Waiting
Isaiah 40:31
Scripture Reading: Isaiah 40: 26-31
Sermon Idea: The trials and storms we go through always have a purpose.
There was a young father who was facing a battle in his life far beyond his abilities. His young wife was ill, then suddenly she was gone. She left the big burly young man alone to raise their toe-headed girl who was just short of being five years old.
The chapel service was a simple one but you could feel the loss those who attended felt at the passing of this vibrant young mother. After the internment at the small village cemetery, several of the man’s neighbors gathered and asked him to bring his little girl and stay with them for a few days and not yet return home.
Though the man was heart broken, he told his neighbors thank you. But they needed to go home and face what awaited them.
The burly young father and his little girl returned home. The house seemed lifeless. The man moved his daughter’s little bed into his room. He wanted them to face the darkness together.
When they went to bed that night, it seemed like an eternity to the little girl, she just couldn’t fall asleep. It was no different for her father. As the man lay there in the dark it was as if someone were plunging a knife in his heart, every time his little girl would let her sobs out for her mother, who would never return to her.
She would cry well into the night. Her father reached down into her bed and tried to comfort her. It was some time later the little girl quieted down. This was done out of deference to her daddy. The father thinking his daughter asleep, looked heavenward and said brokenhearted, "I trust You, Father, but . . . it’s as dark as midnight!"
After his prayer the father once again heard his daughter crying. "I thought you were asleep, baby" he said.
"Papa, I did try. I was sorry for you. I did try. But I couldn’t go to sleep. Papa, did you ever know it could be so dark? Why Papa? I can’t even see you, it’s so dark. But you love me even if it’s dark, don’t you, Papa? You love me even if I don’t see you, don’t you, Papa?"
To answer her, he lifted her up out of her bed onto his massive chest, until finally his little girl did fall asleep.
Finally quiet he began to pray. It was a prayer born out of his daughter’s questions. He passed them right on up to God.
"Father, it’s dark as midnight. I can’t see You at all. But You love me, even when it’s dark and I can’t see, don’t You" (Mehl 259-260)?
The nation of Israel had been going through a time of darkness. They were returning from exile, because they had not or had forgotten God’s greatness. They had been questioning His perceived absence from their lives. The name Jacob suggests the unworthiness of the nation and brings to mind the experience of their ancestor who was in exile because of his own follies. The same way God had told Jacob. He was now telling His people. Return to the Land of Promise. The people were bringing God down to their level. They thought that He was forgetful and tired.
J. Vernon McGee says,
God knows about the difficulties and problems of His people. If you belong to Him, He is able to quiet the storms of life, but sometimes there are lessons for His own to learn in the storm. When you find yourself in the midst of a storm, instead of sitting and weeping and criticizing God, why don’t you look around and find out what lesson He wants you to learn? God will not let you go through trials unless He has something for you to learn.
I. Waiting requires a purpose. (V. 31)
The great Austrian psychiatrist, Victor Frankl, has written extensively since World War II, on the relation of the meaning of life as related to the whole structure of personality. It is his thinking "that the need to find meaning in our life is more basic to a human being than pleasure and power or anything else." The thing he keeps repeating is that if a person has a "why" to live, they can endure any "how." However, if "why" is lacking, then the persons whole life eventually collapse.
Frankl’s thinking on this matter was developed when he spent a number of years in a German concentration camp. We have all heard how brutal and harsh life was in these places. The prisoners were forced to work hard with little food, clothing or shelter. Frankl began to notice how some didn’t last long under these conditions. Yet others were filled with hope and survived.
He began to use his tools as a psychiatrist, in the evening he would interview scores of his fellow prisoners about this very thing. He began to see the development of a pattern. The prisoners who had something to look forward to, an objective that, gave them something, to live for were able to mobilize the strength needed to live.
The reasons were varied. One man had a retarded child he wanted to return to raise. Another had a fiancé he was to marry as soon as the war ended. Frankl himself wanted to finish the book he had begun and get it published (Zuck 322).
