Produce your cause, saith Jehovah; bring forward your arguments, saith the King of Jacob.
God has been summoning the nations to a hearing, and now He turns to their idols and tells them to argue their own case. It reads like a legal summons, and the One who issues it signs it with the name of a family on earth.
The challenge follows what God has just announced about the future, and it puts the idols to the same test.
The LORD has foretold the judgment coming upon the idolatrous nations, and the future blessing of restored Israel. In view of these dealings in judgment and grace, the LORD now challenges the Gentiles and their idols. Can their idols foretell what will happen in the future, or show what has happened in the past? Indeed, can they do anything, good or evil?
God does not just call Himself the Almighty. He signs the summons with the name of the people He rules. (The quote below uses an older wording of the verse.)
In this renewed challenge, which again points to Cyrus, though he is still unnamed, the test of prediction becomes as definite as it can be. "Bring forward your arguments, says the King of Jacob." What a witness to the Israel of that future day, that He is not ashamed to acknowledge them!
Of all the things God could demand, He asks the idols for prediction.
Nothing proves divine intelligence more clearly than telling what is to come. This is the main challenge the Old Testament makes to the false gods. No wonder it left them speechless, however loudly they had claimed before to give out oracles. As long as it was only a matter of puzzling those who asked, they could deceive with answers that pointed two ways. But Isaiah, in the sharpest and severest style, shows they were completely unable to reveal the future.
The reason lies in what God is. Time does not stand over Him as it stands over us.
With us there is a yesterday, today, and tomorrow, but with God the most distant future is as vivid and well known as the present.
No answer comes back, so God gives the verdict Himself — on the images, and on the people who chose them.
God Himself answers the challenge. These idols are "less than nothing" and their work "nought", and the man that puts his trust in them is an abomination in the sight of the LORD.
The same challenge has been thrown down in a Gentile king's court. Twice men took it up, and twice it ended the same way.
Who will enter the arena against the LORD of Hosts? Who will pick up the gauntlet of the Almighty, thrown down in the courts of the Gentile ruler? The magicians of Egypt tried their venture with Him in the courts of Ham, and suffered a humiliating defeat in front of their sovereign. Nearly six hundred years later, four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal entered the contest against one lone servant of the Lord on the top of Mount Carmel. They were shamefully defeated, and at the brook Kishon they fell under the righteous judgment their sin deserved.
God asked the idols to name what is coming. Then He names it Himself.
Then the "King of Jacob" challenges the nations, and, by the hand of Cyrus (as an example), destroys the power of idolatry. He gives "good tidings to Jerusalem."
The test God set here was small next to what Scripture goes on to deliver.
Here the challenge was beyond any follower of a false god to take up, though the demand was small compared with the prophecy of Scripture. No man could choose to speak even once about a future person or event. But the prophecies God gave by His own intent are each part of one immense web that He has woven. Traced on it, and never to be erased, is His purpose to glorify the One who gave up the glory that belonged to Him as God, so that He might become man.
- Summons — God opens a court case against the idols, just after He promises judgment on the nations and blessing for Israel.
- Signature — He signs it "King of Jacob". He is not ashamed to own the people whose idols He is confronting.
- Test — The one proof He demands is prediction. Nothing proves divine intelligence more clearly.
- Silence — The idols cannot answer. God's verdict: they are nothing, and trusting them makes a person an abomination.
- Answer — God fills the silence Himself. He names a coming conqueror and good news for Jerusalem, part of one web that leads to Christ.
Let them bring them forward, and declare to us what shall happen shew the former things, what they are, that we may give attention to them, and know the end of them; -- or let us hear things to come
God speaks here like a judge opening a court. The defendants are the idols of the nations. Let them state their case and prove they are gods. The one test He sets is knowledge of time: explain the past, or announce the future.
One writer links the challenge to the invader God says He will raise up from the north and east later in the chapter.
The LORD then renews His challenge to the Gentiles and their idols. But now He speaks with even greater contempt — and rightly so — for their trust in a thing of nothing. Again He bases His appeal on what they do not know: the scourge of idolatry who would come from the north and east.
One writer sets the challenge against what God had just announced: judgment on the nations, and blessing for Israel.
The LORD has foretold the judgment coming on the nations that worship idols, and the future blessing of restored Israel. In view of these dealings in judgment and grace, the LORD now challenges the Gentiles and their idols. Can their idols foretell what will happen in the future, or show what has happened in the past? Indeed, can they do anything, good or evil?
No answer comes back. Two verses later God gives the verdict Himself, and it falls on the worshipper as well as the image.
God Himself answers the challenge. These idols are "less than nothing" and their work "nothing", and the man who puts his trust in them is an abomination in the sight of the LORD.
