Isaiah 48:1

Hear ye this, O house of Jacob, which are called by the name of Israel, and are come forth out of the waters of Judah, which swear by the name of the Lord, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness... I have declared the former things from the beginning, and they went forth out of my mouth, and I showed them, and I did them suddenly, and they came to pass. Because I knew that you are an obstinate and a stiff-necked people... lest you should say that my idol has done them... For I knew that you would deal very treacherously, and was called a transgressor from the womb. (Isaiah 48:1–8)

When worship becomes a sham, God still pursues His people—and reveals the Messiah who is salvation to the ends of the earth.

A Worship That Had Become a Sham

The people of Jerusalem, there in the nation of Judah, had an allegiance to God that was a sham. Outwardly they appeared to have true devotion, but God says, "Hear ye this, O house of Jacob... you swear by the name of the Lord, you make mention of the God of Israel, but it's not in truth. It's not in righteousness." It was all an external display for those around them.

Unfortunately, at this point the people even believed themselves to be walking in righteousness. They had deceived themselves; they had a self-deceived heart. There in Jerusalem stood that vast temple, filled with gold and silver and adorned in countless ways. They had the priesthood, the sacrifices, the feast days, the new moons, the appointed fasts. Day after day, week after week, they observed it all—and yet all of it was a sham.

So much so that God told them, as we saw back in Isaiah chapter one, that their worship had become sin. There is a way our worship can become wickedness if our heart is removed from the Lord. These people would go to the temple and offer sacrifices to God, but they were also offering sacrifices to the Babylonian deities Bel and Nebo, as we considered in Isaiah 46.

God's Punishment for the Purpose of Purification

As a result of their idolatry, God prophesied that judgment would come. But God's punishment is always purposeful—it is for the purpose of purification. He was refining His people, yet still they refused to turn to Him.

During Isaiah's ministry they saw the Assyrian armies under Sennacherib come and nearly destroy them. If it had not been for the mercy of God, Judah and Jerusalem would have been completely devastated. But God graciously fought for them, destroying 185,000 of the Assyrian army in one night (Isaiah 37). Even after that near destruction, they would not receive the corrective word of God.

They belittled and mocked Isaiah. In chapter 28 they complained that his message was repetitive—"line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, there a little"—as if he should be given to the children's ministry. God answered that since they would not hear His word in their own Hebrew tongue, He would speak to them with stammering lips and another tongue: a prophecy of the Babylonian captivity. It was through that captivity that their idolatry would finally be almost completely removed.

When People Refuse Correction

It's unfortunate they had to go to such lengths to finally receive God's correction. Perhaps some of you know from your own life that you had to go to the very depths before you received the Lord's correction. Or perhaps family members and friends come to mind—people to whom you have stood like a prophet, sharing the Word for years, who continue to stiffen their heart and neck against the Lord.

Maybe they even have a "spirituality"—a term our culture tosses around. "He's a very spiritual person; he's contemplative, he meditates." They have an appearance of godliness. Perhaps they attend a church that uses biblical themes, or toss around a Bible verse now and then. But in reality their worship is wickedness because their hearts are removed from God, and the rest of their life is filled with rebellion and stubbornness toward His Word and work.

They called themselves the holy city (verse 2). They professed to trust and depend on God—"they stay themselves upon the God of Israel, the Lord of hosts is his name"—but it was just a facade.

Without Excuse: God Speaks Before He Acts

In verse three God declares, "I have declared the former things from the beginning... I did them suddenly... lest you should say my idol has done them." Judah's turning away had absolutely no excuse. They had seen God do great things throughout their history.

They knew how God called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees, provided for and protected him as a sojourner. They could trace how He led them through Isaac, Jacob, the patriarchs, and the twelve tribes into Egypt, where they were blessed and then enslaved. God sent Moses, brought ten plagues, destroyed the Egyptian army at the Red Sea, and led them across on dry ground. For forty years in the wilderness He tended them, even though they were stiff-necked and complaining. He brought them into the promised land, giving them cities they did not build and vineyards they did not plant. Throughout their history were these Ebenezers, these stones of remembrance, declaring what their God had done.

