Isaiah 43:1-7
A Complete Love

But now, this is what the LORD says--
     he who created you, O Jacob,
     he who formed you, O Israel:
"Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
     I have summoned you by name; you are mine.

When you pass through the waters,
     I will be with you;
And when you pass through the rivers,
     they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
     you will not be burned;
     the flames will not set you ablaze.

For I am the LORD, your God,
     the Holy One of Israel, your Savior;
I give Egypt for your ransom,
     Cush and Seba in your stead.

Since you are precious and honored in my sight,
     and because I love you,
I will give men in exchange for you,
     and people in exchange for your life.

Do not be afraid, for I am with you;
     I will bring your children from the east
     and gather you from the west.

I will say to the north, 'Give them up!'
     and to the south, 'Do not hold them back.'
Bring my sons from afar
     and my daughters from the ends of the earth--
Everyone who is called by my name,
     whom I created for my glory,
     whom I formed and made."

New International Version

I remember being emotionally scarred as an elementary school child by a lesson my class was taught on how birds raise their young. Te teacher described it all so sweetly, how the father bird and the mother bird would guard and warm the eggs with their own bodies. Their devoted attention would take on a frantic pace as both parents gathered food to feed the always ravenous and boisterous young chicks in the nest. But then my juvenile sensitivies were shocked when I heard that the parents one day would push their chicks out of the nest to fly or flop, to either make it on their own or fall to the ground and become an easy meal for the neighborhood cat! I was so upset that, when I got home from school, I asked my mother if she was going to do the same to me one day.

(By the way, it was my dad, not my mom, that gently pushed me out of the "nest," and I was a college graduate by then.)
We've all had those times in our lives when we feel like we've been shoved out of what was comfortable into the unknown, forced to do what we don't know how to do, and left abandoned to fend off dreadful foes. Those times evoke strong feelings of anxiety and loneliness, and can even cause us to question whether our earlier feelings of comfort and security weren't just illusions or fabrications.

The passage in Isaiah chapter 42 preceeding this passage describes circumstances that for the people of Israel must have felt like a baby bird shoved out of the nest. Their rebellion against God had become so entrenched that the anger of a righteous God cut them off and left them to their own foolish choices, so that some of them would come back to God. From the luxury of our historical perspective, we can see that God's wrath was in the best interest of this people, just like being shoved out of a nest is what is best, over the long term, for young birds. But at the time, a dazed young bird would gain no encouragement as he hopped and flapped on the ground if we were to explain how this trial was for his ultimate good.

God's response in our passage from Isaiah 43 gives us assurances and hope that we are never abandoned, even in our most difficult times. The first verse explains that just as God formed us, God also redeems us, and just as God sent us out, God will bring us back again. What God has started in us, God will complete in us--the same promise that Paul captured in Philippians 1:6.

Before we conclude that God lives with us only at the start and the finish, God promises to be with us in all circumstances, expressed by the opposite threats of water and fire. Most of us haven't had fearful experiences with conflagrations and flooding rivers that would permit us to identify with these analogies, but Isaiah's first audiences would have found great comfort in God's presence in those common fears. When we think about it, we find analogies all around us that mean the same as the fire and water. We will never have a sleepless, fearful night without God sitting up with us. We will not wait out the hours of howling winds from ferocious storms without God's presence. The earth will shake, furniture fall, roads buckle, and walls crumple, but God will remain our solid foundation. You have passed through floods and fire, and you might even be passing through them now, and God's love promises you are not alone.

God's love gathered back the arrogant, rebellious people of the nation of Judah, although they didn't deserve to be loved, and paid whatever price was necessary to buy back a nation that had so often appeared to be worthless servants. The only reason the Hebrew people had any value was that God had made them, had decreed that they were of great worth, and would ultimately make of them the fulfillment of God's plan to bring about the glory and praise that God deserves. We are not loved because we are lovable, but because God's love is so strong!

Notice that Isaiah isn't writing about a nation. So often, our modern sense of individualism can't make sense of the pervasive Old Testament tribal focus, but we know what it means and we respond when we are called by name. Isaiah makes a deliberate point of God's individual focus, calling us by name, in the first verse. Isaiah expounds on this personal relationship in the inclusiveness of the fifth and sixth verses, which tell us God will reach out to both young and old, both male and female, so that every person can be a part of God's glory.

Isaiah shared with us God's promise of a love that completely envelops our individual lives, no matter who we are or in what situation we are. Love never fails or fades, and to the extent we allow, Love will make us complete.