The Chosen Saved By God

Greetings in the Lord~

Today's word is from Isaiah 43:1-13.

But now, O Jacob, listen to the one who created you.  O Israel, the One who formed you says, 

"Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you.  I have called you by name; you are Mine.  When you go through deep waters, I will be with you.  When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown.  When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you.  For I Am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.  I gave Egypt as a ransom for your freedom; I gave Cush and Seba in your place.  Other were given in exchange for you.  I traded their lives for yours because you are precious to Me.  You are honored, and I love you."

"Do not be afraid, for I am with you.  I will gather you and your children from east and west.  I will say to the north and south, 'Bring My sons and daughters back to Israel from the distant corners of the earth. Bring all who claim Me as their God, for I have made them for My glory.  It was I who created them.'"

Bring out the people who have eyes but are blind, who have ears but are deaf.  Gather the nations together!  Assemble the peoples of the world!  Which of their idols has ever foretold such things?  Which can predict what will happen tomorrow?  Where are the witnesses of such predictions?  Who can verify that they spoke the truth?

"But you are My witnesses, O Israel!" says the Lord.  "You are My servant.  You have been chosen to know Me, believe in Me, and understand that I alone am God.  There is no other God--there never has been , and there never will be.  I, yes, I am the Lord, and there is no other Savior.  First I predicted your rescue, then I saved you and proclaimed it to the world.  No foreign god has ever done this.  You are witnesses that I am the only God," says the Lord.  

"From eternity to eternity I am God.  No one can snatch anyone out of My hand.  No one can undo what I have done."    Amen.

I love that passage of Scripture and raise that as my prayer for Israel today--that they might know God's love for them, and all who claim Adonai as their God, and that He alone is their Savior.  There is no God like God Most High, not allah, buddha, or any other pagan deity.  But beyond the words of hope and encouragement this passage gives to believers, there are a couple of ideas expressed that may be a bit challenging to understand, even for people of God.

First is the idea that Israel was chosen by God to know Him, to believe in Him, and "to understand that I alone am God."  Everyone loves the benefits of being loved and taken care of, but what about when you are hated for your special place in God?  And even when Jews may try to shuck off this connection to live like the rest of the world and try to avoid causing waves with anyone, that spiritual connection and "ownership" by God still exists and will stir jealousy in the hearts of non-believers.  It's just inevitable.  So the temptation is to say, "I didn't choose to be "chosen!" when life gets difficult--and this passage guarantees that life will get difficult for His chosen at times--but God will never leave His people.  They will go through fires and floods of oppression, and so on, but the promise God makes is that He will always be with them to come out on the other side.  Israel will never cease to exist, and they will always be His "chosen" people, and no amount of hate or hardship or jealousy will ever change that.  Such is the reality of all God's people.  So it is up to us to just call on God and trust in His love for us and guidance even in hard times, knowing that we will come out on the other side and that we are deeply loved by God.  We are not victims just because we endure persecution; rather, God has chosen and called His people to be overcomers and to testify to His goodness and power.        

Second, this passage talks about God giving other people and other nations as a ransom for Israel, literally saying, Others were given in exchange for you.  I traded their lives for yours because you are precious to Me.  You are honored, and I love you. Isaiah 43:4.  There is no more blatant reality with God than that verse: God does prefer those that will love and obey Him, and in this case, He claims Israel as His own because He chose them.  It is a reality that even Bible scholars don't elaborate on much either; I guess it sounds too prideful or harsh or whatever.  At any rate, when we look at the current situation going on in Israel and Gaza, no matter how bleak it may look at times, the end result is assured--it will not go well for Hamas.  To lay a hand on one Jewish life, to take captive one of God's people is to incur His wrath.  These extremists are absolutely forfeiting their lives by doing what they are doing--this passage makes that clear.  Woe to any nation that rises up against Israel, the Lord will indeed come to their defense.  

 Lastly, I really love verse 13: "From eternity to eternity I am God.  No one can snatch anyone out of My hand.  No one can undo what I have done."  That is the crux of the conflict: the eternal destiny of one's soul.  For in this lifetime, an evil person may try to mutilate, kill or destroy the body, but they cannot change the eternal destiny of that person's soul--the righteous will always belong to God, while the wicked will go to their evil master and hellfire itself.  This promise of God for His children is mentioned twice by Jesus in the New Testament as well.  Yet eternity is a hard concept to grasp, as we live in a temporal world, quite often dictated by our wants, needs, and desires and shaped by viewpoints, both willingly accepted as logic or imposed on us.  So it is hard to perceive the importance of this promise until we are looking eye to eye with our end.  But then it is too late.  

That is why God has given us His word, His Son, and His Holy Spirit to be with us forever--to teach us the way to live and believe.  His Word does not change even when the days become extremely wicked.  And we know the rage of the wicked is the same as it was from the days of Cain and Abel.  Cain's sacrifice, his deciding to serve God as he chose, live as he chose, believe as he chose, and act as he chose, was never and will never be acceptable in God's sight.  The whole world, and especially the Western nations, are seeing on display the end result of this rebellious, liberal/woke, pagan/idolatrous mindset, and it is ugly.  But as we read today--even though we may go through hard times, exceedingly difficult, the Lord our God will always be with His people; we will remain safely in His hands for all of eternity, and that, is the biggest blessing we could ever have from a loving God.

~Be blessed and be a blessing.