Thus saith Jehovah to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him -- and I will loose the loins of kings; to open before him the two-leaved doors, and the gates shall not be shut
God names a foreign emperor here, generations before his birth, and gives him a title that belonged to Israel's own kings. How can a pagan conqueror be the Lord's anointed, and why does God take hold of his right hand?
The title given to Cyrus is the word used for Israel's kings and for the promised King. One writer shows how unusual this case is:
The term "Messiah" means the anointed one. Scripture uses it for those marked out in that way for the kingly or other office. Isaiah calls Cyrus, king of Persia, the anointed of the Lord (Isa. 45:1). But this case is exceptional. Cyrus was anointed for the special purpose of subduing Babylon, and he is named. Ordinarily the anointed ones were those called to rule in Israel. Above all, promise and prophecy apply the term to Him who would be anointed by the Spirit of God to be the Prince of Peace.
The conqueror marches, but another hand guides him. What this verse describes came true in detail:
Verses 1-3 came true in striking detail, as the book of Daniel records, though Darius the Mede is the conqueror named there. He commanded the Medo-Persian army, but the rising power of Cyrus the Persian lay behind him. As we read these verses, we see Belshazzar, and "his limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together" (Dan. 5:6). We see the great gates of Babylon open and broken. Then, because the great city has fallen, "the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places" are in the hands of Cyrus.
The city that had swallowed God's people was itself the target. The blow fell on its religion as much as on its walls:
If the Babylonian captivity of Judah was God's chastening of their idolatry by means of the chief patron of idols on earth, the fall of Babylon was a tremendous blow to its own idolatry, predicted as it was by the Jewish prophet long before either event.
Isaiah wrote this generations before Cyrus lived. Commentators point to an earlier case of the same kind, and to how Cyrus reacted when he read his own name:
Cyrus' name is mentioned long before his time. This is one of hundreds of examples in the Word of God which prove that God declares the end from the beginning (Isa. 46:10)… The man of God out of Judah named King Josiah in front of King Jeroboam, around 300 years before Josiah ever lived (1 Kings 13:2)… The Jewish author Flavius Josephus writes that the Persian king Cyrus read Isaiah's words about him with astonishment. He then gave the command for the return of the Jews (Ezra 1:1-4).
Some critics date the chapter later, saying the writer watched these events unfold. One writer answers them directly:
Proof there is none. The reasoning simply assumes that Isaiah could not be the prophet. It rests on the references to Cyrus' Medo-Persian career, the overthrow of Chaldean idolatry, the fall of Babylon, and the return. These, it argues, show a writer who knew of these momentous events as though they were about to happen, the earlier of them already a fact. That is, to any upright mind the critical hypothesis insinuates fraud.
The reason for the call has nothing to do with Persia's greatness:
Long before Cyrus was born, God gave him his title, though Cyrus did not know the Lord. In His providence God used him as His shepherd and His anointed. He was called to overthrow idolatry, which was such a snare to Israel. He was chosen "for Jacob My servant's sake, and Israel My elect" (Isa. 45:1-4). Through him God taught Israel how powerless idols are.
The title does not make Cyrus a believer. The distinction matters:
In Cyrus we do not see the power of faith. Nebuchadnezzar was the executor of God's work, and in the same way Cyrus is the minister of His mercy to bring the Jew back to the land… God is able to make the world confess His power and authority. Be that as it may, God calls Cyrus by name. He calls him His shepherd, His anointed, though Cyrus had not known God (Isa. 44:28; 45:4), and this only in view of the work God had called him to. The point is not what Cyrus was personally, but his work.
Cyrus also pictures a greater deliverer, though only faintly:
It is evident that the measure in which Cyrus prefigures this mighty deliverer is small. Still, I have no doubt that God had all this in view. In His own wonderful way He was pleased to send out such a call by Cyrus king of Persia… We know how truly this will be the case with Christ. He is really the righteous man whom Cyrus set forth in a very small measure.
- Named — God names a man long before his birth, just as He named Josiah 300 years before that king lived.
- Held — God grasps the conqueror's right hand. Kings lose their strength and Babylon's gates stand open, exactly as the verse said.
- Anointed — a foreign king carries the title Israel's kings held. God gave it for one task, not for the man's faith.
- For Israel — God raised Cyrus up for Jacob's sake, to break the idolatry that had trapped His people.
- A shadow — on a small scale, Cyrus points to Christ, the greater Anointed One and mighty deliverer.
I will go before thee, and make the elevated places plain; I will break in pieces the brazen doors, and cut asunder the bars of iron;
God speaks here to Cyrus, a Persian king. Cyrus would not be born for another century and a half. Yet God promises to clear his road to Babylon before he ever sets out. Two questions follow. What happened when those bronze doors fell? And why would the God of Israel pledge Himself to a man who did not know Him?
The promise belongs to a military campaign. One commentator explains what the levelled ground and shattered gates meant:
The LORD foretells the victorious career of Cyrus, the Persian king. God was going to use him to subdue the nations that had persecuted His people. This judgment would especially fall upon Babylon, the first great world empire during the times of the Gentiles, that had held the people of God in captivity. Under the siege of Babylon the bronze gates of the city would be broken in pieces, and the bars of iron cut apart. Kings would go weak with terror, and their hidden riches would be uncovered.
The name itself is part of the point. One writer sees it as proof that God announces the end from the beginning:
Cyrus is named long before his time. This is one of hundreds of examples in the Word of God which prove that God declares the end from the beginning (Is. 46:10)… A man of God from Judah named king Josiah in front of king Jeroboam, about 300 years before Josiah lived (1 Kings 13:2)… The Jewish writer Flavius Josephus says that Cyrus read what Isaiah had said about him with astonishment. He then gave the command for the Jews to return (Ezra 1:1-4).
