Isaiah 45:14-19

c. ORDER

TEXT: Isaiah 45:14-19

14

Thus saith Jehovah, The labor of Egypt, and the merchandise of Ethiopia, and the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over unto thee, and they shall be thine: they shall go after thee; in chains they shall come over; and they shall fall down unto thee, they shall make supplication unto thee, saying, Surely God is in thee; and there is none else, there is no God.

15

Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour.

16

They shall be put to shame, yea, confounded, all of them; they shall go into confusion together that are makers of idols.

17

But Israel shall be saved by Jehovah with an everlasting salvation; ye shall not be put to shame nor confounded world without end.

18

For thus saith Jehovah that created the heavens, the God that formed the earth and made it, that established it and created it not a waste, that formed it to be inhabited: I am Jehovah; and there is none else.

19

I have not spoken in secret, in a place of the land of darkness; I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain: I, Jehovah, speak righteousness, I declare things that are right.

QUERIES

a.

How would the wealth of the Egyptians come to the Jews?

b.

Why say God hides himself?

c.

What is the point of reminding of Jehovah's creative power?

PARAPHRASE

As a result of what I am going to do with Cyrus, says the Lord, Israel will eventually inherit the wealth of those who once opposed her, like Egypt, Ethiopia and the Sabeans. That wealth will be the best of mankind putting itself in willing servitude to follow the leadership of Israel. Men from all over the world will bow down and confess that the True God is in this new Israel, beseeching her, Let us join you for we believe there is no God except your God. Of a truth, O God of Israel, you are a Saviour who works mysteriously and incomprehensibly to the finite mind of man. At that time, the great contrast between the futility of worshipping idols and the complete and eternal salvation Jehovah gives will be made manifest. The idol worshippers will be shown to be confused and the worshippers of Jehovah will never be confused. This is what Jehovah, the One who does everything for a purpose, says. Jehovah is the God of Order and Design. Everything He does has as its goal the exaltation of His name and the salvation of maneven the captivity and return of His children. He is Creator, and there is no other! He is Sovereign, and there is no other! All of this concerning His sovereignty and His purposefulness He has made known by revelation. He has even revealed His intention to redeem mankind. He has not, like the false gods, made Himself inaccessible or unknowable. I have never said to Israel, You may look for Me but I will not let you find Me. I am Jehovah, and I speak the truth openly; whatever I say is right, and it will come to pass!

COMMENTS

Isaiah 45:14 CONVERSION: What is predicted in this verse will come as a consequence of what has been said about believing and obeying the promise of deliverance from the captivity through Cryus. God is going to form a new Israel by the process of judgment (captivity) and redemption (return). He is going to prepare a remnant of faithful believers through which He may bring the Messiah and redeem the whole world. This messianic advent is not going to occur immediately after the return from captivity. There is no necessity to force the passage to say that. But the release of the captives and the restoration of the Jewish commonwealth will be the beginning of that total process which culminates in the first coming of Christ (cf. our comments, Daniel, College Press, Daniel 9:24-27, pgs. 343-356). The figurative picture of many nations coming to Israel with their treasures is a favorite expression of Isaiah to predict the messianic age (cf. Isaiah 2:2-4; Isaiah 18:7; Isaiah 19:16-25; Isaiah 23:18; Isaiah 60:5-22; Isaiah 61:5-11, etc.). It would demand too much to force this passage to a literal meaning. We have here a prediction that the inveterate enemies of Israel will, as a result of Israel's return to her homeland, willingly turn over to Israel their wealth, willingly surrender to Israel in chains, and willingly beseech Israel to be allowed to join in the worship of Israel's God. Such action has certainly never occurred by political or military persuasion. It could only be the result of conversion. Isaiah is predicting that the new Israel, resulting from the restored and repenting messianic remnant, will one day see the wealth of its enemies willingly surrendered to it. This new Israel will also see men of all nations, Gentiles, becoming bondservants to Jehovah and His kingdom. Gentiles will one day recognize that there is only One true God, and He is Jehovah, and they will beg to be joined to His people. Cyrus-' release of the exiles will serve this purpose. Isaiah does not tell us all the events of history that will transpire between Cyrus and the conversion of the Gentiles to the new Israel. That is not relevant here. The point of Isaiah's message here is that Jehovah is sovereignHe is supreme. Jehovah is a God of purpose and order, the prophet affirms and Jehovah's ultimate purpose is the redemption, not just of a 100,000 exiles from Mesopotamia, but of the whole world.

