Isaiah 41:1-29
1 Keep silence before me, O islands; and let the people renew their strength: let them come near; then let them speak: let us come near together to judgment.
2 Who raised up the righteousa man from the east, called him to his foot, gave the nations before him, and made him rule over kings? he gave them as the dust to his sword, and as driven stubble to his bow.
3 He pursued them, and passed safely;b even by the way that he had not gone with his feet.
4 Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am he.
5 The isles saw it, and feared; the ends of the earth were afraid, drew near, and came.
6 They helped every one his neighbour; and every one said to his brother, Be of good courage.
7 So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith,c and he that smootheth with the hammer him that smote the anvil, saying, It is ready for the sodering: and he fastened it with nails, that it should not be moved.
8 But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend.
9 Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called thee from the chief men thereof, and said unto thee, Thou art my servant; I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away.
10 Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.
11 Behold, all they that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded: they shall be as nothing; and they that strived with thee shall perish.
12 Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them, even them that contended with thee: they that war against thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nought.
13 For I the LORD thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.
14 Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye mene of Israel; I will help thee, saith the LORD, and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
15 Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth:f thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff.
16 Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them: and thou shalt rejoice in the LORD, and shalt glory in the Holy One of Israel.
17 When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the LORD will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them.
18 I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.
19 I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together:
20 That they 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.
21 Produceg your cause, saith the LORD; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob.
22 Let them bring them forth, and shew us what shall happen: let them shew the former things, what they be, that we may considerh them, and know the latter end of them; or declare us things for to come.
23 Shew the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods: yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and behold it together.
24 Behold, ye are of nothing,i and your work of nought: an abomination is he that chooseth you.
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 morter, and as the potter treadeth clay.
26 Who hath declared from the beginning, that we may know? and beforetime, that we may say, He is righteous? yea, there is none that sheweth, yea, there is none that declareth, yea, there is none that heareth your words.
27 The first shall say to Zion, Behold, behold them: and I will give to Jerusalem one that bringeth good tidings.
28 For I beheld, and there was no man; even among them, and there was no counsellor, that, when I asked of them, could answerj a word.
29 Behold, they are all vanity; their works are nothing: their molten images are wind and confusion.
Isaiah 41:1. Keep silence before me, oh islands. Commentators here refer us to the time of our Saviour's birth, for the isles of Chittim designate the Roman power. In the Augustan age, the temple of Janus for the third time was shut, in commemoration of peace throughout the world, and when the stormy shouts of war were heard no more. Thus, when the fulness of time was come, providence prepared the way, by peace and concord, for the Saviour's advent. Christian doctors seem agreed, that Janus and Noah are the same person. Italian tradition is constant, that he reigned in Italy, for all nations are willing enough to claim kindred with a god. They built a temple to his memory; and in the worship of their gods, the name of Janus was first invoked. Jupiter taught him the way and manner of life, which before his time had been belligerent and savage, but now became mild, innocent, and social. The poets call this the golden age. The verses of Vola speak of those pristine days in the same manner, as cited in Exodus 4:2.
As Noah taught astronomy to the new world, the poets make him ruler of the heavenly bodies, and give his name to the first month of the year. His statue was constructed with a double face, looking at once both at the old and the new world. Ovid addresses him in these words. “Who shall explain to me thy nature, oh Janus, and the attributes of thy double front? For the gods of Greece do not resemble thee: a deity peculiar among those assembled on the high Olympiade. Instruct me concerning thyself, and say why thou seest at once both before and behind.”
Quem tamen esse Deum te dicam, Jane biformis?
Nam tibi par nuilum Græcia numen habet. Ede simul causam, cur de cœlestibus unus, Sitque quod à tergo, sitque quod ante vides. FASTORUM, lib. 1. Ed. Paris, 1804.
Isaiah 41:2. A righteous man from the east. The Jews say this is Abraham; but this construction not agreeing with the universal wars and conquests here mentioned, the words are understood of Cyrus, as in chap. 44, 45. He it was who drove the nations as stubble; and in a career of conquests, where his feet had never gone before. He is called “a righteous man,” because he was God's minister of justice to Babylon, and because he restored the Jews, as well as other nations, to their own land.
Isaiah 41:7. So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith. See other satires in Isaiah 40:18; Isaiah 44:9; Psalms 115.
Isaiah 41:23. Shew the things that are to come. Here is a challenge of the truth of prophecy, and a defiance given to all idols. Here is a declaration that God alone knows the events of futurity; yea, all contingencies, which have a dependence on the will of man. The testimony of the truth of all predictions is the Divinity. He alone has power to contemplate the future, and from eternity to look through all clouds, in all the wide-extended chain of cause and consequence. No creature ever had or can have this power. Here the words of the holy prophets are justified, and all idols, and all lying oracles, are covered with eternal shame.
