A Translation and Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ the Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS 19 Aug 2007
1. But now, thus says Jehovah,
creating you and forming you, Israel:
“Fear not,
for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name,
you belong to me.
2. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you,
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you.
When you walk through fire you shall not be scorched, and flame shall not consume you.
3. For I am Jehovah your God,
the sanctifier of Israel,
saving you.
I gave Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Sudan instead of you.
4. Because you are precious in my eyes, you were honored,
and I myself loved you, and I gave a man instead of you and peoples instead of your soul.
5. Fear not,
for I am with you.
From the East I will bring your seed,
and from the West I will gather you.
6. I will say to the North, “Give,”
and to the South, “Don’t quit;
bring my sons from afar
and my daughters from the end of the earth,
7. everyone who is called by my name.
Yes, it was for my glory
I created him,
I formed him,
and I made him.
8. Bring out the blind people… and there are eyes!
And deaf ones… but ears belong to him!
9. All the nations are gathered together, and they are assembled according to ethnicities.
Who among them shall explain this and cause us to hear the first things?
Let them provide their witnesses, and be right, and hear and speak truth.
10. Y’all are my witnesses, declared Jehovah, and my servant whom I have chosen,
in order that you may know and believe in me and understand that
I am He.
Before my face a god was not formed; behind me it won’t be either!
11. I, I am Jehovah, and besides me there is no savior.
12. I myself explained and saved and caused to hear,
and there was not a stranger with you.
Now y’all are my witness, declares Jehovah, and I am God.
13. Also from today, I am He.
There is not one who can deliver from my hand.
I act and who can make it turn back?
· Have you heard the story about the little boy who was learning the Lord’s Prayer and got it almost right when he said, “Our Father in heaven who hollered my name…”
· The title of my sermon, “With-ness and Witness” is not a misprint. It describes the two main points of Isaiah 43:
I) With-ness (v.5 Fear Not for I am with you)
A) Isaiah has already introduced the “with-ness” of God to us in earlier chapters:
1. Isaiah 7:14 “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel [God with us]” – Matt.1:23.
2. Isaiah 8:10b “God is with us.”
3. Isaiah 33:21a “Jehovah will be with us in majesty”
4. This echoes what earlier Biblical writers have also written:
(a) Joshua 1:9 “Jehovah your God will be with you wherever you go.”
(b) Psalm 46:7 “Jehovah of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our refuge.”
B) In this chapter God speaks to reassure His people that He has always been with them and will always be with them:
1. I count 40 times God says “I/me” and 30 times He says “you/y’all” in these 13 verses.
(a) This is intensely personal.
(b) This also emphasizes that God is the initiator in relating to mankind.
(c)
This is addressed to Jacob
and Israel, but keep in mind that Isaiah is writing to all true believers,
whether physical descendents of Israel or spiritual descendents of Israel.
Galatians 3:27-29 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put
on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek… for you are all one in Christ
Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs
according to promise.
2. In v. 1 God claims ownership over His people
(a) He is the “creator” and “former”
(i) If He made you, He owns you.
(ii) ILLUSTRATION: If you bought a box of Legos and built a car with them, it’s your car, not your little sisters.
(b)
He is the “redeemer” – Not
only did He make you, He even paid a price to get you back when you were lost.
That makes you doubly His.
1 Peter 1:18-19 “…you were not redeemed with perishable things like
silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers,
but with precious blood… of Christ.”
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 “… You are not your own, for you were bought with a
price. Therefore glorify God in your body.”
(c) God is also the Namer
(i) He is the Father in heaven who “hollered” your name.
(ii) He renamed Jacob with the name “Israel”
(iii) He, as your owner, has the right to name you and call you.
(iv) In v.7 we are the people “called by [His] name.”
We have the last name of Christian, as it were.
(d) All this is summed up in the last phrase of v.1, “you are mine!”
3. This passage also shows how God has been with His people throughout history:
(a) “Passing through the waters” in v.2 is an allusion:
(i) to the flood of Noah’s time when he and his family passed through the water and the rest of the world drowned in God’s judgment, and
(ii) to when Israel passed through the Red sea in their escape from Egypt. They made it through, but the Egyptians were drowned.
(iii) God’s people can always look back and remember special times when God saved them.
(b) In v.3, God’s word says that God gave Cush (Ethiopia) and Seba (Sudan) instead of Israel. The names of countries indicate that God chose and saved His people in a real historical context, but what exactly does this verse mean?
(i) This could still be talking about the Exodus, when the firstborn sons of all the Egyptians were killed in order to convince Pharoah to let God’s people go.
(ii) It could also refer to the way that the Assyrian army under Sennacherib had just recently left off their siege of Jerusalem to go on a campaign in Egypt. In order to deliver Jerusalem, God turned the Assyrian army against Egypt.
(iii) It’s also possible that this refers to the future when Cyrus and Cambyses would release the Jews from exile in Babylon and go on campaigns to conquer Africa.
(iv) One obvious meaning is that that in choosing Israel, He did not choose other nations (e.g. If I take Lilly to the store, it means I have chosen not to take Grace and Irene.).
