This segment opens like the first one (cf. Isaiah 48:1). However here, the emphasis is on who God Isaiah , rather than on who the Israelites are. He is the eternal, self-existent God who called Israel to Himself for a special purpose. This is the basis for His claim to predict the future and to use whomever He will to carry out His will. [source][source][source]
"As first God was not pressed by any external agency into what he initiated; as last he stands unchallenged by any force that may have tried to oppose; and he brings to triumphant conclusion what he started. At the start, there was his uninhibited freedom to do as he chose; at the end, the untarnished gold of his completed work." [1][source]
Context Summary
Isaiah 48:1-16 - The Obstinate And Insincere Rebuked
We are meant to be for God's praise and glory; but we may delay the realization of His high purpose. Our neck iron, our brow brass, we trust in idols and refuse to open our ear. It is necessary, therefore, to send us to Babylon, where, as in a furnace for silver, the dross and alloy are purged away. Many of us are in furnaces which have been rendered needful through our evil ways.
Notwithstanding our sins, God comes to the furnace mouth and chooses us there. For His own sake, His own sake, He does it that His name may not be polluted. He cannot give His glory to another. You cannot account for God's grace to you personally. He must have known all, from the first. Then dare to believe that the reason that prompted Him at the first will suffice to the end. He is not "the son of man that He should repent." He who was the first will be the last. Jesus is Omega as well as Alpha; the end as well as the beginning! Fear not! Revelation 1:17. [source]
Chapter Summary: Isaiah 48
1God, to convince the people of their foreknown obstinance, revealed his prophecies 9He saves them for his own sake 12He exhorts them to obedience, because of his power and providence 16He laments their backwardness 20He powerfully delivers his people out of Babylon
What do the individual words in Isaiah 48:12 mean?
Listento MeJacoband IsraelMy calledI [am]HeI [am]the Firstalsothe Last
Parse: Conjunctive waw, Proper Noun, masculine singular
Root: יִשְׂרָאֵל
Sense: the second name for Jacob given to him by God after his wrestling with the angel at Peniel.