Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
How many gods are there?Deuteronomy, Isaiah, and New Testament passages repeatedly assert strict monotheism, with YHWH alone and no other gods beside him.
Is God the creator of evil?Isaiah 45:7, Lamentations 3:38, Amos 3:6, and a stack of prophetic passages including Jeremiah 4:6, 18:11 and 2 Kings 6:33 explicitly attribute the creation or…
Ecclesiastes 7:13-14(v7)Consider the work of God, for who can make that straight, which he has made crooked? In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of…
Amos 3:6(v7)Does the trumpet alarm sound in a city, without the people being afraid? Does evil happen to a city, and Yahweh hasn’t done it?
Psalms 75:7(v7)But God is the judge. He puts down one, and lifts up another.
Job 2:10(v7)But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not…
Isaiah 31:2(v7)Yet he also is wise, and will bring disaster, and will not call back his words, but will arise against the house of the evildoers, and…
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Isaiah 44:6(v5)This is what Yahweh, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, Yahweh of Armies, says: “I am the first, and I am the last; and besides me there…
Isaiah 44:8(v5)Don’t fear, neither be afraid. Haven’t I declared it to you long ago, and shown it? You are my witnesses. Is there a God besides me?…
Amos 4:13(v7)For, behold, he who forms the mountains, and creates the wind, and declares to man what is his thought; who makes the morning darkness, and…
Isaiah 46:9(v5)Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is no other. I am God, and there is none like me.
Joel 2:27(v5)You will know that I am among Israel, and that I am Yahweh, your God, and there is no one else; and my people will never again be…
Jeremiah 13:16(v7)Give glory to Yahweh your God, before he causes darkness, and before your feet stumble on the dark mountains, and while you look for light,…
1 Kings 8:60(v5)that all the peoples of the earth may know that Yahweh himself is God. There is no one else.
Jeremiah 31:35(v7)Yahweh, who gives the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, who stirs up the sea,…
Isaiah 45:21-22(v5)Declare and present it. Yes, let them take counsel together. Who has shown this from ancient time? Who has declared it of old? Haven’t I,…
Jeremiah 51:20(v7)“You are my battle ax and weapons of war. With you I will break the nations into pieces. With you I will destroy kingdoms.
Nahum 1:8(v7)But with an overflowing flood, he will make a full end of her place, and will pursue his enemies into darkness.
Deuteronomy 4:35(v5)It was shown to you so that you might know that Yahweh is God. There is no one else besides him.
Deuteronomy 32:39(v5)“See now that I myself am he. There is no god with me. I kill and I make alive. I wound and I heal. There is no one who can deliver out of…
Amos 5:6(v7)Seek Yahweh, and you will live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and it devour, and there be no one to quench it in…
Acts 4:28(v7)to do whatever your hand and your council foreordained to happen.
Psalms 104:20-23(v7)You make darkness, and it is night, in which all the animals of the forest prowl. The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their…
Isaiah 45:14-18(v5)Yahweh says: “The labor of Egypt, and the merchandise of Ethiopia, and the Sabeans, men of stature, will come over to you, and they will be…
Deuteronomy 4:39(v5)Know therefore today, and take it to heart, that Yahweh himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath. There is no one else.
Ezekiel 32:8(v7)I will make all the bright lights of the sky dark over you, and set darkness on your land,” says the Lord Yahweh.
Job 12:21(v5)He pours contempt on princes, and loosens the belt of the strong.
Exodus 10:21-23(v7)Yahweh said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward the sky, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be…
Jeremiah 18:7-10(v7)At the instant I speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy it; if that nation,…
Ezekiel 14:15-21(v7)“If I cause evil animals to pass through the land, and they ravage it, and it is made desolate, so that no man may pass through because of…
Genesis 1:17-18(v7)God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light to the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light…
Exodus 14:20(v7)It came between the camp of Egypt and the camp of Israel. There was the cloud and the darkness, yet gave it light by night. One didn’t come…
Job 34:29(v7)When he gives quietness, who then can condemn? When he hides his face, who then can see him? He is over a nation or a man alike,
Psalms 8:3(v7)When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have ordained;
Psalms 18:39(v5)For you have armed me with strength to the battle. You have subdued under me those who rose up against me.
Psalms 29:11(v7)Yahweh will give strength to his people. Yahweh will bless his people with peace.
Isaiah 10:5-6(v7)Alas Assyrian, the rod of my anger, the staff in whose hand is my indignation! I will send him against a profane nation, and against the…
Psalms 18:32(v5)the God who arms me with strength, and makes my way perfect?
Joel 2:2(v7)A day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness. As the dawn spreading on the mountains, a great and strong people;…
John 1:1(v5)In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Jude 1:13(v7)wild waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved forever.
Ezra 1:2(v5)“Cyrus king of Persia says, ‘Yahweh, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he has commanded me to build him a…
Isaiah 45:5(v6)I am Yahweh, and there is no one else. Besides me, there is no God. I will strengthen you, though you have not known me,
Malachi 1:11(v6)For from the rising of the sun even to its going down, my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my…
2 Corinthians 4:6(v7)seeing it is God who said, “Light will shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory…
James 1:17(v7)Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, nor turning…
Jude 1:6(v7)Angels who didn’t keep their first domain, but deserted their own dwelling place, he has kept in everlasting bonds under darkness for the…
Genesis 1:3-5(v7)God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw the light, and saw that it was good. God divided the light from the darkness.…
Job 12:18(v5)He loosens the bond of kings. He binds their waist with a belt.
Psalms 46:10(v6)“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth.”
Isaiah 22:21(v5)and I will clothe him with your robe, and strengthen him with your belt. I will commit your government into his hand; and he will be a…
Isaiah 37:20(v6)Now therefore, Yahweh our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are Yahweh, even you only.”
Psalms 83:18(v6)that they may know that you alone, whose name is Yahweh, are the Most High over all the earth.
Ezekiel 38:23(v6)I will magnify myself, and sanctify myself, and I will make myself known in the eyes of many nations. Then they will know that I am…
Hebrews 1:8-9(v5)But of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your Kingdom. You have loved…
1 Samuel 17:46-47(v6)Today, Yahweh will deliver you into my hand. I will strike you, and take your head from off you. I will give the dead bodies of the army of…
Psalms 102:15-16(v6)So the nations will fear Yahweh’s name, all the kings of the earth your glory. For Yahweh has built up Zion. He has appeared in his glory.
Ezekiel 39:21(v6)“I will set my glory among the nations. Then all the nations will see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid on…
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (20 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Geneva Bible translators1599 · Public DomainOn vv5, 7I have given thee strength, power and authority.
I have given thee strength, power and authority.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv5–7Isa 45:5 I [am] the LORD, and [there is]…
Isa 45:5 I [am] the LORD, and [there is] none else, [there is] no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:
Ver. 5. I am the Lord, and none else.] None of thy Persian gods, to whom thou didst offer solemn sacrifice, both at the beginning of thy reign, and. likewise at thy death, if Zenophon {a} may be believed, saying, Iupiter patriae et Sol, &c., magnas ago vobis gratias, quod vestram de me curam intellexi, &c.
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Though thou hast not known me.] Or, When as yet thou wast altogether ignorant of me. That he afterwards believed the immortality of the soul, Cicero testifieth in his Cato Major; and that he believed in Christ for the salvation of his soul, Scultetus thinketh, because he was a type of Christ; as was also Solomon, saith he; which to me is one good argument that he was saved.
{a} Xenoph., Cyr. lib. i. and viii.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv5–7I girded thee; I made thee strong and active,…
I girded thee; I made thee strong and active, and fitted and disposed thee for these great and warlike enterprises. For these were the uses and significations of girding in Scripture: see 1Ki 20:11; Psa 18:32; 45:3.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry1710 · Public DomainOn v5God here asserts his sole and sovereign dominion, as…
God here asserts his sole and sovereign dominion, as that which he designed to prove and manifest to the world in all the great things he did for Cyrus and by him. Observe,
I. How this doctrine is here laid down concerning the sovereignty of the great Jehovah, in two things: - 1. That he is God alone, and there is no God besides him. This is here inculcated as a fundamental truth, which, if it were firmly believed, would abolish idolatry out of the world. With what an awful, commanding, air of majesty and authority, bidding defiance, as it were, to all pretenders, does the great God here proclaim it to the world: I am the Lord, I the Lord, Jehovah, and there is none else, there is no God besides me, no other self-existent, self-sufficient, being, none infinite and eternal. And again (Isa 45:6), There is none besides me; all that are set up in competition with me are counterfeits; they are all vanity and a lie, for I am the Lord, and there is none else. This is here said to Cyrus, not only to cure him of the sin of his ancestors, which was the worshipping of idols, but to prevent his falling into the sin of some of his predecessors in victory and universal monarchy, which was the setting up of themselves for gods and being idolized, to which some attribute much of the origin of idolatry. Let Cyrus, when he becomes thus rich and great, remember that still he is but a man, and there is no God but one. 2. That he is Lord of all, and there is nothing done without him (Isa 45:7): I form the light, which is grateful and pleasing, and I create darkness, which is grievous and unpleasing. I make peace (put here for all good) and I create evil, not the evil of sin (God is not the author of that), but the evil of punishment. I the Lord order, and direct, and do all these things. Observe, (1.) The very different events that befal the children of men. Light and darkness are opposite to each other, and yet, in the course of providence, they are sometimes intermixed, like the morning and evening twilights, neither day nor night, Zac 14:6. There is a mixture of joys and sorrows in the same cup, allays to each other. Sometimes they are counterchanged, as noonday light and midnight darkness. In the revolution of every day each takes its turn, and there are short transitions from the one to the other, witness Job's case. (2.) The self-same cause of both, and that is he that is the first Cause of all: I the Lord, the fountain of all being, am the fountain of all power. He who formed the natural light (Gen 1:3) still forms the providential light. He who at first made peace among the jarring seeds and principles of nature makes peace in the affairs of men. He who allowed the natural darkness, which was a mere privation, creates the providential darkness; for concerning troubles and afflictions he gives positive orders. Note, The wise God has the ordering and disposing of all our comforts, and all our crosses, in this world.
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II. How this doctrine is here proved and published. 1. It is proved by that which God did for Cyrus: "There is no God besides me, for (Isa 45:5) I girded thee, though thou hast not known me. It was not thy own idol, which thou didst know and worship, that girded thee for this expedition, that gave thee authority and ability for it. No, it was I that girded thee, I whom thou didst not know, nor seek to." By this it appears that the God of Israel is the only true God, that he manages and makes what use he pleases even of those that are strangers to him and pay their homage to other gods. 2. It is published to all the world by the word of God, by his providence, and by the testimony of the suffering Jews in Babylon, that all may know from the east and from the west, sunrise and sun-set, that the Lord is God and there is none else. The wonderful deliverance of the Israel of God proclaimed to all the world that there is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, that rides on the heavens for their help.
III. How this doctrine is here improved and applied.
1. For the comfort of those that earnestly longed, and yet quietly waited, for the redemption of Israel (Isa 45:8): Drop down, you heavens, from above. Some take this as the saints' prayer for the deliverance. I rather take it as God's precept concerning it; for he is said to command deliverances, Psa 44:4. Now the precept is directed to heaven and earth, and all the hosts of both, as royal precepts commonly run - To all officers, civil and military. All the creatures shall be made in their places to contribute to the carrying on of this great work, when God will have it done. If men will not be aiding and assisting, God will produce it without them, as he does the dews of heaven and the grass of the earth, which tarry not for man, nor wait for the sons of men, Mic 5:7. Observe, (1.) The method of this great deliverance that is to be wrought for Israel. Righteousness must first be wrought in them; they must be brought to repent of their sins, to renounce their idolatries, to return to God, and reform their lives, and then the salvation shall be wrought for them, and not till then. We must not expect salvation without righteousness, for they spring up together and together the Lord hath created them; what he has joined together, let not us therefore put asunder. See Psa 85:9-11. Christ died to save us from our sins, not in our sins, and is made redemption to us by being made to us righteousness and sanctification. (2.) The means of this great deliverance. Rather than it shall fail, when the set time for it shall come, the heavens shall drop down righteousness, and the earth shall open to bring forth salvation, and both concur to the reformation, and so to the restoration, of God's Israel. It is from heaven, from above the skies, that righteousness drops down, for every grace and good gift is from above; nay, since the more plentiful effusion of the Spirit it is now poured down, and, if our hearts be open to receive it, the product will be the fruits of righteousness and the great salvation.
