48 “Hear this, O house of Jacob, who are named Israel
And who came forth from the [a]loins of Judah,
Who swear by the name of the Lord
And invoke the God of Israel,
But not in truth nor in righteousness.
2 “For they call themselves after the holy city
And lean on the God of Israel;
The Lord of hosts is His name.
3 “I declared the former things long ago
And they went forth from My mouth, and I proclaimed them.
Suddenly I acted, and they came to pass.
4 “Because I know that you are [b]obstinate,
And your neck is an iron sinew
And your forehead bronze,
5 Therefore I declared them to you long ago,
Before [c]they took place I proclaimed them to you,
So that you would not say, ‘My idol has done them,
And my graven image and my molten image have commanded them.’
6 “You have heard; look at all this.
And you, will you not declare it?
I proclaim to you new things from this time,
Even hidden things which you have not known.
7 “They are created now and not long ago;
And before today you have not heard them,
So that you will not say, ‘Behold, I knew them.’
8 “You have not heard, you have not known.
Even from long ago your ear has not been open,
Because I knew that you would deal very treacherously;
And you have been called a [d]rebel from [e]birth.
9 “For the sake of My name I delay My wrath,
And for My praise I restrain it for you,
In order not to cut you off.
10 “Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver;
I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.
11 “For My own sake, for My own sake, I will act;
For how can My name be profaned?
And My glory I will not give to another.
Lest we think God was only upset with the Babylonians, this chapter has a similar rebuke for those in Israel. Except there’s a bigger problem for them, as we see in the first verses. They claim to be God’s people, and swear by His name, “but not in truth nor in righteousness.” This is repeated in the second verse also, and so God essentially says, “Let me tell you Who you are claiming and who you are swearing by, because you obviously don’t get it!”
He starts in verse 3, reminding them of all the prophecies that had come before, all the things foretold that have come to pass. But also, this is a bit of a message to future generations (see “new things” in v. 6), lest they fall into the same trap. That is, this message is embedded in a whole bunch of new prophecies, which will also come to pass, and which also serve to show them that God is truly in control, and does not let His word return void.
Why all this bother? We see that in v. 4, “Because I know that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew, and your forehead bronze…” In other words, because I know that you are stubborn, and stiff-necked, and hard-headed–so much that your neck is like iron, and your forehead bronze. Ouch! Worse than that, they were trying to give credit for God’s works to idols and made up gods (v. 5).
These “stiff-necked” people would have likely responded, “Yeah, yeah, we know… Isaiah, you’ve been preaching the same message for years, along with all your friends, and we’re still here and God hasn’t sent us into captivity…” These last few verses are for those naysayers, the most stubborn lot of them all, “I delay my wrath… for you, in order not to cut you off.”
Ultimately though, as we see in the final verse, God would not let these rebellious folks derail His plan. He would not allow them to continue pretending and playing make-believe with their idols. His will would be done, whether they were on board or not. I’m sure glad we’re not like that… Certainly none of us buries our heads in the sand, or perhaps more clearly, none of us busies ourselves to drown out God’s voice.
Whether we do it intentionally or not, God is calling to each of us, and we are prone to ignoring His call. I’ve got too much going on, and I’m sure you do too. When we get done, we’ll take some time to pray and listen… If we’re not following God, then we’re following something else, we are the very same rebels who were chastised in this passage.
Oh, we may be doing very good things, serving people, working hard, but our priorities are out of line. God must come first–or we’re not really serving Him. Jesus put it pretty plainly, “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness…” All the rest will follow, God promises us that He will take care of all our needs. We need to put our wants aside, and seek His desire.