Isaiah 48:3

"I have declared the former things from of old; yea they went forth out of my mouth, and I showed them: suddenly I did them, and they came to pass. Because I knew that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew, and thou brow brass; therefore I have declared it to thee from of old; before it came to pass I showed it thee; lest thou shouldest say, Mine idol hath done them, and my graven image, and my molten image, hath commanded them."

"Things from of old ..." (Isaiah 48:3). What were these? They number in the hundreds, or even more. God prophesied the multiplication of Abraham's children through Isaac, at a time long before Isaac was even born; he prophesied the four hundred year period of Israel's "sojourn" in Egypt; he prophesied their delivery out of Egypt; he prophesied that they would leave Egypt with "great riches." He prophesied that they would indeed inherit the land of Canaan. Could such prophecies have been "after the event"? Preposterous! Why should Abraham have bought a tomb in Canaan many centuries before his people were scheduled to inherit Canaan? Furthermore, God prophesied that if Israel rebelled against his law, he would pluck them off the land, carry them far away, and scatter them all over the world. Did God "miss it" on any of these prophecies? They are mentioned here in order to convince Israel of the truth of God's Word. It is a measure of their obstinate "brazen faced" hypocrisy that they still needed convincing!

The tendency of Israel to idolatry was one of the principal characteristics of the chosen people. Their unbelief is indeed a marvel. It is a measure of their perversity that, "The argument from the fulfillment of prophecy, hitherto directed against the heathen (Isaiah 41:21ff), must now be directed against God's own people, now become determined skeptics."[5]