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Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents
48:1-22 God Will Free His People from Babylon for His Own Sake. Despite Israel's stubborn unbelief, God pursues his purpose of redemption.
48:1-11 God puts up with his backward people for the sake of his own glory.
48:1 Hear. The imperative (repeated in vv. 12, 14, 16) calls Jacob to hear the word of God with the kind of hearing that makes an impact and produces action in response. They were called by the name of Israel (which is their identity and background) and are to confess the God of Israel (which is their profession of faith). but not in truth or right. Their faith is nominal, hypocritical, and imaginary.
48:2 The people of God do not grasp what it means that the Lord of hosts is his name. The central question of life is, "Who is God?" and even God's own people understand this only dimly.
48:3-5 God established a pattern of prophecies faithfully fulfilled, anticipating idolatrous thoughts rising from the hard hearts of his own people (as in Ezek. 3:7). God has prepared this defense for his own honor.
48:6-8 Now God intends to reveal surprising new prophecies. Unprecedented acts of God are on the horizon--unprecedented, lest his own people treat his deeds dismissively.
48:9-11 The deepest motive in the heart of God is his own glory, to the exclusion of all other glories. He does not punish his unbelieving people as they deserve, for that would diminish the display of his glory in his persistent compassion (cf. Ps. 78:37-41; 103:8-14).
48:12-22 God will free his backward people from Babylon through Cyrus.
48:12-13 The God of the gospel is the commanding presence in the universe. Nothing disproves him; everything reveals his glory.
48:14-15 God reaffirms his plan to use Cyrus for his own redemptive purpose. among them. I.e., the idols. The Lord loves him. God is not reluctant to use Cyrus.
48:16 And now the Lord God has sent me, and his Spirit. This unidentified speaker appears more clearly in 49:1-6 as the servant of the Lord (cf. 42:1-13). Unlike Cyrus, the servant's power is not a human sword but the divine Spirit (cf. 11:2; 61:1). Many would see this as a reference to the three persons of the Trinity: the Father ("the Lord God"), the Son ("has sent me"), and the Holy Spirit ("his Spirit").
48:17-19 The cost of resisting God's word; the blessings of true listening. who teaches you to profit. Misplaced values are idols, which do not profit (cf. 44:9). my commandments. Even if God's prophecies of the future were difficult to believe, his practical commandments lay within range of human understanding. peace . . . like a river. Not seasonal but perpetual. righteousness like the waves of the sea. Covering sin again and again. like the sand . . . like its grains. See Gen. 15:5 and 22:17.
48:20-21 The Jewish exiles are called to take advantage of Cyrus's conquest of Babylon and return to the Promised Land. They did not thirst. The return of the exiles is a second exodus, marked again by God's miraculous provision. The Lord does not call his people out in order to abandon them but to provide for them lavishly (cf. Ex. 17:1-7; Ps. 105:41).
