Israel Refined for God’s Glory
Isa 48:1 “Listen to this, you descendants of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel and come from the line of Judah, you who take oaths in the name of the LORD and invoke the God of Israel— but not in truth or righteousness—
Isa 48:2 you who call yourselves citizens of the holy city and claim to rely on the God of Israel— the LORD Almighty is his name:
Isa 48:3 I foretold the former things long ago, my mouth announced them and I made them known; then suddenly I acted, and they came to pass.
Isa 48:4 For I knew how stubborn you were; your neck muscles were iron, your forehead was bronze.
Isa 48:5 Therefore I told you these things long ago; before they happened I announced them to you so that you could not say, ‘My images brought them about; my wooden image and metal god ordained them.’
Isa 48:6 You have heard these things; look at them all. Will you not admit them? “From now on I will tell you of new things, of hidden things unknown to you.
Isa 48:7 They are created now, and not long ago; you have not heard of them before today. So you cannot say, ‘Yes, I knew of them.’
Isa 48:8 You have neither heard nor understood; from of old your ears have not been open. Well do I know how treacherous you are; you were called a rebel from birth.
Isa 48:9 For my own name’s sake I delay my wrath; for the sake of my praise I hold it back from you, so as not to destroy you completely.
Isa 48:10 See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.
Isa 48:11 For my own sake, for my own sake, I do this. How can I let myself be defamed? I will not yield my glory to another.
The Lord’s Call to Israel
Isa 48:12 “Listen to me, Jacob, Israel, whom I have called: I am he; I am the first and I am the last.
Isa 48:13 My own hand laid the foundations of the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens; when I summon them, they all stand up together.
Isa 48:14 “Come together, all of you, and listen: Which of the idols has foretold these things? The LORD’s chosen ally will carry out his purpose against Babylon; his arm will be against the Babylonians.
Isa 48:15 I, even I, have spoken; yes, I have called him. I will bring him, and he will succeed in his mission.
Isa 48:16 “Come near me and listen to this: “From the first announcement I have not spoken in secret; at the time it happens, I am there.” And now the Sovereign LORD has sent me, endowed with his Spirit.
Isa 48:17 This is what the LORD says— your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the LORD your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go.
Isa 48:18 If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your well-being like the waves of the sea.
Isa 48:19 Your descendants would have been like the sand, your children like its numberless grains; their name would never be blotted out nor destroyed from before me.”
Isa 48:20 Leave Babylon, flee from the Babylonians! Announce this with shouts of joy and proclaim it. Send it out to the ends of the earth; say, “The LORD has redeemed his servant Jacob.”
Isa 48:21 They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts; he made water flow for them from the rock; he split the rock and water gushed out.
Isa 48:22 “There is no peace,” says the LORD, “for the wicked.”
1 God, to convince the people of their foreknown obstinacy, revealed his prophecies.
9 He save them for his own sake.
12 He exhorts them to obedience, because of his power and providence.
16 He laments their backwardness.
20. He powerfully delivers his out of Babylon.
Isa 48:1 “Listen to this, you descendants of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel and come from the line of Judah, you who take oaths in the name of the LORD and invoke the God of Israel— but not in truth or righteousness—
Isaiah addresses the hypocrites in Israel, those who profess to serve God but actually do as they please (see on Matt. 6:2).
Isa 48:2 you who call yourselves citizens of the holy city and claim to rely on the God of Israel— the LORD Almighty is his name:
These renegades profess to be citizens of Zion, but are so only in name (see Isa. 29:13; Jer. 7:4, 9–11; Micah 3:11; Matt. 3:9; 15:8; John 8:33, 39; Rom. 4:1, 2; 9:6). They seek the benefits that accrue from loyalty to God but are unwilling to pay the price of obedience (see on Matt. 7:21–27). They want all the privileges of discipleship but refuse to shoulder its responsibilities.
Isa 48:3 I foretold the former things long ago, my mouth announced them and I made them known; then suddenly I acted, and they came to pass.
Not the heathen, but the faithless people of Judah are now called to recognize the foreknowledge of God.
Suddenly. Or, unexpectedly. God had foretold these events, but to the faithless hypocrites what happened came as a complete surprise (see Matt. 24:39). For similar counsel to those who await the coming of the Lord, see 1 Thess. 5:1–8.
Isa 48:4 For I knew how stubborn you were; your neck muscles were iron, your forehead was bronze.
When God called Israel He already knew what they would be like. The warnings against transgression were given because the Lord knew the dangers that faced them and how easy it would be for them to fall into temptation (see on Deut. 9:6; cf. on Ex. 4:21).
Isa 48:5 Therefore I told you these things long ago; before they happened I announced them to you so that you could not say, ‘My images brought them about; my wooden image and metal god ordained them.’
Israel had scarcely left Egypt when they ascribed their deliverance to an idol (Ex. 32:4). At the time of the captivity of 586 b.c. Jeremiah also chided Israel for their obdurateness of heart (Jer. 44).
Isa 48:6 You have heard these things; look at them all. Will you not admit them? “From now on I will tell you of new things, of hidden things unknown to you.
That which the Lord foretold has come true, and they have seen it with their own eyes. Will they not frankly admit His foreknowledge? Now the Lord reveals further information about events yet to occur. Neither men nor their idols could take credit for having predicted these things.
Isa 48:7 They are created now, and not long ago; you have not heard of them before today. So you cannot say, ‘Yes, I knew of them.’
Isa 48:8 You have neither heard nor understood; from of old your ears have not been open. Well do I know how treacherous you are; you were called a rebel from birth.
