Isaiah 45
Isaiah 45 generally develops around a promise that God will save the people of Israel through Cyrus, the king of Persia. The passage can be divided into several main sections. First, from verses 1 through 7, God tells how He will accomplish His purpose by directly naming Cyrus. Then, from verses 8 through 13, there is a warning about people arguing with God’s sovereignty and power as the Creator, and about God’s intended work. Finally, from verse 14 onward, it declares that even the Gentile nations will come to know the God of Israel and speaks with certainty about the salvation God will bring about. In this way, this chapter brings together God’s saving plan through a historical figure, God’s sovereignty that carries out the plan, and the universal confession of faith that will result from salvation.
1verseThe LORD says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held to subdue nations before him and strip kings of their armor, to open the doors before him, and the gates shall not be shut:
2verse“I will go before you and make the rough places smooth. I will break the doors of bronze in pieces and cut apart the bars of iron.
3verseI will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that it is I, the LORD, who calls you by your name, even the God of Israel.
4verseFor Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel my chosen, I have called you by your name. I have given you a title, though you have not known me.
5verseI am the LORD, and there is no one else. Besides me, there is no God. I will strengthen you, though you have not known me,
6versethat they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is no one besides me. I am the LORD, and there is no one else.
7verseI form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create calamity. I am the LORD, who does all these things.
8verseRain, you heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness. Let the earth open, that it may produce salvation, and let it cause righteousness to spring up with it. I, the LORD, have created it.
9verseWoe to him who strives with his Maker— a clay pot among the clay pots of the earth! Shall the clay ask him who fashions it, ‘What are you making?’ or your work, ‘He has no hands’?
10verseWoe to him who says to a father, ‘What have you become the father of?’ or to a mother, ‘What have you given birth to?’”
11verseThe LORD, the Holy One of Israel and his Maker says: “You ask me about the things that are to come, concerning my sons, and you command me concerning the work of my hands!
12verseI have made the earth, and created man on it. I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens. I have commanded all their army.
13verseI have raised him up in righteousness, and I will make all his ways straight. He shall build my city, and he shall let my exiles go free, not for price nor reward,” says the LORD of Armies.
14verseThe LORD says: “The labor of Egypt, and the merchandise of Ethiopia, and the Sabeans, men of stature, will come over to you, and they will be yours. They will go after you. They shall come over in chains. They will bow down to you. They will make supplication to you: ‘Surely God is in you; and there is no one else. There is no other god.
15verseMost certainly you are a God who has hidden yourself, God of Israel, the Savior.’”
16verseThey will be disappointed, yes, confounded, all of them. Those who are makers of idols will go into confusion together.
17verseIsrael will be saved by the LORD with an everlasting salvation. You will not be disappointed nor confounded to ages everlasting.
18verseFor the LORD who created the heavens, the God who formed the earth and made it, who established it and didn’t create it a waste, who formed it to be inhabited says: “I am the LORD. There is no other.
19verseI have not spoken in secret, in a place of the land of darkness. I didn’t say to the offspring of Jacob, ‘Seek me in vain.’ I, the LORD, speak righteousness. I declare things that are right.
20verse“Assemble yourselves and come. Draw near together, you who have escaped from the nations. Those have no knowledge who carry the wood of their engraved image, and pray to a god that can’t save.
21verseDeclare and present it. Yes, let them take counsel together. Who has shown this from ancient time? Who has declared it of old? Haven’t I, the LORD? There is no other God besides me, a just God and a Savior. There is no one besides me.
22verse“Look to me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.
23verseI have sworn by myself. The word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and will not be revoked, that to me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall take an oath.
24verseThey will say of me, ‘There is righteousness and strength only in the LORD.’” Even to him will men come. All those who raged against him will be disappointed.
25verseAll the offspring of Israel will be justified in the LORD, and will rejoice!
Summary of the Key Content
- God’s choosing and using: God specifically chooses Cyrus, a Gentile king, to restore Israel after the period of the Babylonian exile.
- God’s sovereignty: All history in the world is under God’s control, and God can use anyone for His own will.
- Creator God: The passage emphasizes that God created the world, and that His plan has purpose and no mistakes.
- Confession of faith by the Gentiles: It prophesies that through Israel, which experiences salvation, even the Gentiles will come to acknowledge the existence of the one true God and His salvation.
Points to Ponder
- We can remember that God can work in ways that are unfamiliar to us—sometimes even in methods we cannot understand.
- God’s plan may not be fully understood from a human perspective or by human logic, but it is important to trust and believe that there is a good purpose behind it.
- From the passage, we can find that the expansion of the gospel is God’s will that reaches all nations beyond our own sphere.
Apply It to My Life
- When my thoughts and circumstances feel confused and hard to understand, I resolve to try to trust God’s plan and sovereignty rather than relying only on myself.
- When God works through certain people, I need to look at God’s will with an open mind, without limiting Him by my own standards.
- As I consider how great results can come from one person’s obedience and being used by God, I can check whether I am truly living my life by trusting God in my own place.
