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Commentary on Isaiah 40 verses 27–31
Here, I. The prophet reproves the people of God, who are now supposed to be captives in Babylon for their unbelief and distrust of God, and the dejections and despondencies of their spirit under their affliction (Isa 40:27): "Why sayest thou, O Jacob! to thyself and to those about thee, My way is hidden from the Lord? Why dost thou make hard and melancholy conclusions concerning thyself and thy present case as if the latter were desperate?" 1. The titles he here gives them were enough to shame them out of their distrusts: O Jacob! O Israel! Let them remember whence they took these names - from one who had found God faithful to him and kind in all his straits; and why they bore these names - as God's professing people, a people in covenant with him. 2. The way of reproving them is by reasoning with them: "Why? Consider whether thou hast any ground to say so." Many of our foolish frets and foolish fears would vanish before a strict enquiry into the causes of them. 3. That which they are reproved for is an ill-natured, ill-favoured, word they spoke of God, as if he had cast them off. There seems to be an emphasis laid upon their saying it: Why sayest thou and speakest thou? It is bad to have evil thoughts rise in our mind, but it is worse to put an imprimatur - a sanction to them, and turn them into evil words. David reflects with regret upon what he said in his haste, when he was in distress. 4. The ill word they said was a word of despair concerning their present calamitous condition. They were ready to conclude, (1.) That God would not heed them: "My way is hidden from the Lord; he takes no notice of our straits, nor concerns himself any more in our concernments. There are such difficulties in our case that even divine wisdom and power will be nonplussed." A man whose way is hidden is one whom God has hedged in, Job 3:23. (2.) That God could not help them: "My judgment is passed over from my God; my case is past relief, so far past it that God himself cannot redress the grievances of it. Our bones are dried." Eze 37:11.
II. He reminds them of that which, if duly considered, was sufficient to silence all those fears and distrust. For their conviction, as before for the conviction of idolaters (Isa 40:21), he appeals to what they had known and what they had heard. Jacob and Israel were a knowing people, or might have been, and their knowledge came by hearing; for Wisdom cried in their chief places of concourse. Now, among other things, they had heard that God had spoken once, twice, yea, many a time they had heard it, That power belongs unto God (Psa 62:11), That is,
1.He is himself an almighty God. He must needs be so, for he is the everlasting God, even Jehovah. He was from eternity; he will be to eternity; and therefore with him there is no deficiency, no decay. He has his being of himself, and therefore all his perfections must needs be boundless. He is without beginning of days or end of life, and therefore with him there is no change. He is also the Creator of the ends of the earth, that is, of the whole earth and all that is in it from end to end. He therefore is the rightful owner and ruler of all, and must be concluded to have an absolute power over all and an all-sufficiency to help his people in their greatest straits. Doubtless he is still as able to save his church as he was at first to make the world. (1.) He has wisdom to contrive the salvation, and that wisdom is never at a loss: There is no searching of his understanding, so as to countermine the counsels of it and defeat its intentions; no, nor so as to determine what he will do, for he has ways by himself, ways in the sea. None can say, "Thus far God's wisdom can go, and no further;" for, when we know not what to do, he knows. (2.) He has power to bring about the salvation, and that power is never exhausted: He faints not, nor is weary; he upholds the whole creation, and governs all the creatures, and is neither tired nor toiled; and therefore, no doubt, he has power to relieve his church, when it is brought ever so low, without weakness or weariness.
