We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us Notes

We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us! God Points Out the Primary Problem for Judah…Judah Isaiah 48: 1 – 22

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Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible® (NASB), Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation Used by permission. www.Lockman.org

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Scripture taken from the Holy Bible: International Standard Version® Release 2.0. (ISV) Copyright © 1996–2011 by the ISV Foundation. Used by permission of Davidson Press, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INTERNATIONALLY.

In Isaiah 48 there are two major themes and a conclusion for the rebellious. • Israel and Judah are obstinate (Isaiah 48:4) but • God will deliver them in His time (Isaiah 48:14) • There is no peace for the wicked (Isaiah 48:22)

We also have here in Isaiah 48, what many consider to be one of the more definitive verses in the Bible regarding the trinity.

The geopolitical situation as this prophecy is being written by Isaiah is this, Hezekiah is King of Judah. He was a good King (2 Chronicles 29:1 – 4) who loved the Lord, he had some issues with including YAHWEH in all he did (2 Chronicles 32:25 – 26, Isaiah 31), but he followed the Lord.

Assyria, the current big and bad on the world scene, has just had their head handed back to them by the Lord when He personally judged them on the hills surrounding Jerusalem killing over 180,000 of their troops in one evening (Isaiah 37:36 – 38).

No one is currently threatening Judah, in fact there are some who want to know just how did they beat the Assyrian army including Babylon ( 2 Kings 20:12 – 13), which at the time was just one more city state that went in and out of rebellion to the Assyrian Empire.

The northern kingdom, Israel, is gone and in exile.

What is to take place should not be a surprise to anyone in the Judah of the near future, but it will be. Isaiah has made clear who it is that will attack and take Judah into exile, and he has also been crystal clear about who it is that will deliver them. Knowing this, does it change behavior? Moses said the following. Any similarity to current conditions in some locations is purely coincidental. Right.

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Deuteronomy 28:15–29 “But if you disobey the LORD your God and do not faithfully keep all his commands and laws that I am giving you today, all these evil things will happen to you: The LORD will curse your towns and your fields. The LORD will curse your corn crops and the food you prepare from them. The LORD will curse you by giving you only a few children, poor crops, and few cattle and sheep. The LORD will curse everything you do. If you do evil and reject the LORD, he will bring on you disaster, confusion, and trouble in everything you do, until you are quickly and completely destroyed. He will send disease after disease on you until there is not one of you left in the land that you are about to occupy. The LORD will strike you with infectious diseases, with swelling and fever; he will send drought and scorching winds to destroy your crops. These disasters will be with you until you die. No rain will fall, and your ground will become as hard as iron. Instead of rain, the LORD will send down duststorms and sandstorms until you are destroyed. The LORD will give your enemies victory over you. You will attack them from one direction, but you will run from them in all directions, and all the people on earth will be terrified when they see what happens to you. When you die, birds and wild animals will come and eat your bodies, and there will be no one to scare them off. The LORD will send boils on you, as he did on the Egyptians. He will make your bodies break out with sores. You will be covered with scabs, and you will itch, but there will be no cure. The LORD will make you lose your mind; he will strike you with blindness and confusion. You will grope about in broad daylight like a blind person, and you will not be able to find your way. You will not prosper in anything you do. You will be constantly oppressed and robbed, and there will be no one to help you.” (GNB)

The books of 1 and 2 Kings are a story of failure mixed with the occasional success of a good king. The background though is one of a continual downward spiral. Israel became idolators and failed at a vastly accelerated path over that of Judah.

The northern kingdom of Israel was established and immediately became an idol worshipping nation. This upset internal politics within the now two Jewish nations as idol worshippers moved north and YAHWEH worshippers moved south (2 Chronicles 11:13 – 15). All their kings were losers, all of them, so they suffered the consequences first.

Judah saw this and had the opportunity to repent.

At the beginning of the book of Isaiah, there was still hope for Judah, they could still pull it out of the fire. But they did not. They wanted to have the blessings that began to be poured out on the nation under King David and which continued under King Solomon, but without the obedience to the Lord piece. With a good King, Hezekiah, they are again beginning to see some of those blessings (2 Chronicles 32:27 – 30), but a major round of discipline has just been completed as the Lord did use the Assyrian army to get the attention of His people in Judah.

