World English Bible
- “Hear this, house of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel, and have come out of the waters of Judah. You swear by the LORD’s name, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness—
- for they call themselves citizens of the holy city, and rely on the God of Israel; the LORD of Armies is his name.
- I have declared the former things from of old. Yes, they went out of my mouth, and I revealed them. I did them suddenly, and they happened.
- Because I knew that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew, and your brow bronze;
- therefore I have declared it to you from of old; before it came to pass I showed it to you; lest you should say, ‘My idol has done them. My engraved image and my molten image has commanded them.’
- You have heard it. Now see all this. And you, won’t you declare it? “I have shown you new things from this time, even hidden things, which you have not known.
- They are created now, and not from of old. Before today, you didn’t hear them, lest you should say, ‘Behold, I knew them.’
- Yes, you didn’t hear. Yes, you didn’t know. Yes, from of old your ear was not opened, for I knew that you dealt very treacherously, and were called a transgressor from the womb.
- For my name’s sake, I will defer my anger, and for my praise, I hold it back for you so that I don’t cut you off.
- Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver. I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction.
- For my own sake, for my own sake, I will do it; for how would my name be profaned? I will not give my glory to another.
- “Listen to me, O Jacob, and Israel my called: I am he. I am the first. I am also the last.
- Yes, my hand has laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand has spread out the heavens. when I call to them, they stand up together.
- “Assemble yourselves, all of you, and hear! Who among them has declared these things? He whom the LORD loves will do what he likes to Babylon, and his arm will be against the Chaldeans.
- I, even I, have spoken. Yes, I have called him. I have brought him and he shall make his way prosperous.
- “Come near to me and hear this: “From the beginning I have not spoken in secret; from the time that it happened, I was there.” Now the Lord GOD has sent me with his Spirit.
- The LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, says: “I am the LORD your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you by the way that you should go.
- Oh that you had listened to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river and your righteousness like the waves of the sea.
- Your offspring also would have been as the sand and the descendants of your body like its grains. His name would not be cut off nor destroyed from before me.”
- Leave Babylon! Flee from the Chaldeans! With the sound of joyful shouting announce this, tell it even to the end of the earth; say, “The LORD has redeemed his servant Jacob!”
- They didn’t thirst when he led them through the deserts. He caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them. He also split the rock and the waters gushed out.
- “There is no peace”, says the LORD, “for the wicked.”
Isaiah 48
In the previous chapter, Babylon looked secure and self-sufficient. Now Isaiah turns to God’s people and asks an uncomfortable question: Have you left Babylon in your heart?
The exiles’ life there was not merely a symbol. Clay tablets from Babylon record Judahite families working, trading, and raising children far from Jerusalem. They could build a life beside the Euphrates. Yet Isaiah says that even people who speak God’s name can trust him without truth. Belonging to the right people, using the right words, and living near a great river cannot cure a thirsty soul.
Notice how carefully God handles the future. He announced some things beforehand so Israel could not credit its idols when they happened. But he kept other things hidden so Israel could not boast that it had known all along. God refuses two false claims: My god did this, and I saw this coming. Both make us masters of a story that belongs to him. The new things of verse 7 are described as being created now. God’s mercy is not simply the return of what we once had; he can bring into being what we had no power even to imagine.
Then comes the furnace. God says he has “chosen you in the furnace of affliction” (Isaiah 48:10, World English Bible). Chosen in it—not because suffering makes a person worthy, and not because suffering is good in itself. The exile exposes Israel’s unfaithfulness, but it does not exhaust God’s faithfulness. He preserves his people for his name’s sake: his promise to them will not become an empty word. Yet his tender cry over the peace they might have known (verses 18–19) keeps us from treating that mercy lightly. Grace does not mean our choices leave no wounds.
Isaiah’s closing images offer a searching contrast. God calls his people to leave river-fed Babylon, then promises water from a rock in the desert. From Babylon’s banks, peace “like a river” must have sounded almost cruelly familiar. They had water; they lacked shalom—the wholeness that comes from walking with God. The final warning that the wicked have no peace is therefore not only a verdict on Babylon. It asks whether Israel might carry Babylon’s ways into freedom.
We, too, can stay beside whatever keeps us comfortable while remaining spiritually thirsty. The Lord calls us away from what merely sustains our habits and toward the way he teaches us to walk.
For further reading: Exodus 17:6; John 7:37–39.
Hymn: “Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah.”
Prayer: Lord, loosen our grip on the future and our attachment to false comforts. Lead us where you call, and give us the peace we cannot draw from any other river. Amen.