“44 (NIV) “But now listen, O Jacob, my servant, Israel, whom I have chosen. 2 This is what the LORD says— he who made you, who formed you in the womb, and who will help you: Do not be afraid, O Jacob, my servant, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen. 3 For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants. 4 They will spring up like grass in a meadow, like poplar trees by flowing streams. 5 One will say, ‘I belong to the LORD’; another will call himself by the name of Jacob; still another will write on his hand, ‘The LORD’s,’ and will take the name Israel.
Questions
Who is God speaking to?
“Jacob, my servant, Israel, Jeshurun”
What is the significance of these names?
What do they mean?
6 “This is what the LORD says— Israel’s King and Redeemer, the LORD Almighty: I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God. 7 Who then is like me? Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and lay out before me what has happened since I established my ancient people, and what is yet to come— yes, let him foretell what will come. 8 Do not tremble, do not be afraid. Did I not proclaim this and foretell it long ago? You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me? No, there is no other Rock; I know not one.” 9 All who make idols are nothing, and the things they treasure are worthless. Those who would speak up for them are blind; they are ignorant, to their own shame. 10 Who shapes a god and casts an idol, which can profit him nothing? 11 He and his kind will be put to shame; craftsmen are nothing but men. Let them all come together and take their stand; they will be brought down to terror and infamy. 12 The blacksmith takes a tool and works with it in the coals; he shapes an idol with hammers, he forges it with the might of his arm. He gets hungry and loses his strength; he drinks no water and grows faint. 13 The carpenter measures with a line and makes an outline with a marker; he roughs it out with chisels and marks it with compasses. He shapes it in the form of man, of man in all his glory, that it may dwell in a shrine. 14 He cut down cedars, or perhaps took a cypress or oak. He let it grow among the trees of the forest, or planted a pine, and the rain made it grow. 15 It is man’s fuel for burning; some of it he takes and warms himself, he kindles a fire and bakes bread. But he also fashions a god and worships it; he makes an idol and bows down to it. 16 Half of the wood he burns in the fire; over it he prepares his meal, he roasts his meat and eats his fill. He also warms himself and says, “Ah! I am warm; I see the fire.” 17 From the rest he makes a god, his idol; he bows down to it and worships. He prays to it and says, “Save me; you are my god.” 18 They know nothing, they understand nothing; their eyes are plastered over so they cannot see, and their minds closed so they cannot understand.19 No one stops to think, no one has the knowledge or understanding to say, “Half of it I used for fuel; I even baked bread over its coals, I roasted meat and I ate. Shall I make a detestable thing from what is left? Shall I bow down to a block of wood?” 20 He feeds on ashes, a deluded heart misleads him; he cannot save himself, or say, “Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?” 21 “Remember these things, O Jacob, for you are my servant, O Israel. I have made you, you are my servant; O Israel, I will not forget you. 22 I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you.” 23 Sing for joy, O heavens, for the LORD has done this; shout aloud, O earth beneath. Burst into song, you mountains, you forests and all your trees, for the LORD has redeemed Jacob, he displays his glory in Israel.
Questions
What are the six names of God found in Isaiah 44:6–8.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
What do they mean?
Why does God define Himself (or His Character) before He addresses an important issue?
What is is He trying to teach and to whom?
24 “This is what the LORD says— your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb: I am the LORD, who has made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself, 25 who foils the signs of false prophets and makes fools of diviners, who overthrows the learning of the wise and turns it into nonsense, 26 who carries out the words of his servants and fulfills the predictions of his messengers, who says of Jerusalem, ‘It shall be inhabited,’ of the towns of Judah, ‘They shall be built,’ and of their ruins, ‘I will restore them,’ 27 who says to the watery deep, ‘Be dry, and I will dry up your streams,’ 28 who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd and will accomplish all that I please; he will say of Jerusalem, “Let it be rebuilt,” and of the temple, “Let its foundations be laid.”’ [1]
Questions
What is the purpose of God’s prophecy almost 200 years before Cyrus is born?
How can we apply this today?
