Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Isaiah 41:29

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

The living God and idols (41:1-29)

At that time Cyrus of Persia had been expanding his empire. He had conquered all the countries to the north and east, and was now threatening Babylon. The prophet imagines God calling the nations to assemble before him and asking them a question: who is it that has stirred up Cyrus to carry out this conquest? The answer: Yahweh (41:1-4).
As the armies of Cyrus approach these nations the people panic, and in their distress call upon their gods for protection. Isaiah pictures the goldsmiths and other craftsmen helping and encouraging each other as they work overtime to meet the heavy demand for idols (5-7).
The people of Israel, by contrast, are the people of the living God. He chose them long ago and he has not forgotten them. He is always present to strengthen and protect them (8-10). They need not fear their enemies, for God will fight for them - and no enemy can stand against him (11-13).
By God’s power Israel will be victorious. As a farmer threshes and winnows wheat, so Israel will crush and scatter its enemies (14-16). God will answer the prayers of his people, and provide them with all they need for a healthy and prosperous life. His gracious gifts will be a demonstration of his character that all can see (17-20).
God then challenges the gods of the nations to prove their power by predicting coming events. Not only are they unable to predict the future, they cannot even relate the past. He challenges them to prove their existence by doing anything at all, good or bad, but again they are unable. They are lifeless (21-24). God points out that he predicts correctly and acts decisively. None of the gods of the nations predicted Cyrus’s conquest, but the God of Israel did (25-27). These gods can neither predict events nor answer questions. Being lifeless, they can only deceive those who worship them (28-29).

The Servant of Yahweh

In 42:1-4 we meet the first of the four so-called Servant Songs. (The others are in 49:1-6, 50:4-9 and 52:13-53:12.) The songs do not always give a clear indication who this servant is. In some cases the whole nation Israel is the servant, in other cases it is the faithful within Israel, while in some cases it is the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

The probable reason for this threefold meaning is that Israel as a whole failed, and the spiritual blessings God desired for Israel were experienced only by the faithful few who truly believed God. Yet even this faithful remnant did not experience the full blessings God intended for his people. God’s purposes for Israel were fulfilled only in Jesus the Messiah. The nation Israel was Abraham’s natural offspring (John 8:37); the few faithful believers within Israel, often referred to as the remnant, were his spiritual offspring (Romans 9:6-7; Galatians 3:29); but the Messiah himself was the one and only perfect off-spring, in whom all God’s purposes for Israel were fulfilled and through whom people of all nations are blessed (Galatians 3:16; cf. Genesis 12:1-3,Genesis 12:7).

Although the people of Israel repeatedly failed and suffered God’s punishment, they nevertheless looked forward to a golden age of glory and power. The expectancy of a golden age naturally became greater as the exiles in Babylon learnt that they were about to return to their land. But, having returned and rebuilt their nation, they again failed. Jesus Christ, the embodiment of ideal Israel, not only suffered God’s punishment because of his people’s sins, but brought the glory and power that Israel hoped for but never achieved (cf. Isaiah 42:1-4 with Matthew 12:17-21; cf. Isaiah 53:4 with Matthew 8:17).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

“I have raised up one from the north, and he is come; from the rising of the sun one that calleth upon my name: and he shall come upon rulers as upon mortar, and as the potter treadeth clay. Who hath declared it from the beginning, that we may know? and beforetime, that we may say, he is right? yea, there is none that declareth, yea, there is none that showeth, yea, there is none that heareth your words. I am the first that saith unto Zion, Behold, behold them; and I will give to Jerusalem one that bringeth good tidings. And when I look, there is no man; even among them there is no counselor, that, when I ask of them, can answer a word. Behold, all of them, their works are vanity and naught; their molten images are wind and confusion.”

This passage applies to Cyrus, a fact inherent in the strong intimation just given that God is able to predict future events. Cyrus is the second of the three Great Servants of God to be introduced in this section. There is a common error here in the allegation that Cyrus is from the “rising of the sun,” usually understood as the “direction” from which Cyrus would come to destroy Babylon. However, that is incorrect. To construe that reference to sunrising as a reference to the direction (east) would contradict the statement just made that Cyrus would come from the “north.” On the other hand, it is a time-reference, meaning that the mighty ruler who would come and free Israel would call upon God’s name “from the sunrising,” that is, continually, all day, from “the sun rising.” See our Introduction to this entire Prophecy of Isaiah, where this prophecy of Cyrus is discussed more fully.

