Click this link to hear an audio version of the below text narrated by SOTH member Jerry Rhinehart:
Isaiah 45:20-25 (NIV)
20 “Gather together and come; assemble, you fugitives from the nations. Ignorant are those who carry about idols of wood, who pray to gods that cannot save. 21 Declare what is to be, present it— let them take counsel together. Who foretold this long ago, who declared it from the distant past? Was it not I, the Lord? And there is no God apart from me,
a righteous God and a Savior; there is none but me. 22 “Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other. 23 By myself I have sworn, my mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked: Before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear. 24 They will say of me, ‘In the Lord alone
are deliverance and strength.’” All who have raged against him will come to him and be put to shame. 25 But all the descendants of Israel will find deliverance in the Lord and will make their boast in him.
God invites the nations of earth to take Him to court. He wants them to prove that their idols and gods made from wood, stone, and metal are alive and have power to save. God, on the other hand, makes promises and keeps them. Verse 25 says that all the offspring of Israel are justified in the Lord. This promise is fulfilled in the death and resurrection of Jesus. In history, God proves himself powerful and faithful. Where do you place your hope? A relaxing vacation? A glass of wine? Success at work or school? A new cancer treatment? A little more money in your 401(k)? Getting into the best college? God created all things and gives them as a gift. On their own, they cannot save us. On the cross, God proves that He alone is the righteous Savior. In Jesus Christ, we are justified and made right.