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 40:31).
Isaiah 40:31 is both a favorite verse and one that’s easy for me to ignore. On one hand, how could you not love reading this verse? Mount up with wings like eagles? Run and not be weary? I want a piece of that. On the other hand, it’s one of the most quoted Bible verses out there. We see it plastered on coffee cups, posters, notecards, and bookmarks. It shows up in our Facebook feeds and on Pinterest pins. And because we see it so often, sometimes we stop seeing it.
Until the day God means it for you.
I made a connection this week I had never seen before. A basic precept of Bible reading 101 is to consider the original audience for the text. Understanding the audience of the text often helps us understand the meaning of the text. What it means for us today has to be consistent with what it mean to them then. Yet for some reason, I had never considered the original audience for this verse.
Isaiah 40 was written to a nation in exile. God revealed to Isaiah that Babylon would carry the nation of Judah into exile (Isaiah 39:5-7). Under the inspiration of the Spirit, Isaiah looked forward to a generation who had not yet been born and wrote a message of hope: Don’t despair. God has not forgotten you. He is sovereign, and there remains a destiny for the people of God.
We remember that day when the towers fell and the world seemed to rock on its axis. Our emotions swung from shock to anger to grief and our prayers tasted like the salt of our tears: Lord, where are you? Why is this happening? Where is justice?
The exiles had the same questions:
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 40:27)
Does it have a familiar ring? To me, it sounds like the echo of my own pain. In times of hurt I am tempted to question God’s heart. Isaiah reminds us when we are tempted to question where God is, it is time for us to remember who God is.
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. (Isaiah 40:28).
God is Creator. He is the everlasting God. He does not grow weary. And yet there are times when his ways are beyond our comprehension. In those moments when we cry out for a move of God, when we are desperate for understanding, what does God ask us to do?
Wait.
It’s not a passive word. Sometimes translated as “hope,” the Hebrew word means “to wait attentively” or “to hope with expectation” (Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament). It’s the watchman on the walls waiting for the dawn; the expectant mother waiting for the moment of birth.
In the depths of our sorrow and pain, God asks us to wait for him to prove himself faithful.
- We wait for God to hear us (Psalm 40:1)
- We wait for God to move (Psalm 27:14)
- We wait for justice (Psalm 37:34; Proverbs 20:22)
- We wait on our promised inheritance (Psalm 37:9).
- We wait on Him (Psalm 130:5-6)
We wait, because the Lord’s coming is as certain as the dawn. We refuse to take shortcuts or cast about for our own solutions, preferring the deliverance that comes from his hand. We wait because we know who he has declared himself to be.
In our waiting he gives us strength. He who does not become weary lifts us up on wings like eagles, keeps the runner from becoming weary and the walker from becoming faint. He gives us himself. And in doing so, he ensures that we don’t just endure the waiting–we exult in a victory that is sure to come.
I will wait upon the Lord. For my hope is found in him.
Like this post? Subscribe to get updates by email.
Mail chimp form