44:1 Hear now, Jacob my servant, and Israel whom I have chosen. Again, he's appealing to his people. And here we have a dichotomy of verses. Some verses talk about the idolaters and what happens to them, and some talk about the ones who become his servant and what happens to them. The fact that Isaiah kind of mixes the two, back and forth, is itself showing you that there's ambivalence there in people's attitudes—which way are they going to go? They've got to decide, now, like in the days of Joshua: "Choose you this day whom you will serve. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." And that's what it's like when the Servant performs his mission; there's a lot of ambivalence. Some people do and some don't. [? some do and some don't what? Be ambivalent, follow the Servant?] 44:2 Thus says the Lord, your Maker, who formed you from the womb and succored you: Be not afraid, O Jacob, my servant, and Jeshurun whom I have chosen. In their alienated state they need to be reminded that God is the actual Creator of them. He gave them birth. They're his children. We see that motif of the birth, there, in connection with the Lord's people. And we have the same idea in chapter forty-nine, with regard to the Servant himself, as an individual. He's born from his mother's womb. And this isn't just referring to his earthly mother, but his Heavenly mother, also. One can be born spiritually, and also be born in a temporal sense as the people of God, which is also a spiritual birth, in that sense, with temporal consequences. "Be not afraid, O Jacob, my servant, and Jeshurun whom I have chosen." Again, the idea that there's possible justification for fear, which fears he's allaying now, saying, "Don't be afraid." Jeshurun, here, appears instead of Israel. Jeshurun means "straight one," like a straight arrow, which comes from the Hebrew word Jeshurun, which means straight. It was given to Israel in the days of Moses, but applying more to elect Israel, or righteous—straight--Israel. He's holding that name out as a type for righteousness. 44:3 I will pour water on the thirsty soil, showers upon the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, my blessing upon your posterity. Once they do covenant with the Lord and once they do serve him, then the blessings of the covenant again take effect. They may be living in an oppressed state. They may find themselves born into a situation of covenant curse. The ground may be thirsty and dry, which is an indication of covenant curse. But it can be turned into a situation of blessing, like it was for Abraham. He was born into a situation of covenant curse. There was a famine in the land, and he was brought into the Promised Land, him and three-hundred souls with him. It was because of Abraham's righteousness, so Abraham became God's servant. So can they. But that reversal of circumstances, from covenant curse, to covenant blessing also has a particular focus, in this case, in that they're coming in the exodus through the wilderness. And that is the place that will be turned into fruitfulness. It's not just life, in general, or the situation they're born into in general, although that is part of it. If they will serve God, then they will come on the exodus, as we've seen. And also that wilderness will blossom. The pouring out of his Spirit on the offspring is a Spirit endowment that they and their offspring both experience. And that is the same Spirit endowment that the Servant has. The Lord endowed him with his Spirit. And the whole purpose of the Servant's mission is that he will minister to these who are the Lord's covenant people and lift them up from their lost and fallen, or from their blind, and deaf and ignorant state, to his own level, that they may receive the same blessings that he has received. And in administering to them, he himself ascends the spiritual ladder to a higher level than he was on, before. And so everybody keeps going upward, from one stage to the next, as they fulfill their new callings. Also, the idea of dry ground and offspring implies land and offspring, or land and seed, which are the two main ingredients of the covenant, of God's covenant with Abraham, which promised a land of inheritance and everlasting offspring. And so it is, here. We see several ways in which these people are being blessed. "A blessing on your posterity," which are the blessings of the covenant. 44:4 They shall shoot up like grass among streams of water, like willows by running brooks. That's a whole different situation, from dry and thirsty ground. From a situation of drought, now there's plenty. The ground is fertile and now it's yielding foliage. 44:5 One will say, I am the Lord's, and another name himself Jacob. Yet others will inscribe on their arm, To the Lord, and adopt the name Israel. They're calling themselves Israel and Jacob, and so forth. They're consecrating themselves and their lives to the Lord, it says. But it also implies that they're now keeping covenant with the Lord. They want to identify themselves with the Lord and his covenant people. Now it also implies that there among them those who didn't know about Israel or Jacob. Those were not names they were commonly called by. So, in other words, they may have been people who were assimilated among the nations of the world whom the Servant now calls back, and now they begin to identify themselves as God's people, Israel and Jacob, and begin to call themselves by those names. So it also implies that after having been in an alienated state they are now resuming their proper identity. They have been repatriated. 