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“But those who hope in the Lord 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.”
Isaiah was a prophet penning God’s words to the exiled Jews in Babylon. Due to their long banishment by God from the Holy Land, these people had become jaded and hardened. They did not believe God was for them or with them in any capacity. But the Lord had many things to say to them, with these very words being the capstone of His rebuttal to their grumbling.
These weary people needed to be reminded of who God was. They took for granted that He was like them, growing tired, needing rest. But God says, “No, with Me, the faint regain their strength!” The Israelites needed to remember the glory of their God. Even young men grow weak and weary, Isaiah says, but those who wait upon the Lord rise up on wings like eagles!
This is stunning theology. God, through Isaiah, contrasts our weakness against His strength and emerges the Victor. He is not a weak God, He is infinitely mighty! Yet what is the caveat? We must wait upon the Lord. He gives of His strength in His time and for His glory. The desperate who cry out, the exhausted who bow down, these are the hearts to whom God gives of His strength. Only the broken know the full glory of the sustaining power of God.
