Isaiah 41:1-20--Fear Not, for I Am with You

Isaiah 41:1-20
English Standard Version

Fear Not, for I Am with You
41 Listen to me in silence, O coastlands;
    let the peoples renew their strength;
let them approach, then let them speak;
    let us together draw near for judgment.

2 Who stirred up one from the east
    whom victory meets at every step?
He gives up nations before him,
    so that he tramples kings underfoot;
he makes them like dust with his sword,
    like driven stubble with his bow.
3 He pursues them and passes on safely,
    by paths his feet have not trod.
4 Who has performed and done this,
    calling the generations from the beginning?
I, the LORD, the first,
    and with the last; I am he.

5 The coastlands have seen and are afraid;
    the ends of the earth tremble;
    they have drawn near and come.
6 Everyone helps his neighbor
    and says to his brother, “Be strong!”
7 The craftsman strengthens the goldsmith,
    and he who smooths with the hammer him who strikes the anvil,
saying of the soldering, “It is good”;
    and they strengthen it with nails so that it cannot be moved.

8 But you, Israel, my servant,
    Jacob, whom I have chosen,
    the offspring of Abraham, my friend;
9 you whom I took from the ends of the earth,
    and called from its farthest corners,
saying to you, “You are my servant,
    I have chosen you and not cast you off”;
10 fear not, for I am with you;
    be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
    I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

11 Behold, all who are incensed against you
    shall be put to shame and confounded;
those who strive against you
    shall be as nothing and shall perish.
12 You shall seek those who contend with you,
    but you shall not find them;
those who war against you
    shall be as nothing at all.
13 For I, the LORD your God,
    hold your right hand;
it is I who say to you, “Fear not,
    I am the one who helps you.”

14 Fear not, you worm Jacob,
    you men of Israel!
I am the one who helps you, declares the LORD;
    your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.
15 Behold, I make of you a threshing sledge,
    new, sharp, and having teeth;
you shall thresh the mountains and crush them,
    and you shall make the hills like chaff;
16 you shall winnow them, and the wind shall carry them away,
    and the tempest shall scatter them.
And you shall rejoice in the LORD;
    in the Holy One of Israel you shall glory.

​17 When the poor and needy seek water,
    and there is none,
    and their tongue is parched with thirst,
I the LORD will answer them;
    I the God of Israel will not forsake them.
18 I will open rivers on the bare heights,
    and fountains in the midst of the valleys.
I will make the wilderness a pool of water,
    and the dry land springs of water.
19 I will put in the wilderness the cedar,
    the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive.
I will set in the desert the cypress,
    the plane and the pine together,
20 that they may see and know,
    may consider and understand together,
that the hand of the LORD has done this,
    the Holy One of Israel has created it.

---

Though there are nations to the east that Judah fears because they have defeated all their enemies, that nation and its kind would have no victory if the LORD had not given them the victory.  The LORD makes it clear that He is the one that establishes and tears down nations, and He is the one giving this prophecy.  It is certain to happen.  No one can stand against Him or cause His will to not come to pass.  Even if all the enemies of the LORD would make weapons of man's warfare and rise up against Him, they could not be victorious. 

With all that being said, the righteous of Israel and Judah who are truly His children have nothing to fear from Him.  He will strengthen them, uphold them and keep them.  They will make it through these tough times, and nothing will be able to separate them from His steadfast love.  Their enemies will eventually be His enemies.  Those who have never lost in battle before will not be able to defeat the LORD's people, though Israel and Judah have smaller armies, and their armies are not as ruthless.  Those who bless the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will be blessed, but the nations that curse them will be cursed.  Again, the LORD tells them not to fear and only to hold onto His hand, like a child putting their hand in the hand of their father.  It's not how tightly the child holds onto the father, but how tightly the father holds onto the child.  Our Father, the LORD, has a grip that no one can break.  No one can make Him let go of us or abandon us.

​The LORD calls Himself their Redeemer (which points back to the LORD redeeming them from their captivity in Egypt but also looks forward to the better redemption that Jesus would provide not just for the Jews, but for all of His people from every tribe, tongue, and people group).  The Holy One would be their glory.  One day our entire existence will be to glorify the Father and the Son (and possibly the Spirit too, though we certainly sing praises to the Father and the Son while we are in heaven).

God will cause the other nations to have drought and famine--but not just to suffer from physical hunger and thirst, but to have a spiritual hunger and thirst.  In both the physical and spiritual sense, the LORD is going to give His people the means to give the world the physical and spiritual food and drink they need not only to feed their bodies, but also the means by which they might be saved and have eternal life and move from death to life, curses to blessings, and enemies to friends and children by Adoption.

God will supernaturally provide water in places that seemed like they were deserts that would never grow anything.  If He can make water come from a rock, He can make streams gush from underground aquifers that no one knew about before and cause those aquifers to cease to provide water should the enemies of Israel be given control of the Land for a time.  He will cause rich forests to grow where there were no trees, and there will be plants and trees that thrive in arid and wet climates growing together.  There would be rich crops of things like olives and grapes.  The very existence of this lushness in the Promised Land will be something that people will have to point to as miraculous because they will not be able to explain how something that looked so dead would come to life and produce fruit that doesn't seem to be in keeping with the natural habitat.  This is our story too--the LORD changes us and causes us to bear fruit not in keeping with our original nature so that everyone will see it and give glory to Him--this is both on a national and ethnic level for the people of Israel and on a local and worldwide level for the Church, and on an individual level for each and every one of God's people that are born again by the power of the Holy Spirit that is at work within them.  He alone has the power to take that which is dead and make it alive and will cause us to bear much fruit to the glory of Christ (see the budding rod of Aaron in the book of Numbers 17).