41:1 Be silent before me, O isles; become still, you peoples! Let them come forward and state their case; let us stand trial together. In the creation there are peoples and islands. The isles refer to people on the islands, or continents, and they have some kind of grief, or argument, here, against God and his peoples. Whenever you get people ascending to a higher level on the spiritual ladder there is also horrendous opposition toward such people, toward the servants of God. And obviously somebody's stirred up because they're claiming something and the Lord wants to bring them to trial, bring them to court where they can plead their case, and he'll plead his. And it's worldwide. And in that context of worldwide opposition, there is a dichotomy between two different kinds of people—the ones who are exalted beings, and the others who are Babylon and the world who are imposing opposition—in that context appears the Lord's Servant. And in a sense we have here, creation, in verse thirty-one, chaos, in verse one, and creation again, in verse two: 41:2 Who has raised up Righteousness from the east, calling him to the place of his foot? Who has delivered nations to him, toppled their rulers, rendering them as dust to his sword, as driven stubble to his bow? Righteousness is a person, here, obviously, just as Salvation is a person, the Lord himself, throughout the book. How can the Servant be called Righteousness? The answer is because he exemplifies righteousness in every respect. How? By keeping the law of the covenant and proving faithful to God under all conditions. That constitutes righteousness, by God's definition, or by the prophet's definition. It's not self righteousness; it's not going to church and doing this, or doing that. Yes, that's all part of righteousness, and those things can lead you there, but by God's definition this person personifies righteousness. He's there Just as Christ personifies the law and the word. John says that in the beginning was the Word and the Word was God. How can he be the Word? Because he lives by every word of God. He personifies the word of God because he has lived by every word of God. He's passed every test. He is the Word. He is the law. He's abided by every law. He's passed every test. And you become that; you begin to personify that, when you do that. How can the Lord be described as Salvation? Because he is Salvation. He's it. Why do we come unto Christ? We come unto Christ because he is Salvation, himself. He leads us there. He shows us the way. He's an example for it. He gave us the law. We do his will and we become saved. He's wrought out the atonement for our sins, and paid the price for our transgressions. He is Salvation. The name, Jesus, means Salvation. It's a perfect name for Jesus Christ, for our Savior. And Righteousness and Salvation are two arms of God. And this is speaking of the Servant, the one who precedes Salvation. Righteousness, in the book of Isaiah, precedes Salvation. That means that you can't be saved unless you're righteous. But it also means that the Servant is a forerunner to the coming of the Lord. Where does this guy come from? From the east, in relation to the Lord's covenant people. Where is that? From the Middle East, or the Orient, or where? We don't know. We do know that in the book of Revelation that the angel from the east is the one who seals up the 144,000 servants of God, a similar scenario as we have in Isaiah. So, obviously, the angel from the east and the Righteousness from the east are the same individual that accomplish the same purposes. "Who has raised up Righteousness from the east, calling him to the place of his foot?" The "place of his foot" is the Promised land. Which Promised Land? Isaiah's speaking from Palestine, so the east would be in relation to Palestine, no doubt, and the foot would be Palestine, the Promised Land there. The earth is also his footstool, so it could also be interpreted to be an angel coming from heaven to earth, on another level. "Who has delivered nations to him, toppled their rulers?" The raising up and calling are creation motifs, the same as calling each one by name, in verse twenty-six of chapter forty. The apex of God's creation, really, are those who are renewed in strength. As an example, this one from the east, this Righteousness from the east; he's the best example of such a person. We've gone from the creation of the heavens and the earth, the nations, Israel, exalted people in Israel—and now, the Servant, or this person. It's all become focused to one particular person. He's like the model. He's like the showpiece. He's exhibit A of God's creation. And all these others are also his exhibits, in verse thirty-one. And who are they? They're all the other servants of God who assist him. They're all doing God's work, together, at that time. And the nations of the earth are opposing them. But the Lord empowers him over the nations. He topples their rulers. Where do we have a precedent for that? Do you remember how Jeremiah was empowered by the Lord to overthrow kingdoms, "to throw down and to plant," as it says in the book of Jeremiah. So Jeremiah, there, is