Episode 36: Isaiah and the Messiah 3–Isaiah 41
Why is Israel portrayed as holding God’s left hand? And what does it have to do with Yeshua/Jesus?
In this week’s episode, the comedy-drama really begins in earnest. God demands that the pagan nations and their representative gods come into the courtroom with him and present evidence that they are truly gods–and He presents evidence that it is instead Himself who is the one and only God. We have an idol polemic, a speech of disputation, and a salvation oracle all rolled into one chapter–AND Isaiah’s first mention of the only named person (well, he will be named in later chapters, anyway) in all of the Hebrew Scriptures to specifically be called a maschiach–pagan King Cyrus. So now we have seven different characters mentioned–Yahweh, Isaiah, the first and second heavenly council members, Israel the servant, the nations, their gods, and the servant coming from the east. Next week we will have introduced to us one more character who will occur throughout Isaiah 40-55, the one whom the targums, Rabbis David Kimchi and Abarbanel call THE Messiah–but for this week we have quite enough excitement dealing with these new developments in the New Exodus promises of YHWH to His people exiled in the Babylonian Empire.
Here’s the very rough transcript–please forgive any grammar or spelling errors:
Hey there! This is part three of my series on Isaiah and the Messiah. Two weeks ago we did a quick overview of the doom and gloom tones of Isaiah 1-39 and launched right into Isaiah 40 which, as opposed to chapters 1-39, was written to the Babylonian exiles. Chapters 1-39, of course, was written to pre-exile Judah as a warning to cease and desist with their idolatry and oppression, or else, but for the most part, they refused to repent. Isaiah takes a sharp turn in chapter 40, however, with the beginning of his discourse on the promise of a great deliverance at the hands of Cyrus, out of Babylon. It is spoken to a people who have been beaten down by almost seventy years of exile in the Babylonian Empire, who have come to wonder whether or not God is even there anymore, whether He wants to rescue them or even can anymore–based the ancient Near Eastern belief that when a country is conquered and a Temple destroyed, that the God/gods of that country are also defeated and destroyed. Did Yahweh survive the destruction of Jerusalem and Judah? Is he able to save? Does He want to save? How will He save?
We are covering this because the Gospel of Mark explores the ministry of Yeshua/Jesus from the unique vantage point of being a fulfillment of his “way discourse” aka the “Isianic New Exodus” and if we don’t know chapters 40-55 of Isaiah, so much of Mark is lost. Also, as this section of Isaiah is misused by anti-missionaries in order to undermine faith in Yeshua, covering it verse by verse in the original context, I hope, will protect people from being deceived.
Hi, I am Tyler Dawn Rosenquist and welcome to Character in Context, where I teach the historical and ancient sociological context of Scripture with an eye to developing the character of Messiah. If you prefer written material, I have five years worth of blog at theancientbridge.com as well as my six books available on amazon—including a four-volume curriculum series dedicated to teaching Scriptural context in a way that even kids can understand it, called Context for Kids—and I have two video channels on youtube with free Bible teachings for both adults and kids. You can find the link for those on my website. Past broadcasts of this program can be found at characterincontext.podbean.com.
All Scripture this week is taken from the ESV, the English Standard Version, because that is what my interlinear is in. And unlike my usual MO, I will be saying Yahweh instead of God and Lord because there are so many different voices speaking back and forth in Isaiah 40-55 that it will help eliminate confusion. Otherwise, I always use titles because I don’t like to use His name carelessly or casually.
41 Listen to me in silence, O coastlands; let the peoples renew their strength;
let them approach, then let them speak; let us together draw near for judgment.
Whereas Chapter 40 was largely focused on and addressed to the Jewish exile community in the Babylonian Empire, assuring them that their God is still alive, still powerful, able to save and wanting to save, Chapter 41 begins a courtroom comedy/drama. Mostly drama, but some parts are just laugh out loud hilarious. In verse one, Yahweh tells the coastlands—an idiom which can be translated into our idiom “the ends of the earth”—which is also equivalent to “the islands.” The far reaches of known land, so to speak. Anyway, Yahweh enters into a disputation dialogue with the nations of the earth. His first words were “Listen to me in silence.” Then “let the peoples renew their strength.” Peoples is not Israel, that would be “my people” but “peoples” is le’ummim, referring back to the coastlands, the peoples He just told to shut up and listen to Him. They are being told they need to gather their strength/courage, then approach and speak—after having shut up and listened to Him, and then to niqrabah “approach” yachdav “together” for judgment “mishpat”. There is nothing intimate or friendly about this. This is adversarial language right off the bat. A command to the nations (namely the Babylonian Empire but also others as we will see in a bit) and their gods to appear in court, to listen, to mount a defense if possible, and then face judgment.
