Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 40:29
He giveth power to the faint; and to [them that have] no might he increaseth strength.
He giveth power to the faint – To his weak and feeble people. This is one of his attributes; and his people, therefore, should put their trust in him, and look to him for aid (compare 2Co 12:9). The design of this verse is to give consolation to the afflicted and down-trodden people in Babylon, by recalling to their minds the truth that it was one of the characteristics of God that he ministered strength to those who were conscious of their own feebleness, and who looked to him for support. It is a truth, however, as applicable to us as to theresa truth inestimably precious to those who feel that they are weak and feeble, and who look to God for aid.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 40:29-31
He giveth power to the faint
The Divine Helper
I.
OUR SPIRITUAL CONDITION IS INTIMATELY KNOWN TO THE DIVINE FATHER. He knows the strong and the faint alike. As a wise Shepherd, He is acquainted with the state of His entire flock.
1. There is our inherent antagonism to evangelical truth. Man is prone to self-leaning. When we leave the Cross we faint; while we glory in its Sufferer we are armed with irresistible might!
2. There is the seductive influence of worldly association.
3. There is the fierce battle for daily bread.
4. There is our ever-recurring unbelief.
II. MORAL FAINTNESS DOES NOT INVALIDATE CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. Were all the faint to be excluded, how many of you would remain as children of God? Does the parent cast off the crippled child? It will be necessary, however, to guard this assurance with two explanations–
1. It contains no encouragement to moral indolence. You are not to exonerate yourselves from the stern duties oF life on the plea that you are faint. The toiler grows strong; exercise develops muscle.
2. It affords no palliation for inconsistency. We are never allowed to plead weakness as a reason for sin.
III. INFINITE POWER IS ACCESSIBLE TO THE MORALLY FEEBLE.
1. God never communicates surplus power. As thy days so shall thy strength be.
2. Gods method of communicating power teaches the dependence of humanity. Gods alone is original; but it is enough for man if he can shine with radiance borrowed from the Fount of uncreated light.
3. Gods willingness to communicate power fearfully increases the responsibility of the Church. What power we might have! I regard the declaration in the following aspects
(1) As the sublimest encouragement to the Church. He giveth power to the faint. Who is this Being represented, in the pronoun?
(2) As the tenderest assurance to the penitent. The bruised reed He will not break, the smoking flax He will not quench.
(3) As the highest tribute to the work of Christ.
(4) As a glorious pledge of Gods interest in humanity.
(5) As a presumptive proof of mans immortality. But how so? Can they who faint be immortal? Why all this feeding like a shepherd? Why this gentle tending–this inspiration of life–this sustaining of vigour–this communication of power? Is the mysterious process undertaken when God has determined that all shall end in dust? Does the Divine Being sustain merely that earthly life shall be prolonged? Why should Jehovah stoop to impart power to the faint, when He knows that in a few brief years the faint one will have crumbled to dust? (J. Parker, D. D.)
Almighty God helps the weak
The arguments which demonstrate the folly and guilt of worshipping false gods, and of confiding in them, equally demonstrate the duty and obligation of worshipping the true and living God, and of placing our confidence in Him. Indeed, to remove our adoration from an idol is doing but little, unless at the same time it be given to the Holy and Great Jehovah; it is but renouncing polytheism–a grievous and horrible delusion–for atheism, a delusion still more horrible and grievous.
I. JEHOVAH, THE TRUE GOD, IS A BEING OF UNLIMITED POWER (Isa 40:26).
II. THE POWER OF JEHOVAH, THE TRUE GOD, IS LIKE HIMSELF, UNDIMINISHABLE AND ETERNAL. He fainteth not, neither is weary. That the power of Jehovah, the true God, is undiminishable and eternal, is proved by the conservation of nature, as the existence of that power is proved by natures production. Were the hand which framed the universe utterly withdrawn, the universe would return to its original nothing. The motion, order, and safety of all things depend upon God. What a contrast does this perfection of undiminishable and eternal power form to the weakness of the creature–of fallen and helpless man especially! Weakness is the attribute of the human body. Man is no less weak as it relates to his mind. Sublime therefore in the highest degree is this account of Jehovah. He never lets fall the reins of dominion; He never retires, overcharged, by attention to His friends, resistance to His enemies, or the superintendence of all!
III. THE POWER OF JEHOVAH THE TRUE GOD IS CONDESCENDINGLY EMPLOYED IN BEHALF OF FALLEN, HELPLESS MAN. He giveth power to the faint, etc. Let us attend to some instances in which this truth is illustrated.
1. In His providential interpositions in favour of the more helpless of men. Some persons constitutionally feeble in body, or perhaps made so by disease, are often mysteriously succoured. The victim of oppression also ever finds a Friend in heaven.
2. In the work of our redemption by Christ Jesus. When we were yet without strength Christ died for the ungodly. (Rom 5:6). One of the most afflictive circumstances attending mans fallen state is that of utter helplessness. When sin entered into the world it not only erased from the soul of man the image of his Creator; it also annihilated, as far as man was concerned, all the means of his recovery. The nerves of obedience were cut, and the spirit of reverence and love utterly blasted.
3. In that invigorating peace communicated to the heart of man, when he believes to the salvation of his soul. Perhaps we are never fully prepared for the mercy of God, through the sacrificial merits of our Lord Jesus Christ, until we see that there is mercy in no other way.
4. In that successful resistance which is made by the faithful Christian, to the assaults of our great spiritual adversary, the devil.
