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.
For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring.
God speaks here to a nation that had failed. Instead of charges, He gives a promise. Two questions follow. Who are the offspring He promises to bless, and when is the Spirit poured out?
One writer weighs this salvation by God's own character, not by what Israel deserved. Forgiveness is only the start of it.
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 does more than blot out His people's transgressions for His Son's sake and refuse to remember their sins. He also banishes their fear and fills them to overflowing with His blessing... The express purpose is to remove the dread from the consciences of the Jews after their long departure from the true God.
The same grace is what makes the promise unbreakable. Failure on the human side does not cancel a purpose that began on God's side.
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 failure and sin is not excused, though in the presence of it the sovereign grace of God is magnified.
Notice who receives the water: not the confident, but the thirsty and the dry. One commentator reads this as God reviving a small preserved group within the nation, and through them restoring the whole.
However great the failure of Israel and their princes... the sovereign choice of God remains, and it will bring the nation into blessing through a godly remnant... So the LORD will revive those in Israel who are conscious of their need and who grieve over their condition. From this remnant will come a seed and an offspring, through whom the LORD will establish the nation in blessing.
So does the promise still belong to Israel? One writer says yes, without shutting others out.
There is no need, nor even room, for turning these precious promises away from Israel and giving them to the nations. It is quite true, of course, that believers from the nations enjoy all this now too; but the word of the LORD is pledged and sure to Jacob His servant.
One writer sets this promise in the future, and reads it with Ezekiel: the Spirit inside each person, and poured out on the nation.
God will put His Spirit inside each of them (Ezek. 36:27), and pour it out on them as a whole nation (Isa. 44:3). This will happen when their time of trial ends, along with the desolation of the land caused by their sins (Isa. 32:15), never to return (Ezek. 39:29).
Jesus drew on this promise when He spoke to Nicodemus, a teacher of the Jewish Scriptures. The promise reaches a person and a land at once.
The Lord uses the word "water" when speaking to Nicodemus because the Jewish Scriptures, of which he was the teacher, spoke in this language of the coming blessing of the Jew... The promise will lead them later to say, "I am the Lord's." God will meet the need of the Israelite and supply the need of the land by the same hand, and by the fulfilment of the written prophecies about both.
This is exactly the passage Jesus expected a teacher of Israel to recognise when He spoke of new birth by water and the Spirit.
Had he never read the promise made to Israel in one prophet? — "I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit upon thy seed, and My blessing upon thine offspring." (Isa. 44:3.)
Commentators differ on how the verse relates to the day the Spirit came in Acts 2. Some see a partial fulfilment there. Others argue Peter deliberately quoted Joel rather than Isaiah, because only Joel reaches beyond Israel.
Several places predict the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Israel (Isaiah 32:15; 44:3; Ezek. 39:29). Only Joel includes the Gentiles, and that in the term "all flesh." The Church would be made of souls from Jews and Gentiles, formed into one new man in Christ. So Joel's prophecy alone explained what men witnessed that morning.
The same image has a use for believers now.
One who is filled with the Spirit can be a vessel of blessing in a needy world, like floods upon the dry ground (Isaiah 44:3).
- Poured, not earned. The promise follows the blotting out of sins; grace, not merit, opens the tap.
- Poured on the thirsty. The water reaches those aware of their need — a remnant conscious of its condition, not a nation confident in itself.
- Poured on the seed. The Spirit will come to Israel's children — inside each person, and poured out on the whole nation — in a day still ahead. The promise stays pledged to Jacob.
- Poured beyond Israel. At Pentecost Peter quoted Joel, not Isaiah. Only Joel's words take in Jews and Gentiles together.
- Poured out through you. What God pours in, He means to pour on: the Spirit-filled believer becomes floods on dry ground.
And they shall spring up among the grass, as willows by the water-courses.
Verse 3 promises the Spirit poured out on a people as dry as parched ground. Verse 4 shows the result: grass, and willows by running water. Who is this growth promised to? When does it come?
One writer follows the change from the thirst of verse 3 to the watered trees of verse 4. He also names who grows.
Israel and their princes failed badly, and that brought them under the curse and reproaches (Isa. 43:28). Yet God's sovereign choice still stands, and it will bring the nation into blessing through a godly remnant. The LORD says, "I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and floods on the dry ground." So He will revive those in Israel who know their need and grieve over their condition. From this remnant will come a seed, and an offspring, through whom the LORD will establish the nation in blessing. Instead of being like someone thirsty in a parched land, they will be like willows planted by the water courses.
Elsewhere in Scripture the willow is a sad tree. Exiles hung their harps on willows. Here it means the opposite.
The Israelites in captivity hung their harps on the willows. Even so, this tree does not always speak of sorrow. In Isaiah 44 we read, "I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants: and they shall spring up among the grass, like willows by flowing streams" (Isa. 44:3-4). Here the willow stands for prosperity that comes from God's blessing.
Some readers move these promises away from Israel and give them to Gentile believers. One commentator rejects that, and still says believers today share the same blessing.
There is not the slightest need, and not even room, to move these very precious promises from Israel to the Gentiles. Of course the grafted-in wild olive branch enjoys all this now too. But the word of Jehovah stands pledged and sure to Jacob His servant. The clear aim here is to remove the fear of Jews whose consciences accuse them, after their long turning away from the true God.
