21 “[g]Present your case,” the Lord says.
“Bring forward your strong arguments,”
The King of Jacob says.
22 Let them bring forth and declare to us what is going to take place;
As for the former events, declare what they were,
That we may consider them and know their outcome.
Or announce to us what is coming;
23 Declare the things that are going to come afterward,
That we may know that you are gods;
Indeed, do good or evil, that we may anxiously look about us and fear together.
24 Behold, you are of [h]no account,
And your work amounts to nothing;
He who chooses you is an abomination.25 “I have aroused one from the north, and he has come;
From the rising of the sun he will call on My name;
And he will come upon rulers as upon mortar,
Even as the potter treads clay.”
26 Who has declared this from the beginning, that we might know?
Or from former times, that we may say, “He is right!”?
Surely there was no one who declared,
Surely there was no one who proclaimed,
Surely there was no one who heard your words.
27 “Formerly I said to Zion, ‘Behold, here they are.’
And to Jerusalem, ‘I will give a messenger of good news.’
28 “But when I look, there is no one,
And there is no counselor [i]among them
Who, if I ask, can give an answer.
29 “Behold, all of them are [j]false;
Their works are worthless,
Their molten images are wind and emptiness.
The end of this chapter echoes the beginning. First, God invites the people to come forward, to “present their case” and to “Bring forward their strong arguments” (v. 21). It really isn’t a fair thing, and it sounds an awful lot like passages in Job. God asks them to tell everyone what is going to happen, to explain even all the past events, knowing they cannot (vv. 22-23).
No, only God can do those things, their attempts (and ours) fall utterly short, they “amount to nothing” (v. 24). Rather then, God calls upon a ruler who will “call upon My name.” For in all the land, there was no one who declared, or proclaimed (v. 26) the good news… except God (v. 27).
It is likely they had plenty of false prophets in that day, just as there were in the days of King Ahab, when one prophet dared to speak truth and was rebuked for his efforts. Rather, they turned to their own works for advice and guidance… sounds an awful lot like what folks look for in AI (in 2025, in case the future looks a lot different, which it probably will).
We have plenty of false teachers in our day also, some more obvious than others. Some do not even pretend to preach God’s word, while others twist it to their own ends, or to fit in with the ideals of this world. When we buy into those things, we will be led astray, just as the Israelites were.
There are two things (among many) that differentiate God’s teaching and His word from the noise of so many others. First, He puts our best interests above His own. God did not even spare His own Son, but gave His life freely for our sake. And second, as highlighted throughout this passage, He knows exactly what we need, and what is best for us.
Some may have one or both of these qualities to some extent, but none of us know the future. As parents, we (should) strive to speak into the lives of our children. When we see them doing something we’ve already learned not to do, we can warn them of the impending consequences. Likewise, we should also strive to put their interests first. But we are human, and we fail, despite our best intentions–we still keep trying though, don’t give up!
Yet God is the perfect Father, embodying both of these qualities perfectly and eternally. No matter what we do, His heart is for us, and God knows what is coming today, tomorrow, and a hundred years from now. God is the rock that we should build our lives on, and no other. So don’t settle for worthless “wind and emptiness” when you were created to be (and live as) a child of the Most High King.