And before He ever acted, God told them prophetically what He would do. As Amos 3 says, "Surely the Lord God does nothing unless he reveals his secret to his servants the prophets." Before God works, His word comes forth so that we will recognize that God did this.

God Makes Good on His Word

This is one of the things about prophecy: God has spoken of many things still to come, and when they come to pass we will say, "God said this would happen." Consider the re-emergence of Israel in 1948. Read commentaries from the 1400s and 1500s and you will find some who spiritualized those prophecies or located their fulfillment in America—the "new world," the "new Jerusalem." They were wrong. In 1948 national Israel rose again, and we can look back to Ezekiel 36–37, the valley of dry bones, and to Isaiah 66, "who has seen such a thing, a nation being born in a day," and say God fulfills His word.

Jesus told His disciples, "Not one jot or tittle will pass until all is fulfilled." There is far more predictive prophecy in the Bible than we recognize, and it will all come to pass. So God tells Judah, "You are completely without excuse. I revealed Myself time and again. I prophetically told you what would come to pass before it happened, and then I accomplished My word."

The Foolishness of Idols

From Isaiah 40 to this passage, God has been contrasting His power to declare the future against the false gods Israel worshiped. These idols are nothing—silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have eyes but do not see, mouths but do not speak. God repeatedly shows the foolishness of bowing to them: "They can do nothing, but I show you what's going to come to pass before it happens. I told you about the creation. I stretched out the heavens, weighed the mountains in a balance."

How insane that the people of God would see Him work in miraculous ways and then attribute those works to their idols. We see it in Exodus: God brought Israel out by a mighty hand, and at Mount Sinai, while Moses was on the mountain, they made a golden calf and declared, "Here is the God that brought us out of Egypt." They attributed the works of mighty God to an idol.

Even today we are guilty of the same. We see the blessed provision of the one true God according to His common grace and attribute it to our intellect, our scientific ability—failing to recognize that God ordained and allowed it. Just as Judah was without excuse, we are without excuse.

New Things Declared

In verse six God says, "See all this, and will you not declare it?" Why will they not proclaim His praises but instead credit their idols? "I have showed you new things... even hidden things, and you did not know them... lest you should say, behold, I knew them."

What new things? We have already seen them: God said He would do a strange, peculiar work—turning against the people He once blessed and delivering them into captivity. That would have blown many minds. There were many detractors and naysayers in Isaiah's day, and it continued until Jeremiah's time, when the nation was about to fall and Jeremiah stood as the lone prophet declaring captivity, while others cried, "Peace, peace." But God said, do not say peace, because this judgment will come. He declared His new work in advance so they could never credit it to false gods—"surely the Lord God does nothing unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets."

"I Knew You Would Deal Treacherously"

God says, "I knew that you would deal very treacherously, and was called a transgressor from the womb." It must have grieved His heart greatly to say to the people He loved and cherished, "I knew that you would turn away from Me."

Why did God declare His works beforehand? So that even in their sin and idolatry they would have to recognize that He is God. Even those today who say there is no God hate that He has placed in them a conscious recognition of Himself. Paul speaks of this in Romans 1: "they did not like to retain God in their knowledge." People do not want the idea of God in their minds, yet they cannot get rid of it, because God has hardwired it there. The one who completely removes it is given over to a debased mind.

Why Israel Was Not Consumed

The nations around Israel that committed the same wickedness were rightly judged and completely destroyed. Consider the Amalekites of Exodus 17, who unrighteously fought against Israel in the wilderness. God said, "I will destroy them," and you will not find an Amalekite today. A number of Old Testament peoples no longer exist because of their sin.

So why was Judah not consumed like the Amalekites or the Babylonians? Verse nine answers: "For my name's sake will I defer my anger... I have refined thee, but not as silver is refined. I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction... for how should my name be polluted? And I will not give my glory to another."

