Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 43:1
But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called [thee] by thy name; thou [art] mine.
1 7. Israel, though blind and deaf (ch. Isa 42:18 ff.), is precious in the sight of Jehovah its Creator, who is now about to shew Himself as its Redeemer.
But now ] Introducing the contrast to Isa 42:25.
that created thee that formed thee ] Three verbs which express Jehovah’s creative activity are applied in this prophecy to His special relations to Israel: “create” ( Isa 43:1 ; Isa 43:7 ; Isa 43:15); “form” ( Isa 43:1 ; Isa 43:21, Isa 44:2; Isa 44:21; Isa 44:24, Isa 45:11, Isa 49:5 (Isa 64:8); “make” (Isa 44:2, Isa 51:13, Isa 54:5).
I have redeemed thee ] Rather, I redeem thee (perf. of certainty). see on ch. Isa 41:14. I have called ( I call) thee by thy name ] i.e. I address thee as one who is familiar and dear (Isa 45:3 f., cf. Exo 31:2); stronger than the simple “call” (Isa 42:6, Isa 49:1).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
But now – This expression shows that this chapter is connected with the preceding. The sense is, Though God has punished the nation, and showed them his displeasure Isa 42:24-25, yet now he will have mercy, and will deliver them.
That created thee – The word thee is used here evidently in a collective sense as denoting the Jewish people. It is used because the names Jacob and Israel in the singular number are applied to the people. The word created is used here to denote the idea that, as the special people of God, they owed their origin to him, as the universe owed its origin to his creative power. It means that, as a people, their institutions, laws, customs, and privileges, and whatever they had that was valuable, were all to be traced to him. The same word occurs in Isa 43:7, and again in Isa 43:15, I am Yahweh – the Creator of Israel, your king (see also Isa 44:1; compare Psa 100:3).
Fear not – This is to be understood as addressed to them when suffering the evils of the captivity of Babylon. Though they were captives, and had suffered long, yet they had nothing to fear in regard to their final extinction as a people. They should be redeemed from captivity, and restored again to the land of their fathers. The argument here is, that they were the chosen people of God; that he had organized them as his people for great and important purposes, and that those purposes must be accomplished. It would follow from that, that they must be redeemed from their captivity, and be restored again to their land.
For I have redeemed thee – The word ga’al means properly to redeem, to ransom by means of a price, or a valuable consideration, as of captives taken in war; or to redeem a farm that was sold, by paying back the price. It is sometimes used, however, to denote deliverance from danger or bondage without specifying any price that was paid as a ransom. Thus the deliverance of the Jews from Egyptian bondage is sometimes spoken of as a redemption (Exo 6:6; Exo 15:13; compare Gen 18:16; Isa 29:22; Isa 44:23; Jer 31:11; see the note at Isa 1:27). It is not improbable, however, that wherever redemption is spoken of in the Scriptures, even in the most general manner, and as denoting deliverance from danger, oppression, or captivity, there is still retained the idea of a ransom in some form; a price paid; a valuable consideration; or something that was given in the place of that which was redeemed, and which answered the purpose of a valuable consideration, or a public reason of the deliverance. Thus, in regard to the deliverance from Egypt – Egypt, Ethiopia, and Seba are mentioned as the ransom (see the note at Isa 43:3); and so in the deliverance from the captivity, Babylon was given in the place of the ransomed captives, or was destroyed in order that they might be redeemed. So in all notions of redemption; as, e. g., God destroyed the life of the great Redeemer, or caused him to be put to death, in order that his chosen people might be saved.
I have called thee by thy name – To call by name denotes intimacy of friendship. Here it means that God had particularly designated them to be his people. His call had not been general, addressed to the nations at large, but had been addressed to them in particular. Compare Exo 31:2, where God says that he had designated by name Bezaleel to the work of constructing the tabernacle.
Thou art mine – They were his, because he had formed them as a people, and had originated their institutions; because he had redeemed them, and because he had particularly designated them as his. The same thing may be said of his church now; and in a still more important sense, that church is his. He has organized it; he has appointed its special institutions; he has redeemed it with precious blood; and he has called his people by name, and designated them as his own.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 43:1-4
But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob
The true relation of Israel to Jehovah
The main subject of this chapter is the true relation of Israel to Jehovah, and its application in the way both of warning and encouragement.
The doctrine taught is that their segregation from the rest of men, as a peculiar people, was an act of sovereignty, independent of all merit in themselves, and not even intended for their benefit exclusively, but for the accomplishment of Gods gracious purposes respecting men in general. The inferences drawn from the fact are, that Israel would certainly escape the dangers which environed him, however imminent; and, on the other hand, that he must suffer for his unfaithfulness to God. In illustration of these truths the prophet introduces several historical allusions and specific prophecies, the most striking of the former having respect to the exodus from Egypt, and of the latter to the fall of Babylon. It is important to the just interpretation of the chapter that these parts of it should be seen in their true light and proportion as incidental illustrations, not as the main subject of the prophecy, which, as already stated, is the general relation between God and His ancient people, and His mode of dealing with them, not at one time, but at all times. (J. A. Alexander.)
The right of the Creator
1. In reviewing Providence, men do not go far enough back. The Lord Himself always takes a great sweep of time. Here is an instance in point. But now, thus saith the Lord that created thee,. . . and He that formed thee. No argument is built upon what happened an hour ago. Thus God will have us go back to creation day, to formation time, and take in all the childhood, all the youthhood, all the manhood, all the education and strife and discipline, all the attrition and all the harmony, all the week-days and all the Sabbath-days; and He would bid us watch the mystery of time, until it comes out in blossoming and fruitfulness and benediction. We should have no pain if we had the right line of review and pursued it, and comprehended it, in its continuity and entirety. There are many creations.
God is always creating life, and always forming it. There is an individual existence; there is a national organisation; there are birthdays of empires and birthdays of reform.
2. The Church must recognise its period of creation and formation. Jacob was not always a people; Israel was not always a significant name, a symbol in language; and individuals are gathered together into societies, and they are charged with the administration of the kingdom of Christ, and as such they must go back and remember their Creator, and adore their Maker, and serve their Saviour, and renew their inspiration where it was originated.
3. Right relations to God on the part of man should be realised. This appeal rises into climax, into convincing and triumphant words. I have created thee; that is the basal line–formed thee, given thee shape and relation; redeemed thee, paid for thee; called thee By thy name, like a friend or child: thou art Mine. Yet all this is in the Old Testament! Do we not fly from the Old Testament into the New, that we may have some sight of the tenderness of God? There is no need for such flight. There are tenderer words about God in the Old Testament than there are in the New.
4. This relation carries everything else along with it. After this there can be nothing but detail. When thou passest, etc. (Isa 43:2). (J. Parker, D. D.)
Guarantees
Absolute ownership. He who speaks is our Creator. He claims our attention also because He knows us. Fear is the apprehension of danger, both natural and moral. With regard to natural tear, some are more timid than others. But this is no index to the moral state of the heart. Nerves which are strong do not constitute faith; nerves which are weak do not indicate distrust in God. To remove the distrust which Israel felt, three guarantees are offered–
I. REDEMPTION. For I have redeemed thee. From whence came the idea of redemption? (Lev 25:25-34.) This is the figure used in the text and elsewhere to show that God has taken away the moral disabilities under which we had fallen through sin. The principle is not without analogy. When the golden grain is enslaved in the earth, the ray of light, the drop of water, and the warm breeze come to redeem their brother.
1. The right to redeem was vested in the next of kin, hence the necessity for the incarnation of the Son of God. The transaction was confined to the family of the brother who had waxen poor. No portion of the inheritance must ultimately go out of the family, for even if no one of the next of kin was able to redeem it, in the year of Jubilee a full restoration was made. Not only the inheritance must have remained in the family, but the redemption of it was restricted to the family, that it might ever appear of value to the members of the family as a sacred trust from God. This is the very estimate of human life which the Incarnation conveys: to redeem that life the redeemer must be one of the family. But the necessity appears, because the family of man must be impressed with the value of the inheritance which God hath given. The life of Jesus brings home to us the facts that human life is infinitely valuable, and that God has His hold upon it, although mortgaged to another. All souls are Mine. I know that my Redeemer liveth.
2. To free the possession the ransom must be paid. The sovereignty of the gift did not free the inheritance from encumbrances contracted by the possessor. Justice demanded the redemption price. In the interest of rectitude and the influence of the moral law, Christ gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, etc. As to the nature of the ransom, St. Peter says, Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ.
II. CALLED. And called thee by thy name. The reference here is either to a legal form of calling out the name of the mortgagor, with the declaration that henceforth his possession was free; or to the trumpet of the Jubilee, which was a direct call to every debtor to resume his liberty.
1. Personal salvation. When we are accosted by name the whole being is involved, with every interest concerned. God calls the sinner to repentance.
2. Personal realisation. The brother who had waxen poor knew he was free, because his name had been called that he might be assured of his freedom. The deed was handed over to him re.conveying the property into his name. Faith leads to the realising of forgiveness and peace.
III. REINSTATED. Thou art Mine. The idea is that by grace man is brought back to the peace and service of God.
1. The claim is universal. Wherever the new heart is, God claims it for His own.
2. The claim is absolute. We are no longer our own, but, having been bought with a price, we glorify God in body and mind.
3. We are now on trial, but there will be a final recognition. They shall be Mine, etc. (T. Davies, M. A.)
The Divine responsibility
1. Responsibility is not a word that can be limited to man. It must belong to those higher orders of created intelligence known to us as angels of various degrees. It must belong to the Eternal One Himself. It must be that He holds Himself responsible for the creation and its consequences. If responsibility belongs to the creature made in the image of God, it is inherited responsibility; it comes down from Him who made him.
2. Let us approach the subject cautiously. Gods revelation of Himself is intended to be a light to the mind and a joy to the heart. Everyone who knows anything of Scripture knows how gradual has been the revelation of God to the human race. Not till we reach the time of David do we get the word father as applied to Deity, and then only in a figurative sort of way. Isaiah prophesies that one of the signs of the Christian dispensation shall be that the name of God as revealed in Christ shall be the Everlasting Father. Men had known Deity as the Self-Existent God–the source of life. They had thought of Him as the God of providence, the Great Provider, who had them in His hands, and would care for them, and that is about the utmost practical view attained to in the Old Testament. In that wonderful book of Job, the epitomised life of the human race, we have the thought of an unrealised Redeemer,–but My Father and your Father, My God and your God is new Testament language, and post-resurrection speech at that.
3. This speech leads us to the thought of the Divine responsibility. It is not our invention but Gods revelation that, like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him. We have a right, then, to say that at least the same measure of responsibility which belongs to a father for the nourishment, education, and development of his child belongs to the great Eternal Father for us all. We are not responsible for the laws which work in our own constitutions, for we did not create those laws. We are not responsible for anything which is out of our own power. I am not responsible for the original tendency to sinfulness which was in my nature when born into this world. Nor am I responsible for being born; nor for being born where I was born; nor for having just those parents which were mine; nor for being just so high and just so heavy; nor for having the temperament and disposition with which I was born.
4. I suppose that in the generations behind us there have lived people who verily persuaded themselves that they were responsible for the sin of Adam, that they were doomed because an ancestor of generations ago was a wilful sinner. Every man inherits tendencies from past generations. When the first of men wilfully disobeyed God, he started in himself a tendency which, if not resisted, would become a habit of wrong-doing–and that habit would be propagated into the next generation, and into the next, and so on. And that is what is meant by original sin–the tendency created by generations past to wrong–stamping its impress upon mind and heart, yea, upon the physical organism. It is so in the animal world. In the past, dogs have been trained to fold sheep, and the instruction has become a habit, and the habit has created a tendency in the next generation to do the same thing, and has become fixed–a second nature, as we say. And this law runs through all creation, even into the vegetable world. Now, He who made man is responsible for the original law by which tendencies to good and evil can be propagated from sire to son. The law is not evil; it is good. But good laws are often used for bad purposes. From a reservoir of pure water pipes are laid to every house in the city. Those pipes were laid for the conveyance of pure, wholesome water for the benefit of a large population. That was the original design and intention. But suppose that city should be besieged by a barbarian army–suppose the army should surround the reservoir and poison the waters, the very pipes which were laid for the conveyance of life would be conduits for the conveyance of death. But that was not their original design. And so our guilt does not extend to Deity. He is responsible for the beneficent law, not for the sin which has been transmitted along it. The very idea of intelligence involves freedom. Either there must be freedom, or there can be no intelligence and no morality.
5. We cannot conceive of an omniscient God, without admitting that He must have foreseen that the creature He made would abuse His liberty. Does the Divine responsibility extend to making such provision as would prevent it? Clearly not. We cannot conceive how it could be made, and yet leave man a free moral agent, not a machine. The Divine responsibility extends to the providing a means whereby not simply to develop an innocent man, but to save a guilty man from the spiritual consequences of his sin. From all the consequences he cannot be saved; from the fatal consequences he can. That God did anticipate the fall from innocence of His creature, and provide for meeting man in a fallen condition, is evident from one single expression, the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. Redemption was no afterthought. For our own convenience, it may be necessary at times to speak of justice, and at other times of mercy. But justice and mercy in God are never represented as in antagonism. They ever go hand-in-hand, like light and heat in the sunbeams. When God opened the eyes of the great apostle he saw this truth, that where sin abounded, grace did much more abound, or, as it is more correctly, superabounded, abounded over and above. In this dispensation of things a lost man has not simply to reject God as a Creator, but God as a Redeemer–God in Christ–the God who has done all and everything possible to be done to nullify the fatal results of sin.
6. You remember the complimentary word uttered respecting Abraham: I know him that he will command his children; and in every father there is lodged the right to command–the duty to command. That weak tenderness which permits disobedience to go unrebuked and unpunished, is not Divine tenderness. It is the frailty of human irresoluteness. There is nothing of that in God. (R. Thomas, D. D.)
Divine consolation
The vision of Isaiah contains a representation of the present and future state of Israel and Judah. And because some of his expressions might be interpreted as if all the twelve tribes should be utterly cast away, he frequently intersperses such consolations as this, to assure the people that if they were duly corrected and reformed by their captivity, God would bring them out of it, and raise them up again to be His Church and people.
I. To confirm them in the belief of such a restoration, He puts them in mind of SEVERAL ARGUMENTS AND REASONS to expect it.
1. He tells them that upon their repentance God had promised them such a restoration.
2. Isaiah calls upon the people to consider that this promise of salvation is made to them by that God who created Jacob and formed Israel. This, indeed, is a common topic of con solation to every pious man, that He who created him will have mercy on him, and is able, in all circumstances, to make good His promises, and preserve the work of His own hands. But it was very proper for this people, above all others, to make such inferences, because they had been in a peculiar manner created and formed of God.
3. They might conclude this from former redemptions which God had wrought for them. Fear not, for I have redeemed thee.
4. A fourth ground of Israels hope for Gods future mercies, were the gracious appellations which He had bestowed upon them. I have called thee by thy name; thou art Mine. He had changed their father Jacobs name to Israel. He had named them His holy nation, His peculiar people.
5. A further argument to Israel to trust in God, were the deliverances which He had vouchsafed to some of them. When thou goest (or hast gone) through the waters, they have not overflowed thee; and through the fire, it hath not kindled upon thee.
II. The words are certainly a common topic of CONSOLATION TO ALL THE FAITHFUL SERVANTS OF GOD. So that, to find our own blessing in them, and to understand them as the voice of our own merciful Father, we have nothing else to do but to approve ourselves His obedient children; for He is no respecter of persons.
1. As God promised His people a restoration from their captivity, upon their true repentance and return to their duty, so will He rescue us from the slavery of sin and Satan, if we do in good earnest feel the oppression and misery of it, and would much rather be employed in doing Gods will, and keeping His commandments.
2. Was it an argument to Israel to trust in God, because He had created them and formed them in so special a manner as is before represented? The like consideration is equally comfortable to every member of the Church of Christ. For in Him we are born again.
3. All the redemptions which God vouchsafed to Israel are proofs to us of His infinite power and goodness, and figures of greater things which He will do for us.
4. If Gods gracious appellations of Israel assured them of His special regard for them, no less ground of rejoicing have we in the like assurance of His favour towards us.
5. In cases of extreme danger, particularly in perils of fire and water, God has shown Himself the same in the Christian u He was of old in the Jewish Church, a sufficient Helper to deliver out of such troubles. (W. Reading, M. A.)
The goodness of God to Israel
In the latter part of the preceding chapter we read of the sins, not of the obedience of Israel. After this, what might have been expected but that He would punish them still more severely, if not abandon them as incorrigible? In the text, however, He promises to magnify His mercy in doing them good. Consider–
I. THE CHARACTER OF THE PEOPLE HERE SPOKEN OF. It may be inferred from the names given to them in the text. They are addressed by the convertible names of Jacob, and Israel. His name Jacob was changed because he had wrestled with God for His blessing till he succeeded in obtaining it. Hence, then, we may learn the character of His spiritual children–they wrestle with God in prayer for His blessing till they prevail. But this general description of them includes several particulars. Consider–
1. What they do. They pray. And does not this at once distinguish them from thousands around them?
2. To whom are their prayers addressed? To the true God who is also their own God–the God of Israel. This also separates them from an immense number of the human race; for how many, alas, are there in the world who are totally mistaken as to the proper object of worship!
3. They pray to Him alone. There are not a few in the world who unite the worship of Jehovah with that of their own idols.
4. But what does Israel pray for? For Gods blessing. This implies that they feel their need of it, and, by consequence, that they differ essentially from all persons of a self-righteous and self-sufficient spirit.
5. How do they pray? In faith. They pray also fervently. They are not like many, cold, formal, and lifeless in prayer. They persevere, too, till they prevail. But were they always such characters? No; there was a time when they were as prayerless as others. Who, then, has made them to differ? God alone.
II. WHAT HE HAS DONE FOR THEM IN TIME PAST; or what are the steps which He has taken to make them what they are. These steps are three–
1. He has created them. Thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, etc. They are subjects of a creation to which all others are entire strangers. What renders this creation necessary is the corruption of our nature, which is total, since the Fall. It is a creation of good substituted for evil, a heart of flesh for a heart of stone, light for darkness, holiness for sin, faith for sense, life for death, happiness for misery. Every real Christian is the subject of it. It is ejected by the operation of the Holy Ghost. To God, therefore, belongs the whole glory of it.
2. He has redeemed them. Fear not; for I have redeemed thee.
3. He has called them by their names. I have called thee by thy name. And what does this imply?
(1) That they are made partakers of the heavenly calling, the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
(2) That God well knows His people.
(3) We know that when a mar of superior rank and dignity calls an inferior by his name, he is considered to treat him with uncommon marks of kindness and familiarity, and to confer upon him a peculiar honour. Such kindness and honour, then, does God bestow upon His people. He is not ashamed to be called their God, and to allow each of them, like Abraham, to be called the friend of God.
4. This, then, is what the Lord has done for Israel His people; and He therefore calls them His, saying, Thou art Mine. Has He not the most indisputable title to their persons and services?
III. WHAT HE PROMISES TO DO FOR THEM IN TIME TO COME, When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee, etc.
1. To pass through fire and water appears to have been a proverbial expression for passing through various kinds of dangers, trials, and afflictions.
2. But why does God suffer His people to be thus afflicted? Because they are children whom He loves.
3. And do their tribulations answer the ends which He has in view? Yes; there is not one of His afflicted ones who has not had cause to say, sooner or later, It is good for me that I have been afflicted.
4. We are not, however, to suppose that afflictions of themselves ever bear these blessed fruits. Unblest and unsanctified, they have rather a contrary tendency, and produce very different effects. And were it not for the presence of God with His people, in the water and the fire, they would be injured and destroyed by them. But they need not fear; for faithful is He that hath promised.
5. Need I remind you how this promise has been verified, or how the presence of God has been with His people in every age of the Church?
(1) Look, first, at Israel after the flesh. See their afflictions in Egypt, and know their sorrows. Behold the bush burning with fire, and yet not consumed. God is in the midst of it. Follow them in their passage out of that house of bondage. God is with them in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night. Observe them again during their captivity in Babylon. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, the servants of the Most High God, walked in the midst of the fire, and had no hurt. They had a fourth in their company, whom even Nebuchadnezzar could not help saying was like the Son of God.
(2) Look, next, into New Testament times, and even to later ages, and you will find additional evidence of the blessed truth before us. (D. Rees.)
The exhortation and promises of God to the afflicted
I. THE AFFLICTIONS TO WHICH THE PEOPLE OF GOD ARE LIABLE.
1. The text intimates that they may be great. Waters: rivers; calamities which seem as deep and overwhelming as sweeping torrents, and as likely to destroy them.
2. Their troubles may be diversified. They may be in the waters to-day and may have deliverance, but to-morrow they may be called on to walk through the fire and the flame; to endure trials which are unexpected and strange, different in their nature from any they have yet experienced, and far more severe and biter.
3. The text implies also that these afflictions are certain. It speaks of them as things of course.
II. HOW SEASONABLE AND ENCOURAGING IS THE EXHORTATION.
1. There is a fear of afflictions which is a natural, and by no means sinful, feeling; a fear which leads us to avoid them, if the will of God will allow us to avoid them, and if not, to receive them with much thoughtfulness and prayer; to be aware of the dangers with which they are invariably accompanied, and of our utter inability in ourselves to escape or overcome them.
2. But there is a fear of another kind. It springs from unbelief, and is the cause of tour, touring, despondency, and wretchedness. It is a fear which tempts us to choose sin rather than affliction; which prevents us from praising God under our trials, and from trusting to Him to bring us out of them. Such a fear is as dishonourable to God as it is disquieting to ourselves, and He who values nothing so highly as His own honour and our happiness commands us to lay it aside. It might have been supposed that such an exhortation from such a Being would have been sufficient of itself to dispel the fears of those to whom it is addressed; but a compassionate God does not leave it to its own unaided authority.
III. He supports and strengthens it by TWO MOST GRACIOUS PROMISES.
1. He promises us His own presence with us in our trials. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee. His people are the objects of His special attention.
(1) We are not, however, to infer that the afflicted Christian is always aware of the companion with whom he is walking. He often imagines himself left alone in his trials.
(2) Neither are we to suppose that all the afflicted servants of the Lord have the same manifestations of His presence. Some do not need them so much as others. They have not the same temptations to withstand, nor the same burdens to bear, nor the same duties to perform. They are surrounded with more outward comforts, and consequently they less need those which are inward. Some also do not desire or seek the light of their Fathers countenance so earnestly as their brethren. They lean more on earthly friends and succours. He who is infinitely wise, always suits the nature and measure of His gracious manifestations to the necessities and, in one sense, to the characters of His people. He gives them what they need, and what they desire and seek.
2. There is the promise of preservation under all our calamities. What does preservation imply? It implies that our trials shall not injure us. Rivers are likely to overflow, and flames likely to burn, those who pass through them. Affliction is likely to injure, and would inevitably ruin us, if God were not near. It tempts us to rebel against the Divine providence and to distrust the Divine goodness; to be thankless, impatient, and repining. The mind, already weakened, perhaps, and bewildered by the pressure of adversity, is easily led to apprehend still greater troubles, and faints at the prospect. This, too, is the season when our great adversary is most to be dreaded. It is in the night that the wild beasts of the forest roar after their prey; and it is in the darkness of spiritual or temporal adversity that Satan directs against us his most violent assaults. The fact is that our spiritual interests are much more endangered by tribulation than our worldly prosperity. It is the soul which is most exposed, and which most needs preservation; and preservation is here promised to it. The Christian often enters the furnace cold-hearted, earthly-minded, and comfortless; he comes out of it peaceful, confiding, burning with love for his delivering God, and thirsting after the enjoyment of His presence.
IV. The Lord vouchsafes to add to His precious promises several reasons or ARGUMENTS TO ASSURE US OF THEIR FULFILMENT.
1. The first is drawn from the relation in which He stands to us as our Creator. Thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and He that formed thee, O Israel. This language refers to our spiritual as well as to our natural existence. Here, then, is a solid ground of confidence. The Father of our spirits must be well acquainted with their infirmities and weakness. He knoweth our frame, and remembereth that we are dust. Neither will He ever forsake the work of His own hands.
2. The Almighty draws another argument to enforce His exhortation, from the property which He has in His people, and the manner in which He acquired it. Fear not, He says, for I have redeemed thee, etc. We are His by creation, but He has also made us His by redemption. And what a mighty price did He pay for us! Will He then abandon that which He so much values, which cost Him so dear?
3. There is yet another reason assigned why we should cast away fear in the hour of tribulation–the covenant God has formed with His people ensures the fulfilment of His promises. I am the Lord thy God, He says, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour; thus implying that He has entered into some engagement with His Israel; that He considers Himself bound to be with them in their troubles and distresses; that His own veracity, His own faithfulness, are at stake, and would be sacrificed if Israel were forsaken or injured. He thus connects His own honour with their safety. Lessons–
1. How rich in consolation is the Word ofGod!
2. How essential to our happiness is a knowledge of our interest in the Divine promises!–to appropriate them to ourselves, and rejoice in them.
3. How full of confidence and praise ought they to be, who live in the enjoyment of the Divine presence in trouble!
4. How blind to their own interest are they who reject the Gospel of Christ! (C. Bradley, M. A.)
Love abounding, love complaining, love abiding
(with Isa 43:22-24; Isa 44:21-23):–
(1) Notice that these three texts are very much alike in this respect–that they are each addressed to Gods people under the names of Jacob and Israel.
(2) These texts are like each other, again, from their overflowing with love. I do not know where the Lords love is best seen, when He declares it and tells of what He has done and is doing for His people, or when He laments over their want of love in return, or when He promises to blot out their past sin, and invites them to return to Him and enjoy His restoring grace.
I. We have in our first text, LOVE ABOUDING.
1. Notice the time when that love is declared. The first verse begins, But now, thus saith the Lord. When was that? It was the very time when He was angry with the nation by reason of their great sins (Isa 42:25). It was a time, then, of special sin, and of amazing hardness of heart. When a man begins to burn, he generally feels and cries out; he must be far gone in deadly apathy when he is touched with fire and yet lays it not to heart. It was a time of love with God, though a time of carelessness with His people.
2. The Lord shows His abounding love by the sweetness of His consolations, But now, thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and He that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not. Fear not is a little word measured by space and letters; but it is an abyss of consolation if we remember who it is that saith it, and what a wide sweep the comfort takes. Fear hath torment, and the Lord would cast it out. You that are the people of God may be smarting, and crying, and sighing. But, oh the love of God to you. He hears your cries, and His compassions are moved towards you! Nothing touches Him like the groans of His children. There is a wonderful intensity of affection in this passage, spoken, as it is, by the great God to His people while they are under the rod which they so richly deserve.
3. The fulness of Gods love is to be seen in the way in which He dwells with evident satisfaction upon His past dealings with His people. When we love some favoured one, we like to think of all our love passages in years gone by; and the Lord so loves His people, that, even when they are under His chastening hand, He still delights to remember His former loving-kindnesses. We may forget the wonders of His grace, but He doth not forget. He created, redeemed, called. He dwells upon His possession of His people. Thou art Mine.
4. If you desire to see the overflowings of Gods love in another form, notice in the next verse how He declares what He means to do. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee, etc. His love casts its eye upon your future. He loves you too well to make your way to heaven free from adversity and tribulation, for these things work your lasting good. But He does promise you that the deepest waters shall not overflow you, and the fiercest torrents shall not drown you, for this one all-sufficient reason, that He will be with you.
5. The overflowings of Divine love are seen in the Lords avowing Himself still to be His peoples God: I am Jehovah thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour.
6. Though one would think He might have come to a close here, the Lord adds His valuation of His people, this was so high that He says, I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee. Pharaoh and his firstborn were nobodies as compared with Jacobs seed. Further on in history, after Isaiahs day, the Lord moved Cyrus to set Israel flee from Babylon, and then gave to the son of Cyrus a rich return for liberating the Jews; for He made Him conqueror of Egypt and of Ethiopia and of Seba. God will give more than the whole world to save His Church, seeing He gave His only begotten Son.
7. Then the Lord adds another note of great love. He says that He has thought so much of His people that He regarded them as honourable. Since thou wast precious in My sight, etc. He publishes His love, not only by His deeds, but by express words. What a wealth of grace is here!
8. Such is the Lords love, that even in the time when they were not acting as they should, but grieving Him, He stands to His love of them, and sets the same value on them as before: Since thou wast precious in My sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life. As if He said, What I have done I will do again. My love is unalterable.
II. Our second text is in the minor key, it is LOVE LAMENTING. But thou hast not called upon Me, O Jacob (verse 22). Observe the contrast; for it runs all through, and may be seen in every sentence: I have called thee by thy name; but thou hast not called upon Me, O Jacob. I have called thee Mine; but thou hast been weary of Me. I have redeemed thee with a matchless price; but thou hast bought Me no sweet cane with money.
1. Israel rendered little worship to God. May not the Lord of infinite mercy justly say to some of us, But thou hast not called upon Me, O Jacob?
2. There has been little fellowship; for the Lord goes on to say, Thou hast been weary of Me, O Israel. Are we tired of our God? If not, how is it that we do not walk with Him from day to day?
3. We are moved by this passage to confess how little of spirituality has been found in the worship which we have rendered. Thou hast not honoured Me with thy sacrifices. When we have come to worship, in public and in private, we have not honoured the Lord by being intense therein. The heart has been cold, the mind wandering.
4. Again, the Lord mentions that His people have brought Him little sacrifice: Thou hast not brought Me the small cattle, etc. What small returns have we made! In the religion of Christ there is no taxation; everything is of love.
5. Once more, it is said that we have been very slack in our consideration of our God. The Lord says, I have not caused thee to serve with an offering, nor wearied thee with incense; but thou hast made Me to serve with thy sins; thou hast wearied Me with thine iniquities. The Lord is thoughtful of us, but we are not thoughtful towards Him. If the Lord did not love us very much He would not care so much about our love towards Himself. It is the plaint of love. The Lord does not need our sweet canes nor our money. But when He chides us for withholding our love-tokens, it is because He values our love, and is grieved when it grows cold.
III. Our third text exhibits LOVE ABIDING.
1. Notice, in Isa 44:21, how the Lord still calls His people by the same name: Remember these, O Jacob and Israel. Still are the names of His elect like music in the ears of God. One would have feared that He would have dropped the Israel, that honourable name, which came of prevailing prayer, since they had not called upon Him. Why call him a prevailing prince who had grown weary of his God? But no, He harps upon the double title: He loves to think of His beloved as what they were, and what His grace made them. O heir of heaven, God loves you still!
2. Notice how the Lord claims His servants: Thou art My servant: I have formed thee; thou art My servant. He has not discharged us, though He has had cause enough for so doing. This should bind us to Him. This should quicken our pace in His service.
3. Then notice how the Lord assures us in the next line: O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of Me. God cannot forget His chosen. You that have Bibles with margins will find that it is also written there, O Israel, forget not Me. The Lord longs to be remembered by us. Did not our loving Lord institute the Sacred Supper to prevent our forgetting Him?
4. Notice with delight the triumph of love, how still He pardons: I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, etc.
5. See how our text closes with the Lords own precept to be glad: Sing, O ye heavens; for the Lord hath done it, etc. (Isa 44:23). Out of all dejection arise! There is more cause for gladness than for sorrow. What you have done should cause distress of heart; but what the Lord has done is cause for rapture. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Four contrasts
(with Isa 43:22-25):–There are many lights in which we can see sin; and our perception of sin very much depends upon the light in which we look at it. Sin is very terrible by the blaze of Sinai. It is an awful thing to see sin by the light of your dying day. More terrible still will it be to see it by the light of the judgment day. But of all the lights that ever fall upon sin, that which makes it like itself appear is that which falls upon it when it is set in the light of Gods countenance. To see sin by the light of Gods love, to read its awful character by the light of the Cross, is the way to see sin. I am going to speak mainly concerning Gods own people, and I want to set their sins in the light of Gods love to them. My object will be to set before you the contrast between Gods action towards His people and His peoples, usual action towards Him.
I. The first contrast lies in THE CALL.
1. I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name (Isa 43:1).
(1) God called us out of nothing. Thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob (Isa 43:1). Our creation is entirely due to God. An ungodly man can hardly bless God for having made him, for his end may be terrible. Blessed be God for our being, because it is followed by our well-being! Blessed be God for our first birth, because we have also experienced a second birth.
(2) Our Lord has done more than make us, for He has educated us; He has continued the fashioning of us. He that formed thee, O Israel. Israel is the formed Jacob; by Gods grace, Jacob grows into Israel. Let us think of all the sweet experiences of Gods forming and fashioning touch that we have had. Sometimes, it has been a rough stroke that was necessary for the moulding of our clay; only by affliction could we be made to assume the shape and pattern that the Lord had determined for us. At other times, it has been the touch of very soft fingers. Thy gentleness hath made me great.
(3) Think what wonderful,, dealings He has had, next, in consoling us, for the Lord goes., on to say, Fear not. Oh, how often He has cheered us up when our spirit was sinking!
(4) That is not all, for the Lord has also called us, and conversed with us, in the matter of redemption. I have redeemed thee.
(5) The Lord has given a special nomination. I have called thee by thy name.
(6) Then comes this blessed appropriation: Thou art Mine. This is the way that God talks to us.
2. Turn to the other side of the question, the neglected call on our part. Thou hast not called upon Me, O Jacob (Isa 43:22). That may not mean that there has been literally no calling upon God on thy side, but it does mean that there has been too little of it. Let us put this matter to the test.
(1) What about our prayers? There is much less prayer than there ought to be.
(2) True as this is of our prayers, it is still more true of our praises.
(3) There are many, with whom God has dealt well, who do not venture to call upon Him for special help in His service. They keep plodding along the old roads, and mostly in the old ruts; but they do not dare to invoke the aid of the Lord for some novel form of service, some fresh enterprise upon which they can strike out for God.
(4) Sometimes in our trouble, we do not call upon God as we should.
II. Let us consider another contrast which is equally striking–that is, upon the matter of THE CONVERSE between the Lord and His people.
1. Notice, first, Gods side of it. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee, etc. (Isa 43:2). Notice how God is with His people in strange places. Wherever they are, He will not leave them; He will go right through the waters with them. God also keeps close to His people in dangerous places, fatal places as they seem.
2. Now listen to your side of this matter of converse with God. But thou hast been weary of Me, O Israel (Isa 43:22).
(1) Has it not been so with regard to private prayer?
(2) With your reading of the Scriptures?
(3) Hearing the Word?
(4) Are there not some also whom God loves who get weary of their work?
III. Notice the contrast in THE SACRIFICE.
1. I gave Egypt for thy ransom, etc. (Isa 43:3).
(1) Here is God giving up everybody else for the sake of His people. Egypt, Ethiopia, and Seba were great nations, but God did not choose the greatest. Not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called, etc.
(2) We may see another meaning in these words, for God has given for us His choicest gift. Christ is infinitely more precious than Egypt, and Ethiopia, and Seba, though they were lands of great abundance of wealth.
2. Now look at the other side. Thou hast not brought Me the small cattle of thy burnt offerings (Isa 43:23). I wonder how little some people really do give to God! I believe, in some cases, not as much as it costs them for the blacking of their boots. Then the Lord adds, Thou hast bought Me no sweet cane with money. Not even the smallest offering has been given to the Most High by some who profess to have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. How little is given by the most generous of us!
IV. I close with one snore contrast, which refers to THE HONOUR given by God, and the honour given to God.
1. God gives great honour to those whom He saves (Isa 43:4). I have known persons who, before their conversion, were unclean in their lives, and when they have been converted, they have joined a Christian Church, and in the society of Gods people they have become honourable. They have been taken into the fellowship of the saints just as if there had never been a fault in their lives; nobody has mentioned the past to them, it has been forgotten. This is the highest honour that God can put upon us, that He fixes His love upon us. Thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee.
2. Have you honoured God? He says, Neither hast thou honoured Me with thy sacrifices. Have you honoured God by your lives? By your confidence in Him? By your patience? By defending His truth when it has been assailed? By speaking to poor sinners about Him? Are you trying every day to honour Him? (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Fear not
I. A CHARGE GIVEN. Fear not. A godly fear the believer may have; but the cowardice of the world, which is loud to boast, and slow to act, and quick to doubt, he must never know. It becomes neither the dignity of his calling, nor the faithfulness of his God.
II. A REASON ASSIGNED. Thou art Mine. These words were spoken to Israel after the flesh, and to them they still remain a covenant of peace, sure and steadfast for ever; yet as the relations named–Creator, Redeemer, Saviour–are not peculiar to them, but are enjoyed in the same degree by every believing heart, we may take to ourselves a share in this animating promise. The certainty of the believers hope does not depend on our holding God, but on Gods holding us; not on our faithfulness to Him, but on His faithfulness to us.
III. A PROTECTION PROMISED. This does not consist in any absence of trial and danger; the expressions rather imply their presence, many in number and various in kind. The protection promised consists in the constant presence with the soul of its unseen but Almighty Saviour. (E. Garbett.)
I have called thee by thy name
Named and claimed
I. THE PERSON. I–thee–thou–Mine. How this sentence tingles with personality! If one person can call another person, those two persons are alike. Those two persons have a common life interest. Personality in God is substantially similar to personality in man.
II. THE NAME. Would it be an untrue fancy to suppose that we each have a name before God? When you look at your little sleeping child to-night, you will, perhaps, not only think of the name that everybody knows him by, but you will murmur over him some little special name that you have given him–you hardly know how, but that gives to you the very sense of theessence of the true life sleeping there. Remember that something just like that is in the heart of your Gods feeling for you. Science generalises, love particularises. Then, with this loving name, comes possession. There is a strange, yearning intensity in that language, Thou art Mine. The mystery and rapture of life are in that strange sense of possession which comes through love, as though the loved one had become a part of ourselves to be dissevered from us nevermore. Thou art Mine, says our God–Mine to carry, to nurture, to protect–My very own, never to part from Me for evermore.
III. THE CALL OF THE NAME. It would be very much to know that God even thought of us by our name in this personal and special way; but the text asserts that this power of God finds expression; that life is filled not only with a thought of us on the part of God, but with an expression of that thought; so that there is something vocalised, something articulate in life, which comes to us, if we can really understand that it is God calling us by this name we have.
1. The very first awakening feeling in childhood is a personal call. When you first really prayed as a little child and thought what you were doing, what a sense of individuality there was. You were yourself then, and nobody else. It was God speaking to you, and calling you by your name.
2. Then another period which comes, usually s little later, when Gods call is addressed to us, is in our first assumption of responsibility. I think some of the most solitary times a man ever has are when he has just assumed a serious responsibility. Now, in that solitude, if a man listens, he can hear his God calling to him, speaking his name right then and there. How tenderly, how warmly, how encouragingly! And the reason is, because God loves the thing that that responsibility will give you. He loves the thing that will make for you, and that is character; that is manhood.
3. Then, again, in a moment of danger, a man may hear God calling his name; because danger, like duty, particularises. Supposing we see a man in danger; we ask, Who is he? What is his name? And if the man does not realise the peril he is in, you call to him by the name that will cut through the air, and strike on his ear, and arouse his individual attention. Suppose moral danger comes and God sees the danger coming, and He calls out to you by that name He knows you by. If you could hear that call, would it not cause you to repel the evil? as though the Voice said, I remember you; you are Mine. Your name is known to Me. I am your heavenly Friend, and I call on you now to do your duty, to repel the evil.
4. He speaks our name when we are in trouble.
5. There are certain other experiences of life darker than duty or danger or sorrow. We name them by that strong, common monosyllable, sin. These moral experiences that cut into the soul within us–sin, the sting and stab of remorse, repentance, reformation–all are experiences of an arena in which God calls a man by his name. (A. J. Lyman, D. D.)
Gods claim on the soul
What a drama, what tragedy, life is! The world goes by, and, pointing to you, exclaims: That man is mine. He has been forty years in my service. He has sold his soul to me. He is mine. Not so, replies the heavenly Voice; He is Mine. I knew him as a child. I have never lost sight of him. Pleasure comes by, and claims you and says: He is mine, that young man. Dissipation comes by., and points to you with fascinating smile, and says: That young man is mine. Let his mother give him up. Let the angels forget him. He has taken my cup in his hand; he has drunk of my poison. He is mine. No, the heavenly Voice answers: Not yet; not yet. I know him, and love him. I suffered to save him, and he is Mine. Mine by right of love, and Mine by right of pain. That is the drama, that is the tragedy, that is going on! (A. J. Lyman, D. D.)
Israel called by name
To call by name includes the ideas of specific designation, public announcement, and solemn consecration to a certain work. (J. A. Alexander.)
Thou art Mine
Three little words, three little syllables; a childs motto; words that might be printed by a little hand and sent as a message of love; words that might be engraved on a signet ring: yet words the whole meaning -of which the firmament has not space enough to hold the entire development. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER XLIII
Prediction of that blessed period when God should gather the
posterity of Abraham, with tender care, from their several
dispersions in every quarter under heaven, and bring them
safely to their own land, 1-7.
Struck with astonishment at so clear a display of an event so
very remote, the prophet again challenges all the blinded
nations and their idols to produce an instance of such
foreknowledge, 8, 9;
and intimates that the Jews should remains (as at this day,) a
singular monument to witness the truth of the prediction, till
it should at length be fulfilled by the irresistible power of
God, 10-13.
He then returns to the nearer deliverance – that from the
captivity of Babylon, 14, 15;
with which, however, he immediately connects another
deliverance described by allusions to that from Egypt, but
represented as much more wonderful than that; a character which
will not at all apply to the deliverance from Babylon, and must
therefore be understood of the restoration from the mystical
Babylon, 16-18.
On this occasion the prophet, with peculiar elegance, and by a
very strong poetic figure, represents the tender care of God in
comforting and refreshing his people on their way through the
desert, to be so great as to make even the wild beasts haunting
those parched places so sensible of the blessing of those
copious streams then provided by him, as to join their hissing
and howling notes with one consent to praise God, 19-21.
This leads to a beautiful contrast of the ingratitude of the
Jews, and a vindication of God’s dealings with regard to them,
22-28.
NOTES ON CHAP. XLIII
Verse 1. I have called thee by thy name] ” karathi beshimcha. So all the versions. But it seems from the seventh verse, and from the thing itself, that we should read karathicha bishmi, ‘I have called thee by my name;’ for this form of speech often occurs – the other never. For Isa 45:24, concerning Cyrus, is another matter; but when God calls Jacob Israel, he calls him by the name of God. See Ex 31:2.” – Secker.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
But now thus saith the Lord; but notwithstanding thy gross insensibleness under former judgments, for which I might justly send far heavier ones upon thee, yet I will deal mercifully with thee.
That created thee; that made, thee his people, and that in so miraculous a manner, as if he had created thee a second time out of nothing; and therefore he will be gracious to his own workmanship. I have redeemed thee from the Egyptians, and divers other enemies; and therefore I will redeem thee again.
By thy name; by the name of Gods people, which was as proper and peculiar to them as the name of Israel.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. But nownotwithstandingGod’s past just judgments for Israel’s sins.
creatednot only in thegeneral sense, but specially created as a peculiar people untoHimself (Isa 43:7; Isa 43:15;Isa 43:21; Isa 44:2;Isa 44:21; Isa 44:24).So believers, “created in Christ Jesus” (Eph2:10), “a peculiar people” (1Pe2:9).
redeemeda secondargument why they should trust Him besides creation. TheHebrew means to ransom by a price paid in lieu of thecaptives (compare Isa 43:3).Babylon was to be the ransom in this case, that is, was to bedestroyed, in order that they might be delivered; so Christ became acurse, doomed to death, that we might be redeemed.
called . . . by . . .namenot merely “called” in general, as in Isa 42:6;Isa 48:12; Isa 51:2,but designated as His own peculiar people (compare Isa 45:3;Isa 45:4; Exo 32:1;Exo 33:12; Joh 10:3).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob,…. This prophecy is not concerning Cyrus, and the redemption of the Jews by him, as some have thought; nor of Sennacherib and his army, and of their deliverance from him, as Kimchi and his father interpret it; but of the Christian church, and the state of it, when Jerusalem should be destroyed, as predicted in the preceding chapter; which goes by the name of Jacob and Israel, for the first churches chiefly consisted of Jews, and both Jews and Gentiles converted are the spiritual Israel of God:
and he that formed thee, O Israel; this creation and formation are not so much to be understood of their being the creatures of God, and the work of his hands, in a natural sense; but of their new creation and regeneration; of their being the spiritual workmanship of God, created in Christ, and formed for his glory:
fear not: for I have redeemed thee: though Jerusalem shall be destroyed, and Judea wasted, and though subject to the persecutions of wicked men in all places; yet since redeemed by Christ from sin, Satan, and the law, hell, and death, nothing is to be feared from either of them; redemption by Christ is an antidote against the fear of any enemy whatsoever:
I have called thee by thy name; with an effectual calling, which is of particular persons, and those by name, even the same that are redeemed by Christ; for whom he has redeemed by his precious blood, they are called by the grace of God to special blessings of grace, with a high, holy, and heavenly calling; and have no reason to fear anything, since they are the chosen of God; have a right to all spiritual blessings; all things work together for their good; they shall persevere to the end, and at last be brought to glory, to which they are called:
thou art mine; such as are redeemed by Christ, and called by his grace, they are his Father’s gift, and his own purchase; they voluntarily give up themselves to him, under the influence of his Spirit and grace; they are his by profession and possession; they are his portion, people, sheep, and spouse; and his interest in them, and theirs in him, serve to prevent fear; such need not fear wanting anything, nor any enemy, nor perishing, or miscarrying of heaven and happiness, to which fears they are subject.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The tone of the address is now suddenly changed. The sudden leap from reproach to consolation was very significant. It gave them to understand, that no meritorious work of their own would come in between what Israel was and what it was to be, but that it was God’s free grace which came to meet it. “But now thus saith Jehovah thy Creator, O Jacob, and thy Former, O Israel! Fear not, for I have redeemed thee; I have called thee by name, thou art mine. When thou goest through the water, I am with thee; and through rivers, they shall not drown thee: when thou goest into fire, thou shalt not be burned; and the flame shall not set thee on fire.” The punishment has now lasted quite long enough; and, as affirms, the love which has hitherto retreated behind the wrath returns to its own prerogatives again. He who created and formed Israel, by giving Abraham the son of the promise, and caused the seventy of Jacob’s family to grow up into a nation in Egypt, He also will shelter and preserve it. He bids it be of good cheer; for their early history is a pledge of this. The perfects after in Isa 43:1 stand out against the promising futures in Isa 43:2, as retrospective glances: the expression “I have redeemed thee” pointing back to Israel’s redemption out of Egypt; “I have called thee by thy name” (lit. I have called with thy name, i.e., called it out), to its call to be the peculiar people of Jehovah, who therefore speaks of it in Isa 48:12 as “My called.” This help of the God of Israel will also continue to arm it against the destructive power of the most hostile elements, and rescue it from the midst of the greatest dangers, from which there is apparently no escape (cf., Psa 66:12; Dan 3:17, Dan 3:27; and Ges. 103, 2).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Encouragement to God’s People. | B. C. 708. |
1 But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. 2 When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. 3 For I am the LORD thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee. 4 Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life. 5 Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west; 6 I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth; 7 Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.
This chapter has a plain connexion with the close of the foregoing chapter, but a very surprising one. It was there said that Jacob and Israel would not walk in God’s ways, and that when he corrected them for their disobedience they were stubborn and laid it not to heart; and now one would think it should have followed that God would utterly abandon and destroy them; but no, the next words are, But now, fear not, O Jacob! O Israel! I have redeemed thee, and thou art mine. Though many among them were untractable and incorrigible, yet God would continue his love and care for his people, and the body of that nation should still be reserved for mercy. God’s goodness takes occasion from man’s badness to appear so much the more illustrious. Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound (Rom. v. 20), and mercy rejoices against judgment, as having prevailed and carried the day, Jam. ii. 13. Now the sun, breaking out thus of a sudden from behind a thick and dark cloud, shines the brighter, and with a pleasing surprise. The expressions of God’s favour and good-will to his people here are very high, and speak abundance of comfort to all the spiritual seed of upright Jacob and praying Israel; for to us is this gospel preached as well as unto those that were captives in Babylon, Heb. iv. 2. Here we have,
I. The grounds of God’s care and concern for his people and the interests of his church and kingdom among men. Jacob and Israel, though in a sinful miserable condition, shall be looked after; for, 1. They are God’s workmanship, created by him unto good works, Eph. ii. 10. He has created them and formed them, not only given them a being, but this being, formed them into a people, constituted their government, and incorporated them by the charter of his covenant. The new creature, wherever it is, is of God’s forming, and he will not forsake the work of his own hands. 2. They are the people of his purchase: he has redeemed them. Out of the land of Egypt he first redeemed them, and out of many another bondage, in his love, and in his pity (ch. lxiii. 9); much more will he take care of those who are redeemed with the blood of his Son. 3. They are his peculiar people, whom he has distinguished from others, and set apart for himself: he has called them by name, as those he has a particular intimacy with and concern for, and they are his, are appropriated to him and he has a special interest in them. 4. He is their God in covenant (v. 3): I am the Lord thy God, worshipped by thee and engaged by promise to thee, the Holy One of Israel, the God of Israel; for the true God is a holy one, and holiness becomes his house. And upon all these accounts he might justly say, Fear not (v. 1), and again v. 5, Fear not. Those that have God for them need not fear who or what can be against them.
II. The former instances of this care. 1. God has purchased them dearly: I gave Egypt for thy ransom; for Egypt was quite laid waste by one plague after another, all their first-born were slain and all their men of war drowned; and all this to force a way for Israel’s deliverance from them. Egypt shall be sacrificed rather than Israel shall continue in slavery, when the time has come for their release. The Ethiopians had invaded them in Asa’s time; but they shall be destroyed rather than Israel shall be disturbed. And if this was reckoned so great a thing, to give Egypt for their ransom, what reason have we to admire God’s love to us in giving his own Son to be a ransom for us! 1 John iv. 10. What are Ethiopia and Seba, all their lives and all their treasures, compared with the blood of Christ? 2. He had prized them accordingly, and they were very dear to him (v. 4): Since thou hast been precious in my sight thou hast been honourable. Note, True believers are precious in God’s sight; they are his jewels, his peculiar treasure (Exod. xix. 5); he loves them, his delight is in them, above any people. His church is his vineyard. And this makes God’s people truly honourable, and their name great; for men are really what they are in God’s eye. When the forces of Sennacherib, that they might be diverted from falling upon Israel, were directed by Providence to fall upon Egypt, Ethiopia, and Seba, then God gave those countries for Israel, and showed how precious his people were in his sight. So so me understand it.