Some critics say Isaiah could not have written these words. One writer answers that the objection is not scholarship but unbelief:
The critics make silly and arbitrary restrictions. They say Isaiah could not have written certain passages, because the subject was beyond his horizon. They say he could not have named Cyrus, the Persian king, over 150 years before he was born. Such claims spring from the subtle unbelief at the bottom of destructive criticism, which denies the supernatural altogether.
The gates were real, and so was the way they fell. One writer describes how Babylon's defences gave way:
In the case of Babylon, a gate of the city was opened. We know the splendid description of it in Isaiah, with its doors of bronze and bars of iron, which must yield to righteousness from the east. God called Cyrus to His foot, and gave kings as the dust of his sword, as driven stubble to his bow. When the moment came, the difficulty vanished. The Persians entered the imperial city through the dried bed of the Euphrates, which had been turned into another channel. So the doors were opened for the rest, when the drunken guards were killed.
Every verb in the verse is God's: He goes, He levels, He breaks, He cuts. Cyrus is the instrument, and his personal standing before God is not what the passage is settling:
In Cyrus we do not see the power of faith. Just as Nebuchadnezzar carried out God's work, so Cyrus is the servant of His mercy to bring the Jew back to the land… God is able to make the world confess His power and authority. Even so, God calls Cyrus by name. He calls him God's shepherd, His anointed, though Cyrus had not known God (Isa. 44:28; Isa. 45:4), and this only because of the work God had called him to. The point is not what Cyrus was personally, but his work.
The road was cleared for someone else's benefit. One writer names who that was:
Long before he was born, God surnamed Cyrus, though he did not know Jehovah… God called him to overthrow idolatry, which was such a snare to Israel. He was chosen "for Jacob My servant's sake, and Israel Mine elect" (Isa. 45:1-4). By him God taught Israel that idols are powerless.
Some have used the shattered bronze as a picture of the place of the dead. One writer answers that this misses the setting:
It is a mistake to cite the poetic parts of Scripture which treat of the deliverance of God's people on earth. The "doors of bronze" and "the bars of iron" (Isaiah 45:2) certainly refer to Babylon. They do not refer to the presence of the Lord, where the spirits of departed saints are.
Yet the rescue points past itself:
This unmatched return of the Jew from Babylon is clearly only the shadow of an everlasting salvation. That salvation is not yet Israel's. Then idols and their worshippers will be in the dust, and in Jehovah all Israel will be justified and will glory.
- Named — God calls Cyrus by name a century and a half before his birth. He named Josiah to Jeroboam three centuries early.
- Used — the man God uses does not yet know Him. His standing is not the issue; his commission is.
- Cleared — God goes first, and Babylon's bronze gates give way when the moment comes.
- For Jacob's sake — the whole campaign is run for the sake of God's people and to expose idols as powerless.
- A shadow — the return from Babylon is real history, and still only a picture of the everlasting salvation yet to come.
and I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places; that thou mayest know that I, Jehovah, who call thee by name, [am] the God of Israel.
God names a foreign conqueror here and promises him the buried wealth of a city he has not yet attacked. Two questions follow: how could God name a man before he was born, and why hand hidden treasure to someone who had never worshipped Him?
God speaks to a king who would not be born for generations. One commentator notes a hint that the prophecy later reached him:
Here then is a remarkable prophecy. It came true, word for word, within two hundred years of when it was spoken. God called him by his name, and gave him a title, though Cyrus had not known Him. Yet Cyrus made a decree, recorded in 2 Chronicles 36:23 and again in Ezra 1:2. Its words make it likely that Isaiah's prophecy somehow reached him.
Another writer sees nothing strange in this, and points to a second case:
What could be more fitting than to proclaim the name of Cyrus at this point? In the same way, the man of God out of Judah named Josiah at Jeroboam's altar in Bethel (1 Kings 13:2), more than three centuries before the event.
The treasures of darkness were Babylon's wealth, stored out of sight. One writer ties the promise to the night Babylon fell, and to what happened to the temple vessels:
As we read these verses, we see Belshazzar, and "his limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together" (Dan. 5:6). We see the great gates of Babylon open and broken. Then Babylon falls, and "the treasures of darkness and the hoards in secret places" are in the hands of Cyrus. We see here a reference to the vessels of the house of the LORD. Nebuchadnezzar had carried them to Babylon, and Ezra 1:7-11 records their return.
The plunder was also a judgment. Another writer names its target:
The LORD foretells the victorious career of Cyrus, the Persian king. God was going to use him to subdue the nations that had persecuted His people. This judgment would fall above all on Babylon, which had held the people of God in captivity. Babylon was the first great world empire of the times of the Gentiles.
Cyrus is named and handed treasure, none of it for his own faith. One writer sets out what he was and was not:
In Cyrus we do not see the power of faith. Nebuchadnezzar carried out God's work, and in the same way Cyrus is the servant of His mercy to bring the Jews back to the land. In himself he is ahead of Nebuchadnezzar. In Ezra 1:2 and the verses after it, he says that the LORD God had given him the kingdoms of the earth, and a charge to build the house at Jerusalem. Was this confession of God's sovereignty the fruit of faith leading to salvation? That is another matter. God is able to make the world confess His power and authority. Either way, God calls Cyrus by name. He calls him God's shepherd and His anointed, though Cyrus had not known God (Isa. 44:28; Isa. 45:4). This was only in view of what God had called him to. The point is not what Cyrus was in himself, but his work.
