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45. The Lord, Not Idols

¹ “This is what the LORD says to his anointed,
   to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of
to subdue nations before him
   and to strip kings of their armor,
to open doors before him
   so that gates will not be shut:
² I will go before you
   and will level the mountains Dead Sea Scrolls and Septuagint; the meaning of the word in the Masoretic Text is uncertain.;
I will break down gates of bronze
   and cut through bars of iron.
³ I will give you hidden treasures,
   riches stored in secret places,
so that you may know that I am the LORD,
   the God of Israel, who summons you by name.
⁴ For the sake of Jacob my servant,
   of Israel my chosen,
I summon you by name
   and bestow on you a title of honor,
   though you do not acknowledge me.
⁵ I am the LORD, and there is no other;
   apart from me there is no God.
I will strengthen you,
   though you have not acknowledged me,
⁶ so that from the rising of the sun
   to the place of its setting
people may know there is none besides me.
   I am the LORD, and there is no other.
⁷ I form the light and create darkness,
   I bring prosperity and create disaster;
   I, the LORD, do all these things.

    ⁸ “You heavens above, rain down my righteousness;
   let the clouds shower it down.
Let the earth open wide,
   let salvation spring up,
let righteousness flourish with it;
   I, the LORD, have created it.

    ⁹ “Woe to those who quarrel with their Maker,
   those who are nothing but potsherds
   among the potsherds on the ground.
Does the clay say to the potter,
   ‘What are you making?’
Does your work say,
   ‘The potter has no hands’?
¹⁰ Woe to the one who says to a father,
   ‘What have you begotten?’
or to a mother,
   ‘What have you brought to birth?’

    ¹¹ “This is what the LORD says—
   the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker:
Concerning things to come,
   do you question me about my children,
   or give me orders about the work of my hands?
¹² It is I who made the earth
   and created mankind on it.
My own hands stretched out the heavens;
   I marshaled their starry hosts.
¹³ I will raise up Cyrus Hebrew him in my righteousness:
   I will make all his ways straight.
He will rebuild my city
   and set my exiles free,
but not for a price or reward,
   says the LORD Almighty.”

¹⁴ This is what the LORD says:

   “The products of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush, That is, the upper Nile region
   and those tall Sabeans—
they will come over to you
   and will be yours;
they will trudge behind you,
   coming over to you in chains.
They will bow down before you
   and plead with you, saying,
‘Surely God is with you, and there is no other;
   there is no other god.’”

    ¹⁵ Truly you are a God who has been hiding himself,
   the God and Savior of Israel.
¹⁶ All the makers of idols will be put to shame and disgraced;
   they will go off into disgrace together.
¹⁷ But Israel will be saved by the LORD
   with an everlasting salvation;
you will never be put to shame or disgraced,
   to ages everlasting.

    ¹⁸ For this is what the LORD says—
he who created the heavens,
   he is God;
he who fashioned and made the earth,
   he founded it;
he did not create it to be empty,
   but formed it to be inhabited—
he says:
“I am the LORD,
   and there is no other.
¹⁹ I have not spoken in secret,
   from somewhere in a land of darkness;
I have not said to Jacob’s descendants,
   ‘Seek me in vain.’
I, the LORD, speak the truth;
   I declare what is right.

    ²⁰ “Gather together and come;
   assemble, you fugitives from the nations.
Ignorant are those who carry about idols of wood,
   who pray to gods that cannot save.
²¹ Declare what is to be, present it—
   let them take counsel together.
Who foretold this long ago,
   who declared it from the distant past?
Was it not I, the LORD?
   And there is no God apart from me,
a righteous God and a Savior;
   there is none but me.

    ²² “Turn to me and be saved,
   all you ends of the earth;
   for I am God, and there is no other.
²³ By myself I have sworn,
   my mouth has uttered in all integrity
   a word that will not be revoked:
Before me every knee will bow;
   by me every tongue will swear.
²⁴ They will say of me, ‘In the LORD alone
   are deliverance and strength.’”
All who have raged against him
   will come to him and be put to shame.
²⁵ But all the descendants of Israel
   will find deliverance in the LORD
   and will make their boast in him.

25. In Jehovah shall be justified. He now makes a brief reply to an objection which might be urged, that it appeared absurd to say, that the Lord called the Gentiles, who had always been alienated from him. “Is it in vain that the Lord hath chosen the seed of Abraham? Is his promise void, which he so frequently repeated?” (Genesis 15:5, and 17:7.) In order to remove this doubt, he declares that the Lord will nevertheless stand by his promises; that, though he choose the Gentiles, yet the covenant which he made with the fathers shall not fall to the ground, because the elect people shall enjoy the privileges of their rank. Nor does he in this passage, as in many others, speak of the rejection of that nation; but the Prophet simply shews that the grace of God, which shall be diffused throughout the whole world, shall flow from that fountain.

As to the greater number having been rejected by God, still this did not set aside God’s covenant; because the remnant of adoption were always the true and lawful Israel; and although they were few in number, yet they were the first-born in the Church. Besides, all those among the Gentiles who had been ingrafted into that body began also, as we have formerly seen, to be accounted children of Abraham.

“One shall say, I belong to Jacob; another shall subscribe with his band, I am a descendant of Israel.” (Isaiah 44 5.)

And on this ground we are now reckoned the genuine Israel of God, though we are not the descendants of Israel. The Prophet therefore added this, both that the Jews might not think that the Lord’s covenant had failed, and that they might not boast of their birth and despise the Gentiles.

All the seed of Israel. He extends this seed farther, that they may not suppose that it ought to be limited to the family of Abraham; for the Lord gathers his people without distinction from among Jews and Gentiles, and here he speaks universally of the whole human race.

Shall be justified and shall glory. It ought to be observed that the Prophet says that we “are justified and glory in the Lord,” for in none else ought we to seek “righteousness” or “glory.” He has joined to it “glory,” which depends on “righteousness,” and is added to it. Hence also Paul says,

“Where is thy glorying? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith.” (Romans 3:27.)

And, again,

“If Abraham was justified by works, he hath glory,
but not before God.” (Romans 4:2.)

It follows, therefore, that they alone deservedly glory who seek their righteousness in God, and acknowledge that in themselves they have no ground for glorying.