Prophecy of Isaiah – Isa 45:8-13 Concerning the Work of My Hands Command Ye Me?
Isa 45:8-13 Concerning the Work of My Hands Command Ye Me?
Isa 45:8 Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the LORD have created it.
Isa 45:9 Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands?
Isa 45:10 Woe unto him that saith unto his father, What begettest thou? or to the woman, What hast thou brought forth?
Isa 45:11 Thus saith the LORD , the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me.
Isa 45:12 I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded.
Isa 45:13 I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways: he shall build my city, and he shall let go my captives, not for price nor reward, saith the LORD of hosts.
The theme of this entire prophecy has been the Lord’s sovereign work, which depends on no one other than Himself. A sub theme is that He has sovereignly determined to work through His people Israel, His “Elect”, and in this age all He is doing is for their sake:
Isa 45:4 For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.
Isa 45:5 I am the LORD , and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:
Isa 45:6 That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD , and there is none else.
Isa 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.2Co 4:15 For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.
All the Lord does for Israel’s sake is designed to bring glory to Him who makes it all happen, as we are twice told at the beginning of this prophecy:
Isa 2:11 The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.
Isa 2:17 And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.
The Lord does not need us, but we do need Him, and He will not let us believe any lie which would take away from the great Truth that He, and He alone, is working all things after the counsel of His own will (Eph 1:11).
Our study today continues driving that Truth home to all whom He has given eyes that see and ears that hear:
Isa 45:8 Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the LORD have created it.
Our heavens will ‘drop down and pour down righteousness’. Our earth will open and “bring forth salvation”. The Lord has spoken, and so it will be, as we are told in next week’s study in this same chapter:
Isa 45:23 I ave sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.
Isa 55:11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
These words accord with the very first words of scripture:
Gen 1:1 IN the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
The word ‘created’ in both Genesis 1:1 and Isaiah 45:8 is in the Qal Stem, which is the Hebrew equivalent of the Greek aorist tense, meaning it is a simple statement of fact without regard to any tense.
What that means is that the action of the verb is ongoing and not finished or a thing only of the past. The Hebrew word translated as ‘created’ here in Isaiah 45 and in Genesis 1:1 is ‘bara‘. Here is the Hebrew ‘stem’ for this word:
H8804
Stem -Qal See [H8851]
Mood -Perfect See [H8816]
Let’s repeat our first verse for our study today:
Isa 45:8 Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the LORD have created it.
The King James version makes both Genesis 1:1 and Isaiah 45:8 sound as if the Lord’s creation is all in the past and over with and completely accomplished. Most Christians believe Adam was created as a finished and perfected product who, by his own fabled ‘free will’, fell from that perfection and must now use that same lie, his so-called ‘free will’ to save himself.
Nothing could be further from the Truth. The fact is that it is the seventh day which completes the Lord’s creation of “a new man… conformed to the image of His Son”. We are told this “new man” was called in Christ “before the world began”, belying the fact that the Lord knew “before the world began” that Adam would sin and need a Savior, Christ, who is Adam’s seventh day rest.
God did not complete His creation when he “created the heavens and the earth… in six days” because His creation is not yet mature.
Exo 20:11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
Rather, He is at this moment in the process of “creating the heavens and the earth” as He is still in the process of ‘conforming mankind in His image’. Being ‘incomplete and corruptible’ is the very meaning of the number six in scripture.
The CLV gets it right in this case:
Gen 1:27 And creating is the Elohim humanity in His image. In the image of the Elohim He creates it. Male and female He creates them.
If the first Adam were the Lord’s completed product, how could He possibly tell us we were “called… in Christ Jesus before the world began”?
2Ti 1:9 Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,
Tit 1:2 In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;
If “the first… Adam” had been perfected, he would never have disobeyed the Lord. The “vessel of clay” was created on the sixth day, and this is what we are told of that part of the Lord’s work with us:
Jer 18:4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
Here is what must happen with each of us before the Lord’s creation within us is complete:
Heb 4:10 For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.
Heb 4:11 Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.
