Dawn across the still Euphrates: Babylon's thick, flat-topped mud-brick wall and a great gate low on the far bank, palms along the water, under a calm, pale, empty sky.

Comfort My people

Isaiah 45

Can God use someone who doesn’t even know Him?

25 verses≈ 6 minBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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Where we are

1–5Zion on trialJudah’s sin, the mountain raised, the vineyard’s song
6Holy, holy, holyIsaiah’s call, in the year King Uzziah died (about 740 BC)
7–12ImmanuelAhaz’s fear, the sign, the Child, the shoot of Jesse
13–23The nations judgedBabylon to Tyre: the LORD is Judge of all the earth
24–27The whole earthThe earth laid waste, and death swallowed up
28–35Woe and a KingEgypt’s help or the LORD’s, and the King in His beauty
36–39Hezekiah’s crisisSennacherib, 701 BC: the prayer, the sickness, the envoys
40–48Comfort My peopleTo the exiles ahead: Cyrus, the idols, the ServantChapter 45
49–55The Servant and ZionPierced for our transgressions; Zion restored
56–66New heavens and earthA house of prayer, the Anointed One, all things new

God Calls Cyrus

God

First light on a great Babylonian city gate faced with blue glazed brick: its two tall timber doors sheathed in bronze stand wide open, the passage through empty, dust in the slanting sun.

This is what the LORD says to Cyrus His anointed,

whose right hand I have grasped

to subdue nations before him,

to disarm kings,

to open the doors before him,

so that the gates will not be shut:

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God

“I will go before you

and level the mountains;

I will break down the gates of bronze

and cut through the bars of iron.

God

God

I will give you the treasures of darkness

and the riches hidden in secret places,

so that you may know that I am the LORD,

the God of Israel, who calls you by name.

God

For the sake of Jacob My servant

and Israel My chosen one,

I call you by name;

I have given you a title of honor,

though you have not known Me.

God

I form the light and create the darkness;

I bring prosperity and create calamity.

I, the LORD, do all these things.

God

Soft rain falls from low gray clouds onto a plowed field of dark earth, rows of new green shoots coming up, the light gentle.

Drip down, O heavens, from above,

and let the skies pour down righteousness.

Let the earth open up that salvation may sprout

and righteousness spring up with it;

I, the LORD, have created it.

Stylised map · locations approximate

On the map

Cyrus from the east

Cyrus of Persia took Media, then Lydia’s capital Sardis, then Babylon in 539 BC. In 538 he let the Judeans go home to Jerusalem.

God

Close in a potter's workshop: a lump of wet red clay half shaped into a jar on a stone kick wheel at ground level, no hands on it, unfired pots on shelves behind, a basin of water.

Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker—

one clay pot among many.

Does the clay ask the potter,

‘What are you making?’

Does your work say,

‘He has no hands’?

God

Woe to him who says to his father,

‘What have you begotten?’

or to his mother,

‘What have you brought forth?’”

God

Thus says the LORD,

the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker:

“Concerning things to come, do you question Me about My sons,

or instruct Me in the work of My hands?

It is I who made the earth

and created man upon it.

It was My hands that stretched out the heavens,

and I ordained all their host.

God

God

I will raise up Cyrus in righteousness,

and I will make all his ways straight.

He will rebuild My city

and set My exiles free,

but not for payment or reward,

says the LORD of Hosts.”

Question

Quick question

Cyrus was a Persian king who did not know the LORD. Look at verse 1 before you answer.

What does 45:1 call Cyrus?

God

This is what the LORD says:

“The products of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush,

along with the Sabeans, men of stature,

will come over to you

and will be yours;

they will trudge behind you;

they will come over in chains and bow down to you.

They will confess to you:

‘God is indeed with you, and there is no other;

there is no other God.’”

Isaiah

Truly You are a God who hides Himself,

O God of Israel, the Savior.

Isaiah

They will all be put to shame and humiliated;

the makers of idols will depart together in disgrace.

But Israel will be saved by the LORD

with an everlasting salvation;

you will not be put to shame or humiliated,

to ages everlasting.

God

A wide green valley in the Judean hills in morning light: terraced fields, olive groves, a small walled village with thin smoke rising from its hearths, a road winding through.

For thus says the LORD,

who created the heavens—He is God;

He formed the earth and fashioned it;

He established it;

He did not create it to be empty,

but formed it to be inhabited:

“I am the LORD,

and there is no other.

God

I have not spoken in secret,

from a place in a land of darkness.

I did not say to the descendants of Jacob,

‘Seek Me in a wasteland.’

I, the LORD, speak the truth;

I say what is right.

God

Come, gather together, and draw near,

you fugitives from the nations.

Ignorant are those who carry idols of wood

and pray to a god that cannot save.

Speak up and present your case—

yes, let them take counsel together.

Who foretold this long ago?

Who announced it from ancient times?

Was it not I, the LORD?

There is no other God but Me,

a righteous God and Savior;

there is none but Me.

God

Turn to Me and be saved,

all the ends of the earth;

for I am God,

and there is no other.

Isaiah 45:22

God

By Myself I have sworn;

truth has gone out from My mouth,

a word that will not be revoked:

Every knee will bow before Me,

every tongue will swear allegiance.

Surely they will say of Me,

‘In the LORD alone are righteousness and strength.’”

All who rage against Him

will come to Him and be put to shame.

Isaiah

Dawn breaking over a vast land seen from a high place: ranges of hills and plains running out to a far sea, first light spreading across them under an open sky.

In the LORD all descendants of Israel

will be justified and will exult.

0:06

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Pray

LORD, You rule even the rulers who do not know You. Teach me to trust You as clay trusts the Potter. I turn to You to be saved; help me tell the ends of the earth. Amen.

You’ve experienced

Isaiah 45

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A verse to carry with you

Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.

Isaiah 45:22

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