These are the devotionals that are taken from the book For the Love of God by D.A. Carson. It goes along with the church's bible reading plan
June 8 - Isaiah 40
Three observations to prepare the way: (a) If Isaiah was about thirty when he was called to be a prophet in the year that King Uzziah died (Isa. 6:1), then he was sixty-nine at the time of the Assyrian invasion in 701 and seventy-two in 698 when Hezekiah died. Tradition outside the Bible says that he lived a little longer, into the reign of the wicked King Manasseh, who resolved to kill him. Fleeing Manasseh, the elderly Isaiah hid in a hollow tree in the forest, only to be found by Manasseh’s men, who cut down the tree with a saw, Isaiah still inside. There may be an echo of this in Hebrews 11:36–37. (b) On this chronology, Isaiah had foreseen the Babylonian invasion as early as 712 B.C. (Isa. 39:5–7). Nevertheless the Assyrian invasion of 701 doubtless captured most of his attention until it was behind him. Judging by what appears in these next chapters, Isaiah then spent the few remaining years of his life in a ministry of comfort designed to help the faithful remnant in the still darker days that were ahead. Perhaps this ministry was public and oral for the remaining three years of King Hezekiah’s life. Under the brutally repressive regime of Manasseh, however, Isaiah’s ministry was more likely to the smaller circle of his disciples (Isa. 8:16–17) and in the written page that they would preserve until a new generation was again ready to listen to the words of God conveyed through him. (c) Thematically, this next section embraces chapters 40–55, which are full of comfort grounded in the astounding greatness of God and in the immeasurable atonement for sin that he provides.
The comfort provided in the opening overture (Isa. 40:1–11) has at least five elements. (a) These are still God’s people, “my people” (Isa. 40:1). Despite the devastating prediction in the preceding verses of Jerusalem’s destruction and the transportation of its people, God will comfort Jerusalem again (Isa. 40:2—clearly parallel with “my people”). (b) Their sins have been forgiven. Since it was their sins that attracted judgment, this is marvelous news. “Your sin has been paid for! Your hard service has been completed!” How this was accomplished is not fully unveiled until chapter 53, but the overture anticipates the symphonic splendor. (c) In consequence of their forgiveness, God himself will bring home the exiles, smoothing their way (Isa. 40:3–4), gathering his flock like a shepherd (Isa. 40:11), thereby disclosing his glory to the entire human race (Isa. 40:5); the missionary theme recurs. (d) However fickle people may be, God’s word is utterly reliable (Isa. 40:6–8). (e) The good news shouted from Zion/Jerusalem is “Here is your God”—for “the Sovereign LORD comes with power” (Isa. 40:9, 10). Small wonder, then, that the remaining verses of the chapter dwell on the sheer majesty of God.
June 9 - Isaiah 41
The theological power of Isaiah 41 becomes clearer if we grasp something of the underlying history.
In line with the prediction of Isaiah 39:6–7, Jerusalem was finally destroyed in 587 B.C., her temple razed and her people killed or transported. This was the most shattering event Israel faced in Old Testament times. But far from thinking that this proved that God was losing control, Isaiah not only foresaw the event but insisted that it was God’s doing. Now he addresses those who would suffer Babylonian aggression and who would wonder if there was any hope for them at all. Isaiah has already reminded them that as far as God is concerned the nations are no more significant than a drop in the bucket or dust on the scales (Isa. 40:15–17). Now he predicts that God himself will end the aggression of the Babylonian Empire. He will raise up the Persian king Cyrus (Isa. 41:2–4, 25–27; Cyrus is actually named in Isa. 44:28; 45:1).
Cyrus, king of the Persian city of Anshan, ascended to power in 559, when Persia was still subject to Media. Ten years later he killed the Median king Astyges and founded the Persian Empire. In less than a decade, he subdued territory to the west as far as modern Turkey (conquering the legendary King Croesus on the way), and to the east as far as northwest India. Babylon fell in 539. Cyrus reversed the policy of previous empires. Far from transporting subdued peoples, he encouraged exiles to go home—including Israel (Ezra 1:2–4; see meditation for January 1).
Isaiah 41, then, makes two important points. First, God alone is the One who summons nations before him, controlling their destinies, calling on them to accomplish his will—and this includes Cyrus, whom God has “stirred up” for the tasks allotted him. Where is the evidence of this bold claim? It is found in the fact that God predicts the entire sequence of developments a century and a half in advance (Isa. 41:21–29). This is something the pagan idols could not possibly do. “See, they are all false! Their deeds amount to nothing; their images are but wind and confusion” (Isa. 41:29). Such predictions are the exclusive domain of “Jacob’s King” (Isa. 41:21), for he alone writes history in advance. Second, Israel must understand that they are collectively God’s servant (Isa. 41:8–20), the descendants of Jacob and of Abraham before him, themselves the servants of God. None of this means that they are intrinsically great: God addresses them as “O worm Jacob, O little Israel” (Isa. 41:14). But they do have a great God, their Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel (Isa. 41:14). They may abandon fear (Isa. 41:10) and rejoice in him (Isa. 41:16).
