Isaiah 45:18-25

HOW GOD REVEALS HIMSELF

Isaiah 45:18 For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens, &c.

In Isaiah 45:17, the promise is made that “Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation.” This gives the drift of the whole passage, Isaiah 45:18. In Isaiah 45:18, the words of Jehovah begin with the assertion that He is the absolute One; and from this two thoughts branch off—

1. That the prophecy is a revelation of light, no black art.

2. That the love of Jehovah, displayed in creation, attests itself in relation to Israel. Isaiah 45:20 declare that the salvation of Israel becomes the salvation of the heathen world. In accordance with this holy and benevolent will, the cry is uttered, “Look unto Me,” &c. (Isaiah 45:22); Jehovah will not rest till His object has been accomplished (Isaiah 45:23); but this bending of the knee will not be forced (Isaiah 45:24); the reference of Isaiah 45:25 is to the Israel of God out of all the human race. There are three leading ideas that are to be gathered out of the passage.

I. God’s revelation of Himself is open and truthful (Isaiah 45:19). In Isaiah 45:15 we read, “Verily Thou art a God that hidest Thyself,” and Isaiah 45:19 seems to answer the exclamation. Both declarations are true; God cannot wholly conceal nor wholly reveal Himself. A man even is always greater than his greatest work.

1. God’s speech in nature is in no secret place. The sun is a mighty word of God; but it can tell us only by feeble suggestion of the Sun of Righteousness; and yet the pure mind can see and hear far more of God in nature than the keenest scientific analyst (P. D. 485, 1526, 2545).

2. God spoke in no secret place when He spoke amid the peaks of Sinai, and on the heights of Calvary. The laws proclaimed to Moses, and shown to be honourable and glorious in the death of Christ, are the offspring of the Eternal Mind; Calvary is the Divine commentary upon Sinai.

And all really Divine revelation is truthful. The command, “Seek ye my face,” accounts for the religious nature of man. Not in the grandest of God’s works can we rest content, and realise the joy for which we have been created. Seek ye my face in righteousness of life; this is the Divine law of seeking; and all who thus seek after God shall as surely find Him as the new-born child finds the nutriment of its mother’s bosom.

II. God’s revelation of Himself is in reference to the highest practical objects.—“Look unto Me, and be ye saved;” He is “a just God and a Saviour.” God gives us such a knowledge of Himself as avails for the great practical ends of life, but not such as to satisfy speculation (H. E. I. 2229–2244).

We know far more of what electricity can do than of what it is. We do not know what God is absolutely; but we know what He can do for us; He is “a just God and a Saviour;” i.e., there is nothing incompatible in this. As a just Being, He is a God of law; but as a Saviour, He does not cease to be a God of law; by law He condemns, and by law also He saves. Grace is the work of a mightier law than even condemnation.

Note the two elements of the faith which is essential to salvation.

1. “Look unto Me;” lift up your eyes to the Infinite Strength which is reaching down to help you; that is the active element. “And be ye saved;” accept the Divine method of salvation; that is the passive, trustful element.

III. God’s revelation of Himself is to issue in the salvation of the whole earth (Isaiah 45:23).—This has been the inspired assurance of prophets and apostles even in the darkest ages of the world (Philippians 2:9; Revelation 15:3). The ruling idea of these and like passages is not merely that evil shall be conquered at the last and goodness triumphant; but that this final issue of things shall come about through men coming to know God in Christ, coming to worship and love Him as the supreme goodness and beauty. The worship of the gods of this world, now so fervent, will be gradually abolished; and life, as it reaches towards the higher developments in this world, will not only be a higher morality, but a clearer knowledge, and a more passionate and enraptured sense of God.—Charles Short, M.A., Christian World Pulpit, vol. xv. pp. 120–122.