41. Isaiah Chapter Forty-One

Isaiah Chapter 41 At the beginning of chapter forty-one the Lord speaks to the Gentile nations. Let them try to contend with Him (Isaiah 41:1). The fact that He declares beforehand the raising up of a conqueror from the east is but a sign that God Himself is the supreme Controller of the world’s affairs (Isaiah 41:2-4). The idolatry of the nations will eventually bring Divine judgments upon them, and Israel, as God’s chosen people, will become His instruments in chastising them (Isaiah 41:5-16). There follows another challenge to the Gentiles. Let them show their ability to foretell the future, as God does. They and their objects of worship shall be brought to naught (Isaiah 41:22-29). The opening challenge by the Lord to the Gentile nations is issued as follows: “Keep silence before Me, O islands [standing for great nations at the extremities of the continents]; and let the peoples [Gentiles, not Israel, as one might gather from the a.v., “people”] renew their strength [i.e., get fresh strength: they need it from their point of view if they are to contend with God; compare and contrast Isaiah 40:31]; let them come near; then let them speak [that is, let them make a reply after hearing the evidence]: let us come near together to judgment.” The nations are called, not to a tribunal for God to pass a verdict of condemnation upon them, but to a tribunal of reason, to hear facts and draw conclusions.

God Himself opens the contest by way of challenging questions followed by statements of fact. The person in view is Cyrus, the raising up of whom is prophetically foretold in the past tense, which regards a future event as just as certain of accomplishment as if it had already taken place. But there is not only the power thus to predict the future with certainty (that is God’s prerogative alone), but the power to raise up a man for the accomplishment of the Divine purposes. This is the meaning of Isaiah 41:2-3 : “Who hath raised up one from the east [in Isaiah 41:25 he is said to be raised up from the north, and both become true of Cyrus, for he was connected both with Persia in the east and Media to the north], whom He calleth in righteousness to His foot [see, however, the r.v. margin]. He giveth nations before him, and maketh him rule over kings”: what follows describes his conquests that were to be. The challenge is then uttered in another way: “Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning?” (Isaiah 41:4). That is to say, who is the Author, and whose is the authority, through whom such an event derives its origin and progress? Jehovah provides His own answers: “I the Lord, the first, and with the last, I am He.” That He is “the first” means that He is preexistent to all history and that all things are under His control; He brings in one generation after another; that He is “with the last” means that He brings all things to their appointed end; hence the isles will be made to see and fear, and the ends of the earth will tremble. “They drew near, and came” (Isaiah 41:5). That is, they would come to meet the threatening danger. So they would in regard to Cyrus. So they will at the end of this age. And what lies behind these futile efforts? “They helped every one his neighbor; and every one said to his brother, Be of good courage” (Isaiah 41:6). Accordingly they resorted to their idolatry. “So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and he that smootheth with the hammer him that smiteth the anvil, saying of the soldering, It is good: and he fastened it with nails, that it should not be moved.” With what scorn the description of this is given, in contrast to the statements concerning the attributes and controlling authority of God! The Lord now continues His message of consolation to Israel, addressing them by the same twofold names as in Isaiah 40:27, but now in the opposite order; for now it is not a message to the weak and faint, but a reminder of His electing grace and the promise of restoration and deliverance, though further on the former order will be resumed (Isaiah 41:14).

He reminds them that they are His own by choice, and children of promise. They are “The seed of Abraham My friend.” Their earliest history is a guarantee of irrevocable blessing. Three times Abraham is called the friend of God: in 2 Chronicles 20:7, in the prayer of Jehoshaphat; here, in the Divine confirmation of this; and in James 2:23, which combines God’s dealings with Abraham with this passage in Isaiah. The word rendered “friend” denotes one who is loving and beloved, an object of desire, and one who enjoys the utmost intimacy. So the Lord reminds His people of what they owe to the faith of their ancestor. “Thou,” He says, speaking of Israel, “whom I have taken hold of from the ends of the earth, and called thee from the corners thereof.” The r.v. is right in the rendering “taken hold of,” and the meaning seems to be not so much that of strengthening as that of attaching firmly to oneself. From the point of view of Palestine, Ur of the Chaldeans was sufficiently remote to be called the ends and corners of the earth. God called Abraham from thence with a view to the rise of his seed as a nation, which was preexistent in His counsels.

