February 6, 2015
Isaiah 43:1-3; 41:10
(All scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated.)
God Intimately Knows Us! is the name of this series, presented with the featured scriptures from Isaiah in reverse order, Isaiah 43:1 through 3 and 41:10:
…thus says the LORD, who created you…and He who formed you…“Fear
not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are Mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers,
they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not
be burned; nor shall the flame scorch you. For I am the LORD your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior….Fear not for I am with you; be not dis-
mayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will
uphold you with My righteous right hand.”
We looked at the first two verses of Isaiah 43 in the last two blogs, and discovered in verse 1 why God said “Fear not….” God created our first parents and then redeemed mankind from sin by sending His own Son Jesus Christ to be our Savior. To be redeemed is “…to be bought out of the slave-market of sin!” The Lord bought us with the price of His own blood! We no longer belong to anyone but Him! We Christians ourselves have no real claim to our own lives! And in verse 2 we saw the result of God’s redemption and ownership, all based on the previous experience of the Israelites through history:
• “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you…” (see Exodus 14:15-17; 23; 28).
• “When you pass…through the rivers, they shall not overflow you.” (see Joshua 3:15-17).
• “When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned; nor shall the flame scorch you.” (see Daniel 3:24-26).
Now on to verse 3!
• “For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior….” God, being holy, can do no evil, nothing bad! It says in James 1:17, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”
Paul wrote in Romans 8:32, “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” From the context, it is obvious that all things means all good things! The apostle presents here an argument from logic – from the greater to the lesser: If God would not hold back from giving us the greater (the greatest!) – His own Son dying for our sins – then surely He will give us all other good things, since anything else constitutes a lesser gift!
The greater gift is emphasized here in Isaiah 43:3 when God said “For I am…your Savior….”
• For the sake of space, I did not write out the last part of Isaiah 43:3 and on into verse 5. But I quote it here:
I gave Egypt for your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in your place. Since you
were precious in My sight, you have been honored, and I have loved you;
therefore I will give men for you, and people for your life. Fear not, for I
am with you….
Now here is an eye-opener! We are worth more to God as His children than entire godless nations! In verse 4 above God said of Israel “…you were precious in My sight….” Christians today are no less precious to God because we are His children through faith in Jesus Christ. (see John 1:12). What about the godless nations? In Isaiah 40:15 it is written, “Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket, and are counted as the small dust on the balance; look, He lifts up the isles as a very little thing.” I’ll bet you didn’t know where the phrase “a drop in a bucket” came from! As far as “…the small dust on the balance…,” the nations are not even equal in God’s eyes to respectable-sized dust – just small dust, so small it does not even change the sensitive weight on the balance!
So when God tells us we are precious in His sight, WE ARE!
Is it any wonder that He reminds us again at the beginning of verse 5: “Fear not, for I am with you…”? Why should we ever be afraid? God Intimately Knows Us!
We will finish this series in Monday’s blog.