“…That they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the Lord hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it.”
Isaiah 41:20
In this chapter we see God’s promises to Israel. It follows the well known verse in chapter 40… “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength…”
Waiting. It’s probably not something any of us are fond of. We want answers. And not only answers, we want the answers that we WANT!
But then we are reminded… they that wait… will be renewed. They will not be weary or faint but will mount up with wings as eagles.
Running ahead of God, trying to create our own perfect world never leads us to the peace we find in verse 20. The writer talks about God opening rivers in high places and springs of water in dry places. He talks about planting trees in the desert and above all, how the God of Israel who never sleeps nor slumbers, will not forsake them.
But it was not THEM (or us) … it was the hand of God. His works. His plan.
How nice would it be to be able to look forward and “predict” accurately God’s exact workings in our lives? How simple life would be to have it laid out, no questions, how your story would be written! But it doesn’t work that way. Not at all.
The just shall live by faith. We walk, and we learn to listen, and trust. We can’t see around the next bend in the road, but “not knowing whither”… we keep walking. That’s faith.
We can’t see into the future, but how beautiful is it to look back over our lives and see the hand of God? To retrace our steps and see how He has caused things to happen, sometimes the very things that we struggled with the most, but through Him, we gained victory and out of those victories, fountains sprang forth.
That’s what brings us to the beauty of the 20th verse.
We look back… we see, we know, we consider and we understand that it was the hand of the Lord, the Holy One of Israel that has created what we now enjoy.
That should give us all the courage to keep our face toward Heaven! The only “looking back” we need to be doing is counting past blessings and victories and
remembering how He brought us through.
The hand of God has done this!
Thank Him! And dear saint of God? Keep going! He has promised good things to those who love Him! Keep walking, keep trusting, and watch Him work!
