"Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, 'My way is hidden from the LORD, and my right is disregarded by my God'? 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. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; 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." - Isaiah 40:27-31 ESV
Israel is Jacob's new name. Jacob was a crooked damaged man who was loved by God not because He was lovable. God loved Jacob's father and his father's father and He loved crooked old Jacob and gave him a new name.
Isaiah is given a message to God's people of the time who also had two identities. They had an old one and a new one. They had a name given by observant people and one given by a gracious God.
Believers now have that also.
Jacob says, 'My way is hidden from the Lord.'
Israel says, 'My right is disregarded by my God.' Israel takes ownership and calls God 'my' God.
But, God says, '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. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.'
Jacobs way is not hidden and when Israel's spirit is eclipsed by his soul he has it wrong also. Grace does not regard the new man's right. That part is true. But, There is quickening. There is strength given that leans totally on God's knowledge and a quickening for those who wait on the Lord.
A young man's strength will fail but a new identity with doctrinal wisdom will wait and have a soul like a weaned child. They will know the the food is coming. They don't have to scream their heads off and talk about 'rights' they are hip to the schedule and know the food will come at the correct time.
"But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you." - Romans 8:10-11 ESV
Listen up Jacob and have ears to hear Israel. The Lord knows and has power to impart.
God quicken our spirit and remind our inner man so that we don't have a darkened perspective. Let the grace of God arrange us so that your Spirit that entwines our human spirit and gives us light would illuminate our soul with truth.
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