The Source of Redemption: The Lord
The Enormous Price God Paid To Ransom His People
Is The Subject of The Present Scripture.
But now the
Lord who created you, O Israel, says: Don’t be afraid, for I have ransomed you;
I have called you by name; you are mine. 2When you go through deep
waters and great trouble, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of
difficulty, you will not drown! When you walk through the fire of oppression,
you will not be burned up—the flames will not consume you. 3For I am
the Lord your God, your Savior, the Holy One of Israel. I gave Egypt and
Ethiopia and Seba to Cyrusa in exchange for your freedom, as your
ransom. 4Others died that you might live; I traded their lives for
yours because you are precious to me and honored, and I love you.
5Don’t
be afraid, for I am with you. I will gather you from east and west, 6from
north and south. I will bring my sons and daughters back to Israel from the
farthest corners of the earth. 7All who claim me as their God will
come, for I have made them for my glory; I created them. 8Bring them
back to me—blind as they are and deaf when I call (although they see and
hear!).
9Gather
the nations together! Which of all their idols ever has foretold such things?
Which can predict a single day ahead? Where are the witnesses of anything they
said? If there are no witnesses, then they must confess that only God can
prophesy.
10But
I have witnesses, O Israel, says the Lord! You are my witnesses and my
servants, chosen to know and to believe me and to understand that I alone am
God. There is no other God; there never was and never will be. 11I
am the Lord, and there is no other Savior. 12Whenever you have
thrown away your idols, I have shown you my power. With one word I have saved
you. You have seen me do it; you are my witnesses that it is true. 13From
eternity to eternity I am God. No one can oppose what I do.
14The
Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, says: For your sakes I will send
an invading army against Babylon that will walk in, almost unscathed. The
boasts of the Babylonians will turn to cries of fear. 15I am the
Lord, your Holy One, Israel’s Creator and King. 16I am the Lord, who
opened a way through the waters, making a path right through the sea. 17I
called forth the mighty army of Egypt with all its chariots and horses, to lie
beneath the waves, dead, their lives snuffed out like candlewicks.
18But
forget all that—it is nothing compared to what I’m going to do! 19For
I’m going to do a brand-new thing. See, I have already begun! Don’t you see it?
I will make a road through the wilderness of the world for my people to go
home, and create rivers for them in the desert! 20The wild animals
in the fields will thank me, the jackals and ostriches too, for giving them
water in the wilderness, yes, springs in the desert, so that my people, my
chosen ones, can be refreshed. 21I have made Israel for myself, and
these my people will some day honor me before the world.
22But
O my people, you won’t ask my help; you have grown tired of me! 23You
have not brought me the lambs for burnt offerings; you have not honored me with
sacrifices. Yet my requests for offerings and incense have been very few! I
have not treated you as slaves. 24You have brought me no sweet-smelling
incense nor pleased me with the sacrificial fat. No, you have presented me only
with sins and wearied me with all your faults.
25I, yes, I alone am he who blots away your sins for my own sake and will never think of them again. 26Oh, remind me of this promise of forgiveness, for we must talk about your sins. Plead your case for my forgiving you. 27From the very first your ancestors sinned against me—all your forebears transgressed my law. 28That is why I have deposed your priests and destroyed Israel, leaving her to shame.[1]
Set Free Through the
Redeemer, the Lord Your God: A Study of Redemption, 43:1–28
The Source of
Redemption: The Lord
The Promises of The Redeemer
The Failure of God’s
People To Live Like The Redeemed
Set Free Through the
Redeemer, the Lord Your God:
A Study of
Redemption, 43:1–28
(43:1) Introduction: people can be kidnapped
to be sold as slaves, for sexual pleasure, for building up a workforce, for
revenge, or for a host of other reasons. When a ransom is demanded for the
release of the kidnapped person, the cost is usually huge.
The
enormous price God paid to ransom His people is the subject of the present
Scripture. In the previous chapter, Isaiah said that the people of his day
were continuing in their sin and refusing to turn back to the Lord. As a
result, God’s anger burned against them (42:23–25). Now we would expect
God’s hand of judgment to immediately fall upon the Israelites. We would expect
Him to abandon and destroy them. But the very opposite is true. God is
longsuffering and not willing that any person should perish and be doomed to
eternal separation from Him. With a broken heart over the people’s failure, the
Lord reached out to ransom them from both their sins and their enemies.
Remember that Isaiah had predicted the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile
of the Jewish people. But he had also predicted that the Persians would
miraculously free God’s people from their Babylonian captivity (41:1–20).
Furthermore, the Lord would set them free from all the enslavements and
bondages of this life through the coming of God’s very special Servant, the Messiah
(42:1–25). Now God declares that His people can be set free through the
wonderful redemption provided by the Lord. This is Set Free Through the Redeemer, the Lord Your God: A Study of Redemption,
43:1–28.
1. The Source of Redemption: The Lord (V.
1).
2. The promises of the Redeemer (vv.
2–21).
