Lift up your eyes on high, and see! Who hath created these things, bringing out their host by number? He calleth them all by name; through the greatness of his might and strength of power, not one faileth.
God does not answer doubt with an argument. He tells His people to look up at the night sky and ask who made it — and the answer turns out to be their own Shepherd.
Just before this, the passage mocks the people who make idols. One writer sets what human hands make against what fills the sky:
God is great beyond all our thoughts. In the presence of His glory, how foolish and contemptible are the makers of carved images that cannot even move. How feeble and small are men too. They appear only as grasshoppers, and their princes and judges as nothing and worthless, and as stubble in the face of a whirlwind. We may also lift up our eyes and behold the mighty creation outside our little earth; all numbered and named by Him, and upheld by Him too, so that not one fails. He who created them has no equal and cannot be likened to any other. We do well to ponder this magnificent passage, for this God of indescribable power and majesty has been made known to us in Christ as our Father.
Notice that God never sets out to prove He exists. He points at what He made and lets it speak:
There is no elaborate argument in proof of the existence of God. The Holy Spirit could not take up anything of that kind. God reveals Himself. He makes Himself known by His works… Who but "God" could "create" anything? "Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these?"
The God who made the stars also keeps them going. One writer says plainly who this Creator and Sustainer is:
He is next described as "upholding the universe by the word of His power." He is the God of providence as well as the Creator. This is no mysterious pagan deity that we believe in along with all mankind. If only the God of providence were more widely recognised as our Saviour and Redeemer too. He it is who upholds all things, who brings forth the heavenly hosts, calling them all by their names, for He is strong in might; not one fails. But you say, "It is God, surely." Yes, but God the Son, blessed be His name.
God brings the stars out by number and calls them by name. One writer shows what such counting means, starting from the day God counted Israel:
This was an expression of His rights as Lord of Israel. He had title to take their number, for they were all His own. If He had no right to them, and no prospects in them, He would not have counted them. The same divine title appears in another part of His dominions: "He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names." This is the expression of His sovereignty among the heavenly hosts.
The words "not one is missing" speak of order as well as power:
Those heavenly bodies display His power by their immensity. They also display His wisdom and skill in the harmony with which they follow their appointed courses. He who created them holds them fast in their orbits of unthinkable greatness. "Not one fails." There is no discord, no clash — all makes melody as they declare His glory.
The One who marshals the stars is the same One who cares for weak people:
His glory and power serve His goodness to His people. So they will rejoice that their Shepherd is none less than Jehovah, who counts all creation a very little thing, and the nations less than nothing. What a death-blow to any likeness of Him! — to an image carved by man! He marshals the host of heaven and calls each by name. He also gave poor Jacob his princely name. He never faints; He gives power to the faint. Those who wait for Him shall renew their strength, as Israel will in that day.
- Look — God does not argue that He exists. He points to the night sky and reveals Himself by His works.
- Create — only God can create. Writers point to this verse and say the Creator is God the Son.
- Number — to count something is to claim it. God counted Israel because they were His own, and He counts the stars by the same right.
- Name — He calls each one by name. No member of that vast host is anonymous to Him.
- Uphold — "not one is missing" means perfect order above, and strength below for people who feel faint.
Why sayest thou, Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from Jehovah, and my right is passed away from my God?
Isaiah 40 opens with God telling His prophet to comfort His people. By verse 27 we learn why they needed comfort: the nation had decided that God no longer noticed their path or cared about their cause. What follows is not a scolding but a question, and the answer God gives is Himself.
These words come from people who had stopped believing God was watching, and who turned elsewhere for help. One writer sets the charge against what creation itself declares about God.
In the presence of creation's witness to the power and glory of God, Israel is rebuked for turning to idols in unbelief. They acted as if their way, with all its difficulties, were hidden from God, and as if He did not care about the rights of His people. What folly! The God His people are dealing with is everlasting, and always present as Jehovah — the I AM. He is also the Creator of the ends of the earth. There is no place hidden from Him.
That last line answers the first half of the complaint. To say your "right is disregarded" is to say God has stopped caring what happens to you.
God's reply reaches back past the present trouble to the beginning.
Finally, the Lord falls back on what He has been to His own from the beginning… He cannot deny Himself. He will never fail to strengthen the weakest who wait on Him. But the great public display of His ways will come at the end of the age. Then He will deliver His people from that evil heart of unbelief, which has been fatal to them all through their history.
The same words can come from a believer today. One writer applies the verse to the person whose prayers seem to go unanswered.
A dark mystery seems to hang over God's dealings with you. Things are not as in days past when His candle lit up your darkness and His sun shone on your path. You prayed then and were heard… But now clouds, darkness, difficulty, sorrow and helplessness surround you, and your heart is crushed. And the painful experience continues. If it lasted only one night, and joy and deliverance came in the morning, you could bear it. But that deliverance does not come.
The complaint may feel true. But it fails on one point: the God it accuses is the God who misses nothing.
Why this tide of sorrow, loss, bereavement, misery? The question may be unanswerable, at least by man; nor is he, in his limitations, able to ease your sorrow or lift your load. But how, oh how, can your way be hidden from Him? All things are naked and open before Him. He knows when you sit down and when you rise up, and He numbers the very hairs of your head.
Another writer turns this into a warning, and adds how God treats His people while they wait.
Let not one of those whom God calls "My people" say, "My way is hidden from the LORD, and my right is disregarded by my God." The everlasting God does not change, He cares for all His own and does not faint. No detail of their lives is too small for His notice. He bears with their waywardness and frailty and does not grow weary.
Answers are promised, but not yet. One writer asks whether we even need them.
Note this: the explanation of His ways with you will be given in good time, but not today. Does not the greater part of your difficulty lie in wanting that explanation now? Most probably. Must God explain to us the reasons behind His discipline? Is that necessary to us? Must we give our children the reason why we see fit to correct them? And if God gave us the deep secret of His corrections, would we be any better for it?
One writer names the cure, then answers the obvious objection.
What is the remedy? To wait on the Lord. Is that all? Yes; but if you wait on the Lord, you abandon every other refuge you could imagine. You reach the glorious Fountain Head, where the heart is at rest and satisfied for evermore.
Another writer names what keeps this complaint out of our mouths.
Faith and hope and patience must have their place in our souls in this matter. Otherwise we may be tempted to say, like faithless Israel, "My way is hidden from the LORD, and my right is disregarded by my God." But confidence in the Lord will keep us right.
- The charge — The words accuse God of two things: not seeing your path, and not caring about your cause. Commentators call this unbelief, not just sadness.
- The impossibility — Your way cannot be hidden from the One who numbers the hairs of your head. No detail of your life is too small for His notice.
- The delay — God promises the explanation of His dealings "in good time, but not today," and most of the pain lies in demanding it now.
- The unchanging One — He cannot deny Himself, and never fails to strengthen the weakest who wait on Him.
- The remedy — Wait on the Lord. It sounds like nothing. It means dropping every other refuge and reaching the place where the heart finally rests.
Dost thou not know, hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, Jehovah, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not nor tireth? There is no searching of his understanding.
Just before this, God's people complain that their way is hidden from the Lord and their cause overlooked (v. 27). Verse 28 answers them — not with an argument, but with a name, and with two questions that assume they already knew the answer.
One commentator hears in creation itself a rebuke to the idea that God had lost sight of His people.
Creation itself bears witness to the power and glory of God. In the face of that witness, God rebukes Israel for their unbelief in turning to idols — as if their way, with all its difficulties, were hidden from Him, and as if He did not care about the rights of His people. What folly! The God His people have to do with is everlasting, and ever present as Jehovah — the I AM; He is also the Creator of the ends of the earth. There is no place hidden from Him.
Each name in the verse removes one fear. "Everlasting" answers change; "Creator of the ends of the earth" answers distance.
So in our passage we meet the Everlasting God, the Lord Jehovah — the One who is, who ever was, and who is ever to come (Rev. 1:4). He is the Creator of the ends of the earth. We are told HE does not faint nor grow weary. He is the limitless source of power and life, the One who can know no change, no deterioration, no fading, no flux. What a comfort it is to fall back on God, whose knowledge is so great that even a sparrow does not fall to the ground without His notice.
Man at his best fades like grass. A God who never tires is more than strong — He is where trust should move.
What a contrast we see here between the greatness of God and man, who at his best is only like the flower of the grass. And the word of the gospel invites us who hear to turn away from man, and to take our hopes and confidence off him. It invites us to put our trust, without fear or doubt, in this great and wonderful God who is from everlasting to everlasting. He is unchanging in His years and almighty in His power, and He is also infinite in His pity.
One writer sets this verse beside the Gospel scene of Jesus sitting tired by a well.
The identification of Jesus with Jehovah — of the wearied Man (John 4:6) with the unwearied Creator (Isa. 40:28) — is a subject of profound interest.
