Isaiah 44:21-28

c. SHOWS THE FRUSTRATION OF FOOLISH COUNSEL

TEXT: Isaiah 44:21-28

21

Remember these things, O Jacob, and Israel; for thou art my servant: I have found thee; thou art my servant: O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of me.

22

I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee.

23

Sing, O Ye heavens, for Jehovah hath done it; shout, ye lower parts of the earth; break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forest, and every tree therein: for Jehovah hath redeemed Jacob, and will glorify himself in Israel.

24

Thus saith Jehovah, thy Redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb: I am Jehovah, that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone: that spreadeth abroad the earth (who is with me?);

25

that frustrateth the signs of the liars, and maketh diviners mad; that turneth wise men backward, and maketh their knowledge foolish;

26

that confirmeth the word of his servant, and performeth the counsel of his messengers; that saith of Jerusalem, She shall be inhabited; and of the cities of Judah, They shall be built, and I will raise up the waste places thereof;

27

that saith to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers;

28

that saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure, even saying of Jerusalem, She shall be built; and of the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid.

QUERIES

a.

What things are to be remembered by Israel?

b.

Who are the liars of Isaiah 44:25?

c.

Why mention Cyrus again?

PARAPHRASE

As you contemplate the idiocy of idolatry, remember the following things too, O Jacob, and Israel. First, you are mine. I chose you and I created you as a people, to be My servant in a divine destiny. Second, I could never forget you Israel, for it was I who blotted out your transgressions and sins. You must return to Me and never forget Me, Israel, for I purchase you with the price of redemption. Indeed, your redemption is so glorious it involves the heavens, mountains, and the forests. The whole universe will sing and shout Jehovah's praise. Jehovah's redemption of Israel will, in its completion, redound to His glory in Israel. This is what Jehovah, your Redeemer and Progenitor says: I am Jehovah-the-Faithful. I am Jehovah, Creator of all things. I alone formed the heavens and the earth. Who could say they helped Me? I frustrate the fulfillments of the false prophets and expose them as liars and make the soothsayers appear to be mad men. I refute the wisdom of unbelieving counselors and demonstrate it to be foolishness. But when My servants, the prophets, predict that Jerusalem shall be inhabited and the cities of Judah shall be built and that the waste places shall be populated, I make their predictions come to pass! When I say to what opposes My redemptive people, Be gone! it shall be gone! And when I say Cyrus shall be My shepherd to fulfill My purposes by giving permission for the building of Jerusalem and the Temple, that is exactly what shall come to pass.

COMMENTS

Isaiah 44:21-23 FORGIVENESS Is IN JEHOVAH: The message of this section is that Israel is to remember (Heb. zekar) who Jehovah is. We remind the reader, this is the very essence of biblical religionthe realization of the objective Personhood of God. Biblical religion is not how man feels, but what man acknowledges about who God is and what God has said. Especially Israel is admonished to remember who Jehovah is in view of the foregoing expose of the idiocy of idolatry, All men are vulnerable to idolatry if they do not acknowledge the objective reality of the eternal, supernatural Personhood of Jehovah. Men must have a god. He will make one of wood or stone, of science or government, of fame or fortuneor even of himself, Israel must remember that Jehovah chose her and created her for Himself. He evidenced His special claim upon her in ages past by miraculous powers of deliverance, sustenance, subjugations and revelations. He demonstrated that He was a living God, capable and willing to guide and guard Israel over thousands of years. He never forgot her!

The blotting out of Israel's sin is apparently in promise here. We know from the New Testament that the actual, historical event which blotted out sin and accomplished redemption was the atoning death of Jesus Christ (cf. Hebrews 10:1-18). The blood of bulls and goats could not take away sin. The Hebrew who offered his sacrificial lamb lived in faith that God would, someday, accomplish the act which would atone for his sins and thus fulfill His promises. The point being stressed in Isaiah 44:22 is willingness and mercifulness of God in promising to blot out Israel's sin and offering her, even then, a way to believe in that promise. The redemption spoken of in Isaiah 44:22-23 cannot refer to the return from the exile, for there was no permanence to that. The Hebrew word goal is repeated in this text and it implies more than forgiveness of sins; it implies that a price has been paid to purchase Israel. That price was God's dear Son on Calvary. Certainly, the redemptive plan included God's deliverance of Israel from her captivity so she might bring forth the Suffering Servant. And this is exactly what Israel needed to remember nowher redemptive servanthood. She needed to remember that God had called her and promised her (in type and prophecy) redemption. God's promises are as good as done! God can direct His prophets to predict the future as if it were accomplished!