(v) I was talking last week with Fred Fox, who drove over the bridge in Minneapolis a week or two before it collapsed on August 1. It could have been Fred and his family drowning in the Mississippi River, but in God’s providence it was someone else.
(vi) I expect we’ve all had similar experiences. The section of the London subway I took on my last mission trip was bombed by a terrorist a week or two later. It could have been my family living without a husband and father, but God, in His grace, saved me.
(vii) As commentator E.J. Young put it, “Love involves choice and exclusiveness.” We may not be able to explain why the boom was lowered on someone else, but we can explain why we were delivered; it is because God wanted to save us.
(c) God also promises to be with His people to deliver them in the future:
(i) When Jerusalem was captured a hundred years later by the army of Babylon, God’s promise in vs. 5-6 is that He will deliver His people.
(ii) All four points of the compass are mentioned – East, West, North, and South. God’s people would be gathered back together from where they had been dispersed in exile. Most of them East to Babylon, but the Assyrians had taken some North, and some had fled south to Elephantine, Egypt.
(iii) Yet, even while in exile in Babylon, God
delivered Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego when they passed through the fiery
furnace for refusing to worship one of the Babylonian kings. They were not
even singed, but the Chaldean guards who threw them in got burnt to a crisp.
(v.2)
“when you walk through fire you shall not
be burned, the flame shall not consume you”
4.
These historical deliverances
point to the ultimate deliverance from sin.
“The physical captivity [in Babylon], however, from which they must be
delivered if the redemptive promises of God were to be fulfilled, was but typical
or expressive of the deeper captivity in which the nation found itself, a
captivity not physical but spiritual. This deep bondage, manifested in
the physical conditions of the exile, was no cause for fear, however, for God
had paid the price to redeem and set free the people. As a sign of that
deliverance there was to be the return to Palestine from exile, but the return
was only a sign. The real redemption would be accomplished at a later time,
when God Himself would offer up His only begotten Son.” Young p.140
C) God not only claims ownership and promises His presence throughout history. God’s “with-ness” is also expressed by continually forming us into a new creation.
1. The words for “create” and “form” in v.1 are participles, not Past or Perfect tense verbs. They indicate ongoing attributes of God, the “One who creates” and forms.
2. Note how the name of the people in v. 1 is first Jacob, then Israel. This speaks of the process by which God worked in the life of the founder of the nation of Israel, changing him from a grasping, selfish man into a patriarch through whom the righteousness of God would come. This is the nature of God, He takes “Jacobs” and forms them into “Israels.”
3. The strings of verbs here also indicate a process of change.
(a) v.1: Creating… forming… redeemed… called… you are
(b) v.7: Created… formed… made
(c) v.10: Chosen… know… believe… understand
(d)
This is very like the description
we find in the New Testament of the ordo saludis – the order of
salvation in: Romans 8:29-30
“For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed
to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many
brethren; 30 and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these
whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He
also glorified.”
(e)
So we are in a process.
ILLUSTRATION: PBP GIF WMY pins that had some popularity in the 70’s/80’s.
(f) You aren’t complete yet, so patiently let your Creator and Former work on you.
4. Also note who is the actor in all this change process. It is God all the way.
(a) You didn’t not choose God, He chose you (v.10; cf John 15:16)
(b) v. 4 explains that Israel did not do anything to earn their salvation, God saved them merely because He decided they were precious in His eyes, merely because He wanted to honor them, merely because He loved them.
(c) Calvin – “If [God were to] judge of us according to our own qualifications, He will not value us a straw. We must therefore set aside every idea of merit or of personal worth, of which we have none, and must ascribe everything to the grace of God alone.”
(d) If you love Jesus, then it is because He loves you, He chose to make you one of His children, you are precious to Him, and there is nothing that will make Him stop loving you.
(e) John 6:37 "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.”
5. One of the ways God makes those changes in us is through hardships.
(a) v.2 Not “if” but “when” you pass through the waters and the fire.
(b) God was still going to send the Jews into exile in Babylon as part of His purifying process.
(c) James 1:2 “Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
(d) In verse 3, God calls Himself the “Holy one of Israel, your savior.” Again we have two participles describing continuing attributes of God, as one who can be described as “saving” and “sanctifying.”
(i) This participle for “saving” is the Hebrew word “Messiah,” and it points toward the saving work of Jesus on the cross.
(ii) As for the other participle, I think that the phrase “sanctifying Israel ” is a better translation than “the Holy One of Israel” in this context, because this is what God is always doing through His Holy Spirit: sanctifying His people – making them holy!
6. Through it all, God is creating a people that will glorify Him.
(a) The Hebrew word order of v.7 emphasises that it is for God’s glory that this people is being created.
(b) Westminster Shorter Catechism #1: The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever!
(c) v.8 could be interpreted two ways:
(i) Making the hypocrites leave. They have ears but don’t listen, so it is time to bring them outside - send them away in the exile.
(ii) The emergence of a new people formerly deaf and blind, but who are suddenly and miraculously able to see and hear. I side with Calvin and Young in preferring this.
