566 - The Victorious Arrow of the Lord#
(JP Text Group - shalom organized)
Peace, dear family, welcome to your arrival. Today is Sunday, and we will look at God's words together.
The topic of sharing is: The Victorious Arrow of the Lord.
2 Kings 13:14-19:
14 Elisha had become sick with the illness of which he would die. And Joash the king of Israel came down to him and wept over his face, and said, “O my father! My father! The chariots of Israel and their horsemen!” 15 Elisha said to him, “Take a bow and some arrows.” So he took himself a bow and some arrows. 16 Then he said to the king of Israel, “Put your hand on the bow.” So he put his hand on it. And Elisha put his hands on the king’s hands. 17 And he said, “Open the east window.” And he opened it. Then Elisha said, “Shoot!” And he shot. And he said, “The arrow of the Lord’s deliverance, and the arrow of deliverance from Syria; for you must strike the Syrians at Aphek till you have destroyed them.” 18 Then he said, “Take the arrows.” So he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, “Strike the ground.” So he struck three times, and stopped. 19 And the man of God was angry with him, and said, “You should have struck five or six times; then you would have struck Syria till you had destroyed it! But now you will strike Syria only three times.”
Let us pray together first.
Heavenly Father, thank you and praise you for giving us the beginning of a new week. We come before you seeking your words. Your words are our strength; you have overcome the world. We are willing to seek your revelation and live with your power. Help us to receive supply and revelation from today’s words, knowing how to walk in our lives. We also commit the time below to the Holy Spirit to help us and renew our thoughts. In the name of the Lord Jesus, we pray, Amen.
Elisha's ministry was very fruitful throughout his life. The generation he lived in was one where God's people had strayed far from Him, a spiritually desolate time, with unrest in the country and strong enemies surrounding them. In the spiritual battle, the power of the devil was rampant, while God's people were weak, including the king at that time, who mostly did not listen to God's words and worshipped idols.
Elisha served as a prophet for about fifty years through four kings of the northern kingdom of Israel: Joram, Jehu, Joahaz, and Joash. When he was called, he was determined to follow God, and his life was filled with God's great power, leaving us a beautiful example worth imitating. Elisha was born in such a desolate generation where everyone cared for themselves, and few were willing to focus on God's words. Yet, in such an environment, he bore a strong witness for the Lord due to his longing for God.
The passage we read today is the last thing Elisha did for the nation. As his life was nearing its end, his faith remained strong, and his final declaration was still filled with victorious faith. The life and power of God within him showed no signs of decline until the very last moment of his life; instead, it became increasingly abundant. This is what it means to be led by the Holy Spirit.
Verse 14: Elisha had become sick with the illness of which he would die. And Joash the king of Israel came down to him and wept over his face, and said, “O my father! My father! The chariots of Israel and their horsemen!”
Why did Joash call Elisha the chariots and horsemen of Israel? Let’s look at a passage.
2 Kings 13:4-7:
4 And Joahaz pleaded with the Lord, and the Lord listened to him; for He saw the oppression of Israel, because the king of Syria oppressed them. 5 Then the Lord gave Israel a deliverer, so that they escaped from under the hand of the Syrians; and the children of Israel dwelt in their tents as before. 6 Nevertheless, they did not depart from the sins of the house of Jeroboam, who had made Israel sin, but walked in them; and the wooden image also remained in Samaria. 7 For he left of the army of Joahaz only fifty horsemen, ten chariots, and ten thousand foot soldiers; for the king of Syria had destroyed them and made them like the dust at threshing.
In this passage, Joahaz is Joash's father. We see that Joash's father was at war with the king of Syria. At that time, Joahaz had pleaded with God, and God listened to him. When He heard their plea, He gave them a deliverer, and they escaped from the hand of the Syrians. But what did they do when they returned home? They continued to worship idols and strayed from God.
