On Eagles’ Wings

How many of you know that part of the Bible, in Isaiah 40, that talks about mounting up on eagles’ wings? How many of you have read that entire chapter 40 of Isaiah and can tell me what is in it before the part that talks about eagles?

Does anyone know everything it says before that? Because, you know what, it is one thing to think about being able to fly, and another thing to think about how to fly. You have heard that song that says, “I can fly, I believe I can touch the sky…” You know what? What happens to a person who believes they can fly?

Can that person really fly? Can they touch the sky? No, of course not. It is a very beautiful song, but it is not real. In Christ Jesus, there are certain promises, and the image used is that image of being able to fly. And it is not just something like thinking about the air; there is something intentional about it. It is not a fairy tale.

Please, we do not want anyone to go out and jump off the roof. But there is a great deal of preparation involved beforehand in learning how to fly imaginatively, like those birds, the eagles. Maybe it is like thinking of a parachute, but that is not the same thing. Perhaps it is that image of wings that God presents to us. But these are the things we are going to reflect on today.

Isaiah 40, verse 1, and you can follow along in Spanish. We are going to read verses 1 through 3. Isaiah 40, verses 1 through 3.

Father, in the name of Jesus, we ask for Your presence at this moment. Thank You because, just as the snow falls so gently, Your Spirit has also been resting among us in a sweet and beautiful way. We do not want to leave this refuge; while the wind is blowing outside, here we feel so safe.

You have been a refuge for Your people, and You promise in this new year to be that wind beneath our wings. I pray for new hope and strength today. May You speak to us, and may Your Word fall on good ground. In the name of Jesus. Amen. Isaiah 40 begins by saying, “Comfort, comfort My people.”

When I think of something comfortable, I think of being inside a house, sitting comfortably in front of a fireplace. Some of you over there still have your jackets and hats on. But you are here in the house of the Lord. You are here near the fire of the Holy Spirit.

Comfort for the people of God. This chapter was written to a group of people in exile. For many generations, the people of Israel had been committing the sin of idolatry. They built idols and sacrificed things before those idols. They offered their own children in the fire before those idols. The people of Israel became a pagan nation.

And prophets such as Isaiah and others came and spoke to them, telling them that if they did not repent, they would receive God’s judgment. Page after page of warnings to the people. God told them, “Do not play games with Me. You are playing with fire.” And the time came when God allowed great and powerful nations to conquer Israel. They burned the temple, destroyed the walls and ramparts, and the survivors were taken away in chains as slaves into exile. The people of Israel came under God’s judgment. For 70 years, they lived in nations where they had not chosen to live.

And after that, God promised to bring them back once again. Now, the thing about the prophets is that they are seeing visions from God. They are seeing what is to come. But it is not necessarily in sequential or chronological order. Have you ever seen a mountain range on the horizon? From your point of view, you may see mountains that are smaller than others. And perhaps you have no idea which mountain is close and which one is hundreds of miles away from you. You simply lose perspective because you are seeing it on the horizon.

And that is what the prophets could see. In one chapter they were prophesying about something that might happen tomorrow, and in the next sentence, in that very same chapter, they might be talking about the coming of Jesus.

After that, they spoke about the exile, when they would be taken away as slaves. And then perhaps they spoke about when they would return once again. So this is a section where Isaiah is telling them what will happen after their punishment: that they would return to their homes. As in the Exodus, they returned once again to Israel, and there was going to be another Exodus when they would come to their people once again.

And then John the Baptist once again took up those words, saying, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, because now we are going to be freed from slavery under Satan’s yoke and will enter into the glory of the time of Jesus.” So this chapter has to do with comfort. It is hope. It means that the exile in which they are living will not last forever.

How many of you know that when you are in a wilderness, it seems as though it will never end? You feel that you will never have another glass of water, that you will never have another beach where you can go swimming. Or, if I change the image, it seems as though it will keep snowing and snowing and the sun will never come out again.

But God is saying something. He is saying that the sun will come out again, there will be new flowers, there will be a new life for you. This long exile will come to an end. We suffer different exiles or punishments or wildernesses in our lives.

Sometimes we suffer like the people of Israel because we brought it on ourselves. We brought it on ourselves. Have you ever had—have you ever gotten yourself into a big problem and had to say, you know what, I have no one else to blame for this; I got myself into it? And there are seasons of constant decisions and consequences that must be dealt with.

All of us, at one time or another—some of us—have been there. The people of Israel were there for 70 years. And that is why God says, your sin has been forgiven; your time of exile has been completed.

