Opening illustration: I’ll never forget my first experience using an automatic car wash. Approaching it with the dread of going to the dentist, I pushed the money into the slot, nervously checked and rechecked my windows, eased the car up to the line, and waited. Powers beyond my control began moving my car forward as if on a conveyor belt. There I was, cocooned inside, when a thunderous rush of water, soap, and brushes hit my car from all directions. What if I get stuck in here or water crashes in? I thought irrationally. Suddenly, the waters ceased. After a blow-dry, my car was propelled into the outside world again, clean and polished.
In the midst of all this, I remembered stormy times during my life when it seemed I was on a conveyor belt, a victim of forces beyond my control. “Car-wash experiences,” I now call them. I remembered that whenever I passed through deep waters, my Redeemer had been with me, sheltering me against the rising tide (Isaiah 43:2). When I came out on the other side, which I always did, I could say with joy and confidence, “He is a faithful God!”
Let us turn to Isaiah 43 and catch up with God’s promise for His people and check it out to see how it applies to us today.
Introduction: God’s favor and good-will to his people speak abundant comfort to all believers. The new creature, wherever it is, is of God’s forming. All who are redeemed by the blood of his Son, he has set apart for himself. Those that have God for them need not fear who or what can be against them. What is Egypt and Ethiopia, all their lives and treasures, compared with the blood of Christ? True believers are precious in God’s sight; his delight is in them, above any people. Though they went as through fire and water, yet, while they had God with them, they need to fear no evil; they should be born up, and brought out. The faithful are encouraged. They were to be assembled from every quarter. And with this pleasing object in view, the prophet again dissuades from anxious fears.
How does God care for those who are precious in His sight?
1. Protects the Precious (vs. 1 – 2)
It lays the foundation of the Word of promise by affirming that this is the nation that God formed. The language is covenantal: You are mine.
The descriptions that the prophet uses for God refer to the historical act of the foundation of the nation at Sinai—but the terms are creational. The expression “he who created you” (bora’aka) uses the main word for creation (bara’), a term that means to fashion or refashion something into a new and perfect creation. It can have the idea of renewal or transformation. In the biblical texts, only God is the subject of this verb. So, the formation of the Israelites into a nation, the people of God, is being called a creation. Likewise, Paul uses creation terminology for our salvation in the New Testament.
The second description is “he who formed you” (yotserka). This word (yatsar) means to form or fashion something by design, a plan, a blueprint (Genesis 2:7). It is the word for an artist—the participle is the Hebrew word “potter.” So, the expression says that God is the creator of the nation, and that His creation is by design.
The main reason for the call to cast away fear in this verse is the expression “for I have redeemed you” (ge’altika [pronounced geh-al-tea-kah], from ga’al). This verb is a little different from other words in the Bible that we translate “redeem”; this is the kinsman redeemer or avenger, the one who makes things right—pays debts, avenges death, judges the enemy, rescues the poor and needy, or marries the widow. The key idea seems to be “protect”—the family and various other institutions. When the verb describes the LORD’s activity, it usually always means judging the nations to deliver the people from bondage; in New Covenant passages, it is eschatological. I would take the verb here to be prophetic perfect (or at least a perfect of resolve), for this is what He was about to do.
Finally, the idea of “called you by name” is a reference to both creation and election. God chose His people, and by calling them by name exercised His sovereignty over them (compare other “naming” passages). In fact, the idiom of naming in the Babylonian account of creation (Enuma elish) represents creating.
So, the point of the first verse is clear: Israel belongs to God because He formed them into a nation in the first place and now will deliver them from bondage to Himself.
In Isaiah 43, there is a principle from which you and I draw today. And the principle is this: you and I belong to God.
• We belong to him, because He created us.
• We belong to Him, because He redeemed us (saved/delivered us).
• We belong to Him, because He called us (named us).
God says to you, “You are Mine.”
In verse 2, we see that God preserves us in the midst of trials. This is the implication of “belonging to God” – when trials come our way, we have no reason to fear because He is with us, He says in this verse. However, notice the language. God says, “When you pass through the waters” and “When you walk through the fire…” The idea is God doesn’t promise us a life free of troubles or worry. He is saying you can count on the fact that trials will come. Nevertheless, just as sure as the coming of those trials, is the fact that I will be with you. And this is the key to the people’s preservation – the presence of God! The key is not simply that God preserved his people from sure disaster (from drowning or getting crispy) but rather, that God’s people were preserved by His presence.
Our relationship to God is based on God’s gracious love toward us – not the other way around. Thankfully, our relationship to God is based NOT on how much we demonstrate our love to God. Thankfully, our relationship to God is based NOT on our own personal worth before our restoration. Thankfully, our relationship to God is based NOT on our own loveliness. But rather:
Our relationship to God means that we belong to Him, because He has created us, redeemed us and called us His! Our relationship to God means that we are preserved in Him, because He draws us into His presence. What a relief to know your relationship to God is based on God alone – his activity in your life. What a comfort to know that despite our raging sin and our failure at being his servants, that God’s people can still enjoy the hope of a relationship with God!
Illustration: Lorrie Anderson, missionary to the head-shrinking Candoshi Shapra Indians of Peru, was looking for a quiet place for her daily time of Bible reading and prayer, so she went down by the edge of the river. After reading the Bible, she took up her prayer list. Eyes closed; she did not see the deadly anaconda weaving through the water until it struck, burying its fangs into her flesh. It withdrew to strike, hitting her arm repeatedly as it held her, screaming, in its coils. It reared up for the death blows. Then suddenly the giant snake, never known to release its prey, relaxed its grip and slithered off through the water. While Lorrie was being treated, a witch doctor from a nearby village burst into the hut and stared at her. She couldn’t believe Lorrie had survived. She said her son-in-law, also a witch doctor, had chanted to the spirit of the anaconda that morning and sent it to kill the young missionary. "I’m certain," Lorrie said, "that except for the protection of God, it would have worked."
2. Ransoms the Precious (vs. 3 – 4)
It begins to spell out the promise of the rescue from captivity. Here the self-revelation of the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, adds the description “your savior” (mosi’eka [mo-she-eh-ka], from yasa’ [ya-sha]). The verb “to save” is a common one in the Old Testament; John Sawyer has a discussion on it and the other words for salvation in the Old Testament in his book Semantics in Biblical Research, New Methods of Defining Hebrew Words for Salvation (SCM Press). The name “Jesus” (Ye-shua) is, of course, drawn from this verbal root, as is the name “Isaiah” (Yeshayahu) itself (“Yah saves”). Most of the words for salvation are military terms; this one basically means “deliver, save.” It can refer to an answer to prayer, a healing, rescue, deliverance from trouble, death, or disease—as well as from sin and its punishment (although “saved from sin” is not a very common usage). In this passage, it refers to a deliverance from bondage, and so is essentially political, although this deliverance includes the fact that sin was the reason for the exile. So, it is a physical-spiritual deliverance.
The word for “your ransom” (kophreka) is from the verbal root kipper, which means “atone, expiate, pacify, set free. The noun means to set free through some means of expiation. In this context, the term is applied a little differently (as are the terms for salvation and redemption): God will set His people free from bondage—at the expense of the oppressors. So, their destruction will be the ransom price—the exchange given to set Israel free.
Verse 4 continues this theme with two new words that call for attention. The deliverance is because Israel is precious (and honored) in God’s sight. They are highly valued because rare—the chosen people. And the main motive for the deliverance is “because I love you” (‘ahabtika, from ‘ahab). The term for love conveys the idea of choosing spontaneously (as opposed to the idea of “hating” which means among other things “reject”—Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated). Other words for love will stress the covenant loyalty that God has for His people; but this one indicates that He chose them and His love for them remains constant. Of course, this does not mean that He overlooks idolatry, and unbelief—the captivity was intended to purge those who were not truly in the covenant.
Illustration: During the Exodus, the Egyptians pursuing the Israelites died in the ‘Red Sea.’ During the Six-Day War in 1967 between Israel and the neighboring states of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria, the Arab states of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria also contributed troops and arms. At the war’s end, Israel gained control of the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights. The results of the war affect the geopolitics of the region to this day.
3. Delivers the Precious (vs. 5 -7)
If that’s true, then, Isaiah is saying: God delivers his people from much more than simply PHYSICAL exile; God delivers his people from SPIRITUAL bondage as well. God is going to deliver his people from sin. There is a very important truth, then, to be drawn from the text. Mainly, that Isaiah is intentionally speaking to a wider audience than merely the believing Jews of the exile. If this is true, Isaiah 43 can be applied to the lives of both believing Jews and believers among the nations.
Rather, when we read Isaiah 43, we want to let the author speak for himself. We want to discern his intended meaning. And if you were to fast forward one chapter to Isaiah 44:1-5, you would see that the author does, in fact, have something intriguing to say about the nature of God’s people – something engaging to say regarding a future deliverance from a spiritual exile.
And as such, the promise of spiritual deliverance is promised not just to Isaiah’s immediate audience, but TO ALL PROSPECTIVE audience members who BEAR THE NAME OF GOD, who have been shaped, redeemed, and called by God FOR HIS GLORY. This includes you and me. We aren’t spiritualizing the text. We aren’t reading the NT back into the OT. We are discerning the author’s intended meaning. And because the author is speaking of a future sense of renewal (probably occurring in his mind in the last days), then we can say with confidence that he is envisioning a future people of God.
Isaiah is speaking of all those whom God gathers unto himself. As sons and daughters of Israel (having been grafted into these special people), we are loved by God and promised help to become His servants. The point is this: Isaiah is not restricting deliverance to the physical realm alone. Isaiah is telling us deliverance does include a spiritual deliverance. And because of this Isaiah is not restricting, the fulfillment of these prophesies to the nation of Israel alone – it includes both believing Jews and Gentiles.
Now, turn back to our main passage to Isaiah 43:7. God says he is going to gather “all who are called by my name, those whom I created, whom I shaped, yes, whom I made, for my glory.” All those who are ‘called’ will be fully restored back to God. God is saying, we have been shaped, redeemed, and called not just for ourselves, but for a larger purpose – as a demonstration of God’s glory to a watching world.
Application: Are you precious in God’s sight? That, however, depends on your relationship with your Creator. If you are truly precious in His sight, then be assured that He has redeemed you by His blood, He has become a ransom for you by paying the price with Christ’s body, and finally He has delivered you from sure eternal death, which was yours alone in the taking. Christ took your place on the cross and delivered you from sin and damnation. How are you going to respond to Him now and daily?
