Wait Upon the Lord
Isaiah 40:27-31
I’ve entitled our message this morning, “Wait Upon the Lord,” but I could have easily justified calling it “Fly, Run and Walk,” and you’ll see why as we continue along. But since much of the message is focused on flying, I want to open with an illustration that pertains to WWII military aviation:
“John Gillespie Magee, Jr. was an American born of missionary parents in Shanghai in 1922. His father was an American; his mother originally a British citizen. Magee returned to the States and earned a scholarship at Yale. With England’s very existence [being] threatened by the air power of the Third Reich, Magee, instead of entering Yale, joined hundreds of other American men in crossing over into Canada to join the Canadian Royal Air Force. He entered flight training when he was only 18, and by the next year he was flying combat missions over France and defensive missions against the German Luftwaffe over Britain. On September 3, 1941, Magee tested a new model of the Spitfire V, taking it to an altitude of 30,000 feet. This experience inspired [the poem] ‘High Flight’ . . . which Magee composed on the back of an envelope,”(1) and here’s what he wrote:
Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed and joined the tumbling mirth,
Of sun-split clouds, and done a hundred things.
[I’ve] dreamed of, wheeled and soared and swung,
High in the sunlit silence, hovering there;
I’ve chased the shouting wind along and flung,
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious burning blue,
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace,
Where never lark, or even eagle flew;
And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod,
The high un-trespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.(2)
That journey to 30,000 feet was obviously a high point in Gillespie’s career – pun intended. You see, aviation can serve as a metaphor for life. Life is full of many highs and lows; from passing your private pilot checkride, to not having a plane to fly afterwards; from getting that dream job, to finding out that it’s not all you expected; from having your fairy-tale wedding, to undergoing a brutal divorce; from the mountain top to the valley – and God’s people, Israel, were definitely in a low spot.
Our primary passage today is addressed to those who lived in the southern part of Israel, known as Judah. Their plight extends through two foreign take-overs; the first being at the hands of the Assyrians in 721 B.C. Isaiah chapters 1-39 address the sins leading up to the Assyrian invasion. In Isaiah 36:1, we read this: “Now it came to pass in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah that Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them.” Judah was allowed to be taken by Assyria, because the people had rejected the Lord by worshipping foreign gods and idols; and also, because King Hezekiah had put his trust in the power of Egypt (Isaiah 30:1-2).
But God had promised that He would wait for the petitions of His people; meaning that He would not walk off and abandon them. He would listen for their prayers of repentance and their cries for deliverance. We read in Isaiah 30:18-19, “Therefore the LORD will wait, that He may be gracious to you; and therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you. For the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for Him. For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will be very gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears it, He will answer you.” In these verses, the Lord said that He would wait for His people. But they needed to do what? They needed to wait for Him. To “wait on the Lord” (Isaiah 40:31) would be the key to their deliverance. It’s also the key to ours!
So, in Isaiah chapters 1-39 we learn about the sins leading up to the Assyrian invasion; but Isaiah chapters 40-66 speak about the Babylonian captivity of 587 B.C. – and God allowed the captivity to happen because the people of Judah kept repeating the same sins. But the promise of Isaiah 30:18-19, about being delivered by waiting on the Lord, was still relevant during the Babylonian captivity.
When we come to our main passage in Isaiah chapter 40, the world leader is Cyrus, king of Persia – and God was preparing to deliver His people from captivity! In 541 B.C. Cyrus “issued the decree that permitted the Jews to return to their land to rebuild the city and the temple (Ezra 1:1-4).”(3) In our primary passage, we find words of encouragement that were meant to lift the people out of the depths of despair to soar on new heights – words that tie back to the original promise found in Isaiah 30:18-19. So, let’s all stand at this time in honor of God’s Word, as we read Isaiah 40:27-31.
27 Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel: “My way is hidden from the LORD, and my just claim is passed over by my God?” 28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. 29 He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength. 30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, 31 but those who wait on 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.
So, what I want to do here is apply this passage to those of us today. Now, as I already pointed out, Judah had been taken captive by foreign invaders and carried off to a strange land. This had occurred more than once; and this last time, at the hands of the Persians, was an extremely low point for Israel. They felt that God must not have been listening to their prayers; that perhaps He didn’t care; or that maybe He didn’t even exist – and this is how many of us feel during the low points of our life. But God is there. His ways, as the Scripture says, are often beyond understanding (v. 28). So, how do we know that He’s there? Well, one thing is that He gives us the strength to carry on. God doesn’t promise that we won’t have any trials, but He does promise that He will be with us in the midst of the dark valley; and He can cause us to rise up on eagle’s wings (v. 31).
I said earlier that I could have called this message, “Fly, Run and Walk,” because God enables these three things when we wait on Him. So, let’s first look at flying. We read in Psalm chapter 103, “Bless the LORD, O my soul . . . who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies . . . so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s . . . The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy . . . For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:2, 4-5, 8, 11-12). God not only helps us in this present life; but for those who fear Him – the Bible says – He has removed their sins from them, so that one day, when they transition from this life to the next, they will mount up with wings like an eagle and soar straight into heaven.
Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” This one verse teaches that each and every person in the world has sinned, and that sin separates us from God. Sin and holiness cannot occupy the same space; and because of sin, we cannot go to heaven. Instead, we will descend into the ultimate place of despair – a pit called hell (Romans 6:23). Sin must first be removed before we can go to heaven. So, how has God removed our sins? In 2 Corinthians chapter 5, we read that “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing [or charging] their trespasses to them . . . For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:19, 21). Jesus, the perfect Lamb of God and sinless sacrifice, died on the cross; thereby, taking the punishment for our sin on Himself. He died for us, so that we might live – live eternally, that is.
