Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 43:11
I, [even] I, [am] the LORD; and beside me [there is] no savior.
11. I, even I, am the Lord ] I, I am Jehovah; see on ch. Isa 42:8. there is no saviour ] see on Isa 43:3.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
I, even I, am the Lord – The repetition of the pronoun I makes it emphatic. The design is, to affirm that there was no other being to whom the name Yahweh pertained. There was no other one who had the attributes which the name involved; there was, therefore, no other God. On the meanins of the word Yahweh, see the note at Isa 1:2.
And beside me there is no Saviour – There is no one who can deliver from oppression, and captivity, and exile, such as the Jews suffered in Babylon; there is no one but he who can save from sin, and from hell. All salvation, therefore, must come from God; and if we obtain deliverance from temporal ills, or from eternal death, we must seek it from him.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 43:11
I, even I, am the Lord
Royal proclamation
I.
THE OBJECT OF OUR WORSHIP. The heavenly majesty asserted by Himself. I am the Lord. A self-existent Being, contrasted with idols–dwelling in His own eternity, independent, everlastingly immutable, the eternal Jehovah. Mark how this glorious self-existent Being is subject to none, exists in Himself, the source of all being, and subject to no other beings. Shall we, for a moment, trifle in the presence of such a being? If I look a little further at this glorious self-existing Being, as revealed in His Word, I find Him manifesting Himself as sanctity itself inherent. Therefore, again and again, He says to Israel of old, I will be sanctified before all people; and again, Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. Moreover, this glorious self-existent Being, this source of all being, and subject to none either in heaven or in earth, has made Himself known in the attribute of holiness by solemn oath. I have sworn by My holiness that I will not lie unto David. Moreover, if we pause to think of His glorious attributes, all of them are expressly supernatural, transcendently glorious, and Divine. Advance a step farther, to notice the veneration and adoration to be given to this glorious Being in His Trinity of Persons. The glorious self-existent Being is sovereign over all worlds.
II. THE EXCLUSIVE CLAIM TO THE PREROGATIVE OF BEING A SAVIOUR. Besides Me there is no Saviour. Some men make a Saviour of their priest. Some of their alms and their doings. Some will make a part Saviour of Christ, and a part saviour of their own doings and repentings and believings, and they lose both, and must be despised as neutralists. But Beside Me, the Eternal God the Lord, there is no Saviour It was the Fathers purpose of love that ordained salvation. Then, Christ, as a Saviour, received salvation to centre entirely in Himself. This salvation is by the Holy Ghost. Mark the unity of all the Divine Persons in this salvation, which is exclusive. There is no other Saviour, consequently no salvation but in our covenant God. (J. Irons.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
That can and doth save his worshippers: whereby he implies that the false gods were not only weak, and unable to save their people, but also were the destroyers of their people, as being the great cause of their ruin.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
11. LordJehovah.
saviourtemporally,from Babylon: eternally, from sin and hell (Hos 13:4;Act 4:12). The same titles as areapplied to God are applied to Jesus.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
I, even I, am the Lord,…. Jehovah, the self-existing, eternal, and immutable Being; this is doubled for the confirmation of it, and to exclude all others:
and besides me there is no Saviour; either in a temporal or spiritual sense; the gods of the Heathens could not save them out of their present troubles, and much less save them with an everlasting salvation; none but God can do this, and this is a proof that Christ is God, since none but God can be a Saviour.