Isaiah 26:3: “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trust in you.”
If you are in the habit of claiming a verse for the New Year, might I suggest a great verse for 2014, it is Isaiah 26:3. Most of us on New Year’s Eve not only reflect on the events of the past year but we also ponder what may be in the New Year. Indeed, for many, the prospects are often frightening and worrisome. Perhaps a good New Year’s resolution would be to keep one’s mind stayed on Jesus rather than the news coming over the internet. With world and national events moving the way they are, perfect peace would be a great promise to claim.
I don’t know about you, but like so many other New Year resolutions my determination to keep my mind stayed on Jesus and live in perfect peace last about as long as my resolution to stay away from Big Macs. God will keep us in perfect peace. I am certain this works for a lot of people but I don’t seem to be one of them. I try with all my might to keep my mind stayed on Jesus, but I just don’t seem to experience that perfect peace. Then I start getting stressed out that there must be something wrong with my relationship with God if I am not experiencing the fulfillment of this promise.
Surely thirty five years of studying and teaching ancient Semitic languages ought to count for something, so I shall sharpen up my Hebrew grammar and break this verse down step by step. If you wish to make perfect peace your New Year’s resolution for 2014 you are welcomed to follow me on my personal journey through Isaiah 26:3.
The context makes it clear that it is Jehovah who will keep us in perfect peace. The word for keep is tisor which in its Semitic root has the idea of guarding or watching over. So it is not so much that he is giving us or keeping us in perfect peace but he is watching over us in perfect peace. Look at it this way, it is sort of like when you notice you have physical problem, your first thought is that you have cancer, or some fatal illness. You worry and fret and you have no peace. You go to a doctor who smiles and says: “You’re ok.” Suddenly, all your fears and worries disappear, you sigh with relief. After all if the doctor says you are ok, what do you have to worry about. His calm, peaceful response reassures you.
This is the way it is with God. We face a frightening situation or crisis. We are fearful, worried, and we go to God and He’s says: “Hey, I’m in control, it’s ok.” And do you know what? Suddenly, it is ok.
He will keep us in perfect peace. The word perfect is not found in the Hebrew here. It is simply the word shalom repeated two times. Hebrew grammar does not have comparative and superlative adjectives like good, better, best. To show degrees it just repeats a word. So this is not just peace, but the best peace, better than the world can give according to Jesus (John 14:27). God Himself is at perfect peace, or the best peace.
Now the word shalom has a wide range of meaning. It is not only rest, but it is also healing, safety, and security, hey whatever goodies you name you will most likely find it in the word shalom.
But we must keep in mind that He is this perfect peace. The way we gain access to this peace is by having our minds stayed on him. If a commander leads his troops into battle and is expressing fear, his followers will be fearful. A true leader will be able to instill courage in his followers. If they see their captain is not afraid, they will draw courage from that. So too if God is our captain, we will draw courage from Him. The word mind in the Hebrew that is used here is yeser. This is sort of a play on the word for keep. Both are spelled with a Sade and Resh which represents a humble submission to the Holy Spirit. The word yeser comes from a Semitic root sbr which is a word used for imagination. Hence God will guard over our imaginations with perfect peace. Much of our stress and anxiety comes from our imaginations. We hear the news on the economy and we begin to imagine that we will loose our job and if we loose our job we imagine what will happen to us if we do. We begin to imagine ourselves as homeless, on a street corner with a tin cup. God will keep us in perfect peace if our imaginations are stayed on him. The word stayed is samuk which is like a mattress covering, it is an overlay. When our imaginations cover God, His peace will become our peace. His imaginations will become our imaginations.
In Hebrews 11:1 Paul tells us that faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. The word hope in Greek is elpizomenon which means to expect or anticipate. Although Paul most likely wrote this in Greek, He was Jewish and had a Semitic mind and was fluent in Aramaic and Hebrew. The Semitic equivalent to elpizomenon is sbr which is the Semitic root word for a positive imagination. It is the same word from which yeser is built which we render as mind in Isaiah 26:3 but in its Semitic root has the idea of a positive imagination. Thus faith is the substance of your positive imagination, which are things not seen.
So why would Gods yesers (imaginations) become our yesers (imaginations)? It is because we will then be trusting in Him. The word trust is batach which is the word for glue. A more modern word is weld. A welder will tell you that if you weld two pipes together that pipe will break everywhere else before it breaks at the weld. Welding is the melting of two pieces into each other where portions of the metal from the two pipes intermingle with each other. That is what batach is, the mingling of yourself and God together, the melting of yourself into God and God into you.
So I personally have been going about this perfect peace business all wrong. I am praying to God for this perfect peace. Yet this verse is not saying that God will give us perfect peace. It is saying that He will keep (tisor – guard, watch over) us in perfect peace. It is saying that He is perfect peace and He will guard or watch over this perfect peace that we receive when we take our imaginations and overlay them with His. We get this perfect peace when we let our imaginations become one with God’s imaginations. We lose our job we do not imagine homelessness, we imagine the next positive move God is imagining for us. God does not imagine us as homeless, on a street corner with a tin cup. God does not need to give us his perfect peace, it is there, we just need to reach out and touch it. His Word has made it clear. He is saying: “I’m in control, you’re ok.” Let your imagination dwell on those words and you will gently overlay and embrace His peace.
May you melt into God and God melt into you in this coming New Year so you may merge into His perfect peace.
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