#1005 Isaiah 43 You Are Mine

 

But now thus says the Lord,

he who created you, O Jacob,

he who formed you, O Israel:

“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;

I have called you by name, you are mine.

2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;

and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;

when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,

and the flame shall not consume you.

3 For I am the Lord your God,

the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.

I give Egypt as your ransom,

Cush and Seba in exchange for you.

4 Because you are precious in my eyes,

and honored, and I love you,

I give men in return for you,

peoples in exchange for your life.

5 Fear not, for I am with you;

I will bring your offspring from the east,

and from the west I will gather you.

6 I will say to the north, Give up,

and to the south, Do not withhold;

bring my sons from afar

and my daughters from the end of the earth,

7 everyone who is called by my name,

whom I created for my glory,

whom I formed and made.”

8 Bring out the people who are blind, yet have eyes,

who are deaf, yet have ears!

9 All the nations gather together,

and the peoples assemble.

Who among them can declare this,

and show us the former things?

Let them bring their witnesses to prove them right,

and let them hear and say, It is true.

10 “You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord,

“and my servant whom I have chosen,

that you may know and believe me

and understand that I am he.

Before me no god was formed,

nor shall there be any after me.

11 I, I am the Lord,

and besides me there is no savior.

12 I declared and saved and proclaimed,

when there was no strange god among you;

and you are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “and I am God.

13 Also henceforth I am he;

there is none who can deliver from my hand;

I work, and who can turn it back?”

14 Thus says the Lord,

your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:

“For your sake I send to Babylon

and bring them all down as fugitives,

even the Chaldeans, in the ships in which they rejoice.

15 I am the Lord, your Holy One,

the Creator of Israel, your King.”

16 Thus says the Lord,

who makes a way in the sea,

a path in the mighty waters,

17 who brings forth chariot and horse,

army and warrior;

they lie down, they cannot rise,

they are extinguished, quenched like a wick:

18 “Remember not the former things,

nor consider the things of old.

19 Behold, I am doing a new thing;

now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?

I will make a way in the wilderness

and rivers in the desert.

20 The wild beasts will honor me,

the jackals and the ostriches,

for I give water in the wilderness,

rivers in the desert,

to give drink to my chosen people,

21 the people whom I formed for myself

that they might declare my praise.

22 “Yet you did not call upon me, O Jacob;

but you have been weary of me, O Israel!

23 You have not brought me your sheep for burnt offerings,

or honored me with your sacrifices.

I have not burdened you with offerings,

or wearied you with frankincense.

24 You have not bought me sweet cane with money,

or satisfied me with the fat of your sacrifices.

But you have burdened me with your sins;

you have wearied me with your iniquities.

25 “I, I am he

who blots out your transgressions for my own sake,

and I will not remember your sins.

26 Put me in remembrance; let us argue together;

set forth your case, that you may be proved right.

27 Your first father sinned,

and your mediators transgressed against me.

28 Therefore I will profane the princes of the sanctuary,

and deliver Jacob to utter destruction

and Israel to reviling. Isaiah 43 ESV

Isaiah 43 God, the Savior

1-7. O Jacob, O Israel - As with all men they are created, Jacob was the father of the twelve tribes, and in the list of the patriarchs God uses to expound on His own name. The nation was called out through Abraham, formed by God, held together by God, and though He has chastened them, they yet exist by His good favor, unto His glory. She is a wonder among the nations, that she has a physical presence of a nation once again, and of a language revived from of old.

…13Then Moses asked God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is His name?’ What should I tell them?” 14God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ”15God also told Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’ This is My name forever, and this is how I am to be remembered in every generation.… Exodus 3: 13-15

Fear not, for I have redeemed you - God is a Redeemer, and since He has called them by name, as His own, then He is placing Himself liable as nearest kin. All the debt they have incurred He will take upon Himself. The fullness of this looks forward to Christ, but He provides many examples and reasons for them not to be afraid, though the coming of Babylon is certain, yet they have been in this way before.

