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Those Who Wait on the Lord

Isaiah 40

Dec 25, 2022


by: Jack Lash Series: Isaiah 40 | Category: Advent | Scripture: Isaiah 40:27–31

I. Introduction
A. 2Peter 3:2 says that we “should remember the predictions of the holy prophets.” And for that reason we have been studying Isaiah 40 this advent. This is our fifth and final study.
B. The chapter began with a prophecy that the Lord Himself would come (1-11).
1. Then from v.12-26 Isaiah talks about the greatness of this One who he has promised will come.
2. And in the final section, which we look at today, he talks about the long task of waiting for this promised One to come...
C. Isaiah 40:27–31 Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD, and my right is disregarded by my God”? 28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. 29 He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. 30 Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; 31 but 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.
II. In the time of Isaiah
A. God gives to His people many stupendous promises. But He doesn’t always fulfill them immediately. This means that God’s children must learn to wait for Him. (Ps.130:5-6, Rm.8:23-25.)
1. Waiting is a big part of life with Christ. Each of us is going to get a lot of experience at it.
2. But it’s not easy to wait. Sometimes waiting seems meaningless.
a. If you go meet someone for lunch, if they don’t show up, after a while you begin to wonder, Are they coming? Did they forget about our appointment?
b. Or imagine going on a blind date, and having what you thought was a good time. And so you schedule another time to get together. And you arrive and you begin waiting. What begins going through your mind? “Maybe the other person really didn’t like me. Maybe they were too embarrassed to say they didn’t want to get together again so they just aren’t showing up.”
3. This is a little bit similar to how we relate to God. He promises He will be there for us, but when we ask Him for something, He doesn’t give it. We ask Him to remove some obstacle and He doesn’t remove it. We ask Him to meet some need and He doesn’t meet it. And so we start thinking that God isn’t paying attention, that He doesn’t care. But, of course, God does care.
4. Some of you have had the experience of taking your child to the store and have them beg us for some treat they see on the shelf. Now we know it’s not good for them, and we know that if we give in today, they’re going to fight for it every time we’re back at the store, so we say no, hopefully for their sakes. But this is displeasing to the child, to put it mildly.
5. That’s the way it is for God. He doesn’t always give us everything we want or think we need, but it’s always because He loves us and wants the best for us. But sometimes we get angry with God, sometimes we punish Him for not doing what we want by asserting that He doesn’t care.
6. This is the opposite of waiting on the Lord. This attitude maintains that God is not going to come through, that He's abandoned us and there's so sense waiting anymore, that we're on our own.
B. That’s what the people of Judah were doing, and so Isaiah says to them in v.27, “Why do you say, O Israel, that your way is hidden from the Lord and your right is disregarded by Him?”
1. Why do you say that your way is hidden from the LORD? Don’t you know who He is?
C. And so Isaiah reminds them of who God is: 28 “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.”
1. Do you realize who you are questioning? Are you aware of who you are mistrusting?
2. If you know who He is, you know that your way CAN’T be hidden from Him.
3. God knows what He's doing. He hasn't gotten worn out. He hasn’t slacked off. He has unsearchable reasons for doing the things He does – even His delaying.
4. GOD DOESN’T FORGET ABOUT YOU!!! HE DOES NOT GET TIRED OF YOU!!! HE KNOWS YOU THROUGH AND THROUGH, HE KNOWS WHAT YOU’RE GOING THROUGH, HE KNOWS YOUR HURTS, HE KNOWS WHAT YOU NEED, HE KNOWS EXACTLY WHEN TO INTERVENE IN YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES!!!
D. Then Isaiah assures them that God will help them as they wait: 29 “He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. 30 Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; 31 but 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.”
1. It’s important to look at this in light of the promised coming of the Lord earlier in Isaiah 40:1-11.
2. God knew that in spite of His promises, it was hard for His people to keep waiting, and He knew it would get harder still. He knew that they were in for a long haul. It was going to 700 years before the coming of the promised Lord.
3. So, He wanted them to know that He would help them in their waiting. He would strengthen them in their waiting.
III. In the time of Christ
A. Over those 700 years of waiting, more and more people gave up hope. That’s what you’d expect. Some fought for a better life. Some were content just to have their jobs and their families. But the really amazing thing is that miraculously some people kept waiting in expectation for God to fulfill His promises.
1. And so it was that when our Lord Jesus was finally born, some were still trusting in the Lord’s promises in Isaiah 40 and elsewhere.
