Isaiah 43:3

For I am the Lord thy God

Jehovah’s valuation of His people

I. THE LORD’S DECLARATION OF HIS OWN NAME. “I am Jehovah thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour.” He gives His name thus to distinguish Himself from false gods. He also sets forth His name at large, for the comfort of His people. There is something in every name of God which may breed faith in our souls. I think He also does it to excite our wonder mad gratitude. Let us devoutly think of each of these names separately.

I. “Jehovah, thy God.” Jehovah, the glorious I AM, signifies self-existence. He borrows nothing from others; indeed, all live by His permit and power. He is as complete without His creatures as with them. Jehovah, again, is a name of immutability. “I AM THAT I AM” was His name to Moses. Furthermore, Jehovah means sovereignty. “Jehovah reigneth, let the people tremble.”

2. The Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour. What a New Testament combination this is--“The Holy One, thy Saviour”! It reminds us of the words--“Just, and the justifier of him that believeth.” Here we have one so holy as to be separate from sinners and yet the Saviour of sinners. Since “the Holy One of Israel” is our Saviour, we are confident that He will save us from all sin. The glorious Lord, who here styles Himself “Jehovah thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour,” the Creator of all things, and their Preserver, is come very near to you. In the next verse He saith, “Since thou wast precious in My sight thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee.” Mark, “I have loved thee.” It is not enough that He thinks kindly, and deals tenderly; but He loves! Remember also that this Holy Lord is working upon you still, that you may reflect His glory. “I have created him for My glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him” (verse 7). He has begun our new creation, He is carrying it on, and He is completing it.

II. THE LORD’S ESTIMATE OF HIS PEOPLE. Whatever we may think of the Israel of God, the Lord thinks more of it than words can express. “I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee.” When the Lord chose a nation to be the depository of His sacred oracles, He might have selected Egypt if He had willed to do so. Egypt was in the known world the oldest nation. Egypt contained the wisest and most civilised people of early times. Its very ruins are the wonder of the ages. Its records show an extraordinary progress in literature, architecture, and the arts and sciences. Egypt was also the most powerful of empires in the olden times. Before the banners of Assyria and, Babylon and Medo-Persia came to the front, the dragon of Egypt was a mighty ensign. Yet the Lord did not choose the sons of Ham, but passed by Egypt, Ethiopia, and Seba. The Lord chose the seed of Abraham, and the family of Jacob: He multiplied them, and instructed them, and made them to be His own peculiar people. In the course of history the claims of various countries came into collision with those of Israel, and Egypt proudly oppressed Israel. What did God do? Did He hesitate as to which of the two peoples should be preserved? No; the Lord brought out Israel, and turned His artillery upon Egypt. In the days of King Asa, the Ethiopians came up against Judah to the number of a million of men; but “they were destroyed before the Lord, and before His host”: thus was Ethiopia given for Israel. Cambyses conquered Egypt, and destroyed many of its cities, and never since has there been a native prince sitting upon the throne of Pharaoh. God gave to the King of Persia, Egypt and the neighbouring cities as the ransom price of His people. Thus the Lord did of old on the behalf of His literal Israel, and what does this fact say to us? It means this--God’s chosen are immeasurably precious in His sight. They are the centre of God’s design. God’s intent was to produce a race that should be honourable in His sight, and well-beloved of His soul. This design would be costly, even to Jehovah Himself. To carry out this purpose, men, having fallen, must be redeemed by blood. To carry out His Divine resolve He spared not His own Son, but freely delivered Him up for us all. But even then men could not be saved unless the Holy Ghost should condescend to come and live in their bodies. Henceforth everything shall be sacrificed for us. God will give all that He has to save His beloved ones. He will make the whole o nature and providence subservient to the complete salvation of His chosen. Kings shall be born and buried; empires shall rise and fall; republics and systems shall come and go; and all shall be the scaffold for the building of the house of God, which is His Church. It is God’s grandest, highest purpose to gather together in one the whole company of His redeemed in Christ Jesus their Lord and to make them like their Head.

III. THE OUTCOME OF THIS.

1. If it be so, that the glorious God has really and of a truth loved us, His people, and valued us at a mighty price, then see how secure His people are!

2. Note, next, the honour which God puts upon them. God has put us poor sinners among His honourables. I know one who, in her unconverted state, had fallen into sad sin, and the remembrance thereof was painful; but the Lord removed the shame by laying home to her soul these gracious words, “Since thou wast precious in My sight, thou hast been honourable.”

3. The certainty of the Lord’s gathering together all His people. “I will bring thy seed,” etc. (verses 5-7). If God has determined to glorify Himself by us and in us, let us be in accord with Him. What love we ought to bear to God! (C. H. Spurgeon.)

I gave Egypt for thy ransom

God’s redemption of Israel

An amplification of the phrase, “I have redeemed thee” (Isaiah 43:1). (J. A. Alexander.)

Egypt, Ethiopia, Seba

“I give Egypt as thy ransom.” The meaning appears to be that Cyrus will be compensated for the emancipation of Israel by the conquest of these African nations which did not belong to the Babylonian Empire. As a matter of fact, the conquest of Egypt was effected by Cambyses, the son and successor of Cyrus, although it is said to have been contemplated by Cyrus himself (Herod. 1:153), and it is actually (though wrongly) attributed to him by Xenophon. (Prof J. Skinner, D. D.)

Genesis 10:7; Psalms 72:10; Isaiah 45:14) was, according to Josephus, Merge, the northern province of Ethiopia, lying between the Blue and the White Nile. (Prof J. Skinner, D. D.)