Week One – Isaiah 43:10, 11
10 Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.
11 I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour.
I quote from the book, THE PROPHETS OF ISRAEL by James Hoffmeier concerning Isaiah
Isaiah is often viewed as the greatest of the Hebrew prophets. Certainly, the New Testament contains more prophesies that its writers connect to Jesus of Nazareth than any other OT book. But it does not end there. By one reckoning, there are “almost 100 citations and some 500 allusions“ making Isaiah the most frequently reference single work in the New Testament.
According to the same writer, “One of the important themes that runs like a thread through the tapestry of Isaiah 40 – 45 is that Yahweh, the God of Israel, is incomparable to pagan deities who are represented by idols”
Examples given are Isaiah 40:18 and Isaiah 40:25. Where the question is asked with who will you compare God? . . . Who is my equal ?, says the Holy One.
In chapter 45 verse 20 the pagan gods are mocked for having to be carried about, rather than moving about on their own.
A challenge is issued to idol worshipers in chapter 41, to present their case, set forth their arguments.
A challenge is issued to the idol gods to tell the things to come, what the future holds so we can know that you are gods.
This type of challenge continues into Isaiah 43
9 Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled: who among them can declare this, and shew us former things? let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified: or let them hear, and say, It is truth.
THEN OUR VERSE OF THE WEEK WHERE THE LORD DECLARES OF ISRAEL, “ye are my witnesses.” Isaiah presents this as the words of the Lord to His people. The Lord proceeds with utter clarity to give certainty of the absolute oneness of God. In declaring the truth vividly, false doctrines of idolatry, polytheism (belief in many gods), monolatry (where one deity is believed to be the sovereign God, but not the only God in existence. In other words, it refutes the idea of demi-gods or lesser gods.
Further, this verse emphasizes that there was no God before him and there will none after Him and there is no savior beside him.
In declaring unequivocally the oneness of God this verse also rules out the false teaching of a trinity with three persons in the godhead. The Gospel writer Matthew as clear that the savior, Jesus Christ was “Immanuel, God with us in chapter 1. The NT constantly reinforces this truth through its various writers,
Paul in Colossians 2:9, For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the godhead bodily and in Colossians 1:15 declares, Christ to be the image of the invisible God which created all things.
In 2 Corinthians Paul wrote, “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself.”
The Apostle John records Jesus saying, “He that hath seen me hath seen the father.”
and relates Thomas, who doubted the resurrection of Jesus Christ addressing the risen savior as, “My Lord and My God.”
Jesus was not a little god, a second god, or a portion of God. All God’s fulness dwelt in Him.
OUR VERSE OF THE WEEK, Isaiah 43:10, 11 makes it plain there could never be another besides him neither any like him. The God of Israel was and is the sovereign one, the almighty, the omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient and eternal God. There is room for no other.