"Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, you 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. Tell, and bring them near: yea, 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 god else beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside me. Look unto me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. 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, ever tongue shall swear. Surely, shall one say, in the Lord have I righteousness and strength: even to Him shall all men come, and all that are incensed against Him shall be ashamed. In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory." (Isaiah 45:20-25)
In order to get the full benefit of these closing words of the 45th chapter of Isaiah, one must have in mind the leading features of all that has preceded, from the 40th chapter. Remember that in the whole Gospel of Isaiah the prominent feature is the great case in court, where the Government of God is on trial among men, before the whole universe. The question to be decided is, "Who is God?"
The decision of the case depends on who can save: the One who can save is the true God. The witnesses are the men whom God saves. They alone can be true witnesses, telling what they know from personal experience. In these verses we have this court scene vividly presented before us. "Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together. ... Tell, and bring them near: yea, let them take counsel together." (Isaiah 45:20-21)
Here again is the summons to court. God challenges His enemies, those who have brought false charges against Him, to come and establish their case if possible. Let all the strength of all nations be joined together to manufacture a god or multitudes of gods, yet none of them can save; none can deliver those that trust in them. That is to say, no man, nor all men together, can save. Men cannot save themselves.
Those who set up a wooden god, or any kind of god that cannot save, have no knowledge. Surely, the least degree of wisdom would teach anybody that when he is in a lost condition he cannot manufacture anything that can save him. This is simply the same thing that we find in the New Testament: "By grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9)
The Gospel according to Isaiah is identical with that preached by Paul.
Praying for Deliverance
For what purpose does one trust in any god, whether the true God, or one of his own manufacture? It is for the purpose of support, of salvation. Read again the 44th chapter. The foolish man who makes a god out of the same piece of wood with which he cooks his dinner, falls down before it, and says, "Deliver me; for you are my god." (Isaiah 44:17)
The fact that he prays this prayer, shows that he feels the need of deliverance. We must not make the mistake of supposing that all the heathen are insincere. There is no doubt as great a proportion of sincerity among the people in openly heathen countries as there is in those that are nominally Christian. It is not every heathen that prays for aid in sin-for the furtherance of his evil designs.
True, we learn that among the ancients very many prayed to the gods in order that they might succeed in some proposed plan of robbery or seduction; but then we read that many among professed Christians pray to God, but ask only that they may consume it upon their lusts. "You ask, and receive not, because you ask amiss, that you may consume it upon your lusts." (James 4:3)
So if the heathen have no excuse, the professed Christian has no reason for despising them. Among the heathen who in their blindness bow down to wood and stone, there are very many who are earnestly longing for deliverance from the chains that bind them. Ethiopia is represented as stretching out her hands to God. "Princes shall come out of Egypt; Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God." (Psalm 68:31)
We are told that when the true light from God shines forth from the people of God, the Gentiles will come to it. "And the Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising." (Isaiah 60:3)
So when we hear of men praying, no matter to what they pray, we know that they pray because they desire something. The heathen pray to a god that cannot save. Yet they continue to pray for year after year. What wonderful perseverance! Praying for deliverance, and continuing to pray, not discouraged by the fact that they never find the thing sought for. There is something in them to admire, even while we pity.
Would we be as persevering? It is a question, for very many times we become weary in well-doing, and say that it is a vain thing we serve God. (Malachi 3:14) Perhaps we can learn a lesson even from the heathen.
He Who Creates, Saves
Into the midst of this multitude assembled to pray to a god that cannot save, God sends out the message, "Look unto me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth." (Isaiah 45:22)
How is it that He calls to the ends of the earth, to look to Him to be saved? Because He is "the Creator of the ends of the earth." (Isaiah 40:28)
He can save that which He has made. And He will do it, too, for: "All the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God." (Isaiah 52:10) "The heavens are yours, the earth also is yours: as for the world, and the fullness thereof, You have founded them. The north and the south, You have created them; Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in your name. You have a mighty arm; strong is your hand, and high is your right hand." (Psalm 89:11-13)
In Christ we have redemption, because in Him are all things created, and in Him all things hold together: "Who has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son: In whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins: Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him: And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist." (Colossians 1:13-17)
The Creator is the Saviour. The cross of Christ saves, because in the cross is the power of a new creation. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature." (2 Corinthians 5:17)
That which reminds us of the fact that God is the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and the sea, and all that is in them is that which presents to us the Gospel of our salvation. It is the Word of truth.
