Scripture Daily

Context No. 1038 of 4322 · Isaiah

Context · Reflection

Isaiah 45:17-25: in context

17Israel will be saved by the LORD with an everlasting salvation. You will not be disappointed nor confounded to ages everlasting. 18For the LORD who created the heavens, the God who formed the earth and made it, who established it and didn’t create it a waste, who formed it to be inhabited says: “I am the LORD. There is no other. 19I have not spoken in secret, in a place of the land of darkness. I didn’t say to the offspring of Jacob, ‘Seek me in vain.’ I, the LORD, speak righteousness. I declare things that are right. 20“Assemble yourselves and come. Draw near together, you who have escaped from the nations. Those have no knowledge who carry the wood of their engraved image, and pray to a god that can’t save. 21Declare and present it. Yes, let them take counsel together. Who has shown this from ancient time? Who has declared it of old? Haven’t I, the LORD? There is no other God besides me, a just God and a Savior. There is no one besides me. 22“Look to me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other. 23I have sworn by myself. The word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and will not be revoked, that to me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall take an oath. 24They will say of me, ‘There is righteousness and strength only in the LORD.’” Even to him will men come. All those who raged against him will be disappointed. 25All the offspring of Israel will be justified in the LORD, and will rejoice!

God speaks as the sole Creator and Savior. Israel will be saved with an everlasting salvation, never again put to shame. I am the LORD, and there is no other; I did not create the earth to be empty but to be inhabited. I have not spoken in secret; I did not tell Jacob to seek me in vain. Then the great invitation goes out to everyone: assemble and come, all you survivors of the nations; those who carry wooden idols and pray to gods that cannot save know nothing. Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is no other. By myself I have sworn: to me every knee shall bow, every tongue confess.

The center of this passage is an invitation flung wide open: look to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth. It is not aimed only at Israel but at everyone, the survivors of every nation, the idol-carriers who have been praying to gods that cannot save. Salvation is offered to the whole world on the simplest possible terms, look to me, turn your face toward the one true God, and be saved. And it is grounded in the fact that there is no other; every rival god is wood that has to be carried, unable to rescue, so there is nowhere else worth turning. Then comes the oath God swears by himself, that to him every knee shall bow and every tongue confess, words Paul lifts and applies directly to Jesus. What is offered now as a free invitation, look and be saved, will one day be a universal reality, every knee bowing. The wisdom is to bow now, willingly, in response to the invitation, rather than only at the end when it can no longer be a choice. The God with no rival simply says, look to me, and live.

The invitation is as wide as the ends of the earth and as simple as looking. Have I actually turned my face to the one true God and been saved, or am I still praying to gods that cannot save?

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