Isaiah 41:12-13, “Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them, [even] them that contended with thee: they that war against thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nought. For I the LORD thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.”
I was driving an elderly woman to her doctor’s appointment in my disability bus. She started to relate a story of how she used to walk to the doctor before her legs gave out. She said one day she was crossing Cicero Avenue and Cermak Road. Cicero Ave is a main artery through the center of Chicago and a direct link to Route 55. Hence there are many large trucks that travel down Cicero Avenue, usually going at a very rapid clip. Just as our hero crossed the street to her doctor’s office, three large semi-tractor trailers came roaring by. Poor little Beverly had a panic attack and she ran into the doctor’s office screaming, “Help, Help, you’ve got to help me!!” The nurse ran up to her and asked, “Beverly, what’s wrong?” In between tears of panic she said, “They’re after me.” By this time the doctor had come out and said, “Now, now Beverly, whose after you?” With absolute terror in her eyes she said, “Trucks, big trucks, they’re trying to run over me.” The doctor motioned to the nurse who picked up a phone and within a few minutes poor Beverly found herself strapped to a gurney, and on her way to the hospital in an ambulance. She commented, “They thought I was crazy.”
Many Christians live in constant fear. They fear for the loss of their jobs, for the safety of a family member, for their health, for possible natural disasters, being a victim of crime, or even a terrorist attack. God is saying in Isaiah that, “I am in charge, I love you and I will let nothing happen to you that I have no control over.” Yet, even with these assurances, we still fear, you know, what if God wants me to go through poverty, pain or suffering? Some Christians live in constant fear that they will go to hell. I remember I picked up some people from Mass in my disability bus one Sunday. There was one elderly woman who had had a stroke and had difficulty keeping her balance. She accidently knocked over the holy water. Her first comment was, “I am going to hell.” The enemy wants to fill us with unreasonable fear and dread so that he can destroy our faith. Yet, God is telling us that all these enemies that try to create fear in us are a thing of nought, they are totally unreasonable.
A thing of nought in the Hebrew is very interesting. Practically every translation translates this as nothing. Actually the word in Hebrew is ke’epem. This word could be rendered as nothing, but when you trace this word to its Semitic root you find it has the idea of the bottom of your foot, the sole of your foot. As the word evolved through the various Semitic languages it eventually carried the idea of the extreme portion of your body that is the ankle or sole of the foot. The word ke’epem is prefixed with a Kap indicating a preposition like or as. So all your enemies are like the sole of your foot. Like walking on an ant, the sole of your foot will crush it. God is not saying your enemies are really not out there, they are and they are real, but they are at such an extreme length from you that they hardly matter. Like President Calvin Coolidge said when asked how he could be so calm as a President of the United States, he replied, “If I see ten problems coming down the road, I can be sure nine will fall into a ditch before they reach me. If the enemy does reach you then all you have to do is simply need to step on him.
Another use of the word for a thing of nought – ke’epem is to render it as something that is limited. That problem that you see walking down the road toward you may appear very fearsome and frightening, but God is going to make them ke’epem He is going to limit their power over you so that you can crush them under the soles of your feet.
The Apostle Paul understood this very well. When he became a believer, man took everything away from him. He lost his status, his reputation, his wealth, his family and became an itinerate preacher who was stoned, beaten and shipwrecked, yet through it all he said in Romans 8:38-39, “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
You see the Apostle Paul had nothing to fear, for fear often is based upon our concern for losing something that is of value to us, our job, health, money market accounts etc. Yet the only thing of value to the Apostle Paul was the love of God in Christ Jesus. Man could take away his wealth, influence, health but there is one thing they could not touch and that is the love of God in Christ Jesus. The Greek uses the word agape for love. The Aramaic used the word chav which is many times expressed as lovingkindness. Chav expresses a love that is given out more than one that is received. God is constantly giving out His love and nothing can prevent Him from doing so. No matter what forces are out there to block His love, His chav, love will still flow through any blockade. If His love is the most important thing in your life, then what do you really have to fear, for it is something you could never lose. Nothing will ever separate you from what is most important to you if it is the love of God in Christ Jesus.
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