For I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you.
Isaiah 41:13 (NIV)
The Hand Comes First
The stretch of a creek that moves fastest looks the calmest, a smooth brown lane with no sound coming off it. A man in his twenties who never learned to swim stands at the edge of a crossing he can see the bottom of, knee deep at the worst of it, and he does not move. His friend goes in first, gets to the middle, turns around and reaches back for him.
The people who first heard this line had been taken a long way from where they started and were fairly sure God had gone looking for somebody better. He tells them he called them from the ends of the earth, that he chose them, that he has not rejected them. Then he takes hold of the right hand, and after that he says do not fear.
The order does the work, because the hand is already held when the instruction shows up. The same voice says it the other way around too, do not fear first and the promise to hold them up after. The man at the creek has been telling himself the whole time that the water is knee deep and that nothing in it can hurt him, and his feet have not moved since he said it the first time.
He says I will help you. The help named in this verse is a hand, and the current stays exactly as fast as it was.
He is talking to Jacob and Israel, one people in one particular mess, with a war waiting on the other side of it. Their trouble was not a creek crossing. The God who took hold of them travels, and he arrives at smaller water than that.
His friend is still standing there with an arm out, palm up, wet to the wrist. Neither of them says anything. He takes it.
A Prayer to Remember
I am afraid of something I have not said to anyone, Lord, and telling myself to stop has never once worked. Take my hand before you tell me not to be afraid. If today is the day I have to go in, go in ahead of me.
In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
