Devotional Commentary on Isaiah 44

Isaiah prepares this chapter to describe the glorious future of the faithful remnant of spiritual Israel at the End of Time and into eternity.

This ability of predicting a future event very long before it happens is the core opening words of Isaiah and God.

M. L. Andreasen said in 1928 in the Sabbath School Lesson on Isaiah page 14: “Two things distinguish the true God from false gods. God is the Creator. God is the God of prophecy. He can tell the future.”

The fact that God has the ability to see the end from the beginning is the key to pass it on to his prophet and it becomes the key in the understanding of the pop-up of Cyrus in 690 BCE (v. 28) although he only came in 538 BCE.

Rationalists chose the path of atheism and cut out the supernatural from the Bible and also the ability to predict. Scholars tapped from their suspicion and supported their axioms of doubt and the educational establishment since the French Revolution only wants to canonize these skeptical ideas. The leap of faith over the abyss of non-Reason is called for in the acceptance of the Word of God and Isaiah as true as a starter. This is the purpose of Isaiah in vv. 1-8.

Accepting the ability of God to know the future means that the rationalistic substitution of God for gods of reason and empiricism is to join atheism. Isaiah is satirical about this substitution in vv. 9-20. God is Redeemer (vv. 21-23); Creator (vv. 24); causing omens of Esarhaddon to fail for him and others (v. 25).

A number of cuneiform tablets from Niniveh dealt with Esarhaddon asking priests and magicians to consult the oracles whether he should go on a Holy War. A number of letters were written to the king to express their anxiety for his role in society after the defeat. Have the gods gone crazy!

The utterances of God’s prophets came true (v. 26) for example rebuilding of Jerusalem (v. 26c); for example rivers to dry up (v. 27); for example the coming of Cyrus and his work (v. 28).

Even though Isaiah appealed for God’s ability in lengthy descriptions and repetitions modern scholars is hard-bend to follow their own deceptive way. Josephus had no problem with Isaiah’s ability to predict so long in advance and says of Cyrus “This was known to Cyrus by his reading the book which Isaiah left behind of his prophecies”.

Think about it: why would someone after Cyrus use the future tense of the verbs to describe his actions that already took place? The Septuagint and Targum did not recast these future tense verbs into past tense verbs. It is better for us to follow God’s Word, Isaiah’s description and our own faith and to believe that God means what He says.

Isaiah grabbed a Synonym Dictionary again and selected a number of similar terms:

Jacob is Israel (v. 1a-b);

servant is chose one (v. 1a-b);

made is formed (v. 2a-b);

Jacob is Yeshurun (v. 2c-d).

Yeshurun is Israel in another language than Hebrew since the Egyptian form of Ashkelon is isrḳun on the Karnak temple wall and Israel on the Merneptah stela is isri3r or yisri3r. The /n/ may have been the substitute of /l/ in Demotic Egyptian. Isaiah mentions that water and streams are the same (v. 3a-b);

Such was the suggestion by the Rationalist and preterist Ewald in his commentary, namely that it is Israel and one finds it in the corrupt Septuagint also as Israel. But Delitzsch Vol. II 1890, page 189 objected since it is not an /s/ as one finds in Israel but an /sh/ and would it be Ishrael? Delitzsch says no and sees the word connected to yashar which means “upright”. The three Greek versions later of Aquila (150 A.D.) and Symmachus (170 A.D.) and also Theodotion of (190 A.D.) all three had the idea of straight (see Delitzsch). So did Jerome in 390 A.D. with his translation into Latin of the Vulgate.

My Spirit is the same as My blessing (v. 3c-d [the Targum renders it as Holy Spirit rwḥ qwdšy]);

Ellen White says of this verse: “Those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, who long after God, may be sure that they will be filled. The heart must be open to the Spirit's influence, or God's blessing can not be received.”—Ellen White, Steps to Christ, p. 99.

J. Mortyer in 1993 in his commentary page 342 says: “Rain from heaven figures all those reviving, life-giving agencies of grace whereby the Lord, through his Spirit, transforms the desert of his people’s lives.”

offspring is also descendants (v. 3c-d);

I am the Lord’s is the same as belonging to the Lord (v. 5a and c);

King of Israel means also Lord of Hosts (v. 6a-b);

things that are coming is the same as events that are going to take place (v. 7d-e).

Isaiah used judicial procedure language: assemble; stand up; tremble; put to shame. He selected from the dictionary terms of a technician: engrave; a tool; coals; hammers (v. 12).

Terms of a carpenter: wood; stretches; line; marks; stylus; carving tools; compass (v. 13).

He selected from the dictionary names of trees: cedar; cypress; oak; fir (v. 14). The creative actions of the Lord are formation; making; stretching and spreading (v. 24).

Isaiah’s passion is flowing from the beginning of the chapter to describe the chosen care God has for His remnant. At the End of Time He will again pour out His Spirit on them in the Latter Rain and the remnant will “spring up among grass like poplars by streams of water” (v. 4a-b).

Delitzsch Vol. II 1890 page 190 is interesting on verse 3 and the Holy Spirit role in the Early and Latter Rain: “In 3a water is promised in drought, and 3b, God's Spirit and blessing; just as in Joel the promise of rain is first opposed to drought, and then the outpouring of the Spirit in surpassing antitype.” Delitzsch looks at the verse with “Adventist” eyes!

They will be sealed with the Holy Spirit and write on their hands the mark “belonging to the Lord” (v. 5c) which will be the opposite of the mark of the beast of the human vicarius filii dei belongers, on the forehead and hand.

About verse 5, M. L. Andreasen said in 1928 in his Sabbath School Lesson Quarterly on Isaiah: “This verse tells of the ingathering of Gentiles as a result of the outpouring of the Spirit.”

The God of prophecy emphasized that He is the alpha and omega, just as He repeated to John in Revelation (v. 6-7).

M. L. Andreasen said in 1928 here on verses 6-8 that “God is here King, Redeemer, the First and the Last, the only One.” He provided a paraphrase of verse 7: “Who is like Me? For since the beginning, I have prophesied and declared and set in order. Now let them,—the false gods,—tell us the future.”

In similar vein as Andreasen, J. Mortyer in 1993 page 343 says the same: “Here we see the devastating exclusivity of biblical monotheism.” He is right as long as he does not see it as a problem in our age of inclusiveness, Law of Equality 2010 of England and other ecumenical sin-embracing tools of society.

Therefore, since God cannot be compared to another, Isaiah venture into the human fabrication of idols for worship in satirical form.

Delitzsch in Vol. II 1890 page 194 says that the prophet is taking us into the workshop here in verses 12-13.

It is irony that Iron technicians shapes iron and get tired (v. 12). It is irony that woodcarvers shapes wood and make idols (v. 13). Isaiah mocks with them by pointing out the irony that they some wood is for himself to burn (v. 15) and warms himself. He also utilizes the wood for his own purposes to make bread. Then with the rest he makes a god falls down and worship it. This irony is repeated three times by Isaiah.

The second time is in vv. 16-18. After eating and warming himself he makes an idol with it and prays before it and asks it to deliver himself/herself. Irony in the highest sense. Idol satire of Isaiah. Powerful and convincing.

Delitzsch understood in verse 16 in Vol. II 1890 page 197 the irony very well here: “Since the cooking-fire warms as well as the room-fire, the description lingers on this service rendered by the wood of the idol.”

M. L. Andreasen said in 1928 page 15 of his Sabbath School Quarterly on Isaiah on this verse: “Help must come from some outside source. We can not save ourselves. An idol is a lie. Men believe an idol can help. But it is a vain hope.”

He repeated it the third time in vv. 19-20 in no uncertain terms “he feeds on ashes a deceived heart has turned him aside” (v. 20).

