The Gospel of Isaiah: Highlights of Chapter 43:1-7
The Gospel of Isaiah: Highlights of Chapter 43:1-7.
“Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are mine. When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you. For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. Be not afraid, for I am with you.” (Isaiah 43:1-3, 5).
Human Fear: dread or alarm in facing danger; to be afraid or apprehensive; anxiety caused by belief in approaching danger or by a perceived threat; feeling frightened concerning one’s safety or a loved one’s well-being; unpleasant emotions due to the likelihood of something unwelcome or undesirable; trepidation over unexpected crisis. Examples would include… dementia; survival; poverty; sickness; disaster; intimidation; climate change; public speaking; public shame; disability; loneliness; rejection; failure; pain; death; the unexpected; opposition; the Apocalypse; loss of loved one.
We are living in the 21st century, 2025, and fear is in the air we breathe. We nonetheless try our best to survive in this firmly established climate of fear. Consider the many causes of fear this day: the covid pandemic; terrorism; climate change; a seeming moral breakdown in society; old age; extreme weather; tragic violence; educational chaos; the diminishing of parental influence; international conflict; nuclear weapons; racial unrest. For Christians, we can add the fear of spiritual warfare on our loved ones and on our culture. Many of us have more private fears, such as crime, hunger, unemployment, and subsistence survival.
All these fears have a cumulative effect. At one level we seek to live with stability and peace. But at a deeper level we fight all these fears in our spirit. What is the antidote to fear, before it overwhelms us? Scripture spells it out, both in the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. Overcoming fear is a major theme all through the Bible. For students of Scripture, there were countless times the reader sees a story or reads an encouragement telling us, Do not be afraid, Fear not, Have no fear. The Bible is full of wisdom on how to conquer our fears.
“Who could ever separate us from the endless love of God’s Anointed One? No one! For nothing in the universe has the power to diminish His love toward us. Troubles, pressures and problems are unable to come between us and heaven’s love. What about persecution, hunger, nakedness, dangers and death threats? No, for they are all impotent to hinder omnipresent love. Yet even in the midst of all these things, we triumph over them all, for God has made us to be more than conquerors, and His demonstrated love is our glorious victory over everything!” (Romans 8:35-37, Passion Translation).
Did you notice that Jesus didn’t calm the storm? He would shout, “Peace, be still!” in other storm stories, but not in this case. He never calmed those surging waves to ease the disciples’ fears. He instead walked to them on the water, climbed into the boat, and let the storm continue. Sometimes Jesus doesn’t calm the storms in our lives. Sometimes He allows the turbulence to continue, providing His presence instead of a solution to the problem. Sometimes He enables us to survive the storm and helps us to make the best of it. This dramatic story is an echo of Isaiah 43:1-5, a confirmation of its truth. “But now, says Yahweh, your Creator, O Jacob, and He who formed you, O Israel. Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name. You are mine! When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; Do not fear, for I am with you.”
The Question. “On that day, when evening had come, Jesus said to His disciples, “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.’ And leaving the crowd, they took Jesus with them in their boat. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking dangerously into the boat, so that the boat was already filling up with water. Jesus was in the stern of the boat, asleep with His head resting on a pillow. The disciples woke him in a panic and said to Him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are going to perish?’ Jesus woke up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Silence! Be Still!’ And the wind ceased, and there was great calm on the surface of the lake. Jesus then asked them, ‘Why are you so afraid? Have you no trust in me yet?’ And the disciples were filled with great fear (“phobos-megas”) and said to one another, ‘Who then is this man, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” (Mark 4:35-41; also refer to Matthew 8:23-27 and Luke 8:22-25).
The Sea of Galilee can easily be called a small sea or a large lake: 150 feet deep, 13 miles long, 7 miles wide, and surrounded by large hills. Because the shoreline is 680 feet below sea level, it is subject to violent downdrafts and sudden severe storms that sweep onto the lake and cause waves as high as 20 feet. Fishermen were somewhat accustomed to these gale-force winds that can come without warning. So for the experienced fishermen in Jesus’ group, this must have been an extraordinary windstorm. Fierce storms like this one were frightening even to veteran fishermen, since the boats could easily be overcome and swamped in the turbulence. These windstorms have been described as everything from gale-force winds, to ferocious tempests, to violent squals, and even winds of hurricane proportions.
“Phobos-megas” = an overwhelming magnitude of terror mixed with reverence and respect; a significant dread and feelings of vulnerability because are without sufficient resources. The disciples were apparently horrified with this storm and felt themselves to be in great jeopardy.
Rebuked. Yes, Jesus has the authority to speak to inanimate creatures. As Co-Creator, He can command mindless objects in nature to obey Him. As Son of God, Jesus actually has a relationship with creation. The word for rebuke here means to correct or restrain, and literally means to assign the value of something. So here on the stormy sea, Jesus judges the windstorm to be unnecessary and the turbulent waves to be worthless in the situation. The same word is used when Jesus rebukes the demons in His exorcisms. Then too, Jesus here reveals His divinity, since in the Hebrew Bible only God can rebuke the sea or command its obedience: “The channels of the sea were seen, and the foundations of the world were laid bare at your rebuke, O Lord.” (Ps. 18:15); “For He commanded and raised the stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea. They mounted up to heaven; they went down to the depths… He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed.” (Ps. 107:25, 29, also refer to Job 12:15 and 28:25).
Faith. The Matthew 8:26 account of this scene has Jesus questioning the disciples… “Why are you so afraid, O you of little faith?” The Greek word reveals that Jesus is not accusing His disciples of being faithless, but of having an incomplete faith, a deficient and ineffective faith. Other versions put it this way… Why are you so frightened, and how is it you have such little trust in me? What are you afraid of, and why do you not yet have confidence in me? Where is your trust in my faithfulness? Perhaps Jesus is teaching His disciples, and this is quite the teachable moment, that faith is a gift from Him, and so they have not allowed Jesus to form His faith in them as yet. For if we are in Christ, inside Christ, hidden in Him, then He gives us His peace to live into, we have His mind to begin thinking with, His love within us to overflow to others. Maybe Jesus is saying that His disciples have yet to live inside His faith, or allow Jesus to believe for them, that they are still trying to generate their own human faith instead of allowing the faith of Jesus to become fully active within them. Because of our mutual indwelling, Christ in us and we in Christ, we are allowed to share in His faith, His faithfulness, His righteousness. We are enabled to participate in His ability to believe and trust and be reliant on God’s faithfulness and not our own. “The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20).