All the nation needed to do is follow what Moses had outlined for them at the same time he told them about the consequences of bad behavior.

Deuteronomy 28:1–14 “If you obey the LORD your God and faithfully keep all his commands that I am giving you today, he will make you greater than any other nation on earth. Obey the LORD your God and all these blessings will be yours: The LORD will bless your towns and your fields. The LORD will bless you with many children, with abundant crops, and with many cattle and sheep. The LORD will bless your corn crops and the food you prepare from them. The LORD will bless everything you do. The LORD will defeat your enemies when they attack you. They will attack from one direction, but they will run from you in all directions. The LORD your God will bless your work and fill your barns with corn. He will bless you in the land that he is giving you. If you obey the LORD your God and do everything he commands, he will make you his own people, as he has promised. Then all the peoples on earth will see that the LORD has chosen you to be his own people, and they will be afraid of you. The LORD will give you many children, many cattle, and abundant crops in the land that he promised your ancestors to give you. He will send rain in season from his rich storehouse in the sky and bless all your work, so that you will lend to many nations, but you will www.theunsafebible.com ©The UnSafe Bible 2021 2

not have to borrow from any. The LORD your God will make you the leader among the nations and not a follower; you will always prosper and never fail if you obey faithfully all his commands that I am giving you today. But you must never disobey them in any way, or worship and serve other gods.” (GNB)

We tend to make many of the same decisions that Judah made. We have trusted in Christ for our salvation and have begun the process of sanctification, but somewhere along the line we may have decided to sub-optimize the process, because it is hard work. We, like Judah, get drawn away by the big three.

1 John 2:15–17 “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.” (ESV)

This is the struggle that Judah has as well, but they are under the law where we are privileged to be living under grace. There are only two sides, there is no in-between. Judah wound up learning that the hard way and the truth has not changed.

James 4:4–5 “Adulterers, do you not know that friendship with the world means hostility toward God? So whoever decides to be the world’s friend makes himself God’s enemy. Or do you think the scripture means nothing when it says, “The spirit that God caused to live within us has an envious yearning?”” (NET)

The nation is obstinate, stubborn, just like us and struggles with the same things we struggle with.

1 Corinthians 10:11 “Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.” (ESV)

Isaiah 48:1–5 “Hear this, O house of Jacob, who are named Israel And who came forth from the loins of Judah, Who swear by the name of the LORD And invoke the God of Israel, But not in truth nor in righteousness. For they call themselves after the holy city And lean on the God of Israel; The LORD of hosts is His name. “I declared the former things long ago And they went forth from My mouth, and I proclaimed them. Suddenly I acted, and they came to pass. Because I know that you are obstinate, And your neck is an iron sinew And your forehead bronze, Therefore I declared them to you long ago, Before they took place I proclaimed them to you, So that you would not say, ‘My idol has done them, And my graven image and my molten image have commanded them.’” (NASB95)

The message begins with a command, to hear. “The people are called to hear, and this verb (šāmaʿ) is repeated ten times in the next sixteen verses (the synonym qšb occurs in v. 18, and the phrase “to open the ear” in v. 8). The people are to give close attention to this, the following argument. But, beyond that, the verb šāmaʿ also implies obeying, taking appropriate action concerning the message.” (Oswalt 1998, 260)

There is to be no confusion as to who it is YAHWEH is talking to. The definition is all encompassing. • House of Judah • Named Israel • Direct descendants of Judah • Who made a promise to YAHWEH “Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.”” (Exodus 24:7, ESV) • Who worship YAHWEH and praise Him calling upon His name.

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Up to this point, those who are listening are feeling pretty good about themselves. They fully identify with who this is addressed to.