II. Waiting demands discipline. (V. 31)
Roy B. Zuck tells of a young woman who was visiting Switzerland. One day she came upon a sheepfold. She saw the shepherd with his flock all around him save one. She noticed one of the sheep on some hay, he appeared to be suffering. After closer examination she saw its leg was broken. She asked the shepherd about the sheep and how it had happened.
"I broke it myself," came the shepherd’s reply. You could hear the sadness in his voice. "Of all the sheep in my flock this was the most wayward. It would not obey my voice and would not follow when I was leading the flock. On more than one occasion it wandered to the edge of a perilous cliff. And not only was it disobedient itself, but it was leading the other sheep astray. Based on my experience with this kind of sheep, I knew I had no choice, so I broke its leg. The next day I took food and it tried to bite me. After letting it lie alone for a couple of days, I went back to it and it not only eagerly took the food but it licked my hand and showed every sign of submission and affection.
When the sheep is well, it will be the model sheep of my entire flock. No sheep will hear my voice so quickly nor follow so closely. Instead of leading the others away, it will be an example of devotion and obedience. In short, a complete change will come into the life of this wayward sheep. It will have learned obedience through its sufferings" (120).
III. Waiting renews our strength. (V. 31)
There is a Greek legend that says, In ancient Athens a man noticed the famed storyteller Aesop playing childishly with some children. The man began teasing Aesop about this, and asked him why he wasted his time in such a manner.
Aesop picked up a bow, loosened it string, and placed it on the ground. He then turned to the man and asked him to tell him, what was meant by the unstrung bow?
The man looked at the bow for several minutes, but could not come up with an answer. Aesop explained, "If you keep a bow always bent, it will break eventually; but if you let it go slack, it will be more fit for use when you want it."
People are like the bow. That is why we need our strength renewed.
The closing verse of this chapter paint a wonderful picture of the God who upholds the stars also supports His weary people. Waiting entails great confident expectation and active hope in the Lord. There is never passive resignation. Soaring, running, and walking is a picture of spiritual transformation that faith brings to a person. The Lord gives power to those who trust in Him.
A black preacher in the south was preaching one day,
Brethren, this church, it needs to walk. And on of the deacons said, Amen. He continued, Brethren, this church needs to run. And the deacon said, Hallelujah. Then he said, Brethren, this church needs to fly. And this deacon said, Amen and hallelujah. Then the minister said, Well, it’s going to cost money to make this church fly. To this the deacon replied, Let her walk, brother, let her walk.
The description, in verse 31 of this chapter, forms a climax. The exceptional flying and the occasional running do not require, what the constant walking does. It requires an ever overflowing stream of grace (McGee 287).
Ladies and gentlemen, if you are going to have a move in God in your life, it’s going to cost you something. God will furnish the strength you need to accomplish that move. Along with it will come purpose, discipline, and strength.
How do we obtain these? Through faith in Him, I want to leave this note with you from W. H. Griffith Thomas, "Faith commences with the conviction of the mind based on adequate facts; it continues in the confidence of the heart or emotions based on the above conviction; and it is crowned in the consent of the will, by means of which the conviction and confidence are expressed in conduct (Zuck 142)."
Works Cited
Grogan, Geoffrey W. AIsaiah.@ Zondervan NIV Bible Commentary. 2 vols. Eds. Barker, Kenneth L. & John R. Kohlenberger III. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000.
McGee, J. Vernon. Thru The Bible. Proverbs through Malachi. Nashville: Nelson, 1997.
Mehl, Ron. AEven If It=s Dark.@ Stories for a man=s Heart. Eds. Gray, Al. & Alice Gray. Sisters: Multnomah, 2000.
Radmacher, Earl & Ronald B. Allen, H. Wayne House. Nelson=s New Illustrated Bible Commentary. Nashville: Nelson, 2000.
Wiersbe, Warren W. Wiersbe=s Expository Outlines on the Old Testament. Colorado Springs: Victor, 1999.
