Isa 40:21-31 They That Wait Upon the Lord Shall Renew Their Strength - Discussion

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They That Wait Upon the Lord Shall Renew Their Strength

Isa 40:21  Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?
Isa 40:22  It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:
Isa 40:23  That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.
Isa 40:24  Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown: yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth: and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble.
Isa 40:25  To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One.
Isa 40:26  Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth.
Isa 40:27  Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the LORD , and my judgment is passed over from my God?
Isa 40:28  Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD , the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.
Isa 40:29  He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.
Isa 40:30  Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:
Isa 40:31  But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

Today’s verses are a continuation of the Lord’s words assuring us of His ability to keep us secure in Him. The Lord wants us to know and trust in His promise to us:

Rom 8:37  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Rom 8:38  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Rom 8:39  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This part of the prophecy of Isaiah is the story of how King Hezekiah followed in his father’s footsteps and looked to the king of Assyria for his safety instead of looking to the Lord, and yet this lack of faith did not keep the Lord from giving King Hezekiah “a place for repentance” and the faith to withstand the king of Assyria. This is an account of how Hezekiah  usurped the Lord’s glory when the Lord destroyed 185,000 of the armies of the Assyrians sending Sennacharib home shamefaced, and yet Hezekiah’s pride of heart, and his theft of the Lord’s glory, did not keep the Lord from giving Hezekiah “a place for repentance”. Instead, the Lordstruck Hezekiah with “a sickness unto death” to humble him, and once again, the Lord gave King Hezekiah the faith to cry out to God for His mercies. When for the third time the Lord heard Hezekiah’s prayer and healed him of his “sickness unto death”, even bringing back the sun 10 degrees as a sign of the healing to come, Hezekiah again takes all the glory for these great miracles to himself, and for the third time usurps the Lord’s glory unto himself. Still the Lord had mercy on Hezekiah. This all “happened to [him]… and [it was] all… written as types of us” (1Co 10:6 and 11) to show us just how special we are to Him, and to show us that it really is impossible for anything to separate us from the love of our heavenly Father if we are His elect.

Like his predecessor, King David, Hezekiah typifies the Lord’s elect with whom the Lord has an unbreakable covenant. But the Lord’s elect are now His spiritual elect, and His covenant is now with those who are “a Jew which is one inwardly (Rom 2:28-29) and with “the Israel of God”:

Gal 6:15  For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.
Gal 6:16  And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.

This is the Old Testament covenant with King David which typified the spiritual covenant Christ now has with His elect:

2Sa 7:12  And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom.

2Sa 7:13  He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever.
2Sa 7:14  I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men:
2Sa 7:15  But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee.
2Sa 7:16  And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever.

Now we continue to be reassured of just how powerful our God is and how weak anyone or anything is that withstands Him as He fights for us:

Isa 40:21  Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?
Isa 40:22  It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:

The point being made is that God is both omnipotent and omnipresent both in the heavens and in the earth and therefore we need never be anxious about anything. But for the sake of being complete in this study, I will digress and comment on the Hebrew word translated ‘circle’ here. It is H2329, ‘chug’.

Here are the three entries for this word:

H2329
חוּג
chûg
Total KJV Occurrences: 3
circle, 1
Isa_40:22
circuit, 1
Job_22:14
compass, 1
Pro_8:27

Here are the only two other entries for this Hebrew word:

Job 22:14  Thick clouds are a covering to him, that he seeth not; and he walketh in the circuit [H2329: chug] of heaven.

Pro 8:27  When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass [H2329: chug] upon the face of the depth:

The Lord walks in the circuit of heaven (Job 22:14), and He sits on the circle of the earth (Isa 40:22). If the heavenly bodies move in a circuit, as we can observe, then it must be noted that these scriptures apply this same word to the earth… “He set a ‘chug’ upon the face of the depth”.

If the heavenly bodies move in a circuit, then so does the earth, which all serves to demonstrate that everything God does has been predetermined “before the world began”, and it is all simply fulfilling the ‘circuit’ the Lord had laid out in advance of “the beginning of the Creation of God” (Rev 3:14).

If Christ is the anti-type of Adam (1Co 15:45), then heaven is the anti-type of the earth, because we are told that God “dwells in heaven” (Psa 11:4). Therefore our old man as the “earth” is the type of heaven, because our new man as the anti-type of the earth is said to be seated with Christ in “the heavens” and we are therefore the “earthen vessel”, and the “earth, earth, earth”, as well as the “temple” to whom He speaks and in whom He dwells:​

Psa 11:4  The LORD is in his holy temple, the LORD’s throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men.

Jer 22:29  O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD .

1Co 3:16  Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

Eph 1:3  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:
Eph 1:4  According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:

Eph 2:6  And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

2Co 4:7  But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

The question of whether the earth is flat as a doctrine of this group of believers was settled by taking this to the elders three years ago. The Lord has always spoken to mankind from mankind’s perspective, just as all weathermen do until this very day. We speak of ‘sunrise’ and ‘sunset’ from our earthly perspective. The Lord did the same when telling us:

Jos 10:12  Then spake Joshua to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon.

He speaks to us from our perspective when discussing His works in our lives with words like:​

Jos 24:15  And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

2Ki 17:17  And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.

Php 2:12  Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

“The sum of [the Lord’s] word” (Psa 119:160] reveals that we can do nothing of ourselves, but these verses taken by themselves certainly make it sound as though we “choose… whom [we] will obey”… and as if “they caused their sons to pass through the fire… [and] sold themselves to do evil”, and as if we “work out our own salvation”.

As with all doctrinal matters we obeyed the Word of the Lord and sought “a multitude of counselors” as we are thrice commanded (Pro 11:14; 15:22, and 24:6). The conclusion at which the elders unanimously arrived was that the scriptures teach the earth is a moving sphere which is “swaddled” with a blanket of clouds and moves in a “circuit” around the “Sun of Righteousness”, and not the other way around.

Mal 4:2 But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.

Here is the link to that in depth study we gave to this subject from three years ago: http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/is-the-earth-flat-or-a-sphere/

The sphere is the signature of our Creator whether in the microcosm of our bodies and the bodies of all living creatures or in the macrocosm of the universe. The moon and all the observable planets are spheres. Eggs, whether of chickens or of humans, are spheres, and the very cells of our bodies are visible spheres.

Let’s return now to the encouraging and wonderful message of this chapter of Isaiah. The Lord continues to tell us of His power which is on our side if indeed we are His elect:

Isa 40:23  That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.

That is the Lord’s answer to Sennacherib’s questions to the Lord’s people at the beginning of this story:

Isa 36:13  Then Rabshakeh stood, and cried with a loud voice in the Jews’ language, and said, Hear ye the words of the great king, the king of Assyria.
Isa 36:14  Thus saith the king, Let not Hezekiah deceive you: for he shall not be able to deliver you.
Isa 36:15  Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD, saying, The LORD will surely deliver us: this city shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.
Isa 36:16  Hearken not to Hezekiah: for thus saith the king of Assyria, Make an agreement with me by a present, and come out to me: and eat ye every one of his vine, and every one of his fig tree, and drink ye every one the waters of his own cistern;
Isa 36:17  Until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards.
Isa 36:18  Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, The LORD will deliver us. Hath any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?
Isa 36:19  Where are the gods of Hamath and Arphad? where are the gods of Sepharvaim? and have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?
Isa 36:20  Who are they among all the gods of these lands, that have delivered their land out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?

“Who… among all the gods of these lands… have delivered their land out of my hand?” It was the Lord who sent His angel and destroyed the armies of “the great king, the king of Assyria”:

Isa 37:36  Then the angel of the LORD went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.

This story symbolizes our spiritual life as it stares us all in the face. The question the adversary poses to all of us is, “Who can make war with the beast?” (Rev 13:4). Sennacherib is the symbol for our own flesh, assuring us that we cannot overcome him. After all, just look around yourself. Who has ever made war with the beast and won? All we see at first is our immediate circumstances and the corruption of our own flesh, and the examples of the vast majority who are never “given… place for repentance”:

Heb 12:17  For ye know how that afterward, when he [Esau] would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.

Esau, as Jacob’s twin brother, born of the same mother, typifies the masses and multitudes of Christianity who are never given the gift of the faith of Christ to wage that war against the dragon and the beast and be “more than [a] conquerer, through [Christ]”.

We all, as Hezekiah did at the beginning of His trials, see only how few have been given to overcome the beast and his father the devil. Like Hezekiah, we all, at first, lose faith and bow down to the beast and to his father within us. This is common to all men:

Rev 13:4  And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him?

The scriptures themselves tells us that not one man who has ever lived, not even the saints of God, have of themselves ever won this war against the beast within every person who has ever lived. No one, other than Christ Himself, and then only with His Father’s spirit strengthening Him, has ever overcome the power which the great red dragon is given to rule over the beast within us:

Rev 13:7  And it was given unto him [the beast] to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.
Rev 13:8  And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

Rev 13:10  He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.

