Milo

ENDLESS PEACE
Isaiah 63–66

” ‘As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before Me,’ declares the LORD, ‘so will your name and descendants endure’ ” (Isa. 66:22).

Beyond the judgment at history’s end lies endless peace and joy. Just as beyond the cross, peace awaits the person who comes to Jesus.

Overview
A vision of God’s apocalyptic day of vengeance (63:1–6) moved Isaiah to desperate prayer for his people (v. 7–64:12). God replied. Sinners must be punished, but a remnant of Israel would survive (65:1–16). God will then create a new heaven and new earth (vv. 17–25). After the judgment, Zion will suddenly be repopulated (66:1–17), and all peoples will worship as brothers before God’s throne (vv. 18–24).

Understanding the Text
“This is how You guided Your people” Isa. 63:7–19. Like the psalmists and the other prophets, Isaiah looked to history in an effort to understand God. In his prayer Isaiah recalled God’s kindness in the past, and realized that Israel’s rebellion caused God to turn against them. Yet the image of God as a tender and compassionate Redeemer persisted. Where was the God of love that His people had known? Why are enemies permitted to trample down God’s inheritance and His holy place?
Similar conflicts between the God we know and present experience have troubled saints throughout the centuries. We can ask, “Why, O Lord?” But we need to remember at such times that revelation has priority over experience.
Our feelings and our experiences provide no certain knowledge of God. That is reserved for history and Scripture. Only if we hold fast to these two sources of certainty will we live in hope.

“How then can we be saved?” Isa. 64:1–12 Isaiah asked, “Why?” But in the case of ancient Israel, he knew the answer. Israel continued to sin against God, and evoked His anger.
Will reform help? Will God relent if His people repent? Isaiah’s belief was, in Israel’s case, no. “All of us have become like one who is unclean,” Isaiah says, “and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.” God hid His face from (that is, turned away from) His people “and made us waste away because of our sins.”
So what can a sinner do when he at last realizes that his best is less than nothing. That even his “righteous acts are like filthy rags”?
Isaiah went back to the beginning, to God’s intention. God is “our Father.” He is the source of Israel’s existence as a people. As a potter, God shaped these descendants of Abraham. Isaiah’s hope was that God would not abandon the work of His hands, and would not “remember our sins forever.”
You and I give the same answer when asked, “How then can we be saved?” Nothing we can do can help us. Man’s most righteous acts are like filthy rags. But we too can go back to the beginning! We can realize that God created human beings in His image, to be loved and to love Him. Our hope is rooted in the belief that God will not abandon the works of His hands, but will act to redeem us despite our sins.
This is the very heart of the Gospel’s glorious good news. God did act, in Jesus Christ, to redeem us. Gladly we abandon all pretense of righteousness, and then we accept the salvation that He has so graciously chosen to give us despite our sins.

Hebrew farmers hitched their robes up around their waists when trampling ripe grapes. Even so, the rich juices stained their legs and their garments. In one of Scripture’s most vivid images, Isaiah 63:1–6 pictures God on the day of judgment, terrifying in His strength, trampling the world as the farmer stomps on ripe grapes, stained with the blood of the wicked.

“Behold, I will create” Isa. 65:17–25. After the judgment God will “create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy.” Set on a new earth that is spinning in new heavens, we will at last realize what original earth might have been had man not sinned.
The classic description so captivates man’s yearning that it is repeated not only in Isaiah but also in the world’s great literature.

“They will not toil in vain or bear children doomed to misfortune; for they will be a people blessed by the LORD, they and their descendants with them. Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear. The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, but dust will be the serpent’s food. They will neither harm nor destroy in all My holy mountain,” says the LORD (vv. 23–25).

“The new heavens and new earth that I make will endure” Isa. 66:1–24. Today everything changes. In our area one well-known financier is building himself a $15-million home. It has swimming pools, a bowling alley, and other features, all controlled by a complicated computer system. Even the “guest house” is larger than the homes in which most Americans live.
Ironically, he may never live in this private palace he’s building for himself. He has been indicted for insider trading, fraud, and a number of other crimes.
What a contrast with God’s New Jerusalem. The “house” God plans is designed to be inhabited by joyous people gathered from every nation and tongue. And the new heavens and earth God designs, will endure.