All nature is bound up with the destiny of mankind. When man sinned, God cursed nature so man would not, in his sinful state, fall in love with this earth. When Christ died on the cross suffering the curse upon man and earning man's redemption, He also suffered the curse upon nature and earned nature's redemption. Therefore, in view of the certainty of God's redemption of Israel, all of God's creation can rejoice and sing and shout because all of God's creation is equally certain of its redemption. The true Israel of God is destined for dominion over a redeemed and recreated Eden (cf. Romans 8:18-25; Hebrews 2:5-9; 2 Peter 3:13). Israel must remember that and repent of idolatry!

Isaiah 44:24-28 FAITHFULNESS IS IN JEHOVAH: Another aspect of Jehovah's nature Israel is to remember is His absolute faithfulness. He alone is sovereign. He alone knows the future. He alone speaks and it comes to pass. Who dares challenge His claim that He created everything? Who can bring forth evidence to dispute His claim? Job learned a lesson he probably never forgot (Job 38-40) about challenging the sovereign wisdom of God. Many alleged scientific explanations of the formation of the universe are posited today but they are moral evasions, not verifiable scientific demonstrations.

Jehovah demonstrates His omnipotence and omniscience over and over again by frustrating the alleged signs of the liars (Heb. baddim, feigners, fakers, false prophets). The Lord may expose the false prophet immediately or He may take a long time to do so, but eventually the false prophet is exposed and the Lord's Word is vindicated. Isaiah was one of those prophets of the Lord whose word was confirmed publicly (cf. Isaiah 36-38). Jeremiah (Jeremiah 28:5-17) was another! The list goes on and on. The Lord is still frustrating the fakers and confirming the veracity of His Word today! But this text is directed especially to Israel. She must remind herself of God's omniscience and not listen to the oracles of the idolatrous false-prophets. When God says Jerusalem would be inhabited and the cities of Judah (although many of them had been made desolate by the Assyrian armies) would be built, Isaiah's contemporaries must believe it will surely come to pass. Ultimately, Jehovah is going to confound the wisdom of the wise in His Suffering Servant. God will use the Foolishness of the cross to save those who believe (1 Corinthians 1:18 f). The idea of a crucified Messiah was utterly foreign to the Jewish concept. Isaiah predicted that (Isaiah 53:1-9)! Peter confirms the Jewish revulsion at the concept of a dying Messiah (cf. Matthew 16:21-23, etc.). The total absence of any specific reference to a personal, dying Messiah in the Jewish Apocrypha confirms this.

The point of these verses is the way in which Jehovah confirms His sovereign will. He confounds and frustrates the vain predictions and philosophies of men and fulfills the predictions of His commissioned prophets. Many said Jehovah's program to redeem mankind and form a redeemed people on earth would not survive. Great empires and powerful emperors opposed it. They overran Jerusalem, tore down His temple and slaughtered His people, but God preserved a remnant through the centuries. Out of that remnant (Jerusalem and Judah) God produced Jesus Christ and His church. No river was deep enough to stop God from keeping His promise of redemption. No empire was large enough, cruel enough, rich enough to keep God from preserving those who remained faithful to Him. God was able even to use Cyrus, a pagan ruler of Persia, to shepherd His people and send them back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. God used Nebuchadnezzar and many others to fulfill His purposes (cf. our comments in Daniel, College Press, Chapter s 7-12). We will have much more to say of Cyrus in the next chapter.

Israel is to renew its divine destiny as the servant of Jehovah on the basis of Jehovah's faithfulness. Jehovah will keep His promises, and no amount of opposition will stand in His way. As a matter of fact, Jehovah will use His opposition as servants and shepherds to carry out His plan. Israel is more than a conqueror through Him who loves her! The church must daily renew its divine destiny as God's Zion in the world today on the basis of Christ's faithfulness to keep His promises. Let the church focus its preaching on the nature of Christwho He is and what He promises, and this will build the kingdom of God. Man has many questions, but Jesus cuts through all our irrelevancies and goes to the very heart of our problem when He asks, Whom do you say that I am? (Matthew 16:15). For in this question He asks for conviction, confession and commitment to the only thing that mattersthe deity of Jesus of Nazareth. Once that is settled, all else falls into proper place.

QUIZ

1.

Why is it important to remember who God is?

2.

How was Israel's sin blotted out?

3.

Why is God able to direct His prophets to predict the future as if it were already accomplished?

4.

Why direct the heavens to sing?

5.

How does God frustrate the signs of the liars?

6.

In what or whom did God ultimately confound the wisdom of the wise?