Look at what we have just read… the patience and faith of the saints is to acknowledge that even those whose names are written in the book of life of the Lamb are at first “overcome [by and] worship” the beast and must ‘kill and be killed’ with the sword of the Word of God… “here is the patience and the faith of the saints”. What the Lord is telling us throughout His Word is that we of ourselves are no better than those whose names are not in the book of life of the Lamb, and that our names are in His book of life only because the Lord has predestined that our names be there. The Lord has deliberately chosen the weak, despised and basest of men to be dragged to repentance and then to be given the faith of Christ to endure being hated of all men and to be given the patience to endure to the end all the trials and tribulations we must be able to deal with if we are given to show that same mercy to all the rest of mankind:

Rom 11:31  Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.

Jas 1:2  My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
Jas 1:3  Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
Jas 1:4  But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing [As rulers with Christ over the nations of this world, and later over all men in the  lake of fire].

Another verse which confirms that God’s elect are no better of themselves than any other is found in:

Rev 14:9  And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,
Rev 14:10  The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
Rev 14:11  And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
Rev 14:12  Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

Again we are being told that ‘the patience and faith of the saints and of those who keep the commandments of God’ is to realize that they are just as guilty of worshipping the beast and his image as those who are not given a place for repentance, and that we, too, must first “drink of the wine of the wrath of God [and] be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of Lamb before it can be said, “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandment of God and the faith of Jesus.”

It will be good for us to see Revelation 13:10 beside Revelation 14:12:

Rev 13:10  He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.

And:

Rev 14:12  Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

Revelation 13:10 is informing us that we are under the power of the beast before we are given a place for repentance, and Revelation 14 informs us that God’s elect are dragged to Him through the same fiery judgment which befalls all men who are cast into the lake of fire.

But there is a great difference. The difference is that those in the lake of fire suffer the loss of the great honor bestowed upon the “few… weak… foolish… and the base” who are granted a “place for repentance… in this present time” rather than in “the resurrection of damnation [Greek: krisis, judgment]” (Joh 5:28-29). Those “few… despised” of this world are given to have a part in the “blessed and holy… first resurrection” (Rev 20:1-6).

Joh 5:27  And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man.
Joh 5:28  Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,
Joh 5:29  And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and [a thousand years later] they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation [G2920: krisis, judgment].

The ‘fire’ which is now judging the house of God is the exact same ‘fire’ which will judge those who are cast into the lake of fire. It is the fire of the Word of God which we are told is a fiery sword proceeding forth from the mouth of Christ and His Christ:

Rev 19:21  And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.

This is the very same ‘fire’ which judges every man who is ever judged:

1Co 3:10  According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.
1Co 3:11  For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
1Co 3:12  Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
1Co 3:13  Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14  If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, [in “this present time”] he shall receive a [“Blessed and holy" - Rev 20:6] reward.
1Co 3:15  If any man’s work [“in this present time” - Rom 8:18] shall be burned, he shall suffer loss [of that “reward of having part in the blessed and holy first resurrection - Rev 20:5-6]: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire [the lake of - Rev 20:14-15].

The ‘fire’ of “the lake of fire” is the same fire, but it does its work at the second resurrection… “when the thousand years are expired” (Rev 20:7). Hence that second fire is called “the second death”:

Rev 20:6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.
Rev 20:7  And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,

The only people in all of mankind over whom “the second death has no power" are the “blessed and holy [who] have part in the first resurrection”. Anyone not in the first resurrection is cast into the lake of fire, which is the second death:

Rev 20:11  And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
Rev 20:12  And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life [those who were in the first resurrection]: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
Rev 20:13  And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
Rev 20:14  And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
Rev 20:15  And whosoever was not found written in the book of life [“the resurrection of life” a thousand years earlier] was cast into the lake of fire.

Those who are in the great white throne judgment/lake of fire/second death/resurrection of damnation are not “blessed and holy” are not given “a crown of life”, and their names are not found in “the book of life of the Lamb”. That is what it means to “suffer loss” in the lake of fire.

Here is the loss which is suffered by those who build on the foundation of Christ with the “wood, hay, and stubble” of the lies and false doctrines of “this present time” (Rom 8:18).

