Isaiah 43
Sunday Morning Bible Study
January 16, 2000
Introduction
The last chapter ended with God reminding Israel of how they were so deaf and blind in not paying attention to Him. As a result, they would be experiencing difficult times as a consequence of their sin.
It’s in the context of God’s disappointment with Israel that God reminds Israel that He still loves them.
:1-7 God’s Love
:1 I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.
God doesn’t just know everything, He knows you.
Oswald Chambers (1874–1917) wrote, "God knows me" is different from "God is omniscient"; the latter is a mere theological statement; the former is a child of God’s most precious possession.
:2 When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee …
waters … rivers … fire – the difficulties of life.
when – there’s no question of difficulties happening, it’s just a matter of "when".
through – God’s desire isn’t for us to go "around" these things, but "through" them.
Lesson
His presence in the fire.
Though the waters and fire can be a picture of all of life’s difficulties, I think it especially speaks of the hard times we go through as a result of doing what is right.
Illustration
Nebuchadnezzar was in the middle of an incredible head trip. He decided to make a huge golden statue and make all his people bow before the statue as an act of allegiance to him. All who refused would be thrown into a burning furnace. He had three Hebrew young men working for him who refused to bow.
(Dan 3:16-27 KJV) Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. {17} If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. {18} But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.
They knew that God was able to deliver them. But they were determined not to bow down to the idol even if God did not deliver them.
{19} Then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury, and the form of his visage was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego: therefore he spake, and commanded that they should heat the furnace one seven times more than it was wont to be heated. {20} And he commanded the most mighty men that were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and to cast them into the burning fiery furnace. {21} Then these men were bound in their coats, their hosen, and their hats, and their other garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. {22} Therefore because the king's commandment was urgent, and the furnace exceeding hot, the flame of the fire slew those men that took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. {23} And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. {24} Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonied, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counsellors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king. {25} He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.
They suffered the consequences of standing up for what was right. They even "got it" seven times more than they should have. But they weren’t alone in the fire. God promises "I will be with thee".
{26} Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace, and spake, and said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, ye servants of the most high God, come forth, and come hither. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, came forth of the midst of the fire. {27} And the princes, governors, and captains, and the king's counsellors, being gathered together, saw these men, upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them.
The only thing burnt by the fire was the ropes that had tied them.
It doesn’t always turn out like this. Some have gone through the fire straight into God’s presence. But either way, when we stand for what is right, He’s with us through the fire.
:3 I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee.
ransom – kopher – price of a life, ransom, bribe
Egypt, Ethiopia, Seba – It may be a kind of reference to Israel in the Exodus, but probably refers to the Persians conquering Egypt, Ethiopia, and southwest Arabia. After King Cyrus let the Jews go back to Israel, his son, Cambyses, conquered these areas. The idea is that God gave these lands to the Persians as a kind of payment for their releasing the Jews.
:4 thou wast precious … honourable … I have loved thee …
precious – yaqar – to esteem, be prized, be valuable, be costly
honourable – kabad – to be heavy, be weighty, be glorious
loved – 'ahab – to love; human love for another; God’s love toward man
(Isa 43:4 NLT) Others died that you might live. I traded their lives for yours because you are precious to me. You are honored, and I love you.
Lesson
You are precious to God.
God loves you so much that there are going to be times when He’s going to move in certain ways, just for your sake.
Illustration
There was a story of the father and son who worked for months to build a toy sailboat. Every night when he came home from work the man and his boy would disappear into the garage for hours. It was a labor of love—love for each other and for the thing they were creating. The wooden hull was painted bright red and it was trimmed with gleaming white sails. When it was finished, they traveled to a nearby lake for the boat’s trial run. Before launching it the father tied a string to its stern to keep it from sailing too far. The boat performed beautifully, but before long a motorboat crossing the lake cut the string, and the sailboat drifted out of sight on the large lake. Attempts to find it were fruitless, and both father and son wept over its loss.
