Isaiah begins with Judah outwardly religious but inwardly rebellious. The nation continues to offer sacrifices while tolerating injustice, idolatry, and pride. The opening chapters announce both judgment and hope: Jerusalem through God’s discipline will be humbled and transformed by God’s Spirit. Preparing the way for return of God’s Messiah and King and His Kingdom.
Isaiah 1–12: Judah’s sin, the threat of Assyria’s army, and the promise of an the promised Davidic king, the child called Immanuel, the Prince of Peace, and the Spirit-filled “shoot from the stump of Jesse.”
Isaiah 13–27: God judges the nations and will defeat death itself.
Isaiah 28–35: Judah is warned not to trust political alliances. Salvation will come through returning to the Lord.
Isaiah 36–39: Hezekiah’s deliverance from Assyria demonstrates that God can save Jerusalem. Yet Hezekiah’s pride introduces the next crisis: Babylon will eventually carry Judah’s treasures and sons away.
Isaiah 40–48: Isaiah prophetically addresses Israel as though the Babylonian exile has arrived. God comforts His people, exposes the foolishness of idols, and promises deliverance from Babylon by a greater nation He will raise up.
Isaiah 40 announces comfort; chapter 41 introduces a conqueror from the east; chapters 42–43 contrast God’s Servant with blind Israel; and chapter 44 finally names the conqueror: Cyrus which then flows directly into 45:1:
“I am the Lord who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd, and he shall fulfill all my purpose’ … Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus…”
The chapter answers three questions:
- How will God release His people from Babylon?
- Why would He use a pagan king to do it?
- What does this reveal about God’s ultimate salvation?
The answer is that God alone rules creation, history, kings, nations, judgment, and salvation.
V 1 God appoints Cyrus as His instrument for Israel’s deliverance from Babylon. His anointed Cyrus. The Hebrew word translated “anointed” is mashiach, from which we get “Messiah.” It is applied here to Cyrus, the Persian king.
This does not mean Cyrus is the ultimate Messiah. In Tanakh, anointing can designate someone set apart for service by the Lord. Priests, kings, and others were called “anointed.” Cyrus is God’s commissioned servant for a role in bringing God’s people out of Babylonian captivity.
Rashi accordingly explains that “anointed” can be a title of greatness or appointment. He distinguishes Cyrus from the true messianic king. Rashi on Isaiah 45:1
He saw Cyrus as a lowercase messiah: a commissioned historical deliverer. Cyrus functions as a type of what was to come. He is historically important, but his deliverance points to something greater.
God takes Cyrus “by his right hand.” Ordinarily God strengthens Israel by the hand; but here He holds a Gentile king’s hand. Cyrus’s victories will not ultimately be explained by Persian military genius. The Lord will subdue nations, weaken kings, and bring victory to him. Rashi saw the opened gates as the gates of Babylon. Rashi on Isaiah 45:1
V 2-3 “I will go before you” this pictures the Lord marching before his army. Mountains or rough places are leveled. Bronze doors are shattered and iron bars are cut. Hidden treasures are revealed and given to Cyrus. God’s purpose is not simply to enrich Cyrus. It is “that you may know that it is I, the LORD, the God of Israel, who call you by your name.”
The Targum (a paraphrase of Scripture) renders verse 2, “My Word shall go before you.” This is a Jewish interpretive way of describing God’s active presence going ahead of Cyrus. Targum Jonathan on Isaiah 45
V 4–5 in these verses God says twice that Cyrus does not know Him. Cyrus is not chosen because of faithfulness. He is chosen “for the sake of my servant Jacob.” This reveals the truth about God’s sovereignty: God can and does direct rulers who do not personally know or worship Him. A king may have his own ambitions yet unknowingly carry out God’s purposes and will.
For Isaiah’s audience, this is a reminder that Israel’s God had not been defeated as they once believed. God reinforces what Isaiah has been sharing with Israel as he prophesied their captivity: “Babylon’s rise did not dethrone Me, and Persia’s rise is from Me. I name the ruler before he knows Me, and I raise him up for the good of My people.”
V 6-7 “I form light and create darkness.” Repeatedly God declares “I am the LORD, and there is no other.” “Light” and “darkness,” followed by “peace” and “calamity,” are all inclusives pairs. The Hebrew raʿ “evil”, is contrasted with shalom—peace, welfare, or well-being points to calamity, disaster, or judgment. God is not saying that He commits these acts but that He allows it to accomplish His sovereign will.
