Isaiah 40:21-31 (NRSV)
Read Isaiah 40:21-31 on biblegateway.com
Verse 21Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? Verse 22It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to live in; Verse 23who brings princes to naught, and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing. Verse 24Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when he blows upon them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble. Verse 25To whom then will you compare me, or who is my equal? says the Holy One. Verse 26Lift up your eyes on high and see: Who created these? He who brings out their host and numbers them, calling them all by name; because he is great in strength, mighty in power, not one is missing.
Verse 27Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, "My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God"? Verse 28Have 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. Verse 29He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. Verse 30Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; Verse 31but 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.
Devotion
Questions, questions, questions—we get them thrown at us all through life. What's your phone number? What's the date of your birth? What is the meaning of the first article of the Creed? We answer life's avalanche of questions because we want to get a driver's license, a library card or get confirmed. In today's text we are assailed with no less than nine questions, posed by God no less.
Thankfully, as a matter of fact and faith, the questioner also points us to the answers. As those question marks pile up, we realize that they have to do with who God the creator is, what God the sustainer does and what we are to do about these matters. So what does this mean? In the Small Catechism we confess: "I believe God has created me together with all that exists ... " Read Isaiah's questions aloud and ponder your creator and the creation. Have you not known?
Prayer
O God, we affirm that you have given us our bodies and souls, our senses, reason and all our mental faculties. May we use them to serve your people and to preserve your good creation. Amen.