5. In the season of personal affliction.
6. In the case of every one who dies in the Lord. (J. Bromley.)
The aid of the Holy Spirit
No words can do justice to the feelings of joy and gratitude which this gift should excite in all those who partake in its inestimable benefit. When the heathen sage had sketched out virtue in her goodliest forms; when he had pointed to the steep and arduous path which must be trodden by her successful votaries; when he had urged his disciples to enter upon it by the most stimulating motives with which the light of nature could supply him, what could he do more? What words of cheering import could he address to them, when sinking with dismay under a sense of their own infirmity, when trembling with apprehensions of failure, from a comparison between their strength and the task allotted to them? He had no authority to refer them to one who giveth power to the faint, and increaseth strength to them that have no might. What he could not, the Christian philosopher can say. (J. Marriot, M. A.)
A spiritual tonic
I. THE SPIRITUAL HEALTH OF THE HEBREW CHURCH HAD FALLEN BELOW PAR.
1. They felt they had lost the favour of God. Their way was hidden from Him, and they walked in darkness, as if they were the sport of chance or the victims of fate.
2. They felt they were left to the mercy of man. It appeared as if judgment upon them and their way was transferred to caprice of men.
II. THE IMPAIRED SPIRITUAL STRENGTH OF THE HEBREW CHURCH MIGHT BE RESTORED. The people needed–
1. Faith in the power of God.
2. Hope in the pity of God. He does not crush the feeble and the faint, but increases their power.
3. Love for the service of God. As the hearts of the people became enthusiastic for the worship of Jehovah, and longed to get back to Zion to restore the temple and rebuild the city, their energies would revive as an incoming tide; revived spirit would bring revived strength.
III. WITH RESTORED SPIRITUAL HEALTH THE HEBREW CHURCH WOULD RESUME ITS WONTED ACTIVITIES. The people are promised–
1. Renewed vigour. Strength would come from waiting upon God.
2. Renewed vivacity. The people are told they shall mount, walk, run, without weariness or sense of exhaustion.
3. Renewed vitality. Though the body may grow old, and physical life decline, the soul shall remain young. (F. W. Brown.)
Gods power in the heavens and on earth
(with Isa 40:26):–These two verses set forth two widely different operations of the Divine power as exercised in two sadly different fields, the starry heavens and this weary world. The one verse says, He is strong in power; the other, He giveth power. In the former verse, the greatness of His might sustains the stars; in the latter verse, a still greater operation is set forth in that to them that have no might He increaseth strength. Thus there are three contrasts suggested; that between unfailing stars, and men that faint; that between the unwearied God and wearied men; and that between the sustaining power that is exercised in the heavens and the restoring power that is manifested on earth. There is another interlocking between the latter of these two texts and its context, which is indicated by a similar recurrence of epithets. In my second text we read of the faint, and in the verse that follows it again we find the expression faint and weary, while in the verse before my text we read that the Lord fainteth not, neither is weary. So again the contrast between Him and us is set forth, but in the verse that closes the chapter we read how that contrast merges into likeness, inasmuch as the unfainting and unwearied God makes even the men that wait upon Him unwearied and unfainting. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Unfailing stars and fainting men
(with Isa 40:26):–
I. A SAD CONTRAST. The prophet in the former of these verses seems to be expanding the thoughts that lie in the name, the Lord of hosts, in so far as that name expresses the Divine relation to the starry universe. The image that underlies both it and the words of my text is that of a commander who summons his soldiers, and they come. Discipline and plan array them in their ranks. The plain prose of which is that night by night, above the horizon, rise the bright orbs, and roll on their path obedient to the Sovereign will; because He is strong in might, not one is lacking. Scripture bids us think of God, not as a creative energy that set the universe in motion, and leaves it to roll or spin, but as of a Divine Presence. But in our second text we drop from the illumination of the heavens to the shadowed plain of this low earth. It is as if a man looking up into the violet sky, with all its shining orbs, should then turn to some reeking alley, with its tumult and its squalor. Just because man is greater than the stars, man fails, whilst they shine on unwearied. For what the prophet has in view as the clinging curse that cleaves to our greatness is not merely the bodily fatigue which is necessarily involved in the very fact of bodily existence, since energy cannot be put forth without waste and weariness, but it is far more the weary heart, the heart that is weary of itself, weary of toil, weary of the momentary crises that demand effort, and wearier still of the effortless monotony of our daily lives. It is ever to be remembered that the faintness and the ebbing away of might, which is the truly tragic thing in humanity, does not depend upon physical constitution, but upon separation from the Source of all strength.
II. ANOTHER SAD CONTRAST, MELTING INTO A BLESSED LIKENESS. He fainteth not, neither is weary. He giveth power to the faint. Is that not a higher exercise of power than to preserve the stars from wrong? What are the consequences that the prophet traces to this restoring power? They shall mount up with wings as eagles, etc.
III. THE WAY BY WHICH THESE CONTRASTS CAN BE RECONCILED, AND THIS LIKENESS SECURED. They that wait upon the Lord–that is the whole secret. What does waiting on the Lord include? Keep near Him; keep still: expect. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Two operations of Gods power
(with Isa 40:26):–
1. The strength that restores is greater than the power that preserves.
2. The power that is given to the faint is greater than the strength that keeps the stars from falling, because there is in it an actual communication of actual Divine strength. God keeps the planet in its course by an act (for we must not speak about effort in regard to Him) of power brought to bear upon it. But He brings strength to us, not by ministration from without, but by impartation within.
