This chapter climaxes Isaiah's arguments for Yahweh's superiority over pagan idols. The prophet was led to use the Israelites' exile in Babylon to prove his point. Isaiah had demonstrated God's trustworthiness (chs. 7-39) and had promised that He would graciously redeem His people (chs. 40-47). Now it was up to the Israelites to trust Him. Chapter 48 consists of exhortations to the impenitent and unbelieving in Israel to really listen to their God.
"The most striking feature of this chapter is the severity of its diagnosis of Israel . . ."502
This section recapitulates the revelation that Yahweh predicts the future so that when what He predicts happens people will recognize that He is the only true God. He can cause new things to happen because He alone is the Creator.503
48:1-2 The Lord called on His people to pay attention to what He had to say to them and to respond appropriately (cf. 42:18; 46:12). The many descriptions of the Israelites in these verses reminded them of their origins and their identity, their commitments to and their appreciation for Yahweh, and their present relationship with Him. In view of all this, they needed to heed what He said. They had not done this as they should have in the past.
48:3 God had frequently in Israel's past predicted what He would do, and then He did it. Sometimes the fulfillments were not what His people had expected, illustrating His sovereign creativity. Nevertheless, He had remained true to His word.
48:4-5 God had done this because His people were stubborn when it came to trusting Him. If He had not done this, they would have concluded that some idol had been responsible for the turn of events. They, like all people, resisted trust in a sovereign God preferring rather to make their gods in their own image and so control them. People are by nature like animals in that we often refuse to go a certain way simply because our Master wants us to go that way. The neck of iron pictures unwillingness to bow in submission. The brazen forehead represents an opinionated person with a closed mind or a shameless person who persists in sin.
Having reminded His people of His ways, God now gave them a new prediction.
48:6 God called His people to consider carefully what He had just revealed and they would have to admit that it was true. It was important that they come to a clear understanding of His ways because He was making other predictions about the future (i.e., Cyrus, return from exile, the coming Servant). They needed to know that He is in charge and that He is dependable. What He revealed was hidden in that its time and method of fulfillment were not specific, but the content itself was clear enough having been revealed generally before (cf. Gen. 15:18-21; Deut. 30:1-5).
48:7 What God was predicting was brand new; it was not something He had revealed previously. His people had not heard this specific prediction before. Moses or another prophet had not revealed it. God chose when to reveal it as well as what to reveal.
"It [predictive prophecy] is given not so we can know the future, but as confirmatory evidence that we can and should trust God. To use it for the purpose of knowing the future and thus making ourselves secure is only another form of idolatry."504
48:8 The Israelites had not listened to the message that predictive prophecy was to teach them. They did not welcome the idea that God could surprise them and so keep them trusting Him. Instead they wanted to know the future so they would not have to trust Him. Rebellion against God is part of human nature. They did not know what He was going to do, but He knew their hearts.
48:9 Even though Israel had been prone to idolatry (v. 5) and had been congenitally rebellious (v. 8), God had not cast her off. Why? He had made commitments to be gracious to Israel and to honor Himself in His dealings with her so the rest of the world would trust Him. The fact that God did not abandon Israel when He could have done so justly manifested His grace.
48:10 By allowing the Babylonian exile God was not casting off His people but disciplining them so they would come to their senses and follow Him more faithfully thereafter. The difficult times Israel had been through were fires of refining, not fires of destruction.505In refining silver, the craftsman burns away all the dross. If God had refined Israel that way there would have been nothing left of the nation. Affliction is a sign that God has chosen and loves His people; it is not a sign that He has not chosen and does not love them (cf. Heb. 12:3-13).
48:11 Ultimately, however, it is for His own sake that God does what He does. He is the only true God, so people must see this. They come to see it in His just but merciful dealings with Israel. Then they give Him glory, where alone it belongs.
In a sense verses 12-22 are the second verse of the song of which verses 1-11 are the first verse. God was making much the same point though with a slightly different emphasis.
48:12 This segment opens like the first one (cf. v. 1). However here the emphasis is on who God is rather than on who the Israelites are. He is the eternal, self-existent God who called Israel to Himself for a special purpose. This is the basis for His claim to predict the future and to use whomever He will to carry out His will.