June 10 - Isaiah 42
Isaiah himself is God’s servant (Isa. 20:3), and so is Hezekiah’s chief steward Eliakim (Isa. 22:20). Israel collectively is God’s servant (Isa. 41:8–20). Who is the servant of the Lord in Isaiah 42:1–9?
Some argue that it is still Israel. In that case, God’s words, “Here is my servant” (Isa. 42:1) are uttered before the nations, a kind of defense of his people before the mighty powers that are nothing to him. But this reading of Isaiah 42 is unlikely. “Here is my servant” sounds like the introduction of a new figure. More importantly, God’s servant Israel was described in the preceding chapters as complaining (Isa. 40:27), fearful, and dismayed (Isa. 41:10). By the end of this chapter, God’s servant Israel is deaf, blind (Isa. 42:18–19), and sinful (Isa. 42:23–24). By contrast, the servant of the Lord in Isaiah 42:1–9 neither falters nor is discouraged (Isa. 42:4), delights in God (Isa. 42:1), is gentle, persevering, and brings forth justice in faithfulness (Isa. 42:3). This is an ideal Servant, one who embodies all that Israel failed to be. In this light, the announcement “Here is my servant” is made to Israel. The Servant is introduced to them not only because he is an ideal to which they should aspire, but because he is an individual who will rescue them, as Isaiah will make clear.
This servant song is divided into three parts. (a) In Isaiah 42:1–4 God addresses Israel and introduces the Servant, who will bring “justice” to the nations. The Hebrew term includes more than the English word. It embraces putting into effect all of God’s purposes. But when the Servant does this, he is quite unlike Cyrus or some other imperial leader. He is gentle: he does not shout or cry out or raise his voice in the streets (Isa. 42:2). He neither breaks the bruised reed nor snuffs the smoldering wick (Isa. 42:3)—a passage explicitly applied to Jesus in Matthew 12:15–21. (b) In Isaiah 42:5–7, the Servant himself is addressed (note v. 6: “I the LORD, have called you [sing.] in righteousness”), and Israel is allowed to overhear what is said. Here the God who gives breath to all people (Isa. 42:5) now makes this Servant “to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles” (Isa. 42:6), undoing all the degrading effects of sin (Isa. 42:7). (c) In Isaiah 42:8–9, the Lord again addresses Israel, once again summarizing the mission of the ideal Servant and insisting that these are “new things” graciously announced in advance.
Small wonder that this song issues in profound praise to the Lord (Isa. 42:10–17), and contrasts once again the depth of the moral culpability of God’s servant Israel (Isa. 42:18–25) which only the ideal Servant can resolve.
June 11 - Isaiah 43
Although God has an ideal Servant who will be his perfect agent to bring to pass all his purposes (Isa. 42:1–9), Israel is also God’s servant. In Isaiah 43 and on into chapter 44, Isaiah encourages Israel, God’s servant (Isa. 43:10; 44:1). Here I shall pick up on elements of this encouragement and then draw attention to an important clause picked up by the Lord Jesus in the New Testament.
In the first section (Isa. 43:1–7), God tells Israel not to be afraid (Isa. 43:1)—not because she will not go into exile, but because when she passes through the waters God will be with her, and when she passes through the fire the flames will not utterly destroy her (Isa. 43:2). Moreover, she will not face extinction or assimilation: God himself will gather her children from the four points of the compass (Isa. 43:5–6). Despite the most appalling circumstances, the living God declares Israel to be precious and honored in his sight, and much loved (Isa. 43:4). Paul reasons analogously with respect to Christians in Romans 8:31–39.
More briefly: (a) Israel should be encouraged because her return after exile will bear witness to God and testify that it was God alone who knew of these stupendous events and brought them to pass (Isa. 43:8–13). (b) Babylon will be destroyed. The nation of conquerors will become a tumult of fugitives (Isa. 43:14–15). (c) Israel is used to reflecting on God’s mighty deeds to redeem his people at the time of the Exodus (Isa. 43:16–17), but now God will do a new thing (Isa. 43:18–21). So do not dissolve into the past and whine your way to defeat. Be courageous, for God is about to do a new thing, to effect a new cycle of spectacular delivery. (d) Above all, the Israelites’ massively compromised worship and multiplied offenses (Isa. 43:22–24) are not the last word. The first line of Isaiah 43:22 in Hebrew might better be rendered: “It was not me you called upon, O Jacob”—for the Israelite worship was so corrupt, such a distortion of the covenant, that the true God was not really being worshiped at all. But God himself is the One who blots out their transgressions for his own sake (Isa. 43:25)—a further anticipation of Isaiah 53.
