“You Will Be My Witnesses”
Isaiah 43:8-21

Let’s take a quick review of what Isaiah has been saying lately. Today’s passage is part of a section of verses from chapter 42-44. The first part told us of the certainty of Israel being delivered from Babylonian captivity. The second part demonstrated how God would use that deliverance as the evidence that He alone is God. Today’s Scripture will discuss how the Israelites were to be witnesses for God. As we continue, Isaiah will reveal the helplessness of the gods which humans have created. 

Today’s Scripture in verse 8, of chapter 43, brings us back to a courtroom scenario, where God again is both the judge and the defendant. Isaiah addresses the servant Israel, and proclaims that there was no doubt that Israel could not produce hope on their own. They were “blind” and “deaf” and so at this point they were not able to give ministry but only at a place to receive it. 
Isaiah prods the Israelites, as well as any nation, to give evidence or to provide a “witness” that any god they have created has made a prediction in the past, that has come true. Their inability to answer, gives the answer, there was no such evidence. 

Isaiah then turns to the blind and deaf servant Israel and declares, “You are my witnesses.” Any good defense attorney would turn to God and exclaim, “What are you thinking?! Are you crazy? There isn’t one judge on the planet who would accept the witness of someone who is blind and deaf!” 

Isaiah calls the Israelites to put their trust in God. As we read on in verses 10, Isaiah reminds them that have been called into a relationship with God. 
 
 
He then explains why. 
So they may know – pertaining to their affective
So they may believe – pertaining to their choice of desire
So they may understand – pertaining to their cognitive
So they may know, believe and understand, that God is who He says He is.
The One all of society is looking for
The One who made all things
The One to whom all things will return
And ultimately, the One who can save
And when God acts, the question arises, 
“Who can reverse it?”

The next section is where God tells His people, 
once again, 
that He will deliver them from Babylon. 
Notice the relational terminology used: 
“Your Redeemer”
“Your Holy One”
“Your King”
Isaiah wants to remind them, God was not going to deliver them to prove how great He is, or to establish some theological point. The reason for delivering His people remains the same as Isaiah stated in verse 4, “because He loves them.”
Isaiah has given the “why” they were to be delivered, 
the remaining question is “how?” 

Isaiah has been progressively revealing the how as we have been reading through his book. 
First, in chapter 41, Isaiah told of a man coming from the east who would terrify the nations, 
then in chapter 42, Isaiah promised deliverance, that Babylon would fall and that God would deliver them in a different way from what they would expect. 
In today’s chapter 43, Isaiah reminds them of what happened in Exodus. How God demonstrated His control over nature and the nations and how He was able to save His people. 
However, just as soon as Isaiah reminds them of the past, in verse 18, he tells them to, “forget the former things; do not dwell in the past.”
Can’t you hear the grumbling? The exasperations of those who thought they had all the answers. They had studied God’s Torah and certainly God would raise up a “Moses” to lead them to the Euphrates and part the waters and deliver them from Babylon. 

Isn’t it nice when things are predictable? 
But God is not like that. 

For in the very next verse, God says, 
“See I am doing a new thing.” 
Last time He made a way through the sea, this time He would be making a way through the desert. Deliverance is the same, but how that is done, changes. 

As humans, we don’t always like surprises. We like having everything predictable, the way the have always been. That way we can relax, and oftentimes, become complacent. Predictability is the way we have created our human gods. They conveniently do the same thing over and over again. 

However, God, Yahweh, enjoys doing things differently. Remember, He is a creator, an artist. He is faithful to Himself and His premise of love and providence, but when you examine the actions He takes, He is always doing things in new ways. This was one of the difficulties the Jewish leaders had when Jesus, the Messiah arrived. He was doing things that did not resonate with their preconceived notions of what the Messiah was going to do. 
Isaiah’s point to tell the Israelites to forget what God had done in the past, was because he wanted them to remember God’s character and nature, but not to enshrine the methods of the past. Not much has changed today. How many of us have enshrined the methods of our worship or of what Christians are “supposed to be like” only to forget the theological truths those methods were supposed to teach?

