Friday, July 3, 2026
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.
Historical Context
Isaiah prophesied in Judah in the 700s BC, when Assyria was the terror of the region. At chapter 40 the book turns. Warning gives way to comfort, and the voice speaks to people who sound less threatened than exhausted, a nation that feels far from home and wonders whether God has stopped paying attention. Scholars have long disagreed about these later chapters: some hold that Isaiah wrote them looking far ahead, others that they come from a later prophet writing in his tradition during the exile itself. The text does not settle the question, and the promise reads the same either way. The chapter opens with a summons to console a worn-out people and builds toward this closing line.
Reflection
The three verbs run downhill: soaring, then running, then walking. That descending scale reads as deliberate, a promise that reaches all the way down into the ordinary. For most of us it lands on the plain day, where walking without collapsing is the whole assignment. The word behind “wait” is often read as patience, reliance, hope with its weight leaned onto God, not passivity. So the verse does not promise a lighter load. Instead it promises strength matched to the pace the day actually requires, for people who have stopped pretending they can generate it themselves.