One writer applies the test to Nineveh. The prophet Nahum foretold that city's ruin a century before it came.
Who told Nahum about the great disaster? Many in our time reject the very principle. But if God is God, it is as easy for Him to speak of the future as of the present. This was His challenge to the gods of the nations.
One writer weighs this small demand against the whole sweep of Scripture's prophecies, and says what they are all woven around.
Here the challenge was beyond any worshipper of a false god to take up, though the demand was small compared with the prophecy of Scripture. It was beyond man's will to speak even in an isolated way of a future person or event. But the predictions God gives by His own intent are each part of an immense web He has woven. On that web He has permanently traced one purpose: to glorify Him who gave up the glory that was His as divine. He gave it up so that He might become man, and by His death and resurrection reconcile the most clashing principles and join the most opposed persons.
Jesus told His disciples He was going away before it happened. One writer sends the reader straight back to these verses.
"And now I have told you before it takes place" — that is, this great truth about His going away to His Father. This telling beforehand was evidence of truth. Compare Isaiah 41:22-23. So too all the sorrows that seem to go against us end up confirming faith. Things that seem to discredit our hope turn out to prove the truth and strength of our hope in the Lord.
God rests His case on prediction, so believers need not fear strict tests. Kelly quotes a sceptic's own four conditions and accepts them.
No believer need shrink from the demand of a well-known sceptic in his book The Creed of Christendom. He asks us to show: (1) what event the alleged prediction meant to point to; (2) that someone spoke the prediction in specific, not vague, language before the event; (3) that the event happened exactly, not loosely, as predicted; (4) that no human shrewdness could have foreseen it.
- Challenge. God renews His case against the idols. He bases it on something they know nothing about: the invader He will raise up from the north and east.
- Test. The examination has two parts: explain the past and where it leads, or announce the future.
- Silence. No answer comes, so God gives the verdict: the idols are less than nothing, and the one who trusts them is an abomination.
- Proof. If God is God, speaking of the future costs Him no more than speaking of the present. That is why prophecy settles the question.
- Faith. Jesus gave His disciples the same evidence. He told them beforehand, so that when it happened it would confirm their faith instead of shaking it.
declare the things that are to happen hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods; yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be astonished, and behold it together.
Isaiah 41 puts the idols of the nations on trial and asks them to prove their claim to be gods: tell the past, tell the future, or at least do something. Only one Being can pass that test, and the silence that follows settles the case.
The challenge is not random. It follows what the Lord has already announced about the nations and about His own people, and it asks the idols to match that record.
(Vv. 21–23). The LORD has foretold the judgment coming on the idol-worshipping nations. He has also foretold the future blessing of a restored Israel. In view of these dealings in judgment and grace, the LORD now challenges the Gentiles and their idols. Can their idols foretell what will happen in the future, or show what has happened in the past? Indeed, can they do anything, good or evil?
The clause "that we may know that you are gods" makes prediction the deciding proof. Knowing what has not yet happened marks out a divine mind.
This is a side point, but it matters greatly for the subject we are looking at. Nothing proves divine intelligence more clearly than telling the future. This is the challenge the Old Testament mainly brings to the false gods. No wonder it left them silent, however loudly they had once claimed to speak messages about what was coming. As long as it was only a matter of confusing those who asked, they could deceive with answers that could mean two things. But Isaiah, in the sharpest and severest language, shows they were completely powerless to reveal the future.
Vague answers can survive questioning. No one can fake a future named in advance.
The demand then drops as low as it can go. If the idols cannot speak, let them act — help or hurt, anything that would leave the watchers dismayed. Nothing happens, so God gives the verdict Himself.
(V. 24). God, Himself, answers the challenge. These idols are "less than nothing" and their work is nothing, and the person who trusts in them is an abomination in the sight of the LORD.
God does not treat the worshipper as simply mistaken. He judges him along with the thing he chose.
Even one accurate prediction would have won the idols their case. What Scripture does goes far past that low bar.
Here was a challenge that no worshipper of a false god could take up, though the demand was small compared with the prophecy of Scripture. No man could, of his own will, speak even once of a future person or event. But the prophecies God meant to give are each part of a vast web that He has woven. Traced on it, and never to be erased, is His purpose of glorifying the One who gave up the glory that was His as God, so that He might become man and, by His death and resurrection, reconcile the most clashing principles and unite the most opposed people.
Scripture's predictions are not scattered lucky guesses. They interlock, and they centre on one Person.
The Lord Himself gives what the idols could not, and He goes on giving it.
"Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them" (Isa. 42:9). True prophecy is His claim; and it is an abiding one.
The reason lies in what God is, not only in what He knows.
Who knows the future but God! With us there is a yesterday, today, and tomorrow, but with God the most distant future is as vivid and well known as the present. He is the great I am (Ex. 3:14), "who calls into existence the things that do not exist" (Rom. 4:17).
