Context No. 3319 of 4322 · Isaiah

Isaiah 41:17-29: in context

17The poor and needy seek water, and there is none. Their tongue fails for thirst. I, the LORD, will answer them. I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. 18I will open rivers on the bare heights, and springs in the middle of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. 19I will put cedar, acacia, myrtle, and oil trees in the wilderness. I will set cypress trees, pine, and box trees together in the desert; 20that they may see, know, consider, and understand together, that the LORD’s hand has done this, and the Holy One of Israel has created it. 21Produce your cause,” says the LORD. “Bring out your strong reasons!” says the King of Jacob. 22“Let them announce and declare to us what will happen! Declare the former things, what they are, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or show us things to come. 23Declare the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods. Yes, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and see it together. 24Behold, you are nothing, and your work is nothing. He who chooses you is an abomination. 25“I have raised up one from the north, and he has come, from the rising of the sun, one who calls on my name, and he shall come on rulers as on mortar, and as the potter treads clay. 26Who has declared it from the beginning, that we may know? and before, that we may say, ‘He is right’? Surely, there is no one who declares. Surely, there is no one who shows. Surely, there is no one who hears your words. 27I am the first to say to Zion, ‘Behold, look at them;’ and I will give one who brings good news to Jerusalem. 28When I look, there is no man, even among them there is no counselor who, when I ask, can answer a word. 29Behold, all of their deeds are vanity and nothing. Their molten images are wind and confusion.

Two things stand side by side. First, God's tender promise to the poor and needy who seek water and find none: I the LORD will answer them; I will open rivers on the bare heights and springs in the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water. And second, he puts the idols on trial, daring them to declare the future or do anything at all, then delivers the verdict: behold, you are nothing, and your work is nothing.

God meets the thirsty with abundance, and does it so that all may see and know that his hand has done it, that the Holy One of Israel created it. He turns wastelands into springs for the helpless. And against that living power he sets the idols, which can neither predict nor act nor answer a word, and pronounces them empty, wind and confusion. The contrast could not be sharper: the living God pours rivers in the desert and knows the end from the beginning, while the idols are nothing at all. To trust an idol over the God who opens rivers is to trade everything for nothing.

Do I trust the living God who opens rivers in the desert and answers the thirsty, rather than idols that are wind and can do nothing?

Sources

Isaiah 41:17: "The poor and needy seek water... I, the LORD, will answer them. I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them."
Isaiah 41:18: "I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water."
Isaiah 41:29: "Behold, all of their deeds are vanity and nothing. Their molten images are wind and confusion."