43. Isaiah Chapter Forty-Three

Isaiah Chapter 43 In the 43rd chapter the Lord turns from His lament over the blinded, hardened, unrepentant state of Israel to unfold His covenanted dealings of mercy, past, present and future, and bases all both upon His creative power and His redeeming grace. Doubly precious are God’s irrevocable assurances and promises in this passage, to us who stand in the fulfillment of Christ’s atoning sacrifice, His Person being ministered to us by His Holy Spirit. The change from righteous indignation to loving consolation and comforting promises and assurances is deeply significant. It is designed to demonstrate that restoration could not be accomplished by any meritorious efforts on the part of His erring people. Their dire need must be met by Divine grace. The love of God is not sentimental, it is never exercised at the expense of His holiness, it never compromises His justice. The love that chastises antedates the chastisement. So when the Lord says, “I have loved thee” (Isaiah 43:4), He is recalling a love that was in exercise long before the apostasy and rebellion that inevitably called forth His righteous retribution. His love was in evidence (1) in His creative and formative acts: “the Lord that created thee,” a supernatural act involved in His predetermined counsel, “and He that formed thee,” a supernatural process, similarly predetermined and witnessed in His dealing with the patriarchs and the offspring of Jacob; (2) in His redeeming power: “I have redeemed thee”; how constantly He reminds them that nothing but His immediate strength gave them deliverance from Egypt! (3) in His call of them: “I have called thee by thy name, thou are Mine.” To call by name, in Scripture phraseology, is not simply to give a name to anyone, it conveys a tenderness that delights in the possession of the called: “He calleth His own sheep by name, and leadeth them out” (John 10:3). Hence the addition “thou are Mine.” In Isaiah 48:12 He speaks of them as “My called.”

Creation, redemption, calling—these three, are all fulfilled for each one of us—“created in Christ Jesus,” redeemed “through His blood,” called “through His grace.” In Isaiah 43:1 the “fear not” is based upon the past facts of God’s mercy; the repetition in Isaiah 43:5 is based upon the fact and comfort of His presence. When circumstances tend to cause anxiety, and the threatening attitude of things might give rise to natural apprehensions, it is good, not only to recall the gracious dealings of our God, but to hear His reminders of what He has wrought on our behalf in the past, of His inalienable presence with us, and the unthwartable fulfillment of His promises, as in the present passage. The first promise assures us that when we pass “through the waters” the Lord will be with us, and “through the rivers, they will not overflow” us (reminders of the Red Sea and the Jordan). Spiritually He has brought us out of Egypt and into Canaan, and His assurances that He will never leave us nor forsake us holds good amidst all that would overwhelm us. The next promise assures us of preservation when we walk “through the fire.” If water speaks of danger that springs from circumstances, fire speaks of that which arises from persecution, as in the case of the three youths in Nebuchadnezzar’s furnace. Both forms enter in one way or another into the lives of God’s people, but it is the design of the Lord to banish fear from our hearts, and to strengthen our faith, by all that is contained in the assurance “I am the Lord thy God,” titles which tell first of the majesty and grandeur of His infinite Being, and then of His almighty power (Isaiah 43:3). The statement “I have given Egypt as thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee” is in the perfect tense, putting facts which were in the near future in Isaiah’s time as already completed in the unalterable purposes of God. To Him, the timeless One, future events, alike with those in the past, are as real as those in the present. It was after the return of the Jews from captivity that God rewarded Cyrus the Persian monarch for liberating them, by permitting him and his son Cambyses to possess Egypt and the neighboring kingdoms. Seba was the large district between the White and the Blue Nile, contiguous to Ethiopia. The possession of these lands was not merely a gift, it was a ransom price (a kopher, or covering), the people on whose behalf payment was made being covered by it. This remarkable prediction, which had its fulfillment in the reign of the Persian monarchs, was but the beginning of similar events that have followed and are yet to follow. This is declared in Isaiah 43:4, where the Lord says “I will give men for thee, and peoples for thy life” (r.v.), words which point not only to already accomplished facts but to the establishment of the Millennial Kingdom, as the next verses show. But all this is based upon divine grace. In spite of all the failure of Israel the Lord regards them as precious in His sight, and honorable, and declares His immutable love for them.