The treasure is not a reward. It is a lesson with a stated aim. Commentators differ on whether Cyrus ever learned it. One writer thinks the promise itself hints at the answer:
In Isaiah 45 God says to Cyrus, "I name you, though you do not know Me." Daniel's vision shows him at one point in his career; later than that, he may have come into the light of the knowledge of the Lord. This thought gets some support from what God says to him about his attack on Babylon and its capture.
Cyrus's own decree shows what he did acknowledge:
Cyrus, like the kings of Persia who followed him, hated idols. He acknowledged the God of Israel as "the God of the heavens". In his decree he insists above all that "He is God" (Ezra 1:3).
The release from Babylon was real, but it was not the last word:
Yet this unmatched return of the Jews from Babylon is just as clearly only the shadow of an everlasting salvation, one that is not yet Israel's. It will come when idols and their worshippers are in the dust, and when in the LORD all Israel will be justified and will glory. Then every knee will bow to Him and every tongue will swear (Isa. 45:23).
- Named — God named Cyrus generations before his birth. The prophecy came true within two hundred years, and the decree in Ezra 1:2 suggests it later reached him.
- Used — The point was never what Cyrus was in himself. It was the work God called him to. God can use a man who does not yet know Him.
- Given — The treasures of darkness were Babylon's hidden wealth. What changed hands included the temple vessels Nebuchadnezzar had carried off.
- Knowing — The gift had a stated aim: that Cyrus would know the LORD, the God of Israel. He confessed Him as the God of heaven; whether he came to true faith is another matter.
- Beyond — The return from Babylon was only a shadow. An everlasting salvation is still to come, when every knee will bow to Him.
For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I have called thee by thy name; I surnamed thee, though thou didst not know me;
Here God speaks to Cyrus, a Persian king who would not appear for another two hundred years, and tells him why he will rise — for the sake of a people he has never met. So why does God name a man before he exists, and why give an empire to someone who does not know Him?
God does not describe Cyrus after the fact. He speaks to him in advance, by his own name.
It is, however, for the sake of Israel, God's elect, that God calls Cyrus and allows him to subdue the nations. Two hundred years before he comes upon the scene God can say, "I have called you by your name, I have surnamed you," and "I have girded you though you have not known Me."
Where older translations say "I have surnamed you," the ESV reads "I name you." That written prophecy later reached Cyrus himself:
Isaiah 44:28 mentions Cyrus by name. At that time this great Persian king was still far in the future, not yet born. Jehovah knew him and named him through Isaiah. He calls him "my shepherd" and predicts his work. Josephus says that Cyrus found his name in the book of Isaiah, written 220 years before. A strong desire then took hold of him to carry out what was written.
The name is not a compliment to Cyrus. God states the cause: Jacob His servant, Israel His chosen. The conqueror is the means; the nation is the reason.
Long before he was born, God gave Cyrus his added name, though he did not know Jehovah, and in His providence He used him as His shepherd and His anointed. He was called to overthrow idolatry, which was such a snare to Israel. He was chosen "for the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen" (Isa. 45:1-4). Through him God taught Israel that idols have no power.
The names God gives him are titles of work, not marks of character.
Cyrus is called by name, he is called God's shepherd, His anointed, though Cyrus had not known God (Isa. 44:28; Isa. 45:4), and this solely with a view to what God had called him to. The point is not what Cyrus was personally, but his work.
God can title a man His servant without that man having any spiritual standing at all.
God may see fit to call a man His servant who may have no spiritual qualification for the place. Take Cyrus, or Balaam, or, in later days, someone like Judas Iscariot. A servant's place is not the best. "Make me as one of your hired servants" was the carefully worded request of a man who did not know the Father's grace. God may show His sovereignty by acting this way.
Cyrus was one of three men God used to keep a single promise:
So to fulfil this promise God used Jeremiah in prophecy, Daniel in prayer, and Cyrus — a man who did not know the Lord — in providence.
God's choice of Israel is the reason the verse gives. So what does that choice guarantee?
Dealing with Israel on national grounds, individuals among them might be lost, but the nation never can. The nation was, and is, an elect nation (Isaiah 45:4). But that did not secure the everlasting safety of every person born into it.
Cyrus made it possible for a small remnant of Israel to return home. That rescue points past itself.
Cyrus is called in this chapter God's anointed. Jehovah called him by name, but it was for the sake of Israel. But it is well to keep in mind that Cyrus, God's instrument, called and prepared to make the restoration of a remnant possible, is also a picture of Christ. Only through Him can God keep His promises to the nation.
- Named — God spoke Cyrus's own name two hundred years before his birth. He says what He will do before He does it.
- Chosen — God gave Cyrus an empire for Jacob's sake. A small, captive people was the reason behind a change of world powers.
- Unknowing — Cyrus served God without knowing Him. A man can carry the title "servant" with no spiritual fitness for it.
- Threefold — God kept one promise through three men: Jeremiah in prophecy, Daniel in prayer, Cyrus in providence. He uses believers and unbelievers alike.
- Beyond — the king who freed a remnant is only a shadow. Christ alone makes God's promises to the nation good.
I [am] Jehovah, and there is none else; there is no God beside me I girded thee, and thou hast not known me;
God speaks here to Cyrus, a Persian king who would not be born for another two hundred years. Two claims stand side by side: there is no other God, and this God arms a man who does not yet know Him.
"Besides me there is no God" is not a passing remark in Isaiah. The claim comes again and again through these chapters, and one writer counts how often:
Over and over again the Holy Spirit repeats this all-important fact in chapters 43 to 46. No less than ten times He states it with intensity — there is none else! Israel's God is the only God! He "created" Jacob! He "formed" the nation!... Yes, He "called" her by her name; "you are Mine!" So she can witness not only against idols, but to the only God. Now the call is rightly heard, and it will bring a swift response all over the world. "Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other" (Isaiah 45:22).
