cedar - That ye may see, and know, and consider, and understand together that the hand of the Lord hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it.” God will cause waters to flow in the dry desert, and turn the barren wilderness into a pleasant garden, and bring forth these glorious things in such places that were most likely and most distant from anything of this nature, and where was the least of any previous disposition, preparation, or foundation for any thing of this, that his hand might be the more visible, and his power and efficacy the more apparent and undeniable; as of old, when God furnished a table in the wilderness, and brought forth water out of the flinty rock. Therefore here it is said, “The Holy One of Israel hath created it.” To create, as the word is in Scripture, is either to make out of nothing, or, which is equivalent, to make out of that which has in itself no natural fitness, disposition, or proportion, or foundation for such an effect.

Isa. 41:22

Isaiah 41:22

Isa. 41:22. “Let them bring forth and show us what shall happen: let them show us former things, what they be, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or declare us things for to come.” See also verse Isaiah 41:4, and verses Isaiah 41:23; Isaiah 41:26; Isaiah 42:9; Isaiah 43:9-12; Isaiah 44:6; Isaiah 44:7; Isaiah 44:8; Isaiah 45:21; Isaiah 45:22; Isaiah 46:9; Isaiah 46:10; Isaiah 48:3; Isaiah 48:4-8; Isaiah 48:14-16. By former things in these passages of the prophet, is meant former predictions of future events, or former and ancient dispensations, or works that pointed at things future, either by representing and typifying them, or by preparing for them, and ordering things with an evident respect to future events; or more briefly, by former things is meant such words or works as so pointed at things future, as to show plainly that they, whose words or works they were, had the foreknowledge and ordination of those future events. It is evident that by former things are meant former signs of future events, by what is said here in Isaiah 41:22, “Let them show us former things, what they be, that we may consider them what they be, and know the latter end of them;” i.e. let them bring forth their ancient predictions or dispensations pointing at future events, that we may consider them, and compare them with the event, and see how they prove in the latter end, see how they come out in the event of things. This is confirmed by verse 26, “Who hath declared from the beginning, that we may know? and before time, that we may say, He is righteous?” i.e. that we may acknowledge that his cause is good, and that he is to be justified in his pretences; for here God is calling of them to come near together with him to judgment, that it may be tried who can best make out their pretences to divinity and claims of divine honours: see Isaiah 41:1; Isaiah 41:21. This is further manifest by chap. Isaiah 42:9, “Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them.” And Isaiah 43:9; Isaiah 43:10, “Let all nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled, who among them can declare this and show us former things? Let them bring forth their witnesses;” i.e. let them bring forth their witnesses, that such and such things they foretold, or by some dispensation of theirs showed their foreknowlege of such and such events; and that the events exactly agreed with the prediction.

Producing witnesses, that they may be justified, is a form of speech still alluding to a coming together in judgment. See also Isaiah 43:10-12; and chap. Isaiah 44:6-8; Isaiah 45:21; Isaiah 45:22; chap. Isaiah 46:9; Isaiah 46:10; Isaiah 48:3; Isaiah 48:4, etc.

Isaiah 41:25

Isa. 41:25 Isa. 41:25. “I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come; from the rising of the sun shall he call upon my name; and he shall come upon princes as upon mortar, and as the potter treadeth clay.” Probably some respect may be here had to Cyrus, who came from the north-east, being sent by the king of Media to destroy Babylon; and so this place seems parallel with Isaiah 44:28; Isaiah 45:1; Isaiah 45:13. But yet the Holy Ghost seems principally to have an eye here to some other prince, an antitype of Cyrus, that shall come from the north-east to destroy the spiritual Babylon, or antichristian church, which shall be raised up at the time when that glory shall be accomplished for the church that is here prophesied of in this chapter, and the foregoing and following chapters. The chief of them that are called the kings of the east, that are represented as coming to destroy the spiritual Babylon on the drying up of the river Euphrates, in Revelation 16:12 as Cyrus and other princes of the east had their way prepared to destroy the literal Babylon on the drying up of the literal river Euphrates, and probably the emperor of Muscovy. This better agrees with the context, which evidently speaks of the glorious times of the church of God, and it better agrees with the words themselves, that speak of the person that shall be raised up as one that shall call on God’s name, which was not fully accomplished in Cyrus, though he showed great respect to the true God; yet never properly became a worshipper of the true God, but lived and died an idolater: and it better agrees with the following words, which speak of the glory of God in foretelling this thing so long aforehand. The princes that the emperors of Muscovy shall probably come upon as mortar, are those two great princes that the devil has set up in opposition to Christ, viz. the emperor of the Turks and the pope. The emperor of the Turks first, so drying up the river Euphrates; and then the pope, when his way is thus prepared. The princes of these very countries, whose former princes overthrew the literal Babylon, will be joined with the princes of Muscovy, as they have of late been in war with the Turks.