Verse of the Day Devotion.  Isaiah 44:2

“Thus says the LORD who made you And formed you from the womb, who will help you, ‘Do not fear, O Jacob My servant; And you Jeshurun whom I have chosen.” – Isaiah 44:2  

At the end of chapter 43, Isaiah gave a warning of judgement to His people. “Your first forefather sinned, And your spokesmen have transgressed against Me. So I will pollute the princes of the sanctuary; And I will consign Jacob to the ban, and Israel to revilement.” Isaiah 43:27-28. This is the argument from God’s side to show that they were neither unjustly punished, nor punished with undue severity. The argument is that their rulers and teachers had been guilty of crimes, and therefore it was right to bring all this vengeance upon the nation. From the very beginning it’s history has been a string of sins.

However, starting with our focus verse, he changes His focus to His grace. “Thus says the LORD who made you And formed you from the womb, who will help you, Do not fear, O Jacob My servant; And you Jeshurun whom I have chosen. For I will pour out water on the thirsty land And streams on the dry ground; I will pour out My Spirit on your offspring, And My blessing on your descendants; And they will spring up among the grass Like poplars by streams of water.” Isaiah 44:2-4. The LORD had created and formed Israel, in as much as he had caused them to grow up to be a nation by means of their ancestors from Adam on successively. And because the LORD Himself made Israel, and from the beginning prepared him as an instrument of His purposes, He calls to the nation living in exile, not to fear, for two things are promised. First, that the land they are given will be fertile because of the water poured out on the dry ground. “Do not call to mind the former things or ponder things of the past. Behold, I will do something new, Now it will spring forth; Will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, Rivers in the desert. The beasts of the field will glorify Me; The jackals and the ostriches; Because I have given waters in the wilderness And rivers in the desert, To give drink to My chosen people.“ Isaiah 43:18-20.  

 And second He will pour His Spirit and blessings on their offspring/descendants. This points back to chapter 32, where Isaiah states, “Until the Spirit is poured out upon us from on high, And the wilderness becomes a fertile field And the fertile field is considered as a forest. Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, And righteousness will abide in the fertile field. And the work of righteousness will be peace, And the service of righteousness, quietness, and confidence forever. Then my people will live in a peaceful habitation, And in secure dwellings and in undisturbed resting places.” Isaiah 32:15-18. This refers to when  the Spirit of God, as the source of all blessings, and especially as able to meet and remove the ills of the long calamity and desolation, comes to His people. This evidently refers to some future period, when the evils which the prophet was contemplating would be succeeded by the spread of the true faith.

Then we come to verse 5. “This one will say, ‘I am the LORD’S’; And that one will call on the name of Jacob; And another will write on his hand, ‘Belonging to the LORD,’ And will name Israel’s name with honor.” Isaiah 44:5. The idea of the phrase ‘call on the name of Jacob’ refers to gentiles who, because of the Holy Spirit, join themselves with the children of Jacob in serving the true God. I belong to Yahweh; I devote myself to him. These express the true nature of a profession of faith – a feeling that we are not our own, but that we belong to God. It is, that we not only feel that we are bound to worship him, but that we actually belong to him; that our bodies and spirits, and all that we have and, are to be sacredly employed in his service. Nothing, in few words, can more appropriately describe the true nature of a profession of faith than the expression used here.

In serving God, we must give our everything to Him, not holding anything back. In the Book of Matthew, we see Jesus’ answer to what the greatest commandment is. “And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:37-40. He calls us to give Him everything, all our heart, all our soul, all our mind, and as found in Mark, all our strength as well. Let us not, in anything, give Him less than our all.

William Funkhouser MDiv, ThD, Founder and President of True Devotion Ministries.