But now, thus says the Lord, who created you, O Jacob,
And He who formed you, O Israel:
FEAR NOT, for I have REDEEMED you;
I have called you by your name;
You are Mine.
Isaiah 43:1
This verse has always meant a lot to me. But it especially brings me back to a special memory teaching Religious Instruction at one of the local schools. At that stage our classroom was taken, so we were having our lesson on the sports field that day.
I can remember sitting on the field staring over the vast expanse in the countryside. Grass. All the eye could see was grass – and in the distance, the blossoming yellow Acacia trees marking the borders of the fields. And of course, the rolling hills of the countryside in the distance.
But it was the grass that caught my attention this time. How I could identify with it that morning! Feeling like “just another blade of grass” in the vast field of the world. I can remember vividly reaching down and picking one of those blades, saying to the children,
“Imagine, of all the blades of grass on the field in this school, God knows about this one.”
I started fathoming with them the fact that the Father knows about each sparrow and does not allow one to fall to the ground except at His consent (Matthew 10:29).
Imagine that?!
And if that is not enough, He reveals to us that He numbers the very hairs on our head! (Luke 12:7)
At that stage, I smiled at the children, reached up and pulled a few strands of hair from my own head:
He’s just taken note of that and recalculated!!
I looked up and saw the stars in my mind's eye. Psalm 147:4 says that the Lord not only counts the number of the stars, but He calls them all by name! Wow! And I am worried that He does not know about me…
Still holding that blade of grass between my fingers, still marveling that God was as aware of it in that moment as I, I turned to Isaiah 43:1 and read it to them:
But now, thus says the Lord, who CREATED you, O Jacob,
And He who FORMED you, O Israel:
FEAR NOT, for I have REDEEMED you;
I HAVE CALLED YOU BY YOUR NAME;
You are Mine.
There is so much to be said in that Scripture. It feels like it contains all of my story – and all of Christ at the same time.
“But now, says the Lord, who CREATED you…”
Let’s just pause there for a moment. Who is talking to us? The Lord God of Heaven addresses me in the person of Israel.
What is the first thing He wants me to understand? That He CREATED me… I did not just come into existence, but God, who breathed the stars out of His mouth (Psalm 33:6), also FOREKNEW me (Romans 8:29), and like our verse goes on to say, He FORMED me with the utmost care.
Like Psalm 139 tells us, He knows our frame. We did not just “happen,” or come from a genetic pool, which is why we are who we are, but God meticulously knit us together and packed us with everything we would need for this life – from our physical functions to our character and giftings. Before we were even born, He knew us and He BREATHED LIFE into us… Wow!
**…I’m afraid I'm not through with the first line yet.
But now, thus says the Lord, who CREATED you, O JACOB…
“O Jacob.”
Why would this be important and worth mentioning?
The second line goes on to say,
“He who FORMED you O Israel.”
I can’t move past it because it is in the friction between Jacob and Israel that I am caught.
See, “Jacob” is my experience of myself; it speaks of the Old Nature; the one that sin has corrupted.
Jacob: “Deceiver, supplanter, cheat, conniver.”
Sin got a hold of me. Just like Jacob, all I tend to see are my shortcomings and my failures. Perhaps like Jacob, we too, are silently running away from mistakes we have made? Feeling exiled and disqualified. Life gets messy, and the more we live it, the more we run into that Jacob nature of ours which always seems to default, causing us to stumble and hurt our brothers and sisters, if not ourselves.
Jacob was running away. In many instances, I can identify with that.
Sometimes I am not sure if I am running away from my fellow man or God – or if I am not running away from myself and all that I see inside of me? Either way, it takes me into a personal exile and one starts to wonder if God really does know about me, or have I sinned out of His reach, out of His concern?
Maybe some of you know what I am talking about.
Maybe I am the only one who often feels like that.
But then God, the One who CREATED me speaks.
He says to me,
“Hey Jacob!
I’m aware of you. You are My creation. Your experience of yourself is that you are Jacob – sinful and a deceiver. But I know the TRUTH about you. I am the one who FORMED you. You know yourself as Jacob, but I know you as Israel: Prince with God.”
He doesn’t just leave us there.
He speaks to us and He reassures us.
He says to us in all that we are running from, condemning ourselves for, hating ourselves for…
He kneels down, picks up this tiny blade of grass, speaks to me and says,
“FEAR NOT. I have REDEEMED you…”
At that point I look up. I no longer see the acacia trees in the distance, but that Tree. The one that He hung on. The one upon where He took up my sin – and all that I am ashamed of – and swallowed it up and set me free. Fear not. Fear not, dear child. All that you have been afraid of – all that you see in yourself and feel like you cannot escape… All the condemnation and rejection you have been anticipating, Jacob. Fear not. I HAVE REDEEMED YOU!
What’s more, I have CALLED you by your name. You think your name is Jacob, but I know your name. And I have searched you and fathomed you, and from your depths where I have known you from – I have called out your name – not Jacob… not Israel… but CHRIST.
Who are you, my son, my dear daughter?
Look in at the mirror of the Word.
See who I have redeemed you to be.
You are not who you think you are.
I have redeemed you.
You are a Prince, you are a beloved son, a beloved daughter;
I have clothed you with My Righteousness, I have covered your shame, and I have given you MY Name… and what’s more, YOU ARE MINE!!!