a type for the Servant. He's given that power, and there's a precedent for that, in Jeremiah. "--toppled their rulers, rendering them as dust to his sword--" So he's a warrior figure--"as driven stubble to his bow." Dust and stubble are chaos motifs. So this person from the east who comes to the Promised Land is empowered by the Lord to make chaos of nations and rulers. When you're reduced to dust and stubble you become a non-entity. You don't exist anymore. The human body decomposes into the dust. When it does, it no longer exists. That's why dust is a chaos motif. But from the dust can come a new creation. That's how the whole thing starts. And that's what Isaiah's teaching you by alternating these themes over and over and over. So there he is, a warrior. You might say, "Well, God wouldn't send a warrior, like that." Well he does, because later on, as everybody has a paradigm that's higher than themselves, so he has a paradigm that's higher than himself. And that's the Lord himself. "The Lord will come forth like a warrior, his passions aroused like a fighter; he will give the war cry, raise the victory over his enemies. (Isaiah 42: 13) So there, God himself is described as a warrior. When you compare that passage with this one in chapter forty-one, verse two, you see that the Servant is just following the example of his Lord. God can be a lamb and he can also be a warrior. It depends on the circumstances. And so with his servants; they can be a Moses who schools the people of Israel in the wilderness, and they can also be a Moses who stretches out his arm over Pharaoh's armies, and they all drown in the depths of the sea. 41:3 He puts them to flight, passing on unhindered by paths his feet have never trod. So, his putting them down is very easy for him. No one can stand in his way. Chapters forty-one through forty-six parallel chapters nine through twelve, of Isaiah. It's the same as we saw where chapter six paralleled chapters thirty-six through forty. You'd expect the same kind of thing to be going on in the first block of chapters that parallel with it. There we have a shoot that springs up from the stock of Jesse, and a branch from its graft that bears fruit, and there we have him smiting the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips slaying the wicked. He doesn't even have to fight them with the sword. He's given power over them simply by his word, just like the power a translated being has, or can do. Also in chapter forty-one, verse two, sword and bow are metaphors that describe the Servant himself. The Lord delivers nations to the Servant's sword, or into the hands of the Servant. He is the sword. The sword that comes out of his mouth, in chapter eleven, can be read two ways, as we discussed. The sword can be the Servant himself—and his word is powerful—or it can be the Lord using his Servant as an instrument. You can read it two ways. 41:4 Who is at work accomplishing this, foreordaining dynasties? I, the Lord, first and last, am he. Now, this implies that this person, this Righteousness, starts off a new dynasty. And the work is part of the work of the latter days' destruction and deliverance. So a new dynasty begins at that time, as it were, with this individual, this warrior. "I the Lord, first and last, am he," implies that the Lord who began the work also finishes it, and that there is a juxtaposition, or a parallel relationship between Israel's early history, and Israel's latter-day history, the end-time history. He's at the first; he started creation, and he's also there at the end, bringing it to a conclusion. Another way of saying that in Hebrew is Aleph Tav. Aleph is the first letter, and Tav is the last letter, or in Greek: Alpha and Omega. It means that God is there in the beginning and he's there at the end, and all the way in between, of course, but in the particular sense that there is an initial fulfillment of Divine history and then a latter-day fulfillment of Divine history, and that the one parallels the other. 41:5–6 The isles look on in fear; the ends of the earth are in trembling. They flock together and come to one another's aid, saying, each to his fellow, Courage! "Courage, man, hang in there! It's going to be okay." Is it? Not necessarily, not for those guys, because when the Lord starts to intervene in the affairs of his people, it's very rough for their enemies, as Pharaoh and his armies, or the Egyptians, found out. Who is it that's going to fear, in the end time? It's the wicked. The righteous don't fear; they overcome their fear. In chapter forty-one, verse five, people are hanging on to one another for support, and thus, relying on the arm of flesh. Isaiah contrasts that in verse eight, with Jacob or Israel. But that's the category that's yet to pass the test. We'll see what that test is, right now. 41:8 But you, O Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, offspring of Abraham my beloved friend, 41:9 you whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, called from its farthest limits—to you I say, You are my servant; I have accepted you and not rejected you. These are people that are still