21 Produce your cause,” says Yahweh.
“Bring forth your strong reasons,” says the King of Jacob. 22 “Let them announce, and declare to us what shall happen.
Declare the former things, what they are,
that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them;
or show us things to come. 23 Declare the things that are to come hereafter,
that we may know that you are gods.
Yes, do good, or do evil,
that we may be dismayed,
and see it together. 24 Behold, you are of nothing,
and your work is of nothing.
He who chooses you is an abomination. 25 “I have raised up one from the north, and he has come;
from the rising of the sun, one who calls on my name;
and he shall come on rulers as on mortar,
and as the potter treads clay. 26 Who has declared it from the beginning, that we may know?
And before, that we may say, ‘He is right?’
Surely, there is no one who declares.
Surely, there is no one who shows.
Surely, there is no one who hears your words. 27 I am the first to say to Zion, ‘Behold, look at them;’
and I will give one who brings good news to Jerusalem. 28 When I look, there is no man;
even among them there is no counselor who, when I ask of them, can answer a word. 29 Behold, all of them, their works are vanity and nothing.
Their molten images are wind and confusion.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Isaiah 41:21-29
Commentary on Isaiah 41:21-29
(Read Isaiah 41:21-29)
There needs no more to show the folly of sin, than to bring to notice the reasons given in defence of it. There is nothing in idols worthy of regard. They are less than nothing, and worse than nothing. Let the advocates of other doctrines than that of salvation through Christ, bring their arguments. Can they tell of a cure for human depravity? Jehovah has power which cannot be withstood; this he will make appear. But the certain knowledge of the future must be only with Jehovah, who fulfils his own plans. All prophecies, except those of the Bible, have been uncertain. In the work of redemption the Lord showed himself much more than in the release of the Jews from Babylon. The good tidings the Lord will send in the gospel, is a mystery hid from ages and generations. A Deliverer is raised up for us, of nobler name and greater power than the deliverer of the captive Jews. May we be numbered among his obedient servants and faithful friends.