Isaiah 41:10

"Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness."

Those things which happened to Israel in Old Testament times are a wealth of information to us in New Testament times. This is because the way in which God dealt with them is the way in which He will deal with us. In Hebrews we are reminded that, "... Jesus Christ (is) the same yesterday, today, and forever." And other passages tell us similarly that God does not change.

This verse in Isaiah is in the midst of a passage in which God promises to restore Israel. Restoration implies a falling away. And that they had done. They, like us, were rabid idol worshipers. God had done many marvelous things for them, recounted in the Old Testament, and yet they decided that some silver or gold statue was really the one that had done so much. They forsook the real God for a statue. And the real God was understandably not pleased. Time and again He warned them that He would not tolerate this, and that He would judge them for it. Time and again they ignored His warnings, and continued in their idolatrous ways. Finally, His person could no longer forebear their idolatry, and He dispersed them to the nations, even as He had said He would. They could not claim they didn't know, for He had repeatedly warned them.

But God does not cast off forever. Many scriptures show God's heart toward His people, the Israelites. He calls them beloved, and even speaks of wooing them back to Himself. This verse in Isaiah is an encouragement to trust Him. Interestingly, He promises to do all the work! "... I will strengthen, .... I will help, ... I will uphold..." are all phrases in the which the LORD expresses that He is taking the action. He will bring the thing to pass. And because that is so He tells the Israelites that they should nether fear nor be dismayed. To come at it from another direction, He is encouraging them to trust Him. They had dug this hole for themselves. God had warned. Having been scattered among the nations, they were even less likely to re-establish themselves as a nation. Being so scattered would cut off any communication or contact with which they could organize, especially in the day when news traveled slowly. It would require nothing short of a miracle to organize and be re-established in the land. But God promises that He will bring it to pass!

As noted, God does not change. The implications of His dealings with Israel are that He will deal similarly with His people in this day and age. Miraculously, Israel came into nationhood again, after about 1970 years, in 1948. But there is another group of people that are His also. And those are the ones who through faith in the LORD Jesus Christ have become His children. He deals in the same way with these . That is, He works to their benefit. This may not always be obvious. The dispersed ones of Israel must certainly have felt as if they had been abandoned. But since it is impossible for God to lie, it is true. 'I will never leave thee nor forsake thee," is what He promises. Oswald Chambers asks, "Can God's love continue to hold fast, even when everyone and everything around us seems to be saying that His love is a lie and that there is no such thing as justice?" He also notes, "We are more than conquerors .... not because of our own ingenuity, nor because of our courage, but because none of (our adversities) affects our essential relationship with God in Jesus Christ."

In the person of Jesus Christ we see God acting again. Just as he took it in hand to strengthen, help, and uphold Israel, so He took it in hand to provide the way by which all of mankind can be reconciled to Him. We all have fallen away (and continue to do so) from what we know to be His will in matters of our lives. His judgment against our sin is eternal death, in Hell. But before the foundation of the earth He devised a plan by which His people, who He had not even made as yet, could be reconciled to Himself. He took the action. In His great plan, He condemned sin in the person of His Son. Jesus took the judgment that we rightly deserve. God poured out His wrath against sin on Him. As scripture tells us, we have been saved from wrath through Jesus. It does not, though, depend on us to placate God's wrath. We are simply incapable of doing so. Jesus bore the wrath, and now reconciliation to God is available to any who want it; available through Jesus Christ.

God's promise to Israel is that He will strengthen, help, and uphold. His promise is no different to those that are His in this age. Oh for grace to trust Him more!

HJK