But now, this is what the LORD says--he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I give Egypt for your ransom, Cush and Seba in your stead. Since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you, I will give men in exchange for you, and people in exchange for your life. Isaiah 43:1-4 (NIV)
God is our great Defender and He reigns over all. We need not fear death nor Satan’s evil wiles as God is ever on His Throne, lovingly watching over all His own. Nothing gets past His all seeing eye – He makes known the end from the beginning, from ancient times what is yet to come – and His purposes will always stand. In heaven there is no doubt about His Sovereignty – all fall on their faces before Him and are delighted to serve and honor Him day and night. We would do well to remember this when our feet begin to slip as Asaph’s did when he began to be envious of the prosperity, ease and standing of the wicked. He writes in Psalms 73:1-3 (NIV): “Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost slipped; I had nearly lost my foothold. For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.”
Asaph’s focus had become skewed – he began looking outward not upward. It can be uber easy to be envious of the standing, prosperity, health and ease of the worldly or the wicked. Yet, we must always follow everything out to the end and when we do, like Asaph, we end by looking up, coming away with the same thoughts as he when he writes further in Psalm 73:16-26 (NIV): “When I tried to understand all this, it was oppressive to me till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny. Surely you place them on slippery ground; you cast them down to ruin. How suddenly are they destroyed, completely swept away by terrors! As a dream when one awakes, so when you arise, O Lord, you will despise them as fantasies. When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you. Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
What motivated Abraham, David, Daniel and his three friends, Paul and plethora of others saints to walk in a manner worthy? God’s love. All other of His attributes are compelling but His love is the greatest. God’s love acts towards His own and is His priority to all other of His attributes. It is the motivator behind all His works towards the saints – even in the very difficult – we can trust His great love is motivating Him towards our best. His love is the foundation of our salvation and all blessedness as well.
For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:14-21 (NIV)