Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 41:13

For I the LORD thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.

13. will hold will help ] do hold do help. For saying render: I who say.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Isa 41:13

For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand

The Christians help

I.

IT IS A PERSONAL HELP. I will help thee. When the religious element was strongly felt amongst the Jews, they looked to the King eternal for guidance and protection; nothing but His counsel would satisfy them. Man seems to have the special intuition of a personal God, as if nothing but personal contact with Him could revive the latent powers. Truth in the abstract cannot touch the heart so as to cause an inner revolution. Truth must come from God as from a living Being.

II. THIS PERSONAL HELP WILL BE GIVEN ONLY IN THE WAY OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. The children of Israel had departed from the right way, and as long as they sought their own gratification they could not expect help from the God of their fathers. The way of righteousness is not the most pleasant at all times for flesh and blood, but it is always the safest.

III. IT IS THE MOST TENDER AND CONSTANT HELP WITHIN THE REACH OF MAN. The Jewish people were bruised by their terrible fall, they had but little strength left, they were almost hopeless of ever seeing their own country. The Lord knew their helplessness, so these words are full of the greatest kindness. The way of holiness, the way to heaven, is so strange to a person who has defiled himself with sin that but little progress could be made without a guide. So the Lord tenderly takes each traveller by the hand. (Homilist.)

The promised help

I. THE LORD GIVETH STRENGTH. What a precious truth is this, if believed in, to such a feeble creature as man. It is as a covenant God in Christ that the Lord comforts the believing soul with the promise, I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, etc. The Lord thy God.

II. MAN NEEDS THE STRENGTH which the Lord promises, and which He alone can give. Man needs strength for obedience to Gods holy laws. Vain is the help or salvation of man, even far more in things spiritual and eternal than in our temporal concerns; so that those who trust in and pray to saints and angels, and expect salvation from them, will be overcome: they will not tread down their enemies, nor obtain the conquerors crown. (W. Firth, B. D.)

Courage, its source and its necessity

I. ITS SOURCE. I will hold thy right hand. The grasp of the hand is significant of close and present friendship, of the living nearness of the deliverer. And that sense of Gods presence, so near that our faith can touch His hand and hear the deep still music of His voice–realised as it may be in Christ, is the source of a courage which no danger can dispel, no suffering exhaust, and no death destroy. The clearest way of illustrating this will be to take the higher forms of courage among men, and observe what states of soul are most conducive to it.

1. Beginning with the courage of active resistance, we find its great element in the fixed survey of the means of conquest.

2. Passing on to the courage needful for passive endurance, we find that its great feature is self-surrender to the highest law of life. The Christian endures, because the law of his being has become resignation to the will of God.

II. ITS NECESSITY.

1. It requires courage to manifest the Christian character before men.

2. To maintain steadfast obedience to the will of God.

3. To hold fast to our highest aspirations. (E. L. Hull, B. A.)

The repetitions of love

God repeats His love for, and His purpose concerning, Israel. Lacordaire said that love is always saying the same thing, yet never repeats itself. And though God repeats in both parts His love and purpose, yet it would be new all through to the Jew, sick with his sorrow and captivity; and the sum of the consolation is–I am with thee. Fear not; rather rejoice. No trial could or would befall the Jew but God would help him to bear it. (J. A. Davies, B. D.)

Held by Gods hand

A little lad in the hospital was asked if he could bear a severe operation. Yes, was his reply, if father will hold my hand. When we feel Gods hand holding us in times of trial, the touch gives us nerve and calm. (J. A. Davies, B. D.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Will hold thy right hand; or, will strengthen, &c, as this word properly signifieth; will assist and enable thee to vanquish all thine enemies.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

13. (Deu 33:26;Deu 33:29).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand,…. Take hold of it, join in league and alliance with his people as it were, go hand in hand with them; and having such an one with them, and on their side, they need fear no enemy: or it is expressive of great freedom, familiarity, and friendship, which may assure believers of the strong affection of God towards them; and they may conclude themselves safe, being held by him as a child in the hand of its parents, which is then not afraid of anything. The Lord holds the right hand of his people, teaching them to walk by faith, leading them into his presence, and to communion with himself, and keeps them from falling: or, he “will strengthen their right hand” r; to do his work and service, and oppose their enemies; or he will relieve their wants, and fill their hands with his good things, which is sometimes the sense of the phrase,

Eze 16:45:

saying unto thee, fear not, I will help thee; as one friend takes another by the hand in distress, and bids him be of good cheer, promising him all needful assistance and supply.

[See comments on Isa 41:10].

r “qui confortat dexteram tuam”, Gataker.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

13. For I am Jehovah thy God. The Prophet had already shewn where the hope of salvation ought to be placed, so as to hold out against every attack; that is, when we are convinced that God is our God, and is on our side. He now lays down the same doctrine, but in different words; and yet the repetition is not superfluous, for we know how easily this doctrine slips out of our minds, even though it be frequently repeated; and it was impossible to bestow excessive commendation on this promise, which it is so difficult to root in our hearts. Let us therefore know that we shall have a prosperous issue of all our contests, for the Lord is present with us; and whenever we are attacked by any severe contest, let us learn to look to Him; for if we hesitate and look hither and thither, we shall never enjoy peace of mind. When he calls himself our God, he not only mentions his power, but gives proof of his goodness, which he intends to exercise towards us; for it would not be enough to be convinced of the power of God, if we were not equally certain of his love; and even when we are terrified by the mention of his power alone, his goodness is well fitted to give us peace.