When you pass through the waters...and the rivers, I will be with you - He gives literal instances where He physically purchased them from Egypt. Their forefathers were slaves there, and God sent the prophet Moses to ask that His people be let go. As the Creator, all life belongs to God, and He has every right to lay hold of His claim. Pharaoh contested this and God gave him over to a hard heart, but after the Passover, which looks to the complete and final payment, not just a matter of location, but of spiritual, redemptive transformation, he sent the people away.  They passed through the Red Sea as if on dry land, and Pharaoh's army was drowned in chasing them. They later crossed the Jordan in like manner, and to the amazement of the inhabitants. We are also reminded of the waters of the great flood and God's preservation of Noah and his family. They did not avoid the flood, but were held safe above it.

When you walk through the fire - This will happen literally in Babylon, and to three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They will serve the kingdom of Babylon well, but when asked to go against the only true God, they will refuse to bow to idols. When they are cast into the furnace, they will not die, and a fourth figure will be seen with them, a preincarnate figure of Christ. The same Jesus, Who could tell the wind and the waves to be still, will keep the fire from burning these men. That same Jesus will be the ark for all those found in Him, keeping them from consuming wrath of God.

…24Suddenly King Nebuchadnezzar jumped up in amazement and asked his advisers, “Did we not throw three men, firmly bound, into the fire?” “Certainly, O king,” they replied. 25“Look!” he exclaimed. “I see four men, unbound and unharmed, walking around in the fire— and the fourth looks like a son of the gods!26Then Nebuchadnezzar approached the door of the blazing fiery furnace and called out, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out!” So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out of the fire,… Daniel 3: 24-26

I give Egypt as your ransom - This would bring back powerful images of the Passover, when the angel of death took all the firstborn in Egypt, whoever's house did not have the blood painted on it's doorway. Egypt suffered much under the plagues before then as well, their land devastated by locust, frogs and hail, causing great famine. Egypt, Ethiopia and Seba were hard pressed by Assyria and led away, but God delivered Jerusalem from Sennacherib. 

Because you are precious in my eyes - What an honored place to be, all they were ever owed was the same as the lost from Egypt and all other men, their wages, and everyone of them a sinner, yet God chose to love them. 

Peoples in exchange for your life - He punished their punishers, and chastened His children but not to their extinction. He had made a covenant with His Son before time began, and we see it from the promise in the garden, His preservation of Noah, the unilateral covenant with Abraham, and the teaching of the law that would convict those being brought to grace. He will give the life of His own Son as a ransom from the bondage of sin. This will break the chains of death and rob the gaping mouth of Sheol. His judgment is good, for no one ever wanted God without Him first loving them, and all have sinned and fallen short of His glory. In his judgment upon the wicked He is proven righteous, and in His grace to those who are being saved, that unmerited mercy, He is no less just, for His Son has taken their place. 

I will bring your offspring - Israel was dispersed, the northern kingdoms to Assyria, Judah to Babylon, and yet God called some out, back to the promised land. It will be like this again in the end of times when the time of the Gentiles is fulfilled.

“Israel is just as indestructible as God’s Word and Covenant are. Whoever can annihilate Israel can do more than Satan and all the powers of hell have been able to do in ages past. What is true of Israel, however, is equally true of the Church. Against it, too, the flames have raged and the waters have boiled but, according to His promise, the Lord Jesus has always been with her.” (Bultema)

8-13. Who are blind, yet have eyes - He invites His own people, Israel, who is His deaf and blind servant, witnesses to all these things, hearers, yet disconnected to providence. They are to come to trial with the nations and bring plenty of witnesses. What has God said that He has not done? Who has truly searched? What is your excuse?

“We must not miss the pathos: imagine any litigant depending on the blind to testify to what they have seen and the deaf to what they have heard!” (Motyer)

And besides me there is no Savior - If Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior, then He is God or else a liar. Look back at verse 3. 

…19Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and their glory is in their shame. Their minds are set on earthly things. 20But our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21who, by the power that enables Him to subject all things to Himself, will transform our lowly bodies to be like His glorious body.… Philippians 3: 19-21

14-15. For your sake I send to Babylon - He will redeem them again. Just like the times before, from the flood, from Egypt, they are there to see the folly of trusting in men and the world's system. They are there because they chose to act as those people act and so He let them live among them and be ruled by them. He is not finished with them yet, and He will send the Persians to take Babylon.

