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.
God speaks here to a nation that had ignored His discipline, and He opens not with a charge but with "But now." That raises two questions: how can God tell a failing people not to fear, and what does He mean by "you are mine"?
The chapter before this one leaves Israel in a bad state — not just guilty, but untouched by God's correction. That is the background against which the words "Fear not" fall.
How low God's people must have sunk when the Lord's discipline leaves them untouched! But will God, therefore, give up His people? Ah no! ... So, despite all their failure, the LORD can say to Israel, "Fear not." Judged by their sad history with God, they had everything to fear. But now God will act toward them on the ground of what He has done for them in grace.
The verse names God twice as the One who created and formed this people. One writer reads that language as God's answer to their unfaithfulness. He points back to what He Himself did.
Israel had been unfaithful to His name. That brought the LORD's anger on them, though idolatry had blinded them, so they neither understood it nor felt it. In this chapter He proclaims His faithfulness — the One who had called Israel by name and made them His own.
Another writer sets the same words against the idols the nation had chased.
Israel's God is the only God! He "created" Jacob! He "formed" the nation! And though, like her father, she "would surely deal treacherously, and from before birth was called a rebel" (Isaiah 48:8), He still "redeemed" her! Yes, He "called" her by her name; "you are Mine!" She can therefore witness not only against idols, but to the only God.
"You are mine" is a claim of ownership, and it rests on a ransom paid. One writer applies the verse to believers today and draws out what follows from it.
Even the Old Testament brings this truth out again and again: "But now thus says the Lord, who created you, O Jacob, and who formed you, O Israel: 'Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are Mine'" (Isaiah 43:1). ... In His wonderful grace and love, the Lord Jesus has paid our ransom price. So He has full right and title to all that we are and have. From now on we are His property. But this involves two sides — privilege and responsibility.
That same ownership is where troubled hearts find rest: "What rest it gives to our souls to remember that we are His! In sorrow, trouble, or bereavement — in the silent watches of the night — in isolation from all about us."
God does not address a crowd. He calls people one by one, and that is where the verse becomes personal. No one else can hear it for you.
Each of us must have heard the voice of the Good Shepherd. Parents cannot do this for their children. A husband cannot do it for his wife. Everyone must do it for themselves. We know the wonderful passage in Isaiah 43: "I have called you by name; you are mine" (v. 1). I hope that everyone in this room is able to say this, including the children, "The Lord Jesus has called me by His name; I am His."
Being God's own is not the end of the story. The same chapter says why He took this people for Himself.
Isaiah 43 says it plainly: "the people whom I formed for myself" … "whom I created for my glory" … "that they might declare my praise." God had already made Himself known to them as "Redeemer" (see verse 14), having brought them out of Egypt through the Red Sea. Their Redeemer was "the Holy One of Israel," their "Creator," and their "King."
This is not an isolated comfort. The command runs through the closing chapters of Isaiah like a refrain to a people near despair.
The guilty people are bowed down under God's judgment. They are corrected and sorry for their sin, but close to despair. At the end of their time of trial they hear these words: "Comfort, comfort my people." Then we hear this word "Fear not" repeated in echo after echo. ... The entire latter portion of Isaiah has this comforting word from God as a refrain (Isaiah 41:10, 13, 14; Isaiah 43:1, 5; Isaiah 44:2; Isaiah 51:7; Isaiah 54:4).
- Made — God introduces Himself as the One who created and formed this people. His claim comes before their failure does.
- Redeemed — the ransom is paid, so He has "full right and title to all that we are and have." Belonging to Him is a fact, not a feeling.
- Named — He calls each person by name. No one belongs to Him through family, marriage, or a crowd.
- Owned — "you are Mine" carries both privilege and responsibility, and gives rest "in the silent watches of the night."
- For His praise — He formed this people for Himself, so that they would show everyone else the God who is theirs.
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.
God speaks here to a people who had failed Him and ignored His discipline, and yet His word to them is "fear not." The promise about deep water and fire is His answer to their fear, and it rests on something He says first: they belong to Him.
The promise is not a reward for a people who deserved it. It comes after a chapter where Israel ignored God's correction. The "fear not" of verse 1 grows out of that setting.
How low God's people have sunk when the Lord's discipline no longer touches them! Does God then give up His people? No! ... So, despite all their failure, the LORD can say to Israel, "Fear not." Their sad history with God gave them every reason to fear. But now God will act toward them on the basis of what He has done for them in grace. So He can say, "I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are Mine." Their own failure may mean they have to pass through the cleansing waters and the purifying fire. But the LORD can say, "I will be with you." If the Lord is with His people in all their trials, we can be sure He brings them "through."
Verse 3 gives the reason the promise holds, and it names God twice — as the Holy One, and as Saviour. Each name accounts for a different half of what verse 2 describes.
If Israel comes through the trial into final blessing, it is not because of any merit in Israel. It rests wholly on Who God is. "For," says God, "I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Saviour." Israel must endure the fire and the water, because God is "the Holy One." But they will come through, because God is their Saviour.
The words "I will be with you" follow a statement of ownership. Redemption means someone paid a price to buy them back. That price creates a claim, and the claim carries both a duty and a comfort.
What then are our responsibilities as a redeemed people? First and foremost, the acknowledgement that we belong to Him who has redeemed us... In His wonderful grace and love, the Lord Jesus paid the ransom price for us. So He has full right and title to all that we are and have. From now on we belong to Him. But this involves a twofold aspect — privilege and responsibility. We have the privilege of belonging to Christ, of being His own... and therefore of being the special objects of His care, tenderness, and love... In sorrow, trouble, or grief — in the quiet hours of the night — when we are cut off from everyone around us — what deep comfort it is to lift our eyes to Him and remember that we are His.
The verse does not promise that God will drain the water or put out the fire. Writers find the same pattern elsewhere in Scripture.
The point was not so much rescue from the thing that caused the fear. It was lifting their souls above it through fellowship with Himself... The Lord's way is often to leave His people in trial and to be with them in it. Paul wanted to be rid of the thorn, but the answer came: "My grace is sufficient for you." It is a far richer mercy to have the grace and presence of Jesus in the trial than to be taken out of it. The Lord let Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego be thrown into the furnace. But when He did, He came down and walked with them in it.
That same account in the book of Daniel shows what the fire burned — and it was not the three men thrown into it.
What was the effect of the fire in their case? It only burnt off their bonds, and set them free. Often the Lord lets us get into the fire. Its effect is to burn off the cords that tie us up — in our case often cords we tied ourselves — and we come out free. But what have we had in the fire? A sense of the presence and company of the Lord, such as we never had before.
The chapter also looks ahead to a day when Israel will be rescued. One writer traces both their ruin and their pardon back to the same source.
They were plundered because of the One they rebelled against. And because of Him they will be delivered, pardoned, and blessed. He, the LORD, is the only God, and He is just as much the only Saviour... It is He Who for His own sake will blot out their transgressions and justify them. Before that day comes, we already know what is still a secret to them: the great salvation by His grace. That is the only way He can deal with the guilty and stay just. Christ, the cross, is the only key.
- Cause. The promise is not earned. It answers a people who had ignored God's discipline, and rests on what He has done in grace, not on any merit in them.
- Claim. "I have redeemed you… you are Mine" comes first. Because He paid the price, His people become the special objects of His care.
- Through. God does not promise an easier road but a shared one. It is a richer mercy to have His presence in the trial than to be spared the trial.
- Fire. In the furnace the flames burned only the bonds. What the trial takes away is the cords; what it gives is a sense of His company never known before.
- Result. Because God is holy, His people must go through the water and the fire. Because He is Saviour, they come out the other side.
For I [am] Jehovah thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee.
God speaks to a people who have failed Him. He does not list their faults. He names Himself instead — Lord, God, Holy One of Israel, Saviour — and points to whole nations handed over for their sake. Two questions follow. How can holiness and salvation belong to the same speaker? And how could Egypt, Cush and Seba count as a ransom?
The previous verse promised safe passage through water and fire. This verse gives the reason. One commentator finds two of God's titles at work here: one explains the trial, the other the rescue.
If God brings Israel through the trial into final blessing, it is not because of any merit in Israel. It is entirely because of Who God is. "For," says God, "I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior." Israel must endure the fire and the water, because God is "the Holy One." But God will bring them through, because He is their Saviour.
This title is Isaiah's great name for God. One writer counted how often it appears, and gathered what else Isaiah calls the same Person.
All through Isaiah He is called "the Holy One of Israel." This title of the Lord, who deals with His people in judgment and in mercy, appears twenty-five times in Isaiah… The phrase appears in only six other passages in the whole Old Testament. The Holy One of Israel is Jehovah. He is the Redeemer of His people… This Holy One is the Creator.
Another writer explains what that holiness says about God and evil:
The name "Holy One of Israel" implies that the God of Israel is completely separated from all evil, because His eyes are too pure to look at evil.
"Your Savior" is not just one title among many. Read with the rest of Isaiah, it rules out every rival. One writer follows that line to the name Jesus.
Many Old Testament passages spoken to Israel tie their salvation to God's own action for them, and prove that He alone could save them… "I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior" (Isaiah 43:3). "I, I am the LORD, and besides Me there is no savior" (verse 11)… The name Jesus carries divine glory with it; it means Jehovah the Saviour. These great texts make it clear that none but God could be the Saviour… but of Jesus the angel said, "He will save His people from their sins." Then who else could He be but God?
