Isaiah 48:1-22 - Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

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Bible Comments

Chapter 48 The Unprepared State of Israel/Judah.

Babylon, and its final fate, has just been described, but the very idea has turned Isaiah's attention on Israel. It has put Israel under the microscope. Is Israel so much better? The only difference is that God has a purpose for Israel.

But that purpose is not for Israel as they are. And God has already constantly revealed what they are. Full of self pity and self-justification (Isaiah 40:27), deaf and blind and unresponsive (Isaiah 42:18-25), and culpably so (Isaiah 43:8), weary of God and not giving Him due honour while failing to honour the covenant (Isaiah 43:22-28). They are transgressors (Isaiah 46:8), stubborn and far from righteousness (Isaiah 46:12). They are miserably sick (Isaiah 1:5-9). They are a people of unclean lips and hearts (Isaiah 6:5)

Now He brings it all together to demonstrate their true condition, and to plead with them to flee from all that Babylon represents (Isaiah 48:20). He begins by describing their condition, ‘not in truth or in righteousness' (Isaiah 48:1), and that they are obstinate and hard-headed (Isaiah 48:4), points out that He has constantly shown them what would happen (Isaiah 48:3-5), and has even told them of new things (Isaiah 48:6-7), but concludes that they are so treacherous that they have been unwilling to hear and unwilling to perceive (Isaiah 48:8). Then He explains that they are as a nation still His chosen (Isaiah 48:10), still His called ones (Isaiah 48:12), but only once they have gone through purifying affliction (Isaiah 48:10) so that a true Servant may come out of them. Compare Isaiah 51:17-23 where the present Zion is a pale copy of Babylon.

Let them then consider that He is the first and the last, that He is the Creator and sustainer of the Universe (Isaiah 48:12-13). And that what He will do to Babylon will be for the sake of the one who has declared His truth (the Servant). It is because of His love for him that He will do His pleasure on Babylon and on the Chaldeans (Isaiah 48:14).

So they are to hear the One Who teaches them to profit and leads them in the way that they should go. If only they had done so previously, then they would have enjoyed abundant peace and righteousness. And their numbers would have been as abundant as the sands (Isaiah 48:17-19). Let them therefore now flee from Babylon and all it stands for declaring that Yahweh has redeemed His servant Jacob, that he is no more entangled in her ways (Isaiah 48:20). For Jacob there will be abundance of water in the desert, just as there had been when they travelled in the wilderness from Egypt and Yahweh gave them water from a rock (Isaiah 48:21). But let them remember, for the wicked there can be no peace (Isaiah 48:22).

Related Commentaries of Isaiah 48:1

Isaiah 48:1-22

1 Hear ye this, O house of Jacob, which are called by the name of Israel, and are come forth out of the waters of Judah, which swear by the name of the LORD, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness.

2 For they call themselves of the holy city, and stay themselves upon the God of Israel; The LORD of hosts is his name.

3 I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of my mouth, and I shewed them; I did them suddenly, and they came to pass.

4 Because I knew that thou art obstinate,a and thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass;

5 I have even from the beginning declared it to thee; before it came to pass I shewed it thee: lest thou shouldest say, Mine idol hath done them, and my graven image, and my molten image, hath commanded them.

6 Thou hast heard, see all this; and will not ye declare it? I have shewed thee new things from this time, even hidden things, and thou didst not know them.

7 They are created now, and not from the beginning; even before the day when thou heardest them not; lest thou shouldest say, Behold, I knew them.

8 Yea, thou heardest not; yea, thou knewest not; yea, from that time that thine ear was not opened: for I knew that thou wouldest deal very treacherously, and wast called a transgressor from the womb.

9 For my name's sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off.

10 Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.

11 For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it: for how should my name be polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another.

12 Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my called; I am he; I am the first, I also am the last.

13 Mine hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens: when I call unto them, they stand up together.

14 All ye, assemble yourselves, and hear; which among them hath declared these things? The LORD hath loved him: he will do his pleasure on Babylon, and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans.

15 I, even I, have spoken; yea, I have called him: I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous.

16 Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I: and now the Lord GOD, and his Spirit, hath sent me.

17 Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go.

18 O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea:

19 Thy seed also had been as the sand, and the offspring of thy bowels like the gravel thereof; his name should not have been cut off nor destroyed from before me.

20 Go ye forth of Babylon, flee ye from the Chaldeans, with a voice of singing declare ye, tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth; say ye, The LORD hath redeemed his servant Jacob.

21 And they thirsted not when he led them through the deserts: he caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them: he clave the rock also, and the waters gushed out.

22 There is no peace, saith the LORD, unto the wicked.