A few weeks later as the boy was walking home from school he passed his favorite toy store and was amazed to see a toy sailboat in the window—his sailboat! He ran inside to claim the boat, telling the proprietor about his experience on the lake. The store owner explained that he had found the boat while on a fishing trip. "You may be its maker," he said, "but as a finder I am its legal owner. You may have it back—for fifty dollars." The boy was stunned at how much it would cost him to regain his boat, but since it was so precious to him he quickly set about earning the money to buy it back. Months later he joyfully walked into the toy store and handed the owner fifty dollars in exchange for his sailboat. It was the happiest day of his life. As he left the store he held the boat up to the sunlight. Its colors gleamed as though newly painted. "I made you, but I lost you," he said. "Now I’ve bought you back. That makes you twice mine, and twice mine is mine forever."
--James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1988) pp. 37-38.
:6 bring my sons from far …
Fulfilled with the return from Babylon, but even greater with the establishment of Israel as a nation in 1948 as there have been a flood of Jews coming into Israel.
Illustration
The population of Israel is now about 6.2 million (as of 12/31/99), including 5 million Jews. Back in 1949, after Israel was reborn, the population was 2.3 million. The current increase is due greatly to immigration, where just last year they had 77,000 people enter Israel, up from 60,000 the year before. The numbers of immigrants is almost as high as the number of births (total population increase of the year was 160,000). (Jerusalem Post, 12-31-99)
People are coming from all over the world to live in Israel.
:8-13 Challenge to the idols
:8 Bring forth the blind people that have eyes
The challenge is to those who are serving other gods (Is. 42:20).
:9 who among them can declare this, and show us former things?
former things – things that had been predicted and then come to pass. There is no other "god" like our God.
:11 I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour.
Lesson
Only one way.
Sounds pretty narrow-minded, doesn’t it?
(John 14:6 KJV) Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
What others will call "narrow-mindedness" is simply telling the truth. If God says that there is no other Savior apart from Him, who are we to say that He’s wrong?
Illustration
Imagine telling people that you are going to have a party at your house, that you are inviting everyone. If they want to know how to get to your house, you simply tell them, "Hey don’t worry about it, all roads lead to my house! Just get on a road and drive and you’ll get there!" How many people would show up at your party? Not very many. Only the ones who took the right streets.
Jesus says that He is the only way to the Father. No other streets make it there.
:13 Yea, before the day was I am he;
before the day – literally, from the time of the first existence of day.
(NASB) "Even from eternity I am He:14-21 The future is even better
:14 For your sake I have sent to Babylon …
(Isa 43:14 NLT) The LORD your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, says: "For your sakes I will send an invading army against Babylon. And the Babylonians will be forced to flee in those ships they are so proud of.
Babylon was situated on the Euphrates river and was joined by canal with the Tigris river. It was famous for its merchant ships until the Persian kings built dams on the river.
At the time of writing this, Babylon wasn’t even a major power yet in the world.
:16 which maketh a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters
This is probably referring to how God parted the Red Sea before Moses and the people crossed on dry land. But someone took this verse to in a different aspect:
If you recall, when Dr. Duane Gish of the Institute for Creation Research came and spoke with us, he told us about Matthew Fontaine Maury (1806-1873). Mr. Maury was a United States naval officer, and one of the founders of oceanography. Maury used this verse as a basis of his idea that there might indeed be "paths" in the ocean. He gathered information on maritime winds and collected data from the logbooks of ships captains. His work was the basis for modern oceanography as he uncovered the major currents in the oceans.
:18 Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old.
As we’ve seen, God had done incredible things in Israel’s past. There can be great value to think about the great things that God has done. But thinking about the past can sometimes sidetrack you from reaching the future.
The things in Israel’s future would be so awesome that they’d make the former things pale in comparison.
Something greater than a "Red Sea"? Something greater than wiping out Sennacherib’s army with a single angel? What could be greater?
Lesson
Don’t get stuck in the past.
(Phil 3:13-14 KJV) Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, {14} I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
I think that sometimes we think of how we ought not to focus on the negative things in our past, but sometimes the past "glories" can be just as much of a hindrance to us. A common thing among those who have been a part of Calvary Chapel for any length of time is to recall those "days of the tent". Could it be that God wants to do an even greater work in our future? I think so.
The best is yet to come.
:19 Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it?
spring forth – tsamach – to sprout, spring up, grow up. It’s a word used of plants and hair growing. This "new thing" may not be a quick, overnight sensation. It may be something that comes over time.
