Isaiah 43: 1 – 28
Where Are You?
But now, thus says the LORD, who created you, O Jacob, and He who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine. 2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you. 3 For I am the LORD your God, The Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I gave Egypt for your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in your place. 4 Since you were precious in My sight, you have been honored, and I have loved you; Therefore I will give men for you, and people for your life. 5 Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your descendants from the east, and gather you from the west; 6 I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ And to the south, ‘Do not keep them back!’ Bring My sons from afar, and My daughters from the ends of the earth— 7 Everyone who is called by My name, whom I have created for My glory;
I have formed him, yes, I have made him.” 8 Bring out the blind people who have eyes, and the deaf who have ears. 9 Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled. Who among them can declare this, and show us former things? Let them bring out their witnesses, that they may be justified; Or let them hear and say, “It is truth.” 10 “You are My witnesses,” says the LORD, “And My servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe Me, and understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, nor shall there be after Me. 11 I, even I, am the LORD, and besides Me there is no savior. 12 I have declared and saved, I have proclaimed, and there was no foreign god among you; Therefore you are My witnesses,” says the LORD, “that I am God. 13 Indeed before the day was, I am He; And there is no one who can deliver out of My hand; I work, and who will reverse it?” 14 Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, The Holy One of Israel: “For your sake I will send to Babylon, and bring them all down as fugitives—The Chaldeans, who rejoice in their ships. 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 and a path through the mighty waters, 17 Who brings forth the chariot and horse, the army and the power (They shall lie down together, they shall not rise; They are extinguished, they are quenched like a wick): 18 “Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. 19 Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it?
I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. 20 The beast of the field will honor Me, the jackals and the ostriches, because I give waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to give drink to My people, My chosen. 21 This people I have formed for Myself; They shall declare My praise. 22 “But you have not called upon Me, O Jacob; And you have been weary of Me, O Israel. 23 You have not brought Me the sheep for your burnt offerings, nor have you honored Me with your sacrifices. I have not caused you to serve with grain offerings, nor wearied you with incense. 24 You have bought Me no sweet cane with money, nor have you 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, even 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 contend together; State your case, that you may be acquitted. 27 Your first father sinned, and your mediators have transgressed against Me. 28 Therefore I will profane the princes of the sanctuary; I will give Jacob to the curse, and Israel to reproaches.
Is everyone God’s son or daughter? Why would I ask this question? God constantly makes clear that those who reject Him are not of His people.
But now, thus says the LORD, who created you, O Jacob, and He who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine.
Our Great Adoni Yahweh – Father God - Is the creator of Jacob, and the One Who formed and lovingly shaped Israel. It was He Who called Abraham and brought them forth from him, as a new creation, shaping them to His purposes.
We see the beauty of this chapter yet at first it seems that it is only written to Jewish people. What about you and me, that is us gentiles. As I just stated not all Jews are Jews and not all Gentiles are gentiles. How so? Well the book of Romans chapter 2 we read, “25 For circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law; but if you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. 26 Therefore, if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? 27 And will not the physically uncircumcised, if he fulfills the law, judge you who, even with your written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law? 28 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; 29 but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.” Again those who want to be God’s children are His. If you respond to Him and make Him your all sufficient Holy One, you are His child because you have place your trust in His Holy Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as it is written also in the book of Romans chapter 4, “4 Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. 5 But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness”
All of us who have put our hope and trust in God’s Son can read this chapter and receive all the good things it has to say. Wow!
2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you.
When Israel had passed through the Red Sea during Yahweh’s deliverance of them from Egypt, they had passed through its waters and they did not overflow them. So it will be in the future. He will act again for them. Whatever they face, whether fire or water, they will be safe. The overflowing of water had been used to depict the overflowing of their enemies against them, as had the picture of fire. But this would no more be. Neither waters nor flame would touch them in their future, for He would be with them.
Water and fire are traditional symbols for suffering which when used together express totality of suffering. The world was destroyed the first time by what? You know the answer – a flood. It will be destroyed again how? – By fire. It says this in the book of 2 Peter chapter 3, “11 Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? 13 Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.”
3 For I am the LORD your God, The Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I gave Egypt for your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in your place. 4 Since you were precious in My sight, you have been honored, and I have loved you; Therefore I will give men for you, and people for your life.
If you look through the bible you find that God Is One Who constantly gives something in exchange of someone He finds valuable. For example when you look at the book of Numbers chapter 3 we read this regarding how He took the Levites in exchange of the firstborns, “11 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: 12 “Now behold, I Myself have taken the Levites from among the children of Israel instead of every firstborn who opens the womb among the children of Israel. Therefore the Levites shall be Mine, 13 because all the firstborn are Mine. On the day that I struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, I sanctified to Myself all the firstborn in Israel, both man and beast. They shall be Mine: I am the LORD.”