You know what? God is not going to punish you forever. There are times when God takes those bad decisions you made and turns them to your good. God often even used the exile for the good of the people of Israel.

Have some of you heard of Queen Esther? Do you remember that beautiful queen who saved the…? A tremendous Sunday school lesson. That story would never have happened if it had not been for the Exile. Have you heard of Daniel, who became a great leader in that great pagan nation of Babylon? Do you know how he got to Babylon in the first place? He did not want to go there; he was born in exile. If there had been no exile, there would have been no Daniel.

God takes our sin and those negative consequences of those decisions and brings beauty out of them. Of course, Esther and Daniel were living in exile, but they had done nothing to deserve it. What did they do? Nothing; they were born there. But their grandparents were naughty boys and girls. And that is why they were born in Babylon instead of being born in a perfect home in Israel.

For many of us, our time in exile may not have resulted from decisions we made, but from decisions others made that affected us. Our grandparents or great-great-grandparents made some disastrous decisions, and we are still cleaning up the broken dishes. We are still cleaning up the consequences.

Now, God bless you, it is not that we are blaming others. Rather, we are recognizing that many of us are pioneers. We are breaking generations of punishment resulting from decisions others made. And like Daniel and Esther, we are opening up a new chain of blessing for those new generations. Comfort—“Comfort, My people, Mine.” Your time in the wilderness will come to an end.

You know what? There are times when you may be crossing the wilderness and there is no obvious reason why. As Jesus said, His disciples asked Him, “Why is this man blind? Did his parents sin, or did he?” And Jesus said, “Neither of them.” Jesus said, “For some mysterious reason he is this way, but this is so that the glory of God may be revealed.”

In the time of Genesis, Joseph had to spend time as a slave in a pit and… prison, okay. He did nothing wrong, but God had a purpose for it. Job was another one who went through suffering after suffering. He did nothing wrong; God had a mysterious plan for him. But the good news is that this does not last forever. God has a purpose. He has a purpose, and the time will come when it will be fulfilled.

Now, we have a role to play in that process of God freeing us through all of it. It says that we must prepare a way for the Lord. We must straighten the roads; we have to take mountains and make them level. We have to raise up valleys and smooth that barren terrain.

You know? This is a very literal image because, for many Israelites, leaving exile and Babylon and reaching their Promised Land meant having to cross a great deal of very rough and difficult terrain.

Have you ever been on one of those tightly packed buses on a country road in Guatemala? You are packed so tightly among other people that you cannot move. Curves—and you are risking your life at every moment. God had to make a straight road.

Now, I have never done this, but I imagine that to bring down a mountain you have to use several sticks of dynamite, and to raise a valley you have to use many levers and shovels to fill it. Brothers and sisters, how long does it take to complete discipleship? Has anyone completed all of it? How long did it take you? Two and a half years. What are we doing here?

My brothers and sisters, dealing with the valleys and mountains in your life takes time and effort. Prepare the way for the Lord. Verse 5 says, “And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed.” Lion of Judah, do you want to see the glory of God revealed?

We have not even managed to enter into what God promised Pastor Miranda—we have not even begun yet. God has made great promises, and we have not yet experienced even a tiny bit of them. But if we want to see that glory of God revealed, there are many mountains that must be blasted away. There are valleys that must be filled in, because it is not going to happen for no reason at all. God is looking for a completely straight highway. That highway of holiness that comes with the terrain.

And you can get to the part about the eagle in just a moment. But part of this requires having a vision of ourselves, in verse 6. It says—a voice said—“Cry out.” And I answered, “What shall I cry?” “All flesh is grass, and all its glory is like the flower of the field. The grass withers and the flower fades because the breath of the Lord blew upon it.” Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.

Now, I ask you, what kind of comfort does the mere fact that we are like grass that withers and a flower that fades bring us? Tell me, how does that help us? We are getting there.

Let us go to verse 15 now. God is not only talking about you, but also about nations. Imagine, millions of you. Verse 15 says, “Behold, the nations are like a drop of water that falls into a bucket.” And they are regarded as fine dust on the scales. How big is one drop in a bucket of water? How much does a speck of dust weigh? That is how important a nation is before God. It is saying that we are like grass, like a flower, like dust. That is what He is comparing us to.

And can you believe that you came through this snow to hear this message? God is saying that we are nothing. How does that help us? You know what the passage says later: the kings on their thrones—if God accidentally sneezes, those kings fly off their thrones. And how does knowing how unworthy we are help us? Because I do not have to take myself so seriously.

