Isaiah 48 - ESV - Bible Reading / Study Notes

Isaiah 48

Israel Refined for God’s Glory

48:1   Hear this, O house of Jacob,
    who are called by the name of Israel,
    and who came from the waters of Judah,
  who swear by the name of the LORD
    and confess the God of Israel,
    but not in truth or right.
2   For they call themselves after the holy city,
    and stay themselves on the God of Israel;
    the LORD of hosts is his name.
3   “The former things I declared of old;
    they went out from my mouth, and I announced them;
    then suddenly I did them, and they came to pass.
4   Because I know that you are obstinate,
    and your neck is an iron sinew
    and your forehead brass,
5   I declared them to you from of old,
    before they came to pass I announced them to you,
  lest you should say, ‘My idol did them,
    my carved image and my metal image commanded them.’
6   “You have heard; now see all this;
    and will you not declare it?
  From this time forth I announce to you new things,
    hidden things that you have not known.
7   They are created now, not long ago;
    before today you have never heard of them,
    lest you should say, ‘Behold, I knew them.’
8   You have never heard, you have never known,
    from of old your ear has not been opened.
  For I knew that you would surely deal treacherously,
    and that from before birth you were called a rebel.
9   “For my name’s sake I defer my anger;
    for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you,
    that I may not cut you off.
10   Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver;
    I have tried¹ you in the furnace of affliction.
11   For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it,
    for how should my name² be profaned?
    My glory I will not give to another.

The Lord’s Call to Israel

12   “Listen to me, O Jacob,
    and Israel, whom I called!
  I am he; I am the first,
    and I am the last.
13   My hand laid the foundation of the earth,
    and my right hand spread out the heavens;
  when I call to them,
    they stand forth together.
14   “Assemble, all of you, and listen!
    Who among them has declared these things?
  The LORD loves him;
    he shall perform his purpose on Babylon,
    and his arm shall be against the Chaldeans.
15   I, even I, have spoken and called him;
    I have brought him, and he will prosper in his way.
16   Draw near to me, hear this:
    from the beginning I have not spoken in secret,
    from the time it came to be I have been there.”
  And now the Lord GOD has sent me, and his Spirit.
17   Thus says the LORD,
    your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
  “I am the LORD your God,
    who teaches you to profit,
    who leads you in the way you should go.
18   Oh that you had paid attention to my commandments!
    Then your peace would have been like a river,
    and your righteousness like the waves of the sea;
19   your offspring would have been like the sand,
    and your descendants like its grains;
  their name would never be cut off
    or destroyed from before me.”
20   Go out from Babylon, flee from Chaldea,
    declare this with a shout of joy, proclaim it,
  send it out to the end of the earth;
    say, “The LORD has redeemed his servant Jacob!”
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 the water gushed out.
22   “There is no peace,” says the LORD, “for the wicked.”

Footnotes

[1] 48:10 Or I have chosen
[2] 48:11 Hebrew lacks my name

Commentary

v1: Jacob, called by the new name of "Israel," Prince with God; changed and delivered and redeemed by God. This nation alone enjoyed the privilege of belonging to God; yet he only paid lip service, by swearing by His Name, and making mention of His Name, but not in truth or in righteousness.

v2: They claimed to know God; but He is the Lord Almighty, not to be treated lightly.

v3: God had spoken and acted on behalf of Israel, so that he would appreciate God's power and goodness.

v4: Obstinate Israel, so slow to learn.

v5: God revealed things ahead of time, so that His people might trust in Him. But Israel trusted in "my idols...my wooden image and metal god," gods of their own making.

v6-8: Firmness and clarity in God's words. Isaiah was a prophet of "new things" (42.9), special blessings promised to Israel, and Isaiah leads the other prophets in declaring these promises. God insists that His people did not know, and could not know, before.

v9-11: God's on going faithfulness to His own, for the glory of His Name. Consequently there was mercy and compassion, the people were not destroyed;

through God's mercy, He did not destroy them;
through God's compassion, He did not allow men to destroy them.

They were, however, refined and tested, although not too severely, although a more severe trial would follow. Here again is a warning of future trials.

Israel's existence is a mark of God's promises. He is glorified through His people. He will not, however, yield that glory to another, for glory is something essential to God, something that marks His very life; ‘He cannot be God with His glory.' Further, whilst He gives so much to those who belong to Him, He cannot and will not give His glory to man.

v12-13: God addressed Israel, "whom I have called." These are words about God;

I am the first; the creator, and author of life;
I am the last, bringing final judgment and reward, winding up human affairs.

Thus, all human experience and history is limited and defined by God; all of the physical creation is similarly limited by God. When He speaks, creation listens; why not men?

v14-15: Babylon's arrival and later defeat; at the call of God. Again, no other god could predict such things, nor turn the very heart of a nation.

v16: Words spoken by the prophet, but prefiguring the prophetic ministry of Christ. He was sent by God, and given His Spirit. These words point us to the transfiguration, and we hear God's voice of approval, "Hear Him!" See also Prov 8.22-36, in praise of wisdom from God.

v17: The Redeemer is the Lord God, and He teaches and leads His people, in the true and the right way. As we walk in His ways, we find true reward in obedience.

v18-19: The folly of disobedience; by which we miss out on great blessings. Israel lost out on peace, on righteousness, on being a numerous people, on an enduring name.

v20-22: The final warning, as at the end of chapters 57 and 66; see introduction to ch 40.

Those who belong to God must distance themselves from all that is evil, Rev 18.4. Scripture testifies to some who lived in the wrong place, amongst the wrong people, and had to endure great sorrow and suffering, e.g: Lot, David.

Trusting in the Lord does bring its own trials, but is always the way of peace.