Isaiah 45

The God Who Forms Light and Darkness

1-7 God’s Message to his anointed,

to Cyrus, whom he took by the hand

To give the task of taming the nations,

of terrifying their kings—

He gave him free rein,

no restrictions:

“I’ll go ahead of you,

clearing and paving the road.

I’ll break down bronze city gates,

smash padlocks, kick down barred entrances.

I’ll lead you to buried treasures,

secret caches of valuables—

Confirmations that it is, in fact, I, God,

the God of Israel, who calls you by your name.

It’s because of my dear servant Jacob,

Israel my chosen,

That I’ve singled you out, called you by name,

and given you this privileged work.

And you don’t even know me!

I am God, the only God there is.

Besides me there are no real gods.

I’m the one who armed you for this work,

though you don’t even know me,

So that everyone, from east to west, will know

that I have no god-rivals.

I am God, the only God there is.

I form light and create darkness,

I make harmonies and create discords.

I, God, do all these things.

8-10“Open up, heavens, and rain.

Clouds, pour out buckets of my goodness!

Loosen up, earth, and bloom salvation;

sprout right living.

I, God, generate all this.

But doom to you who fight your Maker—

you’re a pot at odds with the potter!

Does clay talk back to the potter:

‘What are you doing? What clumsy fingers!’

Would a sperm say to a father,

‘Who gave you permission to use me to make a baby?’

Or a fetus to a mother,

‘Why have you cooped me up in this belly?’”

11-13Thus God, The Holy of Israel, Israel’s Maker, says:

“Do you question who or what I’m making?

Are you telling me what I can or cannot do?

I made earth,

and I created man and woman to live on it.

I handcrafted the skies

and direct all the constellations in their turnings.

And now I’ve got Cyrus on the move.

I’ve rolled out the red carpet before him.

He will build my city.

He will bring home my exiles.

I didn’t hire him to do this. I told him.

I, God-of-the-Angel-Armies.”

* * *

14 God says:

“The workers of Egypt, the merchants of Ethiopia,

and those statuesque Sabeans

Will all come over to you—all yours.

Docile in chains, they’ll follow you,

Hands folded in reverence, praying before you:

‘Amazing! God is with you!

There is no other God—none.’”

Look at the Evidence

15-17Clearly, you are a God who works behind the scenes,

God of Israel, Savior God.

Humiliated, all those others

will be ashamed to show their faces in public.

Out of work and at loose ends, the makers of no-god idols

won’t know what to do with themselves.

The people of Israel, though, are saved by you, God,

saved with an eternal salvation.

They won’t be ashamed,

they won’t be at loose ends, ever.

18-24a God, Creator of the heavens—

he is, remember, God.

Maker of earth—

he put it on its foundations, built it from scratch.

He didn’t go to all that trouble

to just leave it empty, nothing in it.

He made it to be lived in.

This God says:

“I am God,

the one and only.

I don’t just talk to myself

or mumble under my breath.

I never told Jacob,

‘Seek me in emptiness, in dark nothingness.’

I am God. I work out in the open,

saying what’s right, setting things right.

So gather around, come on in,

all you refugees and castoffs.

They don’t seem to know much, do they—

those who carry around their no-god blocks of wood,

praying for help to a dead stick?

So tell me what you think. Look at the evidence.

Put your heads together. Make your case.

Who told you, and a long time ago, what’s going on here?

Who made sense of things for you?

Wasn’t I the one? God?

It had to be me. I’m the only God there is—

The only God who does things right

and knows how to help.

So turn to me and be helped—saved!—

everyone, whoever and wherever you are.

I am God,

the only God there is, the one and only.

I promise in my own name:

Every word out of my mouth does what it says.

I never take back what I say.

Everyone is going to end up kneeling before me.

Everyone is going to end up saying of me,

‘Yes! Salvation and strength are in God!’”

24b-25 All who have raged against him

will be brought before him,

disgraced by their unbelief.

And all who are connected with Israel

will have a robust, praising, good life in God!

