They Shall Declare My Praise

By Dan And Brenda Cathcart

The Video version of this teaching is available at: https://youtu.be/_iku8Hzygto

The scripture reading is: Isaiah 43:21-44:23

One of mankind’s perpetual quests is to answer the question of “What is my purpose in life?” Mankind wants to know that who they are and what they do have significance and meaning. This haftarah reading, Isaiah 43:21 through 44:23, answers these questions from the perspective of our creator. The passage begins with the declaration that God formed the people of Israel and that their purpose is to declare His praise.

Isaiah 43:21 NKJV 21 This people I have formed for Myself; They shall declare My praise.

God says that, specifically, the nation of Israel, more generally, His chosen people, and by extension, all of mankind were formed for and by God. Our purpose is to declare God’s praises. This sounds like God wants us to be like robots predictably and on command shouting out praises. Can you imagine making and programming a robot to tell you how wonderful you are whenever you push a button? While this might be kind of cute and somewhat gratifying at first, the words themselves would be empty and without meaning. Alternatively, God could take the route of some of our more infamous dictators who demanded allegiance and praise which their subjects give out of fear of torture and death.

But, God doesn’t want either of these methods of praise. So, what kind of praise does God want? What are we to give Him praise for? How can we declare His praises if we haven’t called on Him and experienced His answers?

This passage of scripture is paired with the Torah portion Vayikra, Leviticus 1:1 through 6:7. The Torah portion opens with God’s invitation to draw near to Him and instructions on how to do so.

Leviticus 1:1-2 NKJV 1 Now the LORD called to Moses, and spoke to him from the tabernacle of meeting, saying, 2 "Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: 'When any one of you brings an offering to the LORD, you shall bring your offering of the livestock-of the herd and of the flock.

When God spoke these words, the Tabernacle had just been set up and God’s glory had entered and filled the tabernacle. The word tabernacle is “mishkan,” number 4908 in Strong’s Concordance meaning a residence or dwelling place. The tent of meeting was erected over the tabernacle.

Exodus 40:1-2 NKJV 1 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: 2 "On the first day of the first month you shall set up the tabernacle of the tent of meeting.

God had taken up residence in His dwelling place which included a large courtyard for meeting with His people. Now, He was ready and eager to receive visits from His people!

Exodus 29:45-46 NKJV 45 "I will dwell among the children of Israel and will be their God. 46 "And they shall know that I am the LORD their God, who brought them up out of the land of Egypt, that I may dwell among them. I am the LORD their God.

God wants His people to come to Him and get to know Him. He wants His people to spend time with Him! Isaiah reminded Jacob, the children of Israel, of this purpose and desire of God. However, they haven’t called on God!

Isaiah 43:22-24 NKJV 22 "But you have not called upon Me, O Jacob; And you have been weary of Me, O Israel. 23 You have not brought Me the sheep for your burnt offerings, Nor have you honored Me with your sacrifices. I have not caused you to serve with grain offerings, Nor wearied you with incense. 24 You have bought Me no sweet cane with money, Nor have you satisfied Me with the fat of your sacrifices; But you have burdened Me with your sins, You have wearied Me with your iniquities.

God uses the word “weary” three times in these verses. The word “weary” is “yaga,” number 3021 in Strong’s Concordance meaning to gasp, to be exhausted, to tire from toil, exertion or exhaustion. First Fruits of Zion in Torah Club Volume three explains:

To Israel God was like one who was causing them to labor and be heavily laden so that they were like slaves who became tired and exhausted of their cruel master. That is why Isaiah says that they did not call upon Him, meaning to seek out the Lord as one seeks out his friend.[i]

God’s request that Israel bring their offerings and draw near to Him in His dwelling place was neither burdensome, nor such as to cause toil and exhaustion! Far from God wearying Israel, Israel had wearied God with their iniquities and burdened Him with their sins! The word “burden,” is “abad,” number 5647, meaning to work, serve, be enslaved or kept in bondage. The bondage of Israel’s sins had fallen as a heavy weight on God! The prophet Amos describes the burden as an overloaded cart.

Amos 2:13 NKJV 13 "Behold, I am weighed down by you, As a cart full of sheaves is weighed down.

Instead of bringing offerings in holiness which would be a sweet aroma to God, they brought the stench of their sins. Instead of bringing the sin offering which would lift the burden of sin, they brought their sins. They withheld the offering of the sweet cane used in the making of the anointing oil as described in Exodus 30:23.

God’s people had turned their backs on Him and surely God would be justified in turning His back on them. But, that’s not what God did or does. God said He would take the burden of sin they had loaded Him down with and blot out the sins!

Isaiah 43:25 NKJV 25 "I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; And I will not remember your sins.

God continues as if Israel had argued that they had no need for God to blot out their sins; as if they had not sinned against God. God states His decision that they are guilty.

Isaiah 43:26-28 NKJV 26 Put Me in remembrance; Let us contend together; State your case, that you may be acquitted. 27 Your first father sinned, And your mediators have transgressed against Me. 28 Therefore I will profane the princes of the sanctuary; I will give Jacob to the curse, And Israel to reproaches.

