Promises for Exiles

How do we live faithfully in a foreign land? That is the question Israel was faced with. The impending exile is hanging over the faithful's head as the nation refuses to repent and Babylon gains momentum on the world's stage. Isaiah offers comforting words for exiles who know the next few generations may be very difficult. 

Isaiah 43:1 (ESV) 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 42 pronounced the following judgment and reminder that the judgment was from God:

Isaiah 42:24 (ESV) Who gave up Jacob to the looter, and Israel to the plunderers? Was it not the LORD, against whom we have sinned, in whose ways they would not walk, and whose law they would not obey?

Isaiah now offers the consolation that even though judgment may come, God's nearness would be with those who trust Him through it. This is our only hope in difficulty - God draws closer. We are reminded that He made us, He purchased us back to Himself. We are His even when we are disciplined for our sins. 

Isaiah 43:2 (ESV) When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.

Then:

Isaiah 43:3–4 (ESV) 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.

The promises above are powerful. They ask Israel to both look back to the time He already passed through the waters with them at the Red Sea and Jordan River. But they look forward to the trial by fire in Babylon. Interestingly, you have to think this passage was on Shadrach, Meschach and Abed-Nego's minds when faced with the fiery furnace of Nebuchadnezzar. They knew God's promise and they stood on it at the time of testing. 

Then God promises a glorious reunion. 

Isaiah 43:5–7 (ESV) Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you. 6 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, 7 everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”

God scatters but will regather. He knows we need community in Him. Sometimes the way God brings people back to Himself is through the estrangement of spiritual or cultural exile. We see the world and how foreign it is to our faith and long for the courts of God to be among the throng who go up to worship Him. 

Isaiah 43:10–12 (ESV) “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. 11 I, I am the LORD, and besides me there is no savior. 12 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 God.

Here Isaiah reminds us once again that all of our experiences with God are aimed at teaching us who He is. Yes, we know Him as our Father who disciplines, but we also know Him as the only Savior and ultimate Lord of the cosmos! There is no other God!

Isaiah 43:18–19 (ESV) “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.

We also understand that God is not interested in our obsession over the past. He wants to lead us forward. Hold fast to what He's up to today and do no let your life fall prey to the anxieties of what happened before. 

This is how we faithfully live as exiles in our age. We know He has us, He is with us and He is leading us forward.