(Isaiah 40:27-31) “Why do you say, O Jacob, and complain, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD; my cause is disregarded by my God”? Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”
Introduction:
As New Covenant believers in the Messiah our Lord Jesus there will be times in our daily spiritual walk with our Triune God when it seems He is not answering our prayers and petitions. We have been praying and holding fast to the promises of God. We have set times to fast and pray without ceasing in the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 6:18) (Jude 1:20).
We have been keeping short accounts with the LORD when we have fallen into sin, being reassured that if any one sin we have an advocate with the Father Jesus the Messiah the righteous one, our Great High Priest who sits at the right hand of the Father in heaven where He ever lives to intercede for us and whose blood cleanses us from all sin when we confess it (1 John 1:9) (Hebrews 7:24-25) (1 John 1-2).
What an abiding comfort and reassurance it is to know that in times of heaviness of soul and spirit through manifold temptations that when we are assailed by the forces of hell without let up, when the demon powers are swirling around us as a deep raging flowing river, that the LORD has chosen us even in the furnace of affliction, not to destroy us, but to purify us that we might be increasingly conformed and grow into the image and likeness of the Son of God, our Lord, our Saviour and our Messiah, who saves His people from their sins, both its power and eternal penalty in hell and the lake of fire (Matthew 1:21) (Revelation 1:5b).
What a comfort to our troubled soul and a calmness to our spiritually regenerated inner spirit man that in the Messiah our Lord Jesus we have one who has been tempted in all ways as we are yet never gave in, one who was without sin, and one that is able to enter into our experiences and sustain and hold us up spiritually in that time of affliction (Hebrews 4:15-16). What a comfort to have the promises of God in His unchanging Word that has been settled forever in heaven, His Word which will say the same thing tomorrow as it does today (Psalm 119:89).
At times it will seem we are walking through the deepest and darkening valley, and even though we know that the good shepherd’s rod and staff are in place to comfort, to guide and to protect us there, it still seems that the darkness of despondency continues and that there seem to be no end to the valley through which we are walking (Psalm 23).
While we can have spiritual light when we are on the mountain top, and these times have their place in our daily walk with the LORD. It is down in the valley that we learn to see more fully what the prophet Elijah experienced in that God is not always in that powerful wind that tears the mountain and shatters the rocks, and that He is not always in the wind and the earthquake or in the blazing fire, but He is in the still small voice deep down on the inner recesses of our soul where the spirit of God brings to us a calmness, a peace that transcends all human comprehension, and one that garrisons our heart and mind in the Messiah Jesus, a peace not dependent on our circumstances but on His continuing presence in us by the blessed Holy Spirit (John 14:27) (Philippians 4:7). It is He who has sealed us for the day of redemption when, in that day, the perishable will be clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality (Ephesians 4:30) (1 Corinthians 15:51-54).
In Isaiah chapter 40:27-31 the Lord speaks to His people through His prophet to encourage them. In the previous verses 12-26 the LORD has declared His awesome sovereign power over the universe which He created by His spoken Word! Let’s now look at our text…
“Why do you say, O Jacob, and complain, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD; my cause is disregarded by my God”? Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and His understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”
Isaiah 40:27-32
“Why do you say, O Jacob, and complain, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD; my cause is disregarded by my God”?
When you consider the Israelites that came out of Egypt by the supernatural power of God and the awesome deeds of power He did by which they experienced firsthand when He protected them through the plagues that fell upon Egypt, when they saw His power to deliver them from the pursuing Egyptians when He opened up the Red Sea, being their means of their deliverance and the demise of the Egyptians that were following them when the sea closed in upon the horses and chariots destroying them all.
However, as the Israelites started on their long journey to the Promised Land they were constantly prone to grumble and complain even after they saw God provide for them time and time again everything they needed to have for life and godliness before Him.
When we see the term Jacob used in reference to the Israelites the way the prophets used it in their writings refers primarily to the nation of Israel. They were given that name as a nation when Jacob had wrestled with Israel’s pre-existent Messiah before His incarnation as the Son of God (Genesis 32:22-30).
When the LORD spoke these words through Isaiah to the people of Israel He was also speaking to the Body of Messiah spiritually grafted into the Commonwealth of Israel. This is why Rabbi the apostle Paul writes; “For everything that was written in the past was written for our instruction, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures, we might have hope” (Romans 15:4).
It is so easy to grumble and complain when we experience opposition, discouragement, anxiety and a sense of discontentment when things are not going our way or working out in the way we thought they would. However, it is at such times we need to consider what He has said in His Word. As Rabbi the apostle Paul also writes; “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).
