Allan MacRae, Isaiah 40-56, Lecture 3
This is lecture 3 delivered by Dr. Allan MacRae at Biblical Theological Seminary on Isaiah 40-56.
I’d
like to give the assignment for next week. Now would you please write down a
few references that I’ll give you. I want to give you the references to nine
verses. These are: 41:8-9; 42:19; 43:10; 44:1-2; 44:21; 45:4; and 48:20. I
would like you to look at each of these verses for next time, and I’d like you
to give me a paper on Friday, by noon, in which you answer two questions about
each of these verses. Number one, who is called the Lord’s servant in the
verse? Number two, state the reason for your conclusion. Now, in this
particular assignment I would like the reasons and the conclusion to be based
only upon the verse itself, not upon anything else in Isaiah, nor in the Bible,
nor anywhere else. I would like this to be done from simply looking at the
verses themselves. If after you have done that should you desire to look at
evidence from other parts of the Bible, or other parts of Isaiah, or in any
commentaries, or in any other source, that is entirely optional; I am not assigning
it.
Now, at the end of the hour last time a question was asked: “Can we
say that there is only one interpretation to a passage but many applications?”
That is very evidently a statement that has risen as a reaction against the
attitude that was taken during the Middle Ages. As early as the third century
there were many who said every verse in the Scripture has three senses: a
historical meaning, a moral meaning, and a spiritual meaning, and you need to look
at all three interpretations. Later on in the Middle Ages, it was changed, the
third of these was divided up into two, and it was said that every verse has
four senses. For instance, Thomas Aquinas, the leading theologian of the Roman
Catholic Church, in his commentary on Genesis, said that there were four senses
and he used these constantly. Thus, he said where God said, “Let there be light,”
historically, this means an act of creation; allegorically, it means let Christ
be love. Anagogically, it means may we be led of Christ to glory; and tropologically,
it means may we be mentally illumined by Christ. It was customary during those
years on the part of many commentators to find many different interpretations
in one verse. Later some even found seven or eight different interpretations.
One of the great advances of the Protestant Reformation was to say
the verse has one meaning. I would prefer, instead of saying "one
interpretation," to say "one meaning," because ten people may
interpret the verse in different ways; only one of them is probably right, so
the word “meaning,” I think, would be better. A verse has one meaning.
Now, all of these can properly be used as an application that
Thomas Aquinas used. We can apply it in all sorts of ways, but we should not
say “that’s what this verse means.” We want to find what it means. The reason I
prefer the word "meaning" instead of the word "interpretation"
is because very often--at least in many cases,--we are not sure what the
correct interpretation is, and there may be various interpretations. If it is
absolutely clear what the meaning is, then, of course, there’s only one valid
interpretation, but in all languages there are various possibilities. Words
have various possible meanings; the context often shows which of these
possibilities is the correct one, and so different interpretations may be
advanced, and we want to find which is the true one. So I would agree there’s
only one meaning to any passage, but, of course, that meaning may be wide, or
it may be narrow. When God said “let there be light,” he referred to one action
in the material world, and that is the meaning of this statement. But we can
use the words, and they are used elsewhere in the Scripture, very definitely to
refer to God’s putting light in our hearts when we are regenerated. Similarly,
the word is used as being given light in our life as we go forward; there are
various uses of the the world “light” and you may have to know from context
what the correct meaning is.
I assigned you today to look at chapters 41-44 just to notice what
passages of rebuke there are in these. The book of Isaiah begins with very
strong rebuke. Chapter one, the first verse of Isaiah is simply a title, but
the second to the fourth verses read, "Hear, O heavens; listen, O earth,
for the Lord has spoken. I reared children and brought them up but they have
rebelled against me. The ox knows his master, the donkey his owner’s manger,
but Israel does not know, my people do not understand. A simple nation, a
people loaded with guilt, a brood of evildoers." And you go on to verse
15, you read, “When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes
from you; even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full
of blood; wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my
sight! Stop doing wrong; learn to do right!” This is a very strong rebuke. God
is rebuking people for sin. This is not merely a mention of sin, or a
reference to sin, but a very strong rebuke for sin. A very great part of the
prophetic books is made up with rebuking people for their sin and calling upon
them to turn away from it.