DEVOTIONAL
That’s the Gospel Truth
(Isa. 65)
The concept of hell troubles many people. How could a good and loving God ever destine anyone to an eternity in what Revelation calls a “lake of fire”?
The fact is, God doesn’t!
Chapter 64 contains Isaiah’s plea for a salvation that must somehow be rooted in God, since man’s best efforts are but filthy rags in the Lord’s sight. In this chapter God responded to Isaiah’s prayer. He told the prophet that He has always been eager to save. But obstinate Israel rejected His grace. Even so “descendants of Jacob, and from Judah” will “possess My mountains; My chosen people will inherit them.” People who seek God will be saved, despite their sins.
But then God speaks of individuals who continue to “forsake the LORD and forget My holy mountain.” Such persons are destined for the sword; they are marked for slaughter. But note. It is not that God chose their fate. God did everything He could to save them. He called to them, but they did not answer. He spoke, but they did not listen. Instead they chose what displeased God (65:12).
It’s an important truth to grasp. And it is part of the Gospel. Yes, some will go away to eternal punishment. But it is not God who fixes a man’s destiny. It is the man himself.
The only way a person can be condemned to hell is to condemn himself, by refusing to respond to God’s revelation of His power and His love.
So if you know anyone who is worried that God might send him to hell, share the Good News. God won’t send him to hell. The only person who can do that is the person himself. Instead, God is standing between human beings and eternal punishment, still calling, still speaking, still promising forgiveness. All anyone has to do is reach out and take salvation as a free gift.
And that is good news indeed.

Personal Application
Heaven or hell. It really is our choice.

Quotable
“Amos Gbaa from Liberia taught me quite a bit even though I was his tutor. Amos’ job was to translate each section [of Scripture] and identify the parts that needed improvement. When he came to a sentence where I had used the word ’offer,’ Amos had used the word ’gift.’
“I explained the importance of the distinction. The Gospel is not ’given’ but ’offered.’ The person hearing must make a choice.
“Amos said I was missing his point. ’In Liberia we do not make offers,’ he said. ’We only give gifts. If I come to your house and say, Here is a pineapple from my field, that is not an offer. You had better accept it. If you don’t, you would be giving me a terrible insult.’
“I thought about it more. With an offer, the buyer is completely free to decide for or against the product or to simply ignore it. The hearer of the Gospel, on the other hand, can accept it or reject it, but not ignore it, because it is a gift. Amos was right. God is giving you the gift of life through the Gospel.”—Stan Nussbaum

The Variety Reading Plan concludes here

DAWN OF A NEW AGE
Isaiah 59–62

“The sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you, for the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory” (Isa. 60:19).

We can catch only a glimpse of the future that God has in mind for His people. But what we can see is glorious.

Overview
Judah’s sin was great, but a penitent people will be redeemed by the Lord (59:1–21). In that day Zion will be glorious (60:1–22), and her people blessed (61:1–11). Then at last the land and her people will be holy (62:1–12).

Understanding the Text
“Your iniquities have separated you from your God” Isa. 59:1–2. God firmly intends to bless His people. Yet Judah had not experienced blessing.
When something like this happens, some people are sure to blame God. Isaiah portrayed his contemporaries complaining that God’s hearing was bad, or that His arm was a bit crippled so He couldn’t produce miracles as He used to. But that wasn’t the explanation. The fault wasn’t in God but in people. Human sin is the barrier that separates us from God.
What the prophet meant is that sin is like a one-way mirror. Light passes through it from one side, but is reflected back by the other. Similarly sin is no barrier to judgment. That passes through easily. But sin is a barrier to blessing. No matter how hard we seek blessing, the prayers of sinners are reflected back, unanswered.

“Our offenses are many in Your sight” Isa. 59:9–16. The first step in dealing with personal sin is to acknowledge it. It is the same with national sin. We must come to grips with the reality of our situation, and turn to God without illusion.
The person who says, “Well, we’re not as bad as some,” is in as hopeless a situation as the worst of this world’s sinners.
It’s not pleasant to be as honest with ourselves as Isaiah was in 57:12–15a. But just this kind of brutal honesty is necessary preparation to receive the forgiveness and cleansing God is eager to extend.

