Read Numbers 16, Isaiah 40, and Acts 15.
This devotional is about Isaiah 40.
The last verse in today’s reading from Isaiah, 40:31, is one of the best-known passages in the book of Isaiah for many people. It is a verse that gives encouragement to hope in the Lord when we are weak. Not surprisingly, then, many believers find it uplifting to read and recite when they are discouraged. That is an excellent use of the verse; even more so when you read the whole chapter.
- The passage opens by offering comfort for God’s people who have suffered in judgment for their sins under foreign oppression (vv. 1-2).
- Verses 3-11 tie that comfort to the coming of the Messiah:
- Verses 3-4 were applied to John the Baptist as the forerunner of Christ
- Verses 5-11 mostly describe the promises that Christ will fulfill when he establishes his earthly kingdom.
- Verses 12-26 describe why the Lord will be able to bring such comfort to his people and fulfill these promises. He can do it because he is infinite. God eclipses everything we think is large on earth or the rest of the universe (v. 12). God can also comfort his people because of his complete knowledge and wisdom (his omniscience, vv. 13-14). In the shadow of God’s infinite power, infinite wisdom, and infinite knowledge, other nations which seem so strong and imposing to us are insignificant (vv. 15-17).
What about other gods, though? Please; they are not worth mentioning in the same breath with the true God. Those idols were created by human beings who foolishly bow down and worship them (vv. 18-20).
But those who worship false gods should not act like they’ve never heard of the true God. God is everywhere—sitting “enthroned above the circle of the earth” (v. 22) and taking down powerful human rulers at will (v. 23).
There is no other god like the true God. Nothing escapes his notice (v. 27) or is beyond his capabilities (v. 28). Faith in him, then, calls us to look to him for strength.
Are you trying to handle everything in your life on your own? No matter how capable you are, you can’t carry the weight of the world.
But God can and he calls to you to come to him and look to him for strength to live each day out for his glory (v. 31).