The section that we are examining this year from chapter 40 on is
very different from most other sections of Isaiah in that it includes
comparatively little of direct rebuke. In chapter 40, for instance, we have a
reference to sin in verse 2, but it is that “her hard service has been completed.
Her sin has been paid for!” That’s not rebuke. That is blessing, of course. It
is a promise to be freed from the burden of sin. Later on in the chapter we
have the folly of idolatry shown, but it is not given as rebuke; there’s no
specific word in it of rebuking people for worshipping idols, but rather it is reasoning
with them, showing how unreasonable it is for anyone to worship idols because
God is so great and powerful and he is the only God. So we have some very
definite passages of rebuke in our present section, but it is not
characteristic of the passages as a whole. Rebuke entails a comparatively
small part.
It is at the end of chapter 39 when Isaiah said, "The people
will be taken off into exile to Babylon." And the people of Judah knew
that the people of the Northern Kingdom, right in their lifetime, had been
taken off into exile, and they had heard refugees tell of the terrible
suffering of these people carried off hundreds of miles from their homes, as
they were. They knew that Isaiah had predicted that their own people would be
taken off to Babylon just as these others were taken to Assyria. The godly
people would tend to give way to despair in the face of that situation. Then
Isaiah speaks to these godly people to comfort them, and in so doing he not
only comforts them, but he gives words that will have an even greater
significance a hundred and fifty years later, when their people have already
been taken into exile, have been in exile quite a while, and God is assuring
them that He is going to bring them back. And so we might call this whole
section--chapter 40 to 56--Isaiah’s "Book of Comfort." It is a book
comforting people in the prospect of exile that God is going to deliver them
from exile.
But there is suggested, in the beginning of chapter 40, the idea
that they’re not only going to return from exile, but that the larger matter of
sin is going to be dealt with. Not only is their hard labor to come to an end,
not only is their suffering to come to an end, but her sin is going to be paid
for. This suggestion here is a very vital problem, which is only lightly
touched upon in this chapter, but which grows in importance as you go through
succeeding chapters. As we mentioned, chapter 40 can easily be interpreted,
every bit of it, as addressed directly to people in exile telling them how God
is going to bless them and bring them back. But you can see how it also fits
with the greater promises of deliverance from sin which are to be fulfilled
with Christ.
I personally have reached the conclusion that this chapter 40 is
different from the rest of the section 40 to 56 in that it is like an overture
to a symphony. It is something which sets, that gives the setting, which
suggests the various themes that are to come, which presents the emotions that
can fit with the whole development from chapter 41 on to 46; and, therefore, it
can all be read as dealing with these themes as they apply in that immediate
situation, but it also can apply to the great matter to which this section
leads: the ultimate redemption from sin. And so it is not that there are two
different meanings, but that there is an overture here, presenting emotions,
not specific statements about persons or situations, but presenting emotions which
were very vital to deliverance from exile that are also very vital to the
deliverance from sin. Chapter 40, therefore, properly can be seen as being
fulfilled in return from exile, and also as being fulfilled in the work of
Christ. That’s not an idea of double fulfillment. Double fulfillment, as I
understand it, means two entirely different things considered as having been
predicted in one statement. This, however, is a presentation of emotions that
fit with these two different situations—return from exile and ultimate
redemption.
As you go through chapter 40, the stress is on various themes
through the chapter. As we noticed, the idea of comfort is in verse 1. "Comfort,
comfort my people, says your God." Well, there’s nothing specific in
that. That could be given to any minister. "Comfort God’s people."
It is God’s desire at all times that his representatives comfort his people,
but in the context, it begins with applying it to God’s people returning from
the exile. So they are told not merely words of comfort, but they’re going to
be comforted because God is going to do wonderful things. He is going to
deliver them. He is going to provide that their sin will be paid for.
Then we find that in verses 5 to 8 there is great stress on God’s
power. Now, the statements about God’s power are true at all times. God’s
power is the Word of the Lord that will stand forever. God’s power is
supreme. These words are true at all times, but they apply particularly in
both situations. We need to know of God’s power. Then this is as if someone
said, “Well, you talk about God’s power, but what proof is there? What proof
is there that God is so powerful, as you say?” And he touches on that in verse
5 a little bit, and in verse 8 much more, on the theme of God’s power being
proven by God’s knowledge. The end of verse 5: “For the mouth of the Lord has
spoken.” It is God’s word that we can trust and, of course, that applies at all
times. In verse 8 he says, “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the
word of our God stands forever.”