What does "ransom" mean here? The word has a picture inside it, and it reaches forward into the New Testament.
In the Old Testament, except in Exodus 21:30, the word is kopher, which means 'a covering.' It is related to kaphar, often translated 'atonement'… In the New Testament the word is lutron, or antilutron, from a verb meaning 'to loose, set free.' Christ gave Himself, His life, a ransom for many.
One commentator sees the price paid as judgment falling on those nations, once in the past and again in the future:
In the past, God gave Egypt, Ethiopia and Seba over to judgment to ransom His people from their power. In the same way, He will give the nations that have persecuted Israel over to judgment in the future. For in God's sight His people are "precious", and "honourable," and "loved" by God.
Nothing here is earned. Israel had rebelled against God, and He still names Himself their Saviour.
God reveals Himself this way despite all the rebellion of the people. Israel has been against Him; but He is for Israel. But in order to be this He must first be their Redeemer, and then the source of all the good He will produce in them… God takes away their sins. He says, "I, I am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake, and I will not remember your sins."
But how can a holy God do this and stay just? One writer points past Isaiah's own day:
They have been plundered because of the very One they rebelled against. Because of Him they will also be delivered, pardoned, and blessed. For as He, Jehovah, is the only God, so He is also the only Saviour… Before that day dawns, we already know what is still a secret to them: the great salvation by His grace. By that grace alone He can deal righteously with the guilty. Christ, the cross, is the only key.
- Ground: Israel goes through fire and water because God is holy. Israel comes out the other side because God is Saviour. One Person is the reason for both.
- Name: "The Holy One of Israel" is Isaiah's great title, used twenty-five times in this book. The same One is Creator and Redeemer of the people He judges.
- Price: "Ransom" translates a word meaning a covering, tied to the language of atonement. God gave whole nations over to judgment so that His people could go free.
- Reach: Egypt, Cush and Seba are only a sample. One commentator sees the same pattern running forward to the nations that persecute Israel.
- Key: God saves rebels for His own sake. How He does that and stays righteous is answered only at the cross.
Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee; and I will give men for thee, and peoples for thy life.
Isaiah 43 speaks to a nation that had failed God, and yet the words are all warmth: precious, honored, loved. The verse forces one question: what makes a people worth other peoples?
The verse does not arrive after Israel has improved. William Kelly weighs what the people had been against what God now says:
Israel had been unfaithful to His name. That unfaithfulness brought the fury of Jehovah on them, though they neither understood nor felt it, since idolatry had blinded them. In this chapter He declares His own faithfulness. He is the One who had called Israel by their name and made them His own.
The verse states a price. God hands others over so that this people may live. Hamilton Smith looks back into history and forward to what is still to come:
In the past, God gave Egypt, Ethiopia and Seba over to judgment, to ransom His people from their power. So in the future He will give up to judgment the nations that have persecuted Israel. He does this because in God's sight His people are "precious," and "honourable," and "loved" by God. So despite all their failure, God is with them. He will gather them back to their land from the ends of the earth.
(Older translations read "honourable" where the ESV has "honored.")
So what made this people precious? A. J. Pollock answers from God's choice of Israel:
The answer is that God made choice of them in His sovereign wisdom. Deuteronomy 7-8 says the Lord did not choose them because they were more in number than any other. In fact they were the fewest. No, the only reason that God could give for His choice was that He loved them. Nothing in them drew out His love in contrast with others. The reason lay in His own nature. Here lies the solid foundation of the blessing into which the Lord brings His people.
The chapter goes on to promise a gathering from every direction. Kelly measures that against history:
Isaiah 43 dwells on Israel's relation to Jehovah. It looks not at their sins and their punishments, but at His unfailing faithfulness in sovereign grace. Clearly this still awaits fulfilment, since it goes far beyond anything given in the past... Jehovah will certainly stand by Israel, and more openly in the future than in the brightest memory of the past. He will bring their seed from the east and the west, from the north and the south (verses 5, 6). This far exceeds the return from Babylon. And not Gentiles, but Israelites only are in view here.
Many readers transfer these promises to the church. T. B. Baines argues that doing so makes God's plain words unreliable:
In these passages God, speaking under the national name Jehovah, has said three times over that He has redeemed Israel as a nation. Yet the accepted interpretation is that He has deceived Israel with false hopes. It says that when He spoke of Israel, He really meant something entirely different! Is it credible that Christians should dare to charge such deception on the One "who cannot lie"? If God could so cruelly deceive Israel, what reason have we to believe He is not equally deceiving us?
J. N. Darby traces the chapter to its goal, and to the way God deals with the guilt of the people He loves:
But now He delivers and saves them (Isaiah 43). He created them for His glory... Jehovah had formed this people for Himself. Yet the people had grown weary of their God, and had, as it were, made Him serve with their sins. But now He pardons it all for His own glory. What a glorious and striking testimony to Him! In grace to the sinner, when the sin becomes unbearable, He puts away the sin instead of the sinner. This is what God has done through Christ.
- Ground. God speaks this love to people who had been unfaithful and blinded by idolatry. He answers their failure by declaring His own faithfulness.
- Reason. Nothing in them drew out this love. The reason lay in God's own nature. That is why the blessing built on it stands firm.
- Price. Because they are precious, honored and loved, God hands whole nations over in exchange. Their oppressors pay the price of the value He sets on His people.
- Reach. The gathering promised here outruns every past return. God brings His people home from the ends of the earth. Baines adds that "Israel" must mean Israel, or God's word to them was a deception.
- Result. The end of it all is His glory. When sin becomes unbearable, He puts away the sin instead of the sinner — and He has done that through Christ.
Fear not, for I [am] with thee I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west;
For the second time in six verses God says "Fear not." The reason He gives is not better circumstances but His own presence. The promise that follows reaches every point of the compass. Who is it for, and when?
One writer hears this word as a note repeated through the whole second half of Isaiah, spoken to a chastened people near despair.
Last of all, the guilty people will be bowed under the judgment of God — chastened and repentant, but near despair. At the end of their time of trial they will hear these words: "Comfort, comfort My people!" Then we hear this word "Fear not" repeated and multiplied, echo after echo. Fear not, My love will comfort you, I will help you, I will strengthen you, I will be with My servant. Have I not redeemed you? Am I not with you? Fear not, I will refresh you. Fear neither shame, nor insult, nor reproach. You are Mine, and I have received you in grace. The whole last part of Isaiah has this comforting word from God as a refrain.
The comfort is remarkable because of who receives it. The chapter does not praise Israel's record; it sets God's steadiness against their failure.
Israel had been unfaithful to His name, and that brought the fury of Jehovah on them. They did not understand it and did not feel it, because idolatry had blinded them. Yet in this chapter He proclaims His faithfulness — He who had called Israel by their name and made them His own.
God gives "I am with you" as the whole answer to fear. One writer weighs that same promise where it appears elsewhere. He shows why it settles fear, and why it also moves people forward.
As we have seen, fear of their enemies stopped the people from building the Lord's house. Now comes the cure. Think how often we read in Isaiah, "Fear not; I am with you." And the Psalmist cries out, "The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?" Nothing drives out fear like the assurance of the Lord's presence. But it is comfort and encouragement together. It reminded the people that if the Lord called them forward into danger, He Himself was among them. He would go before them to show them the way, as He had done in the wilderness.
The verse names east and west; the next verse adds north and south. One writer takes that scope as the reason the promise is still future.
Isaiah 43 is about Israel's relationship with Jehovah. It looks not at their sins and their punishments, but at His unfailing faithfulness in sovereign grace. This still awaits fulfilment, because it goes far beyond any partial fulfilment in the past... Jehovah will certainly stand by Israel, and more openly in the future than in the brightest event of the past. He will bring their offspring from the east and the west, from the north and the south (verses 5, 6). This goes far beyond the return from Babylon. Not Gentiles, but Israelites only are in view here.
Some read promises like this as transferred to the church. One writer tests that reading against the details, and the pieces do not fit.
In one of these passages God speaks of making Israel a sharp threshing tool. In another He speaks of gathering her sons and daughters from the ends of the earth. In a third He speaks of her return to Him with her transgressions forgiven. All this fits Israel's state exactly. But is the Church a sharp threshing tool? Has the Church ever been scattered to the ends of the earth? Does anyone ever speak of the Church as estranged from God and then coming back forgiven?
The gathering itself belongs to Israel. Yet one writer points to the assurances inside it as words any believer may hold onto.
Note the many declarations Jehovah makes. "I have redeemed you," "I will be with you," "I have loved you," "I have made him," "I am the LORD, I will make a way in the wilderness." All God's people can lay claim to these blessed words of promise and assurance. In the end Israel will have and enjoy these great blessings.
One writer applies it to a faithful remnant still to come, pairing it with words of faith from Psalm 23:
How precious to His faithful remnant will be the promise of the Great Shepherd in Isaiah 43:5, "Fear not, for I am with you." It is addressed to them — and in a general way to us all — in answer to the words of faith in Psalm 23, "I will fear no evil, for you are with me."
- Refrain — "Fear not" echoes through the whole second half of Isaiah, spoken to a chastened people near despair.
- Ground — the reason is His presence, not better circumstances. Nothing drives out fear like knowing the Lord is there.
- Grace — God speaks it after their unfaithfulness, so what shines is His faithfulness, not their record.
- Reach — east, west, north, south: a gathering far bigger than the return from Babylon, and still to come.