“His own arm worked salvation” Isa. 59:17–20. The prophet pictured God, appalled that there is no one to intercede for those whom sin has ruined. He saw the Lord stand, and put on attributes associated with redemption as though they were parts of a warrior’s armor.
What critical attributes are associated with redemption? (1) The breastpiece of “His own righteousness.” God is committed to do the right thing as well as the loving thing. This is why the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53 had to die: “to bear [pay for] the sins of many.” (2) The “helmet of salvation.” God has deliberately chosen to deliver those who have been ruined by sin. And (3) “garments of vengeance.” Those who will not look to God in faith, fearing and revering God’s name, must themselves bear the consequences of their evil deeds.
What will happen when God does arise, and come to Zion as His people’s Redeemer? For those who do repent, God promises permanent possession of both His Spirit and His Word, “from this time on and forever.”

“Your gates will always stand open” Isa. 60:11. In the ancient world the gates of a walled city were shut at night, to keep out robbers, or any enemy force that threatened the neighborhood. God’s promise that Zion’s gates will always stand open is symbolic of perpetual peace. When the Redeemer comes, nothing will threaten God’s people.
The promise is made explicit later in the chapter. “No longer will violence be heard in your land,” God says, “nor ruin or destruction within your borders, but you will call your walls Salvation and your gates Praise.”
The rest of the passage uses images that are picked up in the Book of Revelation, and used there of the New Jerusalem, to be erected on a freshly created and holy earth (cf. Rev. 21).
What value do such passages, that describe a time at the extreme edge of God’s future, have for you and me today? Perhaps most important, they tell us exactly where we are going, and what our future holds. However painful the present, we are assured that “your days of sorrow will end.” No one can steal the future from us. We know for certain that in God’s time “the Lord will be your everlasting light.”

“The LORD has anointed me” Isa. 61:1–2. One day, some seven centuries after Isaiah, Jesus of Nazareth unrolled the scroll containing Isaiah’s prophecy to this passage. There in His home synagogue Jesus read the prophet’s words, identifying Himself as the One the Lord had anointed “to preach good news to the poor” and to “bind up the brokenhearted.” But Jesus broke off His reading in midsentence. What He read identified His mission to “proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor”—but there He stopped. Why? Because the next words read, “and the day of vengeance of our God.”
Already some 2,000 years have stretched on since Christ’s proclamation of the year of the Lord’s favor. One day, the Bible says, Jesus will return “in blazing fire” to “punish those who do not know God and do not obey the Gospel” (2 Thes. 1:6–10). When Christ failed to read those words, He implicity recognized the fact that centuries would stretch out between His first coming and His return. These centuries are “the year of the LORD’s favor.” For one and for all, this is the time during which Jesus is seen hanging on the cross, or raised triumphantly, beckoning us to come to God by Him.
Soon the year of God’s favor will end. Then Jesus will again be seen, this time in terrible splendor, come to execute the “day of vengeance of our God.”
Each man and woman must take the Jesus of his or her choice. The Saviour, who died for the love of sinners. Or the Avenger, who punishes those who love sin.

DEVOTIONAL
He Stole My Future
(Isa. 60)
She was so vital. Even though she had two children, she seemed fresh and young—as if she were just out of school. She was successful too. The aerobic workshop she taught was adopted by our local pro football team. And on top of everything, she had a husband who loved her.
Then she hurt her back.
When the pain wouldn’t go away, she followed the advice of her doctor and had back surgery. In that surgery something terrible happened. Nerves were inadvertently cut. When she came out of surgery she learned that the pain would still be with her. And that she had lost bowel and bladder control. And lost the ability to even move about, except with a clumsy metal walker.
Desperately she went to the best hospitals in our state and to others. The doctors just shook their heads. There was nothing they could do. Not now. With the slip of the surgeon’s knife, he stole her future.
All too many of us know what it is to have our future stolen. The things we’ve planned and looked forward to can be taken by a loved one’s death. By a lost job. By an illness. By war, fire, or theft. There are no guarantees given to any of us for what tomorrow may hold.
But still, no one can really steal our future. Yes, people like that surgeon can steal tomorrow. But beyond tomorrow you and I have treasures that no one can touch. In the words of Isaiah, we look forward to a time when “the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory. Your sun will never set again, and your moon will wane no more; the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your days of sorrow will end.”
How good to remember when someone or some event steals tomorrow, that beyond tomorrow, our eternal future remains secure.

