THROUGH THE WATERS

Transcript

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Hello everyone. This is Pastor Dean Thompson with a word of hope. Through the waters. But now, thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel. Fear not, for I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy name, thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee, and through the rivers they shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. For I am the Lord thy God, the holy one of Israel, thy Savior. Isaiah chapter forty three, verses one to three. Notice what God does not promise. He does not say you will not pass through the waters. He does not say the rivers will be rewrote, be routed, or the fire ink is extinguished before you arrive. He says when you pass through, the when is honest, the trial is real. But around the trial, God places six rich promises. I have redeemed thee. The Hebrew Gahal is the technical term for the kinsman redeemer. The family member who would step up, step in to buy back what had been lost. Boaz in route 4, the laws of Leviticus 25. To redeem is not merely to rescue, it is to it is it is to take responsibility for. Names in Israel were not labels, they were identities. To know someone's name was to know their soul. The God who calls you by name knows the unrepeatable particular shape of who you are. You are not a category to him.

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You are not a number. The word mine. The word mine. The Hebrew is short and final.

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Li atta mine. You possessive, this is possessive love. John Golden Gay observes that this is the language of a husband, of a parent, of irrevocable belonging. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee. Not I will save you from the waters, I will be with you in them. Sometimes God parts the waters, the Red Sea or the Jordan. Sometimes he goes through them with us. Both are deliverance, but the second is more intimate. The rivers shall not overflow thee. Notice the verb, the waters may rise, but they will not drown. The flames may scorch, but they will not consume. Trial does come, does become triumphal. Trials does not become triumphaless. Tragedy when God is in it. I am the Lord thy God, the holy one of Israel, thy Savior. The cascade of titles ends with the simplest, dearest word, thy Savior. The Hebrew Yahshua, salvation, the very name of Jesus. When the three men walked into the Babylonian fire, Daniel chapter three, the king saw a fourth, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God. The promise of Isaiah for the three was kept then. It is kept now. The Christ who descended into our hell to save us still walks beside us in our furnaces. You are not drowning, you are not consumed. He is with you. You are his or his. O redeem of God, when the waters rise and the fires kindle, walk through them with us. Let your grace abound and help us to overcome. Because we are yours. Amen. God bless you, brothers.