Again we have God’s power stressed in verses 12, "Who has
measured the waters in the hollow of his hand," and in verse 15, "Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket” in
comparison with him." In verse 17, "Before him the nations are as
nothing." But God’s knowledge is again stressed very definitely in verses
13 and 14: "Who has understood the Spirit of the Lord or instructed him as
his counselor. Whom did the Lord consult to enlighten him, and who taught him the
right way." God’s knowledge is supreme, and it is evidence of his power.
In verses 18 to 20 we have idolatry discussed, not as a subject of rebuke, but
as a subject that he reasons about. He shows the folly of it. He shows how
foolish it is to compare any idol to God or to trust in an idol. Then at the
end of chapter 40, we have the overture coming to an end.
There are many times in the Bible the chapter divisions are in the
wrong place. They were put in late; thousands of years after Isaiah was written.
The divisions are late. They do not mean anything except that they are useful
for finding places. But here is one place where there is no doubt that a
chapter division is properly placed, just as there is at the beginning of
chapter 40. That is one the main divisions in the Scripture between chapter 39
and chapter 40. The historical section just before is followed by this great “Book
of Comfort.” But at the end of chapter 40 the overture ends, and the main
action begins. So up to there we have had emotions that can apply in relation
to God’s work of comfort and deliverance for all times.
In chapter 41 we have the beginning of a picture--a specific
picture. And we have a definite development of thought from there on. So chapter
41 begins with a call of judgment. "Be silent before me you islands, let
the nations renew their strength. Let them come forward and speak. Let us meet
together at the place of judgment." Who are to meet together at the place of
judgment here? Whom is he talking to? Is he talking to the people of
these countries or to the countries as represented of the gods whom they
worship? As we go on, we see that he is speaking directly to the gods. He is
calling the imaginary gods of the heathen nations to judgment to show that they
are worthless. And so in chapter 41, verse 2, he asks a specific question to
show the superiority of God to them: "Who has stirred up one from the east
calling him in righteousness to his service? He hands nations over to him,
and subdues kings before him. He turns them to dust with his sword, to
windblown chaff with his bow. He pursues them and moves on unscathed, by a path
his feet have not traveled before."
Is this a description of Hitler’s army’s going into Russia? Is it a
description of Napoleon’s armies with their great progress? We, of course, would
be foolish to think that it is applying to either of those situations, though
the words taken by themselves could apply perfectly well to those situations.
But here Isaiah is referring to a specific situation. This thing has happened,
and he says to the gods, “Who has produced this? Who has caused this to happen
or brought about this specific event of this coming of this great conqueror who
‘goes on by a path his feet have not traveled before and who subdues nations
and reduces them to dust before his sword?’”
Now, there are commentaries who say that this refers to Abraham
because as you look back at the earlier parts of the Bible, the only one that
you can find that would seem to fit with it is Abraham pursuing the kings who
had taken Sodom and Gomorrah and carried off Lot. But that certainly does not
fit in this context at all. And so that statement about Abraham, which we find
in some commentaries, is very definitely to be rejected. This goes far beyond
anything in the nature of warlike conquests that Abraham ever conducted.
But if you look ahead for a moment in the passage, we will see a
specific reference to this situation that will show us what is referred to. We
will look at chapter 44 through 45. We find at the end of chapter 44 that there
is a wonderful poem beginning in verse 24. This is what the Lord says: “I am
the Lord who has done this." It is a wonderful poem running through many
verses until in verse 28 it says, “Who says of Cyrus, ‘he is my shepherd and
will accomplish all that I please.’” And 45:1 says, "This is what the Lord
says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of to subdue kings
before him and to strip kings of their armor, to open doors before him so that
gates will not be shut." So we have this specific prediction about Cyrus
the great Persian conqueror, who is specifically named 150 years before his
time. We find this in chapters 44 to 45, and it is very obvious that in chapter
41, Isaiah is describing the situation where the nations are terrified as they
see the great conquests of Cyrus, the Persian conqueror. As they see
these conquests, God says to the idols that the people of all these nations are
looking to for protection, "Who has stirred up one from the east calling
him in righteousness to his service? He hands nations over to him?" Can
any of your idols claim to have done this? Can any false god claim to have done
this? He says, “I predicted this 150 years ahead and even gave his name!” (As
in chapter 44). I am the one who is behind Cyrus and giving him his power. I’m
using him for my purposes.
But there is a situation then in chapter 41, verse 4, "Who has
done this and carried it through, calling forth the generations from the
beginning? I, the Lord, with the first of them and with the last. I am he."
And then he describes what the nations do when they see Cyrus coming. Verse 5, "The
islands have seen it and feared. The ends of the earth tremble. They approach
and come forward, each helps the other and says to his brother, 'Be strong.'"
So here are the nations seeing Cyrus moving with his seemingly
invincible army conquering nation after nation, and the nations are filled with
terror. And they say, What shall we do in the face of this terrible onslaught? "The
islands see it and fear, and each of them says to his brother, 'Be strong.' The
craftsmen encourages the goldsmith, and he who smooths with a hammer spurs him on
who strikes with an anvil. He says of the welding, 'It is good.' He nails down
the idol so that it won’t topple" (Isa 41:5-7). In the face of this
terrible danger, they are looking to their making new idols as a means of
protection. They are looking to their heathen gods as a means of deliverance.
And they are filled with terror, and this is the way they are dealing with it.
But he says in chapter 41, verse 8, that Israel is different. You
shouldn’t be terrified of Cyrus. God predicted 150 years ahead that he would
bring Cyrus, and he predicted that he would bring Cyrus as his means of
delivering Israel from exile. Although I did not read over the verses at
the end of chapter 44, where Isaiah specifically says Cyrus will cause the
temple to be built, and he will cause the exiles to be allowed to return to
Jerusalem. God is raising up Cyrus for God’s purpose to deliver Israel. So he
says in verse 8, “But you, O Israel my servant, and Jacob whom I have
chosen, you descendants of Abraham my friend." Now you wouldn’t tell
Abraham’s descendants not to be frightened because Abraham was conquering the kings.
It’s quite obvious he’s not talking about Abraham here; he’s talking to the descendants
of Abraham and telling them not to fear when they see this great conqueror
coming in destroying. “Don’t you be afraid,” he says, “because you are my
servant, O Israel.”
There is a true statement: God raised Israel up not as his pet but
as his servant. He raised them up for His purpose. He raised them up to
accomplish something in the world and so he calls Israel “My Servant”. He says,
“Israel,” and you see this is one of the verses in the assignment for next
time, “O Israel, My Servant, Jacob whom I have chosen.” Very definitely here
the Servant of the Lord is Israel. Israel is raised up in order to accomplish a
purpose. He goes on in the next two verses and says, “But you, O Israel, whom
I have chosen,” and verse 9, "I took you from the ends of the earth, from
its farthest corners I called you, I said, 'You are my servant.'" And
again he uses the term, “I have chosen you and not rejected you.” Israel is not
to fear, not because Israel is a particular pet of God, not because they are
people whom God is more anxious to protect than anybody else because of any
goodness in them. No, they are his servant chosen by him for a purpose. Through
them he is going to accomplish something. There is a great reason for God’s
calling Israel in the first place and for His blessings on them.
“And so,” he says, “I took you from the ends of the earth, from its
farthest corners. I called you, I said you are my servant. I have chosen you and
have not rejected you. So do not fear for I am with you.” Do you see how
different this is from rebuke? This is comfort. This is assurance. “Do not fear
for I am with you! Do not be dismayed for I am your God! I will strengthen you
and help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. All who rage
against you will surely be ashamed and disgraced” (Isa 41:10-11).
How different from the situations for the Heathen nations who are
vainly seeking for protection from their idols. Israel can be assured that
Cyrus is not a terror to them, a great subject of fear, for God has brought him
for a purpose. In chapter 41, verse 12, and following he says, “Though you
search for your enemies you will not find them. Those who wage war against you
will be as nothing at all, for I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your
right hand and says to you, ‘Do not fear, I will help you. Do not be afraid old
worm Jacob, O little Israel, for I myself will help you,’ declares the Lord.”
