They will soar on wings like eagles
A verse about exhausted exiles — and the kind of strength it actually promises.
The episode in a glance.
- 01Isaiah 40 is addressed to a people in exile — emotionally and spiritually exhausted.
- 02'Wait on the Lord' (qavah) means to expect, to hope with tension — not passively kill time.
- 03The promise moves backwards: soar, run, walk — culminating in the hardest thing, ordinary endurance.
- 04Renewed strength is given to those who keep looking to God when they're out of their own.
Read along.
Isaiah 40 isn't aimed at people on top of the world. It's written to Israelites in exile — people who've lost their city, their temple, and their sense of being God's people. They're tired down to the bone.
Into that, Isaiah writes: '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.'
'Wait' is the Hebrew qavah. It's not passive. It's the tense, expectant waiting of someone watching the horizon. Hope with your whole body leaning forward.
Notice the order of the promise — it's backwards from what we'd expect. Soar, then run, then walk. The climax isn't flying. It's walking and not fainting.
Anyone can have a soaring day. Running through a season is harder. But walking — the slow, daily, unglamorous keeping-on — that's where most of life happens, and that's where people fail.
Isaiah's promise is that the people who keep looking to God, even from inside exhaustion, will be given strength they did not generate themselves. Especially for the walking.