Pentecost brought an outpouring of the Spirit, so people ask whether this verse was fulfilled then. One writer looks at what the promise sits beside: a wilderness turned fruitful, a desolation ended.
Isaiah says the nation will lie desolate "until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field" (Isa. 32:15). This is not the baptism of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. It is to end the desolation of Jerusalem, and millennial blessings will follow it. So too Jehovah says — "I will pour My Spirit upon your offspring, and My blessing on your descendants" (Isa. 44:3).
The Spirit does not wait for that day, and His work never ends after it.
This outpouring of the Spirit does not happen only at the start of the Millennium. He works in the souls of the remnant even before Christ comes in judgment. And after that time His presence with the nation will never cease.
The promise of the Spirit does two things at once here. It lifts Israel up, and it leaves the idols exposed.
As God pleads with Israel, He adds the promise of the Spirit. That promise revives them and encourages them to confess His name and glory in Him. So it becomes, once again, the means of defying the idols, which are worthless, along with all their followers.
One writer applies the floods on dry ground to the Christian today.
How much of this blessing we know in experience depends largely on how far we are subject to the Spirit. Still, anyone filled with the Spirit can be a vessel of blessing in a needy world, like floods on the dry ground (Isaiah 44:3).
- Water first. The growth of verse 4 never starts with the plant. It starts with God pouring on ground that had nothing.
- Thirst qualifies. God revives those who feel their need and grieve over it. He revives a remnant, not the self-satisfied.
- Willows, not weeping. The tree that held the exiles' silent harps now stands for prosperity that comes from God's blessing.
- Jacob keeps the promise. God pledged His word to Israel. Believers today share the blessing, and the promise still belongs to Israel.
- Watered people speak. The Spirit revives them, and the revived confess His name and glory in Him.
One shall say, I am Jehovah's; and another shall call [himself] by the name of Jacob; and another shall write with his hand [I am] Jehovah's, and surname [himself] by the name of Israel.
God has just promised to pour water on the thirsty and His Spirit on their offspring, and this verse is the answer that promise draws out. Commentators see a nation revived by the Spirit, and they ask who speaks these words, and when.
One writer ties both halves of this confession — owning the LORD, and owning Israel's name — to God's choice and to the reviving of a needy few:
Israel and their princes failed greatly, and that failure brought them under the curse and reproaches (Isaiah 43:28). Yet the sovereign choice of God remains, and it will bring the nation into blessing through a godly remnant. "For," says the LORD, "I will pour water on the thirsty, and floods on the dry ground." So the LORD will revive those in Israel who are conscious of their need and who grieve over their condition. From this remnant will come a seed, and an offspring, through whom the LORD will establish the nation in blessing. In that day each will gladly own the LORD, and, without shame or reproach, confess to being an Israelite.
William Kelly reads verses 1–5 as the close of what chapter 43 began. He starts with where this salvation comes from:
The salvation of God is worthy of Himself, since it springs from His own grace, and it can have no end short of His own glory. So God does not only 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.
Some readers take these promises away from Israel and give them to the nations instead. Kelly refuses that move, yet still leaves believers from the nations a real share:
There is not the slightest need, nor even room, for turning these very precious promises away from Israel to the Gentiles. It is quite true, of course, that the wild olive branch grafted in enjoys all this now too; but the word of Jehovah is pledged and sure to Jacob His servant.
One writer sets this verse beside the moment when Jesus asked His disciples what people were saying about Him:
They had no news to bring Him that anyone had echoed the joy of the prophet, "To us a child is born, to us a son is given". They had never heard, through their towns and villages, one saying, "I am the LORD's," another calling on the name of Jacob, and another writing on his hand, "The LORD's," and naming himself by the name of Israel (Isaiah 44:5). His hand was as strong for them now as when He rode with His chariots of salvation through the sea and covered the skies over Egypt with sackcloth. But there was no one (Isaiah 50:1-2).
Samuel Ridout hears this verse in the story of Ruth, a woman from Moab who left her own people to join Israel:
It was not a question of benefit, but of relationship. It was not "What do you have," but "Who are you." For the bride is called by the name of the bridegroom... These are fitting words to describe the changed relationship of one who until recently was called Ruth the Moabitess.
The verse puts a sentence in a person's mouth. J. N. Darby urges his readers to say it now, without delay:
Do not debate within yourselves when you will declare yourselves; do it at once and with decision. Make the plunge, and trust God for the outcome. I know by experience that an open, bold confession of being Christ's is more than half the struggle over. I say this as one who knows. Suppose a man is brought, in the strength of the Lord, to say to his companions and friends, "I am Christ's, and I must act for Him." He will not suffer what others must feel, who creep along fearful and afraid to own the One they want to serve.
- Name given. Israel failed, but God's choice stands. That choice, not their record, brings the nation into blessing through a remnant.
- Name received. God pours water on the thirsty and His Spirit on their offspring. He blots out sin first, then banishes fear and fills them with blessing.
- Name owned. Revived people gladly claim the LORD and confess, without shame, who they belong to.
- Name extended. The promise stays pledged to Jacob. Yet an outsider like Ruth of Moab takes a new name too, as a bride takes the name of the bridegroom.
- Name withheld. At Christ's first coming no town or village rang with this cry. The confession Isaiah saw still waits. Meanwhile, each person must say it: "I am Christ's."