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More Isaiah commentaries
Isaiah 40:1-17
Comfort of Restoration
Isaiah 40:18-31
Sustaining Power of God
Isaiah 41:1-16
God’s Protection of Israel
Isaiah 41:17-29
God’s Challenge to The Idols
Isaiah 42:1-9
Mission of the Servant
Isaiah 42:10-25
Discipline of the Servant
Isaiah 43:1-13
A Promise to Regather the Unworthy
Isaiah 43:14-28
Israel Promised Deliverance From Babylon
Isaiah 44:1-8
God’s Forming of Israel
Isaiah 44:9-20
Idolatry is Foolishness
Isaiah 44:21-28
Prediction of Cyrus
Isaiah 45:1-13
Vindication of the Lord
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A Promise to Regather the Unworthy
Isaiah 43:1–13
» View this passage in NIV (Bible Gateway)
Dr. Joon-Gon Kim, was a well-known Korean Christian leader. He witnessed his wife and father slaughtered before his eyes by communist sympathizers from his own village. He was beaten senseless and left for dead. He survived the beating and asked God to give him love for the … More
The Lord exhorts Israel not to fear (vv. 1-7) for their condition will show the world that He is truly the only God (vv 8-13). God had created and framed her and had redeemed her from bondage in Egypt and he will now bring her back home from Babylon in a new “Exodus.” He pictures difficult times as flood waters and fire and tells Israel they should not give up or have fear because:
Israel is God’s servant in the world and also God’s witness to the world (vv 8-13). It was their task to be a witness, telling the world who God is and what He has done. They demonstrate that He is the only God, that He existed before any god was made, and that He will continue to exist long after the last idol perishes (v. 10). Believers today share the responsibility of being God’s witness. People cannot see God directly, but they can see Him reflected in us.
Application
Israel’s task was to be a witness, telling the world who God is and what he has done. I need to remind myself that the only way some people may know what God is like is through my words and example. They cannot see God directly, but they can see Him reflected in me.
Isaiah 43:1-13 (English Standard Version)
But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. 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 burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you. Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you, I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life. Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you. I will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Do not withhold; bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made." Bring out the people who are blind, yet have eyes, who are deaf, yet have ears! All the nations gather together, and the peoples assemble. Who among them can declare this, and show us the former things? Let them bring their witnesses to prove them right, and let them hear and say, It is true. "You are my witnesses," declares the LORD, "and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me. I, I am the LORD, and besides me there is no savior. I declared and saved and proclaimed, when there was no strange god among you; and you are my witnesses," declares the LORD, "and I am God. Also henceforth I am he; there is none who can deliver from my hand; I work, and who can turn it back?"
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