III. The further instances God would yet give them of his care and kindness. 1. He would be present with them in their greatest difficulties and dangers (v. 2): “When thou passest through the waters and the rivers, through the fire and the flame, I will be with thee, and that shall be thy security; when dangers are very imminent and threatening, thou shalt be delivered out of them.” Did they, in their journey, pass through deep water? They should not perish in them: “The rivers shall not overflow thee.” Should they by their persecutors be cast into a fiery furnace, for their constant adherence to their God, yet then the flame should not kindle upon them, which was fulfilled in the letter in the wonderful preservation of the three children, Dan. iii. Though they went through fire and water, which would be to them as the valley of the shadow of death, yet, while they had God with them, they need fear no evil, they should be borne up, and brought out into a wealthy place, Ps. lxvi. 12. 2. He would still, when there was occasion, make all the interests of the children of men give way to the interests of his own children: “I will give men for thee, great men, mighty men, and men of war, and people (men by wholesale) for thy life. Nations shall be sacrificed to thy welfare.” All shall be cut off rather than God’s Israel shall, so precious are they in his sight. The affairs of the world shall all be ordered and directed so as to be most for the good of the church, 2 Chron. xvi. 9. 3. Those of them that were scattered and dispersed in other nations should all be gathered in and share in the blessings of the public, v. 5-7. Some of the seed of Israel were dispersed into all countries, east, west, north, and south, or into all the parts of the country of Babylon; but those whose spirits God stirred up to go to Jerusalem should be fetched in from all parts; divine grace should reach those that lay most remote, and at the greatest distance from each other; and, when the time should come, nothing should prevent their coming together to return in a body, in answer to that prayer (Ps. cvi. 47), Gather us from among the heathen, and in performance of that promise (Deut. xxx. 4), If any of thine be driven to the utmost parts of heaven, thence will the Lord thy God gather thee, which we find pleaded on behalf of the children of the captivity, Neh. i. 9. But who are the seed of Israel that shall be thus carefully gathered in? He tells us (v. 7) they are such as God has marked for mercy; for, (1.) They are called by his name; they make profession of religion, and are distinguished from the rest of the world by their covenant-relation to God and denomination from him. (2.) They are created for his glory; the spirit of Israelites is created in them, and they are formed according to the will of God, and these shall be gathered in. Note, Those only are fit to be called by the name of God that are created by his grace for his glory; and those whom God has created and called shall be gathered in now to Christ as their head and hereafter to heaven as their home. He shall gather in his elect from the four winds. This promise points at the gathering in of the dispersed of the Gentiles, and the strangers scattered, by the gospel of Christ, who died to gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad; for the promise was to all that were afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call and create. God is with the church, and therefore let her not fear; none that belong to her shall be lost.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
ISAIAH – CHAPTER 43
JEHOVAH, THE ONLY REDEEMER OF HIS SERVANT-PEOPLE
Vs. 1-7: ISRAEL, GOD’S OWN POSSESSION, COMFORTED
1. By contrast with the judgment upon the blindness, hardness and impenitence of Israel (as set forth in chapter 42), this chapter opens with God’s contrasting: “But now’.”.
a. How often, in the scriptures, do those two little words reveal man’s extremity to be God’s opportunity, (Eph 5:8, etc.).
b. But, it must be understood that this is “all of grace”; this does not come as a result of any merit on the part of Israel.
2. God has created Jacob and formed Israel as a peculiar people for His own possession, glory and service; they are His! He claims them.
a. He created them for His own pleasure, (vs. 7, 15, 21; Isa 44:2; Isa 44:21; Isa 44:24; comp. 1Pe 2:9).
b. He redeemed them from hopeless bondage, (Isa 44:22-23; Isa 48:20).
c. He chose them – calling them by name (Isa 45:3-4; Rom 8:28-30; comp. Gen 32:28) – to be a special vehicle of His grace to the ends of the earth; divine election is always for responsibility!
d. Thus, they need not be afraid; He is their adequate protection in every conceivable situation, (vs. 2; Psa 66:12; Psa 138:7; comp. Exodus 14; Dan 3:25-27).
3. As “the Holy One of Israel” He is Jehovah, their God and Saviour! The very title suggests a special relationship between God and this people, (vs. 3a).
4. From the beginning Israel has been precious and honorable in the Lord’s sight; so deep had been His love that He was willing to give Egypt, Ethiopia and Seba a ransom for her, (vs. 3b-4).
5. Once more He quietens the fears of Israel (vs. 5; Isa 41:10; Isa 41:14; Jer 30:10; Jer 46:27-28) – declaring His holy purpose to call His peculiar people (the seed of Jacob, whom He created for His own glory) from the ends of the earth, (Neh 2:1-10).
a. Here is another of those prophecies that looks on beyond our time to the consummation of the age.
b. Though there was a partial return from Babylon, it was just that. (Even Daniel, the prophet, failed to return with his people!)
c. And to this date there has been no general return of Israel’ from the Assyrian captivity.
d. But, as already noted (Isaiah 12), Israel and Judah will yet be united, under the Messianic David, to fulfill their servant-role during the millennium.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
1. And now thus saith Jehovah. It is hard to say whether this is a different discourse or the same with the former; for the Prophets, whose writings have come down to us, did not separate their discourses into distinct chapters, so as to enable us to know what they spoke each day. For my own part, I think it is probable that this doctrine is connected with the preceding; for, having formerly spoken severely against the Jews, and threatened destruction to them, he wished to moderate that severity. The Lord always cares for the godly; and wickedness never abounds to such an extent that he does not at the same time preserve his people, and provide for their safety, that they may not be involved in similar destruction. I think, therefore, that the copulative ו (vau) should be viewed as disjunctive, “ And yet the Lord will leave some consolation to the godly who shall remain.”
This passage ought to be carefully observed; for, although it may appear as if all had leagued for our destruction, although the anger of the Lord burn fiercely, and we think that we are very near destruction; yet, if but two or three godly persons are left, we ought not to despair; for Jehovah addresses them in this manner, Fear not. The adverb Now, which is here used, has great weight; for it means a present or immediate calamity, and, in short, a time when it appeared as if all were lost and ruined; because at that very time God does not cease to comfort his people, and gently to soothe their sorrows, that amidst the utmost despair they may preserve their hope firm and unshaken.
Such is the purport of the preface, thy Creator and Maker; for otherwise the door would have been shut against the execution of these predictions. Besides, from other passages we may conclude, that the Lord does not here speak of universal creation, such as we share with the rest of men, and by which we are born mortal, but of regeneration to the hope of a heavenly life, on account of which we are also called new creatures. This is the sense in which Paul calls us “the workmanship of God,” (Eph 2:10,) as on former occasions we have fully explained. (162) In this sense also he calls himself the Maker; as if he had said, that God did not “make” his Church, in which the brightness of his glory shone conspicuously, in order to undo so excellent a work. Hence we ought to observe, that the Church has nothing that is properly her own, but everything in which she excels ought to be ascribed to the gift of God.
For I have redeemed thee. This is added as the reason of the former statement, and may appropriately be viewed as referring both to the future and to the past; for the first deliverance from Egypt gave hope of another deliverance to come. Although he describes a future deliverance from the Babylonish captivity, yet the past tense is not inapplicable; for God hath redeemed us to himself before the effect of redemption reaches us; and therefore when he wishes to testify what he has decreed, namely, to redeem his Church, which appeared to have perished, he uses with propriety the past tense.
I have called thee by thy name. To “call by one’s name” means here, to admit into close relationship, as when we are adopted by God to be his children. The reason of this mode of expression is, that God rejects the reprobate in such a manner that he appears to have forgotten them. Hence, also, the Scripture says, that “he knoweth them not.” (Mat 7:23; Luk 13:27.) From a contrast of this sort we learn more fully what is meant by being “called by God.” It is when he passes by others, and deigns to bestow on us a peculiar honor, and, from being strangers, to make us members of his household, and next takes us under his care and guardianship, so as to direct us and all our affairs. For the same reason he adds, Thou art mine, that believers may know that there will always be left a Church among the elect people, because God refuses to be deprived of his rightful possession. In short, he declares that they are his dear inheritance, of which he will never suffer himself to be robbed.
(162) See Commentary on Isaiah, vol. 2, pages 83 and 264, and page 132 of the present volume.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CHEERING WORDS FOR THE AFFLICTED
Isa. 43:1-3. But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, &c.
These cheering words were addressed by God to His peculiar people the Jews; but He has a peculiar people now, and all who partake of their faith and love may consider this Scripture as written for the purpose of imparting comfort and strength to their troubled hearts. It suggests four subjects for consideration: the afflictions to which the people of God are liable; the exhortation addressed to them; the promises by which it is strengthened; and the arguments by which it is enforced.
I. Compared with the miseries they have deserved, or with the weight of glory reserved for them, the afflictions of Gods people are light (H. E. I. 3703, 3704); but in other points of view, they often appear sharp and heavy. The text implies, 1, that these afflictions are certain; that they not only may come, but will come. It speaks of them as things of course (H. E. I. 4755, 3674).
2. That they may be great; deep as rivers, dangerous as rapid torrents.
3. That they may be greatly diversified. They may be in the waters to-day, and may have deliverance, but to-morrow they may have to walk through the fire and the flame; to endure trials which are unexpected and strange, and far more severe and bitter than any they have previously experienced.
II. How suitable and encouraging is the exhortation which is here addressed to us: Fear not.
1. The power and greatness of Him from whom it proceeds gives to it a force which it would not otherwise possess. It comes from the only Being in the universe who can bless a sinner, or whom he has cause to fear.
2. The natural tendency of our trials is to excite fear. This fear may be innocent; it may lead us to avoid them, if God will, and if not, it will move us to circumspection and prayer. Such a fear our Saviour manifested in Gethsemane.
3. But there is a fear of another kind, and this we are here called on to lay aside: a fear which is the effect of unbelief, and the cause of murmurings, despondency, and wretchedness; a fear which tempts us to choose sin rather than affliction, which provents us from praising God under our trials, and from trusting Him to bring is out of them.
III. This exhortation God supports and strengthens by two most gracious promises.
1. He promises His own presence with us in our trials. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee (H. E. I. 198202, 3677).
2. He promises us preservation under all our calamities. When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. What does this imply? That our trials shall not injure us. In proportion as they tend to become temptations, grace will be ministered to us, and they shall not overthrow us. Nay more; the very calamities which appeared likely to destroy every spiritual grace within Gods people, to overwhelm their patience, their confidence and love, are made the very means of displaying and brightening them all (H. E. I. 204214). By calling the suffering graces of His people into exercise, He will render them invincible. He will enable them to pass through rivers of trouble as safely as His beloved Israel passed through the Red Sea, and cause the fires of affliction to play as innocently around them as they played around His three servants in the furnace at Babylon.
IV. In the greatness of His condescension, God vouchsafes to add to His precious promises several arguments to assure us of their fulfilment.
1. The first is drawn from the relation in which He stands to us as our Creator. Thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and He that formed thee, O Israel. He created us naturally, and has re-created His people spiritually (Isa. 43:21; Eph. 2:10). Here, then, is a solid ground of confidence. The Father of our spirits must be well acquainted with our infirmities and weakness (Psa. 103:13-14; Isa. 63:9). Neither will He ever forsake the work of His own hands. He raised us out of the ruins of the Fall, made us temples in which He delights to dwell and be worshipped; and He will never suffer the structures which He has erected at so much labour and cost to be thrown down by violence, or worn away by storms (Psa. 138:8; 1Pe. 4:19).
2. The Almighty draws another argument from the property which He has in His people and the manner in which He acquired it. Fear not, for I have redeemed thee; I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. We are His by redemption also. And what a mighty price did He pay for us! He gave Egypt for the ransom of His ancient people, Ethiopia and Seba for them. But when we were to be redeemed, kingdoms and empires were too poor a ransom (Rom. 8:32; Act. 20:28). Hence He estimates us, not by what we are, but by what we have cost Him. Will He abandon that which cost Him so dear? (Zec. 2:8).
3. The covenant which God has formed with His people ensures the fufilment of His promises. FOR I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour; thus implying that He has entered into some engagement with His Israel; that He considers Himself bound to be with them in their troubles and distresses; that His own veracity and faithfulness are at stake, and would be sacrificed if Israel were forsaken or injured.
REFLECTIONS.
1. How rich in consolation is the Word of God!
2. How essential to our happiness is a knowledge of our interest in the divine promises (H. E. I. 306308).
3. How full of confidence and praise ought they to be, who live in the enjoyment of the divine presence in the hour of trouble! It is tranquillising and sweet to have a beloved friend near us when our sorrows are multiplied upon us, but what is the presence of the dearest earthly friend, when compared with the presence of a sympathising God!
4. How blind to their own interest are they who reject the gospel of Christ!Charles Bradley: Sermons, vol. ii. pp. 266285.
I. The most eminent piety, the most exalted privileges, form no ground of exemption from the heaviest trials.God, by His prophet, in this chapter multiplies descriptions of the character and dignity of His people, and yet in the same breath speaks of the severe trials that await them. The people of God have had to pass through severe trials; not merely to hear about them, &c., but to endure them. Abraham (Gen. 22:2). Jacob (Gen. 37:32). Martha and Mary (Joh. 11:1, &c.)
1. Let us not presume upon exemption from them (H. E. I. 234236, 3361, 3674).
2. Let us not wonder if trial increases in weight and severity. This may be intimated in the textwaters, rivers; fire, flame. There is an ascent in the path of suffering, a graduated scale of sorrow. Trials are proportioned according to our strength; to our missing the improvement of former calamities; to our insensibility to chastisements (Amos 4.)
II. The supports which God furnishes are equal to the utmost emergency in which we can be placed. I will be with thee. Enough!
1. Enough to temper the excess of trial, and to enable us to bear up under it. The text engages that the trial shall not reach beyond a certain point: they shall not overflow thee. Our supports shall be in every way equal to our necessity. Mr. Cecil says: I shall never forget the encouragement when standing by the dying bed of my mother. I asked her, Do you not tremble at entering an unknown world, not knowing what you shall meet there? It is no matter what I shall meet there, was her answer; He hath said, when thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee (H. E. I. 198, 3677).
2. Enough to sanctify the calamities to the promotion of our highest interest (H. E. I. 215, 36963701).
III. The promise of support is as certain as the trial is inevitable (Num. 23:19). I will be with thee, &c. Apprehended, this promise induces resignation, prayer, commitment to God, hope.Samuel Thodey.
I. The character of the people to whom this promise is made. Jacob, Israel. II. What God has done for them in time past; or what are the steps which He has taken to make them what they are. He has created them; He has redeemed them; He has called them by their names. Therefore He calls them His; Thou art mine. III. What He promises to do for them in time to come.Daniel Rees: Sermons, pp. 136156.
We have here Gods redemption, calling, and adoption of His people set forth as a ground of fearlessness in danger, and of comfort in the season of greatest distress.Charles Neat: The Protestant Preacher, vol. iii. pp. 383390.
GROUNDS OF CONFIDENCE IN GOD
Isa. 43:1-2. But now thus saith the Lord, &c.
I. Here we have four distinct grounds of confidence in God.
1. Our creation: Thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and He that formed thee, O Israel; fear not.
2. Our redemption: For I have redeemed thee.
3. Our calling: I have called thee by thy name.
4. Our adoption: Thou art mine. Are not all these the very strongest grounds of confidence in God?
1. Shall we not trust in Him who created us? The ungodly indeed can derive no confidence from the consideration of God having formed them; their relation to Him renders their rebellion against Him an incalculable evil (H. E. I. 44884489). A man must be renewed and reconciled to God before his creation can be judged a proper ground of confidence in Him. But it should be rested on by those who have received the atonement. Is it possible that He who made you, and whose forfeited favour as your Creator has been restored to you, can ever leave you or forsake you? Shall He become the Father of your spirits, and suffer your spirits, and souls, and bodies to perish?
2. If creation is a ground of confidence in God to them who are reconciled to God and bear His image, what must redemption be? What a magnificence of love, grace, mercy, compassion, holiness, and justice do we behold in this wonderful transaction! Is it to be supposed that redeeming mercy, surmounting every obstacle to the salvation of a sinner, can suffer you, in all the helplessness of your corrupted nature, to be driven to and fro with every wind of passion, and at last to be destroyed for ever! No! if you would calculate the extent of the divine assistance offered to the people of God, you must calculate upon the scale of redemption (H. E. I. 46314632; P. D. 3204).
3. In calling you by His grace, God has given you a personal interest in the redemption of His Son, and in all the blessings of His salvation. The unspeakable condescension, friendship, and tenderness which God in this heavenly calling manifests are strikingly declared here: I have called thee by thy name. When you call each other by your proper names, you do not by this signify more familiarity, benignity, and confidence than God does in calling you by them. He speaks to you, as to Abraham His friend; when He addressed Abraham by name, He did not feel more love for him than He feels for you day by day, continually. Why should you fear, whom He calls by your names? He has thus made your redemption and all its blessings His personal concern.
4. He who has called you by your names has adopted you into His family. Thou art mine, my servant, my child, mine heir, the heir of mine everlasting kingdom. What can be a higher ground of confidence in God than adoption into His family, than the endearing and exalting relation of a child? What condescension and mercy in God, thus to select one of the tenderest relations in life, by which to illustrate the nature of His love to us! (Isa. 49:15).
II. On these grounds God exhorts His people to display a fearless fortitude when they are exposed to trials: Fear not.
III. In order to render it easier for them to manifest the courage which His children may well be expected to display, He adds gracious promises which should be to them a pillar of fire, to illuminate, guide, keep, and cheer them in the wilderness, or in the deep waters, through which their passage to a better country has been marked out for them: Isa. 43:2. Right on to the end, they shall have His presence and protection.Miles Jackson: Sermons, vol. i. pp. 233257.
Those relations of God to man which form the groundwork of the believers obligations, are in this passage adduced as the foundations of his confidence and peace; and this fact shows, further, that the two must stand or fall together. Men should think of this before they seek to lower the strict requirements of Gods law. We can only lower our estimate of what we ought to do for God, by first lowering our estimate of what God has done for us, and so stripping from our faith all that now raises it into heights above our reach, and depths beyond our fathoming. God is your Creator, Preserver, Saviour, King. These are the very grounds of the assured confidence of which the prophet speaks. Consider
I. THE CHARGE GIVENFear not. The quality of fear is described in the Scriptures under various aspects.
Thus it is spoken of sometimes as a feeling to be exercised. Be not highminded, but fear; and again as a thing to be avoided, Fear not. There is the cowards fear, which cannot bear the very sight of danger. Such is the fear that makes a man shrink from examining into the true state of his soul before God, and that makes men hide from themselves the thought of death. There is another kind of fear, which never shows itself till the time of actual trial comes; beforehand, it is arrogant and boastful, but sinks into despondency and despair when it is put to the test. Gods people are free from both of these; they are deeply conscious alike of their danger and of the inadequacy of their own strength to meet it: but they stand fast, strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. A righteous, godly fear, the believer has; but the cowardice of the world, which is loud to boast, and slow to act, and quick to doubt, he must never know. It becomes neither the dignity of his calling, nor the faithfulness of his God. The believer and the unbeliever are sharply separated in respect of the objects of their fear. The timid child and the courageous man both have fear; but the one fears a shadow: the other, that which, not to fear, would show the absence of a reasonable courage.
What things ought we to fear? Shall we fear the opposition and hatred of the world; those who can injure the body, but cannot touch the soul; pain, or sickness, or temporal misfortune? Those may do so who make this world their all, but not the believer, who recognises in them the medicines of the soul. Shall we fear the devil? Not with God on our side. Or death? Not so; for it is the gate of higher life, and introduces us to lifes crown of glory. He who fears God need know no other fear. Such fear is not a base naked terror; it becomes a wondering reverence, and loses itself in love; for He is not against His people, but for them; Fear not, for I am with thee. But the absence of this fear makes everything else fearful.
II. THE REASON ASSIGNED. Thou art mine. These words were spoken to Israel after the flesh; yet, as the relations namedCreator, Redeemer, and Saviourare not peculiar to them, but are realised by every believing heart, every believer may take to himself his share in this animating promise; for all these relations are adduced, not as reasons for anything we are to pay to God, but as reasons for that which we are to receive from Him,they form the ground of our confidence (Psa. 119:94). The certainty of our hope does not depend on our holding God, but on Gods holding us; it is not in our power to realise His promise at all times, but we may rest on the immutability of that promise (2Ti. 2:13). The believers hope is an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast. To see to what a strong rock that anchor holds, turn your thoughts to the relationship spoken of in these words, I am thy Creator, thy Redeemer, thy Saviour; I have called thee by thy name, words which imply a personal, immediate interest. All is His work; the goodness which created, the grace which has quickened, corrected, strengthened, taught, sanctified, has all come from Him!
III. THE PROTECTION PROMISED (Isa. 43:2). This does not consist of any absence of trial and danger; the expressions of the text rather imply their presence, many in number, and varied in kind (Psa. 69:1-2). No extraordinary interposition will preserve the child of God from those miseries to which man is born as the sparks fly upwards. The protection promised consists in the constant presence with the soul of its unseen but Almighty Saviour (Psa. 16:8; Heb. 13:5-6).
CONCLUSION.Contrast the condition of the believer, and of the unbeliever. Affliction is the lot of all; but while a man loses nothing, in the calculation of earthly happiness, by becoming a follower of the Saviour, in the calculation of heavenly happiness he gains all. There is more sunshine, even in this world, to the righteous than to the unrighteous. Both have to share the ills that flesh is heir to; but what a difference in the strength of the two to meet them! If for a moment the Christians heart sinks, then the promise comes back to him like a refreshing breath from aboveFear not; for I have redeemed thee.Edward Garbett, M.A.: Sermons, pp. 204222.
DIVINE CONVOY
Isa. 43:2. When thou passest through the waters, &c.
I. THE PATHWAY THE PEOPLE OF GOD ARE CALLED TO TREAD. Through waters and fires; used in the Scriptures as emblems of troubles and sorrows (Act. 14:22).
1. Temporal troubles. You can scarcely look into the narrowest circle of your acquaintance without finding sorrows, losses, cares, broils, contentions, all the fruits of sin (H. E. I. 4751).
2. Spiritual troubles. Consciousness of utter inability to comply with the demands of the fiery law. Satans suggestions and temptations.
The troubles of life are
1. to the ungodly, judicial punishments;
2. to Gods people, fatherly corrections, or trials of their faith (1Pe. 1:7; H. E. I. 6670; 36783684).
II. THE UPHOLDING POWER THAT BEARS THEM ALONG. I will be with thee. Two views may be taken of this precious promise: there is such a thing as God being with His people, and they not knowing it; and there is such a thing as their sensible enjoyment of it.
1. God never deserts the objects of His love. But there have been many instances in which His people have had added to their trials the terrible fear that He had deserted them (Lam. 3:8; Psa. 77:7-9; Job. 23:8-9; H. E. I. 16441657).
2. But to those who humbly wait upon Him, He reveals His presence with them; and in that they find all they need to sustain them, and heaven begun below.
III. THE TERMINUS WHERE THE PATHWAY OF GODS PEOPLE WILL END. It is a mercy that the promise is when thou passest through, not merely into. Gods elect pass through waters and rivers, fires and flames, but they get to the other side. And what is found there? The rest that remaineth for the people of God (H. E. I. 2792, 2793; P. D. 1784).Joseph Irons: Grove Chapel Pulpit, vol. iv. pp. 289299.
I. THE WATERS AND RIVERS WHICH ARE IN THE CHRISTIANS WAY. [1393]
[1393] In most parts of our country, ingenuity and labour have been employed to lessen the fatigues and remove the dangers of travelling. Roads are cut through woods and morasses, and over mountains; inns are established; and bridges are thrown over rivers and brooks. But in countries which are thinly inhabited, or into which the improvements of modern times have not been introduced, travelling is full of danger and of toil. The stranger, if he has not a guide, is in perpetual uncertainty, is harassed by apprehensions; and if he reach his destined place, it is not till he is almost exhausted by fatigue, and after many hair-breadth escapes. At one time, he is almost faint with hunger; at another, he is parched with thirst; at another, either benumbed with the cold, or scorched by the heat, or overpowered by the severity of the storm, before he can reach a place of shelter, or find the necessary refreshments of nature. Now, he knows not at what place he shall enter the forest, to avoid being torn by the briars and thorns, or entangled in some impenetrable thicket. Then, he hesitates whether the thick mire be not too deep for him, or the marshy ground may not sink beneath his feet. In a little while he is distressed how he shall, by the best and easiest path, ascend the steep and woody mountain; or how, in descending, he shall avoid the precipices which appear below. Again, he arrives at the banks of some deep and rapid river, or approaches some torrent descending from the mountains, and swelled by the winter floods; and how he shall descend, and where he shall pass through, and whether the waters be fordable, or the streams be not too rapid, are questions which distress his mind and fill him with anxiety and fear.
Many such impediments were in the travellers way; and to many such hazards was he exposed in Canaan, and especially in the countries adjacent, many of which were mountainous and waste. On this account, frequent allusions to this state of things are made by the Spirit of God in scripture, especially in describing the Christian life. The Christian is represented as a man travelling through the waste howling wilderness to Immanuels land. Many a mountain of difficult duty has he to ascend, and many a steep of painful suffering has he to descend on his way to his heavenly home. Many waters of deep distress, which sometimes rush unexpectedly upon him, like torrents from the mountains, and threaten to sweep him away into destruction, has he to pass through.Peddie.
Waters and rivers are employed metaphorically in two opposite senses. Because, in a warm climate especially, waters are so necessary to allay the thirst of man, and to cool and invigorate the body enfeebled by excessive heat, and are so calculated to beautify the landscape and to diffuse fertility, everything that is comfortable and joyous is shadowed forth by waters, rivers, streams (Isa. 41:18). But in other places, as here, by waters and rivers we are to understand afflictions and tribulations; because waters, which are so beneficial, when in over-abundance are so noxious; and because he who has to pass through them has a difficult and hazardous task to perform, and he who is plunged into them is in imminent risk of his life.
1. The waters of affliction are numerous. The Christian in his progress towards heaven has not one river only to pass through; there are many, including the Jordan, that lie between him and that happy land (Psa. 34:19; H. E. I. 3661, 3674).
2. They are often deep. Every stream is not a brook; there are rivers as well as rivulets; and all afflictions are not light. The stream is easily passed over in summer months, or when the sky is serene and settled, compared with what it is in the midst of winter, or when it overflows its banks in consequence of the descending torrents. When it goes well with the soul, and the Christian walks in the light of Gods countenance, and in the fellowship of Christ, and in the comforts of the Holy Ghost, the waters of trouble are easily forded; they seem not half so deep as at other times when the heavens above, as well as the things on earth, frown upon him. The union of many streams occasions a greater depth of water than can be found in any of them singly; and how deep must be the affliction of that saint who meets with combined distress of body and of soul (Psa. 42:7; Jon. 2:3).
3. They are frequently muddy. When the waters of a river are most plentiful they are usually least limpid, and the traveller who has to pass through them, besides the uneasiness which he suffers from perceiving their increased quantity, is distressed because he can neither see the bottom nor conjecture their depth. How often in times of affliction is it thus with the saints! The designs of Providence are wrapt up in obscurity. Their eye is unable to discover the reasons of the Divine controversy with them; neither can their anxious minds form any idea of that depth and severity of distress which they must yet suffer before they obtain deliverance.
4. They are in many places broad. The river is often confined by the height of its banks within a narrow channel, and whatever be the difficulty of passing through, the traveller soon reaches the further side; but at other times it spreads itself out to a great extent, and it is not till after many a weary step that he reascends to the dry land. The waters of affliction often extend over a great space (Psa. 90:15; Psa. 88:15). It is no small addition to trouble of any kind, when it is lengthened out. The soul is ready to faint because of its continuance; faith, patience, and hope are ready to die out (Psa. 13:1-2). Indeed in no case can we see the further bank of the river of trouble. A mist hangs over it. When we enter it; we can never say how long it will be before we reascend out of it. This only we know, that when the journey of life is finished, we shall be delivered out of all tribulation, and the days of our mourning shall be ended.
5. They are at certain seasons exceedingly rapid. They sometimes descend upon the saint with all the rapidity of a torrent, and ere he is aware he is in the midst of great distress. As in Jobs case, the messengers of woe come running unto us at a time when all is quiet, and we looked for joy (Job. 30:14; Job. 30:26; Job. 30:31). Even when the soul enters the stream with full warning of what it is to meet with, it is often found more rapid than was supposed, and descends with a force which it is not easy to sustain (H. E. I. 54, 55).
II. THE PASSING THROUGH THE WATERS.
1. There is no getting to heaven without passing through the waters. The heavenly land, like Canaan to Abraham when he dwelt in Ur of the Chaldees, lies beyond the flood, and through this we must pass before we can enter in and possess it. Affliction is the portion of saints in this world. Each of them in his order seems to say with Jeremiah, I am the man that hath seen affliction. The Great Head of the Church Himself passed through many waters of tribulation (Isa. 53:3).
2. Some saints on their way to heaven pass through more rivers of trouble than others. Travellers who set out to the same place from different parts of the country pass through tracts different in their form and scenery, and some meet with rivers which others avoid. The Lord, in wisdom and sovereignty, diversifies the lot of His people.
3. The travellers to Zion pass through the same waters at different stages of their journey. The rivers wind. Hence they are met by the travellers from different parts at earlier or later periods, at greater or less distances. Let us not take it for granted that because we have never experienced trials against which others have had to contend, therefore we shall never meet with them.
4. Through the very same waters of affliction the Christian in his journey has often more than once to pass. We ought not to imagine that, because we have been in any particular period afflicted in a certain manner, we shall no more experience that distress. The waters through which you have already passed may wind about, and you may have to pass through them yet again. Never think yourself secure against any one trial, temptation, or affliction, while you are so far from the house of your heavenly Father.
5. The Christian, in passing through the waters and the rivers, much needs a guide and helper. Without one, he could never pass through them in safety. His own wisdom, courage, and strength are utterly unable to resist the impetuosity of the torrents that assail him. His fellow-Christians need the same assistance as himself. His help can come only from Him who says here: When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee.
III. THE PROMISED PRESENCE OF GOD DURING THE CHRISTIANS PASSAGE THROUGH THE WATERS.
1. It is the presence of God Himself which is promised. Not merely by means of instruments. The Lord has more love to His people than to leave any of them to pass through the waters with no other comforter or helper than the best of men, or even the greatest angels. Their wisdom, power, and grace are finite, limited, and insufficient for an undertaking so arduous. He has therefore promised to be with them, and this is everything.
2. It is the special presence of God which is promised to be with them. By His essential presence God fills heaven, earth, and hell, upholding and governing all things. But if the promise has any meaning or comfort in it, it is a promise of special presence; a promise of His presence as a God of grace and love. How big with comfort, help, and deliverance is our text when thus understood! In the time of trouble, we wish our friends to be near us. Yet, often their sympathy cannot remove our anguish, nor their help effect our deliverance. But when we have God with us, He can do for us all we need.
3. It is the presence of the Lord in all distresses which is here promised. Were there one river through which a saint had to pass in which he had not reason to expect the Divine presence, he would have cause to be afraid. But as His presence is intended for the consolation and salvation of His people, the promise reaches to every kind of distress.
4. It is His presence at all times which is promised. He is not like a stranger who occasionally appears for the relief of those who are struggling with the stream, and are ready to be swept away by it. No, He abides with His people (Isa. 54:10; Psa. 138:7).
5. The promise guarantees the presence of God with all the saints when passing through the waters. Partialities are unknown with our God. He loves all His children, and He will provide deliverance for them all. If this promise was made for any, it was for them that especially need His presence and help. The more helpless thou art in thyself, the greater is the evidence that He intended it for thee.
IV. THE HAPPY CONSEQUENCES OF GODS PRESENCE WITH THE SAINTS WHEN THEY PASS THROUGH THE WATERS.
1. He guides and directs them. It is His general promise to His people: I will guide thee with mine eye; and if there is any season in which they need Divine counsel and heavenly guidance, it is in the season of distress. But then He gives it to them as He did to Jehoshaphat (2Ch. 20:12; H. E. I. 176).
2. He comforts them (H. E. I. 202; P. D. 93).
3. He sanctifies to them the waters of affliction. Since God is with him, the swelling waters purify the believer, and cannot destroy him; they fit him for heaven, and cannot prevent his progress to it. Many, besides David, instead of suffering by affliction, have come up out of the waters like flocks of sheep which go up from the washing (H. E. I. 116).
4. He strengthens them to pass through the waters. Cry then unto Him (Psa. 20:1-2).
5. He delivers them from the waters. They cannot deliver themselves. But they are not therefore lost in the deep waters (Psa. 34:6). Deliverance comes not always as soon as they desire it; but it comes in due season; it never comes too late. In the most unexpected moment, in the most unexpected manner, He appears for their deliverance; so singular is it sometimes that they can scarcely credit it (Psa. 126:1-3). He does not always deliver them from every river into which they enter. He permits some one or other of them to carry them down the stream till they reach the waters of Jordan. But there they do not perish. He gives them victory over death, and by means of this deliverance sets them free from all their troubles.James Peddie, D.D.: Discourses, pp. 395424.
It is assumed that Gods people will pass through the waters and through the fire. These elements, so useful as friends, so terrible as enemies, represent trouble and distress. Water may be too deep to ford, the practised swimmer may be overpowered. Within the grasp of fire, injury, destruction, death are speedily accomplished. The sufferer is sometimes like one aroused from sleep in a burning house. Despair seizes him. Those who have no God, or whose faith fails to realise His sufficiency, relinquish effort and hope. The antidote is found in Gods all-sufficient promises. Here is one that assures believers of the Divine presence in trouble, and the Divine deliverance from it.
I. THE DIVINE PRESENCE IN TROUBLE. What is it in our nature that finds a relief in the presence of a friend in times of deepest sorrow? In the first burst of sorrow, the heart must be left alone. It prefers to be alone. The nearest earthly friend must not intrude on the sacredness of its grief. But the time comes when it craves for sympathy. The presence of a friend, even if no word is spoken, exerts the mysterious influence that brings relief and consolation. At suitable time and in suitable manner, there will be the sympathetic word. Perhaps the substantial aid. Whether or not, there will be the restful feeling of the weak when they depend upon the strong.
Your friends trouble may have been the hopeless ruin of his fortune. You could do nothing for him. But you made it in your way to call upon him. He will never forget it. He is sick; and time, to the sick, is weariness. You visited him. Dear to Paul the apostle were those friends who were not ashamed of his chain; who visited him in imprisonment and ministered to his wants. It is not merely that there is society to relieve the tedium of solitude, and divert attention from the presence of sorrow. Any one might do that. But more is wanted. A stranger, or one to whom the sufferer is personally indifferent, could not convey the mysterious influence that has help and comfort in it. The comfort comes from the consciousness that the presence is that of a friend.
Now, God is the best of friends. It is the privilege of believers to call Him friend. By faith their sins are forgiven. They are reconciled to Him. By His grace they are born again. The old enmity of their hearts is abandoned. Its place has been taken by love. Fellowship with God is the Christians joy. His friendship reflects glory on those who are honoured with it. It is this Friend who says, When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee. We cannot see Him. Sight is not necessary to the conscious presence of even an earthly friend. The room may be dark, not a word may be spoken, not a sound heard; but we feel that he is there; the influence is the same as if we saw him. Gods conscious presence fills the soul with faith, hope, peace. It is the consciousness of love and sympathy. It is the invisible, secret, gentle power of His Spirit that gives calmness and strength while trouble is pressing most heavily, and while external circumstances are the most distressing. I will be with thee (H. E. I. 198, 3677).
II. THE DIVINE DELIVERANCE FROM TROUBLE. If the believer is called to pass through the waters, they shall not overflow him; if he is called to walk through the fire, he shall not be burned, nor shall the flames kindle upon him. Trouble may come: but he shall be brought through at the last. It may seem like a miracle. It is like saying the action of fire and water shall be so controlled that their natural result shall not follow. No difficulty, no trouble is so great that the Lord cannot effect a deliverance; in some unexpected way deliverance shall come. The day is overcast with gloomy clouds; the atmosphere is depressed; the rain comes in torrents; the wind sweeps down houses and trees before it; universal wreck seems impending; when unexpectedly the storm abates, wind and rain cease, the clouds separate, a genial warmth is diffused, the sun shines out, the storm is forgotten. All things work together for good to them that love God. He suffers His people to pass through fire and water, not only that He may display His power and love in their deliverance, but often, because the fire and the water lie in their way to some good exceeding what they have ever enjoyed; which, without it, could not have been reached. Sickness is sometimes the pathway to health; temporal calamity to prosperity; sorrow to established Christian character; spiritual distresses to a profounder realisation of spiritual blessings. The cross prepares for the crown. Death is the gate of life.
Oh, how many such deliverances are recorded in the sacred history! Joseph from prison. The bush burned, but was not consumed. The children of Israel through the waters of the Red Sea and the Jordan. Daniel from the lions den. The three Hebrew youths in the furnace of fire; but there was one with them like the Son of God, and therefore upon their bodies the fire had no power, nor was a hair of their head singed. Fire cannot burn, water cannot drown those whom the Lord preserves. Nothing can prevent the fulfilment of His word.
Consider the grounds on which your confidence may repose
1. His purpose. The salvation of His people from every evil is part of His redeeming plan. Everything is subordinate to this. Hindrances have been swept away. He has spared no expense. I gave Egypt for thy ransom. Ethiopia and Seba for thee. He gave His Son.
2. His faithfulness. You can plead His word of promise. The truth of His nature is pledged. He will do as He has said.
3. His love. Is He not thy Father? He loves His children. His heart is set on their salvation. Will not love do all that is necessary?
4. His power. He can sweep away all material and spiritual hindrances that lie in the way. Nothing is too hard for the Lord.
But there must be faith. Gods promises are made to faith. The blessing is according to faith. Let your mind rest in the promises in every time of distress, whatever its nature, assured that either He will remove it or overrule it, so that a blessing shall come through it. If there are losses, disappointments, bereavements, soul-troubles, the solemn hour of death, His presence, and His delivering power shall be the sufficient antidote.J. Rawlinson.
Gods grace never shines so brightly as when it shines through the cloud of His peoples sins. Nor does it ever appear so glorious as when displayed in the depth of their unworthiness. When nature is at the lowest, grace is generally at the highest. When God has threatened His people for their sins, or chastened them for their follies, He then generally steps in with some revelation of His grace, or makes some precious promise. This was the case with Israel of old, whom God had visited with sore and terrible judgments; and then, instead of utterly consuming them, He comes forward and says, When thou passest, &c.
I. THE PILGRIMS PAINFUL LOT. He has to pass through deep, sore, and successive trials. Persecution, temptations, conflict within. Temporal trials: losses, crosses, disappointments, and vexations. The fire tries the metal, and separates it from the dross, &c. So the believers trials refine him, &c.
II. THE LORDS GRACIOUS PROMISE. I will be with thee. Nothing is so much needed, nothing so much prized by the believer in affliction, as the presence of God.
1. To direct thy steps, for I know all the way.
2. To strengthen thy faith, for I know how weak and feeble it is.
3. To cheer thy heart, for I know all thy sorrows.
4. To secure thy benefit, for I will surely do thee good.
5. To bring thee safely through all, and lead thee safe to glory.
CONCLUSION.Our trials will sweeten home. Heaven will make amends for all. Whatever happens, God is still our Father, and we are His beloved children.James Smith.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
4. CALL, CHAPTER 43
a. TO BE A POSSESSION
TEXT: Isa. 43:1-7
1
But now thus saith Jehovah that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel: Fear not, for I have redeemed thee; I have called thee by thy name, thou art mine.
2
When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.
3
For I am Jehovah thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour; I have given Egypt as thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in thy stead.
4
Since thou hast been precious in my sight, and honorable, and I have loved thee; therefore will I give men in thy stead, and peoples instead of thy life.
5
Fear not; for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west;
6
I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back; bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the end of the earth;
7
every one that is called by my name, and whom I have created for my glory, whom I have formed, yea, whom I have made.
QUERIES
a.
Why remind Israel she belongs to God?
b.
When will Israel walk through waters?
c.
When will the great gathering take place?
PARAPHRASE
And now, in light of the foregoing, Jehovah says, I am your Creator and your Former, O Israel, so you need have no fear. I have redeemed you in the past and will do so in the future. You are mine; I have special claim on you. You did not even name yourselfI did. You were singled out by Me for a special purpose. So, when you have to pass through dangerous waters and flooded rivers you need not fear they will overcome you; when you have to walk through fires of your oppressors you will not be burnedyou will not even be touched by the flames. You know who I Am, I Am Jehovah, Covenant God, the Holy One of Israel, your Saviour. I have paid a high price for you giving up whole continents like Egypt, Ethiopia and Seba as a ransom for you. Ever since the time you became My precious possession I have honored you and loved you dearly. And on account of My love for you I will continue to exchange the lives of other peoples to keep you as My special people. Do not be afraid of your enemies, for I, Your Covenant-God, Am with you always. Even if you are scattered all over the world, I promise to gather my sons and daughters from the east, west, north and south. Yes, every one who will surrender to be called by My name, I will have produced as a new creation, will have shaped him and perfected and completed him for My glory.
COMMENTS
Isa. 43:1-4 REDEMPTION: This chapter forms the climactic statement of Gods Purpose for Israels servanthoodto be Gods Called. This chapter also forms the conclusion to the preceding discussion of the interrelation of national Israelcovenant Israelto the Messiah. This whole section of Salvation Through Gods Servant (chapters 4053), is a kaleidoscopic view of the correlation of Israel and the Messiah. Israel was called for the messianic purpose, but she sinned. God must chasten her to purify her. After her purification she will be redeemed and from her will come the Messiah and His kingdom in which only the regenerated shall dwell.
Two words are used in verse one to emphasize Jehovahs claim upon Israel; bara, create and yatzar, form, shape, are the distinctive Hebrew words showing Gods unique relationship to Israel. She is His possession by right of His having brought her into existence and having molded her into what He wants her to be. The Hebrew word for redeemed is goael and a derivative of the same word is sometimes translated kinsman (cf. Rth. 3:2, etc.). Israel is kin to God by creation and redemption. Israel is Gods child, His son, His bride (cf. Eze. 16:1 f; Hos. 11:1 f; Isa. 49:14-18; Isa. 62:1 f, etc.). Israel is Gods precious possession. The placing of the two names of verse one are interesting. Yaakoov, Jacob, means defraud, circumvent, crooked, deceitful, while Yisrael, Israel, means prevail, prince or ruler of God, or perhaps, God will rule. Israel is the name God gave Jacob after Jacob wrestled with the angel of the Lord and prevailed. Hosea appeals to the spineless, compromising Israel of his day to take again the character of its forefather who was so singleminded about striving for the spiritual birthright (cf. Hos. 12:2-6). So, Israel was what God named this nation because He redeemed it or purchased it, not only through the change made in Jacobs character, but also throughout her history. This is what God calls Israelmine!
Not only has God redeemed Israel, He will continue to do so. He will protect her. When she is forced to go through waters (probably when being taken captive, for there were hardly any bridges over rivers then) God will keep her from being swept away. When they were forced to walk through fire, God would not allow the flame to consume them. A literal fulfillment of protection from fire is recorded in the event with the three Hebrew men (Dan. 3:1-30) in the fiery furnace of Nebuchadnezzar. The point is Israel need not fear extinction for God is powerful and mighty to save from any thing. God could even save them from lions (Daniel), hangmen (Esther) and their own countrymen (Jeremiah).
Jehovah, Creator of all mankind, is jealous enough for Israel, His precious servant, called to glorify His name in all the earth, He is willing to give up other nations and peoples as a substitutionary ransom to keep Israel. God is ready to sacrifice practically the whole African continent (as was then known, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Seba) if need be to keep Israel free to fulfill her messianic destiny. Some think this is a prediction that God is willing to, and did, assign Egypt, Ethiopia and Seba to Persia as compensation for their letting Israel return to Palestine by the edict of Cyrus (cf. 2 Chronicles 36; Ezra 1). Egypt and Ethiopia did submit to the Persian yoke in the days of Cambyses (cir. 527526 B.C.), about 10 years after the return of the exiled Jews to Palestine.
From the time the promise was given to Jacob (Gen. 28:14), Israel became precious to Jehovah. From that time on God placed the interests of Israel above those of other peoples. Young says, Perhaps the general thought is simply that in choosing Israel God passed by other nations and thus they were sacrificed (i.e., were the ransom price) in its place. The point, of course, is not that Israel of itself merits this evaluation of preciousness; the point is Gods grace. Paul makes this matter clear in Romans, chapters 91011. Israels preciousness consists solely in Gods sovereign choice of her to be His servant. The same is true of the new Israel, the church. The church is precious not because of the merit of the human beings in her membership but because of Gods sovereign redemption by grace to the church in the unique work of Christ, offered through belief and obedience of the Gospel. The preciousness of the church is shown in that God was willing to offer His monogenes, only, unique Son as a ransom.
Isa. 43:5-7 REGENERATION: The captivity, which was certain to come, was symbolic of the estrangement between Israel and God. Israel willfully and deliberately separated themselves from His holiness (cf. Isa. 30:1-14, etc.). The separation was not Gods choosing. However, in order to demonstrate vividly Israels need for Gods holy fellowship, God delivered her to captivity. But Israel is not to fear. Because a remnant has believed the prophets and remain true to Jehovah, He will bring them back from all over the earth to their land again and to their appointment with destiny. That return from the exile, however, is only a first step. The meaning of these verses is by no means restricted to the return from the captivity. As Young says, In a far deeper sense it is addressed to all those who are afar off, who can be brought to the true Mount Zion only by the gracious working of the Lord . . . The reference is to the spiritual gathering of lost sinners in Jesus Christ. The seed refers to the spiritual descendants of Jacob. There are plenty of references in Isaiah to demonstrate this principle (cf. comments on Isa. 19:16-25, etc.).
Verse seven indicates that God is referring to His spiritual people and not just physical Israel, when it says every one that is called by my name. Jesus made plain who Gods sons were in John 8. Not all descended from Israel belong to Israel (cf. Rom. 9:6; Rom. 2:25-29; Gal. 6:13-16, etc.). Anyone who does not come to God through Jesus Christ is not called by Gods name. The arrangement of the words, created, formed, and made, seem to be in an ascending scale depicting the work of God in the redemption of those called by His name. First there is the new creation (the initial new birth, becoming a Christian), then the shaping or molding of that life into the image of Christ from one degree of glory to another and last the perfecting or consummating work of glorifying the child of God. Isaiah is talking about a regeneration. He is depicting the bringing from an Israel that was one only in name, to Israel that is one in truth!
QUIZ
1.
In how many ways did Israel belong to God?
2.
What is significant about the arrangement of the names Jacob and Israel?
3.
When did some Israelites literally experience salvation from fire?
4.
How did God ransom Israel by using other nations and peoples?
5.
What makes the new Israel, the church, so precious to God?
6.
What evidence is there that Isa. 43:5-7 probably refer to messianic times?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
XLIII.
(1) But now . . .The outpouring of love that follows is contrasted with the wrath of the preceding verse.
The Lord that created thee.The title implies something more than the Maker of heaven and earth. Jehovah has created Israel as specially answering, as other created things did, to an archetype in His own purpose. To call by name is everywhere, but pre-eminently in the East, the mark of an individualising tenderness (Joh. 10:3), almost of a predestinating love that makes the name a witness of its purpose.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1, 2. The prophet returns to his usual consolatory tone. The first verse is inexpressibly tender; so, for the most part, is the entire chapter.
But now Hebrew, and now. Transition words suiting the change of tone in the address.
Jacob Israel Both names, for poetic variety, intended for the one chosen body of people.
Fear not My love for thee, just now shadowed by my displeasure, returns in full power upon me. My work in calling Abraham, in multiplying Jacob, in delivering from Egypt, and in establishing in Canaan, is not to be for naught. See Dan 3:17; Dan 3:27.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Sec. 3. GOD’S CONTROVERSY WITH ISRAEL, Isa 42:17 to Isa 44:5.
The controversy with heathendom closed. Its period is from Abraham’s call ideally to the last triumph of Messiah. The message is now again to Israel. It began in Isa 1:2, and has been scatteringly resumed ever since.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
God Has Created and Redeemed a People for Himself Whom He Will Love And Protect ( Isa 43:1-7 ).
Isa 43:1
‘But now thus says Yahweh who created you, O Jacob,
And he who formed you, O Israel,
Do not be afraid for I have redeemed you,
I have called you by your name, you are mine.’
Suddenly again prospects change, for God’s purposes are sure. Yahweh 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. As ever the true, spiritual, responsive Israel is in mind. (God constantly makes clear that those who reject Him are not of His people). He will not therefore leave them in the situation which their people have brought on themselves. That is not why He made them.
That is also not why He redeemed them from Egypt by the expending of His power, or called them by their name, seeing them as His firstborn and demonstrating that they were His. Rather will He bring them out of that situation. Indeed it is because of this that He will now act on their behalf in delivering power, for they are precious in His sight (Isa 43:4).
Also included in the idea of redeemed may be that Israel were His firstborn son (Exo 4:23), and therefore had to be doubly redeemed with the redemption of the firstborn through the offering of a substitute (Isa 43:3).
Isa 43:2
‘When you pass through the waters, I will be with you,
And through the rivers, they will not overflow you,
When you walk through the fire you will not be burned,
Nor will the flame kindle on you.’
When Israel had passed through the Reed 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 (Isa 8:7-8; Isa 17:12-13; Isa 28:2 compare Isa 59:19), as had the picture of fire (Isa 9:18-21; Isa 4:4). 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 (see Psa 66:12; compare also Psa 32:6; Psa 42:7; Psa 66:12; Jas 1:2; Jas 3:6).
Isa 43:3-4
‘For I am Yahweh, your God,
The Holy One of Israel, your saviour,
I have given Egypt as your ransom,
Ethiopia and Seba for you.
Since you have been precious in my sight,
Honourable, and I have loved you,
Therefore will I give men for you,
And peoples for your life.’
And this is because of Who He is, and because He is acting on their behalf as their Redeemer. For He is Yahweh the One Who is, The One Who will be what He will be (Exo 3:14). And He, the unique and totally separate One, the pure One, the Holy One of Israel, is their Saviour, their Deliverer.
Moreover such is His love that He has sacrificed nations for them, giving Egypt, Cush and Seba for their ransom. What a price. Great Egypt plus mighty Cush plus wealthy Seba. And handed over in return for little Israel. This suits best the time when Cush was a dominant force in Africa, and thus the time of Isaiah, not the time of Babylonian supremacy. Seba is possibly the same as Sheba, or connected with it, who seemingly had close connections with Cush across the Red Sea. Alternately some see it as referring to a people in Upper Egypt between Egypt and the Sudan. Compare how in Gen 10:6-7, Cush was the brother of Mizraim and the father of Seba.
Possibly he saw the price as being paid to Assyria to take the heat off God’s people. For while Assyria were taken up with their invasion of the African peoples the pressure on Judah would be the less. Or perhaps the thought is of the Cushite/Egyptian army defeated at Eltekeh, possibly along with Arab allies, sacrificed in the course of delivering Jerusalem. And much later Assyria would sack Thebes, and would also slaughter the Arabs. Or perhaps he is going back to the Exodus (see Isa 10:7) when the plagues that came on Egypt were produced by awful weather conditions which would also affect the nations further south, all sacrificed in the deliverance of His people.
‘Since you have been precious in my sight, honourable, and I have loved you, therefore will I give men for you, and peoples for your life.’ Note the tenderness of His words. His heart still reaches out to them. Israel were His own people, chosen and loved in Abraham and the fathers (Deu 4:37; Deu 7:7-8; Deu 10:15), and destined to be a holy people and a kingdom of priests (Exo 19:5-6). He had entered into covenant with them at Sinai, where He had revealed that love. So they were precious to God, and seen as honourable in the status that He had given them, so beloved of Him that He was willing to sacrifice others, both men and peoples, in order that they might be spared the worst excesses. Always He prevented them suffering as much as they deserved (Isa 27:7).
The same is true for all whom God loves and on whom He sets His name. He will protect and bless them and finally gather them to Himself. For all who are His are Abraham’s seed and recipients of the blessings of God’s promises to Abraham.
Isa 43:5-7
‘Do not be afraid, for I am with you,
I will bring your seed from the east and gather you from the west.
I will say to the north, ‘Give up’, and to the south, ‘Do not keep back.’
Bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth,
Every one who is called by my name, and whom I have created for my glory.
I have formed him, yes, I have made him.’
Again Yahweh repeats that He is with them (see Isa 43:2). ( Literally ‘Because with you I’, God with us). And then He 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. Each of them who is the elect of Yahweh, and faithful to Him, is known to Him, and He will restore them (compare Isa 11:11-12). Both north, south, east and west would give them up at God’s command.
Such a restoration did literally later take place in part in later times, but the root thought is more on the fact that they are not lost to God’s sight, and will be gathered together to Him, and in Acts 2 it is stressed that there were gathered together His people, ‘devout men’, from every nation under heaven (Act 2:5), to witness, and take part in, the pouring out of the Holy Spirit. The writer in Acts probably had these Old Testament ideas in mind. But its final fulfilment awaits the last day when He will gather together His elect from the four winds at the rapture (Mat 24:31; 1Th 4:13-18). Then indeed will full restoration take place. For Isaiah constantly speaks of trends which will lead up to the final result.
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 (Isa 6:13), those not ‘cut off’ because of covenant disobedience. The ideas are a repetition from Isa 43:1.
Once again we must recognise that the prophets had to convey truth through symbols which had meaning both to themselves and their listeners. How else other than in this way could they convey the truth that of those who are God’s true people, created and shaped by Him, not one of them will be lost wherever they are scattered, and all will enjoy His kingdom.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Isa 43:1 But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.
