CHAPTER 45

(712 B.C.)

GOD HAS CHOSEN CYRUS AND WILL HELP HIM

¹Thus says the LORD to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, 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 (this Chapter gives us a direct address of God to a heathen king, which is without parallel in Scripture.

The phrase, His anointed, as it pertains to Cyrus, refers to what Cyrus would do, and not to holiness and character.

The two leaved gates refer to the great gates which went down into the Euphrates River, built to keep out intruders. They were left unlocked, which made it possible for the army of Cyrus to take Babylon. As stated, these predictions were given about 200 years before they actually happened);

²I will go before you, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron (on the night that Belshazzar was slain, these gates, by a strange oversight, were left open; the Medes had diverted the course of the river, and so the soldiers marched up its dried bed and entered the city through the open gates, thus becoming masters of Babylon after a siege of two years. Belshazzar and his government had thought the city impregnable, but God said differently!):

³And I will give you the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the LORD, which call you by your name, am the God of Israel. (This pertained to the treasures and riches of Babylon.)

⁴For Jacob My servants sake, and Israel My elect, I have even called you by your name: I have surnamed you, though you have not known Me. (The conquerors name was Agradetes, but God surnamed him Cyrus; and, as predicted in these Verses, he has ever since been known by this name.

Josephus said that this Prophecy was pointed out to Cyrus on his conquest of Babylon, and he thereupon determined to fulfill what was written; however, he probably already knew about it from his mother, Esther.)

⁵I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside Me: I girded you, though you have not known Me (the Holy Spirit is calling to attention the fact that none but the LORD could forecast such minute detail concerning something that would happen approximately 200 years in the future):

⁶That 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. (The phrase, from the rising of the sun, and from the west, is meant to call attention to all the world, from the extreme east to the extreme west, to these wonderful occurrences, so that Jehovahs Hand in them would be perceived and His sole Godhead would be acknowledged; for only Jehovah could do such a thing!)

THE LORD THE CREATOR

⁷I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things. (All of this debunks the stupidity of evolution. The phrase, I create evil, is rendered according to the following: the Hebrew word used here for evil is ra, and is never rendered sin, but rather calamity, diversity, distress and trouble. This evil is meant to be directed by God at the enemies of His People.)

⁸Drop down, you 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. (The Holy Spirit, upon proclaiming Israels release from captivity, when in fact they have not even yet gone into captivity, leaps ahead to the coming Glad Day, when the LORD will reign supreme in the world, and Israel will finally come to the place of Gods intentions. At this prospect, the Prophecy is that the heavens will come down to Earth, and consequently, the skies will pour down righteousness.)

⁹Woe unto him who strives with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the Earth. Shall the clay say to him who fashions it, What do you make? or your work, He has no hands? (The woe announced in Verses 9 through 13 is directed against those in Isaiahs day among the Hebrews who criticized the action of God in choosing a heathen prince as the deliverer of His People. These objectors are compared to potsherds objecting to the action of the potter.

The idea of this Passage is that man is no more entitled to lift up his voice against his Maker than the vessel to rebel against the man who shapes it.)

¹⁰Woe unto him who says unto his father, What do you beget? or to the woman, What have you brought forth? (This Verse is to be understood in the light of the angry utterance of a son and heir at the birth of a brother. It illustrates the anger and jealousy of the people of Israel at the Divine action in choosing and blessing the Gentiles.)

¹¹Thus says 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 you Me. (This Passage has been misunderstood by many, thinking it gave the right to the pottery to command the potter. The merit of the entirety of this Chapter [and more particularly Verses 7 through 12] speaks to the Omnipotence and Omniscience of God, and the folly of the individual striving with his Maker!

There should have been a question mark at the end of the sentence.)

¹²I 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. (The idea of all of this is: God is saying, I do the commanding, and not you!)

¹³I have raised him 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, says the LORD of Hosts. (The pronoun him refers to Cyrus, and to him being raised up by the Lord for a special task and mission. The phrase, in righteousness, means to carry out My righteous purposes. Directing all his ways means making it possible for him to do what needs to be done. The captives refer to Israel.)

