Isaiah 43:11-12

NASB – 11 I, only I, am the Lord, And there is no savior besides Me. 12 It is I who have declared and saved and proclaimed, And there was no strange god among you; So you are My witnesses,” declares the Lord, “And I am God.

NRSVUE – 11 I, I am the Lord, and besides me there is no savior. 12 I am the one who declared and saved and proclaimed, not some strange god among you; you are my witnesses, say the Lord, and I am God.

VOICE – 11 I, I am the Eternal; there is no Savior except for Me. 12 I alone told that this victory would happen. Then I saved you and made it known. No other god worked among you – You know the truth. You can testify that it is so; as I declare, I am alone God.

God Remains Eternal

God names Himself as the main God of Israel, under relationship with His chosen people. He is the eternal and powerful One that stays faithful even while they are under exile from Babylon. There is no idol, ruler, or empire that rivals His authority, for everything is submitted to His rule. Their future will come from the same God that called Abraham and freed them from Egyptian covenant will guide their future. Nothing that the Israelites could find could replace God. God rescues all people from sin, judgment, captivity, and death. God’s rescues is fulfilled through the ministry of Jesus.

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: The God Christians follow today is the same god that God’s people followed during Israel’s time. How does that impact your relationship with God and how you see God today?

Something New About Idols

This is an interesting verse after reading a chapter from Dan McClellan’s book “The Bible Says So.” There was a chapter that talked about the different gods that existed all throughout the Bible, the ones that were referred to often as idols. These gods over things like the Sun and the Moon, or gods over certain nations, or different acts of life like fertility. A lot of people tend to discredit these gods in the name of YHWH, referring to these gods as false and idolatrous. He showed me a different perspective about how this is not a helpful image of what the ancient biblical authors were trying to portray.

These gods, as a follower of Yahweh, were not to be worshiped because Yahweh is the gods of all gods. Yahweh was in charge of all these gods. These different gods were given different responsibilities as part of God’s divine council to go out and govern different parts of the world. They were not Yahweh, but they worked for Yahweh, much like the angels did. This opened my mind to help me rationalize a few important things. The different idols became tangible for a lot of countries as a way to speak to the divine. The struggle to operate in faith was different then, much like it is today. I remember struggling to rationalize why the Golden Calf was so troublesome back in Exodus 32, and this answered that struggle. When the people cannot trust by faith that they will see success and promises over the hardships they face, they will cling to different physical things in the world to make sense of the chaos and give them something to focus on when the vision of God gets clouded.

Now, am I saying that we should focus on this minor gods. No. Our God that we need to follow and worship is Yahweh, for He is the ultimate God over everything. To learn about these false gods to Christianity, and the struggle to prioritize them over Yahweh is an interesting perspective that doesn’t get talked about. For us, we tend to have our own idols – phones, social media, careers, relationships, and more. There are plenty of things that we tend to put in front of God because these are tangible. When we start to lean our focus on these things and ignore God, we start to recognize how temporary the things of this world are. There will always be new jobs, new relationships, new tech, but we have the same God that Abraham had, the same God that Moses had, and the same God that Isaiah is talking about. We must invest in a relationship with God to teach us how to navigate our lives today. To learn how we can receive His love, grace, and mercy, and how we can willfully share that with all people around us. To learn how we can care for one another, meeting the needs of our neighbors, welcoming the strangers, and giving a voice to the people that have been pushed out to the margins. The main way we can find that is to recognize the one who has been there from the start and lean on His ways.

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: With our world ever-changing, how can you hang on to God’s will and His plan for you?

Recognizing God’s Goodness

Yahweh announced His purposes for humanity, rescued His chosen people from slavery, and made His power known all throughout Israel’s history. These things were not done through idols or by the strength of their human leaders, but through God’s divine strength and compassion. These acts confirmed the truth behind His commands and revealed the divine power He holds over other nations and events of the world. God’s people battled temptations from other nations to find their own rescue, looking at the gods of Egypt, Canaan, Babylon, and surrounding people. However, none of these idols described what Israel could look like, heard their agony, or rescued them from bondage. Yahweh shows that no thing could get in between Him and His people. God’s people are called to be witnesses to the works of God and how He has shown up for them through His faithfulness, holiness, judgment, and mercy. All the events that happened with Moses were important for this. For us, all the events that happened with Jesus are important for this. Overall, God is the eternal and powerful that has no rivals. His commands and plan for the world will show because of how He leads and serves.

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: When you think of the story of that God’s people knew about God, how do you think their testimony would sound?

A Public Relationship

As Christians, we are called to live a life that reflects God’s character and how God has shown in our life for others to see. It reminds me of the words in 1 Peter 3:15, which says:

15 but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you.

We should be able to share our testimony to anyone that asks at any point. We don’t force it on to someone who didn’t ask, which is one of the biggest problems that happens in our society today. A lot of people share it on people who weren’t ready to receive that info and created a barrier that was unexpected. In those circumstances, I would encourage to lead by your actions. Don’t share the Scripture, but act in a way that teaches the Scripture. Reflect compassion through listening to each other. Reflect love by finding ways to meet their needs or to help walk them through their trials. Reflect mercy by forgiving someone, and either seeking reconciliation or seeking respectful closure. Our actions can speak more about how we can reflect God than our words do. Especially nowadays with as much Christian conservatism is creating barriers with a lot of people, we need to go through and be God’s hands and feet to all people that we meet so that we can plant the seed for God to do the work. One built out of love and compassion, instead of manipulation and condemnation.

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: With the current state of Christianity shown to the public, how do you share your relationship with God to others?