Isaiah 41:10 holds a particularly special place in my heart. A couple of years ago, my mother suffered a stroke like incident, and she was flown to Oklahoma City and in the hospital for two and a half days before spending almost 3 weeks in a rehab center recovering. At one point, she had to be taken for a scan and I remember being overtaken by not just fear, but by terror. It was suffocating and one of the most horrific experiences I have ever personally gone through. While in the middle of it, my aunt who lives in Georgia sent me a message simply stating that God gave her this verse for me. I recited it over and over and over until the fear finally was pushed back. The next morning, the hospital chaplain quoted this same verse just as we were getting on the elevator to head up to her room.
Don’t be afraid, for I am with you; don’t be distressed, for I am your God, I give you help, I support you with my victorious right hand. Isaiah 41:10 CJSB
I am thankful the Lord dropped this verse into my aunt’s heart, as well as the fact that He put it on the chaplain’s heart to speak that verse over the intercom as a reminder of what He did for me the day before. To read the full story about this incident you can go back to the blog post entitled Even If.
That incident taught me a lot about keeping my fears in check, because God showed me that He truly is greater than any fear I could ever have. This verse is chalked full of promise for us. Adonai promises us five different things that are met with only two requirements.
The Promises:
1. I am with you.
2. I am your God.
3. I give you strength.
4. I give you help.
5. I support you with my victorious right hand.
The Conditions:
1. Don’t be afraid.
2. Don’t be distressed.
Fear
We live in a world that markets fear. The number of horror films and shows as well as haunted houses and attractions are staggering. That jolt of adrenaline, that chemical surge that takes place when something scares us is addictive to both those who profit and those who will pay for it. Personally, I cannot stand the feeling of an adrenaline rush as it makes me feel sick and does nothing for my endorphins. My chest hurts and I will become nauseated. Not a fun time at all. I would like to say that I have conquered fear and that I sail through scary moments easily, but that would be a lie. There are times I still struggle with fear, especially when it involves my family, but now I always pull back to this verse and remember that God is never out of control, He never sleeps or slumbers, and I can rest in Him and He will see me through every situation.
The word for fear in this verse is the Hebrew word yare (yaw-ray). It means to be afraid, dreadful, and terrified. The thing that caught my eye however was three different categories of fear, and if we take a look at our lives, we will see that our fears will usually fit into one of them.
1. Hear and fear
2. See and fear
3. Afraid of doing
My fear of my mother’s incident encompassed the first two. Seeing how sick she was, and hearing she had blood on her brain and that it looked as if she might have had an aneurysm threw me into that terrified state. We are sensory beings, and our sight and hearing are huge when it comes to our state of being. How many times have we heard a strange sound that our minds then took it and ran with it, turning it into something it wasn’t. The same goes for our sight, how many times have we looked at our bank account and seeing that there isn’t enough money to stretch across the bills we have, dread and anxiety sets it with the question, “How will I make ends meet this month?” I suppose this is why that there is a “fear not” scripture for every day of the year. God knew that we would become anxious and fearful, and even included in Yeshua’s most famous sermon, the sermon on the mount that we are to not be anxious, to not worry about our lives and what we will eat, drink, or wear. instead, we are to seek first God’s Kingdom and His righteousness and not worry about tomorrow as it will worry about itself. (Matthew 6:25-34)
The final category of fear is one that we have all struggled with. If you’ve ever had stage fright, you know what I mean. If God has ever asked you to share a word with someone, I know you without a doubt know what I mean. Fear of performing an action is rooted in pride. We do not want to look like a fool in front of other people. We don’t want to embarrass ourselves and be ridiculed or made fun of. I honestly think this is why the story of David dancing before the Lord is so important. In 2 Samuel 8 we are told that he danced and spun around with abandon before Adonai, and that when his wife Mikhal saw him, she was filled with contempt for him. Her comments to him were venomous, “Such honor the king of Isra’el earned for himself today – exposing himself before his servants’ slave girls like some vulgar exhibitionist!” David answered Mikhal, “In the presence of Adonai – who chose me over your father and over every0one in his family to make me chief over Adonai’s people, over Isra’el – I will celebrate in the presence of Adonai! I will make myself still more contemptible than that, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes, but those slave girls you mentioned will honor me!” 2 Samuel 8:20-22
David wasn’t afraid of what people thought of him, including his own wife. He wasn’t afraid to sing, dance, and lift his hands before the Lord. He wasn’t afraid to show everyone his love and worship for his creator. Why do we tend to fear men more than we fear God? It is a question that we each have to work out for ourselves.
Distress (Gaze)
The Hebrew word translated as “distress” in this verse is sha’ah (shaw-aw). The more accurate definition of this word is to gaze (steadily with interest), to behold, look for, aim at or to gaze at or regard with favor. This seems like a positive, rather than what we associate with being in distress. The next few meanings are more on the flip side of the coin, including the one utilized in this passage of scripture. We find, shall not behold, makes no sense and gaze not about (in anxiety). We find “see and fear” when we look at sha’ah from this angle.
