Chapter 45
Then 45 is titled "God uses Cyrus". Maybe 44:28 really should be 45:1.
Look at this first verse:
1 Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him and to loose the belts of kings, to open doors before him that gates may not be closed: [Isa 45:1 ESV]
Cyrus is now God's anointed. God did the same with the Assyrians - used them to accomplish his purpose, but this seems somehow different. With the Assyrians, it was a nation that God empowered. Here, it is a man. This is a different kind of work. In vs 2, God goes before Cyrus and does the work for him. Not what God did with the Assyrians.
4 For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen, I call you by your name, I name you, though you do not know me. [Isa 45:4 ESV]
This verse says God "controls" Cyrus, though Cyrus does not even know who God is. God does not need our permission to be used by Him to accomplish His purpose. But what awaits on the other end is certainly different for those who knowingly obey as contrasted with those who are more like "pawns".
2021, Remember 43:1? This term "I call you by name" in that verse applied to...whom? It was to "Jacob", a name, but it meant a nation. That call in 43 was to a people, to God's chosen. Here, it is to one single man. But the language appears to be the same. Hmm...Even so, the number is singular rather than plural in 43:1. I would have expected plural there. It is all singular in 45:4 also.
2021 - It is interesting to look at how the KJV translated this verse:
4 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. [Isa 45:4 KJV]. Cyrus "surnamed" into God's family? NASB95 gives a nod to this "intensification" but instead of surname translates it "title of honor". Here is some info from the BLB Interlinear, that seems to make either translation "correct":
kânâh, kaw-naw'; a primitive root; to address by an additional name; hence, to eulogize:—give flattering titles, surname (himself).
God says that He has empowered Cyrus to conquer nations, to take captives and spoil the defeated. It is God "who calls you by name". This verse:
5 I am the LORD, and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me, [Isa 45:5 ESV]
2025 - Cyrus is the King of Babylon when Israel, under Nehemiah, is given leave to return to their homeland. He doesn't just release them, but assists them, and projects his authority over all that area at the time to smooth their way. Cyrus is named 150 years in advance.
I read an article that says this is equivalent to someone in 1830 saying that a guy named Reagan who would be a Hollywood actor, will bring down the wall in Berlin, and the Soviet Union that built it. That's the equivalent.
The Hebrew word for Cyrus is found 15 times in the WLC Hebrew Bible. It is always a proper name, and always refers to this one King of Babylon. There is no mistaking this.
This verse:
7 I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the LORD, who does all these things. [Isa 45:7 ESV]...
2021 - This verse goes well with the FB post of 12/9/21 on Ecc 7:"In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him. [Ecc 7:14 ESV]:
God makes all these things. Light and darkness, well-being and calamity, joy and adversity. We need to stop behaving as if all the things we don't like come from Satan, and all the things we do like come from God. How arrogant of us to think we can put God in any kind of box, even such a "good" kind of box! Do children think their parents are doing a good thing when they get a spanking? When they don't get dessert because they didn't eat their veggies? Parents do "bad" things all the time, but a little understanding tells us the intent is only positive and we agree that this is good parenting. Why won't we allow God the same kind of latitude, but commensurate with who He is!
This is a FB post, right after the third one on Ecc. So it goes on Thursday, 12/16.
2023 - Remember, Isaiah is making this prophecy using a specific name about a yet unborn person who will rise to be a great leader of the Medes, will conquer Babylon, and then free the captives of Jerusalem after their 70 years in captivity. If you do not believe the Bible, you have to explain this, and the only "natural" explanation is that it was inserted many years later, after it all happened. Good luck actually showing manuscript evidence of that magnitude of tampering. You also have to explain, though, how it is only coincidence that there are so many "speeches" by God about how only He can tell what the future will be, and that the idols can never do it. If you were going to "insert at a later time" all this stuff about Cyrus, would you think to go back and also alter all those other chapters out in the middle of the scroll and add the parts about only God being able to do this? Or does it read better that God is making a point, and is being clear about that point, and is proving that he IS God and the idols are not gods by predicting what idols can never predict? If you go changing scrolls, you have to find and change them all, and you have to make sure that none of the old scrolls survive to get copied, because if some of the scrolls fail to mention Cyrus at all, and also lack the "idols cannot tell the future" verses scattered all through it, then your forgery will be found out. How many references back to Isaiah are there in the Bible? Who first mentions his writing? Can we find any information - any verses - that imply that there were many scrolls of Isaiah, prior to the Babylonian captivity? We know that Daniel had one, don't we? Daniel figured out that the captivity would be for 70 years by reading Isaiah...NOPE. That was a good idea, but Daniel got it from Jeremiah. Isaiah associates seventy years with the fall of Tyre. So...I am not aware of when Isaiah's writings proliferated to the point where successfully "improving" it would have become nearly impossible. But I do believe that is what happened, and I believe it is supernaturally inspired, and that is why it so accurately predicts the future. Because that was the point of the book.
