Isaiah 41 Fear Not

Scripture selections are taken from the Rock Church Daily Bread Reading schedule for each month. “Lena’s Journalin’” are Lena’s comments on the specific passages from her Daily Journal.

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Isaiah 41:1-29 -
God's Help for Israel
1"Listen in silence before me, you lands beyond the sea. Bring your strongest arguments. Come now and speak. The court is ready for your case.
2"Who has stirred up this king from the east, who meets victory at every step? Who, indeed, but the LORD? He gives him victory over many nations and permits him to trample their kings underfoot. He puts entire armies to the sword. He scatters them in the wind with his bow. 3He chases them away and goes on safely, though he is walking over unfamiliar ground.
4Who has done such mighty deeds, directing the affairs of the human race as each new generation marches by? It is I, the LORD, the First and the Last. I alone am he."
5The lands beyond the sea watch in fear. Remote lands tremble and mobilize for war. 6They encourage one another with the words, "Be strong!" 7The craftsmen rush to make new idols. The carver hurries the goldsmith, and the molder helps at the anvil. "Good," they say. "It's coming along fine." Carefully they join the parts together, then fasten the thing in place so it won't fall over.
8"But as for you, Israel my servant, Jacob my chosen one, descended from my friend Abraham, 9I have called you back from the ends of the earth so you can serve me. For I have chosen you and will not throw you away. 10Don't be afraid, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.
11"See, all your angry enemies lie there, confused and ashamed. Anyone who opposes you will die. 12You will look for them in vain. They will all be gone! 13I am holding you by your right hand—I, the LORD your God. And I say to you, 'Do not be afraid. I am here to help you. 14Despised though you are, O Israel, don't be afraid, for I will help you. I am the LORD, your Redeemer. I am the Holy One of Israel.' 15You will be a new threshing instrument with many sharp teeth. You will tear all your enemies apart, making chaff of mountains. 16You will toss them in the air, and the wind will blow them all away; a whirlwind will scatter them. And the joy of the LORD will fill you to overflowing. You will glory in the Holy One of Israel.
17"When the poor and needy search for water and there is none, and their tongues are parched from thirst, then I, the LORD, will answer them. I, the God of Israel, will never forsake them. 18I will open up rivers for them on high plateaus. I will give them fountains of water in the valleys. In the deserts they will find pools of water. Rivers fed by springs will flow across the dry, parched ground. 19I will plant trees—cedar, acacia, myrtle, olive, cypress, fir, and pine—on barren land. 20Everyone will see this miracle and understand that it is the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, who did it.
21"Can your idols make such claims as these? Let them come and show what they can do!" says the LORD, the King of Israel. F92 22"Let them try to tell us what happened long ago or what the future holds. 23Yes, that's it! If you are gods, tell what will occur in the days ahead. Or perform a mighty miracle that will fill us with amazement and fear. Do something, whether good or bad! 24But no! You are less than nothing and can do nothing at all. Anyone who chooses you becomes filthy, just like you!
25"But I have stirred up a leader from the north and east. He will come against the nations and call on my name, and I will give him victory over kings and princes. He will trample them as a potter treads on clay.
26"Who but I have told you this would happen? Who else predicted this, making you admit that he was right? No one else said a word! 27I was the first to tell Jerusalem, 'Look! Help is on the way!' 28Not one of your idols told you this. Not one gave any answer when I asked. 29See, they are all foolish, worthless things. Your idols are all as empty as the wind.
FOOTNOTES: F92: Hebrew the King of Jacob.
Copyright Statement: Holy Bible, The New Living Translation

~ Lena’s Journalin’~
There is a differentiation being made here between natural and supernatural, temporal and eternal, what is eternal truth and what is a façade.
A friend of mine just recently got revelation of the seen and unseen worlds. She explained it to a friend, saying, “You’ve got to see and know that we are spirit beings having an earth experience (I’ll say assignment/ambassadorship), the spirit world/realm is just right there, so much closer than we all know.”
When I read that I new she’d seen by Divine revelation, something that God is leading every human to see. There’s a more real world that we don’t see than what we do see.
Men want to see. God wants men to see, but He wants them to see what a natural eye cannot, then bring it out into the open where natural men do see it.
Do you realize everything we do naturally see was once unseen? How does that happen?
Natural men see in the spirit, get an idea about something they do not see, then they go about working things out to bring it into visibility. Once we see it, and it is visible we take the visible for granted and depend upon it more than the very source from which it was made. When an invisible idea becomes visible, we have brought “heaven to earth”.
We pray, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven…” Amen. What are we talking about? Things unseen to our natural eyes here become seen. They are real before they are seen, just not visible!
Now let’s go back to a root of sin, the worship of other gods.
There is ONE God and He desires all worship come His way. In fact when all worship comes His way here in the earth realm, His kingdom has come to earth. That is what natural men were created to do. This is their purpose; this is their call, their role in life, their Destiny can and will only be found in this place of worship of this ONE God.
There is an enemy of God called pride, which knows full well all of that invisible stuff and is on assignment to take or steal that purposed worship away from the One. The way it works best is to cause men to only see right now what is seen, and to depend only and wholly on what is natural. He blinds their eyes from seeing what is unseen. Then to either make for themselves items to worship and depend on them here right now, or to try to become an item to be worshiped right here and now in the seen realm. The problem is, we are not The One and the more we do not see what is unseen and engage ourselves in His invisible and eternal purposes, the more we fail and ail and suffer through life as we worship others than The One.
Why does the Lord always say, “Do not fear”?
Fear is usually based on what is not seen or understood (understanding comes when one sees what can only be eternally seen).
So, every desire, longing, need, and search is placed inside of men to lead them to a place of worship of The One. They must seek Him and they will not be contented until they find Him, then when they truly find Him, they will not be content in a good way, until they have pulled out of the unseen realm all He has purposed for them to bring forth in their lifetime on earth.
(This makes me think of a natural example- how many children should one have? Many humans can choose how many they have, they can bring out of the unseen realm as many or as few they want in their lifetime of fruitfulness. Some feel having and raising children is a very large part of their life’s “assignment” or purpose, while others decide to go about doing other things than to raise children. Someone else may run a very large business, employing and bringing opportunity for provision to those who need work, while they produce useful goods to help those families grow. Both of these are simple examples of purpose assigned and engaged in. Choice is a big factor in fulfilled purpose.)
Do not be afraid, nor dismayed? That tells me there is a place to go- worship, something to see- more of the proposed purposes of The One we worship, and something to do about it that we do not yet see or know. We are adventurers and explorers in an unseen unconquered world. We think the earth is big, the universe is vast, what about the eternal realm?
There’s a whole lifetime of conquest awaiting those who are willing to turn from worshiping the temporal and naturally seen world and its seen objects, to engaging in The worship of the One who made everything we see and everything we do not yet see. This is the part that amazes me about idol worship, that we could be deceived into giving our attentions and life force to something made by man, the creation, when we can know The Creator of all. How can man bow to a tree, or an idol or even another man, when there is God of the whole universe and beyond, Maker of the heavens, the earth and beyond?
Let’s open our eyes today, get a glimpse of His world, and fear not to bring His world to ours.
That is why we are here right now.

Daily Recital Verses -
Psalms 118:24 This is the day the LORD has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.

Prov 17:22 A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person's strength.