Transcript SOARING LIKE AN EAGLE Isa 40:25-31

SOARING LIKE AN EAGLE
Isa 40:25-31
Focus on verses 29-31
Rev. Dr. Stephen Tee
Introduction
Isaiah 40:31 is one of those
verse that is
• famous,
continuously preached
• favorite
Why is this so?
Most encouraging God promise to the Israelites
Unfortunately
Always preached out of CONTEXT
Lost it’s the meaning what God intended
The immediate context is Isaiah 40:27-30.
Isaiah 40:25-30 gives the understanding
of the context of this passage
V25 God Himself asks a rhetorical question.
Why? Israel questioned God’ power because
they were in captivity.
They think that the gentile God is greater.
If you are so great how come we are in captivity.
Verse 26 – God says, hay, lift your eyes
• there is no one like Him!
• None is His equal!
• God identifies Himself as the Holy One,
• He is indescribably superior to all so called gods
God has just testified to His might
and power in v25 and v26 to convince
Israel that there is no God like Him
V27 Now Isaiah is addressing Jacob and...Israel
Why Jacob and Israel?
This prophecy possibly uttered prior to the
Assyrian conquest of the Northern Kingdom
(722BC) and certainly before Babylonian
conquest of the Southern Kingdom (586BC)
Jacob and...Israel could be directed at both
the Northern and Southern kingdoms who were
in captivity in Babylon.
Israel felt God has abandoned them.
Isaiah comforted them that God is
not ignorant of their condition.
V28 Isaiah reminded the Israelites of who
their God is by asking some questions.
Why Is this necessary?
Because of the exile, the Israelites
was despondent and dis-spirited.
Have you not known and heard of the Lord?
1. Through Moses
2. Through Joshua
Don’t you know that God does not: faint  grow weary  does not lack understanding
V28 God declares that He is the:
of everything by virtue of
 Creator and
His great might and power
 Sustainer
The heavenly host exists and moves, not
simply by natural laws.
He knows the name of each star in the universe
The Son of God is Himself the sustaining:
• Center,
All things
• Upholder
that exists
• and Controller
Because of their long exile, the
Israelites were:
 disillusioned
With their God
 discouraged
 downcast
God of Gentile Greater
 dis-spirited
than their God.
 despondence
They doubted God’s ability and power.
They thought God has abandoned them.
Hence God moved Isaiah to prophesy words of
encouragement and comfort in v28-31
Believers too when pressured with:
 great adversities
 disappointments
 discouragement
 disillusion
Response the
same way
V28 Isaiah asked two rhetorical questions.
Purpose - stirred the Israelites to
remembrance God's character.
• Creator
• Does not faint
• Does not grow weary
• Omniscience
Wonderful
Promises
Isa 40:29 He giveth power to the faint; and to
them that have no might he increaseth strength.
Faint also means:
 weary
 exhausted
especially emotionally
and spiritually
When one is in this condition, we need power.
The Israelites after a prolonged exile
were in this condition.
Wonderful
Promises
Isaiah reminded the Israelites Not to:
 Focus inward (themselves),
God is the source
 Focus outward (others)
of their power
 Focus upward (Godward)
Power - 381 (koah/koach) means:
• strength
• ability
• capacity
speaks of power
to act and ability
perform some function.
Wonderful
Promises
Isa 40:30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary,
and the young men shall utterly fall:
Isa 40:31 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.
Contrast between v30 and v31
“youth and young men”
Waiter of God
Wonderful
Promises
“youth and young men”
Live in their natural strength
Contrast
Waiter of God
Lives in God's:
 untiring,
 unwearying.
Supernatural
strength
Wonderful Promises
Isa 40:31 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.
Promise Not for everyone
Only to those who wait upon the Lord
Wait – 6960 (qavah) means:
• to hope for
• to look eagerly for
• linger for
Basic idea is to wait
for or look for with
eager expectation.
Wonderful Promises
Wait (qavah) includes:hope
resting (trusting)
patience
“wait” does not suggest that we:
• and do nothing
• sit around
This involves meditation:
1. On His character
2. His promises,
3. Praying.
Wonderful
Promises
Everything comes to the believer who can wait.
Waiting is the key to possession of
all God’s promises.
Greatest challenger to believers is waiting.
Many believers failed to possess their promise.
because they lack patience.
Example life of Abraham:
 Heb 6:12
 Heb 12:35-36
Wonderful Promises
Wait upon (qavah) is:
 imperative mood – not a suggestion
but a command.
 present imperative – lifestyle or
continual habit/practice
One of the most difficult aspects of the
Christian life is waiting on God.