Personal Application
When looking ahead, be sure to look far enough to be secure.

Quotable
“Pity is one of the noblest emotions available to human beings; self-pity is possibly the most ignoble. Pity is the capacity to enter into the pain of another in order to do something about it; self-pity is an incapacity, a crippling emotional disease that severely distorts our perception of reality. Pity is adrenaline for acts of mercy; self-pity is a narcotic that leaves its addicts wasted and derelict.”—Eugene H. Peterson

GOD’S SERVANT
Isaiah 49–53

“It is too small a thing for you to be My servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring My salvation to the ends of the earth” (Isa. 49:6).

The portrait of Jesus found in these chapters of Isaiah is unmistakable. The description of His vicarious suffering is one of Scripture’s clearest explanations of the meaning of Jesus’ death.

Overview
The commission of the failed servant nation (49:1–4) is taken up by an Individual who will redeem and restore Israel (vv. 5–26). Equipped by Yahweh, this Servant will rely fully on the Lord (50:1–11). God will redeem Israel, as He cared for her in the past (51:1–52:12). But this will be accomplished only by the Suffering Servant’s death (v. 13–53:12).

Understanding the Text
“I have labored to no purpose” Isa. 49:4. The image in Hebrew is striking, if somewhat indelicate. As God’s servant Israel is compared to a distended and supposedly pregnant woman. She struggles in labor, but instead of a child, produces nothing but gas!
What an image of futility. God chose Israel, intending to display His splendor through her. Israel had failed completely in her role as a servant. Yet, as Isaiah developed the servant theme, we see that even so God will display His splendor in His Old Testament people. That splendor will not be seen in what they have done, but in what the Lord has done for them!
It’s the same with you and me. Our efforts to earn salvation are useless. Yet God has chosen to display His splendor and beauty in us. His splendor is not seen in what we do, but what God does for us in Jesus Christ.

“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast?” Isa. 49:5–26 The Servant of God will redeem Israel, and also will lead Gentiles to submit to the Lord.
While the emphasis in Isaiah 1–35 is on judgment, here the emphasis is clearly on the deep love God feels for both Gentile and Jew. Through His servant God will give the gift of salvation to all. Love has caused God to engrave His plans for the redeemed on the very “palms of My hands” (49:16).
This reference may not be to the nail prints Jesus bears today in His hands. Yet what a reminder. God was willing to pay the price of His deep love. We sense that love as we read Isaiah’s words:

Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne?
Though she may forget, I will not forget you (Isa. 49:15).

“The Sovereign LORD helps me” Isa. 50:1–11. According to Isaiah, one thing alone would enable God’s Servant to succeed where Israel failed. Where Israel rebelled, this Servant would be totally obedient.
The words of this passage awaken a deeper appreciation of Jesus and the life He lived on earth. He committed Himself to help His fellowman by obeying God completely. Only by relying on the Lord—by opening His ears and not being rebellious—was He able to win our salvation.
Isaiah’s major passages dealing with the Servant of the Lord are called Servant Songs. They speak primarily of Jesus and the life He lived here on earth. But they apply quite directly to you and me. We who have been redeemed are called to be God’s servants, as Jesus was (cf. Matt. 20:26–28). This passage tells us much about our own servant lifestyle.
We are to sustain the weary (v. 4a). To do this we must listen closely to the Lord (v. 4b), and obey rather than rebel against what He says (v. 5). The path of obedience is difficult, often exposing us to ridicule and even persecution (v. 6a). But we, like Jesus, must remain committed, and trust the Lord to vindicate us in the end (vv. 7–8).