2 Who stirred up one from the east whom victory meets at every step?
He gives up nations before him, so that he tramples kings underfoot;
he makes them like dust with his sword, like driven stubble with his bow.
3 He pursues them and passes on safely, by paths his feet have not trod.
4 Who has performed and done this, calling the generations from the beginning?
I, the Lord, the first, and with the last; I am he.
In these verses, the initial “who” refers to Yahweh who is beginning to present His evidence to the nations and their gods that He is supreme and the only real God. To prove His case, He begins to talk about how He will deliver His people from exile. He repeatedly asks, “Who” did such and such and of course the answer is Himself and no other. But whom has He stirred up from the east? Whom does victory meet at every step? Who easily defeats the nations and tramples kings underfoot the way that a potter tramples his clay? Who makes the nations and kings like dust, in other words, utterly shaming them so that they can be trodden underfoot by even the lowliest peasants? Who makes these kings and nations like the stubble that is blown away by the wind after being crushed to release the wheat? Who pursues his enemies but emerges without a scratch? It is none other than King Cyrus of Persia, who will be specifically named in future chapters.
But this section isn’t about Cyrus, it is about the power and authority behind Cyrus’s stunning military campaign. Who called him? Who gave him the authority to subdue nations? Who rose him up against the mightiest empire the world had ever seen up to that point? Who called it before it even happened? Yahweh did. This is what the nations were commanded to be silent and listen to. What is their response? Let’s see.
5 The coastlands have seen and are afraid; the ends of the earth tremble; they have drawn near and come.
6 Everyone helps his neighbor and says to his brother, “Be strong!”
7 The craftsman strengthens the goldsmith, and he who smooths with the hammer him who strikes the anvil, saying of the soldering, “It is good”; and they strengthen it with nails so that it cannot be moved.
The response of the nations is pure panic. And because Isaiah isn’t written in modern terms, with easy to understand stage direction and all that, it is easy to miss how hilarious this would have been to the original audience. Everyone panics, everyone is terrified. They are trying to give one another courage in the face of Yahweh’s pronouncement that He is sending a conqueror to enact His will and punish the Babylonian Empire. It was a great place to live, commercially prosperous, religiously tolerant, comfortable and luxurious. No one wanted it overthrown.
So they encourage each other and prop one another up, and then the craftsman encourages and strengthens the goldsmith, and what do they do to combat this terrible threat and protect themselves from Yahweh’s will? They make an idol to protect themselves. They create something to counteract the Creator. They use creation language, “It is good”. But then they have to nail it down, or else it will topple over. It cannot move. They expect something that can’t even keep itself from falling over–to actually save them from Cyrus, much less from Yahweh.
Of course, Isaiah and the Jews knew that idolatry doesn’t work this way—they believed that making the idol would allow them to harness and manipulate the gods, to placate and influence them, as we talked about at length last week and will only gloss over here. They were under no illusion that the idol actually was a god—but that doesn’t stop Isaiah from pointing out how ridiculous the situation is. There are some scholars who believe this bit is out of place, but I agree with others who think it was very deliberate on the part of the prophet. This is what the nations would do in response to fear.
8 But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend;
9 you whom I took from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest corners,
saying to you, “You are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you off”;
10 fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
We have a break in the courtroom action here as Yahweh figuratively turns to address His people again. He switches from prophesying doom to the nations through His as yet unnamed servant to reassuring His people that He is their God, that they are still “my servant” whom “I have chosen” that Abraham is still remembered as a “friend” an ancient covenant term which entails covenant loyalty on Yahweh’s part. He reminds them that He has not “cast them off.” He says, “fear not” as opposed to the nations who are now scrambling to make an idol to protect themselves, which only heightens the humor of the previous verses. We have a ton of “I’s” in here. I have chosen you, I took you, I have chosen again, I am with you, I am your God, I will strengthen, I will help, I will uphold you. How did Chapter 40 begin? “Comfort, comfort my people.” That verse was a command to His messengers to comfort but now He is comforting them personally.