hanging in there but need encouragement. And where are they getting their encouragement from? From one another? No. From God,--which implies that they're turning to God, and God is saying, "I haven't rejected you; I have accepted you." Even though it may seem like you're rejected. Even though it may seem like, in verse twenty seven, of chapter forty, "Our path has become obscured from the Lord, our cause overlooked by our God." They have gotten past that point of self-deception, and now they've gotten themselves into a position where God is speaking to them. So, these people are in the process of passing the test, but they're not there, yet. They're still called Israel, or Jacob. They are being reconverted to their God , renewing their covenant relationship with him, they are repenting and they are returning from the ends of the earth, or they're being called from there, right now, through the Servant. That's his job, to bring them back together to Israel, from the four directions of the earth. (chapter eleven). And they are also his servant. They are a corporate servant, as it were. As a people they are his servant, as the one servant is an individual servant, they are a corporate servant; they are chosen of God. They need to be reminded of who they are—offspring of Abraham, "my beloved friend." And they could become God's beloved friend. That's a special, descriptive term: "beloved friend," of someone who ascends the spiritual ladder to a very high station, someone with whom the Lord has made unconditional covenants. With his people, Israel, as a whole, he made a conditional covenant—the Sinai covenant. And they can renew that covenant at any time. But he will not make with them an unconditional covenant, as he did with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, until they pass the test Abraham, Isaac and Jacob passed. Then they will become his beloved friends, too. But they're not there yet. That idea, that paradigm of Abraham is held out to them as something that they can aspire to and emulate. And they are acknowledge as the covenant people, as Abraham's offspring. "Whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, just like Abraham. Abraham was taken from the ends of the earth, from Ur of the Chaldeans, and brought to the Lord's foot, or footstool, or to the Promised, called from its farthest limits, from beyond the horizon, from Mesopotamia he came, the land of Canaan. And now Abraham's descendants are called to do the same thing. Whenever a name is mentioned, like that here, in this case,--Abraham-- it always is associated with some precedent that some individual has set. What was the precedent that Abraham set, in Israel's history? It was somebody who came from the ends of the earth, who was called from a far distant places, leaving his family, to come to a strange place to inherit it. For that, Abraham set a precedent, and that is what is required, now, as Abraham's descendants. He's the type for them to follow; they are now called from the ends of the earth just like he was, to leave their friends and their kinsfolk to come to a strange land that will become their inheritance. That's a test. If you're like Lot's wife you don't want to leave. Right? If you're like Lot, you come out, especially when destruction's coming in. And that's what's happening here. If you stay behind and are not gathered out, you'll be destroyed in a Sodom and Gomorrah-type destruction. Because, that's what's happening at this very time of the gathering out when the world is destroyed. "To you, I say, you are my servant; I have accepted you and not rejected you." There's doubt in your mind. You're wavering. So, come on, get your act together. 41:10 Be not fearful, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will also succor you and uphold you with my righteous right hand. "Your God, the covenant God," expresses the relationship. To with him is the name Immanuel: "God is with us." When God is with you, you can accomplish his purpose. There is protection. You don't need to fear. It's a test, yes. It's a test because you don't know what's ahead. If you trust in God he will protect you. "I will strengthen you; I will also succor you and uphold you with my righteous right hand." So, just as the Servant is strengthened, or those who hope in the Lord are strengthened and renewed in strength, so may anybody be, so long as they trust in God. So may Jacob, or Israel. They will be strengthened. How? First of all, through the agency of the Servant who is the right hand of God. His right-hand man, so to speak. Another way of translating, "my righteous right hand," from the Hebrew is, "righteousness, my right hand." So, I will uphold you with righteousness, my right hand. That is a more correct translation, but it doesn't make a lot of sense in the English, so most translations say "my righteous right hand, instead." So is the Servant who upholds them. He's the Shepherd that shepherds the flock; he leads them gently along. And he follows after the Good Shepherd who is the Lord himself. He one has a model above him. As God strengthens and succors him, so he strengthens and succors God's people. 