48:13
God then takes us back to creation. He is the One who laid the foundations of the earth. Everything stems from Him. His right hand spread out the heavens. He is the creator of the whole universe and everything in it. Our view of creation affects everything. If we believe that we are just the product of random processes with no design or purpose, then that means that ultimately our lives have no real meaning. If, on the other hand, we were created on purpose, for a purpose and out of love, then that changes everything. “When I summon them they all stand together”. God did not just create the universe and then leave it to its own devices. He intervenes in the world.
48:14,15
God seems to go on at length about the uselessness of idols. We find this strange, largely because we don’t have idols in the same sense that they had in those days. In those times they played such a big part in people’s thinking, and this thinking needed to be dismantled. While we do not have physical idols to the same extent, we have plenty of mental idols that need dismantling. These include the notion that we, and the whole universe, is just the product of random chance, that we have autonomy. God tells them that His chosen ally will destroy Babylon. All empires will fall. Cyrus was chosen by God and he would therefore succeed in his mission.
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