Isaiah 41:21 says, Produce your cause, saith the Lord; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob. Isaiah then said God invited those who proclaimed the power of idols to show the proof of their power. God had on so many occasions shown His power to the world, and especially to the people of Israel, that He could ask that these other supposed gods do the same. Whatever idol anyone may be putting their faith in is never going to be able to deliver anything really. We might profit materially from putting our faith in certain idols, but it will not be because they have any power of their own.
Verse twenty-two adds, Let them bring them forth, and shew us what shall happen: let them shew the former things, what they be, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or declare us things for to come. Isaiah said that these false gods needed to show what they had done in the past and what was going to happen in the future. God had a record of His works in the past, and if people remained true to His promises, they would see evidence of the accuracy of what He said was going to happen in the future come true. The false gods, the idols, could offer no proof of what they had done in the past, nor could they offer any accurate prediction of what was going to happen in the future. As followers of Christ, we need to look to Him in all things, from what He has done in the past to what He promises will happen in the future.
Verse twenty-three continues, Shew the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods: yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and behold it together. Isaiah continued to challenge these idols to show what was going to happen in the future, whether it was bad or good. If they were all-powerful, this would be no problem. God had foretold both good and bad things that were going to happen to the people of Israel and they always came to pass, as would anything that He foretold of the future then. We can be thankful that God’s promise of the coming Messiah happened as He said it would, even if He didn’t come as people wanted Him to come. We today can be certain of His coming again, even if we don’t know the time.
Verse twenty-four concludes, Behold, ye are of nothing, and your work of nought: an abomination is he that chooseth you. Isaiah then said that God pronounced these idols to be nothing and those who worshipped them to be an abomination. As Christians, we have to acknowledge that anything of this world that we begin to put more faith in than we do in God is without power and if we trust in them instead of God, we are an abomination in our profession to be His people.
Verse twenty-five states, 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 morter, and as the potter treadeth clay. Isaiah said God had raised up one from the north and he was coming. This was a reference to Cyrus who ruled over the Medes to the north and the Persians to the east according to Matthew Henry but was also a prophesy that would culminate with the coming of Jesus Christ as the forever Redeemer. When Cyrus came to power, he would release the people of Israel to return and rebuild the temple in the name of God. Of course, Jesus didn’t come to bring an earthly victory over the world at that time, but He came to bring a spiritual victory for all time.
Verse twenty-six adds, Who hath declared from the beginning, that we may know? and beforetime, that we may say, He is righteous? yea, there is none that sheweth, yea, there is none that declareth, yea, there is none that heareth your words. Isaiah said God asked who there was who could show what they had done in the past and was righteous enough to redeem people, and the answer was that God alone could make this claim. God alone knows what is going to happen in the future, and all we need to know as Christians is that He is already victorious over sin and death and that Jesus Christ will one day return to claim those who have put their faith in Him.
Verse twenty-seven continues, The first shall say to Zion, Behold, behold them: and I will give to Jerusalem one that bringeth good tidings. Isaiah said that God Himself was the One Who would deliver Zion from captivity. This applied to their deliverance from Babylon in that day but also refers to God’s deliverance of all people for all time who will put their faith in His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, Who lived without sin, died and rose again to claim everlasting victory over sin and death.
Verse twenty-eight says. For I beheld, and there was no man; even among them, and there was no counsellor, that, when I asked of them, could answer a word. Isaiah said that there was no one among the counselors of men who could give God an answer about what was going to happen in the future. The Jews were not the only ones freed from captivity by Cyrus, but none of their gods saw that it was going to happen. The Jews were not the only ones freed from the captivity of sin when Jesus Christ came, lived, died and rose again for them to be given a way to redemption if they would accept it, and they nor anyone else understood how it would happen. God had told them, but they didn’t believe or understand, and the gods of no other nation were capable of telling anyone what God was going to do. This is still true today. There is only one true God.
Verse twenty-nine adds, Behold, they are all vanity; their works are nothing: their molten images are wind and confusion. All these false gods were said to be a vanity, or nothing. Idols always have been and always will be nothing. They are without any power or any ability to give or sustain life, but the one true God can and does do both.
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