41:11 See, all who are enraged at you shall earn shame and disgrace; your adversaries shall come to nought, and perish. Deliverance for those who stay the course and prove loyal. There is a test going on, a horrendous test. People are enraged; they're incensed against the people of God, and against his servant. So, what are we to do? Vacillate in the middle that? Or we trust firmly in God. It's a test, especially when you're newly being converted to the God of Israel, to face such circumstances. Yet, all the precedents of the past shows that God comes through for them. "Your adversaries shall come to naught, and perish." That's chaos motif, again. "Strengthening" and "upholding" is creation. It's renewal. And, always, the one earns shame and disgrace are the wicked, in Isaiah, the ones who fight against the Lord's people, or the idolaters—it links us with idolaters, in many cases, as we'll see in the next few chapters. So, they have adversaries. You cannot help but have adversaries if you become the people of God. It's part and parcel of the nature of being God's people. When you covenant with him you do it with your eyes open and know that you're going to get opposition. And the higher you ascend the spiritual ladder the more intense the opposition becomes. Those who are called the Lord's servants, in the latter part of the book of Isaiah, are dealing with cultists and false brethren, and murderers, and idolaters, and apostates. God's people are coming under intense opposition. And that very opposition is what lifts them higher. Because, in the midst of that opposition, they cry to God for deliverance, for help, and for strength. And that's how he empowers them. That's when he empowers them. And that empowerment remains with them then on. It's part of our very progression, part of the ascent upward. And there are those who try to drag you down, and God strengthens you against them. 41:12 Should you look for those who contend with you, you shall not find them; whoever wars against you shall be reduced to nothing. Right now they're in your face. This is chaos motif again, or a continuation of the chaos motif. This is serious stuff. It's an all-out war. It's contention, war—people rage against you, fighting against you. That's what you have to wade through in order to come out and be delivered in a saved condition. 41:13 For I, the Lord your God, hold you by the right hand and say to you, Have no fear; I will help you. Expressing the possessive, your covenant God-- " hold you by the right hand and say to you, have no fear; I will help you." Obviously, these people are in a covenant relationship with God. They're not the ones in verse twenty seven, chapter forty anymore. They've gotten past the position of murmuring and complaining and deceiving themselves. Now, they're being held by the right hand, or strengthened, or upheld by the right hand of God. His Servant is empowering them. He is God's right hand. Through his instrumentality God helps them. There's also the left hand of God, which is the king of Assyria, the hand of punishment, versus the hand of deliverance. Two hands of God, two hands of the Lord: the king of Assyria is the left hand, smiting and punishing, and the Lord's Servant is the right hand of deliverance, delivering them. "Have no fear. I will help you." Have no fear? This is a time when fear would be justified! 41:14 Be not afraid, you worms of Jacob; O men of Israel, [be not dismayed]: I am your help, says the Lord; your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. Why worms? Because, that's where you start. You start with a lowly worm and you end up as a butterfly. You start with being trodden down, and you end up being the one treading the wicked down. That's how God does it. He didn't exalt Jacob until he had kowtowed down to Esau. Christ, himself, came and submitted himself to Caiphas. There is always humiliation, before exaltation, suffering before salvation., a humble state, before an exalted state. And who is this category? Jacob, or, Israel. The ones who are in the midst of, or in process of, passing the test. " I am your help, says the Lord, your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel." So, redemption is to find his help in the face of physical enemies, because the Lord's redemption is not just spiritual. If you take the word, redeemed," or "redemption", all the way through the book of Isaiah, you can get a definition of what it means. And it includes physical deliverance. It's in parallel with redemption: "I am your help. I am your Redeemer." In the face of physical enemies they are redeemed. The Holy One of Israel. He is the exemplar of holiness. Who does he deliver? Those who are like him, those who are holy, those who are sanctified. And when they become holy and sanctified like he is, or in a measure, like is, then what happens to them? He empowers them. 41:15 I will make of you a sharp-toothed threshing sledge of new design, full of spikes: you shall thresh mountains to dust and make chaff of hills. Just like some modern farm machine. [ a modern-day combine which threshes out the grain]" You shall thresh