FEAR NOT: FOR I HAVE REDEEMED THEE

These verses are full of reassurance from a covenant-keeping God, but they follow a passage in the previous chapter in which Israel is seen to be far from faithful and is described as experiencing the fury of God’s anger. They had to be punished for their sin, but they remained the covenant people. Hence, the reassurance of these verses, He remained faithful to them.

The Lord speaks to them as their creator, redeemer and saviour. He says, ‘I am the Lord thy God’ - they are His chosen people. Not only was each Israelite a creature of God, but the nation also owed its existence to His power, His choice and His call. They were unique as a nation: ‘You only have I known of all the families of the earth’, Amos 3. 2.

He had redeemed them. It is constantly repeated in the Old Testament. He brought them out from bondage into a land He had chosen for them. He would not utterly cast them off.

He was their saviour, the Holy One of Israel. He had saved them from their enemies; he had ‘reproved kings for their sakes’, Ps. 105. 14. Other nations had suffered so that Israel might prosper. Perhaps the climax of their relationship is the declaration, ‘Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee’, verse 4.

However severe their sufferings, they remained on the Lord’s heart and He would not utterly reject them. He would bring back their sons from the lands to which they would be scattered: the repeated ‘I will’ in verses 5-6. Then verse 7 repeats the basis of their position: called, created, formed, made.

We who have come to God through our Lord Jesus Christ are linked to Him by ‘bonds that none can sever’. We, too, are created, called, redeemed and precious. Whether persecution’s fires or the floods of circumstances threaten us, we pass through - in, then out. There is a way through. Psalm 23 says, ‘though I walk through the valley’, but ends, ‘I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever’. God’s promises remain: I have loved thee,

1 am with thee. When men had failed him, Paul could say, ‘Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me’,

2 Tim. 4. 17.