In the last two verses here, God again returns to his arraignment and his taunting of the idol goods. As the New Testament declares, “an idol is nothing at all.” An idol is a nonentity, less than nothing, vanity, and an abomination.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

Behold, they are all vanity - They are unable to predict future events; they are unable to defend their friends, or to injure their enemies. This is the conclusion of the trial or debate (notes, Isaiah 41:1), and that conclusion is, that they were utterly destitute of strength, and that they were entirely unworthy of confidence and regard.

Their molten images - (See the note at Isaiah 40:19).

Are wind - Have no solidity or power. The doctrine of the whole chapter is, that confidence should be reposed in God, and in him alone. He is the friend of his people, and he is able to protect them. He will deliver them from the hand of all their enemies; and he will be always their God, protector, and guide. The idols of the pagan have no power; and it is folly, as well as sin, to trust in them, or to suppose that they can aid their friend.

It may be added, also, that it is equally vain to trust in any being for salvation but God. He only is able to protect and defend us; and it is a source of unspeakable consolation now, as it was in times past, that he is the friend of his people; and that, in times of deepest darkness and distress, he can raise up deliverers, as he did Cyrus, and will in his own way and time rescue his people from all their calamities.

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

29.Behold, they are all vanity. After having spoken of idols, he makes the same statement as to their worshippers; as it is also said,

“They who make them, and all that trust in them, are like them.” (Psalms 115:8.)

Thus he shews that all superstitious persons are full of “vanity,” and have no judgment or reason. They cannot, indeed, believe this; for, inflated with pride, they look upon themselves as men of the highest ability, and despise us as stupid and ignorant of the affairs of men, when compared with themselves. With what pride do the Papists and their learned doctors scorn us! With what haughtiness did the Romans in ancient times despise the Jews! But we need not spend time on such pride, for in this passage God condemns them all for “vanity.”

Their works are a failure. He gives the name of “works” both to the images which superstitious men make for themselves, and to all false worship, which has no end or measure, and in which every person desires to be a master and teacher of religion. He pronounces all of them to be a “failure,” that is, of no value. He declares this still more plainly, when he says, that they are wind and chaos, that is, confusion; for I explain תהו (tohu) in the same sense that it has in the first chapter of Genesis, where Moses says that

“the earth was at first shapeless and confused.”
(Genesis 1:2.)

This passage against idolaters ought to be carefully studied; for they think that images were appointed to preserve religion, and that minds are kindled by the sight of them, as by the visible presence of God. They think that they are the books of the ignorant and unlearned, who cannot be instructed by the reading of the Scriptures. But the Spirit of God here declares that it is a confused and shapeless thing, that is, because it disturbs and retains in superstition the minds of men; and indeed all true knowledge that exists among men is choked and quenched by this worship of idols. In short, he teaches that all images, and the homage that is paid to them, and they who have made and follow them, are mere vanity, and that we may safely condemn them.

Smith's Bible Commentary

In the forty-first chapter of Isaiah in the first part of the chapter, God begins His predictions concerning Cyrus who was not yet born. A man who was not to be born for a hundred and fifty years. But God begins to talk about him. How he's going to raise him up. How he's going to prosper him. How he's going to give him a kingdom and subdue nations before him. As we progress in our study tonight, we'll find that God actually names him. "In order to prove that I'm really God, there's no one else like Me, I'm going to call you by your name. It is Cyrus," and He calls him His servant. So that it is interesting that God begins a hundred and fifty years before a man is born to tell about his life and what God is going to do through his life.

Keep silence before me, O ye coast ( Isaiah 41:1 );

The word islands there is literally coast.

and let the people renew their strength: let them come near; let them speak: let us come near together to judgment ( Isaiah 41:1 ).

Now as He speaks of Cyrus, He said,

Who raised up the righteous man from the east, he called him to his foot, he gave the nations before him, and made him to rule over the kings? ( Isaiah 41:2 )

Now the question is: who did this? And the answer is, "I the Lord," the last part of verse Isaiah 41:4 . "He made him to rule over the kings."

he gave them as the dust to his sword, and as driven stubble to his bow. For he [that is, Cyrus] pursued them, and passed safely; even by the way that he had not gone with his feet. Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? ( Isaiah 41:2-4 )

Or naming the persons from the beginning.

