God the helper of Israel
41
📚“Keep silence before me,O coastlands 📖,
and let the people renew
their strength.
Let them come near,
then let them speak.
Let us come near together
for judgment.
41:1 Jehovah speaks here. The meaning seems to be, let other peoples, wherever they are with their many idols, many gods, consider what God says in chapter 40; let them get their strength as they can and come and dispute with God, if they will.⚜
2 📚Who raised up one
from the east 📖,
and in righteousness
called him to his feet 📖?
Who gave the nations
to him,
and made him rule
over kings?
He made them like dust
with his sword,
and like driven stubble
with his bow.
3 📚He pursued them and
moved on safely by a way
that he had not gone
with his feet.
41:3 In 546 BC Cyrus conquered all the lands from Persia to the west coast of present-day Turkey.⚜
4 📚Who has done this and accomplished it,
calling the generations
from the beginning?
I, the LORD,
the first and with the last.
41:4 Behind the victories of Cyrus stood the one who controls events on earth.⚜
I am he.
The nations make idols and rely on them
5 📚The coastlands saw it,
and feared;
the ends of the earth
were afraid,
drew near and arrived.
6 📚Each of them helped
his neighbour;
and each one said
to his brother,
“Be courageous!”
7 📚So the craftsman encouraged
the goldsmith,
and he who smoothes with
the hammer urges on him
who struck the anvil,
saying, ‘It is ready
for soldering.’
And he fastened it with nails,
so that it would not totter.
41:5-7 At the approach of Cyrus and his armies the nations in his path would be greatly agitated. They would try to encourage one another. They would turn to their gods and idols for help. But all their efforts would come to nothing.⚜
The nation Israel is God’s servant
8 📚“But you, Israel,
are my servant 📖,
Jacob whom I have chosen,
the offspring of my friend Abraham 📖.
9 📚I have taken you
from the ends of the earth,
and called you from its
farthest parts,
and said to you,
You are my servant.
I have chosen you,
and not rejected you 📖.
10 📚Do not fear 📖,
for I am with you 📖.
Do not be dismayed,
for I am your God.
I will strengthen you 📖;
yes, I will help you;
yes, I will uphold you
with my righteous right hand.
11 📚See, all those who raged
against you will be put
to shame and disgraced.
They will be as nothing;
and those who strive
with you will perish.
12 📚You will seek those
who fought with you,
and will not find them;
those who wage war against you
will be as nothing,
and as a non existent thing.
41:11-12 No people, no nation will be able to destroy Israel. All who try will be destroyed themselves (Isa 17:14; 29:5-8; 60:12). Compare Matt 16:18.⚜
13 📚For I, the LORD your God,
will hold your right hand,
saying to you,
Do not fear;
I will help you.
41:13 Verse 10.⚜
14 📚Do not fear,
you worm 📖 Jacob,
you men of Israel.
I will help you,
says the LORD,
and your redeemer 📖,
the Holy One of Israel.
15 📚See,
I will make you a new sharp
threshing instrument
having teeth.
You will thresh the mountains,
and beat them small,
and will make the hills
like chaff.
16 📚You will winnow them,
and the wind will carry
them away,
and the whirlwind will
scatter them;
and you will rejoice
in the LORD,
and glory in the Holy
One of Israel.
41:15-16 See what God can do with a “worm”. This is more than God merely protecting His people. In His hand (vs 10,13) they will become a powerful instrument to crush their enemies. This is an example of the weak finding their strength in God (Isa 40:31). And Israel will acknowledge this and glory in God, not in themselves. As for the time of fulfillment compare Isa 11:12-14; 14:2; 49:23. As far as the record shows, this has not been fulfilled up to the present.⚜
17 📚“When the poor
and needy seek water,
and there is none,
and their tongue fails
for thirst,
I the LORD will hear them;
I, the God of Israel,
will not forsake them.
18 📚I will open rivers in high places,
and fountains in the middle
of the valleys.
I will make the desert
a pool of water,
and the dry land springs
of water.
19 📚In the wilderness
I will plant the cedar,
the acacia tree,
and the myrtle,
and the olive tree.
In the desert I will set
the fir tree,
and the pine,
and the box tree together,
41:19 See Isa 32:15-16; 35:1-2; 51:3; 55:13. God literally transforms good land to deserts and deserts to good land (Ps 107:33-35). And He may again do so in Judah. But sometimes in Scripture descriptions of physical changes suggest spiritual changes also.⚜
20 📚That they may see,
and know,
and consider,
and understand together,
that the hand of the LORD
has done this,
41:20 God’s work in Israel (whether in the land or in the people or both) will instruct other peoples of the world.⚜
and the Holy One of Israel
has created it.
The idols and gods of the nations cannot foretell the future
21 📚“Present your case”,
says the LORD.
Bring forth your strong arguments,
says the King of Jacob.
22 📚Let them bring them forth,
and show us what will
happen.
Let them tell what
the former things were,
that we may consider them,
and know their outcome,
or declare to us things
to come.
23 📚Tell the things that are
coming hereafter,
that we may know
that you are gods.
Yes, do good or do evil,
that we may be dismayed
and see it together.
41:21-23 These verses look back to v 1. The Lord says that if the nations think their idols are useful and can explain the past or predict the future let them come forward and prove it (see also Isa 43:9). God knows they will be unable to do so. In Isa 42:9; and 46:10 God says He does what idols cannot do. Here in vs 23,24 it seems God is speaking directly to the people’s idols.⚜
24 📚Look, you are nothing 📖,
and your work is nothing.
He who chooses
you chooses an abomination 📖.
25 📚“I have raised up one
from the north,
and he will come.
From the rising of the sun
he will call on my name 📖.
And he will come against
princes as against mortar,
and as the potter tramples
the clay.
41:25 Verse 2. Cyrus was from the east of Israel, but conquered much territory to the north. It was the God of Israel Who stirred him up to come, and the idols of the nations in his path could neither do such a thing, nor predict it, nor prevent it.⚜
26 📚Who has declared
from the beginning,
that we may know?
And beforehand,
that we may say,
He is righteous?
Certainly there is no one
who tells;
certainly there is no one
who declares;
certainly there is no one
who hears your words.
27 📚I was the first to say
to Zion,
‘Look, see them!’
And I will give to Jerusalem one
who brings good tidings 📖.
41:26-27 Who foretold the rise of Cyrus to power? None of the idols of the nations. Only the true God, the God of Israel.⚜
28 📚For I looked among them 📖,
and there was no man,
and there was no counsellor who,
when I asked them,
could answer a word.
29 📚See they are all worthless.
Their works are nothing.
Their cast metal images are
wind and confusion.