Bird's-eye view
In this stunning passage, the prophet Isaiah lays out the very heart of the gospel. God begins by identifying Himself by His covenant titles, Redeemer, Holy One, Creator, and King, and promises a new exodus, a deliverance from Babylon that will eclipse even the memory of the deliverance from Egypt. This is the promise of a new and greater work, a roadway in the wilderness and rivers in the wasteland. But just as this glorious promise reaches its crescendo, the prophet pivots sharply to indictment. The people God is about to save are not worthy partners in this covenant. They are spiritually exhausted, weary of God, and their worship is a hollow sham. They have not burdened God with their sacrifices, but rather with their sins. The situation is hopeless, their history is one of transgression from their first father down to the present. But then, in the midst of this deserved judgment, the sun breaks through. God declares that He, and He alone, will wipe away their sins, and He will do it for one reason only: for His own sake. This is unmerited grace, sovereign mercy, and the only foundation for our hope.
Clause by Clause Commentary
Isaiah 43:14-15
Thus says Yahweh your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, “For your sake I have sent to Babylon, And will bring down those who fled, all of them, Even the Chaldeans, into the ships in which they shouted for joy. I am Yahweh, your Holy One, The Creator of Israel, your King.”
God always begins with who He is. He is not some abstract deity; He is defined by His relationship to His people. He is your Redeemer, the one who pays the price to buy you back. He is the Holy One of Israel, utterly distinct and set apart, yet bound to His people. His action is not arbitrary. He sends to Babylon for your sake. The great movements of history, the rise and fall of empires, are all subservient to His redemptive purpose for His church. The Chaldeans will be brought down in the very instruments of their pride and commerce, their ships of joy. God loves to turn the world's glory into the means of its own undoing. He then reiterates His identity. I am Yahweh. This is the covenant name, I AM. He is their Holy One, their Creator, and their King. He made them, so He can remake them. He is their King, so He has absolute authority to deliver them. All our hope rests not on our qualifications, but on His.
Isaiah 43:16-17
Thus says Yahweh, Who makes a way through the sea And a path through the mighty waters, Who brings forth the chariot and the horse, The military force and the mighty man; They will lie down together and not rise again; They have been extinguished and quenched like a wick:
Having declared who He is, God now points to His resume. He is the God of the Exodus. He is the one who made a road through the Red Sea, a path where no path should be. This is a reminder of His raw, creative power over the natural order. He not only delivered His people, but He also dealt decisively with their enemies. He lured the entire Egyptian war machine, chariot and horse, into His trap. The destruction was total and final. They will lie down together and not rise again. This is not a temporary setback for Egypt; it is annihilation. They were extinguished like a candle wick, a puff of smoke. This is the kind of God we are dealing with. When He saves, He saves completely, and when He judges, He judges definitively.
Isaiah 43:18-19
“Do not remember the former things, Nor carefully consider things of the past. Behold, I will do something new; Now it will spring forth; Will you not know it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, Rivers in the wasteland.”
Here is a startling command. Forget the Exodus? Forget the foundational act of redemption? The point is not to induce historical amnesia. The point is that God does not want His people living in a museum. He is not finished. What He is about to do is so grand that it will make even the parting of the Red Sea look like a preliminary sketch. Behold, I will do something new. This new thing is not just a repeat performance. The first exodus was a path through the water. This new exodus will be a path through the desert. He will provide a roadway and, more than that, rivers in the wasteland. This is the language of new creation. It is life bursting forth in a place of death. This is a prophecy that finds its immediate fulfillment in the return from Babylon, but its ultimate fulfillment in the coming of Jesus Christ, who is the Way, and who gives living water that springs up to eternal life. The question, Will you not know it? is a challenge to us. God is always working, always doing new things. The question is whether we have eyes to see it.
Isaiah 43:20-21
The beasts of the field will glorify Me, The jackals and the ostriches, Because I have given waters in the wilderness And rivers in the wasteland, To give drink to My chosen people. The people whom I formed for Myself Will recount My praise.
