Comfort from Uncomfortable Words - Isaiah 45

“Comfort, comfort my people,

    says your God….

This is what the Lord says to his anointed,

    to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of

to subdue nations before him

    and to strip kings of their armor,

to open doors before him

    so that gates will not be shut…”

(Isaiah 40:1, 45:1).

Comfort, comfort. Soothing words to a people in exile, soothing words after thirty-nine chapters of revealing their sin and the reason for judgment. “Now, comfort, my people. I am still your God. I will come to your aid.” Comfort—the preface for the following fifteen chapters.

These words invite expectation and hope. How will this comfort come? How will God redeem and rescue his people? Chapters 40-44 subtly hint of a servant who will come to liberate God’s people from their captivity in Babylon. Who is this? Who can it be? The faithful remnant bow on their knees, seeking to discern, to hear the voice of God. They open their ears to listen to the prophet’s “Thus says the Lord.” Perhaps they muse on the great forms that God’s salvation might take: a mighty Jewish conqueror, a new Moses perhaps, or God himself thundering down like he did for Deborah and Barak or against Sennacherib. Eyes open, ears tuned.

“This is what the Lord says to his anointed, to Cyrus….” (Isaiah 45:1).

No words could be more startling. Is this –this!—what God called “comfort”? How could another foreign king, another pagan superpower, be comfort? How could God use him? The questions of Habakkuk echo in this generation as well. How? Why? How can the expectant remnant find comfort in what appears to be so threatening? How can a pagan king be God’s called, anointed servant? Their bowed knees in prayer still tremble at the threat….

“I am the LORD, who has made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself…. Who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd, and will accomplish all that I please….’ Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker…” (Isaiah 44:24, 45:1, 9).

Why does God include what appears to be ominous news in his message of comfort? There is comfort in such uncomfortable words.

God knows. The rise of this threat is not unknown to him, but he is in control. It is not a surprise, startling him off his seat on the throne. It may appear foreign, threatening, out of their control, but his people could rest that it is not out of God’s control. Cyrus was God’s; no power or man could separate them from the love of God.

God already knew. Not only does he know, but he dictated it. He called this threat and is sovereign over the tyrant. He knew beforehand, even naming Cyrus many, many years earlier than he actually arrived on the scene (1). To those who had ears to hear, God wanted them to know and to find comfort that this new threat, too, was not out of his plan for their comfort. Even before they had any glimmer, he already had a plan to work all things for the good of those who love him.

God is in the future. When the past is a failure, the present is exile, and the future looks dim, those in exile can rest assured that God goes before them. Their past does not determine their future; their future or present exile will not continue forever (see note 1). God will redeem; the future is in his hands and he is actively working on behalf of those who wait for him (Isaiah 64:4), bringing up a new thing, a good thing (Isaiah 43:18-19).

“Forget the former things;

    do not dwell on the past.

See, I am doing a new thing!

    Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?

I am making a way in the wilderness

    and streams in the wasteland.”

(Isaiah 43:18-19).

God is in the present. He cares enough about them to speak this word to them many years beforehand, preempting their worries and fears. He knew they would be concerned and scared; and so concerned was he for his people that he spoke to them before the threat arrived. He cared enough about the lonely exiles to speak to them (even speaking to them before the time happened), reminding them they were not forgotten (Isaiah 49:14-15) despite their objections. He wanted his people to know they had hope, that he would come for them. Future salvation speaks to the present; the future reaches into the present, words from our time-surpassing, un-time-bound, infinite God.

In God’s mighty hand, the anointed, called, servant Cyrus would be his agent of salvation for the Jews, allowing them to return and rebuild the temple (Ezra, Nehemiah). It was something they could not see at the time—the pre-exilic and exilic Jews only saw threat. God saw good—God worked good—God called good.

“But Zion said, ‘The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.’

‘Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne?

Though she may forget, I will not forget you!’” (Isaiah 49:14-15).

Do we have ears and eyes for the message for today? There may be “uncomfortable” words like “Cyrus,” words that appear to bring more danger than good, more threat than comfort. Whatever our “Cyruses” are, our Sovereign God is still in control.

He knows—they are not a surprise to him, and they cannot separate us from the love that is in God, the love which was revealed fully in his true Servant of redemption and freedom, Christ.

He already knew—our Cyruses are part of his plan for our good. He already knew we would have cancer, lose a job, have that difficult relationship, or go through this time of grief. Yet, they will be incorporated into his plan for us for our good. Because our Anointed One faced the ultimate threat, the complete alienation from God, as part of the plan of God for our good, we can rest assured that all darkness will be light, that all deserts will become streams for eternity.

He is in the future—we see dimly and the threats loom large. Yet, God already has the future taken care of; he goes before us. Our ultimate good future is assured; the eternally called Servant Son has promised to prepare a place for us (John 14:1-2).

He is in the present—our hope is not just in the future. He cares enough about us now to speak to us in the present, to comfort us in the present, both by his Word and his Spirit.

“Comfort, comfort my people,” he speaks to us. “Now. In the future. I have called your Cyruses, ‘I will raise up [your Cyruses] in my righteousness: I will make all his ways straight. He will rebuild my city and set my exiles free… says the Lord Almighty’ (Isaiah 45:13). You are free to rest in my foreknowledge, my sovereignty, my plans, my presence, even in the face of confusion, doubt, questions, dim futures, rising threats. Comfort.” Even in uncomfortable words, even in the face of threats.

NOTES

(1) Although some scholars hold that chapters 1-39 were written by pre-exilic Isaiah (740-700 BC), and then chapters 40-55 to those in exile (585-540 BC), and then 56-66 by a third post-exilic “Isaiah” (after 539 BC). However, many scholars (and whose position I take) do hold to a single authorship by Isaiah (740-700 BC), who gave these words of comfort and hope to his own generation (“Repent, or you will face judgment, but that will not be the end! Our God is greater and more faithful than your sin and rebellion!”), and to the generation in exile (“There will be hope and salvation! There will be redemption and a return, a new exodus!”), and to the post-exilic generation (“You are free from both Babylon and from sin, now live as the redeemed people!”).  Thus, the naming of Cyrus in Isaiah 45 could have been between 740 and 700 BC, many, many years before Cyrus actually appeared. Babylon fell to Cyrus in 539 BC.