Isaiah 48:12-22
English Standard Version

The LORD's Call to Israel
12 “Listen to me, O Jacob,
    and Israel, whom I called!
I am he; I am the first,
    and I am the last.
13 My hand laid the foundation of the earth,
    and my right hand spread out the heavens;
when I call to them,
    they stand forth together.

14 “Assemble, all of you, and listen!
    Who among them has declared these things?
The LORD loves him;
    he shall perform his purpose on Babylon,
    and his arm shall be against the Chaldeans.
15 I, even I, have spoken and called him;
    I have brought him, and he will prosper in his way.
16 Draw near to me, hear this:
    from the beginning I have not spoken in secret,
    from the time it came to be I have been there.”
And now the Lord God has sent me, and his Spirit.

17 Thus says the LORD,
    your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
“I am the LORD your God,
    who teaches you to profit,
    who leads you in the way you should go.
18 Oh that you had paid attention to my commandments!
    Then your peace would have been like a river,
    and your righteousness like the waves of the sea;
19 your offspring would have been like the sand,
    and your descendants like its grains;
their name would never be cut off
    or destroyed from before me.”

20 Go out from Babylon, flee from Chaldea,
    declare this with a shout of joy, proclaim it,
send it out to the end of the earth;
    say, “The LORD has redeemed his servant Jacob!”
21 They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts;
    he made water flow for them from the rock;
    he split the rock and the water gushed out.

22 “There is no peace,” says the LORD, “for the wicked.”

God starts off His call to the people of Israel reminding them that He Elected them and Redeemed them for a special purpose that He knows and is bringing about.  He is also the one who created everything (including them) and the one who sustains all things (including them).

The LORD reminds His people the come together and worship Him even though He has declared judgment on them.  He also reminds them that Babylon will not get away with the evil that they have done--they too will eventually be punished, but He is going to use them for a time to bring about His purposes for His people.  Isaiah through the Spirit of the Lord is crying out to the people to listen to Him as if they were listening to the voice of the LORD Himself.

The LORD's prophecy is for the good of His people, instructing them in the way that is good and profitable for them.  He has their best interest in mind, even more than they do.  We don't always know what is best for us, but He always does.  The LORD wishes that His people had obeyed His commandments and kept the Mosaic Covenant so that it would go well with them, but now they will have to experience the curses of the Law instead of the blessings of the Law.  The LORD repeats the promise of descendants and doesn't say that it won't happen that they would be too numerous to count, but He says that promise would have been fulfilled by this time if they would have been obedient.  However, the fulfillment of that promise had to be delayed because of their disobedience.

When the day comes when the LORD once again redeems His people from their captivity in Babylon, He asks for them to remember that He alone has saved and redeemed them and for them to let out a shout of praise and worship Him for the mighty way in which He acted.  His care for them once again will be supernatural so that they will need or want nothing, and all will be paid for by those that have taken them into captivity.  However, the enemies of the LORD's people will be destroyed (think of the story of Esther and the feat of Purim which is celebrated like a second Passover where the LORD's people once again experienced His miraculous salvation and the LORD's enemies experienced His fierce wrath and judgment).

There is a group of people that Isaiah is writing this passage to that believe they are truly devoted to the LORD and say everything right with their lips, but it seems that Isaiah says that their hearts are still far from the LORD when the LORD says through Isaiah, "not in truth or right."

The LORD has revealed things that are going to happen as if they were things that had already happened.  I like how the word "suddenly" is used here to say that even though God tells us about the events of the future, He doesn't usually tell us in such a way where we can start counting the days and hours and get ready.  It still takes us by surprise when it happens, but it happens exactly the way He said it would.  Why did God prophecy these things to them in times of old?  So that they would not image that the idols that they currently worship did these things.  No, the LORD made sure all the credit and glory, and honor would go to Him--there would be no confusion who knew the future and caused events of history to unfold to accomplish His divine plans and purposes.

