Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Today's chapters reiterated a lot of the themes we read about yesterday. First, that God chose Israel

to be his people and that they will continue to be His people

throughout the generations. Second, that He is the one true God and anyone who worships idols

is foolish and sinful and wasteful because the idols they're worshipping are handmade and will

ultimately be destroyed. Third, God points out His sovereignty over all things. While he has chosen Israel, there are some

whom he has given undiscerning hearts and closed eyes. This is his judgment on their idolatry.

We first saw this in 6-9-10, and it shows up repeatedly in Isaiah, and is even quoted by Jesus in the New Testament.

But part of being sovereign means that even those whose hearts are far from him are still used to serve his purposes.

We see this with King Cyrus again today.

Even though he wasn't a follower of Yahweh, God still uses him for his glory.

In 4428, God says, He shall fulfill all my purpose.

Chapter 45 starts out with a long passage about Cyrus, reminding us that we serve a God who makes

even his enemy's plans bend to his will. God is the one who equips Cyrus, even though Cyrus

doesn't know him. God is working through him. God is doing

the heavy lifting here, breaking the doors of bronze and cutting the bars of iron, creating darkness

and calamity, bringing rain and light and fruit, and ultimately using all of this to set his people

free from exile. In chapter 46, God points out that Babylon, Israel's captors, are idolaters.

It should come as no surprise that the ones who took Israel into exile aren't followers of

Yahweh. He paints a picture of them having to lug their idols around and how that weighs them

down, prevents any kind of forward motion, and ultimately leads to bondage. Personally, that hit a little too

close to home for me. I don't really like relating to Babylon. But back to the prophecy. What's been

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