3. Once more, this mirror gives us back the reflection of a power which is not only restoration and communication, but multiplication. To those that have no might He increaseth strength.
4. The power that redeems, ministers not only restoration and communication and multiplication, but assimilation. There is in the context a very remarkable play upon words. Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the ever lasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? He stoops to the faint, and gives them strength, and what is the result in them? They shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. What God is, Gods child in his measure becomes, unfainting and unwearied like his Father in the heavens. God gives, not omnipotence, but something that is a kind of shadowy likeness of it. All things are possible to him that believeth. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Encouragement to the weary
I. THE LORD SPEAKS OF HIS PEOPLE AS BEING SOMETIMES FAINT. The expression is very significant; it implies that there is life, yet life for a time dormant, inactive, powerless either for defence, service, or enjoyment. There is one, for instance, who has watched long by the bedside of a beloved sick one. Others, again, are sorely tried by anxieties connected with their business; by the difficulty of providing daily bread. There, again, is another deeply vexed and grieved with the plague of his own heart. Of such as these the Lord seems to be speaking. He giveth power to the faint. His people are further described as having no might. Self-sufficiency is one of the plainest marks of the ungodly. And thus are they led truly into the third mark of His people, which the Lord here mentions, They that wait upon the Lord.
II. HOW HE DEALS WITH THEM. Three expressions are employed to describe this.
1. To the faint giving strength, because, under their sore trials and afflictions, they have utterly fainted; their strength has for a time entirely departed–to them the Lord gives strength.
2. Then observe the other word describing His dealings–He increaseth strength. That is a very suitable word. It is the experience of every gracious soul, that his own strength decreaseth. He learns more fully that he hath in himself no strength. Wherever the Lord removes any of the props of the believers earthly pride and self-sufficiency, there He reveals Himself as the believers strength. So that growth in humility is necessarily connected with growth in spiritual strength.
3. They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They renew their strength because the Lord renews it. He manifests Himself to them just at those times and in that manner in which they are led to see their need of Him.
III. THE BLESSED RESULTS OF THE LORDS DEALINGS WITH HIS PEOPLE. These also are described as three-fold–
1. They shall mount up, borne aloft heavenward, with a power in comparison with which the eagles mighty wings are powerless. And why? Because they are borne aloft by omnipotent grace. This is one blessed result to those who wait upon the Lord–heavenward tendency.
2. There is also promised zeal and rapid progress in their heavenly course. They shall run and not be weary. Waiting upon the Lord, they shall be so renewed in strength, that not only their affections, desires, and hopes shall be lifted up to heaven, but they shall also be carried forward swiftly and mightily in their gracious course. They shall run in the way of Gods commandments, and not be weary. Look at all mere human strength; how soon it fails, how quickly it is exhausted.
3. This is the third blessed result–a steady perseverance in the way to Zion. Whilst their progress is running for zeal and success, it is walking for steady persistency unto the end. It is harder sometimes to walk than to run. There are many who would gain heaven if it were to be won by a hasty run; but when the heavenly course requires not merely a short, quick, impulsive run, but the slow, weary, painful walk, they soon grow tired, and ready to give all up. (G. W. Hills.)
The influence of the Holy Ghost: the doctrine abused by neglecting means
The grand subject here is, waiting upon the Lord. The term is of frequent occurrence in Gods Word. It sometimes means nothing more than a quiet, restful frame of soul; and sometimes it will be found to set forth a waiting for the Lord, a patient waiting on Him in expectation of deliverance. But waiting on Him seems to imply more than this; it implies a diligent use of those means that He has appointed for the communication of His grace–waiting on Him in the use of those means. It is not an indolent waiting.
I. GODS GRACIOUS COMMUNICATION OF NEEDFUL HELP TO HIS POOR, TRIED, WEAK, AND HELPLESS PEOPLE.
1. Every creature is of necessity weak; it is not his fault–it is his nature. When Adam left his hold on God he necessarily fell; as necessarily as any branch would fall if cut off from the parent stem. The creature has no power to sustain himself, nor to help himself; and it was never intended that he should have.
2. If man as an unfallen creature is weak; well may we say, that as a fallen creature, he is altogether weakness.
3. But even as a renewed creature he is weak, and if left to himself, unable to cope with one enemy, or to maintain his own standing for one single moment. Without Me ye can do nothing.
4. Besides this, there are certain periods in which the believer is more than ordinarily faint and weak. There are many things that try him.
5. Oftentimes too, through want of watchful, prayerful, holy seeking and turning over the page of conscience, he weakens his little strength. But it is to these very souls that the Lord communicates strength. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might He increaseth strength. The necessities of Gods people seem to touch the very heart of God. But there is something in the very glory of God that constrains Him to grant them
His help in their hours of need. This was Davids plea: pardon mine iniquity, for it is great, but for Thy names sake, he says.
II. OBSERVE THROUGH WHAT CHANNEL IT COMES. It is not a natural channel; it is not the strength of nature, but it is in the way of waiting dependence on Himself. There is a wondrous analogy between the operations of God in grace and in nature. God has given to us the promise that seed-time and harvest shall never fail while the world remains; but does this hinder the necessity of casting in the seed? Does it hinder the necessity of ploughing the land before it, and of harrowing it in, and protecting it? The more I look at this appointment of God, the more I see of infinite wisdom in it. I am in great distress, in great need, no one knows of my pressure. Perhaps I tell my friend, but I find no relief at all. And now I cast myself on the Lord–God reveals Himself to me as my Father-it quiets me, it comforts me. See how the Lord makes one step preparatory to another, and makes one thing the means of obtaining another. Prayerfulness leads to strength; that leads to courage; that leads to submission; that leads to patience, and that leads to praise. Observe the same, too, of all other means of grace. Talk we of the Bible, or hearing the Word unfolded? In prayer we speak to God; in His Word He speaks to us by His Spirit. Look at the very means of grace themselves: there is the unfolding of the same wisdom in the means appointed. What a suitable and reasonable ordainment it is!
