CHAPTER 44

(712 B.C.)

GODS SPIRIT TO BE ON ISRAEL, HIS SERVANT-NATION

¹Yet now hear, O Jacob My servant; and Israel, whom I have chosen (the Lord is saying, Be not dismayed at what has been said; listen a little longer):

²Thus says the LORD Who made you, and formed you from the womb, which will help you; Fear not, O Jacob, My servant; and you, Jesurun, whom I have chosen. (After proclaiming to Israel exactly what they were sinners, the Lord now assures them of His Love and Grace. He introduces this message with: Yet now hear.

The words, from the womb, are used here for increased emphasis. They emphasize that no man had anything to do with the bringing forth of these people called Israel. They were strictly a Work of God and, as such, will be strictly restored. The name Jesurun refers to something special.)

³For I will pour water upon him who is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour My Spirit upon your seed, and My blessing upon your offspring (this Promise had a fulfillment at Pentecost; but the future only will bring the total fulfillment.

The water here is a figure of the Holy Spirit; the willows, a figure of the sons of Israel.

This is the Promise to which Peter pointed in Acts 2:39. It is a Promise to Israel and to her children. As such, and as other Scriptures show, it was to overflow from Israel to all the nations of the Earth. It will yet do so!):

⁴And they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water courses. (Israel rejected their Pentecost some 2,000 years ago. But now at the Second Advent of Christ they will accept, and gladly! At this time, He will pour water upon him who is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground.

This infusion of the Holy Spirit upon and within Israel shall cause them to blossom as willows by the water courses.)

⁵One shall say, I am the LORDs; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the LORD, and surname himself by the name of Israel. (The idea of this Passage is that untold thousands of Gentiles, seeing the blessings of the Lord upon Israel, will no doubt take as a surname the name of Israel.

This means that the heathen nations, instead of looking scornfully on and uttering gibes and jeers, even as they have done for thousands of years, will hasten to enroll themselves among the worshippers of Jehovah, and do so through Israel.)

THE FOLLY OF IDOLATRY

⁶Thus says the LORD the King of Israel, and His Redeemer the LORD of Hosts; I am the First, and I am the Last; and beside Me there is no God. (Let all know and understand: there is no Redeemer but the Lord! There is One God, manifest in Three Persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, Who are all One in essence [I Cor. 8:6; Eph. 4:3-6; Heb. 1:8; Jn. 1:1-2; 20:28; Acts 5:3-4; II Jn. 3; Acts 2:34].)

⁷And who, as I, shall call, and shall declare it, and set it in order for Me, since I appointed the ancient people? and the things that are coming, and shall come, let them show unto them. (The pronoun them in the last sentence refers to idolaters. They are challenged to declare the things that are coming, and that shall come, as only the Lord can do!)

⁸Fear you not, neither be afraid: have not I told you from that time, and have declared it? you are even My witnesses. Is there a God beside Me? yes, there is no God; I know not any. (Israels Saviour keeps assuring His People here that they are His; that they always have been His; that they always shall be His; that He will never forget them; that though all other nations may perish, they never shall.

From that time refers to the time that God appointed [i.e., elected] His ancient people.

The statement, Beside Me there is no God, literally means: There is no Rock; i.e., no sure ground of trust or confidence in anything else.)

⁹They who make a graven image are all of them vanity; and their delectable things shall not profit; and they are their own witnesses; they see not, nor know; that they may be ashamed. (The idolaters, as witnesses to the supposed existence and power of their idols, are themselves like the idols. They neither see nor know; they have neither vision nor intelligence. Hence, the reason [idolatry] for the terrible problems which beset planet Earth!)

¹⁰Who has formed a god, or molten a graven image that is profitable for nothing? (The meaning of the Passage is: Who has been so foolish as to do so to take so much trouble about a thing which cannot possibly profit anyone?

So it can truthfully be said that all who do not serve the Lord Jesus Christ have formed their own god.)

¹¹Behold, all his fellows shall be ashamed: and the workmen, they are of men: let them all be gathered together, let them stand up; yet they shall fear, and they shall be ashamed together. (The essence of this Verse is: Even if all the worshippers and makers of idols should all be gathered together and stand up to help one another, yet would they be unable to effect anything. Gathered together against God, they would tremble and be ashamed.)

¹²The smith with the tongs both works in the coals, and fashions it with hammers, and works it with the strength of his arms: yes, he is hungry, and his strength fails: he drinks no water, and is faint. (The Holy Spirit uses sarcasm in these Passages, speaking of the smith who makes an ax for the carpenter with which he can cut down a strong tree and fashion it into the figure of a handsome man, or whatever, that it may stand in the house; and that is all that it can do, for it cannot provide food and drink for the fainting smith or famished carpenter.)

¹³The carpenter stretches out his rule; he marks it out with a line; he fits it with planes, and he marks it out with the compass, and makes it after the figure of a man, according to the beauty of a man; that it may remain in the house. (Idolatry blinds the senses that a man will cook his food with one-half of a tree and bow down and worship the other half as a god able to deliver him. He worships a god whom he himself makes!)