mountains to dust, and make chaff of hills." Dust and chaff are chaos motifs. And here, they have power over their enemies. They're a sharp-toothed threshing sledge, threshing their enemies and making chaos of them. But, that's what Righteousness from the east did, in verse two. He's threshed nations to dust, or stubble and chaff, same thing. As he does, do they do. And mountains, in Isaiah, is a metaphor for nations, and so are hills, lesser nations and peoples. So, they're threshing nations to dusts, as well. They're both involved in a new conquest. That's what the Israelites did when they went and conquered the land of Canaan. They threshed nations to dust, and made chaff, of hills, in their conquest of the Promised land. So, it implies that these two-- the individual person, Righteousness, on the east, and the individual Servant, or corporate servant, Jacob, or Israel—are doing identical things. You think they are doing so, independently of each other? No, of course not. They're doing like Moses did with the Israelites. He led them into battle. And Joshua did the same thing. Together, the Servant and Israel are doing this. Because it says he is strengthening them and helping them by his right hand, empowering pairing them. So, obviously they're doing it, together. And so, we go back to chaos motif. There is another Old Testament prophet that basically quotes this same thing, saying that one will go up, at the head of them, or in the front of them, and they will thresh nations to dust. He uses the word, thresh, nations, and dust. What's going on is that when he gets involved with them, by converting them, the ancient covenant people of the Lord, to renew the covenant with their God, then God empowers them. And, they basically go through the same scenario that Moses and the Israelites did when they conquered the land of Canaan. 41:16 As you winnow them, a wind shall take them away, a tempest dispel them. Then will you rejoice in the Lord and glory in the Holy One of Israel. because then you'll have the victory over your enemies, the one who have been oppressing you, the ones who are enraged at you, the ones who are making war against you. And you'll give God the credit, of course. The wind and the tempest is storm imagery that's used all the way through the book of Isaiah, to denote the day of judgment, when the king of Assyria does his thing. Those enemies of the people will perish, in that day when the king of Assyria does his destruction. In fact, the wind and the tempest are probably metaphors for the king of Assyria, himself; he is the wind and he is the tempest. 41:17 When the poor and needy require water, and there is none, and their tongue becomes parched with thirst, I the Lord will answer their want; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. Now, this is similar to the situation when Israel wandered through the wilderness, on their way from Egypt to the Promised land. They came, conquering as they went. There were the times, when, since it was through the wilderness, through the desert, that there was no water to drink. And from now on you'll see that Isaiah raises this issue, many, many times—that as they wandered through the wilderness, or through the desert, some people will say, " But we can't go out there! There's no water out there!" And he keeps reassuring us that there's going to be water out there, that the Lord will provide water, just as he provided water for the Israelites. Because those are the very things the Israelites said, " There's no water out here. Why do you bring us into this wilderness to perish?" And so, Isaiah keeps reassuring them , over and over and over again—implying that there are people who are saying such things, and then, pre-empting that situation by saying there is going to be water, on that exodus. And who is it that goes? The poor and needy. They are the ones that go on the Exodus. The poor and the needy, in the book of Isaiah are defined, in parallelism, as the covenant people, as we saw earlier. So, who specifically goes on the Exodus? They do. The poor and the needy, God's people. The rich, in other words, don't. Or they may not, because they didn't use their riches, apparently, relieving the poor and the needy of their oppression. Which is what Isaiah requires it of his people. Which is one of his definitions of righteousness. Also, having water and having food is a covenant blessing. If they did not have water, and did not have enough to eat, they would be under a curse. They always have enough. The Lord provides. Tongue is another metaphor describing the Lord's Servant, in this case, which may indicate that one of his tests is to go through a period of real thirst. That's on a more esoteric level of interpreting. "I, the Lord, will answer their want; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them." Some of them have forsaken him. And that's the problem. When they do that, then he forsakes them. But not those who turn to him; he doesn't forsake them. So this is good! 41:18 I will open up streams in barren hill country, springs in the midst of the plains; I will turn the desert into lakes, parched lands