6 STAR CHAPTER

Words in italic type have been added for clarity. They are not found in the original Hebrew or Aramaic.

What should I learn from this chapter?

• Star 1: The Meaning of The Treasures of Darkness
• Star 2: The Prophecy: Called out by Name
• Star 3: Rain from Heaven
• Star 4: The Meaning of a Potshard
• Star 5: An Incredible Future Prophecy
• Star 6: Jeremiah’s Prophecy: the End of Babylon

Isaiah 45

According to Isaiah one will come named Cyrus who will conquer the Babylonians. This is only one of two times God calls someone out BY NAME. See Topic: Called Out By Name.

Isaiah prophesied during the reigns of Uzziah (or Azariah – William F. Albright dates Uzziah’s reign to 783–742), Jotham Reign: c. 750 – 735 BC , Ahaz 732–716 BC, and Hezekiah, the kings of Judah.

Isaiah Born	c. 739/41 BC probably Jerusalem
Isaiah Died	c. 687 BC (aged 51/52 or 54) probably Jerusalem

Isaiah lived from at least 739 BC to 687 BC. The timing is important because it tells us the extant of how many years in the future it took before the event was fulfilled.

• Cyrus conquered Babylon in 539 BC at least 137 yrs before Isaiah’s amazing prophecy! Daniel chapter 5 gives a detailed description of the day of Belshazzar’s fall when Cyrus took Babylon. See Bible: Daniel Chapter 5, See Pop Up: Herodotus on the Capture of Babylon

Even Jeremiah prophesied the precise timing of Babylon’s end, another amazing prophecy.

• Jeremiah 27:7 So all nations shall serve him (#1 Nebuchadnezzar) and his son (#2 Evil-Merodach) and his son’s son (#3 Belshazzar), until the time of his land comes (Cyrus conquers); and then many nations and great kings shall make him (Babylon) serve them.
• Jeremiah lived 626-580 BC. Cyrus conquered Babylon 539 BC. No less than 41 years after Jeremiah’s death.

Cyrus, God’s Instrument

Isaiah 45:¹ “Thus says the Lord to His anointed,
To Cyrus, whose right hand I have held (strengthened or sustained)—

• God anointed Cyrus for this task, even referring to him as a messiah (lit. ’anointed one’); Cyrus is the only non-Jewish figure in the Bible to be revered in this capacity.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrus_the_Great
• Jeremiah 51:11 The Lord has raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes (Cyrus: See Isaiah 45). For His plan is against Babylon to destroy it, Because it is the vengeance of the Lord, The vengeance for His temple.

Isaiah 45:¹ To subdue nations before him

• Spanning from the Mediterranean Sea and Hellespont in the west to the Indus River in the east, the empire created by Cyrus was the largest the world had yet seen.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrus_the_Great

Isaiah 45:¹ And loose the armor of kings,

• Before Cyrus was born God made promises to him through the writings of Isaiah the prophet. Cyrus knew nothing of this until he conquered Babylon and the Jews showed him what God had wrote about him so many years earlier. It shocked him and set many interesting events in motion.
• The fulfillment: Daniel 5:⁶ Then the king’s countenance changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his hips were loosened and his knees knocked against each other.

Isaiah 45:¹ To open before him the double doors,
So that the gates will not be shut:

• An accurate prophecy:
  • Nebuchadnezzar wrote: “A mighty wall I built coming up on the banks of the river, her wide gates I installed and doors of cedar wood overlaid with copper (brass) I made.”
  • R. Koldewey, ‘Das Wiedererstehande Babylon’, 1913. “Darius took away the brass city gates and demolished the walls from 200 cubits to 50 cubits.” hjttp://www.specialtyinterests.net/babylon.html#koldewey

Isaiah 45:² ‘I will go before you
And make the crooked places (mountains) straight
(or: I will trample down the walls; or, I will humble the great ones of the earth or: all of the above);

Isaiah 45:² I will break in pieces the gates of bronze
And cut the bars of iron.

• God opened Babylon for Cyrus to walk in and take it with a minimum of resistance.