God well knew the perverse character of the people of Israel. He knew that they did not want to believe and that, to the end, they would justify themselves in their rebellion. Accordingly, He now presents a most unusual set of predictions, including their coming captivity, the mission of Cyrus, a century and a half before his time, the deliverance from Babylon, and other events culminating in the coming of Messiah.
Isa 48:9 For my own name’s sake I delay my wrath; for the sake of my praise I hold it back from you, so as not to destroy you completely.
Because of their perversity (see on vs. 1, 2) the people of Judah deserved no further mercy or favor from God. But their fall would bring reproach upon His holy name, for men would think Him capricious, vindictive, and unable to carry into execution His own plans and purposes.
The name of God stood for His character—a God who was “merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth” (Ex. 34:6). For this reason, God would continue to manifest kindness and mercy toward them in spite of their obstinacy. They were His people, and His plan for the salvation of the world was, in ancient times, linked with them.
Isa 48:10 See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.
Israel was not to be refined with such intense heat as is needed for the purification of silver, for then she would have been utterly consumed. Israel was to be corrected only “in measure” (Jer. 30:11; Hosea 11:9), that is, only to the extent necessary to consume her filthiness and dross (see Eze. 22:15–22).
Isa 48:11 For my own sake, for my own sake, I do this. How can I let myself be defamed? I will not yield my glory to another.
If the Lord had failed to redeem Israel, His name would have been desecrated among the heathen. God will restore Israel, not because of their merits, but because of His mercy—that His name may be glorified.
Isa 48:12 “Listen to me, Jacob, Israel, whom I have called: I am he; I am the first and I am the last.
In vs. 1, 2 Israel was addressed as a people who bore the name of the Lord in hypocrisy rather than in sincerity. Now God reminds them of their original call to be His people (see Deut. 7:6–16; 10:15; 14:2; Ps. 135:4; Isa. 41:8; Isa. 43:1; Isa. 44:1, 2). By reminding them of His love, God sought to woo them back to Himself (see Eze. 16:1–14; Hosea 11:1–8).
It was both an honor and a responsibility to be chosen by God as Israel had been.
Isa 48:13 My own hand laid the foundations of the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens; when I summon them, they all stand up together.
The God who called the universe into being is the same God who called Israel to nationhood and gave to them the status of His chosen representative on earth (see pp. 26, 27).
Isa 48:14 “Come together, all of you, and listen: Which of the idols has foretold these things? The LORD’s chosen ally will carry out his purpose against Babylon; his arm will be against the Babylonians.
Isa 48:15 I, even I, have spoken; yes, I have called him. I will bring him, and he will succeed in his mission.
Isa 48:16 “Come near me and listen to this: “From the first announcement I have not spoken in secret; at the time it happens, I am there.” And now the Sovereign LORD has sent me, endowed with his Spirit.
God invites the close attention of the people to what He is about to say. It was God who sent Jesus on His mission.
Jesus had been present with the Father from the beginning (John 1:1–3), but when the Father had a work for Him in this world of sin, He left heaven to go on His mission (John 1:14; 3:34; 6:29, 57; 17:3, 4). When Jesus entered the world as the Messiah, God sent the Holy Spirit to rest upon Him (Isa. 11:2; 42:1; 61:1–3; Matt. 3:16; Luke 4:18–21; John 1:32, 33; Acts 10:38). The three members of the Godhead are here referred to (see on Isa. 42:1).
Isa 48:17 This is what the LORD says— your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the LORD your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go.
Christ came to teach men the secrets of peace and blessing (Matt. 6:33; 16:24–26; John 6:33; John 10:9, 10; 17:3) and to guide them in the way of life eternal (John 10:9; 14:6; Heb. 10:20).
Isa 48:18 If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your well-being like the waves of the sea.
God’s commandments were given to guide men in ways of peace and righteousness (Ps. 119:1, 2, 6, 9, 165; Prov. 3:1, 2). All of God’s laws are for the good of man, to direct him in the way of right and to protect him from sin and suffering.
Isa 48:19 Your descendants would have been like the sand, your children like its numberless grains; their name would never be blotted out nor destroyed from before me.”
Obedience would result in an abundant posterity; disobedience would bring extinction (Isa. 1:19, 20).
Isa 48:20 Leave Babylon, flee from the Babylonians! Announce this with shouts of joy and proclaim it. Send it out to the ends of the earth; say, “The LORD has redeemed his servant Jacob.”
This is in anticipation of the time when God would call His people forth from Babylon to avoid its fate (Jer. 50:8; 51:6, 45). In the last days the same urgent call is sent to God’s people yet in mystical Babylon (Rev. 18:4).
Isa 48:21 They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts; he made water flow for them from the rock; he split the rock and water gushed out.
This was the experience of Israel on the way from Egypt to the Promised Land (Ex. 17:6; Ps. 105:41). For the figurative application of these words, see on Isa. 41:17–19; 43:19, 20; John 4:10, 14.
Isa 48:22 “There is no peace,” says the LORD, “for the wicked.”
Isa 57:20 But the wicked are like the tossing sea, which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud.
Isa 57:21 “There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked.”
The earnest exhortations and reproofs of this chapter (vs. 1, 4, 8, 10, 17, 18) are climaxed by this blunt statement concerning the tragic results of transgression. Peace is the inevitable result of righteousness (see on ch. 32:17), and is utterly impossible for those who walk in ways of evil. In v. 18 peace is associated with obedience to God’s commandments. However earnestly men may search for peace they cannot secure it except on God’s terms.