40 Minutes In The Old Testament - Isaiah 45:1-25 (Episode 487)

Episode Date: November 25, 2025

Cyrus will be the Lord's anointed, whether you like it or not. God hides Himself in unlikely people. And the day is coming when every knee will bow to God revealed in Jesus. Have a listen. Show Notes: Support 1517 Podcast Network 1517 Podcasts 1517 on Youtube 1517 Podcast Network on Apple Podcasts 1517 Events Schedule 1517 Academy - Free Theological Education What's New from 1517: Coming Home for Christmas: 1517 Advent Devotional Face to Face: A Novel of the Reformation by Amy Mantravadi Untamed Prayers: 365 Daily Devotions on Christ in the Book of Psalms by Chad Bird Remembering Your Baptism: A 40-Day Devotional by Kathryn Morales Sinner Saint by Luke Kjolhaug More from the hosts: Daniel Emery Price Chad Bird

Welcome to another episode of 40 Minutes in the Old Testament. 40 Minutes in the Old Testament is a 1517 Podcast Network podcast. You can go to 1517.org slash podcast. Check out all the other podcasts that are living over there. And while you're over there, make sure you check out everything else that 1517 is doing. You can go over to the donate link and you can help us, you know, meet some fundraising goals that we have to keep this going next year. You know, keep all this stuff free, keep all these resources coming out. It really is the reason we're able to do it.

So if you are able, we would appreciate it very much if you'd support the work. You can click a link in the show notes or just go over to 1517.org. And thank you so much to those of you who already do that. chad we are in isaiah 45 the first verse uh kind of uh ended with of course a whole bunch of you know sarcastic talk about idolatry uh there's a lot of that and and 44 uh then you had this uh this part about the lord being the one that's going to redeem israel like that's that's i mean no one else could do it i mean he's the only one it turns out there's one god and he's gonna have to do the redeeming but ended with this with this strange thing we were like you know god redeems

and does things through means and sometimes those means are unlikely uh they are sometimes they are not what you'd think they're going to be and uh here he talks about somebody an unlikely shepherd i would say chad is it safe to say an unlikely shepherd here named cyrus long before cyrus ever existed. Yeah, the dropping of Cyrus's name is quite surprising, even for a prophecy. I mean, we have some very specific prophecies in the Old Testament, right? We know exactly where Jesus, the Messiah, is to be born. We know exactly what line he's going to come from. You know, even when it comes to his name, I mean, there are names or titles that are given to the Messiah in the Old Testament, like Emmanuel or Branch. He's even called David. But no word of the prophets

say, and his name shall be Jesus. Right. So, I mean, there's some very pointed prophecies that don't even say what the name is going to be. But then here you get to Cyrus, and he's actually, he's marked by name, just like Josiah will be, or Josiah was, as we talked about when we covered 1 and 2 Kings. So, yeah, they would have been surprised. And as we'll hear in chapter 45, a little bit maybe upset or confused by this choice of God's shepherd.

Not the shepherd, but as we'll hear right away in verse 1, anointed. I mean, it's one thing to be called a shepherd, but anointed, a mashiach, a little m messiah. So you can see why Isaiah is going to have to address the naysayers, those who are at least a little bit confused, if not upset, by God's choice of the anointed shepherd who's going to rescue Israel from exile and bring it back to the promised land. Well, you're going to see that – and I know you've talked about this many times, but if you're going to talk about being anointed or being holy, set apart, this is a matter of proximity for sure. Because, I mean, Cyrus, not that holy, I would say, if you go pick up a history book and see if this man is a man that you're like, he's just dripping with the holiness of God. But you do see how this man can be anointed and holy and set apart by the very first verse in chapter 45, because he's got some real close proximity to God, since God has reached down and grabbed him by the hand. Yeah, that's the way chapter 45 starts out. Thus says the Lord to his anointed, so to his Mashiach, that is to Cyrus.