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The address now closes by holding up once more the object and warrant of faith. “I am Jehovah; and beside me there is no Savour. I have proclaimed and brought salvation, and given to perceive, and there was no other god among you: and ye are my witnesses, saith Jehovah, and I am God. Even from the day onwards I am so; and there is no deliverer out of my hand: I act, and who can turn it back?” The proper name “ Jehovah ” is used here (Isa 43:13) as a name indicating essence: “I and no other am the absolutely existing and living One,” i.e., He who proves His existence by His acts, and indeed by His saving acts. and Jehovah are kindred epithets here; just as in the New Testament the name Jehovah sets, as it were, but only to rise again in the name Jesus, in which it is historically fulfilled. Jehovah’s previous self-manifestation in history furnished a pledge of the coming redemption. The two synonyms and have in the midst. He proclaimed salvation, brought salvation, and in the new afflictions was still ever preaching salvation, without there having been any zar , i.e., any strange or other god in Israel (Deu 32:16; see above, Isa 17:10), who proved his existence in any such way, or, in fact, gave any sign of existence at all. This they must themselves confess; and therefore ( Vav in sense equivalent to ergo, as in Isa 40:18, Isa 40:25) He, and He alone, is El , the absolutely mighty One, i.e., God. And from this time forth He is so, i.e., He, and He only, displays divine nature and divine life. There is no reason for taking in the sense of , “from the period when the day, i.e., time, existed” (as the lxx, Jerome, Stier, etc., render it). Both the gam (also) and the future ‘ eph al (I will work) require the meaning supported by Eze 48:35, “from the day onwards,” i.e., from this time forth (syn. , Isa 48:7). The concluding words give them to understand, that the predicted salvation is coming in the way of judgment. Jehovah will go forward with His work; and if He who is the same yesterday and today sets this before Him, who can turn it back, so that it shall remain unaccomplished? The prophecy dies away, like the m assa ‘ Babhel with its epilogue in Isa 14:27. In the first half (Isaiah 42:1-17) Jehovah introduced His servant, the medium of salvation, and proclaimed the approaching work of salvation, at which all the world had reason to rejoice. The second half (Isaiah 42:18-43:13) began with reproaching, and sought to bring Israel through this predicted salvation to reflect upon itself, and also upon its God, the One God, to whom there was no equal.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
11. I, I (167) am Jehovah. Here the Lord employs lofty language, as having obtained the victory. Already he had sufficiently explained in what manner he must be known, and had shewn that there is no God except himself; and now, in order to confirm this doctrine, he exclaims, “I alone am Jehovah, there is none besides me.” This shews how dangerous it is to contrive anything about God out of our own fancy; for when we make any kind of graven image, we produce an idol instead of God. We ought, therefore, to embrace nothing but what has proceeded from God, so as not to allow ourselves any liberty on this subject. After God has revealed himself to us, we ought to make progress in the knowledge of him, and to grow and be strengthened every day; for this is the meaning of the repetition, I, I. (168)
And there is no Savior besides me. That we may not suppose that his eternal essence only is here exhibited, but also his power and goodness, which he constantly exercises towards us, and by which he is fully revealed, he adds an epithet as a distinguishing mark, that “he is the only Savior.” The world falls into the mistake of giving a naked and empty name to God, and at the same time conveying his authority to another, as in Popery God is indeed mentioned, but is robbed of his honor, when one part of it is given to St. Peter, and another to St. Paul, and another to St. William, and another to St. George; that is, his offices are distributed into so many parts, that hardly anything is left to him but a naked and empty name. They boast, indeed, of worshipping God alone; but when we come to what it belongs to God to do, they make as many gods as they have creatures, and distribute among them his power and authority. But the Lord has determined that these shall remain entire and uninfringed, and they cannot be conveyed to another without shocking blasphemy; for he alone does good to men, he alone defends and preserves them. The last clause of the verse expresses that knowledge which is derived from experience, that we may not seek salvation in any other than in him who its the only author of it. Hence we learn that the chief part of the worship of God consists in faith, when he is acknowledged to be the beginning and the end of life, when we bestow on him the title of Savior, and do not convey to another what he declares to belong to himself and to reside in him alone.
(167) “ Ce suis-je, ce suis-je.” “It is I, it is I.”
(168) “ Ce suis-je, ce suis-je.” “It is I, it is I.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
ONE LORD AND SAVIOUR
(Missionary Sermon.)
Isa. 43:11. I, even I, am the Lord; and beside Me there is no Saviour.