2024 - It occurs to me that the perspective, the world view, in Isaiah's day was different from today. Until very recently in history, there was no nation at all that took the position that there were no gods at all. These many verses in Isaiah are quoting God saying that the proof that He is God is that he tells the end from the beginning and contrasting that with gods of gold, silver and wood, all man made, that can do nothing. I suspect that if Satan or some demon wants to make a wooden idol appear real, he can have some influence on outcomes. But they cannot tell the end from the beginning, nor explain the why and wherefore of what is happening and how the future is bent to the ends that god desires. Demons are temporal in their influence, God is timeless in His power. Now, at this point in history, there are a LOT of people in a LOT of nations that just don't believe in God, or in gods, at all. It's not a competition between wooden gods overlaid with gold, it is that there is nothing supernatural in the universe, and that all things are understandable and decipherable by man's own intellect. We really don't see this show up as a big problem in the Bible. The Bible talks about atheists, but they are invariably disdained as fools (1 ...The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good. [Psa 14:1 ESV]). So...In Isaiah's time, two groups. Those who believed in God, those who believed in gods. Today, there are no idols really, God ended that with the Babylonian captivity. Today we have those who believe in God, and those who believe in nothing. Hmm...this is not quite true. The Hindu religion has many gods I believe. I don't know about the Buddhists. But I know there are a LOT of Hindu's, worshiping many gods. So that belief is still out there.
9 "Woe to him who strives with him who formed him, a pot among earthen pots! Does the clay say to him who forms it, 'What are you making?' or 'Your work has no handles'? [Isa 45:9 ESV]
Why can God do as He wants to nations in rebellion against them? Because He is God!
Good one for FB. (Did I ever use it? Check before doing the longer one below!!!)
And these might go right after it, the next week:
9 "Woe to him who strives with him who formed him, a pot among earthen pots! Does the clay say to him who forms it, 'What are you making?' or 'Your work has no handles'? 10 Woe to him who says to a father, 'What are you begetting?' or to a woman, 'With what are you in labor?'" [Isa 45:9-10 ESV]
You don't ever argue with the one in authority. You don't know enough to question the one in charge. Will you really tell a father he's raising his son wrong? Will you tell a mother she's not "growing" her child correctly? Of course not! Because potters are sovereign over their pottery, and parents over their young children. We all know this. And yet we think we can critique what God chooses for us!
Possible, but not sure, on 12/20, after going back to Isa 45 and checking that previous possible to see if it was ever posted.
2024 - 9 "Woe to [the one] who quarrels with his Maker..." [Isa 45:9 NASB95]...and yet these days, we've made such quarreling the rule instead of the exception. How many times have we heard someone say "If there was a god, he would never let these things happen...", or "I don't believe in a God who allows so much suffering in the world..." These statements can only be made by those who have never stood before a King, a judge - before anyone with absolute power over life and death. Who would reply "No" to a King who could say "Off with his head" and it would be done immediately? Who would stand before a judge, knowing that judge will decide between 5 years in prison or death by hanging, and tell him that he's not real, because no real judge would ever order execution? We understand the consequences of defiance in these situations. We understand that our actions put our very lives at stake, and so we have a very high level of respect for that King or that judge. And yet we judge God's performance - we defy Him, we even question His very existence - on a daily basis as if He can't do a thing about it. How dumb is that?
2022 - This verse:
11 Thus says the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and the one who formed him: "Ask me of things to come; will you command me concerning my children and the work of my hands? [Isa 45:11 ESV]. Look at that first phrase. It seems to say there are two "speakers" One is "...the Lord, the Holy One of Israel..." and the other is "the one who formed him...". There isn't even a nod to this reading in MSB. So....that indicates that I am reading it entirely wrong. It must not be about two speakers, but only one. The speaker is the Lord, who is both the Holy One of Israel, and the one who formed Cyrus, to whom this whole chapter seems to be addressed. For me, this translation pulled me up short. Here is the KJV:
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. [Isa 45:11 KJV]. Capitalization of "Maker" indicates two speakers, the second of which formed the first. ESV did move away from the capitalization, most likely to preclude interpreting it to mean there are two speakers...and here is the NLT:
11 This is what the LORD says--the Holy One of Israel and your Creator: "Do you question what I do for my children? Do you give me orders about the work of my hands? [Isa 45:11 NLT]. They have used punctuation to make the point - an interpreted point to be sure - that there is only one speaker. That second phrase is more or less a parenthetical phrase, giving additional information about the Lord, NOT describing the second speaker. In context, this chapter is not about the Father and the Son, so we should not interpret it as addressing that relationship, and we especially ought not use it out of context to say that the Father created the Son. It cannot mean that.