Isa 43:1
“Behold, in the hollow of My hand, there have I made thee a nest, and thou shalt lay thee down and sleep. Though the elements rage, though the winds blow and the floods come, thou shalt rest in peace. For, My child, thou art precious in My sight. I know thee by name, for thou art not the child of a stranger, but the fruit of Mine own loins. Yea, I have begotten thee, I have called thee by thy name, and thou are Mine.” [61]
[61]
Isa 43:2 When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.
Isa 43:3 Isa 43:7 Isa 43:7
Isa 43:21, “This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise.”
Isa 60:21, “Thy people also shall be all righteous: they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified .”
Eph 1:13-14, “In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory .”
Isa 43:10 Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.
Isa 43:10
Isa 43:11 I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour.
Isa 43:15 Isa 43:15
Isa 43:16 Thus saith the LORD, which maketh a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters;
Isa 43:16
Psa 8:8, “The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.”
Isa 43:17 Which bringeth forth the chariot and horse, the army and the power; they shall lie down together, they shall not rise: they are extinct, they are quenched as tow.
Isa 43:16-17
[62] Ron Wyatt, The Exodus Revealed: Search for the Red Sea Crossing, prod. Discovery Media Productions, Portland, Oregon, 82 min., 2000, DVD.
Isa 43:25 I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.
Isa 43:25 “When someone truly repented of his sins and asked Jesus to be his Savior and Lord, it was recorded that the person had given his life to the Lord. The angels with the golden buckets each took a book from the stack. Each angel held in his hands what looked like a bloodstained cloth. The red cloth was mixed with glory, light, and power. It was not gory or anything like that – it was beautiful! Each angel positioned the selected book in front of him, and starting at the first page, he expunged the written record with the bloodstained cloth. With God’s direction, the angel erased the old history of this sinner and recorded that he or she had just been born again.” [63]
Isa 43:26 Put me in remembrance: let us plead together: declare thou, that thou mayest be justified.
Isa 43:26
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
God’s Sovereignty Over the Nations – God created the nation of Israel, the children of Abraham, to be a light unto the world, to be a messenger of God’s salvation (Isa 42:19). God had placed this nation at the crossroads of civilizations, at the crossroads of travel where three continents meet, of Europe, Asia and Africa. All who passed through the land of Israel would have seen God’s blessings and would have heard of God’s glorious salvation to His people. Israel had seen God’s glorious miracles (Isa 42:20) in the past and their obedience would have exalted the Law as great and glorious (Isa 42:21) because their nation would have abounded with divine blessings. Instead, Israel rebelled and became deaf and blind (Isa 42:18). Therefore, God turned them over to divine judgment (Isa 42:22-25). Yet, because of God’s unfailing love for His people (Isa 43:3), He has redeemed them (Isa 43:1-4). He will gather them back as a nation from the four corners of the earth (Isa 43:5-9) so that they can become the witnesses that He created them to be (Isa 43:10-13). God reminds them of their past deliverance through the Red Sea (Isa 43:16-17) and tells them to forget their past sins (Isa 43:18-28) because He will blot them out forever (Isa 43:25). Israel is God’s chosen (Isa 44:1-5) and He is their Redeemer (Isa 44:6-8). Thus, idols are nothing (Isa 44:9-11) and those who follow them know nothing (Isa 44:12-20). Israel has been redeemed (Isa 44:21-23). Therefore, all creation rejoices (Isa 44:23).
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Jehovah’s Love Protects And Gathers His People
v. 1. But now, thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and He that formed thee, O Israel, v. 2. When thou passest through the waters, v. 3. For I am the Lord, thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior, v. 4. Since thou wast precious in My sight, v. 5. Fear not, for I am with thee, v. 6. I will say to the North, Give up, and to the South, Keep not back, v. 7. even every one that is called by My name,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
Isa 43:1-7
A RENEWED PROMISE TO ISRAEL OF PROTECTION AND DELIVERANCE. Severe rebuke (Isa 42:18-25) is followed, as so often in Isaiah (Isa 1:25-27; Isa 4:2-6; Isa 9:1-16, etc.), by comfort and consolation. Israel is assured that God has not cast him off, and promised the comfort of the Divine presence during the existing tribulation (verse 2), and. a speedy restoration to Palestine (verses 3-7). The scattered Israelites will be brought together from all quarters by the Divine omnipoteney.
Isa 43:1
But now. The words mark the strong contrast between the closing passage of the preceding chapter and the opening paragraph of the present one. Israel had undergone a severe punishment for his sins; he is still suffering, but now there is going to be an entire change. He is to be protected and delivered. Created thee formed. thee redeemed thee called thee by thy name. An ascending series of benefits. First, creation, like that of formless matter out of nought; then, formation, or putting of the formless matter into shape; thirdly, redemption, or making them all his own; lastly, calling them by their name, and so conferring on them a proud and enviable distinction. On this fourfold ground God claims Israel as his own.
Isa 43:2
Through the waters through the rivers; i.e. through troubles of any kind (comp. Psa 66:12, “We went through fire and through water: but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place”). There were, perhaps, special troubles to be endured connected with the final Babylonian struggle. There were certainly others connected with the tedious and dangerous journey from Babylonia to Palestine (Ezr 8:22, Ezr 8:31). There were others, again, after the Holy Land was reached, arising out of the jealousy and ill will of neighbouring nations (Ezr 4:1-24; Ezr 5:1-17.; Nehemiah 4-6.). Neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. The literal fulfilment in the persons of the “three children” (Dan 3:27) will be obvious to every reader. But the prophecy has, no doubt, a far wider scope.
Isa 43:3
The Holy One of Israel (comp. Isa 41:14, Isa 41:20, with the comment). Thy Saviour. He who had saved them front Pharaoh (Exo 14:23-31), from Jabin (Jdg 4:1-24.), from Midian (Jdg 7:1-25.), from the Philistines (2Sa 8:1), from Zerah (2Ch 14:9-15), from Sennacherib (Isa 37:36). The term is first used of God by David in 2Sa 22:3 and Psa 106:21 (if that psalm be Davidical). It is also applied to God once in Jeremiah (Jer 14:8), and once in Hosea (Hos 13:4). With Isaiah, in these later chapters it is a favourite epithet, being used of God no fewer than eight times (see verse 11; Isa 45:15, Isa 45:21; Isa 47:15; Isa 49:26; Isa 60:16; Isa 63:8) With his eye fixed on the deliverance of Israel out of the double captivity of sin and of Babylon, he naturally had much before him this aspect of Jehovah. I gave Egypt for thy ransom, etc.; rather, I have given; that is to say, “In my counsels I have already assigned to the Persians, as compensation for their letting thee go free, the broad countries of Egypt, Ethiopia, and Seba.” Even the latest date assigned by sceptical critics to “the Second Isaiah” would make this a most remarkable prophecy. Egypt was not reduced, nor was Ethiopia made tributary to Persia until several years after the death of Cyrus, whose son, Cambyses, effected the conquests about b.c. 527-6. Human foresight could not, in the lifetime of Cyrus, have predicted with any certainty what would be the result of collision between Egypt and Persia; much less could it have ventured on the improbable supposition that the remote Ethiopia would submit itself to the Achae-menisn yoke. Yet this was the result of the invasion of Cambyses, who made Egypt a Persian province, and forced the Ethiopians to submit to the payment of an annual tribute (see Herod; 3.97; 7.69). And Seba. If “Seba” is “the land of Meroe, which is enclosed between the White and Blue Niles” (Delitzsch), it may be questioned whether really this ever formed a portion of the Persian empire. But Isaiah has probably no very distinct knowledge of the geographical position of Seba, or of the relations between the Sabaeans and the rest of the Ethiopians. He couples the two together, both here and in Isa 45:14, as forming two portions of one nation. The subjection of the Ethiopians involves, in his eyes, the subjection of the Sabaeans. And we cannot say that he is wrong, since it is not at all clear that the Sabaeans were not generally spread through Ethiopia, or at any rate scattered in various parts of the country.
Isa 43:4
Since thou wast precious. “Since” probably means “from the time that” (LXX; ), not “because,” as Delitzsch and Mr. Cheyne render. Israel became “precious” from the time that the promise was given to Jacob that in his seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed (Gen 28:14). Thenceforward God placed the interests of Israel above those of “men” generally, and markedly above those of any other “people.” People; rather, peoplesas Mizraim, Cush, Seba (Isa 43:3).
Isa 43:5
Fear not: for I am with thee (comp. Isa 41:10). I will bring thy seed from the east from the west. The actual extent of the Jewish diaspora in Isaiah’s day has been greatly exaggerated by some modern critics, who say that there were at that date “bands of Jewish exiles in the far lands of the Mediterranean, and even in China” (Cheyne). Israel had been carried captive into Mesopotamia and into Media (2Ki 17:6; 1Ch 5:26), perhaps, also, into other regions belonging at the time to Assyria, as Babylonia, Assyria Proper, Syria. Two hundred thousand Jews had been taken to Nineveh by Sennacherib, and planted probably by him m outlying portions of his dominions. But such transplantation would not carry the dispersion further than Cilicia and Cyprus towards the west, Armenia towards the north, Media towards the east, and the shores of the Persian Gulf towards the south. Any scattering of the nation into regions more remote than these, as into [Egypt, Ethiopia, Elam (Isa 11:11), and Chinaif Sinim is China (Isa 49:12)must have been seen by Isaiah in vision, or made known to him by revelation. It had not taken place in his day. The expression, “ends of the earth” (verse 6), must not be pressed in Isaiah any more than in Herodotus, where the are India, Arabia, Ethiopia, and Scythia (3:106-116).
Isa 43:6
Bring my sons. The nations are called upon, not merely to “let Israel go,” but to conduct and escort them from the places of their abode to their own country. (On the need of such escort, see Ezr 8:22, Ezr 8:31. On the actual furnishing of an escort in one case by a Persian king, see Neh 2:7, Neh 2:8.)
Isa 43:7
Every one that is called by my name. The very name of “Israel” meant “prince of God,” or “soldier of God,” and thus every Israelite was “called by God’s name.” Israelites were also known among the nations as Jehovah-worshippers (see the Moabite Stone, line 18). I have created formed made him (comp. Isa 43:1). “The three verbs describe the process of formation from the first rough cutting to the perfecting of the work” (Cheyne). The third verb would, perhaps, be best translated. “I have perfected,” or “I have completed (him).” All three actscreation, formation, and completionare done by God for his own glory (comp. Pro 16:4).
Isa 43:8-13
A RENEWED CHALLENGE TO THE NATIONS. The nations are once more challenged (comp. Isa 41:1, Isa 41:21-26) to set forth the claims of their gods against those of Jehovah. Israel is summoned on the one hand (Isa 43:8); the nations on the other (Isa 43:9). What prophecy can the nations produce, either old or new? The Israelites can abundantly witness on behalf of Jehovah (Isa 43:10). Jehovah adds a further witness of himself (Isa 43:11-13).
Isa 43:8
Bring forth the blind people that have eyes. A tribunal is supposed to have been prepared, before which the contending parties are summoned to appear and plead. Israel is first summoned, as “a blind people that have eyes;” i.e. a people long blind (Isa 29:18; Isa 35:5; Isa 42:7, Isa 42:18, Isa 42:19), who have now, to some extent, recovered their sight (Isa 32:3; Isa 35:5), and are ready to witness for God. Next, the nations are summoned (see the following verse).
Isa 43:9
All the nations; rather, all ye nations. Israel is a witness on the one hand, a multitude of nations on the other, recalling the contention of Elijah with the four hundred priests of Baal (1Ki 18:22). The people; rather, the peoples. Who among them can declare this? i.e. which of them can show any prediction made by their gods comparable to the one contained in Isa 43:1 -77 And show us former things. “Exhibit the past history of the world in well-attested documents” (Kay); “Make mention of past events which they have correctly foretold” (Cheyne, Delitzsch). According to the former rendering, the contrast is between the solemn, serious history of early times in Genesis, and the grotesque and extravagant myths, in which the nations generally embodied their views of the primitive ages. Let them bring forth their witnesses. Witnesses that the prophecies were really delivered before the events happened, or that the accounts of past times are such as have really come down to them from their ancestors. Or let them hear and say, It is truth. It is uncertain whether we ought to translate the initial vau here by “and” or by “or.” If the former, the sense is, “And then let them (i.e. the witnesses) give ear to the assertions made, and declare them true;” if the latter, we may render, with Dr. Kay, “Or, if they have no witnesses, let them listen to the sacred records, and confess them to be the truth.“
Isa 43:10
Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord; i.e. “Ye, Israel, are the witnesses that I cite”ye can prove the antiquity of the historical books of Scripture by the ordinary modes by which antiquity is proved, and also the exact dates of the prophetical sues. Ye can show what clear and unambiguous prophecies have been delivered centuries before the event, as the destruction of Jerusalem by a nation in whom none can fail to recognize the Romans (Deu 28:49-57), prophesied by Moses; the demolition of the altar at Bethel by a king of the house of David, Josiah by name, prophesied by a man of God in the reign of Jeroboam (l Kings Rom 13:2); the long continuance of David’s progeny upon the throne of Judah, prophesied by Nathan in David’s time (2Sa 7:11-16); the fairly long continuance of the house of Jehu on the throne of Israel, prophesied to Jehu himself (2Ki 10:30); and the like. Israel has been at all times, and still is, one of the most important witnesses for God that exists in the world. Like the Church, Israel is the “witness and keeper” of a large portion of “Holy Writ.” Her past history witnesses for God. Her continued existence and present condition constitute additional testimony. And my Servant whom I have chosen. To explain this as meaning “and ye are also my servant, whom I have chosen” (Nagelsbach, Cheyne, Delitzsch), is to empty it of all its force. Manifestly, a further witness is adduced, “Ye are my witnesses; and so is my Servant,” etc. The “Servant” intended can only be the one true Servant of Isa 42:1-7, since faithful Israel is already among the witnesses. The prophet rises above the consideration of the immediately present, or of the single trial-scene which he is setting before us, and has in mind the great controversy ever going on between those who are for God and those who are against him. He sees, on the side of God
(1) faithful Israel: and
(2) Christ, the “Faithful Witness”
(Rev 1:5; Rev 3:14), who “came into the world that he should bear witness of the truth” (Joh 18:37). These are the two witnesses by whom God’s truth is maintained in a world of falsehood and delusion. That ye may know. The subject is changed. “Ye” here points to “the nations,” or mankind at large. I am he (comp. Isa 41:4). Before me there was no God formed. All other gods beside me are “formed” godsinvented, fashioned, made by men. None of them was ever made before me.
Isa 43:11
Beside me there is no saviour. None but God can save men. Man cannot make atonement for his fellows; “for it cost more to redeem their souls, so that he must let that alone for ever” (Psa 49:8, Prayer-book Version). The human “saviours” whom God raises up to deliver his people out of the hand of their enemies (Jdg 3:9; 2Ki 13:5; Neh 9:27, etc.), are “saviours” in quite a secondary and inferior sense.
Isa 43:12
I have declared, etc. Translate, I announced, and delivered, add proclaimed (the deliverance), when there was no strange god among you; i.e I did what the idol-gods cannot doannounced deliverance, and effected it, and further proclaimed (or published) it, at the time when you Israelites had no idolatry among you. The allusion is to the deliverance of Jerusalem from Sennacherib, which God announced by the mouth of Isaiah (Isa 37:33-35), effected by the hand of his angel (Isa 37:36), and then caused to be published by Isaiah, who wrote the two accounts of the deliveranceboth that in his own prophecy, and that in the Second Book of Kings (2Ki 19:20-35). At that time there was no (open) idolatry in Judah, since Hezekiah had destroyed the idols (2Ki 18:4). Therefore ye are my witnesses that I am God; literally, and ye are my witnesses, and I am God. Ye can bear witness of the truth of what I have asserted in the previous portion of the verse, and your witness to this effect proves me to be God.
Isa 43:13
Yea, before the day was I am he. So the LXX; Jerome, and Stier; but most moderns translate, “Yea, from this time forth I am he” (setup. Eze 48:35). Kay, however, thinks that the translation of the Authorized Version may stand. Who shall let it? literally, as in Isa 14:27, who shall turn it back? i.e. “reverse it, undo it.” Surely no one.
Isa 43:14-21
A DECLARATION AGAINST BABYLON, AND A PROMISE OF ISRAEL‘S RESTORATION. Having wound up the preceding “controversy” with a reference to his own power to work great results (Isa 43:13), Jehovah now brings forward two examplesthe discomfiture of Babylon (Isa 43:14, Isa 43:15), and the recovery and restoration of Israel (Isa 43:16-21), both of which he is about to accomplish.
Isa 43:14
For your sake I have sent to Babylon. For Israel’s sake God has already, in his counsels, sent to Babylon the instruments of his vengeanceCyrus and his soldiersand by their instrumentality has brought down all their nobles; or rather, has brought them all down (to be fugitives (comp. Isa 15:5); and the Chaldeans; or, even the Chaldeans. The Chaldeans are not in Isaiah, as in Daniel (Dan 2:2; Dan 4:7; Dan 5:7), a special class of Babylonians, but, as elsewhere commonly in Scripture, the Babylonians generally (see Isa 12:1-6 :19; Isa 47:1). In the native inscriptions the term is especially applied to the inhabitants of the tract upon the sea-coast. Whose cry is in the ships; rather, into their ships of wailing. The Chaldeans, flying from the Persian attack, betake themselves to their ships with cries of grief, the ships thereby becoming “ships of wailing.” The nautical character of the Babylonians is strongly marked in the inscriptions, where “the ships of Ur are celebrated at a very remote period, and the native kings, when hard pressed by the Assyrians, are constantly represented as going on ship-board, and crossing the Persian Gulf to Susiana, or to some of the islands. The abundant traffic and the numerous merchants of Babylon are mentioned by Ezekiel (Eze 17:4). AEsehylus, moreover, notes that the Babylonians of his day were “navigators of ships” (‘Persae,’ 11. 52-55).
Isa 43:15
The Creator of Israel. An unusual epithet; but comp. Isa 43:1, Isa 43:7. Your King (see Jdg 8:23; 1Sa 8:7; 1Sa 12:12; and comp. Isa 33:22; Isa 45:6).
Isa 43:16
The Lord, which maketh a way in the sea. The deliverance out of Egypt is glanced at, to prepare the way for the announcement of deliverance from the hand of Babylon. Then “a way was made in the sea” (Exo 14:21-29), “and a path in the mighty waters;” now it will be necessary to make “a way in the wilderness” (Isa 43:19).
Isa 43:17
Which bringeth forth the chariot and horse. Still the reference is to the events of the Exodus, whereof Israel is reminded, since “the redemption out of Egypt was a type and pledge of the deliverance to be looked for out of Babylon” (Delitzsch). God then “brought out” after Israel, to attack him, “chariot and horse, army and power;” but the result was their destruction. They shall lie down they shall not rise; rather, they lie down they do not rise (so Cheyne and Delitzsch). The future has here, as so often, the force of a present, the present being the praesens historicum. What the prophet describes in a few touches is the complete overthrow of Pharaoh’s host in the Red Sea, and the entire extinction of that life which had just before shown itself as “lusty and strong.” Quenched as tow (comp. Isa 42:3). The metaphor is not drawn from burning tow, which is not very readily extinguished, but from the wick of a lamp, which a single breath puts out.
Isa 43:18
Remember ye not the former things. The old deliverance will be as nothing compared with the new. Israel must cast its eye forwards, not backwards. Mr. Cheyne well compares Jer 23:7, Jer 23:8, and also well notes that “the chief glories of the second manifestation are spiritual.” Israel in the wilderness was a stiff:necked and rebellious people, given to murmuring, licentiousness, and idolatry. Israel, returned from Babylon, will no more hanker after idols, but will have God’s Law “put in their inward parts” (Jer 32:33), and will “show forth God’s praise” (Jer 23:21).
Isa 43:19
Behold, I will do a new thing (comp. Isa 42:9, with the comment). It is, of course, quite possible that the novelty is not merely in the circumstances of the deliverance, but extends to all its results, among which is the Messianic kingdomverily, a “new thing” (see Jer 31:22). Now it shall spring forth; rather, already it is springing up (comp. Isa 42:9). Things, however, are more advanced (to the prophet’s eye) than when that passage was written. Events are shaping themselvesthe deliverance approaches. Shall ye not know it? rather, will ye not give heed to it? Will not the exiled people, whom Isaiah addresses, turn their thoughts this way, and let the idea of deliverance take possession of their minds, instead of brooding on past and present sufferings (see Isa 40:30; Isa 41:17; Isa 42:22)? God is about to make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. As he led his people out of their Egyptian bondage, first through the Red Sea, and then through a “howling wilderness” (Deu 32:10), so now he will “make a way” for them through a still more desolate tract. We are nowhere historically told by what route the Israelites ultimately returned. If they went by Tadmor and Damascus, they must have traversed a most arid and difficult desert. Even if they did not quit the Euphrates till they reached the latitude of Aleppo, still they must have had some wide tracts of wilderness to cross.
Isa 43:20
The beast of the field shall honour me. The animal creation shall, participate in the benefits of the “new thing” introduced by the restoration of Israel, and in their dumb way shall show their gratitude. The dragons and the owls. The recent mention of the desert causes animals of the desert (Isa 13:21, Isa 13:22) to be taken as examples. (On the animals intended, see the comment on Isa 34:13.) If even the beasts of the desert honoured God, much more would the rest of the animal creation (comp. Isa 11:6-8).
Isa 43:21
This people have I formed for myself (see above, Isa 43:7, and comp. Pro 16:4). They shall show forth my praise; i.e. their restoration to their own land shall cause them to glorify me both with songs of praise (for the fulfilment, see Ezr 3:9-11; Neh 12:27; and the post-Captivity psalms), and also by a life in accordance with my laws.
Isa 43:22-28
A REPROACH ADDRESSED TO CAPTIVE ISRAEL FOR ITS PAST OMISSIONS AND SINS. The thought of Israel in the future, redeemed, restored, and “telling out God’s praise” (Isa 43:21), raises naturally the con-trusted thought of Israel in the present and the past, disobedient, full of shortcomings (Isa 43:22-24), too often guilty of overt acts of sin (Isa 43:24-28). While reproaching his people, and reminding them that the exile is the wellmented punishment of their past offences (Isa 43:27, Isa 43:28), God still promises them pardon if they will appeal to his covenant of mercy (Isa 43:25, Isa 43:26).
Isa 43:22
But thou hast not called upon me. The Jews had never been greatly given to prayer. They were a “practical” people, active, energetic, hard-working, busily employed in handicrafts, commerce, or agriculture. David and Daniel, who prayed three times a day (Psa 55:17; Dan 6:10), were probably exceptions to the general rule. At any rate, it appears here that in the exile the nation had neglected prayer. No doubt there was a nucleus of “faithful men,” who did as Daniel did. But with the mass it was otherwise. Hard toil occupied their time. Despair made dull their hearts. They looked for no alleviation of their lot, and lived on in a sort of apathy. But thou hast been weary of me; rather, for thou hast wearied of me. Thou hast left off praying, because thou wast weary of my service.
Isa 43:23
Thou hast not brought me the small cattle of thy burnt offerings. If this reproach is regarded as addressed to captive Israel, who could not offer sacrifices, we must explain it by the analogy of the expression, “the calves of your lips” (Hos 14:2). All prayer may be regarded as a sort of offering, and withholding it as withholding sacrifice. But it is possible that the prophet is not addressing captive Israel only, but carrying his thoughts back to the period preceding the Captivity, when there was a general neglect of God’s service, and for a time the temple was given up to idol-worship (2Ki 21:3-7; 2Ki 23:4-14). The glance back at earlier times is apparent in Isa 43:27, Isa 43:28. I have not caused thee to serve with an offering, etc.; rather, I put no heavy service on thee in respect of meat offering, neither made I thee to toil in respect of incense; i.e. “my positive requirements have been lightsurely thou shouldst have complied with them.” Meat offerings were to accompany every sacrifice, but were a small burthen. Incense was not required from any private person.
Isa 43:24
Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money. “Sweet cane” is mentioned in the Law only in connection with the “holy anointing oil” (Exo 30:23). But the present passage raises a suspicion that it was practically used in the burnt offerings of private persons (see the next clause). That it was anciently used in Babylonia in sacrifice, appears from the Deluge Tablets. But thou hast made me to serve with thy sins. “The sins of Israel,” as Delitzsch observes, “pressed upon Jehovah, as a burthen does upon a servant.” This is a part of the fundamental idea running through the third part of Isaiah, closely connected with the mediatorial office of the “Servant of the Lord,” who “bare the sin of many” (Isa 53:12), and on whom “the Lord laid the iniquity of us all” (Isa 53:6). Israel, both during the Captivity and before, had accumulated a heavy load of sin, not merely by negligence, but by overt acts of guilt (see Isa 1:4, Isa 1:15, Isa 1:21-23, etc.).
Isa 43:25
I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions (comp. Psa 51:1, Psa 51:9). The idea is based on that of sins being “noted in a book” (Psa 56:8; Rev 20:12). For mine own sake; i.e. purely from the love that I bare thee.
Isa 43:26
Put me in remembrance. Either, ironically, “Remind me of thy good deeds; plead thy cause with me on that ground; show the merits that justify thee;” or else seriously, “Remind me of my promises; plead them before me; declare them, that by my free grace I may justify thee.” The latter is the more probable interpretation.
Isa 43:27
Thy first father hath sinned; rather, thy first father sinned; that is, “Thou hast no merits of thy own. Even thy first father, Abraham, sinned (Gen 12:13, Gen 12:18; Gen 17:17; Gen 20:2); and thy teachers have transgressed. Thy very priests and prophets have been full of imperfectionshave often sinned against me. Much more hast thou, my people generally, committed grievous offences. Thou must therefore throw thyself on my mercy.”
Isa 43:28
Therefore I have profaned the princes of the sanctuary. The “princes of the sanctuary” (literally, “princes of holiness”) are the principal members of the priesthood, who were carried into captivity with the rest of the people (2Ki 25:18), and deprived of their functions, as a part of the punishment due to Israel for its sins. Israel itself was at the same time given to the curse of a severe bondage and to the reproaches of the neighboring nation.
HOMILETICS
Isa 43:7
Man made for the glory of God.
The great end of all creation is God’s glory. Not that this is to be understood in such sort as that God was moved to create by the desire of getting glory thereby, for nothing could enlarge or enhance that glory which he had from all eternity, before even the angels were brought into being. The motive of God’s external working, if we may use the expression, was his goriness, or benevolence, which caused him to seek to communicate his own blessedness and happiness to others. But the law of his working was the exhibition of his glory. He so created all things that they should set this forth. From the lowest atom of dead inert matter, possessed of no qualities but substance and extension, to the highest crewed intelligence, endued with almost Divine attributes, every thing, as it issued from his hand, was so made as to show forth and proclaim his glorious and unapproachable majesty, power, and greatness. Hence the outburst of the psalmist, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork. One day telleth another, and one night certifieth another” (Psa 19:1, Psa 19:2). Hence the call upon all things to “Praise the Lord, since his Name only is excellent, and his glory above heaven and earth” (Psa 148:13). Hence the cry of the four and twenty elders in the heavenly place, “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created’ (Rev 4:11). God’s glory rosy he set forth
(1) unconsciously, or
(2) consciously-unconsciously,
as it is by the things that are devoid of intelligence,” sun, and moon, and stars of light, heavens, and waters above the heavens, earth, sea, fire, hail, snow and vapours, stormy wind, mountains, hills, fruitful trees, cedars, beasts, and all cattle, creeping things, and flying fowl” (Psa 148:3-10); consciously, as by the host of heaven, the angels of all grades (Psa 148:2), and also by the children of men”young men and maidens, old men and children, kings of the earth and all people, princes and all judges of the earth “(Psa 148:10, Psa 148:12). For the better setting forth of his glory, God “created man in his own image” (Gen 1:27)”created him, formed him, perfected him” (Isa 43:7). Then, when he had marred the image in which he was made, God redeemed him. Thus he is still able to set forth God’s glory, and to do so is the end of his being. “Whether ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do,” says the apostle, “do all to the glory of God” (1Co 10:31); and again, “Ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1Co 6:20).
Isa 43:8-11
Witnesses for God and against him.
On the side of God, witnesses for him, assertors of his existence, his unity, his omnipotence, his providential direction of human affairs, are
II. HIS CHURCH IN ALL AGES, WHETHER JEWISH OR CHRISTIAN.
1. It was the object of God, in calling the Israelites and tasking them his “peculiar people,” to secure the result that he should not be “left without witness” (Act 14:17). Monotheists from the first, the children of Israel stood up for ages a light in a dark world, giving a clear and unmistakable testimony for God, asserting him to be One, intelligent, possessed of will, the Creator of the world and of man, omnipotent, omniscient. “This august doctrine began with them; and they have been its witnesses and confessors, even to torture and death’. From the time of the old empire in Egypt to the present day, a uniform consistent witness has been borne by all orthodox Jews to these great and fundamental truths, the necessary bases of all true religion, the only safeguards for the continuance among men of law, order, or morality.
2. The Christian Church is at one on all these points with the Jewish Church, and bears the same testimony for God, only with additions to it. Christianity teaches that within the Unity of the Divine Substance there is a Trinity of Persons. Christianity maintains that the most essential attribute of the Divinity is love (1Jn 4:8, 1Jn 4:16). Christianity has much to tell of the Second and Third Persons of the Trinity, of which Judaism knows nothing. Thus, at the present day, it forms a second witness for God, and gives a wider, fuller, and deeper testimony.
II. THE LORD CHRIST HIMSELF. “Ye are my witnesses, and my Servant whom I have chosen“ (Isa 43:10). The Lord Jesus witnessed for God in many ways; and his utterances, placed on record by the evangelists, are testimonies of inestimable value, infallibly declaring to us the true nature of God. “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son” (Joh 3:16); “God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved” (Joh 3:17); “God is true” (Joh 3:33); “God is a Spirit” (Joh 4:24); “The Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them” (Joh 5:21); “If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him” (Joh 14:23); “Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my Name, he will give it you” (Joh 16:23). Or, to take another class of utterances, “God clotheth the grass of the field” (Mat 6:30); God “sendeth his rain on the just and on the unjust” (Mat 5:45); “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work” (Joh 5:17). The witness of the Son to the Father is far beyond the witness of men, and is inexpressibly touching, being pervaded by a spirit of such tender love and reverence as we shall vainly seek for elsewhere.
III. THE FATHER IN HIS OWN PERSON. In the present chapter of Isaiah, Jehovah, while citing as witnesses the Jewish Church, and his Servant, i.e. Christ (verse 10), goes on to bear his own testimony to his own greatness and unapproachableness. “I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am Jehovah; and beside me there is no Saviour Yea, before the day was, I am he; there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who shall reverse it?” (verses 10-13). And does not the Father bear the same testimony to himself in the soul of each of us.? Is the general recognition of something high and holy external to us, “making for righteousness,” anything but the Father speaking in us and bearing witness of himself in our heart of hearts? Has he not thus spoken always to all the teachable ones of his myriads upon myriads of human creatures, besides providing external testimony, making himself also an internal witness to his own Being?
Witnesses against God are, unfortunately, also many, as appears by the present passage. Among them may be mentioned
I. THE IDOLATROUS, OR IN ANY WAY IRRELIGIOUS, NATIONS AND PEOPLES. Idolatry is either a negation of God or an utter misrepresentation and degradation of him. Polytheism is in a certain sense atheism, since a “god,” limited and conditioned by a host of other gods, is in very truth no “God” at all. And the gods of idolaters had rarely such a character as enlightened Christians would willingly assign even to a low grade of angels. The “nations” of Isaiah’s time, and of later ages, “because they did not like to retain God in their knowledge,” had been given over by him to” a reprobate mind,” and had lost the power of forming in their minds the conception of a pure, holy, all-perfect, spiritual existence. When such a conception was presented to them, they ]’ejected it, preferring their own familiar ideas of gods more nearly on a level with themselves to so transcendental a Being.
II. THE SCEPTICAL THINKERS AND PHILOSOPHERS EVERYWHERE. At all times there have been “fools” who have “said in their hearts,” or even proclaimed to the world at large, “There is no God” (Psa 14:1). Democritus, as early as b.c. 440, and Leucippus still earlier, taught that the universe had come into being without the help of a God, by evolution from lifeless and shameless matter. Practical atheism was as ancient in China as the time of Confucius. Soi-disant philosophers have been in every age among the most forward to witness against the Being from whom they derive their whole power to speak, think, or act. In the present day, atheism, though still bold and blatant in some places, for the most part bates its breath, and modestly shrouds itself under the agnostic veil.
III. THE PRACTICALLY IRRELIGIOUS AMONG THE NOMINAL SERVANTS OF GOD. The witnesses against God whose testimony is most dishonouring to him, and at the same time most injurious to mankind, are the unworthy professors of belief in him. To confess God with the lips while denying him in the life, is to do him the greatest disservice that is possible. It is to cast a doubt upon the value of all the human testimony borne in his favour, since who shall say how much of it is insincere? It is to insult God by a mock acknowledgment, a lip-service, in which the heart has no part. It is to admit his claim to allegiance and to cast off our allegiance in the same breath. The Christian religion would, it is probable, have, long ere this, overspread the world, had it not been for the vicious lives of professing Christians. The testimony of their acts takes away all its force from the testimony of their words, and changes them from witnesses for God into most persuasive witnesses against him.
Isa 43:16-21
Three deliverances.
In the past, Israel had had one great and unparalleled deliverance, that, namely
I. FROM THE POWER OF EGYPT. With a “mighty hand and a stretched-out arm” God had saved them from the miserable fate of being bondservants, bound to task-work, and compelled to labour under the lash. He had effected their deliverance by a series of miracles, culminating in the death of the firstborn, and the passage of the Red Sea, whereby it might have been hoped that the nation would have been so impressed as to turn heartily to God, and become “a praise upon earth.” But the result had not followed. Even in the wilderness they had set up idols (Exo 32:1-20; Act 7:43). In the Holy Land they had gone from bad to worse, “walked in the statutes of the heathen; built them high places in all their cities, set them up images and groves, wrought wicked things to provoke the Lord to anger, hardened their hearts, followed vanity and become vain” (2Ki 17:8-15); “transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen, polluted the house of the Lord, mocked his messengers, and misused his prophets” (2Ch 36:14-16); “shed innocent blood, which the Lord would not pardon” (2Ki 24:4); and thus rendered their first deliverance of no avail, since it was an outward deliverance only from an earthly oppressor, and not an inward deliverance from the bondage of sin. Now Israel is promised in the future a second and a third deliverance
II. FROM THE OPPRESSION OF BABYLON. God will once more show forth his power, will chastise Babylon by the sword of Cyrus, will cause Cyrus to “perform all his pleasure” (Isa 44:28), will bring his people from the four winds of heaven (Isa 43:5, Isa 43:6) and plant them again in their own land (Isa 51:11). “The ransomed of the Lord will return, and come to Zion.” This deliverance is, so far, a sort of duplicate of the deliverance from Egypt, only that it is effected by new means, without miracle, by God’s ordinary and secret action on the course of human affairs.
III. FROM THE TYRANNY OF SIN. The second deliverance is to lead on to the third. Israel, redeemed from Babylon, and replanted in its own laud, is to “show forth God’s praise” (Isa 43:21). The unimpressible people is to be, to a certain extent, impressed. In point of fact, after the return to Palestine idolatry disappeared. The pest-Captivity Jews were faithful to Jehovah. Though not free from certain minor sins (Ezr 9:1; Neh 13:1-25; Mal 1:7-14; Mal 2:8-17; Mal 3:8-15), they were never apostates. In the Maccabaean times large numbers showed a noble contempt for death, and were martyrs and confessors for the truth. When our Lord came, there was still a sound and healthy element in the nation. He was able to gather to himself a “little flock.” The “little flock” expanded, and became the nucleus of the Christian Church. This Church, holy by its calling, holy by its profession, holy by the sanctified lives of so many of its members, is but an enlargement of that early “flock.” Thus the final deliverancebegun here, but not to be completed till the consummation of all thingsis a deliverance from sin. The final “Israel of God” will be “a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing” (Eph 5:27).
Isa 43:22-28
The folly of self-justification before God.
Self-justification, addressed by man to God, is doubly foolish
I. AS HAVING NO BASIS IN TRUTH, AND THEREFORE EASILY CONFUTED. There is no fact more certain, whether we accept the statements of Scripture as authoritative, or pin our faith on our own observation and experience, than that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). Each man is conscious to himself of sin, and no one claims perfection for his neighbours. The greatest saints, both of the Old Testament and the New, have shortcomings, defects, fall into actual sins. One alone is depicted without sin, and he was more than man. Human biographies are in accord. No one, whatever his admiration for his hero, claims that he was perfect. All accept the notion that the best man is simply the one who has fewest faults.
II. As EXCLUDING MAN FROM THE ONLY JUSTIFICATION POSSIBLE TO HIM. God will not justify the self-righteous. He forgives those only who ask his forgiveness. Pride is a barrier which shuts men out from him, and places them on a par with the fallen angels, “to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness fee ever” (Jud Isa 1:13). God “justifies the sinner” (Rom 4:5), but only the sinner who confesses his sin and begs for pardon. If we “go about to establish our own righteousness, and do not submit ourselves to the righteousness of God,” we exclude ourselves from God’s covenant of salvation, which is made with the humble, the contrite, the self-abased, the penitent. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins” (1Jn 1:9).
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON
Isa 43:1-7
The love of Jehovah to Israel.
“But now.” The word itself hints yearning affection. There has been a conflict between Divine love and Divine wrath, and the former has gained the victory. In fact, the wrath of Jehovah was but grieved affection. Its force is now for the time spent. He will now deliver and protect, reassemble and restore his people (Cheyne).
I. IT IS THE LOVE OF A PARENT. “Thy Creator, O Jacob; he that formed thee, O Israel.” Of all the works of God, confessedly the noblest is man; and if man is only known as forming nations, these too are the works of God. And Israel especially is the embodied thought of God, in her laws and institutions, her place and mission in the world. Or, if we think of Israel as gradually fashioned, by schooling and by affliction, into a “new and singular product,” not less is she endeared to her Maker and Builder. We cannot but love our children; and scarcely less dear to us are the children of our brain and of our heartour schemes, our books; the house whose structure we have planned, whose arrangements have been made after ideas of our own; the flock we have overseen; the little body of disciples or friends whom we have made an organization for the diffusion of our views of life. That delight we feel in the reflected image of our mind in what is not ourself, we transfer by analogy to God.
II. IT IS THE LOVE OF A REDEEMER. And this implies sacrifice, love proved by expense of some sort. The tense gives a reference to history and to prophecypast and future. No price can be too high for the ransom of Israel: other nations will be given upEgypt, Ethiopia, and Sebafor her. Cambyses, son of Cyrus, conquered Egypt and invaded Ethiopia. The Persian was destined to set free the chosen People; and those other peoples given into his hand as compensation are the ransom price for delivered Israel. If the “wicked are a ransom for the righteous” (Pro 21:18), if the sufferings of the evil are in some way connected with the deliverance of the good,this helps to shed a consoling light upon many a dark page of human history. But not only the suffering of the evil may be thus viewedthe suffering of the good also, in the light of the great saying, “The Son of man came to give his life a ransom for many”for the greater or spiritual Israel in all ages.
III. IT IS AN APPROPRIATING, SPECIALIZING, HONOURING LOVE. TO “call by name” is an expressive phrase for selection and election. So was Bezaleel the artist called in connection with the tabernacle-work (Exo 31:2); so was Moses called by name (Exo 33:12, Exo 33:17) and designated for his work. It is to “find grace” in the eyes of God; it is to be precious and honourable in his sight. It is to be a “peculiar treasure” (Exo 19:5, Exo 19:6), a property of the Eternal”mine art thou.” We are led into the heart of the covenant-relation by these words. And every association of affection and good which has belonged in the thought of the world to the spiritual bond which knits soul to soul, may be used to illustrate Israel’s relation to her Godthat of child to parent, of client to patron, of confidential servant to lord, of soul to guardian spirit or angel, may be thought of in this connection. What is true of the nation must be true of its individuals; what holds good of the Church must be valid for the life of each Christian.
IV. IT IS AN ALL–PROTECTING LOVE. Israel shall go through water and through fire unhurt. No stronger figure could be used for safety amidst calamity (cf. Psa 66:12; Dan 3:17 :27). We may think of the salvation of Israel from the waves of the Red Sea, of the three children in the furnace at Babylon, of the ever-consuming yet never-consumed bush seen by Moses. These things are parables of the indestructibility of the spiritual life in mankind, and of the perfect integrity of the empire of souls, ruled by the redeeming God. From the east and the west and the north and the south, these scattered souls are to be gathered to their home. Impossible to limit such words to any temporal reference merely. The bounds of time fade away as we listen; and there rises before us the inspiring picture of the world as one vast scene of trial, of education, of an elect people to eternityin which many sons are being brought to glory, that glory the reflection of God upon their renewed spirits.J.
Isa 43:8-13
The great controversy.
The challenge of Isa 41:1-29. is renewed, and Jehovah’s claims are contrasted with those of the false gods.
I. ASSEMBLING OF THE NATIONS. Israel is first brought forth by the ministers of justice. The people were once blind and deaf, but now are in possession of their faculties. And then, over against this small company of the faithful, the vast host of the heathen appears. And the challenge is issuedWhat god of the nations can produce predictions such as those in Isa 41:1-7? If this can be done, let them name former thingsappeal to past events correctly foretold, and establish this by testimony. But the appeal is met by silence, by impotence. There are no witnesses forthcoming. And so once more idol-power is convicted and exposed as being “nothing in the world.”
II. THE WITNESS TO JEHOVAH Israel is now called upon. She has known again and again the power of Jehovah to foresee and foretell the future. Let their faith, then, be wholly given to hima faith founded on evidence, a faith rooted in intelligence. This faith cleaves to Jehovah as the Eternal. He is both before and after all created things. These idols have been the objects of an illusory worshipformed and fashioned things. Their power breaks with the decay of the nations of whom they have been the imagined patrons. In the hour of adversity they have seemed, like Baal, asleep or gone on a journeyhave lifted no arm to save. Jehovah remains the sole able God, the exclusive Deliverer. No “stranger,” no foreign God had power for good or evil in Israel. To this test of ability to meet the wants of the times, true and false religions must ultimately be brought. The doctrine or the institution which visibly is saving men from evil, emancipating them from bondage to vice, must have a Divine element in it. And Christianity seems to need no other apology than the witness of what it has done and is doing to purify, save, and bless mankind.
III. His IRREVERSIBLE WORK. “I work, and who can turn it back?” Messengers of his vengeance have been sent to Babylonia, and all the mixed multitude will be brought down into their proud ships, hopelessly overwhelmed. The great deliverance from Egypteternally monumental of Jehovah’s power to delivershall itself be surpassed by the coming deliverance of Israel from the recesses of the earth. It is seen already “shooting forth,” and a blissful picture of the future, peaceful, abundant, victorious over savagery, closes the representation.
1. God is Eternal.
2. He is unchangeably the same. And this is the sure foundation of the security of his people. None can trust a fickle and a vacillating being.
3. He can deliver his people from all enemies, amidst every variety of circumstances.
4. Nonewhether man, demon, or godcan resist him. Opposition to him is both wicked and vain. The condition of happiness is to comply with his plans, and become servants in the furtherance of his designs.J.
Isa 43:22-28
Memories of exile.
I. THE FAITHLESSNESS OF THE PEOPLE. They have forgotten the covenant of their God. They have neglected one of its first dutiesprayer, which marks dependence; or they had prayed to other gods; or their prayers had been merely ritual and formal. And this was the less excusable as the burden of sacrifices had not laid upon them during the exile.
II. THE MINDFUL MERCY OF JEHOVAH. He promises to blot out their sins; and this simply for his own sake. God can swear by none mightier; he can appeal to no principle that is higher than himself. He must be true first and above all to his nature; and next to that covenant which is the expression of his nature and of his relations to the people. Let them remember that; let them remind God of his promises, and he will not fail to respond. Although their ancestors had sinned; their leaders, the prophets and the priests and the princes, had rebelled against him, and had by him been rejected;the people are still dear to him, and must remain so while Jehovah remains Jehovah. For he is the Eternal; he changes not. Though he punishes, he will not destroy; in the midst of wrath he remembers mercy; and holds fast to the set counsels of his love, from generation to generation, despite all the fickleness of man’s fancies, opinions, and inclinations. Their endeavours to overcome his good by their evil shall be met by his mightier will to overcome their evil by his long-suffering.J.
HOMILIES BY W.M. STATHAM
Isa 43:2
God, in trouble.
“When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee: and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee.” When. Then it is certain that such experiences will come. It is only a question of time. Tribulation is common to all the children. “The same sufferings,” says the apostle, “are accomplished in your brethren which are in the world.” When? We do not always know when the desolating floods of life are coming, but presently they will rise to our breast and to our throatdeep waters.
I. TRIBULATION DOES NOT DESTROY PROGRESS. We pass through these waters; they are part of the way in which the Lord our God is leading us. “Ever onward” is our motto. We are “a day’s march nearer home,” even in the days of desolation and distress. We need not hope to escape the waters. No detour will take us out of the way of the floods.
II. TRIBULATION BRINGS CHRIST NEAR. “I will be with thee.” A brief sentence. But it is enough. We have but to study the little word “I” It speaks of One who has all power in heaven and in earth; One who is human and Divine. A presencethat is what we want. Theologians talk of a “real presence.” How can a presence be unreal? We do not talk of real sunlight, or real bread, or real air! This is the presence of One who understands all, and whose infinite pity accompanies the infinite peace.
III. TRIBULATION DOES NOT DESTROY. “The rivers, they shall not overflow thee.” It is life the Saviour seeks for us, not death. Neither faith nor hope shall be destroyed. And if these waterfloods be deathwhich they are so often taken to meanthen they do not destroy. No; we pass through them to the laud beyond.W.M.S.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON
Isa 43:1
The supreme claim and the sure stay.
So far from having nothing to do with us as individual spirits, we may say that God has everything to do with us. On the one hand, he makes a very great claim upon us; and on the other hand, he holds out very great hopes to us.
I. THE SUPREME CLAIM. To every human soul, as to Israel of old, God says, “Thou art mine.” He requires of us that we shall consider ourselves as belonging to him; so that he may employ us in his service, may direct our will, may command our affection, may control our life. God does not claim to own us in the sense of being at liberty to act arbitrarily and capriciously towards us, but in the sense of being free to rule our souls and fashion our lives according to the dictates of righteousness and wisdom. His claim rests on his fourfold relation to us.
1. His creation of our spirits. “The Lord that created thee” (Isa 43:1; and see Isa 43:7, Isa 43:15). If we could make an estimate of our comparative obligations, how much should we consider that we owed to him that brought us out of nothing into being, that made us living souls, that endowed us with all the immeasurable capacities that are enfolded in an immortal spirit? How large a claim has God upon our thoughts, our gratitude, our service, in virtue of the fact that to his creative power we owe it that we are?
2. His shaping of our life. God has “formed us.” He who formed Israel by all his providential dealings with that nation from the beginning is the God who has built up our life (see Heb 3:4). Our human relationships, our bodily health and strength, out’ circumstances of comfort and joy, our mental strength and acquirements,all this is the product of that shaping hand which “forms” the destinies of men as it gives figure to the foliage, arrests the tide, or determines the courses of the stars.
3. His redemption of our soul. “I have redeemed thee.” God might well claim to be Israel’s Redeemer, for he had mercifully and mightily interposed on its behalf. But with how much greater reason may he claim to be our Redeemer! How much greater is that “great salvation” by which he “saves his people from their sin,” than that deliverance by which he rescued a people from political bondage or military disaster! The surpassing strength of this claim upon us is seen
(1) in that it is a redemption from the very worst spiritual evils to spiritual power and freedom; and
(2) in that it was wrought at such a priceless cost (1Pe 1:18, 1Pe 1:19).
4. His personal interest in every one of us. “I have called thee by thy name.” The distinct and especial interest which Jehovah took in Israel has its counterpart in the individual interest he takes in each one of his children. Christ has led us to feel that he follows the course of every human spirit with a parental yearning, with a Saviour’s restorative purpose and hope. He calls us by our name. To each wandering, backsliding soul he is saying, “Return unto me.” To each striving, inquiring spirit he is saying, “Be of good cheer; I will help thee.” To each faithful workman he is saying, “Toil on; I will come with a recompense” (Isa 35:4).
II. THE SURE STAY. “Fear not.” There are many comforters who approach us and whisper these two words in our ear. Some of these are delusive, and others are imperfect and ineffectual. It may be an ill-grounded complacency, or it may be favourable surroundings, or it may be-human friendship; but the house of our hope, thus built upon the sand, may fall at any hour. If we would build our confidence upon the rock, we must rest on the promised stay of a reconciled heavenly Father, on the assured aid of an Almighty Friend, on the certain succour of a Divine Comforter. Having returned unto the living God, resting and abiding in Jesus Christ, we may go forth to any future, however threatening it may be; for One is present with us in whose company we may gladly enter the darkest shadows. And if we listen we may hear a voice, whose tones we may trust in the wildest storm, saying, “Fear not: for I have redeemed thee.”C.
Isa 43:2
Succor in sorrow.
It is bad indeed for us when our best friends become our worst enemies. Fire and water are two of our best friends so long as we have them under control: they warm, cleanse, nourish, fertilize, convey. But when they gain the mastery’ over us they overturn and. consume, they injure and destroy both property and life; they thus become striking illustrations as well as fruitful sources of trial and distress.
I. THE GREATER AFFLICTIONS OF HUMAN LIFE. The terms of the text point to the larger rather than the lesser troubles through which we pass; though even the vexations and annoyances to which we are daily subject are experiences in which we need to summon our higher principles if we would act rightly and live acceptably to God our Saviour. But it is the sterner sorrows, the more serious calamities, which most imperatively demand all the resources at our command. We pass through the waters, we walk through the fire:
1. When heavy losses reduce our possessions and make us face narrowness of means, hard toil, or dependence on the charity of men.
2. When grievous disappointment overtakes us, extinguishing the bright hopes by which our path had been lighted and our hearts had been animated and sustained.
3. When sickness assails us, and our strength fails, and we lie long on the couch of helplessness or pain.
4. When bereavement throws its dark shadow on our homeward way.
5. When the failure of those from whom we looked for good or even great things sends a pang through our soul.
II. THE TRUE REFUGE OF THE SORROWFUL. “God is our Refuge a very present Help in trouble.” He is “the Lord our God our Saviour.” We may count on:
1. His sympathizing presence. “I will be with thee.” Our Divine Friend will be with us, so that we shall be able to feel that he is looking upon us with tender and pitiful regard.
2. His limiting power. The rivers may rise high, but they shall “not overflow” the man whom God is befriending. His hand is on the adverse forces which oppress us, and there is a mark beyond which he will see that they do not come.
3. His sustaining grace. The fire may rage around his children, but such will be the resisting strength within that they “will not be burned.” Their faith and love will not fail; they will triumph, in spirit, over the worst distresses.
III. THE CONDITIONS WHICH GOD REQUIRES. It is not every man, however he may stand with the Supreme, who may confidently count on this Divine succour. There must be:
1. Acceptance with God. God must be our God; Jesus Christ our Saviour; his service our portion. God makes no such promise as this to those who stand stubbornly aloof in waywardness or rebelliousness of spirit. It is his children who have a place of refuge (Pro 14:26). There must be also:
2. Submission of heart to his will.
3. Appeal for his help. “Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver thee,” etc. (Psa 50:15).C.
Isa 43:3-7
The goodness of God to man.
The abounding grace of God to the children of men is brought out very strikingly here. It is seen in
I. THE HIGH PURPOSE FOR WHICH HE CREATES US. “I have created him for my glory.” There is no end so lofty in itself and so elevating in its influence for which God could have made mankind as this. It is for this, primarily, that the very highest intelligences in the heavenly spheres have their being.