Israel's very existence is proof that God is not like you and me. In Hosea, God declares, "I am not a man." We are made in His image but are not entirely like Him. If we sat in God's place and were sinned against repeatedly, we would press the "smite button." But God is not like us. The very fact that in the year 2010 there is still a nation called Israel in the promised land is proof of His grace and mercy. Though some of Abraham's bloodline have trusted Jesus as Messiah, largely they have not. They have been headstrong and stiff-necked, deserving judgment like every other nation—yet they remain.

The Furnace of Affliction

Israel has gone through difficulty: the Assyrian invasion, the Babylonian captivity, the destruction in the Maccabean period, the Roman destruction, expulsions from Spain and Europe, and the Holocaust. Through all these trials and afflictions they still remain. Why? Because of God's grace and mercy. They have gone through fire—but not the fire of incineration like Sodom and Gomorrah. It has been the refining fire of affliction. "Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver is refined." God allowed them to go through trial for their refining, and He did it for His own name's sake.

God's heart is revealed in Exodus 32. After the golden calf, the Lord said to Moses, "I have seen this people, and it is a stiff-necked people. Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them. And I'll make of thee a great nation." How tempting that must have been—they would be the children of Moses instead. I believe it was a test, and Moses's actions reveal the heart of God.

Moses besought the Lord: "Why does your wrath wax hot against your people, which you brought out of Egypt with great power? Why should the Egyptians say, 'For mischief he brought them out to slay them'? Turn from your fierce wrath... Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self." And the Lord relented. Why? For His own name's sake—just as we see in Isaiah 48.

Mercy and Grace

Mercy is not getting what we deserve. The people of Judah deserved all of God's wrath, just as we do, but they did not receive what they deserved. And neither do we. We deserve all of God's wrath, but in Christ we have received not only mercy but exceeding grace. While Babylon would be destroyed, the people of Judah would merely be refined—the large number going into captivity, but a remnant returning, one of the great themes of Isaiah, because God's punishment was for their purification.

Our Response: Hearken

If God is merciful and gracious, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin, what ought our response to be? "Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my called. I am he, I am the first, I am also the last" (verse 12).

The word "hearken" is the Hebrew word Shema. In Deuteronomy 6:4 every Jew knows the Shema: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart." That first word is the same Hebrew word translated "hearken" here. It means to hear, to listen, and to obey—not a casual hearing, like a fire engine passing the church, but to truly pay attention and act.

Imagine standing in a crowd of hundreds, with conversations murmuring all around you. You hear the noise, but when someone twenty feet away calls your name and you make eye contact, now you are listening. And the one speaking knows you have truly listened if you obey what they ask. That is what it means to Shema. God says, "I want you to hear Me, listen to Me, and obey Me. O Jacob and Israel, my called."

All Creation Obeys—But Not Man

He reminds them: Jacob was a deceiver who deserved wrath, yet God called him and brought forth a new people, Israel, "those governed of God." "I am the first, I am the last. My hand laid the foundation of the earth... When I call unto them, they stand up." All creation stands at God's beck and call, under His complete authority.

What a contrast. The heaven of heavens, the earth, and all creation obey His command—except man. The stars obey, the earth obeys, but God's people are obstinate and disobedient. So He says, "Assemble yourselves, and hear: which among them has declared these things?" Which of your idols can tell you what will happen before it comes to pass?

He recalls the prophecy of Cyrus from Isaiah 45: "The Lord has loved him, and he will do his pleasure on Babylon... I, even I, have spoken; yea, I have called him, I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous." The idols were idle, but God called Cyrus, brought him forth, and made him to prosper. Man's useless idols can do none of these things, but God does.

"Come Near and Hear"

"Come you near unto me, and hear this... I have not spoken in secret from the beginning... and now the Lord God, and his Spirit, has sent me" (verse 16). It is as if God leans into His rebellious children: "Come here, I want to talk to you. I have not hidden My counsel from you." They could not accuse God of concealing His wisdom, for He revealed everything He would do.

