Isaiah 43:1
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. 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.
The Lord who created Jacob and formed Israel commands His people not to fear because He has redeemed them, called them by name, and claimed them as His own. To call by name is to know and claim each person individually and personally, bringing trembling souls to Himself as belonging to Him. That belonging rests on a twofold ownership, by creation and by redemption through rescue as from Egypt and by purchase with His own blood and life. With a Shepherd's intimate knowledge He knows every soul fully, feels every distress, pities human weakness, and does not forsake His redeemed in overwhelming trial and danger but stays with them and guards them from being overcome. It is therefore His living personal word to those in affliction and mourning over sin, to those troubled by doubts about acceptance, to those trembling on the brink of the grave, and to souls sick and helpless in sin, assuring forgiveness, love, peace, and strengthening grace to dispel darkness, subdue sin, and lead them step by step.
Language and Context
The Lord who created Jacob and formed Israel commands them not to fear because He has redeemed them, called them by name, and claimed them as His own. The same assurance belongs to His people in affliction, for their deliverance rests on His care and power and He will fulfill what He has promised, even when they are robbed, held captive, trapped and without a deliverer in the last days when His law is made void and He manifests grace while magnifying the law. Calling by name expresses His personal, individual claim and knowledge, assuring trembling ones that they belong to Him and are brought to Himself. Every soul is fully known, and the Shepherd's intimate knowledge claims each one as His own.
Redemption recalls rescuing Israel from slavery in Egypt and delivering them through the sea, including judgment brought on Egypt because it would not let Israel go. The speaker of these words is Christ Himself, so that all the words of Scripture are His direct address to each individual. Its immediate context promises His presence through waters and rivers without being overwhelmed and through fire without being burned. There He reveals Himself as the Lord their God, the Holy One of Israel and their Savior, who gave Egypt, Ethiopia and Seba as a price for them because they are precious and honored and loved in His sight, and who will give other men and peoples in exchange for their life.
Its wider context calls the people to return on the ground that their transgressions and sins are blotted out as a thick cloud, and declares that they are not forgotten. It is a declaration of everlasting love and loving-kindness by which He draws them, and of everlasting kindness and mercy after hiding His face for a moment, giving assurance of pardon and peace. The chapter reveals God's purpose for His people and is to be prayerfully studied, directing them to trust the Lord alone and to take divine wisdom and redemption as guide rather than seeking wisdom from finite human beings or human strength.
God's Tender Care
The verse declares the Shepherd's intimate knowledge of His flock, for He knows each person by name and claims each as His own. Every soul is fully known to Him, with nothing hidden from His understanding. Each person's distress touches His heart, and He cares for each one as if that person were the only one on earth.
It means tender compassion toward the contrite in heart, love toward the believing and trusting soul, pity and compassion over all His creatures, and strength on behalf of those who revere Him. He is moved with sympathy toward His people when they are exposed to the temptations of a relentless foe whom they are unable in their own strength to meet. He is touched with the feeling of their infirmities and bears them up in His hands all the days of their lives.
He does not call His redeemed to follow Him and then forsake them when trouble comes. He remains with His own through overwhelming trials and danger, guarding them from being overcome. This abiding presence was shown when He was with Peter as Peter began to sink. After confessing and forsaking sin, the redeemed may rest in the comfort that He who has claimed them by name is their Lord and Saviour.
The claiming and redeeming by name reveals Christ becoming a near kinsman to redeem His people. In that kinship He redeems also the inheritance lost through sin. It is a bond closer than human family ties. That belonging includes watchful care from the earliest years of life, because He claims His people as His own by both creation and redemption.
Prophecy and Fulfillment
The chapter stands among prophecies to be fulfilled in the last days, when the divine law is made void. In that time grace is manifested to the chosen people while the law is magnified and made honorable. Its setting is a people robbed and held captive, trapped and without a deliverer, and in that condition they are assured they need not fear because they were created and formed by God, redeemed, called personally by name, and claimed as His own. That condition of captivity and plunder is connected with prophecies about to be fulfilled.
The assurance of divine presence through fire gave Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego confidence to remain loyal before Nebuchadnezzar's golden image even when faithfulness exposed them to danger. That promise was fulfilled by preserving them unharmed in the furnace. The chapter as a whole is one of assurance and promises, declaring that Jacob and Israel were created and formed by the Lord, redeemed, called by name, and claimed as His own, and therefore need not fear. Its promises give encouragement amid affliction and coming judgments, and what the Lord has promised He will fulfill.