Verse 9. “Go up onto a high mountain and proclaim it. Lift up your voice with strength, you who proclaim good news to Jerusalem. Do not fear; say to the cities of Judah, come, here is your God. Behold, the Lord God will come with power. And His arm shall rule. Behold, His reward is with Him, and His recompense before Him. Like a shepherd He will feed His flock, and in His arm He will carry the lambs, and He will carry them close to His heart. He will gently lead those that have recently given birth.” Until we know how small we are, we cannot let God carry us. We prefer to walk on our own.

It is beautiful and precious, but the beginning of this is recognizing how small I am. Before I can be an eagle, I have to know that I am a fledgling. But it does not end there.

Verse 12 says, “The beginning of wisdom.” Well, Gregg used to have a professor at the university who would say this: “Wow! If God is so great, why pay attention to Him? You are a god, and I am a god too.” And my pastor—I will never forget it. It was Dave Hill. My pastor said precisely that to him… Dave Hill looked him in the eyes: “Look, you are not God.” Number 1, God is much wiser than you are.

Verse 12. “Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and measured the heavens with the span of His hand? Who gathered the dust of the earth with three fingers, weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance? Who taught the Spirit of the Lord, or counseled Him by teaching Him? Whom did God ask for advice so that He might be instructed? Who taught Him knowledge or showed Him the path of understanding? It was filled with white—was it you? Were you the one who taught Him?”

I’m going to tell you a story. I’m at the light… You know the traffic lights are there, and there is an arrow for turning left. I’m there with my two-and-a-half-year-old son in the back. And the arrow light is red, while the light next to me turns green and the cars begin to go by. Do you know what Noah said? “Daddy, go, go—go.” I look… I tell him, “Noah, look, those lights are green. But I have a red arrow.” And I look at myself and say, I don’t have to explain myself. “Don’t worry, Daddy knows how to drive.” And obviously, while I’m doing this, the light turns green and people start honking at me. He could have sworn he knew better than I did. And you know what? We do this with God all the time. And we tell Him, “Go, Daddy, go.”

What did Peter do when Jesus told them, “Look, cast your nets on the other side of the boat”? And I can begin to hear this condescension in Peter. I can hear Peter saying, “You know, Jesus… you know what? You haven’t been fishing as long as I have. We’ve been at it all night…” And I imagine Jesus looking at him… “I made this lake; I made those fish, so stop telling Me nonsense. I made it, so cast the net.”

That is why Peter, after doing all this, casts the nets, gathers the fish, comes to Jesus, and says, “Jesus, depart from me, because I am a sinner.” “I thought I knew more than You, but I was wrong.”

Think of the most beautiful ocean scene you have ever imagined. Something spectacular, and you can see far into the distance… imagine being at Lake Atitlán with the sun shining… imagine the landscapes in your countries that are beautiful and go on and on. God says, “I made every one of those things. I know what I am doing.” God is wiser than I could ever be.

I may not understand what is happening, but my Daddy knows how to guide me.

Number two. Here is another gem of wisdom from my college years. Have any of you been to the Grand Canyon? God is greater than the Grand Canyon. God is wiser than you, and He is greater than you. This isn’t rocket science, brothers and sisters.

Verse 21 of chapter 40 says, “Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it never been told to you from the beginning? Have you not been taught from the foundations of the earth that He founded it?” You know? When I was in Argentina, there was a phrase the Argentinians would say… “You see? You see?” It would usually make me feel a little… dumb. They would say it to me again: “You see? You see? Don’t you understand? Got it?” There are times when we think we are wiser and greater than God and want to take control, but God knows more.

Verse 22 says, “He sits above the circle of the earth, whose inhabitants are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a curtain. He spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.” Have you ever been out on one of those nights filled with stars that you can see far into the distance? Like Abraham, when He said, “Look at that sky full of stars.” “That is My palace; I am greater than all of it.” He goes on and reads, “To whom will you compare Me?” A few minutes ago we sang, “Who is like Jehovah?” There is no one like the Lord.

Why do you say, O Jacob, and say, Israel, “My way is hidden from Jehovah, and my judgment has been passed over by my God”? During those long stretches in the wilderness, we begin to ask whether God is paying attention to us.

There is a brother here in the church whom we know. He is living here and has already been waiting for a year and a half to bring his family from his country of origin. Every day is like an eternity to him. It seems as though it will go on forever; it is a very long wait and a very long journey. And if I were him, it would be very easy to complain and say, “God, are You paying attention?”

