ESV Global Study Bible :: Footnotes for Isaiah 41

Isa. 41:1–20 God alone guides history, for his glory and for the benefit of his people.

Isa. 41:1 let the peoples renew their strength. Let the unbelieving nations try to match the strength God gives his believing people (40:31). let us together draw near for judgment. God invites the nations to defend their own made-up explanations of history.

Isa. 41:2 one from the east. Cyrus the Great, leader of the rising Persian Empire, soon to conquer Babylon (see 44:24–45:7). The Lord gives up (that is, gives over) nations before him (that is, before Cyrus). He (the Lord) makes them like dust with his sword (that is, with Cyrus’s sword). God is guiding events by his own overruling redemptive purpose.

Isa. 41:4 calling the generations from the beginning. The rise of Cyrus is evidence of one divine plan governing historical events from the beginning. On the first and the last in Isaiah, see also 44:6 and 48:12. The Lord is the one and only God, the ruler of every last bit of history.

Isa. 41:5–7 The nations respond to the upheavals of history by nervously constructing more gods to believe in. But how can “created creators” save?

Isa. 41:8–9 God reminds his people of his commitments to them. On Israel as the Lord’s servant, see note on 42:1–9. Mention of God’s having chosen Jacob and of Israel’s status as the offspring of Abraham speaks clearly of God’s promises (Gen. 17:7; 22:17). This reminds the Jewish exiles in Babylon that God has purposes for what they are enduring.

Isa. 41:10 You is the people as a whole (called “Jacob” in v. 8). Unlike the terrified nations of v. 5, the people of God can be fearless because of their faith in him (see vv. 13–14).

Isa. 41:14–16 worm. . . . threshing sledge. The Lord makes his seemingly insignificant people into a force powerful enough to remove even great obstacles to the accomplishment of his will.

Isa. 41:14 Redeemer. There are two Hebrew words for “redeem” in Isaiah. Both carry the idea of delivering and protecting. The term used here appears frequently in this part of Isaiah (compare 43:1; 44:6; 48:17; 20; 52:9; 62:12). The focus is on God’s wanting to rescue his people from their captivity and to create the conditions under which they can flourish (compare Ex. 6:6; 15:13).

Isa. 41:17 the poor and needy. The people of God refuse the false salvations of idolatry. They look to God alone in faith. They are sustained as they make their way to Zion after release from exile. and there is none. With every human resource exhausted, only God remains.

Isa. 41:21–29 God challenges the false claims of human idols.

Isa. 41:22 Let them bring them. That is, let the nations bring their idols, which cannot move without human help. Tell us. “Us” refers to God and the people of Israel. what is to happen. Canaanite and Mesopotamian religions claimed prophetic powers. Here and in the following chapters God claims that he alone can accurately predict the future. This shows that he is the only true God (see 44:7–8; 45:21; 46:9–10).

Isa. 41:23 that we may be dismayed and terrified. Human religion is intimidating but is empty, while the gospel is comforting (40:1) and offers good and sufficient reasons for faith.

Isa. 41:25 he shall call upon my name. Cyrus used diplomatic God-talk (Ezra 1:1–4) but he was not a believer (Isa. 45:4–5). Cyrus’s policies, however, were part of God’s strategy to reveal himself in history.

Isa. 41:26 God points to the failure of idolatrous religions to foretell the rise of Cyrus. that we might know . . . that we might say. “We” refers to God and his people.

Isa. 41:29 they are all a delusion. That is, all who look to the idols of their own making for guidance and stability. God thus concludes the debate.