Its meaning was enacted when Jesus addressed the trembling poor left in the temple after the priests fled. With tears and with love and sympathy in face and voice, He told them not to fear because He would deliver them and they would glorify Him, declaring that He came into the world for this cause. That personal redemption and ownership heals every disease, opens silent lips in praise, gives sight to the blind, makes hearts glad, fills minds with hope and peace, and restores soul and body. Those thus healed devote their lives to His service and sympathize with Him as Saviour, refusing to oppose Him. Through the word of God they gain understanding and become agents of divine mercy and instruments of salvation.
Belonging by Creation and Redemption
By creation and by redemption every tempted soul belongs to Christ, and belonging to him rests on this twofold ownership. Redemption means being bought with his own blood and his giving his life for his own, so that cruelty against his followers is counted as cruelty against him and they are accountable to follow the light and warnings given them.
The superior qualities with which human beings have been endowed show how high an estimate he places on them, and he has given every man, every youth and every child a work to do in accordance with his revealed will. Because they are his, misusing God-given faculties robs him of the powers he demands, and wasting opportunities and privileges robs him. Ownership means being made to stand in holy trust as his steward with sacred responsibility for the right use of every faculty, and when the mind is brought into harmony with his mind, guarded at every avenue of the soul against evil, kept free from rubbish and laid open to Christ, he brings the life to highest excellence as a partaker of the divine nature with cultivated intellect, disciplined character, faithfulness in little things, spiritual vision, and a well-cultivated vineyard to present to him.
This twofold claim calls for most thorough surrender every day to be employed by him as he thinks best, emptied of all uncleanness of spirit, self-sufficiency, self-importance and self-glorifying, doing one's best and then quietly resting without fretting over results that cannot be changed, leaving results with him who is infinite in wisdom while working usefully, hopefully and happily to glorify him. Belonging to him binds to do his will, with watchful care from the earliest years of life. While Satan and even brethren accuse tempted souls and point to their polluted garments, Christ pleads their case and speaks his ownership over them, so those criticized and condemned by others should not become discouraged. To the redeemed person he has bought and calls his own, he promises to shape that person into a treasure reflecting his character and bringing honor to his name.
Comfort in Affliction and Sickness
It is a personal word to one in affliction and mourning over sin, commanding freedom from fear because the sufferer has been redeemed, called individually by name, and claimed as His own. That claim gives assurance of forgiveness and love and belonging to rest in. Its words give comfort after confessing and forsaking sin, assuring that God is Lord and Saviour to the redeemed and called person. He remains with His own through overwhelming trials, guarding them from being overcome.
It assures those troubled by doubts and fears about acceptance that they have been redeemed, are personally known, and are claimed as His own, so they can put away distrust and believe His promises. It speaks to the one trembling with fear on the brink of the grave and to the soul weary of suffering and sin, even facing death, telling such a one not to fear. For all the words of Holy Writ are His own, so this is Jesus Christ Himself speaking directly to each individual as the living voice of the Saviour. Its words are to be repeated at the bedside to give courage and comfort to those burdened by suffering and sin.
It is the voice of Christ to the soul sick and helpless in sin, declaring that He has redeemed the sinner by buying him with His own blood, so the sinner belongs to Him. To those whose life is poisoned by sin He promises to take their sins, give peace, strengthen the weakened will by grace, and remove remorse for sin. The promise holds when temptation assails, when care and perplexity surround, when depressed and discouraged and ready to despair, and when sin struggles for mastery and burdens the conscience. Looking to Jesus dispels darkness, His grace subdues sin, He adopts the trusting one into His family, helps weakness with His strength, and leads step by step as the hand is placed in His. It calls the Lord Israel's Redeemer and gives reason to praise Him because He has redeemed His people, so remembering with thankful hearts how much He has done should lead to praise.
Trust, Repentance and Obedience
Isaiah 43 directs trust to the Lord alone rather than to human beings or human strength, calling God's people to earnest repentance with the assurance that he will strengthen his own.
Those who obey his commandments remain in the safe and right way and show their love for Christ by keeping close by his side. There the wicked one does not touch them and cannot pluck them from the Saviour's hands, while they receive clear evidence of his continual presence and unfailing love, find his promises sure, and have a very present help in trouble. When Christ stands beside his tried and tempted ones there is no failure, loss, impossibility or defeat, for they can do all things through him who strengthens them. When they seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness he opens the way before them, astonishes them with his providences, sustains them in the trial of faith, and multiplies blessing and grace to perfect faith and love.