III. THE ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY OF THIS CHANNEL OF COMMUNICATION. They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. When God puts forth His promise He pledges all that is in Himself to fulfil that promise. This is Gods appointed way. Perhaps we can say there are no instances upon record in which it was otherwise, but I dare not say that God may not in one moment so break in upon a mans soul, by the holy anointing of the Spirit, as to give him the most perfect conviction that he is a child of God. See the greatness of the communication. They shall run; they shall walk; and they shall mount up. Concluding remarks–
1. Would that the saints of God did more deeply feel that they are fainting and full of weakness!
2. Though it is no small mercy to be deeply conscious of our utter weakness before God, take heed how you abuse this glorious doctrine of the blessed Spirit by living a life of ceaseless and useless complaint. There is an observation, I think in Owen, that the religion of some consists in little more than in going from house to house, from friend to friend, from saint to saint, telling ones nothingness, sinfulness, and wretchedness. They make a sort of secret balm of it.
3. What vast encouragement is here! (J. H. Evans, M. A.)
Causes and cure of fainting
I. WHAT MAKES US FAINT?
1. We will consider the case of the awakened sinner.
(1) They may very well faint, for they have made a most alarming discovery.
(2) They have tried to escape from their dangerous position, but they have not succeeded.
(3) We have known some grow so faint through a sense of sin and a dread of its punishment and a consciousness of their own inability to save themselves, that they have even wished to die; yet, when they have looked at their condition aright, they have asked themselves what use death would be to them?
(4) Perhaps also, at such a time, a sore trouble may happen to the man; for, in the parable of the prodigal son, it appears that he was quite as much influenced by the peculiar circumstances without as by his sense of sin within.
2. I pass on to another character, namely, the child of God in his fainting fits. There is a degree of sinfulness about some of those faintings which is not found in others.
(1) Sometimes the children of God faint through want of faith (Psa 27:13). So the cure of fainting is faith, and the best way to prevent fainting is to believe.
(2) Some are brought into a state of faintness through a selfish want of resignation e.g., Jonah and the gourd. It was not alone the heat of the sun that caused him to faint; it was also the heat of his temper. Some of those who have lost dear children seem as if they will not forgive God for taking them.
(3) There are children of God also who fall into faintness through trusting in themselves. Even the youths shall faint, etc. Why is that? Because the youths felt themselves able to do anything.
(4) Faintness may also arise from another cause which is sinful, namely, neglect of prayer.
(5) Children of God fall into faintness because of the length of the way.
(6) The heaviness of their burden.
(7) A sense of weakness.
(8) Another frequent cause is the spirit itself sinking (Psa 42:1-11.).
(9) Some get faint through lack of spiritual food.
(10) Sometimes Gods children faint when they are in adversity.
(11) There are some who faint through increasing infirmity.
II. HOW THE LORD DEALS WITH HIS FAINTING PEOPLE. He giveth power, etc.
1. See how tenderly the Lord deals with His fainting people. He does not desert them, saying, They are no longer any use to Me; they can do nothing for Me; I will leave them where they are. He gives them power.
2. What sort of power?
(1) You may be sure that He does not give them any of their own. That has all gone from them.
(2) It will be sufficient for the emergency, for He has all-sufficient power. As thy days, etc.
(3) It is a power that the devil can neither defeat nor take away.
3. Why is it that He gives power to the faint?
(1) Because, in His great goodness, He looks out for those who need it most.
(2) Because they will praise Him most for it.
(3) Because they will be sure to use it. When a person who has been faint receives power from God he will be likely to be sympathetic, tender, and gentle towards others; at least, that is how he should be.
Conclusion–
1. If God gives power to the faint, let us be thankful if we have fainted and have been revived by Him.
2. Let us have done with fainting in the future, because we ought to have no more fainting now that we have received Gods power. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
Strength attracted by weakness
We have seen a little weakling child draw to its cot some strong and burly man, the champion athlete of the country-side. Such a spell can weakness exert over might, and helplessness over helpfulness. It is the burden of Scripture that the strong should bear the infirmities of the weak, and not please themselves. Such is the law of Gods existence. All that He is and has He holds in trust for us, and most for those who need most. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
Gods strength for the weak
Many of us are too strong, self-reliant, and resourceful to get the best that God can do. Jacob must halt on his thigh ere he can prevail with God and man. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
Gods untiring patience
God is ever blotting out sins from His remembrance–never tiring. I will tell you what it is like. It is like the infinite, tireless patience of the sea. The children ply their spades upon the sands, to make work for the sea. They heap the sand up, they dig deep into it. Hundreds of them disfigure the hard, golden surface, and leave their scars upon it; and then quietly the old sea turns upon its course, and rolls its waves across the sands, and every trace of scar is obliterated, becomes as if it had never been; when the tide ebbs again there is no trace upon the smooth, shining surface of the sand to show that it had ever known disturbance. Day after day, day after day, the scene is repeated, and the sea is never tired of putting things to rights; it never complains, it never resents the new work imposed upon it. And the secret is that there is such infinite reserve of power that all that man can do frets it no whir. It is only a question of time, and it will put all things to rights again. Again and again, as I have stood by the sea, this sense of its tirelessness has come over me. It fainteth not, neither is weary. And it has seemed to me an emblem, as the stars are emblems, moving on their courses, as the world is an emblem, swinging through space, as nature is an emblem, pursuing so patiently and unweariedly her age-long business–of that mighty God whose glorious characteristic it is that He fainteth not, neither is weary; but He giveth power to the faint, and increaseth strength to him that hath no might. (C. Silvester Home, M. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
He hath strength enough not only for himself, but for all, even the weakest of his creatures, whom he can easily strengthen to bear all their burdens, and to vanquish all their oppressors.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