“Look to Abraham, your father” Isa. 51:1–52:12. The past is always intended to give us comfort. We can look back on times of pain, and on tragedy. But we can also find evidence of God’s love.
History is in fact designed to give God’s people hope when things seem most desperate. Isaiah paused in his look ahead to the day of God’s Servant, to direct the thoughts of his hearers back to their roots. The saints (51:1) were urged to remember Abraham. God kept His promise to Abraham and from one childless man He produced a vast people (v. 2). Surely the Lord will “comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins.”
You and I have roots too. Ours grip that historic moment when Christ died, only to be raised again. God who promised Jesus’ resurrection, and who has kept His promise to give us new life in Him, will surely bless us as well.
Christians do debate the meaning of the promises in Old Testament books like Isaiah. Are they intended literally, to be fulfilled in the Jewish people when Christ returns? Or are they intended spiritually, images of the blessings that are ours now in our Lord? Whatever our interpretation, we can agree on the application of passages like this one. What God has done in the past—His utter faithfulness to His promises—gives us hope for tomorrow. Joy is destined for Zion’s people, and when the Lord returns they will:

Burst into songs of joy together, you ruins of Jerusalem, for the LORD has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem (Isa. 52:9).

For ancient Jew and modern Christian both, “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, ’Your God reigns!’ ” (Isa. 52:7)

“He was crushed for our iniquities” Isa. 52:13–53:12. Just how clear is it that these verses speak of Jesus Christ? When I was in the Navy one of my friends was a Jewish sailor named Gershom Magin. I remember one day asking him to listen to me read a passage of Scripture, and challenging him to tell me if it was from the Old Testament or New Testament, and who it was about. I then read Isaiah 53. Immediately Magin said, “That’s in the New Testament. And it’s about Jesus.”
Gershom couldn’t believe it when I showed him that the passage was in the Old Testament, and that it was written about Israel’s Messiah. The description was just too powerful and too clear for there to be any doubt that the prophet is speaking about the Saviour, dying on a cross some 700 years after his own time.

DEVOTIONAL
Holy of Holies
(Isa. 52:13–53:11)
There’s something awe-inspiring about holy places.
Moses was told to take off his shoes; he was standing on holy ground. The Jerusalem temple was holy; only by passing the altar of sacrifice could one approach. And then, inside the temple, beyond its outer room, was the holiest place of all—the holy of holies. There only the high priest might go, and then only once a year, bearing the blood of a sacrifice offered for his own sin and for the sin of the people. No one rushes boldly, thoughtlessly, into any truly holy place.
It is with just this same sense of awe that we must open the Old Testament to Isaiah 52:13–53:12. This is holy ground: the Great Architect’s blueprint of history’s ultimate holy of holies. Here we see with total clarity the plan and the purpose of God in Christ’s sufferings—and here we sense the anguish Jesus knew.
Read the verses. See the Servant of God, so battered and disfigured He hardly seems human anymore. Live with Him as He is despised and rejected by men. Watch Him take up our iniquities and be pierced for our transgressions. See the blood flow as His life is crushed from Him, as from a sin offering. And realize that He chose this fate, that by His wounds we might be healed.
Why did Jesus die? The answer is here, in the Old Testament’s holy of holies. He died to pay for our iniquities, that we might be saved.
Reading these ancient words we can only bow our heads and worship. They bring us into the very presence of our God. They themselves have become holy ground.

Personal Application
Read this passage with reverence and awe.

Quotable
“The whole life of Christ was a continual passion; others die martyrs but Christ was born a martyr. He found a Golgotha even in Bethlehem, where He was born; for to His tenderness then the straws were almost as sharp as the thorns after, and the manger as uneasy at first as His cross at the last. His birth and His death were but one continual act, and His Christmas Day and His Good Friday are but the evening and morning of one and the same day.”—John Donne

COMFORT
Isaiah 40–48

“Announce this with shouts of joy and proclaim it. Send it out to the ends of the earth; say, ’The LORD has redeemed His servant Jacob’ ” (Isa. 48:20).

Hope for us as for ancient Israel rests entirely on the incomparable nature of our God.

