“Remember this and show yourselves men,
Bring it again to mind, O you transgressors.
Remember the former things of old,
For I am God and there is none else.
I am God and there is none like me,
Declaring the end from the beginning,
And from ancient times things that are not yet done,
Saying, “My counsel shall stand,
And I will do all my pleasure.”
So they must reveal their manhood and their human intelligence by appreciating Who and what He is.
‘Remember this and show yourselves men' probably means ‘remember what I am and what I have done, and the former things of old, and show that you are rational like men should be by understanding it and responding'. Or it may mean ‘show yourselves to be real men by responding in action'. The result is the same. This is the only use in the Old Testament of 'ish (man) as a verb. The next phrase then reveals His opinion of those He is speaking to. It stresses that they are transgressors. Thus for them a change of mind is needed.
This is an appeal to the unfaithful in Israel. He wants them to remember the former things of old which will prove that He, and He alone is God, and respond. Let them consider the gods of Babylon bobbing along on the backs of asses. Then let them consider the fact that He is the only God, and that this is revealed by the fact that He declares the end from the beginning, revealing the whole of things from beginning to end, and reveals things that have not happened long before they do. It is also revealed by the fact of His sovereign statements when He declares that what He has counselled will stand, and He will bring about what He determines. Thus He is supreme. How foolish of them then to transgress against Him.
‘Saying, “My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.” There is a contrast here between Cyrus having done all His pleasure (Isaiah 44:28), and God's own doing of His own pleasure. For His purposes and pleasure are longer lasting than the brief activity of Cyrus, separating the end from the beginning. Indeed they began when He called Abraham from the East in order that through his seed he might raise up His Servant to bless all nations and bring the world to Himself (Isaiah 41:2-10).