Now not all things that happen to us are a direct result of His will but He permits them to happen to us. Some things we bring upon ourselves through unwise decisions or through circumstances where we gave into sin and have had to live with the consequences it brings even though they have been forgiven and cleansed through repentance and a trusting in the total efficacy of the redemption bestowed upon us through the blood of the Messiah our Lord Jesus (1 John 1:9) (Ephesians 1:7).
There are circumstances that we find ourselves in that were not of our doing but the result of what someone else has done or circumstances that were out of our control we found ourselves in. However, in all of these things God weaves them together into the beautiful tapestry He has already created for our life that He has already planned for our good.
He knows how the differing bright coloured and the dark and grey strands will look when woven together by His perfect, divine and infinite will, His skill and His absolute perfection. We see through a dark glass dimly, however, when we are in our resurrected glorified indestructible bodies we will know as God knows us (1 Corinthians 13:12).
He knows that deep down on the inside of us that we really love Him and know that we have been called according to His foreordained plan for our lives and also knowing that “God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29). God sees everything we think, we say and do, and He knows us better than we even know ourselves as man looks on the outward appearance but God looks upon the thoughts, the feelings and the intents of the heart, which we must watch over with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life (1 Samuel 16:7) (Proverbs 4:23).
If we know these things even though feelings are absent but keep our trust in the LORD we will come to see that God has seen our way and has not disregarded our cause. If we desire to do His will, even though we struggle to do it having to daily deal with the world, the flesh and the devil as we, moment by moment, walk by faith and not by sight but yield up our bodies with its fleshly appetites and desires as living sacrifices we will prove God’s good, acceptable and perfect will for our lives (2 Corinthians 5:7) (Romans 12: 1-2). And then we read…
“Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.”
Job was a man of God who suffered greatly and lost everything including his children, his wealth and his health. He had three friends who in many ways mirrored the hyper faith blab it and grab it money preachers who teach the God’s will is that His people always be in health and wealth and that sickness is not His will for them.
Some even suggest or imply to those who are sick that somehow they do not have enough faith while at the same time take their money. These ‘shepherds’ are an accursed breed if ever there was one, greedy shepherds, if you can call then shepherds, that feed only their own greedy appetites controlled by covetousness, fill their own coffers.
Job’s friends could not fathom how a truly righteous man like Job could suffer in the way he suffered. They were thinking had he sinned? He must have done something to displease God? They were wrong. While Job’s suffering was caused by Satan the LORD permitted it. Through this darkest valley through which Job had to pass which God already foresaw in eternity, Job had a very deep spiritual revelation of the Messiah to come and of His kingdom to come on earth and of the resurrection of the bodies of all who believe in Him.
As Job declares in the midst of his great suffering; ““As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, And at the last He will take His stand on the earth. “Even after my skin is destroyed, Yet from my flesh I shall see God; Whom I myself shall behold, And whom my eyes will see and not another. My heart faints within me! (Job 19:25-27).
And again Job declares; “When He is at work in the north, I cannot behold Him; when He turns to the south, I cannot see Him. Yet He knows the way I have taken; when He has tested me, I will come forth as gold” (Job 23:9-10).
Job seeing into the unseen spiritual realm in eternity, where the past, the present and the future do not exist as they do down here in time, He saw the mediator between God and man, our Lord Jesus. He declares; “Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, And my advocate (umpire) is on high” (Job 16:19).
At the end of his severe trial Job’s revelation of our Triune God became so much deeper. He had heard about God but now He had a revelation of Him as the supreme creator of everything that exists in the heavens, on earth, under the earth and in the sea and Job was totally gob smacked, flabbergasted, astounded, speechless, and overawed and overwhelmed in the supernatural revelation and realization of the greatness and vastness of our eternal Triune God. Job exclaimed “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.”
After praying for his friends Job was prospered by God in every way and received twice as much as he previously had. His friends comforted and consoled him. God gave him another family. After this Job lived for another 140 years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. And so he died, old and full of years and after his spirit left his body he went to paradise in Sheol. Job knew that The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.
When circumstances are hard to deal with and when trials and difficulties seem to persist it is comforting and faith strengthening to read Job chapters 38-42. As the late David Wilkerson used to say; “God still has everything under control, and He does you know! It is always safe to trust the LORD! And then we read…
“He will not grow tired or weary, and His understanding no one can fathom.”
