Old Testament
Isaiah 48
Stubborn Israel, Faithful God
Overview
The Lord indicts Israel for invoking covenant titles without genuine fidelity, declares that He foreknew their stubbornness and announced His purposes in advance precisely because of it, withholds deserved wrath for the sake of His own holy name, summons all nations to witness His sovereign word concerning Cyrus, reveals a mysterious triadic formula pointing toward Trinitarian depth, calls His people to depart Babylon in a new exodus, and closes with the solemn declaration that the wicked have no share in the peace He promises to the faithful.
Passages
Study Resources
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Isaiah 48
1“Hear this, house of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel, and have come out of the waters of Judah. You swear by Yahweh’s name, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness—
2for they call themselves citizens of the holy city, and rely on the God of Israel; Yahweh of Armies is his name.
3I have declared the former things from of old. Yes, they went out of my mouth, and I revealed them. I did them suddenly, and they happened.
4Because I knew that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew, and your brow bronze;
5therefore I have declared it to you from of old; before it came to pass I showed it to you; lest you should say, ‘My idol has done them. My engraved image and my molten image has commanded them.’
6You have heard it. Now see all this. And you, won’t you declare it? “I have shown you new things from this time, even hidden things, which you have not known.
7They are created now, and not from of old. Before today, you didn’t hear them, lest you should say, ‘Behold, I knew them.’
8Yes, you didn’t hear. Yes, you didn’t know. Yes, from of old your ear was not opened, for I knew that you dealt very treacherously, and were called a transgressor from the womb.
9For my name’s sake, I will defer my anger, and for my praise, I hold it back for you so that I don’t cut you off.
10Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver. I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction.
11For my own sake, for my own sake, I will do it; for how would my name be profaned? I will not give my glory to another.
12“Listen to me, O Jacob, and Israel my called: I am he. I am the first. I am also the last.
13Yes, my hand has laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand has spread out the heavens. when I call to them, they stand up together.
14“Assemble yourselves, all of you, and hear! Who among them has declared these things? He whom Yahweh loves will do what he likes to Babylon, and his arm will be against the Chaldeans.
15I, even I, have spoken. Yes, I have called him. I have brought him and he shall make his way prosperous.
16“Come near to me and hear this: “From the beginning I have not spoken in secret; from the time that it happened, I was there.” Now the Lord Yahweh has sent me with his Spirit.
17Yahweh, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, says: “I am Yahweh your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you by the way that you should go.
18Oh that you had listened to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river and your righteousness like the waves of the sea.
19Your offspring also would have been as the sand and the descendants of your body like its grains. His name would not be cut off nor destroyed from before me.”
20Leave Babylon! Flee from the Chaldeans! With the sound of joyful shouting announce this, tell it even to the end of the earth; say, “Yahweh has redeemed his servant Jacob!”
21They didn’t thirst when he led them through the deserts. He caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them. He also split the rock and the waters gushed out.
22“There is no peace”, says Yahweh, “for the wicked.”