- Claim — the regathering is Israel's; the promises inside it — redeemed, loved, kept — belong to all God's people.
I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back bring my sons from afar, and my daughters from the end of the earth,
God speaks here to the points of the compass as if they were jailers, ordering them to hand back what they hold. Who are these scattered sons and daughters, and what does their return mean for readers today?
God gives the order to the regions holding His people, not to the exiles themselves. The reason for the gathering lies in how He values them.
In the past, God gave Egypt, Ethiopia and Seba over to judgment to ransom God's people from their power. So in the future, He will give up to judgment the nations that have persecuted Israel. He does this because, in God's sight, His people are "precious," and "honourable," and "loved" by God. So, despite all their failure, God is with them, and will gather them back to their land from the ends of the earth. They bear God's name, and He created them for His glory. So in bringing Israel into final blessing, God is acting for the glory of His great name.
The Hebrew words behind "south" also show how Israel pictured the map.
Two other words are yamin and teman. They mean 'the right hand.' Translators render them 'south' because the Israelites pictured themselves facing East when they spoke of the points of the compass.
"From the end of the earth" is not poetic exaggeration. No one today can point to where Israel's scattered tribes went. Some have claimed to find them in a modern nation, and one writer answers that from this promise.
Again, you can see that He gathers His people Israel from all nations. So I think the idea that the British nation is the ten tribes is foreign to Scripture. I think this expression, "out of all nations," should at once dispel the illusion. The truth is that no one knows where they are, except God Himself, and when the time comes, He will find them, and bring them, in His own way.
Some read every promise like this one as a picture of the church instead of the nation. One writer tests that reading against the words themselves.
But again, in one of these passages God speaks of making Israel a sharp threshing instrument. In another He speaks of gathering her sons and daughters from the ends of the earth. In the third He speaks of her return to Him with her transgressions forgiven. All this exactly fits Israel's state. But is the Church a sharp threshing instrument? Has the Church ever been scattered to the ends of the earth? Or does Scripture ever speak of the Church as estranged from God and coming back forgiven?
The next verse gives the reason: God calls them by His name and created them for His glory. That same reason explains His pardon, and the way He deals with sin through Christ.
But now He delivers and saves them (Isa. 43). He created them for His glory... The Lord had formed this people for Himself. But the people had grown weary of their God, and had, as it were, made Him serve with their sins. But now He pardons it all for His own glory. What a glorious and striking testimony of Him! In grace to the sinner, when the sin becomes unbearable, He puts away the sin instead of the sinner! This is what God has done through Christ.
Paul borrows the phrase "sons and daughters" from this verse. He joins it with lines from other Old Testament passages when he writes to Christians.
Here again the Holy Spirit led the apostle to borrow words from various parts of the Old Testament. The passages include Isaiah 52:11, Ezekiel 20:34, 2 Samuel 7:8, 14, and Isaiah 43:6... Here He says, "I will receive you, and I will be a Father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to Me." It is our new relationship in positive blessing, and it assumes God has given us the divine nature.
Paul's version adds a name for God that Isaiah did not use.
"Lord" and "Almighty" are the two Old Testament names of God. He was "Almighty" to Abraham, and "Lord" to Israel; and now He says "Father" to you, and you are My sons and daughters.
- Claimed. God calls them His sons and His daughters. The gathering rests on His claim, not on their record.
- Commanded. The order goes to north and south, not to the exiles; God tells the nations holding them to let them go.
- Found. Where no one knows the scattered tribes, God knows, and He will bring them back in His own way.
- Glory. He gathers them for His own name and glory. The same grace runs through the gospel: God puts away the sin instead of the sinner, through Christ.
- Father. Paul borrows the phrase for believers and adds a name Isaiah did not use: God receives them as Father.
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.
This verse closes God's promise to gather His scattered people. It tells us why He will do it: they belong to Him, and He made them for His own glory. Three words stack up in one line — created, formed, made — and each one presses the same claim.
Rebuke has gone before, so the opening tone is a surprise. One writer weighs what we would expect here against what the chapter actually gives:
We might have expected Isaiah 43 to contain more warnings and judgments. Instead it opens on a note of grace… In the face of their evil, God falls back on His original purpose and His redeeming work. The people were looking for redemption by power, and that is the main theme here, as the following verses show. But soon the far deeper work of the suffering Servant comes before us — redemption by blood.
The three words are not just repetition. Hebrew uses three different words, and one writer, explaining them elsewhere, sets out what each adds:
"Create" (bara), if we are to distinguish the words, refers to the efficient cause; "make" (asah) points to the formal cause; and they have another word (yatsar), which brings in the material.
So the claim covers everything: who brought them into being, what shape they took, what went into them. All of it is God's work. None of it is theirs.
To be "called by My name" is to be owned. These are the very people who had failed Him. God's answer to their sin is to keep them, not discard them:
But now He delivers and saves them (Isa. 43). He created them for His glory… Jehovah had formed this people for Himself, and the people had grown weary of their God; and, as it were, had made Him serve with their sins. But now He pardons it all for His own glory. What a glorious and striking testimony to Him! In grace to the sinner, when the sin becomes unbearable, He puts away the sin instead of the sinner. This is what God has done through Christ.
God's glory is the reason given, and this chapter ties it to the titles God takes. One writer links His making of the people to His redeeming of them:
In perfect agreement with that, we find in Isaiah 43 the words, "I formed this people for myself." … "whom I created for my glory."… "They will proclaim my praise." God had already made Himself known to them as "Redeemer" (see verse 14). He had brought them out of Egypt through the Red Sea. Their Redeemer was "the Holy One of Israel," their "Creator," and their "King."
God's purpose for them is not finished yet. The same writer shows where the chapter is heading:
The whole chapter is marked by two things. First, God declares what He will do in His sovereign mercy for His poor blind and deaf people, whom He had set up to be His witnesses to the other nations. He will bring down their foes… and He will deal with their sins, as indicated in verse 25. This chapter does not reveal how He will do this in righteousness. But the result will be that this people, whom He had formed for Himself, will in the end proclaim His praise, as verse 21 says.
What God says here of a nation is true of man as a whole. God made man to answer Him — and sin silenced that answer:
God created man for His glory, like a well-tuned instrument. Man was made to answer the touch of His infinite goodness with intelligent and joyful thanksgiving. But the devil spoiled God's handiwork. He put distrust of God into the heart of man. The chord was lost and the music died out. When God came into the garden, no songs of praise met Him. Adam — a fallen man, a sinner against God — cowered away in silent fear from the One who loved him and had lost him.
- Grace first. We expect more warnings. God opens instead with His original purpose and His redeeming work.
- Made, wholly. Created, formed and made cover cause, substance and shape. Nothing about them is self-made.
- Named, therefore kept. They bear His name, so they are His. When the sin became unbearable, He put away the sin instead of the sinner. This is what God has done through Christ.
- For His glory. The purpose is His own glory, held by the One who is at once their Redeemer, Creator and King.
- Ending in praise. The people He formed for Himself will at last proclaim His praise. That is the answer man was created to give, lost in the garden and given back by grace.
Bring forth the blind people that have eyes, and the deaf that have ears.
God calls a witness to the stand — and the witness He calls is a people who cannot see or hear. The command follows His promise to gather His people from every direction, and it raises one question: what use is a blind, deaf witness?
The ones called forward are Israel, the nation that had every advantage and used none of it. One writer states the charge:
God gave them a separate and favoured position as a nation. So the prophet describes them as the "people who are blind, yet have eyes, who are deaf, yet have ears" (Isa. 43:8). They completely failed to use the privileges and opportunities God gave them.
William Kelly names the cause, and then the surprising fact standing beside it:
The Jews, by their love of idols, were the blind people who had eyes and the deaf who had ears. Yet they alone of all nations were Jehovah's witness and His servant. They will yet know, believe, and understand.
The words sound like a contradiction. They had eyes; what failed was their sight. Darby looks at the chapter just before this one:
At the end of the chapter Israel are the deaf and blind. As Jehovah's earthly people they were perfect in privilege, but sadly — blind. Self-will and disobedience had darkened their eyes. But grace will intervene and save them from the ends of the earth (Isa. 43), though they are the blind people who have eyes and the deaf who have ears.
Verse 8 opens a scene. God brings Israel out, and in the next verse He calls the nations together too. Each side must produce its evidence. Hamilton Smith explains why God stages it this way:
God has already foretold that He will step in for Israel. Now He appeals to the nations, so that His ways with Israel may bring them to acknowledge the true God. Israel had seen the glory of Jehovah with their own eyes and had heard His law. Yet they turned blindly to idols and were deaf to the warnings of the prophets. Still, in their restoration they will become a witness to the one true God.
The nations get their turn, and they fail the test:
The nations may gather and meet in conferences, trying to govern the world. But they cannot declare the former things, and even less the things to come. Let them hear and confess that this is the truth.
The order matters. God does not wait for His people to open their eyes before He speaks kindly to them. The chapter opens with grace, well before it exposes their blindness. F. B. Hole notes the turn:
We might have expected that Isaiah 43 would contain further warnings and judgments. Instead it opens on a note of grace… Faced with their evil, God falls back on His original purpose and His redeeming work.
Darby draws out what this grace shows about God's way with sin:
Jehovah had formed this people for Himself, but the people had grown weary of their God. They had, in effect, made Him serve with their sins. But now He pardons it all for His own glory. What a glorious and striking testimony to Him! In grace to the sinner, when the sin becomes unbearable, He puts away the sin instead of the sinner. This is what God has done through Christ.
