Title: Transmission of Idolatry/Isaiah (41:21-29)
This text comforts the Jews by pointing out how futile the idolatry of Babylon and its subordinate nations is. God is having a challenging conversation with idols to strengthen His Word. Soon, he asks the idol to say something like a lawsuit against the Lord. Just as evidence is needed in a lawsuit, we are told to show divine evidence to idols.
1. State the future
Only Jehovah God can truly predict future events. Idols that appeared as creatures in history cannot tell about the future. Since idols have no life, they cannot tell their future history. Sometimes the prophets of idols speak of future events, but they are based on lies and cunning, and they do not have the ability to tell the future.
"Let them know what is to come...and what things are before them" (verse 22).
Here, some view the past as history, while others interpret it as referring to the future. According to those who see it as a history of the past, it means to clearly explain the beginning of history, and according to those who see it as a future history, ‘what is to come’ is something that will happen a little before the judgment, that is, Cyrus will return Israel to destroy Babylon. It's like talking about work. 'Previous things' are said to refer to the eschatological events of distant history, but we choose the latter interpretation.
A false god cannot explain the events of the fulfillment of prophecy. If he could know these things, he would be God.
2. Bring Blessings and Disasters
God challenges the fact that Babylon, the enemy of the people of Judah, and neighboring kingdoms rely on idols and oppose the God-established Cyrus (verses 23-24). The reason for making such a challenging statement is to emphasize the fact that human life that relies on idols is completely futile. Humans were created to be able to believe only in God the Creator. It is absurd for such people to ask for blessings while believing in other things without believing in God. Among what they believe, there are visible and invisible idols. The invisible idol is the ideological idol in the heart.
"Therefore, put to death your members that are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, lust, evil passions, and covetousness, which is idolatry" (Colossians 3:5). The idea of coveting material things is also an idol, so if we long for and believe in anything other than God, it will become our idol.
Philosophy, science, and ethics that are taught wrongly apart from the Word of God are all vanity idols. All the misfortunes of mankind are the result of such idolatry. Idolism prevents us from believing in God, and ideology that does not believe in God brings misery. Therefore, all prophets are one
We constantly attack the only enemy that makes us unbelievable, namely idolism.
3. Jehovah God is the true God
Because God foretold that Cyrus would rise to liberate the people of Judah, he is the true God.
Verse 25 is a prophecy referring to King Cyrus. But in verse 2, he will rise from the east, and in verse 25, he will come from the north, from the rising of the sun. Some say that this prophecy refers to the Messiah, but this is Cyrus. The northern part is because he dwelt a long time in the Medes north of Babylon, and the northern part is said to come from the sunrise because his birthplace is Pasa.
'He who calls on my name' refers to Cyrus. He has confessed that Jehovah is the true God. “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, the LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and has commanded me to build a temple in Jerusalem in Judah.
Syrah" (Ezra 1:2 - 3).
God prophesied that Cyrus would conquer the land of Babylon as "He will come and make the princes like lime, and the potter treads the mud" (verse 25), and history was fulfilled as prophesied. But idols did not foretell the rise of Cyrus. Even if a prophecy is made, there is no guarantee that this prophecy will come true. God again tells the idolaters that all they do is futile, and asserts that none of them can prophesy about the future Judea.
Let me conclude.
Many people misunderstand that prophecy is foretelling things in the future. Prophecy is the Greek word for prophecy, which means prophecy. A prophecy speaks of things in the past or things of the present or future. Therefore, it would be wrong to say that a prophet necessarily only speaks of the future.
The ministry of prophecy in the church age after the apostolic age is to preach the Bible by unraveling it. The prophetic movement of the Holy Spirit is Christ-centered and is to glorify Christ and make us believe in Him. It is a miracle to tell and set things up in the future. These things were done by Christ and his apostles, and there were such miracles before the Bible was completed.
The miracles of the church are different from the biblical record and have no revelatory meaning. It can be called individual providence. It is a special providence for the individual.
If you like future prophecies more than the Bible, you become a ashamed believer who turns away from the truth. We must study the Word deeply, obey it, live today faithfully, pray for tomorrow, and become believers who wait for God's will.