Haven’t You Known?

“Hope is a thing with wings.” ~ Emily Dickenson

This week’s passage from the book of Isaiah is a wonderful text. It affirms God’s creative and sustaining power, omniscience, and faithfulness. It promises that those who “wait for the Lord” — those who trust in God — shall not be disappointed.

There’s also the great line about the Eternal having created and counted all the stars in the heavens — and even knowing all of their names! As Christians we hear this as a foreshadow of Jesus’ teaching that God takes note of each sparrow that falls, and knows the number of hairs on our heads (Matthew 10:29; Luke 12:6).

Sadly, when we hear these words from the prophet we’re usually too distracted to pay much attention. That’s because most of us know Isaiah 40:28-31 as a text that is read at funerals. And that’s a pity.

That’s not to say it isn’t a lovely passage for that context; giving us comfort and hope in a difficult time. It speaks of God’s mercy, power and healing grace. We are reminded of the Life to Come, when we shed this mortal coil and our soul spreads her wings: when we shall soar like eagles, and will never sicken nor grow tired.

We hear it as a promise of our loved one’s crossing over heaven’s threshold.

But Isaiah’s message was far more than that. The prophet’s testimony to what God can do was not a “Someday, just you wait and see!” prediction, but a promise for this very day. He was affirming the reality of what can happen when we rely on the grace and power of our Creator.

The Work of the Prophet

The prophets spoke about God and for God. They served as advisors — sometimes in an official administrative capacity, often as deeply-resented “freelancers” — to the king and the people. They retold the holy story of the Exodus and of the blessed covenant that bound the Hebrew people to the Lord; they insisted that everyone — king and commoner alike — was obliged to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God (Micah 6:8). And they warned of the dangers that could befall the country if the people did not follow the Way of the Lord.

The prophets addressed the issues of public policy, diplomacy, and warfare. They were concerned with the survival of their people and the continuance (and later, the restoration) of the kingdom of Israel. Their work was to ensure that people lived their lives faithfully. What happened after death was a mystery; perhaps it was a shadowy half-life in Sheol, perhaps an endless “sleep with one’s ancestors” — that was known to God alone. What mattered was the Here and Now.

A Sense of Perspective

When Isaiah speaks of God brushing away the wicked like dust from the divine sleeve, he’s talking about this world: about the short and ultimately meaningless lives of those who were doing evil things at that time. Their power would evaporate, their castles crumble, the moths would dine on their expensive furs.

Even at their peak, surrounded by servants and slaves to do their bidding, able to buy anything they might desire, these “princes” were nothing when compared to the Creator of the Universe. In the Big Picture they were like so many grasshoppers bounding across the lawn: here today, gone tomorrow.

Isaiah’s prophecy (what we might call “truth-speaking”) gives us a sense of perspective. Those who profit through dishonesty, misconduct, and lies have achieved a very temporary form of success. Their power is of an extremely limited kind; we need have no fear of them.

What really matters — the One who really matters — is God. And we really matter to God: the One who has been faithful to us, who cares for us, who has given us life. It is God who deserves our respect, and God upon whom we can rely.

As a later Jewish writer would put it, “If God is for us — who can be against us?”

The Possible

On our own we can do but little. As the prophet said, children can grow tired, and even strong young men can drop from exhaustion. No matter how young or old we are, our strength is limited, our energy runs out, our enthusiasm can flag, our courage can fail us. We can start to lose our faith, we cease believing that a change for the better is possible.

And that is where Isaiah’s words come in, and the reason they are so important for us to understand as a message for today. If we trust in God — if we rely on the Power that Created the World — there is nothing that we cannot do. “For God, all things are possible” (Mt 19:26, Lk 18:27, Mk 10:27).

If we trust in God we will never lose hope. We will believe that situations can change, that people can change, that we can change; we will trust that things can and will improve.

The Promise

As pessimistic as the prophets could be — and they were the originators of “gloom and doom” — there was always, always, always a promise of hope and renewal. Time and again they pronounced that the path of salvation (the way out of the mess they were in) was for the people “(re)turn to the Lord.”

What was needed was a shift in priorities, a clear sense of perspective; the people needed to realize that what really mattered was a love of God and love for their neighbor. They had to believe that their lives, their families, their country — that anything and everything — could change for the better. The people had to remember that what God has done before, God can do again. They needed to have faith: “to trust in the Lord.”

Those who rely upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall arise with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

When Isaiah spoke about renewed strength, he wasn’t talking about a distant hope, but a present promise. He was speaking about a daily reality; telling us The Way It Is that was true in his time and in ours.

It is still true that those who trust in God will renew our strength. We can arise each day with hope and courage, we can run and not be weary. We will have faith that the Beloved will sustain us, though our life’s path may be long and winding. We will dare to believe, and to keep trying — to find work, to overcome an addiction, to face an illness, to speak out against wrongdoing, to confront our fears, or (and this can be hardest of all) to learn to be ourselves: the sacred, wonderful beings our God designed us to be.

In the sure and certain knowledge of our Creator’s abundant love for us, we can soar like eagles.

Virtual hugs and real-time blessings,

Deborah +

This Week's Spiritual Exercise

What makes you weary? Are there particular attitudes or events or persons or tasks or things that seem to sap the lifeforce from your body and soul? What causes you to say, “I’m sick of ...” or “I’m really tired of...”? What would happen if you turned this over to God?