44:6 Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel, the Lord of Hosts, their Redeemer: I was at the first and I am at the last; apart from me there is no God. Again, the dichotomy and the ambivalence is still going on. Gradually it will disappear, but there are still some who are holding back, and he still has to address them. He has to keep reasserting who he is so they can have a clear idea of their covenant God. Here we see the king, the Lord of Hosts, the Redeemer, the Lord Jehovah, mentioned. All of these are attributes of God, which he is emphasizing so the people will have a clear idea of what kind of God it is that they're worshiping and covenanting with. They can't be his kind of people and worship him, truly, if they don't have a clear idea of his attributes. He's their suzerain Lord, with whom they covenant. He's the Lord of Hosts. He has all power in heaven and on earth. He commands the hosts of heaven. And he's their Redeemer, the One who gives himself as an offering for their sins. "I was at the first and I am at the last; apart from me there is no God." This means, first of all, that first and last He is God; there is no other. Secondly, that the same God who instituted Israel's history, which was all part of God's plan of salvation for humanity, that same God who did miracles at the first and who intervened and redeemed his people, anciently, will do so again in the end. And this is that same God in whom they may trust. That God who brought Israel out of Egypt is still the same God today, and he can do it today, again. And he will! "Apart from me there is no God," because people are worshiping idols and having others gods before him, still. This is a polemic, and an exhortation to God's people to accept the only true God. 44:7 Who predicts what happens as do I, and is the equal of me in appointing a people from of old as types, foretelling things to come? This kind of gives and extra meaning to the idea of God being at the first and at the last, because this proclaims the idea the people of old, of Israel, his covenant people of old, foretell things to come, in their history. What happened in the past becomes a type for the future. To reiterate what he said: "Who predicts what happens as do I, and is the equal of me in appointing a people from of old as types, foretelling things to come?" The people, through the motions they went through, anciently, the events that they experienced—by those very things they are foretelling the things that are to come. And that's how Isaiah prophesied, using types: a new exodus patterned after the old exodus, a new Assyrian destruction like the old Assyrian destruction, a new deliverance in the latter days patterned after the old deliverances, and so forth. 44:8 Be not perturbed or shaken. Have I not made it known to you from of old? Did I not foretell it, you being my witnesses? Is there a God, then, apart from me? There is no Rock unknown to me. How does he foretell it from of old? Well, right here in the book of Isaiah, for one. The prophets foretold the end from the beginning, anciently, and they did it particularly in the sense of writing down what happened anciently, because those events of history will repeat themselves, so the latter-days will be a mirror of the past, in many ways. "Did I not foretell it, you being my witnesses?" They were his witnesses, anciently—the prophets were, at least—and today his people are being called as his witnesses, as we saw earlier. So they should speak up and talk about it, and bring others to the covenant, also, because that's the only hope for humanity. "Is there a God, then, apart from me? There is no Rock unknown to me." Again, the polemic against idolaters; don't hang on to your idols because you and your idols will all disappear from the earth. There is only one God. He's the rock upon which you should stand, a foundation upon which you may build. If you don't do that he will become a rock of stumbling or a stone of stumbling, as Isaiah says. So you can either build upon him, or he'll crush you. 44:9 All who manufacture idols are deranged; the things they cherish profit nothing. Those who promote them are themselves sightless and mindless, to their own dismay. So, again there is this God who is the Redeemer of Israel, who is your Maker, who has chosen you to be his servant and his witnesses, and on the other side of the spectrum you have the idols, false gods who are really no gods. They're made by human hands. [transcribers note: What about the worshiping of humans, and making them into idols? There is a lot of that going on.] And all who manufacture them are deranged. They should be locked up in a madhouse. And they will. Eventually they'll meet that kind of fate, as you'll see, here. This is where Isaiah has fun. In verses nine through twenty there is a big satire about the idol makers. And their gods prove to be of no