I. This is a declaration that is now needless in many parts of the world. All the civilised nations are convinced that, if there is a God at all, there is only one God. What an intellectual advance! In Isaiahs time, the monotheists were in a miserable minority. All the great nations had their god or gods. The depressed condition of the worshippers of JEHOVAH seemed to most people a sufficient proof that He was only a god, and a god inferior to others. Sennacheribs estimate of Him (2Ch. 32:10-15, How much less!) seemed to have been ultimately justified. The men for whom this prophecy was intended knew that He had not delivered Jerusalem from the power of the worshippers of the Assyrian gods, who ascribed their victories to those gods. Hence it was necessary for them to protest against the belief that JEHOVAH was at the most only a god; to proclaim Him as the only living and true God (Isa. 43:12). This proclamation was not made in vain. Belief in Him as the only God and Saviour has been spreading ever since. Cured during their exile of their passion for idolatry, the Jews have ever since been His faithful and successful witnesses. The testimony first of those Jews to whom God had revealed Himself in Christ, and then of their converts, consigned to oblivion the gods of Greece and Rome, and has rendered idolatry impossible among the leading races of mankind. What a glorious intellectual advance! And what inestimable moral advances have been its results!
II. But it is a declaration that is still needful in many parts of the world. The world is not merely the particular portion of it in which we dwell. We are apt to think so. But we should look beyond the circle in which we are living. When we do so, what do we see? Idolatersmillions of them. Polytheists still outnumber Monotheists. To this fact we must not be indifferent. For us, it is a call to duty. Knowing God, we must make Him known. It is for this purpose that He has mercifully revealed Himself to us (Isa. 43:10-12). Shall we be silent concerning Him? Zeal for His glory forbids it. Compassion for our fellow-men forbids it. No greater benefit could we confer upon them. If we have no zeal for His glory, no compassion for our fellow-men, how dare we call ourselves Gods people? how can we hope to dwell with Him in blessedness for ever when this short life is over?
Mission work is our duty. It would be our duty, if it were as hopeless an enterprise as was Isaiahs in his own day (Isa. 6:9-10). But faithful witness-bearing for God has been in this century prolific of glorious results. Results of mission work in the South Seas, Madagascar, &c. So it will be. The task has the allurement of certain success. Let us address ourselves to it vigorously and with glad heart.
III. It is a declaration which we may make with even more confidence than did our fathers. The unity of God is being more and more clearly revealed to us. Science is the friend of religion. By it how wonderfully has our conception of the vastness of the universe been enlarged! How completely we have been convinced that it is in a universe we find ourselves, in an immense empire over which one Power rules. Marvellously varied are its provinces, but in each and all the same laws are in operation. Behind all these laws there is one Will (H. E. I. 2222, 3174). Nothing can oppose or evade it with success. The attempt is madness, and ends always in misery. Throughout all the revelations of science, God speaks to us precisely as He does in this chapter: I, even I, am the Lord, and there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who will turn it back?
Being so much more fully instructed than our fathers were, we should also be more clearly, confidently, and fervently witnesses for God.
IV. It is a declaration which we should not only make to others, but should lay to heart ourselves. Wonderful and glorious is the revelation given us in our text.
1. On one side, it is an awful revelation. It is an assertion of absolute authority, under which we must live and act: I am the LORD! Science bears especially this testimony, that we are in an empire where law is universally and indiscriminately administered (H. E. I. 3171). In Gods kingdom there is no border-land, such as the strip that divided England and Scotland before the days of the Stuarts, where men may do very much as they please, without fear of government penalties; no realm of lawlessness such as the Highlands of Scotland were in the days of the Stuarts. Gods authority is maintained everywhere; there is not one physical law of His which can be violated or disregarded without mischief. The testimony of Science and of Scripture is one and the same: Sin and suffering are inseparably united. This is as true in the moral and spiritual realm as in the physical; one Lord rules over all! (Num. 33:23; Pro. 10:29; Pro. 11:21; Rom. 2:6-9; H. E. I. 3188, 46034610.)
To this revelation of God let us give heed. Let it govern our conduct. So will temptation be stripped of all its allurements and seductions (H. E. I. 46734676, 47544757). So we shall travel lifes journey safely.
2. To this revelation there is another side which is indeed a Gospel. Were there no other voice than that of Science to address us, we should shudder as we listened; we are surrounded by so many possibilities of transgression, we are so prone to fall into them, and their results are so disastrous! Conscience would then be only an alarming force; it would haunt us with its testimony that we have already sinned against the Ruler who administers justice so inflexibly, and punishes transgression so relentlessly. But Scripture had another word to add; it reveals Him to us as the SAVIOUR: I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no Saviour!
