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.
-- But thou hast not called upon me, Jacob; for thou hast been weary of me, O Israel
Isaiah 43 is full of God's promises to His people. Verse 22 turns to the other side — they had not called on Him, and they had grown tired of Him.
The complaint only lands when you read it against the sentence before it:
You must read Isaiah 43:21 together with verse 22. God contrasts the purpose for which He formed Israel with the way they behaved. He speaks in sorrowful, touching words.
The charge covers two seasons of the nation's life — trouble and comfort:
The LORD deals in sovereign grace with His people, and He will yet use them as a witness to the nations. But that does not mean He is indifferent to their failure... In their distress they had not called upon the LORD. Once settled in the land, they had grown weary of Him. They should have brought to Jehovah the sacrifices that speak of Christ to God. Instead they made God toil in His governing of them, and wearied Him with their sins. They were weary of God, and — to use human language — their evil ways wearied Him. Even so, for His own sake, God will blot out their transgressions and remember their sins no more.
after
The weariness runs both ways. The verse names Israel's side of it first.
Their weariness was not God's fault. He asked for praise and got sin:
God sought for praises, but they brought Him only sins. "You have burdened me with your sins; you have wearied me with your iniquities" (verse 24). He had laid no hard burden on them in the sacrifices ordered for worship. But instead of giving with joy what He had commanded, they committed sins that cried out for judgment. So they defeated God's purpose in redeeming them for Himself.
The promises around this verse are not a cover-up:
God promises all this grace in striking terms. Even so, He does not gloss over the people's real state of rebellion and sin. He makes them face their fallen condition again. He promises to re-gather their offspring from the east and west, from north and south. Yet at that moment they had turned away from the Lord, as verse 22 says. They did not honour Him with offerings and sacrifices, but wearied Him with their iniquities. As their first father Adam had sinned, so they had followed in his footsteps. Because of this, God's own hand laid the curse and reproach upon them.
The complaint is not the last word. Pardon rests on God's own name, not on the size of the sin:
God brings in the principle of living righteousness, and so gives the awareness of sins. "For your name's sake, O LORD, pardon my guilt, for it is great" (Psalm 25). By human reasoning this is strange — "for it is great." Men plead that their sin is small. But when God teaches us, we see how great sin is... My guilt is great: if You do not forgive me for Your own glory's sake, You cannot forgive me at all. In Isaiah 43:22 and the verses that follow, God makes Israel rest in absolute sovereign mercy.
One writer traces where this weariness ends, and turns it on us:
Profession without practice, and service without devotion, will lead to weariness in the things of the Lord. And what people are weary of they will end up despising... Are there not many who were once active in the Lord's service, but who have now grown weary? ... They have grown weary. Weary of prayer, weary of reading the Bible, weary of remembering the Lord. Weary of preaching the gospel and weary of hearing it. Weary of the Lord's things and weary of the Lord's people... How deeply important it is to have Christ always before us, the true motive for all service...
- Purpose — God formed Israel to declare His praise. Verse 22 measures them against that purpose, and the gap is the whole complaint.
- Prayerlessness — In trouble they did not call on Him. Once settled in comfort they grew tired of Him. Weariness with God grows in both hardship and ease.
- Exchange — They were weary of God, and their sins wearied God. He had laid no heavy burden on them; He asked for praise and received iniquity.
- Honesty — The surrounding promises of re-gathering do not paper over their state. Grace names the failure before it removes it.
- Mercy — God's answer is to blot out their sins for His own sake. Israel rests on sovereign mercy alone, never on a claim that the guilt was small.
thou hast not brought me the small cattle of thy burnt-offerings, neither hast thou glorified me with thy sacrifices. I have not caused thee to toil with an oblation, nor wearied thee with incense.
God turns from promises of rescue to a complaint. The people He formed for Himself had not brought Him their offerings, yet He insists He never made worship a heavy load. So what was God asking of Israel — and what did He get instead?
