BE STRONG, DO NOT FEAR
ISAIAH 35:4-7a September 8, 2002
Isaiah 35:4-7a
4 Say to those with fearful hearts, "Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you." 5 Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. 6 Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. 7 The burning sand will become a pool, the thirsty ground bubbling springs.
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Dearest Fellow-Redeemed and Saints in the Lord:
The headlines are filled with horrendous, horrible news day after day. There is terror, there is the stock market, there is disease, there is the West Nile virus, and the list goes on and on. It can lead many to despair, discouragement and despondency. It seems as if there’s nothing good at all happening anywhere in this world of ours. The worst part of it, if you listen to the radio, it’s heard hour after hour and sometimes more than that. The unbeliever wonders what will happen next.
You and I gather together this morning and are reminded that what will happen next is what God wants to happen next. We have the words of the prophet Isaiah before us this morning where he tells them and he reminds us in the text: "Be strong, do not fear.” He re-echoes the words of the psalm writers, the other prophets, and the psalm writer who declares: The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? The LORD is with me; he is my helper. I will look in triumph on my enemies"(PSALM 118:6,7) No matter the terrifying, horrible headlines, you and I realize that as the Lord says ‘be strong, do not fear’, we can do just that. We use those words of Isaiah as our theme this morning:
BE STRONG, DO NOT FEAR
I. Divine deliverance
II. Refreshing renewal
I. Divine deliverance
We find in these first thirty-four chapters of Isaiah that Isaiah has to come with the bad news to the children of Israel. He reminds them because of their actions of unbelief and disobedience, the Lord would punish them. Their enemies would rise up and take them captive. Their enemies would rise up and defeat them time and time again. In chapter thirty-five it’s almost a breath of fresh air to hear the promises that God also makes. Isaiah is able to tell them, ‘Yes, even though all these things are going to happen, even though you will face God’s righteous wrath, God will also provide for you.’ He would strengthen the feeble hands and steady the weak knees (in verse 3). Verse four goes on to say: “Say to those with fearful hearts, "Be strong, do not fear.” Certainly as they heard about the announcement of God’s punishment, the announcement of God’s judgement, they were scared. The Lord reminded them that His judgment was for their good because they would learn to put their trust and confidence in God once again. They would learn that God is righteous and just in all that He says and all that He does.
He says then, there’s nothing to be afraid of; be strong. Their enemies would not defeat them utterly. Their enemies would only be much like a thorn in the flesh. We have the promise of God in Isaiah. He says: "Be strong, do not fear; your God will come.” He would deliver them eventually. He would deliver them from the hands of their enemies. He would deliver them eventually from all of their enemies. He says: "Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution…” Yes, he would come to pay back the enemies who afflicted the children of Israel. He would come to pay back the enemies who stood opposed to God’s people. Those who stood opposed to God’s people would also stand opposed to God. We know that no enemies can stand opposed to God. He described himself as coming with retribution, coming with vengeance. Yes, He would avenge all the wrong that was done to God’s people, all the wrong done in the world. Isaiah concludes by saying: “with divine retribution he will come to save you." That was the ultimate purpose of God’s plan—divine deliverance of God’s people.
Our Lord speaks very strongly this morning. Sometimes we don’t think of Him as a God who is filled with vengeance and retribution, who wants to get even. It’s not that God wants to get even. It’s that God shows His power over His enemies. As God shows His power over His enemies, He shows His power over our enemies. Sometimes that means there is vengeance, there is retribution. We look at Satan. Satan tempted Adam and Eve to sin in this world and ruined God’s perfection. Did Satan win? Is he more powerful than God is? Certainly not! God showed His vengeance, His retribution against Satan, by showing His divine deliverance to you and I as believers. Listen to this from Hebrews: "Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death--that is, the devil"(HEBREWS 2:14). Here is Satan who destroyed God’s perfection with sin. He is now destroyed because God’s Son destroyed his power.
You and I know that as we face even more enemies in this life, the Lord does the same thing time and again. At the end of each of our lives we will face our last enemy. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. That’s what Scripture reminds us. Sometimes, no matter who we are or how strong in the faith we might be, we might feel scared of death, especially if we have a long time to consider our impending earthly end. Satan tries to tempt us, trying to weaken our faith, but the Lord reminds us that He has already defeated Satan. In His divine retribution and vengeance, He has also destroyed death. From Timothy we’re told: "This grace has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel"(1 TIMOTHY 1:10). Sometimes when we think death frightens us, we have to remind ourselves ‘be strong, do not fear.’ The Lord Himself has destroyed death, our last enemy. He has brought to light life and immortality. He has given us a reason to live. He has given us courage to face death head-on because He has given us heaven itself.
Our reaction to all this? It’s like the apostle Paul sums it up when he says ‘Yes, there is death and there is the sting of death in the law that condemns our sin, but all of that is defeated also.’ So, we live a life of thanksgiving. At the end of the first letter to the Corinthians in chapter fifteen, it says: "But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ"(1 CORINTHIANS 15:57). He brought us divine deliverance; He came to save us! It is just as Isaiah said to his people when they were going to face their enemies who were going to defeat them. The Lord was going to save them. So you and I are reminded that the Lord saves us. He gives us divine deliverance.
