Isaiah 44 explained: One God and a Block of Wood

Water on dry ground (vv. 1-5)

Right after a harsh rebuke in the previous chapter, the LORD turns gently to Israel, using the pet name Jeshurun, meaning "upright one," and promises new life like rain on parched land. People will proudly claim to belong to the LORD, even writing it on their hand like a mark of ownership, and many read this as outsiders joining Israel too (Christians often connect the poured-out Spirit with Jesus' followers receiving the Spirit).

The first and the last (vv. 6-8)

God claims to be the only God, there before anything began and there after everything ends. He challenges any rival to explain the past and predict the future as he has, and calls Israel his witnesses and himself their Rock, meaning a safe place to stand.

Idols cannot help (vv. 9-11)

Those who make and defend idols are called blind and empty, because a god made by human hands can do nothing for anyone. The craftsmen are only human, so their creation can be no greater than they are.

Dinner and a god (vv. 12-20)

In biting satire, the prophet follows an idol from the blacksmith's forge to the carpenter's chisel, to a tree that grew only because of rain the maker did not control. Half the log cooks his meal and warms him, the other half he bows to and begs to save him, and he never stops to ask whether the thing in his hand is a lie.

Forgiven and remembered (vv. 21-23)

The LORD tells Israel he has not forgotten them and has cleared away their wrongs like morning mist burning off. He invites them to come back, and the whole natural world is called to sing about it.

Cyrus the shepherd (vv. 24-28)

The Maker of everything says he will see Jerusalem and the towns of Judah rebuilt, and names Cyrus, the Persian king who conquered Babylon in 539 BC and let the exiles go home, as his "shepherd." The drying up of the deep likely echoes the sea crossing in the Exodus story, though some see a hint of Babylon's rivers; scholars are unsure.

Key verse: Isaiah 44:6

Where Christians differ

Christians differ on whether Cyrus, who lived well over a century after Isaiah, was named in a prediction made long in advance or by a later prophet speaking to the exiles in Babylon, which affects how the chapter's argument about foretelling the future is understood.

Something to think about

What are some things people today make with their own hands or minds and then end up looking to for safety, and how might someone tell whether those things can bear that weight?