Welcome to The MHB Podcast. This is Michael Baun. And welcome to my 104th episode. In this episode I want to study Isaiah chapter 40. This chapter takes us away from the Assyrian conflict with Judah and instead focuses on the Babylonian exile as well as an analysis of the characteristics of God. For several chapters we’ve discussed how the Assyrian Empire was dominant during its time. We watched the whole drama unfold and climax with the overnight massacre of 185,000 Assyrian soldiers outside the walls of Jerusalem. The Assyrian Empire would never recover from that event. Judah’s king Hezekiah put on a fantastic display of faith in God that He would save Jerusalem even when it looked like all was lost. Reading of Hezekiah’s victories presents us with the temptation of idealizing him. But Isaiah clued us in on one of Hezekiah’s major weaknesses that led to a terrible misjudgment. Hezekiah trusted in military and political strength more than he trusted in God. As a result, the king invited Babylonian ambassadors into Jerusalem and showed them everything – his treasure, his military capabilities – all of it. These ambassadors returned to Babylon and informed the leadership that Judah would make a good target for conquest and plunder. Isaiah had warned Hezekiah against trusting other nations – but Hezekiah’s failure to listen set off a chain of events that led to Jerusalem being sacked by Nebuchadnezzar – king of Babylon – in 586 B.C. The Hebrews were taken into exile and the city was left in ruins.
Going from chapter 39 to chapter 40 is a time jump of more than 100 years. Isaiah is looking ahead to Israel’s future as Babylonian exiles. To smooth this gap I want to give a brief flyover of the history that ushered in the events of this chapter. There’s going to be a lot of names and things happening but don’t worry about remembering them. Just sit back, relax, and let me take you from where we were in the last few chapters to where we are now.
Since Assyria never properly recovered from its defeat at Jerusalem, four different world powers rose up in an effort to conquer it. These were Lydia, Media, Babylon, and Egypt. Media and Babylon worked together to defeat Assyria’s capital city Nineveh. Then Babylon marched westward toward Palestine while Media fought campaigns in the north. Lydia, under Croesus, took hold of the Ionian Greek cities of the Aegean coast and on the western half of Asia Minor. This gave Lydia control over major trade routes and made the nation rich. Nebuchadnezzar rebuilt Babylon and revived some of its former glory. While this happened, Pharaoh Necho of Egypt made an advance to succeed Assyria. Babylon defeated Egypt easily. Despite Babylonian dominance in Palestine, it was evident that the empire lived under the shadow of powerful nations to the north.
Babylon owed nearly all of its power to Nebuchadnezzar. When he died in 562 B.C., he was succeeded by Amel-Marduk who was then displaced by Nabonidus. Nabonidus didn’t care much for strengthening Babylon and instead focused on weakening its religious institutions. He worshiped Sin, the moon god, and he filled the city with idols. Babylon worshiped the pagan god Marduk and with the temples of Marduk disrupted, Nabonidus withdrew to the oasis of Tema. He left the administration of Babylon in the hands of Belshazzar. Meanwhile in the northern territories, Cyrus the Great ascended to power and formed the Media-Persian alliance. This would become the Persian Empire, the greatest empire the world had ever seen. The death of Nebuchadnezzar left Babylon under incompetent leaders. The once powerful nation was now characterized by corruption, economic failure, military weakness and religious confusion. They were in no shape to contend with the Persians so Nabonidus acted fast and formed an alliance with Cyrus. Even taking Babylon’s failures into account, no one could have predicted the rise of Cyrus. He started out as the leader of some obscure Persian tribe. He achieved the perfect sequence of strategic alliances and conquests that made him arguably the most powerful person on Earth. And he did it in 12 years. The hand of God was on him.
Nabonidus and Belshazzar were ineffective in their stewardship of Babylon. One of the key reasons was that they had no respect for Babylon’s god Marduk. This caused them to lose the support of the priests and the people. Cyrus learned early on (perhaps from Nebuchadnezzar) the value of bolstering the religions of whatever territories he conquered. He gained a reputation for restoring local cults and their temples. Where some emperors would have tortured the natives until they submitted to foreign gods, Cyrus didn’t see why any of that was necessary. He thought it was be better to win the affection of the priests and the people by expressing support for whoever they worshiped. God had conditioned the heart of Cyrus so that he became the perfect tool to help Israel rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem.