So chapter 45, really, the beginning of that should have been shifted up a few verses into chapter 44, but be that as it may. Thus says the Lord to his anointed to Cyrus. Yeah, as you pointed out, whose right hand I have grasps. So God took hold of him. He's like, all right, give me your hand. Cyrus doesn't know that. He's not like having some vision where the God of the Hebrews reaches down and grabs his hands. But that's what's going on.

God reaches down. He grabs hold of his right hand. So what's he going to do with Cyrus? He goes on to subdue nations before him and to loose the belts of kings, to open doors before him that gates may not be closed. so we've all heard the the kind of old english expression to to gird up your loins which just means put a belt on i mean so if you're wearing loose fitting clothing as they did which we recall like a you know a big flowing robe today well there's not much you can do work wise or or fighting wise if you got all that flap it around so you lift it up and you you tie it you

you belt it well here they have here we have the opposite he's going to ungird the loins of kings so loose the belts of kings meaning he's going to god is going to render any kings that cyrus might face unable to do anything i don't know what the modern equivalent would be uh you know basically to make them strip them of armor maybe to de-weaponize them something like that and the same word is used patak same hebrew word is used for loose as we have for open so he's going to loose the belts of kings he's going to loose in the sense of open doors before him that gates may not be closed so basically i mean god's taking care of all this for cyrus i mean cyrus i don't want to you know i don't want to take away any of the things that he did just on a human level

I mean, the guy was, I think I read somewhere that people called him, like, loved by the gods because he was able to accomplish so much in such a short amount of time. This subdue the nations thing certainly happens. Yeah, yes. Yeah, he's subduing nations left and right. He's even overthrowing the Median Empire that was led by none other than his grandfather. so he even even goes after his grandfather he he takes over that i mean he he goes all the way to uh lydia i mean so we're locked we're talking about like the the western side of asia minor around cities that if you move with like ephesus and smyrna and all those cities that paul visited

that are talked about letters seven churches so he goes all the way there and conquers it i mean And so he's stretching the Persian kingdom just about as far west as you can imagine. So the guy's a powerhouse politically and militarily. But what happened on earth was arranged by heaven. God has his hand. God's opening these doors before him. And he continues this same idea in verse 2. I will go before you and level the exalted places.

I will break in pieces the doors of bronze And cut through the bars of iron I will give you the treasures of darkness And hordes in secret places That you may know that it is I the Lord The God of Israel who call you by your name So I mean Nothing is going to get in his way

Basically God's going to be like his John the Baptist He's going to level those exalted places He's going to bulldoze the way before Cyrus. He's going to give him the treasures and the hordes. So he's going to make sure that there's plenty of spoils of war. And he does all this. There's a goal in mind. And the goal isn't just to free his people, Israel, and to allow them to return to the promised land.

But the goal anyway, the stated goal is that Cyrus, that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, who call you by your name. Now, the question remains, did Cyrus actually ever come to know this? I mean, he certainly had the opportunity to know this. There were plenty of good signs in this prophecy in and of itself. So God certainly wanted Cyrus to realize this eventually. But did he? Well, I don't know. That was what God wanted him to know anyway. We're told in the very next verse that Cyrus does not know him.

Whether you came to know him eventually or not is, I guess, up for debate. Yeah, I mean, it seems like God is like, I'm going to make this so easy that you're going to question how this is happening, Cyrus. Now, you know how people are. You have two options when something like this is happening. And you can be like, man, is God on my side? There's something going on here. I can't be defeated. Or you could just be like, man, I am the greatest there's ever been.

I can't be defeated. I suppose people will do both of those things. Yes, they will. I think of that chapter in Daniel where Nebuchadnezzar gets to feeling all high and proud of himself and thinks, Thanks. Man, look at everything I've accomplished. And in fulfillment of the vision, he basically gets reduced to the level of a beast and acts like an animal for an extended period of time. So God has his ways of humbling everyone. It doesn't matter if you're a farmhand or the king or the king of kings.

He can take care of that. That's, I think, one of the most haunting stories in all of Scripture. The ghost hand writing on the wall. Like, and then like the, the meanie meanie thing, like just, uh, like it, and then if you say like, you have been, you have been weighed and measured and found wanting is like, oh, that's a horrible way to say that. That's so brutal. Yeah.

