Isaiah 43:8-13

b. TO BE A PROCLAIMER

TEXT: Isaiah 43:8-13

8

Bring forth the blind people that have eyes, and the deaf that have ears.

9

Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the peoples be assembled; who among them can declare this, and show us former things? let them bring their witnesses, that they may be justified; or let them hear, and say, It is truth.

10

Ye are my witnesses, saith Jehovah, and my servant whom I have chosen; that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.

11

I, even I, am Jehovah; and besides me there is no saviour.

12

I have declared, and I have saved, and I have showed; and there was no strange god among you: therefore ye are my witnesses, saith Jehovah, and I am God.

13

Yea, since the day was I am he; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who can hinder it?

QUERIES

a.

Who are the blind and deaf challenged in verse eight?

b.

Why is God so concerned about Israel's witnessing?.

PARAPHRASE

I, Jehovah, challenge the blind heathen to bring forth their gods and their soothsayers who claim they can see and hear supernatural things. Gather all the heathen nations as one; who among their gods can proclaim anything like My present prediction of the restoration of My people Israel? To prove that they can, let them cite former events which they predicted and which had really taken place, Let them present their eyewitnesses of such earlier prophecies and so prove themselves to be gods by substantiating the truthfulness of their claims. But I call you, Israel, as witness of the historical facts concerning My infallible knowledge of the future, says Jehovah. You have been Mine in a special, miraculous relationship and you can certainly testify to that experience of service. You, Israel, have enough evidence to know and believe that I Am the only God there is. There was no god before Me and there shall be none after Me. I, indeed I, am Jehovah; there is no other saviour. I have declared My power and have shown you My power by My great saving acts among you. This demonstrated to you that there was no foreign god who could claim to be a god. You have seen My deeds, you know that I am God, and therefore, you, Israel, are My witnesses. As long as time has existed, from the first day of time and before that, I Am; there are no other gods anywhere; there is no one to stop what I wish to do.

COMMENTS

Isaiah 43:8-10 MESSENGER: Israel was called by God to be His servant as a testimony among the nations of Jehovah's sovereignty (cf. Exodus 19:5; Deuteronomy 4:6-7; Deuteronomy 14:2; Deuteronomy 26:18; Deuteronomy 28:10; Psalms 135:4; Leviticus 20:24-26; Deuteronomy 7:6). The passage before us deals with God's call to this servanthood. Israel had not fulfilled her purpose (cf. Amos 3:9-11; Jeremiah 2:9-13; Jeremiah 18:13), she out-heathened the heathen. She was given the land of Canaan to show the heathen nations the holiness of God, but she became more unholy than the heathen around her! Now, Isaiah, speaking for Jehovah, is calling for a remnant of Israel to turn again to this God-oriented purpose.

The blind and the deaf are the Gentiles who claim they have eyes and ears to see and hear what is truth through their idols and diviners. But Jehovah challenges them to gather all the idols and soothsayers of all the nations on the earth and bring forth evidence of their abilities. God has challenged the heathen gods many times before (Moses and the Egyptian magicians; Elijah and the prophets of Baal) and He makes the challenge many times after this (Isaiah 44:9 f; Daniel 1-6, etc.). God is predicting, through His prophet Isaiah, the captivity and restoration of Israel. Which one of the heathen gods Israel has adopted is able to infallibly foretell the future like Jehovah? The false prophets of Israel are continually insisting that no captivity will come to them (cf. Micah 3:9-12). If the heathen gods Israel worships are gods, let them bring a record of their prophetic successes of the past. How many historical events have they foretold and seen fulfilled? Jehovah is not afraid of such a challenge for He knows they are not gods (Jeremiah demonstrated the impotence of the false prophets when he challenged the predictions of Hananiah, Jeremiah 28:1-17). The god of Israel is the only God of truth. He alone has the truth. He alone knows righteousness and holiness. Israel is the only messenger of truth and righteousness, but they have rejected this servanthood for false gods. The challenge to the nations to amalgamate all their powers and present the best opposition they can to the sovereignty of Jehovah is much like the challenge in Joel 2:30 to Joel 3:21 (see our comments there in Minor Prophets, by Butler, College Press).

The heathen opposition has no witnesses and no evidence. But Jehovah has. Israel is God's witness. In fact, this is their destiny. Israel is not called to be a mighty worldly power dominating other nations and exercising world-empire. That never was Israel's destiny and never shall be. The new Israel, the church, is not of this world. Israel testified by her very existence and was called to testify by her deeds and words that Jehovah is the only God. Leupold says, Monotheism is Israel's most precious insight. Whatever indications along this line had begun to glimmer here and there in divine revelation, all this now comes to clear expression and is finalized by our prophet. God had chosen Israel to be His servant, to be the instrument through which He could manifest His power and glory and holiness to all the earth. Israel had plenty of empirical proof of Jehovah's sovereignty. There was no reason for Israel not to know and believe there was only One God! But Israel set aside reason in favor of greed, lust and pride. For this the prophets often characterized their countrymen as irrational, stupid, perverse, self-willed, stubborn (cf. Ezek. ch. 2 & 3, etc.). The prophets did preserve a small remnant of faithful who did become witnesses in all the earth to the sovereignty of Jehovah. The dispersion of these faithful by the Persians, Greeks and Romans prepared the way for the preaching of the gospel all over the world in the first century A.D.

Isaiah 43:11-13 MESSAGE: The absolute sovereignty of Jehovah is the message Israel is to proclaim. They are witnesses to it. They have seen and heard first-handfor that is what a witness is. A witness does not tell what he thinks or feelshe tells what he has seen and heard. What Israel has seen is only Jehovah can save. Jehovah demonstrated to the sensory organs of man (eyes, ears, touch, etc.) that He alone saves. Jehovah did not reveal His saving power to Israel in a systematic philosophyHe revealed it in deeds, events, in the historical, human frame-of-reference. He also demonstrated experientially that none of the gods of man, none of the pagan idols, could save. Therefore, Israel must be God's witness. God has not revealed Himself so precisely and extensively to any other people. God has no other witnesses. Isaiah knows about such a manifest destiny. When Isaiah was in the temple, God asked, Who will go for us, whom shall I send? (cf. Isaiah 6).

There cannot be another witness and there cannot be another God. There is only one God. He is from everlasting to everlasting. He had no beginning and has no end. Where is there one who can gainsay that!? God may be morally rejected and disobeyed, but His eternal power and deity cannot rationally be denied (cf. Romans 1:16 f). Philosophy, science or psychology can never disprove the existence of God. Men would have to know everything there is to know, have existed everywhere there is existence in order to absolutely disprove God. So far, all the evidence proves beyond any reasonable doubt, that Jehovah does exist and none can deliver out of His hand and none can hinder whatever He wants to do!

QUIZ

1.

What does the Bible say in other books about Israel's call?

2.

What is God's challenge to the heathen concerning their gods?

3.

Where has another challenge to pagan powers like this been issued in the prophets?

4.

If there was plenty of evidence for Israel to witness the sovereignty of God, why didn-'t she?

5.

What is a witness?

6.

How did Israel qualify as a witness?

7.

Why must Israel be God's witness?