Fear stalks us all in ways large and small. Yet, the Scriptures consistently say "Fear not." I see fear as something specific, and anxiety as more free-floating. What causes it? How does fear change? The examples of the river could be political punishments, not only natural disasters,but I think it is permissible to make them personal as well. The passage is framed by the phrase,created and formed-often used separately. Isaiah goes all the way back to creation and will imagine a new creation-to remind us that God has invested too much of God's own self in creation, including us, to be cavalier about us. More than that, we have become part of God's life.God is committed to our cause. Our passage has a powerful triad of spiritual images-precious-honored-loved. It is a mark of how punitively we view God that this verse sounds surprising to us. Think of a prized possession. Think of how it would pain you to lose it or have it ruined. Now think of the important people in your life, Think of the vicarious pride you have in the accomplishment of an offspring. God thinks and feels that about about us, each and every one of us.

 

It took a while for people to adopt the germ theory of disease. In New Testament times, the germ, the external cause, was sometimes thought to be demonic. Some illnesses were thought to be caused by demonic forces physically or mentally.They believed in the evil eye, as some folks still do today.  Healing was sometimes thought to work against demonic agencies, removing something to allow harmony to return, to flow back in. Sometimes, they tried to demonstrate if something was demonic or more mundane. The book of Acts describes that the healings of Jesus were continued within the disciples. Simon's reaction is that of unbelievers in Acts.He sees it as another species of magic, and he is willing to pay for it. Yet, I read it as offering hope for him. he certainly isn't swallowed up like Anna and Sapphira.

 

Simon Magus has a  magic attitude to the faith for power. The ancient world seems filled with amulets, incantations, curses-Even he gets a chance to repent later legends about him magic and contemporary belief. People will put stock in alternative cures, or water witching. In sports, people develop all sorts of superstitious rites when things go well or wrong.We peer into the the unseen worlds and the unglimpsed future; we want to believe that signs and wonders work in an age of science. Indeed science has magic elements to it. Medicine peers into the invisible, and it often cures as well as heals symptoms. Maybe some of our fear about the health care system is  a fear that we are messing around with things we do not grasp and deeply fear in illness. We do not want to peer too deeply beyond the curtain to see the craft of the hospitals.In the end, magic is an illusion. In the end, it plays on our fears to try and gain a foothold into our wallets or our imagination. We are dealing with a power with no relation to price. We are dealing with a power from God's own. All other powers cannot aspire to that of the spiritual power of God. All powers derive from he creation itself. they are all secondary powers. Big events threaten to overwhelm us, but God is bigger than any event of creation. That creator God on our side cannot be deterred by troubles in creation. When things go wrong, it could be wise to even use the Isaiah passage as a sort of mantra. No matter what, I am precious and honored and loved.