Isaiah 43:7

Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(7) Every one that is called by my name—i.e., who is marked as belonging to the people that is chosen as the Lord’s servant

MacLaren's Expositions

Isaiah

THY NAME: MY NAME

Isaiah 43:1. - Isaiah 43:7.

Great stress is laid on names in Scripture. These two parallel and antithetic clauses bring out striking complementary relations between God and the collective Israel. But they are as applicable to each individual member of the true Israel of God.

I. What does God’s calling a man by his name imply?

1. Intimate knowledge.

Adam naming the creatures.

Christ naming His disciples.

2. Loving friendship.

Moses, ‘I know thee by name, and thou hast found grace in my sight.’

3. Designation and adaptation to work.

Bezaleel- Exodus 31:2; Cyrus- Isaiah 45:3; Servant of the Lord- Isaiah 49:1.

II. What does God’s calling a man by His name imply?

1. God’s possession of him. That possession by God involves God’s protection and man’s safety. He does not hold His property slackly. ‘None shall pluck them out of My Father’s hand.’

2. Kindred. The man bears the family name. He is adopted into the household. The sonship of the receiver of the new name is dimly shadowed.

3. Likeness.

The Biblical meaning of ‘name’ is ‘character manifested.’

Nomen and omen coincide.

We must bring into connection with the texts the prominence given in the Apocalypse to analogous promises.

‘I will write on him the name of My God.’ That means a fuller disclosing of God’s character, and a clear impress of that character on perfected men ‘His name shall be in their foreheads.’

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

43:1-7 God's favour and good-will to his people speak abundant comfort to all believers. The new creature, wherever it is, is of God's forming. All who are redeemed with the blood of his Son, he has set apart for himself. Those that have God for them need not fear who or what can be against them. What are Egypt and Ethiopia, all their lives and treasures, compared with the blood of Christ? True believers are precious in God's sight, his delight is in them, above any people. Though they went as through fire and water, yet, while they had God with them, they need fear no evil; they should be born up, and brought out. The faithful are encouraged. They were to be assembled from every quarter. And with this pleasing object in view, the prophet again dissuades from anxious fears.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Every one that is called by my name - To be called by the name of anyone, is synonymous with being regarded as his son, since a son bears the name of his father (see Isaiah 44:5; Isaiah 48:1). The expression, therefore, means here, all who were regarded as the children of God; and the promise is, that all such should be re-gathered to their own land.

For I have created him - (See the note at Isaiah 43:1).

For my glory - In order to show forth, and illustrate my glory. They shall be, therefore, defended and protected; and my glory shall be shown in their recovery and salvation.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

7. called by my name—belong to Israel, whose people, as sons of God, bear the name of their Father (Isa 44:5; 48:1).

for my glory—(Isa 43:21; Isa 29:23).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Even every one that is called by my name: They are called by my name; I own them for my people and children; and therefore what kindness or cruelty you exercise to them I take it as done to myself. So it is an argument to move those people to let their captives go; or it is an argument to confirm the faith of God’s people, that God would deliver them, because they are his own.

I have created him for my glory; and therefore I will glorify my power, and goodness, and faithfulness in delivering them.

I have made him; I have not only created them out of nothing, as I did all other people, but I have also formed and made them my peculiar people.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Even everyone that is called by my name,.... That is called by the name of God, a son or daughter of his; or by the name of Christ, a Christian; whoever belongs to the Lord, whom he calls by his name; and who, being called by his grace, call upon his name, make a profession of his name, and serve and worship him:

for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him, yea, I have made him; all which is expressive of the power and grace of God, in the regeneration and conversion of his people; which is a creation, a formation, a making them for himself, for the glory of his grace, and to show forth his praise; and therefore he will gather them in, and bring them into a body together, into a church state, that this end may be answered.

Geneva Study Bible

Even every one that is called by my {g} name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; verily, I have made him.

(g) Meaning that he could not be unmindful of them, unless he would neglect his own Name and glory.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

7. that is called by my name] i.e. who belongs to the community in which Jehovah is worshipped.

for I have created him] Render with R.V. and whom I have created.

for my glory] Although it is only the restored nation that can fully manifest Jehovah’s glory to the world, each of its scattered units shares the dignity which belongs to Israel as a whole.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 7. - Every one that is called by my name. The very name of "Israel" meant "prince of God," or "soldier of God," and thus every Israelite was "called by God's name." Israelites were also known among the nations as Jehovah-worshippers (see the Moabite Stone, line 18). I have created... formed... made him (comp. ver. 1). "The three verbs describe the process of formation from the first rough cutting to the perfecting of the work" (Cheyne). The third verb would, perhaps, be best translated. "I have perfected," or "I have completed (him)." All three acts - creation, formation, and completion - are done by God for his own glory (comp. Proverbs 16:4). Isaiah 43:7

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The encouraging "Fear not" is here resumed, for the purpose of assigning a still further reason. "Fear not; for I am with thee: I bring thy seed from the east, and from the west will I gather them; I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the end of the earth; everything that is called by my name, and I have created for my glory, that I have formed, yea finished!" The fact that Jehovah is with Israel will show itself in this, that He effects its complete restoration from all quarters of the heaven (compare the lands of the diaspora in all directions already mentioned by Isaiah in Isaiah 11:11-12). Jehovah's command is issued to north and south to give up their unrighteous possession, not to keep it back, and to restore His sons and daughters (compare the similar change in the gender in Isaiah 11:12), which evidently implies the help and escort of the exiles on the part of the heathen (Isaiah 14:2). The four quarters and four winds are of the feminine gender. In Isaiah 43:7 the object is more precisely defined from the standpoint of sacred history. The three synonyms bring out the might, the freeness, and the riches of grace, with which Jehovah called Israel into existence, to glorify Himself in it, and that He might be glorified by it. They form a climax, for בּרא signifies to produce as a new thing; יצר, to shape what has been produced; and עשׂה, to make it perfect or complete, hence creavi, formavi, perfeci.