AN EVERLASTING SALVATION FOR ISRAEL

¹⁴Thus says the LORD, The labour of Egypt, and merchandise of Ethiopia and of the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over unto you, and they shall be yours: they shall come after you; in chains they shall come over, and they shall fall down unto you, they shall make supplication unto you, saying, Surely God is in you; and there is none else, there is no God. (This Passage refers to the fact that the Gentiles robbed the sons of Israel and carried them away in fetters of iron and brass; but they will, in the future day of Restoration, come up to Jerusalem in chains of love and Repentance, bringing their wealth with them, and confessing that there is but One True and Living God, Jehovah, Messiah, the God of Israel.

The latter phrase, There is no God, actually says, There is no other God.)

¹⁵Verily You are a God Who hides Yourself, O God of Israel, the Saviour. (In the coming Kingdom Age, the Gentile world will exclaim that the Lord is now visible to all. As well, this Text means that the Lord hides many of His Plans from men, even though He is still our Saviour. Such is designed by the Holy Spirit so that man will develop trust and dependence on God, instead of having to be told everything that the Lord will do.)

¹⁶They shall be ashamed, and also confounded, all of them: they shall go to confusion together who are makers of idols. (This pertains to the coming Kingdom Age, when all religions will be ashamed in the Face of Christ.)

¹⁷But Israel shall be saved in the LORD with an everlasting Salvation: you shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end. (The Everlasting Salvation means one which will continue age after age. The general sense of the Passage is that those who trust in the Lord shall be vindicated, and shall never be ashamed nor confounded.)

GOD THE CREATOR AND SAVIOUR

¹⁸For thus says the LORD Who created the heavens; God Himself Who formed the Earth and made it; He has established it, He created it not in vain, He formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else. (The heaping together of the terms of this Verse shows how much more the Scriptures tell us about the creation of the worlds than the professors of modern science. The terms, created, formed, made, and established, are terms of exact science. The prognosticators of the lie of evolution have never been able to determine the first cause of all things. This Verse and so many others tell us that God is the First Cause.)

¹⁹I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the Earth: I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek y ou Me in vain: I the LORD speak righteousness, I declare things that are right. (Things are not right merely because the Lord declares such, but because in fact they are right.)

²⁰Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, you who are escaped of the nations: they have no knowledge who set up the wood of their graven image, and pray unto a god who cannot save. (The statement, and pray unto a god who cannot save, is a heartrending word! Sadly, it incorporates most of the world.)

²¹Tell you, and bring them near; yes, let them take counsel together: who has declared this from ancient time? who has told it from that time? have not I the LORD? and there is no God else beside Me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside Me. (This Verse could be thusly stated: Tell you [O Israel] and bring forth the Prophecy of Isaiah; let them [the idolaters] confer together, and then ask them who declared this Prophecy 200 years ago? Who predicted it from that time?

To this there could be but one answer: the Only True and Living God.)

²²Look unto Me, and be you saved, all the ends of the Earth: for I am God, and there is none else. (Truth, having in the previous Verse confounded the idolaters, Grace, in this Verse, offers them without exception a sure and eternal Salvation in the words, Look unto Me....)

²³I have sworn by Myself, the Word is gone out of My mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. (God swears by Himself, because He can swear by no greater peer [Heb. 6:13]. He condescends, for mans sake, to confirm in this way Promises that are exceedingly precious.

He said that His Word shall not return. In other words, it will not be withdrawn or retracted. Gods Gifts and Promises are without Repentance [Rom. 11:29].

Every knee bowing and every tongue confessing refer to the universal turning to God, which will take place in the coming Kingdom Age.)

²⁴Surely, shall one say, in the LORD have I righteousness and strength: even to Him shall men come; and all who are incensed against Him shall be ashamed. (All of this is ascribed to Christ, so asserting His Deity, that He is Jehovah, and that all men shall worship Him as God by bowing the knee to Him.)

²⁵In the LORD shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory. (Self-justification, as practiced by Israel, brought self-righteousness, and resulted in pride and misery. Gods Justification, which is by Faith, and which is in Christ and what Christ has done for us at the Cross, always brings glory, which is the Glory of God, and not the glory of man.)