That exclusiveness is the whole point of the wording. Something similar is drawn out from the simple idea of "one":
One excludes everything else. It speaks of what is alone, with nothing else to compare it with... Without doing violence to the thought, we have here the exclusion of all others from the place that God alone can occupy. "I am the Lord, and there is none else." "My glory I will not give to another."
Where the ESV says God equips Cyrus, older wording says He "girded" him — He strapped the man's gear on him. God did this long before Cyrus was born, and He says why:
It is, however, for the sake of Israel, God's elect, that God calls Cyrus and allows him to subdue the nations. Two hundred years before he comes on the scene, God can say, "I have called you by your name, I have given you a title of honour." He also says, "I have girded you, though you have not known me."
Why say "there is no other" again, right here? One writer — who uses "Jehovah" where the ESV has "the LORD" — finds a purpose in the timing:
The challenge of Jehovah that begins with verse 5 does not appear to be a mere repetition of what begins in Isaiah 44:6. It meets, in a very interesting way, the particular evil that those men fell into — the men who under Cyrus overthrew Babylon and its worthless idols. The Persians were famous for their scheme of two rival powers: good and evil, light and darkness, Ormusd and Ahriman. What could be more pointed, given the utter confusion of this scheme, than the words that follow?
"Though you do not know me" describes a man God moved without his knowing it. One writer places Cyrus beside two others who served the same promise:
So God used three men to fulfil this promise: Jeremiah in prophecy, Daniel in prayer, and Cyrus — a man who did not know the Lord — in providence. God had said of Cyrus long before, through Isaiah, "I have given you a title of honour, though you have not known Me... I have raised you up in righteousness."... This word, and the way it actually came true, are so exact and so encouraging. They fill the soul that trusts the blessed God with comfort and cheer. That soul knows that even now He makes all things work together for the good of His own, whom He has called by His grace according to His purpose.
Did Cyrus stay in that ignorance? Commentators raise the question without settling it. One sets Daniel's picture of a conqueror who recognises no God above him against the honour Isaiah gives him:
One is a little astonished at reading this. Cyrus has such honourable mention in Isaiah 45 — though even there He says, "I have given you a title of honour, though you have not known Me." Daniel sees him at one stage of his career. Later than that, God may have brought him into the light of the knowledge of the Lord.
Why did God name one Persian king and hand him an empire? The answer reaches wider than Israel, and further than Cyrus's own day:
For Israel's sake He named Cyrus, though he did not know Jehovah, so that men might know from east and from west that there is none besides Him... Yet this unmatched return of the Jew from Babylon is clearly only the shadow of an everlasting salvation that is not yet Israel's. That salvation comes when idols and their worshippers will be in the dust, and when in Jehovah all Israel will be justified and will glory. Yes, and every knee will bow to Him and every tongue swear (Isaiah 45:23).
- One God. The claim excludes every rival: Israel's God is the only God, and there is none else.
- One gift. God equips Cyrus for conquest two hundred years before his birth, and does it for Israel's sake.
- One correction. The words strike at the Persian belief in two rival powers behind light and darkness.
- One reach. The purpose is public: from east to west, men are to know there is none besides Him.
- One result. The return from Babylon is only the shadow. The substance is an everlasting salvation where every knee bows.
-- that they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the going down, that there is none beside me. I [am] Jehovah, and there is none else;
God takes hold of a Persian king who has never met Him. The purpose reaches far past that one man: from sunrise to sunset, people are to know that the LORD alone is God.
The man God uses here is a foreign conqueror with no faith in Israel's God. That does not weaken the verse's claim. God is free to use a man who does not know Him.
God is able to make the world confess His power and authority. Whatever the case here, God calls Cyrus by name. He calls him His shepherd, His anointed, though Cyrus had not known God (Isa. 44:28; Isa. 45:4), and only in view of what God had called him to do. The point is not what Cyrus was personally, but his work.
The stated aim is that people should know. One writer traces the line from God's grip on Cyrus's hand to the knowledge this verse announces. He then looks further: the return from Babylon was only a preview of something lasting. He uses the older rendering "Jehovah" where the ESV reads "the LORD".
It was Jehovah that held Cyrus' right hand to subdue nations before him, to break the bronze doors in pieces, and to cut through the iron bars. For Israel's sake He named Cyrus, though he did not know Jehovah, so that men might know from east and from west that there is none beside Him... Yet this unmatched return of the Jew from Babylon is clearly only the shadow of an everlasting salvation that Israel does not have yet. Then idols and their worshippers will lie in the dust, and in Jehovah all Israel will be justified and will glory.
Cyrus's own empire held a rival creed: good and evil each had its own divine author. The next verses answer it head on.
In raising up Cyrus God would have all nations know that He is God and there is none else beside. The truth about the LORD stands in contrast to the Zoroastrian belief of the Persians. They held that a certain eternal person brought two powerful beings into existence: one the creator of all good, the other the author of all the evils that afflict men. It is God who forms the light and creates the darkness. It is God who makes peace among the nations. And in the way He governs, He creates evil in the sense of punishment.
The short phrase at the end of the verse is not a comparison. It is a total exclusion, and one writer draws that out from the very idea of "one".
One excludes everything else. It speaks of that which is alone, with nothing else to compare it with... There can be no question that this first number conveys the thought of "aloneness", of absolute unity, as nothing else could. Without straining the thought, we have here the exclusion of all others from the place which God alone can occupy. "I am the LORD, and there is no other." "My glory I give to no other."