Doesn't Joahaz resemble many believers today? When faced with problems, they call on God, and when God helps them solve the issues, they disappear and return to their previous lives. Such people, you might say, do not understand God; they seem to know something. You might say they do not rely on God; they still know to pray to God when they encounter issues. But their lives are never in the realm of abundance, and some even find their lives shrinking. We can see this through Joahaz's experience.
Later, the king of Syria exterminated Joahaz's people, trampling them like dust in the threshing floor, leaving Joahaz with only fifty horsemen, ten chariots, and ten thousand foot soldiers. When a nation is beaten down to such a small military force, it is a humiliation. So from here, we can see that Israel had very little military strength left.
In the two generations of Israel's kings before this, they had not sought the prophet Elisha for nearly fifty years. Now that Israel had lost most of its chariots and horsemen, King Joash finally recognized that the prophet Elisha was the chariots and horsemen that defended Israel. Although he had this insight, he still was unwilling to obey the God whom the prophet served. Including Joash, none of the kings of Israel did not worship idols. They professed to believe in God, but in reality, they believed more in the gods they created.
When the king of Israel stood beside Elisha, this king was far inferior to the dying man. The entire strength of the nation of Israel was in this one man, who alone was filled with victorious faith and could see the resurrecting life of God. Some might ask, “How could Elisha have such vision?” Because his mentor Elijah possessed such life; he saw it, received it, and has held onto it until now.
Although the Bible records his death, in reality, he had already realized that God is capable of raising the dead. Later, we know that a miracle occurred: after Elisha died, his bones touched another dead man, and that dead man came back to life. Moreover, after Elisha died, due to his faith, many Israelites possessed a bit of God's power and recovered what they had lost in the past.
Many times, people only have faith when they see miracles; in fact, the faith that miracles can give us is very short-lived. When people see miracles, they are excited for a moment, but within three days, they return to their original state. True faith is built on God's words; if you have faith in God's words, your faith can be enduring. Unfortunately, the king of Israel at that time and the entire Israelite populace did not have such vision.
2 Kings 13:15-17:
15 Elisha said to him, “Take a bow and some arrows.” So he took himself a bow and some arrows. 16 Then he said to the king of Israel, “Put your hand on the bow.” So he put his hand on it. And Elisha put his hands on the king’s hands. 17 And he said, “Open the east window.” And he opened it. Then Elisha said, “Shoot!” And he shot. And he said, “The arrow of the Lord’s deliverance, and the arrow of deliverance from Syria; for you must strike the Syrians at Aphek till you have destroyed them.”
In the flesh, this was Elisha's weakest moment; he was about to die. However, the life in the spirit was not affected at all by the outer flesh; instead, it was at its most prosperous time.
2 Corinthians 4:16 also says: Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.
As believers, our outer body may be affected by the natural world, indeed aging and eventually dying. The outer body itself comes from the dust, so it will ultimately return to dust. But the inner man is different; as we continually come to know God, the spiritual life within should grow stronger. This means that as we grow older in our faith, knowing more of God's grace and truth, our lives will become increasingly abundant, helping many others. This is the experience of believers under the New Covenant.
Under the Old Covenant, many people had a misunderstanding of God or lived under the law without understanding God's grace. Therefore, the longer they believed, the less assurance they had in their hearts, even feeling that their sins were increasing, not knowing if they could be saved. We need to understand this correctly. The life God gives us is increasingly abundant. Elisha had a correct understanding of God; do not look at his outer life, which was about to perish, but at his inner spiritual life, which was at its strongest moment. He was very concerned about the nation of Israel.
This is a very clear contrast: one is Elisha, and the other is the king of Israel. The king of Israel may be strong and healthy now, but his spiritual life is very immature. Moreover, this king truly lived only for himself; although he sat on the throne, he never knew to worry about God's kingdom. In contrast, Elisha, lying on his bed, was completely concerned for God's kingdom and the nation of Israel. Because the current situation was very clear, Israel had no strength to resist external enemies, yet the king of Israel would not rely on God and was unwilling to listen to God's words, so Elisha was very worried.
