Isaia 44:24 Commento

God, by the prophet, goes on in this chapter, as before, I. To encourage his people with the assurance of great blessings he had in store for them at their return out of captivity, and those typical of much greater which the gospel church, his spiritual Israel, should partake of in the days of the Messiah; and hereby he proves himself to be God alone against all pretenders (Isa 44:1-8). II. To expose the sottishness and amazing folly of idol-makers and idol-worshippers (Isa 44:9-20). III. To ratify and confirm the assurances he had given to his people of those great blessings, and to raise their joyful and believing expectations of them (Isa 44:21-28).

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 44 In this chapter the Lord comforts his people with the promise of the effusion of his Spirit, and the blessings of his grace upon them; the consequence of which would be fruitfulness in them, and the conversion of others, who should profess themselves the Lord's people, Isa 44:1, he proves his deity in opposition to all false gods from his eternity, omniscience, and foretelling future events, Isa 44:6, exposes the stupidity of idol makers and the worshippers of them, Isa 44:9, makes gracious promises of the remembrance of his people, the remission of their sins, and their redemption by Christ, Isa 44:21, of which redemption from Babylon was a type; and of that assurance is given, from the Lord's creating all things by his power; from his frustrating and infatuating diviners and wise men; from his fulfilling his predictions delivered by his prophets; and from his mentioning by name the instrument of their redemption, Cyrus, Isa 44:24, which makes way for a particular prophecy concerning him in the next chapter.

Thus saith the Lord, thy Redeemer,.... These are the words of the Son of God, of Christ, the Redeemer of his people; and the following show him to be the mighty God, and so able to redeem them, and therefore was appointed to this work, and undertook it: and he that formed thee from the womb; that formed thee in it, and brought thee out of it, separated thee from it, and called thee by his grace: I am the Lord that maketh all things; that made all things out of nothing at first; for without Christ was not anything made that was made; all things in heaven, and earth, and sea, were made by him; and he continues all creatures in their being, and provides for them, and governs all by his power; he works hitherto, and continues working with his divine Father, Joh 1:1, that stretcheth forth the heavens alone, that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself; not to the exclusion of the Father and the Holy Spirit, but of all creatures, angels and men; of himself, and by his own strength and power, and, without the help of these, he stretched out the vast space of the heavens as a curtain, and spread out the earth in its length and breadth, and the large surface of it, to that great circumference which it has; a full proof of his proper deity! A man cannot stretch out a curtain, or piece of tapestry, of any size, without the help of another; and much less can a creature stretch out the heavens and the earth.

And when the prophet says concerning the creation, “That stretches forth the heavens alone,” and when God says, “I only stretch out the heavens,” it is made plain to everyone that in the “Only” is signified also the Word of the Only, in whom “all things were made” and without whom “was made not one thing.” Therefore, if they were made through the Word, and yet he says, “Only,” and together with that Only is understood the Son, through whom the heavens were made, so also then, if it is said, “One God,” and “I Only,” and “I the First,” in that “One” and “Only” and “First” is understood the Word co-existing, as in the Light the Radiance. And this can be understood of no other than the Word alone. For all other things subsisted out of nothing through the Son and are greatly different in nature, but the Son himself is natural and true offspring from the Father. And thus the very passage that these insensate have thought fit to adduce, “I the First,” in defense of their heresy, does rather expose their perverse spirit. For God says, “I the first, and I the last”; if then, as though ranked with the things after him, he is said to be first of them, so that they come next to him, then certainly you will have shown that he himself precedes the works in time only; which, to go no further, is extreme irreligion. But if it is in order to prove that he is not from any, nor any before him, but that he is Origin and Cause of all things and to destroy the Gentile fables that he has said, “I the first,” it is plain also that when the Son is called firstborn, this is done not for the sake of ranking him with the creation but to prove the framing and adoption of all things through the Son. For as the Father is first, so also is [the Son] both first, as image of the First, and because the First is in him, and also offspring from the Father, in whom the whole creation is created and adopted into sonship.

(Verse 24) Thus says the Lord, your redeemer, and your creator from the womb: I am the Lord, the maker of all things, stretching out the heavens alone, establishing the earth, with no one beside me. LXX: Thus says the Lord who redeemed you, and formed you from the womb. I am the Lord, who fills all things: I alone stretched out the heavens, and established the earth. With the idols and injustices of Israel destroyed, and sins cleansed, when every creature will rejoice together; and according to the faith of the Gospel (Luke 15), the Angels will rejoice in heaven for the repentance of sinners, the power of God is described, that it is not great for him to redeem Jacob, and to restore Israel, whom he formed from the womb. And if this seems significant to someone, let it not be difficult for them who alone stretches out the heavens. As it is written elsewhere: He who stretches out the heavens like a skin (Ps. CIII, 2). Not that the Son is excluded from the stretching out of the heavens: For all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made (John I, 3), but so that, as we have often said, idols may be excluded by this understanding. For even in the Proverbs of Solomon, from the person of Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God is said: When he established the heavens, I was with him (Prov. VIII, 27). For he himself spoke, and they were made; he himself commanded, and they were created (Psalm 148:5; Psalm 33:9). And: By the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and all the power of them by the breath of his mouth (Psalm 33:6). We frequently proclaim these things so that no occasion is given to the heretics to blaspheme Christ. In the stability of the earth, when he was establishing its foundations, there was no one with God except him who was in it.