2. For reproof to those of the church's enemies that opposed this salvation, or those of her friends that despaired of it (Isa 45:9): Woe unto him that strives with his Maker! God is the Maker of all things, and therefore our Maker, which is a reason why we should always submit to him and never contend with him. (1.) Let not the proud oppressors, in the elevation of their spirits, oppose God's designs concerning the deliverance of his people, nor think to detain them any longer when the time shall come for their release. Woe to the insulting Babylonians that set God at defiance, as Pharaoh did, and will not let his people go! (2.) Let not the poor oppressed, in the dejection of their spirits, murmur and quarrel with God for the prolonging of their captivity, as if he dealt unjustly or unkindly with them, or think to force their way out before God's time shall come. Note, Those will find themselves in a woeful condition that strive with their Maker; for none ever hardened his heart against God and prospered. Sinful man is indeed a quarrelsome creature; but let the potsherds strive with the potsherds of the earth. Men are but earthen pots, nay, they are broken potsherds, and are made so very much by their mutual contentions. They are dashed in pieces one against another; and, if they are disposed to strive, let them strive with one another, let them meddle with their match; but let them not dare to contend with him that is infinitely above them, which is as senseless and absurd as, [1.] For the clay to find fault with the potter: Shall the clay say to him that forms it, "What makest thou? Why dost thou make me of this shape and not that?" Nay, it is as if the clay should be in such a heat and passion with the potter as to tell him that he has no hands, or that he works as awkwardly as if he had none. "Shall the clay pretend to be wiser than the potter and therefore to advise him, or mightier than the potter and therefore to control him?" He that gave us being, that gave us this being, may design concerning us, and dispose of us, as he pleases; and it is impudent presumption for us to prescribe to him. Shall we impeach God's wisdom, or question his power, who are ourselves so curiously, so wonderfully, made? Shall we say, He has no hands, whose hands made us and in whose hands we are? The doctrine of God's sovereignty has enough in it to silence all our discontents and objections against the methods of his providence and grace, Rom 9:20, Rom 9:21. [2.] It is as unnatural as for the child to find fault with the parents, to say to the father, What begettest thou? or to the mother, "What hast thou brought forth? Why was I not begotten and born an angel, exempt from the infirmities of human nature and the calamities of human life?" Must not those who are children of men expect to share in the common lot and to fare as others fare? If God is our Father, where is the honour we owe to him by submitting to his will?
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv5–7I am the Lord, and there is none else,....…
I am the Lord, and there is none else,.... Whom thou, O Cyrus, for the words are directed to him, ought to own, serve, and worship:
there is no God besides me; in heaven or earth, in any of the countries conquered by thee, and thou rulest over; for though there were gods and lords many, so called, these were only nominal fictitious deities; not gods by nature, as he was; of which the following, as well as what is before said, is a proof:
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I girded thee, though thou hast not known me; the Lord girded him with a royal girdle, a symbol of kingly power; he made him king over many nations; he girded him with strength, courage, and valour for war; and made him so expeditious, successful, and victorious, as he was, though a Heathen prince, and ignorant of him, in order to answer some valuable ends of his own glory, and the good of his people, and particularly for what follows.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn vv5–7I girded - I made thee strong and active,…
I girded - I made thee strong and active, and disposed thee for these great and warlike enterprizes.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn v7Verse 7. I form the light, and create darkness]…
Verse 7. I form the light, and create darkness] It was the great principle of the Magian religion, which prevailed in Persia in the time of Cyrus, and in which probably he was educated, that there are two supreme, co-eternal, and independent causes always acting in opposition one to the other; one the author of all good, the other of all evil. The good being they called LIGHT; the evil being, DARKNESS. That when LIGHT had the ascendant, then good and happiness prevailed among men; when DARKNESS had the superiority, then evil and misery abounded. An opinion that contradicts the clearest evidence of our reason, which plainly leads us to the acknowledgment of one only Supreme Being, infinitely good as well as powerful. With reference to this absurd opinion, held by the person to whom this prophecy is addressed, God, by his prophet, in the most significant terms, asserts his omnipotence and absolute supremacy: -
"I am JEHOVAH, and none else;
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Forming light, and creating darkness,
Making peace, and creating evil:
I JEHOVAH am the author of all these things."
Declaring that those powers whom the Persians held to be the original authors of good and evil to mankind, representing them by light and darkness, as their proper emblems, are no other than creatures of God, the instruments which he employs in his government of the world, ordained or permitted by him in order to execute his wise and just decrees; and that there is no power, either of good or evil, independent of the one supreme God, infinite in power and in goodness.
There were, however, some among the Persians whose sentiments were more moderate as to this matter; who held the evil principle to be in some measure subordinate to the good; and that the former would at length be wholly subdued by the latter. See Hyde, De Relig. Vet. Pers. cap. xxii.
That this opinion prevailed among the Persians as early as the time of Cyrus we may, I think, infer not only from this passage of Isaiah, which has a manifest reference to it, but likewise from a passage in Xenophon's Cyropaedia, where the same doctrine is applied to the human mind. Araspes, a noble young Persian, had fallen in love with the fair captive Panthea, committed to his charge by Cyrus. After all his boasting that he was superior to the assaults of that passion, he yielded so far to it as even to threaten violence if she would not comply with his desires. Awed by the reproof of Cyrus, fearing his displeasure, and having by cool reflection recovered his reason; in his discourse with him on this subject he says: "O Cyrus, I have certainly two souls; and this piece of philosophy I have learned from that wicked sophist, Love. For if I had but one soul, it would not be at the same time good and evil, it would not at the same time approve of honourable and base actions; and at once desire to do, and refuse to do, the very same things. But it is plain that I am animated by two souls, and when the good soul prevails, I do what is virtuous; and when the evil one prevails, I attempt what is vicious. But now the good soul prevails, having gotten you for her assistant, and has clearly gained the superiority." Lib. vi. p. 424.
I make peace, and create evil] Evil is here evidently put for war and its attendant miseries. I will procure peace for the Israelites, and destroy Babylon by war. I form light, and create darkness. Now, as darkness is only the privation of light, so the evil of war is the privation of peace.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn v7Isa 45:7. I form the light, and create darkness,…
Isa 45:7. I form the light, and create darkness, &c. — All men’s comforts and calamities come from my hand. “It was the great principle of the Magian religion, which prevailed in Persia in the time of Cyrus, and in which probably he was educated, that there are two supreme, coeternal, and independent causes, always acting in opposition one to the other; one, the author of all good, the other, of all evil; the good being they called Light; the evil being Darkness; that, when Light had the ascendant, then good and happiness prevailed among men; when Darkness had the superiority, then evil and misery abounded. All opinion that contradicts the clearest evidence of our reason, which plainly leads us to the acknowledgment of one only Supreme Being, infinitely good as well as powerful. With reference to this absurd opinion, held probably by the person to whom this prophecy is addressed, God, by his prophet, in the most significant terms, asserts his omnipotence and absolute supremacy. I am JEHOVAH, and none else; forming light, and creating darkness; making peace, and creating evil; I JEHOVAH am the author of all these things.” Declaring that there is no power, either of light or darkness, of good or evil, of happiness or misery, independent of the one supreme God, infinite in power and in goodness. — Bishop Lowth.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv5–7I am the Lord ... - (see the notes…
I am the Lord ... - (see the notes at Isa 42:8; Isa 43:2; Isa 44:8; Isa 45:14, Isa 45:18, Isa 45:22).
I girded thee ... - (see the note at Isa 45:1). The sense is, I girded thee with the girdle - the military belt; I prepared thee, and strengthened thee for war and conquest. Even people who are strangers to the true God are sustained by him, and are unable to accomplish anything without his providential aid.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary1859 · Public DomainOn v7Create evil, &c. The evils of afflictions and punishments,…
Create evil, &c. The evils of afflictions and punishments, but not the evil of sin. (Challoner) --- I afflict and comfort my people.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown1871 · Public DomainOn vv5–7(Isa 42:8; Isa 43:3, Isa 43:11; Isa 44:8; Isa…
(Isa 42:8; Isa 43:3, Isa 43:11; Isa 44:8; Isa 46:9).
girded thee--whereas "I will loose (the girdle off) the loins of kings" (Isa 45:1), strengthening thee, but enfeebling them before thee.
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though . . . not known me-- (Isa 45:4). God knows His elect before they are made to know Him (Gal 4:9; Joh 15:16).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn vv5, 75, 6. I girded thee — Rather, I will…
5, 6. I girded thee — Rather, I will gird thee. The Hebrew is future. “Gird thee” means, I will invest thee with royal power and great dignity, a fact that occurred a century and a half later; an evidence of divine prediction that the whole idolatrous world could never gainsay.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv5–75. I gird thee] the contrast to “loose the…
5. I gird thee] the contrast to “loose the loins of kings” in Isa_45:1.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers1878 · Public DomainOn vv5, 7(5) There is no God beside me.—Commonly, the formula…
(5) There is no God beside me.—Commonly, the formula is used in antithesis to polytheism. Possibly we may think of it here as in contrast with the dualism of Persia, or, if that be assigned to a later date, of Babylonia.
I girded thee.—The opposite of the “loosing,” or “ungirding,” of Isa_45:1, and so implying the idea of giving strength.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv5–7I girded thee. As God "loosed the loins" of…
I girded thee. As God "loosed the loins" of Cyrus"s adversaries (ver. 1), to weaken them, so he "girded" those of Cyrus, to give him strength. (comp. Psa_18:32)
HOMILIES BY W.M. STATHAM Ver. 5. God in our past life.
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"I girded thee, though thou hast not known me." When the soul of man is renewed, and his rebellion against God ceases, wonderment often arises in the heart that life has not been altogether a ruin. So many times we have been near the precipice; the crumbling stones fell down into the plain; our feet well-nigh slipped. Here is the open secret.
I UNCONSCIOUS HELP. "I girded thee." We have not seen a face nor even heard a voice, but an invisible arm has been around us. "It is of the Lord"s mercy that we are not consumed." Our folly was sufficient to ruin us. Our obstinacy was wild and wilful. We cannot take credit to ourselves for deliverances from moral danger. We can look back and see that often there was but a step betwixt us and moral death. "Great deliverances," as the prophet says, hath God wrought,
II HUMAN IGNORANCE. "Though thou hast not known me." The life has been destitute of fellowship with God and likeness to God. We have not retained the knowledge of God. There has been all through our life:
1. God"s care without our cognizance.
2. God"s love without our gratitude.
3. God"s wisdom without our skill.
Verily the apostle was right: "By the grace of God I am what I am. W.M.S.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator1887 · Public DomainOn vv5–7I girded thee, though thou hast not known Me
Isa_45:5
I girded thee, though thou hast not known Me
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Cyrus girded by God
The contrast to loose the loins of kings (Isa_45:1).
(Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.)
The girdings of Jehovah
I. GODS PLAN, AS IT AFFECTS SOCIETY.
1. It is comprehensive, sweeping from age to age, threading millenniums, building its structure from the dust of earths earliest age to the emergence of the new heavens and earth at the close of time. But it is minute and particular.
2. He works through individuals. The story of man is for the most part told in the biographies of men. It is through human instruments that God executes His beneficent purposes, His righteous judgments. Through Columbus, He draws aside the veil from the coast-line of America. Through a Watt and a Stephenson, He endows men with the co-operation of steam; through a Galvani and an Edison, with the ministry of electricity. Through a De Lesseps, He unites the waters of the eastern and western seas, and brings the Orient and Occident together. Through a Napoleon He shatters the temporal power of the Pope; and by a Wilberforce strikes the fetters from the slave. Men do not know the purpose of God in what they are doing.
3. Gods use of men does not interfere with their free action. This is clearly taught in more than one significant passage in Scripture--Josephs brethren. Herod, Pilate, and the religious leaders of the Jews, were swept before a cyclone of passion and jealousy; and it was with wicked hands that they crucified and slew the Lord of glory: but they were accomplishing the determinate counsel of God.
II. GODS PLAN, AS IT AFFECTS INDIVIDUALS. We are all conscious of an element in life that we cannot account for. Other men have started life under better auspices, and with larger advantages than we, but somehow they have dropped behind in the race, and are nowhere to be seen. Our health has never been robust, but we have had more working days in our lives than those who were the athletes of our school. We have been in perpetual peril, travelling incessantly, and never involved in a single accident; whilst others were shattered in their first journey from their doorstep. Why have we escaped, where so many have fallen? Why have we climbed to positions of usefulness and influence, which so many more capable ones have missed? Why has our reputation been maintained, when better men than ourselves have lest their footing and fallen beyond recovery? There is not one of us who cannot see points in the past where we had almost gone, and our footsteps had well-nigh slipped: precipices along the brink of which we went at nightfall, horrified in the morning to see how near our footprints had been to the edge. Repeatedly we have been within a hair-breadth of taking some fatal step. How strangely we were plucked out of that companionship! How marvellonsly we were saved from that marriage, from that investment, from embarking in that ship, travelling by that train, taking shares in that company! It is God who has girded us, though we did not know Him. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
The girding of the Almighty
Christ Himself testifies to the girding of the Almighty when He says, To this end was I born, and for this purpose came I into the world. Abraham was girded for a particular work and mission, in what is otherwise denominated his call. Joseph, in Egypt, distinguishes the girding of Gods hand, when he comforts his guilty brothers in the assurance, So it was not you that sent me hither, but God. Moses and Samuel were even called by name, and set to their great life-work in the same manner. And what is Paul endeavouring in all the stress and pressure of his mighty apostle-ship, but to perform the work for which Gods Spirit girded him at his call, and to apprehend that for which he was apprehended of Christ Jesus? (H. Bushnell, D. D.)
Every mans life a plan of God
God has a definite life-plan for every human person, girding him, visibly or invisibly, for some exact thing, which it will be the true significance and glory of his life to have accomplished.
1. The Holy Scriptures not only show us explicitly that God has a definite purpose in the lives of men already great, but they show us how frequently, in the conditions of obscurity and depression, preparations of counsel are going on, by which the commonest offices are to become the necessary first chapter of a great and powerful history. David among the sheep; Elisha following after the plough; Nehemiah bearing the cup; Hannah, who can say nothing less common than that she is the wife of Elkanah and a woman of a sorrowful spirit,--who, that looks on these humble people, at their humble post of service, and discovers, at last, how dear a purpose God was cherishing in them, can be justified in thinking that God has no particular plan for him, because he is not signalised by any kind of distinction?