Yeah. One of those visions where, uh, you know that, uh, the outcome of this is not going to be good for, uh, for anyone concerned. So Cyrus, why, why is God doing this? I mean, like, for whose benefit? Is he doing it for the benefit of Cyrus or the Persians or what? Well, he tells us that in the very next verse. For the sake of my servant Jacob and Israel, my chosen, I call you by your name.

I name you, though you do not know me. That's the verse I just alluded to a couple minutes ago. So he doesn't have any idea of this person, who this God is. I mean, just like think about Pharaoh when Moses and Aaron go down into Egypt and say, thus says the Lord, let my people go. And Pharaoh's like, who? I don't know Yahweh. What are you talking about? Get out of my presence.

So he didn't. Yeah, Cyrus didn't know, didn't know God, but God knew him, named him, called him, set him up to accomplish this for the sake of his servant Jacob and Israel has chosen. It goes on. I'll read five through seven. i am the lord and there is no other besides me there is no god i equip you uh that word is the word for gird so like girding on the loins so punting off at what he said earlier so these other kings i'm going to make sure that i'm going to ungerd their loins but you i'm going to gird that's the implication here i'm going to equip you though you do not know me that people may know

from the rising of the sun and from the west there is none besides me i am the lord and there is no other and then he finishes with this verse it's verse seven and this uh often will be quoted by folks who are you know confused by it or maybe questioning what is what is meant by this but i think it's good if we read it in the context of everything that's been said so far so the verse is this, I form light and create darkness. I make well-being and create calamity. I'm the Lord who does all these things. So that middle line, I make well-being and create calamity, that is translated all kinds of different ways. But the two words for well-being and calamity are shalom of course we're all familiar with that usually translate that as peace can be in

completeness or well-being or wholeness whatever it is so i make or i do shalom and i create raw now raw is one of those hebrew words that well every word is context dependent for how you translate it right we all know this so you got to hear a word in context to be able to to render it correctly into another language or to understand it even in our own language Well, ra occurs about 640 times in the Old Testament, a bunch of times. In fact, if you take Hebrew, it's one of the first words that you memorize. So ra can mean evil, but it can also, about anywhere from 250 to 300 times of the 640, so we'll say a third or more of its times, it can refer to trouble or calamity.

So, in this particular context, what's being talked about? Well, God is saying, listen, I've called Cyrus. He's not even born yet, but I've called him. I'm going to use him. He's going to conquer enemies. He's going to do good for my people. I'm the only God. There is no other.

And so I'm the one who's not only going to make all these things happen, but telling you beforehand what's going to happen. And so I'm the one who does it all. I have no peers. I have no competitors. So if you're talking about light, I make that. Darkness, I make that. If you're talking about shalom, I do that. If you're talking about ra, which you could translate as calamity or trouble or whatever it might be, well, I do that as well because I am Yahweh and I do it all.

I do all these things. Yeah, I mean, if he's talking about all the things that Cyrus is going to do, well, those things are good for Cyrus and bad for someone else, right? So if you are one of the nations that Cyrus is subduing, that's going to feel like calamity now, isn't it? Yeah. But if you're doing the conquering, it's going to feel like quite a good thing. And if God is saying that I've grabbed this guy by the arm and I'm leading him into these things, then yes, I'm the one who's ultimately doing both things.

So some of these, like, I make peace and create calamity. Some instances, he's doing both of these things at the same time, right, just depending on which side of the equation you're on. Yes. Yeah, you think about Cyrus. okay if he's if he's conquering the babylonians all right well is that peace or calamity yes it's peace for the israelites who are going to benefit from the edict of cyrus and be allowed to return not just to return but he's gonna like give all their stuff back he's like yeah here's all your things that the babylonians took from your temple so i'm gonna give them to you and

