The Promise (4)
“Do not fear, for I am with you; do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.” Isaiah 41:10 NASB
Strengthen– This verb, ʾāmēṣ, is a Pi’el perfect. That means in this case it is an intensive, active, accomplished task. It’s not as if God were saying, “Well, sometime in the future when you finally meet My standards I will think about strengthening you.” There is no conditional expression here. God commits himself to building up even within our experience of false anxiety. God knows the emotional state of His people. They are crushed, despondent, hopeless, afraid. He decides to do something about it, not because they have shown a willingness to change direction or have repented, but because He is God and He can do something about it. This is ḥēn—pure, unadulterated grace. It may result in ḥesed, that reciprocal relational transformation of communal involvement, or, it may not. But the expression of grace is not contingent on the transformation of the people. It depends only on the character of the benefactor—God Himself.
Consider the circumstances. Israel is reeling from destruction. Babylon has shown its might and carried off everyone that mattered into slavery. All the appeals, prayers and petitions have not averted the disaster. According to every observation, the God of Israel, the great and mighty God, the sovereign ruler of all creation, has abandoned Israel. They are thrust into oblivion, razed, defaced, demolished. A people without a future. A people whose God has left.
And then the voice of the prophet. “I will strengthen you.” Well, frankly, if God doesn’t do this, no one else will. That’s the situation. It’s either God’s grace or extinction. But in the face of hopelessness, it takes more than words to renew belief. Perhaps that why the phrase continues with a poetic reiteration. “Surely, I will help you.” “Surely” is the interjection ʾap.
With great intensity of feeling Isaiah builds up to a crescendo in Isa 48:12–13, 15 and elsewhere in chapters 40–48. What is often in view is something unexpected, “even,” “indeed” (Job 14:3; 15:4). In both poetry and prose a previous statement is built into an a fortiori argument, “how much more” (after a positive sentence), or “how much less” (after a negative one). The usages may be summarized as additional use, “also”; emphatic, “I for my part”; antithetic, “but”; compounds, “yea, truly”; conditional, “when” kî follows the conjunction as in Prov 11:31, or interrogative as in Gen 3:1, “Is it indeed that God has said?”[1]
It’s not quite enough for God to say, “I will strengthen you.” The idea is appealing but the reality is just the opposite. These are debilitated people, exhausted, frail, tenuous, pathetic. Who would want to rescue them? They have nothing to offer.
That’s precisely why only God can say this with full intent. And that precisely why we need to hear it—again.
Topical Index: ʾāmēṣ, strengthen, ʾap, surely, Isaiah 41:10
[1]Feinberg, C. L. (1999). 142 אַף. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 63). Chicago: Moody Press.
Where does strength come from? Consider a magnet force. Take ordinary metal, such as copper, and send an electric current through it: the stronger the current, the more magnetizing force the metal can exert. ALL the good stuff comes from beyond us (this is why we are commanded to be thankful for all of it). It is precisely when we can see that “there is no good thing” in us that it becomes clear that, all along, the good stuff has really been coming from somewhere else. God’s goodness has always been holding the deal together: it is our wrong conception that it has been somehow up to us, or even that evil is the real ‘source’ of the power of life – all the good stuff – that keeps us from acknowledging this truth. It seems that only when we find ourselves gasping for breath does it even occur to us that we weren’t the ones doing the breathing.
God’s promises have always been working: the rain has been falling on the just and unjust all along; but it seems that disaster has the peculiar ability to disabuse us of the notion that we were ‘doing’ life without God at any point. Disaster can humble us enough to admit that if it does not come from Him, it isn’t going to be coming. True gratitude is only possible if we were already asking for the good stuff up front (as per instructions) instead of thinking that it was coming from somewhere else.
Laurita, As always I agree with you, well almost always..99.376% of the time, but… “True gratitude is only possible if we were already asking for the good stuff up front (as per instructions) instead of thinking that it was coming from somewhere else.” In my experience it is always the opposite; perhaps because I am always looking and walking in the wrong direction and He has to come rescue me before I follow the other lemmings off the cliff. It is only THEN I am truly grateful for the good stuff He delivers, because I see how badly it should have ended except for His ‘hen’ and hand. But that may just be me and my experience and you are still batting a 100…oh wait, a 100 AVG in baseball terminology is not very good. I meant a 1,000…oh wait again … baseball batting averages are rendered in 3 decimal places….forget it. Perhaps if I quit following the damn lemmings and follow Messiah I would always agree with you!
Michael, you are not going to believe this (well, maybe your current infestation of self critters – self pity, self hatred, self-specialness, etc. – may not allow you to believe it) but I am as bad off as you – just differently, perhaps, Well, probably not really differently! I think we all have the same stuff, just hide it under different bushes. (FYI, nature has no self-destructive lemmings: my understanding is that Disney made that up.)
