Isaiah's prophesy here was addressed to the exiled people of Israel - to a whole people, not to individuals.  It gives us a picture of what kind of God Israel was dealing with and, since God never changes, what kind of God today's nations, the church and individual people are dealing with today, whether they know it or not.

 

v.1.  

     But now, this is what the Lord says –

      he who created you, O Jacob

      he who formed you, O Israel:

    “Fear not, for I have redeemed you;

      I have summoned you by name; you are mine.

Isaiah begins this section with a reminder that the message is from God, not something Isaiah himself has concocted.  He reminds the people of who God is – the God who created the people and who brought Israel into being.  The nation was not there because of its own talents and cleverness, or for its own purposes, but because God planned it and brought it into being.  The same applies to all of God’s people today – whether Jew or ‘gentile’.  We are all part of God’s plan and subject to him.

‘Fear not’ – we have nothing to be afraid of when we know and trust God.  He cares for us.  It is not that he will always keep us in absolute physical safety.  We know that the Israelites, and Christians today, meet physical dangers and are as likely to be seriously injured or killed as anyone else.  God does not usually intervene and suspend his natural laws.  He gives us the strength, emotionally and spiritually [and at times also physically] to cope with the situation.  When we trust in him, there is nothing that can damage the relationship we have with him.  There is nothing that will take away his love for us.  We are never alone.  This is expressed beautifully also in Romans 8:35 – 39:  Then what can separate us from the love of Christ? …… For I am convinced that there is nothing in death or life, in the realm of the spirits or superhuman powers, in the world as it is or the world as it shall be, in the forces of the universe, in heights or depths – nothing in all creation that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. [NEB]

‘I have redeemed you’ [NEB: I have paid your ransom].  For Israel this was a reminder of how God led them out of slavery in Egypt and set them up as his favoured nation.  For Christians, we are reminded of the sacrifice made by Christ in taking on his shoulders and accepting the responsibility for all the wrongdoing of humanity, making it possible for us to come into God’s presence as his beloved children.  In being crucified and giving up his life Christ took a punishment that each one of us should rightly deserve so that we would not need to suffer such punishment for our wrongdoing.  He certainly paid our ransom.

‘I have summoned/ called you by name’.  God called his people Israel to be his own people.  Today he calls his church to be his own people also.  And he calls each one of us ‘by name’.  God sees each person as unique; each of us has our own name.  Names are important.  How do we feel if someone calls us by the wrong name?  It seems as if we are not important enough to that person for him/her to get our name right!  But God always gets our name right.  We belong to God and to each other as part of his family.

‘You are mine’.  God has stated his claim.  But it is a loving claim, following on from the reminders not to fear, that God has ransomed us and that he knows us intimately and has called us to belong to him. It reads as if it ought to go along with a great big hug!

v.2.  

    When you pass through the waters,

        I will be with you;

     and when you pass through the rivers,

       they will not sweep over you.

     When you walk through the fire,

       you will not be burned;

       the flames will not set you ablaze.

Walking through waters and passing through rivers: here is a strong reminder to the Israelites in exile of how God had already brought them out of an earlier exile in Egypt – safely even through waters and rivers.

How God looks after us.  Can we take these words at face value?  Although there are apparently people who have had experiences of being kept safe or rescued by supernatural means from physical dangers such as those mentioned here, most of the time it doesn’t happen without human intervention.  God usually uses other people to bring about rescues from physical danger.  And of course, there are times when rescue just doesn’t happen.  So what do these words mean?

We sometimes use descriptions such as these to describe the difficulties of living.

‘When you pass through the waters’  [NEB:  When you pass through deep waters].  How often do we allow ourselves to get into ‘deep water’? Or say we’re ‘in over our heads’?  Sometimes such things happen through no fault of our own – though often it is our own fault.  In any case, we can be sure that God is in there with us and is willing to help us cope with the situation or even find a way out.

Being swept away [NEB] or overwhelmed [NRSV] by the waters of a flooded river when crossing it.  Sometimes we set out on a course of action which seems reasonable and safe, only to find that it sets off a torrent of events that we didn’t expect.  It is when the unexpected happens that we get upset and tend to be overwhelmed.  When we put our trust in God, we can be helped to hold on in the midst of an unexpected situation, to pause, find a quiet place and think things through - like grabbing a passing log and hanging on, floating with the current until an opportunity arises to help us out of the water.  God promises us that, if we trust him, we will not be overwhelmed by difficult situations or by the day-to-day business of life.

‘You will not be burned’  We know the damage done to human beings who suffer from burns.  We have seen the scars that are left.  I have a small scar on my hand that is left from a speck of hot cooking oil that spattered onto it maybe twenty or more years ago.  That was a very minor burn, but the scar is still there.  God promises that troubles that seem like trials by fire can be endured and leave no scars when we trust in him.  We will not be set ablaze or consumed [NRSV] by anger, resentment, need for revenge, remorse, guilt or any of the other emotions that can eat away at us and leave emotional scars that will prevent us from living effective and satisfying lives.

v.3.  

     For I am the Lord, your God,

       the Holy One of Israel, your Saviour;

     I give Egypt for your ransom,

       Cush and Seba in your stead.

‘I am the Lord’. God is in charge. This universe is God's.  We can have confidence in his ability to do what he says he will do, because he has absolute power. He is to be respected and obeyed, because he is Lord.

‘…your God’  God is not some mysterious alien deity.  He entered into an agreement with the people of Israel to be their God.  Even though they may not have kept their side of the contract very well, God does not break promises.  Since Jesus died and rose again, that agreement has been extended to include all those who believe in Christ Jesus.  God is the God of each one of us and of his church as well as the God of the Israelites, even when we are disobedient and let him down, as the Israelites did so often.  God remains faithful to the promises he made.

God is the Holy One.  There is nothing we can ever do to be good enough to deserve the wonderful gifts God gives us.  There is nothing we can do, no matter how hard we try, to earn the right to be in a relationship with him.  It is only because of his love and his willingness to look past our weakness and indiscretions that these things are possible for us.

God is willing to pay a great price to make it possible for his people to be in relationship with him.  To be willing to give up the great nations of Egypt, Cush [NEB: Nubia; NRSV: Ethiopia ] and Seba [ wherever that was!] for the little nation of Israel must have seemed for the exiled people of Israel to indicate willingness to make a mighty sacrifice for them.  We know now that God was willing to make an even greater sacrifice and did so in Jesus giving up his earthly life – God gave up his only begotten son, not only for the love of the Israelites, but for the whole world.  [John 3: 16]

Quest Study Bible note, p 998.  This text implies that God allowed Persia to conquer these surrounding nations in exchange (ransom) for Persia’s allowing the Jews to return home.  As several of the prophets pointed out, every nation had its own sins to pay for.

New Bible Commentary, p 658.  …the other side of the matter is that the nations will gain from Israel far more than they lose [cf 42:1-9], and that her ultimate ransom must be a very different victim [cf 53:5-6]

v.4.  

  Since you are precious and honoured in my sight,

      and because I love you;

   I will give men in exchange for you,

     and people in exchange for your life.

 

NEB:  You are more precious to me than the Assyrians,

             you are honoured and I have loved you,

             I would give the Edomites in exchange for you,

             and the Leummim for your life.

 

NLT:  Others died that you might live.  I traded their lives for yours because you are precious to me.  You are honoured, and I love you.

Following on from the previous thought, this again stresses God’s love for Israel.  It does not suggest that God did not love the other nations, but that, no matter how much he loves others, he loves his own people – those who love him, trust him and worship him – even more.

vs.5, 6. 

         Do not be afraid, for I am with you;

            I will bring your children from the east

           and gather you from the west.

         I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’

           and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’

        Bring my sons from afar

           and my daughters from the ends of the earth –

Isaiah reiterates that God does not intend his people to be filled with fear, even in circumstances that seem hopeless, as it must have seemed to the Israelites exiled in Persia.

The prophesy of the gathering of their descendants from all over the world has been interpreted in different ways:

a.  the future return of the Jews to Israel

b.  Quest Study Bible note, p 999.  a future gathering when the Root of Jesse [the Messiah] draws together the scattered remnant of Israel

c.  the coming of Jesus

d.  the coming of the Holy Spirit for people from all over the world at Pentecost

v.7.  

    everyone who is called by my name,

       whom I created for my glory

       whom I have formed and made.”

NLT:  All who claim me as their God will come, for I have made them for my glory.  It was I who created them.

Does this prophesy refer to a time even further in the future, when kingdom of God will be present on earth and all people will acknowledge God as their God [and Jesus as Lord]?  Isaiah may not have intended it to be understood like that when he presented this prophesy, but God is the God of past, present and future.  The message given to Isaiah is available today for us to consider in the light of our own situations and can give us hope for the future.