“Jacob, why do you say, and Israel, why do you assert, “My way is hidden from the Lord, and my claim is ignored by my God”? Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the whole earth. He never becomes faint or weary; there is no limit to his understanding. He gives strength to the faint and strengthens the powerless. Youths may become faint and weary, and young men stumble and fall, but those who trust in the Lord will renew their strength; they will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not become weary, they will walk and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:27-31 CSB)
Wow! What a great chapter we have been studying. It has been like a great piece of music composition that takes you through the gamut of emotions and ends in a triumphant crescendo that leaves you breathlessly anticipating what’s coming in the next movement. We started with the realization of our need for redemption and God’s timeless plan to bring us to Himself. Then we soared into the heavens as we considered the boundless height, depth and breadth of God’s nature and glory. We were reminded that He is the creator, the One and Only True God, the transcendent LORD and yet our present Redeemer. He is everything we long for and everything we need.
Now, all of these theological truths are brought to bear upon the present circumstances of God’s people. I mentioned previously, the circumstances being addressed in Isaiah’s prophetic words are the daily struggles of living life as exiles in a foreign land under the heavy hand of Babylonian rule. If you listen to the opening verse of our focal passage, you can hear their weary cries: “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 ESV)
The people cry out, “God can’t even see what I’m going through and He ignores my constant prayers for help!” “My way is hidden” is a theological lie (false belief – God cannot see/understand it) they are believing, and “my claim is ignored/disregarded” is their perceived experience (my prayers are never answered). Last week we talked about our perspective of God and His glory, ability and power. This week, we will consider the exiles perspective and their need to be confronted by the reality of God’s promises and will. They are living in the “now” of their experiences and not in the strength and hope of God’s promised will.
First, notice the way Isaiah addresses them: “Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel…” It is easy to cruise right through those words and to miss their importance because we’ve heard them so many times before. In this context, they carry some impact you could easily miss if you rush past them. For background, perhaps you should go read the story of Jacob and his encounter with God at Penuel (Genesis 32).
In summary, God had told Jacob it was time to go back home so that God could use him to fulfill His promise to Abraham. As Jacob got close to home, his fear of his brother Esau began to overwhelm him. Jacob was so afraid of how his brother might respond, he sent servants with many waves of lavish gifts ahead of him and he separated his family into two camps to prevent a surprise attack that might slaughter his entire family.
That night, Jacob couldn’t sleep and it tells us that he encountered a man who challenged him and they fought all night long. As the sun began to rise, the challenger wanted to end the fight but Jacob refused to turn loose of him unless the stranger blessed him. The stranger did two things: 1) he touched Jacob’s hip joint and caused a permanent injury and limp; 2) and he gave Jacob a blessing by telling him that he had wrestled with God and man all night and had not given up; so his name would no longer be Jacob (scoundrel or trickster) but Israel (prince).
God reminds His people of their past failures, their present circumstances and their promised future. They feel as though God can’t see their present circumstances and doesn’t care about their future. God uses these names, Jacob and Israel, to remind them of who they are, of who He is and of His eternal, unbreakable covenant. You think I can’t see your present circumstances and that I ignore your prayers for help, but you’re wrong. Your perspective is wrong because you’ve lost sight of Me and, thus, you’ve abandoned all hope in the fulfillment of My promises.
When we lose hope, we’ve lost the will to live. Victor Frankl was one of Europe’s greatest psychiatrists when the Nazis invaded Austria 1938. In 1942, Frankl and his family were arrested and he then spent three years in four different German concentration camps, including Auschwitz. During that time, Frankl observed first hand what happens when men lose sight of their future, descend into despair and lose all hope. Once they’ve lost hope, they quickly lose the will to live and simply give up and succumb to death. What Frankl realized is that those who survived didn’t have different circumstances, they had a different view of their future. While all of them shared the same view from behind the barbed wire, their view beyond the barbed wire was dependent upon their view of life’s purpose – the meaning of life.
The daily struggles of the exiles in Babylon, the atrocities the prisoners of Auschwitz endured and the struggles we face each day do not define our future. These struggles may define our present circumstances, but they DO NOT define who we are and they don’t determine our future. These circumstances, regardless of how bleak they are, cannot kill our hope if it is properly placed in the God who loves us and calls us His own and who comforts, redeems us and is coming again for us.
Now, Isaiah harkens back to his previous description of the glory of God, His power and His enduring sovereignty as creator and only LORD (see last week’s notes here and verses 12-26). You may lose strength, grow weary and faint, or lack understanding but God does not. If our strength, endurance, skill, wisdom and understanding flow out of our own humanity then our failure and hopelessness is understandable, even expected. Weariness is about failing under life’s pressures and struggles, weakness is about the lack of innate strength or enough vigor for the task at hand, and power is related to the word for “bone” and, thus, carries the sense of durability, endurance and stability throughout these challenges.
In other words, you simply can’t do this on your own. Come on, admit it. You’ve felt this way before. “I can’t do this anymore! I’ve given it all I’ve got. I’m done!” You don’t have it in you, but He does. “He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might He increases strength (v. 29).” I think Isaiah is simply echoing the words of the Babylonian exiles he hears as God gives him a divine glimpse of their future.
