Isaiah 41
THE Gentiles are next challenged, for the nations are the islands and the people (peoples, as should be read here). “Let them come near, then let them speak; let us come near together to judgment.” It is still Jehovah speaking, “Who raised up from the east him whom righteousness calleth to its foot?” (verse 2). The person thus introduced we shall find named a few chapters further in this book; it is Cyrus, called “The Great” in profane history, —the conqueror of Babylon.
God gave this Persian king the power to destroy Babylon, notorious for its idolatry; and directed him to let the Jews go back to their land. We have read of him in our journey together by means of these “Bible Lessons” through the Scriptures, in the closing verses of 2 Chronicles and the first chapter of Ezra. But Isaiah’s prophecy was written about a hundred years before the birth of this Persian king.
Scoffers who reject both God and His Word, knowing nothing of their state as sinners before Him, and therefore in complete moral darkness regarding the Word of God, have found in Isaiah’s prophecy a favorite theme for display of their “Learning.” That God is the Author of the Book, they of course deny. If He is its Author, and no intelligent Christian doubts it, why should there be any difficulty over His telling about Cyrus a century before he was born? Far more wonderful things, than this are found all through God’s Holy Word.
As before in Isaiah, we observe that events yet future are linked with what was soon to happen when Isaiah wrote; so the Holy Spirit evidently had Christ in mind, in His future reign, when Cyrus came before Him.
The Gentiles turn to their idols; verses 5-7 are the sequel to the call, in verse 1. What folly engages man, that he will make his own idols, and then bow down to them!
Cyrus is not God’s servant, but Israel is (verse 8). God never gives up His purposes of grace, and though the chosen nation is set aside during many centuries, He will bring them into far greater blessing than they have ever known (verses 9-13).
“Thou worm Jacob” is a reference to the past and the present of this people; but the day of their power is not now far off (verses 14-16), and when that day dawns, the wilderness will rejoice, the thirsty land will become water springs. In the wilderness there shall be cedar, acacia, myrtle, oleaster; in the desert, the cypress, pine (or perhaps plane tree, or evergreen oak) and box tree together (verses 14-20).
Again the nations are challenged (verses 21-29); let them bring forward proof of the divinity claimed for their idols. “Let them bring them forward and declare to us what shall happen; show the former things, what they are, that we may give attention to them and know the end of them; or let us hear things to come; declare the things that are to happen hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods; yea, do good, or do evil that we may be astonished (or examine) and behold it together.
Behold ye are less than nothing ... ..” (verses 21-24).
Yet man rejects the true God and returns to his idolatry!
Did the idols or their priests and soothsayers, astrologers, and the like tell of Cyrus’s, coming? Only Judah knew before the Babylonian empire was founded, that it was to take them captives, and that that empire would in due time be destroyed by Cyrus the Persian.
ML 12/10/1933