1 But now thus says the Lord,
he who created you, O Jacob,
he who formed you, O Israel:
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.
2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you.
3 For I am the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.
I give Egypt as your ransom,
Cush and Seba in exchange for you.
4 Because you are precious in my eyes,
and honored, and I love you,
I give men in return for you,
peoples in exchange for your life.
5 Fear not, for I am with you;
I will bring your offspring from the east,
and from the west I will gather you.
6 I will say to the north, Give up,
and to the south, Do not withhold;
bring my sons from afar
and my daughters from the end of the earth,
7 everyone who is called by my name,
whom I created for my glory,
whom I formed and made.”
There are moments in the Bible when we see that God’s concerns are not always the same as ours. We want to be free of pain and difficulty, but God cares more that our hearts long for his presence and trust him. God allowed his people to be plundered, trapped and hidden in prisons because they rejected him. Judah had sinned against God, and refused to walk in his ways, and so he gave them to their enemies. They longed to be free of the exile, but God longed more for them to be faithful to him.
But even in delivering them to suffering and exile, God did not abandon them. His love for them was far too strong. He promised redemption—not a superficial sentiment, but instead actual redemption, where the north and the south, the east and the west released the prisoners to come home and rebuild their families and lives. God’s chastisement was for a season but was not abandonment. It was because of his love that he purged their idolatry, because idolatry brings death.
Yet even in the dark moment, when God’s people were driven from home in suffering, God was not far off. When Daniel’s three friends were cast into the fiery furnace in Babylon, God walked there with them. Ezekiel, while in the land of Babylon, saw the throne of God on wheels, carried by angels so that God would be with the exiles where they were. They were being disciplined, but God was suffering their exile with them! And in Isaiah 43, we hear God say to those in exile, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you.”
I will be with you.
I will be with you in your suffering. I will be with you in your grief. I will be with you in your exhaustion. And even if I have to discipline you, to purge you of idolatry, I will be with you in the discipline.
As you pray today, rejoice that the Lord is with you, no matter where you are or what you are enduring. Pray for those Christians who are blind to the presence of God in their lives. Pray for those who have not yet met God and do not know that he would be with them.
-A Prayer from Isaiah 43-
You, O Lord, have created and formed us. You have redeemed us, and so we need not fear. You have walked through the waters with us; indeed, you have walked through the waters of death for us. The flames will not destroy us, for we are called by your name! You are the Holy One of Israel, our Savior!
Steven+