We Resolve to make changes
By our own strength
Most Resolutions Fail
Human willpower is not enough
Is it hopeless? Are we stuck living as we always do?
Isaiah 40
v. 1 “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God."
Israel is troubled and Oppressed
Written during the Assyrian Oppression
One of the many cycles of Israel
Isaiah 40 is about God’s power
The bulk of the poem is proclaiming God’s greatness
vv. 22-23 - It 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 like a tent to dwell in; who brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.
The Crisis - vv. 27
Vv. 27-28a - 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”?
This is an incredibly strong accusation
Israel believes God has abandoned them
They believe God will not help them
They have a right to being God’s chosen people, yet because they were suffering they believe that right was disregarded.
Isaiah is questioning that attitude
Not a calm question
Why‽ Why would you say that‽
The interrobang - ‽
A question mark and an exclamation point combined.
WHAT‽
The Solution - v.28a
The questioning continues in 28, but it provides a solution
“Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the Earth.”
A rhetorical question, again, exclaimed
Israel — of all peoples — should know this
Israel’s history is full of God’s provision, in spite of their shortcomings
Isaiah has spent all of Chapter 40 telling who God is
He is Everlasting, He is Creator
Isaiah’s repeating it here, because this is the answer to Israel’s crisis.
v. 27 and v. 28 are contrasting
Israel is troubled, and does not trust God
God’s identity and supremacy solves all of Israel’s troubles
The Result - vv. 28b-31
Isaiah continues with what God does, and how great that is for us
v. 28b - He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.
v. 29 - He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.
Isaiah likes to use parallels and contrasting statements
He does not faint - in fact, he gives power to the faint!
We cannot comprehend all that he understands
He increases the strength of those who have none
This should be impossible, increasing that which does not exist, but God’s understanding is unsearchable.
v. 30 - Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted;
This is inevitable
Human willpower will never be enough
BUT v. 31 - but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
Waiting on the Lord means to trust in him.
Isaiah has spent this entire poem telling of the greatness and accomplishments of God.
they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
This is what happens when you trust in God
Eagles sore endlessly, seemingly never needing to land
With the power of God we can endure running without tiring, and walking without fatigue
This goes against all of our understanding of the world and ourselves
We know we will tire
We know our strength is not enough
But God is Greater
Israel should have known who God is
Consistently God delivered the Jewish people
The Jewish Calendar
Full of festivals that are a reminder of God’s salvation, deliverance, and grace
Yet they constantly needed to be reminded
When they would forget, they would turn away and do what is right in their own eyes.
But when they remembered who he was, trusting in Him?
We’re a lot like Israel
We have been given the greatest symbol of God’s power, and it’s become mundane
The Cross
It isn’t just a symbol for Christianity
It is the very thing by which Christ — God who become man — defeated death itself
The strongest power in this Earth — and the Cross is a reminder that Christ’s power is even greater
Mormon friend asked me why we cared about the cross so much — its everywhere
LDS temples don’t put the cross on anything - “it was just where Christ died, he did all the work in the garden”
1 Corinthians 1:18 - For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
If we focus on God, constantly seeing Him for His greatness and power, there is refreshment and renewal in Him. If we focus on Christ, seeing the power displayed in the Cross, seeing how he defeated even death itself, there is so much more hope and peace than we can find in anything.
Do you not know? Have you not heard? Christ is the everlasting God, the creator over the ends of the Earth. He does not faint or grow weary, he has defeated even death itself.
