They Who Wait for the Lord Shall Renew Their Strength

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“But 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).

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!

It’s called “the rule of threes”—how long a human being can go without the basics of life. A man can go three weeks without food. Three days without water. And three minutes without oxygen. But I submit to you that there’s one more basic of life even more vital: Man cannot go three seconds without God.

The people of Israel have about run out of God. In the first 39 chapters of his book, Isaiah has repeatedly warned them that because of their idolatry and apostasy, the Lord is sending judgment upon them, first in the form of the Assyrian army, then through Babylon. Beginning with chapter 40, we read about dramatic changes for God’s people. Because of God’s intervention in history, God’s people have hope. Isaiah comforts the exiles and spiritual Israel of all times with the promise of deliverance from sin through the incarnation and death of the Messiah.

Apart from God’s revelation, none of us would know this. We know there is a God, but we don’t know what He’s like, or how He feels about us. This has led humans to fashion their own gods. In Isaiah’s day, they created idols out of wood and precious metals. Though we think ourselves too enlightened for such images, that doesn’t mean that we don’t make our own gods. In fact, the gods of our world are no different, in essence, from theirs. Fallen man seeks to create a god that rewards loving effort, kind words, and noble thoughts. A god who excuses our moral lapses, who doesn’t threaten punishment for anyone except the most heinous criminal. But that’s an idol as surely as the images of Baal and Dagon. We have fashioned a god in our image and molded him to be the way we want him to be.

The four questions of the opening verse of our text are blunt challenges to all of us who seek to create God in our own image. “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?”

God has not hidden Himself. He has revealed Himself from the beginning. He talked with Adam and Eve in the garden. After they sinned, He continued to speak to them. Though He warned them of the consequences of their sins, He also revealed the promise of a Savior to come. Moses brought God’s revelation down from the mountain and wrote the first five books of the Bible. God made sure that what Moses and later writers wrote was His Word, not their own speculation. God inspired them, giving them the very words they were to write.

The truth has always been available. But the human mind has been so darkened by sin that it cannot imagine God as He truly is. Isaiah pictures God as the Creator and Ruler of the world. God sits high above the created world. He stretched out the heavens as easily as one would pitch a tent. God is not created but uncreated and eternal, without beginning and without end. He is separate and different from the world He created. He is holy, infinite, perfect, and changeless.

Even the great leaders of the world are nothing compared to God. God exists far above the world He created; He rules as a powerful monarch above all creation.

We humans are like so many grasshoppers in comparison. Because of sin, we are nothing like God. We are finite, temporal, imperfect, subject to changes of all kinds, and mortal. What arrogance for finite creatures to fashion God! If we want to know about God, we must humbly listen to what He tells us about Himself.

God, the Holy One who is high above and separate, has always wanted His creatures to know who He is and what He has done. Through His Word, God now instructs men and women in the mysteries of His love for the world and its inhabitants.

First, we are directed to look to the heavens and the stars. We know the answer to the question “Who created all these?” God did, of course, but God did not simply create the universe and then leave it alone. He continues to care for it. Astronomy studies the movements of the stars, but God determines the movement. He controls the movement of the stars as a general would control his army.

What a contrast to those who think that the stars control their destinies and who consult their horoscopes to discover what life will bring them. God controls the stars and us. But God does not control them with impersonal detachment. Each have God’s personal attention; not one of them is missing without His knowledge. He calls them all by name, so powerful, vast, and loving is our God.

Still, God’s people are not beyond complaining that such a powerful and boundless God has forgotten them. Therefore, the Lord says through His prophet: “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”? 

Jacob and Israel are names for God’s people that recall the love of God and the origins of God’s Old Testament people. God cared for Jacob, blessed him, and protected him. God wrestled with him and changed his name to Israel. Then God repeated the promise that the Savior would come through his descendants. All this God did out of grace and mercy. Jacob did not deserve any of it. When Jacob’s descendants became the nation of Israel and left Egypt, God continued to care for them. God marked every phase of their history with His gracious care.