The refrain does not stop at a statement about God. In these chapters it becomes Israel's testimony and an open call, and it repeats until no one can miss it.
Over and over again the Holy Spirit repeats this all-important fact in chapters 43 to 46. No less than ten times He states it with force: There is none else! Israel's God is the only God!... She can therefore witness not only against idols, but to the only God. Now people hear the call as they should, and it will bring a swift response in all the world. "Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other" (Isa. 45:22).
- None else — the claim. The last words of the verse are not a ranking but an exclusion. God alone holds a place no one else can share, and He will not give His glory to another.
- None else — the proof. God took hold of a king who did not know Him. What qualified Cyrus was not his personal faith but the work God called him to; the point was never the man.
- None else — the target. The words answer a real rival belief, the Persian scheme of two divine powers behind good and evil. Light and darkness, peace and even punishment all come from one hand.
- None else — the reach. The purpose runs from sunrise to sunset. The release from Babylon was only a small picture of a lasting salvation still ahead for Israel.
- None else — the call. The same words that shut out every rival open a door. Because there is no other God, He calls the ends of the earth to turn to Him and be saved.
forming the light and creating darkness, making peace and creating evil I, Jehovah, do all these things.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
Drop down, [ye] heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness; let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and with it let righteousness spring up. I, Jehovah, have created it.
This call comes in the middle of a challenge God makes to a world that believed in two rival powers. He tells the sky to rain down righteousness and the ground to open and grow salvation, and then claims that harvest as His own creation. (The quotes below use an older translation. It reads "pour down righteousness" and "spring up together.")
The verse belongs to a challenge God begins in verse 5. One writer notes that it strikes at the religion of the Persians — the very people who, under Cyrus, would overthrow Babylon.
The challenge of Jehovah that begins with verse 5 does not seem to be a mere repetition of what begins in Isaiah 44:6. The men who overthrew Babylon and its worthless idols under Cyrus fell into a special evil, and in a very interesting way this challenge meets it. For the Persians were famous for their scheme of two rival powers: good and evil, light and darkness, Ormusd and Ahriman. What can be more pointed, in view of the complete collapse of this scheme, than the words that follow?
Two rival powers cannot share the credit here. One God sends the righteousness down and brings the salvation up, and He says so Himself.
People often set righteousness and salvation against each other, as if one had to give way to the other. This verse puts them in the same soil.
It is the LORD who does these things. The final result is that blessing will come down from heaven, and earth will be open to receive it. It will not be righteousness without grace. It will not be salvation at the cost of righteousness. Salvation and righteousness will "spring up together."
The word "righteousness" turns up again and again in Isaiah. One writer follows its sense here and shows how it clears up the way the New Testament uses it.
Here, and in several other passages, we find a use of "righteousness" that throws light on its use in the New Testament and clears it up... Here God's power steps in, in keeping with His own character and in grace towards His people, and so it must deliver them... Taking Cyrus as a first fulfilment, God has to vindicate His title against the pride of the nations, their idols and their false gods. It is His righteousness, but through it His people are delivered in grace... In chapter 45:8 God is vindicating Himself in public, as He is, so to speak, bound to do in the end, and so righteousness comes out. So God fully establishes and vindicates all that He is in the cross of Jesus, where the blessed Jesus offered Himself up so that this might be done. We come in who, through grace, are made alive together with Him, to be the righteousness of God in Him.
So the rescue and the self-vindication are one act. The verse's last words claim the whole result as God's own creation.
This scene has not yet happened on earth. One writer places it in a coming day for Israel, then draws out what belongs to believers now.
One day Israel will have the place of power and glory before all the nations. Then the blind people will see and the deaf people will hear, and in the rejected Messiah they will see the Lord Jehovah, the only Saviour... But even now the rejected Christ sits on the Father's throne, and the Spirit is sent out to glorify Him in a spiritual way in a world of darkness and rebellion against God. Even now, then, those who confess Christ are to tell out His excellencies... That light has not yet risen to shine on Zion, though it will surely come. It has already shone in our hearts who believe — the light of the knowledge of God's glory in the face of Jesus Christ.
- Creator. The verse ends by giving God the whole harvest. He alone creates the righteousness that falls and the salvation that grows.
- Correction. It answers the Persian idea of two rival powers behind good and evil — a scheme the verse leaves in ruins.
- Content. "Righteousness" here is God stepping in. He acts true to His own character and in grace towards His people, and so He delivers them.
- Cross. God fully establishes and vindicates all that He is in the cross of Jesus. There believers become the righteousness of God in Him.
- Coming. The scene is still future for Israel in power and glory. The light that has not yet dawned on Zion already shines in the hearts of believers, in the face of Jesus Christ.
Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let a potsherd [strive] with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that formeth it, What makest thou? Or thy work, He hath no hands?
Here God names Cyrus, the Persian king He will raise up, and insists that He alone is God. Into that declaration comes a woe — aimed not at idols this time, but at any creature who argues with the One who made him.
The woe has a setting in worship. One writer reads verses 9 and 10 as God's warning to idolaters, and names what a man does when he trades his Maker for a made thing.
In view of the judgments coming on idolatry, God warns the idolaters. In turning from God to idols, man is striving with his Maker. Let created men — mere potsherds — strive among themselves, but woe to them if they call God's works and God's ways into question.
Older translations call the man here a potsherd, where the ESV has "a pot among earthen pots." A Bible dictionary defines the word, and points to where it turns up again.
A fragment of pottery, to which man is compared when he strives with his Maker. Isaiah 45:9. David uses the word in the Psalm that foretells the Lord's sacrificial sufferings. There he says, "my strength is dried up like a potsherd." Psalm 22:15.
