4 Because of your value in my eyes, you have been honoured, and loved by me; so I will give men for you, and peoples for your life.
If now you will truly give ear to my voice and keep my agreement, you will be my special property out of all the peoples: for all the earth is mine: And you will be a kingdom of priests to me, and a holy nation. These are the words which you are to say to the children of Israel.
For the Lord's wealth is his people; Jacob is the land of his heritage. He came to him in the waste land, in the unpeopled waste of sand: putting his arms round him and caring for him, he kept him as the light of his eye. As an eagle, teaching her young to make their flight, with her wings outstretched over them, takes them up on her strong feathers: So the Lord only was his guide, no other god was with him. He put him on the high places of the earth, his food was the increase of the field; honey he gave him out of the rock and oil out of the hard rock; Butter from his cows and milk from his sheep, with fat of lambs and sheep of Bashan, and goats, and the heart of the grain; and for your drink, wine from the blood of the grape.
See, I will make those of the Synagogue of Satan who say they are Jews, and are not, but say what is false; I will make them come and give worship before your feet, and see my love for you.
But you are a special people, a holy nation, priests and kings, a people given up completely to God, so that you may make clear the virtues of him who took you out of the dark into the light of heaven.
For you are a holy people to the Lord your God: marked out by the Lord your God to be his special people out of all the nations on the face of the earth. The Lord did not give you his love or take you for himself because you were more in number than any other people; for you were the smallest of the nations: But because of his love for you, and in order to keep his oath to your fathers, the Lord took you out with the strength of his hand, making you free from the prison-house and from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.
For the Father himself gives his love to you, because you have given your love to me and have had faith that I came from God.
And I have given to them knowledge of your name, and will give it, so that the love which you have for me may be in them and I in them.
I in them, and you in me, so that they may be made completely one, and so that it may become clear to all men that you have sent me and that they are loved by you as I am loved by you.
How is it possible for you to have faith while you take honour one from another and have no desire for the honour which comes from the only God?
And they will be mine, says the Lord, in the day when I make them my special property; and I will have mercy on them as a man has mercy on his son who is his servant.
When Israel was a child he was dear to me; and I took my son out of Egypt.
From far away he saw the Lord: my love for you is an eternal love: so with mercy I have made you come with me.
For the Lord has taken Jacob for himself, and Israel for his property.
He has given with open hands to the poor; his righteousness is for ever; his horn will be lifted up with honour.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Isaiah 43
Commentary on Isaiah 43 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 43
The contents of this chapter are much the same with those of the foregoing chapter, looking at the release of the Jews out of their captivity, but looking through that, and beyond that, to the great work of man's redemption by Jesus Christ, and the grace of the gospel, which through him believers partake of. Here are,
Isa 43:1-7
This chapter has a plain connexion with the close of the foregoing chapter, but a very surprising one. It was there said that Jacob and Israel would not walk in God's ways, and that when he corrected them for their disobedience they were stubborn and laid it not to heart; and now one would think it should have followed that God would utterly abandon and destroy them; but no, the next words are, But now, fear not, O Jacob! O Israel! I have redeemed thee, and thou art mine. Though many among them were untractable and incorrigible, yet God would continue his love and care for his people, and the body of that nation should still be reserved for mercy. God's goodness takes occasion from man's badness to appear so much the more illustrious. Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound (Rom. 5:20), and mercy rejoices against judgment, as having prevailed and carried the day, Jam. 2:13. Now the sun, breaking out thus of a sudden from behind a thick and dark cloud, shines the brighter, and with a pleasing surprise. The expressions of God's favour and good-will to his people here are very high, and speak abundance of comfort to all the spiritual seed of upright Jacob and praying Israel; for to us is this gospel preached as well as unto those that were captives in Babylon, Heb. 4:2. Here we have,
Isa 43:8-13
God here challenges the worshippers of idols to produce such proofs of the divinity of their false gods as even this very instance (to go no further) of the redemption of the Jews out of Babylon furnished the people of Israel with, to prove that their God is the true and living God, and he only.
Isa 43:14-21
To so low an ebb were the faith and hope of God's people in Babylon brought that there needed line upon line to assure them that they should be released out of their captivity; and therefore, that they might have strong consolation, the assurances of it are often repeated, and here very expressly and encouragingly.
Isa 43:22-28
This charge (and a high charge it is which is here exhibited against Jacob and Israel, God's professing people) comes in here,