(2 Corinthians 3:18)
And He who formed you, O Israel:
FEAR NOT, for I have REDEEMED you;
I have called you by your name;
You are Mine.
Isaiah 43:1
This verse has always meant a lot to me. But it especially brings me back to a special memory teaching Religious Instruction at one of the local schools. At that stage our classroom was taken, so we were having our lesson on the sports field that day.
I can remember sitting on the field staring over the vast expanse in the countryside. Grass. All the eye could see was grass – and in the distance, the blossoming yellow Acacia trees marking the borders of the fields. And of course, the rolling hills of the countryside in the distance.
But it was the grass that caught my attention this time. How I could identify with it that morning! Feeling like “just another blade of grass” in the vast field of the world. I can remember vividly reaching down and picking one of those blades, saying to the children,
“Imagine, of all the blades of grass on the field in this school, God knows about this one.”
I started fathoming with them the fact that the Father knows about each sparrow and does not allow one to fall to the ground except at His consent (Matthew 10:29).
Imagine that?!
And if that is not enough, He reveals to us that He numbers the very hairs on our head! (Luke 12:7)
At that stage, I smiled at the children, reached up and pulled a few strands of hair from my own head:
He’s just taken note of that and recalculated!!
I looked up and saw the stars in my mind's eye. Psalm 147:4 says that the Lord not only counts the number of the stars, but He calls them all by name! Wow! And I am worried that He does not know about me…
Still holding that blade of grass between my fingers, still marveling that God was as aware of it in that moment as I, I turned to Isaiah 43:1 and read it to them:
But now, thus says the Lord, who CREATED you, O Jacob,
And He who FORMED you, O Israel:
FEAR NOT, for I have REDEEMED you;
I HAVE CALLED YOU BY YOUR NAME;
You are Mine.
There is so much to be said in that Scripture. It feels like it contains all of my story – and all of Christ at the same time.
“But now, says the Lord, who CREATED you…”
Let’s just pause there for a moment. Who is talking to us? The Lord God of Heaven addresses me in the person of Israel.
What is the first thing He wants me to understand? That He CREATED me… I did not just come into existence, but God, who breathed the stars out of His mouth (Psalm 33:6), also FOREKNEW me (Romans 8:29), and like our verse goes on to say, He FORMED me with the utmost care.
Like Psalm 139 tells us, He knows our frame. We did not just “happen,” or come from a genetic pool, which is why we are who we are, but God meticulously knit us together and packed us with everything we would need for this life – from our physical functions to our character and giftings. Before we were even born, He knew us and He BREATHED LIFE into us… Wow!
**…I’m afraid I'm not through with the first line yet.
But now, thus says the Lord, who CREATED you, O JACOB…
“O Jacob.”
Why would this be important and worth mentioning?
The second line goes on to say,
“He who FORMED you O Israel.”
I can’t move past it because it is in the friction between Jacob and Israel that I am caught.
See, “Jacob” is my experience of myself; it speaks of the Old Nature; the one that sin has corrupted.
Jacob: “Deceiver, supplanter, cheat, conniver.”
Sin got a hold of me. Just like Jacob, all I tend to see are my shortcomings and my failures. Perhaps like Jacob, we too, are silently running away from mistakes we have made? Feeling exiled and disqualified. Life gets messy, and the more we live it, the more we run into that Jacob nature of ours which always seems to default, causing us to stumble and hurt our brothers and sisters, if not ourselves.
Jacob was running away. In many instances, I can identify with that.
Sometimes I am not sure if I am running away from my fellow man or God – or if I am not running away from myself and all that I see inside of me? Either way, it takes me into a personal exile and one starts to wonder if God really does know about me, or have I sinned out of His reach, out of His concern?
Maybe some of you know what I am talking about.
Maybe I am the only one who often feels like that.
But then God, the One who CREATED me speaks.
He says to me,
“Hey Jacob!
I’m aware of you. You are My creation. Your experience of yourself is that you are Jacob – sinful and a deceiver. But I know the TRUTH about you. I am the one who FORMED you. You know yourself as Jacob, but I know you as Israel: Prince with God.”
He doesn’t just leave us there.
He speaks to us and He reassures us.
He says to us in all that we are running from, condemning ourselves for, hating ourselves for…
He kneels down, picks up this tiny blade of grass, speaks to me and says,
“FEAR NOT. I have REDEEMED you…”
At that point I look up. I no longer see the acacia trees in the distance, but that Tree. The one that He hung on. The one upon where He took up my sin – and all that I am ashamed of – and swallowed it up and set me free. Fear not. Fear not, dear child. All that you have been afraid of – all that you see in yourself and feel like you cannot escape… All the condemnation and rejection you have been anticipating, Jacob. Fear not. I HAVE REDEEMED YOU!
What’s more, I have CALLED you by your name. You think your name is Jacob, but I know your name. And I have searched you and fathomed you, and from your depths where I have known you from – I have called out your name – not Jacob… not Israel… but CHRIST.
Who are you, my son, my dear daughter?
Look in at the mirror of the Word.
See who I have redeemed you to be.
You are not who you think you are.
I have redeemed you.
You are a Prince, you are a beloved son, a beloved daughter;
I have clothed you with My Righteousness, I have covered your shame, and I have given you MY Name… and what’s more, YOU ARE MINE!!!
(2 Corinthians 3:18)
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