Isaiah 26

Chapter 26. The “Fear Nots” of IsaiahThis little message “fear not” is almost one of the keynotes of Isaiah. The chord of his later messages was struck in the opening of the fortieth chapter by the word “Comfort, comfort my people” (Isaiah 40:1), and in keeping with this message He again and again reassures His troubled people in these words of comfort and encouragement, “Do not fear.” We find the phrase in five passages and repeated several times in some of them. Isaiah 41:10-14“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. “All who rage against you will surely be ashamed and disgraced; those who oppose you will be as nothing and perish. Though you search for your enemies, you will not find them. Those who wage war against you will be as nothing at all. For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you. Do not be afraid, O worm Jacob, O little Israel, for I myself will help you,” declares the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. Three times the command to not fear or be afraid is repeated in this passage and five reasons are given why we should not fear.

1. The first is God’s presence with us: “Do not fear, for I am with you” (Isaiah 41:10). His companionship under all circumstances and in all places guarantees our safety and may well charm away our fears.
2. The second is God’s relation to us as our God: “Do not be dismayed, for I am your God” (Isaiah 41:10). He gives Himself to us. He gives us the right to use Him against every possible need in His infinite resources. What need we fear with such a God?
3. The third reason given is the strength He promises to give us: “I will strengthen you” (Isaiah 41:10). That is actual imparted strength to us. This comes in connection with the reassurance, “Do not be afraid, O worm Jacob, O little Israel” (Isaiah 41:14). It stands over against their unworthiness and weakness. Jacob was indeed a worm and Israel was weak, but God says, “I will strengthen you.”
4. The fourth reason is His promise of help: “For I myself will help you” (Isaiah 41:14). Not only does He give us actual strength, but He adds His strength to us. This is very much more.
5. The fifth reason given is His upholding: “I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:10). This is more than strength, more than help. It is God undertaking the entire responsibility of our case. Our strength will fail; even His help will be insufficient, for when God only helps us and we stand in front responsible for the conflict, we will not be sufficient. But there comes a time when we completely fall into His almighty hand, and then He takes us up bodily and carries us altogether; and it is no longer a man doing his best and God helping him, but God all in all and the man letting Him be all. In this paragraph there is a beautiful reassurance: “who takes hold of your right hand, and says to you” (Isaiah 41:13), or more literally, “I will keep saying to you.” It is not enough for Him to say it once. We need to hear it over and over again, and He never tires saying it to His troubled children until He has cheered away our fears and sorrows. Isaiah 43:1-7But now, this is what the Lord says— he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I give Egypt for your ransom, Cush and Seba in your stead. Since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you, I will give men in exchange for you, and people in exchange for your life. Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west. I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’ Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth— everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.” Here is a new group of fear nots and new reasons for our confidence.
6. “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name” (Isaiah 43:1). The fact that He has purchased us with the precious blood of Christ should be enough to guarantee every other blessing we need. “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all tiling?” (Romans 8:32). After Calvary, anything. Then He says, “you are mine” (Isaiah 43:1). We are His property and He will take care of His property. It is His interest even more than ours to guard and bless us.
7. He promises to go with us through the waters and the fires. It is in the dark hour that we know His consolations. That hour will surely come and come often; but it will give us cause to say, “for you saw my affliction” (Psalms 31:7). Indeed, we are often most truly happy in such trying hours, for God’s consolation more than outweighs the pressure of our troubles.
8. “Since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you, I will give men in exchange for you, and people in exchange for your life” (Isaiah 43:4). There is something inexpressibly tender about these words. God loves us with a jealous love that puts everything aside that would hurt us or hinder us. There is a suggestion here of the infinite pains and trouble that He has had with us, and after all this, He is not likely to fail us. Therefore we should not fear, for nothing can work against His will.
9. He promises spiritual fruit. Whatever our troubles may be, it is an infinite comfort if they are overruled for His glory and the good of men. He tells us here that He will bring our seed to the north and south and east and west, and that the fruit of our life shall not be permitted to fail. The seed we sow may seem to perish, but we will doubtless come again rejoicing, bringing our sheaves with us (Psalms 126:6)! Isaiah 44:1-5But now listen, O Jacob, my servant, Israel, whom I have chosen. This is what the Lord says— he who made you, who formed you in the womb, and who will help you: Do not be afraid, O Jacob, my servant, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen. For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants. They will spring up like grass in a meadow, like poplar trees by flowing streams. One will say, ‘I belong to the Lord’; another will call himself by the name of Jacob; still another will write on his hand, ‘The Lord’s,’ and will take the name Israel. Here He comforts His troubled children by the promise of a great spiritual blessing and widespread and lasting revival. He will pour out His Spirit upon the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground. He will revive His languishing cause and make the drooping plants of grace to spring up like grass and like poplars by the water courses. He will send the comforting power of His grace so that here and there one shall say, “‘I belong to the Lord’; another will call himself by the name of Jacob; still another will write on his hand ‘The Lord’s,’ and will take the name Israel” (Isaiah 44:5). The Holy Spirit is the best antidote to our fears. When He comes all the interests of His good cause are safe and all fears are turned to rejoicings and thanksgivings. Isaiah 51:12-13I, even I, am he who comforts you. Who are you that you fear mortal men, the sons of men, who are but grass, that you forget the Lord your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, that you live in constant terror every day because of the wrath of the oppressor, who is bent on destruction? For where is the wrath of the oppressor? This passage shows us the sin of fear. It is an act of unbelief. It leads us to forget the Lord, our Maker. It comes from not remembering His power and faithfulness. All our depressions and discouragements are direct reflections upon Him who has always loved and cared for us. We are also reminded in this passage of the folly of our fears. “Who are you that you fear mortal men, the sons of men, who are but grass… that you live in constant terror every day because of the wrath of the oppressor, who is bent on destruction? For where is the wrath of the oppressor?” (Isaiah 51:12, Isaiah 51:13). How very empty are all our anxious cares. How many things we allow to worry us that really never come to pass. How sad and needless the waste of life through such foolish frets and fears. Isaiah 54:4-17Four great reasons are given in this splendid passage why God’s trusting children should not fear.
