Isaiah 43:14 - Meaning and Application

God’s people in Babylon had sunk so low in faith and hope that they needed repeated assurances that they would be set free. So, to comfort them deeply, God repeats his promise often and speaks very clearly here.

He first gives himself titles that would encourage them. He is the Lord their Redeemer, which means he will not only save them, but make it his own work to do so. If he is their God, he will be everything they need, and when they are in bondage, he will be their Redeemer. He is the Holy One of Israel (Isaiah 43:14), and again their Holy One (Isaiah 43:15), so he will keep every word he has spoken to them. He is the Creator of Israel, the one who made them a people out of nothing, and their King, the one who owns them and rules among them.

He also promises to break the power of their oppressors, who hold them captive and, by refusing to let them go, add to their own guilt. God will send a victorious prince and army against Babylon, bringing down its nobles and laying its honor in the dust, along with its people, the Chaldeans. Their cry is said to be in the ships, or toward the ships, because they look to their boats as a way to escape when the city falls. Babylon’s destruction must open the way for God’s people to be set free. When the New Testament speaks of Babylon’s fall, it also describes the sailors crying out in grief (Revelation 18:17-18). Babylon is ruined for Israel’s sake, so that their deliverance may come.

God then reminds them of the great things he did for their fathers when he brought them out of Egypt. He made a way in the sea, the Red Sea, and brought Pharaoh’s chariots and horses into it, where they sank and never rose again. The one who did that can surely make a way for his people out of Babylon, and he will do so rather than leave them there. It helps our faith and hope to remember what God has already done for his people against their enemies.

At the Red Sea, God made the water both a road for his people and a grave for their enemies. For his people, it was a direct and safe way, with the waters like a wall around them. For their enemies, it became a place of judgment, for the chariots and horses were brought down by the Lord of all armies, even though the Egyptians meant something else by their pursuit (Micah 4:11-12).

God promises even greater things for them than he did in former days, so they will not need to complain, like Gideon, that the old wonders are gone. They are not to cling to the past in a way that makes present mercy seem small. The Lord will do a new thing, one that is no less amazing or valuable than the old. This is well explained in Jeremiah 16:14-15 and Jeremiah 23:7-8. No longer will people only speak of the Lord as the one who brought Israel out of Egypt, because that old miracle will seem almost forgotten beside the new one, when he brings Israel out of the land of the north. We should not forget former mercies, but we should especially make use of fresh ones. When God does something new, it may come suddenly, like a surprise, and we should gladly recognize his hand in it.

He promises not only to bring them out of Babylon, but also to lead them safely and comfortably back to their own land. He will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The road from Babylon to Canaan, like the road from Egypt, passed through dry wilderness. But God would provide for the returning captives so that their journey would be well supplied and well guided. The same power that made a way through the sea can make a way through the hardest obstacles. The one who made dry land appear in the waters can also bring water out of the driest land, in such abundance that it gives drink not only to his chosen people, but even to the wild animals. Even the beasts of the field, the dragons, and the ostriches are pictured as honoring God for it, because the refreshment is so real that, if they could, they would praise him. This shames human beings, who can thank their benefactor but often do not.

This promise looks back to what God did when he led Israel through the wilderness from Egypt to Canaan and brought water from a rock. What he did for them before, he would do again, because he is still the same God. Even if this exact miracle was not repeated when they returned from Babylon, God still gave them the mercy through ordinary providence, and they should have thanked him for it just as much. It also looks ahead to God’s care for the Jewish church in the later years before Christ, and especially to the grace of the gospel among the Gentiles. There, a way was opened in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The world, which had been like a barren desert in ignorance and emptiness, was blessed with God’s guidance and comfort, and with the Spirit poured out richly. Even Gentile sinners, who had been like wild beasts, fierce as dragons or foolish as owls, would come to honor God for the greatness of his grace to his chosen people among them.

God traces all these blessings back to their true source, the purpose of his own glory: “This people have I formed for myself, and therefore I do all this for them, that they may show forth my praise” (Isaiah 43:21). The church is God’s making, and so are all the living members of it. The new heaven, the new earth, and the new man are all the work of his hand, and they are only what he makes them to be. He fashions them according to his will. He forms them for himself.

God, the first cause of all things, is also the highest goal of both the old creation and the new one. The Lord made all things for himself, and Israel in a special way, to be a people for him, for his name, and for his praise. They can serve him only as his grace is shown in them and brings him honor (Jeremiah 13:11; Ephesians 1:6, Ephesians 1:12, Ephesians 1:14).

So it is our duty to show his praise, not only with our lips, but also in our lives, by giving ourselves to his service. As he made us, so he feeds us, keeps us, and leads us, all for himself. For every sign of his goodness, we must praise him, or else we fail to answer the purpose of our being and all the blessings we have.