This Servant who is sent is clearly Jesus. The Father and the Holy Spirit send One who is from the beginning to declare the counsels and mysteries of the Lord. Only Jesus can be the speaker here, and the whole Trinity is in view. "I am the Lord, thy redeemer, the holy one of Israel... which teaches thee to profit, which leads thee by the way that you should go."

What is part of His ministry? He teaches and He leads. As Psalm 32:8 says, "I will instruct you and teach you in the way that you should go; I will guide you with my eye." As Isaiah 30:21 says, "Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, This is the way, walk in it." Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." Proverbs 3:5–6: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart... and he shall direct your paths."

Go Forth from Babylon with Singing

"Go you forth of Babylon, flee from the Chaldeans, with a voice of singing declare you, tell this... Say, the Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob... There is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the wicked" (verses 20–22). Deserving of all God's wrath, they would receive mercy and grace. Babylon would be destroyed by the Medo-Persian empire, but Judah would be released and led through the wilderness. God says, "When you leave, leave with joy and singing, declaring to the world that God has done this."

That is the same calling given to us. In 1 Peter 2:9, "You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people"—and our purpose is to "declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light." As He set Israel free from Babylon, He sets us free from our captivity to sin and death, and says, "Proclaim My praises." But there is no peace for the wicked. Israel received peace through God's merciful grace; wicked Babylon, of old and yet future, receives the recompense of its wickedness. In Christ, though guilty, we receive grace and mercy; the rest of the world that is not in Christ abides under judgment.

The Messiah Speaks to the Nations (Isaiah 49)

"Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, you people from afar. The Lord has called me from the womb... and he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand hath he hid me, and made me a polished shaft" (verses 1–2). God now shifts His attention from His own people to the surrounding nations.

The "me" is clearly the Messiah, Jesus. How do we know? First, He is called by the Father from the womb. Luke 1:31—Gabriel told Mary, "you shall conceive in your womb and bring forth a son, and you shall call his name Jesus." Micah 5:2 named His birthplace, Bethlehem. Second, His mouth is made "like a sharp sword." Ephesians 6:17 calls the Word of God "the sword of the Spirit"; Hebrews 4:12 says it is "sharper than any two-edged sword." Revelation 1:16, 2:16, and 19:15, 21 all show a sharp sword proceeding from Jesus' mouth. The One with the sword coming from His mouth is Jesus.

Hidden, Polished, and Sent

"In the shadow of his hand hath he hid me." Jesus was hidden and protected by the Father until just the right time. Shortly after His birth, Joseph was warned in a dream to flee to Egypt because Herod would seek to kill the child; Herod slaughtered the children under two in Bethlehem, but God protected Him. Many times in His ministry the scribes and Pharisees sought to take Him, yet He passed right through their midst, for He was hidden in the shadow of the Father's hand.

"He made me a polished shaft in his quiver"—a choice arrow, well-sharpened, fashioned for a specific purpose: to deliver a death blow to the enemy. He speaks of a sharp sword toward the Jews who were near, and a polished shaft, a choice arrow, toward the Gentiles who were far off. God is able to reach anyone He sets out to reach with His Word.

The Messiah Called "Israel"

"You are my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified" (verse 3). Some struggle with the Messiah being called Israel. But the context makes clear this is the Messiah, so this title must apply to Him. Why? First, because the Messiah comes from Israel and represents Israel. Second, because the Messiah fulfills the title "Israel"—"governed of God"—better than the children of Israel ever did. He is the One who perfectly does the will of God. In John 17 Jesus prays that the Father would be glorified in the Son.

The Temptation to Discouragement

"Then I said, I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing... yet surely my judgment is with the Lord" (verse 4). How could the Messiah view His labor as vain? This question fails to recognize that Jesus was fully God and fully man—"tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin" (Hebrews 4:15). He was tempted to discouragement.

