Year 3, Day 27: Isaiah 43

God’s Promise Of Ransom

As we continue into Isaiah 43, we have more of the double-prophesy.  The first set of verses in this chapter talk about God’s salvation.  Much like God did in the exodus story, God will yet again pay a ransom for His people and bring them out of captivity from Babylon.  God will once more gather His people into His holy land.  God will find a way to redeem all of those who are called by His name.  From a historical context this passage is speaking about the release of captivity and the inspiration of a faithful remnant in their return to God.  We’ll get to the Holy Spirit’s reinterpretation of these words at the end, as I did yesterday.

God’s Challenge

As we look at verses 8-13, we hear God challenging Israel and the world.  We know God is speaking to Israel because we hear the same language that we had in chapter 42.  God asks the “blind and the deaf” to come to Him.  Then God tells the nations to gather before Him.  He challenges them to come before Him and tell Him that there is any truth besides the truth that God brings to life.  Then He gives them a blessing.  God calls them His witnesses.  They are His witnesses that there was no God before Him.

I don’t know if it is really all that intended by Isaiah, but I think these middle verses in this chapter are a great synopsis of the life of a follower of God.  We start off under our own devices.  We think we know everything.  But then we are slowly humbled.  We come to realize that as we stand in God’s creation that we don’t know everything.  We can’t know everything.  We realize that we are but a small fish in God’s very large pool.  As we stand before the Creator we gain perspective.  Rather than being a people who seek after our own desires we become a people who witness to God’s glory.  The process might be long and involved, but that is indeed a general overview of the process of becoming a follower of God.

Then we learn the ultimate truth.  There is no god other than Him.  He is salvation.  He is the deliverer.  He is the redeemer.  He is.  Perhaps that’s why He always refers to Himself as ‘I am!’

God’s Promise of Something New

Then we hit the end of the chapter when we get to verses 19-28.  We hear that God is doing a new thing.  Then, just to prove His point, He asks the question, “Do you not see it?”  LOL.  Sometimes God’s sense of irony kills me!

God sent His people into Babylon and when they come back God will begin a new thing.  God has loved humanity; humanity has burdened God with our sinfulness.  God has given us His ways to live in peace with Himself and the world; we only return disobedience.  So what is this new thing that God will do?

God is going to take matters into His own hands.  He will take care of the sacrifice.  He will take care of the process of blotting out our sins forever.  He knows that through no argument of our own can we make a case for our salvation; therefore He will take care of the issue Himself.  He will provide the deliverance.

Before making the obvious turn to Jesus Christ, let me take a moment and make sure we understand the broad gestures of God’s hand. 

1. God made a promise to Abraham and introduced the concepts of faith and faithfulness.  But in Egypt the people turned away.  God had to redeem them. 
2. God brought the people out of Egypt and gave them good leaders {Moses, Joshua, Samuel, etc} but they scorned the Law and rebelled.  So God sent them to Babylon and then redeemed them. 
3. God has tried faith, and we could not handle it.  God has tried Law, and we could not handle it.  So after this second redemption God will take care of it Himself.  God will show His grace having proven that humanity is neither fully capable in matters of faith or law.  God redeems us, because we cannot do it ourselves.  This is the big picture of God’s hand at work in this world.

Jesus Really Is The Answer

So now we turn to Jesus.  As I ended the blog yesterday, so shall I end it today.  Jesus is the answer.  Jesus is the new thing that God is doing.  Jesus is the one thing that we cannot screw up because the point of Jesus is to cover our sins!  Jesus is quite literally God taking our problems into His hands and providing the one permanent solution.  All we need to do is truly accept and receive God’s solution.  Yes, part of accepting and receiving is living accordingly.

God ransomed His people out of Egypt.  God ransomed His people out of Babylon.  In Christ, God has done something new by ransoming His people out of all sin.  Thanks be to God.

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