Taking hold of thy right hand, and saying to thee. He now speaks about “taking hold of the hand,” and about his voice; for it is of great importance to us to believe the signs which God has given us of his love, and to connect with them the doctrine which assures us of his eternal favor. The word saying is therefore highly emphatic; for we must remain in suspense till the Lord speak, whose voice alone can remove fear and bring peace. If, then, we desire to have composure of mind, and to conquer the vexations which come upon us from various quarters, we must pay close attention to his voice, so as never to withdraw our mind from it; for they who refuse to hear this voice of God, or do not hear it attentively, must be miserably tormented by continual doubt and uncertainty.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

COURAGEITS SOURCE AND NECESSITY

Isa. 41:13. For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, &c.

These words were spoken to the Jews in an age of national peril and dismay; they had slowly been losing their ancient strength through a spirit of indifference, and at length the alarm had come that awoke them from their dream. The Assyrian invasion had paralysed them with fear; no sooner had they been saved from it than the prophet was commissioned to announce an invasion from Babylon that would carry them into a strange land. Then it was that Isaiah proclaimed the source of courage, the power of which he himself had proved. The Jews might seem as nothing before the great surrounding nations; but the Lord was at their side; His voice was in their midst, crying, Fear not; I will help thee.
The words which give us the secret of the old Hebrew courage reveal the source of the courage we need as Christians. The notion, indeed, has gone forth that the ancient fortitude has no place in the life of the Christian,it has declined before the gentler graces of spiritual life; but if this means that the Christian is to be only a loving, and not a righteous man, then the teaching of Christ Himself contradicts it. Not only so, but the gentler graces demand as much fortitude of soul as the stronger and sterner virtues; and, above all, steadfast obedience to God amid sorrows, and temptations, and failures, requires a courage more deep and real than that of the Jewish warrior.

Our subject isCourage, its source and necessity.

I. ITS SOURCE.
What a broad sense of the Divine presence and aid in the figure: I will hold thy right hand! The grasp of the hand is significant of close and present friendship; and that sense of Gods presenceso near that our faith can touch His hand and hear the deep still music of His voicerealised as it may be in Christ, is the source of a courage which nothing can shake. Take the higher forms of courage seen among men, and it will be seen how this belief creates at once that state in which courage rises, and in which it attains its highest power. We may pass by animal couragethe bravery of instinct or temperamentas not proceeding from any principle, and so totally unlike courage of soul. The higher and true form of courage is of two kinds:

1. The courage of active resistance. Its great element is found in the fixed survey of the means of conquest; fear rises from the contemplation of difficultiescourage from the perception of the thing to be done. There is always a lion in the path of a man who expects to find one. Intense concentration on the means of action creates the courage that actively resists danger. This is especially true of spiritual courage. It is by the aid of God that we conquer in spiritual battle; and while our gaze is fixed on that, fear vanishes; with the sense of omnipotence grasping and cheering his spirit, a man can defy the world, and death, and hell to make him turn aside from the path of Divine duty (H. E. I. 19111919).

2. The courage needful for passive endurance. It is harder of attainment; for while there is anything to be done, we find relief in action; but when we can only be still and endure, then it is supremely difficult to resist the assaults of cowardice. The great feature of this aspect of spiritual courage is self-surrender to the highest law of life; but if we could hear Gods voice, amid the dismay and darkness, proclaiming All is well, should we not be trustful, courageous, and strong?

II. ITS NECESSITY.
It is essential to Christian life for three reasons:

1. It requires courage to manifest the Christian character before men (H. E. I. 10421046). Regarding the two sides of that character as seen in Christthe strong and the tender, the severely true and the forbearing, sympathising, forgivingwe feel the incompleteness of any other character, and both of these aspects demand courage for their manifestation. What can give us courage to do the right regardless of consequences but the grasp of Gods hand and the sound of His voice?
2. It requires courage to maintain steadfast obedience to the will of God. Christian life is more than visible Christ-like character; it means Christ-like obedience amid the inner and unseen temptations of the soul. Every man has his own cross to bear.

3. It demands courage to hold fast to our highest aspirations. As Christian men, we are bound to aim at being our highest and best. The revelations of our aspirations must become our practical ideals; if we do not strive to realise them, we shall degenerate. If we would gain the far-off summits, we must keep our eye fixed on the gleaming heights. And can anything give us power and courage to do so but the knowledge that the Everlasting arms are round about us, and the voice of the Eternal cheering us onward? And here, as in all the storm and strife of our earthly pilgrimage, we are simply driven to the man Christ Jesus. He knows our weakness, and left us the legacy of everlasting power when He said, Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.E. L. Hull, B.A.: Sermons, Third Series, pp. 157167.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

13. The stated reasons continue for hope, and not doubt; they lie in God’s continually encouraging, Fear not. In all these verses God is the speaker. Time past and time future is always to him time present.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments