It is important, for the sake of our heart’s ability to respond, to know who it is who is speaking to us. We listen and believe differently when the weight of the person behind the voice bears down on our consciousness. I believe this is why, in the passages from Isaiah 40-55, the burden of communicating just who is speaking seems to be an incredible emphasis. Over and over again Isaiah breaks his flow of thought to over-emphasize just who this great God is who is speaking. Consider these verses just from Isaiah 43…
Isaiah 43:25
“I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake…Put Me in remembrance”
Who? “Even I!”
Isaiah 43:16-19
Thus says the LORD, who makes a way in the sea And a path through the mighty waters, who brings forth the chariot and horse, the army and the power (they shall lie down together, they shall not rise; They are extinguished, they are quenched like a wick): “Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing…
Who is speaking? “The one who makes a way…”
Isaiah 43:1-2 But now, thus says the LORD, who created you, O Jacob, And He who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine.”
Who is telling us we are His? “the one who created us…”
The question that arises from this way of communicating is this: What is so hard to believe about what is being said that God needs to support it with the full weight of who He is?
Consider the above promises that God makes, promises of forgiveness, hope, and a covenant love and identification—they are life giving promises full of goodness and grace to a lost and wayward people!
Are they so hard to believe? YES THEY ARE!!
Our hearts are jaded with the failure of others, the failures of the world, and above all our own personal failures. If it were anybody other than the Lord Himself who would make these promises to us, I would not believe them. Indeed I could not, what promise of hope could another failed human bring into my life? What possible promises of good could I possibly convince myself of on my own?
But now it is HE who has spoken. Is there anybody like Him? Is there anyone who has taught Him? Is there any who can decree the past and the future alike? Therefore if He is the one who has promised my covenant love, forgiveness, and hope, then I receive it, for His Word’s sake.
It would be too gracious a thing to receive unless He insisted on it.
But HE is the one who is insisting. How could I not believe and have life?
Hebrews 12:25 “See that you do not refuse Him who speaks.”
