Scripture Daily

Context No. 2091 of 4322 · Isaiah

Context · Reflection

Isaiah 40:17-31: in context

17All the nations are like nothing before him. They are regarded by him as less than nothing, and vanity. 18To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare to him? 19A workman has cast an image, and the goldsmith overlays it with gold, and casts silver chains for it. 20He who is too impoverished for such an offering chooses a tree that will not rot. He seeks a skillful workman to set up a carved image for him that will not be moved. 21Haven’t you known? Haven’t you heard? Haven’t you been told from the beginning? Haven’t you understood from the foundations of the earth? 22It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in, 23who brings princes to nothing, who makes the judges of the earth meaningless. 24They are planted scarcely. They are sown scarcely. Their stock has scarcely taken root in the ground. He merely blows on them, and they wither, and the whirlwind takes them away as stubble. 25“To whom then will you liken me? Who is my equal?” says the Holy One. 26Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these, who brings out their army by number. He calls them all by name. By the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power, not one is lacking. 27Why do you say, Jacob, and speak, Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD, and the justice due me is disregarded by my God”? 28Haven’t you known? Haven’t you heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, doesn’t faint. He isn’t weary. His understanding is unsearchable. 29He gives power to the weak. He increases the strength of him who has no might. 30Even the youths faint and get weary, and the young men utterly fall; 31but those who wait for the LORD will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run, and not be weary. They will walk, and not faint.

Isaiah exalts the incomparable Creator, before whom the nations are as nothing, who sits above the circle of the earth, who calls the stars out by name. And then he turns to a discouraged people who feel their way is hidden from God, and gives them one of Scripture's great promises. Even youths grow weary and faint, and young men stumble and fall; but those who wait for the LORD will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles; they will run and not be weary; they will walk and not faint.

The promise is set against the reality of human weakness: even the young and strong grow weary and faint. Human strength, however great, has its limit; it runs out; even youths, at the height of their vigor, stumble and fall. This is honest about our frailty. But against it stands the promise: those who wait for the LORD will renew their strength. There is a strength available that is not our own limited strength but God's, renewed in those who wait on him, so that they mount up like eagles, run without weariness, walk without fainting. The exhaustion of our own strength is not the end, because God renews the strength of those who wait on him. This speaks directly to our weariness. We come to the end of our own strength; we grow weary, faint, exhausted by the demands of life, unable to go on in our own power. And the promise is not that we will never grow weary, but that when we do, waiting on God renews our strength. To wait on the LORD is to look to him rather than to our own resources, to depend on his strength when ours has run out, to hope in him and draw on the strength he gives. And those who do are renewed: their strength is not their own dwindling supply but God's inexhaustible strength renewed in them. My grace is sufficient for you, God told Paul, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. The renewing of strength comes precisely at the end of our own. This calls us to wait on God when we are weary rather than driving ourselves on in our own failing strength. When we are exhausted, faint, at the end of ourselves, the promise is not to try harder in our own power but to wait on the LORD, to look to him, depend on him, hope in him, and receive the strength he renews. Even youths grow weary; but those who wait on the LORD renew their strength, mounting up like eagles, running without weariness. Our own strength runs out; God's does not, and he renews it in those who wait on him. When we are spent, we are called to wait on God, drawing not on our own failing strength but on the strength he gives to those who look to him.

When I come to the end of my own strength, weary and faint, exhausted by the demands of life, do I drive myself on in my own failing power, or can I take hold of the promise that those who wait for the LORD renew their strength, learning to wait on God when I am spent, drawing not on my own dwindling supply but on the strength he renews in those who look to him and hope in him?

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