Isaiah 48 explained: Warned Ahead, Released From Babylon

Faith in name only (vv. 1-2)

The people addressed swear by God's name, call themselves citizens of Jerusalem, the holy city, and say they rely on him. But the passage says none of it is sincere or matched by how they live.

Announced before it happened (vv. 3-8)

God says he foretold past events long before they came, so a stubborn people could not credit their idols. Now he announces something new, widely understood as their coming release from exile in Babylon, so no one can claim they saw it coming.

Held back, not destroyed (vv. 9-11)

God holds back his anger for the sake of his own name and says he will not give his glory to another, which many read as meaning that wiping out his people would dishonor him. Exile is pictured as a furnace that tests them, though scholars are unsure exactly what 'not as silver' means.

The ally against Babylon (vv. 12-16)

The Creator, 'the first and the last,' says he has called a chosen ally to defeat Babylon, generally taken to be Cyrus, the Persian king who conquered it in 539 BC. Verse 16 ends with a new voice saying God has sent him, though the wording leaves unclear whether God's Spirit is sent with him or does the sending; it is often read as the prophet, and Christians have also read it in light of Jesus.

What might have been (vv. 17-19)

God speaks with longing about the peace and flourishing they would have had if they had listened. The images of a flowing river, sea waves and countless sand picture abundance that never runs dry.

Leave Babylon (vv. 20-22)

The exiles are told to leave and to announce to the whole world that God has set his people free, with desert water from a rock echoing the earlier escape from Egypt. The closing line about no peace for the wicked marks the end of a section and appears again in chapter 57.

Key verse: Isaiah 48:20

Where Christians differ

Christians differ on whether the 'new things' and the release from Babylon refer only to the historical return from exile or also point forward to the coming of Jesus.

Something to think about

What do you think separates belonging to a group in name from truly belonging to it?