From: Isaiah 40:25-31
God, Creator and Ruler of All (Continuation)
[27] Why do you say, O Jacob,
and speak, O Israel,
“My way is hid from the Lord,
and my right is disregarded by my God”?
[28] Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth;
He does not faint or grow weary,
his understanding is unsearchable.
[29] He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.
[30] Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted,
[31] but they who wait for 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.
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Commentary:
40:12-41:29. The message of hope at the start of the second part of Isaiah is not
the product of naive credulity nor is it a dream that can never come true. These
verses outline the logical basis of that hope: first, the immense power of God, to
be seen in creation (40:12-31); and second, the sovereignty of God, who rules
over the destiny of human beings and desires to save his people, and who raises
up Cyrus to do that very thing (41:1-29).
40:12-31. These verses deal with the first of the arguments to justify hope. A
series of ironical questions, vividly worded, conveys the omnipresence and tran-
scendence of God (similar to what happens in Job 38:2-21): the Lord made all
things and there is nothing, no one, to compare with him (vv. 12-26). In v. 26, the
“host” is a reference to the heavenly bodies. In Babylonian religion and cosmo-
logy, these were considered to be gods. The sacred writer demythologizes them,
making them mere creatures of God.
But the Lord does not confine himself to heaven, away from the cares of men,
heedless of what is happening to his people. He, who is author of everything that
exists, of life, of the rulers of the earth, is infinitely good, and in his providence he
supports and strengthens those who trust in him (vv. 27-31). The image of the ea-
gle (v. 31) is reminiscent of Psalm 103:5: “Your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”
St Augustine, commenting on these words, points out that in ancient times it was
thought that when an eagle grew old it was unable to eat food because its beak
got too big and, “finding itself in such difficulty, it is said that the eagle, driven by
natural instinct and the need to recover its youth, strikes the upper part of it beak
against a rock, because the beak has grown too large and prevents it from eating.
The beak is worn down by the rock and the eagle eats easily again, and its whole
body is restored. Having been old, the eagle is made young and strong again: the
sheen returns to its feathers, and power to its wings. It soars to the heights once
more, and experiences in that way a type of resurrection” (”Enarrationes In Psal-
mos”, 102, 9). And so, Christian preaching has used this simile in a spiritual
sense as a call to renew one’s efforts, trusting in God; If we hope in him, we can
cope with difficulties without getting tired, for, as St Bernard points out, “ubi
autem amor est, labor non est, sed sapor”: “where there is love, there is no suf-
fering, but rather savoring” (”In Cantica Canticorum”, 85, 8).
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.