Isaiah 43:8

Isaiah 43:8 says, Bring forth the blind people that have eyes, and the deaf that have ears.  Matthew Henry says this refers to idols, which have eyes and cannot see and ears but cannot hear and the people who worship them.  I know that until we accept Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and Lord that we can see and hear physically normally, but we are blind and deaf to God’s word, and we need to be brought to Him by faith so that we can hear and see the truth spiritually, then we will no longer put our faith in these man-made idols. 

Verse nine adds, Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled: who among them can declare this, and shew us former things? let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified: or let them hear, and say, It is truth.  Isaiah said God challenged people from all over the earth to come and show that these idols that they worshipped had power or to accept the truth that He alone is God.  Ultimately, ever individual must stand before God spiritually and decide if they are going to continue to believe in the powers of this world or put their faith in Him.  If they don’t before, when Jesus Christ returns in judgment, they will realize that God’s word is always the truth and that He alone is God. 

Verse ten continues, Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.  God save the people of Israel and Judah, whom He had chosen to work through to reveal Himself to the world, were to be His witnesses to this fact.  When God entered into a covenant relationship with them, He revealed to them Who He is, which is the only God that there is.  We as followers of Christ are to be witnesses of Jesus Christ in the world today, and we are to acknowledge that He alone is the way to salvation. 

Verse eleven states, I, even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no saviour.  God once more declared that He alone was God and that He alone could save people or restore them to a right relationship with Him.  This is to be our message to the lost people of the world today.  Faith in Jesus Christ is not just a way to salvation.  It is the only way too salvation.  We cannot accept the fact that there might be other ways, because God has already told us that He is the only Savior there is. I believe there is one qualifier, and that is if someone has never heard the gospel proclaimed but put their faith in the one true God and believe that He will provide the only way to salvation, they can be saved.  Otherwise, their salvation would be dependent on Christians recaching them with the gospel and not on their faith in God, much as the people of the Old Testament times believed the coming messiah was the only way to salvation, even though they didn’t yet know when He would come nor understand exactly Who He would be.  This is my understanding since if there were no way for those who believe in God and that He has the only way to salvation who have not had an opportunity to hear the gospel to be saved, then to me God would be an unjust God.

 

Verse twelve adds, I have declared, and have saved, and I have shewed, when there was no strange god among you: therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God.  God said He had already shown them the truth of His power when He had delivered them in the past.  There were no idols present who they could claim had done this.  When we put our faith in Jesus Christ, we put away faith in anyone or anything else to save us.  God showed us His power when Jesus Christ died for our sins and was raised again to everlasting life.  All we have to do to enter into an everlasting covenant relationship with God is to put our faith in the Savior, Jesus Christ. 

Verse thirteen continues, Yea, before the day was I am he; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who shall let it?  God said that before there was anything, He was.  God is eternal, and when we accept Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and Lord, there is no one who can take us out of His hand.  We have everlasting security spiritually if we have accepted God’s gift of salvation.