2. Besides, what do the Scriptures show us, but that God has a particular care for every man, a personal interest in him, and a sympathy with him and his trials, watching for the uses of his one talent as attentively and kindly, and approving him as heartily, in the right employment of it, as if He had given him ten; and what is the giving out of the talents itself, but an exhibition of the fact that God has a definite purpose, charge, and work for every man?
3. They also make it the privilege of every man to live in the secret guidance of God; which is plainly nugatory, unless there is some chosen work, or sphere, into which he may be guided.
4. God also professes in His Word to have purposes prearranged for all events; to govern by a plan which is from eternity even, and which, in some proper sense, comprehends everything. And what is this but another way of conceiving that God has a definite place and plan adjusted for every human being?
5. Turning now from the Scriptures to the works of God, how constantly are we met here by the fact, everywhere visible, that ends and uses are the regulative reasons of all existing things?
6. But there is a single but very important and even fearful qualification. Things all serve their uses, and never break out of their place. They have no power to do it. Not so with us. We are able, as free beings, to refuse the place and the duties God appoints; which, if we do, then we sink into something lower and less worthy of us. That highest and best condition for which God designed us is no more possible. And yet, as that was the best thing possible for us in the reach of Gods original counsel, so there is a place designed for us now, which is the next best possible. God calls us now to the best thing left, and will do so till all good possibility is narrowed down and spent. And then, when He cannot use us any more for our own good, He will use us for the good of others--an example of the misery and horrible desperation to which any soul must come, when all the good ends, and all the holy callings of Gods friendly and fatherly purpose are exhausted. Or it may be now that, remitting all other plans and purposes in our behalf, He will henceforth use us, wholly against our will, to be the demonstration of His justice and avenging power before the eyes of mankind; saying over us, as He did over Pharaoh in the day of His judgments, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show My power in thee, and that My name might be declared throughout all the earth. (H. Bushnell, D. D.)
Finding Gods life-plan
But the inquiry will be made, supposing all this to be true, how can we ever get hold of this life-plan God has made for us, or find our way into it?
1. Observe some negatives that are important, and must be avoided.
(1) You will never come into Gods plan if you study singularity; for if God has a design or plan for every mans life, then it is exactly appropriate to his nature; and, as every mans nature is singular and peculiar to himself,--as peculiar as his face or look,-then it follows that God will lead everyman into a singular, and peculiar life, without any study of singularity on his part.
(2) As little will he seek to copy the life of another. No man is ever called to be another.
(3) In this view, also, you are never to complain of your birth, your training, your employments, your hardships; never to fancy that you could be something if only you had a different lot and sphere assigned you. God understands His own plan, and He knows what you want, a great deal better than you do.
(4) Another mistake is that, while you surrender and renounce all thought of making up a plan, or choosing out a plan, for yourself, as one that you set by your own will, you also give up the hope or expectation that God will set you in any scheme of life, where the whole course of it will be known, or set down beforehand. If you go to Him to be guided, He will guide you; but He will not comfort your distrust, or half-trust of Him, by showing you the chart of all His purposes concerning you. He will only show you into a way where, if you go cheerfully and trustfully forward, He will show you on still further.
2. But we must not stop in negatives. How, then, or by what more positive directions can a man, who really desires to do it, come into the plan God lays for him, so as to live it and rationally believe that he does?
(1) Consider the character of God, and you will draw a large deduction from that; for all that God designs for you will be in harmony with His character. He is a being infinitely good, just, true. Therefore, you are to know that He cannot really seek anything contrary to this in you.
(2) Consider your relation to Him as a creature. All created wills have their natural centre and rest in Gods will.
(3) You have a conscience, which is given to be an interpreter of His will, and thus of your duty, and, in both, of what you are to become.
(4) Gods law and His written Word are guides to present duty, which, if faithfully accepted, will help to set you in accordance with the mind of God and the plan He has laid for you. I am a stranger in the earth, said one; hide not Thy commandments from me; knowing that Gods commandments would give him a clue to the true meaning and business of his life.
(5) Be an observer of providence. Study your trials, your talents, the worlds wants, and stand ready to serve God now, in whatever He brings to your hand.
(6) Consult your friends, and especially those who are most in the teaching of God.
(7) Go to God Himself, and ask for the calling of God; for, as certainly as He has a plan for you, He will somehow guide you into it. This is the proper work of His Spirit. Young man, or woman! this is the day of hope to you. All your best opportunities are still before you. And what shall I say to the older man, who is further on in his course and is still without
God in the world? The best end, the next best, and the next are gone, and nothing but the dregs of opportunity are left. And still Christ calls even you. There is a place still left for you; not the best and brightest, but a humble and good one. (H. Bushnell, D. D.)
Cyrus directed, equipped, and prospered by God, though not one of Gods enlightened worshippers
Idolatry in its grosser forms was unknown in Persia. The religion of Persia recognised one God, beneficent in character and work and purpose, revealed under the symbol of light. This one God, however, was not clothed with infinite attributes. His dominion was limited by the existence and activity of a rival spirit of evil, equally great and unbegotten with Himself. It was in this imperfect faith that the great and noble Cyrus was trained. Till after his contact with the Jews, he did not know God in His essential nature as spirit without symbol, supreme in His sovereignty, and infinite in the attributes that clothed Him. And yet in his temper there was a ready answerableness to the unseen touch of Gods hand, an unconscious obedience to sacred purposes he but dimly discerned, and a providential sanctification for the fulfilment of Gods counsels, in spite of his imperfect conceptions of God. (T. G. Selby.)
Irresponsible ignorance
Ignorance that is inseparable from the circumstances in which men are cradled, ignorance that is entirely involuntary, does not disqualify men from being the instruments of Gods will, and receiving some of the most lustrous honours dispensed by His hand. (T. G. Selby.)
The worth of our several ministries
The worth of our several ministries cannot always be tested by the degree of knowledge that informs them. Some men, like the bees, do much of their work in the sunshine. They fulfil the tasks of life in the light of a clear illumination. For them the knowledge of God always precedes a vocation from God. There are men also who are like the coral insect, which works a fathom or two below the surface of the sea, and dies when the reef upon which it has laboured is just beginning to tower into the sunlight. (T. G.Selby.)
The characteristic distinction between inspiration and providential equipment
Providential equipment consists in being girded by a God who may be more or less unknown. Inspiration implies that Gods chosen agent has all his faculties filled with Gods presence as He girds. (T. G.Selby, D. D.)
The providence of the unknown
I. Is it not A REASONABLE AND A CONSISTENT THOUGHT, that the providential equipment, vocation, and sovereignty in a mans life should transcend his knowledge of God and Gods purpose?
1. God may sometimes use a man who seems half a heathen, to remind His people that His providential sovereignty is larger than all finite thought. In the early days of the British rule in India, the old Mogul at Delhi, and the mediatised native sovereigns in other cities, were allowed independent rights within their own palace precincts. The British rule did not intrude there. Now and again half-clad slave girls and palace dependents, in terror for their lives, and wretches waled and trembling with recent chastisements, would escape the palace precincts and seek protection under the humane governments that had been planted in the surrounding cities. These spacious palaces were like little islands of the old despotisms, cruelties, and oppresssions bristling above the tide of constitutional right and privilege and liberty that was rising far and near. In Gods empire there are no spots of organised diabolism of that sort, that are separated from the control, direction, and over-rule of providential law. Alas! it is only too easy to find signs of individual and collective resistance to Gods law; but there are no indrawn spheres or reservations, dominated by pagan ignorance, from which His power, sovereignty, and prerogative are shut out. He rules where He is not worshipped, directs where He is not recognised, girds where He is not known.
2. In going beyond the circle of the elect nations to choose an instrument for the fulfilment of His counsels, God seems to remind us that the motive of His providential activity is altogether Divine. He uses the imperfectly taught Gentile, and puts upon him honour that might seem to belong to the Jew, to illustrate the sovereignty of His grace.
3. Partial ignorance of God may be an appointed condition for the test and development of faith. It is not only the virtuous heathen who is girded by an unrecognised Hand and made the agent in providential plans and purposes he cannot fathom. The distinction between Isaiah and Cyrus, between Cyrus and ourselves, is one of degree. On its intellectual side, at least, our religious knowledge is still imperfect, fragmentary, hesitating. God suffers it to be so, possibly that we may be the better disciplined in that humility which is the basis of faith. I have sometimes thought that so long as heathen darkness does not involve a gross and demoralising misrepresentation of God, but only a partial privation of knowledge, it offers the occasion for the exercise of a higher faith than that which is possible amidst the breaking twilights of Christian knowledge. The devout and pure-minded pagan, like Cyrus, who trusts his moral instincts without any adequate knowledge of their Divine origin, who with touching fidelity follows an unsyllabled vocation from heavens that have not yet opened themselves in revelation and definite testimony, who accepts an equipment from a Hand that has touched and guided him out of the darkness, is perhaps a more splendid example of faith than the man who manifests the same trust and loyalty and obedience in the midst of clearer intellectual conceptions of God. The puzzle of the long pagan centuries is not so painful and oppressive if we look at it from this standpoint.
II. EXAMPLES OF THIS PROVIDENTIAL GIRDING BY AN UNKNOWN GOD will readily occur to us that seem to conform to the type represented by Cyrus.
1. If we think of the men, the tradition of whose teaching and example is intertwined with all that is highest and best in the life of the nations outside the range of Christendom, we shall see that these men have been girded for their moral conquests and guided to their ascendencies over their fellow-men by the same unrecognised Hand that guided and girded this elect Persian. It is, perhaps, impossible to recall the name of a great and permanently honoured teacher in the past history of India, China, Persia, Egypt, Greece or Rome, whose influence rested upon an immoral doctrine or a contradiction of conscience. There must have been such leaders in the insignificant races that relapsed into cannibalism, scalp-hunting, and animal debasement. But no such names appear in the histories of the great civilised empires.
2. We must not judge the issues of the social and political movements of the present and past times by the measure of Divine knowledge they exhibit. Some of these movements, however little they seem to recognise God, are empowered by His mysterious hand, and minister to the accomplishment of His secret purpose. The dark despotisms enthroned over the ancient world annealed men into stable communities. And there are doubtless providential issues of the highest value in the democratic movements that are agitating Europe to-day, however reluctant those movements may be to recognise God.
3. Does not the fact that the theology of the modern scientist is sometimes very dim and defective tempt us to deny the Divine authority of his vocation and to discredit the providential issue in the special work he is called to do? Some of the schools of research and experiment and invention to which we are most deeply indebted are indifferent and even hostile to the claims of religion. And yet God calls the man of science to his work, vouchsafes the needful equipment for success, and guides all the far-off issues to which that work may tend.
4. And all this is true for ourselves. The knowledge possessed by those of us who know God best is, after all, infinitesimal in amount and degree. It is nothing in comparison with what remains to be known. It seems we can scarcely be the true servants of God and doing Divine work unless we have broader and brighter and more penetrating views of Gods nature. We are crushed by the inevitable secularisms of our life, and cannot believe that we are breathing the sacred atmosphere that encircles Gods priests and kings. It seems, at times, as though God, and providence, and supernatural vocation, and the high sanctions under which we seek to bring ourselves, were dreams. We are haunted by the thought that there is some subtle curse of ineradicable atheism cleaving to our inmost souls. In spite of the limit in our vision and the miserable failure in the spirit of our service, He is guiding us to beneficent conquests, and strengthening us to achieve holy emancipations, and fitting us for eternal honours. He was making us ready for service of some sort, when we knew far less about Him than we know to-day. And it is so still. And even after God seems to have been revealed to us in the person of Jesus Christ, how often do we find God becoming a hidden and an unknown God to us in His providential relations! At times it may seem rather as though some malignant demon were presiding over our lives, or at least sharing the sovereignty. But beyond the widest bound of our faith and knowledge there is providential guiding and girding and victory. And these words seem to suggest solemn comfort to us in view of the final conflict to which we shall all one day be brought. We shall enter the world to come as conquerors girded for our triumph by an unseen Hand. Gods elect servants sometimes die in circumstances that make thoughts of God impossible. Perhaps they are snatched away by unexpected accident. They leave life in a struggle that petrifies thought and feeling. In that solemn hour of darkness and humiliation and mental inaptitude, God, unknown and unrecognised, girds for the victory still. Let us not forget that, though the girding is often in darkness, the motive of this girding in shadows is the inbringing of the perfect life. (T. G. Selby.)
The light of Gods love seen in pagan darkness
It is when the sun is in eclipse that the astronomer is able to see the fountains of glowing hydrogen that rise out of the inner substance of the sun and project their splendour for thousands and tens of thousands of miles beyond its surface. The strange and superb spectacle is visible only on the margin that lies between the incandescent body and the sphere of less luminous space that surrounds it. And so there are sublime illustrations of Gods providential love and care that can be most nobly seen in contrast with pagan darkness. (T. G.Selby.)
