It’s the only time this particular “string” of words occurs in the Bible. And God is speaking in the First Person … about the children of Abraham, about the Jews.

I share with you (from Isaiah 46:13) today God’s Sentiments about one little Nation on earth. He specifically calls her “Israel My Glory.”

Wow!

God is very (and properly) “jealous” of His Glory!

This jealous … “I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.” Isaiah 42:8

This jealous … “For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it(preserve Israel): for how should my name be polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another.” Isaiah 48:11

But that Special Glory God possesses (which is God in essence) he has somehow conferred upon Israel!

To the Point He has named her (re-named) “Israel My Glory!”

The whole Verse, our Text … “I bring near my righteousness; it shall not be far off, and my salvation shall not tarry: and I will place salvation in Zion for Israel my glory.” Isaiah 46:13

A saved, glorious Israel!

Don’t believe it?

Try Isaiah 60:2 then … “For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.” (His Glory … upon thee!)

Israel, God’s Glory!

And Christian friend, you are not far behind! “To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Colossians 1:27

We say, rightly, “Glory to God!”

And simultaneously God says back to the Jews, the saved ones … “And I (the Lord) will place salvation in Zion for Israel my glory.

How highly the Lord truly elevates His saints.

Including without reservation … “Israel.”

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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I knew he was bold.

And had a keen eye for prophecy.

And sophisticated, well acquainted with Royalty.

But I am now learning just how eloquent a writer Isaiah really is! (I think I should have used the past tense verb here, “was,” but this Prophet seems to be yet alive … speaking to our hearts even now!)

Here in today’s Lesson is an example of his amazing pen in action. (Though it is true his words are Holy Spirit inspired, no doubt. Yet God did guide his men, the Bible authors, through their own individual personalities! As in Luke’s medical language! Or young John Mark’s brevity! Or David’s poetry! Or Solomon’s philosophy!)

“Hearken unto me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, which are borne by me from the belly, which are carried from the womb: and even to your old age I am he; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you.” Isaiah 46:3-4

Hearken means “to listen, to give ear.” But here “shama” also demands obedience! (No choice, an imperative verb, “required listening!”)

But look. Though the Northern Kingdom of Israel has been subsumed into Assyrian captivity for years, and Isaiah is currently preaching only to the South, to Judah … he has God speaking to BOTH Kingdoms, the north and south! Hence, “House of Jacob” then “the remnant of the House of Israel!” Again there is coming a literal “United Israel,” folks!

Good News for all Jews, God’s “chosen” people, the “Apple of His Eye!”

Then God (in our Text) reveals (once again) His great Love. Something is being depicted that God has done (is still doing) for the Israelites … “from the womb, from the belly!” Prior to birth, even? And certainly from infancy!

And that Act of Love continued over His people (these dear children of Abraham) all the way through their National life … “to old age!”Then to extremely old age … “to hoar (gray) hairs!”

All their days!

But exactly WHAT has God been doing for them?

He has been “carrying” them! He has “borne” them! And He has (or will) “deliver” them!

What an array of verbs!

From “amas” meaning “to carry heavy load.”

To “nasa” meaning “to lift!”

To “sabal” meaning “to labor hard, to even drag if necessary, in pulling a (perhaps massive) load!”

Wow!

And God as Deliverer? The verb “malat” is here employed. In its most intensive form! Earnestly, energetically “rescuing” a people! Here written as an on-going enterprise! God is not finished caring for Israel. Not our faithful, eternal God!

Mercy!

Even though Israel has (and will yet again) face some extremely trying times … God will never “put her down!”

Yes, excellent writing, Isaiah!

Moses would have said it his way: “The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms: and he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee.” Deuteronomy 33:27

And you now what?

I believe that Same Great God also has me (and you if you’re saved) “in His Hands.” Gently (and maybe at times not so gently) “carrying” us all the way Home!

Praise His Name!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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I thought I loved Isaiah chapters 1-39, such wonderful variety in peaching! But Isaiah chapters 39 through 66 are going to astound beyond measure! Already have, really.

Let me share a few (three) “snippets” (short quotes) from the concluding Paragraph of Isaiah 45, our current Text.

They (the wicked) “pray unto a god that cannot save.” (Verse 20) I realize that little Clause is self-explanatory, but it strikes me with sadness. Folks, we are so blessed. We serve a God (with a Capital “G”) who can save! Does save! Came to earth to save! And saved (even) me! And will save all who come to Him in faith believing!

Hallelujah!

Verse 22 also is powerful, our “saving” God being the Speaker, the Inviter … “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.”

Wow!

“Look (by faith) and live!”

This verse has been used of the Holy Spirit to bring thousands (maybe tens of thousands) into the Kingdom of God, to eternal salvation! (Including a teenage British boy on a snowy Sunday in a little Methodist Chapel … Charles Haddon Spurgeon by name!)

Lastly look at Isaiah 45:23, part of it anyway. God vowing: “That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.” Aren’t you glad, Christian friend, that you have already submitted to him? Thrilled that your knee and your tongue have acquiesced?