“But not in truth nor in righteousness.” “The disclosure is made that this confession, this worship…is not in truth or right. The alleged relationship that Judah states they have with YAHWEH is all pretend. The words are correct but the heart is far from the meaning of the words. Their faith has become one of ritual by rote. For Judah, the Lord is telling them that “You pay lip service to My name, but when you invoke it there is no honesty or sincerity behind your words.”” (Paul 2012, 306)

Isaiah 48:2 “For they call themselves after the holy city And lean on the God of Israel; The LORD of hosts is His name.” (NASB95)

Here in verse 2, we see that now YAHWEH is not only addressing those sitting in Judah, but those who are sitting in Babylon after being exiled there by Nebuchadnezzar as judgment for their unbelief. He is talking to both groups, but more so, the second group since they have been exiled. This group will closely identify themselves with Jerusalem and with YAHWEH.

Daniel provides an example of that for us.

Daniel 6:10 “When Daniel realized that a written decree had been issued, he entered his home, where the windows in his upper room opened toward Jerusalem. Three times daily he was kneeling and offering prayers and thanks to his God just as he had been accustomed to do previously.” (NET)

Even though they will be exiled, and verse one gives us one of the reasons, they were still identifying themselves with Jerusalem and YAHWEH. The difference though is before the defeat of the nation and exile, they thought that they were bullet proof and invisible. They could do anything but because of their “relationship” with YAHWEH, they were safe.

The security which had been placed in the holy city before the Exile can be seen in Jeremiah 26; Jeremiah was threatened with death because he predicted the fall of Jerusalem and the temple. (McKenzie 2008, 97)

The people of YAHWEH failed, totally and completely, the mission given to them by YAHWEH back in Exodus. Despite the failure, He is still the Lord of hosts. Because of whom He is, defeat is not total. For Him, there is no defeat at all or a plan B. This still goes today; you and I are the plan to reach the planet (Matthew 28:19 – 20).

In 48:2 the Lord faces a very different situation: the total failure of those who claim to be his people. But he is ‘the Lord of hosts’ in this situation also: he can deal with it. They have failed but he is not beaten. As ‘the LORD’, he revealed the meaning of his name, Yahweh, when he came to Egypt to bring his people out of the jaws of death. Their claim to be his is an unreal claim, but he affirms that he remains the God of Israel. Once again he will prove himself their Saviour. (Motyer 1999, 340)

Isaiah 48:4–5 “Because I know that you are obstinate, And your neck is an iron sinew And your forehead bronze, Therefore I declared them to you long ago, Before they took place I proclaimed them to you, So that you would not say, ‘My idol has done them, And my graven image and my molten image have commanded them.’” (NASB95)

Why is it that God went to the lengths to announce, by name, all the events surrounding Cyrus? Why has He bothered to announce other things in advance as well including everything yet to take place because .qaseh). The NASB translates that as obstinate) ֶשָׁק ה֖ of the coming of Messiah? It is because they are

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This word means “hard, difficult, heavy; hard, severe (person); stiff-necked, stubborn; difficult; shameless, insolent.” (Holladay and Köhler 2000, 327)

The Lord knows His people are shameless, insolent, difficult to deal with and stubborn. This is a group of folks who are incapable of being in submission to the Lord. And it gets worse. Because they are “stiff- necked, hard to convince and that thy neck is an iron sinew, therefore hard to bend, and thy brow brass, thus impenetrable, obstinate” God provides prophecy. (Lange, et al. 2008, 519-520)

Because of the people being so stubborn, God has made revelation through prophecy and done so intentionally to prevent His own people from saying that their idols told them this. We already know, from the courtroom earlier in Isaiah, that the false gods, and those fallen entities behind them, are incapable of telling the future. But they will try, and they still try today.

God knew that by the time they would go into exile, they would be so far down the rabbit hole of idolatry that they would say anything to stay away from the truth. We see that even today. We are specifically warned by Jesus to not be deceived.

Matthew 24:3–4 “As he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, his disciples came to him privately and said, “Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” Jesus answered them, “Watch out that no one misleads you.” (NET)

It is generally an accepted fact that to deceive is to make someone believe what is untrue. This logically implies that self-deception is the deceiving of oneself as to one’s true feelings, motives, circumstances, and actions—believing what is untrue. (van der Spuy 2011, 201)

Steps to Deceive Yourself

Researchers seem to suggest that four criteria must be satisfied simultaneously for the state of self- deception to exist: 1. A person must hold two contradictory beliefs. 2. These beliefs must be held simultaneously. 3. Only one of these beliefs must be subject to awareness. 4. The state of non-awareness, that is, the choice of what the individual chooses not to think about, is intentional. (van der Spuy 2011, 202)

Welcome to Judah and welcome to 2021. Solomon was right, there really is nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9).