This challenges dualism: the belief then and even today that there are two gods, one responsible for light and another for darkness. The victories and disasters throughout Persian and world history remain under the sovereignty of the God of Israel.
Isaiah 45:7 became a part of Jewish liturgy in the morning blessing before the Shema “Who forms light and creates darkness” but uses the expression “creates all” in place of “creates evil.” The Talmud explains this as an affirmation that God is sovereign over the whole created order. Berakhot 11b. The point is that suffering does not prove God has lost control.
V 8 “God’s righteousness drips down from above.” Heaven “rains down” righteousness, so salvation like vegetation may spring up. Righteousness and salvation grow together because biblical salvation is the restoration of God’s right order. To Israel it is God’s prophetic word that God is raising up deliverance from Babylon. Yet points beyond Cyrus. Cyrus can open prison doors and cause the exiles to return, but he cannot bring everlasting righteousness.
God’s people today see this foreshadowing the of Messiah. In Jesus, God’s saving righteousness enters history in the person of God’s Son as prophesied earlier in Isaiah 7:14 and 9:6 and many other passages. The angel announces that He will save His people from their sins; Paul says that in the gospel “the righteousness of God is revealed” and that Yeshua becomes righteousness and redemption for His people.
V 9-10 Israel’s and man’s tendency to argue with their creator. Israel may object: “Why Cyrus? Why a Gentile ruler? Why exile first? Why this method?”
God compares these objections to clay criticizing the potter or a child interrogating his parents about his birth. Arguing is not sinful but arrogant defiance is. The created one assumes that it has enough knowledge to place the Creator on trial. This is the fruit of the first sin in desiring and eating the forbidden fruit so that one may be wise. God however sees the end from the beginning and has both the wisdom and the authority to shape history according to His redemptive plans.
V 11-12 “Ask me of things to come” God responds to Israel’s second guessing God’s will in raising up Cyrus. How could anyone accuse God of misusing his own children , who were created with his hands ? Could he not treat his children as he desired? Did anyone know a better way than that of their Father? After all, God is the One who made the earth and created mankind. The maker knows better than anyone what is best for his creatures. God explained what He was doing with the works of his own hands. He would call Cyrus to restore His right order in the universe. God’s authority is grounded in creation: The One who arranged the stars can certainly raise a Persian king.
V 13 “I have stirred him up in righteousness,” God will direct Cyrus to authorize the rebuilding of Jerusalem. He also will release the exiles without payment bearing the costs himself. Their return would not depend on their wealth, military power, or diplomatic efforts. God would arrange this and not man.
V 14 The nations recognize Israel’s God. Egypt, Cush, and the Sabeans are portrayed as coming in submission and confessing that “Surely God is with you, and there is none else.” Israel’s redemption brings God’s light to the nations. This continues what God said to Abraham in His call to him. God would bless His chosen people so that blessing may reach all nations.
The chains portray the nations as becoming God’s servants which is the language of redemption in becoming God’s bondservants. Isaiah spoke of this in 2:2–4, where the nations are described as streaming to Zion to learn God’s ways, and Isaiah 19:23–25, where Egypt and Assyria join Israel in worship.
V 15 “Truly, you are a God who hides himself” God is hidden, in that His ways were hidden and unexpected. In this case He hid his deliverance while Israel was in exile. He hid His purpose in raising up a pagan nation and ruler. This carries in the New Covenant with the many mysteries revealed there.
These mysteries include Messiah’s first and second comings, the incarnation and saving power of the cross, Jews and Gentiles becoming one people in Messiah, God indwelling in believers, Israel’s present partial hardening, and God’s ultimate plan to unite all things under Yeshua and more. Faith sees the hidden and wise hand of God working beneath what is visible.
The God who saved through an unexpected pagan ruler ultimately saves through a rejected and suffering Messiah.
V 16-17 “Everlasting salvation” for Israel while idol makers are put to shame. The return under Cyrus itself was not everlasting. Israel would later experience oppression, dispersion, and war. In the future that promise will begin to be fulfilled in Messiah’s first coming but awaits completion at His second. At the first coming, Messiah accomplishes redemption. During the present age, that salvation is proclaimed among the nations. At the second coming, shame, exile, opposition, and death are finally abolished.
