Harshness and Hope

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 42:25-43:7

The prophets, speaking for Yahweh, beautifully intertwined judgment and comfort, harshness and hope. Isaiah seamlessly wrote of Yahweh’s painful disciplinary work and his enduring love. We often struggle with seeing how these things coexist. They do. God disciplines us in love and loves us by disciplining us.

Isaiah chapters 42 and 43 give us a stunning image of this precept. Chapter 42 ends with a description of God’s anger toward Israel. He “set [Israel] on fire.” (42:25) Then, immediately chapter 43 pivots from this harsh, wrathful discipline to hope-filled comfort. The English translations begin chapter 43 with the comforting conjunction “but.” It reminds me of the way Paul wrote of the horrible fallen, sinful human condition and pivots to the hope of redemption with “but God” in Ephesians 2:4.

Hope, then, is anchored in who God is and who we are in relation to him. There is a progression of intimacy that points both to who God is and who we are in relation to him in 43:1. In four lines we move from created to called:

·       Created – a self-determined and powerful act of God brought us into existence. We were made by and for him.

·       Formed – this echo of Genesis chapter two pictures the hand of the Creator forming the clay, fashioning us, shaping into vessels of his own making.

·       Redeemed – These vessels, now marred by sin, are recovered by the God who willingly takes the responsibility for their debt and pays the price to buy them back.

·       Called and named – A direct, personal relationship that involves changing a person for God’s own good purposes (think Abram became Abraham, Jacob became Israel, Simon became Peter).

This all reaches a climactic proclamation at the end of verse one when the LORD declares, “You are mine.” Thus, this harsh, wrathful discipline is not an indication or sign of abandonment or disownment because the covenant of God still stands.

Therefore, “when you pass through the waters, I will be with you” (42:2). The promise is not that God’s people will not go through the floods or fire of trial and trouble. Rather, the promise is that God will be with us and that these things will not ultimately drown or consume us. “Nothing,” as Paul writes later, “can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.”

Our comfort is not found in the idea that we might somehow be able to stand aloof from and escape the sufferings of this present life. Life will, at times, be like passing through a flood or walking through fire. In the end, for all of us, it will be a “walk through the valley of the shadow of death” (Psalm 23:4). Our comfort and hope are not found in false expectations of escaping the trials of life, but in the discovery that another Man is walking through the fire with us. One like the Son of God (Daniel 3:25).

Lord Jesus, open the eyes of faith that we might see, and know, and truly believe we are yours and you are with us through the flood and in the fire.