January '25

I did not speak in secret, 

in a land of darkness; 

I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, 

‘Seek me in vain.’ 

I the Lord speak the truth; 

I declare what is right (Isaiah 45:19).

Through the prophet Isaiah, God assures us of how he means what he says. He expects us to hear him and take him at his word. As sinful humans, we often don't speak this way. We make promises on a whim and hope people will forget we ever said it or won't get around to cashing them in. Or worse, we outright lie. The Lord doesn't want us to think of him as engaging in this kind of thing: "I the Lord speak the truth; I declare what is right" (Is 45:19). He sets our minds at ease by coming at this from a couple of angles.

1) Clarity

Yahweh says: "I did not speak in secret, in a land of darkness" (Isaiah 45:19). In other words, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to get your head around what he promises. You don't have to be particularly high calibre. You don't have to be a young achiever. "Whoever has the Son has life" (1 John 5:12), "Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth" (Isaiah 45:22), "Whoever comes to me I will never cast out" (John 6:37). There are hidden things to be sure, but there are also revealed things. And he's revealed them so we can understand them and grasp them. As I look into my own life, I find that I'm really good at understanding all of the threats and warnings really clearly, but when it comes to gospel promises I become an acrobat, dodging what they clearly mean because I believe they're too good to be true. "Did I stutter?" says the Lord of Hosts.

2) Truthfulness

"I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, 'Seek me in vain'" (Isaiah 45:19). In addition to God's clear speech, God's speech is also marked by truthfulness. Understanding what the Lord promises is of no use if he has no intention of doing what he says. Calvin writes on this verse: "[It is] as if he had said, that he does not promise largely with an intention to deceive, or amuse hungry men by words, but actually performs what he has promised." I love how in this verse, God is speaking to us to comfort and assure us. This is very much a first class feature of his work. He intends none of us to ride economy class. I can imagine an angel saying, "Why even go to the effort of giving them Isaiah 45:19? Who cares how they feel during the journey as long as they arrive at the destination?" Apparently, the Lord cares about both. He wants us to feel secure as we move toward the city that has foundations. He wants to "show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose" (Heb 6:17).

So yes, you heard him right, and yes, he means to do what he says. Stick around.

Phil Brown