Background
The historical section in Isaiah 36–39 closes with the account of Isaiah’s denunciation of Hezekiah for welcoming Babylon’s envoys. These chapters serve to illustrate Isaiah 1–35. But they also serve as a bridge introducing us to Isaiah 40–66. For suddenly Isaiah seemed catapulted a hundred years ahead in time. The Babylonian invasion was past, and the Jews were captives in a strange land. Yet Isaiah spoke words of comfort, confidently describing the destruction of Babylon and the salvation of God’s people. The nation will yet be redeemed, and God’s purposes in His people will be fulfilled.
The theory that one or more different persons wrote the second half of Isaiah is rooted in the viewpoint of chapters 40–66. In the first half of Isaiah, Assyria is the main enemy, and the prophet’s message is a grim oracle of judgment. In chapters 40–66 Babylon, which has conquered Judah, is about to be judged, and Cyrus, her Persian conqueror, is named. Rather than the darkness of impending judgment, these later chapters are bright with the confident hope of restoration.
Yet the idea that Isaiah wrote both sections poses no great problem for those who take a repeated message found in chapters 40–66 seriously. The God who spoke through Isaiah is fully able to “declare to us the things to come” and to “tell us what the future holds” (41:22–23; 45:21). Speaking by the Spirit of God Isaiah, like other ancient Hebrew prophets, was transported beyond his own time. His words of comfort and hope were rooted in the sure conviction of what God would do, not what He had already done.
Some of the most powerful and exalted passages in the entire Bible are found in these chapters of comfort. These passages can fill us too with hope. They remind us as they reminded ancient Israel of just how wonderful and how loving our God is.

Overview
Judah’s sovereign Lord intends good for His people (40:1–31). God, not the idols worshiped by the nations, controls the future (41:1–29). Though Israel failed its national calling as God’s servant, One from the nation will fulfill God’s purpose (42:1–25) when the Creator acts to redeem His chosen people (43:1–44:25). As evidence, God will appoint one named Cyrus to restore Jerusalem (v. 26–45:25). Oppressive Babylon will be crushed, and God’s word of blessing for Israel will be fulfilled (46:1–48:22).

Understanding the Text
“Here is your God” Isa. 40:1–31. The first time I traveled in the western America, I couldn’t believe the sky. It seemed so big. I had to keep looking to the left and right to take it all in.
This is something like Isaiah’s treatment here of God. He is so big, Isaiah has us look to the left and the right to try to take Him in. Looking left, Isaiah described a God “enthroned above the circle of the earth” to whom the nations seem “like a drop in a bucket” (vv. 6–26). Looking left, we are simply overwhelmed by the awesome greatness of God’s power and mighty strength.
Then Isaiah has us look right, and we see the Creator stoop down to touch the individual, and give “strength to the weary.” Because ours is a God who not only creates but who also cares, “Those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint” (vv. 27–31).

“Here is My servant, whom I uphold” Isa. 42:1–25. There are two “servants” in Isaiah. One is Israel (cf. vv. 8–10), which failed to accomplish God’s purpose. The other, introduced here, is the Messiah. This Servant, who is to come from God’s failed servant, “will bring forth justice; He will not falter or be discouraged till He establishes justice on earth” (v. 4).
As a “covenant for the people” this Servant will Himself be the foundation on which Israel will build its future—a future which includes salvation for the Gentiles as well as the descendants of Abraham (vv. 6–7).
In context Isaiah’s message about the coming Servant of the Lord is intended for comfort and hope. But it is also a challenge. God’s Old Testament people were called to do justice, and by holy living to be “a light for the Gentiles.” In fact, every believer of every age is to be just this kind of servant of the Lord. We must do justice, live holy lives, and bring the light of a hope that releases “from the [spiritual] dungeon those who sit in darkness” (v. 7).
Jesus has fulfilled God’s commission as “the” Servant of the Lord. Now you and I are called to be servants too.

“Fear not, for I have redeemed you” Isa. 43:1–28. Like other chapters in this section, Isaiah 43 is rich in verses that invite memorization. Here are a few from this chapter, crafted to comfort us.

Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze (vv. 1–2).

I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions, for My own sake, and remembers your sins no more (v. 25).

