A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 40: The Light of Judgment

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 40: The Light of Judgment

In our last presentation of this commentary on Isaiah, The Test of God, discussing Isaiah chapter 41 we had witnessed a description of the test of God as it was attributed to Yahweh God Himself through the words of Isaiah His prophet, and the valid conclusion for Christians must be that only God, the God of the Bible, has revealed the past as well as the future, and by that we should know that He is God. Of course, the proof that He has done this is found only through the study of His prophets alongside the subsequent events of history which demonstrate that His Word has been, and is true. So for that reason alone, men should dispense of their idols and worship and obey Him, in ways that are also revealed in His Word.

Having done that, we began our commentary for Isaiah chapter 42, but we only presented the first four verses of the chapter. So we will repeat them here, so that we may discuss at length a different aspect of the message which they contain.

1 Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the [Nations]. 2 He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. 3 A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth. 4 He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law.

When we interpreted verse 2, we made the assertion that this prophecy could refer to the children of Israel collectively, once they receive the Gospel of Christ, but that it pertains much more precisely to Yahshua Christ Himself, the subject of the Gospel which they are to receive. Declarations are made in chapter 41 as well as in subsequent chapters of this prophecy, that Jacob is Yahweh’s servant. So we also made the assertion that even in apostasy and captivity, Jacob, referring the children of Israel collectively, is Yahweh’s servant, because whether or not they comply willingly, or even knowingly, they are nevertheless accomplishing the Will of Yahweh in the world – which is something which they shall do even in spite of themselves.

In the various promises to Abraham, Jacob, and later, to Joseph, in Genesis chapters 12 through 17 and chapters 35 and 48, the children of Israel were both promised and prophesied to become great nations, companies of nations, and a multitude of nations. In Genesis chapter 48, Joseph inherited the double-portion of the birthright and the promises which had been made by God to Abraham from his father. Then when Jacob further blessed his sons, in Genesis chapter 49, he declared “22 Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall”, which means that the posterity of Joseph would overflow their border. So in the Song of Moses in Deuteronomy chapter 33 we also read “16 And for the precious things of the earth and fulness thereof, and for the good will of him that dwelt in the bush: let the blessing come upon the head of Joseph, and upon the top of the head of him that was separated from his brethren. 17 His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns: with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth: and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh.”

The children of Israel would indeed fulfill these promises, but they could not have fulfilled them in the tiny land which they had originally been alloyed in Palestine, and the Word of God also acknowledged that elsewhere. For example, in Isaiah chapter 49 (49:18) the children of Israel are portrayed as saying “The place is too strait for me: give place to me that I may dwell.” So in Deuteronomy chapter 32 we read: “8 When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.” While this reading is contested by some modern scholars, because it is not consistent in ancient sources, the King James translation is attested in many other versions, such as the New American Standard Bible and the Latin Vulgate and its translation by Doauy-Rheims. Strangely, the Septuagint has “angels of God” rather than “children of Israel”, and the Dead Sea Scrolls Bible, following the fragment identified as 4QDeuteronomy^j, has “children of God”. This creates a conflict, because, as we read in Luke chapter 3, Adam was the son of God, and therefore all of the descendants of Adam are children of God, something which Paul of Tarsus acknowledged in his proclamation to the Athenians, who were the descendants of Javan the son of Japheth, in Acts chapter 17 (17:28). However the Hexapla of Origen attests that both his Hebrew copy and the Old Latin text had “sons of Israel”, which was also apparently attested by Aquila of Sinope and Theodotian in their Greek translations. In that same place in the Hexapla, as well as in The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible, “sons of Israel” is said to have been attested in the Samaritan Pentateuch. [1]

Evidently the land of Canaan was not the land, or the only land, set aside for Israel, since the tribes descended from Canaan had occupied it long before the Exodus, and since Israel had taken the land from Canaan rather than having been moved to lands which had not been inhabited by others of the sons of Adam. Ostensibly, there were other reasons for the conquest of Canaan, and the promise of a greater Israel to Abraham, which had been fulfilled in the days of David. But that land alone was not the land of their destiny. So in words which had been spoken by the prophet Nathan to David himself, we read in 2 Samuel chapter 7: “8 Now therefore so shalt thou say unto my servant David, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I took thee from the sheepcote, from following the sheep, to be ruler over my people, over Israel: 9 And I was with thee whithersoever thou wentest, and have cut off all thine enemies out of thy sight, and have made thee a great name, like unto the name of the great men that are in the earth. 10 Moreover I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more; neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them any more, as beforetime…”

