Isaiah 5.4

Prayer Requests:

Carol, Jamison, scan soon

Susan, Friend Tom, not discharged last week, still has complications

Miguel, Candace surgery, everything went well.

Judy, Bob’s back

Laura, Ruth Ayala, Tamera daughter health—nancy guthrie’s mother

Cheryl, sister, susan cataract surgery. anxious

Isaiah 43:8–28 ESV

8 Bring out the people who are blind, yet have eyes, who are deaf, yet have ears! 9 All the nations gather together, and the peoples assemble. Who among them can declare this, and show us the former things? Let them bring their witnesses to prove them right, and let them hear and say, It is true. 10 “You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me. 11 I, I am the Lord, and besides me there is no savior. 12 I declared and saved and proclaimed, when there was no strange god among you; and you are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “and I am God. 13 Also henceforth I am he; there is none who can deliver from my hand; I work, and who can turn it back?”

v. 8-13 continues the language and imagery of the cosmic court case! Remember, it’s God really bringing His case against all the nations (Israel is included in this, they are not innocent). This is language we heard earlier in chapter 41:21-29—there it was that God called the false gods to come together and predict the future—who could do it? Demonstrating the powerlessness of the false idols of the world.

Here he invites the witnesses of these false gods to testify on their behalf! Can you tell the former things? The things yet to pass? Bring witnesses—bring the believers in these false gods to testify—they will not be able to.

Then God turns to his own people, v. 10: you are my witnesses!

Israel—even in exile—are called to be His witness, to testify to the mighty works of God. Notice the progression here.

v. 10—you are my witnesses, I have chosen you that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he.

Now, it makes intuitive sense, and this might sound like a no-brainer, but God is saying: you’re might witnesses, you need to know me and believe me and understand me. It’s a call for all who profess faith in God, all who are called to be His witnesses to get to know God. We can’t be an effective witness to the world to a God we don’t know and know what He has done for us.

This is an invitation to a people in exile to orient themselves back to God—which might have been impossibly difficult for the ancient exiled Jews; they didn’t have the temple worship, they didn’t have the scripture, and they were in a foreign and hostile culture.

The good news for us: we have the Bible and worship in a church and the community of believers. Let us not then waste these things, let us get to know God as we aim to be like His son and be a witness to Him out in the world.

And see what they are a witness to: V. 11 on

There are no other gods, all other promises of salvation are false and faulty. No god was formed before Him and none after Him—he has no beginning and no end and all other gods are formations of man.

Look at His word: I declared and saved and proclaimed. He alone declares the future.

“When there was no strange god among you” he’s saying this: I called Abraham when no other god could help him; I called the Israelites out of slavery when no other god could offer them freedom. You had no other options because none existed!

And now, God says in v. 13, no one can take you from my hand—you are mine and nothing can change that. We should be comforted by this God who is the only way of salvation and nothing can disrupt His plan of salvation.

Isaiah 43:8–28 ESV

14 Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “For your sake I send to Babylon and bring them all down as fugitives, even the Chaldeans, in the ships in which they rejoice. 15 I am the Lord, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King.” 16 Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, 17 who brings forth chariot and horse, army and warrior; they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick: 18 “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. 19 Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. 20 The wild beasts will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches, for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, 21 the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise.

God’s work is not limited to the past, but He will demonstrate His lordship and salvation in the future with new works of deliverance. Deliverance from Babylon.

The emphasis here is on what God will do to bring them out of exile—He will bring down the might of Babylon (their horses and chariots). But he also affirms that He is doing a new thing, it is a new work of salvation for this people. But look how it is described: “I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” That doesn’t sound that new to me, that sounds like what God has done before. The point is partly this, God’s ways are consistent over time. Now that work is being applied to this new situation.

So when we are hoping for God to work in our lives, to do a new thing, we ought to expect Him to be faithful and act as He always has. He will comfort us, He may resolve our trials or our suffering, but even if He doesn’t, we know He will make a way for us to come to Him. In fact, He already has, through Jesus!

And, in fact, many commentators interpret this passage in Isaiah through the lens of Christ and the church. Because even when Judah is restored after exile, they do not experience the kind of cultural, economic, political revival and restoration that they might have expected. And by the time of Jesus, Israel is a client state of Rome.

Isaiah here has in view, whether he knew it or not, the whole scope of salvation history, from the return of exile, to the one who comes from the wilderness as a light to the world, to His resurrection and even second coming when He will bring all things under His reign fully. That’s part of the joy of reading Isaiah in light of the New Testament, we know what this is talking about!

Isaiah 43:8–28 ESV

22 “Yet you did not call upon me, O Jacob; but you have been weary of me, O Israel! 23 You have not brought me your sheep for burnt offerings, or honored me with your sacrifices. I have not burdened you with offerings, or wearied you with frankincense. 24 You have not bought me sweet cane with money, or satisfied me with the fat of your sacrifices. But you have burdened me with your sins; you have wearied me with your iniquities. 25 “I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins. 26 Put me in remembrance; let us argue together; set forth your case, that you may be proved right. 27 Your first father sinned, and your mediators transgressed against me. 28 Therefore I will profane the princes of the sanctuary, and deliver Jacob to utter destruction and Israel to reviling.

We pivot back to the problem! This is important for two reasons—it convicts them of their sin and their spiritual blindness but it also reminds them that God chooses them not because they are so great or holy or righteous. He saves them because they are His.

They have not called upon His name, they have not brought Him sacrifices. The sum of the accusations here is this: they have had an absent relationship with God, they have not pursued Him, and it seems especially while they were in exile.

It’s not that they needed to put on these elaborate rituals while they were in exile—they didn’t have the temple, they were the oppressed—but that they did not even call on His name!

v. 23, I have not burdened you with offerings. What he’s saying is that, He didn’t demand from them something that was impossible while they were in exile. But he still wants a relationship with them. And the prophet uses that statement “I have not burdened you” in contrast with the next verse, the real problem Isaiah 43:24 “24 You have not bought me sweet cane with money, or satisfied me with the fat of your sacrifices. But you have burdened me with your sins; you have wearied me with your iniquities.”

He is grieved by their moral and ethical failures, not their ritual failures. He is grieved by their sin! And if there was ever any doubt that they couldn’t take care of their sin themselves, exile has made it abundantly clear! They can’t even make sacrifices, for whatever good those were. But the heartbreaking thing is that God doesn’t see remorse or contrition over their sin.

And YET! God chooses them. I am the one who blots our your transgressions for my own sake and I will not remember your sins. AND He will bring judgment on those unrepentant thus limiting the evil that can be committed. It’s all an expression of God’s grace.

Isaiah 44:1–5 ESV

1 “But now hear, O Jacob my servant, Israel whom I have chosen! 2 Thus says the Lord who made you, who formed you from the womb and will help you: Fear not, O Jacob my servant, Jeshurun whom I have chosen. 3 For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants. 4 They shall spring up among the grass like willows by flowing streams. 5 This one will say, ‘I am the Lord’s,’ another will call on the name of Jacob, and another will write on his hand, ‘The Lord’s,’ and name himself by the name of Israel.”

Finally here in chapter 44, we He will give His people His spirit as a solution to the sinful tendency. What have we seen? He’s chosen his people, he’s shown grace in forgiveness, there has been judgment against the unrepentant, and now he provides a solution for their hearts. He will pour water on the thirsty land, he will pour his spirit on his people. This is fulfilled when? In Pentecost! In Acts 2!

In this chapter in Isaiah we see the whole scope of salvation—from calling to forgiveness to regeneration by the Spirit of God. This is also, by the way, a very Reformed Presbyterian passage of scripture. We see the tenets of our reformed faith on display here in this passage—God choosing, not based on any goodness in these people, but because of His own choice.