For the desert tribes of Israel, the life-giving presence of Yahweh was intimately tied up in the image of the life-sustaining presence of water. Deliverance and water are found side by side throughout Scripture, beginning with creation's deluvian dunking from human wickedness in Genesis 6 to the New Testament's emphasis on baptism’s power to start life over again. Water cleanses, restores and refreshes, all at the Lord's command.

Isaiah 43 is part of the writings of Deutero or Second Isaiah. The enemy of the hearers of this Isaiah is no longer Assyria(as it was in chapters 1-39) but Babylon, the new seat of power among the middle eastern provinces. Having suffered humiliation at the hands of the Assyrians for so long, the Israelites initially saw Babylon as a weapon against their persecu…