There are seasons when we become painfully aware of everything in our lives that still needs to change. We see the places that feel dry, the things we wish we had done differently, the prayers still waiting for an answer—and almost instinctively, we begin asking ourselves what we must do to make things right. But Isaiah 43 gives us a very different picture. Again and again, God draws our attention away from what we can accomplish and back to who He is:
“I am the LORD, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King.”
Isaiah 43:15
There is a beautiful truth here to carry with you into Shabbat. The One speaking these words is the God who brings life where there was barrenness, makes a way where there was no way, restores what seemed lost, and forgives what we could never erase ourselves. And in the middle of His promises to Israel, we discover something about the heart of God that reaches directly into our own lives: our hope begins not with what we can do for Him, but with what He has already determined to do for us.
Isaiah 43 is filled with the language of restoration. God speaks of gathering His people, making a way through the wilderness, bringing rivers into the desert, and causing what was dry to live again. Then He reminds Israel who stands behind every promise: “I am the LORD, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King.” The Hebrew word Kadosh means Holy One, and the language Isaiah uses for Creator takes us back to the creative power of God revealed in Genesis. The One who created in the beginning is not limited by what already exists. He can bring forth something new. He can take a wilderness and send water through it. He can take what appears finished and write another chapter.
And He tells us why:
“This people I have formed for Myself; they shall declare My praise.”
Isaiah 43:21
God formed Israel for Himself and for His glory, and through Yeshua that truth speaks personally to everyone who belongs to Him. Your life is not without purpose, and you were not created merely to survive whatever circumstances come your way. Isaiah uses the Hebrew word tehillah—praise. When you tell of God’s faithfulness, when you remember His goodness, when your life becomes a testimony to what He has done, you are living out something of the very purpose for which you were formed.
But then Isaiah brings us to perhaps the most tender words in the chapter:
“I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; and I will not remember your sins.”
Isaiah 43:25
In Hebrew, the verse begins Anochi, Anochi—I, I Myself. God deliberately brings the emphasis back to Himself. I am the One who does this. Forgiveness begins in His heart. Mercy is not something you have to wrestle unwillingly from God; it flows from who He is. Through Yeshua, that extraordinary promise of forgiveness and reconciliation has become ours.
And perhaps that is the word you need to hear as you enter Shabbat. You may be looking at a wilderness and wondering how anything can grow there again. You may be looking at something from your past that you cannot undo, a situation you cannot repair by your own strength, or a future you cannot yet see clearly. We naturally keep looking at ourselves and asking, What can I do? How can I fix this? How will I make a way? Yet throughout this chapter, God keeps drawing our eyes back to the same answer: Anochi. I Myself. The Creator is still able to create. The One who made a way through the wilderness is still able to make a way. The One who forgives is still eager to show mercy.
This is one of the gifts of Shabbat: we stop. We lay down, even for a little while, the exhausting belief that everything depends upon us. We remember who God is and who we are. He is your Creator and your King. You belong to Him. And you can praise Him not because everything in your life has already been resolved, but because His faithfulness has never depended upon your circumstances.
So perhaps this Shabbat, you do not need another reminder of everything that still needs to be fixed. Perhaps you need the reminder Isaiah gave Israel: the God who created is still creating, the God who called you is still faithful, and the God who forgives has not changed. When you reach the end of what you can do, His answer still brings your eyes back to Him:
“Anochi, Anochi—I Myself.”
Shabbat Shalom from Israel and the Judean hills,
Pastor Israel Pochtar