Another writer starts from the other side. Creating is something only God does — so who then is the Son?
We are instructed by an inspired prophet that one attribute of Godhead is Creator... He, then, who created all things is Jehovah. We have, therefore, in this first aspect of THE SON, the clearest possible proof of His being "from everlasting."
The last clause means some questions stay open. Commentators take it as the cure for impatience, not a wall.
In the Psalms we hear the godly man more than once crying out, "How long?" How long will the wicked flourish? How long before righteousness is vindicated? We in our day may cry out "How long?" as we long for the promised coming of the Lord Jesus. But with Isaiah we have to know that "the everlasting God … does not faint or grow weary; His understanding is unsearchable." His way and His time are perfect. With this let us be content.
Not knowing now is not the same as never knowing. One writer names where the pain really comes from.
Note this: the explanation of His ways with you will be given in good time, but not today. And does not the greater part of your difficulty lie in the desire to get that explanation now?
The verse does not stop at admiration. God's own strength becomes a supply for weak people, but there is a lesson we must learn first.
Moreover, not only is there infinite power and wisdom with God, but in grace He can give power to His needy people... If He gives strength, though, we on our side have to learn our need of strength. We must learn that mere natural strength cannot sustain the people of God in the trials they meet... It is often a hard lesson to learn that the strength of nature cannot keep us in the path of faith.
- Rebuke — Our way is never hidden. The God who made the ends of the earth has no blind spots, and He is not indifferent.
- Unchanging — Everlasting and ever-present, the source of power and life: no change, no fading, no running down.
- Unwearied — He never tires. Yet the Creator named here is the same One who sat down weary at a well: almighty in power, infinite in pity.
- Unsearchable — No one can search His understanding to the end. Explanations come in His time, not ours.
- Unfailing — He never faints, so He gives strength to those who do. First we learn that our own strength cannot carry us.
He giveth power to the faint; and to him that hath no might he increaseth strength.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
Even the youths shall faint and shall tire, and the young men shall stumble and fall;
Isaiah writes to a people already worn out. Before he tells us who renews their strength, he tells us who fails — even the young and the strong.
The prophet spoke when everything had already given way.
When Isaiah spoke, everything in Israel was weakness and confusion. Their condition was sad in the Lord's sight. Yet in the riches of God's grace the Holy Spirit gave the prophet memorable and reassuring words ... He called them back to the inexhaustible source of strength found in Himself. Their youths and young men, the very people you would expect to be strong and full of life, had failed completely, and everything had collapsed.
The two words stand for human nature at its best, not its worst.
If He gives strength, we on our side have to learn our need of strength. We must also learn that mere natural strength cannot sustain the people of God in the trials they have to meet. So we read that the "youths" and the "young men" will faint and grow weary and "fall exhausted." These are the people who represent nature in its freshness and strength. It is often a hard lesson to learn that the strength of nature cannot keep us in the path of faith.
The verse does not condemn vigour itself. It exposes energy that acts on its own:
Human energy is good in itself. But if it is not exercised in dependence upon God, Satan can and will use it against God's revealed will. To those who wait upon the Lord divine power comes in, and God strengthens us to obey where human energy proves itself powerless.
If the strongest human supply runs dry, where does lasting strength come from? One writer answers with a picture of a river:
When nature fails, where can we turn for help? Only to the Spring, the unchanging Source of all life and force, the One in whom there is no change. The river is fed by the never-failing springs of the hillside. It would soon run dry if it had no such source of constant supply. So believers have a constant source of supply. God gives power to the faint, and to those who have no strength He increases might.
The collapse often starts with a very practical neglect. One writer ties it to prayer, and asks a searching question:
Hands that hang down, and knees that are feeble, may well speak of hands seldom lifted up in prayer, and knees seldom bent in prayer. Long ago the prophet had said, "Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength" (Isaiah 40:30-31). Are we not too often powerless in public because we are prayerless in private?
Verse 30 is only half the picture. The next verse turns it around.
The youth who trusts merely in his own vigour faints and grows weary. The young man who seems so tireless in his natural energy shall fall. But those who wait upon God find strength that never fails. Nature fails, but God does not fail. Weariness and fainting are unknown to Him. He gives strength to those who look to Him alone. So they may rise above the distractions of this world; or better still, run through them without any weariness; or better still, walk quietly with God despite them, and not faint.
- Strength exposed. The youths and young men picture nature at its freshest and strongest — and even that gives out.
