And now hear, Jacob, my servant, and Israel, whom I have chosen
Isaiah 44 opens with God turning to address His people directly, after chapters that expose their idolatry and failure. He calls them by two titles: His servant, and His chosen. Both raise one question. How can God still speak like this to such a people?
The word "but" at the start of the verse looks backwards. God speaks mercy right after the record of failure, and still calls the crooked Jacob His servant.
But once again, Isaiah 44 opens with a word of mercy. Despite his crookedness, Jacob was God's servant, chosen by Him. God is always true to His purpose and able to carry it out. This fact should bring comfort and strength to every believer today. The history of the church, like that of Israel, is one of failure and turning away from God's call and way. Yet God's purpose for us will stand as firmly as His purpose for Israel. God does not excuse the failure and sin, but in its presence His sovereign grace shines all the greater.
Mercy here goes further than pardon.
God's salvation is worthy of Himself. It springs from His own grace, and it can have no end short of His own glory. So God does more than blot out His people's transgressions for His Son's sake and refuse to remember their sins. He would also banish their fear and fill them to overflowing with His blessing.
Israel did not earn the title of servant. God formed the bond when He brought them out of Egypt, and Isaiah reminded them of it.
Jehovah stated this high purpose for the offspring of Abraham to Moses at Mount Sinai. He said, "For it is to me that the people of Israel are servants. They are my servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt" (Lev. 25:42, 55). Isaiah recalled this national bond in words Jehovah spoke through him: "But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend... saying to you, 'You are my servant'" (Isa. 41:8-9). So this favoured people acted as God's agents. They received and guarded His holy words. They showed the world the worship of the one and only God. They were the seat of Jehovah's government on earth among the nations.
These chapters do not use "servant" of Israel alone. Follow the word, and the section opens up.
The word "servant" does give the running key to all this part of Isaiah. Isaiah 42 describes a servant in whom God's soul delighted. God would put His Spirit on Him, and He would show forth judgment to the Gentiles. Everyone applies that well-known passage to Christ, and Israel is not mentioned in it... In general, in this part of the prophecy, Isaiah calls Israel God's "servant," though this description brings in Christ. From Isaiah 42:19 on, he calls Israel, "the people robbed and spoiled," Jehovah's servant again and again, in contrast with the worshippers of idols.
The second title points to God's act, not Israel's. He says "chosen" and "called" again and again through these chapters.
He chooses and calls. Israel are, again and again, "My elect"; "My chosen"; "Jacob, whom I have chosen"; "My servant, whom I have chosen." And He says, "I the Lord have called you"; "I have called you by your name"; "I have called him alone."
Do these promises still belong to Israel, or have they passed to someone else? The writers here keep them with Israel, though Gentile believers share their good.
There is not the slightest need — indeed, not even room — to divert these very precious promises from Israel to the Gentile. Of course the wild olive graft enjoys all this now too. But the word of Jehovah is pledged and sure to Jacob His servant. Its stated aim is to banish the dread of the Jews, whose conscience accused them after their long departure from the true God.
God forgives for His own sake, and that promise carries a warning as well as comfort.
Jehovah is not silent about His people's sins. That makes His declaration of full forgiveness and rich blessing, for His own sake, all the more wonderful... God's gifts and calling stand. God will judge Christendom, no less than Israel. But His mercy shall triumph yet.
- Chosen, not deserving. Both titles rest on God's choice. "Chosen" and "called" run through these chapters as His act, never Israel's achievement.
- Chosen to serve. God made Israel His servant when He brought them out of Egypt. They guarded His words and witnessed to the one God among the nations.
- Chosen while failing. God does not gloss over sin. He speaks mercy despite Jacob's crookedness, and that magnifies His grace instead of excusing sin.
- Chosen, so unafraid. God aims at more than pardon. He also banishes fear and fills His people to overflowing with blessing.
- Chosen, so secure. God's gifts and calling stand. That steadies every believer with a history of failure, and warns anyone who thinks judgment will pass them by.
thus saith Jehovah, that made thee, and formed thee from the womb, who helpeth thee, Fear not, Jacob, my servant, and thou, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.
God speaks here to a nation with a long record of turning away from Him. Yet His word to them is not accusation but reassurance: He made them, He chose them, and so they need not fear.
One writer roots this comfort in God's own grace, not in anything the people had done.
The salvation of God is worthy of Himself, since it springs from His own grace, and can have no end short of His own glory. So God not only blots out His people's transgressions for His Son's sake and will not remember their sins. He would also banish their fear and fill them to overflowing with His blessing... The express object is to banish the dread of the conscience-stricken Jews after their long departure from the true God.
God names Himself as the One who shaped this nation before it could shape itself.
Israel He claims as His son, His firstborn. They owe their place among the nations to His adoption of them. They are born, so to speak, of His covenant with their fathers. They had not worked for this. What was said of their father Jacob is true of them too: "though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad — in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls" (Rom. 9:11).
The same image of birth returns later in Isaiah, stretched across the whole life of the nation.
On the other hand, Jehovah had carried Israel from their national birth to their old age: "Listen to me, house of Jacob... who have been borne by me from the belly, who have been carried from the womb: even to old age I am He, and to grey hairs I will carry you: I have made and I will bear; and I will carry and will deliver" (Isaiah 46:3-4).
The verse also promises help, and that promise sounds through Isaiah's later chapters. It reaches the people at their lowest point, once judgment has done its work.
At last the guilty people hear these words at the end of their time of trial: "Comfort, comfort my people." They are bowed beneath the judgment of God, chastened and repentant, yet near despair. And we hear this word "Fear not" repeated and multiplied in 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 later portion of Isaiah has this comforting word from God as a refrain.
The verse also calls Israel "Jeshurun." The name is rare, and commentators differ on what it means.
A name given to Israel, probably meaning "upright ones"; others prefer "beloved of Jehovah." Jehovah was the "God of Jeshurun," and Moses was "king in Jeshurun."
Calling this people "upright" is startling, given their record. Another writer explains how the name will fit them.
Jeshurun means "the righteous one." Israel will bear the name "the righteous one" in that day, because her faith then will be counted as righteousness. What a contrast to the condition she was in at the time of her rejection of Christ!
The verse speaks to Israel, but it steadies every believer who has failed.
Isaiah 44 opens with a word of mercy. Despite his crookedness Jacob was God's servant, chosen by Him, and God is always true to His purpose and able to carry it out. This fact should bring comfort and strength to every believer today. The history of the church, like that of Israel, is one of failure and departure from the divine call and way. Yet God's purpose for us will stand as securely as His purpose for Israel. God does not excuse the failure and sin, yet against it His sovereign grace stands out all the greater.
- Made — Israel's place among the nations came from God adopting them, not from their own work.
- Carried — the God who formed them from the womb promises to bear them to old age. He does not begin a work and abandon it.
- Chosen — the choice was His, so their failure cannot cancel it. His purpose stands as firmly for believers now as it did for Israel.
- Renamed — "Jeshurun," the upright one, is a name grace gives. No one earns it; faith is counted as righteousness.
- Unafraid — "Fear not" is the refrain of Isaiah's later chapters. It is spoken to the guilty and near-despairing, to drive dread out of them.