This means that Judah was without excuse. They knew the greatness and power of God, yet they still lived with only a religious image, without a spiritual reality. (Guzik 2000, Is 48:3-5)

Isaiah 48:6–8 “You have heard; look at all this. And you, will you not declare it? I proclaim to you new things from this time, Even hidden things which you have not known. They are created now and not long ago; And before today you have not heard them, So that you will not say, ‘Behold, I knew them.’ You have not heard, you have not known. Even from long ago your ear has not been open, Because I knew that you would deal very treacherously; And you have been called a rebel from birth.” (NASB95)

The discussion becomes very pointed. Look at all that YAHWEH has done for His people. He has not left them in the dark but provided them prophets as well. They should know.

YAHWEH has proclaimed things to them in the past about the future. Things they are going to see come to pass. He is incredulous at their unbelief. All that has been done for them and told to them and they are not out proclaiming it as truth. He is now preparing to tell them new things now through Isaiah. www.theunsafebible.com ©The UnSafe Bible 2021 5

He is talking to them like they are in Babylon. They do not need to hear anything else about Cyrus, they have all they need to know. When He says, “look at all this,” He sees the prophecy as fulfilled and they should see it the same way. They need to be proclaiming this.

Because His people have disregarded the previous prophecies, God will give new prophecies. They are about to find out that God’s wrath is coming but will be delayed, and there will be another assertion that they will be delivered and freed from captivity in order to return to the land.

From Deuteronomy 30:1–5, Israel knew she would be brought back to the land after captivity, and her dwelling in the land was assured by the Abrahamic Covenant (Gen. 15:18–21). But until Isaiah’s prophecies were given she did not know how God would deliver her. This was so the people would not feel smug (Isa. 48:7b), thinking their own cunning had set them free. They actually were spiritually insensitive (v. 8; cf. 42:20; 43:8) because they were treacherous and rebellious. So their physical and spiritual deliverance would come not from their goodness or their own plans, but from God’s grace. (Martin 1985, 1102)

Isaiah 48:9–11 “For the sake of My name I delay My wrath, And for My praise I restrain it for you, In order not to cut you off. Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. For My own sake, for My own sake, I will act; For how can My name be profaned? And My glory I will not give to another.” (NASB95)

What is the primary reason why God has delayed His judgement on His people…His name. God will do nothing that will compromise His name to the nations. Earlier He was in the courtroom with the nations and there was discussion about things to come that will provide salvation for them. He remains consistent to His nature and His promises. This is not the first time either.

Ezekiel 20:7–9 “I said to them, “Each of you must get rid of the detestable idols you keep before you, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt; I am the LORD your God.” But they rebelled against me, and refused to listen to me; no one got rid of their detestable idols, nor did they abandon the idols of Egypt. Then I decided to pour out my rage on them and fully vent my anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt. I acted for the sake of my reputation, so that I would not be profaned before the nations among whom they lived, before whom I revealed myself by bringing them out of the land of Egypt.” (NET)

Prior to bringing His people out of Egypt, Israel had an idol problem. In Ezekiel there is a discussion about that problem and a possible option on the table for consideration. But because of promises made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob…He would not consider the option due to the impact on the surrounding nations.

Remember, the nations worshipped the no-gods who promulgated mythologies to them of being angry vindictive gods always looking for the next opportunity to zap their people. YAHWEH is not like that, and He takes the long view regarding the nations and their perceptions of who He is and how He operates.

His goal is redemption.

Luke 19:10 “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”” (ESV)

John 3:16–18 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” (ESV)

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Isaiah 48:10 “Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.” (NASB95)

In the next 150 years, there will be events that take place in Judah culminating in the nation being taken exile to Babylon. Most will believe that to be the end of the nation, but here the Lord is telling them in advance that is not the case. They will be disciplined, not destroyed. They will be afflicted so they would come to their senses and return to YAHWEH. Discipline is a sign of love.