God wants his servant Israel to understand “that I am he” (Isa. 43:10; cf. Isa. 41:4; 48:12). The Hebrew conjures up associations with Exodus 3:14; the Greek rendering of this phrase is precisely the expression that Jesus repeatedly applies to himself in John 8 (e.g., John 8:58, “I am”). How then does Isaiah 43 shape how we must think of Jesus?
June 12 - Isaiah 44
We have already learned that God told Israel, “You are my witnesses” (Isa. 43:10, 12). For the Israelites were to testify that God and God alone had predicted all these things, and had thus given evidence that he had done them, since he alone is the sovereign God. In Isaiah 44:6–23, these themes are summarized (Isa. 44:6–8). Yahweh alone is “Israel’s King and Redeemer, the LORD Almighty” (Isa. 44:6). God says, “I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God” (Isa. 44:6). As for his people: “Do not tremble, do not be afraid. Did I not proclaim this and foretell it long ago? You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me? No, there is no other Rock; I know not one” (Isa. 44:8). But if God alone is God, all pretenders are idols. So the summary of this theme introduces one of the most damning indictments of idolatry in the Bible.
From God’s perspective, idolatry is always repulsive. In one sense, it is the fundamental sin, for it dethrones God and replaces him with something or someone else. That is why greed is idolatrous (Col. 3:5): we pursue what we covet, and what we pursue most ardently becomes our god. The historical context of this denunciation is critical, for idolatry was practiced not only by all the little nations around Israel, but also by the regional powers and by the succession of superpowers. Inevitably, Egyptians and Assyrians and Babylonians all credited their success to the power of their own deities. Yet here is the God of little Israel—crushed, defeated, exiled, pathetic little Israel—claiming to be the only God, the sovereign Lord, the mighty Creator and providential Ruler over all the kingdoms of the earth. And he is expecting his covenant people to bear witness to this truth instead of succumbing to the idolatry around them which, sadly, they find perennially attractive.
The question of power God will handle on the long haul. Here, the focus is on making idolatry absurd and thereby destroying its plausibility (Isa. 44:9–20). What initially seems attractive is shown to be ridiculous. The idolatry that is profoundly offensive to God is also profoundly stupid.
The solution is twofold. (a) Israel is called to remember what God has said, what God has done (Isa. 44:21), not least the fact that God has constituted Israel and made Israel his privileged servant. (b) Israel is called to return to God, for he has redeemed them (Isa. 44:22). These must be the constant priorities of God’s people: remember all that God is, all that he has said and done; and when we stray, return to him immediately and promptly (1 John 1:7–9).
June 13 - Isaiah 45
The riches of Isaiah 45 cannot be summarized in brief compass. It ends with a stunning missionary passage (Isa. 45:14–25), with echoes reverberating into the New Testament (e.g., Isa. 45:23; cf. Phil. 2:10–11). It begins in the closing verses of chapter 44 and the opening lines of chapter 45, where the Persian king Cyrus is introduced by name. Here God calls him “my shepherd” (Isa. 44:28), and Isaiah labels him the Lord’s “anointed” (i.e., “messiah,” a title usually restricted in the Old Testament to Saul or to one of the Davidic kings).
This is not the only place in the Old Testament where God identifies someone by name long before that person is born (cf. 1 Kings 13:1–3). What is striking is that, after the blistering denunciation of idolatry in Isaiah 44 (see meditation for June 12), God should refer to a pagan idolater as his anointed. Yet the point is important. God denounces idolatry, but his providential rule may use an idolater, or anyone else, for his own good purposes. It is always wrong to argue from providence to ethics, or to establish who is “right” by who wins in a particular context, or to doubt that God may sovereignly use an evil person to accomplish a great good without thereby exonerating or justifying all the evil in his or her life.
Transparently, Israel herself found this word of God hard to accept. One can imagine the exiles torn by doubt and troubled by fear. If God calls the pagan Cyrus his “messiah,” does that mean he has rejected the Davidic dynasty? Can the prophet’s word be accepted when it says such daft things? Anticipating the skepticism, God responds with a robust defense of his sovereignty and righteousness (Isa. 45:8–13). “Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker” (Isa. 45:9). The people who had so persistently defied God that they landed in exile now wish to defy his chosen means of getting them home. But they have no more right to question God’s ways than clay has to question the potter, or a newborn has to question his or her parents (Isa. 45:9–10). “This is what the LORD says—the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker: ‘Concerning things to come, do you question me about my children, or give me orders about the work of my hands?’ ” (Isa. 45:11). God is the sovereign Creator, and in the perfection of his righteousness he will raise up Cyrus to rebuild Jerusalem (Isa. 45:13—itself evidence that the Davidic line was not being supplanted) and set his exiles free. All this comes as a step to the glorious invitation: “Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other” (Isa. 45:22). Reflect on Revelation 15:3–4.
