Isaiah 43

Chap. XLIII. Ver. 1—28. The church encouraged with promises of salvation.—We have here the pleasing prospect of those times of reconciliation and favour which should hereafter succeed, when, with tender care, God should gather again his people from their several dispersions throughout the world, and bring them safely to their own land. Struck with astonishment at so clear a display of an event so distant, the Prophet again challenges all the pagan nations and their idols to produce an instance of such foreknowledge, and intimates that the Jews should remain (as at this day) a separate people, to witness the truth of the prediction, till it should at length be completely fulfilled by the Almighty power of God.

He then returns to their nearer deliverance, from the captivity of Babylon, which, as usual, he illustrates by allusions to that from Egypt: (see (Exodus 14)) than which this is represented as much more wonderful. On this occasion the Prophet represents the tender care of God, in comforting and refreshing his people on their way through the desert, to be so great as to make even the wild beasts haunting those places sensible of the blessing of the copious streams then provided by him. This leads finally to a beautiful contrast of the ingratitude of {In a figurative sense, this prophecy may be well applied to the redemption by Messiah, the effects of his gospel among the Gentiles, and the rejection of the Jews at the same time for their infidelity.}