Isaiah 45:³ I will give you the treasures of darkness
And hidden riches of secret places,
That you may know that I, the Lord,
Who call you by your name,
Am the God of Israel.

• According to Herodotus, “either some one made the suggestion to him, or he bethought himself of a plan, which he proceeded to put in execution.”

• It was God who gave Cyrus the suggestion to siphon off the Euphrates river into a nearby basin. No other conqueror had the foresight to notice this advantage. Everyone said Babylon could not be conquered; her walls were impenetrable.

Isaiah 45:⁴ For Jacob My servant’s sake, and Israel My elect,

• Jacob and Israel are the same person. God renamed Jacob and called him Israel. He was the father of the 12 tribes of Israel. Jacob is the worldly manipulator, Israel is his spiritual name when God is using him for His agenda.
• This is a Jewish matter. God would not have gotten involved except He has a plan for His chosen people.

Isaiah 45:⁴ I have even called you by your name;
I have named you, though you have not known Me.

• God is speaking to Cyrus through the ages.

Isaiah 45:⁵ I am the Lord, and
There is no God besides Me.

• Cyrus will discover there is no other God except the God of the Hebrews.

Isaiah 45:⁵ I will gird you (strengthen you), though you have not known Me,

• God chooses those whom He chooses and will use those whom He chooses to use.

Isaiah 45:⁶ That they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting
That there is none besides Me.
I am the Lord, and there is no other;

• There are no other gods…
• Humanity needs to hear this again today: there is no god in Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Wicca, Satanism, or any other religion. None of these are the Creator, none can tell the future, none can heal men of the their sins, and none are willing to die for man’s sins.

Isaiah 45:⁷ I form the light and create darkness,
I make peace and create calamity;
I, the Lord, do all these things.’

• Everything that happens God is involved with it.
• God created the good and the d/evil.
  • Everything God created was good until it was corrupted.

Isaiah 45:⁸ “Rain (literally Trickle) down, you heavens, from above,
And let the skies pour down righteousness;
Let the earth open, let them bring forth salvation,
And let righteousness spring up together.
I, the Lord, have created it.

• ^{Here is a great mystery; the meaning of “rain” and “salvation”.}
• ^{Rain is a “teacher”. The Faithful Rain is the Messiah. The Messiah is the Teacher who comes down from heaven and refreshes the earth.}
• ^{Jesus’ name in Hebrew is Yeshua meaning “Salvation”. He is the prophetic Messiah.}
• ^{Many scriptures are poly-layered. They can be literal, poetic, metaphoric, prophetic, parables, symbolic, types and shadows; all at the same time. Only God can write a book like this.}

Isaiah 45:⁹ “Woe to him who strives with his Maker!
Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth!
Shall the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’
Or shall your handiwork say, ‘He has no hands’?

• ^{Adam was made from clay. Each man is like a potsherd. Men have no say on how God makes him. However, each man is part of God’s plan and therefore has a reason for being made the way he is.}
• ^{Since the above is true, don’t bother striving with God. If you must strive, strive with all the other potsherds of the earth.}
• ^{The potsherds make war, breaking each other apart leaving a potter’s field of broken pottery (dead men), and ruins (dead cities).}

• ^{Satan, the monster in the sea of people is behind the wars of potshards (mankind). See Bible: Job Chapter 41. Job 41:30 His undersides are like sharp potsherds; He spreads pointed marks in the mire.}
• 

• 

Isaiah 45:¹⁰ Woe to him who says to his father (creator), ‘What are you begetting?’

• Don’t ask God why He created you the way He did. He has a reason.
  • ^{Isaiah 29:16 Surely you have things turned around! Shall the potter be esteemed as the clay; For shall the thing made say of him who made it, “He did not make me”? Or shall the thing formed say of him who formed it, “He has no understanding”?}

Isaiah 45:¹⁰ Or to the woman (mother), ‘What have you brought forth?’ ”

• Honor your father and mother for they are your creators ~ signed God.

