NOTES for Isa 48:1-22

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¹Hear 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.

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

³I 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.

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

⁵I 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.

⁶Thou 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.

⁷They 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.

⁸Yea, 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.

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

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

¹¹For 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.

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

¹³Mine 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.

¹⁴All 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.

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

¹⁶Come 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.

¹⁷Thus 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.

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

¹⁹Thy 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.

²⁰Go 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.

²¹And 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.

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

It turns out that one can confess the Lord and swear by His Name while none of it is in truth or righteousness. This means that when we are in such a state, we may in theory adhere to lofty principles while acting contrary to them. This is possible not only when, like the people rebuked here, we try to combine faith with idolatry or with consulting soothsayers and diviners, but whenever we seem to do everything correctly and act piously while outward piety has become a habit concealing the absence of steadfastness in faith.

Then the Lord can manifest His will in a way entirely different from what we are accustomed to expect on the basis of earlier experience, still less on the basis of the calculations of false wisdom. Putting false prophets to shame—and us too, if we become firmly convinced that everything is already clear to us and that surely we cannot stumble—He reveals to us both the destinies of the world and what is taking place in our own depths, things we could never have conceived on our own.

If this happens, we may become confused and fail at first to understand how to respond to what has unexpectedly been revealed. Nevertheless, it is worth going out to meet the new and unknown when it comes from the Lord.

Other notes

For Isa 48:17-19

¹⁷Thus 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.

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

¹⁹Thy 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.

It sometimes seems that in the Holy Scriptures God expects from us all the time unconceivable efforts, that we have to fight and work. We hear first of all in commandments what we do not have to allow ourselves, not always realizing, why. It turns out that our life owes a constant overcoming. Although it is sometimes like that, but only partially. God speaks about Himself through the mouth of the prophet Isaiah-" God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go." Each of us has his way, to find it by oneself is rather difficult, how then one can understand where it is, this road, in which we are called? And God lets us know that commandments are pegs indicating the edge of the way, protecting against the fall into the abyss. As the watersides of a plentiful river, giving it the direction, and protecting it so that it spreads not on the meadows and floods everything all around. According to the words of the prophet, our life can really become as such river, if we begin to believe in God and understand that commandments don’t limit our will, but just warn of the danger.

For Isa 48:17-18

¹⁷Thus 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.

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

The Lord says that there is only one source of peace - hearken to the commandments. We look for peace, we want more that everything on earth comfort, the internal light... Read more

The Lord says that there is only one source of peace - hearken to the commandments. We look for peace, we want more that everything on earth comfort, the internal light … But for some reason it goes wrong all the time. Why? And here is why. Because it is necessary at first to listen to the Lord, to accept His teaching, because He teaches good, to obey and to walk by the way that He leads. And we hear in His voice an obvious pain: "O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments!" If only… if only we could lift up our eyes and look at Him, open our heart and accept His word …

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NOTES for Isa 48:1-22

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