If I were a Greek philosopher, claiming that Jesus could not be God, but had to be "removed" by several layers of created perfection, I might be tempted to use this verse to make that point. I hope now that I am better prepared to rebut such an interpretation.
2023 - It is the LORD, who is both the Holy One of Israel, and the one who created Israel. It might be the pronoun that is causing the problem. If we read it "The Holy One of Israel, and the one who formed "it", we wouldn't have any problems. But in this chapter, the relationship is between God and a person, not God and a nation. God and Cyrus, not God and Jacob (as representative for Israel), so I think this is a better way to explain it. We might also read it "The Holy One of Israel and his Maker.
2024 - In connection with this "and his maker" phrase, look back at the beginning of 45:1: 1 Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus... [Isa 45:1 ESV]. This chapter is addressed to Cyrus. Note that extra word in there...say TO Cyrus. The Lord, your maker, Cyrus, says this to you. It isn't hard really...going back to vs 1 makes it easy.
2022 - Here it is again:
12 I made the earth and created man on it; it was my hands that stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their host. [Isa 45:12 ESV]. If we just read this, we would say that it was ho Theos who created the world. But remember, again, who is speaking here. Vs 11 says the speaker is the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. The word translated LORD is Jehovah. Who is the Holy One of Israel? Don't we see that in the NT?
24 "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are--the Holy One of God." [Mar 1:24 ESV]
34 "Ha! What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are--the Holy One of God." [Luk 4:34 ESV]
69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God." [Jhn 6:69 ESV]
27 For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption. [Act 2:27 ESV]
35 Therefore he says also in another psalm, "'You will not let your Holy One see corruption.' [Act 13:35 ESV]
20 But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. [1Jo 2:20 ESV]
7 "And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: 'The words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens. [Rev 3:7 ESV]
5 And I heard the angel in charge of the waters say, "Just are you, O Holy One, who is and who was, for you brought these judgments. [Rev 16:5 ESV]
In each of these cases, the title "Holy One" is used of Jesus. The last part has been changed to "of God" rather than "of Israel". The NT is presentation of the gospel to the whole world. Not just to Israel. So there's that argument. As before in Isaiah, when the work of creation is talked about, it has been a simple matter to show that the one who created was the Son, and not the Father. So in the NT, in Colossians when Paul talks about Jesus as creating through the Father, we have now found TWO OT references that corroborate that idea.
God has set forth His ability, His exclusive ability to order the universe, to foretell events, and to see His will come always to pass, just as He said. Now, in vss 9, 10 He asserts His right, as creator of all things, to do as He sees best without any questions from those created. The clay does not question the potter, nor does it critique its design. We cannot question what God does, nor can we say He did it wrong. What arrogance! Good one for FB.
Then starting in vs 14 God talks about the place Israel will hold in the Millennial, when all will know that God dwells with them.
2025 - As I read 14-17 this year, I think we are still talking about Cyrus here. Reference vs 4 where God tells Cyrus he's the one that gave him his title, King of Babylon I suppose, and that he will give him riches and fame and so on and so forth. Now, in these four verses, we see the lands that Cyrus will conquer - Egypt, Cush, and the Sabeans. All these are far to the south of Babylon. Yet we know that Assyria also warred with these nations far to the south. It would be interesting to see what historical documentation there might be talking about Cyrus conquering Egypt.
2025 - Did a quick Google search and the response is pretty much universally that Cyrus never conquered Egypt. Egypt was conquered by his successor. Most of these article are quick to point out that the Bible has this wrong. These verses are pretty specifically about conquest though:
14 Thus says the LORD: "The wealth of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush, and the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over to you and be yours; they shall follow you; they shall come over in chains and bow down to you. They will plead with you, saying: 'Surely God is in you, and there is no other, no god besides him.'" [Isa 45:14 ESV].
The first part might have to do with trade between Babylon and the south, but that mention of chains and bowing surely seems to imply conquest. Unless we interpret that as a thriving slave trade? Perhaps Egypt was conquering nations to the south and taking captives and selling them to Babylon? Babylon was well along toward becoming an affluent - and therefore slave using nation - by the time Israel was released. So what was going on in Egypt and Cush during the reign of Cyrus?