29. Not only does He “notfaint” (Isa 40:28) but Hegives power to them who do faint.
no might . . . increasethstrengtha seeming paradox. They “have no might” inthemselves; but in Him they have strength, and He”increases” that strength (2Co12:9).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
He giveth power to the faint,…. Who are ready to faint under afflictions, because they have not immediate deliverance, or their prayers are not answered at once, or promises not fulfilled as they expected; to such he gives fresh supplies of spiritual strength; he strengthens their faith, and enlarges their views, to behold the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living, and confirms his blessings and promises of grace unto them, Ps 27:13. The Targum is,
“who giveth wisdom to the righteous that breathe after the words of the law:”
and to them that have no might he increaseth strength; not that they have no might at all, strictly speaking; for then it could not be properly said their strength was increased by him; but that their might and power were very small, and that in their own apprehensions they had none, and then it is that fresh strength is given them; as the apostle says, “when I am weak, then am I strong”; 2Co 12:10, though this may be understood, not of the strength of their graces, but of their sins and corruptions: a word from the same root as this here used signifies “iniquity”; and the sense may be, that the Lord increases the spiritual strength of such on whom the lust’s, corruptions, and virtuosity of nature have not the power and dominion e.
e “Cur non sumatur”, “illis quibus non sunt vitiosae concupiscentiae robur auger”, Gusset. Ebr. Comment. p. 21.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Jehovah is so far from becoming faint, that it is He who gives strength to the fainting. “Giving power to the faint, and to the incapable He giveth strength in abundance.” is equivalent to is used exactly like a privative to form a negative adjective (e.g., Psa 88:5; Pro 25:3).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
29. He giveth power to the faint. The Prophet now applies to the present subject the general statements which he made; for we have said that his intention was to give warmer encouragement to the people, and to lead them to cherish better hope. Because the Jews were at that time weakened and destitute of all strength, he shews that on this account it belongs to God to give assistance to those who were thus exhausted and weakened. He therefore magnifies the power of God on this ground, that they may conclude and believe that they ought not to doubt of their salvation so long as they enjoy his favor. It was indeed to the people who were held captive in Babylon that the Prophet looked; but we ought also to apply this doctrine to ourselves, that whenever our strength shall fail, and we shall be almost laid low, we may call to remembrance that the Lord stretches out his hand ‘to the faint,” who are sinking through the want of all help. But first, we must feel our faintness and poverty, that the saying of Paul, “The power of God is made perfect in our weakness,” (2Co 12:9,) may be fulfilled; for if our hearts are not deeply moved by a conviction of our weakness, we cannot receive seasonable assistance from God.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(29) He giveth power to the faint . . .i.e., to them pre-eminentlytheir very consciousness of weakness being the condition of their receiving strength. (Comp. Mat. 5:6; Luk. 1:52-53; Luk. 6:21.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
29. He giveth power So far from becoming faint himself, as the God of power and wisdom he giveth strength to the fainthearted always.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Divine Helper
Isa 40:29
IT were, perhaps, impossible to indicate any number of words into which more significance and sublimity are condensed. The entire sentence is vital with meaning. We know not whether more to admire the power which they reveal, or praise the sympathy which they express. Let us analyse the language: “He giveth;” how suggestive of opulence how indicative of benevolence! The terms are applicable to God in all relations to every grade of intelligent being: there is no moment in the history of life, in all regions, in which God ceases from giving; he is the one Giver: “Every good gift, and every perfect gift, cometh down from the Father of lights.” In proportion, therefore, as man gives, does he become God-like; it is impossible for the finite more closely to approach the infinite than in the act of imparting blessing. “He giveth power;” how suggestive of might! Giving does not diminish his strength; he is as powerful now as when he projected the worlds into the fields of space; he is as able now to take up the isles as a very little thing as when Isaiah sung the wonders of his arm. “He giveth power” this is the language of the sunbeam, as it pierces the intercepting cloud and gladdens the earth with its smile this is the language of the flower, as it opens its mild eye in the morning of spring, this is the language of the moral Lazaruses, as they rise from their tombs and lay aside their cerements, and this is the language of the angelic hosts, as they spread their pinions to pursue their appointed mission! In short, this is the language of the universe; we can touch no atom which is destitute of the inscription, “He giveth power.” “He giveth power to the faint;” who cares for the faint? If a man cannot succeed in business, he is often left to perish without a tear of sympathy or an offer of aid. So long as men can support themselves they may find supporters, but when they faint by the way, few are sympathetic enough to bend in brotherly kindness and help in their restoration! God, however, whose thoughts and ways infinitely transcend the thoughts and ways of man, stoops in paternal benevolence to revive the weary and invigorate the faint. Thus is every word pregnant with meaning, and the bare enunciation of the language should awake the thankfulness of every spirit!
