This brief section is a call to God's people to embrace God's promises. It concludes this section of the prophecy (42:10-44:22) by affirming that God would not abandon the Israelites because of their sins but would deliver them and even use them to demonstrate His unique deity.
44:21 This chiastic verse reiterates a theme from Deuteronomy, namely, remembering what God has revealed (cf. Deut. 8:2, 11, 18; 9:7). God called His people to remember the truths about Himself that this section of the book emphasizes: He is the only God who foretells and then creates history, and the idols of the nations are nothing. Bearing these truths in mind would enable Israel to fulfill her purpose in the world, namely, to be the Lord's servant. The nation had not yet fulfilled that purpose, and the Lord would not forget her but would enable her to fulfill it. He would not cast her off.
"Within the immediate context the call to remember' (21) forges a link with what has preceded: (i) the idolater has been busy fashioning' (9-10, 12) his idol, but Israel has been fashioned' (21; NIV made) by the Lord; (ii) the idolater is bound to his idol (18-20), but Israel is the Lord's bondman (servant; 21); (iii) the idolater prayed pathetically Save me(17), but to Israel the Lord says I have redeemed you(22-23); (iv) the idolater bowed to a block of wood/'tree stump' (bul es; 19), but now every tree (kol es) is summoned to rejoice in the Lord (23)."467
44:22 What Israel needed above all was forgiveness and cleansing from her sins (cf. 43:25). The Lord had taken the initiative to provide this for His people. He would blow their sin away as quickly and as easily as a wind blows a cloud or mist away.
"The clouds intervene between heaven and earth as sin and transgressions intervene between God and His people."468
Yet God's people must respond to His initiative by returning to Him. He had provided redemption in the Exodus, but it was only the first of several redemptions that He would provide. He would redeem them from captivity by using His servant Cyrus (v. 28), and He would redeem them from sin by using His Servant Messiah at His first advent. He would also redeem them from captivity in the Tribulation by using His Servant Messiah at His second advent.
The summary reference to redemption in verse 22 (cf. 42:10-44:22) prepares the reader for the next section of Isaiah's prophecy.
