“That frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and maketh diviners mad; that turneth wise men backward, and maketh their knowledge foolish;”
My Notes
What Does Isaiah 44:25 Mean?
God is listing His résumé — the things He does that no one else can — and this verse describes His relationship to the world's wisdom. He doesn't just surpass it. He actively dismantles it.
"That frustrateth the tokens of the liars" — tokens (ʾôṯôṯ) are signs, omens, the evidence that false prophets and diviners point to as proof of their predictions. God frustrates them — makes them fail, exposes them as empty, breaks the connection between the claimed sign and the predicted outcome. The liars said "this sign proves that" — and God makes the sign prove nothing.
"And maketh diviners mad" — the diviners — the fortune-tellers, the astrologers, the people who claimed access to hidden knowledge — God drives them crazy. The word "mad" (hālal) can mean to act like a madman, to be confused, to rave. Their predictions fail so consistently that they lose their grip on the reality they claimed to understand. The system they built their lives on collapses, and what's left is madness.
"That turneth wise men backward" — the wise — not God's wisdom, but the world's — are turned backward. Reversed. Made to retreat. Their forward motion — their confidence, their progress, their certainty that they understood how the world works — is thrown into reverse. They thought they were advancing. God sends them stumbling backward.
"And maketh their knowledge foolish" — the final humiliation. Their knowledge — the accumulated expertise, the researched conclusions, the peer-reviewed certainty — is made foolish. Not by a better argument. By God's action. He doesn't debate the wise. He demonstrates their foolishness by doing what their knowledge said was impossible.
Paul draws on this verse in 1 Corinthians 1:20: "Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?" The cross is the ultimate instance — the event that looked like defeat to every wise observer and turned out to be the wisdom of God.
Reflection Questions
- 1.Where have you placed human expertise on the throne — treated the world's wisdom as the final word on something God might see differently?
- 2.How does God 'making knowledge foolish' apply to current cultural or scientific certainties that conflict with Scripture?
- 3.When has God done something in your life that the 'experts' — counselors, doctors, common sense — said was impossible?
- 4.How do you balance respecting human knowledge in its proper place while keeping God's wisdom as the ultimate authority?
Devotional
The world's experts have been wrong before. They've been wrong about what's possible, what's true, and what's coming. They've been wrong with absolute confidence and impeccable credentials. And God — who doesn't need a degree or a peer review — frustrates their predictions, reverses their progress, and makes their knowledge look like foolishness.
This isn't anti-intellectualism. God created the human mind and delights in its proper use. Isaiah is describing what happens when human wisdom positions itself as the ultimate authority — when the wise man's knowledge replaces God's revelation as the final word. That's the knowledge God makes foolish. Not knowledge in its proper place. Knowledge on the wrong throne.
The diviners go mad because their system fails. The wise men go backward because their confidence collapses. The liars' signs are frustrated because reality doesn't obey their predictions. And in every case, the reversal is God's doing. He doesn't just passively allow human wisdom to fail. He actively frustrates it — to make room for His own wisdom, which consistently arrives through channels the experts overlooked.
A virgin birth. A carpenter's son. A cross. A resurrection. Every critical moment in God's plan looked foolish to the wise. The experts said it was impossible, irrelevant, or insane. And God made their knowledge foolish by doing exactly what they said couldn't be done.
Be careful whose expertise you trust with ultimate authority. Human knowledge is valuable but provisional. The wisdom that matters — the wisdom that survives when God acts — comes from Him, not from the credentials on the wall.
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
That frustrateth the tokens of the liars,.... Struck dumb the oracles of the Heathens, disappointed their lying priests,…
That frustrateth - Hebrew, ‘Breaking:’ that is, destroying, rendering vain. The idea is, that that which necromancers…
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I. The duty which Jacob and Israel, now in captivity, were called to, that they might be…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture