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Isaiah 44 Bible study: I am the first, and I am the last
In Hebrew the verb of the LORD who "formed you from the womb" (44:2) is the verb of "Everyone who makes a carved image" (44:9). And the man makes his god from "the rest" of the wood he burns (44:17): she'erit, the word the WEB gives elsewhere in Isaiah as remnant.
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“I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions, and, as a cloud, your sins. Return to me, for I have redeemed you.”
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“In Isaiah 44 the man makes his god from the same wood he burns in the fire.”
Is that in Isaiah 44, or not? Make your call.
What's really going on
"Yet listen now"
Chapter 43 ends, "Therefore I will profane the princes of the sanctuary; and I will make Jacob a curse, and Israel an insult" (Isaiah 43:28). The next verse begins, "Yet listen now, Jacob my servant, and Israel, whom I have chosen" (44:1). The LORD speaks as the one "who made you, and formed you from the womb, who will help you" (44:2) (tap formed), and says, "Don’t be afraid, Jacob my servant; and you, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen" (44:2) (tap Jeshurun). Then the promise: "For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and streams on the dry ground. I will pour my Spirit on your descendants, and my blessing on your offspring" (44:3) (tap pour), "and they will spring up among the grass, as willows by the watercourses" (44:4). Here is what almost everyone misses: the promise ends with people saying whose they are. One says "I am the LORD’s" (44:5), another "will be called by the name of Jacob" (44:5), another "will write with his hand" (44:5) the words "to the LORD" (44:5), and another will "honor the name of Israel" (44:5).
Where it leads to Jesus
The first and the last
Isaiah 44:6leads toRevelation 1:17
In Isaiah 44, "the LORD, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the LORD of Armies" says, "I am the first, and I am the last; and besides me there is no God" (Isaiah 44:6). Revelation is "the Revelation of Jesus Christ" (Revelation 1:1). John saw "one like a son of man" (Revelation 1:13), and says, "When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man. He laid his right hand on me, saying, “Don’t be afraid. I am the first and the last" (Revelation 1:17), "and the Living one. I was dead, and behold, I am alive forever and ever" (Revelation 1:18). Revelation doesn't name Isaiah, and its words are close to 44:6's but not the same, so setting the two side by side is a reading. Some hear in Revelation 1:17 the words the LORD says of himself in Isaiah 44:6, spoken by the risen Jesus. Others read Revelation 1:17-18 on its own, as the words of the one who was dead and is alive, and read Isaiah 44:6 in its own chapter, of the LORD and Israel. These notes pick neither.
Honest questions
Questions people ask about Isaiah 44
That was a taste
The rest of Isaiah 44 is waiting in Favor
- "I am the first, and I am the last"
- The maker and the tree
- "Return to me, for I have redeemed you"
- Jeshurun, and the Rock
- Samuel’s "vain things"
- 12 questions as you read
- 13 more Hebrew words
- A short check at the end
- Your notes, saved as you go
Favor reads the Bible in order, so you'll reach Isaiah 44 with everything before it in view. First week free, then $10 a month per person.
The Hebrew word behind it
יָצַרyatsarsay ya-TSAR
Brown-Driver-Briggs: "form, fashion". Strong's: "to mould into a form; especially as a potter". The chapter has it six times. Three times it is the LORD's: "the LORD who made you, and formed you from the womb" (44:2), "I have formed you" (44:21), and "he who formed you from the womb" (44:24). Three times it is the makers of idols: "Everyone who makes a carved image" (44:9), "Who has fashioned a god" (44:10), and the blacksmith who "fashions it with hammers" (44:12). It is the verb of "The LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground" (Genesis 2:7). The Hebrew Bible has it with el, god, in two verses only: "Before me there was no God formed" (Isaiah 43:10) and "Who has fashioned a god" (44:10). The chapter on Isaiah 43 sets it beside created and made (Isaiah 43:1, 43:7), and the chapter on Isaiah 29 studies it as the potter.
For your group
Isaiah 44 Bible study questions
- 1"Israel, you will not be forgotten by me" (44:21). When has it mattered to you to be remembered, and what do these words say to you?
- 2The same tree warms the man, bakes his bread, and becomes his god (44:15-17). Why do you think people come to trust in things their own hands have made?
- 344:22 says "I have blotted out" and "I have redeemed you" on either side of the call, "Return to me". What difference does it make to hear the call in that order?
Leading a group? In Favor, everyone reads Isaiah 44 during the week and answers these questions privately. Answers stay sealed until you meet, then appear together, and you can print the week's sheet.
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Questions
What is Favor?
Favor is a Bible study app that explains every chapter as you read: the Hebrew and Greek behind the words, the details most readers miss, and how each part of the Bible leads to Jesus. Read on your own, or start a Bible study with friends, family or your church.
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The World English Bible, a modern, readable translation in the public domain. God's name appears as "the LORD", as in most English Bibles.
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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Hebrew and Greek words are checked against the original-language texts and public-domain lexicons. What we believe · Favor home