Shards may grind against shards; what they cannot do is take the potter to court. Yet that Psalm likens the Lord Himself to a potsherd.
One writer starts from the bare idea of a Creator, and shows what that idea gives Him the right to do. He then names the one Man who ever gave God that place.
It is important to get right ideas of God. I do not mean only in His grace, which must be learned in the gospel, but as Creator... I am only seeking to show one thing. If you allow the idea of a Creator at all — and a man must be mad who does not — you must allow He has a right to do just as He pleases. He may make what He pleases, and do what He pleases with what He has made. No one ever gave God this rightful place but Christ. He took the place of man and held it fast, to the glory of God, from the manger to the cross... That it was the will of God was explanation enough for every circumstance in which He found Himself.
So the clay that never once asked "What are you making?" was the Lord Jesus Himself.
One writer treats the potter's image as God's own reply to every objection reason can raise.
The potter has power over the lump of clay he holds in his hand. No one would think of disputing that. How much more, then, has the Creator of all things power over the creatures His hand has formed! Men may reason and argue without end about why God permitted sin to enter. They ask why He did not destroy Satan and his angels at once. They ask why He allowed the serpent to tempt Eve... In short, the hows and whys are endless; but the answer is one: "Who are you, O man, to answer back to God?"
One writer sets two postures side by side: the learner at the Master's feet, and the judge. He hears the clay's question still today.
Anyone who does not want to sit at the Master's feet and say, "I will ask You, and You answer me," takes the place of judge against his God. The vessel says to the potter, "What are you making?" Foolish as the question is, we still find it often among the children of Adam... In our day the spirit of independence forces its way in everywhere. Everyone wants to be free to think and do as they please. So this basic error is almost universal.
The chapter does not stop at the woe. God then invites the very people He has just silenced to bring Him their questions about the future.
The Lord rebukes with woe upon woe all striving with Himself and fault-finding with His ways. Yet how graciously He calls on His people in the very next verse! He tells them to ask Him about things to come concerning His sons, and to command Him concerning His sons and the work of His hands!
God shuts the door on the arguer and opens it to the asker.
- Clay — Scripture likens man to a potsherd, a broken piece of pottery. Shards may strive with shards, but never with the hand that shaped them.
- Cause — The woe answers idolatry: turning from God to a made thing is itself striving with the Maker.
- Claim — Grant that there is a Creator, and you must grant His rights. He may make what He pleases, and do as He pleases with what He has made.
- Christ — Only One ever gave God that place. From the manger to the cross, God's will was explanation enough for Him.
- Call — The same chapter that pronounces woe on the arguer invites God's people to ask Him about what is coming. Arguing is shut out; asking is welcomed.
Woe unto him that saith unto [his] father, What begettest thou? Or to [his] mother, What hast thou brought forth?
God has just named Cyrus, a foreign king, as the man He will use to set His people free. The verse before answers the objectors with a picture: broken pieces of pottery arguing with the potter. This verse moves the picture indoors. A child turns on his own father and mother for ever giving him life.
Verses 9 and 10 belong together. Both speak to people who had swapped the living God for idols. One writer explains what such a swap really is:
In view of the judgments coming on idolatry, God warns the idolaters. In turning from God to idols, man is striving with his Maker. Let created men — mere potsherds — strive with each other, but woe to them if they call God's works and God's ways into question.
God does not forbid strife between people here. He forbids the creature putting God's works and ways on trial.
If God made you, He has the right to make you as He pleased. One writer builds the whole argument from that one admission, and names the only Man who never disputed it:
It is important to get right ideas of God. I do not mean only in His grace, which must be learned in the gospel, but as a Creator. I have not yet come to consider what God makes, or what He does with what He makes. I am only seeking to show one thing. If you allow the idea of a Creator at all — and a man must be mad who does not — you must allow that He has a right to do just as He pleases. He may make what He pleases, and do what He pleases with the thing He has made. No one ever yet gave God this His rightful place except Christ. He took the place of man, and He kept that place without fail, to the glory of God, from the manger to the cross.
The Hebrew verb on the mother's side of the verse means more than giving birth. The ESV renders it "in labor." One writer traces the word through its fifty uses:
The Revisers of 1881 changed the words "have you brought forth" here to "travail." Probably this was because the verb means the pains of bearing that come before the birth more than the bringing forth itself. Translators render this word in many ways across its fifty uses: fear (of God), grief, anguish, pain, sorrow, wounding, travail, tremble (at God's presence), dance, shake, and so on. The thought is not so much bearing a child, as the different forms of suffering that go with a certain action or event.
So the complaint God rebukes here targets parents who suffered to bring the complainer into the world.
One man in Scripture said almost exactly what this verse forbids. Job asked why he had ever come into the world:
Why do I live at all? Would it not be better if I had never been born? See Job 3:10-20. In Isaiah 45:9-12 we see a serious woe pronounced on those who ask such questions.
The reason the woe is so heavy becomes clear once you follow the question to its end — and so does the way God answered it:
Job's first great question implies a doubt about the purpose of human existence. So it doubts the wisdom of the Creator too. This is an insult against God Himself. At the end of the book God answers it with a series of counter-questions. Then Job submits, and his tormenting questions find a satisfactory answer in the power and goodness of God.
The woe does not mean God refuses to be spoken to. Read on one verse and the tone changes:
The LORD rebukes with woe upon woe all striving with Himself and all fault-finding with His ways. Yet how graciously He calls on His people in the very next verse! He tells them to ask Him about things to come concerning His sons, and to command Him concerning His sons and the work of His hands. He who made heaven and its host, earth and man on it raised up Cyrus to build His city and set His captives free, "not for price or reward, says the LORD of hosts."
