The Promise (6)
“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
Uphold– We are back to intensive interpretation. “Surely,” (ʾap) is a word of force. We saw it in the first part of this verse. Now God reiterates the emotional impact. “Help” comes with an exclamation point (in Hebrew this is the word ʾap). Now God provides a double exclamation. “Surely I will uphold.” “Uphold” is the enhancement of “help.” It is the Hebrew tāmak. “The basic idea of this West Semitic root is ‘grasping securely,’ hence, it is found in parallel with verbs like ʾāḥaz, ‘seize’ (e.g. Prov 3:18). The root is most frequently used in contexts that deal with moral matters or spiritual truths.”[1] Perhaps as importantly, “The verb is also used of God’s sovereign ordering of the affairs of history.”[2]
What does this mean? The audience consists of brokenhearted, despondent, abused, and displaced. Trudging through life, one agonizing step at a time, these are people who have lost hope—even hope in their God. They believe deep within that they have been abandoned, and everything about their lives confirms this. Now their God, the God who seems to have been absent, reappears in the mouth of the prophet. But instead of gloom, the words are filled with promised restoration, hope and encouragement. We might think that there would be celebration in the streets, that the shouts of joyful reprieve would echo across the land of their exile. But promises are hard to believe when life is filled with agony. Oh, we want to believe them, but we have believed before—and been dashed on the rocks of disappointment. Yes, of course, it’s God who is making these promises, so we should believe. But we believed in the past, and things didn’t turn out as we expected. Skepticism is the child of disappointment, and Israel has had a long labor birthing this child.
Perhaps so have we.
Do you believe what God says? Of course you do. Well, maybe. You and I believe that He said these words. We believe that He is capable of delivering on His promise. We cognitively know what they mean. But that isn’t the same as ingesting them. Disappointment’s children are not just skeptics. They are traumatized functional agnostics. They aren’t willing to risk it all again by once more committing themselves to transformative belief. They have been seized by pessimism. And the answer to this sad state of affairs must be equally gripping. Tāmak.
Topical Index: tāmak, seize, grip, uphold, Isaiah 41:10
[1]Patterson, R. D. (1999). 2520 תָּמַך. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament(electronic ed., p. 973). Chicago: Moody Press.
This reminded me of the passage in Exodus 6: YHWH gave great promises, but the people could not ‘hear it’… see last sentence….
6 “Therefore, say to the people of Isra’el: ‘I am Adonai. I will free you from the forced labor of the Egyptians, rescue you from their oppression, and redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. 7 I will take you as my people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am Adonai your God, who freed you from the forced labor of the Egyptians. 8 I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to Avraham, Yitz’chak and Ya‘akov — I will give it to you as your inheritance. I am Adonai.’”
9 Moshe said this to the people of Isra’el. But they wouldn’t listen to him, because they were so discouraged, and their slavery was so cruel.
I talk with a lot of people that have doubts, have walked away or never believed in the first place. I can only offer them testimonies of what God did in my life, how He transformed a situation because I held on to Him in faith. Perhaps they may or may not believe me but they probably won’t pick up a Bible either. My conviction and my personal battles are more likely to seem real to them because we all go through things in life. Be bold and be courageous (Gods advise to Joshua).
Rabbi Eric
Why are we in captivity? Because God is not able, willing, and does in fact keep us, or is it because we turned away so many times He eventually agreed with our desire for Him to loosen His grip on us? Israel knew very well why bad things were happening to them: they chose to live outside the fence of God’s care. He eventually agreed with them. How do we choose this today?
Every age has had its peculiar flavor of apostasy. Our age is surely no exception. I am convinced that ours is the age of putting our confidence in the horses of Egypt – I do mean humanism. Pharoah defied God to His face: he was pagan to the core. Humanism is pagan to the core, too, but it is a popular ‘sell’ in the churches under the guises of either a rubber-stamping god of grace who agrees with our self-determination (we get to make up the rules of love) or a god of cornucopian plenty who, again, rubber-stamps our secular deals with the world to take care of us. Eventually, God has to give us over to the consequences of choosing to live outside His will in our lives.
I think every one of us try some version of this starting out; therefore, every one of us have the subsequent experience of the loosening of God’s grip in our paradigm. We (naturally) can conclude that God cannot be trusted to REALLY take care of us, but I think this just sets us up for further lessons. I think so often it takes total disaster – where we experience OUR OWN failure to protect and provide for ourselves – to not only see how and why we can’t, but also how and why – no matter what – He can and does: when we learn how to let Him, that is.
God’s ability to uphold us is directly related to our learning how to let go of all the other straws. I believe (because I can see on the back side of my hard times) that the hard times are not so much about us ‘learning’ that God can’t provide and protect: they are really about us needing to learn how and why WE can’t. God isn’t able to truly help until we let Him (even though He can and does manage to keep us alive), but we have to let go before we are able to let God. I think so many times He waits for us to let Him because He can’t nuke the modern enemy we are employing of self-determination (which is so often the enemy in the way of His care) until either we (or disasters) get at least the self part out of His way. Safety first.
Entrapped through deception and manipulation… ensnared through the habitual pursuit of desire. What must we do to be saved?
I think of Naomi. And, how The Lord used Ruth to be a bridge to Boaz and help to rebuild her faith.
Also the ever-popular passage, that deals with your people shall be my people and your God shall be my God. Revolutionary. Ruth 1:6 period. Many insights have been given the entire world and it’s countries can have its people turn and walk with the god of Peace, shalom
“Skepticism is the child of disappointment, and Israel has had a long labor birthing this child. Perhaps so have we.”
Me? I’m still in labor.
This…
“Do you believe what God says? Of course you do. Well, maybe. You and I believe that He said these words. We believe that He is capable of delivering on His promise. We cognitively know what they mean. But that isn’t the same as ingesting them. Disappointment’s children are not just skeptics. They are traumatized functional agnostics. They aren’t willing to risk it all again by once more committing themselves to transformative belief. They have been seized by pessimism. And the answer to this sad state of affairs must be equally gripping. Tāmak.”
I’m glad though that God doesn’t leave us in that state, but rather he holds us more tightly and maybe slowly we realize he never let us go to begin with. I’m working that direction. 🙂 I’ve loved the last several posts digging into this verse more. Thanks again, Skip, for your work!