Verse 28 says, “Have you not known? Have you not heard that the everlasting God is Jehovah, who created the ends of the earth? He does not faint or grow weary, and His understanding is unsearchable.” He never gets tired, and He is never confused about what He has to do. That is why, when we worship, we fix our eyes on Him; that is why we glorify God.

Because look at what happens next: He gives strength to the weary and increases the strength of the one who has none. Boys grow weary and tired. Young men stumble and fall, but those who wait upon Jehovah will renew their strength. Waiting upon God now, in 2010—what are you waiting for Him to do in your future? What basis do we have for knowing and believing that good things will happen in the future? The very fact that I serve a great and powerful God who knows what He is doing and who can impart His strength to my life. The word for renew—to renew their strength—is typically used in the Old Testament for changing out of old clothes and putting on new ones.

Joseph was in prison for many years, and when it was time to meet the king, he laid aside his prison garments and put on a garment suitable for meeting the king. When you come into the presence of God. When we look at who God is, He clothes us with new strength; He clothes us with majesty, dignity, and power. And we can walk with new strength, so I lay aside my prison garments, I lay aside my weakness, and there is new strength breathing within me.

And now we come to the part that says, “They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.” We will be able to fly because we know who God is. And we know that we are trusting in Him. Amen.

Have you ever seen a tired eagle? Have you ever seen an eagle sweating? Eagles live up there in those high places. Have you ever seen an eagle flapping its wings really hard? I am not an expert on eagles, so I am not going to say anything crazy. But I know that they spread their wings. I have heard that they look for thermal currents in the air and simply travel on that air… I was going to say coasts.

The eagle is the only bird I know of that can rest while flying. That can relax while flying. Because it is not about the eagle; it is about the air it is traveling on—it is its wings that hold it up.

You know? When you ask any Hebrew—when they hear that phrase, “on eagles’ wings”—they are going to think of some point in Israel’s history, such as the Exodus, when God tells them, “I brought you out as on eagles’ wings.” That is what they would think. But do you know what this image is? It is explained in the book of Deuteronomy. “I,” God says, “I am like that eagle that came and approached you and grasped you with My talons. And I brought you out of Egypt; on eagles’ wings I brought you out of there.”

And, you know, I think that is what this refers to. But it is not. In this story, it does not mean that God is the eagle; it has to do with you being the eagle. It is not God coming in flying; it is about us flying out. It is about knowing that God is so wise and great that I can spread the wings of my faith and fly out of that situation.

Peter learned how to fly in this way. We saw that part when we thought he believed he was wiser than God. But if you look in the book of Acts, you see this man preaching and thousands coming to the Lord. You see a man with such authority that when people lied in the presence of God, those people died. And this is literal: there are stories in which Peter’s shadow touched someone and those people were healed. People touched a handkerchief, touched it to Peter’s clothing, and then touched the sick person, and that person was healed. The apostle Peter learned how to fly.

Lion of Judah, that passage about when God came like an eagle, took His children, and brought them out of Egypt was speaking through the image of a child—of how God treats a child. But now, Israel, here in the book of Isaiah, it is time for them to fly. It is time for them to grow and spread their wings.

Lion of Judah, for many years God has been carrying this church. But we still have not learned, have not begun, to fly on eagles’ wings. We are there, at the point of launching ourselves off that cliff and then being able to fly like eagles. It is time to grow; prepare that road of repentance. We must humble ourselves and know that we are nothing. We must have faith in the fact that God is greater and wiser than I am. We must spread our wings, close our eyes, and jump. That is where we are in 2010.

Are you ready to truly live out that chapter? As I conclude, I invite you to stand. And I do not know what exile or wilderness you are living through today. But I know the One who can bring you home. I do not know what is making you weary, but I know the One who can renew your strength.

Father, in the name of Jesus, we acknowledge that we are nothing. But at the same time, we are called to be like eagles. And, Father, I ask that in the year 2010, Father, You help each one of those who are going through life’s long processes. Some feel that they have been in the wilderness for a long time. Father, I ask You to teach us what it means to wait upon You. What it means to know that You are the wisest in the entire universe and the most powerful.

Father, teach us to stretch out our wings and to fly as You intend. Father, I ask for new strength for Your people. I ask for a year of new strength and, Father, that You fulfill Your purposes in us. And, Father, I thank You that You are faithful and that all of this is about You and not about us. In Jesus’ name.