God stated that even their first father sinned. Although this could be referring to Adam, it is more likely that it is referring to Abraham, the father of Israel and to whom the promise of Israel was given. God refers to Abraham as the father of Israel that they are to look to as a model of righteousness.

Isaiah 51:1-2 NKJV 1 "Listen to Me, you who follow after righteousness, You who seek the LORD: Look to the rock from which you were hewn, And to the hole of the pit from which you were dug. 2 Look to Abraham your father, And to Sarah who bore you; For I called him alone, And blessed him and increased him."

If even Abraham, to whom they are to look, was guilty of sin, how much more are they guilty?  Further, the children of Israel tended to use their connection to Abraham to justify their actions and claim they have no need for forgiveness of their sins. John the Baptist rebuked the self-righteous religious leaders of his day.

Matthew 3:7-9 NKJV 7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, "Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 "Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, 9 "and do not think to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.

God continued to declare His judgment through Isaiah condemning their mediators as not just sinners but as transgressors. The Hebrew word translated as “mediators” is “luwts,” number 3887, meaning to make mouths at, to scoff, scorn, mock or, in a negative way, an ambassador or teacher. It is most often translated as a scorner! The Hebrew word for transgressors is “pasha,” number 6586 meaning to break away, trespass or quarrel. The mediators didn’t accidentally or carelessly commit a sin; they willfully and deliberately broke away from God’s commandments and rebelled against Him. Who were these mediators? We are told in the next verse that they are the “princes of the sanctuary.” These are the priests and Levites whose duty it was to teach the commandments of God to the people! God declared that these leaders were guilty and would receive the curse as decreed by their covenant agreement with God when He took them for His own people! They and all Israel would be driven from the Promised Land and be a reproach among the nations.

Jeremiah 24:9 NKJV 9 'I will deliver them to trouble into all the kingdoms of the earth, for their harm, to be a reproach and a byword, a taunt and a curse, in all places where I shall drive them.

Yet, even though Israel refused to call on God, refused to bring their offerings to Him, and God’s chosen priests mocked Him bringing the curse on all of Israel, God still reiterates that they are His chosen people.

Isaiah 44:1-2 NKJV 1 "Yet hear now, O Jacob My servant, And Israel whom I have chosen. 2 Thus says the LORD who made you And formed you from the womb, who will help you: 'Fear not, O Jacob My servant; And you, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.

Despite the judgment coming on Jacob, God tells Jacob to hear Him and to not be afraid. God would not abandon His chosen people; they are His children whom God formed in the womb! He is still their helper. Finally, He calls them Jeshurun meaning upright! The only other use of this name, Jeshurun, for Israel is in the Book of Deuteronomy. It is used in the song of Moses which Moses sang just before the children of Israel enter the land. In Moses’ song, he warns that Israel, Jeshurun, will turn away from God.

Deuteronomy 32:15 NKJV 15 "But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked; You grew fat, you grew thick, You are obese! Then he forsook God who made him, And scornfully esteemed the Rock of his salvation.

As Moses blesses the twelve tribes before His death, he refers to God as the King in Jeshurun when Israel was united as one under God.

Deuteronomy 33:5 NKJV 5 And He was King in Jeshurun, When the leaders of the people were gathered, All the tribes of Israel together.

At the time of Isaiah, the children of Israel are certainly not upright, yet there will be a time that God will see them as upright. God goes on to detail the blessing He has in store for them and how they will turn back to Him and claim Him as their God!

Isaiah 44:3-5 NKJV 3 For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, And floods on the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit on your descendants, And My blessing on your offspring; 4 They will spring up among the grass Like willows by the watercourses.' 5 One will say, 'I am the LORD'S'; Another will call himself by the name of Jacob; Another will write with his hand, 'The LORD'S,' And name himself by the name of Israel.

But, how was this to happen? At the time of Isaiah, Jacob had wearied God with their sins, weighing God down as if He were their servant! What could make Jacob become Jeshurun or upright? Just like God was their first deliverer, redeeming them from slavery in Egypt to take them as His people, He would also be their last deliverer redeeming them from their sins.

Isaiah 44:6 NKJV 6 "Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel, And his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: 'I am the First and I am the Last; Besides Me there is no God.

Israel laid the burden of their sins and iniquities on God and only God can lift that burden. Only God can carry their sins away.

Isaiah 53:10-11 NKJV 10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand. 11 He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities.

The iniquity that the children of Israel laid on God, God in turn laid it on His son, the only one who could carry it! If anyone questions God’s authority to be their redeemer, He declares that He is the only Rock.

Isaiah 44:7-8 NKJV 7 And who can proclaim as I do? Then let him declare it and set it in order for Me, Since I appointed the ancient people. And the things that are coming and shall come, Let them show these to them. 8 Do not fear, nor be afraid; Have I not told you from that time, and declared it? You are My witnesses. Is there a God besides Me? Indeed there is no other Rock; I know not one.'"

