Israel’s faith towards God in Isaiah 40:27-31 is flagging and they feel as if they have become invisible or insignificant to God. If they had understood God properly and by this point in their history they should have, they would've realized that God is never far from them. We see then that their spiritual health is waning.
The Israelites feel they have been forgotten by God as indicated by the words “hidden from the Lord” and “disregarded by my God”. We are at Isaiah 40. The Israelites have been through the threat of Assyria and are now under the yoke of Babylonian captivity. Things were looking bleak. God’s people should never believe they have been forgotten by God. Punished yes. forgotten no. God forgets nothing He is omniscient. The people of the Northern Kingdom had already been exiled by Assyria but because of God’s covenant He had not abandon them, God’s side of a covenant is forever. It is man that fails a covenant.
God is sovereign and in control. His creation and watches over it from His throne. This is clearly seen in the 6 verse immediately preceding verses 27-31 in Isaiah 40:21-26. Additionally, we see (v. 28) that the Lord is everlasting, Creator of all and He will never grow tired or weary (these are human weaknesses). All in all He is beyond man’s ability to totally understand Him. We can understand the portions or attributes of Himself that He has chosen to reveal to man but we can never know them all or their full extent. Case-in-point: He is Psalm 90:2’s Everlasting to everlasting. In the Hebrew it is the phrase: Eon unto eon ([H5769] umoulm [H5704] od [H5769: –oulm]) “From vanishing point to vanishing point”. In Fine Arts class I learned that a vanishing point is a “point” refers to the point in the distance where lines appear to converge but in reality…they often do not. In reality they could potentially go on forever. But because we are limited in our vision and situational perspective we cannot tell for sure. The Hebrew wordage brings to mind a much clearer and profound image of everlasting to everlasting.
But as any good parent will do the chastising or punishment is quickly followed by an explanation of why the punishment was delivered and a promise of restoration to a former or similar condition. If man hopes and “stays in the Lord” he will be given strength, those that are weak will increase in power…a better conveyance of meaning is: to be multiplied, to make much or increased greatly. We see that no matter the age of those that call and hope on and in the Lord they will “renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint”. It was my mother’s favorite verse which she would often exhort and encourage me with after I had been broken down and hope had faded.
1 comment:
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