Verses 1-28

CHAPTER 44

Jehovah Continues to Speak

1. Spiritual blessings promised by the gift of the Spirit (Isaiah 44:1-5) 2. Jehovah the First and the Last (Isaiah 44:6-8) 3. Idolatry rebuked (Isaiah 44:9-20) 4. Remember! Return! Sing! (Isaiah 44:21-23) 5. The faithful Jehovah, the Redeemer (Isaiah 44:24-27) 6. Cyrus named (Isaiah 44:28)The outpouring of the Spirit upon Israel’s seed promised in the beginning of the chapter has not yet taken place. Compare with Isaiah 32:15 and Isaiah 59:21. Verses 21-23 look forward to the coming age of blessing. Then Israel will be “Jehovah’s servant” on the earth; then their transgressions will be blotted out. Then the heavens, the earth, the mountains and the trees will break forth in singing. In Isaiah 44:28 Cyrus is mentioned by name. This great Persian King was then in the distant future an unborn being. Jehovah knew him and named him through Isaiah. He calls him “my shepherd” and predicts his work. Josephus declares that when Cyrus found his name in the book of Isaiah, written 220 years before, an earnest desire laid hold upon him to fulfil what was written.