'...For that He is strong in power; not one faileth.... He giveth power
to the faint; and to them that have no might He increaseth
strength.'--ISAIAH xl. 26 and 29.
These two verses set forth two widely different operations of the
divine power as exercised in two sadly different fields, the starry
heavens and this weary world. They are interlocked, as it were, by the
recurrence in the latter of the emphatic words of the former. The one
verse says, 'He is strong in power'; the other, 'He giveth power.' In
the former verse, 'the greatness of His might' sustains the stars; in
the latter verse, a still diviner operation is set forth in that 'to
them that have no might He increaseth strength.' Thus there are three
contrasts suggested: that between unfailing stars, and men that faint;
that between the unwearied God and wearied men; and that between the
sustaining power that is exercised in the heavens and the restoring
power that is manifested on earth.
There is another interlocking between the latter of these two texts and
its context, which is indicated by a similar recurrence of epithets. In
my second text we read of the 'faint,' and in the verse that follows
it, again we find the expressions 'faint' and 'weary,' while in the
verse before my text we read that 'the Lord fainteth not, neither is
weary.' So again the contrast between Him and us is set forth, but, in
the verse that closes the chapter, we read how that contrast merges
into likeness, inasmuch as the unfainting and unwearied God makes even
the men that wait upon Him unwearied and unfainting. Here, then, we
have lessons that we may well ponder.