Fear not!

Fear not; you will no longer live in shame. Don’t be afraid; there is no more disgrace for you. You will no longer remember the shame of your youth and the sorrows of widowhood. For your Creator will be your husband; the Lord of Heaven’s Armies is his name! He is your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the God of all the earth. For the Lord has called you back from your grief—as though you were a young wife abandoned by her husband,” says your God. Isaiah 54:4-6 NLT

From the text, Isaiah once again provided an encouragement to “fear not” (occurrences in Isaiah of the phrase “fear not” - 41:10, 13, 14; 43:1, 5; 44:2, 8; 51:7; 54:14). From the context in Isaiah 54, he explains why there was no need for the people of God to be afraid. He used an analogy of husband and wife to describe how the reconciliation took place. To begin with, sins were forgiven and the past guilt was removed (v. 4). The Lord was angry because of the unfaithfulness, but because of deep sympathy from God and repentance from the people, God forgave them. So, why then should they fear the future when God had wiped out the sins of the past? (See also Isaiah 43:25; 44:22). Though God is the aggrieved party, but because of His great love, He was willing to forgive. God will not retract from His covenant. The gospel is not based on how good and lovely we are. His anger is real as expressed in the judgment but for His children, it will soon pass. God’s love is real and everlasting. God is the Creator and the Maker and He will not abandon those whom He called to live for His glory. God’s judgment is to provide His children an opportunity to see what happens when they rebel against Him. He showed to them how foolish it was to turn to false gods. This is why God continues to call back His own to leave the life of grief and shame and be restored to a relationship with Him. God wants us to be reconciled with Him. “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:17-19).

Blessings,