3. The failure of God’s people to live like the redeemed (vv. 22–28).
The Source of Redemption: The Lord
“But now the Lord who created you, O Israel, says: Don’t be afraid, for I have ransomed you; I have called you by name; you are mine.” [2] (Isaiah 43:1 TLB)
“BUT NOW [in spite of past judgments for Israel’s sins], thus says the Lord, He Who created you, O Jacob, and He Who formed you, O Israel: Fear not, for I have redeemed you [ransomed you by paying a price instead of leaving you captives]; I have called you by your name; you are Mine.” [3] (Isaiah 43:1 AMP)
The Source of Redemption is the Lord Himself. Despite Israel’s continued sin and rejection of Him, the Lord still loved His people. He still reached out in mercy and goodness to them. “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound” (Ro. 5:20). Looking ahead to the terrible hardships His people would face, the Lord wanted them to know that He would not forsake them. He would reach out to rescue them. Remember that Isaiah was predicting the Babylonian captivity, which still lay ahead for the Jews. The Lord promises to be with His people, even in the midst of such a terrifying experience as enslavement and exile. This verse is one of the great promises in the Holy Bible:
a. In the midst of their awful affliction, the people needed to remember a significant fact: the Lord Himself had created and formed them into the nation of Israel. The words created and formed are the same words used to describe the creation of man and woman (Ge. 1:1; 2:7). Thus, Israel is as much a creation of the Lord as the human race is. God has a distinctive purpose for each, a purpose that must be fulfilled, just as His Word states. Although the Israelites would be exiled and scattered throughout the Babylonian Empire, those who trusted the Lord could rest assured that He would not forget them. They were still His chosen people, created by His own hand. True, due to the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of the people, Israel’s future as a nation looked very bleak. Nothing less than extinction was staring Israel in the face.1
b. But note
how God encouraged His people: He told them two things they needed to
remember. First, He had redeemed them. In the very midst of their
hardship, they could know that God would redeem them again. Their deliverance
from the Babylonian captivity was as good as done. The day would come when they
would be set free from their bondage and sufferings. Centuries earlier, the Lord
had delivered His people from Egyptian bondage. Now He was promising to deliver
them from their captivity in Babylon. But the Lord wanted His people to know a
second fact: He knew every one of them personally and called each by name.
They were His people, and He was very concerned about them. They were bound to
Him in a unique way, for He had a very special purpose for them. Remember that
when Israel or the Jews are being discussed, their relationship to the Lord was
based upon God’s purpose for them, a threefold purpose that blessed the entire
world:
Ø
They were the people through whom God would send
His Son, the promised seed, the Lord Jesus Christ into the world.
Ø
They were the people through whom God would send
His Word, the Holy Bible, to the world.
Ø They were the people God chose to be His witnesses to the world that He is the only living and true God.
Thought 1. The source of redemption
is the Lord Himself. Only the Lord can save us from the enslavement of sin,
death, and hell. Being enslaved to sin means that we cannot keep from
sinning. All of us sin because we have inherited a depraved nature from
our parents (Ro. 5:12). Consequently, we cannot keep from
sinning. We cannot live a perfect or righteous life. And since we have
inherited a corruptible nature from our parents, we are also enslaved by death.
From the day we are born, we are ever progressing to that inevitable day when our
bodies will return to dust. But because God loves us, He has provided
redemption for us. Jesus Christ paid the ransom for us by giving His life for
us. We are redeemed by the shed blood of Christ. This is exactly what God’s
Holy Word says:
V “For all have sinned, and come short of the
glory of God; Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that
is in Christ Jesus” (Ro. 3:23–24).
V “But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of
God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and
redemption” (1 Co. 1:30).
V “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of
the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree” (Ga. 3:13).
V “In whom [Christ] we have redemption through His
blood, even the forgiveness of sins”
(Col. 1:14).
V “Looking for that blessed hope, and the
glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave Himself
for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a
peculiar people, zealous of good works” (Tit. 2:13–14).
V “Neither by the blood of goats and calves,
but by His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained
eternal redemption for us. For if the
blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean,
sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of
Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God,
purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (He. 9:12–14).
V “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not
redeemed with corruptible things, as
silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious
blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Pe. 1:18–19).
V “And they sang a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation” (Re. 5:9).[4]
1 But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.[5]
Remember, our
redeemer, our true Father in Heaven has created, formed, redeemed, and called
us by name, we are His, and this is more than enough reason to fear not, for our
Father God has said we are His.
a 43:3
to Cyrus, implied.
[1] Taylor, Kenneth Nathaniel. 1997. The Living Bible,
Paraphrased. Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House.
[2] Taylor, Kenneth Nathaniel. 1997. The Living Bible,
Paraphrased. Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House.
[3] The Amplified Bible.
1987. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
1 H.C.
Leupold. Exposition of Isaiah, Vol.1.
(Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1968), p. 78.
[4] Leadership Ministries Worldwide. 2005. Isaiah: Chapters
36–66. Vol. II. The Preacher’s Outline & Sermon Bible.
Chattanooga, TN: Leadership Ministries Worldwide.
[5] The Holy Bible:
King James Version. 1995. Electronic ed. of the 1769 edition of
the 1611 Authorized Version. Bellingham WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
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