2. These folks are referred to in Luke 2:38, “Coming up at that very hour (Anna) began to give thanks to God and to speak of (Jesus) to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.”
a. Simeon was one of those who were waiting for the redemption of Israel. This is how he is described in Luke 2:25 “There was a man whose name was Simeon, and this man was...waiting for the consolation of Israel.” (a reference to Isaiah 40:1).
3. Generally, they were obscure, insignificant people. Besides Anna and Simeon, we know also about only Zacharias, Elizabeth, Mary, and Joseph.
a. There were many others, of course, whose names we don’t know. Through all those centuries, there were those who clung to God’s promises – in Isaiah and elsewhere.
b. They may seem distant from us – and different from us – but that is far from the truth.
c. Heb.11:38 says the world was not worthy of them. Hopefully, we are their modern equivalents.
d. Though we know only a few of their names, I love these dear people.
e. Their faith, their waiting was the most spectacular thing going on at that time in history, though it certainly didn’t appear so at the time. (When the ancient world’s Person-of-the-Year awards were given that year, these people were the last ones to be considered.)
f. But while most of the world was stuck in the mud, these few were soaring by the grace of God.
g. They were the heroes of their day, and heroes to us as well. Their waiting on the Lord, and the Lord’s renewing of their strength are part of what makes the Christmas story so beautiful and powerful.
B. They are the ones Isaiah 40 is talking about. They received the promise of the coming Lord and they waited. And when they grew weary He gave them power and increased their strength. By His power they mounted up with wings like eagles; they ran and were not weary; they walked and didn’t faint. How else do you think they could have persevered like they did?
1. God doesn’t just give His people the assignment to remain faithful, He strengthens them to do it.
2. Football: sometimes a lineman will basically carry the running back who has the ball forward toward the first down line or the goal line. This is like what God does for us!
IV. Today in our lives
A. Our situation is very similar to the situation of these OT believers, for eventually the promise was fulfilled: Jesus was born and He lived an amazing life on earth. Then He died on the cross and was raised from the dead and ascended into heaven.
1. But He didn’t do everything the prophets said He would do.
2. (The coming of the Lord was revealed in numerous ways in the OT. However, the fact that His coming was going to be in two parts was not revealed until He came the first time.)
3. Of course, it is true: Christ HAS come and we can sing, Joy to the World, the Lord Has Come!
4. And most advent sermons focus on the significance of His coming.
5. But it is also true that we are waiting for Christ to come again and finish what He began.
B. The fact is, we’re back in a waiting posture, like those who waited for His first coming.
1. And God knows that this waiting is hard for us as it was for them. He knows at times it’s going to be tempting to think He’s abandoned us. He knows that sometimes we are going to feel weary.
C. And so He gave us many encouragements and many resources, so we’re even better equipped than these OT saints! We have been given even more help, even more knowledge, even more perspective, even more assurance, even more guarantee!
1. For one thing, we have seen His first coming! The ancient promise is already largely fulfilled! We have Immanuel, God with us! He is with us – and even in us – through the Holy Spirit, to the end of the age!
2. We have the example of those who faithfully waited the first time – and then saw their reward.
3. We have the glorious announcement of Christ’s birth by the angels, pointing forward to the last day when “the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, & with the sound of the trumpet of God.” 1Thes.4:16 (Cf. Mat.24:31, 1Cor.15:52.)
a. (Those angels weren’t just speaking & singing to the shepherds, they were singing to us as well!)
4. We have seen the shepherds abandon their sheep without a thought in order to rush to see this baby the angels had told them about, who then went about glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen (Luke 2:20). They were like the man who found a treasure in the field and went and sold everything he had in order to buy the field (Matt.13:44). Just like that man, when they were told of the treasure in the field, they didn’t have to deliberate, they didn’t have to weigh the pros and cons. They joyfully gave up everything in order to find the Treasure in the manger.
5. We have the joy of those whose waiting expectations were fulfilled in His birth. Simeon, who said, “Now I’m ready to die, for my eyes have seen the promised salvation.” (Luke 2:29-30)
D. These things are fuel for us as we run the race, for there’s a day like that coming for all who wait on the Lord, a day which will make all the little concerns of our lives look so small, and all the joys of earth seem like nothing.