The same evidence that silenced the idols is available to anyone weighing whether the Bible came from God.
One of the strongest proofs that the Bible is inspired is the way its prophecies have come true. No mind, however far-seeing, can look into the coming centuries and say what they will bring. The Bible is the only book in the world that sets out to prophesy, and its prophecies have come true to the letter. That proves it was not written only by men like ourselves. A Divine Mind inspired it all.
- Challenge. God calls the idols into court. He asks them to tell the future, explain the past, or just act — do good or harm, anything at all.
- Test. Telling what has not yet happened is the mark of a divine mind. False gods could bluff with vague answers, but none could reveal the future.
- Silence. The idols neither speak nor move. So God gives the verdict Himself: they are less than nothing, and the one who trusts them is an abomination.
- Answer. The Lord gives what they could not. He declares new things before they appear, because to Him the most distant future is as clear as today.
- Proof. His fulfilled predictions form one connected web, woven around Christ. They stand today as evidence that the Bible came from a mind above our own.
Behold, ye are less than nothing, and your work is of nought; an abomination is he that chooseth you. ...
This chapter reads like a courtroom. God calls the gods of the nations to prove that they are gods. Verse 24 is the verdict handed down when they cannot — and it falls not only on the idols but on the person who picks them.
Just before this verse God set the idols an easy test. Say what will happen. Explain what has already happened. Or simply act — do good, do evil, do anything. Nothing comes back, so God answers His own challenge.
God Himself answers the challenge. These idols are "less than nothing" and their work is nothing, and the man who puts his trust in them is an abomination in the sight of the LORD.
The sentence does not stop at the idol. God names the chooser along with the thing chosen.
Why make foretelling the test? No human will and no false god can name one future event. And God's prophecies are never single guesses.
Here the challenge was more than any worshipper of a false god could take up, though what God asked was small compared with the prophecy of Scripture. No man's will could speak even one isolated word about a future person or event. But the prophecies God gives are each part of a vast web that He has woven. Traced on that web, and never to be erased, is His purpose to glorify the One who gave up the glory that was His as God, so that He might become man. By His death and resurrection He would bring together the principles that clash most sharply, and join the people most opposed to each other.
God has issued this challenge before. One writer recalls two earlier contests, and how they ended.
Who will enter the arena against the LORD of Hosts? Who will pick up the challenge that the Almighty throws down in the court of a Gentile king? The magicians of Egypt tried their strength against Him in their own land, and were shamefully defeated in front of their ruler. Nearly six hundred years later, four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal took the field against one lone servant of the Lord on the top of Mount Carmel. They were shamed and beaten, and then fell under the righteous judgment their sin deserved, at the brook Kishon.
The verdict reaches the worshipper because of what the choice does to him. A prop meant to help devotion ends up standing between the man and the God he wanted to reach.
The oracles have nothing to say, and reason itself is put to shame. There is nothing but senseless folly in men calling things gods that could neither speak nor hear… Human aids to devotion are the death-bed of faith. By his own inventions, now as in the past, man only succeeds in shutting himself out from the living God. Man's unbelief seals up in darkness both the mercy God reveals in His word and His judgements.
The word "abomination" does not only cover carved images. It also covers what our own culture admires most.
The pursuit of gain, the desire to have more, the spirit of business, the skill to make money, the drive to get on — all this is so "exalted among men" that very few are ready to see that it really is "an abomination in the sight of God." Men's thoughts shape the natural heart. It loves, adores and worships the objects that it finds in this world; and each heart has its own idol. One worships gold, another worships pleasure, another worships power. Every unconverted man is an idolater.
The chapter does not end with the idols in ruins. After showing them to be empty, God turns to Zion with something they could never give.
The One who is the First (compare verse 4) calls Zion to look at these idols in all their helplessness, and then, in contrast, to remember that the LORD will give to Zion One who will bring good news. Among the idolaters there was no man who could give advice, or who, when challenged, "could answer a word". Their idols are worthless, mere "wind and emptiness".
- Challenge. God asks the idols to foretell, or just to act — do good, do evil, anything. Their silence is the answer. Verse 24 is the sentence.
- Nothing. The idols are nothing and their work is less than nothing (older translations put the two the other way round). Trust placed in them is worth as little.
- Chooser. The verdict includes the worshipper. Whoever chooses such a god becomes an abomination himself.
- Ourselves. The idol may be gold, pleasure or power. Every heart has one, and it shuts the person out from the living God.
- Contrast. No idol can answer a word. God answers, giving Zion One who brings good news.
I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come, -- from the rising of the sun, he who will call upon my name; and he shall come upon princes as on mortar, and as the potter treadeth clay.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.