II. THE PROFOUND INTEREST HE TAKES IN US. “Thou wast precious in my sight I have loved thee.” God regards the children of men (Psa 33:13, Psa 33:14). He attends to their requests, and meets their wants (Psa 145:15, Psa 145:19). He pities them in their griefs (Psa 103:8). He yearns over them with parental love (see Isa 31:1-9 :20; 2Pe 3:9). He disciplines them with parental solicitude (Heb 12:5-11).
III. THE HONOUR WHICH HE CONFERS UPON US. “Thou hast been honourable.” In Christ Jesus we are honoured in many ways. We are “made priests and kings unto God.” What manner of honour as well as of love the Father hath shown us, that we should be called the sons of God; and that we should also be made his heirs, and also “labourers together with him” (1Co 3:9)!
IV. THE SACRIFICIAL MEANS HE EMPLOYS ON OUR BEHALF. “I gave Egypt for thy ransom I will give men for thee.” That which is of immeasurably greater value than gold or silver, than property of any kindmen, human lives, God would give for Israel. For us he has given that which is of far greater account than any nation or any multitude of menhis own well-beloved Son: “God so loved the world,” etc.; “He spared not his own Son;” “He gave himself” for us.
V. HIS PURPOSE TO GATHER HIS CHILDREN TOGETHER to one place of rest and joy (Isa 43:5, Isa 43:6).C.
Isa 43:10
The witness of God’s servants.
“Ye are my witnesses.” God summoned his people Israel to bear witness to him; he challenged them to come forward and testify that
(1) in the absence of any possible power that could have performed it (Isa 43:12),
(2) he had foretold things which were far in the future; and
(3) he had wrought signal and splendid deliverances on their behalf,he had “saved” as well as declared (Isa 43:12). Thus they were in a position to maintain that
(4) he was the One living God on whom the wise would depend for guidance and redemption (Isa 43:10, Isa 43:11). His charge to his Church is similar. God demands that we shall bear witness to him and to his gospel of grace. To this end are we born, and for this cause came we into the world, that we should “bear witness unto the truth.” Concerning this testimony, we are left in no doubt as to
I. THOSE WHO ARE TO BEAR IT. We know who they are to whom God says,” Ye are,” etc. They are those who have themselves returned unto him in true penitence and faith. All others are unsuited by their character and their spirit (see Psa 50:16; Psa 51:12, Psa 51:13; Rom 2:21; Isa 52:11). Only they who are in sympathy with God and are living in accordance with his holy will are qualified to bear witness to his truth.
II. THE SUBSTANCE OF THEIR MESSAGE. The first and greatest thing which men need to know is the nature and character of God. For it is the relation which they maintain towards him that determines their own character and destiny. Apart from him they are separated from the source of all true blessedness, of all real life. In him and with him they are safe, wise, rich, for evermore. We have, therefore, to testify of him:
(1) of his unity (Isa 43:10);
(2) his holiness;
(3) his redeeming love (Isa 43:11). We have to bear witness
(4) to the unique efficacy of his salvation; that there is no Saviour beside him; that there is “no other Name by which we can be saved.” And also
(5) to the conditions under which alone this salvation can be secured. Like St. Paul, to Greek and Jew, to cultivated and uncultivated, to those who esteem themselves to be righteous and to those who know themselves to be sinners, we have to testify “repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.”
III. THE EXPERIENCE WHICH JUSTIFIES THEIR EVIDENCE. They have experienced that which amply warrants them in commending the gospel of the grace of God.
1. A profound sense of true deliverance. Their own consciousness makes it clear and positive that they have been rescued from the tyranny, the depravity, and the burden of sin, and led into the liberty, the purity, and the joy of sonship.
2. Peace and hope in regard to the future. God has revealed to them a home of rest and lovea future state where the highest and noblest aspirations of redeemed humanity will find fulfilment. In sure prospect of this they are in a position to speak freely in the presence of those who live without God and die without hope.C.
Isa 43:22-25
Righteousness, guilt, mercy.
We notice here
I. THE REASONABLENESS OF GOD‘S SERVICE. “I have not caused thee to serve with an offering, nor wearied thee with incense.” God’s service is not a servitude, a slavery; nor is it a burdensome task, hard and heavy to be borne. Under the Mosaic Law, special provision was made for the poor, so that the sacrifices asked of them should be within their reach (Le Isa 5:7; Isa 12:1-6 :8; Isa 14:21). Women and children were excepted from certain requirements, because of their sex or their years. Various exemptions were allowed in the spirit of considerateness. There was nothing hard, rigorous, ungracious, in the Law. Nor is there in the Divine demands now made upon us. God desiresindeed, he requires of usthat we should yield to him our thought, our remembrance, our worship,regular, willing, spiritual; our love, our filial affection; our obedience to his precepts; our submission to his will. But there is nothing arbitrary or capricious about this demand; it is only that which grows, naturally and even necessarily, out of the intimate relation in which God stands to us and we to him. What is there less than this that we could rightly render to our Creator, our Sustainer, our bountiful Benefactor, our Father, our Redeemer? And in everything God makes full allowance for all our weakness and incapacity. He expects of us according to that which he has entrusted to us. From those to whom much is given, much will be required, etc. (see 2Co 8:12). From the very rich God will look for the talents of gold; from the very poor, small pieces of copper; from the strong man, his strength; from the weak man, his weakness.
II. THE SERIOUSNESS AND THE HEINOUSNESS OF HUMAN SIN. The Divine complaint is against us all, that we have:
1. Withheld from him what is due to him. We have “not called upon” him; for we have been “weary of him.” We have not brought him even our smaller offerings; we have not honoured him, as we might and should have done, in his courts. And this shortcoming is only a small part of all our sin of omission. We have all failed to render him the glory due to his Name, the reverence and the affection due to himself, the obedience and the service due to his will and to his cause. It is also against many that they have:
2. Added aggravating offences to their shortcoming; “served him with sins,” “wearied him with iniquities.” Many have not only refused their worship, but they have flagrantly and heinously broken his commandments; have multiplied their iniquities, and made him to write down the most grievous and shameful transgressions in his book against them.
III. THE FULNESS AND FREENESS OF THE DIVINE MERCY. (Isa 43:25.) For his own sake, not compelled thereto by anything which they had done or should do, but impelled by his abounding and overflowing grace, he would “blot out their transgressions” from his book of remembrance. God’s pardoning love to us, revealed in the gospel:
1. Is large and free.
(1) He forgives the most flagrant offences.
(2) He receives those who have been longest in rebellion against his rule, and have most pertinaciously resisted his overtures.
(3) He takes back those whom he forgives into his full favour and treats them with unstinted kindness (Luk 15:1-32.).
2. Is granted of his own grace, and for the sake of his own Son our Savior.
3. Is conditional on our repentance and faith.C.
HOMILIES BY R. TUCK
Isa 43:1
Personal relations with God.
“Thou art mine.” In the East, to call a person by name is a mark of an individualizing tenderness. But so it is in all lands. Those who are in close personal relations with us we call by their Christian names; we even give them a new pet name; and they love that name, because it is a sign to them of the close connection in which they stand to us. God tried to keep this sense of personal relation ever before the people of Israel, and so to keep them assured of the living interest he had in all their concerns. Wherever they might be, and whatever might be their surroundings, this might give them perfect peacethey were his. And when Jesus Christ would make a great impression on his disciples of his personal regard for them, he said, “Henceforth I call you not servants but I have called you friends.“
1. Such relations are indeed involved in the fact that we are the creatures of God. “He made us, and not we ourselves.” He has the interest in us which we feelin measurein the work of our hands. He has great thoughts and purposes concerning us, and he is graciously concerned in their realization.
2. Such relations are further seen in his entering into covenant with a particular people. He drew them into a special intimacy; committed to them an unusual trust; made them depositaries, and by-and-by witnesses, of certain foundation-truths; and for generations guarded them while they guarded these truths. The closeness of relations between God and Israel is the basis of Hosea’s exquisitely tender pleadings, the dearest and nearest human relations, of husband and wife, of parent and child, being used to bring home God’s appeals (see Hos 2:1-23; etc.). We direct attention to the practical side of this subject. If we are the Lord’s, we
I. ENJOY HIS FRIENDSHIP. Illustrate from Abraham, the friend of God, El-Khalil; or from Enoch, who “walked with God.” To friendship is necessary:
1. Community of sentiment. “How can two walk together except they be agreed?”
2. Mutual trust. The grace unspeakable is that God should trust us. Our failure and sin is that we so half-heartedly trust him.
3. Frequent intercourse. Nothing blights friendship like separation. Keeping friendly means keeping together.
4. Jealousy of each other’s honour. Here we come short, sadly short, in our friendship with God.
II. RENDER HIM SERVICE. Friends love to serve one another. In this friendship with God we should not forget that we have to take a dependent place. His is a condescending friendship, and our response to it finds best expression in loving obedience. All hardness is taken out of service when it is the expression of such near and loving relations as those unto which God has brought us.R.T.
Isa 43:2
Safety for the soul in times of trouble.
The first figure in this verse is a very familiar one; the second needs such explanations as are given by writers on Eastern customs. It seems that the setting of the grass and undergrowth on fire, in the East, was commonly practised to annoy enemies, and it sometimes occasioned great terror and distress. Hawkesworth relates that the wild inhabitants of New South Wales endeavoured to destroy some tents and stores belonging to Captain Cook’s ship, when he was repairing it, by setting fire to the long grass of that country. This passage has been treasured up by suffering people in all ages, as a hymn is treasured which has suggestive figures (e.g. “Rock of ages, cleft for me”). The strength, the almost extravagance, of the poetical figures, are found specially helpful in meditative moods. From this assurance we note three things.
I. GOD DOES NOT REMOVE OUR TROUBLES. If the providences bring round to us a “passing through the waters,” or a “walking through the fires,” special grace will not prevent us or change our allotment or our circumstances. Through the waters and the fires we have to go. There were such reasons for the captivity of Israel, that special grace would not interfere with the chastisement. St. Paul may pray to have his affliction removed, but the prayer could not be answered.
II. GOD ASSURES HIS PRESENCE IN THE TROUBLE. And it is easier to bear when two are under the load, and One has “everlasting strength.” God’s presence in the fires may be illustrated by the fourth form which stood beside the Hebrew youths in the fiery furnace. God’s presence in the waters, by the following incident. When the steamship Massachusetts was wrecked in Long Island Sound, there were two mothers, each with a child, who were noticeable for their respectful calmness during the hours of greatest peril and anxiety, when it seemed as if the vessel must shortly go to pieces. A passenger from Philadelphia says that his attention was first called to them by their voices in singing. Going towards them, he found a little boy standing there with his life-preserver on, and the little fellow was just joining with his mother in singing a hymn of trust and confidence. And when rescue came, and the passengers were safely on another vessel, those same sweet voices were again heard, this time in a ringing strain of praise for their deliverance.
III. GOD KEEPS THE TROUBLE WITHIN CAREFUL LIMITATIONS. His concern is about those who have to suffer, not about the trouble, or the circumstances that make the trouble. It may reach our circumstances; it may even reach our bodies; but God says, “No further.” Job was ruined; Job was diseased; but God’s hedge was round Job himself, and nobody and nothing could touch him. Waters nor fires can ever reach us, to injure or destroy the life in us which God has quickened.R.T.
Isa 43:3
God the Savior.
“I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour.” As we know God, he is a Triune BeingFather, Son, and Holy Ghost; and Scripture traces the whole work of salvation to God thus apprehended. Salvation is not the work of one Person of the Trinity, but the work of the whole personality of God. This is the truth which may be unfolded from the expression in this text.
I. SALVATION IS THE WORK OF THE DIVINE TRINITY. This is variously taught in Holy Scripture, but the most complete and precise expression of the truth may be found in Tit 3:4-6, which Conybeare and Howson render thus: “But when God our Saviour made manifest his kindness and love of men, he saved us, not through the works of righteousness which we had done, but according to his own mercy, by the laver of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, which he richly poured forth upon us, by Jesus Christ our Saviour.” The love of God appeared. The regenerations and renewings are by the Holy Spirit. And that Divine Spirit is shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ. God is our Saviour. Jesus Christ is our Saviour. The Holy Ghost is our Saviour. And yet we have not three Saviours, but one Saviour. Young Christians, in the earlier stages of religious apprehension, are wont to grasp firmly the one truthJesus is the Saviour. Many Christian people grow old in experience without coming to realize that this is a central truth, which has another truth on each side of it. On one side this truthGod is. the Saviour. On the other sidethe Holy Ghost is the Saviour. Jesus Christ is declared to be God “manifest in the flesh;” God the Father manifest, so that we may apprehend him; and God the Holy Ghost manifest, so that we may realize his gracious inworkings. We know God the Father and God the Holy Ghost through Christ, the manifested Son. Such enlarging of our thought to embrace the full Divine agency in our redemption involves no kind of dishonour to the Lord Jesus. In his part and sphere he is the only One, the only “Name.” As the Manifester and Mediator, he stands alone. His sphere is manes earthly life; he is God with us. He shares our humanity; bears a human name; lives through a human, lot; perfects an obedience in the flesh; endures the final testing of a painful and ignominious human death; and in his redemptive work in the human spheres he has none to share with him. When we speak of separate Persons in the Divine Trinity, we must apprehend the most absolute unity of purpose in them; and the differences of operation which we can trace are simply gracious modes of reaching men so as to be a perfect redemptive power on them. The Father-God, in his Divine fatherly love, initiates the redemptive purpose, and forms, in his infinite wisdom, the redemptive plan. God the Son executes that part of the Divine plan which required manifestation in man’s earthly spherein the sphere of the senses. God the Spirit is entrusted with that part of the Divine plan which concerned man’s inward statethe renewal of his mind and feeling and will.
II. THE ONE FOUNTAIN AND SOURCE OF OUR SALVATION, WHATEVER ITS FORM OR ITS AGENCY MAY BE, IS THE DIVINE LOVE. “We are saved by grace.” We too often speak of the “mercy” of God, as if it were only an attribute belonging to him. Nay, it is far better than an attributeit is God: “God is love.” But when that love gains expression in man’s sphere, so that we may apprehend it, we find it is working out a marvellous purpose, even the full redemption of a sinful race; and we see it in the blessed life of the redeeming Son and in the inward grace of the renewing Spirit. But all is of God. All is of free, sovereign, unbought, unconstrained, unmerited love. He saved us. He sent the Son. He sheds the Spirit. It is our Father in heaven whose fatherly love pitied us, yearned for us, and found the gracious ways in which to bring the prodigals home, and to make the prodigals sons again. It is the “grace of God that bringeth salvation.” We may have laid hold of the truth that Christ for us is the Gift of grace. It may be that we need to gain firm hold of that other and answering truth, that the Holy Ghost in us is the Provision of grace. We want more than the doctrine concerning these high things. We want a living impression, which gives to them practical and persuasive power on our hearts. When we can really feel that our salvation is throughout, from beginning to ending, from predestination to calling, from calling to justification, from justification to sanctification, and right through to glorification, wholly of grace, then the last lingering confidence in our own doings will pass right away, and we shall rejoice altogether in “God our Saviour.”R.T.
Isa 43:14
God the Redeemer.
Proof of the existence of God is not the proper subject of a revelation made to man in a book. The being of God is assumed by making a revelation in a book. The proper subject of a book-revelation is not God creating. That we might learn from the things created. Not God providing. That we could sufficiently understand by due observation of life. Not God ruling. That would be impressed upon us with ever-increasing force by the history of the ages as they accumulated. The great subject of a book revelation must be God redeeming. That we could not learn from the perfect order of creation. That we could not reach by the keenest observations of his providence. That is not traced upon human history save as the deeper, hidden lines which we need some key to decipher. With that our Scriptures are full. That must be told in human language, and shown in human signs. No researches of science will declare it; no natural relations of men involve it; no creature is commissioned to show it forth. No inquiry of the human mind can reach it. God the Redeemer. This is the unknown mysteryunknown till God himself declares it. Too glorious to be received by men until it is seen proved over and over again, and at last gets its most melting display in that cross whereon God’s beloved Son dies in agony, for the glorifying for ever of the redeeming love of God. The Scriptures may have side information on matters of creation, providence, science, government, and duty; but these are not its great message. Creation is God’s first work; redemption is his second and greater, called for by the world’s confusion and man’s moral ruin. That second thought God could tell to man in no other way than by words; only words could reveal the deep fact of the pitying love of God, which the heart, not the head, of man alone can grasp. The heart wants to be spoken to with human words.
I. REDEMPTION IS GOD‘S CONSTANT WORK. Our Bible is full of it. It is the prominent thing on every page. Clouds of curse and woe hang heavy over the very first page of human history. The darkness of Divine indignations drops down on man and woman and tempting serpent. But right across the great thunder-clouds God threw a brilliant rainbow of promise. In symbol it said, “Redemption is coming.” In words it read thus: “The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head.” Abraham stands forth the head of a new race. Behold a man redeemed from Chaldean idolatries, redeemed unto God. A mystery hangs round the second patriarch, Isaac. Behold a sacrifice redeemed by God, through the substitution of the ram caught in the thicket! Jacob reads his life, and sees everywhere the “angel who redeemed him from all evil.” The national life of the Jewish people started in a glorious redemption, which was to be remembered for ever as giving the first and foundation-truth concerning God. A mighty host fled hurriedly forth from Egypt, and found themselves hemmed in by lofty hill-ranges, a flowing sea, and foes pressing hard upon their rear. But there is a pathway through the mighty waters, and the delivered sing of God their Salvation. Redemption is a constant theme in the Mosaic system. The story of the wanderings is a series of illustrations of redeeming grace. God was ever delivering in the time of the Judges. David was redeemed from Saul, Asa from the Ethiopians, Hezekiah from the Assyrians, The saints from all the ages unite to say, “I know that my Redeemer liveth.”
II. ALL GOD‘S REDEMPTIONS DISPLAY HIS POWER, HIS HOLINESS, AND HIS LOVE. If they did not, they could be no redemption for us. If there is not Divine power in them, then he cannot reach our case. If but one of those redemptions start a question of the Divine righteousness, then we can have no confidence in the worthiness of his scheme to rescue us in Christ. We cannot be satisfied with Christ’s salvation unless it is perfectly plain that in his work “justice and mercy have met together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other.” And if the redemption do not take such a shape as shall display a “love Divine, all love excelling,” then our hard cold hearts will never be melted and won. But all these are fully seen in that great redemption wrought by Christ. His is a mighty salvation. The perfect obedience unto death of the beloved Son seals for ever the righteous Father’s claims. And as to love, what shall we say about love in sacrifice? “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends;” but “God commendeth his love toward us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Love! It drops from the overcharged heart in the agony of the garden. It drops from the thorn-crowned brow in the mock judgment-hall. It drops from nail-pierced hands on the cruel cross. It drops from the wounded side of him who “bore our sins in his own body on the tree.” O melting drops! Let them fall afresh on your heart and mine, and melt us into penitence and responsive love!R.T.
Isa 43:21
The true end of life.
This is illustrated, for us all, in the true end for which the Hebrew tribes were formed into a nation. They were organized in Egypt, delivered, trained in the wilderness, and settled in the land of Canaan for distinct purposes of God. They were formed into a nation “for himself,” to “show forth his praise.” St. Peter applies this view of the old Israel of God to the new Israel of God, the first Christian Church. “Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light” (1Pe 2:9). And the same view may be applied to every regenerate individual; he too is formed anew for God; in his new, regenerate life he is to show forth God’s praise. Taking illustration from the older and the newer Israel, we may impress the truth of the text in its relations to the individual. The following line of thought may be worked out.
I. Our life on earth is but a limited and dependent thing. It is but a passing time, an interlude.
II. Its beginnings were wholly out of our own control. Whence we came, why we came, we do not know.
III. Its endings are equally beyond our reach. Where we are going, and what we are to be, we know not.
IV. Even in the passing time, we are in the midst of mysteries which we cannot fathom; and. we fashion aims of our own which never satisfy us, even if we attain them.
V. It is evident that there is One who gave us being for his own purposes; who supports us through our interlude to show forth his praise; and who holds the final issues of our lives as the completion of his own all-wise plan.
Then this follows, and may be duly impressedit is folly indeed for any dependent man to live his brief life unto himself. It is wisdom indeed to know him who gave us being for his own purposes. And he has not left himself without witness concerning himself and concerning his will. His revelation convinces us that the true end of lifewhich is to honour our Makeris glorified by the apprehension of how good, how wise, how gracious our Maker is. That which is actually the chief end of life we come lovingly, thankfully, rejoicingly, to set before ourselves as our chief end.R.T.
Isa 43:22
Wearying of God’s worship.
This is quite a customary prophetical complaint. The idea seems to be that God noticed his people making a toil rather than a joy of his service. They kept it up, but it was evidently an irksome burden. We can understand that, during the Captivity, when removed from all the solemn associations of the temple-worship, it would be very burdensome to keep up family or public religion. Micah pleads thus, in God’s name: “O my people, what have I done unto thee? and wherein have “I wearied thee? testify against me” (Mic 6:3). And Malachi writes thus. Ye stud also, Behold, what a weariness is it! and ye have snuffed at it, saith the Lord of hosts; and ye brought that which was torn, and the lame, and the sick; thus ye brought an offering: should I accept this of your hand? saith the Lord” (Mal 1:13). Matthew Henry suggests the signs of the people being thus weary of God’s worship.
1. They had cast off prayer.
2. They had grown weary of their religion.
3. They grudged the expense of their devotion.
4. What sacrifices they did offer, they did not honour God with them.
5. Yet God made no unreasonable or burdensome commands upon them. The two points which may be illustrated and enforced, in direct relation to the religious life of our times, are these
I. MEN SOON WEARY OF GOD‘S WORSHIP WHEN THE HEART GOES OUT OF IT. The worship of human beings, enslaved by the senses, must be formal, ritual, ceremonialin greater or less degrees. And these are most valuable and helpful when they are, what they should be, expressions of the soul’s love and admiration and thankfulness. Worship is blessed if there is life in it, heart in it; if it says anything, if it means anything. As a round of formalities, it is but a “weariness.” It may be kept up, but only as an irksome task that must be done. So our interest in Divine worship may become a test of ourselves. If there is life in the soul there is sure to be joy in the worship.
II. THE HEART GOES OUT OF THE WORSHIP WHEN WE NEGLECT THE PRIVATE CULTIVATION OF THE REGENERATE LIFE. So often men think to make up by diligence in public religion for neglect and indifference in private religion. But it can never be done. The preparation for worship is private soul-cultivation. We must bring the worship with us, or we shall never find it in the Church. Revive personal piety, and the result will at once be revived interest in Divine worship. If men neglect the house of God, it will always be found that they have “left their first love.”R.T.
Isa 43:25
Forgiveness for God’s own sake.
“For mine own sake.” Human action is seldom taken on the persuasion of only one motive. We can hardly askWhat was your motive? We should askWhat were your motives? One, indeed, may seem to be bigger than the rest, and to have decided the course of conduct; but we are very imperfect readers of human nature if we rest satisfied with the easy statement that every act has a single reason, a supreme motive. We may venture to apply this to God. We cannot think of him as acting without motive. We may assume that he is influenced by various motives. But we may be sure that there is always the controlling motivehe will do that which is consistent with himself, that which upholds the honour of his own Name. He takes into account our prayers, and lets them be persuasions upon him; but behind all other impulses we must see this one ever constraining him”for his own Name’s sake.” In the text this is applied to the blotting out of transgressions. Forgiveness comes to us because the Divine righteousness wants exhibition, and the Divine love wants expression. It is uninfluenced by any cause in us, save as our persuasions are permitted to be secondary causes. The sovereignty of Divine forgiveness is constantly pressed upon us in Scripture; and the atonement is the mode in which it gains expression, rather than the agency by which it is secured. God is a forgiving God because he is. No more can be said about it. But we may fully enter into the joy of his forgiveness. Three things may be opened and illustrated.
I. FORGIVENESS AS A HOLY FEELING AND PURPOSE IN THE HEART OF GOD. The father holds forgiveness of the prodigal in his heart long before the son comes back.
II. THE EXPRESSION OF THE FORGIVENESS TO THOSE WHO HAVE SINNED. This is made in Scripture promises, and in the words and works of Christ.
III. THE APPREHENSION OF THE FORGIVENESS BY THOSE WHO NEED IT. This only can be known by the penitent. On the figure used in the text, which recalls the blotting out of a cloud from the sky, Maclaren says, “Sin is but the cloud, as it were, behind which the everlasting sun lies in all its power and warmth, unaffected by the cloud; and the light will yet strike, the light of his love will yet pierce through, with its merciful shafts, bringing healing in their beams, and dispersing all the pitchy darkness of man’s transgressions. And as the mists gather themselves up and roll away, dissipated by the heat of that sun in the upper sky, and reveal the fair earth below, so the love of Christ shines in, melting the mist and dissipating the fog, thinning it off in its thickest places, and at last piercing its way right through it, down to the heart of the man that has been lying beneath the oppression of this thick darkness.”R.T.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Isa 43:1. O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel Jacob and Israel are here to be understood mystically, of the true and spiritual Israel; for they are not all Israel who are of Israel, says the apostle, Rom 9:6. Vitringa thinks that the prophet here addresses the true believers of his own times; though there is no reason to confine the address, which may also refer to believers under the Gospel; for the consolation here offered unquestionably refers to the true Israelites of all times.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
IV.THE FOURTH DISCOURSE
Redemption or Salvation in its Entire Compass
Isa 43:1 to Isa 44:5
1. THE CHIEF INGREDIENTS OF REDEMPTION
Isa 43:1-8
1But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob,
And he that formed thee, O Israel,
Fear not: for I have redeemed thee,
I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.
2When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee;
And through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee:
When thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned;
Neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.
3For I am the Lord thy God,
The Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour:
I gave Egypt for thy ransom,
Ethiopia and Seba for thee.
4Since thou wast precious in my sight,
Thou hast been honorable, and I have loved thee:
Therefore will I give men for thee,
And people for thy 1life.
5Fear not: for I am with thee;
I will bring thy seed from the east,
And gather thee from the west;
6I will say to the north, Give up;
And to the south, Keep not back:
Bring my sons from far,
And my daughters from the ends of the earth;
7Even every one that is called by my name:
2For I have created him for my glory, I have formed him;
Yea, I have made him.
83Bring forth the blind people that have eyes,
And the deaf that have ears.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
See List for recurrence of the words: Isa 43:1. which occurs in reference to Israel again, Isa 43:7; Isa 43:15; Isa 65:18. see on Isa 41:14 see on Isa 41:25. Isa 43:2. , see Isa 42:25. Isa 43:3. . Isa 43:4. Niph.
Isa 43:1. On see on Isa 40:9. occurs only here.
Isa 43:3. In the causal clause, is subject, apposition with it, predicate. is also in apposition with , and is predicate. This construction is demanded partly for the sake of symmetry, partly the sense requires that in the first member be predicate. For just in the notion of divinity lies the notion of capacity to give protection and help.
Isa 43:4. , for which stands (Exo 19:18; Jer 44:23). occurs in this causal sense, only here. When the apodosis is formed with the Vav. cons. and the imperf., it intimates that the notion of giving is conceived of as only eventual: because thou art dear to me, so I would (if need be) give men (generally and in indefinite number) in thy stead, and nations (undetermined which and how many, in antithesis with the definite, Isa 43:3 b), for thy soul. Comp. Ewald, 136 sq.Thus Isa 43:4 b in relation to Isa 43:3 b contains an intensification.
Isa 43:6-7. It corresponds to the close connection between these two verses to construe Isa 43:7 formally as in apposition with Isa 43:6, whence we must reject the exposition of Hitzig and Hahn, who take as a statement put first absolutely. , that the participle merges into the verb. fin. happens according to the well known Heb. usus loq.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. Having spoken in chapters 41, 42 of the Deliverer (in the first and second stage) and of those delivered, the Prophet now deals with the Deliverance in its entire extent. In this discourse he gives first (Isa 43:1-8) a general view by enumerating the chief ingredients of the deliverance: it rests on the divine redemptive-decree (Isa 43:1); nothing shall prevent it (Isa 43:2); no price is too great for it; for the sake of it nations even would be sacrificed, which shows the value of Israel in the Lords eyes (Isa 43:3-4); it is to embrace all Israel, all the scattered members to be called in from all parts of the earth (Isa 43:5-7); but finally it is attached to a subjective condition, viz., spiritual receptivity (Isa 43:8).
2. But nowthy life.
Isa 43:1-4. With and now the Prophet turns from the troubled pictures of the future, presented at the close of the preceding chapter, to joyful and comforting outlooks. The Lord had created and formed (Isa 44:2; Isa 44:24; Isa 45:11 (Isa 49:5); Isa 64:7), Israel, in as much as he had caused them to grow up to a nation by means of their ancestors from Adam on successively. , as in Isa 40:26; Isa 45:3-4, signifies the more exact acquaintance. By reason of the fact that the Lord Himself made Israel and from the beginning prepared him as an instrument of His purposes, He calls to the nation living in exile, not to fear, for three things are determined: that Israel shall be delivered, be called to the Lord (comp. Isa 48:12) and belong to him alone. Thus the PerfectsI have redeemed theeI have called theeare praeterita prophetica, and the last three clauses contain an ascending climax. Israel must not suffer itself to be deceived about this promise. It is very possible that, even after receiving it, the nation may pass through great trialsthat, as it were, it must pass through waterseven there will the Lord be with it; that it must even pass through rivers (allusion to the Red Sea, Exodus 14, and the Jordan, Joshua 3)the streams will not overflow them. Fire itself will as little hurt them. The ground for this security is the same that prompts the call fear not. Jehovah, Israels God, is also Israels protector.
In what sense does Jehovah give other nations as a ransom for Israel?Hahn understands it to mean that other nations are given to destruction as satisfaction for the injustice done Israel. But why does Jehovah give to destruction, not the nations themselves that carried Israel into exile, but other nations? According to Knobels idea, Cyrus is conceived as having some claim on the Jews belonging to the Babylonish kingdom. For letting them go free, satisfaction is offered to him in new conquests in Egypt, Ethiopia, and Meroe. But the Persian kingdom did not lose the Jews as subjects. Palestine belonged to it, and those returning back to it belonged to it. The relation must be more exactly defined thus: the world-power, conceived of in a sense as a bird of prey, shall have offered to it Egypt, Ethiopia and Seba to devour, as indemnity for the mildness it has used to Israel contrary to its nature. It is true Cyrus did not himself make war on Egypt. What Xenophon says on this subject he characterizes as merely hearsay ( , Cyrop. VIII. 6, 20 coll. Isa 1:1; Isa 1:4). Herodotus relates that Cyrus only had a purpose of making war on Egypt ( , I. 153). The actual conquest of Egypt was made by Cambyses his son, who also at least attempted the conquest of Ethiopia (Herod. III. 25). It may be said of him, that in Egypt he made havoc in the brutal manner of a genuine world-power. Egypts being subjected to this was probably a nemesis for much that it had practised on other nations before, and especially also on Israel. According to Gen 10:6-7, Cush was the older brother of Mizraim, and Seba the oldest son of Cush. It cannot be doubted that the Prophet understood by Cush and Seba the lands that bounded Egypt on the south. By Cush, therefore, must certainly be understood African Ethiopia (Isa 11:11; Isa 18:1; Isa 20:3; Isa 37:9). Seba is Meroe, the city lying between the White and Blue Nile, which Herodotus calls the (II. 29). Comp. Stade,De vatt.Is. aeth. p. 13. Isaiah mentions the Sabeans in only one other place (Isa 45:14), and there as here after Egypt and Ethiopia. , properly covering then = expiation, ransom, indemnity, occurs only here in Isaiah. This statement that other nations shall be offered up as satisfaction for Israel, expresses the high value that Israel has in Gods eyes, and makes plain in what a glorious sense Jehovah calls Himself Israels God and Redeemer. He discharges this office with such consistency and energy that, if need be, He will give such great nations as those named in Isa 43:3, as the price of their deliverance. If it be asked, why He undertakes such an office? He replies: because Israel is precious in my eyes, honorable, and I have loved thee. Love, then, is the ground that determines Jehovah to assume that protectorate. see Text, and Gram.
3. Fear nothave ears.
Isa 43:5-8. The fear not connects what follows with the fear not Isa 43:1, as a new phase of the salvation bringing future. The verses 14 speak of the deliverance in respect to its ground (Isa 43:1), under all circumstances (Isa 43:2), and at any price (Isa 43:3-4). In this section the particular is made prominent, that all members of the holy nation, no matter how distant nor in what direction, shall be brought back home (comp. Isa 11:11 sq.). In Isa 43:5 b and 6a the four points of the compass are severally enumerated. Give up, and keep not back manifestly involve a contrast with none saith, Restore Isa 42:22. This latter expression is qualified by our passage. The condition it describes is not to be forever, but only to a certain period of time. , on the ground of its use Deu 30:3-4 is the conventional expression for the return of Israel from the Exile (Isa 11:12; Isa 54:7; Mic 2:12; Jer 29:14; Eze 11:17, etc.). In the second half of Isa 43:6 a subject is addressed that we must conceive of as the combination of the four quarters of the heavens. The entire earth, then, is meant. Hence, too, the feminine, which previously already was applied to the North and South, as parts of the entire earth. In , as related to Isa 43:5, there is an intensifying of the thought: not only the Lord brings, the lands themselves must co-operate in this bringing Israel back (Isa 14:2). Isa 43:7 gives the reason for the foregoing thought. All the members of the nation must be gathered for this reason, because they all bear Jehovahs name, and were made for His honor (see Text, and Gram.). is He that is called by means of my name, i.e., who is called a belonging of Jehovahs (Isa 65:1). For the Temple is not itself called Jehovah because Jehovahs name is named upon it (Jer 7:10); and just as little is one that is called by means of Jehovahs name, Himself called Jehovah. Comp. the remarks on Isa 4:2 and Isa 41:25. This bearing of Jehovahs name is, as it were, a stamp that denotes that the one so marked was called into being (), formed () and finished (comp. Isa 43:1; Isa 43:21) to the honor of Jehovah. How shall such an one be destroyed, in whose preparation the Lord has so greatly concerned Himself?
Isa 43:8, is by many connected with what follows. But that would require us to construe in as imperative, which would be utterly abnormal. Beside, (and that is the chief thing), neither bring forth, nor the designation of the nation as being blind yet having eyes find an adequate motive in the context.
Three things I think must be insisted on: 1) that our passage looks back to Isa 42:7. There it was said of the Servant of Jehovah, that He was destined to open blind eyes, and to lead () prisoners out of prison; 2) That where three predicates, blind, deaf, imprisoned are joined to one and the same subject, the sense is quite different from what it would be if only one of these predicates were joined to one subject. For the former case affirms only the accumulation of every sort of suffering upon one and the same subject; whereas the latter case really concerns in some sense or other the special condition of sickness named (see on Isa 42:16). 3) It makes a great difference whether I say: they have eyes and see not, or they are blind and have eyes. For the former signifies that although they have eyes they still do not see; the latter that their blindness does not hinder them from seeing, i.e., their blindness is only relative in respect to kind, degree or time. Accordingly, I construe Isa 43:8 as concluding the first strophe of this chapter. And this conclusion is in the words of the Prophet himself, by which he intimates that the Lord, by accomplishing what is promised Isa 43:1-7, realizes at the same time what is held out Isa 42:7. The Lord delivers Israel but of its sufferings of all sorts in which it has languished like the blind in bonds of blindness, like the deaf in the prison of deafness, because this people, wretched as a blind or deaf person, still spiritually sees and hears, i.e., has turned its spiritual eye to the countenance of its God, and its spiritual ear to His word. If elsewhere Israel is reproached for not seeing with eyes that might see, and not hearing with ears that might hear (Isa 6:9-10; Mat 13:13 sq.), so here to its praise it is said that, spite of physical blindness, and deafness, or spite of all physical wretchedness figuratively represented by blindness and deafness, it will be still spiritually healthy and thereby ripe for and susceptible of deliverance. And with this is intimated also that spiritual redemption is to be an ingredient of the future, thus the redemption from sin, of which the last two strophes speak more extendedly (Isa 43:22 to Isa 44:5).
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2. THE PROMISED AND ACCOMPLISHED PROPHECY A PROOF OF DIVINITY
(Fourth application of prophecy in this sense)
Isa 43:9-13
94 Let all the nations be gathered together,
And let the people be assembled:
Who among them can declare this, and 5shew us former things?
Let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified:
Or let 6them hear, and say, It is truth.
10Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord,
And my servant whom I have chosen:
That ye may know and believe me
And understand that I am he:
Before me there was 7no God formed,
Neither shall there be after me.
11I, even I, am the Lord;
And beside me there is no Saviour.
12I have declared, and have saved,
And I 8have shewed, when there was no strange god among you:
9Therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord,
eThat I am God.
13Yea, 10before the day was I am he;
And there is none that 11can deliver out of my hand:
I will work, and who shall 12 let it?
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
Isa 43:9. In the succession of the verbal forms (perf.) and (imperf.), it seems to me the meaning is, that the former would express the fact of all nations being assembled, the latter, however, the hypothetical wish, that, if any nation be wanting, it also be summoned. That such is the sense appears from the fact that does not stand before . For it follows therefrom that to the assembled total shall be opposed only casual single individuals. Hence it seems to me unnecessary to construe as imperative.
Isa 43:12. The clauses here are simply connected paratactically by . But their more exact logical relation is as follows: is to be regarded as principal clause, to whose two members other two subordinate clauses correspond, each of whish has likewise two members. corresponds to the first member of the principal clause as an explication of it; but corresponds to the second member as assigning the ground for it.
Isa 43:13. occurs again only Eze 48:35 as marking a time that connects with an ideal beginning. Everywhere else it leans on a real terminus a quo. The construction , since days are, i.e., ever in the past, is justified neither by usage nor the context. For one looks for something new. But the thought that Jehovah is of old is already adequately expressed Isa 43:10. One may compare (Jdg 15:1; Eze 38:8), which properly means from days onward, i.e., from a point of time onwards, till the entrance of which an indefinite number of days elapse. Therefore is not from to-day on. Else why should it not read: ? Comp. Eze 39:22; Hag 2:15; Hag 2:18-19. But it properly means, from a period with which ends an ideally present , onwards. This is the period of deliverance indicated in what precedes.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
1. In all the foregoing chapters Jehovah, as the only true God, is contrasted with the idols; and especially from chapter 41 on it is made prominent as proof of the divinity of Jehovah, that He is able to declare the remote past and the remote future and the connection of both. In the same way the Prophet here joins on to the comforting promise of Isa 43:1-8, an argument that uses the promise of redemption as a proof of the divinity of Jehovah.
2. Let all the nationsafter me.
Isa 43:9-10. The Prophet institutes a grand and bold comparison. On the one side he sees all the great heathen world assembled and on the other only Israel. (See Text and Gram.). And now he lets the Lord address to the former an inquiry, whether among their tremendous multitude there is even one prophetic spirit that can prophesy as He has prophesied in Isa 43:1-8. Who among them can (will) declare this. This who does not refer directly to some divinity conceived of as among the crowd of people, but to some prophet, rather, thought of as organ of a divinity. But this can only refer to what has just been foretold Isa 43:1-8. But how can such a prophecy be looked for out of the midst of the heathen world? Were a genuine prophetic spirit in the midst of it, then, spite of all antipathy to Israel, it must still be able to see the fact and announce it beforehand just as well as Jehovah Himself. For the genuine prophet must see the facts of the future simply as they will occur in reality. But the God of Israel will also let facts of an earlier date avail. If, then, the idol-prophets can cite in their favor earlier prophecies proceeding from them, they may be allowed to do so. Former things, comp. on Isa 40:22; Isa 42:9. But in either case, he that designates an historical fact as the fulfilment of a prophecy of his, must prove that this prophecy actually proceeded from him. He must produce witnesses for this. These witnesses can, indeed, be chosen now, but may only be summoned to give their testimony at the time of the fulfilment. For only at the time named is their testimony possible and necessary. Possible, for only then can the prophecy and fulfilment be compared and the latter be seen to correspond with the former; necessary, for only at the time of the fulfilment does the necessity appear for inquiring who is the author of the prophecy in question. Let them bring forth their witnesses, therefore, refers to the time of the fulfilment; when this has followed, then they shall produce their witnesses, in order, by their declarations, to be recognized as just, i.e, as veracious and as representatives of a real divine power. cannot possibly mean to say the truth (Hitzig), for at that moment, those that produce the witnesses, have no more to say. Rather it must then appear whether what they have said at an earlier time be the truth. Therefore is here, as in Isa 43:26; Isa 45:25, simply to be righteous. Hence, and because (comp. Isa 41:26) is the declaration of the judge and not of the witness, the subject of let them hear and say must be those before whom the witnesses appear. For this reason we translate: let one hear and say.
From the side of the heathen world comes no response to the challenge of Isa 43:9. It is in no condition to respond. The Lord then turns to Israel to declare that He will perform what the others are unable to perform. Ye are My witnesses, he says. By this He would say: I say it now to you in advance, in order that, when it once comes to pass, ye may testify that I foretold it. And My Servant, is taken by many as a second subject: ye and My Servant be My witnesses. But then the Servant must be a subject distinct from the people Israel. Would one understand by this the personal Servant of Jehovah, it were against this that the Servant cannot yet be present at the time of Cyrus, for Cyrus himself is in fact related to Him as prophetic type. Or would one understand by that other subject the believing nucleus of the nation, then that would need to be otherwise expressed. An expression must be chosen that would distinguish that Servant from the mass of the nation. But such a distinction is nowhere in the context, which deals primarily only with the antithesis of Israel and the heathen world. The latter is a mass of people without God, and hence without prophecy; but Israel is the people of Jehovah and the place of His revelation. For this reason precisely it is the instrument that the Lord has chosen in order also to reveal Himself to the heathen. In and My servant, etc., there lies, therefore, the idea that Israel as the servant of Jehovah is at the same time according to the nature of things His witness in the sense indicated above. But Jehovah demands that Israel shall become witness, not for His interest, but for Israels own interest. By the facts that they verify they are to draw for themselves the conclusion that Jehovah alone is the true God. The Prophet expresses this by the words: that ye may know and believe Me,etc. may either (zeugmatically) take the object of , or it can have the absolute meaning to acquire knowledge, sapere (Isa 44:18; Isa 45:20; Isa 32:4). Even faith presumes a certain knowledge, for one cannot believe in that of which he knows absolutely nothing. But faith is equally the condition of a correct knowledge of divine things. For without loving self surrender to God, an understanding of His being is impossible. And then the Prophet may with equal right designate faith as the product and as the condition of knowledge. On I am He see on Isa 41:4. In there was no God formed there is of course no implied assumption that Jehovah was formed, but rather the contrary assumption underlies it, that Jehovah is the sole and only true God, a thought that is implied in I am He. If this be so, then besides Him there can only be fabricated gods, dei ficticii (comp. Isa 44:10). Had there been a god before Him it could only have been a fictitious god. But as there was no sort of god before Him, so, too, none was made before Him. And since whatever is made must have a beginning, and necessarily, too, must have an end, so must all these fictitious gods cease to be. Therefore none can survive Jehovah.
3. I, even Ilet it.
Isa 43:11-13. These verses conclude the foregoing series of thoughts by recapitulating the chief particulars, and adding several important inferences. I, I am Jehovah: that such is the proper rendering appears from the fact that the Jehovah-name manifestly corresponds to the latter part of Isa 43:10, the sentiment of which is comprehended in that name. For if before the Lord there was no god, and there will be none after Him, then He is the One that was and shall be the eternally Existent, i.e., Jehovah (comp. Exo 3:14). And, because this entire part of Isaiah deals with the deliverance of Israel and the ground and consequences of it, it is added: and beside Me there is no Saviour comp. Isa 43:3; Isa 45:21, and the List). Therefore Israel must take care not to look for its salvation from any other. As , Saviour, refers back to Isa 43:3, so and I have declaredI have shewed refer to Isa 43:9. According to the argument in Isa 43:9, prophecy and fulfilment are proof of divinity. This proof Jehovah gives. I announce, He says, and I save. The perfects present the thought apodictically as a fact accomplished. The salvation, indeed, is still future, and must be waited for. But the announcement is, in respect to time, in the past, and, as an actual deed of Jehovahs, can now already be proved. Hence this particular is not only repeated in I have declared, but also supported by an argumentum a non existente altero. Jehovah must have announced because no other, or strange god ( as in Deu 32:16; Psa 44:21; Psa 81:10), was in Israel. In this there is an assumption that there exist real, super-terrestrial powers beside Jehovah. But none of the kind have power in Israel. The idols that Israel worshipped are not reckoned, for they are to be regarded as nothing (Isa 41:23 sq.). On the logical connection of Isa 43:12 see Text and Gram. We remarked before that , I have saved refers to a future deed that is to be waited for. But there is a guaranty of its fulfilment. Israel is even set up as testimony, Isa 43:10, and the Lord will and can do that to which Israel testifies, for He is God, the Strong One ( comp. Isa 46:9 and the List). Thus the sense of Isa 43:12 is as follows: that I am the proclaimer of salvation follows because beside Me there was no one that could proclaim it; and that I will carry out also what I have proclaimed is guaranteed by your being in evidence and by My strength.
Isa 43:13 refers to the future following the period of the promised deliverance (see Text, and Gram.). Thus the Lord does not content Himself here with prophesying to the time of the deliverance. He goes further He gives assurance that after it has come also, He will remain the same. Therefore in this place is idem (comp. Isa 41:4). Israel is redeemed. The words none delivereth from My hand cannot apply to it here, as the similar words do, indeed, Isa 42:22. Rather, after Israels deliverance, only the heathen are in the hand of God as objects of His judgment. Therefore these words concern them. But finally, as the end of all history, it will appear that all thoughts and counsels of God must inevitably find their accomplishment. Sein Werk kann niemand hindern. Comp. Isa 14:27.
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3. THE REDEMPTION AND RETURN OF ISRAEL, ESPECIALLY FROM THE BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY
Isa 43:14-21
14Thus saith the Lord,
Your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel;
For your sake I have sent to Babylon,
13And have brought down all their 14nobles,
And the Chaldeans, whose cry is in the ships.
15I am the Lord, your Holy One,
The Creator of Israel, your king.
16Thus saith the Lord,
Which15 maketh a way in the sea,
And a path in the mighty waters;
17Which16 bringeth forth the chariot and horse, the army and the power;
They shall lie down together, they shall not rise:
They are extinct, they are quenched as tow.
18Remember ye not the former things,
Neither consider the things of old.
19Behold, 17 I will do a new thing;
Now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it?
18 I will even make a way in the wilderness,
And rivers in the desert.
20The beast of the field shall honor me,
The19 dragons and the 20 21owls:
Because I give waters in the wilderness,
And rivers in the desert,
To give drink to my people, my chosen.
21This people have I formed for myself;
They shall show forth my praise.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
See List for the recurrence of the words: Isa 43:14. . Isa 43:16.. Isa 43:17. . Isa 43:18. . Isa 43:19. . ver.20. . comp. Isa 13:22.. Isa 43:21. .
Isa 43:14. The context shows that is the praeter. propheticum.The following words are very difficult. The correct understanding of is of first importance. Most expositors render it fugitives. But who are the fugitives? According to some they are the of the worlds emporium (Delitzsch), the concurrent nations in the commercial city of Babylon (Gesenius). This construction takes proper account of the before , by distinguishing the fugitives from the Chaldeans. But why call those foreigners precisely fugitives? Why not say then or (Jer 50:37), or the like? And do not the Chaldeans flee, too? How then could the foreigners be distinguished from the Chaldeans just by the designation fugitives? This objection lies even more against Delitzschs construction than against that of Gesenius. For according to Delitzsch is the chief notion, only an attribute joined on in the form of apposition. But then how in the world does the notion come to designate the foreigners in distinction from the Chaldeans?Since Jerome, many (Abenesra, Abarbanel, Castalio, Forerius, Seb. Schmidt, Umbreit, etc.) have read =bars, and understood that breaking down bars is meant. Then it would be declared that the prison of the Israelites would be opened. Gesenius testifies that the departure from the points in such a case were a small matter. And, of course, it might easily happen, especially in the unpointed text, that barichim would be spoken instead of berichim. But in general the reading has the evidences in its favor, and we cannot permit ourselves to depart from it needlessly. Others, as Hahn, understand the Chaldeans themselves to be meant by . But if this word and be object of , then before the latter is inexplicable. I therefore (on the ground of Deu 28:68, see Comment below) construe as acc. loci, to the question, whither? The Prophet might have written, indeed, , which occurs often enough. But, influenced by Deu 28:68, he writes here as is written there. is used in both places with a similar construction and meaning. connects, not the word, but the entire clause, as e.g., Jer 50:44. is subject of the clause whose predicate consists in the words means shout; mostly in a joyful sense, but it occurs, too, in regard to lamentation, especially with suffixes: Jer 14:12; Psa 106:44. To this exposition of the last member of Isa 43:14, the foregoing forms a fitting introduction. For this takes place, according to our signification, both in the neuter and in the local sense: with the there is a going downwards not only down the Euphrates, but from their previous elevation.
Isa 43:15 is to be construed as apposition with the subject of and Isa 43:14.
Isa 43:16. It comes to substantially the same thing whether the participles and are rendered by the preterite or present. Still I prefer the former, because Isa 43:17 b and Isa 43:18 better agree with it. occurs again only Neh 9:11.
Isa 43:17. , elsewhere the Hiph., is the standing expression for leading Israel out of Egypt (comp. Exo 20:2; Deu 5:6; Deu 13:6, etc.). Here it is used of the Egyptians. It is even the Lord, that occasioned also the marching out of the Egyptian army., which rhymes with , recalls Exo 14:9; Exo 15:1; Exo 15:19; Exo 15:21. Elsewhere it generally reads (Deu 20:1; Jos 11:4; 1Ki 20:1; 2Ki 6:15; Eze 39:20). The transposition in our text, which is for the sake of the rhyme, occurs again only Psa 76:7 , too, occurs in the Song of Moses, Exo 15:4. robustus, validus, beside here, occurs only Psa 24:8 where it is paired with Imperf. signifies the continuance, (comp. Isa 26:14; on the use of see on Isa 26:8) is future; the perfects and signify the completed fact.
Isa 43:19. only here in a neutral sense in the sing., beside Jer 31:22 : Jer 42:9; Jer 48:6. It is known that is often used in the sense of an emphatic affirmative. Comp. e.g., 1Sa 20:37; 1Ki 11:41, etc. It is used very often for . Not only does the LXX. very often translate it by (Deu 3:11; Jos 1:9, etc.), but the parallel passages in Chronicles often have where the Books of Kings have . Comp. 1Ki 15:23 with 2Ch 16:11; 1Ki 22:46 with 2Ch 20:34, etc.
Isa 43:20. Isaiah uses only here the expression . Before him, on the ground of many passages in the Pentateuch (Gen 2:19 sq.; Gen 3:1; Gen 3:14; Exo 33:11; Lev 26:22; Deu 7:22, etc.), it appears in Hosea (Hos 2:14; Hos 2:20; Hos 4:3; Hos 13:8) and Job (Job 5:23; Job 39:15; Job 40:20). Isaiah 56. we read again Isa 13:21; Isa 34:13, and in Job 30:29; Mic 1:5; Jer 50:39. is=that, or because I have given.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. This third strophe corresponds to the first. As the first represents how the Lord will bring back His people into their land, from all quarters of the earth and through all possible dangers, so the present strophe represents how this restoration shall happen out of Babylon and through the wilderness lying between Chaldea and Palestine. Thus the first strophe is general in its contents; the third is specific.
