Fear Not, For I Am With You!

So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. (Isaiah 41:10)

We know that COVID variant has been hitting many countries now and it is sad to hear the not-so-pleasant news about the casualties and the struggles people are going through. As believers, it is our responsibility to pray fervently in this situation and at the same time offer whatever help is needed by utilizing our resources. Fear is a word that troubles human minds a lot. The word, Fear is defined as “an unpleasant often strong emotion caused by anticipation or awareness of danger.” It is true that we all go through different sorts of fears in our life and right now many parts of the world are going through tremendous fear. In these times of distress, I felt to pen my thoughts on fear and see how Scripture deals with overcoming the emotion in the context of Isaiah 41:10.

Isaiah 41 is a chapter which talks about how the Lord asserts to the nations and expresses his sovereignty over every human event. In the immediate context we can understand that the Israel was in captivity in Babylon and they got to know about a king who will come from the east and conquer the Babylonians. Fear started crippling the Israelites who were in captivity. They knew troubled times were going to come and what they did in response was making idols to rescue them from the invasion. They were in a trembling situation not knowing what to do and all they needed right then was a calm in the course of their fears.

But in midst of this, the Lord assured Israel, offspring of Abraham that the events which were going to happen was for their good and how special they were to him. Israel was chosen by God and God will not reject them. That was a specific promise of God to Israel. Hence they should not fear as the Lord is with them and he is still their God. He comforts them through his words and makes a strong statement – “I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” We know right hand was a symbol for honor and strength throughout the Scripture.

If we study the Scripture, we know what happened to Jews after exile. Yahweh commanded Cyrus to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem and to re-establish the worship. But unless there are worshippers, how good is a temple? Hence Cyrus commanded that the Jews should return to Jerusalem. Most of them remained in Babylon but initially around 50000 Jews returned to Israel following the decree of Cyrus. Later around 40000 people returned from Babylon with Ezra. We see that the promise of God came to fulfillment and they were not destroyed.

So far I had been speaking about the context of Isaiah 41:10. The question then is how does this verse apply to us? We all can agree that the verse in its immediate context was a specific promise to Israel. So is it right to apply this promise to contemporary believers? One thing we have to understand is the fact that God is immutable. That is one of the most important characteristics of God. “I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.” (Malachi 3:6) Malachi tells us that Israel was not consumed because of his unchanging nature and this should be a great comfort to us too. The people in the Old Covenant deserved punishment but were not destroyed in spite of all their wickedness and sins. God had made a covenant with Israel and he could not break his promises. So as Christians, we serve the same unchanging God who kept his promises to Israel. Though the details of his protection specific for Israel would not apply to us, the general principle and the character of God still applies to us.

The Lord is with us. He is the Messiah who delivered us from the great pit of sin through his death on the cross. When God says, “I am with you”, we have a greater assurance of his presence with us. The Spirit indwells in us so we do not have to fear anything in this world as it empowers us. Due to our fallen nature, we are prone to every kind of hardship and sufferings in this world. But as Paul says in Romans 8:38-39- “neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The hope of the gospel is that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus and we will be glorified at the coming of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We will reign with him then forever. So when we consider the future glory, the trials that we face are not even comparable with what we are yet to enjoy. As Paul in Romans 8:18 says – “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”

At the same time, as Christians, it is our responsibility to mourn with those who mourn as Scripture commands. The number of deaths due to the pandemic are going up daily. The images of multiple people on a single hospital bed and kids crying for food is heartbreaking. From a human standpoint, in addition to prayer this is also a time where we can use our financial resources to help people who are surviving from the effects of pandemic. At the end of the day, remember we serve a God who works miracles and answers our prayers. Yet he has his own purposes behind everything that happens in this world which as humans we cannot comprehend. As Christians, let us utilize this time to :

1. Humble our hearts before God.

2. Pray for those who suffer.

3. Put our complete trust in God.

May God deliver the world from this pandemic but even if we have to go through suffering or even death, let us not lose our eternal hope as nothing can separate us from Christ. As 1 John 4:18 says - "perfect love casts out fear", so we do not have to face the judgement of God. No matter whatever happens in this world, we who have placed our trust in God will be glorified at the coming of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The call for us is to not fear as the Lord is with us and it is grounded on the unchanging character of God. Amen!