You Are Mine! Isaiah 43, OT S1:E476

0:00Thanks for listening to The Family Bible Journey. We're glad that you are a part of our journey as we journal through the Bible. This is episode 476, Season 1 of The Family Bible Journey Old Testament Podcast. Today we're looking at Isaiah chapter 43. The title of today's podcast is You Are Mine. In our key verses for today, the entirety of Isaiah 43, where we read. But now thus says the Lord, He who created you, O Jacob, He who formed you, O Israel. Fear not for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name. You are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt is your ransom. Cush and see but in exchange for you. Because you are precious in my eyes and honored and I love you, I give men in return for you peoples in exchange for your life.

1:05Fear not for I am with you. I will bring your offspring from the east and from the west. I will gather you. I will say to the north, give up and to the south. Do not withhold. Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, everyone, who was called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made. Bring out the people who are blind yet have eyes, who are deaf yet have ears, all the nations gathered together and the peoples assemble, who among them can declare this and show us the former things. Let them bring their witnesses to prove them right and let them hear and say it is true. You are my witnesses, declares the Lord and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am He. Before me, no God was formed, nor shall there be any after me. I am the Lord and beside me there is no Savior. I declared and saved and proclaimed when there was no strange God among you. And you are my witnesses, declares the Lord and I am your God and also henceforth I am He. There is none who can

2:08deliver from my hand, I work and who can turn it back. Thus says the Lord your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. For your sake I send to Babylon and bring them all down as few fugitives, even the Caldeans and the ships in which they rejoice. I am the Lord, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King. Thus says the Lord, who makes away in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, who brings forth chariot and horse, army and warrior, they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick. Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing. Now it springs forth. Do you not perceive it? I will make away in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The wild beasts will honor me in jackals and the ostriches, for I give water in the wilderness rivers in the desert. I give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself, that they might declare my praise. Yet you did not call upon me, O Jacob, but you have been weary of me, O Israel. You have not brought me

3:13your sheep for burnt offerings, or honored me with your sacrifices. I have not burdened you with offerings or weared you with frankincense. You have not brought me sweet cane with money, or satisfied me with the fat of your sacrifices. But you have burdened me with your sins. You have weared me with your iniquities. I am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins. Put me in remembrance. Let us argue together, but forth your case that you may be proved right. Your first Father sinned, and your mediators transgressed against me. Therefore, I will profane the princes of the sanctuary, and deliver Jacob to utter destruction in Israel to reviling. This is the word of the Lord. Isaiah here declares, again, the common calamity that is going to befall the nation of Judah from Babylon. But even as he does, we want to keep in mind this idea of a prophetic perspective. But Isaiah isn't only looking into the coming centuries, he is looking forward in time

4:16by the Holy Spirit's power into the coming millennia, the time of the church, the time of Christ, even beyond that into glory where he gets to see even the blessings of God's people in heaven. And as he sees these things and witnesses these things and gets to watch in a way that we can't understand the future unfold and sees the wonderful love of God in the extent of the love of God. What we really want to focus on in this chapter is that very first verse where I have it highlighted in red, green and blue as a most important passage. I also have it marked with a red chiro. Am I know on chapter 43 verse 1, is simply you are the Lord's. And then I also have a note on verse 4 where it says, you are precious in God's eyes. So important for us, even as God's sinful people, when we question whether or not he could possibly love us because of our sin that he does simply for his own names sake. And this is made abundantly clear in this chapter, even though Isaiah is going to be describing many of the difficult things that are going to be fall God's people.

5:20He's going to recall some of the difficulties that they've been through in the past, but through it all, they are the Lord's people. And he is working to redeem them, even though they don't deserve it. I have red chiro's by the way on many verses in this chapter for those of you who are journaling with us. I got one on verse 1, as we've already mentioned, verses 4 and 5, verse 7 is also marked with the red chiro, verses 11, 14, 15, 19, 21, and the last four verses of the chapter, verses 25 through 29. Now in this chapter, again, we see God being faithful to his people throughout this chapter, even though Isaiah describes some of the difficult things that they have come through and some of the difficult things that they are going to go through. In verse 5, I have a note that there is no greater joy than for a parent to know that they are going to get to spend eternity with their children. And this is made abundantly clear for us in that verse because God talks about his faithfulness

6:20to the offspring of Israel. And there is going to be a deportation, an exile of the people of Judah. But after that time, God promises here in verse 6 that he is going to bring them back to their own land. And we hear in this chapter also that echoes of the Exodus. And the Exodus, as we have mentioned many times in the podcast, but not here recently, is the biggest, most profound and often cited metaphor for redemption that we see throughout the Old Testament because God literally takes his people out of the land of slavery, delivers them from Pharaoh, washes them clean in the red sea of the pursuing armies of Pharaoh, and then brings them into a promised land despite their continued rebellion and sinfulness against the Lord. And we are going to see also this idea of exile and return. This is another dominant metaphor that we are going to see throughout the prophets, especially those who are writing even before the time of the exile because this is going to become the most formative event in the nation

7:26of Israel and the first millennia BC. We had the era of the kings right around 1000 highlighted in King David, who was on the throne during the year 1000 BC. And the deportation into exile, that is going to happen at about 586 BC. And God's people are not going to be allowed to return that into Jerusalem until over 50 years later. And so this is going to be the dominant, most formative time in the nation of Israel from the time of the kings until the time of Christ. In Isaiah as a prophet, who lives about 150 years, between 100 and 150 years before the exile, and is prophesying actively 100 years, at least before this exile is going to happen. He is allowed by God to see the future and literally lay it out. Tell them what is going to happen in advance so that when God's people are in exile and they're returning to the Lord and they're

8:27reading these scriptures and they see fulfilled the literal words of the prophet Isaiah in their lifetimes. This is given them as a wonderful gift because God is demonstrating in these events his mighty power to save. And just as that first verse really kind of sets off this chapter, I also have verse 25 highlighted in red grain and blue as a most important passage. Where it says, I am he who blots out your transgressions from my own sake and I will not remember your sins. This is the hope of God's Old Testament people back then. This is the hope of God's New Testament people today because every single one of us is sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And we hold on to these promises and we cherish the fact that we are the Lord's beloved children. He has redeemed us. He has made us his own even though we don't deserve it. And this is basis. This is the hope of our salvation.

9:29Thanks again for listening. If you heard something that was a blessing to you, share it. Let others know the good news of God's redeeming loving Christ Jesus. You just never know how God could use such a simple gesture to make an eternal difference in somebody's life. Our blessing for today. May you ever remember that you are the Lord's child, created, formed, loved, and redeemed because he has called you and you are his now and forever. Amen.