Pagan teachers enlightened by God
Confucius was the instrument for keeping alive in China a morality that was almost as pure as the morality of the decalogue. He stamped out all traces of Moloch worship. He can be quoted with commanding effect against many of the cruelties and superstitions of the present day. Gautama Buddha taught a morality equally pure, and so emphasised the demerit of sin as to make his teaching the best available basis that can be found for the evangelical doctrine of the atonement. The well-considered and dispassionate and reverent scepticism of Socrates acted as a solvent of Greek superstition, and prepared the way for the thoughtful Christianity of Alexandria. Mohammed gave form and force to a system which, in spite of its excesses and fanaticisms, has been a useful protest against idolatry, and has gathered together into a simple civilisation and worship tribes that would otherwise have been incurably degraded by fetich worship. Now, are we to suppose that it was without any supreme direction or control that these famous teachers conspired together to support these high theories of life and conduct? They were not prophets, because they had not the light which brought into view the mysterious Person who guided, equipped, and succoured them. But they were providential instruments, instruments that in spite of their defective discernments were plastic to Gods controlling purpose. (T. G. Selby.)
Gods beneficent agency in the lives of those who ignore Him
Man cannot exclude Me from his little universe; even though he deny My existence and denounce My claim I am still there. I water the garden of the atheist, and bring his flowers to summer bloom and his fruits to autumnal glory. Men deny Me, curse Me, flee from Me I am still round about them, and their life is more precious to Me than is their blasphemy detestable, and until the very last I will work for them and with them, and if they go to perdition it shall be through the very centre of, My hearts tenderest grace. I girded thee, though thou hast not known Me. (J. Parker, D. D.)
A God-girded life
Who is that boy sitting on the steps there? He has a hat on that was made for any head but his own; and his coat, who made it? His mother, very likely--rough spun, not too well fitting. What is he waiting for? To get the job of sweeping the steps he sits on? Perhaps. Years pass by, and a portly man comes down those steps. Broad his face, a great round shining blessing, kindness in his eye, power in the uplifting of his hand. Who is he? That is the boy, grown now fully, physically, intellectually and socially. The boy and the man are both Horace Greeley, an editorial prince, a man whose writings no one among his countrymen can afford to decline to read. I girded thee, I brought thee to those steps, I set thee down upon them, I appointed an angel to watch thee all the time: it was My way of nursing and caring for thee, and training thee. He bringeth the blind by a way that they know not. (J. Parker, D. D.)
God in national life
Nations are not cards, with which politicians play at gambling: they may think they do, they may seem to do so, but the Lord reigneth. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The unknown influence of God
Cyrus is now proved to have been a polytheist. Yet even he was girded by the unknown God of heaven and earth. Let us consider this unknown influence of God.
I. IT SPRINGS FROM THE ALMIGHTY POWER OF GOD. God is not merely a passive object of worship. He exerts active influence. He did not only work in the past in creating the world. He is a living, active God now. Jesus said, My Father worketh hitherto. Perhaps the poorest definition of God ever framed is that of A power, not ourselves, that makes for righteousness. Still, even this meagre description of Divinity recognises the fact of an active Divine influence is not limited by our confession of it, nor by our willingness to submit to it. It inspired the eye of the Greek artist and the tongue of the Greek orator as truly as those of a Christian Chrysostom and Fra Angelico.
II. IT IS DIRECTED BY THE INFINITE GOODNESS OF GOD. We circumscribe this goodness to a pale of grace and a day of grace; but it overflows our boundaries and breaks out, free as the air and broad as the sunlight. God does not wait to be called. He is the first to awaken His slumbering children. God thinks of the heathen, and gives strength to those who know Him not. Then no doubt if a Chinese Mandarin pronounces a just sentence, or a Hindu Pundit utters a true thought, or an African chief vindicates the rights of an oppressed tribe, the goodness of these heathen men is an outcome of Gods goodness to them. Let us take heart: there is more grace in the world than we know of.
III. IT AIMS AT THE EXECUTION OF THE WILL OF GOD. Cyrus is called Gods shepherd (Isa_44:28). So even Nebuchadnezzar, a man of a very different character, is called by God My servant (Jer_43:10).
1. Some serve God when they think to oppose Him. As the gale that seems to be tearing the ship to pieces may be driving her the faster to her haven, so Satan, in Job, aiming at opposition to the right, occasioned the most glorious vindication of it. Persecutors often help the cause they hate.
2. Many, like Cyrus, serve God unconsciously. As the corn ministers to our sustenance unwittingly, and as science reveals the glory of God, even when the naturalists who pursue it are agnostics. Lessons--
(1) The unknown influence of God should lead to our knowing God. We have not to search the heavens for the unseen God. He is nigh us. Our own experience and the blessings of our own life should open our eyes to the goodness of God.
(2) This influence, once recognised, should lead us to trust God. If God girded Cyrus the heathen, will He not gird Israel His people?
(3) This influence should warn us against neglecting the recognition of God. We cannot escape from God. To do so would be our own undoing. But the hand which girds can ungird!
(4) This influence should prompt us to greater zeal in mission work. For God claims the heathen by His present influence on them. He has begun the work and will help His servants in it. It is sad that millions should be left in ignorance of the hand that girds them. (W. F. Adeney, M. A.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary1892 · Public DomainOn vv5–6Isa_45:5. I girded thee, though thou hast not known…
EVERY MAN’S LIFE A PLAN OF GOD
Isa_45:5. I girded thee, though thou hast not known Me.
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This declaration renders credible the sketch given by Xenophon of Cyrus’s rare excellence of character. He was a model of greatness in every form, because God had guided him, unseen, to be the minister of His own sovereign purposes to the nations of that time. Others have been manifestly “guided” by God for their work: Abraham, Joseph (Gen_45:8), Moses, Samuel, Paul—Christ Himself (Joh_18:37). But they differed from other men only in their consciousness (more or less clear) of their being divinely “guided” for their work. The “guiding” is granted to all men, i.e., God has a definite life-plan for every human person, guiding him, visibly or invisibly, for some exact thing, which it will be the true significance and glory of his life to have accomplished.
I. This a truth thought of by few men, but constantly set forth in the Scriptures. They show us not only a divine plan in the life of men obviously great, but also that the conditions of obscurity and depression may be the necessary first chapter in a great career [1420] They also show us that God has a personal interest in every man, bestowing on him one talent or more, kindly observing how he employs them; that it is the privilege of every man to live in the secret guidance of God, which implies that there is a plan in which he is to be guided, and that God governs the world in accordance with pre-arranged purposes, which implies that there are such purposes in regard to the individuals by whom the world is made up (H. E. I. 4015–4025, 2246–2248, 2323, 2325, 3403).
[1420] David among the sheep; Elisha following after the plough; Nehemiah bearing the cup; Hannah, who can say nothing less common than that she is the wife of Elkanah and a woman of sorrowful spirit—who that looks on these humble people, at their humble post of service, and discovers at last how dear a purpose God was cherishing in them, can be justified in thinking that God has no particular plan for him, because he is not signalised by any kind of distinction?—Bushnell.
When we turn from God’s Word to His works, we find the same universal and minute arrangement. Every particle of matter, every force of nature, has a purpose, and is used for the furtherance of a comprehensive divine plan.
It is contrary, then, to both these revelations to suppose concerning any man that his Creator has no definite thoughts concerning him, no place prepared for him to fill, no use for him to serve, which is the purpose of his existence. Every human soul has a complete and perfect plan cherished for it in the heart of God. What dignity does this thought add to life! What support does it bring to the trials of life! What instigations does it add to send us onward in everything that constitutes our excellence!
But there is an immense difference between things and us. They all serve their use; they cannot break out of their place. But we are able, as free beings, to refuse our place and the duties God appoints. [1423]
[1423] Which, if we do, then we sink into something lower and less worthy of us. That highest and best condition for which God designed us is no more possible. We are fallen out of it, and it cannot be wholly recovered. And yet, as that was the best thing possible for us in the reach of God’s original counsel, so there is a place designed for us now, which is the next best possible. God calls us now to the best thing left, and will do so until all good possibility is narrowed down and spent. And then, when He cannot use us any more for our own good, He will use us for the good of others—an example of the misery and horrible desperation to which any soul must come, when all the good ends, and all the holy callings of God’s friendly and fatherly purpose are exhausted. Or it may be now that, remitting all other plans and purposes in our behalf, He will henceforth use us, wholly against our will, to be the demonstration of His justice and avenging power before the eyes of mankind; saying over us, as He did over Pharaoh in the day of his judgments, “Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.” Doubtless He had other and more genial plans to serve in this bad man, if only he could have accepted such; but knowing his certain rejection of these, God turned His mighty counsel in him wholly on the use to be made of him as a reprobate.—Bushnell.
II. Moreover, as God has for every man a definite life-plan which, being accepted and followed, will conduct him to the best and noblest end possible, so He will appoint for him the best possible manner of attaining it. Whatever you have laid upon you to do or to suffer, to want, to surrender or to conquer, is exactly the best for you. Your life is a school exactly adapted to your lesson, and that to the last, best end of your existence. If your sphere is outwardly humble, if it even appears to be quite insignificant, God understands it better than you do, and it is part of His wisdom to bring out great sentiments in humble conditions, great principles in works that are outwardly trivial, great characters under great adversities and heavy loads of incumbrance. The tallest saints of God will often be those who walk in the deepest obscurity, and are even despised or quite overlooked by man. What comfort there is in this truth for us in circumstances otherwise depressive! What invigoration under sorrows otherwise crushing! (P. D. 3235, 3243).
III. But how are we to get hold of this life-plan God has made for us, and find our way into it?
1. Negatives to be avoided.
(1.) Never try to be singular. If God has a distinct design for every man’s life, let him seek to be just what God will have him to be, and the talents, the duties, and circumstances of his life require him to be, and then he will be peculiar enough.
(2.) Do not seek to copy the life of another. God has as many plans for men as He has men; and, therefore, He never requires them to measure their life exactly by any other life.
(3.) Never complain of your birth, your training, your employments, your hardships; never fancy that you could be something if only you had a different lot and sphere assigned you. God understands His own plan, and He knows what you want a great deal better than you do.
(4.) While you surrender all thought of making a plan for yourself, do not expect that God will show you the chart of all His purposes concerning you. He will only show you into a way where, if you go cheerfully and trustfully forward, He will show you on still further (P. D. 1440, 1656, 1658).
2. Things we are to do. Consider
(1.) the character of God, and you will draw a large deduction from that; for all that God designs for you will be in harmony with His character. Many employments are by this first principle for ever cut off. No thought is permitted you, even for a moment, of any work or calling that does not represent the industry, justice, truth, beneficence, mercy of God.
(2.) Your relation to Him as a creature. As such it is your general duty to be and to do what He wills; and nine-tenths of your particular duties may be settled, at once, by a simple reference in this manner to what God wills (P. D. 3505).
(3.) You have a conscience, which is given to be an interpreter of His will, and thus of your duty and destiny (H. E. I. 1308).
(4.) God’s Word is a guide to present duty, which, if faithfully accepted, will help to set you in accordance with the mind of God and the plan He has laid for you (H. E. I. 543, 558–579).
(5.) Be an observer of providence: for God is showing you ever, by the way in which He leads you, whither He means to lead.
(6.) Consult your friends, especially those who are most in the teaching of God. They know your talents and personal qualifications better, in some respects, than you do yourself.
(7.) Go to God Himself, and ask Him to make clear His will concerning you. He will certainly do so. This is the proper office and work of His Spirit. By this private teaching He can show us, and will, into the very plan that is set for us (H. E. I. 2872, 2875).
Application.
1. Has your life been in accordance with the plan of God? If not, let the past suffice, and humbly seek divine guidance for the future.
2. Young man, all your best opportunities are still before you. Seek God, and consecrate your life to Him, knowing assuredly that He will lead you into just that life which is your highest honour and blessing.
3. How sacred, how strong in its repose, how majestic is a life ordered according to the plan God has formed for it! Living in this manner, every turn of your experience will be a discovery to you of God, every change a token of His fatherly counsel. Oh, to live out such a life as God appoints, how great a thing it is!—to do the duties, make the sacrifices, bear the adversities, finish the plan, and then to say with Christ (who of us will be able?)—“It is finished!”—Horace Bushnell, D.D.: The New Life, pp. 1–15.
THE UNKNOWN INFLUENCE OF GOD
Isa_45:5. I girded thee, though thou hast not known Me.
A great Babylonian library, consisting of numerous clay tablets, with arrow-head inscriptions burnt into them, has recently been deciphered. The results are most astounding, confirming once questioned statements of Scripture history, throwing light upon obscure events, and correcting not a few false impressions. Among the principal corrections thus afforded is that of our views regarding the person and religion of Cyrus. Cyrus, it seems, was not a Persian, but an Elamite, and was not a Monotheist, but a worshipper of heathen divinities, adopting Merodach, the god of Babylon, when he conquered that city. The last fact adds great emphasis to our text. Cyrus, to whom the words are addressed, is now proved to be a pagan, a polytheist, an idolater. Yet even he was girded by the unknown God of heaven and earth. Let us consider this unknown influence of God.
I. It springs from the Almighty Power of God. God is not merely a passive object of worship. He exerts active influence. He did not only work in the past in creating the world. He is a living, active God now. Jesus said, “My Father worketh hitherto.” Perhaps the poorest definition of God ever framed is that of “A power, not ourselves, that makes for righteousness.” Still even this meagre, shrunken description of Divinity recognises the fact of an active Divine influence. Now, God’s power is not limited by our confession of it, nor by our unwillingness to submit to it. It inspired the eye of the Greek artist and the tongue of the Greek orator as truly as those of a Christian Chrysostom and Fra Angelico.
