Isaiah 43:14-21

c. TO BE A PROTOTYPE

TEXT: Isaiah 43:14-21

14

Thus saith Jehovah, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: For your sake I have sent to Babylon, and I will bring down all of them as fugitives, even the Chaldeans, in the ships of their rejoicing.

15

I am Jehovah, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King.

16

Thus saith Jehovah. who maketh a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters;

17

who bringeth forth the chariot and horse, the army and the mighty man (they lie down together, they shall not rise; they are extinct, they are quenched as a wick):

18

Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old.

19

Behold, I will do a new thing; now shall it spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.

20

The beasts of the field shall honor me, the jackals and the ostriches; because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen,

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the people which I formed for myself, that they might set forth my praise.

QUERIES

a.

How does Babylon enter into the picture here?

b.

What way does Jehovah make in the sea?

c.

What are the rivers in the desert?

PARAPHRASE

A prediction! Your Covenant-God, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, says, For you I have decreed the doom of Babylon. I have determined to send an army to Babylon to execute My decree and I will defeat them and send them all fleeing like fugitives in the merchant ships and battle ships they are so proud of now. Though you are about to go into captivity and be without a human king, I want you to know I am Jehovah, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your only real and everlasting King. It is Jehovah who says all this; the God who makes pathways in the seas as He did through the Red Sea when He delivered your forefathers from Egypt. Jehovah was the One who brought that great Egyptian army with its horses and chariots to its grave in the sea. Jehovah literally extinguished the enemies of His people there, like a man blows out a lamp. But, do not let your minds dwell on the past to the point that you wish you could go back to those days. Look! That is nothing compared with what I am going to do! I am going to do something completely new; in fact, I have already begun it. Do you not recognize what I am starting to do? I am beginning to make drastic changes that will affect the whole world. I am going to give living water to a desert-type world of humanity through my servant-people, my chosen, as they testify to My redemptive acts.

COMMENTS

Isaiah 43:14-17 OPPRESSOR DEFEATED: God makes a prophetic decree. He dooms Babylon, the oppressor of His covenant remnant, before Judah is taken captive. Babylon is already looming on the political horizon as a pagan world power standing in opposition to God's redemptive people (cf. comments on chapter 39, Vol. II). How does Jehovah send to Babylon and bring them down? Apparently this is a prophecy of the Persian conquest of Babylon. It was the Persians who after conquering Babylon, decreed and financed the return of the Jews to Palestine (see our comments, Daniel, College Press, Chapter s 7-9). The Persians served as God's instrument to execute His deliverance of Judah. There is a great deal of irony in the predicted Babylonian fall. They will flee like fugitives. Once proud, secure, self-sufficient, powerful Babylon who made so many flee their homelands as fugitives will suffer the same fate (see Habakkuk's description of the fall of Babylon). Even more ironic, the great fleet of merchant ships and navy vessels which made Babylon so rich and powerful, and which brought so much gladness to the hearts of the Babylonians, will be jammed full of terrified, fleeing fugitives. The Chaldeans, like the Assyrians, had mighty warrior kings. They were rich, powerful and pompous. They were feared and idolized by all the world. But Israel's king is King of kings! He is Jehovah, Creator, Judge, Holy One and Redeemer. Though Israel might appear to be without a king during the captivity in Babylon, her King would demonstrate His power time and time again (cf. Daniel 2:47; Daniel 3:28; Daniel 4:37; Daniel 6:25-27). Finally, He would demonstrate His sovereignty in the restoration of the nation under Ezra, Zerubbabel and Nehemiah (cf. 2 Chronicles 36:22-23; Ezra 1:1-4). The way in the sea in Isaiah 43:16-17 is a metaphorical allusion to Jehovah's deliverance of the children of Israel through the Red Sea under the leadership of Moses. Just as Jehovah overcame natural obstacles and powerful, wicked human oppressors when He delivered Israel from Egypt, so He will deliver Israel from her captivities under Assyria and Babylon. That mighty Egyptian army with its chariots of war, before which Israel trembled and cringed, lay extinct at the bottom of the Red Sea. So, Jehovah will snuff out the mighty Babylonian empire in one night! (cf. Daniel 5:1-30).

Isaiah 43:18-21 OPPRESSED DELIVERED: But, as grand and glorious as these great national deliverances are, they are warned they should not let their hopes rest on them. God is going to do a new thing much more glorious. The new thing is apparently not just the deliverance from the Babylonian captivity, though that is its starting place. It must be more than that for the deliverance from captivity is not any more glorious than the exodus from Egypt. The new thing in itself is the wondrous new redemption accomplished in the death and resurrection of the Messiah (cf. Isaiah 42:9-10; Isaiah 48:6; Isaiah 62:2; Isaiah 65:17; Isaiah 66:22; Ezekiel 11:19; Ezekiel 36:26; Ezekiel 18:31, for the new thing God is going to do in the messianic kingdom). Even now it was beginning to be apparent to those who had the faith to see it. The revelations of Ezekiel (40-47) and Daniel (7-12) graphically outlined the mission of Israel as prototypical of the redemption for all mankind from their captivity in sin. Men of faith, like Daniel, recognized that God was already beginning to do this new thing. They anxiously desired to know when it would come to its completion (cf. Daniel 12:5 f; 1 Peter 1:10-12). The figurative language describing a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, is a favorite vehicle of prophetic literature to describe the messianic blessedness (cf. Isaiah 19:23; Isaiah 35:1-10; Isaiah 51:3, etc.). When God shall have finally and fully regenerated men, nature itself shall also be redeemed (cf. Romans 8:18-25). This, too, is a much used expression of the prophets to show that, as Keil and Delitzsch say, when the sufferings of the people of God shall be brought to an end, the sufferings of creation will also terminate; for humanity is the heart of the universe, and the people of God (understanding by this the people of God according to the Spirit) are the heart of humanity. In other words, the consummation of God's redemptive work will result in the reclamation of men and nature which were cursed in the garden of Eden because of sin. God is working in regenerate men by the power of the gospel received and lived by faith. Regenerated man will then be at harmony with his God, himself and God's creation. At this point, God will redeem his natural creation and create a new heaven and a new earth (2 Peter 3:13). Thus, Paradise will be restored. But it is not the surroundings, the natural environment that is significant. God can make that over by sheer force. He has made man with a free will to choose his own destiny. The remaking of man is all important. Heaven will not be heaven so much for that natural place in which we find ourselves as that nature which is found in us. No better commentary on Isaiah 43:21 can be found than that in 1 Peter 2:9: But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

QUIZ

1.

How did God send to Babylon and bring them down?

2.

What is the irony in the prediction of Babylon's fall?

3.

Why tell Israel not to remember the former things?

4.

What is the new thing?

5.

Why mention the beasts of the field honoring Jehovah?

6.

When did Israel finally fulfill its purpose to set forth the praise of Jehovah?