The blind witness does not stay blind. H J Vine ties the cure to a person:
But once they are brought into contact with Christ the personal Servant, their eyes will be opened. Then the works of God will be displayed in the nation for all to see, as they were in the one blind man of John 9: "that the works of God might be displayed in him"… Israel's eyes will be opened, and they will know the Lord and believe. So they will be His fitted witnesses (Isa. 43:10) against idolatry, and witnesses of the one true God, beside whom there is no other.
There is a warning inside this comfort. Israel's blindness came in two stages:
This blinding is a judgment from God — He Himself gave them sightless eyes and ears that do not hear. But why? It is not a random judgment. Matthew 13:13-15 shows that Israel's willful blindness came before the blindness God imposed.
- Called. God summons His own people as witnesses — the ones with eyes and ears, the ones given every privilege.
- Blind. Their failure was not lack of light but love of idols. Self-will and disobedience darkened eyes that could see.
- Kept. Even blind, they remain the only nation He named as His witness and servant. He says they will yet know, believe and understand.
- Pardoned. Grace opens the chapter before the failure is named. God puts away the sin instead of the sinner, and He has done this through Christ.
- Opened. Christ the Servant opens their eyes. Only then do the blind witnesses become fitted witnesses to the one true God, beside whom there is no other.
Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the peoples be assembled who among them declareth this, or causeth us to hear former things? let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified; or let them hear, and say, [It is] truth.
Isaiah 43 opens with God's promise to redeem and gather His people. Then the scene turns into a courtroom. God calls in every nation and asks one question: who among them can explain what is coming, or bring a witness who can prove their case?
God tells the nations what He plans to do with Israel. They gather and confer to run the world, yet they cannot produce what He can.
All the nations are warned to pay attention to God's declaration about the future of Israel. They may gather and meet in conferences, trying to govern the world. But they cannot show the former things, still less the things to come. Let them hear and confess that this is the truth.
The test is not power or numbers. It is knowing what has not yet happened.
Nothing proves divine intelligence more clearly than telling the future. This is the main challenge the Old Testament makes to the false gods. No wonder it left them speechless, even though they had once claimed so loudly to speak messages from the gods. While it was only a matter of puzzling those who asked, they could deceive with answers that could be taken two ways. But Isaiah, in the sharpest and severest style, shows that they are utterly powerless to reveal the future.
The nations are told to bring witnesses who can prove their case right. God then names the witness on His own side.
Among the nations who followed idols such things were unknown, and God raises the challenge: Who among the nations "declare this, and show us the former things? Let them bring THEIR WITNESSES to prove them right, and let them hear and say, It is true" (Isa. 43:9). But to Israel He says, "You are MY WITNESSES, declares the Lord, and My servant whom I have chosen … Before ME no god was formed, nor shall there be any after ME. I, I AM THE LORD, AND BESIDES ME THERE IS NO SAVIOUR" (vv. 10-11).
The witness God calls is not an outsider. It is the people who had seen His glory and then turned away.
God has foretold His sovereign intervention on behalf of Israel. Now He appeals to the nations, so that His ways with Israel may bring them to acknowledge the true God. Israel had seen the glory of Jehovah with their own eyes and had heard His law. Yet they turned blindly to idols and were deaf to the warnings of the prophets. Still, when God restores them they will become a witness to the one true God.
The very thing that blinded them was their love of idols. Even so, no other nation took their place.
Because they loved idols, the Jews were the blind people who had eyes and the deaf who had ears. Yet of all the nations they alone were Jehovah's witness and His servant. They will yet know, believe, and understand.
Israel's failure as a witness had consequences. One writer traces their long scattering back to it, and places a second testimony beside theirs.
Ever since God called Abraham, he and his descendants, the nation that came from him, have been God's chosen witnesses that there is only one God, and that Jehovah is He. Israel, as we saw, failed completely in this testimony. So the Gentile nations conquered them, and their long captivity and scattering followed. The Church's testimony, as we have also seen, is of another kind. It is a testimony to the perfect grace in which she stands, and to the finished redemption in which that grace has been shown to her.
The verse asks for witnesses who can be proved right. But how can a guilty witness be put right at all? One writer answers by looking beyond Isaiah's day.
It was God Who once, because of their sins, "profaned the princes" and people of Israel. It is He Who, for His own sake, will blot out their transgressions and justify them. Before that day dawns we already know what is still a secret to them: the great salvation by His grace. By that grace alone can He deal with the guilty and remain righteous. Christ, the cross, is the only key.
- Summons. God calls every nation into one assembly. Their conferences and councils cannot answer the one question He asks.
- Test. God's proof that He is God is knowledge of the future. The idols fall silent. They can give vague answers, but they cannot say what is coming.
- Witness. God tells the nations to produce witnesses who can prove their case. They produce none. He names Israel as His.
- Failure. Israel was chosen to testify that there is one God alone. Israel failed, and a long scattering followed. Another testimony now stands: the Church's witness to grace and finished redemption.
- Verdict. The blind and deaf witness will yet know, believe and understand. God blots out their transgressions for His own sake, and the cross is the only key to how He can do it and stay righteous.
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.
These chapters read like a courtroom: God calls the nations to bring proof for their gods, and no one answers. He then turns to one small people, names them His witnesses, and tells them what they are to know about Him.
These words answer a challenge. God had asked the nations who follow idols to produce anyone who could explain the past or foretell the future. Their side of the court stayed silent.
Among the nations who followed idols such things were unknown, and God raises the challenge: Who among the nations "can declare this, and show us former things? let them bring forward THEIR WITNESSES, so that they may be justified; or let them hear, and say, It is truth" (Isa. 43:9). But to Israel He says, "You are MY WITNESSES, declares the LORD, and My servant whom I have chosen … before ME no god was formed, nor shall there be any after ME. I, EVEN I, AM THE LORD; AND BESIDE ME THERE IS NO SAVIOUR" (vv. 10-11).
The people called to testify look like the least likely choice. God's own description of them is blunt.
The Jews, by their love of idols, were the blind people who had eyes and the deaf who had ears. Yet they alone of all the nations were Jehovah's witness and His servant. They will yet know, believe, and understand.
Their record and their future point in opposite directions.
Israel had seen the glory of Jehovah with their own eyes and had heard His law. Yet they turned to idols and shut their ears to the warnings of the prophets. Still, when God restores them, they will become a witness to the one true God.
Israel was given one truth to hold, in a world that believed the opposite everywhere else.
The unity of God is the foundation truth of the Old Testament. It was the central testimony the Jewish people were responsible for, in a world that everywhere else had given itself to idols.
The choice of one nation was deliberate, and it was not made for their sake alone.
God had to choose some nation, and in this He was both sovereign and wise. He chose the Jews. He formed them for Himself, so that they would be His witnesses and would declare His praise (Isaiah 43:10, 21).
The verse names three things before it names any task: know, believe, understand.
Israel is the standing witness to the world that God is the one God. Men "may know and believe" that God is the eternal One – none before Him, and no one after – the "I AM," and the only Saviour.
The short phrase at the centre of the verse is a title, and it appears first in Deuteronomy.
He is first named this way in Deuteronomy 32:39. "See now," He says, "that I, even I am the Same, and there is no god with Me … I lift up My hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever!" Jesus says, I am "the living One" … "I am He" should read "I am the Same," meaning the self-existing One.
Israel broke the trust. The nation appointed to testify became the example of false testimony, and their Messiah stands in contrast.
God selected Israel as a nation to hold the truth of Jehovah's Godhead and of Jehovah's law, and to testify to these great truths among other nations who worshipped idols. In this trust they proved themselves false witnesses. They copied their neighbours and worshipped idols, and they dishonoured the law. Where Israel failed as a witness for the truth, because of their evil heart of unbelief, their Messiah was perfect throughout … one of His titles that shows He is fit for it is the Faithful and True Witness (Rev. 1:5; Rev. 3:14).
Yet Israel's failure is not the last word.
Whoever else may have let the light of the testimony go out, it has never gone out for God, and it never will. "You are my witnesses, declares the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen."
- Chosen — God chose one nation and formed them for Himself, to be His witnesses and to declare His praise.
- Know — the witness starts inside. Know, believe and understand that He is the eternal One, with none before Him and none after.
- Declare — the truth entrusted to them was the unity of God, the one testimony they owed a world given over to idols.
- Failed — they copied their neighbours and worshipped idols, so they proved false witnesses. Where they failed, their Messiah was perfect: the Faithful and True Witness.
- Restored — blind and deaf when called, they will yet know, believe and understand. For God, the light of this testimony has never gone out.
I, I [am] Jehovah; and besides me there is no saviour.
God names Himself twice over here as the only Saviour. He says it to a people surrounded by idols. That claim raises two questions. What happens to every other refuge people trust? And how does the name of Jesus fit?
The same exclusiveness that rules out rival gods rules out rival saviours. One writer traces this through the chapter. Israel's ruin and Israel's rescue come from the same hand.
It was because of Him whom they rebelled against that they were so plundered. Because of Him they will also be delivered, pardoned, and blessed. For as He, Jehovah, is the only God, so is He just as much the sole Saviour... Before that day dawns, we already know the great salvation by His grace, which is still a secret to them. By that grace alone He can righteously deal with the guilty. Christ, the cross, is the only key.
