_Thus saith the Lord to His anointed_ CYRUS The name of Cyrus is written Kuras in Babylonian cuneiform, Kurush in Old Persian. Ctesias stated on the authority of Parysatis, the wife of the Persian king Ochus, that her younger son was named Cyrus from the sun, as the Persians called the sun _Kupos... [ Continue Reading ]
_I will go before thee_ GOD GOING BEFORE Man must go. Each man is accomplishing a journey, going through a process. The only question is, How? Man may go, either with God or without Him. Whether we go with God or without Him, we shall find crooked places. I. We should regard the text as A WARNIN... [ Continue Reading ]
_And I will give thee the treasures of darkness_ SPIRITUAL MINERALOGY There is a whole library of sacred philosophy in the words of the Psalmist on the relation subsisting between God and His creatures. “That Thou givest them, they gather. Thou openest Thine hand, they are filled with good.” Perha... [ Continue Reading ]
_For Jacob My servant’s sake_ GREAT MEN THE SERVANTS OF GOD It appears from this prediction, taken in connection with its wonderful accomplishment, that God justly claims a sovereign right to make great men the instruments of executing His wise and benevolent designs. God claims a supreme right to... [ Continue Reading ]
_I girded thee, though thou hast not known Me_ CYRUS GIRDED BY GOD The contrast to “loose the loins of kings” (Isaiah 45:1). (_Prof. J. Skinner, D. D._) THE GIRDINGS OF JEHOVAH I. GOD’S PLAN, AS IT AFFECTS SOCIETY. 1. It is comprehensive, sweeping from age to age, threading millenniums, buildi... [ Continue Reading ]
_I am the Lord, and there is none else_ THE BENEFICENT SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD The key-thought to all the intricacies of the whole of this passage is that God is the absolute Author of all that exists and the infinite Supreme Ruler of all events; and the implied, though not expressed inference from thi... [ Continue Reading ]
_I form the light, and create darkness_ EVIL IN THE OLD TESTAMENT There is no thought in the Old Testament of reducing all evil, moral and physical, to a single principle. Moral evil proceeds from the will of man, physical evil from the will of God, who sends it as the punishment of sin. The expr... [ Continue Reading ]
_Drop down, ye heavens_ SALVATION COMES OF MAN’S RESPONSE TO GOD To the eye of the seer the earth lies open to heaven as a wide corn-land over which the clouds of heaven hang, the air breathes, and the sun sheds sheets of light. Those clouds are big with righteousness, the special term used throug... [ Continue Reading ]
_Woe unto him that striveth with Ms Maker!--_ STRIVING WITH GOD The strong word “strive,” and the emphatic reassertion of the mission of Cyrus (Isaiah 45:13), as well as the connection with Isaiah 45:1, show that deliberate opposition to the Divine purpose, and not mere faint-hearted unbelief (as... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thus saith the Lord. .. Ask Me_ PRAYER AND CRITICISM “Ask Me, but do not criticise Me. ” “Command Me” must mean “leave to My care.” (_Prof. J. Skinner, D. D._) ENCOURAGEMENT TO PRAY FROM THE NAMES OF GOD “The Lord”--that is, God in His everlasting redemptive purpose; “the Holy One of Israel”--... [ Continue Reading ]
_I have made the earth_ NATURE AND SCRIPTURE (with Isaiah 45:22):--The study of Nature reveals a Creator. This is the order: God, creation, fishes, animals, men, women, the human race, the culture of the soil, the building of cities, the navigation of the sea, and, in course of ages, the formatio... [ Continue Reading ]
_Surely God is in thee_ JEHOVAH HIMSELF PRESENT IN HIS CHURCH I. THE DIGNITY OF THE CHURCH. One cannot wonder that Solomon should have been overwhelmed with astonishment when Jehovah promised His presence in the temple that had just been erected for His worship and glory. But there is a nobler tem... [ Continue Reading ]
_Verily Thou art a God that hidest Thyself_ THE MYSTERY OF GOD’S WAYS 1. Isaiah’s mind is impressed with the fact that if God is “the God of Israel and the Saviour,” He does some things scarcely in apparent consistency with that character. How many times did He abandon His people Israel to their... [ Continue Reading ]
_But Israel shall be saved in the Lord_ A FORECAST OF THE MESSIANIC AGE As is usual in the prophets, the perfect dispensation, or what is called the Messianic age, is conceived as issuing immediately from the historical crisis which is the subject of the prophecy--in this case, the deliverance fro... [ Continue Reading ]
_For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens._ HOW GOD REVEALS HIMSELF The main current of the section may be thus expressed-- I. GOD’S REVELATION OF HIMSELF IS OPEN AND TRUTHFUL. He has not spoken in secret; and He has not bid men seek Him in vain. II. GOD’S REVELATION OF HIMSELF IS IN REF... [ Continue Reading ]
_I have not spoken in secret_ “IN A DARK PLACE OF THE EARTH,” “In a dark place of the earth,” is an expression used for the purpose of pointing out the contrast between the prophecies of Jehovah and the heathen cave, oracles and spirit-voices of the necromancers, which seemed to rise up from the i... [ Continue Reading ]
_A Just God and a Saviour_ THE JUST GOD AND THE SAVIOUR To human apprehension, light and darkness are not more opposed than justice and mercy. We cannot conceive how they possibly can meet together. But God’s ways are not our ways; He is “a just God,” leaving not the smallest possibility of escap... [ Continue Reading ]
_Look unto Me_ TURNING TO GOD “Turn ye to Me and be saved. ” The first imperative exhorts, the second promises. Jehovah desires two things-- 1. All men’s turning to Him. 2. Their blessedness by so doing. (_P. Delitzch, D. D._) LOOK The word does not correspond exactly to the English “look,” b... [ Continue Reading ]
_Surely shall one say, In the Lord have I righteousness and strength_ OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS AND STRENGTH It is important to us, in reading the Old Testament, and more particularly its prophetical portions, to take with us as our guide the well-known statement of the angel to the evangelist John: “The... [ Continue Reading ]
_In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified_ THE BELIEVER JUSTIFIED AND GLORYING IN THE REDEEMER This passage is prophetic of the Messiah Isaiah 45:23 is quoted in Romans 14:11, and applied to Christ. I. Let us then attend to the assertion that “IN THE LORD SHALL THE SEED OF ISRAEL BE... [ Continue Reading ]