II. REFRESHING RENEWAL
When we’re told, ‘Be strong. Do not fear’ it has meaning for us. As the rest of our text describes for us there is also refreshing renewal here on earth.
Isaiah talks about the miraculous events that the people will see in their lives. Also, he’s looking ahead to the time when the Savior would come. He says, ‘ your God will come. 5 Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped.’ The blind will see. The unhearing will hear. They will understand. He’s certainly talking about physical healing, but he’s also talking about the spiritual lives of the children of Israel. They acted as if they could not see God anymore; they acted as if they would not listen to Him anymore. When He would come and deliver them, they would see the Lord God. Then they would be willing to listen to the prophets of God. Their ears would be open, their eyes would see and they would rejoice in their renewed faith.
‘Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy.’ We picture the joy and rejoicing of salvation. We picture the children of Israel. Certainly in their history, as they turned away from God, they realized the folly and the error of their ways. It took drastic measures by the Lord Himself before they could find joy in their salvation once again, before they could understand that indeed, the Lord God was their divine deliverer. He provided them with times of refreshing and renewal.
Then he gives the ultimate description for these people who were nomads, who wandered in the wilderness, who lived in a barren land. He says, “Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert.” It wasn’t that long ago since these people had gone into the Promised Land. It was their parents or grandparents had wandered in the wilderness, in the desert. The Lord provided for them didn’t He? Water from a rock when they were thirsty--God’s renewing, refreshing power. Then he says: 7 The burning sand will become a pool, the thirsty ground bubbling springs. God had power to do all those things. As they lived in the Promised Land, they realized that here was the dry ground that now produced bubbly springs, the water that was so precious to them.
Sometimes that illustration of water is lost on us because we have access to such amounts of water from our wells and irrigation and everything else. You may recall Jesus in the New Testament outside of Samaria when He visited with the lady at the well. She was so happy not to draw water anymore because Jesus told her He was the Water of Life. She wanted that water of life. It was part of the days’ activities to collect water, to draw from the well day after day. For you and I as believers, we live in a kind of wilderness yet today, one that is short of the spiritual vitality we once knew. One where it seems that religion has ‘dried up’ in a sense.
The Lord reminds us that for each one of us He provides refreshing renewal in our daily living. He provides us with His Son, our Savior just as Isaiah foretold. From Matthew 11 we read how the fulfillment of Isaiah’s words came to pass—that Jesus came and all of these things took place. "The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised…” Then does he stop there? No, he doesn’t. He talks about all those physical things and then he says, “…the good news is preached to the poor"(MATTHEW 11:15). The gospel message is preached to you and I who are at times ‘poor in spirit’. The gospel message is proclaimed to the ends of the earth and there are times of refreshing and renewal from the Lord.
And so it is that Jesus also described Himself as the ‘water of life’, told the woman of Samaria at the well and she was overjoyed. You and I also, are overjoyed that in a spiritual wilderness we find Jesus as our ‘water of life’. It is only through Jesus that we have salvation. It is only through our Savior that we have forgiveness. "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him"(JOHN 7:37b, 38). Jesus, who is the very water of life, says He gives us that water of life, and now the water of life flows from within us. We are refreshed and renewed. We are refreshed and renewed because of our faith, which God has given us by His grace, faith that trusts in Christ for forgiveness.
The powerful words of Acts reminds us: "Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord"(ACTS 3:19). We rejoice at the fact that God does this for each one of us. He provides us with His forgiveness—forgiveness that we cannot purchase, forgiveness that we cannot earn, forgiveness that we certainly do not deserve—but forgiveness that has been bought and paid for by the precious blood of Christ, our Savior. There are times when we may feel down in the dumps or frightened by what is going to happen in this world. The Lord reminds us, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’ Christ has paid the price. That refreshes our spirit and renews our soul so we can take to heart the words of Isaiah who says, ‘Be strong, do not fear.’
As the days approach, we’re going to hear more horrific headlines. We may even wonder ourselves if there is anything good left in this world to happen. There is doom and gloom all around us. The Lord reminds us, ‘Be strong, do not fear’ because I, the Lord your God am with you and I am your divine deliverer. I refresh your body and renew your spirit daily, right into eternity.
Joshua took over the leadership of the children of Israel from Moses. He certainly was humbled thinking that he had to follow in the footsteps of Moses, the only leader that a whole generation knew for forty years. They were going to start a new page in their history from wandering in the wilderness to being in the Promised Land. What did the Lord say to him? He says the same thing to him and us as the Lord reminds us this morning: "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go"(JOSHUA 1:9). Be strong, have courage. The Lord our God is with us wherever we go. He tells us to be strong, don’t be afraid. I am your divine deliverer who refreshes your body and renews your soul. Amen.
Pastor Timm O. Meyer