1. Right now we’re back in the same mode as those who were waiting for the consolation of Israel, anticipating something coming which will change everything, when He will appear in glory “so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Phil.2:10-11
2. In the OT, God promised He would come. It took a long time, but He came. And then He promised He would come again. It’s taking a long time again. How blessed are those who are waiting. How blessed are those who cry out, “Come, Lord Jesus, come!” (Rev.22:20)
3. How blessed are those who remember that in the meantime God is the strengthener of the weak and weary.
a. 29 He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.
b. If you feel weak and weary, there is great news for you! God is in the strengthening business: He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.
4. There are some who rarely feel weary. But even the most enduring get weary and exhausted.
a. 30 Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; 31 but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength.
b. People often don’t think to encourage them because they hardly ever seem to need it.
c. But Jesus said, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” Matt.11:28-30
E. You see, there are two types of waiting: there’s waiting because there is no other option and there’s Christian waiting, waiting for the Lord WITH the Lord.
1. Remember Christ’s parable of the ten virgins waiting for the bridegroom (Matt.25:1-13)?
a. All ten were waiting, but there was two different kinds of waiting going on.
b. The wise virgins were waiting with the oil of the HS, with the oil of God’s presence.
c. The foolish virgins were just waiting. They were waiting without God.
2. I saw a news story which illustrates this about a Florida man named James Bain who was in prison for 35 years, but was exonerated after a DNA test showed he could not have committed the crime. “I'm not angry,” he told reporters, “I got God in my head. I knew one day He’d reveal me.”
a. Think about all the people in prison unjustly (or even justly) who are forced to wait, but face their situation with anger and bitterness. They’re mad at God for letting them be there.
b. But it seems that James Bain waited with oil in his lamp.
3. God’s complaint against His people is in v.27 Why do you say, “My way is hidden from the LORD; my situation is disregarded by my God.”
a. But notice what His complaint is NOT! His complaint is NOT, “Why do you say, ‘My way seems hidden from You, O LORD.’”
b. On the contrary, there are many Holy Spirit-inspired prayers in the Bible just like that.
c. E.g. Psalm 44:9–26 You have rejected us and disgraced us...19 You have broken us ...and covered us with the shadow of death... 23 Why are you sleeping, O Lord? Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever! 24 Why do you hide your face? Why do you forget our affliction? 25 Our soul is bowed down to the dust; our belly clings to the ground. 26 Rise up; come to our help! Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love!
d. That kind of complaint God doesn’t condemn, in fact, He encourages it.
e. So, what’s the big difference between “My way is hidden from the LORD” and “My way seems to be hidden from You, O LORD.”?
(1) “My way is hidden from the LORD” is a defiant declaration.
(2) “My way seems hidden from You, Lord” is a desperate prayer. And as a prayer, it is not just said in exasperation. It is said in faith. It is said to the One who gives strength to the weary.
(3) “My way is hidden from the LORD” is something a person says to himself. It is something a person says who thinks he is ultimately alone.
(4) “My way seems hidden from You, Lord” is something said by a person who – even though he is feeling alone – ultimately knows he’s NOT alone, who knows that God is there with him.
4. Another thing about Christian waiting can be seen in v.31b: “They shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”
a. My old pastor, Dr. Richard Halverson, took this as the three stages of the Christian life: the youth soaring on wings of eagles, the adult running and not growing weary, and finally the old person walking without fainting.
b. But whether or not that is true, this part of the verse makes it clear that God doesn’t just want us merely surviving. He wants us moving forward; He wants us soaring; He wants us making progress; He wants us pressing on. He doesn’t wants us stuck where we are.
c. He wants to empower us to step out in faith, not just to keep safe.
d. As Paul says in Philippians 3:13–14, “Straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
e. “Therefore, let us lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross.” – Hebrews 12:1–2
5. And what is this prize we strive after?
a. We wait to see Him face to face. We wait to be held in His arms, and for Him to wipe our tears.
b. We wait for deliverance from our sin. We wait for relief from our pain.
c. We wait for comfort in place of mourning as He promised, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Matt.5:4).
d. We wait for laughter to replace our crying (Luke 6:21) and for our mourning to be turned to dancing (John 16:20).
e. We wait for reconciliation with loved ones who have already left us, or the loved ones we leave when it’s our time.
f. We wait for the meaning of all those things which seemed to be meaningless on earth. (We wait to see the other side of the needlepoint.)
g. We wait for the great reward promised to those who were hated, excluded, reviled and spurned on account of Christ. (Luke 6:22-23)
6. Beloved, never will there be such a fulfillment of the expression, “It was worth the wait!”