into fountains of water. This is the great curse reversal that happens when the desert blossoms, as we read earlier, and turns into a paradisiacal situation. It begins in the desert, not in the fertile places. The fertile places of the earth are made into a wilderness. And the wilderness places are made into fertile places. In fact, the opposite happens with the two. And when does that happen? When the Lord's people come, wandering through the wilderness. Then it happens; the wilderness blossoms as they come through. Why does that happen? Because the Lord accompanies them. He's with them. He's with them in the cloudy pillar: "I am with you; be not fearful. I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God." It's God's presence among his people, or the presence of God's power as manifested in those special servants of God who assist in their gathering, on the exodus, the wandering to the Promised land. It's the power that's manifested through the servants that causes these things. It's God who does that. Only God can make the desert blossom; no man can do that. 41:19 I will bring cedars and acacias, myrtles and oleasters in the wilderness; I will place cypresses, elms and box trees in the steppes— 41:20 that all may see it and know, consider it, and perceive that the Lord's hand did this, that the Holy One of Israel created it. So, there's a new creation. We have the chaff and the dust, in verse fifteen. In verse sixteen, the wind, the tempest—that's chaos. Now we have new creation, again. What is the new creation? The new creation is the desert blossoming and becoming fertile again. The Holy One of Israel created it. What does it mean, "the Lord's hand did this"? What did the Lord's hand do? Did he create the trees and make the wilderness blossom? No. He helped in the conquest of the enemies. He was the one who empowered God's people, in verses ten and thirteen: "I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." I will hold you by the right hand. What he did was the new conquest, as it were of God's enemies and of the people. Just like they conquered the Canaanite nations. Here, there is a division of labor between the Lord and his hand. The division of labor consists of God turning the wilderness into fertile lands, and the Lord's Servant delivering them from their enemies. It also aligns the Lord with his Servant, who is the Lord's right hand. And, all the way through you'll see that alignment that the Lord acts in concert with his Servant, or visa versa, the Servant acts in concert with his Lord. And you see that, especially, in the alternating motifs of chaos and creation. Sometimes God does the creating, and sometimes the Servant does something that's creative, and sometimes they work together, as in this case; the creation motif is split between the two. 41:21–22 Present your case, says the Lord; submit your evidence, says the King of Jacob. Let them come forward and recount to us their prophecies of events heretofore. What were they? Tell us, that we may examine them and know whether they were fulfilled. So these people that are opposing God's people, who have issues with the people of God, and who are enraged with them, and so forth—enticing others against them—now the Lord says, "Well, if you know you have a case come and present it." And one of the things that legitimizes you is if you can prophesy the future and have it come to pass, then we'll know you are of God. If you can't do that, you're not of God. Because that's what makes a man of God. If he's a prophet of God he will prophesy the future and have it come to pass. And if he prophesies something that doesn't come to pass, then he's not of God. "Let them come forward and recount to us their prophecies of events heretofore." Tell us, that we may examine them and know whether they were fulfilled. 41:22–23 Or predict the future for us: Tell us of events to come hereafter, so that we may know you are gods. Perform something good or evil at which we will be dazzled and all stand in awe. Predict the future for us. You did it in the past, you made predictions. Based on your statistics, on your curves and your charts, you predicted that by the year 2000, thus and thus would happen. And, did it happen just like you said? No. So you're frauds. You didn't know God was going to do this and this and this, did you? That's the kind of argument that's going on here. Were you able to predict things in the past and have them come about? No. Can you predict the future now? I'll give you another chance. 