Isaiah 40:28-31
Scripture:
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.
29 He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.
30 Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;
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.
Devotion:
There is a moment on any long journey when the initial energy of departure has worn off and the destination is still too far away to feel like encouragement. The hills on either side are no longer interesting scenery; they are simply more hills. The pilgrim of Psalm 121 knew that moment, and Isaiah 40 was written for exactly that stretch of road.
Isaiah is addressing a people in exile who have begun to wonder whether God has either stopped paying attention or run out of the strength required to help them. The rhetorical questions that open this passage, "Have you not known? Have you not heard?" carry the urgency of someone trying to interrupt a descent into despair before it becomes settled conviction. What they know and what they have heard, if they would only let it register, is that the Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth, a being whose energy is not subject to the same depletion that governs everyone around them.
The connection to Psalm 121 is more than thematic. Both passages are describing the same God — the one who made the hills that the pilgrim is looking up toward, the one who does not faint or grow weary, the one who keeps His people from the hazards of sun and moon and shifting terrain. What Isaiah adds is the promise aimed at those who have been traveling long enough to feel it in their bodies and their spirits: the ones who wait for the Lord will have their strength renewed. The word for wait here carries the sense of a deliberate, sustained orientation toward God, a trust that keeps returning to Him even when the road has not shortened. And the image attached to that waiting, eagles' wings, the ability to run and walk without fainting, is exactly the provision that a pilgrim with a long journey still ahead of them needs to hear.
HEAR about it:
Explain:
What connection do you see between Isaiah 40:28-31 and Psalm 121? What new light does it shed on the main passage? What does "waiting for the Lord" look like when the journey has already been long?
Prayer and Reflection:
Take a few minutes to sit quietly and reflect on the passage you read today. Let the Holy Spirit bring to mind what stood out to you and why. Then spend some time in prayer. Pray for the people around you, for your outlook on this day, and for the needs you are carrying in your own life.
Lord, You are the God who made the ends of the earth and who does not grow tired of keeping what You have made. Where the journey has been longer than I expected and my own strength has proven thinner than I hoped, give power to the faint today — give it to me. Teach me what it means to wait for You in the middle of the road rather than straining to see the end of it. In Jesus' name, Amen.
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