Isaiah 40:21 says, Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth? Isaiah asked if they had not heard that God was the One Who laid the foundation of the earth. As Jews, they should have heard this all their lives, but they didn’t live as though they believed it. God has always made Himself known to people, and He will continue to do so until Jesus Christ returns, when everyone will finally acknowledge Him. Until then, we need to continue to share the gospel with the world, so that people may know God and His plan for salvation. Too many people will then be asked if they didn’t know this and will have to say that they did but they didn’t believe it.
Verse twenty-two adds, It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in: Isaiah said that God sat above the earth and stretched out the heavens and that people were as grasshoppers before Him. As followers of Christ, we must acknowledge that He is the Creator of everything and the Redeemer of all who put their faith in Him. There will never be anyone or anything more powerful than God.
Verse twenty-three continues, That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity. Isaiah said that God made all the powers in the world, the ones who were over other people, to be nothing. There are many rulers today who deny God who think that they are very powerful, but one day, they will know that their power was a vanity, or nothing.
Verse twenty-four states, Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown: yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth: and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble. Isaiah said that the people of Israel who denied God and lived by their own sense of justice and power would never settle into a position where they could grow and prosper. If we want to grow and prosper spiritually, we cannot do it outside of the will of God, even if we are followers of Christ. We cannot make our own laws if they oppose God’s laws, no matter how powerful we may be in the world.
Verse twenty-five adds, To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One. Isaiah said that God asked to whom would they liken Him, and the answer then and the answer now has to be no one. There is no other God besides the one true and living God. We must acknowledge this and then just put our faith in Him and follow His leadership.
Verse twenty-six continues, Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth. Isaiah called on the people to look up to the heavens and see the mighty work of God. He created the universe and called all of His creation by name. Matthew Henry says this means that we aren’t to always be bogged down looking at the earth and our problems but are to look up to the majesty of God. When life seems to be bowing us down to our lowest level of hope, we just need to look up to God once more if we are followers of Christ. He will always bring us spiritual hope.
Verse twenty-seven says, Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God? Isaiah asked why the people who were descendants of Jacob were now saying that they were hidden from God or that His ways were hidden from them. God entered into a covenant relationship with Jacob, and God had never failed in His part of the covenant. If we as Christians are feeling defeated spiritually, we need to acknowledge that it is because we have failed to continue to live up to our part of our covenant relationship with God, which calls for us to always look to Him in faith for the answers to life’s problems.
Verse twenty-eight adds, Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. Isaiah basically asked them didn’t they know Who God is. There is no failing in God, so why were they living as though He had failed. We should never question the power and authority of God as Christians, and if we start to when life is getting hard, we need to just look up to Him once more.
Verse twenty-nine continues, He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Just as Isaiah said to the people of Judah then, we need to look to the One Who gives us the power to not faint under the pressures of life so that He might strengthen us when we have no strength of our own.
Verse thirty states, Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: Isaiah said that even the young men who relied on their own strength would grow weary, faint and utterly fall. No matter how strong we may think we are physically, we will fail spiritually if we don’t look to God for our spiritual strength.
Verse thirty-one adds, But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. Isaiah said that those who wait on the Lord for strength and wisdom would never fail. They would soar like eagles, run and not be weary, and walk and not faint. To me, this means from doing the greatest to doing the least for God everyday He will always give us the ability to do whatever He has called us to do. Sometimes we may be soaring spiritually and sometimes we may be just trudging along, but God will empower us either way.
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