June 14 - Isaiah 46
There are three sections to Isaiah 46, and each advances a distinct argument that implicitly or explicitly calls Israel to faithfulness toward the living God.
(1) In the first two verses, Isaiah mocks Babylonian gods. “Bel” means “lord” and is equivalent to Baal as a title. It was applied to Marduk, the chief god of the city of Babylon. “Nebo” was the son of Bel-Marduk. He was the patron of writing and wisdom. At the New Year festival, Bel-Marduk and Nebo were carried through the streets in a great procession to the Esagila shrine. It was the greatest religious event of the year. But Isaiah foresees a time when Bel-Marduk and Nebo bow and stoop, and the exhausted beasts of burden that have to carry them fall and stagger off into captivity (Isa. 46:1–2). This was not literally fulfilled when the Persians took over in the sixth century, for Cyrus preserved and even enhanced the status of the Babylonian gods. On the long haul, of course, Bel-Marduk and Nebo slipped into oblivion. No one worships them today. But millions of men and women still worship the God of Israel.
(2) In the next section (Isa. 46:3–7), God continues his denunciation of idolatry. Now there is a slightly novel development. God says, in effect, that idolaters have to carry their gods, and even their beasts of burden get tired; but with the true God, it is the other way around: he carries his people. It is hard not to perceive a contrast between two religions. In the one, the people do all the heavy lifting; in the other, God does it, and his people are carried by him.
(3) In the last section (Isa. 46:8–13), God rebukes his covenant people in blunt, not to say brutal, terms. They are rebels, and they have forgotten all of God’s gracious and powerful ways with them when the nation was born at the time of the Exodus. There are important things for the believer to remember (Isa. 46:8–9). Probably part of their hang-up is still Cyrus. They still find it difficult to imagine that God will use a pagan king like that, rather than simply destroy him. But God insists he will summon from the east “a bird of prey” (Isa. 46:11)—almost certainly a reference to Cyrus. Whatever his purpose and plan, he will be sure to bring it to pass. The implication, of course, is that God is both sovereign and good—so stop trying to second-guess him, and trust him. “Listen to me, you stubborn-hearted, you who are far from righteousness. I am bringing my righteousness near, it is not far away; and my salvation will not be delayed” (Isa. 46:12–13).
June 15 - Isaiah 47
At one level, Isaiah 47 is pretty straightforward; at another, it is subtly symbol-laden and prepares the way for the development of some biblical symbolism in the New Testament.
At the obvious level, this chapter depicts the fall of Babylon that the accession of Cyrus will bring about. Babylon is a pathetically proud and arrogant city. She is the “queen of kingdoms” (Isa. 47:5); she thinks she will last forever (Isa. 47:7)—not unlike Hitler’s thousand-year Reich. She is so confident of her own security she cannot envisage becoming a widow or losing her children (Isa. 47:8). Proud of her wisdom and knowledge (Isa. 47:10) and her devotion to astrology, she thinks she can control her future (Isa. 47:12–13). Her self-deification is frankly repulsive: the repeated “I am, and there is none besides me” (Isa. 47:8, 10) is a direct challenge to God’s identical claim (Isa. 45:5). But God has had enough. The “queen of kingdoms” will sit in the dust (Isa. 47:1); she will become a slave (Isa. 47:1–3). This “mother” will suddenly be widowed and bereaved (Isa. 47:8–9). Astrology will prove futile to save her (Isa. 47:12–13), and sorcerers and magicians will be of no avail (Isa. 47:12). God himself is out to destroy Babylon.
But this text hints at another level. Chapters 47 and 48 are tied together, constituting one large unit. Isaiah 47 condemns Babylon for its defiant arrogance and promises her doom; Isaiah 48 is addressed to the captives, who (as we shall see in tomorrow’s meditation) are rousingly told to leave Babylon and return to Jerusalem. Empirically they live in one city, Babylon; theologically, they belong to another city, Jerusalem. At the level of brute history, of course, the captives could not return to Jerusalem at this stage. They could do so only after Cyrus came to power and granted permission to return. But theologically, the exiles must see themselves as belonging to Jerusalem and not to Babylon. Thus just as “Jerusalem” sometimes refers to the ancient city by that name, and sometimes, as we have seen, anticipates the new, eschatological Jerusalem, so also “Babylon” not only may refer to the ancient city that reached the pinnacle of its splendor about the sixth century B.C., but becomes a symbol—a symbol that anticipates every proud city or culture that imagines it will live forever and arrogantly measures all things by the standards of its own sins and presuppositions. Historic Babylon becomes the symbol of many Babylons.
John understands these things. That is why in Revelation 17 he describes Rome as “Babylon the Great, the Mother of Prostitutes and of the Abominations of the Earth” (Rev. 17:5), a woman drunk with the blood of the saints. What Babylons have arisen since then?