The doubled "I, I am" is not emphasis for its own sake. It belongs to a speaker with no beginning and no successor. One writer points out that a God who can speak this way about Himself can also make Himself known.
Only He could speak as He did through Isaiah: "I am He," or "I am the same; before Me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after Me" (43:10)... None but the Eternal One could speak like this. When it pleased Him to do so, He could and would reveal Himself.
Isaiah sets this claim beside the gods people carried and prayed to. The contrast is not close. An idol's whole existence runs the wrong way: it receives instead of gives.
Idols are contrasted with Jehovah, but cannot for one moment be compared with the true God. Jehovah is the Maker; an idol has to be made. Once made, it does not carry others — it has to be carried. Set in its place, it cannot move, cannot answer the cry of need, and cannot save from trouble.
Israel lived in a world of idols and had one truth to guard. One writer calls it the truth the whole Old Testament rests on.
The unity of God is the foundation truth of the Old Testament. It was the central testimony for which the Jewish people were responsible, in a world everywhere else given over to idolatry. We must add that Jehovah, the God of Israel, was that one Jehovah — His proper name in relationship with His people on earth.
The claim that leaves Israel with one Saviour opens a door to everyone else.
Israel was therefore left with Him alone for salvation. But then came a world-wide invitation: "Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other" (Isa. 45:22). The world too is left with Him alone.
If God alone saves, then anyone who truly saves must be God. One writer sets this verse beside the angel's words about Jesus and draws the conclusion.
Many Old Testament passages addressed to Israel tie their salvation to God's own action on their behalf. They prove beyond doubt that He alone could save them... "I, I am the LORD, and besides Me there is no Saviour" (verse 11)... The name Jesus carries divine glory with it; it means Jehovah the Saviour. These great texts make it clear that none but God could be the Saviour... but of Jesus the angel said, "He will save His people from their sins." Then who else could He be but God?
- One God. The unity of God is the foundation truth of the Old Testament. Israel lived among idols to hold that testimony and pass it on.
- One Saviour. This is one argument, not two. Because He is the only God, He is just as much the sole Saviour.
- No rivals. An idol has to be made and carried. It cannot move, answer a cry, or save from trouble.
- One invitation. Having only one Saviour is not a narrowing but an opening. Israel has no one but Him, and neither does the world. That is why the call reaches the ends of the earth.
- One Name. If none but God can save, then Jesus, who saves His people from their sins, can be no one less than God. The cross is how He does it righteously.
It is I that have declared, and have saved, and have shewed, when there was no strange [god] among you; and ye are my witnesses, saith Jehovah, that I [am] God.
Isaiah 43 reads like a courtroom. God calls the nations to bring anyone who can prove their gods are real, then puts Israel on the stand as His witness. That witness rests on three things God had already done — He declared, He saved, He proclaimed — and Israel stands there to prove one point: He is God.
The verse belongs to a scene where God summons the nations to bring evidence. One writer sets the challenge and the answer side by side:
Who among the nations "can declare this, and show us the former things? Let them bring THEIR WITNESSES to prove them right, and let them hear and say, It is true" (Isa. 43:9). But to Israel He says, "You are MY WITNESSES, declares the LORD, and My servant whom I have chosen … Before ME no god was formed, nor shall there be any after ME. I, I AM THE LORD, AND BESIDES ME THERE IS NO SAVIOUR" (vv. 10-11).
God acted while Israel still had no foreign god among them. The three verbs come first; the title "witnesses" comes after:
In reference to Israel, God can say, "I declared and saved and proclaimed." Before they turned to idols, God had already declared the past and the future for Israel. He speaks as the I AM, to Whom the future is present, so He can say "I saved." Having saved, God can say to all the world that Israel are "my witnesses … that I am God."
God set this people apart with two purposes in view. The first is the one this verse states:
God has had two great purposes in view in setting Israel apart to Himself as His special people. One was that there should be a testimony to the unity of God, and that He alone should be worshipped: "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one." (Deut. 6:4.)
The saving in this verse is God's own act. Other passages press the same claim, and it becomes a question about who Jesus is:
Many Old Testament passages spoken to Israel tie their salvation to God's own action for them, and they prove that He alone could save them… "I, I am the LORD, and besides Me there is no Saviour" (verse 11)… The name Jesus carries divine glory with it. It means Jehovah the Saviour, and these great texts make it plain that none but God could be the Saviour… but of Jesus the angel said, "He will save His people from their sins." Then who else could He be but God?
Israel held this trust and betrayed it. One Person fills the gap they left:
God chose Israel as a nation to keep the truth of Jehovah's Godhead and of Jehovah's law, and to testify to these great truths among other nations who worshipped idols. "You are my witnesses, says the LORD, that I am God" (Isa. 43:10, 12; Isa. 44:8). In this trust they proved themselves false witnesses, and everyone knew it. They worshipped idols openly, copying the nations around them, and they dishonoured the law. At every point where Israel failed as a witness for the truth, because of their evil heart of unbelief, their Messiah was perfect… and one of His titles which expresses His fitness is that of the Faithful and True Witness (Rev. 1:5; Rev. 3:14).
Israel's failure does not cancel their appointment. The chapter looks forward:
The Jews, with their love of idols, were the blind people who had eyes and the deaf who had ears. Yet they alone of all nations were Jehovah's witness and His servant. They will yet know, believe, and understand… for as He, Jehovah, is the only God, so He is also the only Saviour… 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 them. Before that day dawns, we know the great salvation by His grace. By that grace alone He can deal with guilty people and still be just: Christ, the cross, is the only key.
A witness reports what happened to him. That shapes how anyone speaks for God:
No sermon is as powerful as the one drawn from experience… If I speak what my soul knows, and not what I have only heard from others, I speak in power… tell it out faithfully and clearly, by lip and life, so that the blessed Saviour may get praise for the salvation He has given.
- God acted first. He declared, saved and proclaimed before He called anyone to testify. The witness rests on His record, not on human insight.
- God appointed witnesses. He set one nation apart to give one clear testimony in a world of idols: the Lord is God, and besides Him there is no Saviour.
- The witnesses failed. Israel copied the idolatry around them and proved false witnesses.
- Christ is the Faithful Witness. Where Israel broke down, the Messiah was perfect throughout, and He carries the title they forfeited.
- The testimony continues. Israel will yet know, believe and understand. Meanwhile anyone who knows God's salvation can tell it out, by lip and life.
Yea, since the day was, I [am] HE, and there is none that delivereth out of my hand I will work, and who shall hinder it?
Here God answers Israel with a statement about Himself. He existed before time, no one can take anything out of His hand, and no one can undo what He does.
One writer takes the verse phrase by phrase and shows how each part answers a different objection. Time cannot outflank God, and power cannot overrule Him.
God is the God of eternity. Before time was — "before the day" — God can say I AM; and God is omnipotent, for none can deliver out of His hand or hinder His work.
"I am He" turns on one Hebrew word: Hu. One writer counts it among the names of God.
There is another word which, though it may be used as a description, can hardly be excluded from being a name of God. Hu, Atta Hu, "you are the same," the unchangeable One (see Deut. 32:39); "I am He, the same and besides me no god." I am He, Hu, Atta Hu: Psalm 44:4; Isaiah 41:4; 43:10, 13; Jeremiah 5:12. It is in the sense of the immutable existing One, which is true of God only.
The same writer finds the word in this chapter, on God's own lips.
In Isaiah 43:10 we have Ani hu (I, He) spoken by Jehovah… the hu (He) is essential and immutable existence.
These words belong to a kind of courtroom. Another writer sets God's two calls side by side: one to the nations, one to Israel.
Among the nations who followed idols such things were unknown. God raises the challenge: Who among the nations "can declare this, and show us former things? Let them bring forth THEIR WITNESSES, that they may be justified; or let them hear, and say, It is truth" (Isa. 43:9). But to Israel He says, "You are MY WITNESSES, says the Lord, and My servant whom I have chosen … before ME there was no God formed, and there will be none after ME. I, EVEN I, AM THE LORD; AND BESIDE ME THERE IS NO SAVIOUR" (vv. 10-11).
One writer roots this in Israel's exile. The God who sent them to Babylon is the God who will pardon and bless them.
They will yet know, believe, and understand. They have been so plundered because of Him whom they rebelled against. They will be delivered, pardoned, and blessed because of Him too. Jehovah is the only God, and just as truly the only Saviour. For Israel's sake He had sent them to Babylon and brought down their pride… Once, for their sins, God "profaned the princes" and people of Israel. For His own sake He will blot out their transgressions and justify them.
One writer finds the same name on the lips of Jesus.
Isaiah predicts what Israel will discover at His second coming: the rejected and despised One is Jehovah. "Therefore My people shall know My Name, therefore they shall know that I am He" (52:6). The words "I am He" (Ani Hu) are a divine Name. Our Lord used it when He said "I am" to the woman at the well, and again to the group in the garden of Gethsemane.
One writer links this verse to Jesus' words in John 10:
John 10:28-30. — Compare Deut. 32:39, Isa. 43:13. Hengstenberg: "Jesus assumes to Himself the possession of the power which belongs to Jehovah."
- Before — "before the day," God can say I AM; He is the God of eternity, and to Him the future is already present.
- Because — the Hebrew Hu is a name, not just a description: the unchangeable, self-existing One, true of God alone.
