Fear Not
Introduction
Isaiah 43:1
But now, thus says the LORD, who created you, O Jacob, And He who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine.
"Fear not" is an admonition that is found numerous times in Scripture. Some have said that there are at least 365 times when figures in Scripture are admonished not to fear. There are countless times when the heroes of Scripture are told to take courage and to go forward against the anxiety that might be crippling them in the present moment.
Fear has the ability to paralyze or to chase you afraid from God's purpose in your life.
It began with the entrance of sin into the world. In Genesis 3 after Adam ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and bad when God came looking for him in the garden. When God asked Adam why he was hiding, Adam answered, "I was afraid..."
Everyone has faced fear at different moments in life and to varying degrees. From mild anxiety to panic--fear is a part of the human experience. We have a multitude of ways that we respond to fear.
Some people run away.
Some people fight.
Some people allow others to control them.
Others try to control.
These are all automatic reactions to our fear. Usually, they are ways of reacting that we learned as we grew up.
There is a lot happening around us right now that can be anxiety and fear-producing. These are the top stories.
COVID-19. Should I go out? Should I stay in? Should I wear a mask? Should I go without a mask? What will school look like next semester? Can I go to church? To hug, not to hug?
Racial tension. Peaceful protests and anarchic riots.
Politics.
Economic uncertainty. Will I have a job tomorrow?
The tension between global powers. Iran, Venezuela, China.
Oil prices.
The anticipation of a more active hurricane season than usual.
Reading down through your news feed is enough to make you need a sedative.
The prophets of the OT were called seers because they were able to look at the world around them from a different perspective. They could see far into the future and warn their hearers about difficulty to come or give hope because the Lord was going to intervene in their situation. They could look at the past and interpret it through the lens of God's will and purpose.
Isaiah the prophet wrote to people who would endure captivity in Babylon because of the structural sins of their culture.
When we think of sin, we often think of it in its individual sense. We think of our personal faults and failures. This is one dimension of it. Paul said that "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God" (Rom 3:23).
There is also the principle of sin that was released upon the world when Adam first disobeyed God that dominates the entirety of the present order of humanity.
Chinese theologian Simon Chan says this about the nature of structural sin:
"The Sin of the World is a virus of evil which entered the world as a personal force through original sin and dynamically unfolds itself and tightens its grip on humanity and on the world in an escalating fashion down through the ages of history. It is hidden power which multiplies transgressions in the history of mankind. They are merely its symptoms; it is greater and deeper than all of them. It forms human history into what we might call "perdition history"(to coin the opposite of "salvation history").54
Just as salvation history moves to its consummation in Christ, "perdition history" is a downward spiral that moves to its own fulfillment in the eschatological symbol of the antichrist. When sin reaches its logical conclusion, it possesses a power all its own. The Bible identifies this structural evil as principalities and powers, terms also associated with the demonic realm.55
Sin acquires the powerful and elusive form of a spirit--the spirit of an age or a company or a nation or a political movement. Sin burrows into the bowels of institutions and traditions, making a home there and taking them over. The new structure that is formed by the takeover is likely to display some combination of perversion, formlessness, or excessive rigidity. Law, for example, may be bent to end the freedom of selected pariah groups. Whole companies may dissolve in an orgy of intertwined deceit and neglect. Whole nations may join in lockstep with brutal dictators.
Sin is so deceitful that even Christians miss discerning it in the world and often end up trivializing it." (Simon Chan. Spiritual Theology: A Systematic Study of Christian Life. InterVarsity Press: Downers Grove, 1998, 67).
Isaiah's world was one no less dominated by sin than our own. In the opening chapters of Isaiah, the prophet cries out against the sin that is prevalent around him in the nation of Judah. For five chapters you can read him declaring, "Woe is..." upon every type of sin and injustice. He was not blind to sin.
