Isaiah 42:5-9 (NLT)
“God, the Lord, created the heavens and stretched them out. He created the earth and everything in it. He gives breath to everyone, life to everyone who walks the earth. And it is he who says, ‘I, the Lord, have called you to demonstrate my righteousness. I will take you by the hand and guard you, and I will give you to my people, Israel, as a symbol of my covenant with them. And you will be a light to guide the nations. You will open the eyes of the blind. You will free the captives from prison, releasing those who sit in dark dungeons. ‘I am the Lord; that is my name! I will not give my glory to anyone else, nor share my praise with carved idols. Everything I prophesied has come true, and now I will prophesy again. I will tell you the future before it happens.'”
Recall from yesterday’s post that God described a coming servant upon whom God would place his Spirit. Jesus fulfilled this prophecy and more throughout his time on earth. That backdrop makes today’s verses even more interesting because they continue to paint the picture of Jesus as God. Notice here he says that he will not give his glory to anyone else, nor will he share his praise with false gods. If Jesus was not one-and-the-same with God, then he would violate this portion of Scripture because of the way he directly claimed (and received) God’s glory.
We see throughout the New Testament that those who were not God were very clear to say so — John the Baptist, Paul, and Peter to name a few. All of these pointed the glory back to Jesus and overtly stated their belief that he was in fact the Messiah. These men were well-versed in Old Testament prophecy and they (along with many others alive at the time) affirmed Jesus’ fulfillment of these prophecies. God makes a strong statement at the end of today’s passage that his prophecies will come true. He knows the future and can tell it perfectly.
God knows what is going to happen, both in your life and in his master plan. And he knows how those two things intersect better than we can ever possibly grasp. He’s the starter and the finisher of the plan and he knows it inside and out. When you have those times of doubt and you wonder if you can trust God, just ask yourself who seems more qualified to run your life — him or you? Considering how much we do not know, it seems like letting him roll out the details is a good way to live.