June 8 - Isaiah 40
Three observations to prepare the way: (a) If Isaiah was about thirty when he was called to be a prophet in the year that King Uzziah died (Isa. 6:1), then he was sixty-nine at the time of the Assyrian invasion in 701 and seventy-two in 698 when Hezekiah died. Tradition outside the Bible says that he lived a little longer, into the reign of the wicked King Manasseh, who resolved to kill him. Fleeing Manasseh, the elderly Isaiah hid in a hollow tree in the forest, only to be found by Manasseh’s men, who cut down the tree with a saw, Isaiah still inside. There may be an echo of this in Hebrews 11:36–37. (b) On this chronology, Isaiah had foreseen the Babylonian invasion as early as 712 B.C. (Isa. 39:5–7). Nevertheless the Assyrian invasion of 701 doubtless captured most of his attention until it was behind him. Judging by what appears in these next chapters, Isaiah then spent the few remaining years of his life in a ministry of comfort designed to help the faithful remnant in the still darker days that were ahead. Perhaps this ministry was public and oral for the remaining three years of King Hezekiah’s life. Under the brutally repressive regime of Manasseh, however, Isaiah’s ministry was more likely to the smaller circle of his disciples (Isa. 8:16–17) and in the written page that they would preserve until a new generation was again ready to listen to the words of God conveyed through him. (c) Thematically, this next section embraces chapters 40–55, which are full of comfort grounded in the astounding greatness of God and in the immeasurable atonement for sin that he provides.
The comfort provided in the opening overture (Isa. 40:1–11) has at least five elements. (a) These are still God’s people, “my people” (Isa. 40:1). Despite the devastating prediction in the preceding verses of Jerusalem’s destruction and the transportation of its people, God will comfort Jerusalem again (Isa. 40:2—clearly parallel with “my people”). (b) Their sins have been forgiven. Since it was their sins that attracted judgment, this is marvelous news. “Your sin has been paid for! Your hard service has been completed!” How this was accomplished is not fully unveiled until chapter 53, but the overture anticipates the symphonic splendor. (c) In consequence of their forgiveness, God himself will bring home the exiles, smoothing their way (Isa. 40:3–4), gathering his flock like a shepherd (Isa. 40:11), thereby disclosing his glory to the entire human race (Isa. 40:5); the missionary theme recurs. (d) However fickle people may be, God’s word is utterly reliable (Isa. 40:6–8). (e) The good news shouted from Zion/Jerusalem is “Here is your God”—for “the Sovereign LORD comes with power” (Isa. 40:9, 10). Small wonder, then, that the remaining verses of the chapter dwell on the sheer majesty of God.
June 9 - Isaiah 41
The theological power of Isaiah 41 becomes clearer if we grasp something of the underlying history.
In line with the prediction of Isaiah 39:6–7, Jerusalem was finally destroyed in 587 B.C., her temple razed and her people killed or transported. This was the most shattering event Israel faced in Old Testament times. But far from thinking that this proved that God was losing control, Isaiah not only foresaw the event but insisted that it was God’s doing. Now he addresses those who would suffer Babylonian aggression and who would wonder if there was any hope for them at all. Isaiah has already reminded them that as far as God is concerned the nations are no more significant than a drop in the bucket or dust on the scales (Isa. 40:15–17). Now he predicts that God himself will end the aggression of the Babylonian Empire. He will raise up the Persian king Cyrus (Isa. 41:2–4, 25–27; Cyrus is actually named in Isa. 44:28; 45:1).
Cyrus, king of the Persian city of Anshan, ascended to power in 559, when Persia was still subject to Media. Ten years later he killed the Median king Astyges and founded the Persian Empire. In less than a decade, he subdued territory to the west as far as modern Turkey (conquering the legendary King Croesus on the way), and to the east as far as northwest India. Babylon fell in 539. Cyrus reversed the policy of previous empires. Far from transporting subdued peoples, he encouraged exiles to go home—including Israel (Ezra 1:2–4; see meditation for January 1).
Isaiah 41, then, makes two important points. First, God alone is the One who summons nations before him, controlling their destinies, calling on them to accomplish his will—and this includes Cyrus, whom God has “stirred up” for the tasks allotted him. Where is the evidence of this bold claim? It is found in the fact that God predicts the entire sequence of developments a century and a half in advance (Isa. 41:21–29). This is something the pagan idols could not possibly do. “See, they are all false! Their deeds amount to nothing; their images are but wind and confusion” (Isa. 41:29). Such predictions are the exclusive domain of “Jacob’s King” (Isa. 41:21), for he alone writes history in advance. Second, Israel must understand that they are collectively God’s servant (Isa. 41:8–20), the descendants of Jacob and of Abraham before him, themselves the servants of God. None of this means that they are intrinsically great: God addresses them as “O worm Jacob, O little Israel” (Isa. 41:14). But they do have a great God, their Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel (Isa. 41:14). They may abandon fear (Isa. 41:10) and rejoice in him (Isa. 41:16).
