Digging Deeper Days
Finding the original intent of Scripture and making good application to our everyday lives as we become equipped to correctly handle the Word of Truth!
Yesterday’s Journey Study connects with today’s!
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The Questions
1) How does this passage reflect the idea of being “known and loved” from Esther’s story?
2) What is implied by giving specific location directions in verses 5-6?
3) How are those who “bear (His) name” different from those who don’t? Are there people who aren’t created for His glory? (verse 7)
Isaiah 43:1-7
Now this is what the Lord says—
the one who created you, Jacob,
and the one who formed you, Israel—
“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by your name; you are mine.
2 I will be with you
when you pass through the waters,
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not overwhelm you.
You will not be scorched
when you walk through the fire,
and the flame will not burn you.
3 For I am the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel, and your Savior.
I have given Egypt as a ransom for you,
Cush and Seba in your place.
4 Because you are precious in my sight
and honored, and I love you,
I will give people in exchange for you
and nations instead of your life.
5 Do not fear, for I am with you;
I will bring your descendants from the east,
and gather you from the west.
6 I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’
and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back!’
Bring my sons from far away,
and my daughters from the ends of the earth—
7 everyone who bears my name
and is created for my glory.
I have formed them; indeed, I have made them.”
Original Intent
1) How does this passage reflect the idea of being “known and loved” from Esther’s story?
This passage is precious to many believers, including me, because it clearly spells out God’s dramatic love for His children. While it was originally intended for a strictly Jewish audience, we know from the New Testament that God’s special, redeeming love extends to all who call on His Name, whether Jew or Gentile. (Romans 10:12-13) Context is everything when studying Scripture, and when we back up into the previous chapter, this message of love becomes even more radical. The Lord calls out Israel’s intentional deafness towards God’s call to repentance. God calls them blind, as they stubbornly refuse to see Him as their only God. The refuse to acknowledge Him or His righteousness, clinging instead to their own love of idols, self, and sin. A poor trade indeed! Chapter 42 closes out with God pouring out His just, righteous anger on Israel for their prideful sin, but still they refused to change. Immediately following that dramatic scene of outright, face-slapping rebellion, the Lord God astoundingly speaks, “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are Mine”. (verse 1) Truly unfathomable!! God not only loves Israel with unrelenting love, He knows them intimately, sees every hateful sin, and still chooses to love.
2) What is implied by giving specific location directions in verses 5-6?
After King Solomon (King David’s son) died and his son, King Rehoboam, took the throne, Israel split into Northern Kingdom (Israel) and Southern Kingdom (Judah). Everything went gradually downhill from there. At the time of Isaiah’s prophetic book, Assyria had already destroyed Israel (Northern Kingdom) in 722BC and all of its inhabitants had been scattered to various regions. No semblance of Israel remained. Isaiah prophesied, and warned, the remaining Jews living in Judah to return to the Lord before they too were obliterated. His warning and prophesies, however, fell on deaf ears (just as noted in our passage today!), and Babylon destroyed Jerusalem (located in Judah) in 586BC and carried off the majority of Jews into exile. Long story short, Jews were scattered in all directions because of their love affair with sinful rebellion. Even so, God speaks tenderly and lovingly to them, letting them know they are His. Isaiah’s prophecy points forward to day when God will bring all exiles back home from wherever they have been scattered. Jews from all directions will be brought home.
3) How are those who “bear (His) name” different from those who don’t? Are there people who aren’t created for His glory? (verse 7)
To get a fuller understanding of this idea of “bearing His name”, we look into the next chapter of Isaiah. Again, the Lord is speaking to His people, telling them not to fear because He has chosen them to be His own people. Isaiah shares the prophecy of a coming time when offspring and descendants will abundantly spring up. The interesting note is how this prophecy for offspring is worded, “This one will say, ‘I am the Lord’s,’ another will call on the name of Jacob, and another will write on his hand, ‘The Lord’s,’ and name himself by the name of Israel.” There is a clear choice involved. Though God has already called and chosen the offspring, a choice remains. That choice is ours. God had planned in advance that Christ will come and offer Himself as a sacrifice in our place. He has planned in advance that through Jesus, all will have access to God. God planned in advance that the way of salvation and peace with God would be made available for Jews and Gentiles alike. He also knew the decision to follow Him would be a choice we would each need to make.
Everyday Application
1) How does this passage reflect the idea of being “known and loved” from Esther’s story?