Got ChatGPT to look this up and got an interesting response. Here is the answer when I asked about war captives being sold into slavery:
Yes—it was absolutely standard practice in the Ancient Near East during the 6th century BC (the era of Cyrus, Amasis of Egypt, and the Neo-Babylonians) for victorious states to sell war captives into slavery. It was one of the most predictable outcomes of losing a war.
Egypt was not directly at war with Cyrus during this time, but they could see that conflict was coming, and would be instigated by Cyrus' son - so a generation away. We also know that Egypt actively supported Greek and Levantian forces that opposed the Babylonian empire under Cyrus in addition to invasions of their own into that area. So while I am just speculating here, it does seem like this might be an explanation of what the prophecy says that is in fact entirely accurate and not a biblical error as many would seem to prefer.
This verse, that I never noticed before:
18 For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (he is God!), who formed the earth and made it (he established it; he did not create it empty, he formed it to be inhabited!): "I am the LORD, and there is no other. [Isa 45:18 ESV]
God made the earth to support life. To be inhabited. He made it to show to the life there that it must have been created especially, exclusively for the life that He put there. It is not chance, it is not luck. He made it for US!!! Another for FB.
2021 - Why the parentheses? Were these words inserted later, or are they parenthetical in the original text? Took a look at BLB Interlinear. The words are all there. The words that mean "intentionally created FOR habitation". But it is an old and complex word. And this is another of those verses where a lot of Hebrew words do not come over with one to one correspondence. Many of the Hebrew words have no corresponding direct word in English. This is a complex verse.
2022 - Note also that if you refer back to 14, we seem to be talking about the Millennial. It is during that time that all nations look to Israel. I do not see this "bowing down to Israel" on the part of Egypt, Ethiopia, Sudan and so on anywhere in history since Isaiah's time. So I would say this is yet to come, and is about Jesus on the throne. So a third time, and the second in Chapter 45, where the Son is seen as creator of all there is. It is amazing to me that I had the question just a few days ago, and now I have seen three OT passages that point directly to Christ as the creator in Genesis. In addition to looking back to 14 to show that this passage is about the Son, look also forward to vs 23, which is quoted in Phil 2:10, where it most certainly references Jesus. The tags are "Jesus NOT created" and "creation". Not really very good tags for the point I'm trying to make. So later in 2022, while reading Hebrews 1, I added "Jesus as creator" to the tags.
2021 - I just had a thought about "One God", prompted by these two verses:
20 "Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, you survivors of the nations! They have no knowledge who carry about their wooden idols, and keep on praying to a god that cannot save. 21 Declare and present your case; let them take counsel together! Who told this long ago? Who declared it of old? Was it not I, the LORD? And there is no other god besides me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none besides me. [Isa 45:20-21 ESV]
Since we hit Isa 40 there have been many of these...sort of like soliloquies...from God contrasting Himself with all sorts of idols and false gods of wood, gold and silver. In the 10, He says no graven images. The Lord our God the Lord is One. Is the point that the God of Israel, the creator of all that is, the unique and only creator God who knows the future because he made it so, who knows the reasons the past went as it did, and who has power on earth unlimited by the natural laws of physics - and nothing more? Islam says this god of theirs is only one. One person. They say that their god cannot be three in one, nor can he take on physical form, nor can he create life in the womb of a human woman. Maybe it is more that they say he won't do these things, but the idea is the same. They put a limit on the ways and methods that their god is allowed to employ to accomplish his will. Our God has no such limits. Our God can make himself known to us in three persons/guises/personalities/representations. Our God can do that if He chooses to do so. The only limit on our God is what He says He will not do. He does not break promises. He does not "lose" His own. If our God decides to use a harlot like Rahab to save his people, our God can do that. If our God decides to use a scoundrel like Jephthah to throw oppression off His people, He can do that. If our God wants to be born as an infant human child and live a human lifetime on earth and die a human death on a cross, then our God, the God of the Bible can do that. A god that has limits imposed on him based on the understanding of man as to his capabilities is no god of mine. My God does what He wants!
A risky/brave possible FB post.
This verse, offering universal salvation, in the OT:
22 "Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. [Isa 45:22 ESV]
These last chapters have been a rolling, continuous wave of God proclaiming Himself as the one and only true God. He repeats it over and over, He dares any to compete, to try, to say, to predict, or to turn aside His purpose. If ever we think our God is shrinking, these are the chapters to read!
This verse:
23 By myself I have sworn; from my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return: 'To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance.' [Isa 45:23 ESV]
Used by Paul to describe Jesus in the NT, and here by Isaiah to describe God in the OT. They are the SAME! Need to see what the underlying word for "Me" is in this verse. Is it Yahweh?