That land to which they would move could not have been in Palestine, because Nathan had spoken those words to David in Palestine, in Jerusalem. So evidently there was some other place, outside of Israel, to which Israel would be permanently moved at some point in the future, subsequent to the time of David. But it is also evident that the process of that moving began even earlier, before the time of David. As we had mentioned earlier in this commentary, the Phoenicians who had settled Europe and the coast of Africa, the Danaan Greeks, the Dorian Greeks, and even the Trojans may all be traced back to either Israel in captivity in Egypt, or to Israel in the seaports of Palestine, and especially, in these cases, those of Dor and Tyre. We shall not elaborate on those assertions here, however it is also apparent that the Israelites who had migrated at the earliest time, those who departed the main body of Israel in Egypt by sea, would not have had the laws of Moses given at Sinai.

Later, Paul of Tarsus had commended the Romans, descendants of the Trojans, for establishing a society based on the rule of law, where in Romans chapter 2 he wrote: “13 For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. 14 For when the [Nations], which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves.” The laws of Rome did not perfectly coincide with those of Moses, but they did protect the people and punish men for committing many of the same deeds which the law of Moses condemns, and as Paul continues, he also explains how, like Moses, the Romans gave a man who was accused a right to be heard at trial.

So as we continue, the language in verse 15 of that chapter is rather archaic, so we will also offer our own version: “15 Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;) 16 In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.” We would read verse 15 to say: “15 who exhibit the work of the law written in their hearts, bearing witness with their conscience, and between one another considering accusations or then defending the accused”, so Paul was commending the Romans for evaluating evidence before condemning a man. Saying that, Paul had also described the Romans as having fulfilled the promise which Yahweh God had made to Israel, which is found in Jeremiah chapter 31. This establishess the fact that Paul understood that the Romans were descended from Israel: “33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.” Yahweh never promised any “gentiles” that He would write His law in their hearts, but only Israel. However later in the epistle, in Romans chapter 11, he compared them to wild olives, contrasted to the cultivated olives which were the Israelites of Judaea who had been raised with the law. That is also why Paul wrote here that having not the law, they exhibited the law written in their hearts, something which Yahweh God had promised to Israel.

But Paul never described the Corinthians as wild olives. Instead, in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 he said to them that “1 Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; 2 And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; 3 And did all eat the same spiritual meat; 4 And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.” So the ancestors of the Corinthians were baptized in the cloud and the sea with Moses, as well as the ancestors of Paul. Therefore if we believe Paul, we must examine how that could be so. It can be established in ancient history that the Corinthians were Dorian Greeks, just as the people of many of the cities of the Peloponnesus, such as the Spartans. In Greek literature, the earliest mention of Dorian Greeks is in the Odyssey of Homer, in Book 19, where they were described only as being on the island Crete. Crete is a large island in the Mediterranean of which the easternmost shore is about 250 miles from Athens, and 500 miles from the location of ancient Dor in Palestine.

There is a second witness to this connection, which is a letter that had been recorded in both 1 Maccabees chapter 12 and by Flavius Jospehus in his Antiquities of the Judaeans, in Book 12. The letter was written by a Spartan king to a high priest of Jerusalem named Onias, in the early 2nd century BC. As Josephus had recorded it, according to William Whiston’s translation, we read: “226 Areus, king of the Lacedemonians, to Onias, sends greetings. We have met with a certain writing, whereby we have discovered that both the [Judaeans] and the Lacedemonians are of the same family, and are derived from the kindred of Abraham. It is but just, therefore, that you, who are our brethren, should send to us about any of your concerns as you please. 227 We will also do the same thing, and esteem your concerns as our own, and will look upon our concerns as in common with yours. Demotoles, who brings you this letter, will bring your answer back to us. This letter is four square; and the seal is an eagle, with a dragon in his claws.”