- Strength misused. Human energy is good in itself, but Satan can turn energy that does not depend on God against His will.
- Strength supplied. The failing river points to the never-failing Spring: God gives power to the faint and increases might where there is none.
- Strength received. It comes by waiting on the Lord — and hands that never lift and knees that never bend leave us powerless in public.
- Strength that lasts. Weariness and fainting are unknown to God, and those who look to Him alone rise above this world's distractions, run through them, and walk without fainting.
but they that wait upon Jehovah shall renew [their] strength they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not tire; they shall walk, and not faint.
In this chapter Israel complains that God has lost sight of them. His answer does not change their circumstances. It changes where their strength comes from. The promise ends with three pictures: flying, running, walking. Commentators read that order in more than one way.
The verse is God's reply to people who thought their situation had escaped His notice.
Creation itself testifies to the power and glory of God. Yet Israel turned to idols. God rebukes that unbelief. They acted as if their road, with all its hardships, was hidden from Him, and as if He did not care about the rights of His people. What folly! The God His people deal with is everlasting. He is always present as the LORD — the I AM. He is also the Creator of the ends of the earth. There is no place hidden from Him.
The word carries more than sitting still. One writer traces its range:
The word "wait" in Isaiah 40:31 means looking to Him and to no one else. It also carries waiting for Him, and expecting from Him. It is a very full word. That is why translators render it in different ways. One English word cannot hold all of its meaning. So we are to wait on God alone. We are to look to Him, wait for Him, and expect from Him only. As we do this, we grow in knowing what is on God's mind. That knowledge pushes out the things we had on our own minds that do not match His.
One writer links this waiting to prayer:
Hands that hang down, and knees that are feeble, may well speak of hands seldom lifted up in prayer, and knees seldom bent in prayer. Long before, the prophet had said, "Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength" (Isaiah 40:30-31). Are we not, too often, powerless in public because prayerless in private?
The verse before this one buries the best that human nature can offer. That failure is deliberate:
But if He gives strength, we for our part have to learn that we need it. We also have to learn that our own strength cannot hold up the people of God in the trials they meet. So we read that the "youths" and the "young men" — the picture of human nature at its freshest and strongest — will faint and grow weary and "stumble and fall". It is often a hard lesson to learn that the strength of nature cannot keep us in the path of faith.
One writer notes that the word behind "renew" can also be rendered change. That shifts the whole picture — not our old strength topped up, but His strength taking the place of ours:
Their youths and young men were the ones you would expect strength and energy from. They had failed completely, and everything had collapsed. Then came the clear and blessed promise, no less for us than for Israel: "they who wait for the LORD shall renew, or change, their strength."
The exchange is often felt in an ordinary hour of discouragement:
Low moments come. Weakness makes itself felt. Our circumstances look too hard to handle. In that weakness we wait on the Lord. We bring the low mood and the weakness into His presence, and they pass away. They cannot survive there. We get up off our knees with new strength — not in the body, but in the soul.
The three verbs describe three different rates of movement:
Mounting up with wings like eagles gives the idea of power over the elements themselves — life at its most vigorous. Running does not carry the easy, graceful mastery over gravity that flying does. It suggests real effort instead, and real effort still points to strength. Walking is slow, sedate, step by step. The one that runs is not weary, the one that walks does not faint.
Commentators differ on why the order descends. Others read the descent as a climb in value, the hardest thing coming last:
so that they may rise above the distractions of this world; or better still, run through them without tiring; or better yet, walk quietly with God despite them, and not faint.
One writer fills in what each of the three pictures means:
"they shall mount up with wings like eagles" — rising in triumph over every difficulty and low mood. "they shall run and not be weary" — never tiring in their errands of service and mercy for the Lord to others. "and they shall walk and not faint" — treading the upward road with steady endurance.
- Source. God never faints or grows weary, so He is the one supply that cannot run dry — the promise rests on His nature, not on our effort.
- Emptying. Youths faint and young men fall on purpose. Learning that our own strength cannot carry us in the path of faith is the doorway into this verse.
- Exchange. "Renew" may also be read as change — we do not get our strength topped up, we trade it for His.
- Waiting. The word means looking to Him, waiting for Him, expecting from Him alone. In practice it is bent knees and lifted hands. We are often powerless in public because we are prayerless in private.
- Endurance. Flying, running and walking cover every pace of life. The last is the hardest: walking quietly with God through the distractions, and not fainting.