Isaiah 41:25

Isa. 41:25

Isa. 41:25. "I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come; from the rising of the sun shall he call upon my name; and he shall come upon princes as upon mortar, and as the potter treadeth clay." Probably some respect may be here had to Cyrus, who came from the north-east, being sent by the king of Media to destroy Babylon; and so this place seems parallel with Isaiah 44:28; Isaiah 45:1; Isaiah 45:13. But yet the Holy Ghost seems principally to have an eye here to some other prince, an antitype of Cyrus, that shall come from the north-east to destroy the spiritual Babylon, or antichristian church, which shall be raised up at the time when that glory shall be accomplished for the church that is here prophesied of in this chapter, and the foregoing and following Chapter s. The chief of them that are called the kings of the east, that are represented as coming to destroy the spiritual Babylon on the drying up of the river Euphrates, in Revelation 16:12 as Cyrus and other princes of the east had their way prepared to destroy the literal Babylon on the drying up of the literal river Euphrates, and probably the emperor of Muscovy. This better agrees with the context, which evidently speaks of the glorious times of the church of God, and it better agrees with the words themselves, that speak of the person that shall be raised up as one that shall call on God's name, which was not fully accomplished in Cyrus, though he showed great respect to the true God; yet never properly became a worshipper of the true God, but lived and died an idolater: and it better agrees with the following words, which speak of the glory of God in foretelling this thing so long aforehand.

The princes that the emperors of Muscovy shall probably come upon as mortar, are those two great princes that the devil has set up in opposition to Christ, viz. the emperor of the Turks and the pope. The emperor of the Turks first, so drying up the river Euphrates; and then the pope, when his way is thus prepared. The princes of these very countries, whose former princes overthrew the literal Babylon, will be joined with the princes of Muscovy, as they have of late been in war with the Turks.