“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine. 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. For I am the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.”
Isaiah 43:1-3 (RSV)
These are scriptures that console and restore us when we are going through difficult circumstances. At some point in our lives, we all have felt overwhelmed by flood waters or like we are walking through fire. Whatever we are going through, the Lord assures us with His words,
“I will be with you”, and this truth anchors our faith.
God speaks to us through Isaiah’s beautiful words, telling us that we belong to Him, He calls us by name and then He goes on to promise that we will not be overwhelmed by flood waters or burned by the fire, because He is with us.
Isaiah is the prophet that foretold that a virgin would bear a son, and His name would be Immanuel, which in Hebrew means “God with us.” God came to be with us in a totally new way, through Jesus.
Ezekiel foretold that when Messiah comes, a new thing will happen,
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you.” (Ezekiel 36:26)
We become a new creation in Christ, because His Spirit dwells in each of us. Jesus is always looking to do a new thing in each of our hearts. He desires a deeper friendship with us and He walks with us in a new way, all because of His sacrifice on the cross. That’s why it’s referred to as the New Covenant in His blood.
God inspired many stories throughout scripture, just to show us that His Presence truly goes with all those who will trust in Him.
He revealed it through the story of the three Hebrew young men. They were cast into a fiery furnace, for refusing to worship a human king. Inside the furnace, they were not burned and their clothes were not even singed by a single flame. The best part of all, was that a fourth man appeared in the furnace with them. Whether it was Jesus or an angel in that furnace, God is showing us that He is with us, even in the worst places.
Whatever kind of fiery furnace we may be in, we can trust that Jesus is in there with us.
Daniel wrote his book while he and those three young men were all living in Babylonian exile. Just as God was with his three friends in the furnace, He was also with Daniel, when he was thrown into a lions den, for the same reason of refusing to worship the king. God sent an angel into that lions den with Daniel. He shut the lions’ mouths and Daniel remained unharmed.
God is telling us through this story, that He is with us and will keep us unharmed, in whatever lions’ den we may be in.
The book of Daniel is considered a 2nd century Apocalyptic writing, and correlates to John’s writing in the book of Revelation. Both Daniel and John were living in exile while they wrote. They were both in exile, being punished for their faith, and yet they wrote profound predictions of end time events, inspired by God.
It’s a reminder that God might want to do His best work through us, when we are going through our most difficult period in life, while we are in our own metaphoric period of exile.
Our external conditions of our lives may change, and some questions never get answered, but there are important truths that never change and these are the truths that God wants us to know:
He wants us to not be afraid, to know that we belong to Him and that He is always with us.
Jesus, you are the Holy one of Israel and our Savior. We belong to you and we trust that you are with us in the flood, in the fire and in our time of exile. Through your Spirit that is within us, remove all fear and strengthen our faith today. Amen