Isaiah 43:18

Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. REMEMBER YE NOT THE FORMER THINGS, NEITHER CONSIDER THE THINGS OF OLD. So wonderful shall be God's future interpositions in your behalf, that all past ones shall be forgotten in comparison. Plainly the future restoration of Israel is the event ultimately meant. Thus the "former things" are such events as the destruction of Sennacherib and the return from Babylon. "The things of old" are events still more ancient, the deliverance from Egypt, and at the Red Sea, and entry into Canaan (Vitringa)....

18._Remember not former things. _Hitherto the Prophet shewed how great was the power of God in delivering the people. He now declares that all the miracles which God wrought in that first redemption were of little importance as compared with the more remarkable miracle which should soon be wrought; that is, that the glory of this second deliverance shall be so great as to throw the former into the shade. Yet he does not mean that the Jews should forget so great a benefit, which he had commanded them to publish in every age, and to inscribe on permanent records; for in his preface to the Law he begins in this manner, “I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” (Exodus 20:2.) He even enjoined parents to repeat it frequently to their children, and from hand to hand to deliver it to their grandchildren and to posterity. This

14-21 The deliverance from Babylon is foretold, but there is reference to greater events. The redemption of sinners by Christ, the conversion of the Gentiles, and the recall of the Jews, are described. All that is to be done to rescue sinners, and to bring the believer to glory, is little, compared with that wondrous work of love, the redemption of man....

REMEMBER YE NOT ... - So great and wonderful shall be God’s future interpositions in your behalf, that what he has done, great as that was, shall be comparatively forgotten. THE FORMER THINGS - The deliverance from Egypt, and the overthrow of his enemies there. THE THINGS OF OLD - The things that were formerly done....

EXPOSITION ISAIAH 43:1 A RENEWED PROMISE TO ISRAEL OF PROTECTION AND DELIVERANCE. Severe rebuke (Isaiah 42:18) is followed, as so often in Isaiah (Isaiah 1:25-23; Isaiah 4:2; Isaiah 9:1, etc.), by comfort and consolation. Israel is assured that God has not cast him off, and promised the comfort of the Divine presence during the existing tribulation (verse 2), and. a speedy restorati

REMEMBER YE NOT THE FORMER THINGS,.... Just now referred to, the bringing of Israel out of Egypt, and through the Red sea, and the drowning of Pharaoh and his army in it; for though these things were worthy to be remembered with thankfulness and praise, and to the glory of God, and for the encouragement of faith, yet not in comparison of what was hereafter to be done; meaning, not the redemption from Babylon, unless as a type of spiritual and eternal redemption by Christ; for otherwise there were greater and more wonderful things done, when Israel were brought out of Egypt, than when they were brought out of Babylon; but the great salvation by the Messiah, which exceeds both the deliverances out of Egypt and Babylon, is meant: NEITHER CONSIDER THE THINGS OF OLD; unless as figures of the new, but not to be put upon a foot with them, much less to the undervaluing of them, and indeed to be...

Isaiah 43:1. _But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel,_ The Lord reminds us that he first created us, and that he afterwards molded us; we are like Jacob by nature, but he has made us Israel by grace. Isaiah 43:1. _Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine._ Redemption is a deep well of comfort. If the Lord has indeed bought us with his blood, he will not think lightly of us; and if he has called us by name, and declared that we belong to him, we may rest assured that he will not lose his own property, but that he will preserve it to the end. Isaiah 43:2. When thou passest through the

CHAPTER 43 Jehovah Speaks in Comfort to His People 1. _What Jehovah is and will be to Israel (Isaiah 43:1)_ 2. _Second address to the blind and deaf people (Isaiah 43:8)_ 3. _Jehovah deals with their enemies (Isaiah 43:14)_ 4. _Blessed things to come: They shall show forth My praise (Isaiah 43:18)_ 5. _Jehovah's loving appeal and promise to remember their sins no more (Isaiah 43:22) _ Chapter s 43-45 must be studied together. Jehovah speaks in these Chapter s as nowhere else in the prophetic Word. Note the man

YAHWEH WILL WORK FOR HIS PEOPLE A DELIVERANCE MORE WONDERFUL THAN THE EXODUS. Isaiah 43:14 is too corrupt to be translated with confidence. RV understands it to refer to a flight by water of the Babylonians from their fallen city. Yahweh recalls His people's passage through the Red Sea, when He overwhelmed the Egyptians. So much more wonderful will be His new achievement that it will be quoted instead of the Exodus as the supreme evidence of His redeeming power. He will make a road for the exiles through the wilderness, and cause rivers to spring forth in the arid desert; the wild creatures of the wilderness shall praise Him in gratitude. ISAIAH 43:15. Omit am. Isaiah 43:16. Something has b

The sequel to the overthrow of Babylon is the deliverance of Israel, the method of which is compared with the greatest miracle in Israel's past history, the exodus from Egypt....