"Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am he."
Isaiah 41:4
Part 1
The forty-first chapter of Isaiah follows the closing of chapter forty, where the LORD invited His people to “renew their strength,” and to “mount up with wings as eagles.” In this next chapter, he shows just how weak man is. Historically, during this time, Israel is in captivity, and Jacob is weak as a “worm.” The enemy all around him is strong (v. 14).
God in this chapter is challenging the earth (the islands, the coastlands, the faraway lands) to determine if the pagan gods (idols) are the true God, or if Jehovah is. Indeed, they both cannot be God.
The making of homemade gods:
“So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and he that smootheth with the hammer him that smote the anvil, saying, It is ready for the sodering: and he fastened it with nails, that it should not be moved” (Isaiah 41:7).
The contest between Jehovah and the gods:
“Shew the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods: yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and behold it together” (Isaiah 41:23).
Here’s the competition, which of these “contestants” can accurately tell the future? What is the evidence? Our verse for today, v. 4.
“Who hath wrought and done it?”
Who has accomplished all of these things, in verses 1-3? Only the LORD! Some might have thought it was King Cyrus. Others may say some other human, or perhaps they might have thought that it was another god that did it.
“Calling the generations from the beginning?”
What a question! It is asking who made every nation that dwells over all the earth? Who did these things from the beginning of time? Was it a god, invented by a man? Of course not! It was God who created all things in the beginning.
If there is a design, there must be a designer. A pattern doesn’t just happen. Someone patterns it. Who is responsible for the origin of man and the nations? Come back tomorrow, and we will continue with this contest between Jehovah and the gods of the heathen.