Now the people are seeing things come to pass, and they are failing to give glory to God, and they continue to worship their idols.  This is one of the reasons that God is going to send them into exile--so that they will realize their idols are worthless (like the gods of the Egyptians were worthless, the gods of the Babylonians will be worthless, the gods of the Assyrians will be worthless, and so on) and that those who call themselves by His name will be true worshipers of Him.  Also, it should be obvious that things that the LORD revealed where beyond the capability of human wisdom and intuition to figure out on our own.  We also cannot be glory-thieves.  God also reveals that He knew from the beginning who would submit to His authority and who would rebel against it--who would be citizens of His kingdom, and who would be a part of the kingdom of this world--the kingdom of darkness which will eventually be the kingdom of antichrist and the kingdom of the devil.

It brings God great glory though for Him to make those who were rebels into His faithful servants (see the story of the Apostle Paul as an example).  It also brings Him great pleasure to transform us into good image-bearers once again, this time to be made into the image of the Son of God.  We are refined like silver which becomes a reflective surface as it is refined.  The dross is burnt away and only what is pure and valuable remains.  How does He accomplish this?  Through many trials and tribulations, event to the point of sending His people away into Exile or causing His Church to be persecuted unto the point of death.  However, He will not break His covenant promises with His people, and He will not let the world annihilate them.  He will always save and preserve a remnant for His name's sake and for His glory.  When He brings us through the fire, we will proclaim the name of the LORD throughout all the earth and praise His name which is above every name.  We will share His gospel with the whole world so that people everywhere might be transformed and become true worshipers of the Living God who is Creator, Sustainer, Alpha and Omega, and the Judge of the Living and the Dead.  He alone is worthy to receive all glory, blessing, honor and power now and forevermore.

The Babylonians would be judged severely.  Their women would not have men left to marry and bear them children and these young women would be living out on the streets.  The women that used to not have to work and could spend their time looking attractive for young men to want to court them will now have to work hard to gather grain and mill it to turn it into flour so that they can bake a little bit of bread to feed themselves and their families.  They would need to travel to find work or possibly to move away from what was the capital city of the greatest empire of its time to places that presented better opportunities.  The nation would lose its people and its culture to other nations, but hints of the old culture would still remain.  In the end times the kingdom of Babylon will raise its ugly head again under the authority of the antichrist and this is a proclamation of judgment against that coming kingdom as well.  The worthlessness of that kingdom will be exposed as if everyone were stripped naked (which is exactly what Babylon used to do to those people that it captured and took prisoner).  Israel did not fear them because the LORD would do to them exactly what they had done to Israel and the LORD was the Redeemer of His people Israel.

God allowed Babylon to be mighty and allowed them to conquer many people.  It was a chance to treat these conquered peoples with mercy and compassion, but they instead showed them nothing but cruelty, so that is how the LORD would treat them when He conquers and defeats them.  They will sit in darkness and be lonely and afraid as everything and everyone they know, and love is stripped away from them and it will be proof that the gods they worshiped were impotent to save them because they were never real to begin with.  The LORD, He is God and He alone is mighty to save!

​They were a proud people that needed to be humiliated and the fancied themselves as being able to contend with the LORD from the beginning in the city of Babel when they defied the LORD's command to fill the earth and subdue it.  They chose to build a city to make a name for themselves and to try to build a tower that was tall enough to save themselves from any other flood that the LORD may send to judge them and possibly even thinking that they could build their own stairway to heaven (to get there by their own works).  They imagined they would forever be the premiant, dominant empire and they would always be on top, but the LORD would leave them widowed and orphaned, cutting off their name and their generations from the earth.  No spell or incantation (they were one of the centers of sorcery, witchcraft, divination, necromancy, and all things that they would call the Art, but we would call Black Magic).  The kingdom of Babylon is still very much a spiritual kingdom associated with the men and women who practice these things.  The LORD targeted places that were the places of religious study for the occult (Egypt first which housed the largest such library and then Babylon which took its place as the leader of occult literature and training for such practices).  The is no such power from the occult that can save them from the power of God and His coming wrath that will be poured out on all who rebel against Him and choose to be a part of this spiritual and political system that stands in opposition to Him and His people.