Although his body was in such a state, he did not care about his own matters at all. When Joash was crying, Elisha said to him, “Take a bow and some arrows.” This dying man was filled with victorious faith.
The king took the bow and arrows; Elisha placed his hands on the king’s hands. “Placing hands” in the Bible has significant spiritual meaning, one of which is to pass on spiritual gifts and power. You know, in the past, when prophets looked for successors, they would pour oil on their heads, or when anointing someone as king, they would also pour oil on their heads and pray for them. This is essentially passing on spiritual power. At this moment, it is as if Elisha wanted to give Joash this power from God; unfortunately, Joash did not understand this at all and seemed unwilling to possess it. We must not underestimate this spiritual power.
1 Timothy 4:14-16:
14 Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership. 15 Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all. 16 Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.
What Paul said to Timothy is also a principle of spiritual transmission. He tells Timothy not to neglect the gift he received. What does this refer to? It refers to the time when Timothy was sent out to become a worker for the Lord, during which there was a laying on of hands ceremony.
By prophecy, this is God's prophecy, sending Timothy out to work. And there is also the laying on of hands by the elders. It is not that one day someone suddenly has an inspiration—“I want to be a servant of God, I want to preach the gospel, I want to be a pastor!”—and self-appoints as a pastor to go out and work; that does not work.
First, there must be a calling from God; secondly, there must be the laying on of hands in the church to pass on these gifts from God. This is the rule; it cannot be chaotic; otherwise, how would heresies arise? So Paul tells Timothy, “Do not neglect the gift you have received; you are appointed as a servant of God, a person called by God, so use your gifts to help others and serve others.”
In verse 15, Paul says, “These things you must be diligent to do.”
When a person understands the calling from God, whether that calling is to become an apostle, a pastor, a teacher, an evangelist, or someone who continually prays for others, these things you must be diligent to do. If a person is not diligent, these gifts may ultimately become ineffective.
Gifts, the more you use them, the more they will increase; conversely, if you do not use them, only used them a few times, and then stop using them for a long time, it seems these gifts become ineffective. In fact, it is not that God has taken them back, but that they have become rusty. For example, in praying in tongues, some people can know what God is saying to them and can guide them to do the right things at that moment. But if some people only persist for two days and then stop, they will no longer know how God is leading them. Did God abandon them? No, it is just that they did not diligently continue.
The same goes for using authority to serve, etc. If a person only does it once or twice and then stops participating, they will find that they seem to have lost that ability. This is why Paul tells Timothy, “You must be diligent to do these things; you must participate more in serving, and the gifts will increase, and life will become more abundant.”
And be dedicated to it, meaning to exert the effectiveness of your gifts. Do not envy someone else's ability or someone else's gift; just do what God has given you. Focus on doing it, working together with others to serve God, so that everyone may see your progress.
At the same time, Paul also says you must take heed to yourself and your doctrine, meaning that every time you serve others, you must be cautious, do not speak carelessly, do not say things that God has not said, and be careful about what you do; do not speak nonsense. If you give your own opinions to others, it will not have any effect and may even mislead others.
Continue in these things. The meaning of continuing is to do it persistently, for in doing this, you will save both yourself and those who hear you. In simple terms, after God gives a person a gift, they must first be diligent to do it, and secondly, they must persist in doing it. Amen. In this way, life will become more abundant, and you will continually experience God's great power. So when God gives you gifts, you must use them abundantly.
Elisha was a diligent worker, serving God for over fifty years, always diligent in his work, and he was persistent in God's ministry. He always knew what his position was, which was to serve God from his place. Unfortunately, the problem was that the environment he was in was too difficult; from the king to the common people, very few were willing to listen to him. Fortunately, he established a school of prophets and raised many disciples.
