Through Not Around

God makes this promise in Isaiah 43: "When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee."

He says it to Jacob, because the verse before speaks to him by name: "O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel." Here Jacob means the nation that carries his name, and the name is chosen with care. The man Jacob once spent a night wrestling beside a river crossing, the ford Jabbok, and came away limping. Now his people are being told about passing through waters. Jacob was the man who cheated his brother and ran. He worked fourteen years for his wives and was tricked into marrying the wrong one first. His own sons lied to him about Joseph for more than twenty years. And he buried Rachel, the woman he loved, beside the road to Bethlehem. Jacob's life never once went around the hard places.

Now look at the little word the whole promise turns on: "through." Through the waters, through the rivers, through the fire. God does not offer a way around here. He offers His company. He also sets a limit on what the water and the fire are allowed to do: "they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee." That is a real promise, even though it is not a promise that you will stay dry.

Perhaps everyone told you this season would pass. Nobody mentioned that you would have to walk the whole length of it.

So may you have God's company in it, since that is what He offers, and it is the better gift. May the water rise and then stop. May you come out the far side like the three men in Daniel's furnace, with no smell of fire on you. May you walk out limping like Jacob, and named like Jacob, because God says, "I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine." And may you know exactly who was with you in there.

Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 75 is Which of Them (Luke 7:47).

All 365 readings in Daily Manna