Anyway, it is that very lack of self worth that I think keeps us from asking up front for the good stuff. It is self-abasement, after all, that is responsible for keeping us in our basements instead of on our sovereign thrones (which is the proper place from which we were designed to do business with heaven) where God put us. It is the sins of false humility (which is all the species of shame, sense of no worth, etc.) that can keep us – through pride, mind you – from asking for things like help, health, heart to tackle life. We literally believe we don’t ‘deserve’ it – but only pride has to believe that we do! Pride is just unbelievable, but yet, we still want to keep believing it. It is pride/shame (to be repented of) that is promising us ‘safety’ from humility – the humility that is necessary for us to have before we are able to ask (only pride/shame would even be able to think up this stuff). I am trying to describe the nonsense of evil, which always fails me, but we fall for this stuff day in and day out. Just repent already (I am slapping my own hand, here)!
Start over. Make a list of things, like the song Maria sang to herself in Sound of Music, that you know are present when you are happy. Be specific: be generous and kind to yourself (hen and hesed). Then, repent for thinking that either a: you don’t ‘deserve’ whatever, that God can’t or won’t give it to you, or that He is not the source. This is not stupid tail-chasing new age mantras: all lies have to base themselves on truth or we wouldn’t fall for them, after all. The missing links all have to be there, however (which all false religion misses at least some part of): put God, yourself, others and the cosmos back into your happy picture.
In Ezekiel 18:32 YHVH states that He “has no pleasure in death”. Pleasure is our blueprint: pleasure is how we image Him in us. Sin’s lies are all versions of messing with this truth. You and I were created to follow the yellow brick road of happiness to “pleasures forevermore”. Give those nasty lying ‘self’ dwellers not of God a good repenting kick and start ordering off the God menu!
Love in Yeshua,
Laurita
I agree …110% this time. But if Disney lied to me about the Lemmings what else have they told me that isn’t true … Luke Skywalker, Iron Man, Simba, the Enchanted Castle, Disney Dividend Yields?
LOL Well, what else did you fall for?
While reading the sweet (a tad sacerin ) shared encouragements above I thought of a working defenition of humility I discovered.. It seems we actually need one. Its not easy to discuss humility with out disqualifying yourself and being humiliated. Or facing the deconstructivist crowd in our own head. So it is this ” Do not let others make you feel bigger or smaller than you actually are. Always remain your own size.” More often than not it is we ourseves doing the belittling and that is an afront to our creator who suggested that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made.”
I must say, as I’m going to difficulties myself trying to perfect thank you for God is giving me for the body, of course there is a opposite and equal reaction, physics, but this is spiritual, how much is real and how much is not. First confusion sets in, then something is unclear, and there is confusion, and there is separation oh, and the list goes on. I see a scroll rolled from top to bottom, and the words are lit with fire, and can be seen, because of the fire. The edges of the scroll are very precise on the left and the right side. But outside of those boundaries, are dragons, and Sorcerers of black magic casting spells and all sorts of people things. The truth is. The detailed distractions up of the dragons and such are that distractions stay within the word oh, because the word describes who God really is in the up most detail. His care for us is undescribable eat delicious, come and taste and see that the Lord is good. Coming from side to side a very gentle tap to stay within the boundaries time of the hand gets closer we realized that he need not touch us, because we know he cares for us. It’s like a little child learning to walk. This way this way, not over there. There you go that’s right. He’s a loving father.
I’m thoroughly enjoying following this current instruction, on Isaiah 41:10, in particular because it is doing the very thing the scripture says He will do – strengthen us. Do you want to teach My word, here have this added awareness of what I’m saying. He fills in those low spots to complete us.
I wonder, if “I will strengthen” is saying I’ve strengthened you already for all those “will” moments, the ones to come. Or, is He saying, for each “will moment to come” I will strengthen you prior to its occurrence as the specific need arises. Either way I’m strengthened. Strengthened to anticipate being strengthened.
Its another way of saying Shalom, be equipped for all that comes your way. The person who knows they are fully equipped, by Him, for all they’ll encounter today is Shalom.
It, the Isaiah scripture, is supported by, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Unfortunately, an often misapplied scripture by some who use it as a license to pursue behavior or action that is self designed or self directed. But, in the context of the purpose God’s called us to, is an encouragement.
I really liked, “but the expression of grace is not contingent on the transformation of the people. It depends only on the character of the benefactor, God Himself”. This is where we take our eyes off ourselves and place them on Him. His character. Once we get into the works and performance scenario we are cut off from grace, it becomes all about us. I am always dependent upon Him, while at the same time recognizing His Provision, which is He, Himself! All my streams are in Him! Hallelujah.