Waiting for the Lord

Isaiah has often been referred to as “the fifth gospel” for its eloquent expression of a vision of the world redeemed, a people restored, a community reunited. If Isaiah is the fifth gospel, then Isaiah 40, addressing an exiled people longing for home, is its poetic centerpiece. We know so much of the language of that one chapter from various contexts and references:

Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God.

In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley will be exalted, and every mountain and hill made low; the crooked straight, and the rough places plain.

Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people shall see it together.

All people are grass, their constancy is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.

He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom.

Even the nations are like a drop from a bucket.

The closing words of this hope-filled chapter are as intriguing as they are inspiring: “Those 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.”

Reading these beautiful words, I am left wondering what it means to “wait for the Lord.” Maybe you are, too. Let’s explore that idea in our online worship on Sunday. I’ll hope to see you there.

Grace and peace.
Paul