i'm gonna let you go back under ezra and a lot of other leaders and then you're able to rebuild the simple but at the same time that's raw that hebrew word for calamity or trouble it's raw to the babylonians of course so yeah it's both of these both these all together i only bring that i only wanted to stress that verse because you know it does come up sometimes people like does god create evil well no that that i don't think that's the that's not the way that we should translate this word uh because it means a lot of different things and contextually here it's talking about the trouble or the calamity which yeah the conquered foes might have viewed as evil but from god's perspective it was good because that's exactly what he wanted to happen he wanted

them to be conquered so his people could go free well you can put it this way um the flood and there's now the flood is salvation for eight people and calamity for everyone else and what's certainly true is that god did that right yeah i mean god god takes ownership of the flood it doesn't doesn't act as though this is uh wasn't as though he just like took his hands off and allowed it to happen which sometimes we'll say that you know you get god off the hook and just say well you know someone has a lap god might allow something that doesn't mean that he's doing it but i think he does the flood that seems like he's doing that and it's doing both things at the same time like he's saving and he's destroying yeah simultaneously yeah yeah and you uh you think

of i can't remember the chapter maybe it's in the gospel the synoptic gospels where jesus uh pairs that with the destruction of sodom and gomorrah right he rescued lot his family he rescued no one his family at the same time the people in lot the people in sodom and the people who weren't in the ark well they were destroyed so in both cases it's uh god's judgment that is happening which is shalom for some and raw for for others yep all right so verse 8 uh is going to kind of use an image of rain and crop growth to express the fact that earthly events have a a heavenly cause so there's a a heavenly origin that impacts the earth causing certain things to happen so here's what he says he says shower oh heavens from above let the clouds rain down in

righteousness so let's get some let's get some rain falling what's going to happen let the earth open that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit and let the earth cause them both to sprout i the lord have created it so this is just a i think a metaphorical way of saying just like rain comes down from heaven and causes things to sprout forth from the earth so i'm going to cause these things to happen from heaven and the fruit is going to be salvation and righteousness which are going to spring forth the salvation for his people this in this accomplishing of god's righteous will for his people, for his people, Jacob, both of these are going to happen because God is the, he's the, he says, I, the Lord have created it in kind of a, it's kind of a double

meaning there. God certainly creates rain and he creates crops that grow from the earth as a result of the rain. God also creates the raining down of his will so that righteousness and salvation are going to spring forth. Yep. All right. So verse nine, this is when we start to have objections so the first three words are woe to him and i think what's happening here uh is that you have isaiah uh god through isaiah predicting what the reaction of people are going to be to this news about cyrus they're gonna be what what is what is he doing you ever you ever noticed this i mean i know you have noticed this but listener maybe you should known as this as well. God's people never like their Savior. They never like whoever God has

set up to do this work. They are always like, no, we don't like that Savior. All the way to the ultimate Savior of Jesus, we don't like that one either. It's Stephen's speech, right? It's Acts 7. Yeah. Joshua, I mean, I'm just kidding. Joseph, no. Moses, no. The prophets, no.

It's like, okay, are you guys ever going to like the person that God sends to save you? Answer, no. How about a big, mighty warrior that's trampling all the nations and stuff? You like that kind of savior? You would think that's the kind of savior. They'd be like, all right, cool. Like, that sounds like, oh, no, absolutely not. No, not him, not him.

So, woe to him who strives with him who forms him, a pot among earthen pots. Does the clay say to him who formed it, what are you making? Or your work has no handles. Woe to him who says to a father, what are you begetting? Or to a woman, with what are you in labor? I mean, it's kind of comical. You know, this pot opens its mouth. What are you making?

where this child who's being conceived opens its non-existent mouth and says, what are you begetting? So the ludicrousness of it is intended to be there. It's like, this is ridiculous. Pots don't talk back to the potter, and children being conceived don't talk back to the parents conceiving them, and thus neither should we question the ways of God. He knows what he's doing.

yeah that's that's a hilarious uh image of a pot being like hey you should put a handle on this if you're gonna yeah make it made me with no handles man this is unacceptable you know we have talking animals in the bible like donkeys but no talking pots no uh no pots talking back So he goes on and says, thus says the Lord. It's verse 11. Thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel and the one who formed him. There's your word for form. Ask me of things to come.