Cyrus felt comfortable that Babylon would stay where they were, so he turned his attention to Lydia and conquered it. With Media and Lydia under his rule, his next project was to move south and west into Mesopotamia and toward Egypt. Babylon was the only nation that stood in his way. At this time in history Babylon had destroyed Jerusalem and had taken God’s people into captivity. They lived as exiles all throughout Palestine, Egypt, and Mesopotamia. It was a woeful situation and many of them suffered desperate living conditions. Jerusalem had become a heap of ruins where only a few ragged and poor survivors lived. There was no king. There was no commerce. There was no politics. There was no active temple service or annual pilgrims. This was the desolation that resulted from Hezekiah’s mistake over a hundred years ago. But now God was going to move again and bring His people back to their homeland. This announcement meant hope, comfort, and instruction for the exiles as they made ready for God’s homecoming. Let’s begin with verses 1-2:
Isa 40:1 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
Isa 40:2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.
The Israelite exiles in Mesopotamia were called to comfort, strengthen, and encourage each other. God identified Himself as your God. It was common for people who lived in exile to worship whichever gods were native to the land where they ended up. God wanted the exiles to know that they were being contacted by Him – and that they need not look to useless idols of wood and stone. These people were far from home and probably in a state of depressed faithlessness. Despite their lowly position, God still identified with them and called them His people. That’s worth noting if you are in a difficult spot in your life – God still considers you one of His own.
So God called the people to comfort and encourage each other because they were about to enter into a new phase of His purpose for them. The old times of warfare and national security were over. They didn’t have to worry about defending Israel and Judah anymore because these two kingdoms had been conquered by the empires. God wanted to shift their focus away from nation-building and toward the restoration and rehabilitation of Jerusalem. So He wanted the exiles to prepare to migrate back home to rebuild the Temple and the city. In the succeeding centuries they did so with gifts and personnel, including the expeditions of Zerubabbel, Ezra, Nehemiah and their associates. But for right now they just needed to understand that God heard their suffering and their time spent in exile had doubly atoned for the sins they committed to get there.
I speak a lot about the dangers of telling a dysfunctional person that they are perfect just the way they are. The last thing you want to do is assist someone in their own destruction. But with that, it’s also never a good idea to punish someone if you aren’t doing it out of love. The best in you has to be supporting the best in them. God used the Assyrian and Babylonian empires to destroy Israel and Judah as judgment for their sins. But now that they’ve repented, comfort and encouragement are the rules of the day. We as Christians are called to comfort and encourage each other in our efforts to be better Christians. This works in intimate relationships as well. If you want your spouse to do more positive things, make sure you acknowledge them when they do and cheer them on. The worst thing you can do is keep it to yourself or tear them down out of resentment. If we see someone in a difficult spot we should tell them that we know they can do better and encourage them to be their best. Ditch the political correctness because there is no love without discipline.
We can tell from verses one and two that it is always God’s will that His people be comforted. Even judgment for sin serves this end – because the judgment is meant to get us away from the toxicity of the sin and back to a place of comfort. When God says, Comfort, comfort my people, and repeats it like that – it’s an indication that we should insist on comforting people even if they resist hearing it at first. Sometimes it takes a person a little bit of time to open up and receive help. The hearts of the Israelite exiles were finally repentant enough to hear the words of God comfort and prepare them for their return home. Let’s read verses 3-8:
Isa 40:3 A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Isa 40:4 Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.
Isa 40:5 And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”
The Word of God Stands Forever
Isa 40:6 A voice says, “Cry!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.
Isa 40:7 The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the LORD blows on it; surely the people are grass.
Isa 40:8 The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.
These were announcements that called for the people to be ready when Cyrus the Great delivered them from their Babylonian exile. It was encouragement to brave the rough roads in their return to Jerusalem. But these announcements had another meaning as well. They were to make way for the coming of Jesus Christ. John the Baptist fulfilled this prophecy in the New Testament when he called the people of Jerusalem, Judea, and the surrounding regions to repent in preparation for the coming of Christ. Isaiah used the rough terrain east of Jerusalem as a metaphor for personal and social change that should take place in preparation for God. The poor and lowly should be raised up. The proud and self-righteous lowered. People who were crooked and dishonest should be induced to change their ways for those of simplicity and integrity. The rude, rough, and harsh should be rendered courteous and mild. It was a call for royal preparations to make Jerusalem a place fit for the coming King.