II. It is directed by the Infinite Goodness of God. We circumscribe this goodness to a pale of grace and a day of grace; but it overflows our boundaries and breaks out, free as the air and broad as the sunlight. God does not wait to be called. He is the first to awaken His slumbering children. The grace of God anticipates the faith of man; for if it is dependent on faith for its fullest manifestation, yet even that very faith is a Divine gift (Eph_2:8). God thinks of the heathen, and gives strength to those who know Him not. Then, no doubt, if a Chinese Mandarin pronounces a just sentence, or a Hindoo Pundit utters a true thought, or an African Chief vindicates the rights of an oppressed tribe, the goodness of these heathen men is an outcome of God’s goodness to them. Let us take heart; there is more grace in the world than we know of.
III. It aims at the execution of the Will of God. Cyrus is called God’s shepherd (Isa_44:28). So even Nebuchadnezzar, a man of a very different character, is called by God “My servant” (Jer_43:10).
1. Some serve God when they think to oppose Him. As the gale that seems to be tearing the ship to pieces may be driving her the faster to her haven. So Satan, in Job, aiming at opposition to the right, occasioned the most glorious vindication of it. Persecutors often help the cause they hate.
2. Many, like Cyrus, serve God unconsciously. As the corn ministers to our sustenance unwittingly, and as science reveals the glory of God, even when the naturalists who pursue it are agnostics. God endows us with faculties, not that they may rust in vile repose, but to be devoted to His service. Happy are they who are enlightened to serve God consciously and willingly with the powers which they have derived unconsciously from His broad and liberal grace!
Practical conclusions:—
1. The unknown influence of God should lead to our knowing God. We have not to search the heavens for the unseen God. He is nigh us, at our right hand. Our own experience and the blessings of our own life should open our eyes to the goodness of God. Cyrus, trained in heathenism, might be forgiven if to the end he was girded only by an unknown God. Not so we, with light to interpret the providential work of God in our experience.
2. This influence, once recognised, should lead us to trust God. If God girded Cyrus the heathen, will He not gird Israel His people? If He helps those who know Him not, will He not much more aid those who seek and trust Him?
3. This influence should warn us against neglecting the recognition of God. We cannot escape from God. To do so would be our own undoing. We have deep reason for thankfulness that God has not withdrawn His hand from us while we have ignored Him. But the hand which girds can ungird!
4. This influence should prompt us to greater zeal in Mission work. For
(1.) God proves that He claims the heathen by His present influence on them.
(2.) He has begun the work and will help His servants in it.
(3.) It is sad that millions should still be left in ignorance of the hand that girds them with the strength of life.—Rev. W. F. Adeney, M.A.: Homiletic Magazine, vol. xi. pp. 204–206.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield1917 · Public DomainOn v7create evil
create evil
Heb. "ra" translated "sorrow," "wretchedness," "adversity," "afflictions," "calamities," but never translated sin. God created evil only in the sense that He made sorrow, wretchedness, etc., to be the sure fruits of sin.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On v7General Information:
General Information:
Yahweh continues speaking.
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I form the light and create darkness; I bring peace and create disaster
Both of these expressions form merisms that emphasize that Yahweh is sovereign creator of everything. (See: Merism)
You heavens, rain down from above ... righteousness spring up together with it
Yahweh speaks of his righteousness as if it were rain that falls on the earth, and of his righteousness and salvation as plants that grow on the earth. (See: Metaphor)
You heavens
Yahweh momentarily turns his attention from his people and begins to speak to the heavens. (See: Apostrophe)
GEBible — Godless Engineer's Bible App
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv5, 7 I have given thee strength, power and authority.
I have given thee strength, power and authority.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv5–7 Isa 45:5 I [am] the LORD, and [there is]…
Isa 45:5 I [am] the LORD, and [there is] none else, [there is] no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:
Ver. 5. I am the Lord, and none else.] None of thy Persian gods, to whom thou didst offer solemn sacrifice, both at the beginning of thy reign, and. likewise at thy death, if Zenophon {a} may be believed, saying, Iupiter patriae et Sol, &c., magnas ago vobis gratias, quod vestram de me curam intellexi, &c.
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Though thou hast not known me.] Or, When as yet thou wast altogether ignorant of me. That he afterwards believed the immortality of the soul, Cicero testifieth in his Cato Major; and that he believed in Christ for the salvation of his soul, Scultetus thinketh, because he was a type of Christ; as was also Solomon, saith he; which to me is one good argument that he was saved.
{a} Xenoph., Cyr. lib. i. and viii.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv5–7 I girded thee; I made thee strong and active,…
I girded thee; I made thee strong and active, and fitted and disposed thee for these great and warlike enterprises. For these were the uses and significations of girding in Scripture: see 1Ki 20:11; Psa 18:32; 45:3.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v5 God here asserts his sole and sovereign dominion, as…
God here asserts his sole and sovereign dominion, as that which he designed to prove and manifest to the world in all the great things he did for Cyrus and by him. Observe,
I. How this doctrine is here laid down concerning the sovereignty of the great Jehovah, in two things: - 1. That he is God alone, and there is no God besides him. This is here inculcated as a fundamental truth, which, if it were firmly believed, would abolish idolatry out of the world. With what an awful, commanding, air of majesty and authority, bidding defiance, as it were, to all pretenders, does the great God here proclaim it to the world: I am the Lord, I the Lord, Jehovah, and there is none else, there is no God besides me, no other self-existent, self-sufficient, being, none infinite and eternal. And again (Isa 45:6), There is none besides me; all that are set up in competition with me are counterfeits; they are all vanity and a lie, for I am the Lord, and there is none else. This is here said to Cyrus, not only to cure him of the sin of his ancestors, which was the worshipping of idols, but to prevent his falling into the sin of some of his predecessors in victory and universal monarchy, which was the setting up of themselves for gods and being idolized, to which some attribute much of the origin of idolatry. Let Cyrus, when he becomes thus rich and great, remember that still he is but a man, and there is no God but one. 2. That he is Lord of all, and there is nothing done without him (Isa 45:7): I form the light, which is grateful and pleasing, and I create darkness, which is grievous and unpleasing. I make peace (put here for all good) and I create evil, not the evil of sin (God is not the author of that), but the evil of punishment. I the Lord order, and direct, and do all these things. Observe, (1.) The very different events that befal the children of men. Light and darkness are opposite to each other, and yet, in the course of providence, they are sometimes intermixed, like the morning and evening twilights, neither day nor night, Zac 14:6. There is a mixture of joys and sorrows in the same cup, allays to each other. Sometimes they are counterchanged, as noonday light and midnight darkness. In the revolution of every day each takes its turn, and there are short transitions from the one to the other, witness Job's case. (2.) The self-same cause of both, and that is he that is the first Cause of all: I the Lord, the fountain of all being, am the fountain of all power. He who formed the natural light (Gen 1:3) still forms the providential light. He who at first made peace among the jarring seeds and principles of nature makes peace in the affairs of men. He who allowed the natural darkness, which was a mere privation, creates the providential darkness; for concerning troubles and afflictions he gives positive orders. Note, The wise God has the ordering and disposing of all our comforts, and all our crosses, in this world.
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II. How this doctrine is here proved and published. 1. It is proved by that which God did for Cyrus: "There is no God besides me, for (Isa 45:5) I girded thee, though thou hast not known me. It was not thy own idol, which thou didst know and worship, that girded thee for this expedition, that gave thee authority and ability for it. No, it was I that girded thee, I whom thou didst not know, nor seek to." By this it appears that the God of Israel is the only true God, that he manages and makes what use he pleases even of those that are strangers to him and pay their homage to other gods. 2. It is published to all the world by the word of God, by his providence, and by the testimony of the suffering Jews in Babylon, that all may know from the east and from the west, sunrise and sun-set, that the Lord is God and there is none else. The wonderful deliverance of the Israel of God proclaimed to all the world that there is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, that rides on the heavens for their help.
III. How this doctrine is here improved and applied.
1. For the comfort of those that earnestly longed, and yet quietly waited, for the redemption of Israel (Isa 45:8): Drop down, you heavens, from above. Some take this as the saints' prayer for the deliverance. I rather take it as God's precept concerning it; for he is said to command deliverances, Psa 44:4. Now the precept is directed to heaven and earth, and all the hosts of both, as royal precepts commonly run - To all officers, civil and military. All the creatures shall be made in their places to contribute to the carrying on of this great work, when God will have it done. If men will not be aiding and assisting, God will produce it without them, as he does the dews of heaven and the grass of the earth, which tarry not for man, nor wait for the sons of men, Mic 5:7. Observe, (1.) The method of this great deliverance that is to be wrought for Israel. Righteousness must first be wrought in them; they must be brought to repent of their sins, to renounce their idolatries, to return to God, and reform their lives, and then the salvation shall be wrought for them, and not till then. We must not expect salvation without righteousness, for they spring up together and together the Lord hath created them; what he has joined together, let not us therefore put asunder. See Psa 85:9-11. Christ died to save us from our sins, not in our sins, and is made redemption to us by being made to us righteousness and sanctification. (2.) The means of this great deliverance. Rather than it shall fail, when the set time for it shall come, the heavens shall drop down righteousness, and the earth shall open to bring forth salvation, and both concur to the reformation, and so to the restoration, of God's Israel. It is from heaven, from above the skies, that righteousness drops down, for every grace and good gift is from above; nay, since the more plentiful effusion of the Spirit it is now poured down, and, if our hearts be open to receive it, the product will be the fruits of righteousness and the great salvation.
2. For reproof to those of the church's enemies that opposed this salvation, or those of her friends that despaired of it (Isa 45:9): Woe unto him that strives with his Maker! God is the Maker of all things, and therefore our Maker, which is a reason why we should always submit to him and never contend with him. (1.) Let not the proud oppressors, in the elevation of their spirits, oppose God's designs concerning the deliverance of his people, nor think to detain them any longer when the time shall come for their release. Woe to the insulting Babylonians that set God at defiance, as Pharaoh did, and will not let his people go! (2.) Let not the poor oppressed, in the dejection of their spirits, murmur and quarrel with God for the prolonging of their captivity, as if he dealt unjustly or unkindly with them, or think to force their way out before God's time shall come. Note, Those will find themselves in a woeful condition that strive with their Maker; for none ever hardened his heart against God and prospered. Sinful man is indeed a quarrelsome creature; but let the potsherds strive with the potsherds of the earth. Men are but earthen pots, nay, they are broken potsherds, and are made so very much by their mutual contentions. They are dashed in pieces one against another; and, if they are disposed to strive, let them strive with one another, let them meddle with their match; but let them not dare to contend with him that is infinitely above them, which is as senseless and absurd as, [1.] For the clay to find fault with the potter: Shall the clay say to him that forms it, "What makest thou? Why dost thou make me of this shape and not that?" Nay, it is as if the clay should be in such a heat and passion with the potter as to tell him that he has no hands, or that he works as awkwardly as if he had none. "Shall the clay pretend to be wiser than the potter and therefore to advise him, or mightier than the potter and therefore to control him?" He that gave us being, that gave us this being, may design concerning us, and dispose of us, as he pleases; and it is impudent presumption for us to prescribe to him. Shall we impeach God's wisdom, or question his power, who are ourselves so curiously, so wonderfully, made? Shall we say, He has no hands, whose hands made us and in whose hands we are? The doctrine of God's sovereignty has enough in it to silence all our discontents and objections against the methods of his providence and grace, Rom 9:20, Rom 9:21. [2.] It is as unnatural as for the child to find fault with the parents, to say to the father, What begettest thou? or to the mother, "What hast thou brought forth? Why was I not begotten and born an angel, exempt from the infirmities of human nature and the calamities of human life?" Must not those who are children of men expect to share in the common lot and to fare as others fare? If God is our Father, where is the honour we owe to him by submitting to his will?
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv5–7 I am the Lord, and there is none else,....…
I am the Lord, and there is none else,.... Whom thou, O Cyrus, for the words are directed to him, ought to own, serve, and worship:
there is no God besides me; in heaven or earth, in any of the countries conquered by thee, and thou rulest over; for though there were gods and lords many, so called, these were only nominal fictitious deities; not gods by nature, as he was; of which the following, as well as what is before said, is a proof:
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I girded thee, though thou hast not known me; the Lord girded him with a royal girdle, a symbol of kingly power; he made him king over many nations; he girded him with strength, courage, and valour for war; and made him so expeditious, successful, and victorious, as he was, though a Heathen prince, and ignorant of him, in order to answer some valuable ends of his own glory, and the good of his people, and particularly for what follows.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv5–7 I girded - I made thee strong and active,…
I girded - I made thee strong and active, and disposed thee for these great and warlike enterprizes.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On v7 Verse 7. I form the light, and create darkness]…
Verse 7. I form the light, and create darkness] It was the great principle of the Magian religion, which prevailed in Persia in the time of Cyrus, and in which probably he was educated, that there are two supreme, co-eternal, and independent causes always acting in opposition one to the other; one the author of all good, the other of all evil. The good being they called LIGHT; the evil being, DARKNESS. That when LIGHT had the ascendant, then good and happiness prevailed among men; when DARKNESS had the superiority, then evil and misery abounded. An opinion that contradicts the clearest evidence of our reason, which plainly leads us to the acknowledgment of one only Supreme Being, infinitely good as well as powerful. With reference to this absurd opinion, held by the person to whom this prophecy is addressed, God, by his prophet, in the most significant terms, asserts his omnipotence and absolute supremacy: -
"I am JEHOVAH, and none else;
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Forming light, and creating darkness,
Making peace, and creating evil:
I JEHOVAH am the author of all these things."
