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Isaiah 41:1-4

King James Version (KJV)

“In our prayers we talk to God, in our Bible study God talks to us, and we had better let God do most of the talking.”
— D.L. Moody

Scripture focus

1. Keep silence before me, O islands; and let the people renew [their] strength: let them come near; then let them speak: let us come near together to judgment. 2. Who raised up the righteous [man] from the east, called him to his foot, gave the nations before him, and made [him] rule over kings? he gave [them] as the dust to his sword, [and] as driven stubble to his bow. 3. He pursued them, [and] passed safely; [even] by the way [that] he had not gone with his feet. 4. 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 41:1-4 — KJV

Commentary

Commentary on Isaiah 41:1

Theological / Devotional

Keep silence. The peoples of distant lands are bidden to listen in silence to the voice of God as He speaks to them. For the setting see on ch. 40:1.

Renew their strength. See on ch. 40:31. Here and in future chapters Isaiah presents the Lord as Israel’s Friend and Deliverer from the power of Babylon (see chs. 43:14; 44:26-28; 45:1-6; 46:1, 2; 47; 48:14, 20). Babylon, which placed such great confidence in its idols and vaunted itself against God and against His people, is doomed, but glorious deliverance is to come to the saints. The deliverance of Israel from Babylonian captivity and their return to Jerusalem is a type of the deliverance of God’s people from the power of the enemy in the last days, just before their entry into the heavenly Jerusalem (see Rev. 18:1-4 ; 22:14).

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