Where the ESV has "your sheep," older translations read "the small cattle of your burnt offerings." The Hebrew word is not a vague term for livestock.
Hebrew uses various words for the cow and the ox as "cattle." … Another word, tson, means small cattle, that is, sheep and goats. seh has the same meaning. Isaiah 7:25 translates it "lesser cattle," and Isaiah 43:23 "small cattle."
The rebuke does not stand alone. It comes at the end of a chapter whose earlier movement is entirely about God's own action for His people.
In chapter forty-three we learn that sovereign grace has established Israel in blessing (1–7). That same grace will 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 in grace He will blot out (22–28).
The sacrifices Israel withheld were not mere ritual. Commentators read them as pictures of Christ presented to God.
In their distress they had not called upon the LORD, and when settled in the land they had grown weary of the LORD. They did not bring to the LORD the sacrifices which speak of Christ to God. Instead they made God toil in His dealings with them as their Ruler, and wearied Him with their sins. They were weary of God, and God — to use human language — grew weary of their evil ways (22, 24).
The second half of the verse is God's defence of Himself. He had not worn Israel out with demands. He looked for praise from a willing heart, and the failure lay in the people.
God looked for praises, but they brought Him only sins. "You have made me serve with your sins," He says, "you have wearied Me with your iniquities" (verse 24). He had laid no hard burden on them in the sacrifices appointed for worship. But instead of gladly giving what He ordered, they committed sins that cried out for judgment. So they defeated God's purpose in redeeming them for Himself.
The complaint is not the last word. What follows is not a heavier demand. God acts alone, and for a reason found in Himself.
When I learn the extent of sin, then I learn the extent of love. … In Isaiah 43 God says, "You have wearied me with your iniquities." What then? "I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for my own name's sake."
If God is holy, forgiving a people who brought Him nothing raises a real problem. Commentators point forward for the answer. What was hidden from Israel then is open now.
As He, the LORD, is the only God, so He is equally 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 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.
- Wanted — God formed Israel to show forth His praise. He asked for the sheep and goats of the burnt offering — sacrifices that spoke of Christ to God.
- Withheld — Israel brought Him their sins instead of those sacrifices. They had grown weary of the LORD, and their evil ways wearied Him.
- Weightless — The demand was never crushing. God laid no hard burden on them in the worship He appointed. Their failure was that they would not give it gladly.
- Wearied — In place of praise, their sins made God toil. The God Who spared them the burden ended up carrying it Himself.
- Wiped out — His reply to a people with empty hands is to blot out their transgressions for His own name's sake. That is sovereign grace, and the cross is the only key to how He deals righteously with the guilty.
Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money, neither hast thou filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices; but thou hast made me to toil with thy sins, thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities.
God formed Israel for Himself and looked to them for praise. By the time of this verse the account runs the other way: no offering comes up to Him, only sins. The charge is startling. God asked for worship and says He got labour instead. So what will He do with a people who have worn Him out?
God names two missing things: a spice bought with money, and the fat of the sacrifices. Sweet cane had to be imported and paid for, and Israel would not spend it on Him.
One of the ingredients of the holy anointing oil. The Hebrew word is qaneh, and three times it is translated 'calamus.' God lamented that Israel did not buy any sweet cane for Him (Isa. 43:24). And when they did bring it from afar, it was no longer sweet to Him because of their waywardness and sin (Jer. 6:20).
God asked little, and Israel would not give even that. One note on wording: where the ESV says they burdened God with their sins, older translations read that they made Him serve, and the writers quoted here follow that older wording.
As the chapter goes on, we come to the sad facts of their history. They show man's failure despite all God's goodness. God looked for praises, but they brought Him only sins. He had laid no heavy burden on them in the sacrifices He appointed for worship. But instead of gladly giving what He asked, they committed sins that loudly called for judgment. So they defeated God's purpose in redeeming them for Himself.
