Isaiah 43:1-28--Israel's Only Savior

Isaiah 43
English Standard Version

Israel's Only Savior
43 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.

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Another great example of why Isaiah is sometimes nicknames "The Fifth Gospel" as this passage reminds Israel that Israel has only ever had one Savior and that is the LORD.  It starts with Him being their Creator--however, this is not the story of creation that you would expect.  The LORD speaks about the creation of the nation of Israel from the 70 sons of Jacob and how He made them into millions of people living in the land of Goshen, and they were set free from slavery and made a nation in a day on that first Passover.

There are some historical references to passing through the waters (probably referring to them crossing the Red Sea) and passing through the rivers (probably them crossing the Jordan River into the Promised Land) that the LORD would be with them, but then there is a reference to them having to walk through the fire, and we can't point to anything like that in the biblical past, but there is something like that which would happen in the future and God's faithful would cling to this promise when they were exiles in Babylon and were threatened with the fiery furnace for their refusal to bow down and worship the golden image when the kings musicians played.  We often times try to read this promise and claim it for ourselves without the context that this is a special promise that the LORD is making to the faithful of the nation of Israel.  If we would just read the next verse, we would see that in the fact that the next promise is one of Land that is given to a nation with physical boundaries.

Though they would be exiled and scattered all over the world, there is a promise there that the LORD would gather the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob back into the Promised Land (just like He has been doing since the end of World War 2).  Some try to point to this as a simple promise to bring them back from the Babylonian Exile, but that would only say "from the east" but the LORD says He would gather them "from the east and the west."  When did they ever get taken away to the west?  The answer is when they were scattered during the time of the Diaspora and even to for all the years when the nation of Israel was not recognized, and they lived as refugees and exiles across the entire world in any nation that would take them.  The LORD wants all of them to gather together in the Land that He has given to them.

God challenges all the spiritually blind people of all the other nations who worship other gods to a trial and the nation of Israel will be His witnesses to testify to who He is and what He has done and also to testify against the nations of the world and why they deserve judgment.  Once the LORD's wrath is poured out on the nations, no one will be able to stay His hand or hide them from Him or His wrath.  Not even death will be an escape for them, though they imagine it will be. --however, they will not be allowed to kill themselves, though they will try to do so, thinking they will escape the wrath of God.

The LORD is sending them to Babylon for His glory and their good, even though they don't see it.  In the end, they will be witnesses to some of the most powerful kingdoms this world has ever known, and the gospel will be proclaimed throughout the whole earth by these once-pagan kings.  The LORD will cause these Gentiles to fear the LORD and worship Him, and to take care of His people for a time.

​Even the things that we imagine are untamable like the currents of the sea and the weather are under the LORD's command.  So are the chariots and horses of the Gentile armies and so are their kings and all the nations of the earth.  The LORD controls the hearts of all the kings--nothing is beyond His control (though that does not mean we believe in Fatalism or Determinism as the pagans do where there is no personal accountability or responsibility for our actions).  To that end, Babylon will be responsible for their evil deeds, even though it is part of God's greater plan to use them to discipline His wayward children.

The LORD is going to do something new and wonderful where He will cause worshipers to come forth from the "wild beasts" (that's the Gentile nations).  Just look at what happens to both Assyria and Babylon as examples.  They may have been unclean in the past and like those who were outcasts in the wilderness, but the LORD made them to be clean and to be His worshipers.  He will make them into something new and beautiful.

The LORD will use the conversion and salvation of these Gentiles to make the Jewish people (called Jacob here) jealous, because many of them will still not worship the LORD and praise Him like they were created for.  They will refuse to bring their offerings (or at least will refuse to bring them with a sincere heart as we see some of the prophets talking about later in the Old Testament).

Who is the one worthy of all our worship?  He is the one who has forgiven not just our trespasses, but our iniquities (our intentional sins).  Why did He do it?  For the sake of His own Name and so that He might receive more glory.  We are His people called by His name and He will never stop loving those whom He has chosen to love so much that He sent His only begotten (one-of-a-kind) Son to die for them.  Then there is a little bit of theology that Paul picks up on in the book for Romans.  Jesus is the Second Adam.  In our firth father, Adam, we all our born dead into our trespasses and sins and have a sin nature that causes us to be separated from the blessings of the covenant that God wants to have with us, and we only experience His justice, judgment and wrath that are in store for us.  We can never do anything to please Him in this state.  That lets us know that we need a new father, someone to be our Second Adam that can give us a new nature.  Only Jesus can do that (see Romans 5).

Since God has done so much here for us, why would we put our faith and trust in men, chariots and horses, or idols made of stone, wood, and metal (all things which the LORD created anyways).  Will the LORD not show all these things to be vain and worthless and profane them (show that they are just common and not to be revered or worshiped)?  Yes, He certainly will!  He will be the only one left standing worthy of our worship and all creatures of our God and King will bow down and worship Him--even those who refused to do so to this point and will spend an eternity and the Lake of Fire--they will still worship Him and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.