- Beside — God dares the nations to bring their witnesses. Israel is His witness that beside Him there is no Saviour.
- Beyond — the God who sent Israel to Babylon is the God who pardons them. No hand can take from Him, and no power can undo His work.
- Borrowed — Jesus takes this name for Himself, and with it the power that belongs to Jehovah.
Thus saith Jehovah, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel For your sake I have sent to Babylon, and have brought all of them down as fugitives, even the Chaldeans, whose cry is in the ships.
Israel sits in the hands of Babylon. God answers with two names for Himself and one promise: He will bring the empire that holds them down. Why would God topple a world power for a beaten people? The verse says, "for your sake."
God gives Himself this name while His people are captives, and He claims the right that goes with it as His alone.
Centuries later, Assyria and then Chaldea carried the nation into captivity. Again and again Jehovah sent them promises that He would deliver them by redemption. He called Himself "Jehovah, your Redeemer (Goel)," and added other titles such as "the Holy One of Israel" (Isa. 41:14; 43:14; 44:6, 24; 47:4; 48:17). In these and other prophecies, Jehovah reminds His earthly people that He has the sole "right of (their) redemption." At the appointed time He will redeem the nation for ever, by His exalted Servant, from their bondage to Gentile rule.
The second title runs through the whole book of Isaiah, and it ties God's holiness to this one nation.
Isaiah calls Him "the Holy One of Israel" all through the book. This title appears twenty-five times there, and it belongs to the Lord who deals with His people in judgment and in mercy… The Holy One of Israel is Jehovah. He is the Redeemer of His people… This Holy One is the Creator… He appeared as the Holy One among His people, and they did not know Him but despised Him.
The name also describes what God is in Himself.
The name "Holy One of Israel" implies that the God of Israel is completely separated from all evil, for He is of purer eyes than to behold evil.
The chapter sits among warnings, yet it opens with rescue. The rescue promised here is deliverance by power, and a deeper one still lies ahead.
We might have expected Isaiah 43 to hold more warnings and judgments, but it opens instead on a note of grace… Faced with their evil, God falls back on His original purpose and His redeeming work. The people were looking for redemption by power, and that is the main theme here, as the verses that follow show. But soon the far deeper work of the suffering Servant will come before us — redemption by blood.
God turns from the nations to His own people. He gives them three names for Himself, and points to what He has already done to their enemies.
Turning from the nations to Israel, God encourages His people by saying, I am "your Redeemer", "your Holy One", "your King." For Israel's sake God had humbled the pride of Babylon, the centre of idolatry. He had done the same in the past, when He made a way for His people through the sea and overthrew the army of the Egyptians.
One writer traces both their ruin and their rescue to the same God, and looks past the return from exile to the cross.
They were plundered because of the One they rebelled against. Because of Him they will also be delivered, pardoned, and blessed. Jehovah is the only God, and He is just as truly the only Saviour. It was for Israel's sake that He had sent them to Babylon and brought down their pride… Before that day dawns, we already know what is still a secret to them: the great salvation of His grace. By that grace alone He can deal righteously with the guilty. Christ, the cross, is the only key.
The verse strikes Babylon in her ships. One writer explains why the blow landed there.
The things men are judged in are not always those they are judged for. Here men are judged in their wealth, because of the evil heart that sought that wealth apart from God. So was the merchant city of Chaldea, whose cry was in the ships. The thing judged is the idolatry, but the judgment reached their commerce.
God names Babylon's fall before it comes, and He calls Himself Israel's king while they have no throne of their own.
Jehovah guarantees the redemption of Israel. He also gives again the proof of a true God: His predictions, entrusted to Israel as His witnesses. Here He plainly reveals the fall of Babylon and of the Chaldeans whose cry is in the ships (14). Once more He claims to be Israel's king, at a time when they had no king to show… To value prophecy only as evidence once it has come true is to take the place, without knowing it, of an unbeliever.
- Redeemer — God takes this name while His people are captives, and claims the sole right to buy them back.
- Holy One — the Rescuer is completely separated from all evil, and He still calls Himself Israel's own.
- For your sake — the same hand that sent them to Babylon brings Babylon down, and both acts trace back to one Person.
- In the ships — Babylon's trade carries her fugitives away. God judges her idolatry, and the blow lands on her commerce.
- Beforehand — God named the fall before it came, and called Himself Israel's King while no throne stood in Jerusalem.
I [am] Jehovah, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King.
God speaks this verse to a people who will soon be exiles in Babylon. Instead of arguing His case, He names Himself four times over: who He is, what He is like, where they came from, and who rules them. (Where the ESV has "the LORD," the older translations these writers use print the divine name as "Jehovah.")
One writer sets the whole section against the coming captivity:
A contrast is made between Israel's God and the idols of the nations. The one great proof is that the God of Israel has the power to predict future events... God says all this to encourage the faithful remnant of Israel to trust in Jehovah. Isaiah had already announced the Babylonian captivity, and that gives these words special meaning.
Each title carries the word "your," and God backs them with what He has already done for Israel:
Turning from the nations to Israel, God encourages His people by saying, I am "your Redeemer", "your Holy One", "your King." For Israel's sake God had humbled the pride of Babylon, the centre of idolatry. He had acted the same way in the past, when He made a way for His people through the sea and destroyed the Egyptian army.
"Holy" here means total distance from everything wrong:
The name "Holy One of Israel" implies that the God of Israel is completely separated from all evil, for His eyes are too pure to look at evil. This is also what the seraphim express who cry out in front of His throne: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts."
Yet the shocking word is the one joined to it — your. A holy God ties His name to a nation that has failed Him:
The prophet Isaiah develops this side of the truth strongly and in detail, and he ties it to this name of grace — "The Holy One of ISRAEL." God reveals Himself in this way despite all the rebellion of the people. Israel has been against Him; but He is for Israel. But to be this He must first be their Redeemer, and then the source of all the good that He will produce in them.
God formed this people for Himself, and He had a purpose in it:
In Isaiah 43 we find the words, "This people I formed for myself"... "I created him for my glory"... "They will declare my praise." God had already made Himself known to them as "Redeemer" (see verse 14), having brought them out of Egypt through the Red Sea. Their Redeemer was "the Holy One of Israel," their "Creator," and their "King."
Israel once lived under God's own rule and rejected it:
The first government given to Israel was the highest conceivable — the direct government of God. They could say with truth, "The Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our Lawgiver, the Lord is our King." That they would prove unworthy of this supreme honour... could be expected. But that they rejected it was the lowest kind of ingratitude.
In this verse God still names Himself their King, long after that rejection:
We cannot suppose that God would have spoken of Himself as King so much if it were not important for us to know Him in this character.
These titles all belong to one Person, and one writer follows them forward into the New Testament:
Isaiah calls Him "the Holy One of Israel" all through his book. The title appears twenty-five times, naming the Lord who deals with His people in both judgment and mercy. The Holy One of Israel is Jehovah; He is the Redeemer of His people... This Holy One is the Creator. "The Holy One has created it." ... He appeared as the Holy One among them and they did not know Him but despised Him... Isaiah predicts that at His second coming Israel will discover that the rejected and despised One is Jehovah. "Therefore my people shall know my name... that it is I who speak; here I am." [The older translation reads: "they shall know that I am He."] The words "I am He" (Ani Hu) are a divine Name. Our Lord used it when He said "I am" to the woman at the well and to the group in the garden of Gethsemane.
- Made — "Creator of Israel" means the nation itself was His work. He formed it for Himself and created it for His glory, to declare His praise.
- Redeemed — before He names Himself their Holy One here, He had already acted as their Redeemer. He opened the sea, destroyed Egypt's army, and brought down Babylon's pride.
- Holy — the title means He is set apart from all evil. The wonder is the small word "your" beside it, while Israel is still in rebellion.
- Ruled — Israel once had the direct government of God, and rejected it. He still names Himself their King. Writers point out that He uses this title so much because He wants us to know Him in it.
- Coming — the Holy One who made them came among them, and they despised Him. Isaiah says a day comes when Israel will know that rejected One as the LORD Himself.
Thus saith Jehovah, who maketh a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters,
Isaiah 43 speaks to a people facing exile in Babylon, and God introduces Himself by a memory, not an argument: He once cut a road through open water. So why does God name Himself by an old rescue just as a new disaster arrives?
God has just claimed three titles, and each one is personal: your Redeemer, your Holy One, your King.
Turning from the nations to Israel, God encourages His people by saying, I am "your Redeemer", "your Holy One", "your King." For Israel's sake God had humbled the pride of Babylon, the centre of idolatry. He had done the same in the past, when He made a way for His people through the sea and destroyed the army of the Egyptians.
The words point back to Israel's escape from Egypt. The water that blocked them became the road they walked on. What matters in the picture is who did the work: the people contributed nothing but their feet.
When they left Egypt, their first experience of God's power was the sea turned into dry ground before them. Pharaoh's army drowned in the very waters that had been a protecting wall to them on the right hand and on the left. There was only one way through the sea, lit by the glory in the cloud. They had only to walk in it and enjoy the deliverance God had worked, and in which they had had no hand whatever.
God does not raise the past to make His people nostalgic. He raises it as evidence.
With God, past deliverances are always the guarantee of present hopes, because He is the same God and always acts with the same mind. Our faith is to recall them, and then we go out in this strength: that God is with us.
The memory of the sea is a springboard, not a resting place. God points His people from the old rescue to a new one that takes the same shape.