Lesson
Watching for God’s work
Will you see the new thing when it happens?
Sometimes we are so focused on the past, that we’re unprepared for the future.
(Luke 5:29-38 KJV) And Levi made him a great feast in his own house: and there was a great company of publicans and of others that sat down with them. {30} But their scribes and Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, Why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners? {31} And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick. {32} I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. {33} And they said unto him, Why do the disciples of John fast often, and make prayers, and likewise the disciples of the Pharisees; but thine eat and drink? {34} And he said unto them, Can ye make the children of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them? {35} But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days. {36} And he spake also a parable unto them; No man putteth a piece of a new garment upon an old; if otherwise, then both the new maketh a rent, and the piece that was taken out of the new agreeth not with the old. {37} And no man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish. {38} But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved.
Jesus was doing a new thing among the people. He ate with sinners. He feasted instead of fasted. The Pharisees had a hard time receiving it because Jesus didn’t fit their preconceived ideas of how God worked.
Illustration
Last week I went on a field trip with my son’s class to the mission at San Juan Capistrano. We took the train. On the way to SJC, the train was going backward. It was a weird feeling to be traveling 60 mph, backward. When you’re traveling backward, you’re unprepared to enjoy and anticipate the things that are coming at you. All you can do is look at what you’ve just passed by and missed. Are you riding backward or forward?
:22-28 Israel’s stubbornness
:23 I have not caused thee to serve with an offering
Though God had clearly shown Israel how to make sacrifices and to offer up prayers with incense, God never twists their arm.
:24 Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money, neither hast thou filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices
sweet cane – calamus, an aromatic plant used as one of the ingredients to make the perfumed anointing oil (Ex. 30:23), also used to bless and refresh others in hospitality. It was not native to Israel but was imported from Arabia and India. There was a cost involved.
fat – considered the best part in those days. It was always the part of the sacrifice that belonged to God.
(Isa 43:24 NLT) You have not brought me fragrant incense or pleased me with the fat from sacrifices. Instead, you have burdened me with your sins and wearied me with your faults.
Lesson
When did you last "bless" God?
We do things from time to time to "bless" those we love. We might get flowers or candy for our sweetheart. We might get up early and have a cup of coffee waiting for them when they get up. We might take time to put on a special perfume or cologne, dress a little nicer, etc. I know of people who will make up and sing a little song for their loved ones. These are all things we do to bless others. They involve a cost.
Illustration
We read last week about the woman who came and wept at Jesus’ feet and poured perfume on Him. This is a parallel event that happened later on:
(Mark 14:3-9 KJV) And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on his head. {4} And there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said, Why was this waste of the ointment made? {5} For it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and have been given to the poor. And they murmured against her. {6} And Jesus said, Let her alone; why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on me. {7} For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always. {8} She hath done what she could: she is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying. {9} Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her.
She spent a year’s wages on Jesus (300 pence). To some, it seemed like such a waste. To Jesus, it was a blessing.
John records that when she poured out the perfume, "
the house was filled with the odour of the ointment" (John 12:3). Everyone in the immediate vicinity was affected by the beauty of the gift she offered.Jesus said she would be remembered forever.
What have you done to "bless" God lately?
It might be something that will cost you financially. It might be something that will take some of your precious time. It may cost some of your pride.
:28 Therefore I have profaned the princes of the sanctuary
princes of the sanctuary – the priests. Israel’s problems would come as a result of their continued disobedience and rebellion. But keep in mind, this doesn’t change the fact that God would one day restore them!
:25 I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.
God wants to erase the marks on your record. He will forget our sins.
Lesson
Sweet forgiveness
(Jer 31:34 KJV) …for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
For some of us, the worst thing we face is a constant reminder of a particular time that we failed. We just can’t seem to get away from the memory of what we have done.
We gain access to this forgiveness by admitting to God that we have sinned and that we need His forgiveness.
(1 John 1:9 KJV) If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
(1 John 1:7 KJV) But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
God can forgive us because Jesus died on a cross to pay for our sins. And He didn’t just pay for some of our sins, He paid for them all. God offers you forgiveness. Complete forgiveness.