2. Thus saithyour king.
Isa 43:14-15. As the first promissory strophe (Isa 43:1) began with thus saith, so this one in both its parts, the negative (Isa 43:14) and the positive (Isa 43:16). The Lord, Israels Holy One, Creator and King, announces that He will send, to Babylon and bring the Chaldeans down from the elevation they have scaled, and lead them back to the littleness of their original home on the lower Euphrates, to which they will set out with the cry to Chaldea on the ships. This is the first negative act; the opening of the prison and putting aside the prison keeper. Glorious act of deliverance! that at the same time proves the God of Israel to be the only Holy One. For your sake I have sent to Babylon, says the Lord, and indicates that the proper intent of the sending was the deliverance of Israel, though the messenger had no presentiment of performing a divine mission in the interest of Israel. Who this messenger was appears from Isa 41:2-3; Isa 41:25. It is Cyrus. We know that Isaiah foresaw a Babylonish exile of his people from 13, 14, Isa 21:9 sq; Isa 39:6-7. Especially I have sent, reminds one strongly for substance of Isa 13:2 sqq. See Text and Gram. It appears to me that we are justified by Job 26:13 and Isa 27:1 in giving the meaning fugitives (see Text and Gram.). Only in those passages and here does the word occur. As regards the clause, and the Chaldeans, etc., I think that here, too, the Prophet makes allusion to an older passage of Scripture, that sheds light on his meaning. That is Deu 28:68; where we read As is known, Deuteronomy 28. contains that emphatic exhortation to obey the law of the Lord, based on promised blessings and threatened curses. It concludes with the threat that Jehovah shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships, to be sold there into bondage. It is worthy of notice that must be construed as acc. localis to the question, whither? It might have read , which, if not the more correct, were still the more frequent mode of expression. Now it seems to me, that the Prophet in cur text would intimate that, what the Lord threatened against Israel would be fulfilled on the Babylonians. We have showed above Isa 23:13 that the Chaldeans (in Babylonian Kaldi or Kaldaai, Schrader, p. 43) were a nation settled in very ancient time in South-Babylon and reaching to the Persian Gulf. In course of time they rose to a dominant position in Babylon itself: in fact for a considerable time the ruling dynasty belonged to their race. Moreover that lower Euphrates region abounded in swamps, and hence offered numerous hiding-places. We know this especially from the history of Merodach-Baladan, of which, at chap. 39. we gave a sketch from Francois Lenormant. [The Authors recapitulation of points of that sketch may be omitted. Tr.] From the particulars given there, it appears that when the Chaldeans could no longer maintain themselves in Babylon, their next step would be to take refuge in ships. For them, flight into the recesses of the lower Euphrates and of the Schatt-el-arab, was at the same time a return into their proper home. Under such circumstances there was certainly sufficient motive for their raising the cry: =into Chaldea on the ships. Such was the cry when Babylon, which had only become so strong by the colossal walls of Asarhaddon and Nebuchadnezzar, but had often enough before been taken by the Assyrian kings, was no longer tenable. On this construction see Text. and Gram.
As Isa 43:14 begins with a thought that gives the reason for what follows, so it is followed also by another and similar one in Isa 43:15 as a conclusion. As an independent statement, Isa 43:15 would be superfluous and clumsy. It has sense and significance only in closest connection with Isa 43:14. Jehovah is often called Israels king: Isa 41:21; Isa 44:6; Isa 33:22; Isa 43:15.
3. Thus saithas tow.
Isa 43:16-17. Now the positive part of the promise is given. To the liberated Israelites is extended what they need for the long and difficult journey home. Already in the words to Chaldea on ships we found the Prophets thoughts directed toward Egypt. This direction becomes now still more manifest. He presents the miraculous deliverance of Israel at the Red Sea as a guaranty of the promised deliverance from the Babylonish exile. The same God, he says, that prepared a way through the Red Sea, where there was too much water, will know how to make a way through the arid desert, where there is too little water. Comp. in general Isa 51:10; Isa 63:11-13; Isa 11:16.
4. Remember yemy praise. Isa 43:18-21. Although the Lord fortifies the promise about to follow by recalling His performance at the Red Sea, still, by the demand no more to remember those old events, He lets the Israelites understand that what is promised and future will be infinitely more glorious than what is past (comp. Jer 23:7). Not that He would have those mighty deeds of old sink into absolute oblivion. He means only a relative forgetting. He would only give a standard by which may be measured the glory of what is new. From this, already, we may see that the Lord by no means intends only the corporeal return from the Exile. Already introduced in Isa 43:18 as Himself speaking, the Lord announces Isa 43:19 that He is about to create a new thing.Already, he says, it is germinating (comp. Isa 42:9); i. ., the causes that are to bring about that new thing exist already. And of course, as Isaiah must have lived to see Judah give itself into the hand of the world-power, so he saw therewith the bud of the Exile, and also of the deliverance out of it (Isa 6:11 sqq.; Isa 7:17; Isa 10:5 sqq.). But the implicit reality will also realize itself explicitly. Hence is said: ye shall certainly know it. For such is the sense of the negative question: shall ye not know it (see Text. and Gram.). In naming this new thing, the Lord does not describe it completely. He only mentions one characteristic trait. Ex ungue leonem. But this one trait from many is chosen, not only because of its inherent significance, but also, on the one hand, with reference to what was mentioned, Isa 43:16-17, by way of guaranty, and on the other, because there is present already here the thought that comes to expression, Isa 43:3. On the brink of the Red-Sea, also, it was water that seemed to prevent Israels deliverance. They could not walk through the deep sea. There the Lord helped Israel threatened by too much water, by making a way through the sea. In the day when the new thing shall come about Israel will be confronted by a dearth of water. Freed from Babylonian captivity, they will resolve to return home. But an arid desert must be traversed! Now there is too little water. But the Lord will help as before. He will make in the desert a way (Isa 35:1-2; Isa 35:7; Isa 40:3 sq.; Isa 41:18 sq.), by furnishing it with a bounding stream of water. Comp. Isa 48:21; Isa 49:10. On see on Isa 26:8. How glorious this help will be, that Israel is to enjoy by the watering of the desert, may be seen from the very beasts of the field rendering honor to God for it.It weakens the force of this description to understand (with Hahn) the beasts to represent heathen nations. For it is something higher when the very beasts own and praise the hand of God. We must rather think of Isa 11:6 sqq., and how there, immediately after the description of the universal state of peace, the prospect of the home-return of Israel out of the Assyrian exile is presented as the antitype of the home return out of Egypt (Isa 11:11-16, where note especially Isa 43:16). And Isa 35:8-9 is also to be drawn into comparison here, where that way of return is called a holy way, and it is said that no lion shall be there, and that most ravenous of beasts shall not walk on it. This passage, compared with Isa 11:6 sqq. and our text, thus receives its complement and explanation, to the effect that wild beasts shall indeed be there, but will change their nature, and as regenerated, so to speak, will own and praise God. But by this we become aware that the Lord thinks not merely of physical water, but, as in Isa 44:3, also of spiritual water and streams of the Spirit. For these necessarily belong to the condition of peace. The physical water of the desert is thus at the same time type of the spiritual streams of water of the last time. The beasts praise God for being permitted to participate in the blessings imparted to the people of Israel. But (Isa 43:21) especially this people themselves that the Lordformed for Himself (comp. Isa 43:1; Isa 43:7; see on Isa 42:24) shall recount His praise. This signifies the acme of the new time, the time of salvation that begins with the deliverance out of the Babylonian exile. But that that acme will not be attained without backsliding on the part of the nation, and even greater manifestations of grace on the part of God, appears from the following context. [This brings us back to the main proposition of the chapter, namely, that Jehovah had not only made them what they were, but had made them for the purpose of promoting His own glory, so that any claim of merit on their part, and any apprehension of entire destruction, must be equally unfounded.J. A. A.].
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4. ISRAELS REDEMPTION FROM SIN CANNOT BE ITS OWN WORK
Isa 43:22-28
22But thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob;
22But thou hast been weary of me, O Israel.
23Thou hast not brought me the 23small cattle of thy burnt offerings;
Neither hast thou honoured me with thy sacrifices.
I have not caused thee to serve with an offering,
Nor wearied thee with incense.
24Thou hast bought me no24 sweet cane with money,
Neither hast thou 25filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices:
But thou hast made me to serve with thy sins,
Thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities.
25I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake,
And will not remember thy sins.
26Put me in remembrance: let us plead together:
Declare thou, that thou mayest be justified.
27Thy first father hath sinned,
And thy 26teachers have transgressed against me.
2827Therefore I have profaned the 28princes of the sanctuary,
And29 have given Jacob to the curse,
And Israel to reproaches.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
See List for the recurrence of the words: Isa 43:24. . Isa 43:25. comp. Isa 44:22. Isa 43:26-28. All the terms.
Isa 43:22. init. is adversative. used of calling on God, occurs more frequently with prepositions. Still it is found elsewhere also with the accusative (Psa 14:4; Psa 17:6; Psa 88:10; Psa 91:15). Many (Maurer, Hitzig, Ewald, Hendewerk, Umbreit, Knobel, Delitzsch) construe the second clause as a conclusion: that thou shouldest have wearied thyself with me. But in that case 1) the foregoing clause should contain an inquiry; 2) the dependent clause with should relate to something future. Neither is the case. means laborare, desudare, defatigatam esse. The last in passages like Isa 40:28; Isa 57:10; Jer 45:3; Psa 6:7. Hence Hiph. defatigare, to make weary, (Isa 43:23-24). Hence I agree decidedly with those that translate: for thou art weary of me.
Isa 43:23. , for which there is no plural form, is collective [meaning the young of both sheep and goats, hence exactly rendered in the English Version, small cattle.Tr.]. is accus. of the means. is the technical term for service rendered to God in worship. Comp. Exo 10:26, and the expression .
Isa 43:24. . cannot be referred exclusively to the notion with; otherwise it must read It must be referred to the entire following clause.
Isa 43:25. The double makes emphatic that the wiping out of sin is solely in Gods power. stands emphatically after . But it is not predicate as in Isa 43:10; Isa 43:13; Isa 41:4; Isa 46:4; Isa 48:12, but in apposition with the subject as in Isa 7:14. Thus the sense is: II such an one. In this lies a reference back to the emphatic use of twice already in this chapter..is rendered by the LXX. by , as also in Psa 51:3; Psa 51:11; Psa 69:29, etc, as in Isa 37:35; Isa 48:9; Isa 48:11.
Isa 43:28. It seems to me presumptuous and needless to read and . This were, indeed, the easier reading, but for that very reason suspicious. The more difficult reading necessitates a deeper penetration into the sense. I construe and as simply future, and both as simply copulative.There are likely only rhetorical reasons for using the cohortative form instead of . At least this form is very usual precisely with . It occurs thirty times in the Old Testament, including the forms with Vav. consec. I doubt if it occurs as often with any other verbs.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. But thousacrifices.
Isa 43:22-24 a. In Isa 43:21 the Lord has expressed a glorious hope for the future. But he reflects here that the past history of Israel lets this hope appear unfounded. The outward return from the Exile is not sufficient to qualify Israel for that praise of God (Isa 43:21). As long as Israel is under the outward ceremonial law, it is also under the dominion of sin. The Lord Himself must first blot out the guilt of sin by an offering that only He can make, and break the power of sin by an outpouring of holy streams of the Spirit. Only a regenerated Israel will be able to do what is expected in Isa 43:21.
The following clauses do not mean that Israel has never fulfilled the duties of divine service therein mentioned, but only that they have not fulfilled them, i.e., not fully satisfied the requirements. The long period from the giving of the law to Isaiahs time, that ought to have been a period of uninterrupted fulfilment of the law, was in fact a period of prevalent transgression of the law. Hence the Prophet can well say, Israel has not brought the Lord the gifts of divine service that they ought to have brought.
In , small cattle, collective, there may be an allusion to the daily morning and evening sacrifice, in which a year-old lamb must be brought (Exo 29:38 sqq.; Num 28:3 sqq.). What a perverted world, when the Lord must Himself perform the work that Israel ought to have done by their divine service!
is the fragrant gum of a tree found in Arabia, Persia, India and the eastern coast of Africa, but not definitely identified by modern botanists (see Leyer, Herz.R.-Encycl. XVII. p. 602 sq.). The Israelites used it partly as an ingredient of incense (Exo 30:34), partly as an accompaniment to the meat offering, and the shew-bread (Lev 2:1 sq., (Lev 2:15 sq.; Lev 24:7). The expression Isa 43:24, when we compare the foregoing parallel enumerations, seems manifestly to be prompted by the assonance with is mentioned Exo 30:23 with the addition as an ingredient of the holy anointing oil (Leyrer,ibid. XIV. p. 663 sq.; XIII. p. 322); according to the Rabbins (ibid. XII. p. 507) it was also an ingredient of the holy incense. It is almost universally agreed that it is the calamus (ibid. XIV. p. 664). Delitzsch says the calamus forms no stalk, much less a reed; but it is to be considered that it has a stem formed underneath by the leaves overlaying one another. And these leaves are, each for itself, reeds open at the sides. Hence the calamus is reckoned among reeds. Besides, not our common calamus is meant, but the Asiatic, indigenous to tropical Asia, and which is still used there in preparing fragrant oils and incense (Leyrer,ibid.). The expression: with the fat of thy sacrifices thou hast not intoxicated (Isa 34:5) me is anthropopathic. The effect of the fumes of fat on men being imputed to God. [ in the Hiph means to drench. In this case to drench with fumes of fat, i.e., be-smoke.Tr.].
2. But thouthy sins.
Isa 43:24-25.Having said what Israel did not do, it is now said what they have only done: Only this hast thou done, thou hast laden me, etc. An antithesis is implied that we would better express by but thou hast (see Text and Gram.). These words declare how the Lord has hitherto borne Himself with reference to His peoples burden of guilt. He patiently submitted to the painful service of bearing this burden. These sins and iniquities are the sins that are past through the forbearance of God (Rom 3:25; comp. Isaiah 9:22). In Isa 43:25, however, the Lord says what He will do in the future:He will blot out their transgressions. He will not eternally drag Himself along with this burden; He will take it out of the world. And He says He will do it for His own sake. There is that in Himself that impels Him to this: It is love. It does not rest till it has found the ways and means of gratifying itself without trenching on justice. The Lord must have in mind here that sacrifice which did what all sacrifices of the Old Testament were unable to do. Act 3:19, and Col 2:14 seem to be founded on our passage. In the latter it appears that Paul recognized as the basis of the expression the representation of a delible writing. On blot out and will not remember comp. Psa 51:3; Psa 51:11; Psa 25:7; Psa 79:8; Jer 31:34, etc.
3. Put mereproaches.
Isa 43:26-28. The Lords exceeding gracious language Isa 43:22-25 does not by any means suit the taste of Israel. The Prophet sees in spirit that Israel does not acknowledge its unrighteousness and will not accept the Lords proposed sacrifice (Isa 43:25). Israel is self-righteous. The Lord does not peremptorily rebuke the assertion of it. He again gives the nation an opportunity to prove it, if possible. Hence He demands an enumeration of the facts calculated to confute the Lord and to prove their assertion. is = remind me, viz.: by naming the facts. On the ground of these facts there shall be justification; and if the enumeration holds good, Israel shall be just (justified). But Israel can produce nothing that will bear sifting. On the other hand (Isa 43:27) the Lord adduces facts. He confines Himself to naming capital facts, that warrant a conclusion a majori ad minus. Without doubt the first father of Israel means Abraham. For Adam is the father of the whole human race. Abrahams conduct in reference to Pharaoh and Abimelech (Gen 12:11 sqq.; Isa 20:1 sqq.), is of itself enough to prove that he sinned. is the spokesman, interpreter, medium (comp. Gen 42:23; Job 33:23; 2Ch 32:31). Theocratic office-bearers are meant, who were mediums between God and the people. For this reason they are called just after princes of the sanctuary. They were, indeed, the pillars and props of the Theocracy. It was just their sins (comp. Jeremiah 22-23), because of their commanding influence, that contributed most to their own and the nations fall.
The debate, therefore, does not turn to the advantage of Israel. In conclusion, the Lord must pronounce the judgment: I will profane the princes of the sanctuary (comp. e.g., Jer 52:24), but Israel itself I must give up to the curse and reproaches by the heathen. (See Text and Gram.). According to the foregoing exposition, the Prophet (Isa 43:21) points to a glorious last-time of salvation that begins with deliverance from the Exile, but in such a way that, from this beginning onwards to the completion of it, there occurs a long and changeful period. In reference to this period he distinguishes four particulars: 1) that the natural, fleshly Israel, as ever, is incapable of serving the Lord and of properly proclaiming His praise; 2) that the Lord Himself will blot out Israels sin; 3) that Israel, in proud self-righteousness, does not accept this gracious gift of the Lord; 4) that, consequently, His worship will be profaned, i.e., done away, and the nation itself will be given up to the curse of destruction and outward reproach. When the princes of the sanctuary are profaned, then the sanctuary itself, the cultus of Jehovah, the Old Testament covenant in general, will be desecrated, i.e., done away and dissolved. For as Gesenius justly remarks: foedus res sacra est, idque qui profanat etiam violat et dissolvat. Israel rejected Christ. They accepted neither Himself, nor, after His death, the gospel of the cross. For this the old covenant was broken and the Temple destroyed, the nation dispersed into all lands. But this happened only to the fleshly Israel. There remains a remnant, an , and these, according to Isa 44:3, will obtain the baptism of the Spirit, and thereby the qualification to fulfil Isa 43:21.
Footnotes:
[1]Or, person.
[2]And.
[3]He bringeth.
[4]All the nations gather together, and the peoples are to be assembled.
[5]let us hear.
[6]one
[7]Or, nothing formed of God.
[8]let hear, declared.
[9]And.
[10]thereafter I am he.
[11]delivers.
[12]Heb. turn it back.
[13]And lead them downwards as fugitives all, And to Chaldea on the ships is their cry.
[14]Heb. bars.
[15]that made.
[16]brought.
[17]I do.
[18]Surely I will.
[19]jackals.
[20]Or, ostriches.
[21]Heb. daughters of the owl.
[22]For.
[23]Heb. lambs, or, kids,
[24]calamus.
[25]Heb. made me drunk, or, abundantly moistened.
[26]Heb. interpreters.
[27]And I will profane.
[28]Or, holy princes.
[29]will give.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
DISCOURSE: 930
GODS CARE FOR HIS PEOPLE
Isa 43:1-3. Now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for 1 have redeemed thee; I have called thee by thy name: thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour.
IT is almost impossible for any one to read the Holy Scriptures with attention, and not to notice the very remarkable manner in which many of the richest promises are introduced. God seems, in them, determined to magnify his own grace; and to shew, that where sin hath abounded, his grace shall much more abound [Note: Rom 5:20.]. Let any one read the two last verses of the preceding chapter, and then pass on to the promise which I have just read; and he will see this illustrated in a very striking point of view The Jews, to this day, experience the mercy and the faithfulness of God in his wonderful preservation of them, in order to a richer display of his goodness towards them than they have ever yet known [Note: ver. 47.]. And all the servants of Jehovah, in every age, may be assured of similar protection, in order to their present and eternal welfare.
In opening the words before us, we will notice,
I.
What is here supposed respecting the people of God
[It is taken for granted that they shall be a suffering people, according to what is spoken by the Prophet Zephaniah: I will leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people [Note: Zep 3:12.]. In a greater or less degree this is the state of all; they have to pass through deep waters, and even, as it were, through the fire itself, in the service of their God. Sometimes they are afflicted by persecution, and sometimes by temptation; for both to men and devils are they objects of inveterate hostility. From the days of Cain to this very hour, have those who were born after the flesh persecuted those who were born after the Spirit [Note: Gal 4:29.]: nor can any who will live godly in Christ Jesus hope to escape their virulent assaults [Note: 2Ti 3:12.]. And where is there a child of God whom that great adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, does not labour to devour [Note: 1Pe 5:8.]? There is not one who has not some thorn in the flesh, some messenger of Satan to buffet him [Note: Psa 91:15.]. Look at all the most favoured servants of the Lordat Job, and Heman, and Asaph, and David, and Pauland you will find them all chosen in the furnace of affliction, even as our blessed Lord himself, who was pre-eminently a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief [Note: Isa 53:3.]. Indeed there is a necessity for this; because there is in all the servants of God much dross, which needs the fire of affliction to purge it away; and it is in the furnace that they learn the evil of their own hearts, and the power and efficacy of divine grace: it is under tribulation chiefly, that they acquire patience and experience, and a hope that shall never make them ashamed [Note: Rom 5:5.].]
But, however painful their state, they have abundant consolation in,
II.
What is here promised to them
[God will be with his people under all their trials: as he has said, I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honour him. He will be with his people both by the manifestations of his presence and the communications of his grace; so that, under their severest afflictions, they shall have abundant support. Remarkable is that expression of the Psalmist, Thou shall hide them in the secret of thy presence [Note: Psa 31:20.]. The man that is in the presence of his God, and has the light of his countenance lifted up upon him, is inaccessible to his enemies, and may laugh at all their assaults. See Paul and Silas in prison, under circumstances as painful as could well be inflicted on them; yet, behold, they are singing praises to God at mid-night. And see the Hebrew Youths in the furnace into which an infuriated tyrant had cast them: not so much as a hair of their head was singed, or even the smell of fire had passed on them. Such are the interpositions of God in behalf of all his faithful servants, that where their afflictions have abounded, their consolations have much more abounded [Note: 2Co 1:5.]. The very waves which desolated all the world besides, bore up the ark, and carried it to a place of safety. And so shall the sea itself afford a passage to all the ransomed of the Lord to pass over, in the way to the land of promise [Note: Isa 51:10.]. But let not this be taken upon my word. Let David speak, from actual experience: Thou, O God, hast proved us; thou hast tried us, as silver is tried. Thou broughtest us into the net: thou laidest affliction upon our loins. Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads: we went through fire and through water; but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place [Note: Psa 66:10-12.].]
Of the fulfilment of this promise we can entertain no doubt, when we consider,
III.
The ground upon which the promise is made
[It is pleasing to observe with what satisfaction God contemplates the relation in which he stands to his people, and with what delight he expatiates upon it: Thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and He that formed thee, O Israel; Fear not, for I have redeemed thee; I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour. Here is abundant security to us for the accomplishment of every word that God has spoken. For he takes an interest in his people, such as a man feels in reference to his dearest possessions. He puts them, we will say, into the furnace. But will he leave them there without any concern about them? No: he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, to watch the process, and to bring them forth the very instant that his gracious designs are wrought upon them; that so they may come forth as vessels of honour, meet for their Masters use [Note: Mal 3:3.]. Are they a vineyard which his right hand has planted? he will keep it, and water it every moment: lest any hurt it, he will keep it night and day [Note: Isa 27:3.]. No parent can sympathize with his afflicted child more tenderly than he did with his people under their trials: In all their affliction he was afflicted: and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old [Note: Isa 63:9.]. In a word, they are his children; and therefore he enters so affectionately into all their concerns: Is not Ephraim my dear son? is he not a pleasant child? For since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for him: I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord [Note: Jer 31:20.].]
Infer
1.
What consolation does the Gospel of Christ afford!
[In the Old Testament we have those very promises of which we have spoken. But it is the Gospel which gives us the full insight into them. We behold in the Old Testament the redemption of Israel from Egypt, and their ultimate establishment in the land of Canaan. But these were a mere shadow of the redemption that has been wrought for us by Christ, and of those spiritual mercies which are vouchsafed to us in our way to the Canaan that is above. These are, above all, to be noticed. These give us the true insight into the mystery of the burning bush [Note: Exo 3:2.]. Not the Church at large only, but every true believer is that burning bush, in whom God shall to all eternity be glorified. Tribulation is appointed for us as our way [Note: Act 14:22.]: but most glorious shall be our end [Note: Rev 7:14-15.].]
2.
How needful for us is it that we obtain an interest in Christ!
[It is in Christ alone that these promises are made to us [Note: 2Co 1:20.]. If we are in him, the promises, and all that they contain, are ours [Note: 1Co 3:21-23.]. Let us be able to say with David, The Lord is my shepherd: and then we may safely add, When I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy (pastoral) rod and staff, they comfort me [Note: Psa 23:1-4.].]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
CONTENTS
This Chapter is a continuation of the former, in which the Lord comforteth the church with assurances of salvation. An allusion is made to Babylon, but still with reference to the rich purposes of grace in Christ.
Isa 43:1
If we connect this verse, and indeed the whole opening of the chapter, with what went before, (and certainly, though we divide into chapters, the original preaching or delivery of the prophecy was not so) how surprising is it, to behold the Lord’s ways with his people. The last chapter ended as if the Lord and Israel had parted in anger; but here God begins in grace and mercy, as though nothing had happened. Reader, do not fail to observe how all tenders of reconciliation begin on the part of God. Though the Lord gave Jacob to the spoiler, and Israel to the robbers, yet the Lord will be gracious again.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
The Right of the Creator
Isa 43
The chapter opens with the words “But now.” They indicate some change in the tone of the narrative, or appeal, or judgment. A very notable change they indicate, quite a miracle of a transformation, possible only to the Almighty musician; none other could have ventured upon this metamorphosis. We have read “Therefore he hath poured upon him the fury of his anger, and the strength of battle: and it hath set him on fire round about, yet he knew not; and it burned him, yet he laid it not to heart” ( Isa 42:25 ). Then the forty-third chapter opens with the words “But now.” It is as if winter died and summer were born on the same day. There is no interspace; we are out of the snow and amongst the flowers at a bound; we are away from the scorching fire into the very peace of God as if by one breath. There are many miracles which have not been indicated as such. We have been in the habit of expecting a miracle to create a space for itself, saying, with some flourish of trumpets, I am about to take place: make room for me, and keep your eyes open, and see what course I take, for I am unquestionably a wonder of God. But there are miracles that ask for no observance; they appeal by their quietness; they steal in upon us, and are completed before we quite knew they were about to begin. Moral miracles are greater than material wonders, signs, and tokens. Spiritual ministries abound in all the elements of noblest amazement, infinitely beyond the miracles that are done in wind and water and fire, and matter generally. But who so deaf as Israel? who so blind as Jacob? The prophetic faculty itself remains only in form and skeleton; all the indwelling power has gone: otherwise, how full of music would be our life, and how full of gratitude all the song of our being I then every morning would be a miracle, every dawn a triumph to God, every bud and every blossom a sign and pledge that the Almighty was amongst us, the Eternal Husbandman dressing the vineyard of earth. Let them say that the day of miracles has gone who have only had vulgar miracles to think about, miracles wrought in clay, stupendous wonders accomplished in insignificant mud. Eternal miracles follow the soul in all its outwinding and outgoing; they are the perpetual seal of the divine presence.
In reviewing Providence men do not go far enough back. The Lord himself always takes a great sweep of tune. Here is an instance in point “But now thus saith the Lord that created thee… and he that formed thee.” No argument is built upon what happened an hour ago. That itself is only part of the argument, and must be taken into view by those who would form a complete and just criticism of Providence. God always sets forth the whole case. It is thus the picture grows; it is by no one expenditure of paint, and no one exercise of the artistic hand, it is by a mystery of light and shade, that the whole miracle is completed. So God would have us go back to the beginning of things. This is the method of his Book: “In the beginning God created,” there we drop our slate and pencil, our arithmetic, and our whole organon of reckoning, with its treacherous rules, treacherous because inadequate to the calculation of the infinite disc upon which things are evolved and completed. So here God takes the individual or the nation, the family or the constituency, of what scope soever, back to the day of creation. Is it an individual? the Lord does not say, Think what was done yesterday, and see how incidentally here and there I have been very kind to thee. He takes the individual back to the creation hour, to the first breath, to the first flash of the eye, the first consciousness of the being, and says, Reckon from that point: pick out nothing, either blessing or curse: read the writing, in all its complexity; mark how it grows, extends, contracts, enlarges, withdraws, assumes colour, and takes upon itself the mystery of suggestion, and throbs with the marvel of impulse, always beating in upward and heavenward directions. Man cannot learn this lesson easily; he has a short memory; he thinks of what occurred one week since; he seems to have lost the genius of accumulation; he supposes that the whole building is in one course of stones, not knowing that it is intended to grow, until it becomes all points, shooting upward into the blue sky. Idiots are they in God’s sanctuary who talk only about the anecdotes of life, philosophers they who grasp both the east and west, and have eyes to see the line which connects the points. Thus God will have us go back to creation day, to formation time, and take in all the childhood, all the youthhood, all the manhood, all the education and strife and discipline, all the attrition and all the harmony, all the weekdays and all the Sabbath-days; and he would bid us watch the mystery of time, until it comes out in blossoming and fruitfulness and benediction. We should have no pain if we had the right line of review and pursued it, and comprehended it, in its continuity and entirety. One day corrects another; one period of life redresses another; and thus we pass from judgment to judgment, and from grace to grace, and the whole must be looked back upon, until it shapes itself into a pavilion and sanctuary of God. Blessed are they who have eyes that can review the whole mystery and development of life. But there are many creations. Formation is not a single act. God is always creating life, and always forming it. There is an individual existence; there is a national organisation; there are birthdays of empires and birthdays of reform. In the instance given in this verse the creation was official rather than personal: “But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel.” “Jacob” and “Israel” are not the names of any particular individual, only solitary life: they are compendious designations; they point to periods of construction, formation, inspiration, when a man became a nation, when a wrestler became a prince, and when a prince was entitled to bear in official senses the very name and dignity of God. We are many men in one the obscure citizen, the quiet resident, the unknown neighbour, the man who employs other men, the head of a family, the conductor of a great business, the leader charged with the inspiration which means sagacity, foresight and forethought, which encompasses all the ends of nations; and so the mystery of mankind expands and enlarges, and the Lord comes down to say that he did it all: I formed the individual, I formed the official man patriot, statesman, philosopher, poet, universal linguist, man in whose voice there is a tone for every one, in whose life there is a touch that makes other life new and young.
Thus the Church must recognise its period of creation and formation. Jacob was not always a people; Israel was not always a significant name, a symbol in language; and individuals are gathered together into societies, and they are charged with the administration of the kingdom of Christ, and as such they must go back and remember their Creator, and adore their Maker, and serve their Saviour, and renew their inspiration where it was originated. God thus comes down amongst us with the charter of creation in his hand, and would say in human words, I come to thee by right of creatorship; I have something to say to thee that will go into the very centre and core of thy being; as thy Creator I hold the key of the inmost recesses of thy nature, and as thy Former I have somewhat to whisper in thine innermost ear.” Men come to us by certain rights: why should not God come by the same authority? There are some men to whom we would not speak otherwise than in the language of shallow courtesy, uttering words that are but wind; to other men we would deliver up the very soul, saying, Read it all, and tell us what to do when there is no help in us for ourselves. By what right do they come? By the right of sympathy; by the right of understanding; by the right of eternal kinship. That right is acknowledged; the possessors of it are hailed; at their approach the door flies open, and hospitality is written upon every corner of the roof. God thus produces his credentials, his certificate; he comes to us by right of having formed every bone in our body, and having breathed into our nostrils the breath of life, and having touched us with so much divinity as makes us men.
Right relations to God on the part of man should be realised. All presumption is saved by the open avowal of God himself, for in beginning the interview he says amongst his first words, “Thou art mine.” He has a right to speak to his own. How did Israel or Jacob become God’s? I have “created thee… formed thee… redeemed thee… called thee.” That is claim enough. It is a growing claim. This appeal rises into climax, into convincing and triumphant words. I have “created thee;” that is the basal line: “formed thee;” given thee shape and relation: “redeemed thee;” paid for thee: “called thee by thy name;” like a friend or child: “thou art mine.” Yet all this is in the Old Testament! Do we not fly from the Old Testament into the New that we may have some sight of the tenderness of God? There is no need for such flight. There are tenderer words about God in the Old Testament than there are in the New. Asked to cull flowers that are charged with the eloquence of pathos and sympathy and kindness, I should hasten to the Old Testament, for there the flowers grow thickly on the infinite field. The New Testament indeed has a touch in it which it could not have had but for the Old Testament. Even the Christ of the New Testament is only the fully formed and perfectly revealed Christ of the Old Testament; for he himself began at Moses. This is another confirmatory instance of the method of Providence always beginning far back, and taking in the whole sweep and circuit of history in order to establish the most modern argument.
“Thou art mine; three little words, three little syllables; a child’s motto; words that might be printed by a little hand and sent as a message of love; words that might be engraved on a signet ring: yet words the whole meaning of which the firmament has not space enough to hold the entire development. God condenses his speech. His condensation is like his creation. His sentences are often like grains of mustard seed, very small in themselves or in their initial form, but having in them such power and faculty of expansion and enlargement as shall mean in the long run infinite harvesting. Do we realise our relation to God? Do we suppose we belong to ourselves? Are we foundlings in the universe? Is there any one who comes forth to claim us? Are there not children who wander about on heaths and parks and wide spaces, and at eventide do not know their way home; and are they not taken care of by the constabulary, and in the morning is there not someone who comes and says, That is mine: she is mine: he is mine? Sweet voice! voice with authority subdued into gentleness, and the more likely to be true because of its quietness. There is instant recognition between the two; no formal proof or affidavit is required; it is obvious to the eyes of observers that a true recognition has been established. It is even so with us. We are often lost. We adventure into open spaces and into boundless tracts, and when the shadows come we cannot tell just where we are. Blessed be God, if the night cometh, so doth the morning; and in the morning he says to us, “Thou art mine.” We are claimed, and reclaimed, and taken home, and never chided because we foolishly lost ourselves in the night.
This relation carries everything else along with it After this, there can be nothing but detail:
“When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee” ( Isa 43:2 ).
All that is something merely to be recognised, and hurried over, with a swiftness that barely recognises, and yet with a consciousness of grasp and triumph that means security. Could we not be spared passing through the waters? No. Might we not escape the rivers of God? Impossible. Could we not reach the further land where the summer breathes and flowers and sings without going through the valley of fire? No. He is a man without experience who has not often been drenched in deep floods, and often been exposed to the fury or furnaces heated seven times more than was wont. He who has come successfully through flood and furnace is a man who may be talked to with spiritual advantage; he is not a severe critic, he is not inspired with the genius of rebuke, but he is gifted, endowed, richly blessed, with the power of understanding other men, patiently waiting for them, and giving them assurance that after all their erratic wandering and eccentric action and motion, they will come to equipoise, they will realise the rest, the peace, the infinite tranquillity of God. It is easy to know a man who has often been drenched and often had struggles in the fire. He is a mysterious speaker. There is infinitely more in his speech than can be discovered at first from his words; yea, his words grow in meaning; the years bring their interpretation to his mystic and solemn expressions; then we suddenly say we remember now what he said, and how he said it; at the time there was mystery, and there is mystery still, only at first there was a mystery of darkness, and now there is a mystery of light.
We must all pass through the water, and through the fire: how are we to pass? Alone? We may never come out. I beheld, and one like unto the Son of God was with them in the burning fiery furnace: when they came out the smell of fire had not passed upon them. The fire is a lion that knows God; he lays his hand upon its burning mane, and quiets the infinite cruelty, and turns it into a blessing. Have no fear of water and fire, for they stand as symbolical expressions for all manner of trials, because they are all under God’s control. No man can do you the slightest harm. Even critics cannot take the bread out of your mouth. Foolish are they who suppose that anybody can do them the slightest harm, except for the passing moment: and there shall come compensation and advantage that shall make the sufferer bless the critic for his unintentional kindness. “Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above.” As for thee, thou black devil, thou couldst not have touched me if thou hadst not asked God’s permission to try my quality. Thou canst not add one link to thy chain, thou diabolic being. Even thou, blackest of the black herd of night, art a creation and a serf of God.
Never stand up for your friend. That ought to be the policy and the inspiration of every Christian. There can be no humiliation to an honourable man so intolerable as to be told that somebody has been “standing up” for him. We must live in God. Righteousness is its own defence. Yet there are those who unintentionally inflict wounds where they meant to pay compliments: their silence would have been a eulogium; their defence is an insult. God will take care of his own, as all providence testifies. “Put up thy sword into the sheath:” little, impetuous, foolish nature, thou dost suppose that by drawing a sword thou art doing wonders; they are only wonders of folly: “Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?” A shallow life lives upon public recognition or friendly notice, and cannot exist without approbation. The love of approbation means vanity, and vanity grows by what it feeds on. The true Christian must live in his Master, follow the Captain of his salvation, commit his spirit into the hands of God, at the end of fifty years we will see how it all stands. Thus when some great historical character has been impeached or assaulted or humiliated, people come in the long-run to ask who it was that did it. Precisely so! Great infinite space asks who? and none can tell. Providence is a series of miracles. Every day is a new testament of wonders and signs wrought by God. Every pulse in its latest throb says, God lives, God loves, God saves; and so the little preacher ticks and beats and palpitates, and in all its vital action testifies God is good. Not drowning is as great a miracle as resurrection. The rivers shall not overflow thee: they want to do so; see how they come plunging down! but they break upon thee, and thou standest up a living pillar, a living witness, unhurt by their impotent rage.
There are great epochs or dates of life. Hence the Lord says in the fourth verse,
“Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee.” ( Isa 43:4 )
Prayer
Almighty God, thy greatness is thy goodness: because thou art great thou art kind. Thine omnipotence is pledged on behalf of those who trust thee in Christ Jesus the Lord; a great voice comes down from heaven, saying, All things are yours; and ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s. Yea, and voices rise from thy church, saying, If God be for us, who can be against us? It is God that justifieth, who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, and is now on the right hand of God. So, then, all things are on the side of those who trust thee and love thee at the Cross; no manner of good shall be withheld from them; thou wilt withhold no blessing from him that walketh uprightly. He is not to measure his strength by himself, but by thine omnipotence; he carries the thunder of God. We bless thee for the exceeding great and precious promises, for they nourish and comfort the soul with infinite solace; we fall back upon them, and acknowledge them with religious thankfulness. Nor do we accept them as mere comfort, but as inspirations, encouragements to higher and more strenuous endeavour, so that we may turn them into noble actions, and prove how deep our trust is by showing the reality of our sacrifice. God is with us, and the blessed Son, and the eternal Spirit; we have all things and abound. We cannot fail in this war; we cannot be outrun in this race; this feast can never be exhausted; it is spread in the banqueting-chamber of creation, it is laid by the hands of God. Amen.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
XXVII
THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST IN ISAIAH
The relation between the New Testament Christ and prophecy is that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. To him give all the prophets witness. All the scriptures, the law, the prophets, and the psalms, testify of him. And we are fools, and slow of heart to credit adequate testimony when we distrust any part of the inspired evidence.
Of the ancient prophets Isaiah was perhaps the most notable witness of the coming Messiah. An orderly combination of his many messianic utterances amounts to more than a mere sketch, indeed, rather to a series of almost life-sized portraits. As a striking background for these successive portraits the prophet discloses the world’s need of a Saviour, and across this horrible background of gloom the prophet sketches in startling strokes of light the image of a coming Redeemer.
In Isa 2:2-4 we have the first picture of him in Isaiah, that of the effect of his work, rather than of the Messiah himself. This is the establishment of the mountain of the Lord’s house on the top of the mountains, the coming of the nations to it and the resultant millennial glory.
In Isa 4:2-6 is another gleam from the messianic age in which the person of the Messiah comes more into view in the figure of a branch of Jehovah, beautiful and glorious. In sketching the effects of his work here the prophet adds a few strokes of millennial glory as a consummation of his ministry.
In Isa 7:14 he delineates him as a little child born of a virgin, whose coming is the light of the world. He is outlined on the canvas in lowest humanity and highest divinity, “God with us.” In this incarnation he is the seed of the woman and not of the man.
The prophet sees him as a child upon whom the government shall rest and whose name is “Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isa 9:6 ). This passage shows the divinity of Christ and the universal peace he is to bring to the world. In these names we have the divine wisdom, the divine power, the divine fatherhood, and the divine peace.
In Isa 11:1-9 the prophet sees the Messiah as a shoot out of the stock of Jesse, i.e., of lowly origin, but possessing the Holy Spirit without measure who equips him for his work, and his administration wrought with skill and justice, the result of which is the introduction of universal and perfect peace. Here the child is presented as a teacher. And such a teacher! On him rests the seven spirits of God. The spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge, and the fear of the Lord. He judges not according to appearances and reproves not according to rumors. With righteousness he judges the poor and reproves with equality in behalf of the meek. His words smite a guilty world like thunderbolts and his very breath slays iniquity. Righteousness and faithfulness are his girdle. He uplifts an infallible standard of morals.
In Isa 40:3-8 appears John the Baptist, whom Isaiah saw as a voice crying in the wilderness, preparing the way for the coming King.
In Isa 11:2 ; Isa 42:1 ; Isa 61:1-3 the prophet saw the Messiah as a worker in the power of the Spirit, in whom he was anointed at his baptism. This was the beginning of his ministry which was wrought through the power of the Holy Spirit. At no time in his ministry did our Lord claim that he wrought except in the power of the Holy Spirit who was given to him without measure.
In Isa 35:1-10 the Messiah is described as a miracle worker. In his presence the desert blossoms as a rose and springs burst out of dry ground. The banks of the Jordan rejoice. The lame man leaps like a hart, the dumb sing and the blind behold visions. The New Testament abounds in illustrations of fulfilment. These signs Christ presented to John the Baptist as his messianic credentials (Mat 11:1-4 ).
The passage (Isa 42:1-4 ) gives us a flashlight on the character of the Messiah. In the New Testament it is expressly applied to Christ whom the prophet sees as the meek and lowly Saviour, dealing gently with the blacksliding child of his grace. In Isa 22:22 we have him presented as bearing the key of the house of David, with full power to open and shut. This refers to his authority over all things in heaven and upon earth. By this authority he gave the keys of the kingdom to Peter one for the Jews and the other for the Gentiles who used one on the day of Pentecost and the other at the house of Cornelius, declaring in each case the terms of entrance into the kingdom of God. This authority of the Messiah is referred to again in Revelation:
And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as one dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying. Fear not: I am the first and the last, and the Living one; and I was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore and I have the keys of death and of Hades. Rev 7:17
And to the angel of the church in Philadelphis write: These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth and none shall shut, and shutteth and none openeth. Rev 3:7
In Isa 32:1-8 we have a great messianic passage portraying the work of Christ as a king ruling in righteousness, in whom men find a hiding place from the wind and the tempest. He is a stream in a dry place and the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
In Isa 28:14-18 the Messiah is presented to w as a foundation stone in a threefold idea:
1. A tried foundation stone. This is the work of the master mason and indicates the preparation of the atone for its particular function.
2. An elect or precious foundation stone. This indicates that the stone was selected and appointed. It was not self-appointed but divinely appointed and is therefore safe.
3. A cornerstone, or sure foundation stone. Here it is a foundation of salvation, as presented in Mat 16:18 . It is Christ the Rock, and not Peter. See Paul’s foundation in 1 Corinthians:
According to the grace of God which was given unto me; as a wise masterbuilder I laid a foundation; and another buildeth thereon. But let each man take heed how he buildeth thereon. For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 1Co 3:10-11 .
In Isa 49:1-6 he is presented as a polished shaft, kept close in the quiver. The idea is that he is a mighty sword. In Revelation, Christ is presented to John as having a sharp, twoedged sword proceeding out of his mouth.
In Isa 50:2 ; Isa 52:9 f.; Isa 59:16-21 ; Isa 62:11 we have the idea of the salvation of Jehovah. The idea is that salvation originated with God and that man in his impotency could neither devise the plan of salvation nor aid in securing it. These passages are expressions of the pity with which God looks down on a lost world. The redemption, or salvation, here means both temporal and spiritual salvation salvation from enemies and salvation from sin.
In Isa 9:1 f. we have him presented as a great light to the people of Zebulun and Naphtali. In Isa 49:6 we have him presented as a light to the Gentiles and salvation to the end of the earth: “Yea, he saith, It is too light a thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.”
In Isa 8:14-15 Isaiah presents him as a stone of stumbling: “And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many shall stumble thereon, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.”
The prophet’s vision of his maltreatment and rejection are found in Isa 50:4-9 ; Isa 52:13-53:12 . In this we have the vision of him giving his “back to the smiters, and his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair.” We see a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. His visage is so marred it startled all nations. He is a vicarious sacrifice. The chastisement of the peace of others is on him. The iniquity of others is put on him. It pleases the Father to bruise him until he has poured out his soul unto death as an offering for sin.
The teaching of Isaiah on the election of the Jews is his teaching concerning the “holy remnant,” a favorite expression of the prophet. See Isa 1:9 ; Isa 10:20-22 ; Isa 11:11 ; Isa 11:16 ; Isa 37:4 ; Isa 37:31-32 ; Isa 46:3 . This coincides with Paul’s teaching in Romans 9-11.
In Isa 32:15 we find Isaiah’s teaching on the pouring out of the Holy Spirit: “Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be esteemed as a forest,” and in Isa 44:3 : “For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and streams upon the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring.”
In Isa 11:10 he is said to be the ensign of the nations: “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the root of Jesse, that standeth for an ensign of the peoples unto him shall the nations seek; and his resting place shall be glorious.”
Isa 19:18-25 ; Isa 54:1-3 ; Isa 60:1-22 teach the enlargement of the church. The great invitation and promise are found in Isa 55 .
The Messiah in judgments is found in Isa 63:1-6 . Here we behold an avenger. He comes up out of Edom with dyed garments from Bozra. All his raiment is stained with the blood of his enemies whom he has trampled in his vengeance as grapes are crushed in the winevat and the restoration of the Jews is set forth in Isa 11:11-12 ; Isa 60:9-15 ; Isa 66:20 . Under the prophet’s graphic pencil or glowing brush we behold the establishment and growth of his kingdom unlike all other kingdoms, a kingdom within men, a kingdom whose principles are justice, righteousness, and equity and whose graces are faith, hope, love, and joy, an undying and ever-growing kingdom. Its prevalence is like the rising waters of Noah’s flood; “And the waters prevailed and increased mightily upon the earth. And the water prevailed mightily, mightily upon the earth; and all the high mountains, that are under the whole heavens, were covered.”
So this kingdom grows under the brush of the prophetic limner until its shores are illimitable. War ceases. Gannenta rolled in the blood of battle become fuel for fire. Conflagration is quenched. Famine outlawed. Pestilence banished. None are left to molest or make afraid. Peace flows like a river. The wolf dwells with the lamb. The leopard lies down with the kid. The calf and the young lion walk forth together and a little child is leading them. The cow and the bear feed in one pasture and their young ones are bedfellows. The sucking child safely plays over the hole of the asp, and weaned children put their hands in the adder’s den. In all the holy realms none hurt nor destroy, because the earth is as full of the knowledge of the Lord as the fathomless ocean is full of water. Rapturous vision! Sublime and ineffable consummation! Was it only a dream?
In many passages the prophet turns in the gleams from the millennial age, but one of the clearest and best on the millennium, which is in line with the preceding paragraph, Isa 11:6-9 : “And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together: and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea.”
The prophet’s vision of the destruction of death is given in Isa 25:8 : “He hath swallowed up death for ever; and the Lord Jehovah will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the reproach of his people will he take away from all the earth: for Jehovah hath spoken it,” and in Isa 26:19 : “Thy dead shall live; my dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast forth the dead.”
The clearest outlines of the prophet’s vision of “Paradise Regained” are to be found in Isa 25:8 , and in two passages in chapter Isa 66 : Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all ye that love her: rejoice for joy with her, all ye that mourn over her; that ye may suck and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations; that ye may milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory. For thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream: and ye shall suck thereof; ye shall be borne upon the side, and shall be dandled upon the knees, as one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem. And ye shall see it, and your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like the tender grass: and the hands of Jehovah shall be known toward his servants ; and he will have indignation against his enemies. Isa 66:10-14
For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make shall remain before me, saith Jehovah, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith Jehovah. Isa 66:22-23
QUESTIONS
1. What is the relation between the New Testament Christ and prophecy?
2. What can you say of Isaiah as a witness of the Messiah?
3. What can you say of Isaiah’s pictures of the Messiah and their background?
4. Following in the order of Christ’s manifestation, what is the first picture of him in Isaiah?
5. What is the second messianic glimpse in Isaiah?
6. What is Isaiah’s picture of the incarnation?
7. What is Isaiah’s picture of the divine child?
8. What is Isaiah’s vision of his descent, his relation to the Holy Spirit, his administration of justice, and the results of his reign?
9. What is Isaiah’s vision of the Messiah’s herald?
10. What is the prophet’s vision of his anointing?
11. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a miracle worker?
12. What is the prophet’s vision of the character of the Messiah?
13. What is the prophet’s vision of him as the key bearer?
14. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a king and a hiding place?
15. What is the prophet’s vision of the Messiah as a foundation stone?
16. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a polished shaft?
17. In what passages do we find the idea of the salvation of Jehovah, and what the significance of the idea?
18. What is Isaiah’s vision of the Messiah as a light?
19. Where does Isaiah present him as a stone of stumbling?
20. What is the prophet’s vision of his maltreatment and rejection?
21. What is the teaching of Isaiah on the election of the Jews?
22. Where do we find Isaiah’s teaching on the pouring out of the Holy Spirit?
23. Where is he said to be the ensign of the nations?
24. What passages teach the enlargement of the church?
25. Where is the great invitation and promise?
26. Where is the Messiah in judgment?
27. What passages show the restoration of the Jews?
28. What is the prophet’s vision of the Messiah’s kingdom?
29. What is the prophet’s vision of the millennium?
30. What is the prophet’s vision of the destruction of death?
31. What is the prophet’s vision of “Paradise Regained?”
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
XIX
THE BOOK OF ISAIAH PART 11
Isaiah 43-45
The theme of these three chapters is the conflict with the forces of idolatry outside of Israel and arrayed against Israel. The special theme of Isa 43:1-44:5 is, “The Free Grace of Jehovah Brings Redemption.”
Jehovah, speaking to Israel in Isa 43:1 , contrasts the curse spoken of in the closing part of the preceding chapter with his free grace of protection. He says, “But now thus saith Jehovah.” Then follows a statement of his relation to Jacob. He was Israel’s Creator, Former. Redeemer, and Caller. He created Israel, i.e., brought Israel into being, and when Israel was chaotic, he formed it into an organized nation. When Israel was in bondage to Egypt, he redeemed it, and throughout its history he has called it by name and with special favor he has nourished it.
“Waters,” “rivers,” and “fire” in Isa 43:2 mean troubles of various kinds through which Israel must yet pass. It is a back reference to the Red Sea incident and the crossing of the Jordan, and a prophecy literally fulfilled in the case of the Hebrew children in the furnace of fire. But it has a strong and impressive symbolical meaning. They were yet to pass through the floods and fires of persecutions in their captivity, and dispersion which was to come later on in their history.
Jehovah had saved Israel from Pharaoh, from the Amalekites, from Jabin, from Midian, from the Philistines, from Zerah, and from Sennacherib. The term. “Saviour.” is quite a favorite with Isaiah in these last chapters of his book. The prophet had his eyes fixed on the deliverance of Israel from the rouble captivity of sin and of Babylon and thus he saw Jehovah not only as their Saviour in the past but their future Saviour as well. The thought is extended in the expression, “I have given Egypt as thy ransom,” which means, “In my counsels I have already assigned to the Persians, as a compensation for letting thee go free, the broad countries of Egypt, Ethiopia, and Seba.” This was fulfilled when Cambyses, the son of Cyrus effected the conquest of Egypt and Ethiopia about 527-6 B.C. This is a marvelous prediction and for its fulfilment, goes far beyond the date of this part of Isaiah assigned by the critics.
In the prophecy of Isa 43:5-6 Isaiah saw a greater dispersion than the one of his day and also a greater gathering than the return from the captivity. Though there was a primary fulfilment in the restoration from Babylon, that does not by any means fulfil the conditions herein set forth. They were to come from the north and the south, the east and the west. But no such gathering of the Jews has yet been witnessed. We look to the future for the glories of this prophecy.
In Isa 43:8-13 we have a challenge to the nations to try their hand on prophecy, either old or new, and to set forth the claims of their gods against Jehovah. He challenges them to produce the evidence in their case or acknowledge the truth as revealed by Jehovah. Israel is Jehovah’s witness, and also his chosen Servant. Therefore the conclusion is that they have no god; that Jehovah is the only true God. Not only his predictions prove him superior to the other gods, but his power to bring them to pass is beyond all power to hinder.
Israel was Jehovah’s witness (Isa 43:10 ), thus:
1. Israel was Jehovah’s witness to the truth of the proposition that he was the only God as shown in the records of its history. A look at the records proves them to be genuine and in them are found the many predictions and their fulfilments which are unquestioned. These may be mentioned: the overthrow of Jeroboam’s altar at Bethel by Josiah, David’s descendants on the throne of Judah, the long continuance of the house of Jehu, and many others. These are outstanding witnesses of the power of Jehovah to predict the future, as no other god can do.