God’s calling is always effectual. We may remind ourselves of this in our own experience in connection with the sphere of service allotted to us. If it has not been a matter simply of our choice and decision, it is ours by reason of His plan and appointment and the directing power of the Holy Spirit. The Lord now speaks of Israel as His servant, here first in Isaiah, and this is frequently repeated, down to Isaiah 49:6. He says here “Thou art My servant, I have chosen thee and not cast thee away (or despised thee),” Isaiah 41:9. So the servant character of Israel is the outcome of an act of pure grace and not through any merit on their part, as is intimated by the hint that He might reasonably have despised them and cast them away. But further, the nation had become, in spite of its waywardness and transgressions, the servant of Jehovah in the fulfillment of His purposes thus far, and it is destined to act in this capacity in full measure hereafter.

Accordingly His people have good reason to abstain from fearfulness and dismay. Hence the Lord says to them, as He still says to us, “Fear thou not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed, for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness” (Isaiah 41:10).

Three reasons are given by the Lord for freedom from fear and dismay: (1) His presence: “for I am with thee”; (2) His relationship: “I am thy God”; (3) His assurances, and these are threefold, (a) of power: “I will strengthen thee,” fortifying in weakness, difficulty and opposition; the word combines also the meaning of taking hold of; (b) of assistance: “yea, I will help thee,” giving guidance, direction and protection; (c) of support: “yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness,” suggestive of His faithfulness in the fulfillment of His promises; the Hebrew word for the right hand is associated with the idea of power and success, and suggests prosperity. The “yea” is cumulative, it gathers up what precedes and thus imparts added assurance to what follows.

Let us not fail to take to ourselves the comfort of these promises, whether by regarding them as applicable only to Israel, or by a selfcomplacent state of soul, which unfits us for the ever needed comfort and power for acting as the servants of the Lord in the realization of our own demerit and helplessness.

Israel, as the people of God, have ever had numerous and mighty foes, and their persecuting power and antagonism grow and will grow more intense as the end of this age draw near. The comforting promises which have just preceded lead now to the assurance of the overthrow of their enemies and the repeated guarantee of help. In Isaiah 41:11-12, four descriptions of the enemy are given: (1) All that “are incensed” against His people (indicative of the fierce heat of their satanically instigated antagonism) are to be ashamed and confounded; (2) “they that strive with thee” (lit., “the men of thy conflict”); (3) “them that contend with thee” (“the men of thy feuds”); (4) “they that war against thee” (“the men of thy warfare”). Every sort of foe is included in the doom. They are to perish, and are to become “as nothing,” as a nonentity.

Isaiah 41:13 follows with the comforting assurance, “For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.” Not only is there the promise of the overwhelming defeat of all their foes, but likewise the promise of protection and strength. Not only is there to be deliverance, but Israel itself is to be taken up and used for the accomplishment of God’s purposes. The assurance of help is repeated from Isaiah 41:10. Our right hand is that with which we do our work, it is the emblem of our activities. That God will hold that, indicates that we can do nothing apart from Him and that it is His will for us to realize that the power we require to do anything of value must be His. In Isaiah 41:14 the “Fear not” is repeated as an introduction to the promise that Israel is to have power over those who have opposed them. The twofold address presents different aspects of their state. Firstly, “thou worm Jacob,” suggesting a helpless and prostrate condition, as of a struggling creature of the dust (cp. Job 25:6), the object of contempt and disgust. With that condition their Messiah has identified Himself in His sufferings at Calvary, by very reason of which He will be their Redeemer (Psalms 22:6); secondly, “Ye men of Israel”; the Hebrew word is suggestive of a diminished condition, as in the a.v. margin, “men few in number” (the same word as in Genesis 34:30; Deuteronomy 4:27); this they will be after their great tribulation. The Lord brings us down that He may lift us up. For the third time He says, “I will help thee,” and guarantees it, first by His Name Jehovah, and then by the pledge “and thy Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel” (r.v.). He appends, so to speak, His signature to His declaration. Jehovah is the unoriginated, self-existent, ever-existent One, and again and again He announces His title as the ground of the assurance of His redemptive work (see, e.g., Isaiah 43:14; Isaiah 44:6, Isaiah 44:24; Isaiah 48:17; Isaiah 49:26; Isaiah 54:5, Isaiah 54:8; Isaiah 60:16; Jeremiah 50:34; cp. Isaiah 29:22; Isaiah 51:11; Isaiah 62:12; Jeremiah 31:11). In each place the word rendered “Redeemer” is the verb corresponding to the noun goel, a kinsman-redeemer avenger. The redemption is ever based upon His gracious fulfillment of the obligation of a kinsman (Leviticus 25:48-49), in becoming incarnate with a view to His atoning sacrifice.