V 18-19 Using the very language of the creation story in Gen. 1 the Lord declares that His creation has purpose and design just as He created it. God did not create the earth “tohu”, formless, empty, or void, but formed it to be inhabited. God’s creative purpose was to bring order, fruitfulness, and life. Sin may have marred His creation as exile did for Israel and her land. The 70 years of Sabbath on the land may have made the land look desolate and chaotic, but that is not God’s final intent for Israel.
Redemption is more than the rescue of men it is only the start. God intends the restoration of man and His created world. It will culminate with a new heaven and new earth after the millennial reign of Messiah in which righteousness and order will dwell eternally.
Verse 19 declares that God has not spoken secretly or instructed Jacob to seek Him in futility. His word is bears witness to the general revelation revealed in all the elements of creation that all mankind can see and contemplate. The “hidden God” of verse 15 is not deceptive but can be found if one responds to the light available to all mankind. m
V 20-22 God calls the nations to assemble and come to the only God who can save. To forsake their idols and gods that cannot deliver, care of provide for them. God again appeals to prophecy: Who announced these things beforehand? The point is that God’s foretelling reveals that history is moving according to His purposes. “There is no other god besides me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none besides me.” God’s righteousness and mercy are not opposites. He saves in a way consistent with His character and fulfills the promises He has made. He appeals to them to “Turn to me and be saved” (v 22).
Israel’s election is not favoritism, rather through Israel’s God and through Israel’s Messiah the nations are invited to salvation. The The command to “turn” requires forsaking idols and placing one’s trust in the Lord. This foreshadows the first coming and the worldwide proclamation of the gospel. Jesus commissions His disciples to carry repentance and forgiveness to all nations. The mission through the apostles and their disciples is from Jerusalem “to the end of the earth,” echoing Isaiah’s words.
V 23-25 -Every knee will bow God swears by Himself since there is no name higher. This is same language God spoke to Abraham when he offered Isaac on Mt. Moriah in Gen. 22:16. This points to more than Cyrus’s victory and Judah’s return. It looks to the day in the future when all will bow and confess that Yeshua is Lord over all.
Rashi interprets the oath as God’s irrevocable commitment to receive those who return to Him. Every knee will bow, and the repentant will be accepted. He connects the verse with Zephaniah’s vision of the peoples calling on the Lord with purified words from their lips. Rashi on Isaiah 45:23
The New Covenant applies this as well. In Romans 14:10–12, Paul cites Isaiah 45:23 when teaching that everyone will stand before God’s judgment seat. Secondly Philippians 2:9–11 applies Isaiah’s language to Jesus: “At the name of Jesus every knee should bow … and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
This passage joins the first and second comings: At the first coming God in His Son takes the form of a servant. He humbles Himself to death on a cross. God raises and exalts Him. So this saving righteousness offered in Isaiah 45:22 is found in His name.
At the second coming His lordship will becomes universally revealed to all. At that time every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Yeshua is Lord. Those who resist will be ashamed. Israel and their Messiah, Yeshua will receive vindication and glory. There will be the element of free choice. The nations are invited to turn and be saved, but those who rebel against God will come to shame. That all will acknowledge does not necessarily mean all will be saved, a choice must be made.
“In the LORD all the offspring of Israel shall be justified” v 25. The word translated “justified” or “declared righteous” comes from tsadek, righteousness. Israel’s boast will not be in who they are nationally or their military strength, political wisdom, or moral works but “in the LORD.” This is echoed in the New Covenant 2 Cor. 10:17.
Isaiah’s original hearers in Judah lived under the shadow of Assyria, and Isaiah 39 announced the Babylonian exile. This chapter was given in grace to Israel as they were going into captivity that their exile would not mean that Babylon’s gods had defeated the Lord. That God could call and name the foreign ruler that would deliver Israel. That though Cyrus was not necessarily a believer God could and would use him. The Lord’s methods might offend Israel, but the Potter knew what His clay needed. Their deliverance would speak to the nations and point to a future when all the nations will acknowledge Him as Lord.
These words were called to call Israel away from fear, idolatry, resentment, and po despair.
Isaiah 45 reinforces that the God of Israel is not a local god struggling against rival nations. He is the Creator, the Lord, the director of history, the righteous Judge, and the only Savior.
He can use a ruler who does not know Him, bring salvation through methods His people would never choose, and provide a temporary deliverance that points toward an everlasting redemption. His call remains: “Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth.”