Luk 22:27  For whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? is not he that sitteth at meat? but I am among you as he that serveth.
Luk 22:28  Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations. [“… of this present time” Rom 8:18]
Luk 22:29 And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me;
Luk 22:30  That ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

Rom 8:18  For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us [at the “blessed and holy… first resurrection”].
Rom 8:19  For the earnest expectation of the creature [which will suffer loss] waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.

Rev 20:1  And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
Rev 20:2  And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
Rev 20:3  And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.
Rev 20:4  And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
Rev 20:5  But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
Rev 20:6  Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

If we have no “respect unto the recompense of [this] reward”, then it will not be ours:

Heb 11:26  Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.

This is what “the manifested sons of God” will do for “the creature”, meaning all mankind, who are not in the “blessed and holy first resurrection”:

Rom 11:30  For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
Rom 11:31  Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.

The faith and belief we are given as a gift come only “through the unbelief” of the Lord’s typical elect, and through the unbelief and the lack of faith of all the rest of mankind, as has been demonstrated with the examples of Jacob versus Esau, King David versus King Saul and King Hezekiah versus his Father Ahaz. These are just three examples of what is the subject of the entirety of scripture, which is… the old man versus the new man. Jacob, King David and Hezekiah are all types of our new man. In every case the new man’s flesh is demonstrated throughout scripture to be as bad or worse than the flesh of those who typify our old man. The message being that God has chosen the weak and base and foolish to confound the strong and exalted and wise of this world.

1Co 1:26  For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:
1Co 1:27  But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
1Co 1:28  And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:
1Co 1:29  That no flesh should glory in his presence.
1Co 1:30  But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:
1Co 1:31  That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

That is exactly what this 40th chapter of Isaiah is all about. It is about glorying in the Lord and in the power of His hands to deliver His elect, as undeserving as they might be in the flesh:

Isa 40:21  Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?
Isa 40:22 It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:
Isa 40:23  That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.
Isa 40:24  Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown: yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth: and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble.

This is certainly “speaking of those things that are not as though they were”:

Rom 4:17  (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.

When the Lord does “quicken [give life] to the dead”, then all the earth will sit up and take notice of the few weak, foolish, base and despised of this world who were given to put their faith in these words:

Isa 40:25  To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One.
Isa 40:26  Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth.
Isa 40:27  Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the LORD , and my judgment is passed over from my God?
Isa 40:28 Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.
Isa 40:29  He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.
Isa 40:30  Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:
Isa 40:31  But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

All those whose names are written in “the Lamb’s book of life” were written there “before the world began”, and we are one and all in the ‘awesome hands’ of the powerful Creator, God, who Himself is “the author and finisher of our faith”:

Heb 12:2  Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Heb 12:3  For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.

So, we are informed:

Rom 8:18  For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Rom 8:19  For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.

Mankind, “the creature”, does not yet know that he is “earnestly expecting… the manifestation of the sons of God”, but the Lord has made us to know what He has given us:

1Co 2:12  Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.

Even the mouth of the false prophet Balaam, was forced to speak the words of our salvation. I will end this study with these verses sent to me by our sister, Wendy last Thursday:

Num 23:19  God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?
Num 23:20  Behold, I received a command to bless: he has blessed, and I cannot revoke it.

If we are the Lord’s elect, neither we nor anyone else can revoke that calling.

In our next study we will see how the Lord calls us a “worm”, all the while reassuring us of His protection and His salvation:

Isa 41:1  Keep silence before me, O islands; and let the people renew their strength: let them come near; then let them speak: let us come near together to judgment.
Isa 41:2  Who raised up the righteous man from the east, called him to his foot, gave the nations before him, and made him rule over kings? he gave them as the dust to his sword, and as driven stubble to his bow.
Isa 41:3  He pursued them, and passed safely; even by the way that he had not gone with his feet.
Isa 41:4  Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am he.
Isa 41:5  The isles saw it, and feared; the ends of the earth were afraid, drew near, and came.
Isa 41:6  They helped every one his neighbour; and every one said to his brother, Be of good courage.
Isa 41:7  So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and he that smootheth with the hammer him that smote the anvil, saying, It is ready for the sodering: and he fastened it with nails, that it should not be moved.
Isa 41:8  But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend.
Isa 41:9  Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called thee from the chief men thereof, and said unto thee, Thou art my servant; I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away.
Isa 41:10  Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.
Isa 41:11  Behold, all they that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded: they shall be as nothing; and they that strive with thee shall perish.
Isa 41:12  Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them, even them that contended with thee: they that war against thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nought.
Isa 41:13  For I the LORD thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.
Isa 41:14  Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the LORD, and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
Isa 41:15  Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff.