The Book Of Isaiah. Day 183, The Helper Of Israel, Part Six

The Lord has been telling Isaiah's people that He is their helper. They are not to look to idols or to their own strength to help them against their enemies. He promises to be their strength.

In addition, He promises to send them help from a human source. "I have stirred up one from the north, and he comes---one from the rising sun who calls on My name. He treads on rulers as if they were mortar, as if he were a potter treading the clay. (Isaiah 41:25) The Medo-Persian Empire will arise and conquer the lands north of Babylon before conquering Babylon itself and setting the captive people free. This is why the Lord says "from the north". But He also says "from the rising sun" because Cyrus the Great of Persia was born east of Babylon. Cyrus will be the one who conquers Babylon and tells the people taken from Jerusalem and Judah that they can go home.

The Lord says that Cyrus "calls on My name" and although Cyrus' religion was likely Zoroastrianism, he did believe that the God of Israel was real. As we move on through the Bible we will find him giving honor to the name of God and displaying a belief that God told him to liberate the captive people stolen from Jerusalem and Judah.

These things are going to unfold just as the Lord said they would. Therefore, as the people begin to see these predictions coming to pass, they should be encouraged to place all of their faith in God. No idol has ever told them the future. No soothsayer or false prophet has ever predicted any event with complete accuracy, especially not events that don't occur until decades or centuries later. In this next segment the Lord reminds the people to put their trust in the only One who can tell them things to come.

"Who told of this from the beginning, so we could know, or beforehand, so we could say, 'He was right?' No one told of this, no one foretold it, no one heard any words from you. I was the first to tell Zion, 'Look, here they are!' I gave to Jerusalem the good news." (Isaiah 41:26-27)

False prophets are going to arise and tell the people what they want to hear. Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the other prophets of their era are going to tell the people the truth: that the Lord will allow the nation to fall if they do not utterly reject idolatry. But false prophets will speak soothing words, promising that the Lord would never allow the city of His temple to fall. Thankfully, there were men like the prophets of the Bible who faithfully relayed the message of God (often to their own peril) but as the nation progresses toward its downfall there will be far more people scoffing at the words of truth and far more false prophets promising peace and prosperity. There will be people depending on idols and on soothsayers to tell them what to do. Thinking ahead to this, the Lord says: "I look but there is no one---no one among the gods to give counsel, no one to give answer when I ask them. See, they are all false! Their deeds amount to nothing; their images are but wind and confusion." (Isaiah 41:28-29)

The one thing we can absolutely count on in this crazy world is the word of God. We are told a lot of misleading things in this world. Sometimes people deliberately tell us falsehoods; other times they mean well but are just mistaken and are being led by human reasoning and human feelings instead of by the word of God. Sometimes we unintentionally tell ourselves lies when we go by how we feel or by how things look rather than by what the Lord promised. This is why it's so important to study the word of God. It is the foundation---the unmovable foundation---we must stand on.