Queen Vashti was superficially loved for her beauty, but her husband neither knew nor valued her heart, so she remained unloved for who she really was. We all like to think we are pretty good people, not flawless, of course, but we do the best we can and make pretty good choices most of the time, right? That would be okay if we were judged on a sliding scale of sin, but we aren’t. One sin is all it takes for us to be declared wholly un-righteous. (James 2:10) This sounds like terrible news until we put it in context of what we learn about God in the passage from Isaiah. He knew Israel’s dirtiest sins from the inside out. There was no sin that escaped the sight of His Holy eyes. Though He knew them, He still loved them. And so, we are safe when we are inside the love of our Holy God. Once we acknowledge our own damming sin, and surrender all of ourselves to the love and forgiveness of God, who died in our place to make just payment for our sin, He loves us with the kind of love outlined here in Isaiah. A love that will not relinquish us to eternal condemnation and separation even though we sin and rebel against Him. Where sin has increased, so God has given grace to increase all the more! (Romans 5:20) Where Vashti was unloved by her husband, she would find complete and perfect love inside the heart of God. So it is with each of us. Where relationships fail, God’s love remains. Where friends or spouse or co-worker or children abandon, wound, or leave us unknown and unloved, God’s love remains constant!
2) What is implied by giving specific location directions in verses 5-6?
As we learn in the New Testament, God’s heart is for all people, not just the Jewish nation. He intentionally grafted in the Gentiles, so all would have a place in His kingdom as His special, dearly loved people. As Isaiah notes, “everyone who bears My name is created for My glory.” “Everyone” literally means “everyone”. Not all choose to live for His glory, not all will surrender to His love for them, and not all will be rescued and brought back home to dwell with Him, but it doesn’t change how that is His heart’s desire. He longs for all people to be saved. (1 Timothy 2:3-4) Those who have heard and answered the call of the Lord to be fully His, will one day be called all together and nothing will hold them back. When Christ returns, all who have trusted in Jesus for salvation through faith alone will be fully redeemed!
3) How are those who “bear (His) name” different from those who don’t? Are there people who aren’t created for His glory? (verse 7)
Though God invites everyone to participate in His kingdom and receive His love, not all will receive that gift. All were created with a specific purpose of reflecting His glory and participating in specific callings and roles inside the Body of Christ, not all will accept that gracious invitation. Because He is a sovereign God, He will never waste a life and will use all people to further His purposes, even if they rebel against Him. In Israel’s case, God used the Assyrian Empire to enact rightly deserved punishment on the Northern Kingdom, even though they hadn’t submitted to God and His ways. For the Southern Kingdom, God used the foreign Babylonian Empire to bring Judah into exile. Farther back in Jewish history, when they were only Hebrews enslaved in Egypt, God used Pharaohs’ hard heart as a platform to display His magnificent power of deliverance for the captives. His purposes will always prevail, but whether we choose to accept His invitation to actively be part of His gracious love towards us is up to us. He will give us the faith needed to say yes, He will supply the grace to give us access to Him, but will we say, “I am the Lord’s”?
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Digging Deeper is for Everyone!
1) Take this passage (or any other passage).
2) Read it, and the verses around it,
several times
3) Write down your questions
as you think of them.
4) Ask specific culture related questions and be ready to dig around for your answers. Google them, use www.studylight.org, or look them up in a study Bible and read the footnotes (click on the little letters next to a word and it will show you
other related verses!). (www.esvbible.org)
5) Check your applications with other trusted Christians that you are in community with and embrace the fullness of God
in your everyday!
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Why Dig Deeper?
Finding the original meaning is a huge deal when we study Scripture and can make all the difference in our understanding as we apply God’s truths to our everyday lives.
In our modern-day relationships, we want people to understand our original intention as we communicate; how much more so between God and humanity?!
Here’s a little bit more on why we take Digging Deeper so seriously.
Study Tools
We love getting help while we study and www.studylight.org is one of many excellent resources, providing the original Hebrew (Old Testament) or Greek (New Testament) with an English translation.
Want to know more about a specific word in a verse? Click on “Strong’s Interlinear Bible” then click the word you’d like to study. Discover “origin”, “definition” and hear the original pronunciation – That Is Awesome!
Want more background? Click “Study Tools”, then pick a few commentaries to read their scholarly approach, keeping in mind that just because a commentary says it, doesn’t mean it’s true. (just like the internet :-))
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