Each day of our walk, we have to decide where we set our sight. To be honest, sometimes that is a moment-by-moment reality. Do we gaze in anxiety at our situations, or do we look for and behold Messiah? As I began looking up scripture, the first one listed comes from the account of Cain and Abel in Genesis chapter 4. It says that when Adonai did not accept his offering, his “face fell”. We know from reading on in this account that this would eventually lead to Cain killing his brother. He took his gaze off God, and became bitter, angry, and anxious.
When I went to the New Testament, I looked up the Greek word for gaze and it led me to the book of Acts. The word for gaze in Greek is atenizo, which when you can almost hear the word attention. Even more incredible was what I noticed when I looked at the Greek spelling. ΑτενιζΩ. The first letter is Alpha, the final letter is Omega. God should always be where our gaze is placed at the beginning and end of each day. When we read the account of Stephen, it says that the Sanhedrin stared at him and saw that his face looked like that of an angel. That looked at him with intensity and intent. It wasn’t until Stephen declared after looking up into the heavens, “Look! I see heaven opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” (Acts 7:56) It was at this moment their gazes shifted, just as Cain’s did.
Don’t be distressed, or don’t look about in anxiety, is summed up beautifully by Yeshua when he is delivering the Sermon on the Mount and says, “Can any of you by worrying add a single hour to his life?” and “Don’t be anxious, asking, ‘What will we eat? ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘How will we be clothed?’ For it is the pagans who set their hearts on all these things. Your Heavenly Father knows you need them all. But seek first his Kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Don’t worry about tomorrow – tomorrow will worry about itself! Today has enough troubles already!” Matthew 6:27,31-34
Strength
As I sat down to work on this word, strength, I received a phone call with an extremely bad report. I am honestly still reeling, trying to wrap my head around the situation. It is by no accident that Adonai has once again, put this verse in my line of sight during another critical situation. It is almost as if He said to me, “You just wrote about distress/gaze and where to keep it. Are you going to do it?” I have been pouring my heart out to God, giving Him praise and thanksgiving because He is the God of miracles, He is the God of restoration, He is the God of healing, He is the God of salvation, He is the God of hope, of strength, of shalom! He says He works all things for good, and so I am having to stand on that promise. This situation will be used for His good, His glory, and to advance His kingdom, no matter the outcome. God does not change, no matter how bad the situation looks.
When God gives us strength, we become bold, alert, and prevail in situations we never thought we would. He makes us firm and strengthens our resolve, giving us encouragement and support. These are the things that come to our mind of course, but the Brown Driver Briggs Lexicon included something that is a beautiful picture of growing in strength, a scripture from the book of Job. But before I share it, I want to give you a picture from Psalm 24:3-4, Who may go up to the mountain of Adonai? Who can stand in his holy place? Those with clean hands and pure hearts, who don’t make vanities the purpose of their lives or swear oaths just to deceive. This is what dropped into my heart when I read the passage from Job which states, Yet the righteous hold on to their way, and those with clean hands grow stronger and stronger. Job 17:9 Here is the chain of events that took place. I read the verse from Job and instantly thought of Give Us Clean Hands by Christ Tomlin. I looked up the Psalm, 24:3-4, that talks about clean hands, and when that realization of “Oh yeah, that’s the rest of this verse!” hit me, I thought about the song by Joshua Aaron and Aaron Shust, “Mountain of the Lord”.
Repentance. That is how we get clean hands and a pure heart. That is how we can go up to the “mountain of the Lord” or into His presence. That is how we can draw from His strength. We keep our gaze upon Him, which keeps us from operating in fear, and He gives us strength.
Victorious
The final word I want to look at in this scripture is victorious. When we hear the word victory, we think of winning. Yet, like most Hebrew words, there is a deeper secondary meaning. Victory (victorious) stems from the same Hebrew word that means Righteousness. When we read that part of the verse in this light, God will hold us with His righteous, right hand. Adonai is a God of righteousness and rightness, and we as His people are made righteous because of His Son, Yeshua. We are to be and do what is right according to the Word of God. David said in Psalm 40:10(9) I have proclaimed what is right in the great assembly; I did not restrain my lips, Adonai, as you know. In his second letter to Timothy, Paul used the idea of being victorious and righteous when he said, also an athlete can’t win a contest unless he competes according to the rules. Our victory is found in and through righteousness.
I pray that the Lord encourages you and keeps you. That He upholds you by His victorious and righteous right hand. Adonai is my light and my salvation; whom do I need to fear? Adonai is the stronghold of my life, of whom should I be afraid? Psalm 27:1
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