The use of the name Rock for God goes back to the end of the forty years in the wilderness and the Song of Moses. Moses refers to God as the Rock five times in his song. We saw one reference to God as the Rock of their salvation in connection with Jeshurun. God’s choice to remind the children of Israel of both Jeshurun and His name as the Rock would remind them of how He brought them out of Egypt and brought them into the Promised Land.

Once again, in this passage in Isaiah, it is as if God hears the objections of the people. It is as if Jacob argues that they can all on the other gods they have been sacrificing to, and those gods can deliver them. God rebukes them for their foolishness!

Isaiah 44:9 NKJV 9 Those who make an image, all of them are useless, And their precious things shall not profit; They are their own witnesses; They neither see nor know, that they may be ashamed.

This satirical diatribe against idols and their human makers continues through verse twenty of chapter forty-four. Isaiah employs word play and the Hebrew poetical form to drive his point home. He includes a section in which he describes the process of making an idol starting with cutting down the tree to get the wood. A man burns some of that wood in a hearth to bake bread, some is burned to provide warmth, and then, the man uses rest of the wood to carve his own god. Isaiah comments on this absurdity.

Isaiah 44:19-20 NKJV 19 And no one considers in his heart, Nor is there knowledge nor understanding to say, "I have burned half of it in the fire, Yes, I have also baked bread on its coals; I have roasted meat and eaten it; And shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?" 20 He feeds on ashes; A deceived heart has turned him aside; And he cannot deliver his soul, Nor say, "Is there not a lie in my right hand?"

Man cannot deliver himself. Neither can he carve a god from wood and use it to deliver him. The word “deliver” in this verse is “Natzal,” number 5337 meaning to snatch away, deliver, rescue, or preserve. The word “soul” is “nephesh,” number 5315 meaning a breathing creature, figuratively the soul. Man has no power to snatch away or rescue his own essence, the breath of his life.

After this pronouncement, God calls on Jacob once more to remember where their deliverance does come from! God alone is their redeemer!

Isaiah 44:21-22 NKJV 21 "Remember these, O Jacob, And Israel, for you are My servant; I have formed you, you are My servant; O Israel, you will not be forgotten by Me! 22 I have blotted out, like a thick cloud, your transgressions, And like a cloud, your sins. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you."

God said that their sins and transgressions had already been blotted out! All they had to do was to return to Him! But they were unwilling to return to God. However, God had then and has now redeemed them. The promise of redemption is still available to all who would return to God their redeemer, to all who would call on His name. At the dedication of the temple, Solomon asked God to always have His eyes on the temple and to be ready to forgive His people. God accepted Solomon’s request and confirmed it during His second appearance to Solomon.

2 Chronicles 7:14 NKJV 14 "if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

However, God’s presence left the temple of God and the temple was eventually destroyed. Then God sent His son to dwell with man in a human body to bring the redemption that He had promised was theirs.

John 1:14 NKJV 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

Paul explains that God accomplished the redemption of His people when Yeshua died for us.

Romans 5:8-11 NKJV 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. 10 For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. 11 And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

God desires our praises for the mercy He extended to us through the death of Yeshua who carried away our sins. He desires our praises for the promise of eternal life that we have through Yeshua who rose from the dead. He desires our praises for who He is, the eternal God of all creation!

Isaiah 43:10-11 NKJV 10 "You are My witnesses," says the LORD, "And My servant whom I have chosen, That you may know and believe Me, And understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, Nor shall there be after Me. 11 I, even I, am the LORD, And besides Me there is no savior.

God desires the willing praises of His people. He wants us to draw near to Him and experience the richness of fellowship with Him. He is truly worthy of all our praises! His desire has always been and will always be to dwell among and within His people!

Study Questions:

1. Discuss the connection of this teaching to the Torah Portion Vayikra, Leviticus 1:1-6:7.

2. This passage begins with the declaration that God formed Israel for Himself and that they shall proclaim His praise. What are we to praise Him for? Consider the verses in chapter 43 leading up to this verse in your answer as well as other scripture. How does this apply to us as believers?

3. Compare God’s use of the word “weary” in Isaiah 43:22-24 with Yeshua’s use of the word “weary” in Matthew 11:28-30. How does sin weary us? How does it weary God? How does this connect with Isaiah 53?

4. One of God’s indictments against Jacob is that he didn’t call on Him. What are some of the places and situations in Psalms that refer to calling on God?  Paul writes about the inability of people to call on God in Romans 10:14. What action is Paul urging believers to do about that? 

5. Whom does God have in mind in Isaiah 44:5? How is this supported elsewhere in Isaiah’s prophecies?

6. What new insight did you gain from this teaching? How do you respond to this new insight? How will you realign your life based on this new understanding?

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[i] First Fruits of Zion Torah Club; Messianic Commentary on the Parashot HaShavuah, Volume Three – The Hartarah. Boaz Michael. ©1999. P396.