Isaiah 45:¹¹ Thus says the Lord,
The Holy One of Israel, and his Maker:
“Ask Me of things to come concerning My sons (God’s chosen people, the Jews);
And concerning the work of My hands, you command Me.

Isaiah 45:¹² I have made the earth (which is clay),
And created man on it (from the clay).
I—My hands—stretched out the heavens,
And all their host I have commanded.

Isaiah 45:¹³ I have raised him (Cyrus) up in righteousness,
And I will direct all his ways (Or make all his ways straight);
He shall build My city
And let My exiles go free,
Not for price nor reward,”
Says the Lord of hosts.

• The Fulfillment:
• ^{2 Chronicles 36:22 The Proclamation of Cyrus – Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying,}
• ^{2 Chronicles 36:23 Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: All the kingdoms of the earth the Lord God of heaven has given me. And He has commanded me to build Him a house at Jerusalem which is in Judah. Who is among you of all His people? May the Lord his God be with him, and let him go up!}
• ^{Ezra 1:1 End of the Babylonian Captivity – Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying,}
• ^{Ezra 1:2 Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: All the kingdoms of the earth the Lord God of heaven has given me. And He has commanded me to build Him a house at Jerusalem which is in Judah.}
• ^{Ezra 1:7 King Cyrus also brought out the articles of the house of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem and put in the temple of his gods;}
• ^{Ezra 1:8 and Cyrus king of Persia brought them out by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, and counted them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah}
• ^{Ezra 3:7 They also gave money to the masons and the carpenters, and food, drink, and oil to the people of Sidon and Tyre to bring cedar logs from Lebanon to the sea, to Joppa, according to the permission which they had from Cyrus king of Persia.}
• ^{Ezra 4:3 But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the heads of the fathers’ houses of Israel said to them, “You may do nothing with us to build a house for our God; but we alone will build to the Lord God of Israel, as King Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us.”}
• ^{Ezra 4:5 and hired counselors against them to frustrate their purpose all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.}
• ^{Ezra 5:13 However, in the first year of Cyrus king of Babylon, King Cyrus issued a decree to build this house of God.}
• ^{Ezra 5:14 Also, the gold and silver articles of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple that was in Jerusalem and carried into the temple of Babylon—those King Cyrus took from the temple of Babylon, and they were given to one named Sheshbazzar, whom he had made governor.}
• ^{Ezra 5:17 Now therefore, if it seems good to the king, let a search be made in the king’s treasure house, which is there in Babylon, whether it is so that a decree was issued by King Cyrus to build this house of God at Jerusalem, and let the king send us his pleasure concerning this matter.}
• ^{Ezra 6:3 In the first year of King Cyrus, King Cyrus issued a decree concerning the house of God at Jerusalem: “Let the house be rebuilt, the place where they offered sacrifices; and let the foundations of it be firmly laid, its height sixty cubits and its width sixty cubits,}
• ^{Ezra 6:14 So the elders of the Jews built, and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. And they built and finished it, according to the commandment of the God of Israel, and according to the command of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia.}

The Lord, the Only Savior

Isaiah 45:¹⁴ Thus says the Lord:

“The labor of Egypt and merchandise of Cush
And of the Sabeans, men of stature,
Shall come over to you, and they shall be yours;
They shall walk behind you,
They shall come over in chains;
And they shall bow down to you.
They will make supplication to you, saying, ‘Surely God is in you,
And there is no other;
There is no other God.’ ”

Isaiah 45:¹⁵ Truly You are God, who hide Yourself,
O God of Israel, the Savior!

• God was hidden from Cyrus until he conquered Babylon when God revealed Himself to him.
• The darkness is the place of unseen things.

Isaiah 45:¹⁶ They shall be ashamed
And also disgraced, all of them;
They shall go in confusion together,
Who are makers of idols.

Isaiah 45:¹⁷ But Israel (the spiritual Jacob) shall be saved by the Lord
With an everlasting salvation;
You shall not be ashamed or disgraced
Forever and ever.

