1577. V. I Am the Lord, There Is None Else
V. I Am the Lord, There Is None Else
"I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside Me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known Me" (Isa_45:5).
If Jesus Christ fulfilled Isaiah's various statements in his forty-fifth chapter concerning Israel's God; then we have established the fact that the Jesus Christ of the New Testament, is the God of whom Isaiah spoke.
We have just read that striking expression, "I am the Lord, and there is none else." There cannot be two Gods, the one an Old Testament God, and the other a New Testament God.
The Lord, the Holy One of Israel, the only God, may be known by what He did for His people.
1. Isaiah's God Called His People by Their Name
"That thou mayest know that I, the Lord, who call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel" (Isa_45:3, \1911 Bible).
The One Who wrestled with Jacob, said unto him: "Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel" (Gen_32:28). We have before shown that this wrestler was Christ. It was He Who first named His people, Israel.
How tenderly did the Lord Jesus, time and time again, call His chosen people by their name. "And He calleth His own sheep by name" (Joh_10:3).
2. Isaiah's God Hid Himself
"Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour" (Joh_10:15).
All day long Christ held out His hands to "a disobedient and gainsaying people" (Rom_10:21); but they would not hear, therefore, Christ hid Himself.
During twenty centuries He has been hid to Israel, and He will be hid until the time of His Second Advent, for Jesus said:
"Ye shall not see Me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord" (Mat_23:39).
Happy day when "they shall fall down unto thee, they shall make supplication unto thee, saying, Surely God is in thee; and there is none else, there is no God" (Mat_23:14).
3. Isaiah's God Girded His People
"There is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me" (Mat_23:5).
God hath cared for His people, and girded them, although they have known Him not. Israel has never known the Lord.
Who has kept Israel intact as a nation? kept her from being amalgamated by other nations? kept her from being lost as a people? Philosophy has no answer. The New Testament replies: God in Christ has done it by elective grace (see Rom_11:1-12).
4. Isaiah's God Saves His People
"There is no God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside me. Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else" (Rom_11:21-22).
The words thus spoken of Israel's God conclusively point to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour. It was Christ Who cried to Israel: "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Mat_11:28).
On the great day of the feast, it was Christ Who said: "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink" (Joh_7:37).
It was Jesus Who pled: "How often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings" (Mat_23:37).
Surely the God of Isaiah, the God Who is a Saviour, is the Christ of the Gospels.
5. Isaiah's God Will Be His People's Glory
(1) "Unto me (God) every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear" (Mat_23:23).
These very words are spoken of the Lord Jesus Christ, for it is written: "As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God" (Rom_14:11).
It is at the name of "Jesus" that "every knee should bow, * * and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Php_2:10-11).
When then? Isaiah's God is Christ.
(2) "To him shall men come; and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed" (Php_2:24).
Jesus Christ proclaimed of Himself: "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me" (Joh_12:32).
Thus, the prophecy written of Israel's God, is fulfilled in the proclamation of God's only Son. People from every clime are coming unto Him; Israel, too, who has erstwhile been incensed against Him, shall, according to Isaiah's word, yet be ashamed. In that day when Christ shall come the second time into the inhabited earth, Israel shall glory in the Christ Whom they now disdain.
(Study carefully Isaiah 60, Isaiah 61, Isaiah 62 and Isaiah 63. The same message is given in Zechariah 12-14.)
Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR