Way Beyond the Blue

“Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.”

The first verse of Isaiah 40, penned during a time of widespread instability and uncertainty much like our own, is the inviting intro to one of the most moving chapters in all of Scripture. It reminds us that God is in control of whatever situation we’re facing. This is good news, friends! Even when the world feels very much out of control, it is not. It is so not. Our God is powerfully and wonderfully in control. He’s in control of all things – here and now.

In that same marvelous chapter, I find so many words of comfort for the turbulent age in which you and I find ourselves. It’s like the words were written for today, and – in an important sense – they were. Particularly, I’m drawn to Verses 28-31, which I’ll unpack just a little today for our comfort and joy.

“Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.”

During the lifetime of the prophet Isaiah, Israel was nothing short of a political hot mess. Threats were widespread and coming from every direction, as tyrannical Assyrian powers toppled everything that was dear to God’s people. At the same time – though His people lost sight of this truth on a regular basis – God was with them. This gorgeous portion of God’s Word was given to fan the flame of a spiritual hope that was only flickering at this point. The everlasting God – the God who superintends every chapter of human history – had not abandoned them.

Despite their hot mess, God was offering His people another opportunity to embrace – in the depth of their soul – the everlasting truth of His everlasting presence. Friends, I submit to you that God is presenting us today the same life-changing opportunity.

“He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.”

Though God’s people had suffered setback after setback, God wanted them to understand that He isn’t prone to such setbacks. Just as we can’t fathom the reaches of His wisdom, we’re unable to grasp the full extent of His sovereign rule and reign. Christ’s reign is a tireless reign, and it is – even more good news – a kind and benevolent reign.

^“He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.”

It’s an amazing reality. Just like those who preceded us in faith, t’s entirely normal for our lives to feel out-of-control. We get weary, regularly. We try to run on empty, regularly. We meet affliction like a deer in the headlights, regularly. But that place of exhaustion, if we will make it also a place of surrender, is where God meets us and gives us what we don’t have.

“Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they 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.”

In the mind of a typical Hebrew, an eagle was a noteworthy symbol of exceptional strength, and was to be admired much like we Americans respect our emblematic bald eagle. When God’s people thought of eagles, they thought of fearless warriors – but also of warriors who care deeply. They understood that eagles – upon sensing any threat at all – will do whatever it takes to get their young eaglets to safety. No matter the prowess of the predator, the eagle takes immediate action to protect the vulnerable.

And eagles are undeterred by lesser concerns. When the weather is terrible and menacing, eagles fly high above the storm clouds and soar freely far above the noise and the danger. So when we think of God giving a person “wings like an eagle,” we should imagine someone being given the ability – in Christ – to rise above the sin and corruption of this world and to serve God with their whole being. Eagle = Strength. Eagle = Valor. Eagle = Selflessness.

In the remarkable story of God’s deliverance of the Israelites from Egyptian slavery, the Bible speaks of eagles’ wings. Specifically, the Lord gave Moses a critical and timely word for His people (Exodus 19:4-5): “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine.” Isaiah is remembering that momentous promise, and calling his nation to remember it – and calling us to remember that. Our God is faithful!

Are you and I willing to soar above the fray? Are we willing to take courage in a day of fear? Are we willing to remain faithful to God – no matter the personal cost?

We will never fly high without a clear vision of heaven, because there’s far too much to worry about here. The term “mount up” is a translation of a Hebrew word which can mean “to ascend beyond a boundary.” That we can do only in Christ, because – without Him – there are far too many distractions and discouragements here. We have the problem of our own sin. We have the problem of our own shortsightedness. We have the problem of all of the attacks on our faith which seem to come at us from every direction. We have the ongoing problems of the cultural, political, and global hot mess that seems to be swirling like Dorothy’s tornado.

It’s time to fly higher! Maybe today isn’t the day that we get to go home to be with the Lord forever, but it’s a day when we can fly high enough above the noise of 2024 – and there’s a lot of noise out there – to get a fresh vision of hope, courage, and joy in our Lord Jesus Christ. “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16).

When I was growing up, we often sang a lively old spiritual from the Antebellum South. The song, written in slavery, was based on the faith profession of the penitent thief on the cross next to our Lord (Luke 23:42): “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Some of the words we sang as kids were manufactured by over-zealous youth directors, but the original lyrics – simple yet profound – are these …

“I gotta home in gloryland that outshines the sun,
I gotta home in gloryland that outshines the sun,
I gotta home in gloryland that outshines the sun,
Way beyond the blue.

Do Lord, oh do Lord, oh do remember me,
Do Lord, oh do Lord, oh do remember me,
Do Lord, oh do Lord, oh do remember me,
Way beyond the blue!”

You and I are the helpless thief, but you and I are also the treasured possession. Whenever we need it most, the grace of Christ’s promise is as real as ever: “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Pastor Charles