​That being said, the LORD will send them delusions that they might stand firm in their enchantments and put their trust in them so that they will not repent and believe and will be subject to the judgment that is coming their way.  There will not be many if any death-bed-confessions as the people see the end approaching for their worldly kingdom or their spiritual kingdom (look at how Babylon the physical empire was destroyed quickly in one night while all the people were having drunken orgy and were in the middle of blaspheming the LORD and questioning if He was able to save His people from them).  Their astrologers did not tell them the date or time of their destruction.  It came on them swiftly.  Their magicians could not slow it down or stop it.  They could not even read the literal writing on the wall that sent the message of judgment that essentially said, "Your time is up."  It was written in a language that only God's people could read and understand.  In the same way in the end God's people will have understanding of the times and seasons that the world will not have.  They will continue to go on partying and thumbing their nose at God just like they did in the days of Noah until the rain and Flood started and came on them suddenly, but the door of the Ark was already closed and sealed by the LORD.  No divination will help the people, because the demons do not know the answers to these questions, and they only speak lies to the people that they manipulate trying to take as many people to the Lake of Fire with them as possible.  God freely offers salvation to all who see the truth and repent and trust on Him and Him alone for salvation and serve Him as slaves obey their Master and Lord in a new kingdom--the kingdom of God (sometimes called the kingdom of heaven).

The fire of judgment will consume all Babylon had built as if it was nothing but stubble.  Do not imagine that the heat of this fire gives light or warmth though.  It is gone in a flash and then forgotten.  That is not to say that the Bible is teaching annihilation where people will simply cease to exist--they will live in conscious suffering, torment and judgment for all eternity for their rebellion against God and His kingdom, but it will be both a place that is described as a Lake of Fire burning with fervent heat and also a place of utter darkness separated from the Light that is God's presence, goodness, and glory.   We don't normally think of fire producing no light, but that is what this fire will do.  It will be like when alcohol burns and has an invisible flame.  It will create much heat, but no light.

The LORD gives a warning to all those who do business with Babylon (often called Babylon the Great in their time) because they believed it was to their advantage to be allies with the greatest superpower the world had known to that day.  The LORD warned them to choose sides carefully because those who allied themselves with Babylon made themselves His enemies and might also get caught up in His judgment of that evil kingdom (the same warning should be given today to those who ally themselves with the kingdom of this world that will one day be the kingdom of antichrist).  The true King is coming, and He will put all imposters, rebels and traitors to shame, exile them from His kingdom and they will receive the punishment they deserve while only the King's servants are rewarded with the bounty and blessings of the Kingdom.

The gods after whom the kings of Babylon were named and whom they tried to make Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azarriah take Babylonian names in honor of (Shadrach< Mishak, and Abed-Nego).  are the very gods that the LORD says are nothing and they bow in submission to Him.  He says their gods are like livestock to him (and he would make one of the kings of Babylon like livestock for several years when he needed to be humbled).  The people of Babylon want the idols to take on their heavy burdens like a beast of burden does, but the idols themselves are heavy burdens that must be carried along with all the other burdens the people were already carrying, because their idols are unable to help alleviate or lighten any of their burdens.

God reminds His people that He is different.  Even in their old age, He carried them and bears their burdens and sorrows as His own.  He does this for all of them at all times.  There is none like Him and nothing can compare to Him.  Certainly, the gods of gold, silver, bronze, wood, and stone (all things that He creator) are not in the same category as Him, the Uncreated One.

We are to remember our greatest burden is our sin, and He bears that for us too.  There is no one like Him because none of the other gods that people worship can truly deal with the issue of sin.  Only Jesus could do that.  He alone knows the end from the beginning and declares it to us through His Word spoken to His prophets and apostles.  He has revealed His plans and purposes to us, and they will not be thwarted or subverted.

​In this case, it is part of His plans and purposes to send the people of Israel out of the Land and into Exile, and it is part of His good plans and purposes to use the kingdom of Babylon to accomplish this.  Is this because the kingdom of Babylon is some morally good agent?  Certainly not!  They are brutally wicked, but God will still use them to accomplish His good plans that bring about His purposes for His people and brings much glory to Himself.

