Isaiah 43:21
Read Isaiah 43:21 Using Other Translations
What does Isaiah 43:21 mean?
This people have I formed for myself
The Gentiles, compared to a desert and wilderness, wild and
uncultivated, distinguished from Jacob and Israel in the next
verse, and the same with the chosen people before mentioned; who
being chosen of God, and redeemed by Christ, are formed anew by
the Spirit of Christ, made new creatures, regenerated, and
transformed by the renewing of their minds, and conformed to the
image of Christ, and having him formed in their souls, and
principles of grace and holiness wrought in them; in consequence
of which they reformed in their lives and conversation, and were
also formed into a Gospel church state, and all this done by the
Lord for himself, his service, and his glory. The Targum is,
``this people have I prepared for my worship:''they shall show forth my praise;
with their lips, by ascribing their formation to the power and grace of God, and even their whole salvation to it, and express their thankfulness for the same; and likewise by their actions, by a subjection to the ordinances of the Gospel, and by their lives and conversations being agreeably to it. Joseph Kimchi, as Abendana observes, interprets this people of the beasts of the field, spoken of in the preceding verse, that should honour the Lord, and here said to be formed for himself, and should show forth his praise; and which is taken notice of to aggravate the sins of the people of the Jews, who called not on the Lord as in the following verses; so the ants and conies are called a people not strong, and the locusts a people great and strong, ( Proverbs 30:25 Proverbs 30:26 ) ( Joel 2:2 ) .
