God in the Midst of Change

KEY VERSE: “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.” —Isaiah 40:31

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: Isaiah 40:21-23, 25-31

IN THE previous chapter, the prophet had delivered a very explicit declaration of the impending fall of the king of Israel and of the captivity by the Babylonians of the royal house as well as the people. But because Hezekiah had found favor with the Lord, the punishment was delayed until after his death. The message of the prophet in the fortieth chapter is consolatory in nature. It speaks of the eventual restoration of Israel as a people under the righteous kingdom of the long-promised Messiah. The prophet explains: “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare [appointed time] is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.”—Isa. 40:5

Then the Lord, mindful of the terrible trials and the discouragements that were ahead for the nation, offers them encouragement and assurances by reminding them of his powers and his ability to keep these commitments. “Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him. Behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him. … Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counselor hath taught him? With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and showed to him the way of understanding? Lift up you eyes on high, and behold who bath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them [the stars] all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power, not one faileth.”—Isa. 40:10,13,14,26

The Apostle Paul, in the concluding verses of the eleventh chapter of Romans, as he reviews in his mind God’s dealings with the nation of Israel, expresses his great veneration for the Heavenly Father, because in these dealings he sees demonstrated God’s incomprehensible wisdom, mercy, foreknowledge and power. In giving expression to his thoughts he quotes in part from Isaiah 40:13. “Oh the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his counselor? Or who bath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things, to whom be glory forever.”—Rom. 11:33-36

In the eleventh chapter of Romans, the apostle briefly reviews the history of Israel and shows how they, as a nation, were cast off as a favored people but that from them a remnant believed and accepted Jesus as their Messiah. These few became part of the promised seed of blessing. The balance of the seed then was to be taken from the Gentiles. The apostle speaks of this, using a simile of wild olive branches being grafted into a tame olive tree. The tame olive tree pictures the Abrahamic Covenant which was made with Abraham and the branches picture his natural seed, the nation of Israel, but when the natural seed was eliminated, it was necessary to graft in wild olive branches which picture the Gentiles.

When a wild branch is normally grafted into a tree, the wild branch brings forth wild fruit; but in this instance, and contrary to nature, the grafted wild branches brought forth good fruit as do the remaining natural branches. (Rom. 11:24) The apostle then states that this does not mean the complete abandonment of the nation, for he says “that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the deliverer [Christ and his church—the promised seed of blessing], and shall turn away ungodlinerss from Jacob. For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.”—Rom. 11:25-27

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