Isaiah Chapter 45

At a Glance

  • Isaiah 45 centers on God’s anointed, Cyrus, a Gentile king, and the broader claim that the Lord alone is God.
  • Verse 7’s assertion that God forms light and creates both peace and calamity frames a provocative, paradoxical theology: God is sovereign over both blessing and judgment.
  • Historical & Literary Context.
  • As part of Second Isaiah, Isaiah 45 is set in the late exilic/post-exilic period.
  • - God’s sovereignty over nations and history, including Cyrus’s rise.

Chapter Overview

Isaiah 45 centers on God’s anointed, Cyrus, a Gentile king, and the broader claim that the Lord alone is God. The chapter establishes a surprising and inclusive scope: God can use a pagan ruler to accomplish divine purposes, subduing nations and opening gates. This chapter emphasizes God’s initiative in salvation history—the Lord going before Cyrus, breaking brass gates, and releasing treasures hidden in darkness. The language is dramatic and panoramic: the divine planner who calls nations by name, forms them, and directs their ways. The rhetorical edge is sharp: there is no other god besides the Lord, and God’s sovereignty extends over political power, military outcomes, and the turning of history toward his redemptive aims.

Verse 7’s assertion that God forms light and creates both peace and calamity frames a provocative, paradoxical theology: God is sovereign over both blessing and judgment. The chapter further grounds human history in divine purpose, inviting both Cyrus and Israel to recognize the Lord’s unique lordship, while declaring that righteousness will ultimately prevail and salvation will come to Zion. The closing promise of God’s sovereignty over all things, including the geographic and political spheres, culminates in a reorientation of worship and trust around Yahweh alone.

Historical & Literary Context

As part of Second Isaiah, Isaiah 45 is set in the late exilic/post-exilic period. The text’s portrayal of Cyrus as God’s anointed (messiah) reconfigures expectations: Gentile rulers can be instruments of God’s saving plan. The genre combines prophetic oracles with oracular pronouncements about future history, political realities, and cosmic scope. The chapter reinforces the book’s larger argument that God’s purposes transcend human systems and that the true allegiance of God’s people must be to the God who ordains history.

Key Themes

- God’s sovereignty over nations and history, including Cyrus’s rise.

- Monotheism and exclusive worship: there is no other God besides the Lord.

- Divine initiative in salvation and the shaping of political events for redemptive ends.

- The paradox of God’s goodness and sovereignty over both peace and calamity.

- Purposeful humility: recognition that human agents advance God’s plans, not by power alone but by God’s enabling.

Modern Application

Isaiah 45 speaks to contemporary readers about the sovereignty of God in public life—politics, power, and leadership. The idea that God can use unlikely instruments to fulfill divine purposes invites humility in national and personal ambitions. It challenges idolatrous attachments to power, wealth, or status, reminding believers that ultimate allegiance belongs to the Creator who defines truth and justice. The chapter also calls for trust in God’s ability to navigate complex histories and to reveal his glory through unlikely channels.

Practical applications include praying for leaders and institutions to align with God’s justice, advocating for truth and integrity in public life, and cultivating a faithful witness amidst political dynamism. Theologically, it reinforces the belief that God’s plan is purposeful and global, inviting believers to participate in a mission that honors the Lord above all kingdoms.

Cross-References: Isaiah 40:10–11; Isaiah 41:1–13; Daniel 2:20–22; Psalm 33:10–12; Romans 9:17

Recommended Personas: Jesus (the ultimate Lord over all), Paul (justice and unity in Christ across nations), Cyrus as a figure (non-Israelite instrument of God), Moses (reorienting to worship the true God)

Chapter Text

1

Thus saith the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut;

2

I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron:

3

And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.

4

For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.

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:

6

That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.

7

I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

8

Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the LORD have created it.

9

Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands?

10

Woe unto him that saith unto his father, What begettest thou? or to the woman, What hast thou brought forth?

11

Thus saith the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me.

12

I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded.

13

I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways: he shall build my city, and he shall let go my captives, not for price nor reward, saith the LORD of hosts.

14

Thus saith the LORD, The labour of Egypt, and merchandise of Ethiopia and of the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over unto thee, and they shall be thine: they shall come after thee; in chains they shall come over, and they shall fall down unto thee, they shall make supplication unto thee, saying, Surely God is in thee; and there is none else, there is no God.

15

Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour.

16

They shall be ashamed, and also confounded, all of them: they shall go to confusion together that are makers of idols.

17

But Israel shall be saved in the LORD with an everlasting salvation: ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end.

18

For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.

19

I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth: I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain: I the LORD speak righteousness, I declare things that are right.

20

Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, ye that are escaped of the nations: they have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image, and pray unto a god that cannot save.

21

Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together: who hath declared this from ancient time? who hath told it from that time? have not I the LORD? and there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside me.

22

Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.

23

I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.

24

Surely, shall one say, in the LORD have I righteousness and strength: even to him shall men come; and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed.

25

In the LORD shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory.

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