So, because of what Jesus did on the cross, we know we can soar like an eagle in the next life, but what about now? How do we who have suffered some disappointment or heartache, such as the loss of a loved one, or some other tragedy or set-back; how do we go on? In Isaiah chapter 40, we read about “those who wait on the LORD” (v. 31). Does this mean that those who are “patient” will receive God’s help? Well, not quite. “The basic meaning of the verb ‘to wait’ is to wind or twist. From this root comes such [a] noun as ‘spider’s web.’ To ‘wait [on] the Lord,’ therefore, means to let Him become your lifeline, your cord of escape.”(4) Before we can rise up from the low places, we must first lean on our lifeline – and every mountain climber, BASE jumper and skydiver knows exactly what that means. It means to put our full trust in, and to throw our entire weight upon that line.
That’s how it is with God. We’ve got to fall on Him as we would fall on the lines of a parachute. The Bible says in Deuteronomy 32, “As an eagle stirs up its nest, hovers over its young, spreading out its wings, taking them up, carrying them on its wings, so the LORD . . . made him ride in the heights of the earth” (vv. 11-12, 13). Search the internet, and you’ll see real-life photos of an eagle carrying her young on her back in flight. This really happens! You see, only when we fall on the Lord, like the eaglet falls on its mother’s back, can He carry us on His wings to fly into the heights and rise above the storm.
So, let’s now look at running. When we “wait” on the Lord, then the Lord removes the “weight” – W-E-I-G-H-T. He removes the weight of sin and the weight of our burdens so that we can’t be easily shaken. We read in Hebrews 12:1, “Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” When I hear this verse, it reminds me of the patch worn on a high school letter jacket by those who run track. Back when I was in high school, the patch was a foot with wings attached to the ankle. Think about the runner who trains for months on end while wearing heavy ankle weights. When he finally takes off the weights, it’s like he can fly – and so it is with those who wait on the Lord. He enables us to cross the finish line and be victorious! But what about when it seems like we’re not making any progress; that life is moving at a snail’s pace and we just can’t seem to move past our heartache or troubles?
Well, let’s now look at walking. The well-known Bible teacher Page Kelley said, “The man of faith may sometimes soar on eagle’s wings or run without wearying, but most of the time he merely walks. And the real test of his faith comes, not when he flies or runs, but when he must plod along.”(5) Life has many highs, but there are also a lot of lows. To tie this in with our opening illustration, every pilot in training has to realize that life is full of highs and lows. He spends months flying a few times every week, feeling like he’s on top of the world. But one day, when the training is all done and he passes his checkride – unless he becomes a career pilot – the flying is not as frequent, and he’s faced with the reality of becoming a ground-dweller once again. The excitement wanes and the plodding starts all over.
Not all of us are pilots; however, all of us do face trials and struggles. Whether you are a grounded pilot, someone who’s lost a job or been through a bad relationship, or even experienced the death of a loved one, you must continue walking if you want to cross the finish line of life – and the Lord can help us do just that if we will “wait on Him” and fall on Him in time of need. It’s been said, “Slow and steady wins the race,” and sometimes that might just mean to keep walking.
Warren Wiersbe says, “As we wait before Him, God enables us to soar when there is a crisis, to run when the challenges are many, and to walk faithfully in the day-by-day demands of life.”(6) “I can plod,” said William Carey, the father of modern missions. “That is my only genius. I can persevere in any definite pursuit.”(7) Wiersbe continues to say, “The greatest heroes of faith are not always those who seem to be soaring; often it is they who are patiently plodding . . . As we wait on the Lord, He enables us not only to fly higher and run faster, but also to walk longer. Blessed are the plodders, for they eventually arrive at their destination!”(8) And what is that destination?
Time of Reflection
In our opening illustration, I shared about Magee, the military pilot who wrote the poem “High Flight” after having soared to 30,000 feet during a Spitfire V test flight. “Only three months later, [on] December 11, 1941, Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee, Jr. was killed when his Spitfire V was flying in virtually zero visibility and collided with an Oxford Trainer over Tangmere, England.”(9) Magee was raised in a missionary family. He also spoke of God in his poem. He probably had a relationship with Jesus Christ; and so, his final flight and, thus, his final destination led to heaven.
We read in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, “If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus . . . For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord” (vv. 14, 16-17). If we know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, then one day we will take our final flight straight to heaven; and if we are still alive on the earth when Jesus returns, then we will fly straight up into the sky to meet the Lord in the air! We will truly mount up with wings like eagles!
Page Kelley said, “To wait [on] the Lord . . . means to respond in faith to the proclamation of His coming. Although His coming still lies in the future, the response of faith makes its benefits immediately available.”(10) To respond in faith to the proclamation of the Lord’s coming means to be prepared for His coming. The way we prepare is to make sure that our sins have been forgiven, so that we will be able to abide in the presence of a holy God. Our sins can only be removed and forgiven by Jesus Christ. He died for our sins on the cross; and the forgiveness of sins that was bought and paid for by His sacrifice, only takes effect in our life when we confess Him as Savior and Lord. If the Holy Spirit is speaking to your heart about the need for forgiveness and salvation, then I invite you to walk the aisle and pray to receive Jesus into your heart and life.
NOTES
(1) The Airman’s Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2012), p. 1162.
(2) Ibid., p. 1162.
(3) Warren Wiersbe, “The Complete Old Testament in One Volume,” The Wiersbe Bible Commentary (Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook, 2007), p. 1183.
(4) Page Kelley, “Isaiah,” The Broadman Bible Commentary, vol. 5 (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1971), p. 302.
(5) Ibid., p. 302.
(6) Wiersbe, p. 1185.
(7) Ibid., p. 1185.
(8) Ibid., p. 1185.
(9) The Airman’s Bible, p. 1162.
(10) Kelley, p. 302.