THEME
ATTRIBUTES OF GOD
APPLICATION TO YOUR LIFE
JACOB’S ROLE IN SCRIPTURE
It’s tempting to skip over Jacob in our discussion of great men of the Old Testament. Jacob is hardly a savory character. Yet, in God’s economy Jacob fathered twelve sons who are the source of the twelve tribes of Israel, and thus of God’s Old Testament people. Jacob’s significance is reflected in the fact that his names (Jacob, and later Israel) are found 2,549 times in our Bible!
Yet, it simply is because Jacob gave his second name, “Israel,” to a people that his name is mentioned so often. Both Isaac and Jacob are significant primarily because their histories permit us to trace the passage of the covenant God made with Abraham from Abraham to the Jewish people as a whole. The covenant passed from Abraham, to his son Isaac, and then to his son Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel.
In Romans 9, Paul made an important point concerning the passage of the covenant to these sons. Isaac had an older half-brother, Ishmael. Yet the covenant promises were passed to Isaac. Jacob had an older twin brother, Esau. Yet the covenant promises were passed to Jacob, and God decisively rejected Esau. According to the apostle Paul, this demonstrates an important truth. God is Sovereign, and is free to act as He chooses without reference to human conventions. While in ancient culture the older son was to inherit the tangible and intangible property of the father, God saw fit to do things His way. That Jacob was in many ways an unsavory character simply reminds us that the bestowing of God’s gifts do not depend on our righteousness but rather on the grace and unmerited favor of our God. [2]
Servant (Is. 41:8) is a crucial term in Isaiah 40–66. Like many concepts in Isaiah servant has layers of meaning that become increasingly obvious as the prophecy unfolds. Basically, a servant is someone committed to advancing the purposes of God’s kingdom on the earth. Israel was God’s servant, but not a faithful one (41:8–10). Out of Isaiah’s description of Israel as God’s national servant emerges an individual who embodies all that Israel was meant to be (49:3–6). This Servant is the Messiah (52:13–53:12).
Israel – literally, “he struggles with God” see Hos. 12:3 [3]
Jesh´urun (supremely happy), a symbolical name for Israel in Deut. 32:15; 33:5, 26; Isa. 44:2. It is most probably derived from a root signifying “to be blessed.” With the intensive termination Jeshurun would then denote Israel as supremely happy or prosperous, and to this signification the context in Deut. 32:15 points. [4]
3484 [Yâshuruwn /yesh·oo·roon/] n pr m. 1 a symbolic name for Israel describing her ideal character. Jeshurun = “upright one”. [5]
Jeshurun ISBE
je-shū´-run, jesh´-u-run (ישׁרוּן, yeshurūn, “upright one,” Septuagint translates it “the beloved one”
(1) The name used to be explained as a diminutive form, a pet name, and some, e.g. still explain it so, “the righteous little people.” But there is no evidence that the ending -ūn had a diminutive force. (2) Most moderns take it as a poetical or ideal title of Israel, derived from yāshār, “upright”; it is held to contain a tacit reference to the word Israel (yisrā\’ēl), of which the first three consonants are almost the same as those of “Jeshurun”; in Num_23:10 the term “the righteous ones” (yeshārīm) is supposed to contain a similar reference.
Following Bacher, commentators hold that in Isaiah this new name, stands in contrast to Jacob, “the supplanter,” as his name was explained by the Hebrews (compare Hos_12:2-4). Israel is here given a new name, “the upright, pious one,” and with the new name goes new chance in life, to live up to its meaning.
Redeemer (Is. 43:14; 44:6) translates the Hebrew noun that figures so prominently in the book of Ruth as the kinsman redeemer. Whenever God calls Himself Israel’s Redeemer, He is declaring that He stands in close relationship to them. A kinsman redeemer was supposed to deliver his near kinsman from debt, from slavery, or from any other calamity that left him helpless. The Lord, who obligated Himself to Abraham and his descendants by covenant, redeemed Israel from Egypt by means of the Passover sacrifice and His mighty deeds. After the Babylonian captivity, He would redeem Israel again through the unwitting service of Cyrus the Persian emperor.
