Memory Verse Musings: Isaiah 41:10
December’s memory verse is Isaiah 41:10. In the NLT version, the verse is translated “Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.”
I’m not a Hebrew or Greek scholar (having dropped out of Bible School to get married, and never making it back). Accordingly, my layman’s approach to understanding is to 1) read or listen to in-depth sermons on scripture passages, 2) compare different Bible translations to see different aspects being emphasized and 3) reading the Interlinear/Concordance notes on the Blue Letter Bible App on my phone. I’m getting to use methods 2 and 3 here to discover and look at a unique aspect of this memory verse.
One translation that I sometimes reference is Young’s Literal Translation (YLT), which is described as “an extremely literal translation that attempts to preserve the tense and word usage as found in the original Greek and Hebrew writings.”. YLT presents Isaiah 41:10 as “Be not afraid, for with thee I am, Look not around, for I am thy God, I have strengthened thee, yea, I have helped thee, yea, I upheld thee, With the right hand of My righteousness.” If you compare the YLT to the NLT (or the NASB which I normally use), the thing that stands out in this verse is the use of past tense for the second half of the verse. This is in contrast to most other translations, which present these promises in a future form - “I will strengthen, I will help, I will uphold”.
So, let’s move on to the Interlinear/Concordance part of the study. It defines the verb translated as “will strengthen” or “have strengthened” as “Hebrew verb - Piel Perfect (qatal) First Person Common Singular”. The part that interests us is the Perfect tense, which has an explanatory note of “Generally designates a completed action or a situation that is viewed as a single event. Perfects are generally translated as simple pasts ‘He ran’ or as past perfects ‘He has run’, but they may also be translated as presents or futures. The meaning of the perfect therefore has more to do with how an action took place than with when it took place. The perfect is most often treated as a past because it is easier to think of a past event as complete that it is to think of a present or future one as complete.”
That gives us something to think about: God’ strengthening, helping and upholding is a done deal for the present, past and future. The NASB includes the word “surely” to describe God’s helping and upholding, while the YLT uses the word “Yea”, reinforcing the surety of God’s action on our part that we are experiencing and will continue to experience. This is the “God action” part of the verse.
The “God state” part of the verse is giving us reasons for the “Me action” part of it. God says “I am with you” and “I am your God” as reasons for the “Me actions” which are “Do not be afraid” and “Don’t be discouraged (NLT)”/”Do not anxiously look about you (NASB)”. Why not? Because of God’s state - with us, and our God. This verse follows verses 8 and 9 which both focus on God’s choice of the nation/individual to whom this promise is given. In context, God chose Israel, so this is settled. In the New Testament, we are told that God has chosen us.
I would also like to add a really interesting observation gleaned from a sermon (see layman approach 1 above) about an earlier verse in Isaiah 41. Isaiah 41:8 (NASB) says “But you, Israel, My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, Descendant of Abraham My friend,”. In the Hebrew, the phrase “Abraham My friend” literally means “Abraham who loved Me”. I find that concept absolutely stunning. Oh, that God would describe me as “one who loves Him”.
As you have thought about this month’s memory verse, is there anything that the Holy Spirit has been emphasizing to you? Does thinking about God’s actions on our behalf as already completed despite being in the past, present and future comfort you, or is that just mind-boggling (and needing to be accepted by faith)?