Here we may see a comparison and a contrast in regard to ourselves. He views us as precious in His sight because we are “accepted in the Beloved”; the love which He has for us is of the same degree as the love which He has for His Son (John 17:23). The contrast lies in this, that, whereas earthly nations are given for Israel’s life, the life which God gives us is to be devoted to the blessing of every nation in the work of the Gospel. The assurances in Isaiah 43:5-6 are of peculiar interest in these times when the question of the Jews is occupying the attention of the world. What is taking place is surely preparatory to the fulfillment of the promises of God when Gentile nations in general (here represented by “the north” and “the south”) will be compelled to restore His “sons and daughters.” The phrase in Isaiah 43:7, “every one that is called by My Name,” resumes the comforting message in Isaiah 43:1. Identification in character with Himself, and possession by Him for the display of His glory and grace, are the two chief thoughts suggested. The three statements at the end of Isaiah 43:7 form a progress to a climax:

1. “I have created him for My glory”; that expresses the thought of His power in bringing the nation into being;

2. “I have formed him”; that points to the process of His transforming grace by which the one created is made to reflect His glory;

3. “Yea, I have made him”; this points to the completion of the divine act. The verb rendered “I have made” signifies more than simply to make, it conveys the thought of bringing a work to perfection.

All this is true for every one of us, and expresses the wonders of God’s counsels and power, and the riches of His grace. He who has (1) created us anew in Christ, (2) is transforming us by the operating power of His Holy Spirit, and (3) will perfect that which concerns us, at the coming of the Lord. In Isaiah 43:8 the command, “Bring forth the blind people that have eyes, and the deaf that have ears,” is not issued with regard to bringing Israel out of captivity, but is a general summons to assemble to the place appointed for the vindication of the being, character, authority and decisions of God. The command is thus to be distinguished from the promise, “I will bring,” in Isaiah 43:5. God will indeed first restore His earthly people to their land, but after this the summons is both to His people and then to all the nations to attend for the purpose mentioned. Israel, no longer in blindness and deafness, are to have eyes to see and ears to hear, as was intimated in Isaiah 42:18-19, but Isaiah 43:9 states that the Gentile peoples (the word is plural and does not refer to Israel) are to be assembled.

Before the Gentiles can be enriched in Millennial fullness, they must be made to acknowledge the facts relating to the true God, in contrast to their idolatry, superstition, man-worship and rejection of the Divine claims. The challenge is issued to the nations to bring their witnesses, that they may be justified. But there will be no such possibility. The only alternative is “let them hear, and say, It is truth.” In Isaiah 43:10 the Lord declares that Israel are His “witnesses, and His servant whom He has chosen” (cp. Isaiah 44:8). The nation has always been a witness to His existence, but will be His combined witness and servant in a special way when restored.

Meanwhile He has taken us up in His sovereign grace and has made us His witnesses and servants, that we may declare His saving grace to the ends of the earth.

There is a special significance in the identification of Israel as God’s servant with the Lord Jesus as similarly mentioned in chapter 42. They could never be His servant apart from their Messiah, and it is only as we realize our identification with Christ that we can be owned as His witnesses and fulfill our service worthily of Him.

God’s challenge to the nations is to “bring” their witnesses that they may justify their acknowledgment of those who are no gods (Isaiah 43:9). The a.v. “bring forth” does not adequately express the meaning. It is a case of bringing witnesses to a court of judgment. The Gentiles would do so only to be condemned. In contrast to this Jehovah makes the twofold declaration concerning His earthly people, “Ye are My witnesses” (Isaiah 43:10 and Isaiah 43:12).

Connected with the first of these is their witness to the unoriginated and self-sustained nature of His Being. “I am He” is a declaration that He is God exclusively and eternally in the past and future. Since His Being has no beginning and no end, the idea that there could be any other being apart from His, possessed of the attributes of Deity, is self-contradictory: “Before Me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after Me.” How futile, therefore, are the efforts of the heathen to demonstrate that the objects of their worship are true gods! And not only so, but how utterly doomed to failure will be the attempt of the Man of Sin to compel the combined nations under him to venerate him as God! The doom of that blasphemous arrogance will be sealed by the Son of God Himself. The second declaration, that His earthly people are His witnesses, is put into connection with the facts, not only that He is the one and only God, the great Jehovah, but that He alone is the “Savior” (Isaiah 43:11), and that, besides this, there is none that can deliver out of His hand (Isaiah 43:13). He is not only the Eternal One but He is the Almighty One. “I will work,” He says, “and who shall reverse it?” (r.v. margin; a.v. “turn it back”). Not only can no one hinder Him, but no one can change what He has established.

Since all this is so with regard to His earthly national witnesses, let us take courage and renew our strength, as those whom He has called to be His witnesses through the Gospel.

Isaiah 43:14 begins a new section, extending to Isaiah 44:5, the subjects being Avenging, Deliverance, and the Outpouring of the Spirit. The first of these has to do with the execution of divine judgments upon the Chaldeans, called down upon them by their maltreatment of God’s people. For their sake, i.e., for the purpose of releasing them, He has “sent to Babylon,” that is to say, has sent there the agents of His judgments (cp. Isaiah 13:3). The Chaldeans would be driven “as fugitives … in the ships of their rejoicing” (r.v.), thus overthrowing all their proud commercial enterprises. Ancient history makes known that they navigated both the Euphrates and the Persian Gulf, using vessels built by Phoenicians, both for commerce and war. The vessels of their navy, in which the Babylonians gloried, would be degraded into becoming the means of an escape. In view of the deliverance of Israel, God gives them (in Isaiah 43:15) a fourfold reminder concerning Himself: (1) He is Jehovah (the ever and self-existent One), the Name of His covenant relationship with His people and His “memorial unto all generations” (Exodus 3:15; Hosea 12:5); (2) “your Holy One,” a title here set in contrast both to their unholy departure from Him and to the unholy character of their pagan captors; (3) “the Creator of Israel,” the One who, having brought this nation into being, having formed them for His praise, and therefore sustaining them through all their grievous circumstances and vicissitudes, would not allow them to be in permanent rejection and bondage; (4) “your King,” a title set in contrast both to the deplorable condition of the kings of Judah and Israel, and to the eastern despot who had temporarily been permitted to reign over them, through their rejection of God’s sovereign claims upon them. The Lord assures them now that it is He who “maketh a way in the sea and a path in the mighty waters” (Isaiah 43:16).

While this holds good for Israel, it is likewise true in the experiences of all His saints. The waters of the nations “roar and are troubled,” yet God has a path for His people through all this, a path not only of deliverance but of gospel witness, which will go on its way until its appointed end.

Isaiah 43:17 affords a reminder (appropriate to the present times) of the overruling power of God in regard to the armies of the nations. Whatever the hearts of potentates may devise, it is the Lord who “bringeth forth the chariot and horse, the army and the power.” The calamities of war are “His judgments.” By these means He designs to turn the hearts of men to repentance. He also has His national purposes to fulfill, and the day will come when the enemies of His earthly people will “lie down together,” and will be “quenched as flax” (i.e., as a wick).

Isaiah 43:18 is a command not to call to mind the former things. That does not mean that we are not to remember God’s past mercies. These we are indeed to keep in memory. But here the subject is confined to what He is about to do (Isaiah 43:19). He will “do a new thing; now it shall spring forth” (lit., “even now it sprouts up”). Contrasts Isaiah 42:9, where a distinction was drawn between the former things which had to come to pass and new things which God was declaring. It was there said of the latter that they “were not yet sprouting up.” His future mercies are brought before us as if they were already beginning. He will make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.

Let us apply these promises to our own experiences, and gather together the four phrases, designed for our comfort in times of trial and difficulty; (1) “through the waters”—they are themselves a means of giving us to experience the presence of the Lord, Isaiah 43:2; (2) “through the fire”—we are assured of preservation, Isaiah 43:2; (3) “in the sea,” and “in the mighty waters,” Isaiah 43:16—here God provides a way; troublesome conditions are a means of giving us to realize the guidance of God; (4) “in the wilderness” and “in the desert,” Isaiah 43:19—guidance and refreshment are our portion there. If the waters speak of overwhelming trials, the wilderness and the desert speak of the condition of the world around us, with which if we are unduly occupied we shall suffer spiritual depression. But God has a way amidst such conditions, a path of fellowship with Him, a path of joy and fruitfulness.

God promises to do “a new thing.” The whole earth is to be blessed when God’s earthly people enjoy the blessings of His redemptive work. This subject is continued in Isaiah 43:20-21. The termination of the sufferings of Israel will involve the termination of the sufferings of creation. Because God will give waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert for His people, “the beasts of the field,” He says, “shall honor Me, the jackals and ostriches” (see the r.v. and a.v. marg). Contrast what is said of these animals in Isaiah 13:21-22. God’s care for animals (about which the Lord Himself spoke when on earth) has already been stated in Isaiah 11:6-9; Isaiah 30:23-24; Isaiah 35:7 (see also Isaiah 65:25). But these blessings are not to be granted merely for the welfare of the animal world and of humanity. The paramount object is the honor of God Himself. The animals, in their unconscious enjoyment of Millennial bliss, will thereby give “honor” to God, and as to Israel, He speaks thus: “My people, My chosen, the people which I formed for Myself, that they might set forth My praise” (r.v., Isaiah 43:21). What a change from their present condition! How greatly the Lord Himself must look forward to the coming day! This purpose is exactly what is designed for us in this present period, whom God has called “out of darkness into His marvelous light,” that we may “show forth His praises” (1 Peter 2:9; r.v. “excellencies,” or, what is more commonly the meaning of the word, “virtues,” as the a.v. margin). Virtue is moral excellence. When used of God it is more comprehensive, and stands for all His attributes, His power, His grace, and all that has been exhibited in the Person of His Son. The conduct of our life and our whole activity are to be devoted to this highest of all objects.

There can scarcely be found any more striking contrast in the Old Testament than that between the remonstrance uttered by God in Isaiah 43:22-24 and the grace and mercy that follow in Isaiah 43:25-26. The former part records the iniquities of Israel both negative and positive, five negative and three positive. Instead of calling upon the Lord they had become weary of Him. Instead of presenting their offerings to Him they have “made Him to serve with their sins and wearied Him with their iniquities.” The phrase “thou hast made Me to serve” is very significant. The verb thus rendered denotes to impose servile labor upon a person. Isaiah 43:23 says that God had imposed no such servile labor upon them, but their sins weighed heavily upon Him, as a burden does upon a servant. Our minds instinctively turn to the Cross. At what a cost the Lord undertook the burden of human guilt! We shall never know how heavily it weighed upon God the Father to spare not His own Son but deliver Him up for us. In the light of this we can the better understand the contrast in Isaiah 43:25; “I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for Mine own sake, and I will not remember thy sins.” This is love manifested, not at the expense of divine holiness and justice, but on the very ground of it.

“For Mine own sake”—that expresses the free grace by which our sins are removed, for there is nothing in the sinner which merits it. By the sovereign act of God’s grace in the death of Christ His justice dealt with sin; His grace and love blot it out. When the Lord calls upon Israel in Isaiah 43:26, saying “Put Me in remembrance; let us plead together; set thou forth thy cause, that thou mayest be justified,” He is summoning them to remind Him, if they can, of any merit on their part whereby they might be justified. He had just stated that He, and He alone, could and would blot out their transgressions and clear them of guilt, and further that, such had been their guilt, He would do it not for their sakes but for His own. Acquittal must be by grace alone. If they think otherwise let them state their case (as in a court of justice) and set forth their cause, as against His.

Immediately He shows the impossibility of their success. Their first father had sinned, their teachers had transgressed against Him. They were sinners from the beginning and throughout their history, and, in view of their persistent impenitence, judgment was inevitable: “I will profane,” He says, “the princes of the sanctuary, and I will make Jacob a curse and Israel a reviling” (Isaiah 43:28). So Isaiah 43:25 is not simply a sweet promise; it is part of an argument. It anticipates what is set forth in Romans in regard to the Gospel, namely, that man has no merit, that justification is by grace, and that it is conditional upon repentance and faith (though there is, of course, a distinction between God’s dealings with Israel and those now relating to the Gospel). These O.T. foreshadowings deepen our understanding of the ways of God with men.