Isaiah45chapter 45

Isaiah 45:1-2

to open before him the two leaved gates: Cyrus is named the Lord's anointed, the word Messiah given to a pagan Persian king before his birth, whose right hand I have holden making him an instrument the text credits to the God who calls him rather than to his own strength. I will loose the loins of kings pictures royal power itself unbuckled ahead of the conquest, and the two leaved gates names the actual bronze gates of a city left standing open, the older writers reading the detail as literal history the prophecy reached forward to describe. Verse 2 promises straight roads and broken bars ahead of Cyrus's own march, crooked places straight read as both a literal road and the providence that smoothed the whole campaign.

Isaiah 45:3-4

the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places: The treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places names the wealth Cyrus would take from a conquered city's own vaults, given so that thou mayest know that I, the Lord, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel, the conquest itself made into evidence for the trial the earlier chapters opened. Verse 4 states the purpose behind naming a foreign king centuries ahead of his birth, for Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, the whole upheaval aimed at one covenant people's deliverance. I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me states plainly that Cyrus acted without any knowledge of the God who named him, which the bench reads as the sharpest evidence in the trial, a witness who cannot be suspected of bias.

Isaiah 45:5-6

I girded thee, though thou hast not known me: I am the Lord, and there is none else restates the trial's verdict a fifth time across three chapters, and I girded thee, though thou hast not known me repeats verse 4's point that Cyrus served a God he did not know, the strongest kind of testimony because it cannot be suspected of bias. Verse 6 names the purpose geographically, that they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, the whole inhabited world named as the intended audience for what Cyrus's conquest would prove. Calvin reads the repetition of I am the Lord, and there is none else across this chapter as deliberate hammering, a claim too important to state once.

Isaiah 45:7

I form the light, and create darkness: I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil states God's sovereignty over the created order in its starkest terms, and the older writers are careful about the word evil, reading it as calamity or disaster brought as judgment rather than moral evil authored by God, a distinction the Hebrew word itself carries in other places. Some read the verse as aimed specifically at the Persian dualism Cyrus's own religion taught, light and darkness as two eternal powers, answered here by one God claiming both. The positions are named without a verdict: some read evil here as calamity or disaster, the sense the word carries elsewhere in the Old Testament, and others read it as the broadest possible claim of sovereignty over every kind of contrary power.

Isaiah 45:8

let the skies pour down righteousness: Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness calls for a rain of righteousness answering the light and darkness just named, the sky itself commanded to bring down what only God can create. Let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation pictures the ground itself yielding what has been planted from above, the older writers reading earth and heaven together as the whole created order cooperating in the deliverance the chapter describes. I the Lord have created it closes the verse where it began, salvation named a creation alongside light, darkness, peace and evil, one more thing this God alone makes.

Isaiah 45:9-10

Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker: Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker turns from Cyrus's use to a warning against questioning it, the potsherd among the potsherds of the earth given no standing to argue with the hand that shaped it. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? states the potter and clay figure Paul later uses at Romans 9:20 of the same sovereignty this chapter has just been demonstrating in history. Verse 10 widens the figure from craft to family, woe to the child who questions the parents who gave it life, the same objection to questioning origin applied to birth as to pottery.

Isaiah 45:11-13

Ask me of things to come concerning my sons: Ask me of things to come concerning my sons answers the woe just pronounced with an invitation rather than a threat, questions about the future welcomed even as questioning the maker's right to work is refused. Verse 12 restates the creation claim in the first person, I have made the earth, and created man upon it, the same ground the whole trial has stood on since chapter 40. Verse 13 returns to Cyrus by function though not by name, I have raised him up in righteousness, he shall build my city, and he shall let go my captives, not for price nor reward, the release of the exiles stated as free before it happened.

Isaiah 45:14-15

The labour of Egypt, and merchandise of Ethiopia and of the Sabeans: The labour of Egypt, and merchandise of Ethiopia and of the Sabeans pictures nations submitting to Israel in language the older writers read partly of history and partly forward to the nations bringing their glory into the city of chapters 60 and 66. Surely God is in thee; and there is none else has the nations themselves confessing the trial's verdict, the very words the chapter has put in the Lord's own mouth now spoken by former strangers. Verse 15 answers with a confession of its own, thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour, naming the same hiddenness that made a whole trial necessary in the first place.

Isaiah 45:16-17

that are makers of idols: They shall be ashamed, and also confounded closes the idol theme one more time, every maker of a graven image put to confusion together, the counterpart to the everlasting salvation promised in the very next verse. But Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation sets Israel's future against the idol-makers' shame in the sharpest possible contrast, ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end. The bench reads the pairing as the chapter's own summary of the whole trial argument, one side put to shame and the other secured forever.

Isaiah 45:18-19

he created it not in vain: For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens restates the creation claim a final time, and he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited answers any reading of creation as random or purposeless with a stated intent, a home built for people to live in. I am the Lord; and there is none else repeats the trial's refrain yet again, six times now across three chapters. Verse 19 adds that the claim was never hidden, I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth, the God of this trial having always spoken where he could be heard and answered.

Isaiah 45:20-21

ye that are escaped of the nations: Assemble yourselves and come summons the nations themselves into the trial as spectators or participants, ye that are escaped of the nations invited to judge between the God who speaks and the wood of their graven image that cannot save. Verse 21 asks the trial's question one final time, who hath declared this from ancient time? and answers it with a title new to the chapter, a just God and a Saviour, justice and salvation joined in the same claim. The older writers read the pairing as preparing the invitation that follows immediately in verse 22, judgment and mercy offered by the same voice.

Isaiah 45:22-23

Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth opens the trial's verdict into an invitation wider than Israel alone, the same universal reach Paul later draws on when he applies Isaiah's language to the gospel going to every nation. Verse 23 makes the claim an oath, I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, binding God's own word to his own name so that it cannot fail. That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear is quoted at Rom 14:11 of every person's final accounting and echoed at Phil 2:10 of every knee bowing to Jesus, both New Testament writers standing this verse's universal oath on the same ground the chapter built it on.

Isaiah 45:24-25

in the Lord have I righteousness and strength: Surely, shall one say, in the Lord have I righteousness and strength pictures the confession every knee of verse 23 will make, a person's own strength and standing found only in the God the whole trial has argued for. Even to him shall men come; and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed closes the trial with the last outcome named, opposition itself brought to nothing rather than answered with argument. Verse 25 gives the last word to Israel by name, In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory, the covenant people's own vindication the trial's final exhibit.