God promised to reveal Himself to all people. His glory would not be reserved for the Israelites but would be visible to the whole world. Once again His presence would be experienced in Jerusalem. Jerusalem’s worldwide significance was founded on this fact. There wasn’t anything special about the city itself. In fact, when God turned away from it the Babylonians destroyed it. The reason for Jerusalem’s global recognition was and is the fact that God has chosen it for His residence. The promise of God’s presence is the center of gravity for all of God’s gracious promises. From this divine purpose flows all of history. God secured his promise by saying that He Himself declares it will happen. The revelation of God does not depend on favorable historical circumstance – but only on the fact that He promised it.
A voice of skepticism rose up in response to these announcements. Why would God send the exiles back home when He was the one who exiled them to begin with? It was evident that temporal, transitory people could not stand up to an eternal God – so why should they be able to stand with Him? Humanity had proven itself to be undependable and disloyal. How could they rehabilitate Jerusalem? What hope did they have in succeeding to live in covenant with God? How could they even survive His presence without withering away under the heat of His wrath?
The question is answered with the acknowledgement of human frailty. There was no debate over the fact that all of us are ignorant, biased, prone to malevolence, and live very short lives. But God’s promise does not depend on humanity, and therefore it is unaffected by human frailty. If you’re pessimistic about humanity, God’s response is for you to consider the fact that only His word can be absolutely trusted. Only His word never proves false. Even Hezekiah, who at times seemed to represent the best of humanity, was ultimately undependable. But the word of God will stand forever. Far from fading away, God’s word imparts hope to weak people. In the New Testament, Peter used this passage of Isaiah to illustrate that the living and abiding word of God is imperishable. Let’s read verses 9-11:
Isa 40:9 Go on up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God!”
Isa 40:10 Behold, the Lord GOD comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.
Isa 40:11 He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.
This was instruction for the people of Jerusalem to give wholehearted public announcement of God’s promise. Faith is the remedy for fear and so the people were called to proclaim the message by faith, whatever their conditions at the time. God’s promise was to be announced to the cities of Judah because the exiles were to return to the Promised Land – where the divine Messiah would appear. This was true about the first coming of Christ and it will be true about His second coming. When Jesus establishes His kingdom, He will come as a conquering king, a generous benefactor, and a gentle shepherd.
Those who were left over in Judah after Babylon conquered Jerusalem and led the leaders with the majority of the people in to exile would have suffered neglect and worse for decades. God’s return to Jerusalem would have filled them with hope because it promised pastoral, royal concern and care for all of them – particularly for the weak and needy. His bosom referred to the fold in a shepherds robe that functioned as a shelter for the lambs. God will shelter His people and give special attention to those who need it as the flock moves along.
In the end times God’s coming will be marked with a powerful demonstration of His sovereign control over history. He will reign as Lord and Master over His people and over the entire world. His strength will assure His victory and should give confidence to all who trust in Him and wait for Him. There will be no earthly power capable of resisting His will. The reward that God will bring with Him is His work of salvation. Salvation is God’s greatest work and His greatest gift to humanity.
Throughout much of the book of Isaiah we’ve watched God unleash terrible judgments on wicked people. But this oracle gives us a look at God as the Good Shepherd. His compassionate care is demonstrated by the way He carefully holds His people and gently leads those who are weak. The metaphors of gathering, feeding, carrying, and leading present us with the developed picture of a shepherd. God desires an intimate and positive relationship with His people.
Okays so Isaiah’s prophecy is almost operating on three levels right now. I want to parse them out carefully so that we can keep track. One project is for the exiled Israelites to take heart and prepare themselves to be delivered home when Cyrus the Great conquers Babylon. Then we fast-forward 500 years and the next level refers to John the Baptist preparing the people of Judah for the first coming of Jesus Christ. Then we fast-forward to our own time and Isaiah is calling us to prepare ourselves for God’s final return and the establishment of His Kingdom. So it’s preparation at every level. The only purpose of the preparation is so that we can be ready to meet God when He comes. Our own righteous deeds like fasting, prayer, and humility do not hasten His coming. His coming is not conditionally based on an appropriate human response. God alone knows the time of His return.
When God does return, all flesh will bow in reverence at the sight of His glory. Enemies of God will wither away like grass while the faithful will be protected under Him. Our only job is to prepare our hearts to meet God face to face. God offers comfort, forgiveness of sins, His holy presence, protection, gentle care, and an appropriate blessing of salvation. Telling people about this is what it means to share the gospel because it gives all who hear it an opportunity to respond positively to God’s grace. God’s promise is that He will forgive our sins, He will appear in all His glory, He will establish His rule over the earth, and He will care for His people.
