Isaiah 43:1-28
1 But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.
2 When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.
3 For I am the LORD thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee.
4 Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life.a
5 Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west;
6 I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth;
7 Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.
8 Bring forth the blind people that have eyes, and the deaf that have ears.
9 Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled: who among them can declare this, and shew us former things? let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified: or let them hear, and say, It is truth.
10 Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.
11 I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour.
12 I have declared, and have saved, and I have shewed, when there was no strange god among you: therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, that I am God.
13 Yea, before the day was I am he; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who shall let it?b
14 Thus saith the LORD, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; For your sake I have sent to Babylon, and have brought down all their nobles,c and the Chaldeans, whose cry is in the ships.
15 I am the LORD, your Holy One, the creator of Israel, your King.
16 Thus saith the LORD, which maketh a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters;
17 Which bringeth forth the chariot and horse, the army and the power; they shall lie down together, they shall not rise: they are extinct, they are quenched as tow.
18 Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old.
19 Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.
20 The beast of the field shall honour me, the dragons and the owls:d because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen.
21 This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise.
22 But thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob; but thou hast been weary of me, O Israel.
23 Thou hast not brought me the small cattle of thy burnt offerings; neither hast thou honoured me with thy sacrifices. I have not caused thee to serve with an offering, nor wearied thee with incense.
24 Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money, neither hast thou fillede me with the fat of thy sacrifices: but thou hast made me to serve with thy sins, thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities.
25 I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.
26 Put me in remembrance: let us plead together: declare thou, that thou mayest be justified.
27 Thy first father hath sinned, and thy teachersf have transgressed against me.
28 Therefore I have profaned the princesg of the sanctuary, and have given Jacob to the curse, and Israel to reproaches.
Isaiah 43:1. The Lord that created thee, oh Jacob. Not only in the first creation, but when Sarah, and when Rebecca were barren, I gave them power to become mothers. I have also created and formed thee into a nation; thy disobedience therefore is left without excuse.
Isaiah 43:3. I gave Egypt for thy ransom. Those nations were nearly destroyed, in order to effect the emancipation of Israel. God most remarkably diverted the Assyrian invasion from Judea to an attack upon Egypt.
Isaiah 43:8. Bring forth the blind people that have eyes. This is understood first of the Jews, who were slow to see the harmony between prophecy and providence; secondly, of the illumination of the gentile world with the light of the gospel. The prophet boldly calls upon those who are morally and therefore wilfully blind, to cast away their idols and their sins, to attest the truth of prophecy, and to witness the equity of the divine proceedings.
Isaiah 43:14. The Chaldeans, whose cry is in the ships. Better, as the Vulgate version, in navibus gloriantes, boasting of their ships, which were said to be three thousand gallies, trading from the Persian Gulph. The nobles of the Chaldeans, the Lord had brought to the ground. Their boasted fleets sustained disasters, the particulars of which are not come down to us in the shape of history. God casts away the wicked when they have done his work: only a small proportion of their countless army ever returned to their own land. The navy of Chaldea must have corresponded with the magnitude of the empire. But on the Tigris, from Nineveh to Babylon, they had no ships. That river had rapids which gallies could not ascend. The trade on the river, says Herodotus, was conducted on rafts or floats of timber, each raft containing two men and an ass. From the Tigris, below Seleucia, they crossed to Babylon by the canal, called Naharmalca, where they sold the timber, and loaded the ass with wares for the country.
Isaiah 43:27. Thy first father hath sinned. A delicate metonymy, which puts the name of father for that of the King, who had sinned by patronizing idolatry, and joining in its rituals. In this charge the prophet associates the princes and the nobles. As this was written after the destruction of the Assyrian army, it is likely Manasseh is meant, whose youth was corrupted by degenerate priests, who in all probability prompted the young king to cause the hoary-aged Isaiah to be sawn asunder. It was under Manasseh that the introduction of idols took place in a most shameful manner, and which is rebuked with just severity in the following chapter.
REFLECTIONS.
Our inspired prophet still pours consolation into Israel's cup. He introduces God, the Creator, and Father, as speaking to his children; for the words of a God are weightier than the words of men. He is equally the Redeemer of the Israelites out of all their troubles. As a Father he had especially given to Jacob, a supplanter, the more honourable name of Israel; that is, a prevailer with God. All these arguments apply with equal force to the new, the christian Israel, over whom the great Shepherd has watched with tender care.
The Lord had brought them through fire and water; through water at the Red sea, and when crossing the Jordan; through fire when the conquering Assyrians cast the gods of the nations into the flames, and burned many cities of Judah. These words are figuratively understood of the fiery trials, and the floods of temptation we have to endure. Such is the grateful memorial of the prophet to Him who had brought them through all dangers and difficulties. Psalms 66:12. God was with his people; yea, he is ever with them, as with the three children in the fiery furnace. Daniel 3:25. The waters shall wash us clean, and the fire refine us from the dross of sin.
How criminal then for the Jew to worship any other god; for he is the one JEHOVAH, the Elohim of Israel. Deuteronomy 6:4. There are gods many and lords many, but to us there is, according to Paul, but one God, Θειοτης, the Godhead. Romans 1:20. How proper is the address, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.” Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth.
Nay, all that God had done for Israel in ages past was nothing, when compared with what his counsel and his love have determined to do in the ages still to come. Ephesians 2:7. “Behold, I will do a new thing in the earth,” turning the wilderness into a fruitful field, and opening springs in the desert. At length also he will bring into his fold the whole gentile world. Zion's tears cannot be wiped away without the full cup of comfort in Christ Jesus In thy SEED shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Then the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days in one. All the hosts of heaven shall brighten, and break forth into singing, when the Lord shall reveal the hidden treasures yet reserved for his people in the glory of the latter day.
How shameful then, oh virgin daughter, that thou shouldst slight these promises as words of no value; that thou shouldst rob the altar of its offering, and the table of incense of its sweet canes, and grateful perfumes. Thy base heart is on earth; it does not ascend in fragrant prayers to Christ, the great Angel of the covenant. Nay, what is still worse, thou hast not only robbed the altar, but slain the beasts for thy voluptuous feasts. Yea, thou has made the altar, even the Lord, to serve for thy sins. Yet his longsuffering is infinitely great towards thee, not willing that thou shouldst perish, but return to him and live.