In this section of Isaiah 41 I’ve struggled a bit more. I had one blog post almost written before I realised it was my rant at news making headlines in the Christian world. And Isaiah wasn’t written to fuel my rants. My struggle is a bit odd in fact, as these verses are fundamentally reassurance. Read them and see.
“All who rage against you
Isaiah 41:11-16
will surely be ashamed and disgraced;
those who oppose you
will be as nothing and perish.
12 Though you search for your enemies,
you will not find them.
Those who wage war against you
will be as nothing at all.
13 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.
14 Do not be afraid, you worm Jacob,
little Israel, do not fear,
for I myself will help you,” declares the Lord,
your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
15 “See, I will make you into a threshing sledge,
new and sharp, with many teeth.
You will thresh the mountains and crush them,
and reduce the hills to chaff.
16 You will winnow them, the wind will pick them up,
and a gale will blow them away.
But you will rejoice in the Lord
and glory in the Holy One of Israel.
These verses open with the reassurance that God will deal with their enemies. God’s people don’t need to worry about opposition. God will one day remove it. In the long run they will be nothing at all. God will deal with it.
The heart of this passage’s reassurance is in v13-14. They are worth reading again:
13 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.
14 Do not be afraid, you worm Jacob,
little Israel, do not fear,
for I myself will help you,” declares the LORD,
your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
The passage is framed by the God who is speaking. Yahweh, the God of Israel, the God who is our Redeemer, who is the Holy One of Israel. So much is packed into these titles. So much of Israel’s story. The burning bush where God revealed his name to Moses in fire. The rescue out of Egypt where Yahweh redeemed his people from slavery.
The Holy One who revealed his character to Israel at Sinai out of the fire. The God who spoke to the people, the God who provided a way that he might live with his people and be theirs – and yet remain the Holy One, the one who is pure where we are sinful, the one who is infinite where we are all too limited.
It is this powerful, exalted God who speaks to us. And he speaks us as we might speak to a stumbling child trying to walk. As we might speak to an older child struggling with how to do the right thing in a crowd of people walking the other way. He comes to speak as we might speak to a friend who has come to the end of their resources. He comes as might long to hear another speak to us when there is nothing left to give.
And I think that might be why this is so hard to hear sometimes. Because I don’t want to ask for help. I don’t want to be wrong. I want to get it right. So much of my adult life has been about not getting it wrong – and not knowing what to do when I do get it wrong. I vividly remember the shock of university Maths. I had sailed through A levels with barely a blip. I loved Maths. I was going to do further study. And then I encountered university Maths. Year 1 was OK, we had tutorials and I could get something. Year 2 though I was lost. And I had no ability to go and say “I’m stuck – I need help”.
And yet this is exactly what we need from God. We need to be humble enough to realise that we need Him. So that we can hear these words – let him take us by the hand so that we can hear him say:
Do not be afraid: I will help you.
This is what we need – the help of Yahweh – for with his help there is a way not to be afraid of what people can do. There is a way not to be afraid of whatever the storm is right now. Because he has hold of us. He doesn’t ask us to take hold of his hand. No, he is holding our hand right now. He has got us. He doesn’t let go. And he says “I will help you”.
And then he simultaneously reassures and insults us:
Do not be afraid, O worm Jacob, O men Israel.
For I will help you.
NB: the ‘little’ is not necessarily implied by the Hebrew which can just be used for men or people in general (but sometimes is linked to the idea of few in number/importance).
Note first the repetition: do not be afraid. It is a repeated refrain in the Bible – and, while it does not come 365 times (note to preachers: please do not repeat that urban myth), it does come a lot. It comes because we need to hear it. If we are serious about heeding the call of God on our lives we will have plenty of reasons to fear. Plenty of obstacles. Plenty of times when people feel like enemies and plenty of times when we don’t know what is going on.