salvation in the day of judgment, but actually lead the people to destruction. "All who manufacture idols are deranged; the things they cherish profit nothing. Those who promote them are themselves sightless and mindless to their own dismay." So they remain in a state of blindness as long as they hang onto that economic system that manufactures, promotes, and then sells them. They waste the days of their probation on the earth, in doing so. The purpose of coming to this world is not in the manufacture, promotion, and sale of idols, to make a living that way. But our purpose is to worship God and to serve him and to promote his cause, to be witnesses for him, and so forth. So their whole sojourn on this earth will have been wasted if that is the extent of their activity and lifestyle. "Those who promote them are, themselves, sightless and mindless to their own dismay--" to their own dismay in the day of judgment, when those things will prove to be totally fruitless. 44:10 Who would fashion a god or cast an idol that cannot benefit them? Well, there are plenty who do that. In fact, most of society in Babylon is geared around that system of fashioning of gods and casting idols—the works of men's hands. But who would do that? If you think about it, their whole society is confused, he says in verse eleven. "Their fabricators are mere mortals." 44:11 Their whole society is confused; their fabricators are mere mortals. Were they all to assemble and take their stand before me, they would at once cringe in fear. People are mortals, and mortals are confused, unless they have the light of God in them. "Were they all to assemble and take their stand before me, they would at once cringe in fear." If they knew God, if they really had an accurate concept of him, and some personal knowledge of him, they would see their own nothingness, they would see their own decrepit state, and they would cringe in fear before him, realizing their error in worshiping man-made idols. 44:12 The smith with his tools works the iron over the coals and gives it shape by hammering; he forges his god by the strength of his arm: when he becomes hungry, he no longer has strength; if he fails to drink water, he begins to grow faint. We saw, earlier, that the God of heaven and earth does not grow faint. And there are those who wait for him, who rely upon him, whom he strengthen and empowers. But in this socio-economic system, these mortals, these confused people, are manufacturing their idols, and they're just human so the things they make are even less that them. Their idols are not gods at all. 44:13 The woodworker draws a diagram, sketching his idol with a marker. He creates it by chiseling to the outline of the dividers; he gives it a human likeness, resembling man's beauty, fit to lodge in a house. So, if we have a picture of a pretty woman, or a picture of a handsome guy, like sports stars or movie stars, or if you advertise your motor cars, or your products, and you have a picture of a beautiful person, there, it helps sell your things, right? Because it links the one idea to the other. But notice, they still have to rely on the human likeness to add any worth to their creations. And of course human likeness is God's own likeness in which he's created man. So they try to make their gods like humans, in this sense. But really, they're much less than human, and not even that. 44:14–15 He is required to cut down cedars; he must select holms and oaks and care for them among the trees of the forest. He plants firs, which the rain makes grow: that which serves men as fuel, which they use to warm themselves or light fire with to bake bread, of that they create gods which they adore, from it they make idols to which they stoop. So Isaiah's going into great detail, here, to let you know that this is not just a sporadic pastime. This is something that involves everybody. It's the daily labor of a lot of people in society. It's an entire economic system in which people are involved. 44:16–17 Half of it they burn in the fire. Over it they broil a roast; they eat the meat and are satisfied. They also warm themselves and say, Ah, it is warm in front of the fire! From the rest they make a god, their idol, to which they bow in adoration and pray, Save us; you are our god! "Half of it they burn in the fire." That's the wood that they chop down, from the trees. "Over it they broil a roast; they eat the meat and are satisfied. They also warm themselves and say, Ah, it is warm in front of the fire! From the rest they make a god, their idol, to which they bow in adoration and pray, Save us: you are our god!" They don't make the connection that the same piece of wood that warmed them in front of the fire, which they baked food over, is the same type of wood from which they are making their gods in which they put so much store, which they idolized. 