41:24 It is clear you are of no account, that your works amount to nothing; whoever accepts you is himself an abomination. You're an abomination, and they're an abomination if they have anything to do with you. There's chaos motif, again. Nothing, an abomination. It's creation again: 41:25 I have raised up one from the north who calls on my name, who shall come from the direction of sunrise. He shall come upon dignitaries as on mud, tread them as clay like a potter. So the raising up of one from the north is creation motif. He comes from the direction of sunrise—that's from the east, and that's the same character we saw in verse two. Into his great chiasm of alternating themes of chaos and creation that are all really the same person but just different characterizations. One of his characterizations, here, is that he calls upon the name of the Lord. And the Lord sends him to assist his people. So he comes form the north-east, really, in relation to Palestine--I suppose it's Palestine. "He shall come upon dignitaries as on mud, tread them as clay like a potter." That's what the person in verse two does also. He comes upon nations and rulers and treads them to dust and chaff and stubble. So, this same individual treads them down as mud, like clay. Those are chaos motifs. He has power over them. Now, of course, that doesn't happen until these nations and rulers have, first, been oppressive to God's people. They use to tread down God's people, and now the tables are turned: now, what they did to others is done to them. And we see that later on in the book of Isaiah, where God's people make their back as the ground and people just walk, rough-shod, over them and tread them down. Until the Servant comes along and reverses the situation, and turns the tables on their enemies. It implies, in verse twenty five that he's the one that can predict the future, like it says in verse twenty two: "Predict the future for us." They can't, but he can. So there's that contrast, here, between them and him. They're not able to predict the future. Their predictions based on their statistics never were fulfilled, because everything changes all of a sudden. There's a whole reversal of circumstances between the wicked and the righteous that they never, ever anticipated. And so they are false; they're illegitimate. But the Servant IS legitimate, and he's a true prophet, as verse twenty six and twenty seven also said: 41:26 Who announced this beforehand, so we would know, declared it ahead of time, that we might say, He was right? Indeed, not one could foretell it, not one make it known; no one has heard from you any [prophetic] utterance. Who announced this turning of the tables, ahead of time? "Declare it ahead of time, that we might say, He was right?" In Hebrew, " he was right," there, says literally, "the Righteous One." It's a pun on the subject of verse two and five. Well, so who declared it ahead of time? Did somebody? Yes, he did! Who? He did, Righteousness did, or the Righteous One. He predicted it. So, he's a true prophet. "Indeed, not one could foretell it," Not one of them could, "not one make it known; no one has heard from you any [prophetic] utterance." Not from the idolaters, not from the opposition, not from the false authorities, the present-day dignitaries, and so on. 41:27 But to Zion, he shall be its harbinger; I will appoint him as a herald of tidings to Jerusalem. So, there we have the names—Zion and Jerusalem, that repentant category of God's people, that special category. "To Zion and Jerusalem, he is her harbinger," the harbinger of good news, the herald of good tidings," namely, of the coming of the Lord and his renewal of the covenant with his people, and the day of their redemption, and the coming of the Lord and the ushering in of the Millennium, and so forth, and also of destruction; he harbors all those things and he predicts all those things and it all comes to pass, just like he says. So he's a true prophet, in contrast to them. 41:28 For when I looked there was no one, not one who could offer counsel, or when I questioned them, who could answer a word. that is, among the wicked, again, " or when I questioned them, who could answer a word." They weren't even familiar with doctrine. They didn't even know it; they'd lost touch. And that goes for political and religious authorities, because in Isaiah they're always in parallel with each other. It's almost like the leadership of a people, whether they're political, or religious, is a reflection of the people themselves. So, if you have the wicked—they have both wicked religious and political leaders. If you have righteous people, they have righteous leaders, both political and religious. "For when I looked there was no one, not one could offer counsel, or when I questioned them, who could answer a word." 41:29 Surely they are all iniquitous, their works worthless; their outpourings are but wind and emptiness. Back to chaos, again. So, basically you have two sides; there is a polarization of the righteous and the wicked. Among the righteous are those who repent—any of God's people, Jew, Gentile, it doesn't matter. Zion is a category of those who repent, who live up to God's standard of righteousness. And then, there are those who oppose them. They're always in opposition. You can always tell the evil side by the opposition that they're posing. They're enraged, they're angry, they're mocking or [? a word was cut off in the recording.] Chapter forty-two: We've kind of led into this chapter, from the end of chapter forty one, talking there about the harbinger of good news, or the herald of good tidings to Zion and to Jerusalem, who is a true prophet. Not one of them, in verse twenty six, not one of the idolaters could foretell anything.