Isaiah 48:1-22

Chapter 48 The Unprepared State of Israel/Judah.

Babylon, and its final fate, has just been described, but the very idea has turned Isaiah's attention on Israel. It has put Israel under the microscope. Is Israel so much better? The only difference is that God has a purpose for Israel.

But that purpose is not for Israel as they are. And God has already constantly revealed what they are. Full of self pity and self-justification (Isaiah 40:27), deaf and blind and unresponsive (Isaiah 42:18), and culpably so (Isaiah 43:8), weary of God and not giving Him due honour while failing to honour the covenant (Isaiah 43:22). They are transgressors (Isaiah 46:8), stubborn and far from righteousness (Isaiah 46:12). They are miserably sick (Isaiah 1:5). They are a people of unclean lips and hearts (Isaiah 6:5)

Now He brings it all together to demonstrate their true condition, and to plead with them to flee from all that Babylon represents (Isaiah 48:20). He begins by describing their condition, ‘not in truth or in righteousness' (Isaiah 48:1), and that they are obstinate and hard-headed (Isaiah 48:4), points out that He has constantly shown them what would happen (Isaiah 48:3), and has even told them of new things (Isaiah 48:6), but concludes that they are so treacherous that they have been unwilling to hear and unwilling to perceive (Isaiah 48:8). Then He explains that they are as a nation still His chosen (Isaiah 48:10), still His called ones (Isaiah 48:12), but only once they have gone through purifying affliction (Isaiah 48:10) so that a true Servant may come out of them. Compare Isaiah 51:17 where the present Zion is a pale copy of Babylon.

Let them then consider that He is the first and the last, that He is the Creator and sustainer of the Universe (Isaiah 48:12). And that what He will do to Babylon will be for the sake of the one who has declared His truth (the Servant). It is because of His love for him that He will do His pleasure on Babylon and on the Chaldeans (Isaiah 48:14).

So they are to hear the One Who teaches them to profit and leads them in the way that they should go. If only they had done so previously, then they would have enjoyed abundant peace and righteousness. And their numbers would have been as abundant as the sands (Isaiah 48:17). Let them therefore now flee from Babylon and all it stands for declaring that Yahweh has redeemed His servant Jacob, that he is no more entangled in her ways (Isaiah 48:20). For Jacob there will be abundance of water in the desert, just as there had been when they travelled in the wilderness from Egypt and Yahweh gave them water from a rock (Isaiah 48:21). But let them remember, for the wicked there can be no peace (Isaiah 48:22).