44:18–20 They have become unaware and insensible; their eyes are glazed so they cannot see, their minds are incapable of discernment. They reflect not, nor have the sense or comprehension to say, Part of this I burned in the fire; I also baked bread in its embers, roasted meat and ate it. Am I not making an abomination of what is left? Do I not stoop to a mere lump of wood? They are followers of ashes; their deluded minds have distracted them. They cannot liberate themselves from them or say, Surely this thing in my hand is a fraud. Here we have the chaos motif again—ashes, like dust and other chaos motifs-- and a lump of wood. Wood is one of those common elements, versus semi-precious or precious. And so these people are really into kind of a low lifestyle. They're followers of ashes because the very things they cherish, and the things with which they're involved will all be reduced to ashes, someday, and they with them if they can't let this go, if they can't repent from it. "They cannot liberate themselves from them," showing they're in bondage to that system. The only One who can liberate them from it is God himself. And he will do so if they repent of it if they turn to him and call upon him, if they respond to the Servant's mission, at that time. Isaiah chapter forty-four, verses 21-28 Note: I had a little trouble with verse 28. I'm not sure I made it coherent enough, or caught all the words correctly, to make the sentence structures convey what was actually being said. I also made a couple of notes in brackets because a sentence didn't seem clear to me. 44:21 Ponder these things, O Jacob, and you, O Israel, for you are my servant. I have created you to be my servant, O Israel; Do not disregard me. Now, again, he keeps repeating it over and over that Israel is to be his servant. His people are to serve him, not serve the idols. They have a mission on this earth. They've been created by him to be his servant. If they disregard him they become idolaters. 44:22 I have removed your offenses like a thick fog, your sins like a cloud of mist. Return to me; I have redeemed you. Again, mist and fog are chaos motifs. So in verse twenty we have ashes, chaos motif, and verse twenty-one, "I have created you to be my servant--" creation-- and "offenses like a thick fog, sins like a cloud of mist--"is chaos, here, again, or confusion. If you walked in a mist you'd be confused. Sins do that to you. They make you blind and confused. They are also offenses to God. Sins are an offense. People don't need to sin. They don't need to transgress. " Return to me; I have redeemed you." The word "return," in Hebrew is the same as "repent." So he's calling them to repentance. And if they repent they are redeemed, because he's already paid the price for their redemption. 44:23 Sing, O heavens, for what the Lord has done; cause it to resound, O earth beneath! Burst into song, O mountains, forests, and all trees therein: the Lord has redeemed Jacob; he shall be glorified in Israel. This is another short song of salvation, or praise of God, and the heavens and earth are called upon. The heavens and the earth were witnesses of the Sinai covenant, as was mentioned in the beginning, and they were called upon as witness of Israel's transgression, in chapter one. And here, finally, we begin to see a turnaround from that situation, that there are those who repent of transgression, and now the heavens and the earth may again rejoice because there is a return to the covenant to God. Also, the idea of bursting into song, by mountains, forests, and trees alludes to the exodus and to the wilderness blossoming and becoming fruitful and sprouting vegetation. So it's a situation of covenant blessing. And on another level, mountains, forests, and trees are also metaphors for people. Mountains are nations, and forests are cities, and trees are people, and so the people themselves-- the nations and cities-- are bursting into song, at Israel's redemption. "The Lord has redeemed Jacob; he shall be glorified in Israel," when they again become his covenant people. 44:24 Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, who formed you from the womb: I am the Lord, the Maker of all things, who alone suspends the heavens, who himself gives form to the earth, Remember when I said, earlier, that when God starts talking about himself as Creator, then you know what's coming up. What's coming up is a reference to the Servant. And it is this Creator God, the All-Powerful Maker of heaven and earth who lends the Servant his authority, who validates the Servant and his mission. And so, every time when there's a Servant passage you also have this motif of God, as Creator. But, it is also a teaching tool to let God's people know about his attributes. This is not like an idol god, like some statue or like some dead piece of something manufactured. This is a living God. He's a Redeemer who wipes away our sins. He's formed us from the womb, both spiritually and temporally. He's the Lord, or Jehovah who was, and who is, and who will be. He's the Maker of all things. It was he who suspended the heavens, and gives form to the earth. That's the kind of God we're dealing with. That's the kind of God we're covenanting with. And he's the One whom we can trust. 