Our spiritual condition is intimately known to the divine Father. He knows the strong and the faint alike. As a wise Shepherd he is acquainted with the state of his entire flock. Some he leads with gentleness, and others are carried in his bosom. It is, indeed, in no wise strange that man should be morally faint, if we consider his nature, and the agencies by which it is influenced.
(1) There is our inherent antagonism to evangelical truth. Man is prone to self-leaning. Every hour witnesses to the difficulty of renouncing self, and casting the soul with strong confidence on the finished work of the only Saviour. Man will ever and anon deport himself as though by his own might he could remove mountains and encounter embattled hosts, and God permits him to try his skill, and returns not until the cry is heard, “Lord, save me, or I perish.” We are strong in proportion to our trust. As we are enabled to look beyond ourselves we can reiterate the apostolic paradox, “when I am weak then am I strong.” When we leave the Cross we faint while we glory in its Sufferer we are armed with irresistible might!
(2) There is the seductive influence of worldly association. Could we evermore remain on the mount of transfiguration, we might be strong, rejoicing in the Lord; but as we descend from its holy and resplendent heights, and re-unite ourselves with the world, our fervour becomes chilled and our strength paralysed. Individual experience confirms these assertions. There have been blissful periods in which our souls have been thrilled with delight, in which our exultation has been second only to the raptures of heaven. Descent is less difficult than ascent; while it requires the might of God to secure our elevation, the breath of man may be effectual to our downfall! We have often entered the world with a determination to resist its charms and avoid its snares, but in an evil hour have relaxed our moral grasp on the Great Helper, and have thus been wearied and prostrated by the stormy and enervating influence of the world.
(3) There is the fierce battle for daily bread. In these times of fierce competition it is sometimes difficult for virtue to cope with the ingenuity of vice. Vice respects no boundaries, and laughs scornfully at the true standard and the just weight. No device is too mean for unprincipled men. Intellect is bribed to invest rottenness with charms, and conscience is lulled to sleep that she may cease from hurling the thunderbolt or taking up a lamentation for the mournful fate of rectitude. I sympathise most tenderly with the Christian merchant who is exposed to the subtle and powerful temptation to meet men on their own ground, and smite them with their own weapons. Let me entreat you, however, to abide by truth and purity, remembering the gracious assurance, “No good thing will God withhold from them that walk uprightly.”
(4) There is our ever-recurring unbelief. The spirit of ancient Israel unhappily still prevails. Though we have beheld a succession of wonders displayed on our behalf though morning and night have alike been eloquent with the praise of God, yet we have no sooner been delivered out of one difficulty than we have dreaded another! Instead of reasoning from the lion and the bear to the uncircumcised Philistine, we have forgotten our deliverances, and mourned as though Omnipotence had never bared its arm in our defence! We have forgotten the seven loaves and the twelve baskets of fragments, and have hung our heads as though we Bad never used a sickle or enjoyed a feast! “How is it that ye have no faith?” is the oft-repeated inquiry which God institutes in his own family. As faith fails, man faints and on the ground which he should have occupied as a conqueror, he lies panting as a victim.
Seeing that such is our nature, and such are the influences which affect it; we are called upon to rejoice that God treats us as men. “He knoweth our frame, he remembereth that we are dust.” Did his expectations exceed our capabilities, the love of the Father would be lost in the rigour of the tyrant. He knoweth every blast which we encounter, and not a foe can find an ambush whose secrecy evades the vigilance of his love. God will not suffer his people to be tried above that they are able to bear he will not allow faintness to be followed by death, for “he giveth power to the faint.”
Moral faintness does not invalidate Christian character. Were all the “faint” to be excluded, how many of you would remain as children of God? Does the parent cast off the crippled child? Does the parent make physical weakness the reason for disinheritance? In one loud No you answer. Neither does God neglect or despise the weakest believer who confides in his Son. Let us guard this assurance with two explanations:
(1) It contains no encouragement to moral indolence. You are not to exonerate yourselves from the stern duties of life, on the plea that you are “faint.” Imagine not that as moral invalids you are entitled to a life of ease; your business is to “renew your strength,” by waiting upon God. Indolence will increase your weakness. The toiler grows strong. Exercise develops muscle. In proportion as you labour will the power of labouring augment. You are to resemble Gideon and his three hundred true-hearted allies, who, in searching for the kings of Midian, are described as “faint, yet pursuing;” and though the princes of Succoth refused them bread, they ceased not until Zebah and Zalmunna fell beneath their sword. Do you affirm, then, that you are “faint”? I reply, you may still be “pursuing,” and though not with the rapidity of the robust, yet with all the strength which a willing mind can command.
(2) It affords no palliation for inconsistency. We are never allowed to plead weakness as a reason for sin. Because Gideon’s soldiers were “faint” they did not turn their swords upon each other, or prove treacherous to the mission which they had under taken. They might have pleaded their faintness as a reason for returning home, but with soldier-like courage they pursued the difficult way, until their weary heads were honoured with the crown of victory. Let not their example be lost upon us: though weak, let our faces be Zion-ward, and though many may outstrip us in the race, let us be found laying aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, “looking unto Jesus” for the smile which can cheer the most rugged path, and the strength which can vanquish the most potent foe!