God's grace toward this people does not mean He shrugged at their failure. And the weariness runs both ways.
The LORD deals in sovereign grace with His people, and He will yet use them as a witness to the nations. But that does not mean He is indifferent to their failure... In their distress they had not called on the LORD, and once settled in the land they had grown weary of Him. They did not bring the LORD the sacrifices that speak of Christ to God. Instead they made God toil in His governmental dealings with them, and wearied Him with their sins. They were weary of God, and God — to put it in human terms — was wearied with their evil ways.
God formed Israel to serve Him. Instead their sins put Him to work. What He does with that work is the surprise.
Jehovah had formed this people for Himself, and the people had grown weary of their God; and, as it were, had made Him to 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.
The same complaint is quoted elsewhere as proof that God endures people who give Him nothing but trouble. Alongside it, another prophet's picture is set: "Behold, I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed" (Amos).
But God does bear with these wicked men, as He said to Israel by the mouth of the prophet Isaiah, "you have made me serve with your sins, you have wearied me with your iniquities" (chap. 43:24).
This complaint is not only about the past. One writer hears it behind the scene where Jesus washes His disciples' feet.
Long ago Jehovah could say to Israel, "You have made Me to serve with your sins" (Isa. 43:24), and He may still say it to us. But His unchangeable love is equal to every demand made on it. Notice that all His disciples need this washing. So He invites us all today to keep putting our feet into His hands, so that He may cleanse them according to His thought of what cleanness is.
God never softens the charge. He answers it. His next words turn the accusation into pardon, and they rest on nothing in the offender.
In Isaiah 43 God says, "You have wearied me with your iniquities." What then? "I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own name's sake."
- Withheld — Sweet cane was a spice for the holy anointing oil. God asked little, and Israel would not buy even that for Him.
- Substituted — He asked for praise and for sacrifices that speak of Christ. He got sins that called for judgment.
- Wearied — They had grown weary of God. Their sins then wearied Him. The same word falls on both sides.
- Serving — Their sins put God to work. His unchangeable love met every demand, right down to washing His disciples' feet.
- Blotted out — He removes the sin instead of the sinner, and He does it for His own sake. Grace ends the account.
-- I, I [am] He that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and I will not remember thy sins.
Just before this verse God charges Israel with wearying Him with their sins. Then the same voice announces that He Himself wipes those sins away — and the reason He gives is not their repentance but His own sake.
One writer sets the verse against what comes just before it.
God looked for praises, but only sins were brought before Him. "You have burdened me with your sins," He says, "you have wearied me with your iniquities" (verse 24). He had not laid a hard burden on them in the sacrifices appointed for worship. But instead of gladly bringing what was ordered, they committed sins that cried out for judgment, and so defeated God's purpose in redeeming them for Himself. Then He steps in again to do what only His direct action could do: "I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and will not remember your sins" (verse 25).
The repeated pronoun points to who God is: the One who depends on nobody and acts out of Himself.
"I am" is the Living, Unchanging, Self-existent One, necessarily independent of all others. So He acts from Himself, in that same necessary independence. Here is the ground of redemption: God acting from Himself, and therefore according to what He is Himself. He is showing forth Himself. He is showing the riches of His grace in His kindness toward us, glorifying Himself, letting the light of His glory shine. We reason from ourselves to God, and can make nothing of it. We are sinners, and can merit nothing. Why should He not punish sin? How could He do anything else? How blessed, then, to hear Him say, "I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake." Who can deny His right to do this, if He chooses to do it and declares that He has done it?
One writer ties this verse to the prayer of Psalm 25, where the size of the sin becomes the argument for mercy.