I the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am he ( Isaiah 41:4 ).

So the question: who's raised up this man? Who's brought him forth? Who's given him the kingdom? "I the Lord."

The coast saw it, and they feared; the ends of the earth were afraid, and they drew near, and came. They helped every one his neighbor; and every one said to his brother, Be of good courage. So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and he that smoothed with the hammer him that smote the anvil, saying, It is ready for the soldering: and he fastened it with nails, that it should not be moved. But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend ( Isaiah 41:5-8 ).

Now beginning with verse Isaiah 41:8 , he turns the attention away from Cyrus and now to Israel, the nation, to Jacob. "You're my servant," God declares. And in Isaiah, Isaiah speaks of Israel as the servant of the Lord and then, of course, it speaks of Jesus Christ as the servant of the Lord. And also David is mentioned as God's servant in the book of Isaiah. We will, as we progress in two weeks, come to quite a discourse on that righteous servant Jesus Christ that God has raised up. But here Jacob and Israel. "I have chosen the seed of Abraham, My friend." And Abraham has the title of the friend of God. What a beautiful title.

Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and I have called thee from the chief men, and I have said unto thee, Thou art my servant; I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away. Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness ( Isaiah 41:9-10 ).

Now, in a very narrow sense, this is the promise that God has made unto His chosen. Unto Jacob and Israel whom He will call together from the ends of the earth where they have been scattered. God said, "I have not cast thee away."

Now there is a teaching today that is not scriptural, and that is that God has cast away the nation of Israel and that God's purposes now will be fulfilled through the church, that Israel has been rejected and cast away. That is not scriptural. In fact, the whole prophecy of Hosea is dedicated to God taking back the unfaithful wife and redeeming her again and taking her for His bride once more. And the whole book of Hosea is a simile. It's an allegorical type of a book and even as God said, "Go down and take a wife and marry her." And he bore children and then he had a child but he said, "That's not mine." Called it, "Loruhamah, not my child." And she left and went out and became a harlot, a prostitute. And after years of time God said to Hosea, "Now go find your wife and redeem her." She had sold her life and God said, "Buy her back and take her as your wife once again and restore her." And then God spoke about how He was going to restore Israel.

Paul said, "Has God cast them away whom He has chosen? God forbid." And Paul all the way through his teaching tells about how God is going to restore them again and that the cutting off was the salvation of the Gentiles. What will the gathering together of them be? God's working with them once more. But the Kingdom Age. "Know ye not," he said, in Romans 11:1-36 , "that blindness has happened to Israel in part until the fullness of the Gentiles come in? But then all Israel shall be saved. Thus saith the scripture, There shall go forth, shall deliver out of Zion'" and so foRuth ( Romans 11:25-26 ). So God is yet to work with them. And when God begins to work with them, we will have entered into the final seven years of Satan's rule upon the earth. The final seven years prior to the establishing of God's kingdom upon the earth.

In the ninth chapter of Daniel, we'll be coming to Daniel in a few months, he declares, "Seventy sevens are determined upon the nation Israel. And from the time the commandment goes forth to restore and rebuild Jerusalem to the coming of the Messiah the Prince will be sixty-nine sevens. But the Messiah will be cut off" ( Daniel 9:25-26 ). So the seventieth seven will complete the prophecies. To seal up the prophecies. To anoint the most holy place and to bring in the everlasting righteousness, that kingdom of everlasting righteousness. So you've got a seventieth seven that was unfulfilled which is yet future. Which will begin when Russia is destroyed by God in her aborted invasion of Israel.

So God is going to once more deal with the nation Israel in a very special way, after He has completed His work among the Gentiles. So here God declares, "I have chosen thee, I have not cast thee away." They are God's chosen people. You can't get away from it. God has not cast them away. They have, in a sense, cast God away as Isaiah will talk in the next few chapters of how they have not offered the sacrifices to God. How they have shut God out. But God has not shut them out, but shall yet deal with them in a very remarkable way.

