What Does God Promise When You Go Through Deep Waters?

The promise of God to save His people when they go through deep waters is rooted in Old Testament prophecy, attested to in the Psalms, and borne out in the lives of God’s own.

Which Bible Verse Says “When You Go Through Deep Waters…”?

Isaiah 43:2 states, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire, you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.” The verse directly preceding this one states that the people ought not to fear because the Lord has redeemed them—and that they have been called by name, belonging to the Lord.

This promise comes from a God who also warns the people of Israel about their sins. In the previous section, Isaiah 42:8-25, God warns: “Hear, you deaf, and look, you blind, that you may see!” He wants His people to understand that the law is the glorious revelation of His will for them (v. 21). There will be consequences for the people not listening to God’s ways. Then, quite abruptly, the Lord switches to consolation and hope.

He will not give consequences forever. He will rescue His people from their sins. Ultimately, there are deep waters that Israel will go through in exile due to their rejection of the Lord and His ways. But still, the Lord’s faithful love remains.

What Do We Know about the Prophet Isaiah?

This promise that God will pull us from deep waters originates in the book of Isaiah. Isaiah’s name means “the Lord saves.” His ministry occurred in Jerusalem, where he was a prophet for the Lord. He foretold many prophecies of Jesus, the Messiah who would save Israel from their sins.

Relevant to our verse, Isaiah foretold the Babylonian captivity (Isaiah 39:5-7). He also foretold a time when Israel would be released from captivity in Babylon (Isaiah 48:20). Isaiah 43:2 was written of a people who knew they would be captured and carried off from their homeland. They knew that they would be taken from the temple and everything they held dear. They knew that God would watch over them during this time. The faithful servants of God trusted that their God would relent and bring them back from their period of destruction.

Ultimately, they trusted in a Savior who would rescue His people from all of their rebellion, washing them clean through and through: “Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool” (Isaiah 1:18). Israel would be saved from all her enemies—this is God’s ultimate promise to His people, one day to be fulfilled when Jesus Christ sits on the throne of David, ruling the world with perfect truth and justice.

Yet, the greatest enemy that Israel had, that we all have, is our sin. Jesus came first to handle, for us, this greatest enemy.

What Does “When You Go Through Deep Waters…” Tell Us about Suffering?

God wants us to know He understands our frame—we are never out of His sight. We are all inwardly weak and weary, needing a Shepherd for our souls. We are like a blade of grass, like a breath of wind. We are also caught in the entanglements of our sins. We are so desperately needy for the Lord. Our sins make us want to hide from God, and they ultimately threaten to overcome us and wash over us. But God promises that we can be washed instead in His blood.

When we deal with the consequences of our sins, like Israel in exile, God will still be with us then. That is the beauty of our Lord and Savior. He is faithful to us when we are faithless toward Him. We need not fear our sins, not hide them away. We can bring them to the light and look at them with our Savior. He will lead us through the deep waters we have around us. And, because of Him, we will not be overwhelmed.

When we return from our sins to a place of faithfulness, we will face opposition—just like the Israelites returning from captivity faced hostility and threat. Many do not live with the truth of the Lord as a guide. Our ways will be unfamiliar, and the reasons for our life decisions will be seen as obscurant—though those who seek the Lord can fully know our ways. Even here, God promises He will be with us through the waters, providing comfort, relief, and well-being. One day, there is a promise of justice when all will be made right before the Lord, the just Judge of all the earth.

We can look to the Psalms for how to bear out His salvation in the lives of His people, guaranteeing that—though we will face hardship—we will have Him with us when we go through deep waters.

- “He sent from on high, he took me; he drew me out of many waters” (Psalm 18:6).

- “Therefore let all the faithful pray to you while you may be found; surely the rising of the mighty waters will not reach them.” (Psalm 32:6)

- “The flood would have engulfed us, the torrent would have swept over us . . . Praise be to the LORD, who has not let us be torn by their teeth.” (Psalm 124:4, 6)

- “Reach down your hand from on high; deliver me and rescue me from the mighty waters, from the hands of foreigners whose mouths are full of lies, whose right hands are deceitful” (Psalm 144:7-8).

The Psalms of Scripture hold the same hope as the prophet Isaiah: sins within and without will not overwhelm us because the Lord of greatest strength, depth, power, ability, wisdom, and truth is with us.

Does the “When You Go Through Deep Waters” Apply Only to Israel?

The Old Testament promises are full of imagery that tells us the Lord saves us. As we can remember from Isaiah, the prophecies of Jesus are pervasive and sweeping. These are the prophecies that have already been fulfilled in our day. Surely it is true that when we go through deep waters, the Lord is with us. Surely it is true that when we fear, we know that the name of the Lord can call us to be His own people.

Just as Israel was God’s very own people for His special possession, the apostle Peter in the New Testament says: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9). The dark waters may threaten us, but we have been washed by another flow—the flow of the blood of Christ. And that means we will enjoy the presence of God, the light of God, the salvation of God forever.

We need not fear the deep waters. Scripture is replete with promises that we will not be overcome by anything that comes against us. We can persevere when the waters seem to rise around and against us because we have a Savior who has walked the dark road of this life before us and has conquered. Our well-being is in His hands; let us trust Him to be with us when we go through the deep waters of sin and hostility. As Isaiah proclaims: the Lord saves.

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Lianna Davis is author of Keeping the Faith: A Study in Jude and Made for a Different Land: Eternal Hope for Baby Loss. She is also a contributor to We Evangelicals and Our Mission with Cascade Books. Lianna is a graduate of Moody Bible Institute and a student at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. She lives in Illinois with her husband and daughter. You can learn more about her writing at her website.

This article is part of our larger resource library of popular Bible verse phrases and quotes. We want to provide easy to read articles that answer your questions about the meaning, origin, and history of specific verses within Scripture's context. It is our hope that these will help you better understand the meaning and purpose of God's Word in relation to your life today.

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