August 25, 2024 -- Isaiah 40:25-31 -- The powerful LORD God and His humble, much loved people

To whom then will you compare me,
    that I should be like him? says the Holy One.
26 Lift up your eyes on high and see:
    who created these?
He who brings out their host by number,
    calling them all by name;
by the greatness of his might
    and because he is strong in power,
    not one is missing.

27 Why do you say, O Jacob,
    and speak, O Israel,
“My way is hidden from the LORD,
    and my right is disregarded by my God”?
28 Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
    the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
    his understanding is unsearchable.
29 He gives power to the faint,
    and to him who has no might he increases strength.
30 Even youths shall faint and be weary,
    and young men shall fall exhausted;
31 but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength;
    they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
    they shall walk and not faint.

Isaiah 40:25-31 ESV
 

In the past, whenever I have read these verses, I usually focused on the last three verses and found great comfort in them. Oddly, doing so undercuts the meaning of the whole. It adds to pride instead of doing what the passage is designed to do, which is increase humility. “There are two things that are suited to humble the soul of men, a due consideration of God, and then of ourselves. Of God, in his greatness, glory, holiness, power, majesty, and authority; of ourselves, in our mean, abject, and sinful condition.” (John Owen Sin and Temptation. ed. J. M. Houston, 1995, page 17). The passage from Isaiah begins with the greatness and majesty of God. He is all-powerful. He is the source of life for all things in His creation. He is all-wise, notice that His understanding is unsearchable. You can never get to the end of all the things God knows. He will never say, “I didn’t know that”. Amazing! This requires a full stop. Due consideration. Knowing the LORD of Glory. (In fact, for a fuller sense of this, and to get the smack in the fact impact that is intended read Isaiah 40:9 to 24).

Now look at the state of humanity. Those who are in the prime of life, young men, grow weary. Life eats away at their strength. Those who are supposed to be vigorous have yielded their lives to sin and are emptied of all power. Those who are youthful have exchanged power for addictions. Those who are wearied from the battles of life can’t hold a sword against the powers of darkness for another second. When one has truly assessed his own condition then humility takes hold of the heart. It is at that moment a wise man turns once again, unfilled to the LORD, knowing that He alone is the source of forgiveness, of power and wisdom.

As New Testament Christians reading these verses, it is obvious that by the Spirit’s inspiration the prophet Isaiah has Jesus in view here. He is the One appointed by God the Father, to reveal the way in which true and lasting renewal takes place. Those who confess their sinfulness and the soul-weariness it has brought upon them will find in Christ Jesus the forgiveness of sin and the righteousness that allows one to stand up again, confident in His victory and alive with the power of the Holy Spirit Who continuously applies Jesus’s victory to him.

To wait upon the LORD is a term that means to braid, or to fix, like a net. So that catch will not flow through gaps too wide to capture the intended fish. When one waits on the LORD, he braids the knowledge of God into every part of life, head knowledge, heart knowledge, actions and words. The braiding of the LORD into every part of life (through prayer, Bible reading, and time with fellow believers) keeps the believer humble, able to receive the blessings which God has intended to give his weary people. The haughty, or proud man, doesn’t realize the gaping holes in his life. These huge gaps allow the blessings of the Mighty One to pass through his life and not affect him. The humble man, awed by the splendor, the power, the might, and the loving-kindness of the Living God, have so yielded themselves to Him that their lives , repaired by waiting on Him, receive the constant flow of His blessings. They are able to acknowledge, all my strength, all my hope, all my life is in Jesus.

Prayer

O LORD You are very great. Language almost breaks down because superlatives themselves are too simple, too ineffective to describe Your Mighty power which is beyond great. The Exodus showed the most powerful men of Egypt, when facing Your plagues claimed there is more power in Your pinky than there is in all of great strength of that once-powerful land. Even that is giving too much credit to Egypt. Isaiah noted the stars fit within the span of Your hand. You never need the advice of humans. Empires that rise before you last mere seconds, though many tribes of the earth had groaned under their fleeting power. You alone are God. You are beyond comparison; yet in wondrous consideration of the neediness of man, You stoop to their weakness, revealing Yourself. Therefore Your mercy and grace are even greater and higher and all the more excellent, for Your love reaches to Your people. Triune God, this Sunday, fill the thoughts of your people with the knowledge of Your greatness; then by Your Spirit’s power lead Your humbled people to the mercies of Jesus Christ, so that the weariest among us, will be renewed in hope, faith, and love. Amen.

https://youtu.be/MUZD0hgtSgE?si=Cw8TDSOo3R50zEI6 “All Creatures of Our God and King”

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