The scope of this new creation is cosmic. God's redemptive work is not just for man. When God pours out His grace, the blessing overflows to the whole creation. Even the wild animals, the jackals and ostriches who inhabit desolate places, will give Him glory. The provision of water is for His people, but the effect is universal. This points to the great restoration of all things in Christ. And what is the ultimate purpose of this great salvation? It is for God's glory. He gives drink to His chosen people, and in response, The people whom I formed for Myself will recount My praise. We were created, and then re-created in Christ, for this one central purpose: to declare the praises of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light.
Isaiah 43:22-24
“Yet you have not called on Me, O Jacob; But you have become weary of Me, O Israel. You have not brought to Me the sheep of your burnt offerings... Rather you have burdened Me with your sins; You have wearied Me with your iniquities.”
And here, the record screeches to a halt. After the soaring promises comes the blunt indictment. The people God is about to save are, in themselves, a spiritual disaster. They have not called on Him. Worse, they have become weary of Me. God has become a chore, a burden, an exhaustion to them. Their worship was perfunctory at best. They were not bringing the required sacrifices. God clarifies that the problem is not that His demands were too heavy. I have not burdened you with offerings. The law was a gift, not a millstone. The great reversal is this: they felt burdened by God, but in reality, they had burdened God. You have burdened Me with your sins; you have wearied Me with your iniquities. Consider the staggering weight of that statement. The infinite, omnipotent God declares Himself wearied by the persistent, grubby sins of His people. This is the language of a grieved and offended Father.
Isaiah 43:25
“I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake, And I will not remember your sins.”
This verse is the gospel in miniature. Out of the depths of Israel's sin and God's weariness comes this thunderclap of grace. Who acts? I, even I. The repetition is emphatic. There is no other savior, no other source of forgiveness. God alone does it. And what is His motivation? Is it their repentance? Their sorrow? Their promise to do better? No. He does it for My own sake. He does it to vindicate His own character, to glorify His own name, to be true to His own covenant promises. Our salvation is grounded not in the shifting sands of our performance, but in the bedrock of God's character. His forgiveness is absolute. He wipes out our transgressions. And He promises, I will not remember your sins. This is not divine forgetfulness, but a judicial promise not to hold our sins against us. This is justification.
Isaiah 43:26-28
Bring Me to remembrance, let us enter into judgment together; Recount your cause, that you may be proved right. Your first father sinned, And your spokesmen have transgressed against Me. So I will profane the princes of the sanctuary...
After the offer of grace, God invites them to try it the other way. This is a piece of divine irony. Let us enter into judgment together. He challenges them to a legal dispute. "State your case. Prove that you are in the right." Of course, they cannot. The evidence is overwhelming. Their sin is not a recent development; it is congenital. Your first father sinned, whether Adam or Jacob, the principle is the same. The sin goes all the way back. And it is pervasive, right up to the current leadership, their spokesmen. Because they have no case, because they are guilty as charged, the sentence must fall. Judgment is the necessary consequence of sin. The leaders will be profaned, and the nation given over to destruction. This grim reality of judgment is what makes the grace of verse 25 so brilliant and astonishing. Forgiveness is not offered to the mildly flawed, but to those who are justly under the sentence of death.
Application
This passage confronts us with the two great realities of our existence: our persistent, wearying sin, and God's persistent, glorious grace. We are just like Israel. We grow weary of God. Our prayers become rote, our worship a duty, our obedience a burden. We try to justify ourselves, to bring our shabby good works to court, only to find that our entire history, from Adam down to our last thought, is one of transgression.
Our only hope is to abandon the courtroom of self-justification and flee to the mercy seat. Our only hope is verse 25. God is the one who wipes away our sin, and He does it for His own sake. This is the bedrock of Christian assurance. Our standing with God does not depend on our feelings, our efforts, or our ability to keep from wearying Him. It depends entirely on His character and His promise, secured by the blood of His Son.
And because we are forgiven for His sake, we are set free to live for His sake. God is doing a "new thing" in the world through the gospel of Jesus Christ. He is making roadways in the wilderness of lost nations and bringing rivers of life to the wastelands of dead cultures. He invites us to see it, to know it, and to be a part of it, so that we, the people whom He has formed for Himself, might recount His praise.