Will you command me concerning my children and the work of my hands? Are you going to try and tell me what I'm supposed to do? I made the earth and created man on it. it was my hands that stretched out the heavens and i commanded all their host so i've been i've been doing this a while i think that's one of the things he's saying here so you know this earth you live on and the heavens above who did that i did it i made the earth i stretched out the heavens like a tent curtain i did that and after i'd made the earth i made man on it uh and i also commanded all their hosts so you kind of got the celestial and the terrestrial going on here you got the

earth and you got humanity that's made on it and then you have the heavens and then you have all their their starry hosts that god made so just a genesis one kind of moment i've been doing this for for a long time and then he continues in verse 13 basically to say okay i who have done this in the beginning it wasn't like i'm a some sort of deist kind of god where i just make everything and then i retire to wherever god retires to no i who did this continue to uphold creation by my word and i continue to guide all the events that happen in my creation so he says in verse 13 i have stirred him up he's talking about cyrus still i have stirred him up in righteousness and i will make all his ways level he shall build my city and set my exiles free not for price or reward says the

lord of host so like god has like some deal with cyrus it's like some all right name your price what do i have to do for you cyrus to to uh to accomplish this this is just god simply doing this uh because it's his will to save to save his people yeah yeah no this part is great too because he's basically saying like all right you you don't like this um but um there's nothing you can do about it right like this is like the uh i'm good like if you want to know how how one-sided like salvation is. This is like a good example of it. Or even when you're resistant to the mechanism, God's like, well, you don't really have a say, do you? I mean, you're acting like you don't even want to be saved, but I've determined to save you, so I guess salvation is what's going to happen.

Yeah. I'm not going to consult you to determine if this is the way you think things should be done or whether it's your will or whatever it might be. Yeah, this is just what I'm going to do. all right so uh verse 14 thus says the lord the wealth of egypt and the merchandise of kush and the sabians men of stature uh tall dudes we would translate that uh kind of uh in the uh common language these tall guys they shall come over to you and be yours they shall follow you In fact, they shall come over to you in chains and bow down to you, and they're going to plead with you, saying, surely God is in you, and there is no other, no God besides Him. So this is, we've heard about these three earlier. What was that back in chapter 43, verse 3?

That verse said, I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt for your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you. So we have, again, these three, which are mentioned here, who are all from basically the same part of northern Africa. So you have Egypt, which everyone's familiar with. You have Cush, which is often associated with Sudan or Ethiopia. It's south of Egypt, anyway. And the Sabaeans, it's a bit more ambiguous,

but most people at least uh locate them in that in that same area so what are they going to do they're going to come to the israelites this is one of these there's several passages like this in the old and new testament which are which are the it's a biblical way of saying hey god never had in mind and when i say never i mean never had in mind in the scriptures that the israelites were the only ones who are going to be his chosen people right it was always a worldwide perspective beginning i was going to say beginning with genesis 12 actually it's not even beginning there it's beginning with genesis 1 but it's it's made clear in genesis 12 that abraham the purpose of god calling abraham was not that abraham could have this whole lineage

and that only that lineage, the physical descendants of Abraham, that they would be these special chosen people of God. The whole purpose of God calling Abraham was that he would be, that his seed would be a blessing to all the families of the earth. And we see that happening in ways big and small throughout the Old Testament, where people outside the descendants of Abraham come and join the people of Abraham. But here you have one more example, and Isaiah's got more of these to come, Where you have Egyptians and Cushites and Sabaeans, they're going to come to you, like in humility.

They're like bowing down to them, and they're saying, listen, it's pretty obvious that God is with you. It's very obvious there is no other God. So we want to be part of you. We want to join with you. Now, we see this happening all over the New Testament, for sure. I mean, already in the ministry of Jesus, you have Gentiles coming to Jesus, right? And Jesus is impressed with their faith. And then when you get to the book of Acts, and then certainly in Paul's epistles when he addresses the churches, it's all over the place.

