Tired? Fragile? Weak? Uncertain? Isaiah has help to encourage us
By Dean Collins
When things haven’t turned out as you imagined.
When the waiting is much, much longer than expected.
When you are away from your home for an extended time.
When your traditions have been interrupted.
When opposing forces seem to have the upper hand.
When you have lived on foreign soil for decades.
In any of these situations, you begin to wonder what is true, what is real, and who is in charge. Are the promises and prayers of your youth still valid? Can one truly go home? And if you do, will life be worse, better, or about the same?
I suspect these were the thoughts of the exiles in Babylon when they learned that going back to Jerusalem was possible. The exile was ending. They had choices once again. Two times in the 10 verses chosen for today from Isaiah 40, the prophet poses questions intended to awaken the hope and stir the confidence of God’s chosen people into what is ahead and what is real.
No equals
“Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?”
The first questions lead to the reminder that God who was at the beginning is the creator and sustainer of all things and provides every need in the lean times as well as in the bounty of harvest time. He has no equals. God’s chosen may have lived for decades where other gods were worshiped, but no idol made by man and no deity invented by human imagination compares to their living and eternal God.
Isaiah assures the people that there is a way forward. The one above all knows all things, including the way ahead. He is calling his children to move forward even as they are struggling to find hope.
Isaiah continues by giving a reminder and assurance of God’s power, strength, and adequacy for the days before them. His people may feel weak and tired and uncertain, but led by the Almighty they can find strength and not grow tired. God himself will increase their energy and fill them in ways that will allow them to soar like eagles above the struggles they anticipate below.
Maybe these words are for you and me as well. Sometimes we, too, forget. Sometimes our prolonged struggles leave us in a brain fog that makes us wonder if God is still there, understands our situation, and cares enough to be involved. Doubts, mental fatigue, and long periods of time without seeing the horizon can make us spiritually and physically weak and tired.
No forgetting
Isaiah brings another round of questions to help us gain perspective:
“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’?”
Isaiah challenges us to consider whether God really cannot see our needs or situation. Do we believe he really has forgotten or worse, disregarded us?
The prophet repeats his earlier questions: “Have you not known? Have you not heard?”
It is not God who needs reminded. It is us. We, whose circumstances sometimes leave us numb. We, who after just taking the next step because it is the only thing we can think to do still wonder if our steps lead us to hope and to a future. We are the ones who need to be reminded.
And what do we need to recall? “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. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.”
‘He does not faint or grow weary.’
Sometimes we need someone to remind us. God’s Word is true. It is living and active, and it comes from a living, active, and powerful God who has not and will not forget us. Isaiah reminds us that the young and the old can become physically, socially, emotionally, and spiritually fatigued. But God offers to step in with his strength, his Spirit, and by his power to speak and breathe life and hope into our situation.
Not every circumstance is resolved in the short run. But all things are restored and renewed and made right in the end. And when we are in between the permanent and eternal peace that comes in our future home in Heaven we can cling to the promises of scripture.
Not alone
Like Isaiah we can and must encourage each other through prayer, with helping hands that show we care. Our spiritual strength and transformation is not for us and us alone. Our strength and purpose is to be poured into those in our path who are weak, tired, and uncertain.
Maybe the best thing any of us can do today is to show someone in need that God is alive and real because he sent us to offer a word and a way of help in their time of need.
Your time with God’s Word
Isaiah 40:21-31 ESV
Photo by Elle Storset at Unsplash.com
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