READ: Is. 41:17-29: … I, the LORD, will hear them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them… That they may see and know, and consider and understand together, that the hand of the LORD has done this, and the Holy One of Israel has created it… Show 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. Indeed, you are nothing, and your work is nothing; he who chooses you is an abomination. I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come; from the rising of the sun, he shall call on My name; and he shall come against princes as though mortar, as the potter treads clay … Indeed, they are all worthless; their works are nothing; their molded images are wind and confusion.
While God, on His part, once again shows His mercy to His people in the misery of exile and promises a glorious future (vv.17-20), the heathens with their idols are once again challenged (v.21).
God guarantees them a return from exile and the coming of the Messiah with His kingdom of peace, but what can idols accomplish?
These idols are now directly addressed from verse 21 onwards. What can they say about the future? Nothing, for they are “less than nothing” and their work is less than nothing. But God causes Cyrus to come, who will defeat the enemies, just as a potter treads clay (v.25).
God is now announcing this in His omniscience ahead of time, so that there can be no doubt about His greatness when the prophecy is fulfilled! But idols cannot predict anything; they cannot speak, and no one hears them (v.26). This also fits entirely with the conviction that Isaiah is the writer of the whole book of Isaiah.
The fact that Cyrus is already spoken of before he exists proves God’s omniscience, which He shows through His prophets, and for which verse 26 expressly gives an account.
God’s greatness, which is evident in His omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, and immutability, makes it so that we can fully trust Him.
Do we also view contemporary idols in this way?
Sing: Ps. 97:3,4