God's purposes are being realized as the gospel spreads and more and more people outside the physical descendants of Abraham become part of the growing family of God. yeah one of the things that i take away from the old testament is that i think abraham was short because they make a big deal out of anyone that's tall hey there's some tall guys over there and they're they're gonna be like bowing down to you and you're like what does their height have to do with anything uh or you know when they make saul king they're like i think i would i think i would be king if i was like around that they'd just be like, that guy's obviously got to be the king. He'd be a king, or they'd be bowing

down to you like a god. It's like, this guy's got to be partly divine. He's like, what, 6'5"? 6'6". But you get this impression, because a lot of times you hear about all the different heights, and you're like, were the Israelites

just on the shorter side? Are they just surrounded by people taller than them? Was Abraham not a man of stature? his descendants that just carried on maybe so i don't know but it comes up a lot it does from from what i've read and i i suppose they base this upon you know uh skeletal remains from what they are able to discover anyway the average height of an ancient israelite was probably about

of a male was about five four okay yeah i'd be like a giant yeah you'd be like how tall are you six five yeah so you know you're like over a foot taller than yeah that's that's all right a head a head taller right like hey yes yeah yeah so uh man yeah you'd be like king daniel in the old testament i mean and you i mean it makes sense that like they're talking about like hey these are like men of stature in other words hey man when all your wars are fought hand-to-hand combat and like you're like and every nation is like bigger than you i mean it matters a lot more than it does today you know it's yeah it's one of the things when the vikings roll over and they're all humongous guys and you're like yay we got to fight those guys and you're no and you know that

there's no guns involved like you just have to go fight them it makes a difference yeah yep hand hand combat uh physical size makes a much much bigger difference than if you're pulling a trigger somewhere right yeah i don't know there's a lot of reach on those guys like how am i gonna even get close to them yeah for sure so uh these tall folks are gonna come join themselves to israel and then we have this reaction this is 15 through 17 truly you are a god who hides himself oh god of israel oh yeah yeah this is like a uh this is a this is a uh if if there's a theology of the cross verse in the old testament this is this is it you're a god who hides yourself what about hiding yourself behind cyrus yeah that's wild it is uh all of them are put to shame and

confounded the makers of idols go in confusion together but israel is saved by the lord with everlasting salvation love that adjective not temporary everlasting salvation you shall not be put to shame or confounded in case you didn't get to the first time to all eternity how's that for for a promise yeah so your god who hides himself hides himself behind cyrus hides himself behind all kinds of seemingly ungodlike things who who hides himself depends on it kind of depends on who we think is saying this as to exactly how we might interpret this in its immediate context. So is this being spoken by the Gentiles who are joining the people of God saying, hey, where have you been? You've been hiding yourself? Or is it the Israelites who

were kind of surprised and say, wow, hiding yourself behind Cyrus. We didn't see that one coming. But whatever it is, it is a truism. I think you can just take this verse as a standalone description of how God always works through the scriptures, where the places you would expect him to be, he's not, and the places you wouldn't expect him to be, he is. I mean, no one, no one would have ever guessed that God was hanging from a cross, dying for the sins of the whole world. So you talk about hiding yourself. That's the ultimate hidden place of God. Yeah, it's one of the reasons that God will never let them, like, sort of make these images of him.

They can tote around and stuff. Can we, like, fashion you? And the answer is no, that's not the kind of God I am. I'm a God that, like, is hidden. You can't make a thing that represents me that I'm going to, like, confine myself to. Like, it doesn't work like that. I hide myself in the bush, and I hide myself in Cyrus and all these other things. I hide myself in Samson, you know?