Peter drew on this promise when he gave his readers encouragement to remain firm in their faith. Peter’s audience was Christians who were strangers and aliens in a pagan Roman world. Some of them were facing major persecution. Peter wanted them to know that the things of this world will pass away like grass, but their faith is imperishable because it is founded on the sure promises of God’s eternal Word. Let’s read verses 12-17:
Isa 40:12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?
Isa 40:13 Who has measured the Spirit of the LORD, or what man shows him his counsel?
Isa 40:14 Whom did he consult, and who made him understand? Who taught him the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding?
Isa 40:15 Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the scales; behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust.
Isa 40:16 Lebanon would not suffice for fuel, nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering.
Isa 40:17 All the nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.
These verses cause us to reflect on the incomparable greatness of God. He is the Creator of all things and no opposition can prevent Him from keeping His promises. I want you to think about the world’s oceans. For any of you who have been to the beaches of the Pacific or the Atlantic you know how small you feel up against the seemingly infinite waters. On average, the world’s oceans are 2.3 miles deep and just under 7 miles deep at some locations. Yet God can measure the waters in the palm of His hand. We think the universe is 93 billion light years across. That distance is incomprehensible. Yet God measures it in a span, which is the Hebrew term for the distance between your thumb and your little finger when your hand is fully extended. Think about all the world’s majestic mountain ranges and all the ground you’ve ever walked on. God weighs the untold tons of rock and earth as you would weigh a cup of flour. God alone established the creation and He is uniquely powerful – so He is worthy of our trust.
Humanity has yet to figure out the natural world. In point of fact, we don’t even know how much we don’t know. This difficulty of understanding the creation is increased exponentially when the proposition is to evaluate the Creator – His ways and His strategies. Isaiah made no attempt to put parameters around God as such a thing was beyond consideration. To measure the Spirit of God is to define His mind, purpose, plans, motives and implementation of plans. It just can’t be done. World leaders depend on counsel from chiefs of staff and intelligence agencies. But who has the wisdom to give God counsel? The thought goes beyond the scope of our limited minds.
So we serve a God who is all-power and all-knowing. He knows exactly how to unfold history so that justice prevails in the end. In addition to knowing everything, God has the infinite power to see that it all takes place exactly according to His plan. When we don’t understand why certain things happen it can be tempting to think God made a mistake and that He needs us to correct Him. But God is the One who teaches us knowledge and wisdom – we can’t teach God anything.
The exiled Israelites were in a lowly state of defeat. The nations that surrounded them seemed insurmountable. We might feel like this today when we compare ourselves to national and world issues. How can we measure up to institutions that govern hundreds of millions of people? To us the nation may look huge and immovable but to God it looks like nothing more than a drop from the bucket. Just another brick in the wall for those who get the reference. I mean look at how He handled Assyria. They were so powerful that their king Sennacherib was widely regarded as a deity. But to God they were just a minuscule element in his creation. He used them according to His purposes and turned aside their own plans. He worked in, around, through, and beyond them. Humanity wages war in an effort to determine which nations are supreme – but the truth is that God is sovereign over all of them.
Lebanon had some of the greatest forests and most luxuriant animal life of all the countries. Yet even all the wood and all the animals of Lebanon and the rest of the world would not be enough to sufficiently match our worship with God’s grandeur. A modern day analogy is how even the most magnificent cathedrals fail to impress God. God is interested in you and in your heart. So a wicked society could spend all of their extra capital building the most amazing church buildings and it would go nowhere to improve their position in God’s sight. God desires the humility that leads to repentance which is then followed by trust.
Nationhood is as nothing before God. In determining God’s valuation of nations, the Hebrew terms used mean nothing, less than nonexistent, and unreality. Israel had always desired to be a strong nation even when such ambitions conflicted with God’s purpose for them. To hold your nation at a higher regard than you hold God is to commit idolatry. God has many instruments and many ways of doing His work. He is not limited to nations and therefore we should not limit ourselves to nationalism. Sometimes we get lulled into thinking that the world revolves around the great nations. But God dwells in a different plane of reality. Because of God’s transcendent nature, the world (including the nations themselves) actually revolve around Him and His plans. Let’s read verses 18-26:
Isa 40:18 To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him?
Isa 40:19 An idol! A craftsman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts for it silver chains.
Isa 40:20 He who is too impoverished for an offering chooses wood that will not rot; he seeks out a skillful craftsman to set up an idol that will not move.
