Isaiah 41

This chapter belongs to the section of words of comfort that begins in Isaiah 40. It picks up the statement at the end of chapter 40 that those who wait upon the LORD "shall renew their strength." Chapter 41 then opens with a courtroom scene in which the islands and the peoples are called to "renew their strength."

Structure

• Verses 1–4 The LORD summons the islands and the peoples to a legal disputation (a contest of arguments in court). He asks who raised up a man from the east and made the nations submit to him, and he answers, "I the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am he."
• Verses 5–7 The islands, trembling with fear, encourage one another, while the carpenter and the goldsmith make an idol and fasten it with nails.
• Verses 8–13 The LORD tells Israel his servant, Jacob whom he has chosen, the seed of Abraham his friend, not to fear, and promises that their enemies will become as nothing.
• Verses 14–16 He declares that he will make Jacob, a "worm," into a new sharp threshing instrument that will thresh the mountains and make them as chaff. The Redeemer (one who pays a price to set free) is called the Holy One of Israel.
• Verses 17–20 He promises to answer the poor and needy who thirst, opening rivers and fountains in dry places and planting the cedar, the shittah tree, and other trees in the wilderness.
• Verses 21–24 He challenges the idols to declare things to come and things past, and pronounces them to be nothing.
• Verses 25–29 He states again that he has raised up one from the north, from the rising of the sun. No one else foretold this; he will be the first to tell Zion and will give Jerusalem one who brings good tidings. He concludes that the idols are wind and confusion.

Key Verses

• Isaiah 41:10 "Fear thou not; for I am with thee" — the central promise of the chapter and its most widely memorized verse.
• Isaiah 41:8 "The seed of Abraham my friend" — the description of Abraham as God's friend carries over into the New Testament.
• Isaiah 41:4 "I the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am he" — a confession of the God who governs the beginning and the end of history.

People and Places

• Jacob (Israel): called the servant whom the LORD has chosen.
• Abraham: referred to as the LORD's "friend."
• The man raised up from the east (north): not named in this chapter.
• The islands: an expression referring to the peoples of the Mediterranean coastlands and distant lands.
• Zion and Jerusalem: the places that will receive the good tidings.

Points for Reflection

• Most commentators identify the man in verses 2 and 25 as the Persian king Cyrus. He is not named in this chapter; his name appears in 44:28 and 45:1. Some Jewish interpreters have read verse 2 as referring to Abraham.
• Some scholars regard chapters 40–66 as the work of a different author writing after the exile, while conservative evangelicals hold that the prophet Isaiah wrote them as predictive prophecy. The Cyrus passages are frequently cited in this authorship debate.
• The "servant" in verse 8 refers to Israel. The so-called Servant Songs, which begin in chapter 42, are read in the New Testament and in church tradition as pointing to Jesus Christ (see Suffering Servant).
• The chapter also has connections to the New Testament. The "friend" expression in verse 8 is echoed in James 2:23, and the language of the first and the last in verse 4 reappears in Revelation 1:17 and 22:13 as Christ's self-designation.

In the Korean Church

Isaiah 41:10 is frequently used as a word of comfort and encouragement in sermons and as a memory verse, and it often appears on New Year's Scripture cards.