Day 219

God Uses Human Instruments

Read: Isaiah 44-45

God promises that the Jews will be brought back to Jerusalem. But the Jews must realize that only God can do this, not the idols they had worshiped in the past. Again and again, God affirms that he is the only God. “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god” (44:6). “I am the Lord, and there is no other” (45:5-6, 18). Idolatry is ridiculed; a man cuts down a tree, uses part of the wood to warm himself and another part to make an idol: “Shall I fall down before a block of wood?” (44:19).

God will bring his people back to Jerusalem, but he will do it through a pagan king who does not even know him. That pagan king was Cyrus the Persian who conquered the Babylonians through the power given him by God.

The passage ends with a call to all nations to turn to God to be saved. There the Lord said concerning himself, “To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear” (45:23). The fulfillment in Christ is an evidence of Christ’s deity. Of him Paul said “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” (Phil. 2:10-11).

God has a great plan to redeem his people through Jesus Christ. He uses human instruments to bring that salvation to people across the world.

PRAYER
Father, we bow before Jesus Christ and confess that he is Lord and ask that you use us as your instruments. Amen.