Behold Your Redeemer! - Isaiah 43:14-44:8

Let’s begin today by reading God’s word together, beginning in Isaiah 43, at verse 14.

[14] Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:

“For your sake I send to Babylon and bring them all down as fugitives, even the Chaldeans, in the ships in which they rejoice.

[15] I am the LORD, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King.” 

[16] Thus says the LORD, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters,

[17] who brings forth chariot and horse, army and warrior; they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick:

[18] “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old.

[19] Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?

I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

[20] The wild beasts will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches,

for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people,

[21] the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise.

[22] “Yet you did not call upon me, O Jacob; but you have been weary of me, O Israel!

[23] You have not brought me your sheep for burnt offerings, or honored me with your sacrifices.

I have not burdened you with offerings, or wearied you with frankincense.

[24] You have not bought me sweet cane with money, or satisfied me with the fat of your sacrifices.

But you have burdened me with your sins; you have wearied me with your iniquities.

[25] “I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.

[26] Put me in remembrance; let us argue together; set forth your case, that you may be proved right.

[27] Your first father sinned, and your mediators transgressed against me.

[28] Therefore I will profane the princes of the sanctuary, and deliver Jacob to utter destruction and Israel to reviling.

[44:1]  “But now hear, O Jacob my servant, Israel whom I have chosen!

[2] Thus says the LORD who made you, who formed you from the womb and will help you:

Fear not, O Jacob my servant, Jeshurun whom I have chosen.

[3] For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground;

I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.

[4] They shall spring up among the grass like willows by flowing streams.

[5] This one will say, ‘I am the LORD's,’ another will call on the name of Jacob,

and another will write on his hand, ‘The LORD's,’ and name himself by the name of Israel.”

[6] Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel and his

Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god.

[7] Who is like me? Let him proclaim it.

Let him declare and set it before me, since I appointed an ancient people.

Let them declare what is to come, and what will happen.

[8] Fear not, nor be afraid; have I not told you from of old and declared it?

And you are my witnesses!  Is there a God besides me?  There is no Rock; I know not any.” 

I performed a search for the word “redeem” in the ESV Bible.  What I found was very surprising.  According to the ESV Online website, the word “redeem” or “Redeemer” or “redeemed” is used in the ESV translation 119 times.  In the entire New Testament, the word is found only 9 times.  So 110 of the 119 occurrences of the word “redeem” are in the Old Testament.

“Redeem” is used 20 times in the Psalms, which is not surprising.  But in the book of Isaiah, that word is used 26 times, more than any other book in the Bible.  23 of those 26 occurrences in Isaiah are in chapters 41 through 63.  So out of 119 occurrences of “redeem” in the entire ESV Bible, 26 of them occur between Isaiah 41 and Isaiah 63.  Half of those 26 references are direct references to God as “the Redeemer” of Israel.  And it is understood that every occurrence of the word “redeemed” is a reference to the work God has done as the Redeemer.  In other words, the last half of the book of Isaiah is about God’s redemption of His people, and it makes that point emphatically.

So we should ask the question, “What does the word “redeem” mean?  When I think about redeeming something, I think of cutting coupons out of the newspaper to take to the grocery store.  We redeem the coupons and get money back for the products we purchase.  Some credit cards give “Thank You Points” for certain purchases.  You accumulate so many points over a period of time and then redeem them for goods or services or gift cards.  Some people accumulate “Sky Miles” when they travel, and redeem those miles in order to fly free to Disneyland with their family.  That is usually what we think of when we use the word “redeem”.  We’re cashing in credits for things we’ve already purchased.

But what does the Bible mean when it talks about redemption?  Sometimes it means the same thing as it does to most of us today.  It simply means to buy something back, like a piece of property or real estate or a “cash back” refund.  But in the Bible the word “redeem” usually, it has a much more significant meaning:

“. . . to ransom; to liberate or rescue from captivity or bondage, or from any obligation or liability to suffer or to be forfeited, by paying an equivalent . . . .” [1]

It is in some ways comparable to salvation.  God, through the prophets, repeatedly reminds the Jews of their redemption from their 400 years of bondage in Egypt and that is likened to a kind of salvation.  In verses 16 & 17 here in chapter 43, Isaiah recounts God’s parting of the Red Sea and the destruction of Pharaoh’s army in order to redeem His people by delivering them from their enemies.  In that way, God redeemed Israel.  In verses 3 & 4 of chapter 43, God says to Judah:

[3] For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.  I give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you.  [4] 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.  (Isaiah 43:3-4 ESV)

This is a kind of redemption that God performs for Israel again and again.  They are entrapped and enslaved and subjugated by the nations around them again and again.  But God says, 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.  That is one meaning of the word redemption.  It is a political and social and national redemption from the Gentiles.  They are redeemed from Egypt, and from the Philistines, and from the Assyrians, and eventually, after 70 years of exile, they will be redeemed from Babylon.