- Maker. The woe falls on the creature who puts God's works and ways on trial. Turning from God to idols is that same quarrel with our Maker.
- Right. Admit a Creator at all, and you must admit His right to make what He pleases. Christ alone gave God that place, from the manger to the cross.
- Labor. The verb on the mother's side of the verse speaks of pain and travail. The complaint God rebukes lands on the parents who suffered to give the complainer life.
- Job. "Why was I ever born?" is the living form of this woe. It doubts the wisdom of the Creator. God answered Job with questions of His own, until Job submitted.
- Ask. The very next verse invites the same people to ask God about things to come. He forbids fault-finding; He welcomes questions.
Thus saith Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker Ask me of the things to come; concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands, command ye me.
Isaiah 45 has just pronounced woe after woe on anyone who argues with his Maker; now the same God invites His people to ask. That raises two questions: what may we ask about, and how does a creature dare speak to his Creator like this?
A note on translation: the ESV reads the second half as a question — "will you command me concerning my children and the work of my hands?" Other translations read it as an invitation: "command me." The comments below follow that reading.
Before God says anything about asking, He names Himself. One of these names runs through the whole book.
Throughout Isaiah He is called "the Holy One of Israel." This title of the Lord, who deals with His people in judgment and in mercy, appears twenty-five times in the book… The Holy One of Israel is Jehovah; He is the Redeemer of His people. "Our Redeemer, the LORD of hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel" (47:4)… This Holy One is the Creator.
What makes the invitation striking is where it stands. It comes straight after the woes.
Jehovah rebukes with woe after woe everyone who fights against Him and finds fault with His ways. Yet how gracious He is in the very next verse! There He calls His people to ask Him about the things to come concerning His sons, and to command Him concerning His sons and the work of His hands.
The invitation has a subject: God's own people and His work for them. It stands against the alternative — idols.
God warns those who turn to idols. But He encourages Israel to ask Him about those who are in relationship with Himself, and about His work on their behalf. God created the earth and everyone in it, and the heavens with all their host. He alone can foretell their destiny. God can also "direct" man's ways, and use men to carry out His purposes. So God raises up Cyrus and "will direct all his ways," to carry out His purpose of rebuilding Jerusalem and setting His captive people free.
Who are these sons, this "work of my hands"? One writer sets them beside their opposite.
…the generation of promise, the children who are the work of Jehovah's hands (Isa. 29:23; 45:11). In that day they seek and find the light of life in Jesus. They stand in contrast with those who had not sought the Lord, but had tried to establish their own righteousness.
Cyrus, the king God raised up to free the exiles, is the near answer. He is not the whole one.
The judgment of Babylon, and the partial deliverance of God's people under Cyrus, is only a foreshadowing. It points to the worldwide judgment of the nations and the regathering of Israel under the reign of Christ… In the way He governs the nation, God may hide Himself for a season. Still, He is the "God of Israel, the Saviour," who arranges all men and events to display His own glory.
Daniel shows what this invitation looks like when someone takes it up.
So Daniel made the condition of his people his own, and shared the mind of God. He had the unspeakable privilege of praying for Israel, and for the fulfilment of God's promises. God heard his prayer. From it we learn that God in His grace lets His people enter into His own thoughts, and lets them share with Him in carrying out His purposes for His own glory.
- Maker. The One who invites is the Holy One of Israel — Creator and Redeemer, who deals with His people in judgment and in mercy.
- Mercy. The call to ask comes right after woe on everyone who quarrels with God. The same mouth that rebukes also opens the conversation.
- Mine. Relationship sets the subject — His sons, and His work on their behalf, not idols.
- Might. The God who made the heavens can also direct a king's ways. The future He invites you to ask about is a future He controls.
- Meeting. Cyrus was the near fulfilment; the reign of Christ is the full one. Prayer is how God lets His people enter His thoughts and share in carrying out His purposes.
It is I that have made the earth, and created man upon it; it is I, my hands, that have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded.
God answers a people who doubted His ways by naming what He has made: the earth, man, the heavens and all their host. The verse sits between a woe on those who argue with Him and a promise that a foreign king will rebuild His city.
The verse follows a woe on the person who quarrels with the One who formed him. Commentators pick up the picture used there — a broken piece of pottery.
Man is but a potsherd of the earth — the broken piece of a pot! Let man recognise his own littleness. Let him strive with another potsherd like himself if he will, but let him not strive with the Creator. It is not fitting that a man should strive with his father or mother, much less with his Maker.
Another writer connects that woe to idol-worship.
In turning from God to idols man is striving with his Maker. Let created men – mere potsherds – strive with each other, but woe to them if they question God's works and God's ways.
The tone changes at verse 11. God tells His people to ask Him about what is coming, and even to give Him orders concerning His sons. Our verse is the credential behind that offer.
If Jehovah rebukes with woe upon woe all striving with Himself and all fault-finding with His ways, how gracious He is in the very next verse! There He calls on His people to ask Him about the things to come concerning His sons, and to command Him concerning His sons and the work of His hands. … He who made heaven and its host, earth and man upon it, was the raiser up of Cyrus to build His city and let His exiles go, "not for price nor reward, says Jehovah of hosts."
Why list the making of earth, man and the heavenly host at this point? Because the same God who stretched out the sky also directs history — including the ways of Cyrus, the king who overthrew Babylon.
The God who created the earth and those who live on it also created the heavens with all their host. He alone can foretell their destiny. God, too, can "direct" man's ways, and use men to carry out His purposes. So God raises up Cyrus and "will direct all his ways" to carry out His purpose to rebuild Jerusalem and set free His captive people.