Imagine the temptation the night He was arrested: one disciple betrays Him with a kiss, the rest flee in fear, Peter denies Him three times. The next day the crowds who cried "Hosanna" now cry "Crucify him." Do you think He was tempted to discouragement? I do. Paul felt the same in Galatians 4:11, "I am afraid for you, lest I bestowed upon you labor in vain." Like a farmer who buys, plows, and plants but sees no harvest, both Paul and the Messiah were tempted to ask, "Where is the fruit?" But Jesus never gave in, because His reward was with the Lord.

What reward did He focus on? Hebrews 12:2: "who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross." What joy? At the end of verse three—to glorify the Father. More than seeing us as the reward, the reward Jesus saw was the glorification of the Father.

A Light to the Gentiles

Now the Father encourages the Son: "It is a light thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob... I will also give you as a light to the Gentiles, that you may be my salvation unto the end of the earth" (verses 5–6).

If Jesus' only work was to bring Israel back to the Father, then their cry of "Crucify him" would have made it appear to be in vain. But the Father says, "It is a light thing for you to bring Jacob back; I am sending you to be a light to the Gentiles, that you may be my salvation to the ends of the earth." Notice He does not say "bring my salvation"—He says "you are my salvation." The very name Jesus means "Jehovah is salvation."

"To him whom man despises, to him whom the nation abhors... Kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship" (verse 7). Jesus was despised and rejected by His own people, yet He is the chosen Christ, and therefore the One who shall receive praise, honor, and glory even from the honorable of this world. Every knee will bow.

The Covenant Himself

"In an acceptable time have I heard thee... I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people... that you may say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Show yourselves" (verses 8–9). The Father will help and preserve the Son through everything, even the cross. Jesus relied completely on the Father, doing nothing of Himself.

Jesus is given not only to bring the covenant—He is given as the covenant. He is the new covenant Himself. His ministry includes setting captives free and bringing light to those bound in darkness, as we will see in Isaiah 61:1: "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek... to proclaim liberty to the captives." Jesus comes and fulfills that ministry.

Comfort and Mercy for the Afflicted

"They shall not hunger nor thirst... he that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall he guide them... Behold, these shall come from far... and these from the land of Sinim. Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth... for the Lord hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted" (verses 10–13).

For both those leaving Babylon in the sixth century, set free by Cyrus and ultimately by the Lord behind him, and those leaving the bondage of sin and death, Jesus leads, feeds, protects, and gives drink to the thirsty. They come from afar—from the north, the west, and the land of Sinim. There is debate whether Sinim refers to Egypt, the wilderness near Sinai, or the far Orient. Whatever the interpretation, it is clear that Jesus redeems the lost, the thirsty, the dying sinner from every corner. None are outside His reach—and every one of us is thankful for that. He did not come only for a small group called the children of Israel; He came for all mankind.

The Second Bookend of Comfort

Verse 13 closes this section that began in Isaiah 40:1, "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God." Now comes the second bookend: "Sing, O heavens; be joyful, O earth... for the Lord hath comforted his people." How? By the prophetic promise of the coming Deliverer, the Messiah.

We have received the comfort of the Lord. Jesus said in John 14, "I will not leave you comfortless, but I will send the Comforter, the Spirit of truth," who will guide us into all truth and teach us all things. And not only comfort, but mercy in great abundance. We have not received what we deserve. In Christ we are no longer under the wrath and judgment of God. Babylon, the wicked of this world, will receive that wrath. But Judah and Jerusalem, though guilty of the same sins, received mercy and grace because they were in Abraham, the one with whom God made covenant, for His own name's sake. And we are of a greater name—not called by Abraham, but called by Christ—and in Him we have grace and mercy in abundance.

Closing Prayer

Father, I thank You for Your word, and I pray that You would cause this to be on our minds and in our hearts as we finish out this week. Help us, Lord, to think on these things, to meditate upon this passage. Consider what You would speak to us, or what You may have us share with friends and family members as we talk with them tomorrow and the next day. God, we do thank You that You have given us mercy and grace, although we are guilty of sin and deserving of punishment. We praise You tonight for Your forgiveness. We thank You and praise You in Jesus' name. Amen.