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. (Isaiah 40.31)
The text above is a relatively familiar and very comforting bit of Scripture, and rightly so. It has been that for me. So, I thought that it would be good to take a closer look at it. I do that based on an assumption. There is great benefit in investing some time with one bit of Scripture. There are blessings to be enjoyed that do not lie on the surface. We need to dig a bit. But it's worth it.
I've thought it best to present my thoughts in several brief posts. (There is something to be said for short and sweet.) This is the first.
Who is the audience? The first part of Isaiah, chapters 1-39, is filled with words of warning to Isaiah's contemporaries. The God of Israel sees the evil of his people. The need of the moment is repentance. Once we get to chapter 40, however, the audience changes. Isaiah is no longer writing to the people around him. He recognizes that his words of warning have fallen on deaf ears. The condemnation will come. The people of Israel will face a very angry God. Most will be killed. But there will be others. These God will send away: the Babylonian Exile. Isaiah knows this, so he now writes for the sake of those future exiles. The day will come when they will return. That's what the opening verses of this chapter are about. The closing verses, especially the verse printed above, are about waiting until that promised return becomes a reality.
Even though Isaiah was not thinking about us when he wrote, his words of comfort are intended for us. Matthew, Mark and Luke all quote from the beginning of this chapter even though the expected return from Babylon had already occurred. They referred to Isaiah's words to herald the greater return from a greater exile. This is the return that Jesus will lead. We are the exiles. And the home to which we return will not be a plot of ground in the Middle East but a renewed heaven and earth. These words are for our comfort while we wait for that day, the day when Jesus returns and fixes everything.