10. The first is His tender personal relation to them. “For your Maker is your husband— the Lord Almighty is his name— the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of all the earth” (Isaiah 54:5). This figure of the marriage relation was familiar in all ancient religions, but it was polluted by the grossest abuses. God purifies it and lifts it up to the highest spiritual meaning. There is no suggestion of physical coarseness. It is merely the love of the husband to the wife and the love of the bride that are expressed in the divine marriage. But there is such a love, intense, tender and peculiar which God recognizes in His more intimate relations to His consecrated people. And that fellowship and that love guarantee all possible blessings and safeguards. The husband cherishes his wife even at the cost of his own life and the love of a true wife is stronger than death. How infinitely condescending it is on the part of God to stoop to such a fellowship with mortal and sinful beings and with such a love how little cause have we to fear.
11. Next is His covenant and oath. “Now I have sworn,” He says, “not to be angry with you, never to rebuke you again” (Isaiah 54:9). There is a reference here to the covenant made with Noah of which the rainbow was the symbol and the seal, and God tells us with equal certainty that He has sworn to His eternal love to Israel. But these great promises are not exclusively the property of Israel any more than the epistles to the Ephesians and Galatians belong exclusively to those churches. God spake through His ancient people to every heart in every language, that can still appropriate His promises, and this is true for you and me if we will claim it and live up to it. Many Christians are constantly under the law, and they look to God as though they ever expected a frown and a blow. Rather, we should live in such perfect love that we could not even imagine His failing or forgetting us. There are some human friendships that have never had a cloud upon them. It is very beautiful to have a love that never was shaken. This is the love that God wants us to have for Him. There is a suggestion here of a time when there was a cloud. “For a brief moment I abandoned you” (Isaiah 54:7). But this is all over now since Christ has died for us. God is ever striving by His great love to make us forget that there ever was such a thing as sin between His heart and ours. Beloved, have we been wholly delivered from the law, and are we living in His perfect love that casts out fear?
12. The third reason is He promises us His protecting care. “No weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you” (Isaiah 54:17). There will be enemies. There will be temptations and trials; but God will protect us, preserve and vindicate us and we need fear no foe if we are trusting in Him. “Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good?” (1 Peter 3:13).
13. Finally we don’t need to fear, because He promises us His own righteousness. He does not vindicate us and protect us because we are worthy. Let us not flatter ourselves with any self-righteousness. “‘This is their vindication from me,’ declares the Lord” (Isaiah 54:17). This is the mystery of His love—that He treats us as if we were faultless although we are full of blame. He accepts us in Jesus Christ, His beloved Son, clothes us with His imputed righteousness and treats us and loves us as if we were as perfect and faultless as He. What need we fear with such a defense? If God is for us, who can be against us?… Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. (Romans 8:31, Romans 8:33-34) Such are some of the “fear nots” of Isaiah. Let us add one or two concluding considerations to save us from our fears.
14. It will help us to remember that the devil’s fears are always falsehoods. If fear comes from Satan, then we may invariably conclude that there is nothing to fear, because his suggestions are always lies; and if lies, they cannot harm.
15. Fear is dangerous. It turns into fact the things we fear. It creates the evil just as faith creates the good. “What I feared has come upon me” (Job 3:25), is the solemn warning of Job. Let us therefore be afraid of our fears lest they should become our worst foes.
16. The remedy for fear is faith and love. “When I am afraid, I will trust in you” (Psalms 56:3). “Perfect love drives out fear” (1 John 4:18). “In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him” (1 John 4:17). Let us no longer dishonor Him by our doubts and fears but trust Him and honor Him by our confidence, even when everything is most dark and trying. Very beautiful was the answer of that grand old sea captain, who so long commanded a stately ship on the coast line service of the Atlantic. In a violent storm off Hatteras, a trembling woman hastened up to him on the rocking deck and the spray-swept bridge and asked, “Is there any fear, Captain?” “No,” he replied; “no fear, but there is considerable danger.” There was peril, but no doubt or anxious care; and when he came through that danger through the providence of God, he could witness that God was able to keep in perfect peace.