Why is He stopping to comfort them? Because this is a generation in the midst of a land of idols, who grew up in Babylon as a defeated people—people who were painfully aware that they were conquered and who had undoubtedly been told by the nations that they were defeated that their God was under the feet of Marduk, Ishtar, and the rest of the Babylonian pantheon, rendered utterly useless and helpless. Of course, they had come to believe it. Their parents were never monotheists, they were henotheists. They worshiped Yahweh, but they also worshipped a whole slew of other gods and goddesses along with Him, even in His own temple. For all intents and purposes, this was all but a thoroughly pagan people. Yahweh was going to change that, once and for all, with a new deliverance that would show that there were no other gods, that He was the only one and all others were powerless and even pagan kings were at His command. It may seem silly to us, having been brought up taking monotheism for granted, but it was the very real outlook and belief system of the entire ancient world, with very few, and very brief exceptions.
I do want you to notice something important here, that He will uphold them with His righteous right hand. That will be an important distinction in a few verses.
11 Behold, all who are incensed against you shall be put to shame and confounded;
those who strive against you shall be as nothing and shall perish.
12 You shall seek those who contend with you, but you shall not find them;
those who war against you shall be as nothing at all.
Babylon. Edom. Ammon. Babylon had conquered Israel and shamed them, certainly, but Edom and Ammon took advantage of the situation. Yahweh gave Nebuchadnezzar the authority and strength to discipline Judah and take the people into exile, but they went too far and had to be punished. Edom and Ammon had not been given license to do what they did and especially as they are near kin to the Israelites. There would be retribution.
Psalm 137:7 Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem, how they said, “Lay it bare, lay it bare, down to its foundations!”
13 For I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, “Fear not,
I am the one who helps you.”
This is important. We see the Lord holding the right hand of His people. That means they are on His left-hand side. That leaves His right hand available for battle, and the space is empty for someone to be sitting at His right hand. The right hand is the one reserved for the designated first-born son who will inherit. Jacob, for example, placed his right hand on Ephraim’s head. But notice that Israel is protected and upheld on the other side.
Psalm 110:1 The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.”
Luke 22: 69 But from now on the Son of Man shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God.” 70 So they all said, “Are you the Son of God, then?” And he said to them, “You say that I am.” 71 Then they said, “What further testimony do we need? We have heard it ourselves from his own lips.”
Acts 7: And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”
This is not to demean Judah as God’s servant. I mean, after all, they are still portrayed here as servants, the seed of Abraham, sons, etc. holding God’s hand. Not too shabby, just not being that servant on His right side.
14 Fear not, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel! I am the one who helps you, declares the Lord; your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.
Quick note here—worm sounds awful, right? Blind and helpless, right? Not really mighty warriors. Well, there is a point here which is very important. One, they are called men in the next colon. So, this isn’t an insult. This is merely an expression of the concept that this is a battle they will not have to lift a finger to fight. They are not going to deliver themselves, they are irrelevant to their salvation apart from receiving it. Yahweh will make Cyrus happen and everything will fall into place and all they will have to do is go home—of course, that is when they will have to behave like men and it will be difficult when they return to rebuild.
And we see a word that will be repeated time and again in both noun and verb form—redeemer, or go’al. You have probably heard, if you have read the Torah and the story of Ruth, of kinsmen-redeemers whose job it was to rescue a near relative from debt or slavery. Same sense here. He says, “I am the one who helps you”—they can put their faith in no other, no other kingdom, king, or gods can stand in the way of the divine kinsman-redeemer. What Yahweh is declaring, in all the Hebrew perfect verb tenses, has effectively already happened. He said it and it is a done deal.
15 Behold, I make of you a threshing sledge, new, sharp, and having teeth; you shall thresh the mountains and crush them, and you shall make the hills like chaff;
16 you shall winnow them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the tempest shall scatter them.
And you shall rejoice in the Lord; in the Holy One of Israel you shall glory.