2. Israel is yet one of the most powerful witnesses for the truth of revelation. No other nation has been so preserved in its dispersion. But all this is found in the prophecy concerning Israel. The proposition of the “Jew” is the one unanswerable argument for the inspiration of the Bible with all infidels. On all other questions they can find a fairly satisfactory answer to themselves but they cannot get by the “Jew.” He is the one unanswerable argument for the truth of our religion to the skeptic. “That Jew, that Jew; what shall we do with that Jew?”
The “servant” of Isa 43:10 is an added witness and is distinct from Israel though of Israel. This refers to the Messiah, the true servant of chapter Isa 42:1-7 whose work was largely witnessing for the Father. He is called the “Faithful Witness” (Rev 1:5 ; Rev 3:14 ), who “came into the world that he might bear witness of the truth” (Joh 18:37 ).
The counterpart to this picture of Israel’s redemption as stated in Isa 43:14-21 is the destruction of Babylon, with several correspondences between this deliverance and the deliverance from Egypt.
There are several of these back references here. “The way in the sea,” “path in the mighty waters,” “the chariot and horse,” “the army and the mighty man” are references to the incidents of the Exodus from Egypt and correspond to the power of Babylon and the way in the desert by which God will deliver them from Babylon. The “rivers in the desert” is a reference to the supply of water by Jehovah on the journey from Egypt to the Holy Land. But this deliverance is to be so much greater than the former one they are asked not to mention that one at all: to blot it out of their memory. But did the return from Babylon under Zerubbabel and Joshua fulfil this prophecy? It could not be claimed that this return was sufficient to fill out such an outline. But when we consider the typical aspect of this event as it related both to Israel and Babylon we get the spiritual deliverance of Israel from Babylon. This is impressively pictured in Revelation where the Israel of God is delivered from the mystical Babylon. So in its far-reaching application, the future of Israel so eclipsed the past that they were not to remember the former things.
In Isa 43:22-28 the Lord reproves Jacob for his sin and shows that Israel had never done anything to merit this deliverance but on the other hand, his father, Abraham, and his teachers, the priests and prophets, had all gone out of the way and there was no reason for his deliverance except for Jehovah’s own sake, purely an act of grace.
The passage (Isa 44:1-5 ), is set over against the closing verses of Isa 43 to which it really belongs as a conclusion, and in which Jehovah states that he had profaned the princes of the sanctuary, i.e., the priesthood had been deprived of its function, as a part of the punishment of Israel’s sin, and that he had made Israel a curse and a reviling. In the opening verses of Isa 44 the prophet again strikes the joyful note of promise: that the thirsty land should be refreshed; that the Spirit would be poured upon the seed of Jacob, and there would come the blessings of a matchless prosperity, at which time the Gentiles would come to take the name of Jacob and Israel.
“Jeshurun” in Isa 44:2 is one of Israel’s proper names. It is found in only four places, viz: Deu 32:15 ; Deu 33:5 ; Deu 33:26 , and here in Isa 44:2 . Of these proper names given to Israel it is well for us to note some of them in this connection. “Hebrew” is derived from Heber, the ancestor of Abraham. “Jacob” marks them as descendants of the patriarch by the same name. “Israel” marks their militant character, as soldiers for God. So when we speak of them from the standpoint of their origin, we say, “Hebrews”; when we take the standpoint of the founder, we say, “Jacob”: when we refer to their militant character it is “Israel”; when we think of their standard of moral excellence, it is “Jeshurun, the upright.”
The promise here of the outpouring of the Spirit connects back with Joe 2:28 ; Isa 32:15 , and is enlarged upon in the promises of John the Baptist and Christ, and has its fulfilment in Act 2 .
The import of Isa 44:5 is that Israel in that day will be so flourishing that the Gentiles will not be ashamed to own her, but rather, they will seek to take the name of Jehovah and his people. One will say, “I am Jehovah’s; another, “I am of Jacob”; and another, “I am of Israel.”
The special theme of Isa 44:6-23 is the “Contrast Between the Living God and Powerless Idols.” The prophet introduces this theme (Isa 44:6-8 ) by exalting Jehovah as king and redeemer of Israel, and the one eternal living God, who founded Israel and revealed himself to him as his impregnable Rock. The prophet then shows the shame of idol makers. The ones who make them are “confusion,” or “darkness”; there is no profit to their idols; their own witnesses, the idols, do not know; they expect something from them; the failure affects the whole guild of idol makers; all their efforts working together cannot save them from the fear of Jehovah. Their utter failure is their shame.
The whole process of image-making is here reviewed. First comes the making of the adz, or graving tool. The smith works and hammers, and is hungry, thirsty, and exhausted. Then follows the carpenter, lining off the idol and shaping it with various tools into the form and beauty of man. But these idols must be made of cedars or other trees, which have to be planted, which also have to be watered by the rain from Jehovah, the purpose of which is to be burnt by man. But the idol maker divides the tree, making part into a god, taking part to burn for warming himself, and cooking his food. Then bowing down before his handmade god he worships it, prays unto it and says, “Deliver me; for thou art my god.” A strange god is such a contrivance as this!
The reason for all this perversion is summed up in one sentence in Isa 44:20 , thus: “A deceived heart hath turned him aside.” The paragraph, as a whole, throws much light on their condition. They do not know because God “hath shut their eyes.” But they once could see and turned away from the light. Then God turned them over to hardness of heart and reprobacy of mind (see Rom 1:18-32 ). This is the judicial blindness that comes to those who have the light and reject it. Such is the condition of the heathen world today, except where the gospel has been proclaimed. One of the greatest results of gospel light is the destruction of idols. The Jews are also under judicial blindness today because they rejected the Messiah when he came. The lesson for us is a missionary one. There is but one thing that can dispel the ignorance here described, and that is the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is in line with Paul’s commission, to open the eyes of the Gentiles, that they might turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God, etc.” (Act 26:16-18 ).
The cheering message to Jacob and Israel in Isa 44:21-23 is the message of forgiveness and redemption, with a call upon all nature to rejoice in the salvation of Jehovah, “for Jehovah hath redeemed Jacob and will glorify himself in Israel.”
The special theme of Isa 44:24-25 is “The Mission of Cyrus.” Jehovah here introduces himself, and the introduction is in this form: “Thus saith Jehovah,”
1. Thy redeemer;
2. That formed thee from the womb;
3. That maketh all things;
4. That stretcheth forth the heavens alone;
5, That spreadeth abroad the earth (by myself) ;
6. That frustrateth the signs of the liars, and maketh diviners mad:
7. That turneth wise men backward, and maketh their knowledge foolish;
8. That confirmeth the work of his servant, and performeth the counsel of his messengers;
9. That saith to Jerusalem, She shall be inhabited, and of the cities of Judah, They shall be built, and I will raise up the waste places thereof;
10. That saith to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers;
11. That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd and shall perform all my pleasure;
12. Even saying of Jerusalem, She shall be built, and of the Temple) Thy foundation shall be laid.
Some of this language is plain enough but several of these items need special comment. In the sixth item occur the words, “signs of the liars, and maketh diviners mad,” which is a reference to the prognostications of the astrologers and soothsayers, that pretended, falsely, to have a knowledge of future events.
In the eighth item occur the words, “servant” and “messengers.” “Servant” refers to Isaiah himself and “messengers” to the prophets generally. This means that God attested his prophets in their work just as he did the Lord and his apostles in their work, bringing to pass their predictions.
In the tenth item the words, “Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers,” refers to the action of Cyrus in drawing off the water of the Euphrates when he took Babylon.
In the eleventh item are found the terms, “Cyrus” and “shepherd,” a term applied to Cyrus with the statement, “and shall perform all my pleasure.” The occurrence of “Cyrus” here is very largely responsible for the theory of two Isaiahs, which is amply discussed in the introduction. Suffice it to say here that the giving of Cyrus’ name in this passage is not inconsistent with God’s method of revelation. For instances of names given beforehand by inspiration, see introduction. “Shepherd” here applied to Cyrus places him above the ordinary Oriental monarch in his mission. Cyrus was under a special commission of the Almighty, though he was, in a large measure, unconscious of divine direction. He may have had this prophecy pointed out to him, as Josephus claims and his statements in Ezr 1:2 indicate. In doing the pleasure of Jehovah Cyrus was executing the orders of the unseen hand behind his throne and of the Great Governor of the universe, who exalts kings and deposes them at his own will.
The prediction concerning Jerusalem in the twelfth item is a marvelous prophecy, the fulfilment of which is as certain and definite as history can possibly make it.
The message of Cyrus (Isa 45:1-7 ) was that he was to be especially anointed to subdue the nations before him, as Hazael and Jehu were anointed for their work. He was to take Babylon and liberate Jehovah’s people, build their temple and establish them in the land. The purpose herein expressed was threefold: (1) That Cyrus himself might know that it was Jehovah who had called him by name; (2) That Israel should reap the benefit and advantage of his labor; (3) That the whole world might be taught the unity of God.
It seems most probable that there is a reference in Isa 45:7 to the dualism of Zoroastrianism, which advocated two external principles, light and darkness which were perpetually at war with each other. This verse seems to have supplied a corrective to that error, making God the Creator of all things.
The final aim of all God’s providential acts (Isa 45:8 ) was that of the kingdom of heaven and therein righteousness and salvation, should be planted upon earth. The two words for righteousness in this verse are different. The first is rather the norm, or the principle of righteousness; the second, the embodiment of this principle and character and conduct. The living principle descends from heaven and the quickened earth shoots forth “trees of righteousness.”
The prophet shows the folly of striving with one’s Maker (Isa 45:9-13 ). It would be absurd for the clay in the hands of the potter to say, “What makest thou?” or the unborn babe to question and find fault with its parents. So in this wonderful thing that Jehovah is about to do, he assured Israel that it is done in righteousness, and his purpose in Cyrus is the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the restoration of the exiles. In Isa 45:13 Jehovah says, “I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will make straight all his ways.” This refers to Cyrus as an instrument of God’s righteous purposes, but the question arises here with respect to his character and his attititude toward religion. The character of Cyrus has been admitted by both ancient and modern writers to have been singularly noble. There is none like him in the ancient world. The explanation of it all is found in this passage in Isaiah. He was God’s “anointed.” He had a special vocation from the God of Israel, was raised up by him in righteousness, was loved by him and chosen to perform his will on Babylon. As to his attitude toward the religion of Jehovah, it was friendly, but there is no evidence, positive, that he ever embraced it or even became a monotheist. In Ezr 1:2-4 he talks like a believer, but this may have been due to his acquaintance with this prophecy, rather than any personal acquaintance with Jehovah. In addressing Cyrus (Isa 45:4-5 ) Jehovah says, “I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.”
The far-reaching effect of the work of Cyrus (Isa 45:14-17 ) was to be that -the heathen, put to shame, should confess Jehovah to be the Saviour of Israel. Isa 45:15 shows the mysterious ways of God’s providence, and Isa 45:17 is an expression of the highest faith in Israel’s everlasting salvation by Jehovah.
After declaring himself creator and the only God, Jehovah Bays (Isa 45:19 ), “I have not spoken in secret, in a place of the land of darkness; I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain: I, Jehovah, speak righteousness, I declare things that are right.” The exposition of this text presents some exceedingly broad views of the government of God. The prophet viewed the children of Judah here as captives in Babylon, with their city and temple destroyed, and Babylon the world empire and the invincible, as holding them. This caused many difficulties in the way of this text, which seemed to make vain the commandment to seek his face. First there was the seeming invincible power of the world empire, Babylon. This Jehovah was taking care of through his own unconscious instrument of power, Cyrus, whom he raised up, endowed, and prepared. Secondly, their own degraded condition was a most serious difficulty in the way of building a nation. But Jehovah would put away their sins and restore the nation for his own name’s sake. (For a full discussion of this text see the author’s sermon, “Encouragement to Prayer,” in Evangelistic Sermons, p. 183.)
Jehovah here challenges all the nations, that have escaped, to try their hand with their gods and see if they can match this proceeding of Jehovah, and after again asserting that he is the only just God and Saviour, he throws out the broad invitation to all the earth to come and be saved, in view of the decrees which had gone forth by the oath of God, that every knee should bow and every tongue confess. Here, then, back of all human exertion, and back of all kaleidoscopic presentations of seemingly chaotic views of men and purposes, is the great purpose of God, to bring this whole world under the domination of his Son, Jesus Christ (see Phi 2:5-11 ).
In a little chapel, a primitive Methodist chapel, an exceedingly ordinary building, there is in one of the pews on the right hand side of the church from the pulpit, a tablet which says that right under that tablet, Aug. 6, 1850, Charles H. Spurgeon heard an ignorant preacher, who seemed to occupy the pulpit that day by accident, read this forty-fifth chapter of Isaiah, and heard the words, “Look unto me, all ye ends of the earth, and be ye saved,” and he was saved right then and there. This is an illustration of the power and application of this broad invitation. Surely it is not in vain to seek God.
QUESTIONS
1. What the general theme of these three chapters?
2. What the special theme of Isa 43:1-44:5 ?
3. How does Jehovah here in Isa 43:1 express his relation to Jacob, or Israel?
4. What the meaning of “waters,” “rivers,” and “fire” in Isa 43:2 ?
5. When had Jehovah been Israel’s Saviour, what the meaning of “I have given Egypt as thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in thy stead” and when was this prophecy fulfilled?
6. What the fulfilment of the prophecy of Israel’s gathering in Isa 43:5-6 ?
7. What the challenge by Jehovah in Isa 43:8-13 and what the results as herein forecast?
8. How was Israel Jehovah’s witness and who the servant in Isa 43:10 ?
9. What is the counterpart to this picture of Israel’s redemption as stated in Isa 43:14-21 ?
10. What back references do we find here to the former exodus from Egypt and how is this exodus to compare with that?
11. How is this deliverance of Israel shown to be purely of grace?
12. What new contrast in Isa 44:1-5 ?
13. Who was Jeshurun and what the significance of the different names of God’s people in the Old Testament, when was the promise here of the outpouring of the Spirit fulfilled, and what the import of Isa 44:5 ?
14. What the special theme of Isa 44:6-23 ?
15. How does the prophet introduce this theme (Isa 44:6-8 )?
16. How does the prophet then show the shame of idol makers?
17. What the prophet’s sarcastic description of the process of idol making (Isa 44:12-17 ) and what the point of ridicule?
18. What the reason for all this perversion as here assigned by the prophet (Isa 44:18-20 ) and what the lesson?
19. What the cheering message to Jacob and Israel in Isa 44:21-23 ?
20. What the special theme of Isa 44:24-45:25 ?
21. How does Jehovah here introduce himself and what the interpretation of each item of introduction?
22. What the message to Cyrus (Isa 45:1-7 ) and what the purpose expressed?
23. What the interpretation of Isa 45:7 ?
24. What the final aim of all God’s providential acts (Isa 45:8 )?
25. How does the prophet show the folly of striving with one’s Maker (Isa 45:9-13 )?
26. What the character of Cyrus and his relation to the religion of Jehovah?
27. What was to be the far-reaching effect of the work of Cyrus (Isa 45:14-17 )?
28. What encouragement to prayer in this connection (Isa 45:18-19 ) and what the difficulties to be overcome?
29. What the outcome and application of all this discussion about Cyrus?
30. What great preacher was converted by accepting this great invitation and what the circumstances of his conversion?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Isa 43:1 But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called [thee] by thy name; thou [art] mine.
Ver. 1. But now, thus saith the Lord. ] Here the prophet comforteth those with the gospel whom he had frighted with the law, saith Oecolampadius.
That created thee, O Jacob.
And he that formed thee, O Israel.
I have redeemed thee.
I have called thee by thy name.
Thou art mine.
a Augustine.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Isaiah Chapter 43
After all their faithlessness to His name, which entailed on Israel the fury of Jehovah (yet misunderstood and unfelt through the blinding influence of idolatry), in this chapter He proclaims His faithfulness Who had called Israel by their name and made them His own. “But now thus saith Jehovah that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not, for I have redeemed thee; I have called [thee] by thy name, thou [art] mine. When thou passest through the waters, I [will be] with thee, and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. For I [am] Jehovah thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour; I have given Egypt as thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee. Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou has; been honourable, and I have loved thee; and I will give men for thee, and peoples for thy life. Fear not, for I [am] with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west; r will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the end of the earth every one that is called by my name, and whom I have created for my glory; I have formed him, yea, I have made him. Bring forth the blind people that have eyes, and the deaf that have ears. Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the peoples be assembled: who among them declareth this, and showeth us former things? let them bring their witnesses, that they may be justified; or let them hear, and say, [It is] truth. Ye [are] my witnesses, saith Jehovah, and my servant whom I have chosen; that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I [am] He; before me there was no god formed, neither shall there be after me” (vv. 1-10).
This renders the subject (namely, Israel as God’s servant) as plain as His own mercy in the last days. The Jews by their idol-loving were the blind people that had eyes and the deaf that had ears. Yet were they alone of all nations Jehovah’s witness and His servant. They will yet know, believe, and understand. It was because of Him Whom they rebelled against that they have been so spoiled; it is because of Him that they will be delivered, pardoned, and blessed; for as He, Jehovah, is the only God, so is He equally the sole Saviour. It was for Israel’s sake that He had sent them to Babylon and brought down their pride; and new things should cause the old wonders to be forgotten when God gives water in the wilderness and rivers in the desert for His chosen people, formed for Himself to show forth His praise. It was God Who once, for their sins, “profaned the princes” and people of Israel; it is He Who for His own sake will blot out their transgressions and justify themselves. Before that day dawn, we know (what is to them still a secret) the great salvation by His grace, whereby alone He can thus righteously deal with the guilty: Christ, the cross, is the only key.
“I, I [am] Jehovah; and beside me there is no Saviour. I have declared, and I have saved, and I have shown, and there was no strange [god] among you: therefore ye [are] my witnesses, saith Jehovah, that I [am] God. Yea, since the day [was], I [am] He; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who shall hinder it? Thus saith Jehovah, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, For your sake I have sent to Babylon, and I will bring down all of them as fugitives, even the Chaldeans, in the ships of their rejoicing. I [am] Jehovah, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King. Thus saith Jehovah, who maketh a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters; who bringeth forth the chariot and horse, the army and the power – they lie down together, they shall not rise; they are extinct, they are quenched as flax – Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing; now shall it spring forth: shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, [and] rivers in the desert. The beast of the field shall honour 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: the people have I formed for myself, that they might set forth my praise Yet thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob; for thou hast been weary of me, O Israel. Thou hast not brought me the small cattle of thy burnt-offerings; neither hast thou honoured me with thy sacrifices. I have not made thee to toil with oblation, nor wearied thee with frankincense. Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money, neither hast thou filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices; but thou hast made me to toil with thy sins, thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities. I, I [am] he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake; and I will not remember thy sins. Put me in remembrance; let us plead together: set thou forth [thy cause], that thou mayest be justified. Thy first father sinned, and thine interpreters have transgressed against me. Therefore I profaned (or, will profane) the princes of the sanctuary, and made (or, will make) Jacob a curse, and Israel a reviling” (vv. 11-28).
Kimchi remarks that the construction indicates the future or the universal present rather than past time, Jehovah always “profaning” the responsibly holy chiefs who betrayed His name (cp. Ps. 84: 39). In the day that is coming grace will work not only for but in them. Jehovah will work for His own sake man having failed in every way. The “interpreters” or mediators of v. 27 that rebelled seem included in the “princes of the sanctuary.”
It has been objected to the natural sense of “thy first father” (ver. 27) that Adam was not peculiarly father of Israel, being the parent of all mankind. But there seems to be no force in the argument. Israel alone had sure knowledge from God about him who was the first man and head of the race; and he alone, who was created innocent, gave the due emphasis to the description – “sinned.”
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
Isaiah
THY NAME: MY NAME
Isa 43:1
Great stress is laid on names in Scripture. These two parallel and antithetic clauses bring out striking complementary relations between God and the collective Israel. But they are as applicable to each individual member of the true Israel of God.
I. What does God’s calling a man by his name imply?
Adam naming the creatures.
Christ naming His disciples.
2. Loving friendship.
Moses, ‘I know thee by name, and thou hast found grace in my sight.’
3. Designation and adaptation to work.
Bezaleel- Exo 31:2 ; Cyrus- Isa 45:3 ; Servant of the Lord- Isa 49:1 .
II. What does God’s calling a man by His name imply?
2. Kindred. The man bears the family name. He is adopted into the household. The sonship of the receiver of the new name is dimly shadowed.
3. Likeness.
The Biblical meaning of ‘name’ is ‘character manifested.’
Nomen and omen coincide.
We must bring into connection with the texts the prominence given in the Apocalypse to analogous promises.
‘I will write on him the name of My God.’ That means a fuller disclosing of God’s character, and a clear impress of that character on perfected men ‘His name shall be in their foreheads.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Isa 43:1-7
1But now, thus says the LORD, your Creator, O Jacob,
And He who formed you, O Israel,
Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name; you are Mine!
2When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
And through the rivers, they will not overflow you.
When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched,
Nor will the flame burn you.
3For I am the LORD your God,
The Holy One of Israel, your Savior;
I have given Egypt as your ransom,
Cush and Seba in your place.
4Since you are precious in My sight,
Since you are honored and I love you,
I will give other men in your place and other peoples in exchange for your life.
5Do not fear, for I am with you;
I will bring your offspring from the east,
And gather you from the west.
6I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’
And to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’
Bring My sons from afar
And My daughters from the ends of the earth,
7Everyone who is called by My name,
And whom I have created for My glory,
Whom I have formed, even whom I have made.
Isa 43:1 LORD This is from the word YHWH. In Exo 3:14 it is translated I Am. This form is from the Hebrew VERB to be. See Special Topic: Names for Deity .
your Creator This is a Qal PARTICIPLE (BDB 135, KB 153). This is a common theme throughout the Servant Songs. Here it refers to the establishment of the nation (cf. Genesis 12, 15, 22).
The second line of chapter 43 has the parallel VERB formed (BDB 427, KB 428, Qal PARTICIPLE, cf. Isa 43:21; Isa 44:2; Isa 44:21; Isa 44:24). YHWH was not only the Creator of the physical realm but also the covenant people (cf. Genesis 12, 15, 18, 22).
O Jacob. . .O Israel These two VOCATIVES both refer to the collective covenant people, the seed of Abraham.
Do not fear This is a command (BDB 431, KB 432, Qal IMPERFECT used in a JUSSIVE sense). So often this is God’s word for His people, especially after the exile and destruction of Jerusalem and the temple (cf. Isa 40:9; Isa 41:10; Isa 41:13-14; Isa 44:2; Isa 54:4).
redeemed See Special Topic: Ransom/Redeem .
I have called you by name This (both redeemed and called are Qal PERFECTS) refers to God’s choice of Israel (cf. Isa 43:7; Isa 45:3-4). This was a special calling through Abraham (cf. Genesis 12, 15, 18, 22).
you are Mine See Isa 43:21 and Exo 19:5-6. Israel was uniquely YHWH’s people.
Isa 43:2 the waters. . .the fire. . .the flame This is such a wonderful text! These are used as metaphors of problems, fears, and foes!
will be with you This is God’s greatest promise (i.e., His personal presence, cf. Isa 43:5; Deu 31:6; Deu 31:8; Psa 23:4; Mat 28:20).
Nor will the flame burn you For one example see Daniel 3.
Isa 43:3 Savior This root’s basic meaning can be translated to be wide (BDB 446, KB 448). The names Joshua and Jesus are based on this root.
ransom This speaks of the high cost of redemption (see Special Topic: Ransom/Redeem ). The object of this verse seems to be Cyrus II’s conquests.
Isa 43:4 There is an apparent parallel between
1. Isa 43:3 – a ransom involving Egypt, Cush, and Seba instead of Israel
2. Isa 43:4 – a ransom involving
a. other men
b. other peoples
The UBS Text Project (p. 111) gives another option (i.e., Assyria. . .Edom), which is found in the REB. This change is possible without a change of consonants. However, the UBS Text Project rates option #1 as A (very high probability).
Isa 43:3-4 are a literary way of showing YHWH’s great love for Israel and His willingness for Cyrus’ military victories to assure Israel’s return to Palestine.
Isa 43:5-7 This reflects the return from Babylonian exile allowed by Cyrus II’s decree.
Isa 43:7 called. . .created. . .formed. . .made God had a purpose for Israel (cf. Isa 43:10; Gen 12:1-3; Exo 19:5-6). See Special Topic: YHWH’s Eternal Redemptive Plan .
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
the LORD. Hebrew. Jehovah. App-4.
the LORD That created thee. This is another Jehovah title (compare App-4.) = Jehovah Boraaka = Jehovah thy Creator.
Jacob . . . Israel. See notes on Gen 32:28; Gen 43:6; Gen 45:26, Gen 45:28. See Isa 42:24, above.
He That formed thee = thy Former.
Fear not. Compare Isa 43:5.
redeemed. Hebrew. ga’al. See note on Exo 6:6.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
But yet, God is going to restore them. Chapter 43 gets in the restoration.
But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. For I am the LORD thy God, and the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Arabia for thee. Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honorable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life. Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, I will gather thee from the west; I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the end of the eaRuth ( Isa 43:1-6 );
And so God predicted this present-day gathering together of the people of Israel back into the land. Coming from the east, the west, the south. And even Russia, God is saying, “Give My people up.” And I expect there to be a real relaxing of the Russian government on the immigration of the Jews.
Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him ( Isa 43:7 ).
Now God says concerning them, “I have created them. I have formed him. Yea, I have made him.” In the Hebrew there are three different words: created, made, and formed, as God speaks of His work. One is that of creating something out of nothing, which only God can do. And then how God made them and then formed them. Formed them and made them.
Bring forth the blind people that have eyes, and the deaf that have ears. Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled: who among them can declare this, and show us the former things? let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified: or let them hear, and say, It is truth ( Isa 43:8-9 ).
Now God said of the Jews, “Ye are My witnesses.” And surely someone said if you want proof of the Bible, just look at the Jews. There’s proof of the Bible. God said that He would make them a nation once again. They are a nation once again. You can’t deny it. That’s an impossibility and yet it’s a reality. It’s impossible that an ethnic group of people could live for two thousand years without a national homeland and still survive as an ethnic group. Unparalleled in history.
God said,
Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour ( Isa 43:10-11 ).
Now those who say, “Well, it doesn’t matter really what you believe. There are many gods, many paths to God.” Hey, He doesn’t agree with that. “Before Me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after Me.” I wonder what the Mormons do with that. Sort of puts the brakes on their ascending into the godhood status.
I have declared, and have saved, and I have showed, when there was no strange god among you: therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, that I am God. Yea, before the day was I am he; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who shall hinder it? Thus saith the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; For your sake I have sent to Babylon, and have brought down all their nobles, and the Chaldeans, whose cry is in the ships. I am the LORD, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King. Thus saith the LORD, which maketh a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters; Which brings forth the chariot and horse, the army and the power; they shall lie down together, they shall not rise: they are extinct, they are quenched as tow. Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. The beast of the field shall honor me, the dragons and the owls: because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen. This people have I formed for myself; and they shall show forth my praise. But thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob; but thou hast been weary of me, O Israel. Thou hast not brought me the small cattle of thy burnt offerings ( Isa 43:12-23 );
Now God is speaking how the nation Israel has not really been keeping the covenant with God. And for almost 1,950 years they have not offered to God a burnt offering.
neither hast thou honored me with sacrifices. I have not caused thee to serve with an offering, nor wearied thee with incense. Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money, neither hast thou filled me with the fat of your sacrifices: but thou hast made me to serve with thy sins, thou hast wearied me with your iniquities. I, even I, am he that blotteth out the transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins. Put me in remembrance: let us plead together: declare thou, that you may be justified. Thy first father hath sinned, and thy teachers have transgressed against me. Therefore I have profaned the princes of the sanctuary, I have given Jacob to the curse, and Israel to reproaches ( Isa 43:23-28 ).
And so because they have not kept God’s covenant, they have experienced the desolation. “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Isa 43:1. But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I hove redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.
Observe the tender ties that bind our God to his people;-creation, the formation of them for his praise; redemption, the purchase of them for himself; and the calling of them by their name. The Lord remembers the bonds which unite us to himself even when we forget them; he recollects his eternal love, and all the deeds of mercy that have flowed from it.
Though our memory is treacherous, and our faith is feeble, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself; blessed be his holy name!
Isa 43:2. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee;
His presence is all that we need even in the deepest floods of tribulation; this he has promised to us. He does not say what he will do for us, but he does tell us that he will be with us, and that is more than enough to meet all our necessities.
Isa 43:2. And through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.
That is a wonderful picture of a man walking through the fire, and yet not being burned; but there was a greater wonder, that was seen by Moses, which may well comfort us. He saw a bush that burned with fire, and yet was not consumed. Now a bush, in the desert, is usually so dry that, at the first application of fire, it flames, and glows, and is speedily gone; yet you and I, who are, spiritually, just as dry and combustible as that bush was naturally, may burn, and burn, and burn, yet we shall not be consumed, because the God, who was in the bush, is also with us, and in us.
Isa 43:3. For I am the LORD thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee.
And he has given infinitely more than that for us who are his people now, for he gave his only-begotten Son that he might redeem us with his precious blood. Now that we have cost him so much, is it likely that he will ever forsake us? It is not possible.
Isa 43:4. Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life.
How sweetly this verse comes home to those whose characters have been disreputable! As soon as they are truly converted to Christ, they become honourable. Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable. God does not call his people by their old names of dishonour, but he gives them the title of Right Honourable, and makes them the nobility of his Court. Unto you that believe, he is an honour; and you have honour in him and from him.
Isa 43:5-7. Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west; I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth; Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.
The Lord seems to dwell upon that note of the creation of his children for his own glory. This accounts for many of our troubles, and for all our deliverances; it is that God may be glorified by bringing his children through the fires and through the floods. A life that was never tested by trial and trouble would not be a life out of which God would get much glory but they that do business in the great waters see the works of God, and his wonders in the deep, and they give him praise; and, besides, when they come to their desired haven, then they praise the Lord for his goodness, and God is thereby glorified.
This exposition consisted of readings from Isa 43:1-7; Isa 43:18-28; and Isa Isa 44:1-2.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Isa 43:1-7
Isa 43:1-7
There is a dramatic change in this chapter from the severe rebukes and denunciations of Israel in Isaiah 42, where Israel appears as the blind and deaf servant, to the glorious comfort promised the people of God in this chapter. Many Christians have made this chapter their favorite of the whole prophecy of Isaiah.
However, it should never be overlooked that the blind and deaf servant (the physical Israel, the old Israel, the fleshly Israel) also appears in the last two verses of this chapter. Therefore, the words here are addressed, first to the New Israel, the True Israel, the Spiritual Israel; and then, in the last two verses, the address changes back to the prophecy regarding the former Israel.
There is, however, an almost universal misunderstanding of these first seven verses; and many commentators mistakenly apply them to the old physical Israel, the historical Jews, to which these particular verses have no reference at all.
These precious promises are not in any sense whatever applicable to the rebellious, wicked Israelites, who, as Isaiah wrote this, were still pursuing an exceedingly evil path of sin and rebellion against God. The horrible reign of Manasseh is the only proof of this fact that is needed.
There is no excuse whatever for the high handed manner in which alleged “scholars” have preempted these verses and interpreted them as promises to fleshly Israel, “purely through God’s grace, and with no regard whatever to the evil character of that fleshly Israel.” Yes indeed, God’s grace is wonderful; but it is not that wonderful!. The basic fact of all holy religion is that there must be on the part of the people whom God will save, “A true holiness (sanctification) without which no man shall see God” (Heb 12:14, KJV).
In the previous chapter here, Isaiah made it very clear that there are “two Israels”; and the very first necessity here is to determine which of the two was addressed by these marvelous promises of comfort, security, blessing, and salvation.
Isa 43:1-7
“But now thus saith Jehovah who created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel: Fear not, for I have redeemed thee; I have called thee by thy name, thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. For I am Jehovah thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour; I have given Egypt as thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in thy stead. Since thou hast been precious in my sight, and honorable, and I have loved thee; therefore will I give men in thy stead, and peoples instead of thy life. Fear not; for I am with thee; I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west; I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back; and bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the end of the earth; everyone that is called by my name, and whom I have created for my glory, whom I have formed, yea, whom I have made.”
“The comfort and encouragement here (Isa 43:1-7) is to the pious.” Let it also be noted that the promises here are for “everyone that is called by” the name of God (Isa 43:7), a qualification that existed only centuries after Isaiah wrote and which pertains to God’s children. Of course, the comfort here was not at all limited to people who would live in the times of the New Covenant; but the inclusion of such qualifications did have the utility of excluding the wicked from the promises of assurance and blessing given here. In the immediate foreground of these wonderful promises is God’s projected return of his chosen people from Babylon. Let it never be forgotten, however, that God’s “chosen people,” from the very beginning never applied merely to people who were physically descended from Abraham, but always signified that “remnant” of the fleshly Israel who believed in God and tried faithfully to walk in God’s ways. Jesus Christ elaborated this truth in John 8 in the New Testament.
The past tenses here: “I have redeemed thee; I have called thee by thy name, etc.,” are verbs of prophetic certainty; and they have the same meaning as the future verbs: “I will bring thy seed from the east; I will be with thee, etc.”
We believe that Adam Clarke was correct in his allegation that Isa 43:1 should read, “Called thee by my name,” instead of “thy name.” He wrote:
It seems from the seventh verse, and from the thing itself, that we should read, “I have called thee by my name,” for this form of speech often occurs, but the other never!
Cheyne thought that this chapter teaches that, “All Israel shall be saved.” However, he must have overlooked Isa 43:28! His comment here is a fair example of the claims made by “faith only” and “grace only” advocates of a salvation totally unconnected with righteousness. It is precisely this type of antinomianism that has practically destroyed the Protestantism of the present century.
As Payne indicated, “The promise of release from exile is the theme here; but it is now widened and deepened.” This is true because: (a) the returnees are from all over the world, not merely from Babylon; (b) the promised redemption is an earmark of the new covenant; and (c) because of the emphasis upon God’s love (Isa 43:3).
Kidner caught the spirit of this passage perfectly with this comment:
“These seven verses (Isa 43:1-7) eloquently detail the assurance that Christ gave his Church, that the Gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Fire, water, distances, peoples etc. can take no toll. Everyone will prevail whom God calls `mine.'”
“I have given Egypt as thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in thy stead” (Isa 43:3). “This means that God granted to the Persians, beforehand, as a reward for their release of the captive Israel, the country of Egypt, and a portion of Ethiopia as additions to their empire.” There is a very good reason, however, behind the vigorous objections that some critical writers offer against this interpretation. As Rawlinson noted:
“Even the very latest dates assigned by skeptical critics to Second Isaiah (their imaginative author of this part of Isaiah) still makes this a very remarkable prophecy. Both Egypt and Ethiopia became part of Persia several years after Cyrus died, whose son Cambyses effected these conquests circa 527-526 B.C.
In order, therefore, to challenge the undeniable evidence here of predictive prophecy; many scholars soften the meaning here to be a mere prediction that God will remove even mighty nations whenever it is necessary to preserve Israel. Of course, such a proposition is indeed true; but we believe there is a more specific thing mentioned here.
The certainty that this passage promises the return from Babylonian captivity must be accepted; “But it also certainly looks beyond to the gathering of all God’s people who are called by God’s name. That great ingathering was accomplished and will continue to be accomplished only under the Servant Jesus Christ, whom God appointed to the task.
Isa 43:1-4 REDEMPTION: This chapter forms the climactic statement of Gods Purpose for Israels servanthood-to be Gods Called. This chapter also forms the conclusion to the preceding discussion of the interrelation of national Israel-covenant Israel-to the Messiah. This whole section of Salvation Through Gods Servant (chapters 40-53), is a kaleidoscopic view of the correlation of Israel and the Messiah. Israel was called for the messianic purpose, but she sinned. God must chasten her to purify her. After her purification she will be redeemed and from her will come the Messiah and His kingdom in which only the regenerated shall dwell.
Two words are used in verse one to emphasize Jehovahs claim upon Israel; bara, create and yatzar, form, shape, are the distinctive Hebrew words showing Gods unique relationship to Israel. She is His possession by right of His having brought her into existence and having molded her into what He wants her to be. The Hebrew word for redeemed is goael and a derivative of the same word is sometimes translated kinsman (cf. Rth 3:2, etc.). Israel is kin to God by creation and redemption. Israel is Gods child, His son, His bride (cf. Eze 16:1 f; Hos 11:1 f; Isa 49:14-18; Isa 62:1 f, etc.). Israel is Gods precious possession. The placing of the two names of verse one are interesting. Yaakoov, Jacob, means defraud, circumvent, crooked, deceitful, while Yisrael, Israel, means prevail, prince or ruler of God, or perhaps, God will rule. Israel is the name God gave Jacob after Jacob wrestled with the angel of the Lord and prevailed. Hosea appeals to the spineless, compromising Israel of his day to take again the character of its forefather who was so singleminded about striving for the spiritual birthright (cf. Hos 12:2-6). So, Israel was what God named this nation because He redeemed it or purchased it, not only through the change made in Jacobs character, but also throughout her history. This is what God calls Israel-mine!
Not only has God redeemed Israel, He will continue to do so. He will protect her. When she is forced to go through waters (probably when being taken captive, for there were hardly any bridges over rivers then) God will keep her from being swept away. When they were forced to walk through fire, God would not allow the flame to consume them. A literal fulfillment of protection from fire is recorded in the event with the three Hebrew men (Dan 3:1-30) in the fiery furnace of Nebuchadnezzar. The point is Israel need not fear extinction for God is powerful and mighty to save from any thing. God could even save them from lions (Daniel), hangmen (Esther) and their own countrymen (Jeremiah).
Jehovah, Creator of all mankind, is jealous enough for Israel, His precious servant, called to glorify His name in all the earth, He is willing to give up other nations and peoples as a substitutionary ransom to keep Israel. God is ready to sacrifice practically the whole African continent (as was then known, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Seba) if need be to keep Israel free to fulfill her messianic destiny. Some think this is a prediction that God is willing to, and did, assign Egypt, Ethiopia and Seba to Persia as compensation for their letting Israel return to Palestine by the edict of Cyrus (cf. 2 Chronicles 36; Ezra 1). Egypt and Ethiopia did submit to the Persian yoke in the days of Cambyses (cir. 527-526 B.C.), about 10 years after the return of the exiled Jews to Palestine.
From the time the promise was given to Jacob (Gen 28:14), Israel became precious to Jehovah. From that time on God placed the interests of Israel above those of other peoples. Young says, Perhaps the general thought is simply that in choosing Israel God passed by other nations and thus they were sacrificed (i.e., were the ransom price) in its place. The point, of course, is not that Israel of itself merits this evaluation of preciousness; the point is Gods grace. Paul makes this matter clear in Romans, chapters 9-10-11. Israels preciousness consists solely in Gods sovereign choice of her to be His servant. The same is true of the new Israel, the church. The church is precious not because of the merit of the human beings in her membership but because of Gods sovereign redemption by grace to the church in the unique work of Christ, offered through belief and obedience of the Gospel. The preciousness of the church is shown in that God was willing to offer His monogenes, only, unique Son as a ransom.
Isa 43:5-7 REGENERATION: The captivity, which was certain to come, was symbolic of the estrangement between Israel and God. Israel willfully and deliberately separated themselves from His holiness (cf. Isa 30:1-14, etc.). The separation was not Gods choosing. However, in order to demonstrate vividly Israels need for Gods holy fellowship, God delivered her to captivity. But Israel is not to fear. Because a remnant has believed the prophets and remain true to Jehovah, He will bring them back from all over the earth to their land again and to their appointment with destiny. That return from the exile, however, is only a first step. The meaning of these verses is by no means restricted to the return from the captivity. As Young says, In a far deeper sense it is addressed to all those who are afar off, who can be brought to the true Mount Zion only by the gracious working of the Lord . . . The reference is to the spiritual gathering of lost sinners in Jesus Christ. The seed refers to the spiritual descendants of Jacob. There are plenty of references in Isaiah to demonstrate this principle (cf. comments on Isa 19:16-25, etc.).
Verse seven indicates that God is referring to His spiritual people and not just physical Israel, when it says every one that is called by my name. Jesus made plain who Gods sons were in John 8. Not all descended from Israel belong to Israel (cf. Rom 9:6; Rom 2:25-29; Gal 6:13-16, etc.). Anyone who does not come to God through Jesus Christ is not called by Gods name. The arrangement of the words, created, formed, and made, seem to be in an ascending scale depicting the work of God in the redemption of those called by His name. First there is the new creation (the initial new birth, becoming a Christian), then the shaping or molding of that life into the image of Christ from one degree of glory to another and last the perfecting or consummating work of glorifying the child of God. Isaiah is talking about a regeneration. He is depicting the bringing from an Israel that was one only in name, to Israel that is one in truth!
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Following the manifesto, we have in the next three chapters a series of messages of Jehovah. The first declares His perpetual purpose for His people. His constant attitude of love is affirmed in promises which gain their force from the fact that they glance back at past deliverances. Passing through waters, and through rivers, walking through fire, they are to be safe, for they have been safe in such conditions.
Then deliverance is definitely promised, in which the north must give up, and the south must not keep back. The present purpose of God is that the blind people who yet have eyes and the deaf who still have ears should be brought forth. Israel has sadly failed as the servant of God, but her ultimate deliverance and the fulfillment of her vocation as witness are sure because of what God is and of what He is able to do. The declaration ends with the announcement and challenge, “I will work, and who shall reverse it?”
In the second message God’s present purpose of deliverance is described in greater detail. For the sake of Israel all her foes are to be destroyed. In the midst of this declaration, and for the encouragement of faith, an appeal is made to past history. “Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old.” These things, however, are to be superseded by the new, and the purpose is that the people of Jehovah may set forth His praise. This announcement is followed by an appeal to the people in which their sin is described. God’s pardon is promised, and their punishment is again explained.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Jehovahs Witnesses
Isa 43:1-13
The magnificent conception of Isa 43:1-28 underlies this. We have still the convocation of mankind, summoned to decide whether Jehovah or some idol god shall be recognized as the supreme deity. In the arena are rows of helpless images rich in paint and tinsel, but mute and helpless, Isa 43:8-9. Jehovah, to vindicate His claims, calls into the witness box His Chosen People, that they may tell what they have known, tasted, and handled, of the Word of life, Isa 43:10.
This special function is not confined to the Hebrew race. By the express words of our Lord it is shared by the Church. See Act 1:8. As our Lord bore witness to truth, His subjects are summoned to do the same. See 1Ti 6:13-14; Rev 1:5.
Let us witness to the love that never tires. Fear not, thou art mine. Let us witness to a purpose that never falters, Isa 43:1 and Isa 43:7. Let us witness to a deliverance that never disappoints. We are not saved from fire and water, but are delivered in the midst of them by the never-failing presence of our King. Let us ask for the Spirit of Truth to witness with us, Act 5:31-32.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
EXPOSITORY NOTES ON
THE PROPHET ISAIAH
By
Harry A. Ironside, Litt.D.
Copyright @ 1952
edited for 3BSB by Baptist Bible Believer in the spirit of the Colportage ministry of a century ago
ISAIAH CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
GOD’S WITNESSES TO HIS FAITHFULNESS
THE Lord’s gracious care of Israel is continued. How wonderfully He enters into their sorrows!
“But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour” (verses 1-3).
He who led Israel in safety through the Red Sea and the Jordan, and who walked with the three devoted Hebrew youths in the fiery furnace, is still the unfailing resource of His troubled people in every hour of trial, no matter how severe the test. Faith can count on His sustaining grace and blessed companionship, in each perplexity or apparent defeat or grave danger. Millions have tested and proven the faithfulness of His promise. With His gracious care for His people He brings His witnesses to it.
“Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no saviour . . . Yea, before the day was I am he” (verses 10-13).
It is to Israel the Lord says, “Ye are my witnesses,” and this is true of them whether they are obedient to Him or disobedient, in the land or out of the land, whether they are keeping the law or breaking it, because GOD has given His testimony through Moses and other prophets showing just how He was going to deal with His people down through the centuries, the blessings that would be theirs, if they walked in obedience; the curses and judgments that would come upon them if they were disobedient.
History shows the truth of what GOD has declared and, therefore, Israel are GOD’s witnesses to the truth of His Word.
Frederick the Great who had been listening to Voltaire’s agnostic ideas once asked one of his court chaplains, “If the Bible is true it ought to be capable of very clear and succinct witness. Generally when I ask if the Bible is true, I am handed some long scholarly volume which I have neither the time nor the patience to read. If your Bible is true, give me the proof of it in one word.”
The chaplain answered, “Sire, Israel.”
And Frederick acknowledged that this indeed is a proof that the Bible is true, the Word of the living GOD.
But to Israel’s witness to the past is added, “And my chosen Servant.” He is the faithful and true witness to GOD’s faithfulness. In chapter 42:1-9 we were called to behold Him and the character of His service. The purpose of this witness is next given:
“That ye may know and believe Me, and understand that I am He: before Me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after Me. I, even I, am the Lord; and beside Me there is no Saviour.”
From this time on the Lord challenges the idolaters to give some evidence of any spirit of prophecy working in them. Tell us what is to come. Tell us things that have never been. Explain the past. Explain the origin of the world. They could not. GOD alone has done all these things.
~ end of chapter 43 ~
http://www.baptistbiblebelievers.com/
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Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
Isa 43:1-3
In this text we have
I. A charge given-“Fear not.” A righteous, godly fear the believer may have; but the cowardice of the world, which is loud to boast, and slow to act, and quick to doubt-which is prone to distrust even the Almighty and disbelieve the All-true-this he must never know. It becomes neither the dignity of his calling nor the faithfulness of his God.
II. A reason assigned-“Thou art Mine.” These words were spoken to Israel after the flesh, and to them they still remain a covenant of peace, sure and steadfast for ever; yet as the relations named-Creator, Redeemer, and Saviour-are not peculiar to them, but are enjoyed in the same degree by every believing heart, we may safely take to ourselves a share in this animating promise. The certainty of the believer’s hope does not depend on our holding God, but on God’s holding us, not on our faithfulness to Him, but on His faithfulness to us.
III. A protection promised. This does not consist in any absence of trial and danger; the expressions of the text rather imply their presence, many in number and various in kind. The protection promised in the text consists in the constant presence with the soul of its unseen but Almighty Saviour. The preserving hand will never be withdrawn, and the grace of the Comforter will strengthen and cheer the soul still in its sorest times of difficulty and distress.
E. Garbett, The Soul’s Life, p. 204.
References: Isa 43:1.-R. Thomas, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxvi., p. 88. Isa 43:1-4.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxii., No. 1895.
Isa 43:2
(with Dan. 3)
The text contains
I. A pre-intimation of trouble. Although we have not in it a distinct assertion or prediction of particular trials, yet it is most clearly and strongly implied that the chosen people would have to go through them. God never deceives us. He never foresees one thing for us and tells us to expect another. He meets us, so to speak, in plainness and candour, and He says, My ways are ways of ultimate happiness, but not of proximate. Tribulation is the very cause of religion’s peculiar blessedness,-the very parent and producer of its inconceivable peace. Those who have most of the sorrow invariably taste most of the joy.
II. A promise of Divine succour and deliverance. The very same passage that intimates sorrow and leads us to expect persecution for the sake of Christ, assures us also most encouragingly of strength equal to our day, and of grace to help in every time of need. The promise assures us (1) of the Saviour’s sympathy in our trials, “I will be with thee.” What Jesus promises to His chosen is not the mere succour of aid-it is the succour of a helpful sympathy. (2) Mark the kind of sympathy it is. It is not the sympathy of weakness that can only weep with us, but hath no power to give us assistance. But this is the remarkable and blessed thing in the sympathy of Christ-it is human sympathy allied to Almighty power. This sympathising Son of God is the Creator and Controller of flood and fire. There is promised to all His tried and faithful servants both succour and salvation, defence and deliverance.
R. Glover, By the Waters of Babylon, p. 133.
References: Isa 43:2.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vii., No. 397; R. Glover, By the Waters of Babylon, p. 133. Isa 43:3.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxi., No. 1831. Isa 43:4.-Ibid., vol. xvi., No. 917, vol. xxviii., No. 1671; Isa 43:6.-Ibid., vol. xvii., No. 1007; Ibid., Evening by Evening, p. 296. Isa 43:10.-Preacher’s Monthly, vol. i., p. 52; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. ii., p. 229, vol. xii., p. 134; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. x., p. 106; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xi., No. 644; J. Hall, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxviii., p. 270; J. Kennedy, Ibid., vol. i., p. 424. Isa 43:16.-Preacher’s Monthly, vol. vii., p. 354. Isa 43:19.-T. Stephenson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. v., p. 209. Isa 43:21.-J. J. West, Penny Pulpit, No. 348; Homiletic Magazine, vol. ix., p. 165.
Isa 43:22
I. The nature of this evil. To be weary of God is to desire to break the connection that exists between us and God. It is to be impatient of continued connection with Him; to be tired of calling upon Him; tired of thinking of Him; tired of trusting Him; tired of waiting for Him; tired of serving Him.
II. The nature of this weariness will appear further if you look for a moment at the forms in which it is shown. (1) This weariness is first shown by formality in Divine worship, (2) in the outward neglect of Divine requirements, (3) in not looking to God for aid and succour, (4) in the setting up of false gods.
III. What is the occasion of the manifestation of this weariness? You will generally find one of the following things-disappointed hope, the endurance of affliction, or the prosperity of the wicked.
IV. God’s dealings, God’s dispensations, may be the occasion of the springing up of this weariness, but we cannot charge it upon God. Its cause is to be found either in the absence of love or in the feebleness of love.
V. Look at the bitter fruits of this weariness. God sees it, and He cannot see it without feeling it, that would be impossible. What feeling, therefore, must spring up in the Divine nature? It cannot be joy and it cannot be complacency. What can it be but anger, what but displeasure? And displeasure does arise. God is angry and He corrects, and He corrects so as to make the chastisement answer to the sin. The man has, to a cer tain extent, withdrawn from God-God withdraws from the man. He deprives the man of whatever influences are tending to promote his peace and joy and rest. And if the heart be alive, if it be a quickened heart, this state is one/of great misery until the soul is restored to God.
VI. What is the prevention, or rather, the means of prevention? Ejecting the first hard thoughts of God, not yielding for a moment to indolence in the service of God; following Christ implicitly in the conduct of the spirit towards God; cherishing most sacredly the influences of the Holy Spirit.
VII. And when you have fallen into this evil state, what is its cure? (1) The full confession of the weariness. (2) Admission of the Divine goodness in the correction by which you are made sensible of your weariness. (3) Return to the careful observances of God’s ordinances and precepts, the obtaining of pardon, and the assurance of forgiveness.
S. Martin, Westminster Chapel Pulpit, 1st series, No. 19.
References: Isa 43:22-24.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxii., No. 1895. Isa 43:24.-Ibid., Evening by Evening, p. 144.
Isa 43:24-25
I. Consider the ground on which Israel is reproached. Sweet cane, or calamus, is an aromatic reed which was an exotic in in Palestine, and is chiefly to be found in India. The demand for sweet cane was great, because it formed an ingredient of the incense in most countries where incense was used. It was one of the things which could not be obtained by barter. The charge is, “You do not neglect the offices of religion, but you perform them carelessly; you do not withhold your offerings, but you do not offer of your best.” Bad is the best that man has to offer to God; but less than our best God will not accept.
II. When did the King eternal, immortal, invisible, serve? When was God, the Omnipotent, wearied with our iniquities? When did the Judge of the earth blot out our sins? We, enlightened by the gospel, can give an answer which Israel of old could not. We answer, “Then, when the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us,” when God in the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity became incarnate. He came to serve, and when we think of Him, the God-Man, serving under the law, is it possible for us to ask, in the spirit of a slave, How little can I render unto the Lord for all His benefits? what is the least that He demands, the minimum of duty? The great principle is this, that we never offer unto the Lord what costs us nothing, or what involves no thought or trouble. He will not accept the refuse at our hands. And this principle we are to carry out in all that relates to our moral conduct and religious life. It is applicable to our private devotions as well as to our public services. It is implied in our Lord’s injunction, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.”