Paul loved that Line, that Truth, didn’t he? Quoting it so eloquently in Philippians 2:11 … “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Isaiah 45, what a chapter!

Bask in the light and warmth of these three little “snippets” today.

And if you do, that’s called “meditating” in the Word of God.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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Our verse today is Isaiah 45:17. Look at this Promise God has given His people, the Jews!

“But Israel shall be saved in the LORD with an everlasting salvation: ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end.” Is this not amazing?

Now, if one understands these words literally (and why not?) … the little Nation of Israel will not perpetually be harassed, attacked, hated!

There is, in her (bright) future, “salvation” in store!

And no more “hurt, reproach, or confusion!”

I believe this Miracle occurs at the end of the Tribulation, when Jesus comes again to earth. Here is Zechariah’s Account, watch Israel fall under “conviction.” God is saying: “And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.” Zechariah 12:10

Subsequently, the same Prophet declares, still quoting God: “In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.” Sounds like salvation to me! Zechariah 13:1

What I am sharing with you this morning, Paul the Apostle certainly believed. Here he is preaching/teaching in Romans 11:26 … “And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written ….” Almost certainly alluding (if not quoting) Isaiah 45:17.

He likely too has in mind Isaiah 59:20 (a later lesson, Lord willing) … “And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the LORD.”

Folks, I have found over two dozen times Paul, in his New Testament Corpus, references Isaiah’s great Book, either directly or indirectly! What an interesting (and profitable) Bible Study this would make!

No wonder they call Isaiah the “Evangelist” Prophet!

Again today’s Text … “But Israel shall be saved in the LORD with an everlasting salvation: ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end.”

Praise the Lord!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Do not fall into the error of replacing the Nation of Israel with the New Testament Church. This false teaching, nowadays often called “Replacement Theology,” has become more and more popular as America drifts from God. Literal Israel, the people … God has not finished with them yet! Not by any means.

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Watch how this 44th chapter ends, with God as the Speaker! “(The Lord) that saith to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be inhabited; and to the cities of Judah, Ye shall be built, and I will raise up the decayed places thereof: 27 That saith to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers: 28 That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid.”

A Promise to a City!

Jerusalem, specifically called “the City of God” in Psalm 46:4. An in Psalm 48:1 as well: “Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in THE CITY OF OUR GOD, in the mountain of his holiness.”

Actually here are three promises in a row, God to His City! With even more to follow!

“Thou shalt be inhabited.” (More than once in her history the city has been “empty,” but not for eternity!)

“Ye shall be built.” (She has been attacked and sacked and left desolate again and again! But such chaos was never her perpetual state.)

Number three gets more Personal: “I (the Lord himself) will raise up the decayed places thereof.”

(I’m thinking of Nehemiah 4:10 … “And Judah said, The strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed, and there is much rubbish; so that we are not able to build the wall.” Decay, here specifically after the returnees of Babylon come back home.

Then next … God dries some kind of floodwaters! Verse 27 of today’s Text: “That saith to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers.”

The “depths” of the Red Sea, way back at the Exodus?

The “depths” of the flooding Jordan River, when they crossed into the land of Canaan forty years later?

The “depths” of the Euphrates River, whose flow was diverted by the Persians in order to conquer Babylon? (An event not yet transpired/actualized when Isaiah first wrote these words!)

Or proverbially, “All of the above?”

God controlling the rivers, again! (“The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.” Proverbs 21:1)

Wow!

But our Passage continues … “That saith of CYRUS, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid.” You’ve just read a literary “miracle,” Isaiah 44:28.

God has now called a man’s name, a Persian King (Cyrus) over a hundred years (actually closer to a hundred and sixty years) before he was even born!

And God terms this man, “My shepherd,” a title often given to Kings in the Old Testament.

Cyrus is the King, according to world history, who set the Jews free from (Babylonian) captivity and allowed them to return home to Jerusalem … after Nebuchadnezzar had persecuted them so egregiously.

Yes, the Persians did divert the flow of the Euphrates River in order to attack the (impenetrable) City of Babylon! While the Babylonians were having a wild party, a drunken orgy! (Read Daniel chapter 5 for more information.)

Wow!

And this Cyrus (see Ezra and Nehemiah for Biblical validation) did “perform God’s pleasure” (setting the Jews free) … then helping rebuild the City and the Temple so dear to God’s Heart!

Amazing! I feel like we are standing on “holy ground” this morning! Something in me is “worshipping” my dear Lord!

God’s Word, truly a Miracle Book.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Those who will not give the Bible proper “credit” for accurately predicting Cyrus’ reign here (in advance of the fact) … try hard to post-date Isaiah and say he that was writing history instead of prophecy! They claim a protegee of Isaiah (called a “second Isaiah” or even a “third Isaiah”) wrote about this King … long after the events transpired!

They are wrong!

Jesus acknowledged only one Isaiah! And that fact alone is good enough for me. See Matthew 15:7 for one of several examples.

The Bible yet stands!

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