• The Everlasting Salvation is Jesus.
• The everlasting salvation is Jesus ruling in Jerusalem when the Jews will never again be scattered, ashamed, or disgraced.

Isaiah 45:¹⁸ For thus says the Lord,
Who created the heavens,
Who is God,
Who formed the earth and made it,
Who has established it,
Who did not create it in vain (Or empty, a waste),
Who formed it to be inhabited:
“I am the Lord, and there is no other.

Isaiah 45:¹⁹ I have not spoken in secret,
In a dark place of the earth;

• God did not hide it in the darkness.

I did not say to the seed of Jacob,
‘Seek Me in vain’ (Or in a waste place);
I, the Lord, speak righteousness,
I declare things that are right.

Isaiah 45:²⁰ “Assemble yourselves and come;
Draw near together,
You who have escaped from the nations.
They have no knowledge,
Who carry the wood of their carved image,
And pray to a god that cannot save.

• Ancient days: “I see you have brought your fire log idol to save you”.
• Modern times: “I see you have brought your green paper idol to save you.”
• Future times: “I see you brought some pavement with you to try to save you.” (angel speaking to man trying to enter heaven with gold in his hands).

Isaiah 45:²¹ Tell and bring forth your case;
Yes, let them take counsel together.
Who has declared this from ancient time?
Who has told it from that time?
Have not I, the Lord?
And there is no other God besides Me,
A just God and a Savior;
There is none besides Me.

Isaiah 45:²² “Look to Me, and be saved,
All you ends of the earth!
For I am God, and there is no other.

Isaiah 45:²³ I have sworn by Myself;

• Hebrews 6:13 God’s Infallible Purpose in Christ – For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself,

Isaiah 45:²³ The word has gone out of My mouth in righteousness,
And shall not return,
That to Me every knee shall bow,
Every tongue shall take an oath.

• This is referring to the millennium when Jesus has returned and set up His kingdom in Jerusalem.

• ^{Zechariah 8:20 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Peoples shall yet come,
  Inhabitants of many cities; 21 The inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying,
  “Let us continue to go and pray before the Lord, and seek the Lord of hosts.
  I myself will go also.” 22 Yes, many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem, And to pray before the Lord.’ 23 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘In those days ten men from every language of the nations shall grasp the sleeve of a Jewish man, saying, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.” ’ ”}

Isaiah 45:²⁴ He shall say, ‘Surely in the Lord I have righteousness and strength. (Or Only in the Lord are all righteousness and strength)
To Him men shall come,
And all shall be ashamed
Who are incensed against Him.

Isaiah 45:²⁵ In the Lord all the descendants of Israel
Shall be justified, and shall glory.’ ”

The Historical Isaiah:

^{It is related in the Talmud that Rabbi Simeon ben Azzai found in Jerusalem an account wherein it was written that King Manasseh killed Isaiah. King Manasseh said to Isaiah, “Moses, your master, said, ‘No man may see God and live’; but you have said, ‘I saw the Lord seated upon his throne’”; and went on to point out other contradictions—as between Deuteronomy and Isaiah 40; between Exodus 33 and 2 Kings Isaiah thought: “I know that he will not accept my explanations; why should I increase his guilt?” He then uttered the tetragrammaton, a cedar-tree opened, and Isaiah disappeared within it. King Manasseh ordered the cedar to be sawn asunder, and when the saw reached his mouth Isaiah died; thus was he punished for having said, “I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips”.}

^{A somewhat different version of this legend is given in the Jerusalem Talmud. According to that version Isaiah, fearing King Manasseh, hid himself in a cedar-tree, but his presence was betrayed by the fringes of his garment, and King Manasseh caused the tree to be sawn in half. A passage of the Targum to Isaiah quoted by Jolowicz states that when Isaiah fled from his pursuers and took refuge in the tree, and the tree was sawn in half, the prophet’s blood spurted forth. Athanasius the bishop of Alexandria (c. 318) wrote, “Isaiah was sawn asunder”.}

^{According to rabbinic literature, Isaiah was the maternal grandfather of Manasseh of Judah.}

^{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaiah}