God is Doing Something New
Introduction
Isaiah has seen his people caught up in a double plight: captivity because of sin—and that the deadliest of all sins, the abandonment of the way of faith, the rejection of the Lord’s promises in favour of a do-it-yourself remedy (chs. 38–39). But the double plight was matched by a double cure, the word of comfort (40:1–2): both that the time of duress would end, and that iniquity would be pardoned. The section that now opens continues along this twin track—and it really is a twin track: the parallel development of two themes. Captivity will be ended by national liberation (42:18–43:21), and sin dealt with by spiritual redemption (43:22–44:23).
The exodus which has been alluded to throughout (43:3, 9, 11) now dominates the imagery (16–17), 19–20): what the Lord has done is the model for his coming acts.
1. God is holy (14-15)
such emphasis on the holiness of Israel’s God is unexpected. Maybe Isaiah is laying down a marker for the future by reminding Israel that political liberation is not the whole story; there remains the deeper problem of how to be right with a holy God.
King adds a more personal dimension to the relationship, for the king was father and shepherd of his people (9:6; Ps. 78:71).
2. God is working (16-21)
Isaiah derives his pictures from the Red Sea event (16–17; Exod. 14) and from the wonders of that earlier wilderness journey (19c–20; Exod. 15–17), but he issues an important reminder: the past can teach and illustrate but it must not bind (18–19b). The Lord always has greater things in store; he is revealed in the past, but he is always more than the past revealed.
the motif of the potter means that we can face with confidence the troubles of life—even when, as here, we are the causes of our own misfortune by disobedience. The pressures of life are loving touches of the Craftsman’s hand as he perfects what he has planned.