How about the sin offering where we see our Holy Jehovah Elyon – The Lord Most High – substituting another even from the first man sinned against our Righteous Holy Sovereign Creator. The most striking variance appears of the Lord’s direction in the book of Genesis where Abraham was instructed by God to offer up his son Isaac. We who all know the story realize that our God does not vary in His directions for the sacrifice of a lamb, “6 So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife, and the two of them went together. 7 But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” Then he said, “Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” 8 And Abraham said, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” So the two of them went together.” You see the word ‘for’ in most manuscripts as the verse would therefore read, ‘My son, God will provide Himself, the lamb for a burnt offering. We read in the Gospel of John chapter 1 how He provided Himself as the Lamb, “29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is He of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who is preferred before me, for He was before me.”
5 Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your descendants from the east, and gather you from the west; 6 I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ And to the south, ‘Do not keep them back!’ Bring My sons from afar, and My daughters from the ends of the earth— 7 Everyone who is called by My name, whom I have created for My glory; I have formed him, yes, I have made him.”
Our Precious Holy Yahweh repeats that He is with them. He then promises the restoration of all of true Israel from every part of the world. To men, even to Israel, they seemed lost, swallowed up by the nations, but it is not so. All ends of the earth would give them up at God’s command.
Our Precious Holy Yahweh repeats that He is with them. He then promises the restoration of all of true Israel from every part of the world. To men, even to Israel, they seemed lost, swallowed up by the nations, but it is not so. All ends of the earth would give them up at God’s command.
Notice that it is not all Israel, but those who are called by His name, those whom He has created for His glory, those whom He had formed and shaped, who would come. In other words it is the true spiritual Israel, the elect, the redeemed, the remnant prepared for Himself, the holy seed, those not ‘cut off’ because of covenant disobedience. The ideas are a repetition from verse 1.
8 Bring out the blind people who have eyes, and the deaf who have ears. 9 Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled. Who among them can declare this, and show us former things? Let them bring out their witnesses, that they may be justified; Or let them hear and say, “It is truth.”
The call to gather to give their witness is sent out to the nations and peoples. But they are described as blind while having eyes and deaf while having ears. That is, they do not ‘see’ or ‘hear’ the truth. They are blind and deaf to truth. God is calling together the deaf and the blind to give judgment! It is intended to sound ridiculous. The description may also be intended to include the unbelieving of Israel. The question is, which of them can explain anything that has happened in the past that is of heavenly significance? If they claim to be able to, let them produce their witnesses of such happenings, so that they can be shown to be right. Or alternatively let them now listen to God’s witnesses and testify to their truth, acknowledging that He is right.
10 “You are My witnesses,” says the LORD, “And My servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe Me, and understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, nor shall there be after Me. 11 I, even I, am the LORD, and besides Me there is no savior.
God does have His witnesses. They are all believer in the true Servant, our Lord Jesus Christ, Whom He has chosen. The fact of God’s choice of His true people is constantly stressed. We all were not chosen because we were mighty, nor because they are worthy, but simply because God set His love on them and us and elected to choose us all, and for the sake of their fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to whom He had made His promises. And He chose them so that they might know and believe Him, and understand Who and What He really is. This was why He called Abraham, that He might produce from him a seed which would be God’s witnesses to the world. Abraham believed God, and his seed are to follow in his belief.
Please note the statement, ‘Before me there was no God formed, nor will there be after me.’ This is not saying that God was ‘formed’, it is declaring that there have been no gods formed either before or after Him. For He is before all things, and there are no other gods, nor will there ever be.
12 I have declared and saved, I have proclaimed, and there was no foreign god among you; Therefore you are My witnesses,” says the LORD, “that I am God. 13 Indeed before the day was, I am He; And there is no one who can deliver out of My hand; I work, and who will reverse it?”
Our Holy Majestic God has faithfully fulfilled all His Promises. His people can know and believe and understand this fact because He has declared, and saved, and shown. He ‘declared’ His name to Abraham (Genesis 15.7), to Moses (Exodus 3.13-15; 6.2, 29) and to His people at Mount Sinai (Exodus 20.1). He ‘delivered’ His people from Egypt and through the wilderness, and into the land of Canaan, and beyond until under David they ruled the whole area from the River to the Wadi of Egypt. And He had constantly ‘shown’ His power throughout their history, and especially in the deliverance from Sennacherib. Thus were they witnesses to what God had done and Who and What He was, and what His purposes were.