16-21. Nor consider the things of old - He has told them to remember those times, their deliverance in past verses, but now He is showing mercy, wiping the slate clean for that which brought them to captivity in the first place.

…6Surely You desire truth in the inmost being; You teach me wisdom in the inmost place. 7Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.8Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones You have crushed rejoice.… Psalm 51: 6-8

Do you not perceive it - They were not able to save themselves by works of the law, all of them were condemned by it. No one has a good answer for God, an example of an idol that worked on their behalf. This new thing is what He had planned from eternity, but they could not understand it; the Seed promised in the garden, the Victor over sin, the Accomplisher and Fulfiller of the law, the true offering that millions of bulls and sheep could not satisfy. Every sacrifice pointed to a people devoid of ability, yet they put hope in idols, in men, and none could satisfy.

I will make a way in the wilderness - They would come back from Babylon and have to cross a great expanse of wilderness. Such is the heart, it is without a compass, without a path, men think they know where they are even though they are wandering. He brings them water, He makes them alive and causes them to walk in His ways.

…2“Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her forced labor has been completed; her iniquity has been pardoned. For she has received from the hand of the LORD double for all her sins.” 3A voice of one calling: “Prepare the way for the LORD in the wilderness; make a straight highway for our God in the desert.4Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill made low; the uneven ground will become smooth, and the rugged land a plain.… Isaiah 40: 2-4

The wild beast will honor Me - They will do what God asks, and His people will not be harmed by them.

That they might declare my praise - When we tell of God we do what we were created for, and what Israel was set apart for, to glorify and honor God. 

…26I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes and to carefully observe My ordinances.28Then you will live in the land that I gave your forefathers; you will be My people, and I will be your God.… Ezekiel 36: 26-28

22-28. Yet you did not call upon me, O Jacob - Don't be mistaken, this is all on the Lord's part.

…15No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not understand what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because everything I have learned from My Father I have made known to you. 16You did not choose Me, but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit— fruit that will remain— so that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you. 17This is My command to you: Love one another.… John 15: 15-17

But you have burdened me with your sins - This is all you brought to the table. All you had was what I cannot look upon, what my Holiness has to judge lest I be unjust.

Who blots out your transgressions for my own sake - He picks up the cross, goes to Calvary, becomes a curse on our behalf, as cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. If we confess, for that is all we have, He forgives, and He removes it far away, as the east from the West. It is not for any righteousness on the part of the creature, but for His own sake. God is a Redeemer, God is Love, God is Holy and Just. 

…20Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ: Be reconciled to God. 21God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5: 20-21

Set forth your case - He did not need us, He is not the transgressor, all our righteousness is as filthy rags. From Adam we have all been born under the curse, captives to sin, so argue your case before God. Every thought and word is fraught with sin, and all that we think good in ourselves is tainted also. What do I have other than sin that does not come from God, without Him I can do nothing. What is my boast?

“Be careful not to perform your righteous acts before men to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. 2So when you give to the needy, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. Truly I tell you, they already have their full reward. 3But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,…

4so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 5And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. Truly I tell you, they already have their full reward. 6But when you pray, go into your inner room, shut your door, and pray to your Father, who is unseen. And your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.… Matthew 6: 1-6

And your mediators transgressed against me - Even the best among you, like Moses, even he was an imperfect mediator, a shadow. He struck when I told him to speak.

…18Because of this, the Jews tried all the harder to kill Him. Not only was He breaking the Sabbath, but He was even calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God. 19So Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing by Himself, unless He sees the Father doing it. For whatever the Father does, the Son also does. 20The Father loves the Son and shows Him all He does. And to your amazement, He will show Him even greater works than these.… John 5: 18-20

We didn't want Him, we wanted rituals, wanted sin, held up men, and wanted the praise of men for ourselves, and so for those being saved, know this, that in every aspect, salvation is of the Lord.