In the sixth chapter, we read of a vision of Isaiah where He sees the glory of Yahweh and the prophet turns his examination of the sinfulness of the world around him internally and cries out, "Woe is me..." There is something humbling about having an encounter with the holiness of God that causes us to realize that apart from His grace we would find our own selves immersed in and dominated by the evil structure of sin that surrounds us.
Because human culture is a mixed bag containing elements that are good, bad, and neutral, it takes honest reflection, discernment, self-examination, and the courage to be authentic in order to find oneself in alignment with the kingdom of God. It does not just happen. This is why Paul wrote to Timothy that he should be diligent to show himself approved by God.
Our encounters with the holiness of God often happen in moments where the nature of the brokenness and fallenness of the world are the greatest. These are places of great contrast. The light shines brightest in the darkness. For many people, COVID-19 has been an event that has caused them to pause and reflect of their own sinfulness and mortality.
For Isaiah, it was when Uzziah died. For Peter, it was at the miraculous catch of fish. For John, it was while he was banished to the tiny volcanic island of Patmos.
Jesus appeared to them in some difficult moments. For each of them the pattern was the same:
A revelation of the Holiness and Glory of God.
A recognition of personal and universal sinfulness.
A response of grace from God.
A reminder of purpose from God.
In the context of Isaiah 43 once again there has been a revelation of the Holiness and Glory of God that has taken place in the Babylonian captivity. Judah was carried away captive by Nebuchadnezzar. They had lived through a season in which God did not answer their prayers for immediate deliverance. In fact the word that God sent by way of the prophet Jeremiah, as he gazed into the future was that they should do the best they could where they were. Give their children in marriage, plant gardens, seek the best for the society in which they lived, and so on.
It can be certain that they wanted things to get back to normal, but they had to get used to a new normal, at least for a season. The reason was the structural sin of their forefathers. There are things that we don't even recognize are a part of who we are often. We can be so immersed in the surrounding culture that it is hard to discern between the good, the bad, and the neutral. Something that makes it even more difficult is that we tend to listen to commentators that we agree with and ignore the perspective of those whose words rub us the wrong way.
Some of what we are experiencing in our present world is a result of the sins of our forefathers. In Isaiah 42:18-25, the LORD reminds Israel of the sins that brought them into captivity.
Isaiah 43 opens, "But now..."
Wherever you are in life, whatever you are facing, there is a "but now..."
You may not have been praying as you should, but now.
You may not have been living a life that had not been in alignment with God's revealed will, but now...
You may have been dominated by some life-controlling habit, but now...
Every breath is a second chance! But now!
The LORD continues, "...thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and He that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not..."
The prophets use the covenant name of God, Yahweh in connection with the creation of the nation. Yahweh is the God who calls worlds into existence. He is your Creator and my Creator. You are not living in this particular time in history by accident. It is not just happenstance that you are living in the neighborhood where you live, or that you belong to the local church that you belong to. Yahweh is the one who created Jacob. Jacob was not perfect in and of himself and so God does not stop there...
"...and He that formed thee, O Israel..." Yahweh is saying that I love you just the way you are, but I love you too much to leave you that way! He is not interested in us remaining a Jacob. He is in covenant with us because He is wrestling us in hopes that He will be able to form Nd Israel out of us! He is the Divine Potter. We are the clay! Oh, what would happen if we all began asking the Creator what He is forming is us in the here and now! We all want to escape the here and now and our emotions are real. They have a real place, even in our worship. That is why we have the Psalms!
One of the most fear alleviating moments of illumination that you can ever have is a realization that God placed you where you are. He knows you. He knows the end from the beginning.
"...Fear not..."
1. I have redeemed you
"...I have redeemed you..."
The theme of redemption is found about 22 times in the Servant Songs of Isaiah.
There is a threefold aspect of this redemption:
Physical bondage (43:5-7; 45:13; 48:20)
Inward, personal bondage to sin (43:25; 44:22; 54:8)
The eschatological redemption of Jerusalem in the future (43:20; 44:26; 45:13; 49:16-17)
Redemption has to do with buying back something or someone that has been sold or lost. "In ancient Israel, both property and life could be redeemed by the making of the appropriate price" (Daniel Trieir. Evangelical Dictionary of Theology. Baker Academic: Grand Rapids, 2017). The kingdom of Judah had been sold by their sin and the structural sins of their society into the Babylonian captivity. But, Yahweh says, "I have redeemed you..."
I have bought you back.
He reminds them of the way that He passed over their forefathers in Egypt because of the blood. He chose them and gave Egypt for a ransom. The idea of adoption is appropriate in the context of redemption. In the book of Ruth, we read of the kinsman-redeemer who would marry the widow of his deceased relative in order to have a child that would carry on the family name, redemption. There was a dimension where in redemption care was given in such a way that what did not previously belong to someone became theirs.
Some people were not interested in being involved in redemption, because it had elements that might be messy. Boaz's relative that was a nearer kinsman than he was did not want to redeem Ruth, because it would "mar his inheritance." He was not a type of Christ. This was what Boaz became when he chose to buy back Ruth and Naomi's land and raise up a child to carry on that family line, a type of Christ. God chooses to redeem us, warts and all!
Redemption is amazing. God has a way of taking all of our mistakes, all of the mistakes of others and turning them around for the benefit of all those who will live godly lives separated unto Him.
Remembering our past failures can cause us to stay awake at night, but Yahweh is saying, "Fear not, I have redeemed you..." I can work with what you give me if you will just give it to me! I am the One who calls worlds into existence. I can turn Jacobs into Israels. I can raise the dead!
"...Fear not..."
2. I have called you by your name
"...I have called you by your name..."
There are not a lot of times when God calls people by their names in Scripture. But when He does, there is a lesson in it.
He called forgotten Hagar by her name when Abraham and Sarah and the whole world had rejected her. He saw when no one else did!
He called Lazarus by name and he came out of the grave after four days of decay!
He called Mary by name and revealed His own resurrection.
The idea in Isaiah 43:1 is that Yahweh is summoning Judah forth. The King and Creator of the world is calling this afflicted and oppressed nation by name. When God knows your name it doesn't matter who else knows you or does not know you! He knows you, fear not!
You are not forgotten. Because He knows you, you can get close to Him. He is not distant. His summons means that HE has invited you into His presence!
It was said of Moses, "...I know you by name..."
Places where God called individuals by name and repeats their name:
Abraham (Genesis 22)
Jacob (Genesis 46)
Moses (Exodus 3:)
Samuel (1 Sam 3:1-10)
Martha (Luke 10:41)
Saul (Acts 9:4)
This morning I had the wonderful opportunity to attend an adoption consummation. As I listened to the proceedings the lawyer for the family she asked the parents what the children's names were. The children had changed their names and they have new names, names that their parents called them. The adoption brought about the change of a name. These children have been redeemed.
The lawyer asked, "Do you promise to be their parents forever..."
3. You are Mine
"...you are Mine..."
Jesus promised His disciples that He would not leave them as orphans, but that He would come unto them. He said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you" and "I will be with you always, even unto the ends of the age..."
Fear not, because you belong to me. When you obey the Gospel. When you are baptized in His Name. When you are filled with His Spirit. He says, "Fear not... you are Mine..."
Paul went down the list.
Romans 8:35-38
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. 37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Conclusion:
There is so much going on in our world. Not only the anxiety-provoking things that come across our news-feeds but also the things that each of us faces on a daily basis in our personal lives.
One of the greatest keys to living our lives from a posture of faith over fear is being like the prophets of old, the seers. The prophet Elisha is one of the calmest individuals in Scripture. When the entire Syrian army came around him to take him into custody, his young protege was afraid. Elisha said:
2 Kings 6:16-17
Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. 17And Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.
It is ultimately about how we see the world around us, how we see ourselves, and how we see God. If you can accept what He has declared about you, you can claim the promise of verse 2. God is not going to fail you, no matter what is ahead, or what is behind. He has redeemed you. He has called you by your name. You, are, His!
Isaiah 43:2
When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.
