Isaiah 45:1-16

Isaiah 45:1. Thus saith the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut; I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron: And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel. For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.

Long before the period of Cyrus's birth, this prophecy was written by Isaiah, and surely it must have flashed solemn conviction upon the heart of the king when he came to read words like these, in which his very name was mentioned, and all his exploits and successes, with which he vanquished his enemies, captured their strong places, and cut the gates of brass in pieces. Our God has all things present before him. To him there is no future. All things are in one eternal now with him, and hence he tells to his prophets the things that shall be.

Isaiah 45:5. I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:

It is a wonderful subject the providential government of God over princes and potentates that know him not how he raised up Cyrus on the behalf of his people, that they might be delivered; and though Cyrus did not know it, yet was he, as it were, an instrument in the hand of God moved according to the divine will.

Isaiah 45:6. That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else. I form the light, and create darkness, I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

It was to correct the Persian mistake into which Cyrus had fallen of a duplicate deity one power creating light and another power creating darkness. «No,» says Jehovah, «I am God alone.»

Isaiah 45:8. Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the LORD have created it. Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker!

As many do in these days. Tongue-valiant men, who dare accuse the Most High and arraign him at their bar.

Isaiah 45:9. Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth.

Let them strive with their equals, but who is he that shall come into conflict with the eternal God?

Isaiah 45:9. Shall the clay say to him that fashioned it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands? Woe unto him that saith unto his father, What begettest thou? or to the woman, What hast thou brought forth?

Quarreling with God is waste of time, is audacity and presumption. It must end in disaster to us, for the Lord is Lord of all.

Isaiah 45:11. Thus saith the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me. I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded. I have raised him

That is Cyrus.

Isaiah 45:13. Up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways: he shall build my city, and he shall let go my captives, not for price nor reward, saith the LORD of hosts. Thus saith the LORD, The labour of Egypt, and merchandise of Ethiopia and of the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over unto thee, and they shall be thine: they shall come after thee: in chains shall they 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.

No other God. The day shall come in which this shall all be true, when men shall relinquish their idols, and believe in that one great invisible God, the maker of all things. For the present we see not this.

Isaiah 45:15. Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour.

Throughout these long and weary years, man has forgotten or blasphemed his Maker, and God has sat still and borne it in the majestic patience of his infinity.

Isaiah 45:16. They shall be ashamed, and also confounded, all of them: they shall go to confusion together that are makers of idols.