2.He gives strength and power to his people, and helps them by enabling them to help themselves. He that is the strong God is the strength of Israel. (1.) He can help the weak, Isa 40:29. Many a time he gives power to the faint, to those that are ready to faint away; and to those that have no might he not only gives, but increases strength, as there is more and more occasion for it. Many out of bodily weakness are wonderfully recovered, and made strong, by the providence of God: and many that are feeble in spirit, timorous and faint-hearted, unfit for services and sufferings, are yet strengthened by the grace of God with all might in the inward man. To those who are sensible of their weakness, and ready to acknowledge they have no might, God does in a special manner increase strength; for, when we are weak in ourselves, then are we strong in the Lord. (2.) He will help the willing, will help those who, in a humble dependence upon him, help themselves, and will do well for those who do their best, Isa 40:30, Isa 40:31. Those who trust to their own sufficiency, and are so confident of it that they neither exert themselves to the utmost nor seek unto God for his grace, are the youth and the young men, who are strong, but are apt to think themselves stronger than they are. And they shall faint and be weary, yea, they shall utterly fail in their services, in their conflicts, and under their burdens; they shall soon be made to see the folly of trusting to themselves. But those that wait on the Lord, who make conscience of their duty to him, and by faith rely upon him and commit themselves to his guidance, shall find that God will not fail them. [1.] They shall have grace sufficient for them: They shall renew their strength as their work is renewed, as there is new occasion; they shall be anointed, and their lamps supplied, with fresh oil. God will be their arm every morning, Isa 33:2. If at any time they have been foiled and weakened they shall recover themselves, and so renew their strength. Heb. They shall change their strength, as their work is changed - doing work, suffering work; they shall have strength to labour, strength to wrestle, strength to resist, strength to bear. As the day so shall the strength be. [2.] They shall use this grace for the best purposes. Being strengthened, First, They shall soar upward, upward towards God: They shall mount up with wings like eagles, so strongly, so swiftly, so high and heaven-ward. In the strength of divine grace, their souls shall ascend above the world, and even enter into the holiest. Pious and devout affections are the eagles' wings on which gracious souls mount up, Psa 25:1. Secondly, They shall press forward, forward towards heaven. They shall walk, they shall run, the way of God's commandments, cheerfully and with alacrity (they shall not be weary), constantly and with perseverance (they shall not faint); and therefore in due season they shall reap. Let Jacob and Israel therefore, in their greatest distresses, continue waiting upon God, and not despair of timely and effectual relief and succour from him.
If they shall assign the toil of making all things as the reason why God only made the Son, the whole creation will cry out against them as saying unworthy things of God; and Isaiah, too, who has said in Scripture, “The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, does not faint, neither is he weary: there is no searching of his understanding.” And if God made the Son alone, as not lowering himself to make the rest but committed them to the Son as an assistant, this on the other hand is unworthy of God, for in him there is no pride. No, the Lord reproves the thought when he says, “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing?” … If then it is not unworthy of God to exercise his providence, even down to things so small, a hair of the head and a sparrow and the grass of the field, also it was not unworthy of him to make them. For what things are the subjects of his providence, of those he is Maker through his proper Word. No, a worse absurdity lies before the people who speak this way; for they distinguish between the creatures and the framing and consider the latter the work of the Father, the creatures the work of the Son; whereas either all things must be brought to be with the Son, or if all that is originate comes to be through the Son, we must not call him one of the originated things.