1. He is a Saviour. By His very nature. God is lovepractical love. He cannot behold His children in need, and sit idle; cannot listen unmoved to their cries for help (Exo. 3:7-8; H. E. I. 2303). In every time of trouble let us remember this, and be comforted and strengthened.
2. There is no other Saviour. Experience had been teaching this lesson to the captives in Babylon. When the power of Assyria and Babylon had begun to loom up before them and their fathers, and threatened to enslave and destroy them in their fear and unbelief, they had sought help from human powers, but had sought it worse than in vain (Isa. 30:1-5, &c.)
Is not this a lesson we need to learn! In the time of temporal trouble or of spiritual conflict, how apt we are to look elsewhere than to God! But we look in vain. In neither kind of necessity can we do anything for ourselves (Joh. 15:5; H. E. I. 2358). Nor can our friends help, further than God pleases (Psa. 146:3-4). Nor even in sacred things, apart from God, is there help for us (H. E. I. 34383442). In every time of need, let us trust in God only (Psa. 62:5; H. E. I. 172176.)
3. We need no other Saviour, for He is an all-sufficient Saviour. This was the lesson the poor captives in Babylon needed. Not easy for them to learn it. Their case appeared hopeless. Think how the power of Babylon must have seemed to them (they were far weaker in comparison with it than is Poland now in comparison with Russia); how impossible that they should ever be set free from it! What they needed to be taught was, that in comparison with God, Babylon was nothing, and less than nothing; that when JEHOVAH was pleased to set them free nothing could withstand Him (Isa. 43:5-6; Isa. 43:13-17). How completely and gloriously these promises were fulfilled, we know.
We also need to learn this lesson. Sometimes our distress is so great, that we are ready to believe that there can be no deliverance from it. But this despair and distrust in God is foolishness (Jer. 32:17). The wiles of the devil are so subtle, his assaults so overwhelming, that we are disposed to cease from the conflict as a hopeless one. But again our fear is foolishness (2Co. 12:9; Eph. 6:10; Rom. 8:37; H. E. I. 33632376.)
In God our Saviour let us rejoice with great joy, and let us hasten to make Him known to our fellow-men, whose needs are as great, whose conflicts are as severe, and whose perils are as terrible as our own.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
11-13. The foregoing series of thoughts are here recapitulated with important additions and inferences.
I am the Lord Exodus vi: “I am that I am,” with, of course, no beginning, no ending. Before him was no god; of course no god will be after him, and no Saviour or deliverer beside him. The Jehovah-name ceases in the Old Testament, and the name of Jesus takes its place in the New Testament. To the ancients Jehovah was the ineffable, the unused name; Adonai, (Lord,) through sheer reverence, taking its place in pronunciation. Both the Septuagint and the Greek Testament render the name , (Lord,) which is equivalent to Jehovah, and in the New Testament refers for its meaning to the phrase, “The Lord Jesus Christ.” The Jews are witnesses that he is Jehovah, and that besides him there is no all-knowing and all-powerful One, and no Saviour.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 43:11-13. I, even I, am the Lord, &c. I even I, &c. Isa 43:12. I have declared and saved, and foreshewed, and not any strange god among you [hath done so]; therefore, &c. The argument of this whole discourse is so consistent in all its parts, that nothing heterogeneous is mixed with it. God is here introduced, as in the discourses immediately following, determined to vindicate the truth of his essence and divinity against idolaters and unbelievers, and to call them from error, superstition, and the worship of false deities, to the true faith, and to confirm believers in the same faith. Hence he commands the idolatrous and incredulous Jews, and all the nations, to be convoked, as it were, to a public disputation, and teaches his people the method of disputing with, and convicting them, from the great works already done, and hereafter to be done, as foretold only by him. But, as among those great works were the temporal deliverances which he had already wrought for his church according to the predictions of his prophets, and would hereafter perform by Cyrus, and the spiritual deliverance which he would procure for his people by the Messiah, the effect whereof would be the conversion of the Gentiles; he particularly appeals to these illustrious works of his providence, grace, and power, and evinces that they are to be ascribed only to him, as they were foretold only by him. See the analysis. This period treats, in my opinion, says Vitringa, concerning the deliverance of the people from the Assyrian, and stands here, by way of preface, to illustrate that other great deliverance of the church from the Chaldees. God is here represented, as shewing himself publicly in a great assembly of men, and vindicating to himself the glory taken from him by idolaters and unbelievers, which alone belongs to God, before whom all creatures must keep silence, and who alone, as the fountain of all perfection and honour, can be allowed to glory of himself.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Isa 43:11 I, [even] I, [am] the LORD; and beside me [there is] no saviour.
