“O Lord, I am oppressed; undertake for me!” (Isa 38:14).
At its root, the word “undertake” means “to braid.” This is the only reference where the word is so translated. Usually it has the idea of pledge or surety—when someone with resources guarantees a loan for another. Such a person braids their hope and future to the other. So has the Lord “braided” His will, pleasure, and success with us. We are in this together, right to the final outcome. And that is victory.
In his seminal work, The Story of Civilization, Will Durant wrote: “There is no greater drama in human record than the sight of a few Christians, scorned or oppressed by a succession of emperors, bearing all trials with fierce tenacity, multiplying quietly, building order while their enemies generated chaos, fighting sword with the word, brutality with hope, and at last defeating the strongest state that history has known. Caesar and Christ had met in the arena, and Christ had won.” He knows the way we take—and undertakes.