NOTES for Isa 43:1-28

The Lord has redeemed us and called each of us by name. Redemption, that is, buying back, does not mean taking possession as property. If we continue to use the comparison from the realm of buying and selling, redemption is like buying birds in order to set them free. Nor does the fact that He calls each person by name speak of subjugation: this is not the name a master gives a slave, but the name that helps distinguish each one of us from all other people. This means that we are all dear to Him; each person is singled out without harm to those around him.

We are called witnesses, and here we encounter a new degree of His trust in us. In fact, the Lord does not need anyone's witness; His essence is above everything that can be said. Yet it turns out that we are important to Him not simply as creatures, but as those to whom great trust can be shown. All our sins and weaknesses are before His gaze, but they do not cancel the fact that we remain precious in His eyes.

Jacob, that is, the people of Israel who had fallen into sins and apostasy, is rebuked for not calling on the Lord. Nevertheless, He Himself, on His own initiative, blots out the people's sins. A question immediately comes to mind: why is there no mention here of repentance? Can one really do without it? No, of course repentance is necessary, but now the Lord lets us see that His forgiveness and mercy are higher than everything with which we are used to connecting them, and even higher than what we are able to imagine.

How important it is for us such a God's promise, when the whole world is in uncertainty. But is it addressed to us? And if yes, then how? God had already said such words to Moses (Exodus 3:12), when He sent him to bring the people of Israeli out of Egypt. And now God repeats through the prophet Isaiah: " I will be with thee", - Because He calls His people to go out of the Babylonian captivity. In both cases God promises His protection on the forthcoming way, and it is important, because according to the ancient representations every god has his area of habitation, his earth, where he is sovereign. But this God, the God of the alliance, declares His power on Egypt and Babylon, and on all the way up to the Promised Land. And, as we know it, in these concrete historic circumstances, these promises were fulfilled. For us today these words: "I will be with you" are not a novelty. Indeed, God is omnipresent. But He promises not only presence, but protection also.

And here everything is not clear. Certainly, there is a multitude of testimonies how God saved, protected, answered prayers, - we all heard such stories. But did people in the Twin Towers or in the planes directed on them not pray? Or does God listen better the prayers of the fanatics-kamikazes? Again, considering as superior value of the conservation of the order of things, to which we are used to, we begin to expect from God the execution of the role of a policeman assuring this order. But God calls us again to a new outcome, an outcome from the most terrible slavery - the slavery of sin, the outcome from the most terrible captivity - the captivity of hell, this kingdom of evil, in which death is more natural than life. And on the ways of this outcome, with us is the Savior, leading us through the water of the abyss and the fire of the gehenna.

What is monotheism? The belief that God is one? Of course, and that also. But what ensues from such a belief? Indeed, we can have various attitudes towards God, even if He is one, and we know that. The problem indeed is not only in the fact that the true God by definition can be only one. The problem is still in the fact, that does He have any relation with our life. If, for example, He really exists, and is indeed one, but He intervenes not at all in our life, we shall not be relieved of the fact that we know how things work with God.

Such knowledge can become important for us only in case we believe again also that the Only, of Whom we know for sure that He exists, is ready to enter into our own life. And no philosophy and no theology can help here, is necessary here the personal experience, the experience of the relationships with this Only, who could speak of such His readiness to enter into our life. Otherwise one can be monotheist in theory and heathen in practice. But why then communication with Him is sometimes so difficult for us? Maybe, is just because we are not in practice real monotheists.

So, the Lord says that His people have forgotten everything He did for them, forgotten all His wonders. And once again He performs wonders for His people. Why? After all, the people did not cry out to Him, did not offer sacrifices, did not ask for help... All the people did was hinder God from acting in their lives: burdening Him with sins and weighing Him down with iniquities, as the prophet Isaiah says. Why, then, does the Lord blot out all iniquities and agree not to remember sins?

And the answer He gives here is universal. He says: "For My own sake." He is ready to forget sins not because the people have corrected themselves or politely asked. He forgives because He is good and merciful, because He loves.

When reading the Bible, you understand that God's long-suffering is really unlimited. But all the same: for what? In the end, it is not only about the mercy alone, which is really unlimited for Him. It is about the covenant, about the union, which imposes obligations on both parties, and not only on one. And what, if one of the parties neglects the union, neglects very often openly and in a provocative way, by violating all its obligations, of which it cannot not know because the corresponding promises were publicly given, and cannot not remember, because the messengers of God very often reminded it of them? According to our earthly logic such union would be broken for a long time, and would be applied to the party which violated the corresponding penalties.

God however made more and more new attempts to reach out to those, for whom it seems for a long time that nothing is needed. For what reason? Why? Probably, because it doesn’t work out differently with fallen people. Of course, one can start all over again, including the history of the people of God. But where is the guarantee that the next time that will work better? In their fallen state in all the times, all men are more or less identical, in any case as regards to their spiritual and moral life. But the problem maybe is not only in that.

After all, God indeed has His plan, an exceptionally important plan, concerning not only the humanity and its salvation, but, it is possible, for something even greater, with regard to which, our salvation is only a part of the intention (although, probably, a part important enough). Is it possible to put the execution of this plan in the dependence of the disruptions of the human will and the perversity of the human nature?

And if not, then remains only to realize the indicated plan, in spite of all which can prevent its realization, including the imperfections of the people of God. And God really realizes His plan, in spite of the failures in the history of His people, which, would seem, had to put on its realization a fat point. Of course, the price is high: the Messiah, sent by Him dies on the cross. But the Kingdom enters all the same into the world. And the hope of salvation too.