"For your name's sake pardon my guilt, for it is great" (Psalm 25). By human thinking this is strange reasoning — "for it is great." People plead that it is a little sin. But when God teaches us, we see how great sin is. Another thing is that truth is in the man, because he feels the sin is great. He has given up any thought of justifying himself. My iniquity is great: if You do not forgive me for Your own glory's sake, You cannot do it at all. And He will not leave one spot of sin, for the comfort of my own heart or the glory of His name. In Isaiah 43:22 and following, Israel is made to rest in absolute sovereign mercy.
One writer traces this back to where a person's righteousness comes from.
Exodus 32:31-33; Isaiah 43:25. — Grace makes righteousness rest on the obedience of Another. So now God does not blot out the sinner; He blots out his sins, however vile they may be. If I say I have sinned, and He may yet blot me out of His book, I am standing on law. But the moment I understand that Christ is my righteousness, the ground is changed altogether.
The same prophet who records this pardon also names the One who bore the sins. Forgiveness here is not sin overlooked. It is sin borne.
God takes away their sins. He says, "I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and will not remember your sins" (Isaiah 43:25; 44:22). At the same time He reveals (chapter 53) the holy victim who would bear them, the Lord Jesus, on whom "the LORD has laid the iniquity of us all."
Commentators also read the verse forward. On that reading it is what the King will say to Israel when He returns in glory.
The healing of the paralysed man shows what He, the Son of Man, will do for His earthly people when He comes in glory. First, He will come and turn ungodliness away from Jacob. He will forgive their sins and remember them no more. And His people, the remnant of Israel, will break out singing. "Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love" (Micah 7:18). He will then say to His people, "I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and will not remember your sins."
- Cause. God acts here for His own sake — not because Israel gave Him praise, but after they had wearied Him with their sins.
- Ground. For His own sake is the only ground that holds; if He will not forgive for His own glory, He cannot forgive at all.
- Gift. For His own sake means God blots out the sins and keeps the sinner. Grace rests righteousness on the obedience of Another.
- Cost. For His own sake is not sin ignored: the same prophet shows the One on whom the LORD laid our iniquity.
- Reach. For His own sake still reaches Israel's future. The King will say these very words to the nation He restores.
Put me in remembrance, let us plead together; rehearse thine own [cause], that thou mayest be justified.
Just before this, God said He blots out transgressions for His own sake. Now He calls His people into court and invites them to speak. Notice who speaks first, and what God ties to their speaking: that they may be proved right. (Older translations read the last line as "declare thou, that thou mayest be justified." The writers below use that wording.)
God is not asking them to argue their innocence. He is asking them to bring their sins into the open. Note the strangeness: the God who promises to remember their sins no more tells them to remind Him of them.
But before God can righteously remember their sins no more He must be put in remembrance. In other words, Israel must fully confess their sins before God can justify. So Jehovah has to say, "Put Me in remembrance: let us plead together: declare thou, that thou mayest be justified." … When Israel confesses their sin in this way and justifies God in His dealings with them, God will justify Israel, blot out their transgressions and remember their sin no more.
How can God clear a guilty people? The motive is His own name. The means is the cross — which Israel did not yet see.
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 — still a secret to them. By that grace alone He can righteously deal with the guilty: Christ, the cross, is the only key.
The verse sets up a trade. You cannot clear yourself and have God clear you too. Defending yourself puts God in the wrong.
It is of the greatest moral importance to see that, whenever we justify ourselves, we condemn God; and on the other hand, when we condemn ourselves, we justify God… The very moment the soul is broken down in true self-judgment, God rises before it in all the majesty of His grace as a Justifier… The greatest folly that anyone can be guilty of is to justify himself, since God must then impute sin. But the truest wisdom is to condemn oneself utterly, for in that case God becomes the Justifier.
This pleading belongs to an earlier stage — Moses and the prophets reasoning with people. That stage came to an end, and peace was not found there.
Moses could deal with man as man, and bring water from the rock for them in answer to their murmurings; the prophets did the same — "Plead with me," "Put me in remembrance, let us plead together." But now all this was gone… We can never have peace until we get pardon through Christ on the cross. All the dealings of testimony in between fall entirely short of what we have in Christ on the cross, because they fall short of the ground of what man really is.