(d) This is not just talking about Jews after the exile. The language in v. 5-7 is too sweeping – N,S,E,W, “my sons from AFAR, my daughters from the ENDS of the earth, ALL who are called by my name.” This speaks of the Gentiles becoming God’s children, too.
D) All these things (God’s Ownership, God’s Presence throughout history, and God’s process of forming His people) form the basis for the command “Do not fear!”
1. Do not fear, for you are in a vital relationship with God; He is “with” you!
2. Remember all His acts of deliverance in the past, such as Noah and the ark, the Israelites in Exodus, and the pullout of the Assyrian army after their siege, and do not fear!
3. Do not fear, for He promises to continue to deliver you in the future!
4. Rom. 8:31 “What shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”
5. What are you afraid of? Poverty? Friendlessness? Hardship? Ridicule? Messes? Being with difficult people? Getting Hurt?
6. David’s testimony about God was, “with You I can run against a troop; And with my God I can leap over a wall.” (Psalm 18:29)
7. Paul’s testimony was, “I can do all things through [Christ] who strengthens me!” (Phil 4:13)
8. ILLUSTRATION of Native American initiation into manhood: the son must stand in the woods all night and face all the terrifying noises and darkness. But the father is just out of sight watching over his son and standing ready to protect him if any real threat presents itself. We can’t see God, but we can take comfort that He is with us, and so we do not have to be afraid.
God goes to all the trouble of creating this new people and telling them not to be afraid because He has a special task He has formed them to accomplish:
II) You are God’s Witnesses
A) Verses 5-9 describe a gathering that God has put together.
1. It has some similarity to the gathering of the people of Israel called by Elijah on Mount Carmel, where they had that contest to see who was God – Baal or Jehovah.
2. This gathering in Isaiah 43:9 is of “all the nations… according to their [different] peoples/ethnicities.” (The Mexicans here and the Lugandans there and the Yemeni here and the Kansans there…)
3. The question is put before them, “Who is able to prophesy the salvation of a people and then sovereignly ensure that it happens in the future?” Who?
4. The answer, is found in the very next verse when God says, “I am who/he.”
5. Christianity stands out as the only religion where none of its sacred prophecies have been proved false. Only a sovereign, eternal God who can control history can major on predictive prophecies, and our God has done it!
6. In verse 12, God relates how He spoke through the prophets, then acted to bring about salvation, making sure there were witnesses who could then tell the world about it! “I explained, I saved, and I caused I to be heard,” says God, “Not some other foreign god, and hey, you are those witnesses that I have prepared to declare my glory among the nations!”
B) How is this gathering of the nations fulfilled?
1. It began to be fulfilled as Israel was taken into captivity, when Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and other godly men and women testified of the greatness of God in the great cosmopolitan city of Babylon.
2. This was fulfilled at a whole new level when people from all nations were gathered in Jerusalem at Pentecost, and Peter and the apostles began to share the Gospel with them.
3. The fulfillment continued as God’s people went out to the ends of the earth as missionaries and half the world heard the Gospel.
4. A particularly stunning development of the last few decades has been the way people from every nation on earth have gathered in the USA to study and even to work. Who will be God’s witnesses to them?
5. The ultimate fulfillment of this prophecy is in Revelation 7:9-10 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, "Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb."
C) What does the word “witness” mean in the N.T.?
1. Formal testimony in court, did not have the modern-day connotation of standing on a street-corner preaching.
2. The Greek word is “martyr.” So many Christians were killed after testifying in Roman courts that they were Christians that the word witness/martyr became associated with being killed for your faith.
3. Jesus bore witness of Himself. John 8:18 “I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me."
4. Luke 24:45-48 Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and He said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.”
5. Acts 1:8 “but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth."
6. Apostles bore witness to Jesus throughout the N.T.
D) How about you?
1. “You exist for [God’s] glory, to display His attributes – wisdom, power, justice, and love, in your salvation” – Frank Barker
2. What experiences has God given you that you can relate to other people as a witness of His attributes?
(a) EXAMPLE: EE witnessing situation I encountered in Denver with a woman who said that all religions seemed pretty much the same. God had given me experience in studying different world religions, so I could bear witness to the uniqueness of Ghdistianity – the good news that God saves us rather than us having to save ourselves.
(b)
Do you enjoy the beauty and
design of God’s creation?
Bear witness that God is its creator.
(c)
Do you share Josh McDowell’s
amazement that 270 predictions were made by the Old Testament prophets
concerning the Messiah, and that Jesus fulfilled every one of them?
Bear testimony to that fact!
(d)
Has God answered a prayer
you prayed? Or did God arrange circumstances so that you didn’t get what you
wanted, but you got something far better?
Bear witness to God’s sovereignty.
(e)
Have you been delivered from a
besetting sin? Have you seen transformation in yourself or you marriage
or some other relationship?
Testify that God delivered you.
(f) You get the idea. You were created for God’s glory. He has carefully shaped you, giving you special experiences and information in order for you to share His glory with the world and tell people, “I saw God do this in my life,” or “I read this in my Bible.”
God is with you; God loves you. Don’t be afraid, just tell the world the things you’ve seen and heard.
Nate Wilson’s website – Isaiah Sermon Expositions
Christ the Redeemer Church website - Sermons