There will be plenty of times when we feel utterly insignificant and so we are addressed here as worms. Which at first sight feels insulting, and perhaps makes us remember contexts where we felt belittled by others insisting that we should think of ourselves as ‘worms’. We first need to hear that the association is not ‘worms’ with ‘dirt’, but ‘worms’ with ‘powerlessness’ – a useful cross reference is the innocent sufferer of Psalm 22 who describes himself as a worm in v6 – not because he is dirty and sinful, but because he is crushed and powerless. We need though to hear the intent of Yahweh as he speaks through this book of Isaiah to us.
He is not making us into something small. He is talking to us when we feel like nothing we do can make any difference in the situation – and sometimes we need to have that feeling to actually be willing to ask for help. But sometimes that feeling stops us asking for help. Sometimes we feel we can’t ask because the answers are so obvious that there must be something wrong with us for asking. At uni I felt that there was no-where to go, that I would just be further belittled – that I should be able to work this out by myself.
So God calling us worms is actually good news. The creator of the universe is telling me, tenderly, but bluntly, that I cannot do it. I have as much ability to live this life of service to God and follow his call on my life as a worm if I do not take the help offered from the outstretched arm of the creator. (I’m irresistibly reminded here of the Awesome Cutlery song “Father You are King of Heaven”, with its immortal line: like an earthworm to do press ups, like a potato trying to swim – have a listen here: https://www.awesomecutlery.com/tracks/father-you-are-king-of-heaven/)
And our creator is the one who longs to hear us. The one who longs to help us. Who, Isaiah has already said back in chapter 30, waits to be gracious to us. He is here. He will help. He is holding us fast. So we can reach out and ask for help to the one who gives generously to all without finding fault (James 1).
And when we do we find that we are equipped for whatever task he has for us:
15 “See, I will make you into a threshing sledge,
new and sharp, with many teeth.
You will thresh the mountains and crush them,
and reduce the hills to chaff.
16 You will winnow them, the wind will pick them up,
and a gale will blow them away.
But you will rejoice in the LORD
and glory in the Holy One of Israel.
I’m wondering as I read this if this some of the background to Jesus saying that faith as small as a mustard seed will move mountains. Faith that is willing to accept the hand held out to help will indeed move the mountains that are such an obstacle now. It may be that the promise takes a while to be fulfilled. That for a long time we live with the mountains that God doesn’t move. But in God’s time the obstacles will suddenly vanish. We will be able to move forward.
And we will rejoice in Yahweh, we will glory in the Holy One of Israel – actually more literally it is and “boast in the Holy One of Israel” – we will see how great our God actually is, and we will celebrate that greatness and goodness as we rejoice in him. And as we rejoice in him and celebrate him, we will see that he is looking down on us with delight and joy in his eyes – our singing joins with the song of the one who is singing with joy over us (Zephaniah 3:16-17).
It is a beautiful picture, and a wonderful hope. And the question I leave myself with, and that I particularly leave to anyone with any kind of leadership responsibility is do I believe this, and do you believe it?
Does the way I live my life and relate to others reflect the fact that I believe it is only with God’s help that I can do this?
Does the way you lead your church or organisation or small group or small business reflect the fact that it is only with God’s help you can do it?
When things go wrong do you believe, and do I believe that we need to come up with an explanation and a reason that will make us look a little bit less fallen and a little bit less messy. Or will you, and will I accept that we get it wrong, take responsibility for the sin, and for the errors, repent of the wrong and hold out our hands to God and place our hand once more in his outstretched arm.
Fundamentally we need to not be the toddler who says “I do it”. We need to get to the point of holding out our arms to let God pick us up and take us on in his way and at his time. To let God put us down in the best place, not where I scream to be put down, and to walk with his hand holding ours towards the day when his help will enable us to move the mountain.
If Awesome Cutlery wasn’t quite your scene why try not this wonderful hymn to remind yourself of this reality. He will hold me fast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OOphIgGkjM
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Joshua's Tree Rooted 