The text has presented, at the same time, a triple teaching: God is the creator, the master and the protector. For the term “Lord” demonstrates his sovereignty; the idea of “redemption,” God’s protection; and that of “formation,” the creation. “I am the Lord who performs all these things.” It is I who have sent you the sorrows and who will obtain the joys for you. Then God shows, by the events that have already happened, what he is able to do. “I alone stretched out the heaven and established the earth.” This again serves to refute completely the madness of Arius and Eunomius, for who is the one who alone has created the elements? Is it the Father? Then the Son is not the Creator. Or is it the Son? Then the Father is not the Creator. But if it is the Father and the Son, how should we understand the term “alone”? Surely it is evident that we must understand it of the one divinity of the Trinity.

Thus says the Lord. Here he promises the benefit of liberation to those who return to him. And concerning this he does two things. First, he shows the power of the liberator through the benefit which he conferred on them: your redeemer, from evils, and your maker, in good things, below: thus says the Lord, that formed me from the womb (Isa 49:5); as to the creatures, which he made: I am the Lord, that make all things: he makes the earth by his power (Jer 10:12).

Jeremiah reproves the Jews in Egypt for continuing in idolatry after the exemplary judgments indicted by God on their nation for that sin, Jer 44:1-14; and, upon their refusing to reform, denounces destruction to them, and to that kingdom wherein they sought protection, vv. 15-30.

By myself - Thirteen MSS., six ancient, confirm the reading of the Keri, מאתי meittai.

CONTINUATION OF THE PREVIOUS CHAPTER. (Isa. 44:1-28) Yet--Though thou hast sinned, yet hear God's gracious promise as to thy deliverance. chosen-- (Isa 41:8).

Confirmation of His promises to the Church and Israel, by various instances of His omnipotence; among these the restoration of the Jews by Cyrus. alone--literally, "Who was with Me?" namely, when I did it; answering to "by Myself," in the parallel clause (compare similar phrases, Hos 8:4; Joh 5:30) [MAURER].

The promise takes a new turn here, acquiring greater and greater speciality. It is introduced as the word of Jehovah, who first gave existence to Israel, and has not let it go to ruin. "Thus saith Jehovah, thy Redeemer, and He that formed thee from the womb, I Jehovah am He that accomplisheth all; who stretched out the heavens alone, spread out the earth by Himself; who bringeth to nought the signs of the prophets of lies, and exposeth the soothsayers as raging mad; who turneth back the wise men, and maketh their science folly; who realizeth the word of His servant, and accomplisheth the prediction of His messengers; who saith to Jerusalem, She shall be inhabited! and to the cities of Judah, They shall be built, and their ruins I raise up again! who saith to the whirlpool, Dry up; and I dry its streams! who saith to Koresh, My shepherd and he will perform all my will; and will say to Jerusalem, She shall be built, and the temple founded!" The prophecy which commences with Isa 44:24 is carried on through this group of vv. in a series of participial predicates to אנכי (I) Jehovah is ‛ōseh kōl, accomplishing all (perficiens omnia), so that there is nothing that is not traceable to His might and wisdom as the first cause. It was He who alone, without the co-operation of any other being, stretched out the heavens, who made the earth into a wide plain by Himself, i.e., so that it proceeded from Himself alone: מאתּי, as in Jos 11:20 (compare מני, Isa 30:1; and mimmennı̄ in Hos 8:4), chethib אתּי מי, "who was with me," or "who is it beside me?" The Targum follows the keri; the Septuagint the chethib, attaching it to the following words, τίς ἕτερος διασκεδάσει. Isa 44:25 passes on from Him whom creation proves to be God, to Him who is proving Himself to be so in history also, and that with obvious reference to the Chaldean soothsayers and wise men (Isa 47:9-10), who held out to proud Babylon the most splendid and hopeful prognostics. "Who brings to nought (mēphēr, opp. mēqı̄m) the signs," i.e., the marvellous proofs of their divine mission which the false prophets adduced by means of fraud and witchcraft. The lxx render baddı̄m, ἐγγαστριμύθων, Targ. bı̄dı̄n (in other passages = 'ōb, Lev 20:27; 'ōbōth, Lev 19:31; hence = πύθων πύθωνες). At Isa 16:6 and Job 11:3 we have derived it as a common noun from בּדה = בּטא, to speak at random; but it is possible that בּדה may originally have signified to produce or bring forth, without any reference to βαττολογεῖν, then to invent, to fabricate, so that baddı̄m as a personal name (as in Jer 50:36) would be synonymous with baddâ'ı̄m, mendaces. On qōsemı̄m, see Isa 3:2; on yehōlēl, (Job 12:17, where it occurs in connection with a similar predicative description of God according to His works.