The Judaeans of the time, who were very guarded concerning their heritage, could not have contrived this story. The same Judaeans would not even entertain the claims of certain of their neighboring Samaritans to being Israel, even if they were, on account of the fact that they no longer had their genealogies, for which reason the Judaeans had always despised the Samaritans. Yet Christ Himself did not deny the validity of the claim of the woman at the well in Samaria, who had asked Him “12 Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?” The Judaeans rejected those claims, so how should they accept the claim of the Spartan king? However they certainly did accept it, and Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 are verification of their veracity. In turn, the Dorians, and especially the Spartans, are often recorded as having expressed pride in their own mythical origin, so why should they admit to having a humble heritage such as that of Abraham? We cannot assume that the pagan king of Sparta understood the Scriptures and the promises of God, even whether or not he believed that Herakles was his progenitor, which was a common belief in Sparta.

However the children of Israel never kept Moses, and in their nations abroad they had always been pagans. They worshipped the calves of Baal and many other ancient abominations which can be traced to ancient Canaan, Egypt and Mesopotamia. Minos king of Crete, to whom is credited the Minotaur, was said to have been the son of Europa, a Phoenician woman of Tyre. Minos was said to have sacrificed young men and women to this Minotaur, or “bull of Minos”, much like the sacrifices of children to Moloch.

The Greeks and others who migrated to the shores of the Mediterranean had also partaken in many other detestable practices, and even when they did not, they had nevertheless tolerated such practices among others in their communities. Here we shall give a few examples of their corruption, from ancient Greek literature:

In the Iliad, Book 5, the Achaean hero Diomedes, the king of Argos, is portrayed as having expressed the hope of being able to steal certain Trojan horses in battle, and he is portrayed as having said, in part:

“They are of the stock that great Jove [Zeus] gave to Tros in payment for his son Ganymede, and are the finest that live and move under the sun. King Anchises stole the blood by putting his mares to them without Laomedon's knowledge, and they bore him six foals. Four are still in his stables, but he gave the other two to Aeneas. We shall win great glory if we can take them.” [2]

Laomedon was the grandson of Tros, and he became king of Troy and father of Priam, while Aeneas was a nephew of Laomedon by his sister, according to the common mythology. So Tros was depicted as having accepted horses from Zeus in exchange for his own son, a concept which should be completely odious to Christians, but which had been celebrated by Greek writers for many centuries. Then, in the Iliad, Book 20, we read further of Ganymede, where Aeneas is portrayed as the speaker:

Erichthonius begat Tros, king of the Trojans, and Tros had three noble sons, Ilus, Assaracus, and Ganymede who was comeliest of mortal men; wherefore the gods carried him off to be Jove's cupbearer, for his beauty's sake, that he might dwell among the immortals. Ilus begat Laomedon, and Laomedon begat Tithonus, Priam, Lampus, Clytius, and Hiketaon of the stock of Mars. But Assaracus was father to Capys, and Capys to Anchises, who was my father, while Hector is son to Priam. [3]

While Homer spoke of Zeus’ abduction of Ganymede in rather glowing terms, he did not make any explicit references to a sexual relationship, but he did describe Ganymede’s beauty as the reason for which Zeus had wanted the young man for himself. However perhaps a hundred and fifty years later, there certainly were such sexually explicit references made in Greek literature. So what follows are words attributed to an unnamed Phrygian, in Euripides’ play Orestes. The title character Orestes was the son of Agamemnon, who was ill-fated because he had avenged the blood of his father by killing his own mother, because both she and her lover had murdered him after he returned home from the Trojan War. The reference here to the “horsemanship of Ganymede” is descriptive of the horses which Zeus was said to have given Tros in exchange for his young son:

Ilium, Ilium, oh me! city of Phrygia, and Ida's holy hill with fruitful soil, how I mourn for your destruction [a shrill song] with barbarian cry; destroyed through her beauty, born from a bird, swan-feathered, Leda's cub, hellish Helen! to be a curse to Apollo's tower of polished stone. Ah! Alas! woe to Dardania, its wailing, wailing, for the horsemanship of Ganymede, bedfellow of Zeus. [4]

Euripides was a Tragic Poet who lived from about 480 to 406 BC. In another play by Euripides titled Cyclops, which tells of one of the adventures of Odysseus in the aftermath of the Trojan War, the name of Ganymede is evoked for comparative purposes with the Cyclops, the one-eyed giant who had the intention of raping a man named Silenus. So we read, in part:

CYCLOPS

Ha! ha! what a trouble it was getting out! This is pleasure unalloyed; earth and sky seem whirling round together; I see the throne of Zeus and all the godhead's majesty. Kiss thee! no! There are the Graces trying to tempt me. I shall rest well enough with my Ganymede here; yea, by the Graces, right fairly; for I like lads better than the wenches.

SILENUS

What! Cyclops, am I Ganymede, Zeus's minion?

Here in these first few lines, the Cyclops professes to prefer Sodomy over the companionship of a woman, and Silenus immediately recalls the perceived relationship of Zeus and Ganymede, which had been suggested by the Cyclops. So if Sodomy is acceptable for one’s god, it must be acceptable for all those who worship such a god. Now where we continue, the Cyclops is portrayed as accepting the allegory in reference to Silenus:

CYCLOPS attempting to carry him into the cave

To be sure, Ganymede whom I am carrying off from the halls of Dardanus.

SILENUS

I am undone, my children; outrageous treatment waits me.

LEADER OF THE CHORUS

Dost find fault with thy lover? dost scorn him in his cups?

SILENUS

Woe is me! most bitter shall I find the wine ere long.

SILENUS is dragged into the cave by the CYCLOPS. [5]

In the way in which this was presented by Euripides, the other men who were portrayed as having been present, including Odysseus, were not hostile to the idea that Silenus would be raped by the Cyclops, and neither is the leader of the Chorus, who actually chided Silenus for having raised objections. Silenus is portrayed as having considered the prospect of his rape outrageous, but not on any firm moral basis, because pagans have no firm moral basis for objecting to rape, or to Sodomy, especially when their own gods also frequently enjoy such perversions.

This view of the fate of Ganymede as it was suggested by Euripides was also expressed in the Library of Malodorous, where he described the so-called Labors of Herakles. Here we also see another cause which had attributed to the Trojan War, rather than the mere taking of Helen by Alexandros. This elucidates not only the depravity of the ancient Greeks, but also the cruelty which they had attributed to the very gods which they had worshipped. So where the author is speaking of Pergamum, a city not far from Troy, we read:

But it chanced that the city was then in distress consequently on the wrath of Apollo and Poseidon. For desiring to put the wantonness of Laomedon to the proof, Apollo and Poseidon assumed the likeness of men and undertook to fortify Pergamum for wages. But when they had fortified it, he would not pay them their wages. Therefore Apollo sent a pestilence, and Poseidon a sea monster, which, carried up by a flood, snatched away the people of the plain. But as oracles foretold deliverance from these calamities if Laomedon would expose his daughter Hesione to be devoured by the sea monster, he exposed her by fastening her to the rocks near the sea. Seeing her exposed, Hercules promised to save her on condition of receiving from Laomedon the mares which Zeus had given in compensation for the rape of Ganymede. On Laomedon's saying that he would give them, Hercules killed the monster and saved Hesione. But when Laomedon would not give the stipulated reward, Hercules put to sea after threatening to make war on Troy.

Here, and throughout their own literature, the Greeks described their own gods as having had many faults and limitations, as if gods should need to be paid for their work, or as if they could only depart while threatening men when they were robbed by them of their expected payment.

This Apollodorus was an Athenian, but there seems to be some propaganda concerning Pergamum in this passage, because the city was quite obscure before the 4th century BC. However during the very time that Apollodorus had written, about the middle of the 2nd century BC, the city was at the height of its political power under the Attalid kings, and it was still independent of Rome, to which it was also a willing loyal ally in the Macedonian Wars. But regardless of the perceived propaganda, the reference to the rape of Ganymede corroborates the descriptions found in Euripides, where he had also portrayed Ganymede as having been raped by Zeus. Why else would an old man have been so captivated by the beauty of a very young man that he kidnapped him and took him home?

The Greeks had often mentioned homosexual relationships and other sins in passing, such as are found in Book 2 of the Geography of Strabo of Cappadocia. Speaking of a coastal town called Leucas, which was in Acarnania, a district in the mainland of southwestern Greece, we read in part:

9 It contains the temple of Apollo Leucatas, and also the “Leap,” which was believed to put an end to the longings of love. “Where Sappho is said to have been the first,” as Menander says, “when through frantic longing she was chasing the haughty Phaon, to fling herself with a leap from the far‑seen rock, calling upon thee in prayer, O lord and master." Now although Menander says that Sappho was the first to take the leap, yet those who are better versed than he in antiquities say that it was Cephalus, who was in love with Pterelas the son of Deïoneus. It was an ancestral custom among the Leucadians, every year at the sacrifice performed in honour of Apollo, for some criminal to be flung from this rocky look‑out for the sake of averting evil, wings and birds of all kinds being fastened to him, since by their fluttering they could lighten the leap, and also for a number of men, stationed all round below the rock in small fishing-boats, to take the victim in, and, when he had been taken on board,⁠ to do all in their power to get him safely outside their borders…. [6]

Throwing petty criminals off a high peak which they probably may not even survive is not the law of justice of which Paul had written concerning the Romans. Sappho was a woman and a renowned lyric poet. Fragments of her works survive to this day. She is described as having written lovingly of women to the point where many suspect her of having been a lesbian, but the story of her undying love for Phaon seems to dispute the claims. She was a late contemporary of Jeremiah, probably having been born around 620 BC. As for the affair between Cephalus and Pterelas, while Strabo was quite restrained he nevertheless did not offer any condemnation of the outcome or its cause. But other and earlier writers actually celebrated Sodomy, in the form which they had considered most acceptable, which was pederasty. At least many Greek writers had often openly approved of sexual relationships between men and boys, and Pindar was certainly one of them. The fact that pederasty was generally tolerated is evident in the fact that these works were distributed and preserved.

So this we may see in Pindar, a poet who lived from about 518 to 438 BC, and whose main subjects were the various Olympic games and their athletes. His poems are arranged in a series for each of the games about which he had written. Among these were Olympian, Pythian, Nemean, and Isthmian odes, as well as a large number of more general songs separated into various categories reflecting their form and style.

While the Greek poets celebrated pederasty, they sometimes expressed disdain for relationships between grown men, unless perhaps it was between men and gods. So in Olympian 1, the first of the Olympian odes, we read:

23 Syracuse’s horse-loving king. Fame shines for him

in the colony of brave men founded by Lydian Pelops,

25 with whom mighty Earthholder Poseidon

fell in love, after Klotho pulled him from the pure cauldron,

distinguished by his shoulder, gleaming with ivory. [7]

The name of this king was Heiron, but here the Greek god Poseidon is portrayed as having fallen in love with Pelops, a grown man. The name Klotho belonged to one of the three Fates of Greek mythology. A little further on in the same poem is another reference to pederasty, and it mentions Ganymede in comparison:

35 It is proper for a man to speak well of the gods, for less is the blame.

Son of Tantalos, of you I shall say, contrary to my predecessors,

that when your father invited the gods

to his most orderly feast and to his friend Sipylos

giving them a banquet in return for theirs,

40 then it was that the Lord of the Splended Trident seized you,

his mind overcome by desire, and with golden steeds

conveyed you to the highest home of widely honored Zeus,

where at a later time

Ganymede came as well

for the same service to Zeus. [8]

In another poem, in Isthmian 2, the ode opens with a celebration of pederasty. Here the name Thrasyboulos would mean courage in counsel or brave counsel:

1 The men of long ago, O Thrasyboulos, who used to mount

the chariot of the golden-wreathed Muses,

taking with them the glorious lyre,

freely shot their honey-sounding hymns of love

at any boy who was beautiful and had the sweetest bloom

5 of late-summer that woos fair-throned Aphrodite. [9]

The depravity of the ancient pagan world is apparent in many more aspects than what we have presented here. Not only were the Greeks morally corrupted, they projected their corruption onto their idols. Yahweh God had formed man in His image, but apostate men form their false gods in their own corrupt images. So according to their own myths, Zeus and Apollo and the other so-called gods were all serial rapists, but also frequently enjoyed the sexual pleasures of many women voluntarily, as it is described throughout the Greek poets. In our recent commentary on Genesis chapter 6, titled The Sins of Men and Angels, we described dozens of cases of the rape of women by Zeus or Apollo which were celebrated by the poets. The Germanic pagan gods were also described in this manner, where Odin is a fitting rival for Zeus in this pattern of degeneracy.

As a digression, classicists who translate ancient Greek literature often use the word nymph to describe women, and quite often, the women who voluntarily give themselves to these gods for sexual trysts. So in English lore, a nymph is often portrayed as some mystical being who is something other than human. But in Greek language, the word νύμϕη primarily describes a wife or especially a bride, and then secondarily, a marriagable maiden. So the Greek gods were not having sexual intercourse with forest creatures. Rather, they were deflowering virgins or violating some man’s wife. Once again, if one’s gods can engage in such corruption, on what moral basis can it possibly be unacceptable for men? 

It was this to which Paul of Tarsus had referred in Ephesians chapter 2, where he wrote in part: “2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: 3 Among whom also we all had our conversation [conduct] in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.” Then a little further on, in chapter 4 of that epistle, Paul wrote once again speaking of the depravity of their ancestors and said: “19 Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. ” Then reading further, he offered a corrective reprimand: “20 But ye have not so learned Christ; 21 If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22 That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; 23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; 24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” It is difficult not to imagine that having written these things, Paul, who was also well versed in Classical literature, was thinking of men such as Ganymede or Silenus.

The apostle Peter also addressed this, in chapter 1 of his first epistle: “18 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; 19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: 20 Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, 21 Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.”

While Paul had extolled the Romans for developing a society based on the rule of law, he nevertheless criticized them for their idolatry, and discussed its consequences. So in Romans chapter 1 we read: “ 18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; 19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. 20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: 21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. 24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: 25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.”

As a consequence for their idolatry, Paul then explained how they had come to accept other sins, such as Sodomy: “26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: 27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.” Examples of these wicked practices among the Greeks and Romans are numerous in their own ancient literature, and while there were men who had despised such practices, many more had not despised them, and generally, they were even tolerated.

The reasons for Paul’s words are reflected in the writings of the late 1st century AD chronicler Tacitus. In his Germania, remarking on the Germans but also evidently testifying to conditions in Rome with which he did not agree, he wrote “No one in Germany finds vice amusing, or calls it ‘up-to-date’ to seduce and be seduced.” Tacitus had marveled at German chastity, as compared to Roman depravity, and at the harsh and swift punishment for things such as adultery, which he said in reference to Germany was “extremely rare considering the size of the population” [10]. Tacitus also explained that in Germany traitors, cowards, and men who engaged in Sodomy were thrown into the mud bogs and suffocated as a punishment. He wrote in part that “cowards, shirkers and sodomites are pressed down under a wicker hurdle into the slimy mud of a bog” [11]. So evidently Tacitus detested the consequences of idolatry in Rome of which Paul had warned, but throughout his life, he nevertheless remained an idolater, and had even misunderstood and disdained Christianity in his other writings.

There are countless other examples of depravity in the ancient pagan world, and once the realization is made, that ancient Israelites scattered abroad had been a quite significant proportion of the population of that world, it becomes evident as to how Jacob, and then Christ Himself, would fit the description of the righteous man raised up from the east, as we had read in the openings verses of Isaiah chapter 41 (41:2), and then it also becomes evident as to both how and why we see in the opening verses of this chapter that “1 … he shall bring forth judgment to the [Nations]. 3 … he shall bring forth judgment unto truth. 4 He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law.”

The laws of Yahweh are the Light of Judgment. As we had explained at length in our commentary for Isaiah chapter 14, titled Lucifer, Son of the Morning, ancient kings considered themselves to be the light-bearers to the people. For this we gave the example of Hammurabi, the ancient king of Babylon who declared that “I am the sun of Babylon who causes light to rise over the land of Sumer and Akkad.” The kings of the Egyptians, Hittites and others had all used similar language to describe themselves as the light of the people, or the sun of their lands. [12]

But in Revelation chapter 22 Yahshua Christ is attested as having said “16 I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.” Earlier, in Revelation chapter 21, in the description of the City of God descended frrom Heaven, we read: “23 And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.” This is the same light prophesied here in Isaiah, as Christ had declared in reference to Himself, as it is recorded in John chapter 8: “12… I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”

So with that, we shall commence where we had left off at this point in Isaiah chapter 42:

5 Thus saith God the LORD, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein: 6 I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the [Nations]; 

Interestingly, the last clause of verse 6 in Brenton’s translation of the Septuagint reads: “… and I have given thee for the covenant of a race, for a light of the [Nations]”. That is a literal interpretation of the Greek, where the Septuagint translators had evidently translated the Hebrew word עם or am (# 5971), which generally means people, with the Greek word γένος which is primarily a “race, stock, or kin,” and then “offspring, even of a single descendant,” according to Liddell & Scott. [13] However in their definition for עם or am, Brown-Driver-Briggs have, people, and they qualify the definition by stating: “original meaning probably those united, connected, related”, [14] and that is certainly reflected in the Septuagint translation of the word here. With this Gesenius generally agrees in his own definition, where he wrote in part that it is “even used of the race or family of anyone”. [15] The promises of God were to one race of men, the descendants of Jacob Israel.

The general purpose of this statement is further described in Isaiah chapter 49, and the response to a prayer made to Yahweh God: “6 And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the [Nations], that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.” As Moses has prophesied of the horens of Joseph, “with them he shall would push the people together to the ends of the earth.” So the light for the Nations described in these passages is a light for the nations of the children of Israel, those same nations which had been promised to come forth from the loins of Abraham, down through Jacob and his descendants.

This interpretation of this passage is confirmed where it is cited in Luke chapter 2, in a declaration attrributed to an elderly man named Simeon who, having been in the Temple in Jerusalem, had seen the Christ child in the arms of His mother and said: “30 For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, 31 Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; 32 A light to lighten the [Nations], and the glory of thy people Israel. 33 And Joseph and his mother marvelled at those things which were spoken of him.”

But as for verse 32 in that passage, the word which was translated as lighten is the Greek word ἀποκάλυψις or apocalypse (# 602), the same Greek word which stands as the Greek title of the Revelation of Christ, because ἀποκάλυψις describes an uncovering, which is a revelation. So we translate Luke 2:32 to read: “a light for the revelation of the Nations and honor of Your people Israel!” The nations are the glory, or honor, of the children of Israel, and here the purpose of the Christ is described as having been for them.

Now they are described even further, as the purpose of this servant is further illustrated:

7 To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house. 

At this point, a great number of the children of Israel are in captivity. Even those who left from Egypt, not having joined Moses and receiving the law at Sinai, are technically still in captivity. Being in captivity, having been taken by their enemies, the 142nd Psalm is appropriate to realize the “prison” allegory: “1 I cried unto the LORD with my voice; with my voice unto the LORD did I make my supplication. 2 I poured out my complaint before him; I shewed before him my trouble. 3 When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then thou knewest my path. In the way wherein I walked have they privily laid a snare for me. 4 I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul. 5 I cried unto thee, O LORD: I said, Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living. 6 Attend unto my cry; for I am brought very low: deliver me from my persecutors; for they are stronger than I. 7 Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name: the righteous shall compass me about; for thou shalt deal bountifully with me.”

When the children of Isrsel are alienated from Yahweh their God, they are in prison, since Christians only have liberty in Christ. So later in this chapter, where it explcitly refers to Israel, in verse 16 we read: “And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them.” Then in verse 22: “But this is a people robbed and spoiled; they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison houses: they are for a prey, and none delivereth; for a spoil, and none saith, Restore.”

Now Yahweh insists that He Himself will do these things for His glory:

8 I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images. 

As we hope to have elucidated here, graven images are not simply harmless idols which men worship whimsically. Rather, when men turn away from God to such idolatry, they attribute to their idols the same depravity in which they themselves desire to engage, by which they also seek to justify their depravity. So as Paul had explained in Romans chapter 1, depravity is the result of apostasy and the inevitable consequence of idolatry.

Prison is a place where one awaits judgment, and very similar to the allegory in the 142nd Psalm, we read a prophecy of Christ Himself in Isaiah chapter 53: “8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.”

Another statement found later in these chapters of Isaiah declares the purpose of Christ once again, where in Isaiah chapter 61, being released from captivity is described as the opening of the prison, so they would not longer be alienated from yahweh their God: “1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.” In the time of their captivity the children of Israel were not sitting in literal prisons, but rather, they had developed into far off nations but were alienated from Yahweh their God. This passage was also cited by Christ in reference to Himself, at the synagogue in Nazareth, as it is described in Luke chapter 4.

Now it is apparent that Yahweh God makes a reference to the things formerly prophesied, and these new things which are now being prophesied in these final chapters of Isaiah:

9 Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them. 

If the children of Israel had known beforehand the truth of the matters which we have discussed here in relation to this chapter of Isaiah, then they would have recognized the truth of this statement and upon receiving the Gospel of Christ, they should have realized that this was indeed Yahweh their God who had come to release them from the prison house by reconciling them to Himself. But they were also blinded by the will of God, so that His will could be fulfilled, as it is written in Isaiah chapter 6: “9 And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. 10 Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed. 11 Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, 12 And the LORD have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.” So there is a continued promise that they would be blind, and that Yahweh would lead them, later in this chapter in verse 16: “And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not…”

So the children of Israel scattered abroad had nevertheless accepted the Gospel of Christ, even while they remained in their state of blindness. That acceptance was in fulfillment of His profession in John chapter 10: “27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” That is the light of judgment, which would also heal their blindness if they would only study His Word so that they can see. However as for His enemies, who were heavily represented among the leaders of the Judaeans of His time, in that same place He had said: “26 But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you.”