Those who were crying that Israel and Judah were doomed forever and had been cut off from the LORD's salvation did not pay attention to history or know the LORD's nature and character.  They do not need to be in the Land to experience His salvation.  Just think of their greatest salvation at that time which is remembered every year by the Passover.  They were in Egypt, and the LORD showed that He was superior to all the gods of the Egyptians.  He brought them through all their wanderings in the wilderness and shows that was superior to all the gods of the surrounding nations and the gods of the Canaanites in the Land that He was providing for them.  He is certainly able to save them while they are in exile and show Himself to be the only Living God and their only Savior and Redeemer once again.  He also says that very soon (though for us it would have seemed like still a long way off) Jesus would be coming to provide ultimate salvation and to be the glory of God in Israel once again (the glory of the LORD departed Israel in the days of Ezekiel to go with the people into captivity, but the promise was that the LORD's presence would always be with His people and was not attached to a physical building like the pagans assumed--destruction of the Temple was not destruction of the LORD's power or presence).

Even with everything that was just said about Cyrus being a kind of messianic figure in history, the LORD reminds His people that He alone is their one and only Savior.  He will cause some of the wealthiest and most powerful kingdoms of the world to recognize that He is with them, and they will pay tributed to Israel like they did in the days of Solomon.  They will make peace with the LORD and His people.

Though He is invisible, His works and words make Him manifest for those whom He gives spiritual sight and understanding.  He is revealed most to His people and the world by the way in which He saves His people.  He is their only Savior, and the salvation He offers is everlasting.  He says that we are eternally His and no one will put us to shame for all eternity (He has not just dealt with our sin, but also our guilt and shame).

The LORD who is the Creator of heaven and earth and all that is in them revealed Himself to His people by the word of the Prophets and those who chose to write His holy Scriptures.  It was through them that He revealed Himself and how to approach Him to His people.  He did not create everything and then hope we figured out who He was and how to gain access to Him, because none of us would ever figure that out.  Even better, He Himself stepped down into our reality to become one of us to be the ultimate Prophet and to tell us who He was, what His purpose was to save His people from their sins, and complete that task and commission us for ours--to take this good news to the entire world, starting with our family and neighbors and moving out to those furthest away from us.

Those who worship idols do so because they have no knowledge of the LORD.  That is something that the nation of Israel was to help fix.  They were to proclaim His great Name and His Word to all the nations--to be a light to the Gentiles (Jesus was the ultimate Light to the Gentiles).  God tells them again that there is none like Him and then calls on all people of all nations to turn to Him, repent, and be saved.  He has sworn by Himself (for there is no one or nothing greater to swear by) that one day every knee will bow and swear allegiance to Him, our choice is if that will be willingly or by compulsion.  Things will go much differently for us now if we swear allegiance to Him in this life because there is no free will left in the life to come. , and it is too late at that point to choose Him as Savior, even if we recognize Him as Lord.

Whoever thinks they have a charge against the LORD, let them demand an audience with Him like the prophet Job did.  Like Job, their mouths will be closed, and they will be left ashamed for bringing their accusations.  No one can bring any legitimate charge against the LORD or those whom He has made blameless in His sight (though Satan, the accuser of the brethren will try).  In the end, the LORD will be justified and glorified.  He will have accomplished everything He promised to do, and it will all be done to the praise of His glory.

This message is addressed to King Cyrus, who hasn't even been born yet.  Messianic language is used to refer to him as "The LORD's anointed" (the same language is used to refer to Jesus as the Messiah (the LORD's Annointed).  Being anointed was a sign that someone would be filled with the Holy Spirit and set apart for a special task or purpose.  In this case, Cyrus would be filled with the Spirit so that He could return the Israelites to the Land and rebuild the Temple.  He would also protect Israel from her enemies, and he would proclaim the Name of the LORD throughout all His empire.

The LORD will also bless him with military successes.  The LORD would do this though Cyrus did not know Him at first and at first did not worship Him.  Why?  For the sake of His people that He calls both Jacob and Israel--I think this means that God intends to save all of the ethnic descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob again even if they have not been born again and received a new identity like Jacob becoming Israel.  God will still save them for the sake of His Name and His covenant that He made with them and with their forefathers.

The LORD said He was doing this so that all nations everywhere would know that He alone is the one and only God.  He is the God in the East and the West.  He is the only God in the North and the South.  All others that are idols or gods without form that people worship are cheap imitations.  He is the one who separated light from darkness and made day and night, but this also speaks to Him being the one who makes moral law and determines good and evil.  Good ss that which is consistent with His nature and what He would do--He always does what is good.  Evil is what is contrary to His nature and what He would never do--He cannot sin or be tempted to sin.  5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.  (1 John 1:5).