In view of God’s loving care, the complaints of His people are groundless. If God can call the stars by name, He certainly can care for His people. If God had demonstrated such love for the ancestor of His people, He would continue to care for them. God had pledged Himself to His people. He had bound Himself to them by promise. No matter what difficulties they faced, He was powerful enough to care for them. He loved them too much to abandon them.

This message was important for the Jews who would be led away into captivity by the Babylonians. In the midst of their tears and heartache, God wanted them to remember that He was in control and continued to love them.

The lesson is just as important for us to remember. We are God’s people by faith in Jesus Christ, but we are no less prone to complain when things go badly. God loves us not just when all goes well. He loves us always. He has His own reason for allowing trouble, pain, and tears into our lives. Remember that He is almighty and all knowing. We are not. We can trust Him to do the best for us. He loves us too much to do anything less.

To remind us of this truth, the Lord repeats two questions: “Do you not know? Have you not heard?” These questions direct us back to what God reveals about Himself in the Scriptures. That’s where we can discover who God is—in His Word. There God reveals Himself as “the Lord,” the God of free and faithful grace.

Here, the Lord reveals four important truths about Himself.

First, He is the Creator. He has unlimited power and uses that power for the benefit of His creatures. He gave them life and provided a beautiful world to live.

Second, He does not become tired or weary. His power was not exhausted by creation nor does He grow tired caring for that world He called into existence.

Third, He is beyond human ability to grasp and understand. He is holy and unique. God must reveal Himself if we are to know anything about Him beyond the fact that He exists and He is great.

Fourth, God gives strength to the weary and weak. God turns Himself toward His creatures. He gives blessings to them out of love for them.

Humans are much different. We are creatures, not the Creator. We grow weary and weak. We can understand some things, but we are often confused and ignorant. We must learn; God knows all things. We stumble and fall, grow weary and tired, but God promises to give us strength.

How can we receive such a gift from the Lord? Our text provides the answer: “They who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength.” When we rely on human strength, we will stumble. When we try to take matters into our own hand, we will fail. When we trust in the Lord for strength, He gives it. 

What wonderful comfort for all “who wait for the Lord”! The entire life of God’s people—their walking, running, and soaring—is filled with the boundless and tireless strength of God. Even in death, they mount on eagle’s wings and soar to God in heaven, when God gives them joy forever.

All of this finds its ultimate fulfillment in Christ. God has been revealing Himself to man throughout human history. He has revealed His splendor and majesty in the magnificence of His creation. He has revealed His love and grace through His holy Word. Now He reveals Himself in Christ.

Jesus Christ is the ultimate Word and the perfect Revelation of God. He is the Lord Himself, who has taken on human flesh to dwell with us. He lived the perfect, righteous life that you could not live. He suffered and died on the cross to pay for your sins. He rose again on the third day, that you might have the certainty of the resurrection of your own body unto life everlasting. And now ascended into heaven, He promises to be with you always to the end of the age.

If you focus only on the circumstances of your life and look within yourself, you will fall into despair. You will see nothing but trials and troubles. You will see only your sin and the judgment you deserve. But our Lord bids you to lift up your head, to wait on Him and His strength. He sets forth His Word and with it gives Himself to you, so that all things of His are yours and you, on the other hand, may cast your weakness off on Christ.

You are a sinner, but Christ is righteous. You are poor, but Christ is rich. You are foolish, but Christ is wise. If you are a captive, Christ is present to set you free. If you are forsaken, Christ takes you to Himself. If you are cast down, Christ consoles you. If you are weary, Christ refreshes you. If you are without hope, He brings you hope. Finally, He pours Himself out for you altogether, to redeem you and make you His own.

Christ comes to you, calling you to repentance through His Law and comforting you with His Gospel. In Baptism, He makes you His child and an heir of all His promises. He clothes you with His righteousness and credits you with His merits. In Holy Communion, He feeds you His very body and blood for the forgiveness of your sins and the strengthening of your faith. Through His called and ordained servant He absolves you of all your sins. Indeed, it is my pleasure to tell you this Good News today: You are forgiven of all of your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.