In God’s great family there are diversities of moral development. There are alike the babe of days and the sire crowned with grey hairs the tremulous spirit easily deterred, and the valorous heart that exults in the prospect of difficulty! There is, however, but one Father, and his tender mercies are over all. “One star differeth from another star in glory,” but all stars bear the impress of a common origin. So in the moral world the triumphant apostle who asks death to show his sting, and the trembling publican that dare ask for nothing but mercy, are alike the offspring and choice of Infinite Power and Unsearchable Wisdom. The question, therefore, relates not to the degree of power with which you may be blessed, but to your moral position: Are you in the family? I ask not whether a hemisphere may be radiant with your splendour, or whether yours is a struggling and fitful ray, but I ask, Are you in the firmament? There is no honour so lofty, no privilege so sweet, as that of being a moral child, even though so weak as to be carried in the Saviour’s arms.
Infinite power is accessible to the morally feeble. “He giveth power to the faint.”
(1) God never communicates surplus power. “Thy shoes shall be iron and brass, and as thy day so shall thy strength be.” God promises no strength beyond the day in which it is required.
(2) God’s method of communicating power teaches the dependence of humanity. God gives power as daily bread is given. Not a single energy is ever displayed by your body or mind, that is not bestowed or sustained by the Supreme. Our duty, then, is to remember that in ourselves we are helplessly weak, but that in Christ we are armed with power irresistible. Hence, saith the apostle, I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me;’ even Paul’s was a derived power. God’s alone is original; but it is enough for man if he can shine with radiance borrowed from the Fount of uncreated light.
(3) God’s willingness to communicate power greatly increases the responsibility of the Church. What power we might have! “Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” It is not enough to satisfy the severity of reason that men should merely walk according to the light they have, they are bound to walk according to the light which they might have. The same remark applies to moral power; Infinite might is placed at our disposal God says, “Ask, and it shall be given,” so that if we faint, we faint in despite of the divine offer if we perish with hunger, it is in the presence of a table spread with the viands of heaven.
Let me call you to the Rock as your standing place. “The conies are a feeble folk, but they make their houses in the rock.” God’s invitation to you is to make your dwelling in. the Rock of Ages in order to assist you he has caused that Rock to be cleft on your behalf, and all who find a refuge there are preserved alike from the heat of the sun, the fury of the wind, and the rage of the swelling billow.
Though we might pause here, and thank God for the goodness which he has manifested to the Church, the festival is by no means exhausted: there are truths yet to be elicited from this text which will be as meat and drink to those who are hungering and thirsting after righteousness. Let us consider the declaration in the following aspect:
(1) As the sublimest encouragement to the Church. “He giveth power to the faint.” Who is this Being represented in the pronoun? Who will supply the substantive? Isaiah himself shall answer: “It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in.” This All-glorious Being deigns to comfort the Church with assurances of aid: “Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God? Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.” Did ever pronoun represent a substantive equal to the majesty and excellence here implied?
(2) As the tenderest assurance to the penitent. “The bruised reed he will not break, the smoking flax he will not quench.” Can you crawl, as it were, to the throne of the heavenly grace? He will give you power! The Infinite will receive the weak and the powerless with compassion, and those who struggle feebly to his feet will be so strengthened as to walk and leap and praise the Lord! “He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.” Are any fearing that God will spurn their approach? They need fear no longer! “He giveth power to the faint.” Your meekness will excite his pity, and will be turned into might by the impartation of his energy. “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
(3) As the highest tribute to the work of Christ. Had there been no Saviour, there could have been no “faint” ones. Even faintness implies life; but whence came this life? Men, by nature, are dead in trespasses and sin earth is a vast cemetery. Who has blown the trumpet of resurrection? Christ has visited the cemetery, and wept amid its terrible desolation; and, as he gazed on the ruins of a noble race, he said, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” Then is Christ man’s life-giver! The weakest child in the great family is a tribute to the mighty energy and unparalleled tenderness of Christ. He disarms the tyrant, and leads all who believe in him to the region of happiest freedom!
(4) As a glorious pledge of God’s interest in humanity. He did not turn from the sinner as from a mass of loathsome corruption, and betake himself to recesses where the voice of the moral leper could not be heard. But when iniquity abounded, love much more abounded true, the race was smitten with foulest leprosy, blasphemy was thunder-tongued, and vice was rampant, yet the divine Spirit was moved with pity, and divine compassion was embodied in sacrifice. There is peculiar solemnity in the reflection that God is interested in man this thought invests every individual with singular dignity, and charges human life with most oppressive responsibilities. To the believer, in particular, is the thought affecting and blissful: he is compassed about with a great cloud of witnesses his steps are ordered by the Lord his very hairs are numbered and his song is, “though I fall I shall not be utterly cast down, for God giveth power to the faint.” We cannot realise God’s marvellous condescension, in helping the helpless, without being deeply affected by the conviction that he is intensely interested in all that appertains 1:0 the purity, freedom, and happiness of the human race.
(5) As a presumptive proof of man’s immortality. But how so? What of immortality breathes here? Can they who faint be immortal? Observe that I claim to find merely a presumptive proof of our endless duration, and am persuaded that you will justify my reasoning when acquainted with the basis on which it rests. Why all this feeding like a shepherd? Why this gentle tending this inspiration of life this sustaining of vigour this communication of power? Is the mysterious process undertaken when God has determined that all shall end in dust? Does the divine Being sustain merely that earthly life shall be prolonged? Reason revolts at the supposition. With reverence we declare our conviction that such a process, terminating in such an issue, is utterly unworthy the power, the wisdom, the tenderness of the everlasting God. Why should Jehovah stoop to impart power to the faint, when he knows that in a few brief years the faint one will have crumbled to dust? Assuming man’s mere mortality, you argue that the education, the discipline, the capacities with which God has endowed the race, are all to be conquered and destroyed by death! Be it ours, to feel in every reviving breeze breathed over our fainting spirits a pledge of life that shall survive death a life coeval with the duration of Godhead. “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.” “What advantageth it us, it the dead rise not? let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die.” While, therefore, impressed with the solemn conviction of our immortality, I charge you to institute an immediate and exhaustive examination into the grounds on which you rest your hopes of happiness in the march of endless ages!