Now, in a number of your papers it was said that this statement “old
worm Jacob” is a rebuke. Now the word “worm” could very easily be used in a
context in which it would be a term of rebuke. But, when you take the parallel,
it is “Old worm Jacob, O little Israel, don’t be afraid”. You’re not rebuking
someone when you tell them not to be afraid; you’re comforting them. So, the
word “worm” here is a figure of speech, but it is not a figure for something
evil; it is a figure for something small. In comparison with the power of the
great conquering armies of Cyrus, you’re just like a little worm. You are weak,
there’s nothing you can do in your own strength against him; all you can do is
wait and see what’s going to happen in this great conflict of the nations. And
God said, “I am bringing my purposes to pass in this; I am bringing Cyrus, and
you don’t need to fear like the other nations, even though you are like a
little worm in front of his great army.” So this is not rebuke; rather this is
blessing here, though the word “worm” could be used in either context.
“For I myself will help you,” declares the Lord, “your redeemer,
the Holy one of Israel” (Isa. 41:14). He goes on with that to the end of verse
16, “You will rejoice in the Lord and glory in the Holy one of Israel.”
Then there’s a general statement, "The poor and needy search
for water, but there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst. But I the
Lord will answer them" (Isa 41:17). The people are suffering in exile;
they are in misery there, but God is going to bring them deliverance. They may
indeed have had difficulty in getting sufficient water, but it is more likely
here that this is properly to be taken as a figure of speech as representing
their difficulties in general, their misery, their need of help. They search
for water, but everything is dry. It could be a specific statement; it could be
a figure of speech. Of course, that is one thing in interpreting Scripture: to
know what is figurative and what is literal. I’ve heard people say that they
take every word of the Bible literally. That, of course, is utter nonsense! You
couldn’t possibly take every word of the Bible literally.
There is a wonderful statement in the Psalms, “As the deer pants
for water, so my soul pants for thee, O God.” And the longing for water is
used as a figure for the need of mankind for something spiritual, which he has
in his heart, even if he doesn’t know it, and which those who know it, realize
more fully. But in this passage in Isaiah, I would rather doubt if the image of
writer applied spiritually here because the whole context is of deliverance
from exile. So I would think here that water is more a figure of material lack
in this particular case. Water is used for different things in the Scripture,
but I would think that probably in this particular case it refers to their
material need rather than specifically to their spiritual need.
He says in chapter 41, verse 17 and following, “I the Lord will
answer them; I the God of Israel will not forsake them. I will make rivers flow
on barren heights and springs within the valleys. I will turn the desert into
pools of water and parched grounds into springs.” Now here he may be looking
way to the distant future. He’s going to deliver them from exile, but way in
the distant future--there is no way they can tell how soon--there is something
definitely coming that is pictured by this. There are blessings going way
beyond the mere deliverance from the miseries of the exile, and he says that,
“I will make rivers flow on barren heights,” and then, of course, there will be
material blessings as well as spiritual blessings.
So since there are spiritual blessings involved in the figure, in
18, it's possible that the suggestion has more to it than I realized, that the
first part could be more properly brought in parallel with Psalm 1, though I
think it is principally material that Isaiah is thinking of in that verse, but
the spiritual may also be included in it.
“I will make rivers flow on barren heights and springs within the
valleys. I will turn desert into pools of water and parched grounds into springs.
I will put in the desert, the cedar, the acacia, the myrtle and the olive,
pines in the wasteland, the fir and cypress together.” This passage may refer
to spiritual blessings to come, but the language seems to refer to great
material blessings that God is going to bring at sometime in the future, not
necessarily immediately now.
He says in chapter 41, verse 20, “So that people may see and know,
may consider and understand, that the hand of the Lord has done this, that the
Holy One of Israel has created it." And now Isaiah very specifically
turns his attention to those whom he has called to judgment at the beginning of
the chapter. He turns to these idols specifically, and He says, “’Present your
case’ says the Lord. ‘Set forth your arguments,’ says Jacob’s king. ‘Bring in
your idols to tell us what is going to happen. Tell us what the former things
were so that we may consider them and know their final outcome. Or declare to
us the things to come, tell us what the future holds so we may know that you
are god’s.’”
God is here giving an evidence to his people of his reality and of
his strength. He promises to bring them back from exile. Well you say, “How can
he do that? We are here subject to the terrible power of the Babylonian army.
We have been led away hundreds of miles from our homeland; we have been here
for decades.”
