LOOK UNTO ME, AND BE YE SAVED

The context of our passage is the prophecy announcing that although the nation of Judah was to be exiled in Babylon, a future king of Babylon called Cyrus would be used by God to bring about the restoration of His people, Isa. 45. 1-19. Then we read about God’s uniqueness as creator and controller of history (see the six mentions in this chapter of the word ‘none’, vv. 5, 6, 14, 18, 21, 22), ‘Thus saith the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, ... I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded. I have raised him [Cyrus] up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways: he shall build my city, and he shall let go my captives’, vv. 11-13. But then Isaiah moves on to prophecy about a much later time, when the ‘God of Israel, the Saviour’, v. 15, will ensure that ‘Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlast­ing salvation ... For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens ... I am the Lord; and there is none else’, vv. 17, 18. This will be fulfilled in the future when all Israel shall be saved, Rom. 11. 26, at the end of the Great Tribulation.

However, at that time many Gentiles will also be saved, and it is their salvation that is described in verse 20; this is our present consideration. The command to ‘Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth’, v. 22, is preceded by another state­ment about His uniqueness, ‘there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside me’, v. 21, and immediately followed by ‘for I am God, and there is none else’, v. 22 (cf. Acts 4. 12). The instruction to ‘look’ is perhaps better expanded to ‘turn and look’, for the original Hebrew word is translated both ways in our King James Version, e.g., Ps. 86. 16. This reminds us that salvation today is the result of people being converted, Acts 3. 19; 28. 27, which literally means ‘to turn’, Acts 9. 35. The phrase ‘the ends of the earth’ relates to universal truths, which are often associated with the Messiah, 1 Sam. 2. 10; Pss. 2. 8; 72. 8; Israel being used for Gentile blessing, Jer. 16. 19; Ps. 67. 7; Acts 13. 47, and world-wide blessing during the Millennium, Isa. 52. 10; Ps. 22. 27.