Isa 40:21 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?
Isa 40:22 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;
Isa 40:23 who brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.
Isa 40:24 Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when he blows on them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble.
Isa 40:25 To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One.
Isa 40:26 Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name; by the greatness of his might and because he is strong in power, not one is missing.
Isaiah exposed the foolishness of idolatry when he asked who or what could possibly be compared to God. As human beings, we have the tendency to draw analogies between that which is outside of our experience to that which is inside. It’s how we think and how we explain things. Scripture doesn’t fully disavow this practice when it comes to thinking about God – but we must be careful. Calling God the Shepherd in relation to us as His flock is hardly unbiblical. It’s also appropriate to think of God as the Creator who upholds it all. Other terms used to describe God are king, rock, and warrior. But even when we use these terms to describe Him we must be careful not to fall into the trap of thinking we’ve found an all-encompassing definition for God. The moment we claim to know the full scope of God’s mind is the same moment we replace Him with an image of ourselves. This practice is what lies at the heart of idolatry and authoritarian ideology.
It was tempting for ancient people to create idols and compare these idols to God. I think the real motivation for doing this was that the human being who created the idol could claim power over it. So in effect idolatry is born out of the desire to be your own god. After all, a statue that you crafted isn’t going to require that you have the humility to submit to its will. Isaiah understood this when he pointed out the fact that humanity controls idols at every stage of manufacture: they select it, they cast it, they overlay it with gold, and they set it up. At no stage in the game is there a departure from the pride of life.
It really is just an attempt at role-reversal with God. God selected Israel, humanity selected a material. God shaped Israel into His people, humanity shaped the material into an idol. God crafted the universe and everything in it, humanity crafted adornments to make the idol aesthetically pleasing. Prohibition of idolatry was the first commandment God gave because failure to keep that commandment makes all the other ones impossible. Whoever or whatever is God to you will define the way you see the world and the way you see the world will determine the path of your life.
Isaiah called the people to remember old lessons that were taught over and over from the beginning. He wasn’t trying to win them over to new information. The same holds true today. Our society desperately searches for the next new way to live or the next new way to succeed. In truth, the ideas we cannot survive without have been with us from the beginning. They are not new. They are very, very old. Some wisdom is so ancient that when it’s rediscovered the population thinks it’s new.
Oldest among our lessons is that God resides enthroned above His creation. The greatest of us is but a grasshopper to Him. Scripture says He stretches out the heavens like a curtain – which is interesting because Einstein’s relativity shows us that the universe is in fact expanding. Isaiah reminded the people that the sovereignty of God extended beyond just that of nature. Kings and political rulers who seemed so powerful on earth could be turned into nonentities in a moment. The Hebrew used here again means nothing or unreality. One of the most fragile elements to human existence is power because God can take it away effortlessly. We can learn from this by remaining humble and giving God the glory when we experience success – because what’s in demand today is very often forgotten by tomorrow.
Isaiah spoke this way about national regimes. The greatness of an empire sparked up in history only to be withered by the judgment of God and blown away like chaff. God controlled the tempest, which was the chaotic processes of history. Without God our roots cannot reach deep enough to survive the tempest for very long. The Israelites took comfort in the discontinuity of power between the kings of this world and God. During exile, their lives were saturated by the powerful empires in which they lived. It seems to me that one of the keys to maintaining trust in God is to understand that He’s the one directing the show – even if some ruler or government appears all-powerful – the truth is that from God’s perspective they are weaker than a young and fragile plant. It’s also healthy to remind yourself that even the oldest nations are but a blip on the radar when viewed from the eternal framework of time where God dwells.
Being in exile, the Israelites were surrounded and might have been tempted by pagan religions. These religions often used the astrological phenomena as their object of worship. The night sky remains impressive and mysterious to us today – but back then it was so captivating that they worshiped it. Isaiah dared them to look up and understand that the One who brought it all into being possessed incomparable power and wisdom. He created, controls, and preserves the very stars which the pagans worship. We think that ancient Israel was able to see about 5,000 stars at night. Astronomers today believe that there are 400 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy alone. And there might 125 billion galaxies in the universe. This means something like 10 billion trillion stars. Scripture says God created each one of them and that He calls each of them by name. Each one is accounted for and not one is missing. The power and the depth of God is evidenced by the incomprehensible size of the universe. The fact that He knows, sees, and remembers all of it is encouragement to rest in the understanding that He will not forget you. Let’s read verses 27-31:
Isa 40:27 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”?