Our Triune God is never wearied by our prayers and petitions. In fact He encourages us to pray to Him resulting in the impartation of His peace even when the answers to our petitions are not forthcoming. As Rabbi the apostle Paul writes; “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard (garrison) your hearts and your minds in the Messiah Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7). Who can understand how He hears all of the prayers of his saints at one time, but He does you know!
Does not David tell us in Psalm 139 that God searches and knows us and that He knows when we sit and when we rise and perceives our thoughts from afar, that He discerns our going out and our laying down. Even before a word is on out tongue He knows it completely. He also puts a safe permitter around our daily lives and activity to keep us walking in His perfect, wise, divine and loving will with His hand upon our lives, a knowledge to wonderful to us, too lofty for us to attain even though we have both Testaments and the revelation of the Holy Spirit in spiritual matters.
Who can flee from His presence that fills the whole universe? He, who is ever present with us wherever we travel; even to the ends of the earth. He who knows what is in the light for us and for our deliverance when we are in darkness not knowing the way out. He who created us in our mother’s womb and knew us even before we were born had our days written in His book in eternity even before one of them came to exist.
What a wise, sovereign, infinitely good and infinitely loving and Triune God we have! Who can number His thoughts and how precious they are to us, and how vast is the sum of them! Were we to try to count them they would outnumber the grains of sand. When we sleep and awake He is still with us! If He knows the number of hairs on our head, how much more does He discern the innermost, thoughts and motives deep down on the inside of us! Let’s now continue to see what He is doing for us as His blood redeemed, blood sanctified, blood washed people.
“He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.”
It is when we come to the end of trying to overcome adversity or temptation by the power of our own human will or effort that we realise we cannot do it in our own strength. Often when we are seeking to be rid of a severe temptation or a desire of the flesh that can so easily beset us and lead us into sin we must come to realise that with man this is impossible but with God all things are, and like Job realise that God can do all things and that no purpose of his can be thwarted (Job 42:1).
What is in fact possible with man is possible with God and that nothing is too hard for the LORD! (Luke 1:37) (Genesis 18:14) (Jeremiah 32:17). God promises to give us His strength in times when Satan is persistently tempting us to contemplate giving in to a favourite sin, and all of us have an Achilles heel if we are honest. At such times when faced with a satanic attack that persists we need to realise that “The LORD sits enthroned over the flood; the LORD is enthroned as King forever. The LORD gives His people strength; the LORD blesses His people with peace” (Psalm 29:10-11).
This is why we must hold high that shield of faith by which we extinguish all of the fiery darts of the evil one (Ephesians 6:16). Some satanic attacks can only be driven off by prayer and fasting (Matthew 17:21) (Mark 9:29). This takes time and perseverance but in due course that power will be weakened and nullified. The secret is not trying to resist temptation by the power of our own will but by surrendering that temptation to the LORD and placing it in His capable hands asking Him to deal with it. Over time with persistence and faith in doing this Satan’s power over us will be weakened. As it is written; “Not by power, not by might, but by My Spirit says the LORD” (Zechariah 4:6).
When we feel at our weakest it is God’s opportunity to draw on His strength. Rabbi the apostle Paul knew this to be true in his own experience (2 Corinthians 12:10). Sometimes we just have to say; “no” and call upon the LORD and He will provide for us a way of escape that we might bear up under it and divest ourselves of that heavy weight of that sin that can so easily beset us, and keep our eyes fixed on the Lord Jesus and keep running in the race of faith, looking forward to our eternal reward at the judgement seat of Messiah and also keeping short accounts with God when we do sin (1 Corinthians 10:13) (Hebrews 12:1-2). As we read in Proverbs; “He who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy” (Proverbs 28:13). And then we read…
“Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;”
The “youths” and “young men” here are primarily those in the world who live by their own strength and will power in the prime of their life, driven by greed and self-aggrandisement and having things good in this world; captivated by the lust of the flesh, by the lust of the eyes and by the pride of life, but become tired and weary and stumble and fall into Satan’s end-game which is Hell and the lake of fire.
As it is also written; “the pleasure of sin lasts only for a season” (Hebrews 11:25). It is also written; “The house of the wicked will be destroyed, but the tent of the upright will flourish. There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Proverbs 14:11-12). Then there is the contrast between the righteous that live by God’s strength with the unrighteous who seek to live by their own will power but eventually fall into the pit of no return where there is eternal and perpetual weeping and grinding of teeth! (Matthew 13:40-42). Now we read the word “But”…
“…but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength.”