44:25 who annuls the predictions of imposters and makes fools of diviners, who turns wise men about and makes nonsense of their knowledge, This is not the kind of book knowledge that we have to deal with. The knowledge of God transcends book knowledge and the philosophies of men, and the predictions of people who give us, through their statistics and their graphs, the trend of the way things are going to go. All that will be overturned. The book-learning of men, and human wisdom and knowledge, and predictions, will be turned about and made nonsense of. That is not knowledge, compared to the knowledge of God. 44:26 who fulfills the word of his servant, accomplishes the aims of his messengers, who says of Jerusalem, It shall be reinhabited, and of the cities of Judah, They shall be rebuilt, their ruins I will restore, You know that a man is of God is he prophesies in the name of God, as Moses said. And if he prophesies the truth, then you know he's of God. And if he prophesies something that does not come to pass then you know that he's a false prophet. In the Elijah scenario, there was one prophet of God for every five-hundred false prophets. So we know that the ratio between the one and the other is quite disproportionate. This same God, who is the Creator, the Maker of all things, and who has power to turn the tables on the imposters, the counterfeits, is the same one who fulfills the word of his Servant, because the Servant is not an imposter. He may be called an imposter, by some, but his prophecies will come true, because the Lord will fulfill the Servant's word. When the Servant prays to God, God will answer his prayer. When the Servant prophesies, God fulfills the prophecy. Those are the kind of powers that we'll be dealing with—legitimate, Divine, powers manifested in this Servant and in other servants who are called, here, his messengers. The one Servant doesn't do all of this, alone. Like Moses, he has a hierarchy. Remember how Moses has lesser judges ruling under him? And there were seventy elders of Israel who ruled under Moses, while the lesser judges judged the causes of the people. And so it is, here, in this theocracy, with God ruling through the administration of his Servant. Accompanying the Servant, and assisting him, are these other messengers and servants. Up to this point we've had the individual Servant and the corporate servant. From about chapter fifty-four we begin to see that there are other servants, in the plural. And those servants are individuals like the ones here, called his messengers, who come out of the corporate servant. Coming out of the corporate servant, they emulate and do the works of the individual Servant, and they become like that individual Servant. They work together, in harmony, to re-establish God's covenant people in the earth, called Zion or Jerusalem. When they have fully accomplished that, then the Lord, who is the King of Zion, comes to rule. But here, in chapter forty-four, we're still in an early stage. We still have the Servant newly-arrived on the scene, and there's still a lot of idolatry and they're still [working?] with some people, and some respond and some don't. The Servant is still trying to legitimize himself. Or God is still in the act of legitimizing his Servant. One of the ways he legitimizes him is to show that when the Servant prophesies something, God fulfills what he says. And that's how you know the Servant is of God. "Who fulfills the word of his Servant and accomplishes the aims of his messengers, who says of Jerusalem, It shall be re-inhabited, and of the cities of Judah, They shall be rebuilt, their ruins I will restore." Part of the Servant's mission is to restore Jerusalem and Judea. Ancient Jerusalem, of course, was destroyed, and the Jews were scattered by the Babylonians, and again, later, by the Romans, and the place lay desolate for centuries. Now the Jews are back, trying to restore those places, but meeting a lot of opposition from the Moslems who claim that those lands are theirs. And the Servant comes along and says these places will be rebuilt; "this is a time of restoration. Even the temple foundations must be laid," in verse twenty-eight. And, of course, the Moslem's will say, "No, that's our place. We have our Mosque, there." So this will be kind of a showdown at that time, between the Servant, or the Lord who sends him, and any opposition that may stand in the way at that time. When he empowers his Servant, at that time, no power will stand in the way. The aims of his messengers, and the word of his Servant shall be fulfilled. And if the Servant says the temple must be rebuilt, these ruins restored, here, then it will be done. God will fulfill it. We don't know what method by which this will happen, but it will happen. It also implies that there will be controversy at that time, about the city of Jerusalem. Some will says, "You can't come here. This is our land." and the Servant says, or the Lord says, through his Servant, "This is the time to re-inherit the land. This is the time for rebuilding." 