Now God speaks about those that have been incensed against them, and surely these people have been a persecuted people. And it is indeed tragic that much of the persecution against the Jew has arisen from the church. I think that God is one of the most maligned persons in the universe. Maligned by Satan. How he has maligned God. And in the eyes of the people of the world, they say, "Well, the Protestants are fighting the Catholics over in Ireland." That's not a Protestant-Catholic kind of a thing; it's a political thing. They are not Christians against Christians as such. It's a whole political issue, but yet they call it the Protestants against the Catholics. And makes it look like God is stirring up people against each other. Surely it is not Christian nor have many of the things that have been done by the church or in the name of the church through history been Christian at all. Many things have been done in the name of Christianity. And you look... People say, "We are Christians," and they are not. Jesus said, "Not all who say, 'Lord, Lord,' are going to enter into the kingdom of heaven" ( Matthew 7:21 ).

And so, because of what people have done in the name of Christ, because of those that have persecuted the Jews in the name of Jesus Christ, it has created a great bitterness in the heart of many Jews. And rightfully so, for the church and against Christianity, because they usually equate the church with Christianity.

We are over in Israel quite a bit and we have many friends over there and they'll get going in their talking and all. And they'll start talking about, "Those Christians, those Christians." We say, "Wait a minute. Hold on. We're Christians." "Oh no," they said, "you're Calvary Chapel Christians. You're different. You love us. We know you love us." And they recognize over there a difference between Christians and Christians. They have a greater discernment than we often do. People so often just lump Christian America. And so if you're not a communist, not an atheist, you're a Christian. But a Christian is much more than that. He is one who has submitted his life to the lordship of Jesus Christ; one who seeks to follow Jesus Christ; one who lives his whole life governed by the Lord. So it is not loving Him in word, but in deed and in truth.

Now God said, "I am... "

All of those that were incensed against you shall be ashamed and confounded: they shall be as nothing; and they that strive with thee shall perish ( Isaiah 41:11 ).

It doesn't pay to strive with them. God says, "I've chosen you. I've not cast you away. And those that strive with you are going to perish." God promised to Abraham, "I will bless those that bless thee, and I will curse those that curse thee" ( Genesis 12:3 ).

Jesus in the judgment, not the final judgment, but in the judgment that He will bring when He returns to the earth and gathers together the nations for judgment, the judgment against the nations will be concerning their treatment of the Jews. For He said, "I was hungry and you did not feed Me. Thirsty, you did not give Me to drink. Naked, you did not clothe Me. Sick and you did not help Me." "Lord, when did we see You hungry, naked, thirsty, sick?" He said, "Inasmuch as you did it not to the least of these My brethren, the Jews, you have not done it unto Me" ( Matthew 25:42-45 ). He still refers to them as His brethren. They've been chosen of God. God has not cast them away.

I oftentimes get hate mail from even ministers because they've heard of how Calvary Chapel has sought to help the Jewish people, what a love we have for them, and how that we've sought to demonstrate our love in practical ways. Contributing to their hospitals, contributing to many of the projects in Israel. This year we've given over $460,000 to the nation of Israel in various projects. And we get all this kind of hate mail because of it, a lot of times from pastors. For they feel that God has cut them off. That God is through with them and how can you reach out an arm to help and to love those that God has cast off? But God says, "I've not cast them off." And God has promised to bless those that bless them. And God has blessed us. Who can deny it? And so, "All of those that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed. They'll be confounded. They'll be as nothing. They that strive with thee shall perish."

You will seek them, and you will not find them, even those that contended with you: and they that war against you shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nothing ( Isaiah 41:12 ).

Boy, it doesn't pay to go over and talk to the Egyptians, I'll tell you. Be at war with these people.

For I the LORD thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee ( Isaiah 41:13 ).

And who can deny but what God has not helped these people immeasurably.

Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the LORD, and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: and you will thresh the mountains, and beat them small, you will make the hills as chaff. Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them: and thou shalt rejoice in the LORD, and shalt glory in the Holy One of Israel. When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the LORD will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them. I will open up rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, and the acacia trees, and the myrtle, and the oil trees; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together: That they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the LORD hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it ( Isaiah 41:14-20 ).

