Isaiah 41

Ver. 1, 2. Attentively hear my challenges, ye heathens; muster up all the arguments you can in your own defence. Who but myself called Abraham to his travels from his native country, enabled him to conquer the eastern kings, and his seed to conquer the Canaanites? Who, besides me, disposed and enabled Cyrus to execute my righteous judgments on the Chaldeans, and to grant deliverance to my people? Who raised up the all-conquering Immanuel, or enabled Saul the persecutor, and other apostles, irresistibly to conquer the nations to Christ by the preaching of the gospel? 4, 5. Who hath disposed of all the generations of mankind! Have not I, the eternal God? Observing, with dread, my wonderful works, the heathens have consulted together how to preserve themselves and their idols

Isaiah 41:8-16

Ye Jews, being mine by special covenant, whom I originally brought from among your neighbours in Chaldea to Canaan, and, notwithstanding your repeated rebellious, have never rejected, ye must not worship idols. Indulge no slavish or desponding fears, for I am your infinite ALL IN ALL; and I will strengthen, help, and uphold, you by my almighty power, manifested in the righteous destruction of mine adversaries and deliverance of my people. All your enemies shall quickly be overwhelmed with confusion and ruin; for I will guide, strengthen, and keep you from falling. And however weak, despised, and oppressed you may be, I will enable you to subdue your most lofty, proud, and powerful adversaries, and make you to rejoice in and glorify me, as the author of all your privileges

Isaiah 41:17-20

When poor indigent sinners are reduced to the most wretched condition I will grant them comfort and relief; and will spread the gospel, and plant the ordinances thereof, and persons eminent for gifts and graces, among both Jews and Gentiles, in such a manner as will manifest my infinite power and holiness to every observer

Isaiah 41:25-27

I foretell that Cyrus the Medo-Persian shall subdue the Chaldean and other empires. But which of your idols can manifest their true divinity by foretelling any thing? It is only I, the eternal God, who can represent things future as if they were present, and enable prophets to foretell temporal or spiritual deliverances to my church. REFLECTIONS UPON CHAP. XII.—The enemies of Jesus and the gospel may do their worst, it will but issue in their own confusion. The truths of the Bible will bear the strictest scrutiny. And, since it is God who founds and protects the church, and assists her helpers, it is in vain for idolaters to unite in their efforts against her. But what fightings without, and fears within, have the people of God to encounter! Nothing but almighty power and grace can enable to conquer them, or can afford comfort under them. And seasonably does Jesus relieve his people in their extremity, and plant ordinances and true converts where he pleases. Be still then, my soul, and consider the insignificance of every idol which thou hast put in Jehovah’s room. How late is their existence! how short-lived and uncertain their continuance! how limited their knowledge! how small their power, and unimportant their work! God forbid I should make that my god which did not make me out of nothing; and which cannot warn me of every danger, protect me from every enemy, and through eternity be my all-sufficient portion.—But let Jesus, and Jehovah in him, be my ALL IN ALL: my Friend, to love me at all times; my Companion, to guide me to glory; my Helper, to assist me in every work; my Captain of salvation, to slay my foes, and make me in all things more than a conqueror: my Supplier and my Provision; my Comforter and my Consolation—What have I to do any more with idols? Let me cast them to the moles and to the bats—cast them away as a menstruous cloth—as vanity and confusion