Now the word “hope’ does not mean “I hope so” which is the way of the unsaved in this world, a confession with an inner sense of futility if they are honest. The word Hope in the Hebrew text describes; “to have an expectant hope. To be looking for something that is a sure reality even though it is not seen with the physical eyes.” It is “to be waiting or looking eagerly with anticipation to a future certainty and to linger over it with expectant faith” and “something that is to be collected by the one waiting for it to happen.” As it is also written; “Now faith is the deep inner conviction of what we are hoping for and certain of what we do not see or of unseen realities” (Hebrews 11:1).
As we also read; “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18). As we walk moment by moment in step with the Holy Spirit and saturate ourselves with the Word of God that which is unseen with our physical eyes that is an eternal reality will be more real to us than what we see in this world with our physical eyes!
Finally we are told what will happen to those who hope and wait with eager expectation for the renewal of spiritual strength. Let’s continue…
“They will soar on wings like eagles;”
An eagle is a majestic bird that can fly at very high altitudes with comprehensive vision. It is a bird of great strength and power and dwells in high craggy rocks. It lies upon a rock in the sun with its wings spread to bask in the warmth of the sun to regain its strength. It is not just a bird that flies in the sky but one that soars heavenwards!
The word “soars” describes “one that ascends to the heights and to go upwards, to be highly exulted, to be lofty in understanding the ways of God, to be exulted to great heights.” The eagle at the end of its days is the only bird that soars up into the sky with its face set towards the sun, a perfect picture of the redeemed new covenant believer in Messiah when they depart from their physical body on earth to be present with the LORD in heaven, the Sun of righteousness with healing in His wings! (Malachi 4:2). So then those who wait on the LORD will in spiritual matters soar like an eagle! And the second thing is…
“…they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”
The most trained runner in the Olympic Games will run their race; however, they can run but will eventually run out of strength no matter how their will power has sustained them. The word can be used of the one who runs in a race, who runs swiftly and one who darts as it were, who is sharp and disciplined as a runner must be if he is to stay the set course.
Spiritually speaking one who seeks to run the race God has set before them by their own strength and will power will not succeed, whereas the one who runs the race God has set before them in His power will stay the course!
They may grow weary with a heaviness of spirit through manifold temptations but will not give up, but keep on keeping on, not by their own will power, but by the power of God and by surrendering all into His hands for Him to deal with. They rely totally on the promises of God in His Word, on the power of the Messiah’s blood, and upon the power of the Holy Spirit and by the power of prayer in the Holy Spirit.
We are also told in His Word that “When the enemy shall come in, like a flood the Spirit of the LORD will raise up a battle standard against him!” (Isaiah 59:19). There will be times when they will also walk moment by moment in step with the Holy Spirit giving careful consideration to the way in which they are walking. They will not weary in well-doing because in due season they will reap what they have been sowing if they do not give up.
As rabbi the apostle Paul writes; “The one who sows to please his flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; but the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to the family of faith” (Galatians 6:8-10).
Epilogue:
God sees everything that we say and do including the innermost thoughts and deepest desires of our hearts. He does not disregard any of them. He wants us to know and to experience Him as the Everlasting God who inhabits eternity and that He is the creator of everything that exists in this world. He does not grow tired and weary with our prayers and petitions before Him and understands our deepest desires.
He is pleased with those who fear Him, who hope in His loving devotion and pray to Him according to His will and answers our requests in His way and time according to His schedule and not ours (Psalm 147:11) (1 John 5:14-15). His understanding of our character and of all things in the universe which He created no one can fathom this side of heaven. He gives strength to those who are weary through that heaviness of spirit due to manifold temptations that do not have it in them to persevere in and through these times of severe temptation, anxiety, oppression and affliction. To those who are weak He arms with His strength and blesses them with His peace.
To those who wait in hope on the LORD with expectancy He renews their strength to endure and in His strength they will soar like eagle in flight and rune with Him and walk with Him when those around them are failing in running and walking through life by the power of their will which is temporary in nature and does not last. There would not be enough books in this world to record all that our Triune God is, and does and how He upholds all things in the universe by His powerful Word (Hebrews 1:3).
With these matters in view let us personalise that confession we find in Psalm 121 learn it by heart and by faith confess it every day.
(Psalm 121) “I lift up my eyes to the hills, where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let my foot slip- He who watches over me will not slumber; indeed, He who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD watches over me, the LORD is my shade at my right hand; the sun will not harm me by day, neither the moon by night. The LORD will keep me from all harm He will watch over my life; The LORD will watch over my coming and going both now and forevermore.” Amen!
Indeed “The LORD is the Strength of His People!” Selah.