Declaring that those powers whom the Persians held to be the original authors of good and evil to mankind, representing them by light and darkness, as their proper emblems, are no other than creatures of God, the instruments which he employs in his government of the world, ordained or permitted by him in order to execute his wise and just decrees; and that there is no power, either of good or evil, independent of the one supreme God, infinite in power and in goodness.
There were, however, some among the Persians whose sentiments were more moderate as to this matter; who held the evil principle to be in some measure subordinate to the good; and that the former would at length be wholly subdued by the latter. See Hyde, De Relig. Vet. Pers. cap. xxii.
That this opinion prevailed among the Persians as early as the time of Cyrus we may, I think, infer not only from this passage of Isaiah, which has a manifest reference to it, but likewise from a passage in Xenophon's Cyropaedia, where the same doctrine is applied to the human mind. Araspes, a noble young Persian, had fallen in love with the fair captive Panthea, committed to his charge by Cyrus. After all his boasting that he was superior to the assaults of that passion, he yielded so far to it as even to threaten violence if she would not comply with his desires. Awed by the reproof of Cyrus, fearing his displeasure, and having by cool reflection recovered his reason; in his discourse with him on this subject he says: "O Cyrus, I have certainly two souls; and this piece of philosophy I have learned from that wicked sophist, Love. For if I had but one soul, it would not be at the same time good and evil, it would not at the same time approve of honourable and base actions; and at once desire to do, and refuse to do, the very same things. But it is plain that I am animated by two souls, and when the good soul prevails, I do what is virtuous; and when the evil one prevails, I attempt what is vicious. But now the good soul prevails, having gotten you for her assistant, and has clearly gained the superiority." Lib. vi. p. 424.
I make peace, and create evil] Evil is here evidently put for war and its attendant miseries. I will procure peace for the Israelites, and destroy Babylon by war. I form light, and create darkness. Now, as darkness is only the privation of light, so the evil of war is the privation of peace.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v7 Isa 45:7. I form the light, and create darkness,…
Isa 45:7. I form the light, and create darkness, &c. — All men’s comforts and calamities come from my hand. “It was the great principle of the Magian religion, which prevailed in Persia in the time of Cyrus, and in which probably he was educated, that there are two supreme, coeternal, and independent causes, always acting in opposition one to the other; one, the author of all good, the other, of all evil; the good being they called Light; the evil being Darkness; that, when Light had the ascendant, then good and happiness prevailed among men; when Darkness had the superiority, then evil and misery abounded. All opinion that contradicts the clearest evidence of our reason, which plainly leads us to the acknowledgment of one only Supreme Being, infinitely good as well as powerful. With reference to this absurd opinion, held probably by the person to whom this prophecy is addressed, God, by his prophet, in the most significant terms, asserts his omnipotence and absolute supremacy. I am JEHOVAH, and none else; forming light, and creating darkness; making peace, and creating evil; I JEHOVAH am the author of all these things.” Declaring that there is no power, either of light or darkness, of good or evil, of happiness or misery, independent of the one supreme God, infinite in power and in goodness. — Bishop Lowth.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv5–7 I am the Lord ... - (see the notes…
I am the Lord ... - (see the notes at Isa 42:8; Isa 43:2; Isa 44:8; Isa 45:14, Isa 45:18, Isa 45:22).
I girded thee ... - (see the note at Isa 45:1). The sense is, I girded thee with the girdle - the military belt; I prepared thee, and strengthened thee for war and conquest. Even people who are strangers to the true God are sustained by him, and are unable to accomplish anything without his providential aid.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On v7 Create evil, &c. The evils of afflictions and punishments,…
Create evil, &c. The evils of afflictions and punishments, but not the evil of sin. (Challoner) --- I afflict and comfort my people.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv5–7 (Isa 42:8; Isa 43:3, Isa 43:11; Isa 44:8; Isa…
(Isa 42:8; Isa 43:3, Isa 43:11; Isa 44:8; Isa 46:9).
girded thee--whereas "I will loose (the girdle off) the loins of kings" (Isa 45:1), strengthening thee, but enfeebling them before thee.
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though . . . not known me-- (Isa 45:4). God knows His elect before they are made to know Him (Gal 4:9; Joh 15:16).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv5, 7 5, 6. I girded thee — Rather, I will…
5, 6. I girded thee — Rather, I will gird thee. The Hebrew is future. “Gird thee” means, I will invest thee with royal power and great dignity, a fact that occurred a century and a half later; an evidence of divine prediction that the whole idolatrous world could never gainsay.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv5–7 5. I gird thee] the contrast to “loose the…
5. I gird thee] the contrast to “loose the loins of kings” in Isa_45:1.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv5, 7 (5) There is no God beside me.—Commonly, the formula…
(5) There is no God beside me.—Commonly, the formula is used in antithesis to polytheism. Possibly we may think of it here as in contrast with the dualism of Persia, or, if that be assigned to a later date, of Babylonia.
I girded thee.—The opposite of the “loosing,” or “ungirding,” of Isa_45:1, and so implying the idea of giving strength.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv5–7 I girded thee. As God "loosed the loins" of…
I girded thee. As God "loosed the loins" of Cyrus"s adversaries (ver. 1), to weaken them, so he "girded" those of Cyrus, to give him strength. (comp. Psa_18:32)
HOMILIES BY W.M. STATHAM Ver. 5. God in our past life.
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"I girded thee, though thou hast not known me." When the soul of man is renewed, and his rebellion against God ceases, wonderment often arises in the heart that life has not been altogether a ruin. So many times we have been near the precipice; the crumbling stones fell down into the plain; our feet well-nigh slipped. Here is the open secret.
I UNCONSCIOUS HELP. "I girded thee." We have not seen a face nor even heard a voice, but an invisible arm has been around us. "It is of the Lord"s mercy that we are not consumed." Our folly was sufficient to ruin us. Our obstinacy was wild and wilful. We cannot take credit to ourselves for deliverances from moral danger. We can look back and see that often there was but a step betwixt us and moral death. "Great deliverances," as the prophet says, hath God wrought,
II HUMAN IGNORANCE. "Though thou hast not known me." The life has been destitute of fellowship with God and likeness to God. We have not retained the knowledge of God. There has been all through our life:
1. God"s care without our cognizance.
2. God"s love without our gratitude.
3. God"s wisdom without our skill.
Verily the apostle was right: "By the grace of God I am what I am. W.M.S.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv5–7 I girded thee, though thou hast not known Me
Isa_45:5
I girded thee, though thou hast not known Me
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Cyrus girded by God
The contrast to loose the loins of kings (Isa_45:1).
(Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.)
The girdings of Jehovah
I. GODS PLAN, AS IT AFFECTS SOCIETY.
1. It is comprehensive, sweeping from age to age, threading millenniums, building its structure from the dust of earths earliest age to the emergence of the new heavens and earth at the close of time. But it is minute and particular.
2. He works through individuals. The story of man is for the most part told in the biographies of men. It is through human instruments that God executes His beneficent purposes, His righteous judgments. Through Columbus, He draws aside the veil from the coast-line of America. Through a Watt and a Stephenson, He endows men with the co-operation of steam; through a Galvani and an Edison, with the ministry of electricity. Through a De Lesseps, He unites the waters of the eastern and western seas, and brings the Orient and Occident together. Through a Napoleon He shatters the temporal power of the Pope; and by a Wilberforce strikes the fetters from the slave. Men do not know the purpose of God in what they are doing.
3. Gods use of men does not interfere with their free action. This is clearly taught in more than one significant passage in Scripture--Josephs brethren. Herod, Pilate, and the religious leaders of the Jews, were swept before a cyclone of passion and jealousy; and it was with wicked hands that they crucified and slew the Lord of glory: but they were accomplishing the determinate counsel of God.
II. GODS PLAN, AS IT AFFECTS INDIVIDUALS. We are all conscious of an element in life that we cannot account for. Other men have started life under better auspices, and with larger advantages than we, but somehow they have dropped behind in the race, and are nowhere to be seen. Our health has never been robust, but we have had more working days in our lives than those who were the athletes of our school. We have been in perpetual peril, travelling incessantly, and never involved in a single accident; whilst others were shattered in their first journey from their doorstep. Why have we escaped, where so many have fallen? Why have we climbed to positions of usefulness and influence, which so many more capable ones have missed? Why has our reputation been maintained, when better men than ourselves have lest their footing and fallen beyond recovery? There is not one of us who cannot see points in the past where we had almost gone, and our footsteps had well-nigh slipped: precipices along the brink of which we went at nightfall, horrified in the morning to see how near our footprints had been to the edge. Repeatedly we have been within a hair-breadth of taking some fatal step. How strangely we were plucked out of that companionship! How marvellonsly we were saved from that marriage, from that investment, from embarking in that ship, travelling by that train, taking shares in that company! It is God who has girded us, though we did not know Him. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
The girding of the Almighty
Christ Himself testifies to the girding of the Almighty when He says, To this end was I born, and for this purpose came I into the world. Abraham was girded for a particular work and mission, in what is otherwise denominated his call. Joseph, in Egypt, distinguishes the girding of Gods hand, when he comforts his guilty brothers in the assurance, So it was not you that sent me hither, but God. Moses and Samuel were even called by name, and set to their great life-work in the same manner. And what is Paul endeavouring in all the stress and pressure of his mighty apostle-ship, but to perform the work for which Gods Spirit girded him at his call, and to apprehend that for which he was apprehended of Christ Jesus? (H. Bushnell, D. D.)
Every mans life a plan of God
God has a definite life-plan for every human person, girding him, visibly or invisibly, for some exact thing, which it will be the true significance and glory of his life to have accomplished.
1. The Holy Scriptures not only show us explicitly that God has a definite purpose in the lives of men already great, but they show us how frequently, in the conditions of obscurity and depression, preparations of counsel are going on, by which the commonest offices are to become the necessary first chapter of a great and powerful history. David among the sheep; Elisha following after the plough; Nehemiah bearing the cup; Hannah, who can say nothing less common than that she is the wife of Elkanah and a woman of a sorrowful spirit,--who, that looks on these humble people, at their humble post of service, and discovers, at last, how dear a purpose God was cherishing in them, can be justified in thinking that God has no particular plan for him, because he is not signalised by any kind of distinction?
2. Besides, what do the Scriptures show us, but that God has a particular care for every man, a personal interest in him, and a sympathy with him and his trials, watching for the uses of his one talent as attentively and kindly, and approving him as heartily, in the right employment of it, as if He had given him ten; and what is the giving out of the talents itself, but an exhibition of the fact that God has a definite purpose, charge, and work for every man?
3. They also make it the privilege of every man to live in the secret guidance of God; which is plainly nugatory, unless there is some chosen work, or sphere, into which he may be guided.
4. God also professes in His Word to have purposes prearranged for all events; to govern by a plan which is from eternity even, and which, in some proper sense, comprehends everything. And what is this but another way of conceiving that God has a definite place and plan adjusted for every human being?
5. Turning now from the Scriptures to the works of God, how constantly are we met here by the fact, everywhere visible, that ends and uses are the regulative reasons of all existing things?
6. But there is a single but very important and even fearful qualification. Things all serve their uses, and never break out of their place. They have no power to do it. Not so with us. We are able, as free beings, to refuse the place and the duties God appoints; which, if we do, then we sink into something lower and less worthy of us. That highest and best condition for which God designed us is no more possible. And yet, as that was the best thing possible for us in the reach of Gods original counsel, so there is a place designed for us now, which is the next best possible. God calls us now to the best thing left, and will do so till all good possibility is narrowed down and spent. And then, when He cannot use us any more for our own good, He will use us for the good of others--an example of the misery and horrible desperation to which any soul must come, when all the good ends, and all the holy callings of Gods friendly and fatherly purpose are exhausted. Or it may be now that, remitting all other plans and purposes in our behalf, He will henceforth use us, wholly against our will, to be the demonstration of His justice and avenging power before the eyes of mankind; saying over us, as He did over Pharaoh in the day of His judgments, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show My power in thee, and that My name might be declared throughout all the earth. (H. Bushnell, D. D.)
Finding Gods life-plan
But the inquiry will be made, supposing all this to be true, how can we ever get hold of this life-plan God has made for us, or find our way into it?
1. Observe some negatives that are important, and must be avoided.
(1) You will never come into Gods plan if you study singularity; for if God has a design or plan for every mans life, then it is exactly appropriate to his nature; and, as every mans nature is singular and peculiar to himself,--as peculiar as his face or look,-then it follows that God will lead everyman into a singular, and peculiar life, without any study of singularity on his part.
(2) As little will he seek to copy the life of another. No man is ever called to be another.
(3) In this view, also, you are never to complain of your birth, your training, your employments, your hardships; never to fancy that you could be something if only you had a different lot and sphere assigned you. God understands His own plan, and He knows what you want, a great deal better than you do.
(4) Another mistake is that, while you surrender and renounce all thought of making up a plan, or choosing out a plan, for yourself, as one that you set by your own will, you also give up the hope or expectation that God will set you in any scheme of life, where the whole course of it will be known, or set down beforehand. If you go to Him to be guided, He will guide you; but He will not comfort your distrust, or half-trust of Him, by showing you the chart of all His purposes concerning you. He will only show you into a way where, if you go cheerfully and trustfully forward, He will show you on still further.
2. But we must not stop in negatives. How, then, or by what more positive directions can a man, who really desires to do it, come into the plan God lays for him, so as to live it and rationally believe that he does?
