Homiletic Review Isaiah 41:10 Fear you not; for I am with you: be not dismayed; for I am your God: I will strengthen you; yes, I will help you… The missionary could not take with him a higher word of manifold comfort than is here contained. I. THE COMMAND. 1. "Fear not, thou." Fear throws a paralysis over the senses and faculties of man, so that flight and safety are more thought of than holding one's ground, or making headway against the enemy. 2. "Be not dismayed." If one have fear, he loses both courage and hope; and in this state no valuable work can be done. The soldiers of the first French Revolution Were destitute of fear, and by nothing dismayed; hence, all the armies of Europe prevailed not against them, until, in the terms of Carlyle, they had provoked all men, and the Gaelic fire had kindled another kind of fire — the Teutonic kind. II. ITS GROUND. 1. "I am with thee." God promised Moses that His presence should go with him; and without that, said Moses, send me not up. 2. "For I am thy God." It is Jehovah that speaks, who created the universe and governs it still. 3. "I will strengthen thee." God will renew not merely such strength as is natural to us, but a surplusage of strength for special service. In the strength of heavenly food and drink" Elijah "went forty days and forty nights." 4. "Yea, I will help thee." Joseph in Egypt, or Daniel in Babylon, would have been destroyed by their enemies, and would never have become prime ministers but for the Divine interposition. 5. "Yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness." The right hand is an emblem of power — here, of omnipotent power — so that the work of righteousness which you do shall never cease. Truth is omnipotent, and shall rule the eternal years. III. ITS ENCOURAGEMENT. 1. If God be for us in mission work, who can be against us? 2. If He favour and command it, how can it ever cease? Deus vult, said Peter the Hermit, and for two centuries the Crusades flamed on high. 3. If truth and righteousness he eternal, how bold and hopeful ought the missionary to be! The Gospel is stronger than the strongest battalions. (Homiletic Review.) Parallel Verses KJV: Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. |
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