Hebrews 12:7–11 “As you endure this divine discipline, remember that God is treating you as his own children. Who ever heard of a child who is never disciplined by its father? If God doesn’t discipline you as he does all of his children, it means that you are illegitimate and are not really his children at all. Since we respected our earthly fathers who disciplined us, shouldn’t we submit even more to the discipline of the Father of our spirits, and live forever? For our earthly fathers disciplined us for a few years, doing the best they knew how. But God’s discipline is always good for us, so that we might share in his holiness. No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.” (NLT)

Here in verses 9-11, God is talking to those who are being disciplined in Babylon. For those in exile, yes God is discipling them, but it will end.

In verse 11 He promises that for His name's sake, He will rescue His people from their exile in Babylon. He is telling them about this in advance because ….“My glory I will not give to another.”

When God becomes patron for a people, he enters a difficult position. If he supports and protects them, even though he is being betrayed by their affairs with idols and immorality (cf. Hos 1–3; Ezek 16, 23), he risks being mocked and despised by all the world. If he punishes them, he risks being thought demonic (Exod 32:9–14). God has walked that tightrope throughout his association with Israel. Now the decision has been made. Judgment is complete, and he refuses to let idols take credit for his beneficent deeds (kabodi) glory. (Watts 2005, 723) בכ ו ד י that follow, for his

Isaiah 48:12–16 “Listen to Me, O Jacob, even Israel whom I called; I am He, I am the first, I am also the last. Surely My hand founded the earth, And My right hand spread out the heavens; When I call to them, they stand together. Assemble, all of you, and listen! Who among them has declared these things? The LORD loves him; he will carry out His good pleasure on Babylon, And His arm will be against the Chaldeans. I, even I, have spoken; indeed I have called him, I have brought him, and He will make his ways successful. Come near to Me, listen to this: From the first I have not spoken in secret, From the time it took place, I was there. And now the Lord GOD has sent Me, and His Spirit.” (NASB95)

Once again, the command to listen. Not everyone who was tuned in to verses 9-11 and in exile in Babylon were part of the problem. There is a remnant that is looking forward to returning to Judah. There always is a remnant that believes, and at times it is statistically very small, such as the 8 people who the Lord invited onto the ark.

Judah alleged to be loyal to YAHWEH but as we learned back in verse 1, not in truth or righteousness. YAHWEH, as a means of correcting any misperceptions of who He is, will proclaim the truth of exactly that. The emphasis after the command to listen, He is the one who called Israel, it was not the other way around. God initiated the relationship.

For the third time in Isaiah, God tells His people, His called ones, He is the first and He is the last. YAHWEH is the creator God, the ruler of the universe, the maker of everything. He existed before anything else existed. “Israel is not doomed to the consequences of their own failure but maintained in the status accorded by the Lord, takes account of what his name is (2), the implications of that name in his plans for Israel (9) and the unchanged reality of his choice (10). The call of God reappears in verse 13c www.theunsafebible.com ©The UnSafe Bible 2021 7

(when I summon/‘I but call … and …’) in all its irresistible power. What is true of the heavens is true of Israel. The divine call cannot fail. I am he (41:4), i.e. changeless and self-consistent. As first God was not pressed by any external agency into what he initiated; as last he stands unchallenged by any force that may have tried to oppose; and he brings to triumphant conclusion what he started. At the start, there was his uninhibited freedom to do as he chose; at the end, the untarnished gold of his completed work. The hand of God initiates (13a), and the call of God sovereignly dictates the outcome (13cd).” (J. A. Motyer 1996, 380)

In verse 14, after again telling His people He is the creator of everything, not Baal, not Marduk, not random chance, but YAHWEH; He commands His people to come together and listen to what He has to say to them.

God asks ”the” question. The same one He asked in the courtroom. He is the only God who tells the future and does so with 100% accuracy all of the time, even down to place names as well as the names of people and what they will do. The question goes out to not just His people, but to all of us, “who among them (the no-gods) has declared these things?”

