The Lord, through His prophet, assured fearful Israel in this segment. Israel need not fear the nations (vv. 1-7) because Yahweh remained committed to His people and would use them to accomplish His purposes in the world (vv. 8-20). This expression of God's grace would have encouraged and motivated the Israelites to serve their Lord. The courtroom setting pictured in verses 1-7 enabled Isaiah to make God's transcendent monotheism clear and compelling (cf. 1:18; 43:26; 50:8). Verse 1 is a call to judgment, verses 2-4 set forth God's case, namely, his acts in history, and verses 5-7 relate the frightened response of the Gentile nations.
41:1 The coastlands were the farthest reaches of the Gentile world, the ends of the earth. By summoning them to be silent the Lord was appealing to all the Gentiles to listen to Him (cf. 1:2).411By heeding Him they would gain new strength, the same strength that was Israel's privilege (cf. 40:31). The Gentiles were to be fellow heirs with Israel (cf. 19:24-25; 27:13). But before that could happen they had to meet with the Lord and arrive at a decision (cf. Job. 38:3).
41:2-3 The Lord asked the nations a question. Who had righteously summoned a conqueror from the East who would defeat nations and overcome kings as easily and swiftly as one blows away dust and chaff? Later Isaiah would identify this conqueror as Cyrus the Persian (44:28; 45:1), but here the emphasis is on the one who sovereignly called him into action, namely, Yahweh.412This invader would proceed safely over previously unused routes.
41:4 The Lord has always been the one who has called forth such conquerors to carry out His will in the world. The military history of the world is simply the outworking of God's sovereign plan. God is the ultimate strategist who controls history. It has always been so, and it will always be so because no other god preceded Yahweh nor will any other succeed Him. He has no genealogy (cf. John 8:58; 18:5; Rev. 1:8, 17; 22:13).
41:5-6 Upon hearing this message of Yahweh's sovereignty, the nations fear and try to encourage each other. They do not bow before the Lord but gather together and quake (cf. Ps. 2:1-2).
41:7 Furthermore they proceed to build idols (cf. Gen. 1). Rather than turning to the Lord they make gods to whom they turn.413It is not these idols who strengthen their worshippers but the worshippers who strengthen their idols.
"What a god he must be that needs a common laborer to pass inspection and declare that he is in good condition!"414
"The purpose of all this detail is not clear, but the prophet may want to heighten the ironic effect by showing what a complex and arduous task idol making is. Thus he is implicitly asking his hearers if simply trusting the sovereign Lord is not a great deal easier. Another purpose may be to point out how dependent the gods are. They cannot be created by just one person; it takes a whole host of people to keep them going."415
Regardless of the nations' refusal to acknowledge Yahweh, He would intervene in history for the welfare of His people. Israel would not need to fear like the nations because the Lord would be with them and protect them.
41:8 The Lord turned from addressing the nations to speaking to Israel. God had chosen the Israelites for special blessing because He chose to love them more than other peoples. Election rests on love (cf. Deut. 7:7-8). The reference to Jacob recalls the unworthiness of the Israelites, and the mention of Abraham the fact that Abraham loved God (Gen. 18:17-19), the proper response to electing love (cf. 1 John 4:19). Both references also connect to God's covenant with the patriarchs. God had called Israel to be His servant.416
"Old Testament slavery/servanthood must never be thought of on the model of the West Indian slavery of the Christian era. Mosaic legislation extended protection to the slave and--such was the institution--had to make provision for the slave who loved his master and would not leave slavery (Ex. 21:2ff.). Such a slave', as a matter of social status, may have been at the bottom of life's heap, but in another sense he was as powerful as his master, for should he ever have been molested, it was the master the molester had to reckon with."417
41:9 God reminded His people that He had called them from the remotest part of the earth to be His servant. He did this in Abraham's case when He called him out of Ur into the Promised Land, and He did it in Jacob's when He brought him back into the land from his sojourn near Haran. God had determined not to reject His people. Israel had nothing to fear (cf. John 15:14-15).
41:10 Moreover, the Israelites did not need to fear because God was with them, and He had committed Himself to them (cf. Matt. 28:20). They need not look one way and then another trying to find safety (cf. vv. 5-6). Furthermore their God promised to help them in every way with His powerful right hand, a symbol of strength, and to do what was right (cf. 40:10-11).
"Even though no exiled nation had ever before in history been brought back to start life anew in their ancestral homeland, and even though the Gentile government would have no practical means of inducing the Jews to return home, nevertheless God would bring this seeming impossibility to pass."418
41:11-12 "Behold"urges continued attention to more promises. The anger of Israel's enemies against her would prove to shame them. Their claims against Israel would come to nothing. Their opponents would vanish. And their enemies would cease to exist. Increasing opposition would become increasingly ineffective. Those nations that would meddle with this servant would have to contend with an all powerful master.
41:13 Yahweh restated His promise and His exhortation from verse 10. Israel's God would strengthen, encourage, and help His people. He would stand with them while He defended them because He was Yahweh their God (cf. Exod. 20:2).
41:14 The Lord employed a second picture to comfort the Israelites. He would enable what was essentially weak to be strong (cf. 2 Cor. 12:10). Israel was like a worm in that she was weak and vulnerable. However, she had a next of kin (Heb. go'el, redeemer) in the Holy One of Israel who would take on her care and provide all she needed and more. This is the third time in this passage that Yahweh explicitly said He would help His people (cf. vv. 10, 13).
41:15 The Lord would transform the helpless worm, a tiny thresher of the soil, into a powerful threshing sledge by giving her His power. Threshing sledges were heavy wooden platforms fitted with sharp stones and pieces of metal underneath. Farmers dragged them over straw to cut it up in preparation for winnowing. The sledge that Yahweh would make of Israel, however, would be so good that it could chop down mountains and hills, not just straw. The modern equivalent would be giant earth-moving equipment.
41:16 Yet this sledge would do more. It would winnow the nations as well as threshing them. The strong wind that God would provide would drive Israel's enemies away, as the wind separated the wheat from the chaff and blew the chaff away.
". . . every hindrance to God's ultimate purposes in the international scene is overcome through a judgment executed through Israel [cf. Mic. 4:10-13]."419
Israel would then rejoice and make its boast in its great God who had both empowered it and removed its enemies.
41:17 A third picture unfolds. It is of Israel thirsting in the wilderness. The Lord promised to answer the prayers of His crushed and helpless people for their need Himself. He promised to come to their aid and not forsake them because He is their God.
41:18 He would provide by innovation (water where it did not usually appear, on hilltops), multiplication (more water where there was some, in valleys), and transformation (water where it never existed, in deserts).
41:19 He would also provide the other necessity in the wilderness of life's experiences beside water, namely, shade. All the trees mentioned (seven in all) were shade trees, but they did not normally grow together. This enhances the picture of God working wonders to provide for His people. Seven may symbolize the perfection of God's work in this connection.420The emphasis on water and trees also marks Genesis 3 suggesting a return to Edenic conditions.
41:20 The Lord would do this so the afflicted and the needy (v. 17), His people, would reflect and learn that their God had done a powerful creative work for them.
"The righteous God of verse 8:13 and the Redeemer of verses 14-17 is now the Creator (20), transforming his creation (18-19) for the benefit of his needy ones (17)."421
