Reflections Upon Isaiah 40:29 - Part One

 

Reflections Upon Isaiah 40:29 – Part One

 

“He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might,

he increaseth strength”(KJV)

 

Have you ever felt exhausted? Have you ever collapsed and felt unable to move? Have you suddenly lost consciousness? Have you ever lost the will to continue pursuing your dreams and goals? Have you ever simply given up, accepted defeat and decided to retreat to a meaningless and unchallenging space in life? I recall being in graduate school with an ordained Methodist clergyperson who had obtained the Master of Philosophy enroute to earning his doctoral degree in Christian Ethics. Suddenly, he disappeared from school and his studies. A search found him working at a gas station in Upstate New York. At that juncture, he found the language exams insurmountable and his best efforts to complete research, drafting, editing and finalizing his doctoral dissertation proved woefully inadequate. After eight years of full-time study, he abandoned the program and went into exile, professionally and personally.

 

He left the trappings of institutional and formal religion with rites, rituals, regulations and perennial celebrations. He fled the academy of ivy-covered walls and centuries of traditions and customs. He left before receiving a parchment diploma inscribed in Latin with Old English font that certified his study, intelligence, academic rank and social standing. His exhaustion created hopelessness and helplessness which led to his exile. His resulting disillusionment yielded his acceptance of a job pumping gas, rotating tires, replacing brakes and changing oil. Unable to fail at those rudimentary tasks, he chose them as an answer to the previous questions.

 

Consider the plight of a second formally educated, professional and published gentleman and burgeoning scholar who found himself selling cars and insurance in the middle of his career. Duplicitous, imbecilic, irrational and self-loathing lay leaders in the congregation of his second pastorate conspired with equally dishonest and contemptible clergy colleagues to dissolve his pastoral call and terminate his employment. After an extensive job search in which he saved more than four thousand emails between employers and himself, he took a job selling cars. That job did not require any of his previous training and education. In fact, a sales manager who was half his age relished the thought that this man reported to him. The sales manager exhibited absolute glee in telling this man that he did not care about any of his prior achievements. “What is their worth if you ended up here reporting to me?” A clergy colleague who encountered this man at a funeral barely concealed his laughter and sheer delight that this Ive League educated man who thought so highly of himself was now selling cars.

 

 One Thursday afternoon, as this man sat at his desk in the car dealership, he experienced a silent panic attack. Between his ears and with sealed lips, he began to shout, “I’m selling cars! I’m selling cars! I can’t believe that I’m selling cars!” Those experiences and myriad others verified that this man was living in a professional and personal exile. Car sales require a minimum of seventy hours per week onsite. A successful sale and delivery of a car added five or more hours per vehicle. The sheer physical exhaustion on an off day relegated it being meaningless. There is not any energy to do anything edifying. There is minimal energy to watch television like a zombie and fall asleep intermittently.

 

The sorrowful predicament of the disillusioned doctoral candidate and the bewildered car salesperson mimicked Israel’s plight during her exile. Following the Babylonian destruction of Israel’s history, religion and literature, generally, and Solomon’s Temple, specifically, Israel’s captives took her people into exile and scattered her tribes abroad. She risked the loss of her culture, traditions and legacy. How would the exiles respond to this attempt to annihilate their nation and heritage? Imagine the exhaustion of God’s people as they scramble for housing, stability and normality in a foreign land. They had traveled through the arid, rough and desert terrain of the Ancient Near East. They were separated from everything they treasured and found familiar. How could they dream? What reasons would they have to look forward to any approaching dawn? Were they able to rest each night as a midnight pall of despair and disillusionment surrounded their lives? Possibly, any thought of the colossal loss they experienced could cause them to faint. Realizing the extent of their decimation and inability to counter their Babylonian oppressors, the Israelites were helpless, hopeless and powerless. Bewildered that the God of their forebears would permit their conquest, they had no might left to explain their predicament or progress beyond it.

 

How could they respond? Ironically, the prophet, Isaiah, encourages them to seek assistance, reassurance and comfort from the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who may have grossly disappointed them. Writing amid their exile, he offers this verse. He addresses their emotional, mental, physical, psychological, spiritual and existential states. They do not feel as if they have any power in any of these dimensions of their lives. It is as if they have fainted and lost consciousness and possibly the will to live. They have little to cherish or hold valuable as they strive to endure each day in this damnable state of exile. They lack any cognitive ability to imagine a future yet alone find meaning in their daily living in a strange and unfamiliar place. Memories of past sabbath dinners and holiday celebrations undoubtedly torment them rather than comfort and sustain them.