Come on, admit it. Sometimes our faith also gets a little weak when things get really challenging, doesn’t it? Seriously, who talks about doubt in church! That’s kind of like talking about losing the game when the reporter interviews the coach before the game. <gasp!> What? Who would do that? Not me! And yet, the reality is that all of us have doubts from time to time – but nobody ever admits it, at least not in public. Pay attention, here! God knows about your doubts and your failures of faith. He knew how the exiles of Babylon struggled and he knows how you struggle.
Teens, He knows the questions, fears and doubts you struggle with when your peers, teachers and even your best friends question your Christian beliefs and principles. Parents, He knows the how you lie awake at night as the doubts swirl around in your head as your children make life choices that reflect your poor choices instead of your Christian beliefs. Seniors, He knows the doubts that build as you begin to face your own mortality and fears surrounding death.
We often fail to recognize that scripture talks about doubts, even among the heroes of the faith. Abraham was known for his faith, but he also struggled with doubts and made foolish choices in the midst of those doubts. David is called “a man after God’s own heart” but he was also a man plagued by doubts and failures. When the disciples failed to heal a young boy because of their doubts, Jesus asked the boy’s father if he believed? The father replied, “Lord, I believe, help me with my unbelief.” Thomas is known because he voiced his doubts when confronted by the witnesses of the resurrection. When Jesus appeared before him, he fell before Him in a confession of faith but will forever be known because of his doubts. Perhaps that’s why we refuse to voice ours?
But there’s another element in this passage that is often overlooked or misunderstood. These challenges that God’s people face are a part of God’s will for their lives. Our “way” is not hidden or unseen by God and our “claim” is not ignored by Him. He’s at work in the midst of these things because He knows our limits. He knows our weakness and our weariness. He knows our failures. There’s no limit to His understanding or insight and His will for our lives is based upon these things. God’s will is not to give us what we want but what He wants of us.
We often have the wrong view of what’s happening inside the barbed wire because we have the wrong view of what’s beyond the barbed wire. We have the wrong view of our struggles because we have the wrong view of God’s purpose and plan for life.
Finally, we are given a promise directly from God to alleviate our doubts, to assuage our fears, to enable us to overcome the struggles that try to overwhelm us. God will give us His power, when we grow faint. God will infuse us with His strength when we grow weary in the struggle. God recognizes our human frailty, and knows that the incessant onslaught against our faithfulness would leave us exhausted, if we attempted to remain faithful in our own strength. He reminds us that even the young men in the prime of their lives deal with weariness and exhaustion in the struggles of life. Everyone needs sleep, rest and renewal. Listen to the promise:
“…but those who trust in the Lord will renew their strength; they will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not become weary, they will walk and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:31 CSB)
What you may not realize is that all of the things we studied over the past three weeks in Isaiah 40 are being brought together in this incredible promise. In the first eleven verses, we are told about our need for God’s comfort, the redemption of our sins. God sends a messenger to announce His plan, we are all guilty of sin and we wither like grass under the breath of God’s judgment. But the Good News is that God Himself is coming to redeem those who kneel before Him in humble contrition and repentance. But why would God do this? Because of who He is and because nobody else can. God’s promises must be fulfilled and His glory demands that these things be accomplished. Now, watch Him work. But God’s people cry out that God is blind to their struggles and refuses to hear their pleas for His help. And God declares that He DOES see and He ALONE understands the mighty working of His planned redemption.
And that brings us to the fulfillment of the final promise of this incredible chapter: If you trust Him, He will renew your strength; you will soar like eagles; you will run and not grow weary; you will walk and never faint. How is this even possible? It is possible when you realize that your salvation is not dependent upon you, your strength, your ability, your goodness or righteousness. It is dependent on HIS! I believe it is this very promise that Jesus had in mind when He said: “Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30 CSB)
Our world misunderstands what Jesus came to do in our world and the salvation He offers. Even many who claim the name of Christ misunderstand. The reason the world misunderstands the salvation God brought through Jesus’ sacrifice is because we often misunderstand and look for and dream of a false hope in this life? The view from behind the barbed wire is not about the hope of making life in the concentration camp a utopian dream but about deliverance out of the nightmare and into a new world, a new life. Our hope is about life outside, beyond the barbed wire.
Hope gives us the renewed strength to rest in Him, trust in Him, and wait upon Him for the fulfillment of that promise. The answer to our current crisis is not about our ability, our strength, our power but about His. Jesus said that our hope lies not in the burden of religious achievement but discovering what He’s done. It’s not a question of WHAT we can do but about whether we will rest in Him, trust Him and wait upon Him!
In conclusion, living with hope doesn’t immediately change our circumstances, but it does change our outlook and our character. The change in our character means we begin to see life differently and, thus, we live our lives differently. We begin to live with joy and expectation, based in hope. We begin to live out the love we’re experiencing in Him. We begin to see others in the way that we’re seen by Him. In other words, our perspective of Him, our perspective of ourselves and our circumstances changes how we view life. That change in how we view life results in a change in how we view others, their needs and, also, how we view their value to God.
Hilltop Baptist Church - Shawnee, OK 
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