If we are honest, many of us have difficulty with remembering the lessons of the past and forgetting the methods. This requires flexibility, openness and a daring that somehow reduces as we get older. We live in a complex world and when we are able to find something that works for us, well, we tend to hold on to it with a death grip. If something works on a continual basis we tend to treasure it. We have become accustomed to accumulating the things that work and discarding the things that don’t. 
This human trait rears its ugly head whenever anyone suggests we let go of those things that have worked in the past. Why would anyone suggest such a thing? Wisdom says that if it works, don’t fix it. But herein lies the danger, when we hold on to the way we have always done things, we become calcified. We get stuck. We take over the role of God in our lives and decide we have it all figured out. We know the questions and we know the answers. We don’t need faith anymore. For our own sake, God steps in and dares us to believe Him for new things in our lives. By doing so, we are forced to let go of some of the “control” we have gained and allow God to stretch our vision. Eighty year old Caleb had caught on when he proclaimed in Joshua 14:10-12, 
“Now then, just as the Lord promised, he has kept me alive for forty-five years since the time he said this to Moses, while Israel moved about in the wilderness. So here I am today, eighty-five years old! 
I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I’m just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then. 
Now give me this hill country that the Lord promised me that day. You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified, but, the Lord helping me, I will drive them out just as he said.”
Don’t mishear me, I am not promoting to choose novelty just for the sake of doing something new. Just as the older we get the more attached we are to our familiar methods that have worked in the past, the thought that “If it is new, it’s right” is not necessarily correct. Discernment is required in both instances. The familiar statement of the church, “We’ve never done it that way before” is often a barrier to allowing God to move, and such is the same of a new method which obliterates the old truths. The Holy Spirit should be our guide. 

Today’s Scripture also reminds us that we are God’s witnesses. 
Being a witness for Christ, may initially bring to your mind the thought of having to go door to door, passing out some sort of religious literature or having to corner some poor soul on the street and present to them the “Four Spiritual Laws.” This type of witnessing has been the product of preachers using guilt to get others to share the gospel without complaint. When what it often results in is offering no witness, just a set of does and don’ts. 

Isaiah helps us comprehend what it means to be a witness. 

First, did you notice that God did not command the Israelites to be witnesses? God simply declares a fact: “You are my witnesses.” Jesus said the same thing, in fact He was quoting Isaiah, in Acts 1:8, “You will be my witnesses.” Both the people of Israel and the disciples experienced something that changed their lives, forever. It was a fact. We are no different. 
First, for those of us who have met Jesus, and are in a relationship with Him, our lives have changed. It is a fact. We are evidence to the fact that the divine has entered our lives and made a difference. It is not something we do, it is something we are.

Second, check out where God rests His claim of Godhood, on the Israelites, on the disciples, on the likes of us! Unbelievable! Is He crazy! Just the opposite. God asked for the idols to bring forth their witnesses, and there were none. Yet, God points to us, in order to support His case. What an honor! God wanted the Israelites, and us, to comprehend, that we are not outcasts. God loves us, and being a witness is not a burden but a privilege. 

Thirdly, Isaiah reveals what a witness is. Being a witness means expressing one’s experience. God didn’t ask the exiles to prepare speeches, He wanted them to report on what God had done for them. They could report that God predicted their Exile, long before it occurred. 
They could report that even though they had persisted in sinning over and over again, God continued to try to woo them back, to no avail, until the Exile became inevitable. Yet, they could also report that God promised to deliver them and that one day they would be able to declare they walked out of the gates of Babylon. 

It’s the same for us. 1 Peter 3:15
But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,

We don’t have to have a dramatic or attention-grabbing testimony to be a witness. It is simply “our story,” and what our story says about our relationship with Jesus and His ability to save.

Finally, the idea of a witness does require that God has done something in our lives. 
Ezekiel tells us in chapter 36, that God stated His people had “profaned His name.” They had gone into Exile and began telling everyone that God was unable to deliver them. Not necessarily a witness to the power of God, do you think? This meant that God had double duty, He would not only have to deliver them from the consequences of their sin, He would also have to deliver them from the causes of it. Which brings us to a good question – “Are we allowing God to deliver us or not?” Is our daily walk one that demonstrates God’s presence? Then we can be His witness. Or are we blaming God for the bad things that happen? Like He is punishing us or something? 

In order to be a witness, you have to have experienced something, seen it, sensed it, felt it, encountered it. 
John described it well in his first letter, 
 

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete.

If you haven’t met Jesus, and do not have a personal relationship with Him, this message is not for you…. Yet. but for those of us who have, we are His witness. And out of the grace that has been given us, may we share that grace with others, whether it be with words or in deed. 

Let’s pray.