June 10 - Isaiah 42
Isaiah himself is God’s servant (Isa. 20:3), and so is Hezekiah’s chief steward Eliakim (Isa. 22:20). Israel collectively is God’s servant (Isa. 41:8–20). Who is the servant of the Lord in Isaiah 42:1–9?
Some argue that it is still Israel. In that case, God’s words, “Here is my servant” (Isa. 42:1) are uttered before the nations, a kind of defense of his people before the mighty powers that are nothing to him. But this reading of Isaiah 42 is unlikely. “Here is my servant” sounds like the introduction of a new figure. More importantly, God’s servant Israel was described in the preceding chapters as complaining (Isa. 40:27), fearful, and dismayed (Isa. 41:10). By the end of this chapter, God’s servant Israel is deaf, blind (Isa. 42:18–19), and sinful (Isa. 42:23–24). By contrast, the servant of the Lord in Isaiah 42:1–9 neither falters nor is discouraged (Isa. 42:4), delights in God (Isa. 42:1), is gentle, persevering, and brings forth justice in faithfulness (Isa. 42:3). This is an ideal Servant, one who embodies all that Israel failed to be. In this light, the announcement “Here is my servant” is made to Israel. The Servant is introduced to them not only because he is an ideal to which they should aspire, but because he is an individual who will rescue them, as Isaiah will make clear.
This servant song is divided into three parts. (a) In Isaiah 42:1–4 God addresses Israel and introduces the Servant, who will bring “justice” to the nations. The Hebrew term includes more than the English word. It embraces putting into effect all of God’s purposes. But when the Servant does this, he is quite unlike Cyrus or some other imperial leader. He is gentle: he does not shout or cry out or raise his voice in the streets (Isa. 42:2). He neither breaks the bruised reed nor snuffs the smoldering wick (Isa. 42:3)—a passage explicitly applied to Jesus in Matthew 12:15–21. (b) In Isaiah 42:5–7, the Servant himself is addressed (note v. 6: “I the LORD, have called you [sing.] in righteousness”), and Israel is allowed to overhear what is said. Here the God who gives breath to all people (Isa. 42:5) now makes this Servant “to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles” (Isa. 42:6), undoing all the degrading effects of sin (Isa. 42:7). (c) In Isaiah 42:8–9, the Lord again addresses Israel, once again summarizing the mission of the ideal Servant and insisting that these are “new things” graciously announced in advance.
Small wonder that this song issues in profound praise to the Lord (Isa. 42:10–17), and contrasts once again the depth of the moral culpability of God’s servant Israel (Isa. 42:18–25) which only the ideal Servant can resolve.
June 11 - Isaiah 43
Although God has an ideal Servant who will be his perfect agent to bring to pass all his purposes (Isa. 42:1–9), Israel is also God’s servant. In Isaiah 43 and on into chapter 44, Isaiah encourages Israel, God’s servant (Isa. 43:10; 44:1). Here I shall pick up on elements of this encouragement and then draw attention to an important clause picked up by the Lord Jesus in the New Testament.
In the first section (Isa. 43:1–7), God tells Israel not to be afraid (Isa. 43:1)—not because she will not go into exile, but because when she passes through the waters God will be with her, and when she passes through the fire the flames will not utterly destroy her (Isa. 43:2). Moreover, she will not face extinction or assimilation: God himself will gather her children from the four points of the compass (Isa. 43:5–6). Despite the most appalling circumstances, the living God declares Israel to be precious and honored in his sight, and much loved (Isa. 43:4). Paul reasons analogously with respect to Christians in Romans 8:31–39.
More briefly: (a) Israel should be encouraged because her return after exile will bear witness to God and testify that it was God alone who knew of these stupendous events and brought them to pass (Isa. 43:8–13). (b) Babylon will be destroyed. The nation of conquerors will become a tumult of fugitives (Isa. 43:14–15). (c) Israel is used to reflecting on God’s mighty deeds to redeem his people at the time of the Exodus (Isa. 43:16–17), but now God will do a new thing (Isa. 43:18–21). So do not dissolve into the past and whine your way to defeat. Be courageous, for God is about to do a new thing, to effect a new cycle of spectacular delivery. (d) Above all, the Israelites’ massively compromised worship and multiplied offenses (Isa. 43:22–24) are not the last word. The first line of Isaiah 43:22 in Hebrew might better be rendered: “It was not me you called upon, O Jacob”—for the Israelite worship was so corrupt, such a distortion of the covenant, that the true God was not really being worshiped at all. But God himself is the One who blots out their transgressions for his own sake (Isa. 43:25)—a further anticipation of Isaiah 53.
God wants his servant Israel to understand “that I am he” (Isa. 43:10; cf. Isa. 41:4; 48:12). The Hebrew conjures up associations with Exodus 3:14; the Greek rendering of this phrase is precisely the expression that Jesus repeatedly applies to himself in John 8 (e.g., John 8:58, “I am”). How then does Isaiah 43 shape how we must think of Jesus?
June 12 - Isaiah 44
We have already learned that God told Israel, “You are my witnesses” (Isa. 43:10, 12). For the Israelites were to testify that God and God alone had predicted all these things, and had thus given evidence that he had done them, since he alone is the sovereign God. In Isaiah 44:6–23, these themes are summarized (Isa. 44:6–8). Yahweh alone is “Israel’s King and Redeemer, the LORD Almighty” (Isa. 44:6). God says, “I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God” (Isa. 44:6). As for his people: “Do not tremble, do not be afraid. Did I not proclaim this and foretell it long ago? You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me? No, there is no other Rock; I know not one” (Isa. 44:8). But if God alone is God, all pretenders are idols. So the summary of this theme introduces one of the most damning indictments of idolatry in the Bible.
From God’s perspective, idolatry is always repulsive. In one sense, it is the fundamental sin, for it dethrones God and replaces him with something or someone else. That is why greed is idolatrous (Col. 3:5): we pursue what we covet, and what we pursue most ardently becomes our god. The historical context of this denunciation is critical, for idolatry was practiced not only by all the little nations around Israel, but also by the regional powers and by the succession of superpowers. Inevitably, Egyptians and Assyrians and Babylonians all credited their success to the power of their own deities. Yet here is the God of little Israel—crushed, defeated, exiled, pathetic little Israel—claiming to be the only God, the sovereign Lord, the mighty Creator and providential Ruler over all the kingdoms of the earth. And he is expecting his covenant people to bear witness to this truth instead of succumbing to the idolatry around them which, sadly, they find perennially attractive.
The question of power God will handle on the long haul. Here, the focus is on making idolatry absurd and thereby destroying its plausibility (Isa. 44:9–20). What initially seems attractive is shown to be ridiculous. The idolatry that is profoundly offensive to God is also profoundly stupid.
The solution is twofold. (a) Israel is called to remember what God has said, what God has done (Isa. 44:21), not least the fact that God has constituted Israel and made Israel his privileged servant. (b) Israel is called to return to God, for he has redeemed them (Isa. 44:22). These must be the constant priorities of God’s people: remember all that God is, all that he has said and done; and when we stray, return to him immediately and promptly (1 John 1:7–9).
June 13 - Isaiah 45
The riches of Isaiah 45 cannot be summarized in brief compass. It ends with a stunning missionary passage (Isa. 45:14–25), with echoes reverberating into the New Testament (e.g., Isa. 45:23; cf. Phil. 2:10–11). It begins in the closing verses of chapter 44 and the opening lines of chapter 45, where the Persian king Cyrus is introduced by name. Here God calls him “my shepherd” (Isa. 44:28), and Isaiah labels him the Lord’s “anointed” (i.e., “messiah,” a title usually restricted in the Old Testament to Saul or to one of the Davidic kings).
This is not the only place in the Old Testament where God identifies someone by name long before that person is born (cf. 1 Kings 13:1–3). What is striking is that, after the blistering denunciation of idolatry in Isaiah 44 (see meditation for June 12), God should refer to a pagan idolater as his anointed. Yet the point is important. God denounces idolatry, but his providential rule may use an idolater, or anyone else, for his own good purposes. It is always wrong to argue from providence to ethics, or to establish who is “right” by who wins in a particular context, or to doubt that God may sovereignly use an evil person to accomplish a great good without thereby exonerating or justifying all the evil in his or her life.
Transparently, Israel herself found this word of God hard to accept. One can imagine the exiles torn by doubt and troubled by fear. If God calls the pagan Cyrus his “messiah,” does that mean he has rejected the Davidic dynasty? Can the prophet’s word be accepted when it says such daft things? Anticipating the skepticism, God responds with a robust defense of his sovereignty and righteousness (Isa. 45:8–13). “Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker” (Isa. 45:9). The people who had so persistently defied God that they landed in exile now wish to defy his chosen means of getting them home. But they have no more right to question God’s ways than clay has to question the potter, or a newborn has to question his or her parents (Isa. 45:9–10). “This is what the LORD says—the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker: ‘Concerning things to come, do you question me about my children, or give me orders about the work of my hands?’ ” (Isa. 45:11). God is the sovereign Creator, and in the perfection of his righteousness he will raise up Cyrus to rebuild Jerusalem (Isa. 45:13—itself evidence that the Davidic line was not being supplanted) and set his exiles free. All this comes as a step to the glorious invitation: “Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other” (Isa. 45:22). Reflect on Revelation 15:3–4.
