FROM CONFUSION TO CLARITY

~Isaiah 40:21-31~

In-person service at

Second Baptist Church

2412 Griffith Ave.

Los Angeles

William S. Epps, Senior Pastor

Sunday, February 4, 2024

²¹Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth? ²²It 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: ²³That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity. ²⁴Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown: yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth: and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble. ²⁵To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One. ²⁶Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth. ²⁷Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God? ²⁸Hast 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. ²⁹He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. ³⁰Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: ³¹But 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.

Isaiah 40:21-31 (KJV)

Introduction

What a marvelous passage to begin this special month in which we observe African American History Month. The Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum join in paying tribute to the generations of African Americans who struggled with adversity to achieve full citizenship in American society. As a Harvard-trained historian, Carter G. Woodson, like W. E. B. Du Bois before him, believed that truth could not be denied and that reason would prevail over prejudice. His hopes to raise awareness of African American’s contributions to civilization was realized when he and the organization he founded, the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH), conceived and announced during Negro History Week in 1925. The event was first celebrated during a week in February 1926, that encompassed the birthdays of both Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass.

The Black Awakening of the 1960s dramatically expanded the consciousness of African Americans about the importance of black history, and the Civil Rights movement focused Americans of all colors on the subject of the contributions of African Americans to our history and culture. The celebration was expanded to a month in 1976, the nation’s bicentennial. President Gerald R. Ford urged Americans

to, “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.” (Excerpt from an essay by Daryl Michael Scott, Howard University, for the Association for the Study of African American Life and History). Now we have the African American Museum in the nation's capital for the world to be reminded of the contributions African Americans have made to the nation and world. 

Consider what it means to remember how your faith navigated you through

the maze of confusion, chaos and circumstances that were designed

and structured to enslave you and prevent you from fulfilling

your full possibility and potential.  

Monday, February 5, 2024

This lyrical poem in Isaiah is designed to refute the charge of God's faithlessness, and to provide hope for Israel in its dismay. Oppressed by the experience of being in exile, thinking herself forgotten by God, aware of the pressures of Babylonian power and religion, Israel is fearful and lacking in trust (cf. Ezekiel 37). This passage of scripture from Isaiah 40:21-31 depicts a people who are confused about the circumstances they were experiencing as exiles in a foreign land. They began to complain about the lack of their awareness of the Presence of the Lord in their lives. They feel that God is absent. We suffer and God seems indifferent. There is a sense of the injustice of the world, and God does not defend us. What people need most in times of crisis and confusion is to know the Lord is with them. We want to know that the Lord sees our misery, hears our cries due to our situation, knows how much we are suffering (Exodus 3:7). We are tempted to project our sense of weakness onto the Lord. God must be weary and faint-hearted as we are.

Prophets interpret the activity of God in the history of the world and in the lives of people. Prophets remind people of God’s past activity as they interpret and reinterpret the meaning of that activity for the present time. Prophets interpret the will of God in times of crises.

The prophet carries the people from their confusion about the reality of the absence of the Lord's presence to clarity about who God is and what God does when we are

faint-hearted and lose strength. 

Consider what it means to be carried from confusion about the reality of the Lord’s presence in the peculiar, perplexing experiences where it seems that

the Lord is absent, ambiguous, and ambivalent.

Firstly, the prophet reminds us of who God is: God is the creator.

²¹Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?

The attributes of God. God is omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscience. God is everlasting. God's name means constancy, faithfulness. God is creator of the ends of the earth, the whole earth from end to end. Babylonia, then the seat of exile, is not beyond God’s reach, as if God were only, "the god of the hills of Palestine." Creation infers providence. If God made the world, God governs it, too. God has no human infirmities: faints not, nor is weary.  We tend to project onto the Lord what we are feeling as opposed to letting who the Lord is shape our thinking about the Lord. 

The picture of God proposed here is of a God who sits atop the vault of heaven, that is, on top of the earth, in regal splendor, high and lifted up, so elevated and exalted, that the human inhabitants of the earth are seen at a distance, from a panoramic view. ("The Lord sits on the circle of the earth", Isaiah 40:22). In this exalted position the Lord engages in creative activity, forming and shaping the heavens, which exist only through God's enormous power. The God who governs the heavens is also the one who intrudes in the political process, especially to de-legitimize political authorities of which the Lord no longer approves. As the Lord can summon the heavens, so this same God can message the nations of the earth. In this way the passage moves quickly from cosmic concerns to the specific political issues of the exiles. Kings and kingdoms are established, but when God rejects and destabilizes, powers are dislodged. No ruler can withstand the force of God's de-legitimating wind. Now that is some God! For that reason, the downtrodden, seemingly hopeless situation of exiles is not for perpetuity, for the oppressive powers serve only until the Lord begins to blow a transformative wind.  

Then the passage in verse 28c moves away from creation, close to the actual political situation that concerns exiles. This God is tireless, never faint or weak, never lacking in energy or vitality. In vs. 28c - 30, the poem reiterates the word "faint" three times, and the word "weary" twice. The non-fainting God ministers to fainting creation and creatures. The non-weary God gives life to weary creatures. Thus the words are used in order to establish a contrast between God and the exiles (and all of creation). The exiles are indeed faint, weary, powerless, exhausted. But the Lord is none of these. Quite the opposite - the Lord has power to counteract that languishing, fainting condition of creation and creatures. The Lord is indeed exactly what exiles need. Thus the best and holy hope of the exiles is to stay close to the Lord, who can do for them what is needed that they cannot do for themselves.  

