Isaiah 45:21

21 So tell me what you think. Look at the evidence. Put your heads together. Make your case. Who told you, and a long time ago, what's going on here? Who made sense of things for you? Wasn't I the one? God? It had to be me. I'm the only God there is - The only God who does things right and knows how to help.

Isaiah 45:21 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 45:21

Tell ye, and bring them near, and let them take counsel
together
Tell them what I say of their ignorance and stupidity; and gather them all together, their gods, their makers, and their worshippers, and let them lay their heads together, and consult what proof they are able to give of their divinities, particularly by foretelling things to come: who hath declared this from ancient time? who hath told it from that
time?
that is, who of all their gods or priests have ever declared this or anyone thing at any distance of time before it came to pass? either this everlasting salvation of my people, or the redemption by Cyrus, which was a type of it, and was spoken of beforehand? have ever any of them foretold anything like this, and it came to pass as predicted? not one of them. Have not I the Lord?
he had. Christ, by his Spirit in the prophets, signified before hand his sufferings and his death, and the glory that should follow, ( 1 Peter 1:11 ) and when he was here on earth, he foretold his being betrayed to the chief priests; his being delivered to the Gentiles; his scourging and crucifixion, and resurrection from the dead; all which came to pass exactly as he had predicted, ( Matthew 20:18 Matthew 20:19 ) : and there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour:
there is "none beside me", Christ is the one God with the Father and Spirit, and there is no other; nor any Saviour of lost sinners, but him; there is salvation in him, and in no other; and he is "just" in things pertaining to God, in satisfying his justice, and fulfilling his law; he was set forth as Mediator to declare his righteousness, and which is displayed in the work of redemption by him; so that God is just, while he is the justifier of him that believes in him, ( Romans 3:25 Romans 3:26 ) .

Isaiah 45:21 In-Context

19 I don't just talk to myself or mumble under my breath. I never told Jacob, 'Seek me in emptiness, in dark nothingness.' I am God. I work out in the open, saying what's right, setting things right.
20 So gather around, come on in, all you refugees and castoffs. They don't seem to know much, do they - those who carry around their no-god blocks of wood, praying for help to a dead stick?
21 So tell me what you think. Look at the evidence. Put your heads together. Make your case. Who told you, and a long time ago, what's going on here? Who made sense of things for you? Wasn't I the one? God? It had to be me. I'm the only God there is - The only God who does things right and knows how to help.
22 So turn to me and be helped - saved! - everyone, whoever and wherever you are. I am God, the only God there is, the one and only.
23 I promise in my own name: Every word out of my mouth does what it says. I never take back what I say. Everyone is going to end up kneeling before me. Everyone is going to end up saying of me,
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.