Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Isaiah 41:1 - 41:7
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
The Glory of the Lord and the Vanity of the Heathen
v. 1. Keep silence before Me, O islands, since the Lord is about to argue His case before the leaders of the Gentile world, and let the people, all those on the side of the enemies, renew their strength, gather all the resources at their command, in order, if that be possible, to gain the advantage in the argument; let them come near, stepping before the tribunal of the great Judge. Then let them speak, arguing their case; let us, the Lord and His enemies, come near together to judgment, to have their matter adjudicated in court. It is a majestic challenge on the part of the great God.
v. 2. Who raised up the righteous man from the East, called him to his foot, gave the nations before him, and made him rule over kings? literally, "Who stirs, raises up from the East him (whom) justice calls to her footprints, gives nations before him, and lets him step upon kings?" It is God who calls a great deliverer from the Eastern empire, a man who is ready to follow in the footsteps of the covenant faithfulness, and whom the Lord causes to subdue nations and kings. He gave them as the dust to his sword and as driven stubble to his bow, or, in the form of a question, "Who makes them as dust by His sword, as wind-driven stubble through His bow?" all the enemies of the Lord being destroyed before Him.
v. 3. He pursued them and passed safely, without hindrance; even by the way that he had not gone with his feet, that is, the conqueror whom the Lord calls will carry on his pursuit of the Lord's enemies with such energy as to disregard all obstructions, no matter of what kind they may be.
v. 4. Who hath wrought and done it, undertaking and also finishing the work which He had set before Him, calling the generations from the beginning? I, the Lord, the First and with the last: I am He. Jehovah, who called all the generations of man into being and will do so until the end of time, raises up also this deliverer as the champion of His cause. We now have a description of the impression which the argument of Jehovah made upon the enemies.
v. 5. The isles, the leaders among the heathen, saw it and feared, filled with terror before the deliverer appointed by the Lord; the ends of the earth, all the inhabitants of the world, were afraid, drew near, and came, huddling together for mutual defense, with a show of opposition.
v. 6. They helped every one his neighbor, they attempt to assist one another in the work which they now undertake; and every one said to his brother, Be of good courage, trying to give him moral support, for they intend to supply gods for their defense against Jehovah.
v. 7. So the carpenter, the craftsman in wood and metal, encouraged the goldsmith, the man who cast the idols, and he that smootheth with the hammer him that smote the anvil, saying, It is ready for the soldering, saying of the soldered mass, It is good; and he fastened it with nails that it should not be moved. Although the picture, as put together, seems solid enough, yet the workmen, for safety's sake, put in a few nails to hold it upright, a fine bit of irony characterizing the vanity of idolatry and the helplessness of the idol worshipers, who trust in the work of man's hands.