“I will raise up Cyrus” Isa. 45:1–25. One of the basic sources of comfort for the believer is the conviction that God is in complete control of events.
The theme is illustrated by God’s act in naming Cyrus, long before his birth, and announcing that Cyrus will be given a “title of honor, though you do not acknowledge Me” (vv. 1–7). Whether or not the great ones of our present world honor God, He alone is the source of their existence and position.
The theme is demonstrated by Creation. The universe knows only one all-powerful Being, who “made the earth and created mankind upon it” (vv. 8–17). Surely the Creator has full power to mold those who are works of His hands into whatever form He chooses.
The theme is confirmed by God’s unique self-existence. In a universe in which men worship idols, there is “none but Me” who is able to save, who utters a word “that will not be revoked,” and who will ultimately receive the homage of all (vv. 18–25).
God is in control of world events—and of the days of our lives. Because He is, and because the Lord is “a righteous God and a Saviour” (v. 21), we face the future with confidence and hope.

“I foretold the former things long ago” Isa. 48:3–8. Some people will always try to drain religion of the supernatural. It was true in Isaiah’s day, and it’s true in our day as well. We can almost hear frustration in the prophet’s voice as God spoke to Judah through him: “I foretold the former things long ago, My mouth announced them and I made them known; then suddenly I acted, and they came to pass. . . . You have heard these things; look at them all. Will you not admit them?”
There is no more compelling evidence for the supernatural origin and authority of the Scriptures than fulfilled prophecy. Time and time again the Bible records the prediction of some prophet—and hundreds or thousands of years later what is predicted is fulfilled in detail. Yet, time and time again, some struggle to find excuses not to admit what God has said and done.
The skeptic finds no comfort in Scripture because he or she will not believe in an all-powerful God who acts in the world of men. The believer rejoices and finds a firm foundation of his or her hope.

“Your peace would have been like a river” Isa. 48:17–22. The person who fails to trust God’s Word completely forfeits more than comfort. He or she forfeits peace. God said through Isaiah, “I am the LORD your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go.” He added, “If only you had paid attention” then “your peace would have been like a river.”
The person who abandons confidence in the Word of God will soon abandon God’s commands as well. When that happens, he or she will discover that “there is no peace,” says the Lord, “for the wicked.”
Trust in God’s Word is not simply an intellectual issue. It is one of the pivotal issues of faith and life.

DEVOTIONAL
Bigger Than Me
(Isa. 44)
This chapter contains the Bible’s classic exposé of idolatry. It pictures a workman forging an idol of metal or carving it from wood. And it ridicules the idol-maker, who sees no contradiction in burning half the wood of a tree he cut down to cook his food, and then praying to the remaining block of wood, “Save me; you are my god.”
But the idol-maker is ridiculous. He wants someone or something to save him. But he chooses something he himself has made to serve as a god. “Give me a god,” the idol-maker seems to say. “But don’t give me a god bigger than me. Give me a god I can control: one I can make out of a tree I cut down; one I can shape to suit myself.”
In biblical times evidence of idolatry lay all around. You could see and touch the metal or wooden figures of the gods. Today we like to think man has progressed beyond idolatry. But in fact, the very same attitude dominates the thinking of many in this “scientific” age.
No, we don’t have metal or wooden figures. But we do have computers. We do have spaceships. We do have hydrogen bombs and rockets. We have many such works of our own hands, and all too often humanity says to these things man himself has created, “Save me. Save me. I’m counting on you to deliver me.”
And then God’s Word comes to our generation. He reminds us that our craftsmen too “are nothing but men.” To have confidence in things that we have made is the essence of idolatry. It is to exchange hope in the living God for hope in dumb, silent works of our own hands.
Mankind does want gods. But gods that are under human control. When we meet the God of Scripture, we meet a God who is bigger than we. Then we abandon our attempts to control Him—and joyfully submit to the loving-kindness and the guidance of a living God.

Personal Application
An idol is anything less than God that you expect to save you.

Quotable
“The calves of Jeroboam still remain in the world, and will remain to the last day; not that any man now makes calves like Jeroboam’s, but upon whatsoever a man depends or trusts—God set aside—this is the calves of Jeroboam, that is, other and strange gods, honored and worshiped instead of the only, true, living, and eternal God, who only can and will help and comfort in time of need. In like manner also, all such as rely and depend upon their art, wisdom, strength, sanctity, riches, honor, power, or anything else, under what title or name soever, on which the world builds, make and worship the calves of Jeroboam.”—Martin Luther