Isaías 40

Isaías 40:31

Ironside asks… Why, we may well ask, has GOD thus truly described Himself? It is because those over whom He has such a tender care are faint and weary, without strength, so He turns them to Him as the Source of power, simply to wait upon Him, for this divine GOD has an interest in everyone. It is not because of lack of power that GOD does not give immediate release from trial and tribulation. His understanding is infinite and He is working out His own counsels for our blessing when He permits affliction to fall upon us and continue to oppress us. We must learn the lesson put before Job, that man cannot fathom His plans, so should seek to submit without question to His providential dealings. It is easy, when distress or suffering becomes prolonged, to think that GOD has forgotten or is indifferent to what one is going through. But this is always wrong. He is ever concerned about His people, and in His own time will give deliverance; and until then His grace is available to sustain and strengthen the soul, that one may endure as seeing Him who is invisible. "He giveth power to the faint." It was this that enabled Paul to glory in his infirmities, that the "power of Christ might rest upon" him (2Co 12:9- note). He will supply the needed strength to meet every test He permits us to face. "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength." Mere natural and physical powers will not avail in the hour when one is called upon to face great mental and spiritual emergencies. But they who have learned to refer everything to GOD and to wait quietly upon Him will be given all needed strength to rise above depressing circumstances, thus enabling them to mount heavenward as eagles facing the sun, to run their race with patience, and to walk with GOD with renewed confidence and courage, knowing that they are ever the objects of His love and care. It is one thing to wait on the Lord. It is quite another to wait for Him. As we wait on Him we are changed into His likeness. As we wait for Him in patience we are delivered from worry and fretfulness, knowing that GOD is never late, but that in His own time He will give the help we need. Someone has suggested that we may apply Isaiah's words, verse 31, as representing Christians or children of GOD in different ages. The young believers mount up with wings of hope and expectancy as eagles flying into the height of heaven. The middle-aged ones are running with patience the race set before them, while those who have reached old age have come down to a quiet walk with GOD as they near the portals of the eternal Home of the saints. (Online - Isaiah 40 - God the Comforter) SUPERNATURAL FLYING They will mount up with wings like eagles: Ex 19:4; Ps 84:7; Song 8:5; Zech 10:12; Re 4:7 The English translation of the Greek (Lxx) is picturesque "they shall put forth new feathers like eagles!" Mount up (05927) ('alah) basically suggests movement from a lower to a higher place. The first use is in Ge2:6 where Eden was watered by a mist that “went up” over ground. Thus 'alah means to ascend, mount up, go up, rise. In Isa14:13 it describes what the king of Babylon said in his heart "I will ascend into heaven". In Ps 24:3 'alah describes the righteous ascending God’s holy hill. As with the verbs run and walk, the idea of mount is clearly a metaphor to describe life on a higher plane, a soaring supernatural life which is always available to every believer, regardless of whether they lived before and after the Cross of Christ. Remember that Isaiah was writing to Jews who lived in Judah and Jerusalem prior to the destruction of God's holy city and the removal of His chosen people to Babylon. And so God through His prophet Isaiah seeks to encourage and edify His believing remnant (cp Is 3:10, 11-note - "forewarned is forearmed"). Those Jews who were stiff necked and rebellious would also hear these words but they would lack the ears to hear what the Spirit was saying through Isaiah (cp Mt 11:15, Lk 8:8, 14:34, 35, Ro 11:8-note, Re 2:7-note). One might ask whether we have any Old Testament examples of those who heard and heeded and were lifted up by passages like Isaiah 40:31? I think the answer is indeed there were some examples whose lives we as NT believers can ponder and seek to emulate (He 6:12-note, He 13:7-note, cp Ro 15:4-note). Recall that Isaiah is prophesying between 740-680BC and it was not until 605, 597 and 586BC, that Babylon began to fulfill the prophecies against Judah and Jerusalem in three sieges and exiles. In 605BC, four Jewish boys were taken to Babylon, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah (Da 1:11, young men with "great hearts" Da 1:8 who knew God intimately not just knew about God! cp Da 11:32b). Subsequently all four of these young men were given opportunities to "live out" the promises of Isaiah 40:31, promises I believe they had read or heard expounded (cp Daniel's knowledge of Jeremiah's prophecy Da 9:2, not to mention that the prophet Ezekiel was one of their contemporaries in Babylonian exile). Undergirded by the truth about Jehovah, these young men were empowered by God to mount up, to run and to walk in ways that can only be described as supernatural, and in so doing provided for believers of all ages a glorious testimony that the promises of God are indeed "yea and amen" in Jesus Christ = Yeshua Mashiach, cp 2Co 1:20KJV, 2Pe 1:3, 4-note). And so having girded their minds for action (cp 1Pe 1:13KJV-note), they refused to bow down and worship the golden image Nebuchadnezzar had set up (Da 3:1, 4, 5, 6, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)… Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego answered and said to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to give you an answer concerning this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire (Ed: They understood and may actually have read or heard Is 40:25, 26, 27, 28); and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up." (Da 3:16, 17, 18) Comment: Did not God enable Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego (their Babylonian names) to mount up with wings like eagles, to run, to walk? Indeed, He did! Hallelujah! And this Jehovah Jesus is the same yesterday and today, yes and forever (He 13:8-note). So even though we may have to walk through fiery trials (1Pe 4:12-note, cp Ps 23:4-note), He Himself is with us (as the fourth "Man" in the fire, Da 3:25KJV, cp He 13:5,6-note) Paul experienced the presence and power of Jehovah Jesus Who enabled him to mount up with wings like eagles testifying… At my first defense no one supported me (Ed: imagine the fiery missiles that must have come against him - missiles of discouragement, disillusionment and despair to the point of giving up. In the midst of this "fiery trial", Paul choose to wait upon the LORD to meditate on His presence and His power), but all deserted me; may it not be counted against them. But the Lord stood with me (aorist active indicative = Paul testifies that this was a real event and not a figment of his imagination!), and strengthened me (cp renew your strength… mount up with wings as eagles Is 40:31), in order that (this should encourage us for God always has a purpose in strengthening us) through me the proclamation might be fully accomplished, and that all the Gentiles might hear; and I was delivered out of the lion's mouth. The Lord will deliver me from every evil deed, and will bring me safely to His heavenly kingdom; to Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. (2Ti 4:16, 17, 18-note) (And all God's people echo "Amen"!) Indeed Paul alludes to the exchange of strength given to the waiting soul writing… But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves; 8 we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. 11 For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So death works in us, but life in you. Comment: In proportion to our faith or trust in the greatness and sufficiency of our God (Is 40:25, 28), we will be willing and enabled to die to self (cp Lk 9:23, Php 3:8, 9, 10, 11-note), so that His life might flow through us (cp Jn 4:14, 7:37, 38, 39) and be manifest to a world dead (Ep 2:1-note), desperate and hungering to see the supernatural life in God's saints. Although it is a different context, the principle applies that to live is Christ, and to die is gain (Php 1:21-note), a gain which is manifest in life which is abundant (Jn 10:10b) and which "smells" like Jesus to a dying world (cp 2Co 2:14, 15, 16, cp Ep 5:2-note). Wings (083) (eber) means pinions (the terminal section of a bird’s wing including the carpus, metacarpus, and phalanges) or wings and is translated in the Lxx by pterophueo which means to grow feathers or put forth new feathers (and so the Septuagint translates it "they shall put forth new feathers like eagles") Eber - 3v in the OT - Ps 55:6; Is 40:31; Ezek 17:3 Jamieson writes that mount up with wings like eagles can also be rendered "They shall put forth fresh feathers as eagles" are said to renovate themselves; the parallel clause, "renew their strength," confirms this. The eagle was thought to moult and renew his feathers, and with them his strength, in old age (so the Septuagint, Vulgate, Ps 103:5-note). However, English Version is favored by the descending climax, mount up--run--walk; in every attitude the praying, waiting child of God is "strong in the Lord" (Ps 84:7-note; Mic 4:5; Heb 12:1-note). ON EAGLE'S WINGS Eagles (05404) (nesher/nešer) is any of various large diurnal birds of prey of the accipiter family noted for their strength, size, speed, long feathers, keenness of vision, and powers of flight. Eagles were considered unclean and were not to be eaten (Lev 11:13, Dt 14:12). Eagle is used "figuratively in the descriptions of God’s strength, vigor, and gentleness in the handling of His people." (NIDOTTE) On the other hand God's enemies shall experience God Himself even as a bird of prey (Jer 49:22). The Eagle was used figuratively to prophesy of Babylon's invasion of Judah some 800 years later in 605-586BC (Dt 28:49, cp Jer 4:13, Jer 48:40, Lam 4:19, Hab 1:8), of Assyria's defeat of Israel in 722BC (Hos 8:1) andof Edom's downfall (Ob 1:4). My soul is often a chariot without wheels, clogged and hindered in sin’s miry clay; Mount it on eagle’s wings and cause it to soar upward to thyself. --Valley of Vision The truth of Isaiah 40:31 should have stirred the readers' memories to recall their ancestors stories of similar figurative language used to describe the miraculous Exodus from Egypt (first use of eagle in Scripture)… Exodus 19:4 You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings, and brought you to Myself. (Play Eagles Wings He will raise you up on Eagles Wings) So not only was the eagle used to picture Israel's deliverance from bondage but God's provision for her safety in her subsequent wilderness sojournings… Deut 32:11 "Like (See terms of comparison simile) an eagle that stirs up its nest, That hovers over its young, He spread His wings and caught them, He carried them on His pinions. (See Spurgeon's sermon on Deut 32:11, 12 The Divine Discipline)