2/8/26 Isaiah 40:21-31 “Soaring on Eagles Wings!”

05 Feb 2/8/26 Isaiah 40:21-31 “Soaring on Eagles Wings!”

2/8/26   Isaiah 40:21-31       “Soaring on Eagles Wings!”

I think that in our modern world it is really hard to be a preacher and a pastor.  For me, I would guess that pastoring comes easier because I’m pretty much a people person and I try to treat everyone as I would want to be treated.  After all, that is what we are supposed to do.  I know I make mistakes because I have to live in this human condition.  We all do.  It is the preaching part that is harder because I like to treat you the way I want to be treated in sermons but I don’t always have that luxury.  We just finished talking a little bit about Jonah and I think we found some things in there that were pretty hard to swallow but we have to swallow them because they come from God.  God is the ultimate judge and we had better get used to it because there is no other way.  So I have to preach about the hard stuff because it has to be done.  So when I get a chance to preach on some easier passages, I will do it.  We need these also.  Today, we are going to remain in the Old Testament as we talk from Isaiah 40.  Listen closely as this has a lot of Good News in it.

I find that eagles are interesting birds.  I think that many of us have seen one of their nests.  They are huge.  The mother eagle begins building the nest by using pointed broken branches, sharp rocks and even thorns.  These seem rather unlikely things to use but then she lines the nest with wool, feathers and fur from some of her kills.  Now it is comfortable for the eggs.  By the time the young eagles are flying, they are reluctant to leave the nest as it is so comfortable.  This is when the mother starts stirring the pot, so to speak.  She starts to use her powerful talons to pull up the sharp rocks and things so that the nest is no longer comfortable for her young’uns.  Soon, along with other urgings the youngsters leave the nest.  The mother eagle has to use various means to get the youngsters out of their comfort zone.  Often times we Christians are like this also.  There comes a time when we have to quit reading about it and start doing it.

I think that most experts now believe that Isaiah was written by more than one person.  They base their conclusions of several factors like the style is different in various sections.  They also say that one Isaiah couldn’t have written much of this because he lived before the events happened.  It probably isn’t that important a detail and you can believe like this if you want because most of the modern experts believe this.  However, does the term prophecy mean anything?  Parts of the book of Isaiah are prophecy that was fulfilled after his death.  It is just something to think about.

I’m going to begin today with 21^st verse and the 28^th verse which are the same.  Remember that if something is repeated, it is important.  So listen up.  “Do you not know?  Have you not heard?”  We should already know this stuff but just in case you haven’t or you are a little fuzzy, listen up!

We have been told this our whole lives.  We have been told this since the beginning of time.  It should be drilled into us from the 1^st Commandment.  There is only one God.  He is the God of all other gods.  He is the creator of everything.  I was just talking with another pastor in the area a while back and he confirmed what I have been saying all along.  The more you look at the creation from a scientific view, the more you realize that all that we possess has been made by a creator and that creator is God.  You all know that there is no doubt in my mind.

But Isaiah is talking to people who are going to be in exile.  He spends the first part of this book telling his people of the judgment to come if they don’t mend their ways.  The last part of this book is mostly prophecy of what will happen to Judah.  They will be conquered like the northern kingdom of Israel.  The people of Judah at this time have all but forgotten God.  Everywhere Isaiah looked, he saw a pornographic country just like the one we have today.  I think it would do us good to pay attention to what he is saying.  We need to be reminded that we didn’t evolve from some monkey.  We were made by God with a purpose.

Sometimes I think that as people, we are a little dense when it comes to using our brains.  I would like you to pay attention to the first part of verse 22.  It would be about 2000 years after this writing that humans will discover that the world is round.  But verse 22 tells us that God sits above the circle of the earth.  God tells us in the Bible that the world is round and we don’t believe until centuries later.   Anyway, God is the ruler of all things everywhere period plus He obviously knows all.

Then the writer goes on to say that we are next to nothing when compared to God.  As a matter of fact we are like grasshoppers next to God.  I believe that the author is saying that we are that small compared to the power, the majesty, the love of God.  He isn’t really referring physicality and he doesn’t mean that we are meaningless next to God.  God is so big that the heavens in the sky are like a mere tent to Him, a tent!  This is who God is.  He is the biggest, most powerful, most knowing being in the universe.  What we call large is miniscule to God.

This makes me very happy.  We have a God who is big enough to handle anything.  There is nothing He can’t do.  When the time comes, the mountains will obey His will.  The oceans will do as he commands.  At the same time, He loves each and every one of you here today.  There are no exceptions.  And all you have to do is ask.  So the next time that you get yourself in a bind with bills that need to be paid, call on Jesus.  The next time you are tempted by something that you really want to do but you know it is a sin, call on Jesus.  The next time you need advice on what to do for the day, call on Jesus.

Also note how the author tells us that we are only temporary in this world.  The rulers of the world mean nothing to Him.  They are insignificant.  I do not know of one world leader from the year 1850 who is around today.  They are all gone.  I don’t know of any person from 1850 who is around today.  They are all gone.  And yet we live our lives like we will be here forever.  According to Isaiah and many other writers, we are a small cog in the great machine of God.  We might seem insignificant looking at it like this but we aren’t because I know that many of you know Jesus personally.  There is no other god in the universe that cares and loves like God.  The god of Islam is totally impersonal.  In the religions of China, India and that area, there are so many gods that they cannot be personal.  Of course, all other gods are false anyway so how can they be much help in anything.

