"Fear Not, God Intruding!"

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 sleep 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.
Isaiah 43: 1b-3a


We imagine life as a process of becoming our own person taking pride in our self-sufficiency. Isaiah depicts our conceit in an apocryphal carpenter

Half of the wood he burns in the fire; over it he prepares
his meal, he roasts his meat and eats his fill. He also warms
himself and says, “Ah I am warm; I see the fire.” From the
rest he makes a god, his idol; he bows down to it and worships.
He prays to it and says, “Save me; you are my god.” (Isaiah 44:16)

Fending off destruction or just diminution, enjoying plenty, we arrogate determination of worship’s object..

“…From the
rest he makes a god, his idol; he bows down to it and worships.
He prays to it and says, ‘Save me; you are my god.’” (Isaiah 44:16)


We quaver when God intrudes into our existence because He exceeds our control and that implies the possibility of our destruction. His presence confronts us with it. Nothing we know nor anything we have done bequeaths assurance about the outcome of His intrusion. He is not bound by us and only bound to be Himself.

“…he who created you…
He who formed you…” (Isaiah 43: 1a)

“the Lord your God,
The Holy one of Jacobs’s progeny, your Savior.” (Isaiah 43:3)

Isaiah admonishes us to relinquish our fears because God claims us as His creation.

“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name; you are mine.” (Isaiah 43:1b)

“Fear not,” sounds good. Warm fire, well cooked game, and now, on top of contentment, fearlessness about what lies beyond the pale of the fire and the fullness of the belly. I can keep on, “keepin’ on.”

But Isaiah does not confirm a conceit. God’s redemption frees us from fear. We have “deemed” ourselves self-sufficient; God, has “deemed” us as His. The wood for our fire, our fire, the meat roasted on it--- all that meets our needs and satisfies our wants, God has “deemed” His provision.

Our self-sufficiency is relinquished with our fear, but contentedly sitting by the fire, it’s inconsequential. So, Isaiah, makes it acute: when we face overwhelming physical threats, God provides the same sort of contentment we feel when warm and well fed.

“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.” (Isaiah 43:2)

We are saved from the very disasters we most fear as intractable to our ameliorative efforts when God is with us. Isaiah dismisses fear because with God, the disasters are there but the destruction is not.

“…when you pass through the rivers,
They will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire you will not be burned” (Isaiah 43:2)