The people later in exile read it with that in mind, but the people
at the time Isaiah spoke imagine themselves in that situation. They were in
Judah and God says, “I am going to deliver you.” Well how do we know that He
will deliver us? Well, look at God’s tremendous power. Of course he can deliver
you. Yes, but what’s the proof of the power of God? We see the heathen idols
carried in procession through the streets. We see the Babylonian soldiers
saying that Nabu and Marduk have given us power and have led us in our great
conquest. To the Judean exiles they say, “What does your god amount to? You
don’t even have a statue of him. You have no idea what he looks like. Your
temple’s been destroyed. What does your God amount to?”
Well, here’s an evidence, the evidence of fulfilled prophecy. God
predicted 150 years in advance that a conqueror would come and deliver us from
the Babylonian conquerors. He even predicted his name, Cyrus. The name is even given
to us twice, at the end of chapter 44 and the beginning of chapter 45.
So in this situation, God turns to the idols. He says in verse 22,
“Bring in your idols to tell us what is going to happen. Tell us what the
former things were so that we may consider them and know their final outcome. Declare
to us the things to come, tell us what the future holds so we may know that you
are gods. Do anything, whether good or bad, so that we may be dismayed and
filled with fear. But you are less than nothing, and your works are utterly
worthless. He who chooses you is detestable. But I…” He shows the difference
between the idols, which are unable to protect their people from Cyrus, and God
who says “…I have stirred up one from the north and he comes.”
Cyrus led his armies from Persia to the West and then went up to
the north into Asia Minor. He conquered the great kingdom of Croesus, the
kingdom of Lydia, and conquered all of Asia Minor. Then he returned southward
and attacked Babylon. And God says, “I have stirred up one from the north, and
he comes. One from the rising sun who calls on my name.” Cyrus had come from
the east and from the north, a very specific prediction 150 years in advance of
the coming of Cyrus.
In chapter 41, verse 25 and following, “He treads on rulers as if
they were mortar, as if he were a potter treading the clay. Who told of this
from the beginning so that we could know, or beforehand, so we could say he was
right? No one told us of this; no one foretold it; no one heard any words from
you.”
The idols cannot predict the future. It is interesting that, if you
read the Quran, you find in it many specific laws for the people of Islam. You
find certain predictions about the end of the age, about the time of judgment,
when in Jerusalem from the wall over a certain distance there is to be a rope,
stretched, and those who follow Muhammad will be given power to walk across
this rope and those who haven’t followed him will fall off down into eternal
destruction. Muhammad gives certain statements like this about the end of the
world, but as to what’s to happen between his time and the end of the world, he
never ventured to try to make any specific predictions. God did not speak
through Muhammad. But in the Bible, God gives specific predictions of many
things in the future: predictions that often could not be exactly understood in
advance of their fulfillment; but when their fulfillment came, then it was seen
how specific the predictions were and how exactly they were fulfilled. There
are hundreds of these predictions in the Scripture. And so that is one of the
great evidences given here in this chapter, to people in Babylon, suffering
under Babylonian control. God says, “‘Look how strong I am. Don’t be terrified
by these idols, by these Babylonian troops and all this.’ You say, ‘How do we
know You exist? How do we know you have this power?’ Well I’ve predicted
what’s going to happen. I’ve predicted the coming of Cyrus, and I am predicting
things still in the future.”
Well, it is a little difficult to know exactly how to take that in
terms of Cyrus’s beliefs. There are some who think that Cyrus was a Zoroastrian.
That is not certain. Zoroastrians recognized that there is a great power of
good. But they also believe in a great power of evil. That hardly would be consonant
with the God of the Bible. Perhaps when Cyrus gave his edict to allow the Jews
to leave Babylon, in which he declared they were to go and worship their God in
Jerusalem he called on God’s name. That Cyrus actually was a believer in the
true God, however, we have no evidence.
I would say that to the godly people in the time of Isaiah, the
prophecy about Cyrus had great significance. The godly people in the time of
Isaiah would have seen the Assyrian conquests. They would have seen the people
from the Northern Kingdom taken into exile. They would have seen how close Sennacherib came to conquering Jerusalem and taking their people
into exile. And they would know how terrible exile was, and they would know
what the sin of the nation was, which Isaiah rebukes so strongly. They would
know that exile was certain, and they would tend to give way to despair, and because
of that, therefore Isaiah is now turning his attention away from the great sinful
nation as a whole and addressing the godly and comforting them as they look
forward to exile. He is doing it in such a way that his words will have an even
clearer significance 150 years later when people read what Isaiah wrote back
then and say, “Well, that’s exactly what’s happening now, here comes Cyrus that
Isaiah predicted a 150 years ago. This brought comfort to our ancestors as
they looked forward to the misery of exile. To us it brings comfort as we see
the actual thing just as that Isaiah predicted.”
