Bible Study: Isaiah 43:1-28

In today’s Scriptures, God demonstrates grace to His people.

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Isaiah Chapter 43

Lessons from the text

Israel and Salvation

God has a special covenant with the Jews.  He promised grace to Jacob, and to uphold that promise He has never forsaken them.  Even in judgment, He has always left a remnant to return to grow once again as a nation.  Why has He done this?

The Jews serve as a living example of salvation.

God works in patterns.  Everything that will be has already been, and what is happening now will happen again (Ecc 1:9).  The mission and character of Christ can be found in snippets throughout Old Testament characters.  An image of the Rapture can be found in Enoch’s translation.  The new earth will be a return to the original design of fellowship and life found in the garden of Eden.

The Jews, then, are a living example of God’s grace.  Because Jacob showed faith in God, God accepted Him into His presence, saying that He had power with God (Gen 32:28).  From that moment on, God has never left Jacob nor his decendents.

When they sinned, God sent prophets and judges to correct them.  Whatever judgment they endured was meant to get their attention to put them back on the right path.  The book of Judges opens with a wonderful summary of this cycle:  the people would serve God, then become complacent, serve other gods, loose God’s favor and become vulnerable to enemies, repent and cry out to God, be delivered by a judge, and then repeat the whole thing (Jd 2:10-19).  God did not wipe them from the face of the earth for their disobedience as He has done to other nations like Babylon.  Instead, He continued to deal with them, rebuking rather than destroying them.

When we accept Jesus, we have passed from judgment to grace.  Instead of being condemned for our sins, we have received forgiveness and have a new relationship to our Father.  He no longer casts us away from Him because of our transgressions but through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit convicts us and tries to get us back on the path of righteousness.  The nonbeliever has God on the outside knocking to come in, but the believer has God on the inside speaking and directing us.

So, too, the Jews had the physical presence of God in the Holy Temple and the prophets speaking out through the Holy Ghost.  They are an example of the relationship we have with God once we are saved not only in how God deals with us but also in the nature of the believer by the internal presence of God.

Verse by Verse Commentary

1-2  Continuing from chapter 42, God demonstrates His grace towards His people, redeeming Israel even though the nation as a whole will not listen to Him.  Because of God’s covenant with them, He will be with them and never forsake them.

3  God bases His dispensation of grace on the fact that He is someone’s God.  If one has not accepted Him, then how can He fight for, defend, or comfort one?  Once one has accepted Him as Savior, then He will fight on one's behalf just as He did when He delivered the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage.

4   When God looks upon one and finds one precious in His sight, He views one as honorable. Compare with Genesis 15:6.  Grace is not dependent on humanity; instead it originates from God.  It does not mean that one is honorable or righteous but instead that God views one that way.

5-7  God has a special promise to the Jews to gather them from all over the earth to be under His care and protection.  Noteworthy is that this promise is extended to all who are called by His name, thus including Christian.

8-11  God does not want His work of redemption to be known only to the Jews; He wants everyone in need to hear and acknowledge it as true.  While the believers of other religions cannot attest to their gods knowing the future, the Christian and Jew are able to demonstrate how God has predicted events before they occurred.

12  God has the further proof that He alone is God by the fact that He is able to intervene when Israel serves false gods; despite the supposed protection of other gods, the Lord is able to do what He pleases to the Jews, thus demonstrating His superiority over any other god.  The Jews recall the incidents like God answering Elijah by fire while the prophet of Baal could not get their god to answer (I Ki 18:17-40).  Remembering such events, they have the special witness that the Lord alone is God.

13  God has absolute authority.  Whatever He does, no one can undo.  Before time began, He was.  He is superior to all in every way.

14-15  Before God sends the Jews into exile, He states that He has already sent for the destruction of their captors.  He wants His people to know that no matter what, He has a hold on the future and is working it towards their good.  Compare with Romans 8:28.

16-20  The same God who parted the Red Sea and destroyed Pharaoh and his army therein will perform a new miracle; He will make what was wasted land a fertile, thriving environment.  He is able to make those who are spiritually dead have life and bear fruit.  If one’s life is like a desert, He can make it into something beautiful.  See John 4:13-14.

21-22  God’s people are to praise Him.  Because of the works He has done in one’s life, one should naturally desire to share God’s goodness.  However, this is not always the case.  Instead of viewing God’s favor as a blessing, one can be wearied by the path of righteousness.  Instead of rejoicing in coming out of the world, one can become jealous of the activities of others in the world, viewing one’s separation as a limitation on life and forgetting the abundance of life in God’s favor.  One must remember that the reward of eternity with God in His righteous kingdom far outweighs the delights that this life has to offer.  As Paul said, “let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not” (Gal 6:9).

23-26  Giving up on obedience to God, one wearies Him.  God does not delight in one’s sins, especially if one was once in a right relationship with Him.  God alone can forgive sins. Knowing this, He pleads with people to come to Him so that He can justify them.  God is willing to forgive one’s sins if one is merely willing to come to God.

27-28  Refusing to come to God, one is stuck with one’s transgression, bringing dishonor, judgement, and curses upon oneself.

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