Ver. 11. I, even I, am the Lord. ] This redoubled I is emphatic and exclusive.
And beside me there is no Saviour.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Isa 43:3, Isa 12:2, Isa 45:21, Isa 45:22, Deu 6:4, Hos 1:7, Hos 13:4, Luk 1:47, Luk 2:11, Joh 10:28-30, Act 4:12, Tit 2:10, Tit 2:13, Tit 3:4-6, 2Pe 3:18, 1Jo 4:14, 1Jo 5:20, 1Jo 5:21, Jud 1:25, Rev 1:11, Rev 1:17, Rev 1:18, Rev 7:10-12
Reciprocal: Exo 6:2 – I am the Lord Exo 12:12 – I am the Lord Exo 14:13 – see the Deu 32:12 – no strange Deu 33:26 – none 1Sa 2:2 – none beside 2Ki 5:15 – now I know Psa 3:8 – Salvation Isa 37:16 – thou art Isa 43:25 – even I Isa 44:6 – beside Isa 45:15 – O God Isa 63:8 – so he Jer 3:23 – in the Lord Jer 14:8 – saviour Mal 3:6 – I am Joh 5:23 – all men Act 5:31 – a Saviour Act 13:23 – raised Col 1:17 – he 1Ti 1:1 – God
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Isa 43:11-13. Besides me there is no saviour None that can and does save his worshippers: wherein is implied, that the false gods were not only weak and unable to save those that trusted in them, but also were their destroyers, as being the great cause of their ruin. I have declared, and have saved I first foretold your deliverance, and then effected it. And l have showed, when there was no strange god, &c. Rather, I made it known; nor was it any strange god. So Bishop Lowth. This divine prescience and predicting of future events is thus repeatedly insisted upon, because it is the principal argument used here, and in chap. 41., to determine this controversy between Jehovah and idols. Yea, before the day was Before all time: or, which is the same, from all eternity. I am he I am God, and have proved myself to be so. None can deliver out of my hands None of those that are called gods can save them whom I will destroy. Therefore they are impotent, and consequently no gods. I will work, and who shall let it? Nor can they hinder me in any other work which I resolve to do.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Yahweh alone, among all the "gods," is the only real deliverer, the one who knows the future, and the sovereign. He is unique. None of the idols was Yahweh. The Israelites could bear witness to that, but they were blind and deaf. Therefore the Lord had to testify in His own behalf.
"In the first part of his book, Isaiah had demonstrated that God alone can be trusted, that all other resources, especially the nations, would fail. Now he is showing that when we have refused to trust and have reaped the logical results of our false dependencies, God alone can save." [Note: Oswalt, The Book . . . 40-66, p. 148.]
Yahweh was the only God from the very beginning. Since He is the only deliverer, no other god can deliver people from His hand or overrule His decisions. It was foolish, then, for the Israelites, as it is for all God’s people, to look to anyone or anything else for salvation. Someone said, "In our world it’s cool to search for God, but uncool to find him." [Note: Quoted by Ortlund, p. 283.]
In the future, God would use Israel to demonstrate to the world in a fresh way that He was the only Savior, as He had done in the past. He would make His people the evidence of His deity by delivering them from captivity in Babylon (Isa 43:14-21) and from their sins (Isa 44:1-5). His salvation would be in spite of their lack of righteousness (Isa 43:22-28).