W. F. Hook, Parish Sermons, p. 186.
Isa 43:25
There is one thing that God always does with sin. He removes it out of His presence. God cannot dwell with sin. When He casts away the guilty soul into an unapproachable distance, and when He pardons a penitent soul and lays it upon His bosom, He is doing the same thing equally in both cases,-He is removing sin absolutely and infinitely.
I. Consider the Author of forgiveness. The expression, “I, even I,” is not a very unfrequent one in Holy Scripture; but wherever it occurs-whether in reference to justice or to mercy-it is the mark of the Almighty, at that moment taking to Himself, in some special degree, some sovereign prerogative. Here, the magnificent repetition of that name, first given in the bush, was evidently intended to show one characteristic feature of God’s love. He forgives like a sovereign. All His attributes are brought to bear upon our peace. The pardoned sinner stands upon the Eternal, leans upon the Infinite, and looks out upon the unfading.
II. The nature of forgiveness. (1) As to time. Observe, the verb runs in the present tense-“I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions.” (2) As to degree. “Blot out.” You could not read-Satan could not read-a trace where God’s obliterating hand has once passed. (3) As to continuance. In the text the present swells out into the future. He “blotteth out and will not remember.”
III. The reason of forgiveness. Look back and find it in that eternal counsel, wherein, before all worlds, God gave to His dear Son a kingdom and a people. Look forward and find it in God’s will, that there shall be a multitude of washed saints around the throne of His glory, who shall be sending up praises to Him for ever and ever. Seek it in that unfathomable love in which He is the Father-the loving Father-of every creature He has made.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 1874, p. 279.
References: Isa 43:25.-G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 94; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. i., No. 24, vol. xix., No. 1142, vol. xxviii., No. 1685. Isa 43:25-28.-C. Short, Expositor, 1st series, vol. ix., p. 150.
Isa 43:26
I. We cannot but remark at once on the apparent strangeness that there should be any appeal to reason or argument where the matter involved is undoubtedly the great doctrine of atonement or propitiation. A forgiveness based on a propitiation, and followed by sanctification, is what God propounds as His scheme of redemption, and such a scheme He invites us to discuss with Him in person. Let reason put forth all her shrewdness; there is no fear but that an answer will be furnished by your antagonist in this high debate. But if all the difficulties which reason can find in the way of redemption lie either in the necessities of man or the attributes of God, and if the scheme of redemption through Christ meet the first and yield the second, so that even reason herself can perceive that it satisfies every human want and compromises no Divine perfection, why should we not allow that, reason herself being judge, the gospel is in every respect precisely such a communication as is suited to the case?
II. The concluding words of the text, “Declare thou, that thou mayest be justified,” seem to allow you, if you choose, to bring forward any excuse which you may have for not closing with that gracious proffer of salvation through Christ. Whilst we promise you upon the authority of revelation that God will blot out your transgressions and not remember your sins, we call on you to break away from evil habits, forsake evil ways, and attend to righteous duties. And here you think you have ground of objection. Well, urge it. It is God Himself who saith, “Declare thou, that thou mayest be justified.” But the answer is, that the persons to whom God will communicate additional grace are those who in obedience to His call are straining every nerve to forsake evil ways. It is not that they are able of themselves to work out a moral amendment, but it is that He intends to bestow on them the ability while they are making the effort. We may, however, take another and perhaps equally just view of the controversy, which is indicated, though not laid open, by our text. Come, all of you who think you are in any way hardly dealt with by God. Approach and plead your cause. Keep nothing back; be as minute as you will in exposing the harshness of God’s dealings, whether individually with yourselves or generally with mankind; and then, having pleaded your own cause, listen to the beautiful promise, “I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for Mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.”
H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 2299.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
CHAPTER 43
Jehovah Speaks in Comfort to His People
1. What Jehovah is and will be to Israel (Isa 43:1-7) 2. Second address to the blind and deaf people (Isa 43:8-13) 3. Jehovah deals with their enemies (Isa 43:14-17) 4. Blessed things to come: They shall show forth My praise (Isa 43:18-21) 5. Jehovahs loving appeal and promise to remember their sins no more (Isa 43:22-28) Chapters 43-45 must be studied together. Jehovah speaks in these chapters as nowhere else in the prophetic Word. Note the many declarations Jehovah makes. I have redeemed thee, I will be with thee, I have loved thee, I have made him, I am the LORD, I will make a way in the wilderness. All Gods people can lay claim to these blessed words of promise and assurance. Ultimately Israel will possess and enjoy these great blessings.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
redeemed
Heb. “goel,” Redemp. (Kinsman type). (See Scofield “Isa 59:20”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
created: Isa 43:7, Isa 43:15, Isa 43:21, Isa 44:2, Isa 44:21, Psa 100:3, Psa 102:18, Jer 31:3, Jer 33:24, Jer 33:26, Eph 2:10
Fear: Isa 43:14, Isa 35:9, Isa 35:10, Isa 41:14, Isa 44:6, Isa 44:22-24, Isa 48:17, Isa 54:4, Isa 54:5, Isa 62:12, Isa 63:16, Exo 15:13, Jer 50:34, Tit 2:14, Rev 5:9
I have called: Isa 42:6, Isa 44:5, Isa 45:4, Isa 49:1, Exo 33:17, Act 27:20, Act 27:25
thou art mine: Exo 19:5, Exo 19:6, Deu 32:9, Eze 16:8, Zec 13:9, Mal 3:17, 2Ti 2:19, Heb 8:8-10
Reciprocal: Gen 15:1 – Fear Gen 21:17 – fear Gen 26:24 – fear Gen 46:3 – fear not Gen 46:4 – will go Gen 48:5 – are mine Exo 15:16 – which thou Exo 33:12 – I know Deu 1:21 – fear not Deu 3:22 – shall not Deu 31:6 – Be strong Deu 31:8 – he will be Jos 1:9 – for the Lord Jdg 7:9 – Arise 2Ch 20:15 – Be not afraid Est 2:14 – she were called Psa 14:5 – God Psa 23:4 – for thou Psa 66:12 – through Psa 69:15 – waterflood Psa 91:4 – his truth Psa 91:15 – I will be Psa 107:2 – Let the Isa 27:11 – therefore Isa 35:4 – fear not Isa 37:6 – Be not Isa 41:8 – thou Isa 41:10 – Fear Isa 44:1 – O Jacob Isa 44:24 – and he Isa 45:3 – which call Isa 65:1 – unto Jer 46:27 – fear Lam 3:57 – thou saidst Dan 10:19 – fear not Hos 7:13 – though Zep 3:16 – be said Zec 8:15 – fear Mal 2:10 – hath Mat 10:26 – Fear Luk 1:30 – General Joh 6:20 – It is Joh 14:1 – not Joh 14:18 – will not Joh 19:5 – Behold Joh 20:16 – Mary Act 27:22 – I exhort Act 27:24 – Fear not
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Isa 43:1-2. But now, thus saith the Lord But, notwithstanding thy gross insensibility under former judgments, for which I might justly send far heavier calamities upon thee, yet I will deal mercifully with thee. That created thee, O Jacob, &c. Who made thee his people, and that in a manner as miraculous as if he had created thee a second time out of nothing; and therefore he will be gracious to his own workmanship. Fear not; for I have redeemed thee From the Egyptians and divers other enemies; and therefore I will redeem thee again. I have called thee by thy name, &c. The name of Gods people, which was as proper and peculiar to them as the name of Israel. Or, I have made a particular choice of thee for my peculiar people, and singled thee out from the rest of the world, and ever since have treated thee with uncommon instances of kindness and familiarity. When thou passest through the waters, &c. I will support and deliver thee when thou art in the greatest straits and difficulties. To pass through fire and water is a proverbial expression, to signify being exposed to all kinds of dangers. Thou shalt not be burned, &c. Though I will chastise thee for thy sins, yet I will not suffer thine enemies utterly to destroy thee.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 43:1. The Lord that created thee, oh Jacob. Not only in the first creation, but when Sarah, and when Rebecca were barren, I gave them power to become mothers. I have also created and formed thee into a nation; thy disobedience therefore is left without excuse.
Isa 43:3. I gave Egypt for thy ransom. Those nations were nearly destroyed, in order to effect the emancipation of Israel. God most remarkably diverted the Assyrian invasion from Judea to an attack upon Egypt.
Isa 43:8. Bring forth the blind people that have eyes. This is understood first of the Jews, who were slow to see the harmony between prophecy and providence; secondly, of the illumination of the gentile world with the light of the gospel. The prophet boldly calls upon those who are morally and therefore wilfully blind, to cast away their idols and their sins, to attest the truth of prophecy, and to witness the equity of the divine proceedings.
Isa 43:14. The Chaldeans, whose cry is in the ships. Better, as the Vulgate version, in navibus gloriantes, boasting of their ships, which were said to be three thousand gallies, trading from the Persian Gulph. The nobles of the Chaldeans, the Lord had brought to the ground. Their boasted fleets sustained disasters, the particulars of which are not come down to us in the shape of history. God casts away the wicked when they have done his work: only a small proportion of their countless army ever returned to their own land. The navy of Chaldea must have corresponded with the magnitude of the empire. But on the Tigris, from Nineveh to Babylon, they had no ships. That river had rapids which gallies could not ascend. The trade on the river, says Herodotus, was conducted on rafts or floats of timber, each raft containing two men and an ass. From the Tigris, below Seleucia, they crossed to Babylon by the canal, called Naharmalca, where they sold the timber, and loaded the ass with wares for the country.
Isa 43:27. Thy first father hath sinned. A delicate metonymy, which puts the name of father for that of the King, who had sinned by patronizing idolatry, and joining in its rituals. In this charge the prophet associates the princes and the nobles. As this was written after the destruction of the Assyrian army, it is likely Manasseh is meant, whose youth was corrupted by degenerate priests, who in all probability prompted the young king to cause the hoary-aged Isaiah to be sawn asunder. It was under Manasseh that the introduction of idols took place in a most shameful manner, and which is rebuked with just severity in the following chapter.
REFLECTIONS.
Our inspired prophet still pours consolation into Israels cup. He introduces God, the Creator, and Father, as speaking to his children; for the words of a God are weightier than the words of men. He is equally the Redeemer of the Israelites out of all their troubles. As a Father he had especially given to Jacob, a supplanter, the more honourable name of Israel; that is, a prevailer with God. All these arguments apply with equal force to the new, the christian Israel, over whom the great Shepherd has watched with tender care.
The Lord had brought them through fire and water; through water at the Red sea, and when crossing the Jordan; through fire when the conquering Assyrians cast the gods of the nations into the flames, and burned many cities of Judah. These words are figuratively understood of the fiery trials, and the floods of temptation we have to endure. Such is the grateful memorial of the prophet to Him who had brought them through all dangers and difficulties. Psa 66:12. God was with his people; yea, he is ever with them, as with the three children in the fiery furnace. Dan 3:25. The waters shall wash us clean, and the fire refine us from the dross of sin.
How criminal then for the Jew to worship any other god; for he is the one JEHOVAH, the Elohim of Israel. Deu 6:4. There are gods many and lords many, but to us there is, according to Paul, but one God, , the Godhead. Rom 1:20. How proper is the address, Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth.
Nay, all that God had done for Israel in ages past was nothing, when compared with what his counsel and his love have determined to do in the ages still to come. Eph 2:7. Behold, I will do a new thing in the earth, turning the wilderness into a fruitful field, and opening springs in the desert. At length also he will bring into his fold the whole gentile world. Zions tears cannot be wiped away without the full cup of comfort in Christ JesusIn thy SEED shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Then the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days in one. All the hosts of heaven shall brighten, and break forth into singing, when the Lord shall reveal the hidden treasures yet reserved for his people in the glory of the latter day.
How shameful then, oh virgin daughter, that thou shouldst slight these promises as words of no value; that thou shouldst rob the altar of its offering, and the table of incense of its sweet canes, and grateful perfumes. Thy base heart is on earth; it does not ascend in fragrant prayers to Christ, the great Angel of the covenant. Nay, what is still worse, thou hast not only robbed the altar, but slain the beasts for thy voluptuous feasts. Yea, thou has made the altar, even the Lord, to serve for thy sins. Yet his longsuffering is infinitely great towards thee, not willing that thou shouldst perish, but return to him and live.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 43:1-7. Having Chastised, Yahweh will Redeem His People.Since Yahweh has sent Israel into exile, He can bring her back. He bids her be of good courage. His people shall not be overwhelmed by the calamities He brings upon them. He will ransom them, compensating the conqueror with Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sheba. The sons of Israel shall be gathered from their dispersion.
Isa 43:1 b. The verbs are futures.
Isa 43:2. Read, and rivers shall not.
Isa 43:3. Seba: not certainly identified; presumably an African state bordering on Ethiopia.
Isa 43:4. men: read lands.
Isa 43:5 a. An insertion.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
43:1 But now thus saith the LORD {a} that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, {b} Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called [thee] by thy name; thou [art] mine.
(a) After these threatenings he promises deliverance to his Church, because he has regenerated them, adopted them, and called them.
(b) When you see dangers and conspiracies on all sides, remember this benefit and the love of your God, and it will encourage you.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The Lord called His people not to fear, even though they were blind, deaf, and suffering for their sins. God had created the nation with painstaking care, had redeemed (Heb. ga’al) it in the Exodus, and adopted it as His special treasure at Mount Sinai. His acts for her, not her acts against Him, guaranteed her future. The dual reference to Jacob and Israel stresses God’s tenderness in dealing with the nation He had created.
"Thirteen times within the compass of chapters 40-49 Isaiah uses this double designation, and with one exception (Isa 41:8), in this order. Jacob was the deceiver and had to become an Israel [prince with God]. Hence in this order of the names there may be a hint that the Jacob character of the nation had to be abandoned. Implied also may be the thought that in Israel is expressed the true destiny of the people. They are to become an Israel, and as such the heirs of the promises that had once been made to their ancestor Israel." [Note: Young, 3:139.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
CHAPTER I
THE DATE OF Isa 40:1-31; Isa 41:1-29; Isa 42:1-25; Isa 43:1-28; Isa 44:1-28; Isa 45:1-25; Isa 46:1-13; Isa 47:1-15; Isa 48:1-22; Isa 49:1-26; Isa 50:1-11; Isa 51:1-23; Isa 52:1-15; Isa 53:1-12; Isa 54:1-17; Isa 55:1-13; Isa 56:1-12; Isa 57:1-21; Isa 58:1-14; Isa 59:1-21; Isa 60:1-22; Isa 61:1-11; Isa 62:1-12; Isa 63:1-19; Isa 64:1-12; Isa 65:1-25; Isa 66:1-24
THE problem of the date of Isa 40:1-31; Isa 41:1-29; Isa 42:1-25; Isa 43:1-28; Isa 44:1-28; Isa 45:1-25; Isa 46:1-13; Isa 47:1-15; Isa 48:1-22; Isa 49:1-26; Isa 50:1-11; Isa 51:1-23; Isa 52:1-15; Isa 53:1-12; Isa 54:1-17; Isa 55:1-13; Isa 56:1-12; Isa 57:1-21; Isa 58:1-14; Isa 59:1-21; Isa 60:1-22; Isa 61:1-11; Isa 62:1-12; Isa 63:1-19; Isa 64:1-12; Isa 65:1-25; Isa 66:1-24 is this: In a book called by the name of the prophet Isaiah, who flourished between 740 and 700 B.C., the last twenty-seven chapters deal with the captivity suffered by the Jews in Babylonia from 598 to 538, and more particularly with the advent, about 550, of Cyrus, whom they name. Are we to take for granted that Isaiah himself prophetically wrote these chapters, or must we assign them to a nameless author or authors of the period of which they treat?
Till the end of the last century it was the almost universally accepted tradition, and even still is an opinion retained by many, that Isaiah was carried forward by the Spirit, out of his own age to the standpoint of one hundred and fifty years later; that he was inspired to utter the warning and comfort required by a generation so very different from his own, and was even enabled to hail by name their redeemer, Cyrus. This theory, involving as it does a phenomenon without parallel in the history of Holy Scripture, is based on these two grounds: first, that the chapters in question form a considerable part-nearly nine-twentieths-of the Book of Isaiah; and second, that portions of them are quoted in the New Testament by the prophets name. The theory is also supported by arguments drawn from resemblances of style and vocabulary between these twenty-seven chapters and the undisputed oracles of Isaiah but, as the opponents of the Isaian authorship also appeal to vocabulary and style, it will be better to leave this kind of evidence aside for the present, and to discuss the problem upon other and less ambiguous grounds.
The first argument, then, for the Isaian authorship of chapters 40-66 is that they form part of a book called by Isaiahs name. But, to be worth anything, this argument must rest on the following facts: that everything in a book called by a prophets name is necessarily by that prophet, and that the compilers of the book intended to hand it down as altogether from his pen. Now there is no evidence for either of these conclusions. On the contrary, there is considerable testimony in the opposite direction. The Book of Isaiah is not one continuous prophecy. It consists of a number of separate orations, with a few intervening pieces of narrative. Some of these orations claim to be Isaiahs own: they possess such titles as “The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz.” But such titles describe only the individual prophecies they head, and other portions of the book, upon other subjects and in very different styles, do not possess titles at all. It seems to me that those who maintain the Isaian authorship of the whole book have the responsibility cast upon them of explaining why some chapters in it should be distinctly said to be by Isaiah, while others should not be so entitled. Surely this difference affords us sufficient ground for understanding that the whole book is not necessarily by Isaiah, nor intentionally handed down by its compilers as the work of that prophet.
Now, when we come to chapters 40-66, we find that, occurring in a book which we have just seen no reason for supposing to be in every part of it by Isaiah, these chapters nowhere claim to be his. They are separated from that portion of the book, in which his undisputed oracles are placed, by a historical narrative of considerable length. And there is not anywhere upon them nor in them a title nor other statement that they are by the prophet, nor any allusion which could give the faintest support to the opinion, that they offer themselves to posterity as dating from his time. It is safe to say, that, if they had come to us by themselves, no one would have dreamt for an instant of ascribing them to Isaiah; for the alleged resemblances, which their language and style bear to his language and style, are far more than overborne by the undoubted differences, and have never been employed, even by the defenders of the Isaian authorship, except in additional and confessedly slight support of their main argument, viz., that the chapters must be Isaiahs because they are included in a book called by his name.
Let us understand, therefore, at this very outset, that in discussing the question of the authorship of “Second Isaiah,” we are not discussing a question upon which the text itself makes any statement, or into which the credibility of the text enters. No claim is made by the Book of Isaiah itself for the Isaian authorship of chapters 40-66.
A second fact in Scripture, which seems at first sight to make strongly for the unity of the Book of Isaiah, is that in the New Testament, portions of the disputed chapters are quoted by Isaiahs name, just as are portions of his admitted prophecies. These citations are nine in number. {Mat 3:3, Mat 8:17, Mat 12:17, Luk 3:4, Luk 4:17, Joh 1:23, Joh 12:38, Act 8:28, Rom 10:16-20} None is by our Lord Himself. They occur in the Gospels, Acts, and Paul. Now if any of these quotations were given in answer to the question, Did Isaiah write chapters 40-66 of the book called by his name? or if the use of his name along with them were involved in the arguments which they are borrowed to illustrate as, for instance, is the case with Davids name in the quotation made by our Lord from Psa 110:1-7, then those who deny the unity of the Book of Isaiah would be face to face with a very serious problem indeed. But in none of the nine cases is the authorship of the Book of Isaiah in question. In none of the nine cases is there anything in the argument, for the purpose of which the quotation has been made, that depends on the quoted words being by Isaiah. For the purposes for which the Evangelists and Paul borrow the texts, these might as well be unnamed, or attributed to any other canonical writer. Nothing in them requires us to suppose that Isaiahs name is mentioned with them for any other end than that of reference, viz., to point out that they lie in the part of prophecy usually known by his name. But if there is nothing in these citations to prove that Isaiahs name is being used for any other purpose than that of reference, then it is plain-and this is all that we ask assent to at the present time-that they do not offer the authority of Scripture as a bar to our examining the evidence of the chapters in question.
It is hardly necessary to add that neither is there any other question of doctrine in our way. There is none about the nature of prophecy, for, to take an example, chapter 53, as a prophecy of Jesus Christ, is surely as great a marvel if yon date it from the Exile as if you date it from the age of Isaiah. And, in particular, let us understand that no question need be started about the ability of Gods Spirit to inspire a prophet to mention Cyrus by name one hundred and fifty years before Cyrus appeared. The question is not, Could a prophet have been so inspired?-to which question, were it put, our answer might only be, God is great!-but the question is, Was our prophet so inspired? does he himself offer evidence of the fact? Or, on the contrary, in naming Cyrus does he give himself out as a contemporary of Cyrus, who already saw the great Persian above the horizon? To this question only the writings under discussion can give us an answer. Let us see what they have to say.
Apart from the question of the date, no chapters in the Bible are interpreted with such complete unanimity as Isa 40:1-31; Isa 41:1-29; Isa 42:1-25; Isa 43:1-28; Isa 44:1-28; Isa 45:1-25; Isa 46:1-13; Isa 47:1-15; Isa 48:1-22. They plainly set forth certain things as having already taken place-the Exile and Captivity, the ruin of Jerusalem, and the devastation of the Holy Land. Israel is addressed as having exhausted the time of her penalty, and is proclaimed to be ready for deliverance. Some of the people are comforted as being in despair because redemption does not draw near; others are exhorted to leave the city of their bondage, as if they were growing too familiar with its idolatrous life. Cyrus is named as their deliverer, and is pointed out as already called upon his career, and as blessed with success by Jehovah. It is also promised that he will immediately add Babylon to his conquests, and so set Gods people free.
Now all this is not predicted, as if from the standpoint of a previous century. It is nowhere said-as we should expect it to be said, if the prophecy had been uttered by Isaiah-that Assyria, the dominant world-power of Isaiahs day, was to disappear and Babylon to take her place; that then the Babylonians should lead the Jews into an exile which they had escaped at the hands of Assyria; and that after nearly seventy years of suffering God would raise up Cyrus as a deliverer.
There is none of this prediction, which we might fairly have expected had the prophecy been Isaiahs; because, however far Isaiah carries us into the future, he never fails to start from the circumstances of his own day. Still more significant, however-there is not even the kind of prediction that we find in Jeremiahs prophecies of the Exile, with which indeed it is most instructive to compare Isa 40:1-31; Isa 41:1-29; Isa 42:1-25; Isa 43:1-28; Isa 44:1-28; Isa 45:1-25; Isa 46:1-13; Isa 47:1-15; Isa 48:1-22; Isa 49:1-26; Isa 50:1-11; Isa 51:1-23; Isa 52:1-15; Isa 53:1-12; Isa 54:1-17; Isa 55:1-13; Isa 56:1-12; Isa 57:1-21; Isa 58:1-14; Isa 59:1-21; Isa 60:1-22; Isa 61:1-11; Isa 62:1-12; Isa 63:1-19; Isa 64:1-12; Isa 65:1-25; Isa 66:1-24 Jeremiah also spoke of exile and deliverance, but it was always with the grammar of the future. He fairly and openly predicted both; and, let us especially remember, he did so with a meagreness of description, a reserve and reticence about details, which are simply unintelligible if Isa 40:1-31; Isa 41:1-29; Isa 42:1-25; Isa 43:1-28; Isa 44:1-28; Isa 45:1-25; Isa 46:1-13; Isa 47:1-15; Isa 48:1-22; Isa 49:1-26; Isa 50:1-11; Isa 51:1-23; Isa 52:1-15; Isa 53:1-12; Isa 54:1-17; Isa 55:1-13; Isa 56:1-12; Isa 57:1-21; Isa 58:1-14; Isa 59:1-21; Isa 60:1-22; Isa 61:1-11; Isa 62:1-12; Isa 63:1-19; Isa 64:1-12; Isa 65:1-25; Isa 66:1-24 was written before his day, and by so well-known a prophet as Isaiah.
No: in the statements which our chapters make concerning the Exile and the condition of Israel under it, there is no prediction, not the slightest trace of that grammar of the future in which Jeremiahs prophecies are constantly uttered. But there is a direct appeal to the conscience of a people already long under the discipline of God; their circumstance of exile is taken for granted; there is a most vivid and delicate appreciation of their present fears and doubts, and to these the deliverer Cyrus is not only named, but introduced as an actual and notorious personage already upon the midway of his irresistible career.
These facts are more broadly based than just at first sight appears. You cannot turn their flank by the argument that Hebrew prophets were in the habit of employing in their predictions what is called “the prophetic perfect”-that is, that in the ardour of their conviction that certain things would take place they talked of these, as the flexibility of the Hebrew tenses allowed them to do, in the past or perfect as if the things had actually taken place. No such argument is possible in the case of the introduction of Cyrus. For it is not only that the prophesy, with what might be the mere ardour of vision, represents the Persian as already above the horizon and upon the flowing tide of victory; but that, in the course of a sober argument for the unique divinity of the God of Israel, which takes place throughout chapters 41-48, Cyrus, alive and irresistible, already accredited by success, and with Babylonia at his feet, is pointed out as the unmistakable proof that former prophecies for a deliverance for Israel are at last coming to pass. Cyrus, in short, is not presented as a prediction, but as the proof that a prediction is being fulfilled. Unless he had already appeared in flesh and blood, and was on the point of striking at Babylon, with all the prestige of unbroken victory, a great part of Isa 41:1-29 – Isa 48:1-22 would be utterly unintelligible.
This argument is so conclusive for the date of Second Isaiah, that it may be well to state it a little more in detail, even at the risk of anticipating some of the exposition of the text.
Among the Jews at the close of the Exile there appear to have been two classes. One class was hopeless of deliverance, and to their hearts is addressed such a prophecy as chapter 40: “Comfort ye, comfort ye, My people.” But there was another class, of opposite temperament, who had only too strong opinions on the subject of deliverance. In bondage to the letter of Scripture and to the great precedents of their history, these Jews appear to have insisted that the Deliverer to come must be a Jew, and a descendant of David. And the bent of much of the prophets urgency in chapter 45 is to persuade those pedants, that the Gentile Cyrus, who had appeared to be not only the biggest man of his age, but the very likely means of Israels redemption, was of Jehovahs own creation and calling. Does not such an argument necessarily imply that Cyrus was already present, an object of doubt and debate to earnest minds in Israel? Or are we to suppose that all this doubt and debate were foreseen, rehearsed, and answered one hundred and fifty years before the time by so famous a prophet as Isaiah, and that, in spite of his prediction and answer, the doubt and debate nevertheless took place in the minds of the very Israelites, who were most earnest students of ancient prophecy? The thing has only to be stated to be felt to be impossible.
But besides the pedants in Israel, there is apparent through these prophecies another body of men, against whom also Jehovah claims the actual Cyrus for His own. They are the priests and worshippers of the heathen idols. It is well known that the advent of Cyrus cast the Gentile religions of the time and their counsellors into confusion. The wisest priests were perplexed; the oracles of Greece and Asia Minor either were dumb when consulted about the Persian, or gave more than usually ambiguous answers. Over against this perplexity and despair of the heathen religions, our prophet confidently claims Cyrus for Jehovahs own. In a debate in chapter 41, in which he seeks to establish Jehovahs righteousness-that is, Jehovahs faithfulness to His word, and power to carry out His predictions – the prophet speaks of ancient prophecies which have come from Jehovah, and points to Cyrus as their fulfilment. It does not matter to us in the meantime what those prophecies were. They may have been certain of Jeremiahs predictions; we may be sure that they cannot have contained anything so definite as Cyrus name, or such a proof of Divine foresight must certainly have formed part of the prophets plea. It is enough that they could be quoted; our business is rather with the evidence which the prophet offers of their fulfilment. That evidence is Cyrus. Would it have been possible to refer the heathen to Cyrus as proof that those ancient prophecies were being fulfilled, unless Cyrus had been visible to the heathen, -unless the heathen had been beginning already to feel this Persian “from the sunrise” in all his weight of war? It is no esoteric doctrine which the prophet is unfolding to initiated Israelites about Cyrus. He is making an appeal to men of the world to face facts. Could he possibly have made such an appeal unless the facts had been there, unless Cyrus had been within the ken of “the natural man”? Unless Cyrus and his conquests were already historically present, the argument in 41-48 is unintelligible.
If this evidence for the exilic date of Isa 40:1-31; Isa 41:1-29; Isa 42:1-25; Isa 43:1-28; Isa 44:1-28; Isa 45:1-25; Isa 46:1-13; Isa 47:1-15; Isa 48:1-22 -for all these chapters hang together-required any additional support, it would find it in the fact that the prophet does not wholly treat of what is past and over, but makes some predictions as well. Cyrus is on the way of triumph, but Babylon has still to fall by his hand. Babylon has still to fall, before the exiles can go free. Now, if our prophet were predicting from the standpoint of one hundred and forty years before, why did he make this sharp distinction between two events which appeared so closely together? If he had both the advent of Cyrus and the fall of Babylon in his long perspective, why did he not use “the prophetic perfect” for both? That he speaks of the first as past and of the second as still to come, would most surely, if there had been no tradition the other way, have been accepted by all as sufficient evidence, that the advent of Cyrus was behind him and the fall of Babylon still in front of him, when he wrote these chapters.
Thus the earlier part, at least, of Isa 40:1-31; Isa 41:1-29; Isa 42:1-25; Isa 43:1-28; Isa 44:1-28; Isa 45:1-25; Isa 46:1-13; Isa 47:1-15; Isa 48:1-22; Isa 49:1-26; Isa 50:1-11; Isa 51:1-23; Isa 52:1-15; Isa 53:1-12; Isa 54:1-17; Isa 55:1-13; Isa 56:1-12; Isa 57:1-21; Isa 58:1-14; Isa 59:1-21; Isa 60:1-22; Isa 61:1-11; Isa 62:1-12; Isa 63:1-19; Isa 64:1-12; Isa 65:1-25; Isa 66:1-24 -that is, chapters 40-48-compels us to date it between 555, Cyruss advent, and 538, Babylons fall. But some think that we may still further narrow the limits. In Isa 41:25, Cyrus, whose own kingdom lay east of Babylonia, is described as invading Babylonia from the north. This, it has been thought, must refer to his union with the Medes in 549, and his threatened descent upon Mesopotamia from their quarter of the prophets horizon. If it be so, the possible years of our prophecy are reduced to eleven, 549-538. But even if we take the wider and more certain limit, 555 to 538, we may well say that there are very few chapters in the whole of the Old Testament whose date can be fixed so precisely as the date of chapters 40-48.
If what has been unfolded in the preceding paragraphs is recognised as the statement of the chapters themselves, it will be felt that further evidence of an exilic date is scarcely needed. And those, who are acquainted with the controversy upon the evidence furnished by the style and language of the prophecies, will admit how far short in decisiveness it falls of the arguments offered above. But we may fairly ask whether there is anything opposed to the conclusion we have reached, either, first, in the local colour of the prophecies: or, second, in their language; or, third, in their thought – anything which shows that they are more likely to have been Isaiahs than of exilic origin.
1. It has often been urged against the exilic date of these prophecies, that they wear so very little local colour, and one of the greatest of critics, Ewald, has felt himself, therefore, permitted to place their home, not in Babylonia, but in Egypt, while he maintains the exilic date. But, as we shall see in surveying the condition of the exiles, it was natural for the best among them, their psalmists and prophets, to have no eyes for the colours of Babylon. They lived inwardly; they were much more the inhabitants of their own broken hearts than of that gorgeous foreign land; when their thoughts rose out of themselves it was to seek immediately the far-away Zion. How little local colour is there in the writings of Ezekiel! Isa 40:1-31; Isa 41:1-29; Isa 42:1-25; Isa 43:1-28; Isa 44:1-28; Isa 45:1-25; Isa 46:1-13; Isa 47:1-15; Isa 48:1-22; Isa 49:1-26; Isa 50:1-11; Isa 51:1-23; Isa 52:1-15; Isa 53:1-12; Isa 54:1-17; Isa 55:1-13; Isa 56:1-12; Isa 57:1-21; Isa 58:1-14; Isa 59:1-21; Isa 60:1-22; Isa 61:1-11; Isa 62:1-12; Isa 63:1-19; Isa 64:1-12; Isa 65:1-25; Isa 66:1-24 has even more to show; for indeed the absence of local colour from our prophecy has been greatly exaggerated. We shall find as we follow the exposition, break after break of Babylonian light and shadow falling across our path, -the temples, the idol-manufactories, the processions of images, the diviners and astrologers, the gods and altars especially cultivated by the characteristic mercantile spirit of the place; the shipping of that mart of nations, the crowds of her merchants; the glitter of many waters, and even that intolerable glare, which so frequently curses the skies of Mesopotamia. {Isa 49:10} The prophet speaks of the hills of his native land with just the same longing, that Ezekiel and a probable psalmist of the Exile {Psa 121:1-8} betray, -the homesickness of a highland-born man whose prison is on a flat, monotonous plain. The beasts he mentions have for the most part been recognised as familiar in Babylonia; and while the same cannot be said of the trees and plants he names, it has been observed that the passages, into which he brings them, are passages where his thoughts are fixed on the restoration to Palestine. Besides these, there are many delicate symptoms of the presence, before the prophet, of a people in a foreign land, engaged in commerce, but without political responsibilities, each of which, taken by itself, may be insufficient to convince, but the reiterated expression of which has even betrayed commentators, who lived too early for the theory of a second Isaiah, into the involuntary admission of an exilic authorship. It will perhaps startle some to hear John Calvin quoted on behalf of the exilic date of these prophecies. But let us read and consider this statement of his: “Some regard must be had to the time when this prophecy was uttered; for since the rank of the kingdom had been obliterated, and the name of the royal family had become mean and contemptible, during the captivity in Babylon, it might seem as if through the ruin of that family the truth of God had fallen into decay; and therefore he bids them contemplate by faith the throne of David, which had been cast down.”
2. What we have seen to be true of the local colour of our prophecy holds good also of its style and language. There is nothing in either of these to commit us to an Isaiah authorship, or to make an exilic date improbable; on the contrary, the language and style, while containing no stronger nor more frequent resemblances to the language and style of Isaiah than may be accounted for by the natural influence of so great a prophet upon his successors, are signalised by differences from his undisputed oracles, too constant, too subtle, and sometimes too sharp, to make it at all probable that the whole book came from the same man. On this point it is enough to refer our readers to the recent exhaustive and very able reviews of the evidence by Canon Cheyne in the second volume of his Commentary, and by Canon Driver in the last chapter of “Isaiah: His Life and Times,” and to quote the following words of so great an authority as Professor A. B. Davidson. After remarking on the difference in vocabulary of the two parts of the Book of Isaiah, he adds that it is not so much words in themselves as the peculiar uses and combinations of them, and especially “the peculiar articulation of sentences and the movement of the whole discourse, by which an impression is produced so unlike the impression produced by the earlier parts of the book.”
3. It is the same with the thought and doctrine of our prophecy. In this there is nothing to make the Isaian authorship probable, or an exilic date impossible. But, on the contrary, whether we regard the needs of the people or the analogies of the development of their religion, we find that, while everything suits the Exile, nearly everything is foreign both to the subjects and to the methods of Isaiah. We shall observe the items of this as we go along, but one of them may be mentioned here (it will afterwards require a chapter to itself), our prophets use of the terms righteous and righteousness. No one, who has carefully studied the meaning which these terms bear in the authentic oracles of Isaiah, and the use to which they are put in the prophecies under discussion, can fail to find in the difference a striking corroboration of our argument-that the latter were composed by a different mind than Isaiahs, speaking to a different generation.
To sum up this whole argument. We have seen that there is no evidence in the Book of Isaiah to prove that it was all by himself, but much testimony which points to a plurality of authors; that chapters 40-66 nowhere assert themselves to be by Isaiah; and that there is no other well-grounded claim of Scripture or doctrine on behalf of his authorship. We have then shown that chapters 40-48 do not only present the Exile as if nearly finished and Cyrus as if already come, while the fall of Babylon is still future; but that it is essential to one of their main arguments that Cyrus should be standing before Israel and the world, as a successful warrior, on his way to attack Babylon. That led us to date these chapters between 555 and 538. Turning then to other evidence, -the local colour they show, their language and style, and their theology, -we have found nothing which conflicts with that date, but, on the contrary, a very great deal, which much more agrees with it than with the date, or with the authorship, of Isaiah.
It will be observed, however, that the question has been limited to the earlier chapters of the twenty-seven under discussion, viz., to 40-48 Does the same conclusion hold good of 49 to 66? This can be properly discovered only as we closely follow their exposition; it is enough in the meantime to have got firm footing on the Exile. We can feel our way bit by bit from this standpoint onwards. Let us now merely anticipate the main features of the rest of the prophecy.
A new section has been marked by many as beginning with chapter 49. This is because chapter 48, concludes with a refrain: “There is no peace, saith Jehovah, to the wicked,” which occurs again at the end of chapter 57, and because with chapter 48. Babylon and Cyrus drop out of sight. But the circumstances are still those of exile, and, as Professor Davidson remarks, chapter 49 is parallel in thought to chapter 42, and also takes for granted the restoration of Israel in chapter 48, proceeding naturally from that to the statement of Israels world-mission. Apart from the alternation of passages dealing with the Servant of the Lord, and passages whose subject is Zion – an alternation which begins pretty early in the prophecy, and has suggested to some its composition out of two different writings-the first real break in the sequence occurs at Isa 52:13, where the prophecy of the sin-bearing Servant is introduced. By most critics this is held to be an insertion, for Isa 54:1 follows naturally upon Isa 52:12, though it is undeniable that there is also some association between Isa 52:13 – Isa 53:1-12, and chapter 54. In chapters 54-55, we are evidently still in exile. It is in commenting on a verse of these chapters that Calvin makes the admission of exilic origin which has been quoted above.
A number of short prophecies now follow, till the end of chapter 59 is reached. These, as we shall see, make it extremely difficult to believe in the original unity of “Second Isaiah.” Some of them, it is true, lie in evident circumstance of exile; but others are undoubtedly of earlier date, reflecting the scenery of Palestine, and the habits of the people in their political independence, with Jehovahs judgment-cloud still unburst, but lowering. Such is Isa 56:9 – Isa 57:1-21, which regards the Exile as still to come, quotes the natural features of Palestine, and charges the Jews with unbelieving diplomacy-a charge not possible against them when they were in captivity. But others of these short prophecies are, in the opinion of some critics, post-exilic. Cheyne assigns chapter 56 to after the Return, when the temple was standing, and the duty of holding fasts and sabbaths could be enforced, as it was enforced by Nehemiah. I shall give, when we reach the passage, my reasons for doubting his conclusion. The chapter seems to me as likely to have been written upon the eve of the Return as after the Return had taken place.
Chapter 57, the eighteenth of our twenty-seven chapters, closes with the same refrain as chapter 48, the ninth of the series: “There is no peace, saith Jehovah, to the wicked.” Chapter 58, has, therefore, been regarded, as beginning the third great division of the prophecy. But here again, while there is certainly an advance in the treatment of the subject, and the prophet talks less of the redemption of the Jews and more of the glory of the restoration of Zion, the point of transition is very difficult to mark. Some critics regard chapter 58, as post-exilic; but when we come to it we shall find a number of reasons for supposing it to belong, just as much as Ezekiel, to the Exile. Chapter 59 is perhaps the most difficult portion of all, because it makes the Jews responsible for civic justice in a way they could hardly be conceived to be in exile, and yet speaks, in the language of other portions of “Second Isaiah,” of a deliverance that cannot well be other than the deliverance from exile. We shall find in this chapter likely marks of the fusion of two distinct addresses, making the conclusion probable that it is Israels earlier conscience which we catch here, following her into the days of exile, and reciting her former guilt just before pardon is assured. Chapters 60, 61, and 62 are certainly exilic. The inimitable prophecy, Isa 63:1-6, complete within itself, and unique in its beauty, is either a promise given just before the deliverance from a long captivity of Israel under heathen nations (Isa 63:4), or an exultant song of triumph immediately after such a deliverance has taken place. Isa 63:7 – Isa 64:1-12 implies a ruined temple (Isa 63:10), but bears no traces of the writer being in exile. It has been assigned to the period of the first attempts to rebuild Jerusalem after the Return. Chapter 65 has been assigned to the same date, and its local colour interpreted as that of Palestine. But we shall find the colour to be just as probably that of Babylon, and again I do not see any certain proofs of a post-exilic date. Chapter 66, however, betrays more evidence of being written after the Return. It divides into two parts. In Isa 66:1-4 the temple is still unbuilt, but the building would seem to be already begun. In Isa 66:5-24, the arrival of the Jews in Palestine, the resumption of the life of the sacred community, and the disappointments of the returned at the first meagre results, seem to be implied. And the music of the book dies out in tones of warning, that sin still hinders the Lords work with His people.
This rapid survey has made two things sufficiently clear. First, that while the bulk of chapters 40-66 was composed in Babylonia during the Exile of the Jews, there are considerable portions which date from before the Exile, and betray a Palestinian origin; and one or two smaller pieces that seem-rather less evidently, however-to take for granted the Return from the Exile. But, secondly, all these pieces, which it seems necessary to assign to different epochs and authors, have been arranged so as to exhibit a certain order and progress-an order, more or less observed, of date, and a progress very apparent (as we shall see in the course of exposition) of thought and of clearness in definition. The largest portion, of whose unity we are assured and whose date we can fix, is found at the beginning. Chapters 40-48 are certainly by one hand, and may be dated, as we have seen, between 555 and 538-the period of Cyrus approach to take Babylon. There the interest in Cyrus ceases, and the thought of the redemption from Babylon is mainly replaced by that of the subsequent Return. Along with these lines, we shall discover a development in the prophecys great doctrine of the Servant of Jehovah. But even this dies away, as if the experience of suffering and discipline were being replaced by that of return and restoration; and it is Zion in her glory, and the spiritual mission of the people, and the vengeance of the Lord, and the building of the temple, and a number of practical details in the life and worship of the restored community, which fill up the remainder of the book, along with a few echoes from pre-exilic times. Can we escape feeling in all this a definite design and arrangement, which fails to be absolutely perfect, probably, from the nature of the materials at the arrangers disposal?
We are, therefore, justified in coming to the provisional conclusion, that Second Isaiah is not a unity, in so far as it consists of a number of pieces by different men, whom God raised up at various times before, during, and after the Exile, to comfort and exhort amid the shifting circumstance and tempers of His people; but that it is a unity, in so far as these pieces have been gathered together by an editor very soon after the Return from the Exile, in an order as regular both in point of time and subject as the somewhat mixed material would permit. It is in this sense that throughout this volume we shall talk of “our prophet,” or “the prophet”; up to chapter 49, at least, we shall feel that the expression is literally true; after that it is rather an editorial than an original unity which is apparent. In this question of unity the dramatic style of the prophecy forms, no doubt, the greatest difficulty. Who shall dare to determine of the many soliloquies, apostrophes, lyrics, and other pieces that are here gathered, often in want of any connection save that of dramatic grouping and a certain sympathy of temper, whether they are by the same author or have been collected from several origins? We must be content to leave the matter uncertain. One great reason, which we have not yet quoted, for supposing that the whole prophecy is not by one man, is that if it had been his name would certainly have come down with it. Do not let it be thought that such a conclusion, as we have been led to, is merely a dogma of modern criticism. Here, if anywhere, the critic is but the patient student of Scripture, searching for the testimony of the sacred text about itself, and formulating that. If it be found that such a testimony conflicts with ecclesiastical tradition, however ancient and universal, so much the worse for tradition. In Protestant circles, at least, we have no choice. Litera Scripta manet. When we know that the only evidence for the Isaiah authorship of chapters 40-66 is tradition, supported by an unthinking interpretation of New Testament citations, while the whole testimony of these Scriptures themselves denies them to be Isaiahs, we cannot help making our choice, and accepting the testimony of Scripture. Do we find them any the less wonderful or Divine? Do they comfort less? Do they speak with less power to conscience? Do they testify with more uncertain voice to our Lord and Saviour? It will be the task of the following pages to show that, interpreted in connection with the history out of which they themselves say that Gods Spirit drew them, these twenty-seven chapters become only more prophetic of Christ, and more comforting and instructive to men, than they were before.
But the remarkable fact is that anciently tradition itself appears to have agreed with the results of modern scholarship. The original place of the Book of Isaiah in the Jewish canon seems to have been after both Jeremiah and Ezekiel, a fact which goes to prove that it did not reach completion till a later date than the works of these two prophets of the Exile.
If now it be asked, Why should a series of prophecies written in the Exile be attached to the authentic works of Isaiah? that is a fair question, and one which the supporters of the exilic authorship have the duty laid upon them of endeavouring to answer. Fortunately they are not under the necessity of falling back, for want of other reasons, on the supposition that this attachment was due to the error of some scribe, or to the custom which ancient writers practised of filling up any part of a volume, that remained blank when one book is finished, with the writing of any other that would fit the place. The first of these reasons is too accidental, the second too artificial, in face of the undoubted sympathy which exists among all parts of the Book of Isaiah. Isaiah himself plainly prophesied of an exile longer than his own generation experienced, and prophesied of a return from it (chapter 11). We saw no reason to dispute his claims to the predictions about Babylon in chapters 21 and 39 Isaiahs, too, more than any other prophets, were those great and final hopes of the Old Testament – the survival of Israel and the gathering of the Gentiles to the worship of Jehovah at Jerusalem. But it is for the express purpose of emphasising the immediate fulfilment of such ancient predictions, that Isa 40:1-31; Isa 41:1-29; Isa 42:1-25; Isa 43:1-28; Isa 44:1-28; Isa 45:1-25; Isa 46:1-13; Isa 47:1-15; Isa 48:1-22; Isa 49:1-26; Isa 50:1-11; Isa 51:1-23; Isa 52:1-15; Isa 53:1-12; Isa 54:1-17; Isa 55:1-13; Isa 56:1-12; Isa 57:1-21; Isa 58:1-14; Isa 59:1-21; Isa 60:1-22; Isa 61:1-11; Isa 62:1-12; Isa 63:1-19; Isa 64:1-12; Isa 65:1-25; Isa 66:1-24 were published. Although our prophet has “new things to publish,” his first business is to show that the “former things have come to pass,” especially the Exile, the survival of a Remnant, the sending of a Deliverer, the doom of Babylon. What more natural than to attach to his utterances those prophecies, of which the events he pointed to were the vindication and fulfilment? The attachment was the more easy to arrange that the authentic prophecies had not passed from Isaiahs hand in a fixed form. They do not bear those marks of their authors own editing, which are borne by the prophecies both of Jeremiah and Ezekiel. It is impossible to be dogmatic on the point. But these facts-that our chapters are concerned, as no other Scriptures are, with the fulfilment of previous prophecies; that it is the prophecies of Isaiah which are the original and fullest prediction of the events they are busy with; and that the form, in which Isaiahs prophecies are handed down, did not preclude additions of this kind to them-contribute very evident reasons why Isa 40:1-31; Isa 41:1-29; Isa 42:1-25; Isa 43:1-28; Isa 44:1-28; Isa 45:1-25; Isa 46:1-13; Isa 47:1-15; Isa 48:1-22; Isa 49:1-26; Isa 50:1-11; Isa 51:1-23; Isa 52:1-15; Isa 53:1-12; Isa 54:1-17; Isa 55:1-13; Isa 56:1-12; Isa 57:1-21; Isa 58:1-14; Isa 59:1-21; Isa 60:1-22; Isa 61:1-11; Isa 62:1-12; Isa 63:1-19; Isa 64:1-12; Isa 65:1-25; Isa 66:1-24, though written in the Exile, should be attached to Isa 1:1-31; Isa 2:1-22; Isa 3:1-26; Isa 4:1-6; Isa 5:1-30; Isa 6:1-13; Isa 7:1-25; Isa 8:1-22; Isa 9:1-21; Isa 10:1-34; Isa 11:1-16; Isa 12:1-6; Isa 13:1-22; Isa 14:1-32; Isa 15:1-9; Isa 16:1-14; Isa 17:1-14; Isa 18:1-7; Isa 19:1-25; Isa 20:1-6; Isa 21:1-17; Isa 22:1-25; Isa 23:1-18; Isa 24:1-23; Isa 25:1-12; Isa 26:1-21; Isa 27:1-13; Isa 28:1-29; Isa 29:1-24; Isa 30:1-33; Isa 31:1-9; Isa 32:1-20; Isa 33:1-24; Isa 34:1-17; Isa 35:1-10; Isa 36:1-22; Isa 37:1-38; Isa 38:1-22; Isa 39:1-8.
Thus we present a theory of the exilic authorship of Isa 40:1-31; Isa 41:1-29; Isa 42:1-25; Isa 43:1-28; Isa 44:1-28; Isa 45:1-25; Isa 46:1-13; Isa 47:1-15; Isa 48:1-22; Isa 49:1-26; Isa 50:1-11; Isa 51:1-23; Isa 52:1-15; Isa 53:1-12; Isa 54:1-17; Isa 55:1-13; Isa 56:1-12; Isa 57:1-21; Isa 58:1-14; Isa 59:1-21; Isa 60:1-22; Isa 61:1-11; Isa 62:1-12; Isa 63:1-19; Isa 64:1-12; Isa 65:1-25; Isa 66:1-24 within itself complete and consistent, suited to all parts of the evidence, and not opposed by the authority of any part of Scripture. In consequence of its conclusion, our duty, before proceeding to the exposition of the chapters, is twofold: first, to connect the time of Isaiah with the period of the Captivity, and then to sketch the condition of Israel in Exile. This we shall undertake in the next three chapters.
NOTE TO CHAPTER I
Readers may wish to have a reference to other passages of this part, in which the questions of the date, authorship and structure of Isa 40:1-31; Isa 41:1-29; Isa 42:1-25; Isa 43:1-28; Isa 44:1-28; Isa 45:1-25; Isa 46:1-13; Isa 47:1-15; Isa 48:1-22; Isa 49:1-26; Isa 50:1-11; Isa 51:1-23; Isa 52:1-15; Isa 53:1-12; Isa 54:1-17; Isa 55:1-13; Isa 56:1-12; Isa 57:1-21; Isa 58:1-14; Isa 59:1-21; Isa 60:1-22; Isa 61:1-11; Isa 62:1-12; Isa 63:1-19; Isa 64:1-12; Isa 65:1-25; Isa 66:1-24, are discussed. See: Introduction to Book III; opening paragraphs of chapter 18, and of chapter 19, etc.
CHAPTER II
FROM ISAIAH TO THE FALL OF JERUSALEM
701-587 B.C.
AT first sight, the circumstances of Judah in the last ten years of the seventh century present a strong resemblance to her fortunes in the last ten years of the eighth. The empire of the world, to which she belongs, is again divided between Egypt and a Mesopotamian power. Syria is again the field of their doubtful battle, and the question, to which of the two shall homage be paid, still forms the politics of all her states. Judah still vacillates, intrigues, and draws down on herself the wrath of the North by her treaties with Egypt. Again there is a great prophet and statesman, whose concern is righteousness, who exposes both the immorality of his people and the folly of their policies, and who summons the “evil from the North” as Gods scourge upon Israel: Isaiah has been succeeded by Jeremiah. And, as if to complete the analogy, the nation has once more passed through a puritan reformation. Josiah has, even more thoroughly than Hezekiah, effected the disestablishment of idols.