There was a pointed edge to this. The Persians taught that good and evil, light and darkness, came from two rival powers. One Maker of everything leaves no room for that.
The challenge of Jehovah that begins with verse 5 does not appear to be a mere repetition… Under Cyrus, men overthrew Babylon and its worthless idols, but they themselves fell into a special evil. In a very interesting way this challenge meets it. For the Persians were famous for their dualistic scheme of good and evil, light and darkness.
"Created man on it" is not a throwaway line. Later in the chapter God says He did not create the earth as a waste. He formed it for people to live on, and He makes that the ground of His promise.
As Creator He had formed the earth for mankind to inhabit it. He did not create it "in vain," or "as waste"… He who had done this now guaranteed salvation for Israel. He promised openly and in righteousness. This made it certain that the salvation, when it came, would be worked out in a righteous way. It is the same with the righteousness in which every believer now stands before God: He brings it about on a righteous basis.
If God made man, His authority is not one opinion among others. It reaches the conscience of anyone who reads the verse.
Nor is the God that made all only a Creator. He is Lord of heaven and earth. His authority is constant everywhere. Fallen man squirms under this truth, because it speaks straight to his conscience. As a man, I am His creature, and that bond makes me His servant. Am I doing His will? Am I pleasing Him as the motive of my life?
- Maker. The person who argues with God is a broken piece of pottery arguing with his Maker. Quarrel with your equals if you must, but not with the One who formed you.
- Mercy. The same Maker who says "woe" also says "ask Me." Right after the woe on fault-finding comes an open invitation to ask about what is coming.
- Management. He who commanded the whole host of heaven also raised up Cyrus and directed his ways. A foreign king then rebuilt the city and freed the captives for no payment.
- Meaning. He created man on an earth He formed for people to live on, not as a waste — creation had a purpose, and so does His promised salvation.
- Mine. He made the earth and the man on it, so His authority holds everywhere. The honest response is not debate but "Am I doing His will?"
It is I that have raised him up in righteousness, and I will make all his ways straight he shall build my city, and he shall let go my captives, not for price nor reward, saith Jehovah of hosts.
God has just told a people in ruins not to argue with their Maker. Then He names the way out: a foreign king, stirred up by God, who will rebuild Jerusalem and free the exiles for nothing — and God calls this pagan king's work righteous.
Here "righteousness" points to the king's task, not to his own goodness. One writer ties it to obedience:
Verses 5, 13 and 14 again refer to Cyrus and the way in which God would raise him up. It would be "in righteousness," for he would carry into effect the will of God; and to do the will of God is righteousness.
The verse comes right after God's claim to have made the earth and stretched out the heavens. That is not a change of subject — the same power that shaped the universe is the power that lifted up a king:
The One who made heaven and all its host, the earth and man upon it, was the One who raised up Cyrus. Cyrus would build His city and set His captives free, "not for price or reward," says the LORD of hosts. The proudest of the Gentiles would yet acknowledge that God was in Israel, just as enemies of Christ once acknowledged the power of the Spirit in the church.
Cyrus appears by name in Isaiah generations before he was born. The timing is the whole point:
Cyrus was the chosen instrument of the LORD to bring about the return of the Jews and the rebuilding of the temple. Almost two hundred years before his birth the LORD had revealed his name and his work to the prophet Isaiah.
The exiles go free at no cost — and even that rescue is only a preview:
It was He who raised up Cyrus in righteousness, to build His city and set His exiles free, not for price or reward, says the LORD of hosts. Yet this unmatched return of the Jew from Babylon is only the shadow of an everlasting salvation. That salvation is not Israel's yet. It will come when idols and their worshippers lie in the dust, and when in the LORD all Israel shall be justified and shall glory.
God calls this king His shepherd and His anointed, yet he did not know Him. Commentators are careful about what that does and does not prove:
In Cyrus we do not see the power of faith. But just as Nebuchadnezzar carried out God's work, so Cyrus is the instrument of His mercy to bring the Jew back to the land... Did that confession come from faith that leads to salvation? That is another matter. God is able to make the world confess His power and authority. Whatever the answer, Cyrus is called by name. He is called God's shepherd and His anointed, though Cyrus had not known God (Isa. 44:28; Isa. 45:4). These names were given only because of what God had called him to do. The point is not what Cyrus was personally, but his work.
That distinction matters for anyone living under a government that does not honour God:
Cyrus is never called "the servant" of the Lord. He was His providential shepherd, for the sake of Israel His servant... even now God raises up providential authority in the world for the sake of the elect. Such authorities are called ministers of God, but never servants of Christ. They are God's ministers to us for good (Rom. 13:4). If we understood this important truth, we would obey the call to pray for all in authority (1 Tim. 2:1-2) with grace and understanding.
One writer draws a line from Cyrus to Christ, and keeps the comparison modest:
Now it is clear that the measure in which Cyrus prefigures this mighty deliverer is very small. Still, I have no doubt that God had all this in view. In His own wonderful way, He chose to send out such a call through him... We know how true this will be of Christ. He is the righteous man whom Cyrus pictured in a very small measure.
- Stirred — God raised Cyrus up; the king moved, but the hand behind him was the hand that made the heavens and the earth.
- Righteous — his righteousness is not private virtue but a task from God. He carried out the will of God, and to do the will of God is righteousness.
- Named — Isaiah wrote his name almost two hundred years before his birth. Faith could rest on a written word long before the rescue arrived.
- Free — he built the city and set the exiles free, and no one paid a price for it.
- Shadow — the return from Babylon only sketches the everlasting salvation still to come. Christ is the mighty deliverer; Cyrus is the small picture of Him.