(Verse 27 and following) Why do you say, Jacob, and speak, Israel: My way is hidden from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over by my God? Do you not know, or have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, does not faint, neither is He weary, and there is no searching of His understanding. He gives power to the faint, and to them that have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. But those who hope in the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall take wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. LXX: Do not say, Jacob, and what you spoke, Israel: My way is hidden from the Lord, and my judgment is disregarded by my God, and now you do not know, and have not heard? The eternal God, the God who created the ends of the earth: he shall not hunger, nor shall he labor, nor is there any finding of his understanding. He gives strength to the hungry: and does not grieve the sorrowful. For the young will hunger, and the adolescents will labor, and the chosen ones will be weak. But those who wait for God will change their strength. They will take wings like eagles: they will run, and will not labor: they will walk, and will not hunger. The greatness of the Almighty God is so vast that nothing escapes him, and everything is governed by his will. So why do you say Jacob, that is, the two tribes that were called Judah; and you speak of Israel, the other ten tribes in Samaria, who have already been led captive into Assyria: My way is hidden from the Lord: and my just judgment will pass by my God? And this is the meaning: You say that earthly things do not pertain to God, nor does He consider what each of us does. Hence we are unjustly oppressed by our enemies, and, like the beasts and the fish, we are scattered without any governor, according to Habakkuk. To this God responds: Do you not know? Have the words of the preceding Scriptures not taught you, or do you not know according to the Septuagint, because you have not heard that the eternal God and Creator of all things knows all things, contains all things, and governs all things with His majesty? Does it not fail at any time, nor does it labor; so that it does not understand your judgement, and your ways are hidden from it? There is no investigation of his wisdom, about which place I think that saying of the Apostle is taken: His judgments are incomprehensible, and his ways are investigable (perhaps 'unsearchable') (Rom. XI, 33); or, as the LXX translated, he does not hunger, and he does not labor. For where there is food, there is often hunger if you remove the food: and where there is hunger, there is also labor. But since these things are not in God, why do you attribute human passions to him? Rather, he gives strength to the hungry and weary, and he multiplies virtue and strength to those who seem to be nothing in the world. According to the Septuagint, it is he who gives sorrow to those who do not grieve, for it is sadness that leads to death, and it is sadness that leads to life. Therefore, to those who have a hardened heart, he gives sadness so that they may understand their sins. And because many take pleasure in bodily health, and consider youth and childhood to be perpetual, he joins this and says that the flourishing age quickly falls, and strong bodies wither. But those who have confidence not in their own strength, but in God, and always await His mercy, let them change their strength and go from virtue to virtue: and let them take wings like eagles, and hear: Your youth will be renewed like the eagle's (Psalm 103:5); let them run to the Lord, and not grow weary of desiring Him; let them walk, and never grow faint. We have frequently said that the eagles' old age is rejuvenated by a change of feathers, and only those eagles can look upon the sun's rays and behold the splendor of its shining with sparkling eyes: and they should prove their noble offspring, by means of this experiment. And so even the saints are made young again, and with an immortal body, they do not feel the toil of mortals, but are caught up in the clouds to meet Christ, and never go hungry according to the LXX, because they have the Lord himself as food.
This is what the admirable Hannah has also said: “The Lord makes poor and makes rich; he brings low, and he lifts up.”
Then he recalls the truths that he has often taught: “[I am an] eternal God.” This is what the blessed Moses has also said: “I AM WHO I AM.” As for the blessed David, he in his turn addresses himself to him in these terms: “But you, Lord, endure forever, and your remembrance to generation and generation.” Or again: “But you are the same, and your years shall not fail.”
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SUMMARY
Isaiah 40:28 stands as a profound rhetorical affirmation of God's unparalleled nature, directly addressing any human doubt or weariness. It declares that the eternal, self-existent, and all-powerful Creator of the universe is utterly inexhaustible and possesses an understanding that transcends all human comprehension. This verse offers deep comfort and reassurance to those feeling forgotten or overwhelmed, starkly contrasting the transient limitations of humanity with the infinite, unfailing attributes of the Divine.