By Stephen Savas
You need comfort. Sure, you may not be in the darkest days of life. You may not know the worst of your sorrows. But like everyone else, everyone living in a sin-cursed world, your heart needs comfort.
Israel needed comfort. They had the greatest privilege of any nation on the earth. Yahweh, the only true and living God, had chosen them. He blessed them. He multiplied them. He brought them into the land he had promised them. But they broke his covenant, and the land spewed them out.
In his righteousness, Yahweh would deliver them to exile for their rebellion. He patiently warned them, and yet they stubbornly disobeyed. As exiles, they lived under foreign rulers. They lived longing for home. They lived without a place to rest. They needed comfort.
Isaiah 40 begins just the needed proclamation of God’s faithfulness to Israel and with them the blessing of the rest of the world: “‘Comfort, O comfort my people’ says your God” (Isaiah 40:1). Imagine hearing these words while you’re longing for home. Think about hearing these words while you’re being disciplined for your sins. What would it be like to hear these words while you’re desperate for forgiveness and for your God?
Isaiah 40:25–31 is a pillar of the promise of comfort that began the prophecy. How can we know that those words of comfort are not empty? Assurance comes through the reality that the strong God, Yahweh, will do the work himself. How stunning is that? Comfort is tender, but comfort is not weak. Comfort needs the strength of the eternal God to stand.
If you need comfort because of the burdens of your sin, or if you need comfort because you’re suffering because of the effects of sin upon this world, then you need to hear about a God whose strength can rescue you from even the darkest days.
In a word, God’s personal strength is inexhaustible (vv. 26–28). Israel must never look to anyone besides him for their restoration. He asks: “To whom then will you liken Me that I would be his equal?” The answer: No one.
Israel’s God is the one who has “created the stars.” His power leads the whole host of them. That’s important for Israel because their history is one of being scattered. Displaced. Who can they trust to keep track of such a nation? The one who calls every star in the sky “by name.” The one who sustains each one perfectly because of “the greatness of His vigor and the strength of His power.” The rest of the world might scoff at them. The nations might ignore their plight. But Israel can never rightly say of their God, “My way is hidden from Yahweh.” God’s faithfulness will not pass them by because his strength will keep them. The “Creator of the heavens” will never become “weary or tired.” If he can lead the heavens, surely he can lead his people!
Because of God’s imparted strength, Israel can never confidently look to any other so-called savior for their emotional and spiritual healing (vv. 29–31). To the weary, he “gives power.” To the one who lacks, he “increases might.” Where their vitality was palpably absent, Yahweh will impart his own strength.
The one who hopes in him will receive “new power.” Not power that comes from below, which fluctuates and needs renewal. God’s power is from above, enabling Israel to “mount up” like eagles and soar. To never grow tired, to never grow weary. This is glorious news. In his letter to the Romans, Paul envisions this restoration of the nation of Israel as the herald of the resurrection of all of those who follow Jesus, giving them "life from the dead" (Romans 11:15).
Do you know the strength of God? In the wake of sin’s burdens and hardships that are everywhere in a broken world, does the strength of God uphold your heart? Praise be to God that, in Jesus, his rescuing strength comes to those who know him.
––Stephen Savas