Isaiah 41:15-16 vividly depict the nation as the Lord’s instrument in bringing their enemies to nought. Israel will be a sharp, new threshing roller with two-edged knives, like an instrument that cuts up the straw for fodder, and separates the grain from the chaff. The mountains and hills (figurative of proud and powerful foes) will be threshed to powder, and scattered and destroyed, as chaff is blown by the wind. The Lord’s irresistible whirlwind will abolish the last remnant of them. The nation will have learnt to glory, not in their own prowess and might, they will “rejoice in the Lord,” and “glory in the Holy One of Israel.” But Jehovah, looking into the assured future, thinks compassionately of “the poor and needy,” pining away through thirst (there is no “when” in the original), not only the exiles in Babylon, but all such among His people in their privations and sufferings at all times. The Lord promises to have regard to them and to answer their prayer. He will “open rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the midst of the valleys.” He will “make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.”

While all this depicts a change from the homeless condition of Israel to the abundant blessing they will receive in the Millennium (cp. Isaiah 35:6-7, a passage which confirms the fact that Isaiah wrote both parts of this book), yet these promises clearly convey a spiritual significance. For the allusion is to the water supernaturally provided in the wilderness journeys from Egypt, and this is applied spiritually in 1 Corinthians 10:4 (cp. John 4:14; John 7:37-39, and see Revelation 22:17).

Isaiah 41:19 goes on to describe figuratively the manifold provision of refreshment and comfort for the nation in the coming day. This fullness is indicated in the mention of the seven trees which the Lord says He will plant in the wilderness, which will be turned into a veritable paradise. Beautiful branches will be provided for the Feast of Tabernacles. The trees are all fragrant as well as durable, and again this twofold character is figurative of the spiritual fragrance and permanency of the Spirit-given communion to be enjoyed.

Moreover, this planting and plenteousness will be manifest not as the outcome of mere natural production. The people will realize in a fourfold way that all this is to be the effect of the operation of “the hand of the Lord” and of His creative power. They will “see, and know, and consider, and understand together” (Isaiah 41:20). The progress of idea in these four verbs is noticeable and significant. They describe what should be the result of our meditations in the Scriptures, and of His dealings with us. At the beginning of chapter 41 the Lord declared the fact of His Deity by His absolute power to raise up a potentate to subdue nations, and to overrule the rise and course of generations. Now He declares His Deity on the ground that He alone has knowledge of, and predicts, the future. Formerly He issued His challenge to idolaters; now His challenge is to the idols themselves, the gods of the nations. Jehovah and His people (for He is “the King of Jacob”) are on one side, the idolatrous Gentiles are on the other. Let their gods come forward, produce their “strong reasons” (i.e., their proofs) and thus establish their deity if they can (Isaiah 41:21).

And, in addition, says the Challenger, “Yea, do good, or do evil [i.e., express yourselves in one way or another, that is to say, show some sign of life], that we may be dismayed [or rather, as in the r.v. margin, may look one upon another, i.e., look one another in the face so as to measure ourselves in the contest; cp. 2 Kings 14:8, 2 Kings 14:11], and behold it together [i.e., see what the result of the contest will be],” Isaiah 41:23. Will the idols now speak to prove their deity? Of course they cannot. Hence the withering scorn Divinely poured upon them and their makers: “Behold, ye are of nothing, and your work [or doing] of nought: an abomination is he that chooseth you” (Isaiah 42:24). The Lord again makes clear that power and authority alone belong to Him in the supreme disposal of national affairs. Accordingly the prophecy about Cyrus is resumed. This great potentate, a follower of the religion of Zarathustra, or Zoroaster, would be taught to recognize and call upon the name of Jehovah. He would “come upon rulers as upon mortar, and as the potter treadeth [or kneadeth] clay” (Isaiah 41:25). The Lord in foretelling this declares again His omniscience and continues His challenge. No one else could do it, nor indeed could any of the heathen deities give any utterance at all; “there is none that heareth your words” (Isaiah 41:26). Had they been able to do so, their divine power would have been acknowledged.

Isaiah 41:27 should be read as in the r.v.: “I first will say unto Zion …” His alone is the prerogative to give the primary promise of blessing to His people. All others can only repeat what He has already said. And with what manifest delight in His people’s lasting God He promises to give evangelists to Jerusalem (cp. Isaiah 40:1-2, Isaiah 40:9)! In the words “Behold, behold them,” He calls upon Zion to see how His promises have been fulfilled (looking on to the future time of the fulfillment).

Isaiah 41:28 brings the contest to its foreseen issue. The idols and their devotees are silent; there is no counselor to answer a word. The matter closes with a declaration of the Lord’s contempt and wrath, and the last verse might be rendered closely to the original thus: “Look at them all! Vanity! Their productions are nothingness; wind and desolation are their molten images.” The judicial procedure ends at Isaiah 41:25; Isaiah 41:25-29 review the evidence and the verdict.