Isaiah 45

1. Isaiah 45

2. ISAIAH CH 45 690 BC

3. Isaiah 45 This is part of 8 consecutive chapters in Isaiah where God speaks in the First Person of His unique status as the One and Only God: the God of power and of creation we can never fathom the God of wisdom and good counsel the God Who can rightly ridicule all pretenders and goddies the God Who loves people and vows to protect Israel the God Who sets kings up and brings them down the God Who uses kings, people, nature and history for purposes of His own the God of the NT Gospel of redemption and restoration, through Christ, His Anointed One (Good News) the God of judgment (Bad News)

4. Isaiah 45 Isaiah 44 laid out the utter stupidity of man’s narrow and limited view of reality – how man knows there’s a God, but is not pleased to be in subjection to Him, and so creates little goddies of his own, and in his own image. God justifiably ridicules this practice and tendency. In the last passage of Chapter 44, God names a king, Cyrus of Persia, who would not even be born for another 150 years.

5. Isaiah 45 45 Thus saith the Lord 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 gates; and the gates shall not be shut; Almighty God will speak here in the first person, addressing a man who has not yet been born. We get to listen in. This is a passage about God’s foreknowledge and predestination. It is clear, but it remains mysterious. In our study, we have touched upon the dilemma created (in OUR minds, not God’s Mind) by the two dimensions, or levels, of existence. God has always had His existence, and has always inhabited His Own “dimension” (of which we are only marginally aware – “eyes have not seen, nor ears heard, etc…”). We have somewhat more understanding of our dimension, the one God created, separate from His Own, in giving us an existence. These two dimensions (the one, eternal, without “time” as we know it, non-material, without the limitations we experience; the other, temporal, and subject to the limitations of physics), are separate.

6. Isaiah 45 The only way God’s dimension can ever intersect with ours is if God makes a Way. He did that. Otherwise, we could have never had any access to God’s dimension (“Heaven”) or His Presence. In the Old Testament, this was wonderfully foretold in Jacob’s Dream, of a stairway, with angels coming and going on it – “Hey, I’m showing you that there’s a Way”. In the NT, it is most tightly summarized as Jesus was getting ready to depart, in John 14: Thomas complained, “Lord, we don’t know where You’re going, and how can we know the way?” It was Jesus’ answer, “I am the Way…” that makes the Eternal Dimension accessible – through Christ alone. Now. Where people become confused is when they look at the two dimensions (God’s and ours) as though they were in any way the same. They are not. This bears directly on the concepts of foreknowledge and predestination.

7. Isaiah 45 Foreknowledge and predestination are two facets of the same diamond of God’s omniscience. They result from God’s unique perspective where He created and of course recognizes “time”, but He does not have to endure it like we do. He is able, from His perspective, to see and comment on the entirety of the scope of history – all at once, as an accomplished fact, a done deal. Calvinists, who are very much fixated on the predestination/foreknowledge puzzle, sadly misunderstand it. To them, God prophesies an event, then makes it happen, almost like a puppet-master. To them, that is how prophecy is fulfilled. But, with a proper view of God, acting from completely outside of time, God foreknew that on August 18, 1963, I would receive Christ as my Savior and be born again. He predestinated me to then be seated with Him in Heavenly places (Romans 8:29) But in no way did He predestine me to make that choice. He drew me persuasively toward it; but it was mine to make.

8. Isaiah 45 45 Thus saith the Lord 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 gates; and the gates shall not be shut; God speaks here, then, of foreknowledge of a man named Cyrus, before he was even in the loins of his father, and predestinating him to be a mighty man who would assist Israel. Were it not for his usefulness as a tool in God’s hand in the redemptive plan of God, Cyrus would not have been any more remarkable than the next king. God “saw” Cyrus as a helper for Israel same as Jesus “saw” Nathaniel, before He saw him, as an “Israelite in whom there is no guile”. God put both to use for His own purposes. Then God speaks through Isaiah of a specific military event, where the gates of Babylon were thrown open to an invasion by the Persians, under Cyrus. God had already seen it happen. On the night of Belteshazzar’s drunken revelry, and the handwriting on the wall, Cyrus’ strategy overthrew Babylon forever.

9. Isaiah 45 2 I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron: 3 And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the Lord, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel. When God finds a man, like Cyrus, useful to His own purposes and designs, He can and will issue blessings and benefits, much as an employer will issue benefits and perks for useful employees. Since God finds Cyrus useful in sustaining Israel, and, ultimately, bringing forth the Way, Truth and Life for the human race, He is not going to make it hard for him to do. He makes it easy. He also lets him have the spoils. God is the best employer with the best benefits-package.

10. Isaiah 45 4 For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me. If there were any doubt that God was doing this great thing for Israel and the eventual plan of salvation, this should settle it. “I called you, Cyrus, for the sake of Israel.” And then, God declares His unique ability to name someone yet future, and to use someone who is not even a believer. History records that Cyrus was a worshipper of Baal and of Marduk. He was an idolater! There are even those who ascribe to him some Zoroastrian leanings (but that is mostly circumstantial, resulting from his humane, enlightened treatment of his subjects and those he defeated and ruled). I personally think Cyrus behaved himself because he felt the call of God on him (without necessarily understanding it), and knew that the Ultimate God was watching him (as well as watching out for him). One of the great stories in the whole Bible.

11. Isaiah 45 5 I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me: 6 That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the Lord, and there is none else. This is not a disjointed return to God bragging on Himself for being the One and Only God over all. This follows His description of His omniscience and foreknowledge, which is made in terms that ought to make believers of any and all. Who else can do what God just did (speaking of Cyrus, declaring the end from the beginning)? It is done to build our faith and awe toward Him. He wants our allegiance, and makes a powerfully persuasive case for it. Only a fool would resist. There are a lot of fools!

12. Isaiah 45 7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things. There are some real questions arising as you read this, I am sure. Let that whet your hunger for part 2 of Isaiah 45. The Cyrus Cylinder, British Museum: on it is a reference to the return of the Temple Treasures. It is in cuneiform script, on baked clay.

13. Isaiah 45 Yet now hear, O Jacob my servant; and Israel, whom I have chosen:

14. Isaiah 45 Yet now hear, O Jacob my servant; and Israel, whom I have chosen:

15. Isaiah 45 Yet now hear, O Jacob my servant; and Israel, whom I have chosen:

16. Isaiah 45 Yet now hear, O Jacob my servant; and Israel, whom I have chosen: