Isaiah 45:21
Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together: who hath declared this from ancient time? who hath told it from that time? have not I the LORD? and there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside me.
The verse is a challenge to bring near and take counsel together over who declared coming events and His purpose from ancient time, and the answer is that the Lord alone did. Its power to foretell what will happen proves that there is no other God beside Him. It sets Him against wooden graven images and gods that cannot save, and declares Him to be both just and the only Saviour, joining righteousness and saving power together. It invites all the ends of the earth to come near and look to Him alone to be saved, for salvation, righteousness and strength. It therefore directs His people to rely on His wisdom and saving power rather than turning to finite man for wisdom, for He alone is supreme and sovereign to act, judge, and vindicate His law, patiently restraining punishment yet intervening when persistent rebellion passes the limits of grace, as when He destroyed the old world by a flood after 120 years of probation.
Meaning in Context
The verse is a challenge to bring near and take counsel together over the question who declared coming events and His purpose from ancient time, and the answer is that the Lord alone did. His power to foretell what will happen proves that there is no other God beside Him and evidences His unique Godhood. It contrasts the Lord with wooden graven images and gods that cannot save, whose worshippers have no knowledge, and calls the escaped of the nations to assemble and come near over this truth. It declares Him to be both just and the only Saviour, joining righteousness and saving power together.
Its surrounding call invites all the ends of the earth and people from everywhere to come near and look to Him alone to be saved, for salvation, righteousness and strength. With that invitation goes the promise that all will bow to Him and His people will be justified in Him. As part of Isaiah 41-45, and of promises continued through Isaiah 44 and 45, it reveals His purpose and covenant and what He has done and will do for His people if they follow on to know Him, whose going forth is prepared as the morning. That encouragement deserves far greater appreciation.
Sovereign Judge and Saviour
The verse reveals the greatness of God's love and compassion, a theme so vast that it requires stretched faculties of mind to comprehend it. Christ lived and died as man to be Lord of both the dead and the living, purchasing human life by being executed in man's stead to make it possible for believers to attain immortality and not lose eternal life. As Restorer, Jesus restores His own moral image, nearly obliterated by Satan as destroyer, in all who connect with God through faith and imputed righteousness in the new birth.
It declares the Lord alone supreme and sovereign to act, judge, and vindicate His law, whose law must be honored, and He will make this known to a world that has broken His holy law. His long patience and restraint inflict less punishment than sinners deserve and must not be taken as permission to defy His will. But those who persist in unrighteousness, deception, rebellion, and disregard of His made-known law, presuming on mercy and despising warnings, can exceed the bounds of long-suffering and pass the limits of grace.
Then He intervenes to restrain evil, protect humanity, vindicate the honor of His law, repress increasing unrighteousness, limit human life, and prevent men spoiling one another by continual disobedience and defiance. This same principle is applied to the coming judgment which Christ compared to the days of Noah. The Flood is the example: after a 120-year probation the disobedient who remained outside the ark perished when He destroyed the old world by a flood of waters, blotting out the race become indifferent to His law.
Trust and Obey
The verse is a challenge to bring the case and take counsel together over who declared coming events from ancient time, and the answer is that the Lord alone did, for there is no God else beside Him, a just God and a Saviour. As part of Isaiah 41-45, where God very fully reveals His purpose for His people, it directs His church and people to rely on His wisdom and saving power and to keep the wisdom of the Infinite at her command, rather than turning away to look to finite man and human beings for wisdom. Its surrounding call bids people everywhere to look to God alone for salvation, righteousness, and strength, with the promise that all will bow to Him and His people will be justified in Him.
It is God's invitation to those using oppressive methods to turn from their evil ways and seek Him and look to Him alone to be saved. He forbids oppression and will accept no advantage for His cause gained by oppressing His children and cutting them off from their just rights. Work done for Him must be done according to His ten precepts by those who have a vital connection with Him.
Because the Lord alone declared His purpose from ancient time and there is no God beside Him, a just God and a Saviour, while those who set up wooden graven images and pray to a god that cannot save have no knowledge, and the escaped of the nations are called to assemble and take counsel together over this truth, all must stand before the judgment seat of God and every one render an account of himself to God. Christ lived and died as man to be Lord both of the dead and living, purchasing human life by being executed in man's stead to make it possible for believers to attain immortality and not lose eternal life. Therefore no one is to judge his brother or put a stumblingblock or occasion to fall in his brother's way. Since God alone is a just God and a Saviour with none beside Him, calling all the ends of the earth to look to Him and be saved, no human agent should limit the Holy One of Israel by judging character from formation of heads or hereditary peculiarity and shaping the course by human counsel. Satan as destroyer has nearly obliterated the image of God in man, but Jesus Christ as Restorer restores His moral image in all who connect with God through faith and the imputed righteousness of Christ in the new birth, so hereditary traits and deficiencies of character can be overcome and believers fitted by grace to do successfully the work God has chosen for them.
The verse reveals the greatness of the love and compassion of God and requires stretched faculties of mind to comprehend it. It is a valuable study for schools, better than romance or fables, belonging in lesson books as one of the loftiest themes of thought. It tells of the city being sought whose Builder and Maker is God, showing that heaven is home and citizenship is above and that lives must not be devoted to a world soon to be destroyed. It gives the Word of God revealed in living characters, in pure, excellent language, with elevating, ennobling principles. As part of what God has covenanted to do with His people and what He has done and will do for them if they follow on to know Him, it gives encouragement that is too little appreciated and that calls for testimony and for more missionary work and missionary spirit in the churches, because the Lord God of heaven uses His people so His name can be glorified even in the highways and the hedges.