Salvation Natural to God
God is our Father. All the subjects of the King of kings are His children. Yet most people, even professed Christians, think it a surprising thing that God answers prayer. Indeed, it is really a question in the minds of many, whether God does actually hear our prayers.
If there were a case reported, of marvelous cure, or deliverance from great danger, or of relief in great distress, many professed Christians would shake their heads, and deplore such fanaticism. Among those who would believe it, it would be reported as a most marvelous thing.
Marvelous indeed are all God's mercies, but what we mean is that people would regard it as a strange thing. "This poor man cried, and the Lord actually delivered him out of all his troubles! (Psalm 34:6) How strange!"
We pick up our morning paper, and read the headlines. One says, in startling letters, "Astonishing Occurrence: A rich father actually gives his son a suit of clothes!"
Another one says, "Strange Affair: A young man traveling on the Continent telegraphs to his father for money, and receives a check the next day!"
You throw down the paper in disgust. "How senseless to publish such commonplace things as those; why, it is the most natural thing in the world for a father to give his son money and clothing, and whatever he needs for his support; that is an everyday occurrence; why take up space to tell what everybody knows?" "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him?" (Matthew 7:11)
We should indeed publish the mercies of the Lord, but not as though it were a rare thing for the Lord to be merciful. Rather should the goodness of the Lord be talked about so much that everybody would know that "He delights in mercy," (Micah 7:18) and that it is His nature to give to everyone that asks. "Everyone that asks receives." (Matthew 7:8)
God saves, and saves immediately. "Shall not God avenge His own elect, which cry to Him day and night, and yet He is longsuffering over them? I say unto you, that He will avenge them speedily." (Luke 18:7-8,RV)
Bearing False Witness Against God
Yet thousands professedly pray to God, and receive no definite answers. Indeed, they scarcely expect answers, and would be surprised if any came. How many people are there in Christian lands and in Christian churches who day after day and week after week bow down before the Lord, and pray for deliverance, and yet are not free. They pray for salvation from sin, and yet are not saved; they still go on sinning. How much better off are they than the heathen?
The idolater prays to a god that cannot save, and is not saved; the professed Christian prays to the God that can save, and he likewise is not saved. Where is the difference? Not in the men, certainly. The heathen is for all practical purposes as well off as the man who professes to worship the true God. "My brethren, these things ought not so to be," (James 3:10) and it is not God's fault that they are so. He hears prayer, and He saves.
Worse Than the Heathen
We are God's witnesses, yet we often bear false witness. Every professed Christian who continues to live in sin; everyone who prays to God, declaring that he worships only the true and living God, but who does not live in the constant enjoyment of the salvation for which he prays, is a false witness. He is doing God worse service than are the heathen themselves. He is saying that there is no more power in God to save than there is in the gods of the heathen; and inasmuch as he professes to be a servant of God, and is supposed to be intimate with Him, his testimony tells more against God than does the testimony of many heathen.
When the heathen looks at such an one, what inducement has he to leave his idols, and worship the God of the Christian? The heathen is indeed without excuse, in that he has all creation before him; but he gets no evidence from this one of the highest of God's creatures. It is well that God has not left himself without witness, in that He has done all men good, giving them rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons; for the men who have professed His name have too often testified that He could not save, or else that He was indifferent.
The only way that we can be true witnesses for God, is by allowing His power to work in us that which is good. It is not enough that we do not indulge in some of the practices of the debased heathen; if we do not take salvation from our God, to whom we pray for deliverance, we are as bad off as are the heathen who set up the wood of their graven image, and pray to a God that cannot save. Let us not libel God any more.
The Secret of Successful Prayer
If men in praying would remember that He is the creator of the ends of the earth, there would not be so many vain prayers. "Ah Lord God! behold, You have made the heaven and the earth by your great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for You." (Jeremiah 32:17)
He who made man of the dust of the earth can very easily "lift up the poor out of the dust, ... and set them among the princes of His people, (Psalm 113:7) and make them inherit the throne of glory." (2 Samuel 2:8)
It is because men have forgotten to worship God as the Creator, that they do not find salvation. The fact that He is the Creator, is the sole difference between Him and the hordes of false gods. Do not forget this essential difference.
