17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man. He laid his right hand on me, saying, “Don’t be afraid. I am the first and the last,
I am the first and the last – in Isa 44:6, Christ speaks for God, saying, “I am the first and the last.”
In Isa 44, there are two speakers identified. Yihvah, (the Father), “who made you, and formed you in the womb,” is identified as the speaker from Isa 44:2. Yihvah, (Christ), “the King of Israel and its Redeemer,” is identified as the speaker from Isa 44:6. Of course, both speak “as God,” because Christ was the Word, the speaker for the invisible God. In the last section, that begins in Isa 44:24, both speakers are identified, “thus says, Yihvah your Redeemer, AND, He who formed you from the womb.”
The invisible God is the “first and the last.” He is the first and the last LORD. Christ speaks for Him again, in the LORD’s Day, when Christ submits to God, as He did in the Old Testament.