The prophet here treats the heathen oracles with contempt; but that contempt admits their existence in his own times; and that existence was wide as the gentile world. The Chaldeans, the Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Druids, in every land, consulted their gods.
In 1711 a collection of letters was printed at Paris from missionaries in India. Among these is one from the venerable father Bouchet to father Baltus. He states “that demons still gave oracles, not from the mouth of the statues, but from men; and in a manner which could not proceed from the artifices of the priests. But that with regard to future events their oracles were ambiguous, and often false; for those things the demons could know only by conjecture.”
If we disbelieve the oracles of heathen temples, we disbelieve the testimony of the most accredited gentile historians, and many christian fathers. Herodotus, a judicious historian, mentions many instances, and sometimes names deceptions. The defeat of Perseus, king of Macedonia, was known at Rome on the fourth day. The battle gained by five thousand Croatians, was known in Peloponnesus the same day. The defeat of the Tarquin, near the Lake Regilla, was almost instantly published by two young men in Rome. Plutarch reports these in his life of Paul Emilius: p. 547. Still the words of our prophet are correct, no demon speaking either by priest, or pythoness, could tell the future.
REFLECTIONS.
The church in Judea must have been greatly depressed to hear this eminent prophet declare, that all the boasted glory of Israel should go into captivity. He foresaw that after all the struggles and labours of the holy prophets, the false prophets would be the favourite preachers to the rulers of Judah, and that the gods of Jerusalem would be as numerous as her streets. The discourse that follows must therefore be regarded as a cup of strong consolation handed to the saints under the hopeless aspects of their country, while the body of the nation was diseased with every vice of the gentile world.
The prophet next proceeds to satirize the trade of making gods; the panting of the carpenter at every hard blow, the sweatings and the melting heats at the foundries, the strokes of the hammer, and the joyful voice at last It is ready for sodering! Ah, dirty, sooty race; vile as you are, and brutish too, it must require the strong charms of a consecration, and liberal libations of wine, to induce you to bow the knee to idols which cost you so much fatigue. The Almighty therefore saw it was preferable that his true people should suffer hard labour in Babylon, than endure the insults of apostasy in Judea.
When the time comes for the visitation of nations, the Lord encloses his church in the innermost circles of his providence. Yea, amid the storms of war the Captain's voice is heard, “But thou Israel art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend.” I will never forget my covenant with thy fathers, nor with their children. Though the mountains depart, and empires be removed, my kindness shall not depart from thee: Isaiah 54:10. Fear not, look to none but me; for I am with thee. I will be poor in thy poverty, and share in thy captivity. My glory shall be seen by the river Chebar. Ezekiel 1:3. I will strengthen thee for labour, and for war with all thy foes. Yea, I will help thee, and come opportunely to thine aid in the day of trouble. Fear not; you are yet the heirs of grace and glory. “Thy seed shall inherit the gentiles.” I will uphold thee with my arm, in all the weary years of thy pilgrimage. I will not leave thee till I have performed all that I have sworn to Abraham.
Again I say, fear not, worm Jacob, though the enemy in the years of thine affliction trample upon thee. When the poor and needy seek water in the sandy deserts, and there is none; when they cry to me, they shall not perish like the wicked. I will open rivers for them in dry places, and springs in the vallies, and will prepare pools in the parched ground. Rejoice, oh Zion, thou shalt yet survive to see the world like the garden of Eden, and all thine enemies under thy feet. The invading army from the north shall come only to burn the chaff, while my sanctified ones shall gather the wheat into my garner.
Amidst all the difficulties and troubles of life, let us take encouragement from God's promises, especially that in Isaiah 41:10. Fear thou not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed, for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee, yea, I will uphold thee. We assuredly know that this promise has afforded support and comfort to many souls in the most afflicting circumstances, and even in dying moments. What beautiful and tender language is it the language of an indulgent parent teaching a little child to go. Whoever forsakes us, God will be with us. Whatever difficulties surround us, he will strengthen us; whatever enemies attack us, he will help us. When faint, trembling, and ready to sink, he will uphold us with the right hand of his righteousness. Though we are weak as worms, and like them despised, yet our Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, will help us. Let us wait on the Lord then, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen our hearts.
Let us learn the vanity of idols, and keep ourselves from idolatry. See what ignorant, impotent things all gods are, but JEHOVAH. Let us reverence him who revealeth secrets, foretelleth things to come, does good and permits evil; and who gives us in his works, his providence and his word, a thousand proofs that he is the true God, and the everlasting King. Let us therefore, dearly beloved, flee from idolatry. Let us worship the Lord our God with a veneration and affection suited to his greatness, power, and knowledge, and make him our hope and our confidence; for he is the rewarder of all them that diligently seek him.