To go over to Israel today is just a live experience in the fulfillment of prophecy, as you see these things of which Isaiah spoke actually being fulfilled. Areas that were once parched wilderness, desert areas, you see the vast irrigation project, the pools of water. You see the giant sprinkler systems and all that they have, as they have become a very strong agricultural nation. Planting hundreds of millions of trees in those wilderness areas, and the interesting thing, the various types of trees for the various benefits that each tree gives. Planting the pine tree and the fir tree because they have a capacity of growing almost on rocks. The roots go down into the crevices and as they grow down and they begin to grow, then they crack the rocks and with the rocks cracking, the rain of course, comes and carries the top soil on down. And they're forming tremendous topsoil in the valleys and getting tremendous agricultural crops again and planting the eucalyptus trees in the marsh areas because they drink up so much water. And their whole project of reforestation of Israel is just an exciting thing. And here all predicted in Isaiah as God declares, "I've not cast them off," and what He is going to do. And the purpose of doing is that they might see, and know, and consider, and understand together that the hand of the Lord hath done this.

Now I like this. God makes a challenge to those false gods that the people were worshipping at that time. And He said,

Produce your cause, saith the LORD; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob. Let them bring them forth, and show us what shall happen: let them show the former things, what they are, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or declare us things that are yet to come. Show the things that are to come after these things, that we may know that ye are gods: yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and behold it together. Behold, ye are of nothing, and your work of nought: an abomination is he who chooses you ( Isaiah 41:21-23 ).

So God speaks out against the worship of the false gods that the Israelites were involved in at this particular period of their history. "Now look, if they're really God, let them tell us something before it happens, so that after it happens we really know that they know what they're talking about." And He's challenging them in the area of prophecy. Now prophecy is one of the strongest arguments for the inspiration of the scriptures. The fact that God has spoken in advance of things that would happen, giving the names of persons, the names of places, and detailing the events that would be happening and the fact that they have been fulfilled becomes one of the strongest arguments for the inspiration of the scriptures.

For you see, when you delve into this area of prophecy, in order to prove the inspiration of the scriptures, it is necessary that you have one hundred percent accuracy. If one word of God failed, then it means that it wasn't God who spoke. But when you have thousands of prophecies that have come to pass exactly as declared, then it begins to give extremely strong evidence that it was indeed God who spoke. Now there was a very tragic day in the history of Israel when the Roman government took away from the Jews the rite of capital punishment. And when the Roman government removed from them the rite of capital punishment, they felt that at that point they had lost their power to govern. For they related capital punishment to government, for when God established human government under Noah, He established it with the provision of capital punishment.

Now you remember when Jacob was pronouncing the prophecies upon his sons on his dying bed, he said unto Judah that, "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah until the Messiah comes" ( Genesis 49:10 ). The sceptre being the ruling power. And when the government of Rome took away in about 12 A.D., they took away from the Jews the power of capital punishment, the rabbis and the priests put on sackcloth. They put ashes on their heads. And for a week they went wailing through the streets of Jerusalem because they said, "God's Word has failed. The scepter has departed. Shiloh has not come." What they didn't know was that in the village of Nazareth at that time He was there growing up. But they really felt that God's Word had failed. And that means that it wasn't God's Word because God's Word can't fail. And to them it was a national disaster that God's Word should fail. But not one word of God's prophecy has failed.

And so God challenges the other gods, "If you're really gods, you say you're gods, all right then, do something. Show yourself. Make us amazed. Tell us something before it happens so that when it comes to pass, we will really know that you are gods." And I love the way God challenges these false gods. Now God goes on to declare,

I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come: from the rising of the sun he shall call upon my name: and he shall come upon princes as upon mortar, and as the potter treadeth clay. Who hath declared from the beginning, that we may know? and beforetime, that we may say, He is righteous? yea, there is none that showeth, yea, there is none that declares, yea, there is none that hears your words ( Isaiah 41:25-26 ).

God was speaking again of Cyrus. "I've raised up one. He's going to come and you're going to know that I know what I'm talking about. But which of you, the false gods, have declared anything before it happened and it actually came to pass?"

The first shall say to Zion, Behold, behold them: and I will give to Jerusalem one that brings good tidings. For I beheld, and there was no man; even among them, and there was no counselor, that, when I asked of them, could answer a word. Behold, they are all vanity; their works are nothing: their molten images are wind and confusion ( Isaiah 41:27-29 ).

These false gods that the people were worshipping. God says there's no counselor among them. They're empty. They're vain.

"

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

When the Lord looked for a messenger from another god who predicted the coming of Cyrus, He could find none. Not one of them could give any information about his coming (cf. Isaiah 40:13). So He concluded as He began (Isaiah 41:24), but this time passing judgment on the idolaters rather than on the idols. "Behold" ends each subsection (Isaiah 41:24; Isaiah 41:29). The idolaters are false in the sense of being untrue and delusive. Their works-the idols-are worthless, and their idol images amount to nothing.

Yahweh had challenged the nations to behold the folly of idols (Isaiah 41:24) and idol worshippers (Isaiah 41:29), but now He urged them to behold His Servant (Isaiah 42:1). This Servant would reveal God to the world, something the idols could not do. The Lord first spoke of His Servant (Isaiah 42:1-4) and then to His Servant (Isaiah 42:5-9). Who this Servant is does not become clear until later (cf. Isaiah’s identification of Cyrus). Earlier (Isaiah 41:8-16) the servant was Israel, so the readers would naturally assume that Israel is the servant here too. Other references to Israel as the servant of the Lord are Isaiah 41:19; Isaiah 43:10; Isaiah 44:1-2; Isaiah 44:21; Isaiah 45:4; and Isaiah 48:20. Only later does it become clear that this Servant must be an individual, namely: Messiah. The context and the characteristics ascribed to the servant in each reference to him dictate his identity. That the Servant is not Cyrus is clear from the contrasts between them. [Note: See F. Duane Lindsey, "The Call of the Servant in Isaiah 42:1-9," Bibliotheca Sacra 139:553 (January-March 1982):12-31.] He will be the ideal representative of Israel who will accomplish for the Lord what Israel did not regarding the world (cf. Genesis 12:3). Matthew quoted Isaiah 42:1-4 as finding fulfillment in Jesus Christ (Matthew 12:18-21).

"Isaiah’s unique contribution to Old Testament theology is his anonymous suffering servant songs." [Note: Waltke, An Old . . ., p. 845.]

"The idea of ’the servant of Jehovah’ assumed, to speak figuratively, the form of a pyramid. The base was Israel as a whole; the central section was that Israel, which was not merely Israel according to the flesh, but according to the spirit also [i.e., saved Israel] ; the apex is the person of the Mediator of salvation springing out of Israel [i.e., Messiah]. And the last of the three is regarded (1) as the centre of the circle of the promised kingdom-the second David; (2) the centre of the circle of the people of salvation-the second Israel; (3) the centre of the circle of the human race-the second Adam." [Note: Delitzsch, 2:174.]

Berhard Duhm coined the term "servant songs" in his German commentary on Isaiah published in 1892. [Note: Berhard Duhm, Das Buch Jesaja.] The commentators vary somewhat in how much of the context they regard as part of these songs. John Martin, for example, took the first song as running through Isaiah 42:17. [Note: J. Martin, p. 1095.] The first two postscripts, or trailing passages, are divine confirmations of the Servant’s work. The last two are exhortations to respond to the Servant.

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

Behold, they are all vanity,.... Both the idols and the worshippers of them; in vain they claim the title of deity, to which they have no right; and in vain do men worship them, since they receive no benefit by them:

their works are nothing; they can do nothing, neither good nor evil; nothing is to be hoped or feared from them, and the worship given them is of no avail; nothing is got by it; it is all useless and insignificant, yea, pernicious and harmful:

their molten images are wind and confusion: though they are made of cast metal, yet setting aside the costly matter of which they are made, they are of no more solidity, efficacy, and use, than the wind; and are like the chaos of the first earth, mere "tohu" and "bohu", one of which words is here used, without form and void, having no form of deity on them; and therefore men are directed to turn themselves from them, and behold a most glorious Person, worthy of worship and praise, described in the beginning of the next chapter, "behold my servant", &c.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      21 Produce your cause, saith the LORD; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob.   22 Let them bring them forth, and show us what shall happen: let them show the former things, what they be, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or declare us things for to come.   23 Show the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods: yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and behold it together.   24 Behold, ye are of nothing, and your work of nought: an abomination is he that chooseth you.   25 I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come: from the rising of the sun shall he call upon my name: and he shall come upon princes as upon mortar, and as the potter treadeth clay.   26 Who hath declared from the beginning, that we may know? and beforetime, that we may say, He is righteous? yea, there is none that showeth, yea, there is none that declareth, yea, there is none that heareth your words.   27 The first shall say to Zion, Behold, behold them: and I will give to Jerusalem one that bringeth good tidings.   28 For I beheld, and there was no man; even among them, and there was no counsellor, that, when I asked of them, could answer a word.   29 Behold, they are all vanity; their works are nothing: their molten images are wind and confusion.

      The Lord, by the prophet, here repeats the challenge to idolaters to make out the pretentions of their idols: "Produce your cause (Isaiah 41:21; Isaiah 41:21) and make your best of it; bring forth the strongest reasons you have to prove that your idols are gods, and worthy of your adoration." Note, There needs no more to show the absurdity of sin than to produce the reasons that are given in defence of it, for they carry with them their own confutation.

      I. The idols are here challenged to bring proofs of their knowledge and power. Let us see what they can inform us of, and what they can do. Understanding and active power are the accomplishments of a man. Whoever pretends to be a god must have these in perfection; and have the idols made it to appear that they have? No;

      1. "They can tell us nothing that we did not know before, so ignorant are they. We challenge them to inform us," (1.) "What has been formerly: Let them show the former things, and raise them out of the oblivion in which they were buried" (God inspired Moses to write such a history of the creation as the gods of the heathen could never have dictated to any of their enthusiasts); or "let the defenders of idols tell us what mighty achievements they can boast of as performed by their gods in former times. What did they ever do that was worth taking notice of? Let them specify any thing, and it shall be considered, its due weight shall be given it, and it shall be compared with the latter end of it; and if, in the issue, it prove to be as great as it pretended to be, they shall have the credit of it." (2.) "We challenge them to tell us what shall happen, to declare to us things to come (Isaiah 41:22; Isaiah 41:22), and again (Isaiah 41:23; Isaiah 41:23), show the things that are to come hereafter. Give this evidence of your omniscience, that nothing can be hidden from you, and of your sovereignty and dominion. Make it to appear that you have the doing of all, by letting us know beforehand what you deign to do. Do this kindness to the world; let them know what is to come, that they may provide accordingly. Do this, and we will own that you are gods above us, and gods to us, and worthy of our adoration." No creature can foretel things to come, otherwise than by divine information, with any certainty.

      2. "They can do nothing that we cannot do ourselves, so impotent are they." He challenges them to do either good or evil, good to their friends or evil to their enemies: "Let them do, if they can, any thing extraordinary, that people will admire and be affected with. Let them either bless or curse, with power. Let us see them either inflict such plagues such as God brought on Egypt or bestow such blessings as God bestowed on Israel. Let them do some great thing, and we shall be amazed when we see it, and frightened into a veneration of them, as many have been into a veneration of the true God." That which is charged upon these idols, and let them disprove it if they can, is that they are of nothing,Isaiah 41:24; Isaiah 41:24. Their claims have no foundation at all, nor is there any ground or reason in the least for men's paying them the respect they do; there is nothing in them worthy our regard. "They are less than nothing, worse than nothing;" so some read it. "The work they do is of nought, and so is the ado that is made about them. There is no pretence or colour for it; it is all a jest; it is all a sham put upon the world; and therefore he that chooses you, and so give you your deity, and" (as some read it) "that delights in you, is an abomination;" so some take it. A servant is at liberty to choose his master, but a man is not at liberty to choose his God. He that chooses any other than the true God chooses an abomination; his choosing it makes it so.

      II. God here produces proofs that he is the true God, and that there is none besides him. Let him produce his strong reasons.

