The Grammar of History: God's Unflinching Counsel
Introduction: The Idol Factory of the Heart
We live in an age that is drowning in choices and yet has no anchor. Modern man believes he is the master of his fate, the captain of his soul, and the author of his own story. He surrounds himself with an endless array of idols, little gods of his own making, whether they be political saviors, technological progress, personal autonomy, or the pursuit of fleeting pleasures. These idols are heavy, burdensome things. The previous verses in this chapter describe the idols of Babylon, Bel and Nebo, being loaded onto weary beasts, a dead weight that cannot save. This is a perfect picture of all idolatry. Your idols cannot carry you; you must carry them. And they will break your back.
But the problem is not simply "out there" in the pagan world. The prophet Ezekiel tells us that men set up idols in their hearts. The human heart is an idol factory, and it is always in production. We are constantly manufacturing little deities to which we give our ultimate allegiance, our highest love, and our deepest trust. And when we do this, we become like them: blind, deaf, and powerless. We become transgressors, rebels against the one true God who made us and owns us.
Into this chaotic marketplace of false gods, the Lord speaks through His prophet Isaiah with breathtaking clarity. He does not offer a competing product. He does not enter into a debate. He simply declares who He is and what He does. This passage is a divine ultimatum, a call for rebels to return to their senses by returning to the bedrock of reality. And what is that bedrock? It is the absolute, exhaustive, and meticulous sovereignty of God over all things, from the beginning of time to the end of it, and over every detail in between. This is not a fine point of theology for seminarians to quibble over. This is the central, foundational truth that gives the world meaning, history a purpose, and our lives a hope.
God is here contrasting His own nature with the pathetic nature of idols. Idols are made. He is the Maker. Idols are local. He is omnipresent. Idols are ignorant of the future. He declares the end from the beginning. To reject this God is not to choose freedom; it is to choose the crushing weight of a meaningless universe and the back-breaking labor of carrying your own dead gods.
The Text
"Remember this, and be assured; Cause it to return to your heart, you transgressors. Remember the former things long past, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, ‘My counsel will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’, Calling a bird of prey from the east, The man of My counsel from a far country. Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass. I have formed it, surely I will do it."
(Isaiah 46:8-11 LSB)
A Call to Remember (v. 8-9)
The Lord begins with a command, a summons to rational thought and spiritual recollection.
"Remember this, and be assured; Cause it to return to your heart, you transgressors. Remember the former things long past, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me," (Isaiah 46:8-9)
God addresses His people as "transgressors." This is not a term of endearment; it is a diagnosis. To forget God is not a minor slip of the mind; it is rebellion. It is a transgression against the fundamental reality of the universe. The root of our sin is a willful amnesia. We forget who God is, and consequently, we forget who we are. The antidote to this spiritual dementia is to "remember." He says to take this truth and "cause it to return to your heart." This is a call to repentance. Stop chasing the fleeting novelties of your idols and return to the ancient, foundational truths.
What are they to remember? "The former things long past." This refers to God's mighty acts in history. Remember the Exodus. Remember the parting of the Red Sea. Remember the conquest of Canaan. Remember the covenant promises. History is not a random series of events; it is the unfolding of God's character. God has a track record. He has left His fingerprints all over time. To study history from a biblical perspective is to study the faithfulness of God.
This remembrance leads to an inescapable conclusion: "For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me." This is the central claim of Scripture. It is not that God is the best among many options. It is that He is in a category all by Himself. He is utterly unique. The idols are nothing, less than nothing, vanity. God is. He is the self-existent, uncreated Creator of all things. The line between God and everything else is an infinite one. This is the Creator/creature distinction, and to blur it is the essence of all paganism.
The Divine Declaration (v. 10)
Verse 10 explains the primary way in which God is unlike any other. It is His absolute sovereignty over time and history.
"Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, ‘My counsel will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’," (Isaiah 46:10)
This is one of the most potent statements of divine sovereignty in all of Scripture. God does not just know the future, as if He were a cosmic spectator with a very good seat. He declares it. He determines it. He writes the script of history before the play begins. He is the Author, not a mere reader. "Declaring the end from the beginning" means that the final chapter is written at the same time as the first. There are no surprises for God, no unexpected plot twists, no ad-libbing.