VIII. Exilic and Post-Exilic Dating. The Bible provides some dates for the period of the Exile. Jehoiachin was released in the thirty-seventh year of his exile (2 Kings 25:27). This would place it at about 560 b.c. (597 b.c. minus 37 years). Ezekiel also gives us specific dates for the events of his ministry, from the time of Jehoiachin’s captivity (Ezek. 1:1–2; 29:17). Ezekiel heard that Jerusalem had fallen in the twelfth year of his exile, which would place it at about 586 b.c. (Ezek. 33:21).
Babylon fell to Cyrus and the Persians in 539 b.c., and Cyrus immediately decreed that all refugees could return to their homelands (2 Chron. 36:22; Ezra 1:1). Again we see God working in history to accomplish His purpose for His people Israel. The Jewish people took about a year to return to their homeland and settle down to begin the second commonwealth. The Persian calendar system was different from the Jewish calendar, but we can calculate that the Jews began to lay the foundations for the second temple in 536 b.c. It is interesting to note that the Exile indeed ended 70 years after the Babylonians seized Judah in 606 b.c., as God had foretold (Jer. 25:11). The building of the temple came to a halt not too long after the start of construction. It began again in the second year of Darius I, in 520 b.c., under the preaching ministry of Haggai and Zechariah (Ezra 4:24; 5:1–2; Haggai 1:1–15; 2:1–9). It was completed in the sixth year of Darius (Ezra 6:15), which would be about 516 b.c. This is another way to mark the 70-year interval of Exile—from the destruction of the first temple in 586 b.c. to the completion of the second temple in 516 b.c.
Esther lived in the days of Ahasuerus or Xerxes (486–464 b.c.); and she is dated at about 483 and 479 b.c. (Esther 1:3; 2:16).
The closing historical events of the Old Testament occurred within the reign of Arta-xerxes I (464–423 b.c.). Ezra took a contingent of Jews to Jerusalem in the seventh year of Artaxerxes (Ezra 7:7–9), about 458 b.c. To help Ezra and the Jewish community, Nehemiah arranged for an appointment as governor of the land. He was permitted to return in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes (Neh. 1:1), which would be about 444 b.c. There appears to be an interval between this first journey to Jerusalem (Neh. 2:1–11) and a second journey in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes (Neh. 13:6), which would have been about 432 b.c.
Daniel predicts that the Messiah will redeem His people after 70 sets of seven years (“weeks”), beginning with Nehemiah’s return to Jerusalem in 444 b.c. (Dan. 9:24). The Messiah is to be “cut off” at the end of 69 sets of sevens (Dan. 9:25–26), or 483 years starting with the proclamation of Artaxerxes in 444 b.c. This turns out to be the very week Jesus was crucified, taking into account all the necessary calculations. 3[6] [1]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.) (Is 44:1). Grand Rapids: Zondervan. [2]Richards, L. (1999). Every man in the Bible (Page 68). Nashville: T. Nelson. [3]Youngblood, R. F., Bruce, F. F., Harrison, R. K., & Thomas Nelson Publishers. (1995). Nelson’s new illustrated Bible dictionary. Rev. ed. of: Nelson’s illustrated Bible dictionary.; Includes index. Nashville: T. Nelson. [4]Smith, W. (1997). Smith’s Bible dictionary. Nashville: Thomas Nelson. n n: noun pr pr: proper noun or pronoun m m: masculine [5]Strong, J. (1996). The exhaustive concordance of the Bible : Showing every word of the test of the common English version of the canonical books, and every occurence of each word in regular order. (electronic ed.) (H3484). Ontario: Woodside Bible Fellowship. 3 See Robert Anderson, The Coming Prince (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Kregel Publications, 1975) and Alva J. McClain, Daniel’s Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 1940). [6]Packer, J., Tenney, M. C., & White, W. (1997, c1995). Nelson\’s illustrated manners and customs of the Bible. Nashville: Thomas Nelson.