​Then the prophet prays that the blessings of the Mosaic Covenant (see the blessings and curses from the book of Deuteronomy) would come upon the People and the Land once again.  First that the rains would fall, and the land would become fertile and produce fruit, but that this also would be connected with the spiritual harvest of a people's hearts turning back to the LORD and being saved not only from their physical exile, but also their spiritual exile.

The LORD proclaims judgment on any would try to contest Cyrus's legitimacy to be used by the LORD (probably because he was from a Gentile nation and started off as a pagan who did not know the LORD).  The LORD is the potter and all of us (Jews and Gentiles alike) are the clay.  20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” (Romans 9:20).  Israel had no right, nor did any other people or nation) to be jealous of what the LORD was doing through Cyrus.  God made Him exactly how He wanted him to be and equipped him for the exact purposed and work He had set forth for Cyrus to do.  To speak ill of Cyrus to the LORD would be as foolish and rude as to question a mother or father about why they would love their child--even a child who had a disability, defect, or deformity.  You would not ask a mother, "How could you give birth to such an ugly child?" However, that is essentially what people were asking God.  God uses the things we think are "ugly" to accomplish His beautiful plans, especially when the ones we think are "beautiful" reject Him and have ugly hearts that rebel against the LORD and His Spirit.

God encourages the Israelites to ask questions, but He does not promise them answers as to why He does what He does.  The LORD, knowing the heart of Cyrus, says He will stir Cyrus up to righteousness and make his ways level.  He would rebuild Jerusalem, the LORD's City, and set His exiles free.  He would do this because it was right and at great cost to himself, seeking no reward for himself in this life, but I believe that the LORD has said enough in enough places to cause me to think that Cyrus was truly saved and that he will receive his reward when the LORD blesses his people.  Cyrus will be counted among the spiritual descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacbo, right there alongside the apostles and all the others from the great multitude that the LORD has redeemed unto Himself, 9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” 11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.” (Revelation 7:9-12).

The first think the LORD reminds His people Israel of is that they are His people--they have been bought with a price and are not their own.  They are His, but He is benevolent and has not forgotten about them and will not forget about them.  Second, He remind s them that if it were not for His grace and mercy, they would all stand condemned by their sins--both their transgressions and their iniquities.  It is only because their sins have been blotted out of the record that they have any chance of being declared righteous before the LORD.

All of heaven and earth will rejoice at what the LORD has done to redeem His people, so why do His people not rejoice for what He has done for them?  He gave them the ability to worship and praise Him with their voices and hands and all kinds of musical instruments.  He gave them the ability to dance and sing and shout for joy.  Why then are they silent, and worse, why are they worshiping other gods?

The LORD is the Creator of heaven and earth and all that is in them (including us, so He owns everything).  He is also the one that exposes the lies of the false teachers and false prophets, yet He confirms the words of His spokesmen (the prophets and apostles) with signs and wonders.  He shows the wisdom of this world to be pure foolishness, but He gives wisdom and grace to those who humbly ask for it.

Then comes an amazing prophecy!  King Cyrus is named as the LORD's servant to do His biding before there ever was a King Cyrus.  There is no doubt that the LORD did use King Cyrus as His chosen instrument to accomplish His plans, but this creates a huge problem for those who don't believe in the inspiration of Scripture and have trouble believing that the LORD told the prophets this information ahead of time.  Certainly, there was no way for Isaiah to influence the naming of the one who could become king in a foreign government and to make him do all the things that the LORD said he would do.  It is also foolish to think that anyone would want to go in after the fact and write this into the biblical account--what Jew would want to say that the LORD had to use a Gentile king to accomplish His purposes?  Wouldn't they want their hero to be from the nation of Israel?  It does not make sense, yet it is exactly the pattern God had set up when the people came out of slavery in Egypt--the LORD caused the Egyptians to give up all their wealth and treasure which was used to build the Tabernacle.  Now, the wealth and treasure of those that took the Israelites into Exile would be used to rebuild the Temple.