#DailyDevotion I, I am Jesus, besides me there is no Savior.
December 22nd
Read Is 43:1–24
Isa 43:1 But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.
Isa 43:3 For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you.
Isa 43:10-12 “You are my witnesses,” declares the LORD, “and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me. (11) I, I am the LORD, and besides me there is no savior. (12) I declared and saved and proclaimed, when there was no strange god among you; and you are my witnesses,” declares the LORD, “and I am God.
Isa 43:15 I am the LORD, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King.”
In this chapter of Isaiah, the Lord God, the God of Israel, is making some specific claims upon his holy people and upon his name, character and person. It is Yahweh, the Lord who created Israel from a very peculiar people in the Mid-east, from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Even as he formed them and brought them out of Egypt, this same Yahweh, the Lord, is Jesus who forms his holy Church, starting with the Jews and gathering people from every language, tongue, tribe and nation to be his very own people. To such a people he declares to fear not. Why should we his people not fear? Because he has redeemed us with his precious blood. He calls us out from the world, each by name, even as he calls the stars out at night. We need not fear because we belong to him.
The Lord, Yahweh, is the Holy One of Israel. That is a name, a designation for Jesus in the New Testament. He declares that he is Israel’s God. What other God chases after a people and declares them to be his own? He is Israel’s savior and he is the savior of the whole world and in particular the Church.
Israel is a witness to God, the Lord’s great love for his people. “I am he,” a designation of Jesus in the Gospels shows us who he is. Jesus is God and there is no other. As St. Paul says, 1Co 8:5-6 “For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth–as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”– (6) yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.” It is this Jesus who is the Lord, whom Isaiah prophesies here. There is no other savior, there is no other Lord we can turn to. What other gods have declared and saved like Jesus God? Jesus alone is the Lord(Yahweh), the Holy One, the Creator of Israel, the King of his people. Yet we like the fallen people of Israel at times are not satisfied with the one and only savior, our creator who calls and saves us from this fallen world and look to someone, something, some philosophy, some other piece of knowledge or some other experience other than Jesus. Jesus, this is it.
Heavenly Father, grant us your Holy Spirit, that we have such faith that looks to Jesus your Son, alone as Lord, our God, our Holy One, our Redeemer, our Savior, our Creator, our King that we may rest in quietness and salvation. In Jesus’ name. Amen.