June 14 - Isaiah 46
There are three sections to Isaiah 46, and each advances a distinct argument that implicitly or explicitly calls Israel to faithfulness toward the living God.
(1) In the first two verses, Isaiah mocks Babylonian gods. “Bel” means “lord” and is equivalent to Baal as a title. It was applied to Marduk, the chief god of the city of Babylon. “Nebo” was the son of Bel-Marduk. He was the patron of writing and wisdom. At the New Year festival, Bel-Marduk and Nebo were carried through the streets in a great procession to the Esagila shrine. It was the greatest religious event of the year. But Isaiah foresees a time when Bel-Marduk and Nebo bow and stoop, and the exhausted beasts of burden that have to carry them fall and stagger off into captivity (Isa. 46:1–2). This was not literally fulfilled when the Persians took over in the sixth century, for Cyrus preserved and even enhanced the status of the Babylonian gods. On the long haul, of course, Bel-Marduk and Nebo slipped into oblivion. No one worships them today. But millions of men and women still worship the God of Israel.
(2) In the next section (Isa. 46:3–7), God continues his denunciation of idolatry. Now there is a slightly novel development. God says, in effect, that idolaters have to carry their gods, and even their beasts of burden get tired; but with the true God, it is the other way around: he carries his people. It is hard not to perceive a contrast between two religions. In the one, the people do all the heavy lifting; in the other, God does it, and his people are carried by him.
(3) In the last section (Isa. 46:8–13), God rebukes his covenant people in blunt, not to say brutal, terms. They are rebels, and they have forgotten all of God’s gracious and powerful ways with them when the nation was born at the time of the Exodus. There are important things for the believer to remember (Isa. 46:8–9). Probably part of their hang-up is still Cyrus. They still find it difficult to imagine that God will use a pagan king like that, rather than simply destroy him. But God insists he will summon from the east “a bird of prey” (Isa. 46:11)—almost certainly a reference to Cyrus. Whatever his purpose and plan, he will be sure to bring it to pass. The implication, of course, is that God is both sovereign and good—so stop trying to second-guess him, and trust him. “Listen to me, you stubborn-hearted, you who are far from righteousness. I am bringing my righteousness near, it is not far away; and my salvation will not be delayed” (Isa. 46:12–13).
June 15 - Isaiah 47
At one level, Isaiah 47 is pretty straightforward; at another, it is subtly symbol-laden and prepares the way for the development of some biblical symbolism in the New Testament.
At the obvious level, this chapter depicts the fall of Babylon that the accession of Cyrus will bring about. Babylon is a pathetically proud and arrogant city. She is the “queen of kingdoms” (Isa. 47:5); she thinks she will last forever (Isa. 47:7)—not unlike Hitler’s thousand-year Reich. She is so confident of her own security she cannot envisage becoming a widow or losing her children (Isa. 47:8). Proud of her wisdom and knowledge (Isa. 47:10) and her devotion to astrology, she thinks she can control her future (Isa. 47:12–13). Her self-deification is frankly repulsive: the repeated “I am, and there is none besides me” (Isa. 47:8, 10) is a direct challenge to God’s identical claim (Isa. 45:5). But God has had enough. The “queen of kingdoms” will sit in the dust (Isa. 47:1); she will become a slave (Isa. 47:1–3). This “mother” will suddenly be widowed and bereaved (Isa. 47:8–9). Astrology will prove futile to save her (Isa. 47:12–13), and sorcerers and magicians will be of no avail (Isa. 47:12). God himself is out to destroy Babylon.
But this text hints at another level. Chapters 47 and 48 are tied together, constituting one large unit. Isaiah 47 condemns Babylon for its defiant arrogance and promises her doom; Isaiah 48 is addressed to the captives, who (as we shall see in tomorrow’s meditation) are rousingly told to leave Babylon and return to Jerusalem. Empirically they live in one city, Babylon; theologically, they belong to another city, Jerusalem. At the level of brute history, of course, the captives could not return to Jerusalem at this stage. They could do so only after Cyrus came to power and granted permission to return. But theologically, the exiles must see themselves as belonging to Jerusalem and not to Babylon. Thus just as “Jerusalem” sometimes refers to the ancient city by that name, and sometimes, as we have seen, anticipates the new, eschatological Jerusalem, so also “Babylon” not only may refer to the ancient city that reached the pinnacle of its splendor about the sixth century B.C., but becomes a symbol—a symbol that anticipates every proud city or culture that imagines it will live forever and arrogantly measures all things by the standards of its own sins and presuppositions. Historic Babylon becomes the symbol of many Babylons.
John understands these things. That is why in Revelation 17 he describes Rome as “Babylon the Great, the Mother of Prostitutes and of the Abominations of the Earth” (Rev. 17:5), a woman drunk with the blood of the saints. What Babylons have arisen since then?