Beneath this circumstantial resemblance, however, there is one fundamental difference. The strength of Isaiahs preaching was bent, especially during the closing years of the century, to establish the inviolableness of Jerusalem. Against the threats of the Assyrian siege, and in spite of his own more formidable conscience of his peoples corruption, Isaiah persisted that Zion should not be taken, and that the people, though cut down to their roots, should remain planted in the land, -the stock of an imperial nation in the latter days. This prophecy was vindicated by the marvellous relief of Jerusalem on the apparent eve of her capture in 701. But its echoes had not yet died away, when Jeremiah to his generation delivered the very opposite message. Round him the popular prophets babbled by rote Isaiahs ancient assurances about Zion. Their soft, monotonous repetitions lapped pleasantly upon the immovable self-confidence of the people. But Jeremiah called down the storm. Even while prosperity seemed to give him the lie, he predicted the speedy ruin of Temple and City, and summoned Judahs enemies against her in the name of the God on whose former word she relied for peace. The contrast between the two great prophets grows most dramatic in their conduct during the respective sieges, of which each was the central figure. Isaiah, alone steadfast in a city of despair, defying the taunts of the heathen, rekindling within the dispirited defenders, whom the enemy sought to bribe to desertion, the passions of patriotism and religion, proclaiming always, as with the voice of a trumpet, that Zion must stand inviolate; Jeremiah, on the contrary, declaring the futility of resistance, counselling each citizen to save his own life from the ruin of the state, in treaty with the enemy, and even arrested as a deserter, -these two contrasting figures and attitudes gather up the difference which the century had wrought in the fortunes of the City of God. And so, while in 701 Jerusalem triumphed in the Lord by the sudden raising of the Assyrian siege, three years after the next century was out she twice succumbed to the Assyrians successor, and nine years later was totally destroyed.
What is the reason of this difference which a century sufficed to work? Why was the sacredness of Judahs shrine not as much an article of Jeremiahs as of Isaiahs creed, -as much an element of Divine providence in 600 as in 700 B.C.? This is not a very hard question to answer, if we keep in our regard two things, -firstly, the moral condition of the people, and, secondly, the necessities of the spiritual religion, which was identified for the time with their fortunes.
The Israel which was delivered into captivity at the word of Jeremiah was a people at once more hardened and more exhausted than the Israel, which, in spite of its sin, Isaiahs efforts had succeeded in preserving upon its own land. A century had come and gone of further grace and opportunity, but the grace had been resisted, the opportunity abused, and the people stood more guilty and more wilful than ever before God. Even clearer, however, than the deserts of the people was the need of their religion. That local and temporary victory-after all, only the relief of a mountain fortress and a tribal shrine-with which Isaiah had identified the will and honour of Almighty God, could not be the climax of the history of a spiritual religion. It was impossible for monotheism to rest on so narrow and material a security as that. The faith, which was to overcome the world, could not be satisfied with a merely national triumph. This time must arrive-were it only by the ordinary progress of the years and unhastened by human guilt-for faith and piety to be weaned from the forms of an earthly temple, however sacred: for the individual-after all, the real unit of religion-to be rendered independent of the community and cast upon his God alone; and for this people, to whom the oracles of the living God had been entrusted, to be led out from the selfish pride of guarding these for their own honour-to be led out, were it through the breaches of their hitherto inviolate walls, and amid the smoke of all that was most sacred to them, so that in level contact with mankind they might learn to communicate their glorious trust. Therefore, while the Exile was undoubtedly the penance, which an often-spared but ever more obdurate people had to pay for their accumulated sins, it was also for the meek and the pure-hearted in Israel a step upwards even from the faith and the results of Isaiah-perhaps the most effectual step which Israels religion ever took. Schultz has finely said: “The proper tragedy of history-doom required by long-gathering guilt, and launched upon a generation which for itself is really turning towards good-is most strikingly consummated in the Exile.” Yes: but this is only half the truth. The accomplishment of the moral tragedy is really but one incident in a religious epic-the development of a spiritual faith. Long-delaying Nemesis overtakes at last the sinners, but the shock of the blows, which beat the guilty nation into captivity, releases their religion from its material bonds. Israel on the way to Exile is on the way to become Israel after the Spirit.
With these principles to guide us, let us now, for a little, thread our way through the crowded details of the decline and fall of the Jewish state.
Isaiahs own age had foreboded the necessity of exile for Judah. There was the great precedent of Samaria, and Judahs sin was not less than her sisters. When the authorities at Jerusalem wished to put Jeremiah to death for the heresy of predicting the ruin of the sacred city, it was pointed out in his defence that a similar prediction had been made by Micah, the contemporary of Isaiah. And how much had happened since then! The triumph of Jehovah in 701, the stronger faith and purer practice, which had followed as long as Hezekiah reigned, gave way to an idolatrous reaction under his successor Manasseh. This reaction, while it increased the guilt of the people, by no means diminished their religious fear. They carried into it the conscience of their former puritanism-diseased, we might say delirious, but not dead. Men felt their sin and feared Heavens wrath, and rushed headlong into the gross and fanatic exercises of idolatry, in order to wipe away the one and avert the other. It availed nothing. After an absence of thirty years the Assyrian arms returned in full strength, and Manasseh himself was carried captive across the Euphrates. But penitence revived, and for a time it appeared as if it were to be at last valid for salvation. Israel made huge strides towards their ideal life of a good conscience and outward prosperity. Josiah, the pious, came to the throne. The Book of the Law was discovered in 621, and king and people rallied to its summons with the utmost loyalty. All the nation “stood to the covenant.” The single sanctuary was vindicated, the high places destroyed, the land purged of idols. There were no great military triumphs but Assyria, so long the accepted scourge of God, gave signs of breaking up; and we can feel the vigour and self-confidence, induced by years of prosperity, in Josiahs ambition to extend his borders, and especially in his daring assault upon Necho of Egypt at Megiddo, when Necho passed north to the invasion of Assyria. Altogether, it was a people that imagined itself righteous, and counted upon a righteous God. In such days who could dream of exile?
But in 608 the ideal was shivered. Israel was threshed at Megiddo, and Josiah, the king after Gods own heart, was slain on the field. And then happened what happened at other times in Israels history when disillusion of this kind came down. The nation fell asunder into the elements of which it was ever so strange a composition. The masses, whose conscience did not rise beyond the mere performance of the Law, nor their view of God higher than that of a patron of the state, bound by His covenant to reward with material success the loyalty of His clients, were disappointed with the results of their service and of His providence. Being a new generation from Manassehs time, they thought to give the strange gods another turn. The idols were brought back, and after the discredit which righteousness received at Megiddo, it would appear that social injustice and crime of many kinds dared to be very bold. Jehoahaz, who reigned for three months after Josiah, and Jehoiakim, who succeeded him, were idolaters, The loftier few, like Jeremiah, had never been deceived by the peoples outward allegiance to the Temple or the Law, nor considered it valid either to atone for the past or now to fulfil the holy demands of Jehovah; and were confirmed by the disaster at Megiddo, and the consequent reaction to idolatry, in the stern and hopeless views of the people which they had always entertained. They kept reiterating a speedy captivity. Between these parties stood the formal successors of earlier prophets, so much the slaves of tradition that they had neither conscience for their peoples sins nor understanding of the world around them, but could only affirm in the strength of ancient oracles that Zion should not be destroyed. Strange is it to see how this party, building upon the promises of Jehovah through a prophet like Isaiah, should be taken advantage of by the idolaters, but scouted by Jehovahs own servants. Thus they mingle and conflict. Who indeed can distinguish all the elements of so ancient and so rich a life, as they chase, overtake, and wrestle with each other, hurrying down the rapids to the final cataract? Let us leave them for a moment, while we mark the catastrophe itself. They will be more easily distinguished in the calm below.
It was from the North that Jeremiah summoned the vengeance of God upon Judah. In his earlier threats he might have meant the Scythians; but by 605, when Nebuchadrezzar, Nabopolassar of Babylons son, the rising general of the age, defeated Pharaoh at Carchemish, all men accepted Jeremiahs nomination for this successor of Assyria in the lordship of Western Asia. From Carchemish Nebuchadrezzar overran Syria. Jehoiakim paid tribute to him, and Judah at last felt the grip of the hand that was to drag her into exile. Jehoiakim attempted to throw it off in 602; but, after harassing him for four years by means of some allies, Nebuchadrezzar took his capital, executed him, suffered Jehoiachin, his successor, to reign only three months, took Jerusalem a second time, and carried off to Babylon the first great portion of the people. This was in 598, only ten years from the death of Josiah, and twenty-one from the discovery of the Book of the Law.
The exact numbers of this first captivity of the Jews it is impossible to determine. The annalist sets the soldiers at seven thousand, the smiths and craftsmen at one thousand; so that, making allowance for other classes whom he mentions, the grown men must alone have been over ten thousand; but how many women went, and how many children-the most important factor for the period of the Exile with which we have to deal-it is impossible to estimate. The total number of persons can scarcely have been less than twenty-five thousand. More important, however, than their number was the quality of these exiles, and this we can easily appreciate. The royal family and the court were taken, a large number of influential persons, “the mighty men of the land,” or what must have been nearly all the fighting men, with the necessary artificers; priests also went, Ezekiel among them, and probably representatives of other classes not mentioned by the annalist. That this was the virtue and flower of the nation is proved by a double witness. Not only did the citizens, for the remaining ten years of Jerusalems life, look to these exiles for her deliverance, but Jeremiah himself counted them the sound half of Israel-“a basket of good figs,” as he expressed it, beside “a basket of bad ones.” They were at least under discipline, but the remnant of Jerusalem persisted in the wilfulness of the past.
For although Jeremiah remained in the city, and the house of David and a considerable population, and although Jeremiah himself held a higher position in public esteem since the vindication of his word by the events of 598, yet he could not be blind to the unchanged character of the people, and the thorough doom which their last respite had only more evidently proved to be inevitable. Gangs of false prophets, both at home and among the exiles, might predict a speedy return. All the Jewish ability of intrigue, with the lavish promises of Egypt and frequent embassies from other nations, might work for the overthrow of Babylon. But Jeremiah and Ezekiel knew better. Across the distance which now separated them they chanted, as it were in antiphon, the alternate strophes of Judahs dirge. Jeremiah bade the exiles not to remember Zion, but “let them settle down,” he said, “into the life of the land they are in, building houses, planting gardens, and begetting children, and seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto Jehovah for it, for in the peace thereof ye shall have peace-the Exile shall last seventy years.” And as Jeremiah in Zion blessed Babylon, so Ezekiel in Babylon cursed Zion, thundering back that Jerusalem must be utterly wasted through siege and famine, pestilence and captivity. There is no rush of hope through Ezekiel. His expectations are all distant. He lives either in memory or in cold fancy. His pictures of restoration are too elaborate to mean speedy fulfilment. They are the work of a man with time on his hands; one does not build so colossally for tomorrow. Thus reinforced from abroad, Jeremiah proclaimed Nebuchadrezzar as “the servant of Jehovah,” and summoned him to work Jehovahs doom upon the city. The predicted blockade came in the ninth year of Zedekiah. The false hopes which still sustained the people, their trust in Egypt, the arrival of an Egyptian army in result of their intrigue, as well as all their piteous bravery, only afforded time for the fulfilment of the terrible details of their penalty. For nearly eighteen months the siege closed in-months of famine and pestilence, of faction and quarrel and falling away to the enemy. Then Jerusalem broke up. The besiegers gained the northern suburb and stormed the middle gate. Zedekiah and the army burst their lines only to be captured on an aimless flight at Jericho. A few weeks more, and a forlorn defence by civilians of the interior parts of the city was at last overwhelmed. The exasperated besiegers gave her up to fire-“the house of Jehovah, the kings house, and every great house”-and tore to the stones the stout walls that resisted the conflagration. As the city was levelled, so the citizens were dispersed. A great number-and among them the kings family-were put to death. The king himself was blinded, and, along with a host of his subjects, impossible for us to estimate, and with all the temple furniture, was carried to Babylon. A few peasants were left to cultivate the land; a few superior personages-perhaps such as, with Jeremiah, had favoured the Babylonians, and Jeremiah was among them-were left at Mizpah under a Jewish viceroy. It was a poor apparition of a state; but, as if the very ghost of Israel must be chased from the land, even this small community was broken up, and almost every one of its members fled to Egypt. The Exile was complete.
CHAPTER III
WHAT ISRAEL TOOK INTO EXILE
BEFORE we follow the captives along the roads that lead to exile, we may take account of the spiritual goods which they carried with them, and were to realise in their retirement. Never in all history did paupers of this world go forth more richly laden with the treasures of heaven.
1. First of all, we must emphasise and define their monotheism. We must emphasise it as against those who would fain persuade us that Israels monotheism was for the most part the product of the Exile; we must analyse its contents and define its limits among the people, if we would appreciate the extent to which it spread and the peculiar temper which it assumed, as set forth in the prophecy we are about to study.
Idolatry was by no means dead in Israel at the fall of Jerusalem. On the contrary, during the last years which the nation spent within those sacred walls, that had been so miraculously preserved in the sight of the world by Jehovah, idolatry increased, and to the end remained as determined and fanatic as the peoples defence of Jehovahs own temple. The Jews who fled to Egypt applied themselves to the worship of the Queen of Heaven, in spite of all the remonstrances of Jeremiah; and him they carried with them, not because they listened to him as the prophet of the One True God, but superstitiously, as if he were a pledge of the favour of one of the many gods, whom they were anxious to propitiate. And the earliest effort, upon which we shall have to follow our own prophet, is the effort to crush the worship of images among the Babylonian exiles. Yet when Israel returned from Babylon the people were wholly monotheist; when Jerusalem was rebuilt no idol came back to her.
That this great change was mainly the result of the residence in Babylon and of truths learned there, must be denied by all who remember the creed and doctrine about God, which in their literature the people carried with them into exile. The law was already written, and the whole nation had sworn to it: “Hear, O Israel, Jehovah our God; Jehovah is One, and thou shalt worship Jehovah thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength.” These words, it is true, may be so strictly interpreted as to mean no more than that there was one God for Israel: other gods might exist, but Jehovah was Sole Deity for His people. It is maintained that such a view receives some support from the custom of prophets, who, while they affirmed Jehovahs supremacy, talked of other gods as if they were real existences. But argument from this habit of the prophets is precarious: such a mode of speech may have been a mere accommodation to a popular point of view. And, surely, we have only to recall what Isaiah and Jeremiah had uttered concerning Jehovahs Godhead, to be persuaded that Israels monotheism, before the beginning of the Exile, was a far more broad and spiritual faith than the mere belief that Jehovah was the Sovereign Deity of the nation, or the satisfaction of the desires of Jewish hearts alone. Righteousness was not coincident with Israels life and interest; righteousness was universally supreme, and it was in righteousness that Isaiah saw Jehovah exalted. There is no more prevailing witness to the unity of God than the conscience, which in this matter takes far precedence of the intellect; and it was on the testimony of conscience that the prophets based Israels monotheism. Yet they did not omit to enlist the reason as well. Isaiah and Jeremiah delight to draw deductions from the reasonableness of Jehovahs working in nature to the reasonableness of His processes in history, -analogies which could not fail to impress both intellect and imagination with the fact that men inhabit a universe, that One is the will and mind which works in all things. But to this training of conscience and reason, the Jews, at the beginning of the Exile, felt the addition of another considerable influence. Their history lay at last complete, and their conscience was at leisure from the making of its details to survey it as a whole. That long past, seen now by undazzled eyes from under the shadow of exile, presented through all its changing fortunes a single and definite course. One was the intention of it, one its judgment from first to last. The Jew saw in it nothing but righteousness, the quality of a God, who spake the same word from the beginning, who never broke His word, and who at last had summoned to its fulfilment the greatest of the world-powers. In those historical books, which were collected and edited during the Exile, we observe each of the kings and generations of Israel, in their turn, confronted with the same high standard of fidelity to the One True God and His holy Law. The regularity and rigour, with which they are thus judged, have been condemned by some critics as an arbitrary and unfair application of the standard of a later faith to the conduct of ruder and less responsible ages. But, apart from the question of historical accuracy, we cannot fail to remark that this method of writing history is at least instinct with the Oneness of God, and the unvarying validity of His Law from generation to generation. Israels God was the same, their conscience told them, down all their history; but now as He summoned one after another of the great world-powers to do His bidding, -Assyria, Babylon, Persia, -how universal did He prove His dominion to be! Unchanging through all time, He was surely omnipotent through all space.
This short review-in which, for the sake of getting a complete view of our subject, we have anticipated a little-has shown that Israel had enough within themselves, in the teaching of their prophets and in the lessons of their own history, to account for that consummate expression of Jehovahs Godhead, which is contained in our prophet, and to which every one allows the character of an absolute monotheism. We shall find this, it is true, to be higher and more comprehensive than anything which is said about God in pre-exilic Scriptures. The prophet argues the claims of Jehovah, not only with the ardour that is born of faith, but often with the scorn which indicates the intellect at work. It is monotheism, treated not only as a practical belief or a religious duty, but as a necessary truth of reason; not only as the secret of faith and the special experience of Israel, but also as an essential conviction of human nature, so that not to believe in One God is a thing irrational and absurd for Gentiles as well as Jews. Gods infinitude in the works of creation, His universal providence in history, are preached with greater power than ever before; and the gods of the nations are treated as things, in whose existence no reasonable person can possibly believe. In short, our great prophet of the Exile has already learned to obey the law of Deuteronomy as it was expounded by Christ. Deuteronomy says, “Thou shalt love Jehovah thy God with all thine heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy strength.” Christ added, “and with all thy mind.” This was what our prophet did. He held his monotheism” with all his mind.” We shall find him conscious of it, not only as a religious affection, but as a necessary intellectual conviction; which if a man has not, he is less than a man. Hence the scorn which he pours upon the idols and mythologies of his conquerors. Beside his tyrants, though in physical strength he was but a worm to them, the Jew felt that he walked, by virtue of his faith in One God, their intellectual master.
We shall see all this illustrated later on. Meantime, what we are concerned to show is that there is enough to account for this high faith within Israel themselves-in their prophecy and in the lessons of their history. And where indeed are we to be expected to go in search of the sources of Israels monotheism, if not to themselves? To the Babylonians? The Babylonians had nothing spiritual to teach to Israel; our prophet regards them with scorn. To the Persians, who broke across Israels horizon with Cyrus? Our prophets high statement of monotheism is of earlier date than the advent of Cyrus to Babylon. Nor did Cyrus, when he came, give any help to the faith, for in his public edicts he owned the gods of Babylon and the God of Israel with equal care and equal policy. It was not because Cyrus and his Persians were monotheists, that our prophet saw the sovereignty of Jehovah vindicated, but it was because Jehovah was sovereign that the prophet knew the Persians would serve His holy purposes.
2. But if in Deuteronomy the exiles carried with them the Law of the One God, they preserved in Jeremiahs writings what may be called the charter of the individual man. Jeremiah had found religion in Judah a public and a national affair. The individual derived his spiritual value only from being a member of the nation, and through the public exercises of the national faith. But, partly by his own religious experience, and partly by the course of events, Jeremiah was enabled to accomplish what may be justly described as the vindication of the individual. Of his own separate value before God, and of his right of access to his Maker apart from the nation, Jeremiah himself was conscious, having belonged to God before he belonged to his mother, his family, or his nation. “Before I found thee in the belly I knew thee, and before thou camest out of the womb I consecrated thee.” His whole life was but the lesson of how one man can be for God and all the nation on the other side. And it was in the strength of this solitary experience, that he insisted, in his famous thirty-first chapter, on the individual responsibility of man and on every mans immediate communication with Gods Spirit; and that, when the ruin of the state was imminent, he advised each of his friends to “take his own life” out of it “for a prey.” {Jeremiah 65} But Jeremiahs doctrine of the religious value and independence of the individual had a complement. Though the prophet felt so keenly his separate responsibility and right of access to God, and his religious independence of the people, he nevertheless clave to the people with all his heart. He was not, like some other prophets, outside the doom he preached. He might have saved himself, for he had many offers from the Babylonians. But he chose to suffer with his people-he, the saint of God, with the idolaters. More than that, it may be said that Jeremiah suffered for the people. It was not they, with their dead conscience and careless mind, but he, with his tender conscience and breaking heart, who bore the reproach of their sins, the anger of the Lord, and all the agonising knowledge of his countrys inevitable doom. In Jeremiah one man did suffer for the people.
In our prophecy, which is absorbed with the deliverance of the nation as a whole, there was, of course, no occasion to develop Jeremiahs remarkable suggestions about each individual soul of man. In fact, these suggestions were germs, which remained uncultivated in Israel till Christs time. Jeremiah himself uttered them, not as demands for the moment, but as ideals that would only be realised when the New Covenant was made. Our prophecy has nothing to say about them. But that figure, which Jeremiahs life presented, of One Individual-of One Individual standing in moral solitude over against the whole nation, and in a sense suffering for the nation, can hardly have been absent from the influences, which moulded the marvellous confession of the people in the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, where they see the solitary servant of God on one side and themselves on the other, “and Jehovah made to light on him the iniquities of us all.” It is true that the exiles themselves had some consciousness of suffering for others. “Our fathers,” cried a voice in their midst, when Jerusalem broke up, “Our fathers have sinned, and we have borne their iniquities.” But Jeremiah had been a willing sufferer for his people; and the fifty-third chapter is, as we shall see, more like his way of bearing his generations guilt for loves sake than their way of bearing their fathers guilt in the inevitable entail of sin.
3. To these beliefs in the unity of God, the religious worth of the individual, and the virtue of his self-sacrifice, we must add some experiences of scarcely less value rising out of the destruction of the material and political forms-the temple, the city, the monarchy-with which the faith of Israel had been so long identified.
Without this destruction, it is safe to say, those beliefs could not have assumed their purest form. Take, for instance, the belief in the unity of God. There is no doubt that this belief was immensely helped in Israel by the abolition of all the provincial sanctuaries under Josiah, by the limitation of Divine worship to one temple and of valid sacrifice to one altar. But yet it was well that this temple should enjoy its singular rights for only thirty years and then be destroyed. For a monotheism, however lofty, which depended upon the existence of any shrine, however gloriously vindicated by Divine providence, was not a purely spiritual faith. Or, again, take the individual. The individual could not realise how truly he himself was the highest temple of God, and Gods most pleasing sacrifice a broken and a contrite heart, till the routine of legal sacrifice was interrupted and the ancient altar torn down. Or, once more, take that high, ultimate doctrine of sacrifice, that the most inspiring thing for men, the most effectual propitiation before God, is the self-devotion and offering up of a free and reasonable soul, the righteous for the unrighteous-how could common Jews have adequately learned that truth, in days when, according to immemorial practice, the bodies of bulls and goats bled daily on the one valid altar? The city and temple, therefore, went up in flames that Israel might learn that God is a Spirit, and dwelleth not in a house made with hands; that men are His temple, and their hearts the sacrifices well-pleasing in His sight; and that beyond the bodies and blood of beasts, with their daily necessity of being offered, He was preparing for them another Sacrifice, of perpetual and universal power, in the voluntary sufferings of His own holy Servant. It was for this Servant, too, that the monarchy, as it were, abdicated, yielding up to Him all its title to represent Jehovah and to save and rule Jehovahs people.
4. Again, as we have already hinted, the fall of the state and city of Jerusalem gave scope to Israels missionary career. The conviction, that that had inspired many of Isaiahs assertions of the inviolableness of Zion, was the conviction that, if Zion were overthrown and the last remnant of Israel uprooted from the land, there must necessarily follow the extinction of the only true testimony to the living God which the world contained. But by a century later that testimony was firmly secured in the hearts and consciences of the people, wheresoever they might be scattered; and what was now needed was exactly such a dispersion, -in order that Israel might become aware of the world for whom the testimony was meant, and grow expert in the methods by which it was to be proclaimed. Priesthood has its human as well as its Godward side. The latter was already sufficiently secured for Israel by Jehovahs age-long seclusion of them in their remote highlands-a people peculiar to Himself. But now the same Providence completed its purpose by casting them upon the world. They mixed with men face to face, or, still more valuably to themselves, on a level with the most downtrodden and despised of the peoples. With no advantage but the truth, they met the other religions of the world in argument, debating with them upon the principles of a common reason and the facts of a common history. They learned sympathy with the weak things of earth. They discovered that their religion could be taught. But, above all, they became conscious of martyrdom, the indispensable experience of a religion that is to prevail; and they realised the supreme influence upon men of a love which sacrifices itself. In a word, Israel, in going into exile, put on humanity with all its consequences. How real and thorough the process was, how successful in perfecting their priesthood, may be seen not only from the hopes and obligations towards all mankind, which burst in our prophecy to an urgency and splendour unmatched elsewhere in their history, but still more from the fact that when the Son of God Himself took flesh and became man, there were no words oftener upon His lips to describe His experience and commission, there are no passages which more clearly mirror His work for the world, than the words and the passages in which these Jews of the Exile, stripped to their bare humanity, relate their sufferings or exult in their destiny that should follow.
5. But with their temple in ruins, and all the world before them for the service of God, the Jews go forth to exile upon the distinct promise of return. The material form of their religion is suspended, not abolished. Let them feel religion in purely spiritual aspects, unassisted by sanctuary or ritual; let them look upon the world and the oneness of men; let them learn all Gods scope for the truth He has entrusted to them, -and then let them gather back again and cherish their new experience and ideas for yet awhile in the old seclusion. Jehovahs discipline of them as a nation is not yet exhausted. They are no mere band of pilgrims or missionaries, with the world for their home; they are still a people. with their own bit of the earth. If we keep this in mind, it will explain certain apparent anomalies in our prophecy. In all the writings of the Exile the reader is confused by a strange mingling of the spiritual and the material, the universal and the local. The moral restoration of the people to pardon and righteousness is identified with their political restoration to Judah and Jerusalem. They have been separated from ritual in order to cultivate a more spiritual religion, but it is to this that a restoration to ritual is promised for a reward. While Jeremiah insists upon the free and immediate communication of every believer with Jehovah, Ezekiel builds a more exclusive priesthood, a more elaborate system of worship. Within our prophecy, while one voice deprecates a house for God built with hands, affirming that Jehovah dwells with every one who is of a poor and contrite spirit, other voices dwell fondly on the prospect of the new temple and exult in its material glory. This double line of feeling is not merely due to the presence in Israel of those two opposite tempers of mind, which so naturally appear in every national literature. But a special purpose of God is in it. Dispersed to obtain more spiritual ideas of God and man and the world, Israel must be gathered back again to get these by heart, to enshrine them in literature, and to transmit them to posterity, as they could alone be securely transmitted, in the memories of a nation, in the liturgies and canons of a living Church.
Therefore the Jews, though torn for their discipline from Jerusalem, continued to identify themselves more passionately than ever with their desecrated city. A prayer of the period exclaims: “Thy saints take pleasure in her stones, and her dust is dear to them.” {Psa 102:14} The exiles proved this by taking her name. Their prophets addressed them as “Zion” and “Jerusalem.” Scattered and leaderless groups of captives in a far-off land, they were still that City of God. She had not ceased to be; ruined and forsaken as she lay, she was yet “graven on the palms of Jehovahs hands; and her walls were continually before Him.” {Isa 49:15} The exiles kept up the register of her families; they prayed towards her; they looked to return to build her bulwarks; they spent long hours of their captivity in tracing upon the dust of that foreign land the ground plan of her restored temple.
With such beliefs in God and man and sacrifice, with such hopes and opportunities for their world-mission, but also with such a bias back to the material Jerusalem, did Israel pass into exile.
CHAPTER IV
ISRAEL IN EXILE
FROM 589 TILL ABOUT 550 B.C.
IT is remarkable how completely the sound of the march from Jerusalem to Babylon has died out of Jewish history. It was an enormous movement: twice over within ten years, ten thousand Jews, at the very least, must have trodden the highway to the Euphrates; and yet, except for a doubtful verse or two in the Psalter, they have left no echo of their passage. The sufferings of the siege before, the remorse and lamentation of the Exile after, still pierce our ears through the Book of Lamentations and the Psalms by the rivers of Babylon. We know exactly how the end was fulfilled. We see most vividly the shifting panorama of the siege, -the city in famine, under the assault, and in smoke; upon the streets the pining children, the stricken princes, the groups of men with sullen, famine-black faces, the heaps of slain, mothers feeding on the bodies of the infants whom their sapless breasts could not keep alive; by the walls the hanging and crucifixion of multitudes, with all the fashion of Chaldean cruelty, the delicate and the children stumbling under heavy loads, no survivor free from the pollution of blood. Upon the hills around, the neighbouring tribes are gathered to jeer at “the day of Jerusalem,” and to cut off her fugitives; we even see the departing captives turn, as the worm turns, to curse “those children of Edom.” But there the vision closes. Was it this hot hate which blinded them to the sights of the way, or that weariness and depression among strange scenes, that falls upon all unaccustomed caravans, and has stifled the memory of nearly every other great historical march? The roads which the exiles traversed were of immemorial use in the history of their fathers; almost every day they must have passed names which, for at least two centuries, had rung in the market-place of Jerusalem-the Way of the Sea, across Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, round Hermon, and past Damascus; between the two Lebanons, past Hamath, and past Arpad; or less probably by Tadmor-in-the-Wilderness and Rezeph, -till they reached the river on which the national ambition had lighted as the frontier of the Messianic Empire, and whose rolling greatness had so often proved the fascination and despair of a people of uncertain brooks and trickling aqueducts. Crossing the Euphrates by one of its numerous passages-either at Carchemish, if they struck the river so high, or at the more usual Thapsacus, Tiphsah, “the passage,” where Xenophon crossed with his Greeks, or at some other place-the caravans must have turned south across the Habor, on whose upper banks the captives of Northern Israel had been scattered, and then have traversed the picturesque country of Aram-Naharaim, past Circesium and Rehoboth-of-the-River, and many another ancient place mentioned in the story of the Patriarchs, till through dwindling hills they reached His-that marvellous site which travellers praise as one of the great viewpoints of the world-and looked out at last upon the land of their captivity, the boundless, almost level tracts of Chaldea, the first home of the race, the traditional Garden of Eden. But of all that we are told nothing. Every eye in the huge caravans seems to have been as the eyes of the blinded king whom they carried with them, -able to weep, but not to see.
One fact, however, was too large to be missed by these sad, wayworn men; and it has left traces on their literature. In passing from home to exile, the Jews passed from the hills to the plain. They were highlanders. Jerusalem lies four thousand feet above the sea. From its roofs the skyline is mostly a line of hills. To leave the city on almost any side you have to descend. The last monuments of their fatherland, on which the emigrants eyes could have lingered, were the high crests of Lebanon; the first prospect of their captivity was a monotonous level. The change was the more impressive, that to the hearts of the Hebrews it could not fail to be sacramental. From the mountains came the dew to their native crofts-the dew which, of all earthly blessings, was likest Gods grace. For their prophets, the ancient hills had been the symbols of Jehovahs faithfulness. In leaving their highlands, therefore, the Jews not only left the kind of country to which their habits were most adapted and all their natural affections clung; they left the chosen abode of God, the most evident types of His grace, the perpetual witnesses to His covenant. Ezekiel constantly employs the mountains to describe his fatherland. But it is far more with a sacramental longing than a mere homesickness that a psalmist of the Exile cries out, “I will lift up mine eyes to the hills: from whence cometh mine help?” or that our prophet exclaims: “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth.”
By the route sketched above, it is at least seven hundred miles from Jerusalem to Babylon-a distance which, when we take into account that many of the captives walked in fetters, cannot have occupied them less than three months. We may form some conception of the aspect of the caravans from the transportations of captives which are figured on the Assyrian monuments, as in the Assyrian basement in the British Museum. From these it appears as if families were not separated, but marched together. Mules, asses, camels, ox-waggons, and the captives themselves carried goods. Children and women suckling infants were allowed to ride on the waggons. At intervals fully-armed soldiers walked in pairs.
I.
Mesopotamia, the land “in the middle of the rivers,” Euphrates and Tigris, consists of two divisions, an upper and a lower. The dividing line crosses from near Hit or His on the Euphrates to below Samarah on the Tigris. Above this line the country is a gently undulating plain of secondary formation at some elevation above the sea. But lower Mesopotamia is absolutely flat land, an unbroken stretch of alluvial soil, scarcely higher than the Persian Gulf, upon which it steadily encroaches. Chaldea was confined to this Lower Mesopotamia, and was not larger, Rawlinson estimates, than the kingdom of Denmark. It is the monotonous level which first impresses the traveller; but if the season be favourable, he sees this only as the theatre of vast and varied displays of colour, which all visitors vie with one another in describing: “It is like a rich carpet”; “emerald green, enamelled with flowers of every hue”; “tall wild grasses and broad extents of waving reeds”; “acres of water-lilies”; “acres of pansies.” There was no such country in ancient times for wheat, barley, millet, and sesame; tamarisks, poplars, and palms; here and there heavy jungle; with flashing streams and canals thickly athwart the whole, and all shining the more brilliantly for the interrupting patches of scurvy, nitrous soil, and the grey sandy setting of the desert with its dry scrub. The possible fertility of Chaldea is incalculable. But there are drawbacks. Bounded to the north by so high a tableland, to the south and southwest by a super-heated gulf and broad desert, Mesopotamia is the scene of violent changes of atmosphere. The languor of the flat country, the stagnancy and sultriness of the air, of which not only foreigners but the natives themselves complain, is suddenly invaded by southerly winds, of tremendous force and laden with clouds of fine sand, which render the air so dense as to be suffocating, and “produce a lurid red haze intolerable to the eyes.” Thunderstorms are frequent, and there are very heavy rains. But the winds are the most tremendous. In such an atmosphere we may perhaps discover the original shapes and sounds of Ezekiels turbulent visions-“the fiery wheels; the great cloud with a fire infolding itself; the colour of amber,” with “sapphire,” or lapiz lazuli, breaking through; “the sound of a great rushing.” Also the Mesopotamian floods are colossal. The increase of both Tigris and Euphrates is naturally more violent and irregular than that of the Nile. Frequent risings of these rivers spread desolation with inconceivable rapidity, and they ebb only to leave pestilence behind them. If civilisation is to continue, there is need of vast and incessant operations on the part of man.
Thus, both by its fertility and by its violence, this climate-before the curse of God fell on those parts of the world-tended to develop a numerous and industrious race of men, whose numbers were swollen from time to time both by forced and by voluntary immigration. The population must have been very dense. The triumphal lists of Assyrian conquerors of the land, as well as the rubbish mounds which today cover its surface, testify to innumerable villages and towns; while the connecting canals and fortifications, by the making of them and the watching of them, must have filled even the rural districts with the hum and activity of men. Chaldea, however, did not draw all her greatness from herself. There was immense traffic with East and West, between which Babylon lay, for the greater part of antiquity, the worlds central market and exchange. The city was practically a port on the Persian Gulf, by canals from which vessels reached her wharves direct from Arabia, India, and Africa. Down the Tigris and Euphrates rafts brought the produce of Armenia and the Caucasus; but of greater importance than even these rivers were the roads, which ran from Sardis to Shushan, traversed Media, penetrated Bactria and India, and may be said to have connected the Jaxartes and the Ganges with the Nile and the harbours of the gean Sea. These roads all crossed Chaldea and met at Babylon. Together with the rivers and ocean highways, they poured upon her markets the traffic of the whole ancient world.
It was, in short, the very centre of the world-the most populous and busy region of His earth-to which God sent His people for their exile. The monarch, who transplanted them, was the genius of Babylonia incarnate. The chief soldier of his generation, Nebuchadrezzar will live in history as one of the greatest builders of all time. But he fought as he built – that he might traffic. His ambition was to turn the trade with India from the Red Sea to the Persian Gulf, and he thought to effect this by the destruction of Tyre, by the transportation of Arab and Nabathean merchants to Babylon, and by the deepening and regulation of the river between Babylon and the sea.
There is no doubt that Nebuchadrezzar carried the Jews to Babylon not only for political reasons, but in order to employ them upon those large works of irrigation and the building of cities, for which his ambition required hosts of labourers. Thus the exiles were planted, neither in military prisons nor in the comparative isolation of agricultural colonies, but just where Babylonian life was most busy, where they were forced to share and contribute to it, and could not help feeling the daily infection of their captors habits. Do not let us forget this. It will explain much in what we have to study. It will explain how the captivity, which God inflicted upon the Jews as a punishment, might become in time a new sin to them, and why, when the day of redemption arrived, so many forgot that their citizenship was in Zion, and clung to the traffic and the offices of Babylon.
The majority of the exiles appear to have been settled within the city, or, as it has been more correctly called, “the fortified district,” of Babylon itself. Their mistress was thus constantly before them, at once their despair and their temptation. Lady of Kingdoms she lifted herself to heaven from broad wharves and ramparts, by wide flights of stairs and terraces, high walls and hanging gardens, pyramids and towers-so colossal in her buildings, so imperially lavish of space between! No wonder that upon that vast, far-spreading architecture, upon its great squares and between its high portals guarded by giant bulls, the Jew felt himself, as he expressed it, but a poor worm. If, even as they stand in our museums, captured and catalogued, one feels as if one crawled in the presence of the fragments of these striding monsters, with how much more of the feeling of the worm must the abject members of that captive nation have writhed before the face of the city, which carried these monsters as the mere ornaments of her skirts, and rose above all kingdoms with her strong feet upon the poor and the meek of the earth?
Ah, the despair of it! To see her every day so glorious, to be forced to help her ceaseless growth, -and to think how Jerusalem, the daughter of Zion, lay forsaken in ruins! Yet the despair sometimes gave way to temptation. There was not an outline or horizon visible to the captive Jew, not a figure in the motley crowds in which he moved, but must have fascinated him with the genius of his conquerors. In that level land no mountain, with its witness of God, broke the skyline; but the work of man was everywhere: curbed and scattered rivers, artificial mounds, buildings of brick, gardens torn from their natural beds and hung high in air by cunning hands to please the taste of a queen; lavish wealth and force and cleverness, all at the command of one human will. The signature ran across the whole, “I have done this, and with mine own hand have I gotten me my wealth”; and all the nations of the earth came and acknowledged the signature, and worshipped the great city. It was fascinating merely to look on such cleverness, success, and self-confidence; and who was the poor Jew that he, too, should not be drawn with the intoxicated nations to the worship of this glory that filled his horizon? If his eyes rose higher, and from these enchantments of men sought refuge in the heavens above, were not even they also a Babylonian realm? Did not the Chaldean claim the great lights there for his patron gods? were not the movements of sun, moon, and planets the secret of his science? did not the tyrant believe that the very stars in their courses fought for him? And he was vindicated; he was successful; he did actually rule the world. There seemed to be no escape from the enchantments of this sorceress city, as the prophets called her, and it is not wonderful that so many Jews fell victims to her worldliness and idolatry.
II.
The social condition of the Jews in exile is somewhat obscure, and yet, both in connection with the date and with the exposition of some portions of “Second Isaiah,” it is an element of the greatest importance, of which we ought to have as definite an idea as possible.
What are the facts? By far the most significant is that which faces us at the end of the Exile. There, some sixty years after the earlier, and some fifty years after the later, of Nebuchadnezzars two deportations, we find the Jews a largely multiplied and still regularly organised nation, with considerable property and decided political influence. Not more than forty thousand can have gone into exile, but forty-two thousand returned, and yet left a large portion of the nation behind them. The old families and clans survived; the social ranks were respected; the rich still held slaves; and the former menials of the temple could again be gathered together. Large subscriptions were raised for the pilgrimage, and for the restoration of the temple; a great host of cattle was taken. To such a state of affairs do we see any traces leading up through the Exile itself? We do.
The first host of exiles, the captives of 598, comprised, as we have seen, the better classes of the nation, and appear to have enjoyed considerable independence. They were not scattered, like the slaves in North America, as domestic bondsmen over the surface of the land. Their condition must have much more closely resembled that of the better-treated exiles in Siberia; though of course, as we have seen, it was not a Siberia, but the centre of civilisation, to which they were banished. They remained in communities, with their own official heads, and at liberty to consult their prophets. They were sufficiently in touch with one another, and sufficiently numerous, for the enemies of Babylon to regard them as a considerable political influence, and to treat with them for a revolution against their captors. But Ezekiels strong condemnation of this intrigue exhibits their leaders on good terms with the government. Jeremiah bade them throw themselves into the life of the land; buy and sell, and increase their families and property. At the same time, we cannot but observe that it is only religious sins, with which Ezekiel upbraids them. When he speaks of civic duty or social charity, he either refers to their past or to the life of the remnant still in Jerusalem. There is every reason to believe, therefore, that this captivity was an honourable and an easy one. The captives may have brought some property with them; they had leisure for the pursuit of business and for the study and practice of their religion. Some of them suffered, of course, from the usual barbarity of Oriental conquerors, and were made eunuchs; some, by their learning and abstinence, rose to high positions in the court. (The Book of Daniel) Probably to the end of the Exile they remained “the good figs,” as Jeremiah had called them. Theirs was, perhaps, the literary work of the Exile; and theirs, too, may have been the wealth which rebuilt Jerusalem.
But it was different with the second captivity, of 589. After the famine, the burning of the city, and the prolonged march, this second host of exiles must have reached Babylonia in an impoverished condition. They were a lower class of men. They had exasperated their conquerors, who, before the march began, subjected many of them to mutilation and cruel death; and it is, doubtless, echoes of their experience which we find in the more bitter complaints of our prophet, This is a people robbed and spoiled; all of them snared in holes, and hid in prison-houses: they are for a prey, and for a spoil. “Thou” (that is, Babylon), “didst show them no mercy; upon the aged hast thou very heavily laid thy yoke.” {Isa 42:22; Isa 47:6} Nebuchadrezzar used them for his building, as Pharaoh had used their forefathers. Some of them, or of their countrymen who had reached Babylonia before them, became the domestic slaves and chattels of their conquerors. Among the contracts and bills of sale of this period we find the cases of slaves with apparently Jewish names.
In short, the state of the Jews in Babylonia resembled what seems to have been their fortune wherever they have settled in a foreign land. Part of them despised and abused, forced to labour or overtaxed: part left alone to cultivate literature or to gather wealth. Some treated with unusual rigour-and perhaps a few of these with reason, as dangerous to the government of the land-but some also, by the versatile genius of their race, advancing to a high place in the political confidence of their captors.
Their application to literature, to their religion, and to commerce must be specially noted.
1. Nothing is more striking in the writings of Ezekiel than the air of large leisure which invests them. Ezekiel lies passive; he broods, gazes, and builds his vision up, in a fashion like none of his terser predecessors; for he had time on his hands, not available to them in days when the history of the nation was still running. Ezekiels style swells to a greater fulness of rhetoric; his pictures of the future are elaborated with the most minute detail. Prophets before him were speakers, but he is a writer. Many in Israel besides Ezekiel took advantage of the leisure of the Exile to the great increase and arrangement of the national literature. Some Assyriologists have lately written, as if the schools of Jewish scribes owed their origin entirely to the Exile. But there were scribes in Israel before this. What the Exile did for these, was to provide them not only with the leisure from national business which we have noted, but with a powerful example of their craft as well. Babylonia at this time was a land full of scribes and makers of libraries. They wrote a language not very different from the Jewish, and cannot but have powerfully infected their Jewish fellows with the spirit of their toil and of their methods. To the Exile we certainly owe a large part of the historical books of the Old Testament, the arrangement of some of the prophetic writings, as well as-though the amount of this is very uncertain-part of the codification of the Law.
2. If the Exile was opportunity to the scribes, it can only have been despair to the priests. In this foreign land the nation was unclean; none of the old sacrifice or ritual was valid, and the people were reduced to the simplest elements of religion-prayer, fasting, and the reading of religious books. We shall find our prophecy noting the clamour of the exiles to God for “ordinances of righteousness”-that is, for the institution of legal and valid rites. {Isa 58:2} But the great lesson, which prophecy brings to the people of the Exile, is that pardon and restoration to Gods favour are won only by waiting upon Him with all the heart. It was possible, of course, to observe some forms; to gather at intervals to inquire of the Lord, to keep the Sabbath, and to keep fasts. The first of these practices, out of which the synagogue probably took its rise, is noted by our prophet, {Isa 58:13-14} and he enforces Sabbath-keeping with words that add the blessing of prophecy to the laws ancient sanction of that institution. Four annual fasts were instituted in memory of the dark days of Jerusalem-the day of the beginning of Nebuchadrezzar’s siege in the tenth month, the day of the capture in the fourth month, the day of the destruction in the fifth month, and the day of Gedaliahs murder in the tenth month. It might have been thought, that solemn anniversaries of a disaster so recent and still unrepaired would be kept with sincerity; but our prophet illustrates how soon even the most outraged feelings may grow formal, and how on their days of special humiliation, while their captivity was still real, the exiles could oppress their own bondsmen and debtors. But there is no religious practice of this epoch more apparent through our prophecies than the reading of Scripture. Israels hope was neither in sacrifice, nor in temple, nor in vision nor in lot, but in Gods written Word; and when a new prophet arose, like the one we are about to study, he did not appeal for his authorisation, as previous prophets had done, to the fact of his call or inspiration, but it was enough for him to point to some former word of God, and cry, “See! at last the day has dawned for the fulfilment of that.” Throughout Second Isaiah this is what the anonymous prophet cares to establish that the facts of today fit the promise of yesterday. We shall not understand our great prophecy unless we realise a people rising from fifty years close study of Scripture, in strained expectation of its immediate fulfilment.
3. The third special feature of the people in exile is their application to commerce. At home the Jews had not been a commercial people. But the opportunities of their Babylonian residence seem to have started them upon those habits, for which, through their longer exile in our era, the name of Jew has become a synonym. If that be so, Jeremiahs advice “to build and plant.” {Jer 29:1-32} is historic, for it means no less than that the Jews should throw themselves into the life of the most trafficking nation of the time. Their increasing wealth proves how they followed this advice, -as well as perhaps such passages as Isa 55:2, in which the commercial spirit is reproached for overwhelming the nobler desires of religion. The chief danger, incurred by the Jews from an intimate connection with the commerce of Babylonia, lay in the close relations of Babylonian commerce with Babylonian idolatry. The merchants of Mesopotamia had their own patron gods. In completing business contracts, a man had to swear by his idols, and might have to enter their temples. In Isa 65:11, Jews are blamed for “forsaking Jehovah, and forgetting My holy mountain; preparing a table for Luck, and filling up mixed wine to Fortune.” Here it is more probable that mercantile speculation, rather than any other form of gambling, is intended.
III.
But while all this is certain and needing to be noted about the habits of the mass of the people, what little trace it has left in the best literature of the period! We have already noticed in that the great absence of local colour. The truth is that what we have been trying to describe as Jewish life in Babylon was only a surface over deeps in which the true life of the nation was at work-was volcanically at work. Throughout the Exile the true Jew lived inwardly. “Out of the depths do I cry to Thee, O Lord.” He was the inhabitant not so much of a foreign prison as of his own broken heart. “He sat by the rivers of Babylon; but he thought upon Zion.” Is it not a proof of what depths in human nature were being stirred, that so little comes to the surface to tell us of the external conditions of those days? There are no fossils in the strata of the earth, which have been cast forth from her inner fires; and if we find few traces of contemporary life in these deposits of Israels history now before us, it is because they date from an age in which the nation was shaken and boiling to its centre.
For if we take the writings of this period-the Book of Lamentations, the Psalms of the Exile, and parts of other books-and put them together, the result is the impression of one of the strangest decompositions of human nature into its elements which the world has ever seen. Suffering and sin, recollection, remorse and revenge, fear and shame and hate-over the confusion of these the Spirit of God broods as over a second chaos, and draws each of them forth in turn upon some articulate prayer. Now it is the crimson flush of shame: “our soul is exceedingly filled with contempt.” Now it is the black rush of hate; for if we would see how hate can rage, we must go to the Psalms of the Exile, which call on the God of vengeance and curse the enemy and dash the little ones against the stones. But the deepest surge of all in that whirlpool of misery was the surge of sin. To change the figure, we see Israels spirit writhing upward from some pain it but partly understands, crying out, “What is this that keeps God from hearing and saving me?” turning like a wounded beast from the face of its master to its sore again, understanding as no brute could the reason of its plague, till confession after confession breaks away and the penalty is accepted, and acknowledged guilt seems almost to act as an anodyne to the penalty it explains. “Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? If Thou, Jehovah, shouldest mark iniquity who shall stand?” No wonder, that with such a conscience the Jews occupied the Exile in writing the moral of their delinquent history, or that the rest of their literature which dates from that time should have remained ever since the worlds confessional.
But in this awful experience, there is still another strain, as painful as the rest, but pure and very eloquent of hope-the sense of innocent suffering. We cannot tell the sources, from which this considerable feeling may have gathered during the Exile, any more than we can trace from how many of the upper folds of a valley the tiny rivulets start, which form the stream that issues from its lower end. One of these sources may have been, as we have already suggested, the experience of Jeremiah; another very probably sprang with every individual conscience in the new generation. Children come even to exiles, and although they bear the same pain with the same nerves as their fathers, they do so with a different conscience. The writings of the time dwell much on the sufferings of the children. The consciousness is apparent in them, that souls are born into the wrath of God, as well as banished there. “Our fathers have sinned and are not, and we bear their iniquities.” This experience developed with great force, till Israel felt that she suffered not under Gods wrath, but for His sake; and so passed from the conscience of the felon to that of the martyr. But if we are to understand the prophecy we are about to study, we must remember how near akin these two consciences must have been in exiled Israel, and how easy it was for a prophet to speak-as our prophet does, sometimes with confusing rapidity of exchange-now in the voice of the older and more guilty generation, and now in the voice of the younger and less deservedly punished.
Our survey of the external as well as the internal conditions of Israel in Exile is now finished. It has, I think, included every known feature of their experience in Babylonia, which could possibly illustrate our prophecy-dated, as we have felt ourselves compelled to date this, from the close of the Exile. Thus, as we have striven to trace, did Israel suffer, learn, grow, and hope for fifty years-under Nebuchadrezzar till 561, under his successor Evil-merodach till 559, under Neriglassar till 554, and then under the usurper Nabunahid. The last named probably oppressed the Jews more grievously than their previous tyrants, but with the aggravation of their yoke there grew evident, at the same time, the certainty of their deliverance. In 549 Cyrus overthrew the Medes, and became lord of Asia from the Indus to the Halys. From that event his conquest of Babylonia, however much delayed, could only be a matter of time.
It is at this juncture that our prophecy breaks in. Taking for granted Cyrus sovereignty of the Medes, it still looks forward to his capture of Babylon. Let us, before advancing to its exposition, once more cast a rapid glance over the people, to whom it is addressed and whom in their half century of waiting for it we have been endeavouring to describe.
First and most manifest, they are a people with a conscience-a people with the most awful and most articulate conscience that ever before or since exposed a nations history or tormented a generation with the curse of their own sin and the sin of their fathers. Behind them, ages of delinquent life, from the perusal of the record of which, with its regularly recurring moral, they have just risen: the Books of Kings appear to have been finished after the accession of Evil-merodach in 561. Behind them also nearly fifty years of sore punishment for their sins-punishment, which, as their Psalms confess, they at last understand and accept as deserved.
But, secondly, they are a people with a great hope. With their awful consciousness of guilt, they have the assurance that their punishment has its limits; that, to quote Isa 40:2, it is a “set period of service”: a former word of God having fixed it at not more than seventy years, and having promised the return of the nation thereafter to their own land.
And, thirdly, they are a People with a great opportunity. History is at last beginning to set towards the vindication of their hope: Cyrus, the master of the age, is moving rapidly, irresistibly, down upon their tyrants.
But, fourthly, in face of all their hope and opportunity, they are a people disorganised, distracted, and very impotent-“worms and not men,” as they describe themselves. The generation of the tried and responsible leaders of the days of their independence are all dead, for “flesh is like grass”; no public institutions remain in their midst such as ever in the most hopeless periods of the past proved a rallying-point of their scattered forces. There is no king, temple, nor city; nor is there any great personality visible to draw their little groups together, marshal them, and lead them forth behind him. Their one hope is in the Word of God, for which they “wait more than they that watch for the morning”; and the one duty of their nameless prophets is to persuade them that this Word has at last come to pass, and, in the absence of king, Messiah, priest, and great prophet, is able to lift them to the opportunity that Gods hand has opened before them, and to the accomplishment of their redemption.
Upon Israel, with such a Conscience, such a Hope, such an Opportunity, and such an unaided Reliance on Gods bare Word, that Word at last broke in a chorus of voices.
Of these the first, as was most meet, spoke pardon to the peoples conscience and the proclamation that their set period of warfare was accomplished; the second announced that circumstances and the politics of the world, hitherto adverse, would be made easy to their return; the third bade them, in their bereavement of earthly leaders, and their own impotence, find their eternal confidence in Gods Word; while the fourth lifted them, as with one heart and voice, to herald the certain return of Jehovah, at the head of His people, to His own City, and His quiet, shepherdly rule of them on their own land.
These herald voices form the prologue to our prophecy, Isa 40:1-11, to which we will now turn.