But there is another side to redemption directly related to their national redemption which the Jews of the Bible largely missed because they could not see the connection between the condition of their hearts and the political condition of their nation.  “In Scripture, [the word “redeem” means] to redeem from the bondage of sin, and from the punishment to which sinners are subjected by the divine law." [2]   In other words, if it were not for their love of sin, there would be no bondage of Israel to the Egyptians or the Assyrians or the Babylonians or anyone else.  Slavery to sin leads to slavery to the nations.

Peace talks are beginning yet again in the Middle East between Israel and the Palestinians.  As everyone knows (everyone who can find the nation of Israel on a map), Israel is a very small place.  It is commonly understood that there are more Jews in New York than there are in the entire nation of Israel.  The country is so small it would fit inside the state of New Jersey.  The nation of Israel is one-sixteenth the size of California.  And it is completely surrounded by nations that long for the day when they cease to exist.  The president of Iran seems to be making significant strides toward the total obliteration of Israel with nuclear weapons.

This scenario has always been Israel’s lot, both in the Bible and today.  It is a particularly bad location for maintaining national security.  And when their mortal enemies refuse to be placated, redemption sounds very, very good.  It seems the Lord may have placed them in that peculiar location in the Middle East for the specific purpose of keeping them dependent upon Him to be their Defender and Redeemer perpetually.

But contrary to popular thought, the Palestinians are not Israel’s biggest enemies.  President Ahmahdinejad is not their most lethal foe.  Islam is not Israel’s largest problem.  Israel’s most dangerous enemy, and ours, is sin.  Sin against a holy God to whom we must all give an account is our greatest, most implacable enemy.

Thankfully, God is not only a Redeemer from military and political adversaries.  We have a Redeemer even from sin, and death, and the just condemnation of a righteous God.  This Redeemer, whom God sends, even saves His people from His own wrath against their sin.  

The ransom price which a just and holy God demands for our redemption from our slavery to sin and it’s curse, is the life of His own Son, the Holy One of Israel.  God sent His Son who paid the ransom God demanded of us, a ransom which we could not pay, in order to deliver us from what we so blatantly deserve.  Christ satisfied the justice of God, propitiated His wrath against us, and we are forgiven of all our sins.  

And why would God do this for us?  Why would the one whom we’ve offended the most go to such great lengths to redeem us?  Chapter 43, verse 4 says:

“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.”

God is our Redeemer because He loves us, because we are precious to Him, and He wants us for Himself.  The New Testament tells us, 

[25] Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, [26] that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, [27] so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.  (Ephesians 5:25-27 ESV)

In the case of the people of Judah, when we read Isaiah we see both the physical redemption and the spiritual redemption of God’s people by God Himself.  Both kinds of redemption are connected to each other.  God always presents Himself as the only one who can deliver the Jews from their enemies.  But the reason why that is so is because it is God who has raised up their enemies against them in the first place.  And the reason He raises up their enemies against them is entirely spiritual: because of their sin.  The reason God must redeem Israel from their enemies is because God sent the enemies.  And God sent the enemies because of Israel’s sin.  It is all connected.

So, when God eventually delivers Judah from the Babylonians, as Isaiah says in these chapters, He is in essence delivering them from Himself, from the punishment He has brought to bear upon them by means of Babylon, because of their sin.

Judah’s redemption from their physical enemies is also a redemption from their spiritual enemy of sin.  God redeems His people from Himself by delivering them from the nations He raises up against them.  He saves them from the immediate consequences of their sins by giving nations in exchange for them, as a ransom in their place.  But according to Isaiah, the day is coming when one man, the Servant of God, will come as the sufficient sacrifice to propitiate the wrath of God.  He will pay the full debt which God’s chosen people owe to the justice of God.  The Servant will give Himself to God as the ransom, to redeem God’s people from the curse of His Law.  And all this is done by God for Himself, for His own praise and glory.  