It is especially difficult in the midst of trials
because believers expect instant deliverance
4 Promises
1. Renew strength
3. Run and not be weary
2. Mount up as eagles
4. Walk and not faint
Wonderful Promises
Exchanging Natural Strength
For Supernatural Strength
Wait upon who? Not men But the Lord
The result or effects – Renew their strength
Renew – (2498) chalap. Meaning:
• to change for the better
• to substitute
• to exchange (taking off old clothes
putting on new clothes.
"taking off" our weakness and
exchanging them for God’s strength.
Wonderful Promises
Strength - koah
• strength
• capacity
• ability
SUPERNATURAL FLYING
They will mount up with wings like eagles:
Mount up (5927) – ‘alah. Meaning:
to ascend
to rise
Describe life moving from a lower
to a higher plane.
Wonderful Promises
Wings (803) - (eber) means:
1. pinions (the terminal section of a
bird’s wing including the carpus, metacarpus,
and phalanges)
2. put forth fresh feathers (Jamieson)
To mount up with wings as eagles to rise above:
• difficulties,
• trials
• challenges
• adversities,
• infirmities
• circumstances
Wonderful
Promises
Presents a beautiful picture of an eagle
spreading its magnificent wings that
it might take advantage of the updraft
and glide almost effortlessly through the sky
In the figurative sense, a believer is uplifted
 physically,
By God’s strength
 emotionally
Or power Eph 3:20
 and/or spiritually.
Wonderful
Promises
Why did God choose an Eagles (5404) (nesher)
and not a chicken to represent a believers life.
Nature of eagles, it is noted for their:
• size
• speed,
• grace
• long feathers,
• strength, • powers of flight
• keenness of vision,
• majestic
Wonderful
Promises
Eagle:
 mounts to a lofty height, untired and undazzled
 soaring even above the fogs and mists of the
lower regions of the air,
 soaring above the very clouds, undeterred
by the lightning, wind turbulence and floating in
the pure azure above!
That is what believers are.
Do we believe?
Wonderful Promises
Metaphor of an Athlete in Scripture
They shall run (rus) means:
• to hasten,
• to make haste by running
• move very quickly
Isaiah is referring to running in a figurative sense
using a metaphor taken from runners in a race,
 who exert themselves, who strive hard
 and who spend their strength performing
or attaining some goal
Their goal was returning to Jerusalem through the
valleys and up the mountain. Needed strength.
Wonderful Promises
Note : not be weary
Not (3803) - lo’ describes factual negation.
Meaning those who walk in God's power,
they shall absolutely not get weary.
Get tired (3021) (yaga') means:
 to labor or toil and then to be weary,
 grow tired or be in need of rest
because of either physical
or emotional needs.
Wonderful Promises
Note that this pair of Hebrew verbs
(faint..weary) are used three times
(Is 40:28,30,31) clearly indicating a relationship.
Isaiah describes the vigor (strength) of youths
and young men cannot compare with God's:
 untiring strength
(Isa 40:28)
 unwearying strength
God...does not become weary or tired.
God strength will not fail in the
storms and demands of life.
Wonderful Promises
Supernatural Walking
They will walk and not become weary:
walk (1980) (halak) is the common Hebrew verb:
 for walk
 or travel from one place to another.
Clearly in context, Isaiah uses halak as a
metaphor because walking pictures our daily:
 conduct
 or behavior
 or response
In the affairs of life
Wonderful Promises
walk (present imperative) meaning:
 not a suggestion
 but a command
to make this our continual
or habitual practice
Not faint (3289) - ya'aph.
Means to grow:
 tired
 or faint.
as from physical exhaustion
Again referring to Israel arduous and
tiring return to Jerusalem from Babylon
Wonderful Promises
Conclusion
When one is
 at the lowest,
 confounded by obstacles,
 burden by seemly impossible situation
 bewildered by the darkness.
God uses the dark experiences of our life
to develop our spiritual dependency on Him.
Paul understood this secret.
God’s strength is manifested in our weakness.
Wonderful Promises
The Lord will sometimes takes us
to Babylon, where we feel:
 oppressed,
 constricted
 and closed in
This is how He is forming us into the man
or woman he wants us to be.
In the darkness of circumstances, He
transforms believers from chicken to eagle.
God desires you and I to soar like the eagle
with His strength above the storm and
lightning of our adversities.