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Isaiah 45

1 THUS SAYS the Lord to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held to subdue nations before him, and I will unarm and ungird the loins of kings to open doors before him, so that gates will not be shut.

2 I will go before you and level the mountains [to make the crooked places straight]; I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut asunder the bars of iron.

3 And I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, Who calls you by your name.

4 For the sake of Jacob My servant, and of Israel My chosen, I have called you by your name. I have surnamed you, though you have not known Me.

5 I am the Lord, and there is no one else; there is no God besides Me. I will gird and arm you, though you have not known Me,

6 That men may know from the east and the rising of the sun and from the west and the setting of the sun that there is no God besides Me. I am the Lord, and no one else [is He].

7 I form the light and create darkness, I make peace [national well-being] and I create [physical] evil (calamity); I am the Lord, Who does all these things.

8 Let fall in showers, you heavens, from above, and let the skies rain down righteousness [the pure, spiritual, heaven-born possibilities that have their foundation in the holy being of God]; let the earth open, and let them [skies and earth] sprout forth salvation, and let righteousness germinate and spring up [as plants do] together; I the Lord have created it.

9 Woe to him who strives with his Maker!–a worthless piece of broken pottery among other pieces equally worthless [and yet presuming to strive with his Maker]! Shall the clay say to him who fashions it, What do you think you are making? or, Your work has no handles? [Rom. 9:20.]

10 Woe to him [who complains against his parents that they have begotten him] who says to a father, What are you begetting? or to a woman, With what are you in travail?

11 Thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker: Would you question Me about things to come concerning My children, and concerning the work of My hands [would you] command Me?

12 I made the earth and created man upon it. I, with My hands, stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their host.

13 I will raise [Cyrus] up in righteousness [willing in every way that which is right and proper], and I will direct all his ways; he will build My city, and he will let My captives go, not for hire or for a bribe, says the Lord of hosts.

14 Thus says the Lord: The labor and wealth of Egypt and the merchandise of Ethiopia and the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over to you and they shall be yours; they shall follow you; in chains [of subjection to you] they shall come over, and they shall fall down before you; they shall make supplication to you, saying, Surely God is with you, and there is no other, no God besides Him. [I Cor. 14:25.]

15 Truly You are a God Who hides Himself, O God of Israel, the Savior.

16 They shall be put to shame, yes, confounded, all of them; they who are makers of idols shall go off into confusion together.

17 But Israel shall be saved by the Lord with an everlasting salvation; you shall not be put to shame or confounded to all eternity. [Heb. 5:9.]

18 For thus says the Lord–Who created the heavens, God Himself, Who formed the earth and made it, Who established it and did not create it to be a worthless waste; He formed it to be inhabited–I am the Lord, and there is no one else.

19 I have not spoken in secret, in a corner of the land of darkness; I did not call the descendants of Jacob [to a fruitless service], saying, Seek Me for nothing [but I promised them a just reward]. I, the Lord, speak righteousness (the truth–trustworthy, straightforward correspondence between deeds and words); I declare things that are right. [John 18:20.]

20 Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, you survivors of the nations! They have no knowledge who carry about [in religious processions or into battle] their wooden idols and keep on praying to a god that cannot save.

21 Declare and bring forward your strong arguments [for praying to gods that cannot save]; yes, take counsel together. Who announced this [the rise of Cyrus and his conquests] beforehand (long ago)? [What god] declared it of old? Was it not I, the Lord? And there is no other God besides Me, a rigidly and uncompromisingly just and righteous God and Savior; there is none besides Me.

22 Look to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.

23 I have sworn by Myself, the word is gone out of My mouth in righteousness and shall not return, that unto Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear [allegiance]. [Rom. 14:11; Phil. 2:10, 11; Heb. 6:13.]

24 Only in the Lord shall one say, I have righteousness (salvation and victory) and strength [to achieve]. To Him shall all come who were incensed against Him, and they shall be ashamed. [I Cor. 1:30, 31.]

25 In the Lord shall all the offspring of Israel be justified (enjoy righteousness, salvation, and victory) and shall glory.

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