“There are many passages in the New Testament which represent Christ's sufferings under the idea of a ransom or price, and the result thereby secured is a purchase or redemption:

Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained [purchased] with his own blood.  (Acts 20:28 ESV)

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.  (1 Corinthians 6:19-20 ESV)

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—  (Galatians 3:13 ESV)

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.  (Galatians 4:4-5 ESV)

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,  (Ephesians 1:7 ESV)

He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.  (Colossians 1:13-14 ESV)

For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.  (1 Timothy 2:5-6 ESV)

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.  (Titus 2:11-14 ESV)

But when Christ appeared . . . he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.  (Hebrews 9:11-12 ESV)

knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.  (1 Peter 1:18-19 ESV)

And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation . . .  (Revelation 5:9 ESV)

The idea running through all these texts . . . is that of payment made for our redemption.  The debt against us is not viewed as simply cancelled, but is fully paid.  Christ's blood or life, which he surrendered for them, is the "ransom" by which the deliverance of his people from the servitude of sin and from its penal consequences is secured.  It is the plain doctrine of Scripture that "Christ saves us neither by the mere exercise of power, nor by his doctrine, nor by his example, nor by the moral influence which he exerted, nor by any subjective influence on his people, whether natural or mystical, but as a satisfaction to divine justice, as an expiation [3] for sin, and as a ransom from the curse and authority of the law, thus reconciling us to God by making it consistent with his perfection to exercise mercy toward sinners" (Hodge's Systematic Theology).” [4]

Isaiah 41:14  Fear not, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel!  I am the one who helps you, declares the Lord; your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.

Isaiah 43:1  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.

Isaiah 43:14  Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “For your sake I send to Babylon and bring them all down as fugitives, even the Chaldeans, in the ships in which they rejoice.

Isaiah 44:6  Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god.

Isaiah 44:22  I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you.

Isaiah 44:23  Sing, O heavens, for the Lord has done it; shout, O depths of the earth; break forth into singing, O mountains, O forest, and every tree in it!  For the Lord has redeemed Jacob, and will be glorified1 in Israel.  Footnotes [1] 44:23 Or will display his beauty

Isaiah 44:24  Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, who formed you from the womb: “I am the Lord, who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself,

Isaiah 47:4  Our Redeemer—the Lord of hosts is his name—is the Holy One of Israel.

Isaiah 48:17  Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go.

Isaiah 48:20  Go out from Babylon, flee from Chaldea, declare this with a shout of joy, proclaim it, send it out to the end of the earth; say, “The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob!”

Isaiah 49:7  Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One, to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nation, the servant of rulers: “Kings shall see and arise; princes, and they shall prostrate themselves; because of the Lord, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”

Isaiah 49:26  I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh, and they shall be drunk with their own blood as with wine.  Then all flesh shall know that I am the Lord your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”

Isaiah 50:2  Why, when I came, was there no man; why, when I called, was there no one to answer?  Is my hand shortened, that it cannot redeem?  Or have I no power to deliver?  Behold, by my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a desert; their fish stink for lack of water and die of thirst.

Isaiah 51:10  Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over?

Isaiah 52:3  For thus says the Lord: “You were sold for nothing, and you shall be redeemed without money.”

Isaiah 52:9  Break forth together into singing, you waste places of Jerusalem, for the Lord has comforted his people; he has redeemed Jerusalem.

Isaiah 54:5  For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called.

Isaiah 54:8  In overflowing anger for a moment I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you,” says the Lord, your Redeemer.

Isaiah 59:20  “And a Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,” declares the Lord.

Isaiah 60:16  You shall suck the milk of nations; you shall nurse at the breast of kings; and you shall know that I, the Lord, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.

Isaiah 62:12  And they shall be called The Holy People, The Redeemed of the Lord; and you shall be called Sought Out, A City Not Forsaken.

Isaiah 63:4  For the day of vengeance was in my heart, and my year of redemption1 had come.  Footnotes  [1] 63:4 Or the year of my redeemed

Isaiah 63:9  In all their affliction he was afflicted,1 and the angel of his presence saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.  Footnotes  [1] 63:9 Or he did not afflict

Isaiah 63:16  For you are our Father, though Abraham does not know us, and Israel does not acknowledge us; you, O Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is your name.

The Lord Jesus Christ is that Redeemer from of old.  This is why God sent Him into the world: to save His people from their sins.  Is He your Redeemer?

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1. http://www.1828-dictionary.com/

2. Ibid.

3. Guilt is said to be expiated when it is visited with punishment falling on a substitute. Expiation is made for our sins when they are punished not in ourselves but in another who consents to stand in our room. It is that by which reconciliation is effected. Sin is thus said to be "covered" by vicarious satisfaction. The cover or lid of the ark is termed in the LXX. hilasterion, that which covered or shut out the claims and demands of the law against the sins of God's people, whereby he became "propitious" to them. The idea of vicarious expiation runs through the whole Old Testament system of sacrifices. ("expiation." Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary. 05 Sep. 2010. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/expiation>

4. http://www.ccel.org/e/easton/ebd/ebd/T0003000.html#T0003084