Isaiah 45:15-17 CERTITUDE: Isaiah now moves to an expression of awe and praise for the unsearchableness of God's ways. The Hebrew word misettatter is translated hidest thyself, and is similar to the Greek word musterion (mystery) which means simply, unknown, or unrevealed. God is knowable when He reveals Himself. But there are depths to the character and mind of God that finite man could never know even if they were revealed to him. Man, living in a physical, time-space, temporal capsule is incapable of comprehending a non-physical, non-time-space, non-temporary existence. God reveals as much of Himself as man needs and is able to assimilate for the purpose of redemption and salvation and sanctification. Beyond that man is at a loss to know, not because God is unwilling, but because man is incapable (cf. Isaiah 55:6-11; John 16:12; Romans 11:33; 1 Corinthians 2:6-13). God's predictions that He will work through a pagan ruler (Cyrus) to return the exiles and that from this will come a new Israel which will incorporate slaves who have willingly surrendered from Egypt, Ethiopia, etc., is unsearchable and inscrutable, God works in His plan of redemption according to His sovereign will (this is the message of Romans 9-11). Man may understand enough of God's nature to know He is sovereign. But what man needs more than understanding is belief and obedience.

Incomprehensible as it may seem, the work of God through the new Israel, begun with the return of the exiles by Cyrus, will result in a great demonstration of the futility of idolatry. It seems altogether incongruous that a great pagan emperor who worships idols would begin a work that would ultimately expose the shamefulness of idolatry, but that is the meaning of Isaiah 45:16. In contrast with the chaos and hopelessness of idolatry, the new Israel will know the orderliness and salvation of the One True God. The Israel of God will never know shame or confusionher salvation and hope will outlast time. The Israel of Isaiah's day was to put its hope in this as a certitude because Jehovah is the God of order and purpose. His ways are not reducible to human reasoning or human experience, but He has revealed His nature sufficiently that human beings may trust Him completely to have their redemption and glorification as His purpose in everything He does and says. Faith in the certitude of God's purpose would be the only thing that would sustain Isaiah's people through Babylonian captivity and the long centuries of indignation until the coming of the Messiah.

Isaiah 45:18-19 COHERENCE: Isaiah continues the theme of purpose-fulness. God made the world for order and purpose. He did not intend it to be perverted and turned into chaos by rebellion and sin. But man made waste of God's creation when he believed Satan and disobeyed God. This is Isaiah's message in Isaiah 45:18. The implication is that God will, through the work begun by Cyrus and the returned exiles, proceed to restore order and purpose to His creation. Restoration of order is the message of Romans 1-8; it is the message of Hebrews 2:5-18. Man once had dominion over an ordered, purposeful, paradise; he forfeited it by sin and his paradise became a futility (cf. Romans 8:20); Christ's meritorious work paid the redemptive price for man and his planet and one day this redemption will be consummated (Hebrews 2:5-18), and man redeemed by covenant relationship to his Maker will once again have dominion over Paradise. This is the ultimate purpose of Jehovah and the goal of the work of Cyrus and the returned exiles! The coherent reunion of man with his Maker and man with his surroundings is the goal of God. Man in oneness with his God and with his fellow man is what Jesus fervently prayed for and died for (cf. John 17:1 ff). Only God could accomplish that. And He would accomplish it through things unsearchable and inscrutable to the wisdom of menthe gospel of the cross (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:10-31). All the philosophies and political schemes of men put together will never accomplish what God can do through the foolishness of the message of the cross of Christthat is, reunite man in a divine coherence with his Maker!

Although the ways and means by which God does this may not be fully understood, the fact that He is going to do it is no secret! This is what the prophet says in Isaiah 45:19. Jehovah makes every possible effort to reveal Himself. He wants men to trust Him and love Him and obey Him. He is not like the pagan gods and their devotees whose one aim seems to be to conceal. Those who worshiped idols and practiced sorcery found themselves being told their gods could only be discovered by secret rituals and then only a select few could know the rituals. Most Gentiles understood clearly that their gods were simply creatures of mythology and fantasy. Most were skeptical of any reality connected with religion. Jehovah is not like that! When He speaks He speaks truth. When He acts, what He does is right and real. He spoke in revelation to man. In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets. (Hebrews 1:1). There was no dearth of communication from Jehovah, both in word and deed, even to the day of Isaiah. He declared His purposefulness and faithfulness over and over. Now, Isaiah is calling upon his contemporaries to believe Jehovah is speaking again, openly, plainly and purposefully.

QUIZ

1.

What connection does this text have with what has been said before about Cyrus and the exiles?

2.

Why is the statement about the labor of Egypt etc. to be understood figuratively?

3.

How may God hide Himself and reveal Himself at the same time?

4.

How will Cyrus-' work result in demonstrating the futility of idolatry?

5.

What kind of coherence does God seek in His creation?

6.

How will God bring about that coherence?