Yeah, of all people. Hide myself in Jonah. Yeah. Yeah, he's hidden in the most unexpected places. All right, so 18 and 19 are going to kind of continue the same theme. Thus says the Lord, who created the heavens, he is God, who formed the earth and made it, He established it. He did not create it empty. He formed it to be inhabited. I am the Lord and there is no other. Isaiah is like the monotheist prophet. There is no other. I did not speak in

secret. Now, interestingly, if we're talking about this hiding himself, so the verb for hide is satar and here we have the same root i did not speak in maybe a hiding place in secret so god hides himself but his word is not hidden i think that's one of the points he didn't speak in secret yeah he is a guy who hides himself but his word is not hidden his word is all is always out there i didn't speak in secret in the land of darkness i didn't say to the offspring of jacob seek me in vain which also is the word for empty or tohu is what it is in hebrew i didn't say seek me in emptiness or in vain i the lord speak the truth i declare what is right so i'm god there is no other i've made everything and i didn't create this world to be empty and i don't speak

in vain or in secret or tell you to seek me in in vain i'm right here speaking making these promises to you well this is the great advantage of uh the true god is that all these other false gods um people are prone to like i want to know what where my god is so like i'll have a of an image of him and then i know where he is so you know god is over here where i have this you know golden calf and uh that's so i know where to locate him and god's like yeah you can't do that with me but the great advantage you have is that what those other you know those guys don't do they don't speak like it's so so like but so and i do uh all the time i speak in the mouths of the prophets and i i speak to you and you don't understand like how much how much better

is it to have a god who communicates with you than a god that you can just locate but has nothing to say and that's really the theme of the next few verses 20 through 21 he says basically get to get yourselves together assemble yourselves and come draw near together you survivors of the nations you don't have any knowledge you who carry around your wooden idols and keep i love this this is such a great line who keep on praying to a god that cannot save yeah man that's some powerful stuff there you're praying to this god he can't he can't even hear you much less save you so declare and present your case let them take counsel together so let's have a little trial here who told you this long ago who declared it of old was it not i the lord there's no god besides

me i'm a righteous god and a savior there's none besides me so yeah you're praying to a god who can't save while i'm here the only true god who foretold all of this who can save and who's going to accomplish the things that i that i spoke about there he is if you have a god if you have a god that you can locate or gods like lots of them you know you have this statue and that statue and this image and that image you get why don't you get all those together they can have a little council and then uh you know see what they come up with because you know what they're going to come up with nothing nothing yeah yeah they're not going to come out of that trial well at all so verse 22 says turn to me and be saved not just israel but all the ends of the earth yeah i am god there is

no other. By myself I have sworn. The Hebrew there, by myself I have sworn, by the way, that occurs word for word back in Genesis 22. By myself I have sworn, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, from me. So kind of a nice tie-in there. God swears back then, God swears now. From my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return. and then listen to this line does this sound familiar to me every knee shall bow every tongue shall swear allegiance or confess yeah yeah this is this uh i uh i could spend another 40 minutes talking about this but i won't but bear this in mind the next time that you're reading philippians two at the name of jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that he is the lord so

isaiah is being quoted here by paul in reference to jesus and who is this talking about who is who's like who's talking here who's the me it's yahweh so philippians 2 is such a powerful confession that jesus is yahweh in the flesh well yeah and uh if you are looking for or you're desirous of a god that is located a god that uh has an image well he's coming this is the thing is that uh god is going to give give you something you're not going to like it but but he is going to be a man, right? And at some point, every knee is going to bow and every tongue is going to confess that that is God.

Whether they like it or not, right? And then just to wrap up the chapter, 24 and 25, only in the Lord it shall be said of me, our righteousness and strength. To him shall come and be ashamed all who were in sense against him. In the Lord, this is a great way to end this chapter In the Lord, all the offspring of Israel

And understanding Israel here Is comprising every believer Whoever they might be All the offspring of Israel Shall be justified And shall glory Yeah, justified are the very one To whom every knee bows and every tongue swears

Allegiance, the one in whom all the fullness Of the Godhead dwells bodily Yeah, this is just a Great chapter The Old Testament way of saying And in Christ, everyone shall be justified, right? Yeah. In Christ, you're justified.

That's it. In the one to whom every knee will bow and every tongue confess, in that person, everyone will be justified. Yeah. Yeah, it's good stuff. Listen to Isaiah preach the gospel. I know. That's a good chapter.

That was a good one. I like that. All right. Well, all right. Well, we are out of time, so we'll pick up with 46 next episode. chat. I'll see you then. See you then.