"As firstGod was not pressed by any external agency into what he initiated; as lasthe stands unchallenged by any force that may have tried to oppose; and he brings to triumphant conclusion what he started. At the start, there was his uninhibited freedom to do as he chose; at the end, the untarnished gold of his completed work."506
48:13 God is also the Creator who maintains control over His creation. As such He can create history as well as the cosmos.507
48:14 The Israelites needed to listen because only the Lord could reveal what He would do. Specifically, Yahweh revealed His love (choice, cf. Deut. 4:37; Mal. 1:2-3) of Cyrus who would fulfill God's will on Babylon by defeating the Chaldeans (cf. 44:28). The Israelites, in view of who their God is, should not resist His choice of Cyrus or reject the revelation about him. The idols, "them,"could not reveal this.
48:15 What God had decided and declared would stand. Cyrus would prosper in his assignment because God had called him to do it. As surely as God had called the host of heaven (v. 13), Israel (v. 12), and Assyria (cf. 10:6), He had called Cyrus.
48:16 God again urged His people to listen carefully (cf. vv. 1, 12, 14). From the beginning God's promises concerning the future had not been vague and ambiguous. They could be verified easily, and they evidenced Yahweh's imminence in human life. God was there when He made those predictions.
"When Jesus Christ incarnated God on earth, this was not some shocking new modality of revelation; it was the logical endpoint of all that God had been doing in and through Israel up to that point."508
The speaker of the last part of this verse is unclear. God appears to have been speaking in the first part of the verse, but now we read that God sent "Me."This may be Isaiah speaking.509If so, the point is that God and His Spirit had sent Isaiah to communicate and to confirm the truthfulness of what God had just said. Another view is that Messiah, the Servant, speaks.510The point then would be that the Messiah would testify to the truth of what God had just said empowered by the Spirit. I prefer the second view.511
The remaining verses in this chapter conclude this section (vv. 12-22) and this chapter of Isaiah, even the whole chapters 40-48 segment.
48:17 The titles of God give the reasons why the Israelites should listen to Him. They should listen because of who He is and what He had done for them. Additionally, God is essentially one who teaches His people how to make a net gain of their lives (not necessarily a profit in business). He is also the one who guides His people through dangers to safety and fulfillment.
48:18 Failure to listen and hear the Lord's instruction (cf. vv. 1, 4, 8) in the past had limited Israel's peace (Heb. shalom) and her right conduct (Heb. sedaqa). Things could have been far better if she had only listened and obeyed. She could have experienced a ceaseless, powerful flow of His blessings.
"Every sensitive teacher knows the pain of heart that comes when he pours himself out for students who prove to be unteachable. Israel proved to be like that (cf. v. 8); and God expresses his deep concern for them, because they are themselves the losers."512
48:19 Israel could also have enjoyed the blessings promised to Abraham more fully and sooner than she will. Israel's identity as a nation among other nations ceased because of her sin, but her identity as the chosen people of God did not. This verse does not teach that the fulfillmentof the promises to Abraham were contingent on Israel's obedience. God gave those promises unconditionally (cf. Gen. 12:1-3, 7; 15:5; 22:17). It does reflect that the enjoymentof those benefits depended on her obedience (cf. Deut. 28-29).
48:20 In view of the new promises concerning Cyrus and return from exile, Isaiah called on the Israelites to depart from Babylon when they could (cf. Rev. 18:4-5) and to publicize the promise of the second Exodus. It was as good as accomplished.
This verse is, "A summons beforehand to Jews who would be captives in 539 B.C. not to tarry in the pagan soil of Babylon, but to take advantage of Cyrus' permissive edict and return to Judah."513
This "missionary challenge"to take good news to the nations fittingly climaxes the message of chapters 40-48.
48:21 In terms reminiscent of the first Exodus, Isaiah anticipated God's miraculous and abundant providential provision of refreshment for His people when they returned to the Promised Land from Babylonia (cf. 43:18-29).
48:22 God's final word that His people needed to hear was a word of warning (cf. 57:21). For the wicked there is no peace (Heb. shalom, the fullness of divine blessing cf. v. 18). The wonderful promise just summarized (vv. 20-21) was no guarantee that Israel would enjoy God's richest blessing if she continued to practice wickedness. The wicked Babylonians would not enjoy His shalom, and neither would they.
By way of application, God has similarly promised to build His church (Matt. 16:18). But that is no excuse for Christians to conclude that because our election is secure we can sin with impunity.