With eyes gifted to see “the things of the spirit”, the Lord has made it clear that six is the number which signifies being spiritually incomplete, subject to death, and yet in a corruptible state. That is the very meaning of “the vessel of clay [which is] marred in the hand of the Potter” (Jer 18:4). Seven, denoting the rest of God, Christ our ‘rest’, is the completion of the work the Lord is doing within His creatures as He makes them to fulfill this 8th verse of Isaiah 45:
Isa 45:8 Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the LORD have created it.
His “vessel of clay” was deliberately and by design “marred in the Potter’s hand” and will be “made… a new vessel… conformed to the image of His Son”:
Jer 18:4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
Rom 8:29 For whom he did foreknow [“before the world began”], he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
1Co 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
Job 23:13-14, and all the rest of the Lord’s word, lets us know the Truth of the Lord is going about doing His work with and within mankind, and this is the order in which He is “working all things after the counsel of His own will” (Eph 1:11):
There is no schizophrenia nor is there any need for a ‘plan B’ with a sovereign and all wise Creator:
Job 23:13 But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth.
The Lord repeats this fact throughout His Word, and as He is doing here in Isaiah, so He does in:
Pro 16:4 The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.
Daniel confirms this Truth:
Dan 4:17 This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones: to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men.
We humans have absolutely nothing to do with the Lord’s decision concerning our individual or collective salvation. It is all a matter of what the Lord determined for each of us “before the world began” as we just read in 2Timothy 1:9 and Titus 1:2).
The Lord plainly tells us that our salvation has nothing whatsoever to do with our will:
Rom 9:16 So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
Rom 9:17 For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
Rom 9:18 Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.
Where is the false doctrine of mankind having a will free from the will of God to be found in that verse or anywhere else in scripture? It is not to be found anywhere, and in those verses that speak of our choices and our will, it can always be demonstrated that our choices and our will are nothing more than an integral part of what He had written in our books for all of our days “before there were any of them”:
Psa 139:16 Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance; And in thy book they were all written, Even the days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was none of them. (ASV)
Therefore, this admonition is written in each of our ‘books’:
Isa 45:9 Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands?
This is the very next point Paul makes in Romans 9:
Rom 9:20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why didst thou make me thus?
Rom 9:21 Or hath not the potter a right over the clay, from the same lump to make one part a vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?
None of us, not one of all of mankind, is what he is by his own choice. We are one and all what God has made us, whether we are good or evil. Whether we work hard or are lazy, whether we are indolent or very motivated, whatever we are is what He “the Potter” (Jer 18:4) has made us to be:
Isa 63:17 O LORD , why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.
Jer 18:6 O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.
Jer 18:7 At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it;
It is as natural as breathing to take that knowledge and turn it into a lascivious, do-nothing spirit. However, when we do so then that, too, was written in our book “before the world began”. God’s sovereignty includes both our indolence and our zeal to please Him. The Lord’s sovereignty encompasses the time needed to make that transition from a self-serving, spiritually indolent, old man to “a new man” of whom it can be said “the zeal of thine house has eaten me up”:
Psa 69:9 For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.
Just as we are told “not that which is spiritual is first, but that which is natural and afterwards that which is spiritual”, it follows that our spiritually indolent old man must precede our spiritually zealous, diligent and vigilant new man. It is through Christ in us we are granted to become that ‘new man’, but it is while we are living out the process of being “made… again a new vessel” that we are admonished:
Isa 45:10 Woe unto him that saith unto his father, What begettest thou? or to the woman, What hast thou brought forth?
Our Creator is both our ‘father’ and our ‘mother’. It is not at all wise for a child to question why his parents insist on being honored and obeyed. There is an order in all things the Lord has made, and that order will be maintained.
Let’s put verses nine and ten together to get the full force of what the Lord is telling us. That will help us to better understand verse 11.
Here are verses 9-10:
Isa 45:9 Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands?
Isa 45:10 Woe unto him that saith unto his father, What begettest thou? or to the woman, What hast thou brought forth?
We dare not question our own Creator. We are His, and we are the work of His hands with which He is entitled to do as He pleases:
Christ make this point in the parable of the workers in the vineyard:
Mat 20:8 So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, Call the labourers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first.
Mat 20:9 And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny.
Mat 20:10 But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more; and they likewise received every man a penny.