How does He do this? He does it by His "counsel." This is His eternal plan, His sovereign decree. This counsel is not a suggestion or a hopeful wish. It "will be established." It is immovable, unchangeable, and irresistible. And what is the content of this counsel? It is whatever constitutes "all My good pleasure." God does what He pleases, and what He pleases is always good, because He is the definition of good. This is not cosmic tyranny; it is the ultimate foundation for our comfort and security. If God were not in complete control, then something or someone else would be, whether it be blind chance, or the devil, or sinful man. And that would be a universe of sheer terror.
The modern evangelical mind often chokes on this. We want a God who is sovereign, but not too sovereign. We want Him to be in control, but we want to reserve a little island of autonomy for ourselves, a space where our will is ultimate. But this verse obliterates that island. God's good pleasure is the engine that drives all of history. Every event, every decision, every atom is moving according to the counsel of His will (Ephesians 1:11).
A Case Study in Sovereignty (v. 11)
God then provides a specific, concrete example of how His sovereign counsel works itself out in the grit of human history.
"Calling a bird of prey from the east, The man of My counsel from a far country. Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass. I have formed it, surely I will do it." (Isaiah 46:11)
This "bird of prey" is a direct reference to Cyrus the Great, the pagan king of Persia. God had prophesied, by name, through Isaiah over a century before Cyrus was even born, that this man would be His instrument to deliver Israel from the Babylonian captivity (Isaiah 44:28, 45:1). Cyrus was a conqueror, swift and decisive like a bird of prey. He was not a worshipper of Yahweh. He was a pagan, from a far country, pursuing his own imperial ambitions. And yet, God calls him "the man of My counsel."
This is a staggering truth. God uses ungodly men to accomplish His holy purposes without violating their own wills. Cyrus thought he was building the Persian empire for his own glory. But in reality, he was a tool in the hand of the God of Israel, a hired hand accomplishing the predetermined plan of God. God didn't just predict that Cyrus would do this; He called him to do it. The heart of the king is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; He turns it wherever He will (Proverbs 21:1).
This verse is the death knell for any deistic or hands-off view of God. God is intimately and meticulously involved in the affairs of men, even the affairs of pagan kings. He doesn't just set the world in motion and watch it spin. He governs it.
The Divine Guarantee
The verse, and the section, concludes with a four-fold affirmation of God's absolute determination to perform His word. This is God's signature on the contract of reality.
"Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass. I have formed it, surely I will do it." (Isaiah 46:11)
Notice the parallel structure. "I have spoken... I will bring it to pass." And "I have formed it... I will do it." The speaking and the forming refer to His eternal decree, His counsel. The bringing to pass and the doing refer to His work in history, His providence. What God has planned in eternity, He will infallibly execute in time. There is no gap between His Word and His work. His purpose is His promise, and His promise is as good as done.
This is the bedrock of our faith. We do not trust in our own strength, or in our own righteousness, or in the stability of our circumstances. We trust in the unshakeable, immutable, sovereign will of God. He has spoken salvation in Jesus Christ. He has formed a plan of redemption. And He will surely do it. He will bring it to pass.
Conclusion: The Unburdensome God
The idols of Babylon had to be carried. They were a burden. But the God of Israel is the God who carries His people (Isaiah 46:3-4). This is the great contrast. False gods are a weight on your shoulders. The true God is the one who shoulders your weights.
The ultimate expression of this is the cross of Jesus Christ. The entire plan, the counsel of God, declared from the beginning, culminated at that place. The bird of prey from the east was part of the plan. The Roman governor, the Jewish leaders, the fickle crowd, they were all men of His counsel, doing what His hand and His plan had predestined to take place (Acts 4:27-28). They acted in their wickedness, and God used their wickedness to accomplish the greatest good imaginable: the salvation of His people.
God spoke. He said the seed of the woman would crush the serpent's head. He formed a plan. A plan for a substitute, a lamb, a suffering servant. And at the cross, He brought it to pass. He did it. And because He has done that, we can have absolute confidence that He will do everything else He has promised. He will bring His elect home. He will build His church. He will judge the wicked. He will make all things new.
Therefore, you transgressors, remember this. Let it sink into your heart. Abandon the heavy, useless idols you have been carrying. They cannot save you. They cannot even carry themselves. Cast your burdens, your sins, your fears, your future, upon the God who declares the end from the beginning. He is not a burden to be carried. He is the great Burden-Bearer. His counsel will stand. His pleasure will be accomplished. And in Christ, His good pleasure is your eternal salvation.