Isaiah 43 - Introduction

Isaiah 43:1 to Isaiah 44:5. Israel, in spite of its sin and blindness, is comforted with gracious promises of Redemption

(i) Isaiah 43:1. This section is very closely connected in thought with Isaiah 43:18 of the previous chapter. The contrast, however, is no longer between the ideal Israel and the actual, but between Israel in the misery of exile and Israel in the glory of its coming salvation. The prophet has just reminded the captives that the author of their calamities is Jehovah, against whom they have sinned; now he assures them that in spite of these sins God has not finally cast them off, and directs their thoughts to the bright future about to dawn on them. Jehovah is about to redeem Israel, which He has formed and chosen for His own (Isaiah 43:1); He will ransom it at the cost of powerful and wealthy nations which must take its place as servants of the world-power, because it is precious in His sight (Isaiah 43:3); He will gather together its scattered members from the remotest quarters of the world (Isaiah 43:5).

(ii) Isaiah 43:8. The argument from prophecy is here repeated, and again in the dramatic form of a judicial process between Jehovah and the assembled nations. These are challenged to bring forward their witnesses to prove that their gods have foretold this wonderful event, or that any past prediction of theirs has been verified (Isaiah 43:9). Jehovah on His part brings forward His servant Israel, a people blind and deaf, but able at least to bear witness to the factthat He has given incontestable proof of Divinity by predicting this great deliverance (Isaiah 43:8; Isaiah 43:10ff.).

(iii) Isaiah 43:14. The fall of Babylon is here for the first time explicitly announced (Isaiah 43:14), as the preliminary to Israel's restoration. The glory of this "new thing" shall eclipse all "former things," even the wonders of the exodus from Egypt and the marching through the wilderness (Isaiah 43:16 ff.). The prophet's imagination again fixes on the concrete image of the miraculous way through the desert as the emblem of Jehovah's saving power (Isaiah 43:19 ff.).

(iv) Isaiah 43:22. A renewed remonstrance with Israel, similar in tone to ch. Isaiah 42:18-25. The general idea of the section seems to be that while Israel has been utterly careless of Jehovah (Isaiah 43:22), burdening Him not with lavish offerings but merely with its sins and iniquities (Isaiah 43:23), He, for His own sake, forgives its trespasses (Isaiah 43:25), although the people have forfeited all claim on His mercy (Isaiah 43:26). (But see the Notes below, pp. 42 f.)

(v) Ch. Isaiah 44:1-5. By the outpouring of His Spirit, Jehovah shall so bless and prosper His people, that proselytes from among the heathen shall voluntarily attach themselves to the restored nation. This promise stands in contrast to the severity of the preceding verses, exactly as Isaiah 43:1 follow upon the last strophe of ch. 42.