Then in verses 25-26 Isaiah tells us that it is God who is in control.  This passage reminds me of reading in Job when God describes himself.  God is in control.  Tonight, go outside and look at the sky or wait until the stars are out.  Look up and try to count the stars.  You can’t do it.  There are millions of them.  But God can count them.  He not only knows how many there are but He knows each one by name.  Can President Trump do that?  Can the power crazed leaders of the Middle East countries do this?  No, they can’t even come close because they are all just human beings like us.  And we are all just normal.  We don’t have wondrous powers.  I don’t know one person in the world who can make the mountains quake or the oceans roar.  But God can because He is that special.  We are in no way, shape or form special except in the eyes of Jesus who loves you.  You all have a future in eternity which is more than I can say for most of the people of the world.  The path is wide to hell but praise the Lord, you are not on that path.

This first part of the reading recalls just how great and wondrous God really is.  The last part of this reading tells us exactly what this means to us.  “Do you not know?  Have you not heard?”  I’m going to keep with the eagle theme today.  When I was a kid, we never saw any eagles and now they are quite common and still quite beautiful.  They are also quite unique as we have seen by their nest building.  And they are also unique in learning to fly.  The momma eagle will take one of her youngsters when they are ready and put him on her back.  Then she flies up so high that she is almost out of sight.  When she gets to the proper height she cuts the power and does a slow roll.  Of course the youngster falls off.  Now the youngster doesn’t really know what his wings are for but he usually starts flapping.  Generally this doesn’t do much the first time down.  The momma eagle watches and watches until the youngster almost hits the ground.  Then she swoops in, picks him out of the air and saves him from death.  She generally has to do this several times before he learns to fly.  It is the same way with us in our Christian walk.

Have you not heard that our God is an everlasting God?  He is the Creator of the earth.  He does not grow tired and His knowledge and understanding are infinitely larger than ours.  He is like the eagle mother who keeps dropping her young from 5000 feet and catching them again if you don’t learn to fly.  Isaiah is talking to a rebellious bunch of Israelites.  They have broken the Laws of God over and over.  Now Isaiah is telling them that even though they have been this evil, even though they will be carried away to a foreign land, God will still love them and take care of them.  He can do this because He is so big and so wise.

Isaiah is talking to a nation of way more than a million people.  God is powerful enough to destroy both the nation of Israel and Judah.  We can look back on these times and wonder why these people just didn’t get it.  I mean, God had been patient and patient and patient.  They had strayed from Him and He was always there to lead them back when the times became unbearable.  This happened over and over.  Now the nations will be destroyed by the wisdom of God.

I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings but aren’t we the same way today?  Haven’t we as a nation of God turned our backs to Him?  How long will it be before He destroys us?  I shudder every time I think of how we observe the Sabbath.  We go out and play softball or golf or worse yet we allow our kids to be in tournaments on Sundays.  My chest gets tight every time I think about how we have gone to the very Word of God itself and changed it so that it meets our society’s approval.  I don’t see any place where adultery is ok.  But we think it is so good for us that we promote it on TV so our children can grow up thinking this is a great way to live.  They will only end up miserable and sad.  My heart almost stops when I think about our new gods in this country.  How we worship alcohol, drugs and sex!  People, Isaiah is talking to us also!

He is telling us that we have a God who is so great, so mighty, so powerful that He will never grow tired.  It is impossible for Jesus Christ to grow tired.  Unfortunately, we can and do grow tired.  But that is when we have to realize that we can’t do it all.  It is then we need to turn to Jesus.  He will help us and help us and help us.  We can climb on His back and we can soar like an eagle.  It is like the story of the baby eagle who got lost and a chicken adopted him.  So he was raised like a chicken and he acted like a chicken until one day his mother was soaring overhead.  She was calling out in that scream-like voice that eagles have.  The young eagle, who was now grown, heard this.  Remember now that chickens don’t really fly.  But this eagle chicken heard that scream and he jumped up and flew away.  He found where he belonged.  He belonged in the sky soaring with the eagles because he was one.

People, we were never meant to be permanent inhabitants of this world.  We are to only take up temporary residence because we belong to Jesus.  If you don’t know Jesus yet today, then I ask that you confess your sins to Jesus, repent of your ways and ask Jesus to be Lord and Savior in your heart.  Then you will also be guaranteed a spot in heaven where you can have intimate, close and physical conversations with the very maker of the universe.  I can’t wait because this place called heaven is perfect and this world we temporarily reside in is so broken.

I try to point out every week just how broken this world is.  There is really not much that we can say is genuinely good.  Often I use the New Testament for this but the message is also everywhere in the Old Testament.  Isaiah was a prophet and he knew what he was talking about even if he didn’t know exactly how it would work.  He trusted totally in God as did all the prophets.

The message in a nutshell is to get past what is happening around you and put your total trust in Jesus.  Hang on to Him for dear life.  This is like an obstacle course in Florida where army recruits would swing across shallow pool of water on a rope.  When it was hot, the water looked so inviting that they would drop in half way across just so they could cool down a bit.  They did this until an enterprising officer put an alligator in the pool.  After that 100% of the people made it across.

Jesus is offering His gracious loving hand to you to get across this world and into the next.  He does this for free and He does this because He loves you.  Grab His hand as you go through this life as you need all the help you can get.  Jesus is not only help, but He is the best help there is.  Thank you, Jesus, for first loving us.  Let’s pray.