Confession feels like the last thing you would want on record. In fact it is what gives you a claim on all God has provided.
To confess our sins is simply to claim, as sinners, what belongs to sinners alone — and it is theirs beyond doubt, if they will claim it. God is "faithful" to hand over to them what He has provided for them, as soon as they make that claim.
And God wastes no time in answering:
God always justifies those who condemn themselves… God's forgiveness follows human confession with the greatest speed.
- State the case. God asks the guilty party to speak first — full confession has to come before He declares anyone right.
- Own the verdict. Justify yourself and you put God in the wrong; condemn yourself and God takes up the role of Justifier.
- His own sake. The motive for blotting out transgressions is God's own name, not the record of the one confessing.
- The cross is the key. Moses and the prophets pleaded with people, but that fell short of what man really is. Peace comes only through pardon in Christ crucified.
- Sins remembered no more. Confession claims what belongs to sinners alone, and God honours that claim the moment you make it.
Thy first father hath sinned, and thy mediators have rebelled against me.
God has been pressing His case against Israel, and here He gives the verdict. The fault runs back to the very start, and it runs through the men appointed to speak for the nation. Two questions follow. Who is the "first father"? And why does God raise old guilt in a chapter so full of promise?
Some object to reading this as Adam, since Adam is the father of the whole human race, not of Israel alone. One writer answers that objection and finds the strength of the verse in that very point:
Some have objected to taking "your first father" (v. 27) in its plain sense: Adam was not the father of Israel in any special way, since he is the parent of all mankind. But the argument has no force. Israel alone had sure knowledge from God about the one who was the first man and head of the race. And he alone, who was created innocent, gives the full weight to the description — "sinned."
The second half of the verse names the go-betweens: the men who stood between God and the people. One writer links them with the "princes of the sanctuary" in the next verse — the leaders God profanes, or strips of their holy standing:
Kimchi notes that the Hebrew wording points to the future, or to what is always true, and not to past time. The LORD is always "profaning" the chiefs whose office made them holy and who betrayed His name. In the day that is coming, grace will work not only for them but in them. The LORD will work for His own sake, since man has failed in every way. The "interpreters," or mediators, of v. 27 who rebelled seem to be included in the "princes of the sanctuary."
Why should an ancestor's sin appear in the charge against a later generation? One writer uses this verse to answer:
The word of God shows us that responsibility is shared, or rather that it piles up. When God governs a whole era, we inherit the sin of those who went before us in a path of turning away from Him. "Your first father sinned," says Isaiah (Isa. 43:27)… The Jews suffer to this day for the sin they committed in the wilderness, for all the sins they have added since, and for the full measure of it, which they filled up by putting the Lord Jesus to death.
This does not cancel personal accountability. The same writer is careful that the two run side by side:
This does not stop each of their fathers from facing, at the judgment of the dead, the consequences of his own sin. But the nation — the whole system, the public object of God's government in the world — God has judged.
The charge follows God's invitation to argue the case out. It aims at the one thing God requires before He can justify:
But God cannot righteously remember their sins no more until He is put in remembrance. In other words, Israel must confess their sins in full before God can justify them. So the LORD has to say, "Put me in remembrance; let us argue together; set forth your case, that you may be proved right." Let Israel go back to their "first father" and confess the sin and rebellion against the LORD… When Israel confesses their sin in this way, and owns that God was right in His dealings with them, God will justify Israel, blot out their transgressions and remember their sin no more.
The chapter ends in judgment, yet God does not withdraw His promises. The God who deals with the failure also supplies the remedy, and one writer names where it is found:
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. That grace is the only way He can deal with the guilty and stay righteous. Christ, the cross, is the only key.
- Root. The charge begins at the source. The "first father" is taken to be Adam, created innocent, who still sinned. That is why the word "sinned" carries its full weight here.