Isaiah now briefly turns his attention for the first time since chapter 39 to Babylon. He saw them as standing there as a threat from which God’s people need to be ‘redeemed’, a threat arising from what it has always represented, but enhanced by the fact that it had become a centre of operations for the Assyrians. So Yahweh will redeem His people from under the influence of Babylon, and exact vengeance on them also, by scattering them. He will remove the threat of Babylon.
14 Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, The Holy One of Israel: “For your sake I will send to Babylon, and bring them all down as fugitives—The Chaldeans, who rejoice in their ships.
Having prophesied what the king of Babylon would do in robbing Jerusalem of all its possessions which we read in chapter 3 verse .6-7, which itself would result in the looting the temple in order to get at its gold and silver, (the king’s house was connected with the Temple), and no doubt already aware of Babylonian menaces, Isaiah is now looking ahead to God’s vengeance on them for it. He wanted His people to know that while Babylon, with its continual threat as their regional controller, might harass them and influence them to their harm; it would not get away with its behavior. It would be harassed in turn. So as their Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, Yahweh would send to Babylon and ‘bring all of them down as fugitives’. They had behaved badly towards Israel/Judah with their pernicious influences and made some of them fugitives, thus will the leaders in Babylon themselves become fugitives. ‘The Chaldeans’ were originally from south Babylonia but the word gradually came to signify the whole land. The ships of rejoicing may have been pleasure vessels on the Euphrates, now used as a means of flight because of their dire straits. Or it could simply be ships that they were proud of. But the point is that what should have been ships which gave them pleasure had become the means of their desperate escape.
15 I am the LORD, your Holy One, The Creator of Israel, your King.”
Thus by His treatment of Babylon which has misused His people, Israel/Judah will know that He is Yahweh, the Unique One, the Set Apart One (set apart from all others), the One especially set apart by His moral purity, and Israel’s Creator, Who brought Israel as it were out of nothing. And that He is their King, Who adopted them as His covenant people at Sinai and watches over them, and reveals Himself as King over all.
16 Thus says the LORD, who makes a way in the sea and a path through the mighty waters, 17 Who brings forth the chariot and horse, the army and the power (They shall lie down together, they shall not rise; They are extinguished, they are quenched like a wick):
The idea here is that this smiting of Babylon will be done by the Deliverer of Israel Who by His mighty power had delivered His people from Egypt and from Pharaoh’s army at the Red Sea. And we may see as indicated within these verses that just as Yahweh delivered Israel at the Exodus from the mighty power of Egypt, by the exercise of His Own mighty power, so will now He destroy the power being exercised from Babylon.
The way in the sea and the path in the mighty waters was a poetic description of the crossing of the Red Sea by which His people finally obtained their freedom from oppression and the concentration is not on the journey but on the ‘way’ in which they were delivered from the pursuing forces. He provided them a safe way to walk in. The chariot and horse being brought forth was a reminder of the way that Pharaoh’s chariot force and cavalry were drawn into God’s snare, together with his army and all his power. The result was that they all ‘lay down’ not to rise. They became extinct like a quenched flame. They were drowned. All oppression ceased.
18 “Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. 19 Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. 20 The beast of the field will honor Me, the jackals and the ostriches, because I give waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to give drink to My people, My chosen. 21 This people I have formed for Myself; They shall declare My praise.
Our Majestic Holy God promises that once He has acted they will be able to forget the ancient wonders, because He will now do a new thing for them which they will be able to point at. He will make for His people ‘a way in the wilderness’. In Egypt he had provided a way in the sea which kept them safe. Here He will provide them with a way in the wilderness which will keep them safe. The past is not to be the measure of the future. They will not need to dwell on the past. Deliverance in the past was partial, delivery in the future will be gloriously complete. They will speak of ‘God now’ and not ‘God then’.
However, while there is the glorious vision of this future true people of God, Isaiah has not forgotten the present state of Israel. He was under no illusions about that. Indeed God had warned him what they would be like as taught in chapter 6 verses 9-11. Jacob was in a dreadful state even in spite of all God’s offers of forgiveness. Israel was not walking in the way.
22 “But you have not called upon Me, O Jacob; And you have been weary of Me, O Israel. 23 You have not brought Me the sheep for your burnt offerings, nor have you honored Me with your sacrifices. I have not caused you to serve with grain offerings, nor wearied you with incense. 24 You have bought Me no sweet cane with money, nor have you satisfied Me with the fat of your sacrifices; But you have burdened Me with your sins, you have wearied Me with your iniquities.
The picture of Israel’s present condition is a dismal one. They have not sought Him or genuinely called on Him, and it is because they are weary of Him. They have outwardly continued the ritual but their hearts have been with other gods, and it is on them that they have called and to whom they have looked. They have not brought their sacrifices with a glad heart, and with a genuine sense of worship. While they have continued with the cult it has been formal and dead. They were in fact not offerings made to Him, simply temple ritual, following a dead custom.
I see this same attitude occurring amongst us even in this day. It is good that believers are gathering together each week to worship our Great God. However, the next time you show up at a service, look around. The people are not entering in to be with The Lord. They are strolling in late. They are using the church as a social gathering place as you see them in various conversations while others are trying to worship our Holy Ruler. They do not bring their bibles. Many are there to be entertained.
Rather than them serving Him, they had thought that through their ritual, offered so sinfully, they could actually make Him serve them, forcing Him to do their will, manipulating Him by their activity. Their whole attitude towards Him was sinful.
You know that we are all part of the body of Christ. Nationwide, it is a fact that around 10 % serve. How come? Where is it written that the 90 %,who do nothing but show up, are given the pass of not serving others. It is a disgrace and if this is you, you should be ashamed of yourself.
25 “I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; And I will not remember your sins.
Write this verse down and put it in your wallet or purse as a keep sake. This verse is one that we should look at each day. Even you 90 per-centers should do so likewise.
Yet it should not be so. If only they were willing He was standing there ready to forgive. He remains the same – yesterday, today, and forever. It also applies to us. These wonderful words are a reminder to them of what the Temple service should have been all about, the removal of their sins, and a guarantee to those who were still faithful of forgiveness and of what He did for them. Let them remember that it is Yahweh, and only Yahweh, Who can truly blot out their sins, yes, and wills to do it. It is He Who can remove their sins in such a way that they are no longer remembered, but deliberately put aside, filed away as no longer relevant, and no longer held against them, because they are cancelled. And He does it for His own sake, that He might have them as His people. Let them remember this and come back to Him that He may do it. He is the blotter-out and non-remember of sins.
He is still the same for us today. Once we become aware of our sins we can hear His voice calling to us, ““I, even I, am He Who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.” And if we call on Him we can then be sure that He will do it. We can be sure that He will blot out our transgressions, our breaking of His Law and our coming short of His requirements, and He will put our iniquities in the place of non-remembrance (better than being forgotten for nothing will bring non-remembered sins back to God’s memory. They are deliberately excluded). But it is not automatic. It results from our response to His call. Have you confessed Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior? Do it now before it is too late.
26 Put Me in remembrance; Let us contend together; State your case, that you may be acquitted.
He pleads with His people to discuss matters with Him. Let them remind Him of their arguments. Let He and they both plead their two positions before a tribunal together. If they are right, let them set forth the case to prove that they are right. Then indeed will He have His opportunity to prove that they are wrong and He is right. But they will not listen. It is the same story all over again. Their fathers sinned in the wilderness almost immediately after the covenant had been written in stone, and continued to sin constantly, and now their own representatives and ambassadors to God have done the same. They have shown a continual obstinacy of heart.
27 Your first father sinned, and your mediators have transgressed against Me. 28 Therefore I will profane the princes of the sanctuary; I will give Jacob to the curse, and Israel to reproaches.
He will make the leading priests cease to be priests. They will be removed from priestly office. They will lose their ‘sanctity’. They will be made profane.
So the humiliation of the Temple is at the forefront of what Isaiah sees as inevitable. Those who serve in the Temple have humiliated God, and so He will now humiliate those who serve in the Temple. It may well be that he saw that this could only be achieved by the removal of these ‘princes of the Sanctuary’ to an unclean land. Thus he may have seen the final destruction of the temple for its treasures as inevitable, with the consequent cessation of the whole round of sacrifices and the slaughter of priests as they incongruously defended it, and the removal of the chief priests to captivity where they would certainly be ‘unclean’. Isaiah is becoming more aware of what the future holds.
So, the question that we all have before us this day as our Wonderful Holy Spirit has given us this great chapter of Scripture is ‘where are you?’ Way back in the garden of Eden after Adam and Eve sinned, our Holy Master asked Adam, ‘where are you?’ He wanted Adam to stop and think of where he stood; truth in how he disobeyed God our Father; and seek out God’s help. As you and I both know he did not respond correctly. He picked up the blame game.
Stop and think now where you stand? Are you forgiven of all you sins? Have you placed you whole trust in the Holy One Who exchanged His riches for your sins? If you can truly say right now that you are not sure, and you want the promises that our Lord said here in chapter 43, “25 “I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; And I will not remember your sins.” Then pray this prayer with me sincerely from your heart.
Dear Holy Father, I know that Your Holy Son, Jesus Christ, came to earth and shed His Precious Blood and died for me. I ask You because of Him, to forgive me of all my sins. Please fill me with Your Holy Spirit.’ In my Lord and Savior Jesus’ Name. Amen.