In addition to the great principles which we have thus enunciated, we might supply almost interminable illustration of the text from the records of individual life. See Elijah, for example, hidden in the cave and desiring to die; he is faint well nigh unto death, yet the “still small voice” revives his drooping energies, and as he passes from the hiding-place of his weariness and sorrow, he practically repeats the text ” He giveth power to the faint.” Behold Jonah also; as the sun is beating on his head he faints and wishes in himself to die, saying it is better for me to die than to live, but he is re-inspired by the Power which will not break the bruised reed. Turn to the history of David, and illustration without end will be furnished; in all the storms of his eventful life he tested the life-sustaining grace of God: so truly is this evident, that in his most mournful strains there are notes of hope which he could learn nowhere but at the gate of heaven. Hear the joyous melody which gushed from his grateful and mighty spirit: “Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident… in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me upon a rock… I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord:” as though he had overheard Isaiah assuring despondent Israel that “they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” But why should we cull illustrations from the ancient record? It is not necessary that we should escape from modern days and appeal to the library of Judaism for historic proofs that God giveth power to the faint. We are living witnesses of the glorious fact. We can say with all the gratitude of the apostle, “though the outward man perisheth, the inward man is renewed day by day.” Faint and weary we have been met by the sympathetic Saviour, and have received of his fulness grace upon grace! We rejoice, indeed, that the song which celebrates renewing power was awakened in the morning of the world, and we would prolong its swelling strains until the mantle of night shall assert the termination of earthly scenes. One generation has cried after another, “Thy tender mercies have been ever of old;” and the testimony shall increase in force until all nations shall call the Restorer blessed! Our hearts burn within us as we muse on the loving-kindness which stoops to revive the faint. Are any travel-worn and cast down by reason of the difficulties of the way? whose mournful language is, “Oh, that it were with us as in times gone, when we ran with footmen and horsemen, and so outstripped them that we even longed for a contest with the swellings of Jordan; but now is our strength failed and our bones are melted “? Then, O dejected ones, in the language of the prophet, “Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God? Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary?” You are waiting at the broken cistern of your own righteousness for a supply of power, instead of turning to the Omnipotent and pleading his promises of aid. Rise, and return to the God of Jacob, for if he has smitten he will heal, and if he has torn he will bind up!
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
Isa 40:29 He giveth power to the faint; and to [them that have] no might he increaseth strength.
Ver. 29. He giveth power to the faint. ] How then should he himself faint? or why should any good man’s heart fail him? The Jews among their benedictions (whereof they are bound to say a hundred every day), have this for one, Blessed be God who giveth power to the faint.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
strength = strength (for defence). Not the same word as in verses: Isa 40:9, Isa 40:10, Isa 40:26, Isa 40:31 (Hebrew. ‘azam).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Isa 41:10, Gen 49:24, Deu 33:25, Psa 29:11, Zec 10:12, 2Co 12:9, 2Co 12:10, Phi 4:13, Col 1:11, Heb 11:34
Reciprocal: 1Sa 30:12 – his spirit 1Ch 29:12 – give strength 2Ch 14:11 – them that Job 17:9 – be stronger and stronger Job 40:14 – that Psa 73:26 – but Psa 86:16 – give Psa 119:28 – strengthen Psa 121:2 – My help Psa 138:3 – strengthenedst Isa 42:3 – bruised Act 9:22 – increased Rom 14:4 – for 2Co 4:16 – we Eph 3:16 – to be 2Th 1:3 – your 2Th 3:13 – be not weary
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Isa 40:29-31. He giveth power to the faint He hath strength enough, not only for himself, but for all, even the weakest of his creatures, whom he can easily strengthen to bear all their burdens, and to vanquish all their oppressors. The prophet seems to speak with an especial reference to those among Gods people whose faith and hope were very low, which he would support, even until the time of their promised deliverance. Even the youths shall faint Those that make the greatest boast of their strength, as young men are apt to do, shall find it fail them whenever God withdraws his support. But they that wait upon the Lord That rely on him for strength to bear their burdens, and for deliverance from them in due time; shall renew their strength Shall grow stronger and stronger in faith, patience, and fortitude, whereby they shall be more than conquerors over all their enemies and adversities. They shall mount up on wings as eagles Which, of all fowls, fly most strongly and swiftly, and rise highest in their flight, and out of the reach of all danger. Instead of, They shall mount up, &c., Bishop Lowth reads, They shall put forth fresh feathers, like the moulting eagle; observing, It has been a common and popular opinion, that the eagle lives and retains his vigour to a great age; and that, beyond the common lot of other birds, he moults in his old age, and renews his feathers, and with them his youth. Thou shalt renew my youth like the eagle, says the psalmist, on which place St. Ambrose notes, Aquila longam tatem ducit, dum, vetustis plumis fatiscentibus, nova pennarum successione juvenescit. The eagle extends his age to a great length, while the old feathers failing, he grows young by a new succession of feathers. See note on Psa 103:5.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
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. 2Co 12:9).