Mat 20:11 And when they had received it, they murmured against the goodman of the house,
Mat 20:12 Saying, These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day.
Mat 20:13 But he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny?
Mat 20:14 Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee.
Mat 20:15 Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good?
Mat 20:16 So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.
Paul confirms this principle in:
Rom 9:15 For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
Rom 9:16 So then it [salvation] is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
The reason the Lord has given us all these verses with the tone of this entire chapter is:
Isa 45:6 That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.
Isa 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
With the proper tone set, let’s now read our next verse:
Isa 45:11 Thus saith the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me.
We must remember there were no punctuation marks in either the original Hebrew or Greek manuscripts. So, considering the entire tone of this chapter and all the emphasis upon the sovereignty of the Lord, it is absolute insanity to attempt to make verse 11 say that we can “command [God] concerning the work of [His] hands”, as so many Charismatic, Pentecostal and New Age ministers teach and want us to believe. Do not believe it! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth”, but do not contend with or attempt to command your own Creator concerning the works of His hands.
Job, typifying us, was severely reprimanded by the Lord for having such a presumptuous attitude:
Job 40:1 MOREOVER the LORD answered Job, and said,
Job 40:2 Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it.
Job 40:3 Then Job answered the LORD , and said,
Job 40:4 Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.
Job 40:5 Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.
Job 40:6 Then answered the LORD unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
Job 40:7 Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
Job 40:8 Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?
Job 40:9 Hast thou an arm like God? or canst thou thunder with a voice like him?
We most certainly do not “have an arm like God”, and yet dare we to think we can command God concerning the works of His hands? No, a much better translation would have been to put about three question marks at the end of verse 11:
Isa 45:11 Thus saith the LORD , the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me???
What the Lord is telling us is that we know very well we cannot know what the future holds concerning “[His] sons”, and we must inquire of that knowledge from Him, “Ask me of things to come…” [‘but do not think that you can tell me what actions will be the work of My hands’]. Yet the adversary has been given to persuade many of us to think that we are somehow in a position to tell the Lord that He must do what we want done.
The reason for all these protestations from the Lord is that when Isaiah prophesied and when Jeremiah prophesied and when Christ prophesied and when His Christ prophesies, men then and men now do not want to hear the Truth, His Truth. We are, in effect, telling the Lord what He will do with the work of His hands, and He is having no part of that. So, He is posing to us… “Concerning the works of My hands command ye me?”…’we who cannot even foretell the future of His sons.
The truth proclaimed by all of God’s true prophets is that our flesh is a sinful beast which has rebelled against every word of Christ and was made to be taken and destroyed:
Ecc 3:18 I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.
Luk 6:46 And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?
Why did the Lord make men to be beasts first? He wants us to know why He first made us as such:
1Co 15:50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood [“the first Adam”] cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
2Pe 2:12 But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;
Adam and all people are not dying because we have all sinned. The opposite is true. We all sin because we are dying; we sin because we are “marred… corruptible… beasts”, and we are of that composition “not willingly, but by reason of Him who subjected [us to vanity] in hope [while yet] in the Potter’s hand” (Jer 18:4). It is for that reason that it can indeed be said:
Rom 5:12 Wherefore, as by one [“marred “] man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
The destruction of the Lord’s nations of Israel and Judah by the kings of Assyria and Babylon respectively was prophesied well in advance of the actual events by the Lord’s prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah. The Lord calls Nebuchadnezzar “My servant” (Jer 27:6), and Cyrus is called “My shepherd… Mine anointed” (Isa 44:28 and 45:1). Just as Abraham was reproved by Pharaoh for denying his own wife (Gen 12:13-19), Israel and Judah were also reproved by the pagan kings of Assyria and Babylon, and the Lord’s hypocritical people who had turned their backs on Him did not appreciate the Lord’s prophets, Isaiah and Jeremiah, telling them that the inevitable judgment was coming. Christ’s Christ is still prophesying that the nations of this world, within and without, are facing these words today:
Jer 25:31 A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; for the LORD hath a controversy with the nations, he will plead with all flesh; he will give them that are wicked to the sword, saith the LORD .
Joe 3:13 Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great.
Joe 3:14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.
Joe 3:15 The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.
Joe 3:16 The LORD also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the LORD will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.
“The sun and the moon shall be darkened.” The Lord withdraws His light before He judges us within, but then, when ‘judgment begins at the house of God’ (1Pe 4:17), we become “His voice from Jerusalem” to judge and purify our heavens (Heb 9:23). ‘The Lord Himself becomes our hope and our strength’.
The Christ of Christ (Joh 20:21) is ‘Jerusalem from whence the Lord’s voice is heard’ (Rev 3:12). Christ’s Christ proclaims this very same message today. We proclaim His words to be fulfilled within first, but afterward they will be fulfilled without, and it is as inevitable today as it was in the days of Isaiah and Jeremiah. Christ Himself foretold the destruction of the temple and the misery about to befall His own people, His own disciples and the Jews also:
Luk 19:41 And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it,
Luk 19:42 Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.
Luk 19:43 For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side,
Luk 19:44 And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.
The Lord’s physical temple was destroyed in 70 A.D., but it must also be “laid even with the ground” within us, as our “man of sin” is destroyed with the brightness of His coming” (2Th 2:3-12).
It has all been written in the Lord’s book for each of us, and it is He who is working it “all… after the counsel of His own will”:
Job 23:13 [And] he is in one mind, …who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth.
Job 23:14 For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me: and many such things are with him.
He has determined that He will return and rebuild His own temple:
Act 15:15 And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written,
Act 15:16 After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up:
Act 15:17 That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things.
Act 15:18 Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world.
It is all “His works”. It is all “the work of His hands”, of which we have no right to demand anything. We are but clay in His hands. That should comfort and encourage us all.
That is how our study ends today. The Lord assures us His will is being done in all things. Cyrus is a pagan king, but just as the first Adam is a type of the man of sin and at the same time a type of “the last Adam”, Christ, the same is true of Cyrus. He, too, is a type of Christ, and Christ will build His temple:
Isa 45:12 I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded.
Isa 45:13 I have raised him [Cyrus, a type of Christ] up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways: he shall build my city, and he shall let go my captives, not for price nor reward, saith the LORD of hosts.
This is what Christ tells us in the New Testament:
Mat 16:18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
It is Christ who is building His church, and this is one of the names He has given His church:
Rev 3:12 Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.
It is “He that overcomes” who will be given to rule this world with Christ and His Christ, the “New Jerusalem”, and it is this city which Cyrus, in type and shadow, will build:
Rev 21:2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
In our next study we will see where here in Isaiah the Lord has informed us “every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess to God” (Rom 14:11):
Isa 45:14 Thus saith the LORD, The labour of Egypt, and merchandise of Ethiopia and of the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over unto thee, and they shall be thine: they shall come after thee; in chains they shall come over, and they shall fall down unto thee, they shall make supplication unto thee, saying, Surely God is in thee; and there is none else, there is no God.
Isa 45:15 Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour.
Isa 45:16 They shall be ashamed, and also confounded, all of them: they shall go to confusion together that are makers of idols.
Isa 45:17 But Israel shall be saved in the LORD with an everlasting salvation: ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end.
Isa 45:18 For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD ; and there is none else.
Isa 45:19 I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth: I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain: I the LORD speak righteousness, I declare things that are right.
Isa 45:20 Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, ye that are escaped of the nations: they have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image, and pray unto a god that cannot save.
Isa 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.
Isa 45:22 Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.
Isa 45:23 I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.
Isa 45:24 Surely, shall one say, in the LORD have I righteousness and strength: even to him shall men come; and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed.
Isa 45:25 In the LORD shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory.
Other related posts
- The Book of Hebrews - Heb 9:18-28 "It is Appointed Unto Men Once to Die, but After This the Judgment" - Part 6 (December 31, 2020)
- Teacher's Choice - "Except the LORD Build the House" - Part 2 (March 22, 2019)
- Teacher's Choice - "Except the LORD Build the House" - Part 1 (February 12, 2019)
- Prophecy of Isaiah - Isa 45:8-13 Concerning the Work of My Hands Command Ye Me? (August 24, 2019)
- Building Spiritual Wealth (January 27, 2012)