- Chain. From that root the guilt runs forward. Responsibility piles up. A people can inherit the results of a turning away that began long before them.
- Collapse. The failure reached the top. The mediators rebelled. Their task was to stand between God and the people, and they are counted among the profaned "princes of the sanctuary."
- Confession. God raises the record so Israel will own it. When Israel owns that God was right, God justifies Israel and remembers their sin no more.
- Grace. The hand that judged is the hand that blots out, and it acts for His own sake. That salvation has only one key: Christ and the cross.
And I have profaned the princes of the sanctuary, and have given Jacob to the ban, and Israel to reproaches.
Isaiah 43 is full of rescue and promise, and then it ends with a shock: God says He shamed His own people. Who profaned the leaders of the sanctuary, and why does that sit right next to mercy?
The disaster is not blamed on Babylon or on bad luck. The God who blots out sin is the same God who profaned the leaders. Commentators hold both halves together as one work.
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 He can deal with the guilty and still be righteous. Christ, the cross, is the only key.
The word "Therefore" ties this sentence to the one before it, where teachers rebelled. The men judged here held the holiest positions and betrayed the name they carried. There is also a question of timing: is this something God did once, or something He still does?
Kimchi notes that the wording points to the future, or to what is always true, and not to past time. The LORD is always "profaning" the chiefs who were responsible to be holy and who betrayed His name. In the day that is coming, grace will work not only for them but in them. The LORD will work for His own sake, since man has failed in every way. The "interpreters" or mediators of verse 27 who rebelled seem to be included in the "princes of the sanctuary."
Just before this verse God invites Israel to argue their case with Him. The invitation is not an offer to excuse them. It asks them to agree with the verdict, and this closing sentence is the verdict they must agree with.
But before God can remember their sins no more and still be righteous, Israel must put Him in remembrance. In other words, Israel must fully confess their sins before God can justify them. So the LORD has to say, "Put Me in remembrance; let us plead together; declare your case, that you may be justified." Let Israel go back to their "first father." Let them confess the sin and rebellion against the LORD. Let them confess that this is why God has profaned the princes of the sanctuary, handed Jacob over to utter destruction, and given Israel to reviling. When Israel confesses their sin in this way, they justify God in His dealings with them. Then God will justify Israel, blot out their transgressions, and remember their sin no more.
The verse is an ending, but only of a chapter. The next line turns to "Jacob my servant." The passage moves from complaint, to forgiveness, to refreshing.
But Israel had not served Him. On the contrary, they had wearied Him with their sins. He forgave them for His own sake. He had profaned them, and given Jacob over to the curse. But now He would refresh and deliver, and He calls to Jacob His servant and His chosen to assure him of it. They would spring up like willows by the watercourses.
The curse fell in the exile. The recovery came through Cyrus, a foreign king. He let the exiles go home to rebuild the house of God.
The purpose of the people's return concerned the building of the house of the Lord. Cyrus made this the subject of his proclamation, and God had raised him up for this very purpose (see Isaiah 43:28 and Isaiah 44). For this end God worked in the hearts of those who were made willing to return to the land of their fathers. They were all, as we read, those "whose spirit God had stirred to go up to rebuild the house of the LORD that is in Jerusalem" (Ezra 1:5).
- Cause. God set these leaders apart to carry His name, and they betrayed it. Kelly counts the rebel mediators of verse 27 among them.
- Hand. God does not hide behind events. He claims the disgrace as His own act. He struck them for their sins, and He will blot out those sins for His own sake.
- Confession. God can only justify a people who first justify Him. Israel must go back over its whole history and agree that they deserved the sentence.
- Turn. The curse ends the chapter, not the story. The next breath calls Jacob "my servant" and promises water on dry ground.
- Reach. The reversal began in history with Cyrus and a rebuilt house. Kelly says its full answer comes only at the cross.