Isa 40:28 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.
Isa 40:29 He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.
Isa 40:30 Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted;
Isa 40:31 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.
The exiled Israelites felt as if God had forgotten about them. They were despondent and they believed that justice would never be served. Many of them knew that they were rightful heirs in God’s covenant with Abraham – but how could God be honoring the covenant if they were no longer a nation and scarcely even a people? Even in exile God wanted them to maintain a meaningful existence which is in part why He continued to address them as His people. But this was difficult for them to accept considering the nature of their situation. The implication of their complaint was that they had a right to determine their life-style, expectations, and place in God’s plan. They thought God should modify His purpose to fit what they desired. Their dispute with God over who should steer the ship was the basic underlying attitude that manifested itself in a variety of pathological problems. But God was patient and did not force His ways upon them.
Instead, the Israelites were given further description of God’s nature in an effort to both remind them of their place in relation to Him and put their fears at ease. They were reminded that God’s plan is mapped out for the ages – not just for the moment at hand. God’s creative task involves broader humanity and the whole earth – not just any specific locality. The Israelites were operating with the narrow scope of Palestine and Samaria and with the desire for immediate gratification. God was ready for a much longer journey because He never sleeps and He never grows tired. His purpose extended through decades, centuries, and millennia. The Israelites tried to search the depths of God’s mind and found the task impossible.
Isaiah’s description of God’s nature included four characteristics that the people needed to be reminded of. First was that God is everlasting and eternal. He has no beginning and no end, therefore nothing in the past, present, or future escapes His knowledge. Second was that God is the Creator of all things. He’s not a local god who is limited to a specific jurisdiction. His power and control extends to the limits of civilization and to the ends of the universe. Third was that despite His control over the entire universe and everything in it – God is never fatigued and nothing is too complex for Him to figure out. Fourth was that God’s wisdom is without limits and beyond humanity’s comprehension. What we view as uncontrollable circumstances are never outside the power of God to control. These descriptions were meant to be used as confessions of faith to profess God’s involvement with every moment in time, every domain or space, and every detail of existence. God has total understanding of what has, does, and will happen throughout all of creation. So the people could rest assured that whatever the reason behind their current struggles – it definitely was not because God couldn’t do anything about it.
The Israelites were encouraged to seek God for the strength to endure their trials. Human beings are temporal and fragile, but the power and strength we can access comes from God. The point was that God was not absent, unable, or unwilling to help them. Difficult times become a whole lot worse when we focus our efforts on complaining about the difficulty rather than seeking God’s strength to endure. And it gets even worse when you use your difficult circumstances to attempt justifying your own malevolence – that’s how you produce something approximating hell in your own life and the lives of others.
It’s all well and good to say that you have access to God’s strength during trials – but how do we actually get it? Isaiah used the analogy of an eagle in flight. An eagle doesn’t soar by the strength of its own wings. An eagle soars when the wind currents catch underneath it and carry it aloft. To wait on God is to be prepared for Him to lift you up by His Spirit in His time and in His way.
The first step to doing this is simply acknowledging the fact that you need God’s strength. This constitutes a major problem for a lot of people because they can’t get past their own arrogance. If you mix arrogance and resentment you have the recipe for a murderous spirit. Instead have the humility to know that everyone falls down and gets tired. The best athletes cannot go on forever. The most elite war-fighters sometimes make mistakes. The second step is for you to allow yourself to find hope in God. Many people are afraid to hope in God because they are terrified of being let down. This comes from a misunderstanding of faith. Faith is not gambling on whether God will give you what you desire according to your plan. Faith is accepting what God desires for you according to His plan no matter what it is.
The third step is allowing the weight to come off your shoulders and be placed on God’s shoulders. This doesn’t mean surrendering all responsibility. We are commanded to pick up our cross and follow God. But we are never commanded to do it alone. Even Jesus had help from Simon of Cyrene when He carried His cross to the crucifixion. One of the biggest causes of being overtaxed is shouldering all the weight yourself. So why would someone want to carry the load all alone? The answer is control. You cannot allow God to carry your burden if you are unwilling to allow Him control over it. When you acknowledge that you need God’s strength; if you allow yourself to hope in God; and if you surrender your burden by relaxing your grip on the controls, then maybe your difficult circumstances will change. Or maybe they won’t. But what’s guaranteed to change is you. And the version of you who is with God will go a whole lot further than the version of you who is without Him.
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