      1. He has an irresistible power. This he will shortly make to appear in the raising up of Cyrus and making him a type of Christ (Isaiah 41:25; Isaiah 41:25): He will raise him up from the north and from the rising of the sun. Cyrus by his father was a Mede, by his mother a Persian; and his army consisted of Medes, whose country lay north, and Persians, whose country lay east, from Babylon. God will raise him up to great power, and he shall come against Babylon with ends of his own to serve. But, (1.) He shall proclaim God's name; so it may be read. He shall publish the honour of the God of Israel; so he did remarkably when, in his proclamation for the release of the Jews out of their captivity, he acknowledged that the Lord God of Israel was the Lord God of heaven, and the God: and he might be said to call on his name when he encouraged the building of his temple, and very probably did himself call upon him and pray to him, Ezra 1:2; Ezra 1:3. (2.) All opposition shall fall before him: He shall come upon the princes of Babylon, and all others that stood in his way, as mortar, and trample upon them as the potter treads clay, to serve his own purposes with it. Christ, as man, was raised up from the north, for Nazareth lay in the northern parts of Canaan; as the angel of the covenant, he ascends from the east. He maintained the honour of heaven (he shall call upon my name), and broke the powers of hell, came upon the prince of darkness as mortar and trod him down.

      2. He has an infallible foresight. He would not only do this, but he did now, by his prophet, foretel it. Now the false gods not only could not do it, but they could not foresee it. (1.) He challenges them to produce any of their pretended deities, or their diviners, that had given notice of this, or could (Isaiah 41:26; Isaiah 41:26): "Who has declared from the beginning any thing of this kind, or has told it before-time? Tell us if there be any that you know of, for we know not any; if there be any, we will say, He is righteous, he is true, his cause is just, his claims are proved, and he is in the right in demanding to be worshipped." This agrees with Isaiah 41:22; Isaiah 41:23. (2.) He challenges to himself the sole honour of doing it and foretelling it (Isaiah 41:27; Isaiah 41:27): I am the first (so it may be read) that will say to Zion, Behold, behold them, that will let the people of Israel know their deliverers are at hand (for there were those who understood by books, God's books, the approach of the time, Daniel 9:2), and I am he that will give to Jerusalem one that brings good tidings, these good tidings of their enlargement. This is applicable to the work of redemption, in which the Lord showed himself much more than in the release of the Jews out of Babylon: he it was that contrived our salvation, and he brought it about, and he has given to us the glad tidings of reconciliation.

      III. Judgment is here given upon this trial. 1. None of all the idols had foretold, or could foresee, this work of wonder. Other nations besides the Jews were released out of captivity in Babylon by Cyrus, or at least were greatly concerned in the revolution of the monarchy and there transferring of it to the Persians; and yet none of them had any intelligence given them of it beforehand, by any of their gods or prophets: "There is none that shows (Isaiah 41:26; Isaiah 41:26), none that declares, none that gives the least intimation of it; there is none of the nations that hears your words, that can pretend to have heard from their gods such words as you, O Israelites! have heard from your God, by your prophets," Psalms 147:20. None of all the gods of the nations have shown their worshippers the way of salvation, which God will show by the Messiah. The good tidings which the Lord will send in the gospel is a mystery hidden from ages and generations, Romans 16:25; Romans 16:26. 2. None of those who pleaded for them could produce any instance of their knowledge or power that had in it any colour of proof that they were gods. All their advocates were struck dumb with this challenge (Isaiah 41:28; Isaiah 41:28): "I beheld, and there was no man that could give evidence for them, even among those that were their most zealous admirers; and there was no counsellor, none that could offer any thing for the support of their cause. Even among the idols themselves there was none fit to give counsel in the most trivial matters, and yet there were those that asked counsel of them in the most important and difficult affairs. When I asked them what they had to say for themselves they stood mute; the case was so plain against them that there was none who could answer a word." Judgment must therefore be given against the defendant upon Nihil dicit--He is mute. He has nothing to say for himself. He was speechless,Matthew 22:12. 3. Sentence is therefore given according to the charge exhibited against them (Isaiah 41:24; Isaiah 41:24): "Behold, they are all vanity (Isaiah 41:29; Isaiah 41:29); they are a lie and a cheat; they are not in themselves what they pretend to be, nor will their worshippers find that in them which they promise themselves. Their works are nothing, of no force, of no worth; their enemies need fear no hurt from them; their worshippers can hope for no good from them. Their molten images, and indeed all their images, are wind and confusion, vanity and vexation; those that worship them will be deceived in them, and will reflect upon their own folly with the greatest bitterness. Therefore, dearly beloved, flee from idolatry," 1 Corinthians 10:14.