¹⁴He hews him down cedars, and takes the cypress and the oak, which he strengthens for himself among the trees of the forest: he plants an ash, and the rain does nourish it. (The idea of this Passage is that God made the trees of any and all varieties; then senseless man, deceived by Satan, takes one and proposes to make a god of it. How stupid!)

¹⁵Then shall it be for a man to burn: for he will take thereof, and warm himself; ye s, he kindles it, and bakes bread; yes, he makes a god, and worships it; he makes it a graven image, and falls down thereto. (He worships what he makes. Again, I say, How stupid! He doesnt seem to realize that he has to be more intelligent than what he has made. So why worship something that is less intelligent than the maker?)

¹⁶He burns part thereof in the fire; with part thereof he eats flesh; he roasts roast, and is satisfied: yes, he warms himself, and says, Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire (he takes part of the tree and uses the wood to build a fire, thereby preparing his meal; with the other half, he fashions a god. Hence, men take on the nature of that which they worship. In this case, it is a dumb idol; consequently, its maker becomes more dumb!):

¹⁷And the residue thereof he makes a god, even his graven image: he falls down unto it, and worships it, and prays unto it, and says, Deliver me; for you are my god. (The Harvard graduate would smile at such ignorance; and yet, if the graduate knows not the Lord Jesus Christ, he is himself an idolater, functioning in the same capacity as the one he ridicules!)

¹⁸They have not known nor understood: for He has shut their eyes, that they cannot see; and their hearts, that they cannot understand. (The word shut means to be daubed with clay. When anyone turns from the Revelation God has given of Himself in Scriptures and bows down to idols, or places something else ahead of God, a judicial blindness from God descends upon him.)

¹⁹And none considers in his heart, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, I have burned part of it in the fire; ye s, also I have baked bread upon the coals thereof; I have roasted flesh, and eaten it: and shall I make the residue thereof an abomination? shall I fall down to the stock of a tree? (The phrase, none considers in his heart, refers to the fact that the idolaters had once had it in their power to think and reason justly upon the absurdity of such conduct as that which was now habitual to them. But they have lost the power. They had suffered themselves little by little to be deluded.

This is the reason that religious bondage is the worst bondage of all, for this is the type of bondage of which the Holy Spirit through Isaiah speaks.)

²⁰He feeds on ashes: a deceived heart has turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand? (Anything and everything apart from God and His Word is a lie!)

THE LORD THE REDEEMER OF ISRAEL

²¹Remember these, O Jacob and Israel; for you are My servant: I have formed you; you are My servant: O Israel, you shall not be forgotten of Me. (The things that He desires Israel to remember is the futility of idol worship. He says the same to us today!

The words, I have formed you, pertain to the duty of absolute and unquestioning obedience contained in the relation of that which is formed to that which has formed it.)

²²I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions, and, as a cloud, your sins: return unto Me; for I have redeemed you. (The phrase, Return unto Me, is the underlying condition of both Restoration and forgiveness. It signals Repentance! Then, and then only, can the sins be blotted out.)

²³Sing, O y ou heavens; for the LORD has done it: shout, you lower parts of the Earth: break forth into singing, you mountains, O forest, and every tree therein: for the LORD has redeemed Jacob, and glorified Himself in Israel. (The implication of this Passage is that if Israel is right with God, the heavens will sing, the lower parts of the Earth will shout, etc.

Conversely, if Israel is depressed, as she now is, the Earth must mourn and languish. At the coming Kingdom Age, Israel will no longer languish!)

²⁴Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, and He Who formed you from the womb, I am the LORD Who makes all things; Who stretches forth the heavens alone; Who spreads abroad the Earth by Myself (not only is the Deliverance absolutely determined in Gods Counsels, but the Deliverer Himself is always chosen and designated; that Deliverer is Christ, which He has done through the Cross);

²⁵Who frustrates the tokens of the liars, and makes diviners mad; Who turns wise men backward, and makes their knowledge foolish (the world today is full of psychics, mediums, prognosticators, channelers, new-agers, and pretenders to knowledge of the future, etc. God calls them liars!);

²⁶Who confirms the word of the His servant, and performs the counsel of His messengers; Who says to Jerusalem, You shall be inhabited; and to the cities of Judah, You shall be built, and I will raise up the decayed places thereof (this was fulfilled approximately 200 years later, when Cyrus, king of Persia, made a decree that Jews could return to their own land and rebuild their City and Temple [II Chron. 36:22-23]):

²⁷Who says to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up your rivers (this proclaims, approximately 200 years before it happened, how the riverbed of the Euphrates would be dried up so that Cyrus could take the city of Babylon):

²⁸Who says of Cyrus, He is My shepherd, and shall perform all My pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, You shall be built; and to the Temple, Your foundation shall be laid. (Amazingly enough, the Lord calls Cyrus by name approximately 150 years before he was born, and about 200 years before these things came to pass.)