Salvation in a Look
God says, "Look unto me, and be saved." (Isaiah 45:22)
Salvation is in a look. "There's life in a look."--Joh Parker, Hymn: There is Life in a Look.
When the children of Israel were dying in the bites of venomous serpents, "The Lord said unto Moses, Make a fiery serpent, and set it upona pole; and it shall come to pass, that everyone that is bitten, when he looks upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, andit came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived." (Numbers 21:8-9) "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life." (John 3:14-15)
Looking in faith saves us.
"We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory." (2 Corinthians 3:18) "For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for usa far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen." (2 Corinthians 4:17-18)
While we look at the Lord, He looks at us, and the Light of His countenance saves. "The light of the knowledge of the glory of God [shines] in the face of Jesus Christ." (2 Corinthians 4:6)
When Peter denied the Lord with cursing and swearing, Jesus turned and looked upon Peter, and immediately Peter received repentance and forgiveness. "And about the space of one hour after another confidently affirmed, saying, Of a truth this fellow also was with Him: for he is a Galilaean." (Luke 22:59) "But he began to curse and to swear, saying, I know not this man of whom you speak." (Mark 14:71) "And immediately, while he yet spoke, the cock crew. And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had said unto him, Before the cock crow, you shall deny me thrice. And Peter went out, and wept bitterly." (Luke 22:60-62)
No one can possibly be lost while he is steadfastly looking unto Jesus.
Sworn Testimony
"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." (Isaiah 45:23)
In this great case, all the testimony must be sworn to. God has given testimony in His own behalf, and has sworn to it. He has sworn that none who trust in Him shall be lost. He has sworn to save everyone who is willing to be saved, that is, everyone who acknowledges himself to be utterly lost, and who therefore cease his vain struggles to save himself, but allows God to do as He will with him.
His case rests upon His power and willingness to save the ungodly, and such confidence has He in the outcome, that He has sworn that every knee shall bow before Him, and every tongue confess that He is the Lord. All will do this, constrained by the weight of evidence.
• The righteous will do it now, even though they cannot see and understand all the dealings of God;
• The wicked, even the devil himself, will do it at the last, when the hidden things are brought to light, and will thus pronounce their own doom.
In the oath of God, He has placed every man under oath. Every man on earth is under obligation to God, to bear witness to His faithfulness and power to save; all are by right God's witnesses; therefore all who do not in their lives bear witness to the fact that God saves, are perjurers. The third commandment (Exodus 20:7) is broken by many in their prayers. They take the name of God in vain, because they do not claim the salvation which He has wrought out, and has brought to all mankind.
Our Case God's Case
"Surely he shall say of me, In the Lord is all righteousness and strength: even to Him shall men come; and all that are incensed against Him shall be ashamed. In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory." (Isaiah 45:24-25)
In the Lord there is righteousness and strength. In the Lord there is justification and glory. When God swore, He swore by himself. He pledged His life for the salvation of men. He virtually said that if He failed to save anybody, even the humblest person in the remotest part of the earth, who called upon Him for salvation, He would forfeit His own life. (This thought is also found in Chapter 25, A Sure Foundation, sub-head "A Tried Stone," and Chapter 58, Abolishing the Enmity, sub-head "The Heavens and the Earth Interested.")
Indeed, if righteousness does not come from God, or if it comes from any other source than the Lord Jesus, then His life is already forfeited, for in that case Christ is dead in vain. "I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." (Galatians 2:21)
But Christ is not dead in vain, and "God is from everlasting to everlasting," (Psalm 90:2) although He has staked His life. He declares that all men shall yet bear witness, and swear to it, that He is the God that saves. Since He has such confidence in His case, and is willing to stake so much upon it, cannot we put our case along with His? If we join Him, our life is "bound up in the bundle of life with His," (1 Samuel 25:29) and we are as sure of everlasting life and happiness as He is. What a great salvation!--Present Truth, January 18, 1900--Isaiah 45:20-25.