After asking this question…again…to prove His point, God will again talk about the man He is going to use to deliver His people from Babylon. He will once again talk about this pagan non-Jew He has announced He will use, Cyrus.

He is the foretelling, foreordaining and fulfilling God who keeps His promises even when the subject of His promise, the Jewish nation, appears to be unworthy of that promise. He does this again with Christ making a promise to all of us, who are also unworthy of the promise made.

Romans 5:6–9 “For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. (For rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person perhaps someone might possibly dare to die.)But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, because we have now been declared righteous by his blood, we will be saved through him from God’s wrath.” (NET)

God has never been able to bless the nation Israel to the fullness of His promise, and you and I have never been blessed as much as God would like to bless us. Whose fault is it? Is it God’s fault? No! It is Israel’s fault and the fault of you and me. (McGee 1997, 301)

Isaiah 48:14–15 “Assemble, all of you, and listen! Who among them has declared these things? The LORD loves him; he will carry out His good pleasure on Babylon, And His arm will be against the Chaldeans. I, even I, have spoken; indeed I have called him, I have brought him, and He will make his ways successful.” (NASB95)

The reason why Cyrus will be successful is because he is operating on behalf of the Lord. Shocker, the Lord loves him, and he will carry out God’s good pleasure on Babylon.

The Lord loves him is an expression of the election of Cyrus for the task at hand. Similar statements are made of the patriarchs (see esp. Deut. 4:37 and the parallel with bḥr, “to choose”). It may also, though not necessarily, express a special affection for the man who would accomplish God’s purpose for him. The language may have been chosen to make unmistakable God’s right to use whom he will. (Oswalt 1998, 277)

God makes it clear to those in Israel who would have done this some other way, who disagree with God, the creator of the universe, by the clear statement that God called Cyrus. In verse 12 the lord pointed out that His people are called, the He initiated the relationship, He is using the same terms and conditions about Cyrus. This disconnect is addressed in a few chapters.

Isaiah 55:8–9 ““For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.”” (NASB95)

Recall that back in verses 3 – 6 we were promised new things. Also, earlier in Isaiah, we were introduced to Emmanuel, the Servant, the Messiah. As we come to verse 16, the speaker suddenly shifts from YAHWEH to someone else.

Isaiah 48:16 “Come near to Me, listen to this: From the first I have not spoken in secret, From the time it took place, I was there. And now the Lord GOD has sent Me, and His Spirit.” (NASB95)

Back in Isaiah 42:1 we learned that the only Spirit endowed person is the Servant. This new speaker tells the nation to come near and listen to Him. He is not a stranger to them.

In giving his law, the covenant blessings and curses, and prophetic announcements about the future, God made his will known; he did not keep his wishes “in secret” (bassēter in v. 16a). The people of Israel knew what God would do and what would be the consequences of their action. On the day that all these things actually do happen, God was, is, and will be there. This affirms his providential care and oversight, insuring that his will is accomplished just as he has predicted it would. (Smith 2009, 328)

This communication is of the type that you need to be more intimate with the speaker. A relationship is implied and as such, this will wound up being a word to the remnant, those who are looking for desiring to hear more from the Servant, more from Messiah.

The one speaking has been with them from the first and has not spoken in secret. This is consistent with the way the second person of the Trinity has related to the nation. He has appeared to them as the Angel of the Lord, He will appear to them yet as the Messiah.

We have here the mystery of one Divine person sending another. And we are irresistibly reminded of the passages of the New Testament in which our Lord asserts that He cometh forth from the Father, and also that He is furnished and equipped by His Spirit for accomplishing the great work of human redemption. It is clear, then, if we appeal to such statements as those of our text, that we are justified in affirming the fundamental truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ to be imbedded in the teaching of the Old Testament Scripture. (Bertram and Tucker 1892, 292)

In Isa 48:16 the speaker says “the LORD God has sent Me, and His Spirit.” Many interpreters judge the spokesman of the verse to be the second member of the Godhead. If one agrees, then all three persons are linked together in this verse. (Feinberg 2001, 455)

Here we have one of the primary verses used in the OT to point to the Trinity.