The next phrase in verse 20 says that he will not deliver himself (it is the imperfect used of the verb which signifies potential in future or future). Mortyer chose “potential” meaning to the form of the verb (Mortyer 1993 page 349). It has exactly the same meaning that Andreasen placed on it. It indicates a stronger meaning in my analysis of an eschatological deliverance when God will burn all idols to ashes. Andreasen the historicist have that in mind similarly here but Mortyer is very shy to use the word eschatological in his commentary in 1993, a trend of the time among Preterists. We must remember that the famous book of Klaus Koch have exposed this deficit or quietism in Preterism of Christianity in 1970: K. Koch, Ratlos vor der Apokalyptik (Gütersloh: Mohn, 1970).

The preterist J. Mortyer said in his 1993 commentary page 349 on verse 19: “Some wood was used for fire, some to make a god, and therefore both ash and god are products of the same thing.”

Mortyer (1993) page 350 said on verses 21-23 about the verbal forms, past, present or future: “The tenses in verses 21-23 blend perfects, imperfects and imperatives. The imperfects must be considered as future tenses….”

And yet modern liturgical churches are packed with statues, even Peter’s toe is kissed away. Isaiah has no impact on them. God calls on the remnant to return to Him and He will wipe out their transgressions like mist (v. 22).

M. L. Andreasen said on this verse in 1928 in his Sabbath School Quarterly on Isaiah page 16: “’I have blotted out.’ It is as though a father were speaking to a wayward son or daughter who had caused the parents much sorrow and grief, "I have forgiven the past. All is well. Come home. Return to me. I have redeemed you.”

Delitzsch Vol. II 1890 page 199 (English translation) and Andreasen is on the same page here with the past tense of the verbs: “the point of comparison is not the dark, heavy multitude of sins, but the ease and rapidity of their removal.... How evangelical in strain the reaching of the 0.T. evangelist! God's mercy anticipates Israel—the unforgotten one—in opposition to the merit of its works; and Israel has only to respond to it by repentance and new obedience. The perfects describe what has virtually taken place.”

The Creator God is described in vv. 24-25. God makes the evil more foolish on earth and for the remnant He promised rebuilding of Jerusalem and the coming of Cyrus nearly two centuries later (v. 28).

It is nice to see M. L. Andreasen lamenting about the rationalists rejection of the possibility for God to see the future and to relate it to His prophet Isaiah. He said in 1928 in the Sabbath School Quarterly on Isaiah: “The mention of Cyrus by name, one hundred fifty years before his appearance, has been one of the chief factors in the decision of the critics that Isaiah did not write this part of his prophecies. It seems impossible to them that God could give a man's name even before his birth. Such an attitude shows a great lack of faith, and, indeed, most of the work of the critics is founded in unbelief. Josiah's name was announced three centuries before his birth. 1 Kings 13:2. And why should it be thought a thing incredible that God should do this? These very chapters in Isaiah emphasize again and again that God is different from idols. He can foretell the future. They can not. For anyone to hold the view that God can not tell what is to come, is to put Him on a level with idols.” The content of 1928 was again reduplicated in the Sabbath School Quarterly of 1956 page 39 so there is no need to be skeptical of Andreasen’s views. He received quite an era of acceptance.

Delitzsch is an expert in linguistics and his comments on Cyrus are worth looking at: Cyrus was Kuruš in Persian, Kuraš in Babylonian Kuros in Greek and in Hebrew Koresh with a segholate (Delitzsch Vol. II 1890 page 202). It is interesting that in the Dictionary of Egyptian by E. W. Budge, all the Persian kings names appear in hieroglyphics (Egyptian alphabet) but the name of Cyrus not.

Dear God

Grant that we will be not impressed by modern pieces of art divine or secular or that a feeling of sacred awe touch our hearts in deceptive manner. That we will cling to the only Creator of heaven and earth and believe Your Word as the true witness for our lives. Amen.