(1) Consider the character of God, and you will draw a large deduction from that; for all that God designs for you will be in harmony with His character. He is a being infinitely good, just, true. Therefore, you are to know that He cannot really seek anything contrary to this in you.
(2) Consider your relation to Him as a creature. All created wills have their natural centre and rest in Gods will.
(3) You have a conscience, which is given to be an interpreter of His will, and thus of your duty, and, in both, of what you are to become.
(4) Gods law and His written Word are guides to present duty, which, if faithfully accepted, will help to set you in accordance with the mind of God and the plan He has laid for you. I am a stranger in the earth, said one; hide not Thy commandments from me; knowing that Gods commandments would give him a clue to the true meaning and business of his life.
(5) Be an observer of providence. Study your trials, your talents, the worlds wants, and stand ready to serve God now, in whatever He brings to your hand.
(6) Consult your friends, and especially those who are most in the teaching of God.
(7) Go to God Himself, and ask for the calling of God; for, as certainly as He has a plan for you, He will somehow guide you into it. This is the proper work of His Spirit. Young man, or woman! this is the day of hope to you. All your best opportunities are still before you. And what shall I say to the older man, who is further on in his course and is still without
God in the world? The best end, the next best, and the next are gone, and nothing but the dregs of opportunity are left. And still Christ calls even you. There is a place still left for you; not the best and brightest, but a humble and good one. (H. Bushnell, D. D.)
Cyrus directed, equipped, and prospered by God, though not one of Gods enlightened worshippers
Idolatry in its grosser forms was unknown in Persia. The religion of Persia recognised one God, beneficent in character and work and purpose, revealed under the symbol of light. This one God, however, was not clothed with infinite attributes. His dominion was limited by the existence and activity of a rival spirit of evil, equally great and unbegotten with Himself. It was in this imperfect faith that the great and noble Cyrus was trained. Till after his contact with the Jews, he did not know God in His essential nature as spirit without symbol, supreme in His sovereignty, and infinite in the attributes that clothed Him. And yet in his temper there was a ready answerableness to the unseen touch of Gods hand, an unconscious obedience to sacred purposes he but dimly discerned, and a providential sanctification for the fulfilment of Gods counsels, in spite of his imperfect conceptions of God. (T. G. Selby.)
Irresponsible ignorance
Ignorance that is inseparable from the circumstances in which men are cradled, ignorance that is entirely involuntary, does not disqualify men from being the instruments of Gods will, and receiving some of the most lustrous honours dispensed by His hand. (T. G. Selby.)
The worth of our several ministries
The worth of our several ministries cannot always be tested by the degree of knowledge that informs them. Some men, like the bees, do much of their work in the sunshine. They fulfil the tasks of life in the light of a clear illumination. For them the knowledge of God always precedes a vocation from God. There are men also who are like the coral insect, which works a fathom or two below the surface of the sea, and dies when the reef upon which it has laboured is just beginning to tower into the sunlight. (T. G.Selby.)
The characteristic distinction between inspiration and providential equipment
Providential equipment consists in being girded by a God who may be more or less unknown. Inspiration implies that Gods chosen agent has all his faculties filled with Gods presence as He girds. (T. G.Selby, D. D.)
The providence of the unknown
I. Is it not A REASONABLE AND A CONSISTENT THOUGHT, that the providential equipment, vocation, and sovereignty in a mans life should transcend his knowledge of God and Gods purpose?
1. God may sometimes use a man who seems half a heathen, to remind His people that His providential sovereignty is larger than all finite thought. In the early days of the British rule in India, the old Mogul at Delhi, and the mediatised native sovereigns in other cities, were allowed independent rights within their own palace precincts. The British rule did not intrude there. Now and again half-clad slave girls and palace dependents, in terror for their lives, and wretches waled and trembling with recent chastisements, would escape the palace precincts and seek protection under the humane governments that had been planted in the surrounding cities. These spacious palaces were like little islands of the old despotisms, cruelties, and oppresssions bristling above the tide of constitutional right and privilege and liberty that was rising far and near. In Gods empire there are no spots of organised diabolism of that sort, that are separated from the control, direction, and over-rule of providential law. Alas! it is only too easy to find signs of individual and collective resistance to Gods law; but there are no indrawn spheres or reservations, dominated by pagan ignorance, from which His power, sovereignty, and prerogative are shut out. He rules where He is not worshipped, directs where He is not recognised, girds where He is not known.
2. In going beyond the circle of the elect nations to choose an instrument for the fulfilment of His counsels, God seems to remind us that the motive of His providential activity is altogether Divine. He uses the imperfectly taught Gentile, and puts upon him honour that might seem to belong to the Jew, to illustrate the sovereignty of His grace.
3. Partial ignorance of God may be an appointed condition for the test and development of faith. It is not only the virtuous heathen who is girded by an unrecognised Hand and made the agent in providential plans and purposes he cannot fathom. The distinction between Isaiah and Cyrus, between Cyrus and ourselves, is one of degree. On its intellectual side, at least, our religious knowledge is still imperfect, fragmentary, hesitating. God suffers it to be so, possibly that we may be the better disciplined in that humility which is the basis of faith. I have sometimes thought that so long as heathen darkness does not involve a gross and demoralising misrepresentation of God, but only a partial privation of knowledge, it offers the occasion for the exercise of a higher faith than that which is possible amidst the breaking twilights of Christian knowledge. The devout and pure-minded pagan, like Cyrus, who trusts his moral instincts without any adequate knowledge of their Divine origin, who with touching fidelity follows an unsyllabled vocation from heavens that have not yet opened themselves in revelation and definite testimony, who accepts an equipment from a Hand that has touched and guided him out of the darkness, is perhaps a more splendid example of faith than the man who manifests the same trust and loyalty and obedience in the midst of clearer intellectual conceptions of God. The puzzle of the long pagan centuries is not so painful and oppressive if we look at it from this standpoint.
II. EXAMPLES OF THIS PROVIDENTIAL GIRDING BY AN UNKNOWN GOD will readily occur to us that seem to conform to the type represented by Cyrus.
1. If we think of the men, the tradition of whose teaching and example is intertwined with all that is highest and best in the life of the nations outside the range of Christendom, we shall see that these men have been girded for their moral conquests and guided to their ascendencies over their fellow-men by the same unrecognised Hand that guided and girded this elect Persian. It is, perhaps, impossible to recall the name of a great and permanently honoured teacher in the past history of India, China, Persia, Egypt, Greece or Rome, whose influence rested upon an immoral doctrine or a contradiction of conscience. There must have been such leaders in the insignificant races that relapsed into cannibalism, scalp-hunting, and animal debasement. But no such names appear in the histories of the great civilised empires.
2. We must not judge the issues of the social and political movements of the present and past times by the measure of Divine knowledge they exhibit. Some of these movements, however little they seem to recognise God, are empowered by His mysterious hand, and minister to the accomplishment of His secret purpose. The dark despotisms enthroned over the ancient world annealed men into stable communities. And there are doubtless providential issues of the highest value in the democratic movements that are agitating Europe to-day, however reluctant those movements may be to recognise God.
3. Does not the fact that the theology of the modern scientist is sometimes very dim and defective tempt us to deny the Divine authority of his vocation and to discredit the providential issue in the special work he is called to do? Some of the schools of research and experiment and invention to which we are most deeply indebted are indifferent and even hostile to the claims of religion. And yet God calls the man of science to his work, vouchsafes the needful equipment for success, and guides all the far-off issues to which that work may tend.
4. And all this is true for ourselves. The knowledge possessed by those of us who know God best is, after all, infinitesimal in amount and degree. It is nothing in comparison with what remains to be known. It seems we can scarcely be the true servants of God and doing Divine work unless we have broader and brighter and more penetrating views of Gods nature. We are crushed by the inevitable secularisms of our life, and cannot believe that we are breathing the sacred atmosphere that encircles Gods priests and kings. It seems, at times, as though God, and providence, and supernatural vocation, and the high sanctions under which we seek to bring ourselves, were dreams. We are haunted by the thought that there is some subtle curse of ineradicable atheism cleaving to our inmost souls. In spite of the limit in our vision and the miserable failure in the spirit of our service, He is guiding us to beneficent conquests, and strengthening us to achieve holy emancipations, and fitting us for eternal honours. He was making us ready for service of some sort, when we knew far less about Him than we know to-day. And it is so still. And even after God seems to have been revealed to us in the person of Jesus Christ, how often do we find God becoming a hidden and an unknown God to us in His providential relations! At times it may seem rather as though some malignant demon were presiding over our lives, or at least sharing the sovereignty. But beyond the widest bound of our faith and knowledge there is providential guiding and girding and victory. And these words seem to suggest solemn comfort to us in view of the final conflict to which we shall all one day be brought. We shall enter the world to come as conquerors girded for our triumph by an unseen Hand. Gods elect servants sometimes die in circumstances that make thoughts of God impossible. Perhaps they are snatched away by unexpected accident. They leave life in a struggle that petrifies thought and feeling. In that solemn hour of darkness and humiliation and mental inaptitude, God, unknown and unrecognised, girds for the victory still. Let us not forget that, though the girding is often in darkness, the motive of this girding in shadows is the inbringing of the perfect life. (T. G. Selby.)
The light of Gods love seen in pagan darkness
It is when the sun is in eclipse that the astronomer is able to see the fountains of glowing hydrogen that rise out of the inner substance of the sun and project their splendour for thousands and tens of thousands of miles beyond its surface. The strange and superb spectacle is visible only on the margin that lies between the incandescent body and the sphere of less luminous space that surrounds it. And so there are sublime illustrations of Gods providential love and care that can be most nobly seen in contrast with pagan darkness. (T. G.Selby.)
Pagan teachers enlightened by God
Confucius was the instrument for keeping alive in China a morality that was almost as pure as the morality of the decalogue. He stamped out all traces of Moloch worship. He can be quoted with commanding effect against many of the cruelties and superstitions of the present day. Gautama Buddha taught a morality equally pure, and so emphasised the demerit of sin as to make his teaching the best available basis that can be found for the evangelical doctrine of the atonement. The well-considered and dispassionate and reverent scepticism of Socrates acted as a solvent of Greek superstition, and prepared the way for the thoughtful Christianity of Alexandria. Mohammed gave form and force to a system which, in spite of its excesses and fanaticisms, has been a useful protest against idolatry, and has gathered together into a simple civilisation and worship tribes that would otherwise have been incurably degraded by fetich worship. Now, are we to suppose that it was without any supreme direction or control that these famous teachers conspired together to support these high theories of life and conduct? They were not prophets, because they had not the light which brought into view the mysterious Person who guided, equipped, and succoured them. But they were providential instruments, instruments that in spite of their defective discernments were plastic to Gods controlling purpose. (T. G. Selby.)
Gods beneficent agency in the lives of those who ignore Him
Man cannot exclude Me from his little universe; even though he deny My existence and denounce My claim I am still there. I water the garden of the atheist, and bring his flowers to summer bloom and his fruits to autumnal glory. Men deny Me, curse Me, flee from Me I am still round about them, and their life is more precious to Me than is their blasphemy detestable, and until the very last I will work for them and with them, and if they go to perdition it shall be through the very centre of, My hearts tenderest grace. I girded thee, though thou hast not known Me. (J. Parker, D. D.)
A God-girded life
Who is that boy sitting on the steps there? He has a hat on that was made for any head but his own; and his coat, who made it? His mother, very likely--rough spun, not too well fitting. What is he waiting for? To get the job of sweeping the steps he sits on? Perhaps. Years pass by, and a portly man comes down those steps. Broad his face, a great round shining blessing, kindness in his eye, power in the uplifting of his hand. Who is he? That is the boy, grown now fully, physically, intellectually and socially. The boy and the man are both Horace Greeley, an editorial prince, a man whose writings no one among his countrymen can afford to decline to read. I girded thee, I brought thee to those steps, I set thee down upon them, I appointed an angel to watch thee all the time: it was My way of nursing and caring for thee, and training thee. He bringeth the blind by a way that they know not. (J. Parker, D. D.)
God in national life
Nations are not cards, with which politicians play at gambling: they may think they do, they may seem to do so, but the Lord reigneth. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The unknown influence of God
Cyrus is now proved to have been a polytheist. Yet even he was girded by the unknown God of heaven and earth. Let us consider this unknown influence of God.
I. IT SPRINGS FROM THE ALMIGHTY POWER OF GOD. God is not merely a passive object of worship. He exerts active influence. He did not only work in the past in creating the world. He is a living, active God now. Jesus said, My Father worketh hitherto. Perhaps the poorest definition of God ever framed is that of A power, not ourselves, that makes for righteousness. Still, even this meagre description of Divinity recognises the fact of an active Divine influence is not limited by our confession of it, nor by our willingness to submit to it. It inspired the eye of the Greek artist and the tongue of the Greek orator as truly as those of a Christian Chrysostom and Fra Angelico.
II. IT IS DIRECTED BY THE INFINITE GOODNESS OF GOD. We circumscribe this goodness to a pale of grace and a day of grace; but it overflows our boundaries and breaks out, free as the air and broad as the sunlight. God does not wait to be called. He is the first to awaken His slumbering children. God thinks of the heathen, and gives strength to those who know Him not. Then no doubt if a Chinese Mandarin pronounces a just sentence, or a Hindu Pundit utters a true thought, or an African chief vindicates the rights of an oppressed tribe, the goodness of these heathen men is an outcome of Gods goodness to them. Let us take heart: there is more grace in the world than we know of.
III. IT AIMS AT THE EXECUTION OF THE WILL OF GOD. Cyrus is called Gods shepherd (Isa_44:28). So even Nebuchadnezzar, a man of a very different character, is called by God My servant (Jer_43:10).
1. Some serve God when they think to oppose Him. As the gale that seems to be tearing the ship to pieces may be driving her the faster to her haven, so Satan, in Job, aiming at opposition to the right, occasioned the most glorious vindication of it. Persecutors often help the cause they hate.
2. Many, like Cyrus, serve God unconsciously. As the corn ministers to our sustenance unwittingly, and as science reveals the glory of God, even when the naturalists who pursue it are agnostics. Lessons--
(1) The unknown influence of God should lead to our knowing God. We have not to search the heavens for the unseen God. He is nigh us. Our own experience and the blessings of our own life should open our eyes to the goodness of God.
(2) This influence, once recognised, should lead us to trust God. If God girded Cyrus the heathen, will He not gird Israel His people?
(3) This influence should warn us against neglecting the recognition of God. We cannot escape from God. To do so would be our own undoing. But the hand which girds can ungird!
(4) This influence should prompt us to greater zeal in mission work. For God claims the heathen by His present influence on them. He has begun the work and will help His servants in it. It is sad that millions should be left in ignorance of the hand that girds them. (W. F. Adeney, M. A.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv5–6 Isa_45:5. I girded thee, though thou hast not known…
EVERY MAN’S LIFE A PLAN OF GOD
Isa_45:5. I girded thee, though thou hast not known Me.
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This declaration renders credible the sketch given by Xenophon of Cyrus’s rare excellence of character. He was a model of greatness in every form, because God had guided him, unseen, to be the minister of His own sovereign purposes to the nations of that time. Others have been manifestly “guided” by God for their work: Abraham, Joseph (Gen_45:8), Moses, Samuel, Paul—Christ Himself (Joh_18:37). But they differed from other men only in their consciousness (more or less clear) of their being divinely “guided” for their work. The “guiding” is granted to all men, i.e., God has a definite life-plan for every human person, guiding him, visibly or invisibly, for some exact thing, which it will be the true significance and glory of his life to have accomplished.
I. This a truth thought of by few men, but constantly set forth in the Scriptures. They show us not only a divine plan in the life of men obviously great, but also that the conditions of obscurity and depression may be the necessary first chapter in a great career [1420] They also show us that God has a personal interest in every man, bestowing on him one talent or more, kindly observing how he employs them; that it is the privilege of every man to live in the secret guidance of God, which implies that there is a plan in which he is to be guided, and that God governs the world in accordance with pre-arranged purposes, which implies that there are such purposes in regard to the individuals by whom the world is made up (H. E. I. 4015–4025, 2246–2248, 2323, 2325, 3403).
[1420] David among the sheep; Elisha following after the plough; Nehemiah bearing the cup; Hannah, who can say nothing less common than that she is the wife of Elkanah and a woman of sorrowful spirit—who that looks on these humble people, at their humble post of service, and discovers at last how dear a purpose God was cherishing in them, can be justified in thinking that God has no particular plan for him, because he is not signalised by any kind of distinction?—Bushnell.
When we turn from God’s Word to His works, we find the same universal and minute arrangement. Every particle of matter, every force of nature, has a purpose, and is used for the furtherance of a comprehensive divine plan.
It is contrary, then, to both these revelations to suppose concerning any man that his Creator has no definite thoughts concerning him, no place prepared for him to fill, no use for him to serve, which is the purpose of his existence. Every human soul has a complete and perfect plan cherished for it in the heart of God. What dignity does this thought add to life! What support does it bring to the trials of life! What instigations does it add to send us onward in everything that constitutes our excellence!
But there is an immense difference between things and us. They all serve their use; they cannot break out of their place. But we are able, as free beings, to refuse our place and the duties God appoints. [1423]
[1423] Which, if we do, then we sink into something lower and less worthy of us. That highest and best condition for which God designed us is no more possible. We are fallen out of it, and it cannot be wholly recovered. And yet, as that was the best thing possible for us in the reach of God’s original counsel, so there is a place designed for us now, which is the next best possible. God calls us now to the best thing left, and will do so until all good possibility is narrowed down and spent. And then, when He cannot use us any more for our own good, He will use us for the good of others—an example of the misery and horrible desperation to which any soul must come, when all the good ends, and all the holy callings of God’s friendly and fatherly purpose are exhausted. Or it may be now that, remitting all other plans and purposes in our behalf, He will henceforth use us, wholly against our will, to be the demonstration of His justice and avenging power before the eyes of mankind; saying over us, as He did over Pharaoh in the day of his judgments, “Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.” Doubtless He had other and more genial plans to serve in this bad man, if only he could have accepted such; but knowing his certain rejection of these, God turned His mighty counsel in him wholly on the use to be made of him as a reprobate.—Bushnell.
II. Moreover, as God has for every man a definite life-plan which, being accepted and followed, will conduct him to the best and noblest end possible, so He will appoint for him the best possible manner of attaining it. Whatever you have laid upon you to do or to suffer, to want, to surrender or to conquer, is exactly the best for you. Your life is a school exactly adapted to your lesson, and that to the last, best end of your existence. If your sphere is outwardly humble, if it even appears to be quite insignificant, God understands it better than you do, and it is part of His wisdom to bring out great sentiments in humble conditions, great principles in works that are outwardly trivial, great characters under great adversities and heavy loads of incumbrance. The tallest saints of God will often be those who walk in the deepest obscurity, and are even despised or quite overlooked by man. What comfort there is in this truth for us in circumstances otherwise depressive! What invigoration under sorrows otherwise crushing! (P. D. 3235, 3243).
III. But how are we to get hold of this life-plan God has made for us, and find our way into it?
1. Negatives to be avoided.
(1.) Never try to be singular. If God has a distinct design for every man’s life, let him seek to be just what God will have him to be, and the talents, the duties, and circumstances of his life require him to be, and then he will be peculiar enough.
(2.) Do not seek to copy the life of another. God has as many plans for men as He has men; and, therefore, He never requires them to measure their life exactly by any other life.
(3.) Never complain of your birth, your training, your employments, your hardships; never fancy that you could be something if only you had a different lot and sphere assigned you. God understands His own plan, and He knows what you want a great deal better than you do.
(4.) While you surrender all thought of making a plan for yourself, do not expect that God will show you the chart of all His purposes concerning you. He will only show you into a way where, if you go cheerfully and trustfully forward, He will show you on still further (P. D. 1440, 1656, 1658).
2. Things we are to do. Consider
(1.) the character of God, and you will draw a large deduction from that; for all that God designs for you will be in harmony with His character. Many employments are by this first principle for ever cut off. No thought is permitted you, even for a moment, of any work or calling that does not represent the industry, justice, truth, beneficence, mercy of God.
(2.) Your relation to Him as a creature. As such it is your general duty to be and to do what He wills; and nine-tenths of your particular duties may be settled, at once, by a simple reference in this manner to what God wills (P. D. 3505).
(3.) You have a conscience, which is given to be an interpreter of His will, and thus of your duty and destiny (H. E. I. 1308).
(4.) God’s Word is a guide to present duty, which, if faithfully accepted, will help to set you in accordance with the mind of God and the plan He has laid for you (H. E. I. 543, 558–579).
(5.) Be an observer of providence: for God is showing you ever, by the way in which He leads you, whither He means to lead.
(6.) Consult your friends, especially those who are most in the teaching of God. They know your talents and personal qualifications better, in some respects, than you do yourself.
(7.) Go to God Himself, and ask Him to make clear His will concerning you. He will certainly do so. This is the proper office and work of His Spirit. By this private teaching He can show us, and will, into the very plan that is set for us (H. E. I. 2872, 2875).
Application.
1. Has your life been in accordance with the plan of God? If not, let the past suffice, and humbly seek divine guidance for the future.
2. Young man, all your best opportunities are still before you. Seek God, and consecrate your life to Him, knowing assuredly that He will lead you into just that life which is your highest honour and blessing.
3. How sacred, how strong in its repose, how majestic is a life ordered according to the plan God has formed for it! Living in this manner, every turn of your experience will be a discovery to you of God, every change a token of His fatherly counsel. Oh, to live out such a life as God appoints, how great a thing it is!—to do the duties, make the sacrifices, bear the adversities, finish the plan, and then to say with Christ (who of us will be able?)—“It is finished!”—Horace Bushnell, D.D.: The New Life, pp. 1–15.
THE UNKNOWN INFLUENCE OF GOD
Isa_45:5. I girded thee, though thou hast not known Me.
A great Babylonian library, consisting of numerous clay tablets, with arrow-head inscriptions burnt into them, has recently been deciphered. The results are most astounding, confirming once questioned statements of Scripture history, throwing light upon obscure events, and correcting not a few false impressions. Among the principal corrections thus afforded is that of our views regarding the person and religion of Cyrus. Cyrus, it seems, was not a Persian, but an Elamite, and was not a Monotheist, but a worshipper of heathen divinities, adopting Merodach, the god of Babylon, when he conquered that city. The last fact adds great emphasis to our text. Cyrus, to whom the words are addressed, is now proved to be a pagan, a polytheist, an idolater. Yet even he was girded by the unknown God of heaven and earth. Let us consider this unknown influence of God.
I. It springs from the Almighty Power of God. God is not merely a passive object of worship. He exerts active influence. He did not only work in the past in creating the world. He is a living, active God now. Jesus said, “My Father worketh hitherto.” Perhaps the poorest definition of God ever framed is that of “A power, not ourselves, that makes for righteousness.” Still even this meagre, shrunken description of Divinity recognises the fact of an active Divine influence. Now, God’s power is not limited by our confession of it, nor by our unwillingness to submit to it. It inspired the eye of the Greek artist and the tongue of the Greek orator as truly as those of a Christian Chrysostom and Fra Angelico.
II. It is directed by the Infinite Goodness of God. We circumscribe this goodness to a pale of grace and a day of grace; but it overflows our boundaries and breaks out, free as the air and broad as the sunlight. God does not wait to be called. He is the first to awaken His slumbering children. The grace of God anticipates the faith of man; for if it is dependent on faith for its fullest manifestation, yet even that very faith is a Divine gift (Eph_2:8). God thinks of the heathen, and gives strength to those who know Him not. Then, no doubt, if a Chinese Mandarin pronounces a just sentence, or a Hindoo Pundit utters a true thought, or an African Chief vindicates the rights of an oppressed tribe, the goodness of these heathen men is an outcome of God’s goodness to them. Let us take heart; there is more grace in the world than we know of.
III. It aims at the execution of the Will of God. Cyrus is called God’s shepherd (Isa_44:28). So even Nebuchadnezzar, a man of a very different character, is called by God “My servant” (Jer_43:10).
1. Some serve God when they think to oppose Him. As the gale that seems to be tearing the ship to pieces may be driving her the faster to her haven. So Satan, in Job, aiming at opposition to the right, occasioned the most glorious vindication of it. Persecutors often help the cause they hate.
2. Many, like Cyrus, serve God unconsciously. As the corn ministers to our sustenance unwittingly, and as science reveals the glory of God, even when the naturalists who pursue it are agnostics. God endows us with faculties, not that they may rust in vile repose, but to be devoted to His service. Happy are they who are enlightened to serve God consciously and willingly with the powers which they have derived unconsciously from His broad and liberal grace!
Practical conclusions:—
1. The unknown influence of God should lead to our knowing God. We have not to search the heavens for the unseen God. He is nigh us, at our right hand. Our own experience and the blessings of our own life should open our eyes to the goodness of God. Cyrus, trained in heathenism, might be forgiven if to the end he was girded only by an unknown God. Not so we, with light to interpret the providential work of God in our experience.
2. This influence, once recognised, should lead us to trust God. If God girded Cyrus the heathen, will He not gird Israel His people? If He helps those who know Him not, will He not much more aid those who seek and trust Him?
3. This influence should warn us against neglecting the recognition of God. We cannot escape from God. To do so would be our own undoing. We have deep reason for thankfulness that God has not withdrawn His hand from us while we have ignored Him. But the hand which girds can ungird!
4. This influence should prompt us to greater zeal in Mission work. For
(1.) God proves that He claims the heathen by His present influence on them.
(2.) He has begun the work and will help His servants in it.
(3.) It is sad that millions should still be left in ignorance of the hand that girds them with the strength of life.—Rev. W. F. Adeney, M.A.: Homiletic Magazine, vol. xi. pp. 204–206.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v7 create evil
create evil
Heb. "ra" translated "sorrow," "wretchedness," "adversity," "afflictions," "calamities," but never translated sin. God created evil only in the sense that He made sorrow, wretchedness, etc., to be the sure fruits of sin.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v7 General Information:
General Information:
Yahweh continues speaking.
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I form the light and create darkness; I bring peace and create disaster
Both of these expressions form merisms that emphasize that Yahweh is sovereign creator of everything. (See: Merism)
You heavens, rain down from above ... righteousness spring up together with it
Yahweh speaks of his righteousness as if it were rain that falls on the earth, and of his righteousness and salvation as plants that grow on the earth. (See: Metaphor)
You heavens
Yahweh momentarily turns his attention from his people and begins to speak to the heavens. (See: Apostrophe)
translationWords
create
peace
Yahweh
heaven
righteous
save
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v7 45:7 light . . . darkness . . .…
45:7 light . . . darkness . . . good times and bad times: Everything is under God’s control.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.