How to Avoid Giving in to Fear – Isaiah 51:1-16
51 Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness and who seek Jehovah. Look to the rock from which you were cut and to the quarry from which you were hewn. (2) Look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who gave you birth. When he was only a single individual I called him; I blessed him and caused him to multiply. (3) Jehovah will comfort Zion, he will look with compassion on all her ruins; he will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of Jehovah. Joy and gladness shall be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of singing.
(4) Listen to me, O my people; pay attention to me, O my nation. I will provide instruction and I will establish my justice as a light for the nations. (5) My righteousness is approaching, my salvation has gone forth. My arm shall judge the nations. The islands look to me in hope and trust in my arm for salvation. (6) Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth below—the heavens will vanish like smoke and the earth will wear out like a garment; likewise, the inhabitants of the world will die. But my salvation shall last forever and my righteousness shall not be abolished. (7) Listen to me, you who are acquainted with righteousness—the people who have my law in their heart: Do not fear the reproach of men, nor be alarmed by their reviling; (8) for they will become like a moth-eaten garment and the worm will devour them like wool. But my righteousness shall last forever and my salvation shall remain through all generations.
(9) Awake, awake! Clothe yourself with strength, O arm of Jehovah! Awake, as you did in days gone by, as you did in the generations of long ago. Was it not you who chopped Rahab to pieces? Was it not you who thrust through that monster with a sword? (10) Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep? Was it not you who turned the depths of the sea into a roadway so that the redeemed could pass through it? (11) Those who have been ransomed by Jehovah will return; they will enter Zion with singing, and everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them; sorrow and sighing will flee away.
(12) I, I am the one who comforts you. Who do you think you are—you who are afraid of mortal man who shall die, afraid of a son of man who is made like a blade of grass? (13) You have forgotten Jehovah your Maker, the one who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth. Why do you live in constant fear every day because of the fury of the oppressor as he aims to destroy you? But what has become of the fury of the oppressor? (14) The cowering prisoners will soon be set free; they will not die in the dungeon, nor will they go hungry; (15) because I am Jehovah your God, the one who churns up the sea so that its waves roar—Jehovah of hosts is my name. (16)I have put my words in your mouth and covered you in the hallow of my hand—to set the heavens in place and to lay the foundation of the earth, and now to say to Zion, You are my people.
Now proceed to the next section of this study, entitled, Exploring the Passage.