The great nation that Cyrus conquered in the north in Asia Minor,
which is modern Turkey was the nation of Lydia. Its king was Croesus. The name
of Croesus has become a symbol for great wealth because he was, perhaps, the
wealthiest person of his time. There are those who think he was the first
person ever to coin silver and gold into actual coins. Before that they simply
weighed out the certain amount of it. When Cyrus came with his great army,
Croesus did not know whether he should march out and attack Cyrus, or whether
he would be wise to stay behind the walls and try to protect himself against
the battering rams and the great attack of Cyrus. He sent a messenger to the
Delphic oracle in Greece that claimed to be able to predict the future. The
Greek records tell us how when the messenger came from Croesus and asked the Delphic
oracle, “What shall I do? This great attack is being made on me. Shall I march
out and attack him?” The answer given was, “If you march out and attack Cyrus,
a great empire will be destroyed”. So Croesus thought, “How wonderful! The
great empire of Cyrus will be destroyed!” So he marched out to attack him. But
the battle was held and Croesus was completely defeated and taken prisoner. A
great empire was destroyed, but it was the empire of Croesus, not of Cyrus.
Most of the alleged predictions of the future are like that, that
are outside of the Bible. They are predictions that would be true no matter
what happens. It’s good to examine the scriptural predictions of the future
with that in mind. They may not tell us just what is going to happen, but are
they such that if it had happened differently than it did, we wouldn’t say they
were fulfilled. So there is much in Greek history about Croesus’ great empire of
Lydia, which was most of Asia Minor at that time. Cyrus conquered Lydia first,
and then he came southward and attacked Babylon. The people of Babylon and all
those regions, of course, were terrified as they saw Cyrus going north of them
and coming back. Then after he conquered Babylon then he led his armies east
again, and he was almost to India when he was killed in battle and his son
carried it on even conquering the northern part of India, which the Persians
held for the next 200 years. This was by far the greatest empire the world had
seen up to that time.
Why did he do it? Well, why did Hitler? Why did Napoleon? But I
think this is worth noting that Cyrus was the king of the small group known as
the Persians in an area which was generally controlled by a much larger group
called the Medes. The Persians could be considered part of the Medes as a
related group. But Cyrus declared his independence of the Median overlords, and
then he succeeded in overcoming them and getting control of all that they had.
Having gotten started with this great career of conquest, there might be an
impulse to go on and conquer more and more and, eventually of course, he
conquered Lydia and then Babylon, and then went east quite a distance. His son
Cambyses carried on and conquered northern India, and then went and conquered
Egypt. So that it was that sort of thing: when you get it started, it seems to
go on and on. Hitler started with attacking Poland; and then he attacked Russia,
and then he attacked France. Once he got going, he would have gone on forever
if somebody hadn’t stop him.
"Yes,” the Lord says, “I was the first to tell Zion, ‘Look, here they are,’ [meaning Cyrus] I gave
Jerusalem a message of good tidings." God through Isaiah here is, giving
the message that Jerusalem is going to be taken into exile as predicted back in
chapter 39. But here are the good tidings: they were going to be brought back; they're
going to be delivered.
Verse 28 goes on with the theme of idols. "There is no one to
give counsel, no one to give answer when I asked them." He is referring to
the idols that are all false. He is referring to all the idols. He is giving
Jerusalem the message of good tidings. But I think he’s here referring to the
nations around who are trying to hold the Israelites in subjection God declares
their idols are nothing and warns the Israelites against trusting these idols.
Well, we'll pick up there next time.
Transcribed by: Hope Johnson, Claire Maddox, Brandy Hall, Paige
Latournes, Christa Coners, Lauren
Beals, editor Mary Frediani
Initial edit by Ted Hildebrandt
Final edit by Dr. Perry Phillips
Re-narrated by Dr. Perry Phillips