44:27 who says to the deep, Become dry; I am drying up your currents, Why should the deep become dry? Because they will be led through the deep, to the Promised Land. This is the time of the new exodus, as well. As the children of Israel came out from Egypt, the great deep became dry so that they could walk through on dry ground. This is an exodus motif, here in Isaiah, and in chapter eleven and other places. At the time of that exodus, there will be a great rebuilding program going on. Because where does the exodus of the Lord's people lead? It leads back to the Promised Land. When they get to the Promised Land what are they going to do there? They'll rebuild it and re-inhabit it, under God's jurisdiction, through the agency and administration of the Servant whom the Lord has put over this. 44:28 who says of Cyrus, He is my shepherd; he will do whatever I will. He will say of Jerusalem that it must be rebuilt, its temple foundations relaid. The idea of the shepherd of the Lord's people, in the context of the deep becoming dry, has a parallel in Isaiah, in chapter sixty-three, verses eleven through thirteen, which are cross referenced there in the margin. There, it is Moses who is called the Lord's shepherd. And there, it also mentions the deep becoming dry. "Then his people recalled, as in the days of Moses of old-- Where is he who brought them up out of the Sea, like a shepherd of his flock? Where is he who put into him his Holy Spirit? Who made his glorious arm proceed at the right hand of Moses, who divided the waters before them, making an everlasting name for himself when he led them through the deep?" Here, Isaiah is drawing on a Moses typology. And he's linking that typology with the shepherd and the deep becoming dry, to Cyrus, or to the name Cyrus. Why is Cyrus mentioned by name, here? Because whenever anyone is mentioned by name, it means that that person has set some kind of precedent in Israel's history. And what did Cyrus set a precedent for, in Israel's history? It answers that in the next line. "He will say of Jerusalem that it must be rebuilt, its temple foundations relaid." Cyrus, the Persian anciently-- after the Jews had gone captive into Babylon-- allowed the Jews to come back to Palestine, and to rebuild the cities and the temple. Cyrus made a decree that the Jews could do that, and that all nations which had been held captive by the Assyrians and Babylonians could go back to their lands of origins, if they chose to do so, at that time. So Cyrus becomes a type, here, for what the Servant is going to do, because the Servant is going to say to all nations that they can go back to the Promised Land. All the nations of the Lord's people can go back to the Promised Land and rebuild it and build the temple. And that will be the time that they can do so, at the time of the Servant's mission. So he's like a new Cyrus, in that respect. And he follows the ancient type of Cyrus. Because whatever anyone did, that set some kind of precedent in Israel's history, also became a type for the future. Isaiah drew upon those types, to predict the future. He predicted new versions of old events, and so he had to draw upon Cyrus, as of what will happen again. But it's not a purely-Cyrus figure, is it? It is a Cyrus figure mixed with a Moses figure. The two are fused, here. The shepherd, in the context of the deep becoming dry, is a Moses typology, and the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the temple is a Cyrus typology, and here they are made into a compound, or fused. This has tripped up scholars because they say, "Oh, Cyrus." So they pounce upon the name of Cyrus, and say, "Well, Isaiah was predicting Cyrus, but he couldn't really predict it because prophets don't really prophesy the future. They can't name people a hundred years in the future. So this must have been written by somebody in the days of Cyrus, somebody called Second Isaiah, and he was the one who wrote this." So scholars totally miss the message of what is being said here. This is not a pure Cyrus figure. If Isaiah could prophesy of the latter days, he certainly could prophesy a hundred years from his own time. And he certainly could name people if he saw things in vision and heard things, as he claims he did. Why did he have to mention Cyrus, at all? He had to mention his name because Cyrus set a precedent, as a figure a hundred years from Isaiah's time would set that precedent. And that precedent would become a type for the end time. Cyrus is a compound figure, not a purely, historical Cyrus. The Moses typology is what I call an "a" historical element-- it's not an historical element-- that is linked to the historical type of Cyrus. The point is, when the Servant comes along, he will be like Cyrus, and he'll be like Moses—at one and the same time. Both will be his types. Even that, in itself, is only half of the equation, because, earlier, we saw a Spirit-endowed Servant who led, or caused Israel to wander through the wilderness. We saw the "blind" coming through the wilderness, and they became acquainted with his law, and repented of their transgressions, and they were taught his law in the wilderness and became illustrious—or they could become so. And that is all the spiritual part of the equation. And here, we have the physical part of the equation—the idea that when they do that then they can physically come out on the exodus. And they are spiritually are tutored by the Servant, then they can come on the exodus. So we have a division here, in chapter forty-two, and in succeeding chapters we have more the spiritual aspect, and here, we have more the temporal aspect of God's deliverance. They come and actually restore ruins. That's physical. They restore the temple. They lay the temple's foundation, that's physical or temporal.