Consider what it means to interpret the reality of the Lord’s presence

as being omnipresent (present all the time), omnipotent (has all power) and omniscience (all knowing). 

Secondly, consider what you have known and what you have heard. 

²⁸Hast 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. 

The prophet appeals to the people to consider what they have known and what they have heard. Look away from self and its restrictions within the present distress; look and see the goodness of the Lord even in the midst of the miserable conditions despite the political reality. Look at the silent heavens with their "goings on"; the march of the seasons; the recurrence of seed-time and harvest, Consider the breath which stirs the souls of people to progress in wisdom, culture, peace, civilization. Divert your thoughts from the little self-world to the immense universe. Stop, look, and listen as the ages speak their hope in activity that has overwhelmed those in distress.

The American Historical Association, in an article entitled, "How Do We Learn From History" by James J. Sheehan, makes interesting observations about history. 

"By expanding our experience to the lives of men and women in different times and places history teaches us valuable things both about others and ourselves. Does the past provide lessons for the present, guidance for the future? In addition to telling us who we are, does history help us know what to do? However professionally skeptical we may be about learning from the past, there is no doubt that we try to do it all the time. We constantly tell stories about the past to our students, friends, children—and to ourselves—stories that are supposed to convey moral and practical lessons about how to behave. Physicians compile histories of their patients' diseases in order to make diagnoses and determine therapies. Military units write after action reports that provide the basis for assessing the reasons for success or failure. And, of course, historical lessons are part of every political discussion and debate.

Again and again, our political leaders use the past to warn, admonish, and inspire the public; to criticize their opponents; and to justify their own policies. Historical analogies, comparisons, and metaphors are all around us; they are a source of collective wisdom on which we must rely. It is unlikely that we could live without them even if we wanted to try." 

Consider what it means to learn from the past to benefit you

in the present to prepare you for the future.  

Thirdly, there is a wisdom in waiting. 

²⁹He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. ³⁰Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: ³¹But 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.

There’s wisdom in waiting. Waiting! How much is included in that word! Faith and hope, and endurance and strength. Take the most vivid image of strength: the youth in his athletic vigor - the agile wrestler, the nimble runner. Is he strong? Nay, he shall stumble, while the stationary, waiting one gathers fresh force. He seems to be on the wane, to be losing the brightness of youth. It's but the molting of the old eagle of fable - he will put forth fresh feathers. With ages on his plumes, he will still be traveling on. These waiters are the stayers in the race. They appear as stationary as earth itself; they roll on by the same momentum, they are the agents of the same force. 

The prevalence of human weakness, those who have no might among the exile Israelites were the dispirited, the dissatisfied, the despairing - those who lost hope in God and had no expectation of ever seeing again the land of their fathers. The faint include joyless souls, who have no gladness in God and no happiness in God service, who walk even in the path of life without brightness in their countenance and no pep in their steps. 

Half-hearted souls whose devotion is seriously defective, who cannot say, "with my whole heart have I served thee." Faint-hearted souls who have no courage to attempt anything.  

There’s the insufficiency of human strength. There were those from whom, in the natural course of things, strength, vigor, fortitude, might have been expected. But in vain: "Even the youth shall faint, and utterly fall." Those from whom you expect from those whose capacity might give them strength. 

Consider what it means to acknowledge the reality of human frailty and weakness as insufficient in acquiring what you struggle to achieve.  

The gift of divine power. 

God gives power, resistance, resilience, and endurance so that we can make it through the severest and the most lasting trials, trouble and tribulation by being steadfast in our belief, conviction and faith. We remain faithful in our commitment to witness to the reality of the Presence of the Lord in our lives. So that we shall be able to stand and having done all we can, to stand anyhow.

The faint, weary, powerless, exhausted exiles are to wait, that is, to hope and expect, and let God take the initiative in our lives for a liberated future. The waiting is an act of confident faith, a willingness to accept the authority, buoyancy, and advocacy of God. Those who wait so vibrantly have their lives transformed, for the creator God will do for the exiles what has been done for creation. This God will give life where there was none. But the God who is the creator and who is never weary in creative activity

is also the God whose power for people is inexhaustible. Those who look to God will never lack strength. 

Consider what it means to wait on the Lord to transform your life from being weak and feeble to being resilient and strong, soaring like an eagle above what would have kept you from becoming what you have the capacity to be.  

Conclusion

What do you do / When you've done all you can

And it seems like it's never enough? / And what do you say

When your friends turn away, / And you're all alone?

Tell me, what do you give / When you've given your all,

And it seems like / You can't make it through?

Well you just stand

When there's nothing left to do

You just stand

Watch the lord see you through

Yes after you done all you can,

You just stand

Tell me, / How do you handle the guilt of your past?

Tell me, how do you deal with the shame?

And how can you smile

While your heart has been broken

And filled with pain?

Tell me what do you give

When you've given your all

Seems like you can't make it through?

~Donnie McClurkin

Consider what it means to stand when that is all you can do and let

the Lord see you through whatever you are experiencing.   

Second Baptist Church Los Angeles

2412 Griffith Ave

Los Angeles, CA 90011 

Phone: (213) 748-0318