Verses 1-7: God’s message to the nations
In these verses, God directly addresses the nations, and challenges them, for God knows that He would win in any contest. God then brings up Cyrus, a king that He will bring forth from the East in approximately 150 years. Cyrus will ultimately help to deliver Israel, and God is taking all the credit for this occurrence in the distant future.
Let’s take a moment to recognize that some of this content can be difficult to ingest. When God speaks through a major prophet such as Isaiah, His proclamations span large chunks of time and geography. When boiled down, verses 1-5 of this chapter are explaining God’s providence and blessing to Israel, to save them.
Verses 6 and 7 mock the idol-fashioning process. How futile are the hands of man that pursue the worthless endeavor! Despite their confidence and happiness in putting hard work into making idols, the entire effort is a waste of time.
Verses 8-20: God will punish Israel’s enemies and will bless Israel with the necessities of life
God bestows Israel with the name “My servant,” which is a great honor. As He says in verses 9 and 10: “You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, And called from its farthest regions, And said to you, ‘You are My servant, I have chosen you and have not cast you away: Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’”
You can sense the love and tender care from God to His people in these verses. As the passage continues, we see that God will not allow other nations to prevail against Israel and will instead shame and disgrace them.
Also note the entire purpose of God blessing His people in this way in verse 20: “That they may see and know, And consider and understand together, That the hand of the Lord has done this, And the Holy One of Israel has created it.”
Verses 14-20 are interesting because they are addressed to exiled Israel, whose state is so sad that it is compared to a worm. Despite their sad state, God describes how He will care for them through the surrounding natural resources. All of these proclamations and blessings come from God and speaking through Isaiah, God wants to ensure that everyone is aware of the source of these blessings:
“That they may see and know, And consider and understand together, That the hand of the LORD has done this, And the Holy One of Israel has created it.” Isaiah 41:20
Verses 21-29: Idols are futile
This last section takes no prisoners. God openly challenges the Idols and false gods to show proof of their divinity. Of course they cannot.
There is another reference to Cyrus in verse 25, for he will release the exiled Israelites. God also asks rhetorical questions in verse 26 to drive the point home that He is the only sovereign, He is the only true God capable of showing, declaring and hearing the people.
There is no source of truth except God. There is no other man or molded image that can provide. Consider this verse addressed specifically to the idols:
“Indeed you are nothing, And your work is nothing; He who chooses you is an abomination.” Isaiah 41:24
These idols are inanimate objects. They cannot answer or declare or do anything except create sin in the lives of those that trust them:
“Indeed they are all worthless; Their works are nothing; Their molded images are wind and confusion.” Isaiah 41:29
Today, I would ask and challenge you: is there anything in your life that you hope in more than God? A material thing? An idea or ideal? A political party or set of core beliefs?
Although we do not regularly see idol worship in America, it still exists in the world. But despite their fact that none of us worship an idol made of clay or stone, I still wonder if there is anything in my life that takes the place of an idol, and gets between God and me in the exact same fashion.
Monday Night Bible Study 