And in Isaiah 48:16, the speaker (apparently the servant of the Lord) says, “Now the Lord God has sent me and his Spirit.” Here the Spirit of the Lord, like the servant of the Lord, has been “sent” by the Lord God on a particular mission. The parallel between the two objects of sending (“me” and “his Spirit”) would be consistent with seeing them both as distinct persons: it seems to mean more than simply “the Lord has sent me and his power.” In fact, from a full New Testament perspective (which recognizes Jesus the Messiah to be the true servant of the Lord predicted in Isaiah’s prophecies), Isaiah 48:16 has Trinitarian implications: “Now the Lord God has sent me and his Spirit,” if spoken by Jesus the Son of God, refers to all three persons of the Trinity. (Grudem 2020, 271-272)

So when we talk about the Trinity, we are talking about the unity that exists between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. For those wanting a more solid definition, here you go.

God is one in His essential being, but in this one being there are three persons, called, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. These persons are not, however, like so many persons among men three entirely separate and distinct individuals. They are rather three modes or forms in which the divine essence exists. At the same time it should be borne in mind that these self-distinctions in the divine being are of such a nature that they can enter into personal relations. The Father can speak to the Son and can send forth the Holy Spirit. The real mystery of the Trinity consists in this that the three persons are one in their essential being. And this does not mean that the divine essence is divided among the three persons. It is wholly, with all its perfections, in each one of the persons, and has no existence outside of and apart from the persons. Moreover, the persons are not subordinate the one to the other in their essential being. It may be said, however, that in order of existence the Father is first, the Son second, and the Holy Spirit third, and this order also reflects itself in the work of creation and redemption. The three persons are distinguished by certain personal distinctions: the Father generates the Son, the Son is generated by the Father, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from both Father and Son. This doctrine is one of the great mysteries of faith, and as such is far beyond our human comprehension. (Berkhof 1933, 75-76)

Going back to our text, we hear YAHWEH lamenting about the unfulfilled potential of His people.

Isaiah 48:17–19 “Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, “I am the LORD your God, who teaches you to profit, Who leads you in the way you should go. If only you had paid attention to My commandments! Then your well-being would have been like a river, And your righteousness like the waves of the sea. Your descendants would have been like the sand, And your offspring like its grains; Their name would never be cut off or destroyed from My presence.”” (NASB95)

He taught them what they needed to know to experience blessing. He is lamenting over the fact that they were provided everything yet chose to not pay attention to His commandments.

The Lord then repeats some of the blessings from Deuteronomy 28:1 – 14 that could have been theirs if only. “God wants them to listen to His commands, for then their peace and well-being would be everflowing “like a river,” their righteousness would be continuous and powerful “like the waves of the sea,” and their descendants would be the fulfillment of the promise that they would be as numerous as the grains of sand (Gen. 22:17; 32:12; 41:49). Israel’s name, that is, its character and nature as a nation, “would never be cut off nor destroyed.” Israel will live on in the light of God’s presence.” (Horton 2000, 364)

Isaiah 48:20–22 “Go forth from Babylon! Flee from the Chaldeans! Declare with the sound of joyful shouting, proclaim this, Send it out to the end of the earth; Say, “The LORD has redeemed His servant Jacob.” They did not thirst when He led them through the deserts. He made the water flow out of the rock for them; He split the rock and the water gushed forth. “There is no peace for the wicked,” says the LORD.” (NASB95)

For those in the future, for those who are in exile in Babylon, when Cyrus shows up, a simple command, one which not everyone will follow. Many opted to remain in Babylon and serve in the Persian Empire and a remnant returned with Ezra.

Ezra 2:64–67 “The entire assembly numbered 42,360, not including 7,337 male and female servants, along with 200 singing men and women. In addition, they had 736 horses, 245 mules, 435 camels, and 6,720 donkeys.” (ISV)

As they leave Babylon to return to Jerusalem they are to do so with joy and tell the whole world about what YAHWEH has done for them by rescuing them from Babylon through His chosen vessel, Cyrus.

The people are called to allow themselves to participate by anticipation, not only in the reality of the return but also in the glad announcement to the watching world of the vindication of God’s character. The force of the imperatives is to change the return from an idea to a reality. The prophet does not merely call the people to accept an idea; he challenges them to become part of the reality. (Oswalt 1998, 283)

And what Jehovah has done to them, is to be published by them over the whole earth; the redemption experienced by Israel is to become a gospel to all mankind. (Keil and Delitzsch 1996, 467)

God will fulfill His promises and He will rescue His people. Just as He did so to bring them from Egypt, He will do so again bringing them from Babylon. But those who are not faithful, those who are not obedient should not presume upon the Lord doing anything for them. He is doing this because of His name.

Isaiah 48:22 “There is no peace for the wicked,” says the LORD.” (NASB95)

We like to look to those promises of God which deal with provision, health, eternal life, but this too is a promise of God. “God had promised that those who would listen to his admonitions would have peace like a river (48:18), and he had declared that he would free his people from Babylon, but those promises should offer no comfort at all to those who showed by their wickedness that they had no intention of committing their way to God.

In the same way, we may be certain that God will not abandon his church; he will preserve it and keep it in all events. But that is not a warrant for individual Christians to believe that they can live ungodly lives secure in their own election.” (Oswalt 1998, 284)

Paul touched on this same point in Romans 6.

Romans 6:1–9 “Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him.” (NLT)

Just as there was a remnant that returned from Babylon to Jerusalem, today we are also being called out to go from the city of man to the city of God. He has provided the way for that trip to be made.

Salvation is a Gift • Admit you are a sinner. • Believe in your heart that Jesus died for your sins, was buried and He rose from the dead three days later. • Call on the name of the Lord.

Romans 10:8–10 “But what does it say? “The message is near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart.” This is the message about faith that we are proclaiming: If you declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with his heart and is justified, and declares with his mouth and is saved.” (ISV)

Works Cited Berkhof, L. 1933. Manual of Christian Doctrine. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. Bertram, R. A., and Alfred Tucker. 1892. Isaiah 40-66, The Preacher's Complete Homiletic Commentary. Vol. 2. New York, NY: Funk & Wagnalls Company. Feinberg, John S. 2001. No One Like HIm: The Doctrine of God, The Foundations of Evangelical Theology. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books. Grudem, Wayne. 2020. Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine. Second Edition. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Academic. Guzik, David. 2000. Isaiah, David Guzik's Commentaries on the Bible. Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik. Holladay, William Lee, and Ludwig Köhler. 2000. A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament. Leiden: Brill. Horton, Stanley M. 2000. Isaiah: A Logion Press Commentary, Logion Press Commentary Series. Springfield, MO: Logion Press. Keil, Carl Friedrich, and Franz Delitzsch. 1996. A Commentary on the Old Testament. Vol. 7. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson. Lange, John Peter, Philip Schaff, Carl Wilhelm Eduard Nagelsbach, Samuel T. Lowrie, and Dunlap Moore. 2008. A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures: Isaiah. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software. Martin, John A. 1985. Isaiah. Vol. 1, in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, edited by J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books. McGee, J. Vernon. 1997. Thru the BIble Commentary. Electronic Edition. Vol. 3. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson. McKenzie, John L. 2008. Second Isaiah: Introduction, Translation, and Notes, Anchor Yale Bible. Vol. 20. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Motyer, J. A. 1996. The Prophecy of Isaiah: An Introduction & Commentary. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press. Motyer, J. Alec. 1999. Isaiah: An Introduction and Commentary, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries. Vol. 20. Downers Gorve, IL: InterVarsity Press. Oswalt, John N. 1998. The Book of Isaiah, Chapters 40-66, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. Paul, Shalom M. 2012. Isaiah 40-66: Translation and Commentary, Eerdmans Critical Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. Smith, Gary. 2009. Isaiah 40-66, The New American Commentary. Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers. van der Spuy, Mervin. 2011. "Cheating at Solitaire: The Danger of Self-Deception in Pastoral and Counselling Ministry." Conspectus (South African Theological Seminary) 12. Watts, John D. W. 2005. Isaiah 34-66, Word Biblical Commentary. Revised Edition. Vol. 25. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, Inc.