Isaiah now applied this knowledge of God to the discouraging prospect that the Judahites faced, namely, Babylonian captivity (cf. 39:6). He encouraged them by pointing to the sufficiency of their God. Since the creator knows the name of everything in His complex creation, how could He, the God of Israel, possibly forget His covenant people? Since He is as powerful as He is, how could He be incapable of helping them?
40:27 The Judahites kept saying, "How can God do this to us? He has forgotten us and no longer cares about us."They questioned God's nature (He could not see them) and His dealings with them (He would not defend them).
Perhaps the double names Jacob and Israel are more than poetic synonyms. Isaiah may have been implying that the Judahites, God's covenant people, were in a position as desperate in their own eyes as was Jacob when he came to the end of himself and God changed his name (Gen. 32:22-32).407This happened, they would remember, after his exile in Mesopotamia.
God is not too great to care. He is too great not to care (cf. Gen. 18:25).
40:28 The people needed to open their eyes and ears to what they already knew about their God (cf. v. 21). He is eternal, not bound to the present, as we are. He is Yahweh, the covenant keeping God. He is the Creator of all the earth, not restricted to only one locale at a time. He does not grow tired, because He is omnipotent. He is inscrutable, because He is omniscient. He is unlimited by time, space, power, and understanding.
"Their God is such (eternal, Creator, untiring) that they need never doubt his capacity; he is also such (possessing unfathomable wisdom) that they must never expect to understand all his ways."408
40:29 God does not just possess all these qualities, but He shares His strength with those who need it. He has all energy, and He has energy to spare and to share. Whether we buckle under life's pressures or lack innate strength, He provides durable, stable power (cf. 2 Cor. 12:9).
40:30-31 Circumstances may overcome even the strongest young people in their prime either through lack of inner resources or because of the hardness of life. Yet those who continually rest, trust, and wait for Yahweh will receive renewed and different, divine strength. The Hebrew verb translated "gain"suggests an exchange of strength, our inadequate strength for His abundant strength.
"This expression ["those who wait for the Lord"] implies two things: complete dependence on God and a willingness to allow him to decide the terms."409
They who wait on the Lord will be able to overcome natural drawbacks, endure with energy to spare, and keep on living without becoming excessively tired.
"The threefold description forms a climax, not its opposite; for the exceptional flying and the occasional running do not require, as does the constant walking, an ever-flowing stream of grace."410