Let Israel remember and consider God's deliverances in the past. So let them trust God for the "new thing" about to take place in the future. In the past God made "a way in the sea" (16); in the future He will make "a way in the wilderness" for His people to return to their land. He will refresh and sustain them on their journey with rivers in the deserts, and protect them from "the beast of the field."
The timing matters too, not just the size of the rescue.
It is not only that the new should surpass the old, but Jehovah reveals it so that they may know it beforehand. If you value prophecy only as proof after it has come true, you take the place of an unbeliever without knowing it.
The same language returns on a night at sea. The disciples saw someone walking towards them over the waves.
The sight of the Master of the elements making His way to them across the heaving waves must have been overwhelming to these men... Unannounced, He approached the little group, treading His way through the surge of the mighty waters. They were troubled at seeing Him like this, for as yet they had not understood who Jesus was. They did not realise that the sea was His; He had made it. Truly, His way was in the sanctuary, but equally His way was in the sea and His paths in the great waters (Ps. 77:13, 19).
- Speaker. He names Himself first — Redeemer, Holy One, King. The road through the water is an act of ownership, not a random miracle.
- Sea. There was one path through the water, lit by the glory in the cloud, and Israel had no hand in making it; they only walked in it.
- Memory. Past rescues are God's own guarantee of present ones, because He is the same God and always acts with the same mind.
- New. The way in the sea becomes the promise of a way in the wilderness, with rivers in the desert. God says it beforehand, and that marks Him out as God.
- Now. The sea belongs to Him because He made it, and the same feet that opened the deep walked on it in Galilee.
who bringeth forth chariot and horse, army and power -- they lie down together, they shall not rise; they are extinct, they are quenched as tow
God introduces Himself here by a memory, not a title: He drove Pharaoh's chariots into the sea and left them there like a snuffed-out wick. Babylon is about to carry this people away, so why does God point them back to a drowned army — and what comes next?
The lines about the sea sit inside a series of names God gives Himself in this passage. One writer links those names to what God did to Babylon's pride and to Egypt's army.
Turning from the nations to Israel, God encourages His people by saying, I am "your Redeemer", "your Holy One", "your King." For Israel's sake God had humbled the pride of Babylon, the centre of idolatry. This matched what He had done long before, when He made a way for His people through the sea and overthrew the army of the Egyptians.
The verse says God brings the chariot and horse out — the enemy's advance is His doing before it is theirs. At the Red Sea the same water that sheltered Israel became the instrument of the enemy's end. God had said in advance that this was His plan.
The waters that shielded God's people and delivered them were the instrument God used to destroy the enemy and his power completely. "Not one of them remained." … "And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, his chariots, and his horsemen."
The verse ends with a flame going out, not a battle fought. The overthrow was so complete that nothing survived to rise again.
The magnificent chariots and cavalry were destroyed. The might and the glory of Egypt were gone, "and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore."
Why keep reciting a rescue that is centuries old? The answer lies in who God is, not in how long ago it happened.
With God, past deliverances are always the guarantee of present hopes, because He is the same God and always acts with the same mind. Our faith is to remember them, and then we go forward in this strength — that God is with us.
The memory has a purpose beyond itself. Israel is to look back at the sea so they can trust God for what He will do next.
Let Israel remember and consider God's deliverances in the past, and so trust God for the "new thing" about to take place in the future. In the past God made "a way in the sea" (verse 16). In the future He will make "a way in the wilderness" so His people can return to their land. He will refresh and sustain them on their journey with rivers in the deserts, and protect them from the wild beasts.
The Red Sea is the brightest rescue in Israel's memory. It is still not the measure of what God has promised.
This still awaits fulfilment, because it goes far beyond any partial fulfilment in the past. … Jehovah will certainly stand by Israel. He will do it more openly in the future than in the brightest deliverance of the past.
Israel saw a dead enemy behind them on the shore. One writer applies that same backward look to the believer at the cross.
He can look back, and see the power of the enemy broken, his sins gone, the judgment past. The judgment fell on Jesus, and He is risen, having exhausted the judgment, and destroyed the power of the enemy.
- Redeemer. God names Himself "your Redeemer", "your Holy One", "your King." He backs each title with the sea He opened and the army He drowned.
- Drawn out. The chariot and horse advance because God brings them out. He had said in advance that He would get glory over Pharaoh's chariots and horsemen.
- Extinguished. The destruction was total — "not one of them remained" — so the enemy lies down with no power to rise.
- Warrant. Past rescues are God's pledge for present hope. He is the same God, and He always acts with the same mind.
- Surpassed. The way through the sea is the smaller wonder. God promises a way in the wilderness, and He will stand by His people more openly than in the brightest deliverance of the past.
-- Remember not the former things, neither consider the ancient things
Isaiah 43 has just recalled the Red Sea, where God made a way through the water and brought Israel out of Egypt. Then He tells Israel to forget it — why would God ask His people to drop the very rescue He performed for them?
Earlier in this chapter God names Himself: Israel's Redeemer, their Holy One, their Creator, their King. One writer connects those titles with the people God formed for Himself:
Isaiah 43 says of this people, "the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise," and, "whom I created for my glory." God had already made Himself known to them as their "Redeemer" (see verse 14). He had brought them out of Egypt through the Red Sea. Their Redeemer was "the Holy One of Israel," their "Creator," and their "King."
So the call to stop dwelling on the old wonders is not a call to forget God. It comes from the same God who worked those wonders.
Commentators differ on the reason. One says the coming blessing will outshine what came before, so the old wonders fade from view:
It was for Israel's sake that He had sent them to Babylon and brought down their pride. The new things should make the old wonders fade from memory. God gives water in the wilderness and rivers in the desert for His chosen people, formed for Himself to declare His praise.
Another says Israel should use the past, not drop it. Past rescues become the ground of present trust:
Let Israel remember what God did for them in the past. Then let them trust Him for the "new thing" still to come. In the past God made "a way in the sea." In the future He will make "a way in the wilderness" so His people can return to their land.
Both agree on the direction of travel: the eye is to move off the old rescue and onto the greater one still ahead.
The two miracles are opposites. First God removes water so His people can walk. Then He supplies water so they can drink. Neither taxes Him:
Later He gave them "water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert," to quench their thirst for the whole journey. That was no harder for the LORD than making a path through the mighty waters; but it was He Himself who did it.
Isaiah's new things belong to one place — the earth:
As far as Isaiah is concerned, the new things predicted are connected with blessings on the earth. The new song they stir up comes from land and sea, from far-off islands, from the wilderness and the mountain tops. For heavenly blessing we have to go on to the New Testament.
One person alone brings that age in, and that fact carries a warning:
The Lord Jesus Christ will bring in this golden age, and His work alone will do it. Let us fix that in our minds. Then we will not get drawn into present schemes to bring such an age about, whether political or otherwise.
The chapter does not stop at the promise. It turns at once to what God received from the people He had formed for His praise:
As the chapter goes on, we come to the sad facts of their history. They show up man's failure despite all God's goodness. God looked for praise, but they brought Him only sins. "You have burdened Me with your sins," He says, "you have wearied Me with your iniquities" (verse 24). … Then He steps in again and does what no one else could do: "I, I am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins" (verse 25).
How God can do that righteously is not spelled out to Israel here, but it is not hidden from us:
Before that day dawns, we already know what is still a secret to them: the great salvation by His grace. That grace is the only way He can deal with the guilty like this and stay just. Christ, the cross, is the only key.
- Same God — the voice that says "forget" is the voice that parted the sea. He names Himself Redeemer, Holy One, Creator and King before He asks anything.
- Same way — He made a way in the sea; He will make a way in the wilderness. The setting changes, the method does not.
- Same ease — giving rivers in the desert cost Him no more than opening a path through deep water, and He did it Himself.
- Same agent — Isaiah's new things are blessings on the earth. Christ alone brings them in, and our own schemes cannot hurry them.
- Same purpose — a people formed to declare His praise brought Him sins instead. He still blots them out for His own sake, on the ground of the cross.
behold, I do a new thing; now it shall spring forth shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, rivers in the waste.
Just before this verse, God reminds Israel that He once made a road through the sea. Then He tells them to stop looking back. The promise that follows raises two questions: what is this "new thing," and why would God ask a people to forget the rescue He has just recalled?
Verse 16 calls God the One who made a path through the sea. This verse promises something different. One writer sets the two side by side and shows the shift from water to dry ground:
Let Israel remember and consider God's deliverances in the past, and so trust God for the "new thing" about to take place in the future. In the past God made "a way in the sea" (verse 16); in the future He will make "a way in the wilderness" for His people to return to their land. He will refresh and sustain them on their journey with rivers in the deserts, and protect them from "the beast of the field."
The call to forget is not a criticism of the past. It is a claim that what is coming will be big enough to overshadow it. One writer traces that promise back to God's own reason for acting:
The new things should make the old wonders fade from memory. God gives water in the wilderness and rivers in the desert for His chosen people. He formed them for Himself, to declare His praise. God once disgraced the leaders and people of Israel because of their sins. Now, for His own sake, He will blot out their sins and justify them. That day has not come yet. But we already know the great salvation by His grace, which is still a secret to them. Only that salvation lets Him deal with the guilty and remain righteous. Christ, and the cross, is the only key.
Neither the road nor the rivers come from human effort. A commentator notes that supplying a desert is no harder for God than parting a sea, and that both were His own doing:
Later we find that He gave them "water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert," to quench their thirst all along the journey. That was no harder for the LORD than making a path through the mighty waters. And it was He Himself who did it.
The drink given in the desert is not the end of the story. Two verses later, God states His purpose for the people He formed. One writer points out that this purpose is still unfulfilled:
In an earlier chapter we have read what God's purpose for the people of Israel was: "The people whom I formed for Myself that they might declare My praise" (Isa. 43:21). They have never truly done so yet. But in that coming day they will, and they will become a centre of attraction on earth.
Isaiah comes back to this theme of newness again and again. A writer who traced it through the book marks out the boundary of what Isaiah promises:
Isaiah ties the new things he predicts to blessings on the earth. The new song they stir up comes from land and sea, from far-off islands, from the wilderness and the mountain tops. For heavenly blessing we have to go on to the New Testament.
The same writer draws a practical warning from this. If the new order is God's work, it is not ours to engineer:
The Lord Jesus Christ will bring in this golden age, and His work alone will do it. Let us hold that clearly in mind. It will keep us from meddling with today's schemes to produce such an age, political or otherwise.
Commentators differ on how far the verse reaches. One writer applies the phrase to how a believer walks today — a route through this world that belongs to another world:
There is a path in this world that comes from God's will and is shaped by it. No sharp eye has ever spotted it. Christ walked it perfectly. God gives the believer a path through this world that has nothing to do with the world. Instead it shows the character of Christ. "I will make a way in the wilderness" (Isa. 43:19) — that is the Christian's path.
- The Maker of ways. The same God who cut a path through the sea now promises a path through the desert. One is no harder for Him than the other. Both are His own doing.
- New over old. God tells Israel to stop going back over the old rescue. The one coming will make those wonders fade from memory.
- Water for the way. The rivers are supplies for the journey — refreshment and protection for a people God is bringing home.
- The end is praise. God formed this people for Himself so they would declare His praise. Commentators note that this purpose still waits for its day.
- His work, not ours. Isaiah's new things are blessings on earth, and Christ alone brings them in. That rules out schemes of our own. Yet the way through the wilderness is already the believer's road today.
The beast of the field shall glorify me, the jackals and the ostriches; for I will give waters in the wilderness, rivers in the waste, to give drink to my people, my chosen.
Israel is about to be carried off to Babylon. God tells them to stop looking back at the old rescue through the sea and to look forward. The odd part: jackals and ostriches, creatures of the waste places, are the ones who honour Him, and water is the reason.
The verse sits in a short block, verses 18 to 21. One writer traces its movement:
(Verses 18–21). Let Israel remember and consider God's deliverances in the past, and so trust God for the "new thing" about to take place in the future. In the past God made "a way in the sea" (16); in the future He will make "a way in the wilderness" for His people to return to their land. He will refresh and sustain them on their journey with rivers in the deserts. He will protect them from "the beast of the field." So, at last, they will "show forth" Jehovah's praise. That is the purpose they were formed for.
Israel does not find this water. God gives it, and it costs Him no more than opening the sea did:
Later we find that He gave them "waters in the wilderness, rivers in the desert." That quenched their thirst along the way, the whole journey through. That was no harder for the LORD than making a path through the mighty waters. But it was He Himself who did it.
The two animals are not decoration. Older versions call the second one an "owl." Its Hebrew name and habits say otherwise:
A related Hebrew word (preceded by bath, meaning the female), bath yaanah, "daughter of howling," is translated "owl" eight times, including Leviticus 11:16, Job 30:29 and Isaiah 43:20. It belongs to the unclean birds. It lives in waste places and has a wailing cry, and both fit the habits of the ostrich well. Some of these passages may seem to point to the owl, but the ostrich is doubtless meant in all of them.
So the honour comes from creatures whose home is desolation and whose voice is a wail. Commentators differ here. The verse has the wild animals honouring God, while Hamilton Smith reads it as God protecting His people from them.
God gives the drink to "my chosen people." The next verse says why they exist, and that purpose made them a target:
On earth Israel are the people. They have their own special links with Christ as Son of Abraham and Son of David, and in Him the blessing of all the nations of the earth is secured. They were a family, a nation God chose out of the system of nations that make up the world. He chose them to be Jehovah's witnesses and the vessel of His blessing to all the families of the earth… Of Israel God has said, "The people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise" (Isaiah 43:21). No wonder such a people were the objects of Satan's deadly hostility.
The verses just after this turn to Israel's failure: they had not called on God and had grown weary of Him. So the water in the desert is no reward:
New things should make the old wonders forgotten, when God gives water in the wilderness and rivers in the desert for His chosen people. They were 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 them. Before that day dawns, we already know what is still a secret to them: the great salvation by His grace. By that grace alone can He deal righteously with the guilty. Christ, the cross, is the only key.
The return from Babylon does not exhaust this promise. Its scale reaches further:
Isaiah 43 is about Israel's relation to Jehovah. It looks not at their sins and their punishments, but at His unfailing faithfulness in sovereign grace. This still awaits fulfilment, since it goes far beyond any partial fulfilment in the past. Some make the fatal error of limiting prophecy to the near future. No wonder they cannot see or explain the truth, and must call the inspired vision sheer exaggeration, to say the least. But the fault lies in themselves alone.
- Cause. God gives the water. Making rivers in a desert is no harder for Him than making a path through the sea, and He did both Himself.
- Gift. The drink is grace, not wages. God blots out the sins of a people who had grown weary of Him, and He does it for His own sake. The cross is the key to how He can do that and stay righteous.
- Reach. The gift spills past the people to the wilderness itself. Even jackals and the "daughter of howling," creatures at home in waste places, give God honour.
- Purpose. God waters "my chosen" — a nation taken out of the nations. They are His witnesses and the channel of blessing to every family of the earth.
- Result. They were formed to declare His praise. The promise still waits. It goes far beyond the return from Babylon, and reading prophecy as if it must end soon hides that from you.
This people have I formed for myself they shall shew forth my praise.
God is speaking to a people whose sin is in full view, and here He says why they exist at all. The verse answers two questions: who made this people, and what He made them for.
God is not simply naming a nation. He shaped it for Himself, and the names He has just used of Himself carry the weight of that claim.
In Isaiah 43 we find the words: "This people have I formed for myself." … "I have created him for my glory." … "They shall show forth my praise." God had already made Himself known to them as "Redeemer" (see verse 14). He had brought them out of Egypt through the Red Sea. Their Redeemer was "the Holy One of Israel," their "Creator," and their "King."
Note: the writers quote an older English translation, so their wording differs from the ESV above. The sense is the same.
What makes the verse striking is where it sits. After chapters of warning, the reader expects more of the same.
We might have expected Isaiah 43 to contain further warnings and judgments. Instead it opens on a note of grace… In the presence of their evil God falls back upon His original purpose and His redeeming work. The people were looking for redemption by power, and that is the main theme here, as the verses that follow show. But soon we come to the far deeper work of the suffering Servant — redemption by blood.
Being "formed for Myself" is the same thought that runs through the chapter's opening words. Rescue was never the end point; ownership was.
God says: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you, I have called you by your name; YOU are MINE." And again, "This people have I formed for Myself; they shall show forth My praise." (Isa. 43:1, 21.) In the same way, after He had fully delivered the people of Israel from the land of Egypt, God sent them this message through Moses: "You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings, and brought you TO MYSELF."
The praise is not private. God means this people to be seen by others — and the same chapter does not pretend their record is clean.
In the forty-third chapter we learn that sovereign grace establishes Israel in blessing (1–7). That grace will then make them a witness to the one true God before the nations, to show forth His praise (8–21). At the same time we learn that God is not indifferent to the sins of His people — sins that His grace will blot out (22–28).
Israel's history raises an obvious question: has this purpose ever been met? The answer here looks forward, not back.
An earlier chapter told us God's purpose for the people of Israel: "This people have I formed for Myself: they shall show forth My praise" (Isa. 43:21). They have never yet done this in any real sense. But in the coming day they will, and so they will become a centre of attraction on earth.
This people did not stay faithful. The way God answers that failure is the heart of the passage — and it reaches far past Israel.
The LORD had formed this people for Himself, but the people had grown weary of their God. It was as if they had made Him serve with their sins. But now He pardons it all for His own glory. Glorious and striking testimony of Him who, in grace to the sinner when the sin becomes unbearable, puts away the sin instead of the sinner! This is what God has done through Christ.
At the Red Sea, Israel's praise took a concrete shape.
God's purpose in redeeming them, and so caring for them, was that they should "show forth His praise" (verse 21). As a result, their God-inspired song expressed the need to prepare a "dwelling place" for the LORD. They sang it while the deliverance He had worked at the Red Sea was still fresh. He had become their "salvation," and He was their fathers' God. They felt that God must live among them.
- Formed — the people did not make themselves. Their Redeemer, Holy One, Creator and King formed them, and He formed them for Himself.
- Freed — rescue is the doorway to the purpose. God brought them out of Egypt and brought them "to Myself," so praise rises from a people who belong to Him.
- For witness — the praise faces outward. A rescued people stand before the nations as witness that He alone is God.
- Forgiven — they grew weary of Him, yet He pardons it all for His own glory. He puts away the sin instead of the sinner, and this is what He has done through Christ.
- Future — they have never yet done this in any real sense. In the coming day they will, and they will draw others to Him.