Let’s talk about threshing sledges. I encourage you to look up a picture of one. Flat board, sometimes on rollers and sometimes not, pulled along by a team of oxen or whatever the beast of burden of choice is. Driven into the underside are sharp stones or pieces of metal and, when it is dragged over wheat, it strips away the kernel from the chaff. Then the resulting debris pile can be tossed into the air with winnowing forks and the chaff, the outer useless layer of the wheat, will be picked up by the wind and blown away, while the wheat falls back down to the threshing floor. And they did this without breathing protection! We are such wimps in comparison.
Mountains in this sort of poetic Scripture often (but not always) represent obstacles, not real mountains. Yahweh is telling His people that they will be able to overcome all obstacles in their path, and when they do, they won’t be congratulating themselves on their hard work because, like worms, the threshing sledge is just a helpless tool that gets dragged around. The sledge doesn’t do the work, the team of oxen do. Because of this, they will rejoice in God, because He did all the work and they are just bystanders.
17 When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue is parched with thirst, I the Lord will answer them; I the God of Israel will not forsake them.
18 I will open rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the midst of the valleys.
I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.
19 I will put in the wilderness the cedar, the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive.
I will set in the desert the cypress, the plane and the pine together,
20 that they may see and know, may consider and understand together,
that the hand of the Lord has done this, the Holy One of Israel has created it.
So, this is obviously symbolic language. There was no one in Babylon seeking water, it was a fertile plain with plenty of water. Nor would they need it on the journey back as they would have traveled along the river to return to the Land. The Jews in Babylon were not financially impoverished. Quite the opposite—which is why so few ended up leaving. This is the language of provision. This is Exodus language, hearkening back to the journey in the wilderness. Isaiah is painting a picture here of the exodus, preparing the people to trust God and go back when the time comes, which will happen in the form of Cyrus’s decree sometime around 539 BCE. It is what is known as “New Eden” language. But this never actually happened in the physical. We see no accounts of the returnees seeking water, or Yahweh miraculously creating water in the desert, or filling the Land miraculously with trees again. This is something that is portrayed as not being by any sort of human effort, going along with the rising up of Cyrus to free them. This is about the supernatural revitalization of a people in their Land—in the ancient world where no one returns from exile to become a separate people again. It just didn’t happen. There are seven species mentioned, all indigenous to the Land, and so this could even be a poetic and symbolic reference to the people who belong in the Land returning to it. People are sometimes, in Scripture, likened to trees. Just a thought. Just a theory. In any event, this is still consolation language, a salvation oracle, telling the Jews that they can and will return to the Land under the protection and provision of God. Again, not the result of any human effort.
But now, back to our heated courtroom drama:
21 Set forth your case, says the Lord; bring your proofs, says the King of Jacob.
22 Let them bring them, and tell us what is to happen. Tell us the former things, what they are,
that we may consider them, that we may know their outcome; or declare to us the things to come.
23 Tell us what is to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods;
do good, or do harm, that we may be dismayed and terrified.
Alright, now that Yahweh has had his say, proclaiming the coming of Cyrus, his servant, his instrument of deliverance and the destruction of the Babylonian Empire—He challenged the nations, actually He challenges the gods of the nations to prophesy something, anything. To do something, to do anything. That way they can show the Jews that they are indeed worthy of being feared. In other words, “Okay guys, your turn, let’s hear what you are going to do. And then do it so we can be quaking in our boots. I’m waiting guys, any day now…” And, of course, there is no response because idols cannot speak. I suppose if they could speak, the first thing they would say is, “Ouch, darn it, what did you have to nail me down for?”
We are invited to imagine a long pause, complete with the sound of crickets, before Yahweh’s response:
24 Behold, you are nothing, and your work is less than nothing; an abomination is he who chooses you.
In other words, “Yeah, I didn’t think so. How on earth can anyone take you seriously? Not only can you do nothing, but you are nothing. Non-existent.”
Now Yahweh is going to up the ante with His promises/predictions:
25 I stirred up one from the north, and he has come, from the rising of the sun, and he shall call upon my name; he shall trample on rulers as on mortar, as the potter treads clay.
Again, speaking of Cyrus, who came from the east, modern-day Iran, aka from the rising of the sun, to attack Babylon, modern-day Iraq, but when he attacked, history tells us that he came from the north. Here’s an interesting verse though, much debated among scholars, “he shall call upon my Name.”
There is no way that Cyrus declared his victory in the Name of Yahweh, it just didn’t happen. He was a polytheist who believed in regional gods and one of those gods being Yahweh of Israel. He did cite the name of Yahweh twice in Ezra 1:2-4, and so this could conceivably be it:
2 “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. 3 Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel—he is the God who is in Jerusalem. 4 And let each survivor, in whatever place he sojourns, be assisted by the men of his place with silver and gold, with goods and with beasts, besides freewill offerings for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.”
But I don’t think so because to call upon the name does not mean in the ancient world what it means in plain English. If you call my name, it sounds like, “Hey, Tyler!” but to call on the name of a god had to do with drawing upon their authority. The prophet is very clear here in speaking for Yahweh that Cyrus will be going forth in the authority and power of Yahweh and Yahweh alone, no one else, no other gods, will be responsible for his victories and Yahweh is proving it by declaring it ahead of time.
26 Who declared it from the beginning, that we might know, and beforehand, that we might say, “He is right”? There was none who declared it, none who proclaimed, none who heard your words.
Again, challenging the nations and their gods—no one called it on the destruction of Babylon and the return of the exiles. They didn’t know. They couldn’t know. No one (their priestly mediators) heard them say it and they didn’t rush out to proclaim it to the people. It didn’t happen. Only Yahweh called it.
27 I was the first to say to Zion, “Behold, here they are!” and I give to Jerusalem a herald of good news.
Right here, Yahweh presents His evidence that He was the first to pronounce to desolate Jerusalem and Zion that the exiles are returning. This is pointing back to what we discussed last week in chapter 40:9-11
Go on up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; lift up your voice with strength,
O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God!”
10 Behold, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him,
and his recompense before him.
11 He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.
So, in 41:27 when Yahweh is saying “Behold, there they are,” He is referring to the same thing as when the prophet proclaimed, “His reward is with Him” and “His recompense is with Him.” They, his reward, his recompense—all refer to the returning exiles. This is good news for Jerusalem. God has intervened in human events (which is always good news) and Jerusalem and Judah will no longer be desolate and empty. Her people are returning to rebuild her. Again, Yahweh is calling it ahead of time.
Did anyone else call it? Let’s see with the last few lines of the chapter:
28 But when I look, there is no one; among these there is no counselor who, when I ask, gives an answer.
29 Behold, they are all a delusion; their works are nothing; their metal images are empty wind.
Nope, once more, no one saw this coming because their gods can offer them no counsel. They represent imaginary deities, without power, without knowledge, without substance. It’s important to note, throughout Isaiah 40-55, how many anti-idol polemics there are and not to lose sight of them as part and parcel of the entire discourse. It is Yahweh’s judgment and power vs the judgment and power of idols. Who will reign supreme? Who delivers the goods? The people have forgotten because (1) their parents were idolaters and (2) they have been crushed by Babylon and, presumably, its gods for too long. They have lost hope, they see themselves as abandoned, bereft, and powerless. So many of the verses taken out of context in Isaiah 40-55 fail to take this into account. They misjudge the type of literature this is, they pay no attention to all the multiple voices and themes, and they just quote verses entirely out of context in order to derail people. That’s why we are doing this one verse at a time.
I want to point out here the ultimate anti-idol polemic in all of Scripture, Psalm 115, which I quote from extensively in my last book Image-Bearing, Idolatry, and the New Creation, and I meant to include it last week and totally forgot.
Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!
2 Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?”
3 Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.
4 Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands.
5 They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see.
6 They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell.
7 They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; and they do not make a sound in their throat.
8 Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them.
9 O Israel, trust in the Lord! He is their help and their shield.
10 O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord! He is their help and their shield.
11 You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord! He is their help and their shield.
12 The Lord has remembered us; he will bless us; he will bless the house of Israel;
he will bless the house of Aaron;
13 he will bless those who fear the Lord, both the small and the great.
14 May the Lord give you increase, you and your children!
15 May you be blessed by the Lord, who made heaven and earth!
16 The heavens are the Lord’s heavens, but the earth he has given to the children of man.
17 The dead do not praise the Lord, nor do any who go down into silence.
18 But we will bless the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. Praise the Lord!
Next week we will see the huge theme cropping up, as it does all through Is 40-55 of the blindness and deafness of Israel, and we will be looking at what Is 6 has to say about this curse of Yahweh upon His rebellious servants.