Being released from prison into the light of Christ, the children of Israel had abandoned the depravity of their former idolatry, which today we call paganism. Keeping the commandments of Christ, they maintain the commandments of Moses, exclusive of the rituals and other ordinances which are no longer applicable and which were abolished with the Levitical priesthood. So Christian Europeans forsook adultery, fornication, Sodomy, pederasty and other sins. By that alone they had proved that they were his sheep, as they rejected their former sins and heard His voice, keeping His commandments.

However in very recent times, some of those sins are manifesting themselves once again, as Paul of Tarsus had warned in 2 Timothy chapter 3. However a similar warning by Peter, in 2 Peter chapter 3, is more succinct: “3 … there shall come in the last days scoffers with scoffing going according to their own desires 4 and saying “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers have fallen asleep, all things continue thusly from the beginning of creation!” I am certain that they may not really want to see His coming, since in their state of sin it will not be pleasant for them. The promise of His coming is another subject of prophecy in Isaiah, and it too shall certainly be fulfilled.

The former things have come to pass, and now in this time, many of these new things have also come to pass. Those things which Isaiah had prophesied which have not yet come to pass, we shall discuss as we encounter them in these last twenty two chapters of Isaiah, and we shall see why they have not yet come to pass, since that explanation may certainly be elucidated in the Revelation of Yahshua Christ. However because all these former things which are found prophesied in the Word of God have indeed come to pass, by that test of God we know that God is true, and that the things which remain will not be delayed forever.

Now we are going to take a hiatus from this commentary on Isaiah for several weeks, as we embark on a lengthy road trip.

Footnotes:

1 Origenis Hexaplorum, Fridericus Field, AA. M., Volume I, Clarendon Press, 1875, p. 320.

2 The Iliad, Homer, translated by Samuel Butler, Book 5 line 265, The Internet Classics Archive, https://classics.mit.edu/Homer/iliad.5.v.html, accessed August 7th, 2025.

3 The Iliad, Homer, translated by Samuel Butler, Book 20 lines 232-235, The Internet Classics Archive, https://classics.mit.edu/Homer/iliad.20.xx.html, accessed August 7th, 2025.

4 Orestes, Euripides, lines 1384-1390, translated by E. P. Coleridge, https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/ hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0116%3Acard%3D1366, August 7th, 2025.

5 The Cyclops, Euripides, translated by E. P. Coleridge, The Internet Classics Archive, http://classics. mit.edu/Euripides/cyclops.html, accessed August 7th, 2025.

6 Geography, Strabo, translated by Horace Leonard Jones, Book 10 Chapter 2, Section 9, Loeb Classical Library, https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/10B*.html, accessed August 7th, 2025. 

7 Pindar, Volume I, Olympian 1 lines 23-27, translated by William H. Race, Loeb Classical Library, 1997, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, p. 49.

8 ibid., lines 35-45, p. 51

9 Pindar, Volume II, Isthmian 2 lines 1-5, translated by William H. Race, Loeb Classical Library, 1997, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, p. 147.

10 The Germania, Tacitus, Chapter 19, The Agricola and the Germania, translated by H. Mattingly and revised by S. A. Handford, Penguin Classics, 1970, Penguin Books, Ltd., p. 117.

11 ibid., Chapter 12, p. 111.

12 A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 14: Lucifer, Son of the Morning, William Finck, Christogenea.org, https://christogenea.org/podcasts/biblical/commentary-isaiah-part-14-lucifer-son-morning, accessed August 8th, 2025. 

13 γένος, A Greek-English Lexicon, Henry George Liddell and Robert Scott, Perseus Digital Library, https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=ge/nos, accessed August 8th, 2025. 

14 The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon, F. Brown, S. Driver and C. Briggs, 1906, reprinted in 2021, Hendrickson Publishers, p. 766.

15 Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament, translated by Samuel Prideaux Tregelles, Baker Books, 1979, p. 635.