Do Not Fear

We have used this verse badly, and it is worth admitting before we use it again. We have handed it to each other as a promise that the frightening thing will not happen.

It promises nothing of the kind. Read it clause by clause and notice what is absent. Fear thou not, for I am with thee: that is presence, not prevention. Be not dismayed, for I am thy God: that is identity, not outcome. I will strengthen thee, I will help thee, I will uphold thee: three verbs, all of which assume you are still standing in the situation and need holding up inside it. There is no clause anywhere promising the exile will be cancelled. It was not cancelled. The people who first heard this went to Babylon.

Notice too what it does not say about who deserves it. One verse up: thou art my servant; I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away. Four verses down He addresses the same people as thou worm Jacob, which is not flattery. The reassurance is not built on their strength or their promise.

And the last clause is the one we usually skip. I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. Not the right hand of His affection. His righteousness, which is the part of God that does not vary with how the week went, and is therefore the part that does not let go when you do.

So take the promise exactly as it stands, no more and no less. You are not promised the diagnosis is wrong, the money arrives, or the child comes right. You are promised that the hand under you belongs to somebody righteous, that it is there now, and that it does not slip when you slip.

Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 72 is Chief (1 Timothy 1:15).

All 365 readings in Daily Manna