Isaiah 41:8-10 (ESV)
8 But you, Israel, my servant,
Jacob, whom I have chosen,
the offspring of Abraham, my friend;
9 you whom I took from the ends of the earth,
and called from its farthest corners,
saying to you, “You are my servant,
I have chosen you and not cast you off”;
10 fear not, for I am with you;
be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
In this section of Isaiah the prophet is attempting to encourage Israel by contrasting them to other nations and people. The words prior to the above passage help us understand these words. The above section begins with “But you ...”. What Isaiah has just stated is important. He is talking about a people who are frightened about a king coming from the east. This “king” is probably, King Cyrus (45:1), the king of Persia, who will conquer and destroy Babylon (who has destroyed and taken captive Israel). However, the people fear this coming kind and have built idols to worship. They have asked their idol goldsmiths to make these idols strong so that they don’t fall down:
Isaiah 41:5-7 (ESV)
The coastlands have seen and are afraid;
the ends of the earth tremble;
they have drawn near and come.
Everyone helps his neighbor
and says to his brother, “Be strong!”
The craftsman strengthens the goldsmith,
and he who smooths with the hammer him who strikes the anvil,
saying of the soldering, “It is good”;
and they strengthen it with nails so that it cannot be moved.
They are trying to encourage each other by saying to each other, “Be strong.” They idols will be strengthened with “nails” so that they don’t fall down. You never want you idol (god) to fall down when a king is coming. This is where Isaiah writes, “But you ...”. Isaiah’s cure to help them through this fearful time is to remind them of a few things:
1. They are His servants (vs 8a & 9). Rather than have them create gods that will serve them, God says I have made you MY servants.
2. They are chosen by God, through Abraham (vs 8b), who was a “friend” of God. We see that God is has a relationship with them and that should embolden them. They are not strangers to God. He is their friend and they are His people.
3. God has not “cast them off.” Yes, God has disciplined them for their sins (most of the proceeding chapters). But He remains their God and they remain His people. Those words must have been so reassuring as they rolled off Isaiah’s tongue and into their hearing.
4. God was not only going to be their God but they would need no nails to keep Him in their lives, He would be THEIR strength and be THEIR righteousness and uphold them with His right hand. The significance of the “right” hand would not be fully understood until we found out this about Jesus in the New Testament:
Hebrews 1:3 (ESV)
He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
Isaiah’s prophecy had a “right now and later” approach to it. God was going to be with them NOW but would have even more blessings for them LATER. This is the assurance they had (and we have) that God is with us and will, through Christ, save us. God’s being “with us” is the fundamental difference for these people as they fear the nations and movements of the governments around them. God is not far from them and does not need nails to hold Him up. He is with those He chooses and those He makes His servants to provide for them His righteousness and His favor upon them. That is also our hope in the world we live in today.
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