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Isaiah 40:28 employs several powerful literary devices to convey its profound message with rhetorical force and spiritual depth. The verse opens with Rhetorical Questions ("Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard?"), which are not meant to elicit an answer but rather to provoke deep reflection and affirm an obvious truth already known (or should be known) to the audience. This technique engages the listener directly and emphasizes the self-evident, foundational nature of God's attributes. The verse then uses a series of majestic Appellations or divine titles ("the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth"), which serve to magnify God's character, establish His supreme authority, and underscore His unique identity as the one true God. There is a strong use of Contrast throughout, setting God's infinite attributes (eternality, inexhaustible strength, unfathomable understanding) against the finite limitations of humanity (weariness, limited knowledge, temporal existence), thereby highlighting His divine transcendence and incomparable nature. The phrases "fainteth not, neither is weary" and "no searching of his understanding" utilize Negation to powerfully affirm God's perfect attributes by denying any human weakness or limitation in Him. This creates a sense of Hyperbole in its affirmation of God's boundless nature, emphasizing the sheer magnitude and incomprehensibility of His being.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Isaiah 40:28 is a cornerstone declaration of God's absolute sovereignty, eternality, and omnipotence, providing a vital theological anchor for the entire "Book of Comfort." It reassures a weary and doubting people that their God is fundamentally unlike any human ruler or pagan deity. His everlasting nature means He is not subject to time's decay or the vicissitudes of history; His creative power demonstrates His ultimate authority over all existence and His capacity to bring about new realities; and His inexhaustible strength assures His unwavering capacity to act on behalf of His people. Furthermore, His unsearchable understanding means His plans are perfect, even when inscrutable to human minds, inviting profound trust in His divine wisdom. This verse undergirds the promises of renewal and hope that follow, asserting that the source of their comfort is an infinitely capable, wise, and faithful God.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
In a world that often leaves us feeling overwhelmed, exhausted, and uncertain, Isaiah 40:28 offers a profound wellspring of spiritual refreshment and stability. When the burdens of life, the seemingly endless wait for change, or the sheer complexity of global events cause our spirits to flag, this verse reminds us that our God is never tired, never confused, and never out of options. His strength is infinite, His wisdom unfathomable, and His existence eternal. We are prone to project our own limitations onto God, imagining Him growing weary of our prayers, or baffled by our circumstances, or perhaps even too busy to notice our individual plight. This passage shatters such misconceptions, calling us to rest in the boundless capacity of the One who created and sustains everything. It encourages us to shift our focus from our finite resources to His infinite ones, finding deep peace in His unchangeable character and unwavering confidence in His perfect, though often mysterious, plan.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
What does it mean that God "fainteth not, neither is weary"?
Answer: This phrase emphasizes God's absolute and infinite power, energy, and vitality. Unlike human beings, who are finite and experience physical and mental exhaustion, God never tires, weakens, or becomes depleted. His strength is boundless and unending, meaning He is always fully capable of acting, sustaining, and fulfilling His purposes without any diminution of power or will. This is a crucial distinction from human limitations and a source of immense comfort for His people, assuring them that His capacity to help and uphold them is limitless, as seen in the comforting words of Psalm 121:3-4.
How does God's "unsearchable understanding" relate to human suffering or unanswered prayers?
Answer: God's "unsearchable understanding" means His wisdom, knowledge, and plans are infinitely beyond human comprehension. When we face suffering, or our prayers seem unanswered, it's natural to question God's methods or timing. This verse reminds us that while we may not grasp the full scope of His purposes, His understanding is perfect and encompasses all variables, known and unknown to us. It calls us to trust in His perfect wisdom, even when circumstances are perplexing, knowing that His ways are higher than our ways, and His thoughts deeper than ours, as powerfully declared in Isaiah 55:8-9. Our limited perspective cannot fully grasp His eternal, sovereign plan, which is always ultimately for His glory and our good.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Isaiah 40:28, while speaking of Yahweh, finds its ultimate and most profound fulfillment in the person of Jesus Christ. He is the very embodiment of the "everlasting God" and "the LORD," for in Him "all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell" bodily, making the invisible God visible (Colossians 1:19; Colossians 2:9). As the pre-existent Word, Jesus is the active agent through whom the "Creator of the ends of the earth" brought all things into being, for "all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made" (John 1:3). The declaration that God "fainteth not, neither is weary" is powerfully demonstrated in Christ's earthly ministry, where despite immense physical and spiritual demands—from healing multitudes to enduring constant opposition—He consistently operated with divine strength, never succumbing to ultimate weariness in His mission to redeem humanity. Even facing the agony of the cross, He drew on an inexhaustible divine resolve to accomplish the Father's will, demonstrating His boundless capacity to endure and overcome. Furthermore, the "no searching of his understanding" points to Christ as the very "wisdom of God" (1 Corinthians 1:24), through whom God's perfect and inscrutable plan of salvation was conceived and executed. In Jesus, the infinite attributes of the God described in Isaiah 40:28 become tangible and accessible, offering weary souls not just a theological truth, but a living, inexhaustible source of strength, wisdom, and eternal life (John 14:6).