I, [even] I, am he that comforteth you who art thou, that thou fearest a man that shall die, and the son of man that shall become as grass;
Isaiah 51 opens with the people crying out for God's arm to wake up and act, as it once did at the Red Sea. Verse 12 is His answer. Instead of a display of power, He names Himself as the One who comforts, and sets that against the frail man they fear.
The verse answers the plea of verses 9 and 10. There God's people point back to the rescue from Egypt and ask God to act again.
First, they call for the power of Jehovah to assert itself against their mighty foes, as of old against proud Egypt (vv. 9, 10). They predict their deliverance in verse 11, and Jehovah's reply to their trembling hearts comes in verses 12-16, in words as moving as they are majestic.
The doubled "I, I am he" presses God's own identity on them.
The verse sets two figures side by side. One is a man who dies, a "son of man" who is like grass. The other is the Maker of the heavens and the earth. Fear is what happens when we stop measuring the two.
Their tendency was, as ours is today, to keep their eyes on man and to fear him as they watch all his evil ways and activities. But men die, and the One who comforts His people is the Maker of the heavens and the earth. When God acts, where will the fury of the oppressor be? God meant these striking verses to put heart into His people in all ages. They have done so in the past, and no doubt they are doing so today, especially where believers face "the fury of the oppressor."
The question "who are you?" is sharper than it first sounds. God is not only correcting a wrong view of the enemy. He shows what fear does to the person who fears: the next line says he has forgotten the God who made everything.
In the things of God, natural courage will fail. Only His divine power and grace can hold up the soul and keep it from fear... Isaiah 51:12, 13 shows something striking. Fear, no less than the other evils we have noted, is the product of mere pride, little as we might think it so. It asks: "Who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, of the son of man who is made like grass, and have forgotten the LORD, your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth?"
So fear of man is not only weakness. At root it is pride.
Other Scriptures name the same danger. Fear of people is not harmless. It traps you.
"The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is safe" (Proverbs 29:25). The fear of man is born of unbelief. The Christian who fears man shows clearly that he is not looking to the Lord, but to man. The fear of man surely brings a snare, it leads to pleasing men and praising men.
So the cure is a matter of where the eyes rest. One writer turns God's question back on the reader:
To the winds and waves, or to Him who walks in majesty upon the swelling tide? To the scattered flock, or to the Shepherd of the sheep? To the saints, or to the Saviour?... Is God or is man the commanding object of your vision?
"I am he who comforts you" is not a passing kindness. It describes who God is.
God is, in a special way, the Comforter of His people (Isa. 51:12)... to say that God comforts us in all our troubles is only another way of saying that He comforts in a manner worthy of Himself... The number and variety of our troubles are simply the appointed means of showing more fully the endless comforts of His love.
Commentators also read this promise as still ahead. God will yet comfort Zion, after a time of deep mourning for the faithful among the Jewish people (Arend Remmers).
- Comforter — they cry for raw power. God answers by naming Himself, twice over, as the One who comforts. Comfort comes before rescue.
- Compared — the man you dread dies and is like grass; the One comforting you stretched out the heavens. Fear is a failure to measure.
- Forgotten — to fear man is to forget your Maker. Commentators trace that fear to pride and unbelief, not weakness alone.
- Snared — fear of man traps you into pleasing men. Trust is the way out, and it changes where you look.
- Certain — this comfort is God's settled character, and a promise still ahead. God will yet comfort Zion, and the fury of the oppressor will be gone.
and forgettest Jehovah thy Maker, who hath stretched out the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and thou art afraid continually all the day because of the fury of the oppressor, when he prepareth to destroy? And where is the fury of the oppressor?
These words are God's reply to frightened people. They are afraid of a man who will die. The verse names the cause of that fear: they have forgotten the One who made the sky above them and the ground under their feet.
Verses 12 to 16 are God's answer to a cry for His power to act. It runs from comfort to protection.
In response to this appeal, the Lord comforts the remnant, and urges them not to fear man or "the fury of the oppressor." Man is only like grass that perishes. The Lord who comforts them is the Maker of the heavens and the earth. So He will set His captive exiles free and feed His starving people. He can still the waves that roar. He can make His people a testimony by putting His words into their mouths. He can protect His people, plant them in the land, and say of them, "You are my people."
The people had cried out for God's arm to wake up, as if He had gone to sleep. The charge comes back the other way round.
It was the Eternal One who comforted them. They had forgotten Him. Had He gone to sleep and forgotten? He never slumbers or sleeps, and His power is right there. Now that Zion is awake to know it, He calls on Zion to awake, for all was mercy now. Verse 12 is the Lord's answer. He asks how Israel could be afraid of a man, when He comforted her. He had pleaded her cause.
The verse describes dread that runs "continually all the day" at an enemy who is getting ready to destroy. Then it asks where that fury is.
They tended, as we tend today, to keep their eyes on man and to fear, as they watched all his evil tendencies and activities. But men die, and the One who comforts His people is the Maker of heaven and earth. When God acts, where will the fury of the oppressor be? These striking verses are meant to put heart into the people of God in every age.
Fear looks like weakness, not pride. One writer starts from Peter's failure and reads these verses as exposing something else underneath.
What powerful enemy so weakened Peter, this eager, loving follower of the Lord Jesus? Simply "the fear of man." In the things of God, natural courage will fail. Only God's divine power and grace can sustain us and keep us from fear. "When I am afraid, I put my trust in you" (Ps. 56:3). "I will trust, and will not be afraid" (Isa. 12:2). Most strikingly, Isaiah 51:12-13 shows where fear comes from. It is the product of mere pride, no less than the other evils we have noted, little as we might think so. Yet divine grace did, and does, wonderfully restore.
Another writer puts the same fear down to a different root:
The fear of man is born of unbelief. The Christian who fears man shows clearly that he is not looking to the Lord, but to man. The fear of man certainly brings a snare; it leads to pleasing men and praising men.
The two acts named in this verse return three verses later, and the change between them is the point.
In verse 13 we have the heavens and the earth created, but in verse 16 we have them filled. The One who created them is the One who will fill them.
The verse's charge is forgetting God. One writer turns that into a question for today.
My soul, where are you directing your gaze today? To the hills, or higher? To the winds and waves, or to Him who walks in majesty on the swelling tide? To the scattered flock, or to the Shepherd of the sheep? Which of the two? Is God or man the commanding object of your vision?
- Forgetting — The verse names the cause of fear as memory failure. The people cried out as though God had fallen asleep; in fact they were the ones who had forgotten Him.
- Maker — What they forgot is the biggest fact there is. The One who comforts them stretched out the heavens and laid the earth's foundations.
- Man — In His place they saw a man who dies, and grass that withers. Commentators trace fear of him to pride, and to unbelief that looks at people instead of the Lord.
- Fury — The oppressor's rage feels endless, "all the day." But when God acts, where is that fury?
- Filled — The heavens and earth He made in verse 13, He fills in verse 16. The Creator finishes what He started, and His people are part of it.