However, from the broader environment, the country was already invaded by other enemies, which was what Elisha was worried about in his heart. As his life was about to end, the king came to see him, so at this moment, Elisha seized the opportunity to lay his hands on the king's hands, hoping that this king of Israel could learn to rely on God and use God's power to save the nation.
Elisha laid his hands on the king's hands and said, “Open the east window.” He opened it. Elisha said, “Shoot!” And he shot. I shared earlier that Elisha had already laid hands on the king, meaning he had blessed and prayed for him, and then he let him shoot the arrow toward the enemy.
Elisha said, “This is the arrow of the Lord’s deliverance, and the arrow of deliverance from Syria.” What a sacred and solemn declaration! If a person only looks at this arrow through the eyes of the flesh, it is just a random arrow shot out of the window; what power could it have? But Elisha's eyes saw God's glory through this arrow, so he made a very important declaration, telling the king of Israel that this is the Lord's victorious arrow, and this arrow can defeat the Syrians.
You must see this through faith, for now, there are no soldiers in the nation of Israel, and there is no way to defeat the Syrians. But if you look at this arrow through faith, we still have God as our army; defeating the Syrians is not a problem. Elisha saw these things, which is why he spoke such words of faith. Elisha meant that the Lord's victorious arrow had been shot out, and eternal victory had been determined.
Those who do not see the Lord's victory will waver, just like many churches today. In this church, what do you see? Many people say, “The house of God is desolate, desolate, desolate.” In the end, the church becomes empty, and there is no one left.
Why do you not see that Jesus is still in the church? And Jesus has already won; the head of the church is Jesus, so there will be no issue of desolation. If we only see people—people straying from God, people's weaknesses, various ailments in the church—we do not see the truth, we do not see the great power of Jesus, and we will only see desolation. These desolate matters will shake our faith. But if we see the victory of the Lord Jesus, the environment cannot shake us. Amen. No matter how great the failure outside, it cannot affect us.
We must not learn from the king of Israel, who came before the prophet crying. Why are you crying? The man is not dead yet! Many people come to church crying, “The house of the Lord is so desolate.” What are you crying about? Jesus has already resurrected; it seems as if Jesus is dead, and there is no hope. We must see God's victory, just as Elisha saw the Lord's victorious arrow. Although this arrow is an ordinary bow and arrow, the prophet has already laid hands on it, so it is no longer an ordinary arrow.
Do you remember Moses? When Moses' staff was thrown on the ground and picked up again, it was no longer the original staff; it became the staff of God. Amen. The staff of God is different; even if it has dried up, placed before God, it can still bloom and bear fruit.
This is the truth that nothing is impossible for God; He has already won. What seems to be a fatal issue to us is not a problem for God. This is the Lord's victorious arrow, the arrow that will defeat the Syrians until they are destroyed. This is what Elisha saw.
Unfortunately, the king of Israel did not see it; all he saw with his eyes was an ordinary bow and arrow. But what did Elisha see? If God's arrow does not destroy the enemy, it will never return. Do not look at our flesh, which is becoming more and more corrupt and declining; do not look at the surrounding environment, which is becoming worse and worse. You must turn and see the victorious Jesus on the cross. When you see that Jesus has overcome the world, the current situation is nothing. Many servants of God like to focus on people's weaknesses, on the flesh, on the corruption of man. Why not fix your eyes on the victory of Jesus?
Psalm 33:16-19:
16 No king is saved by the multitude of an army; a mighty man is not delivered by great strength. 17 A horse is a vain hope for safety; neither shall it deliver any by its great strength. 18 Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His mercy, 19 to deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine.
What do we see through these psalms? No king is saved by the multitude of an army. Isn't this what people boast about? “My country has so many soldiers!” Because in the era of cold weapons, having many soldiers was the key to victory; having many warriors was the guarantee of victory.
But what does God say? A horse is a vain hope for safety. Because in that past era, if you said you had many warhorses, you could rely on them for safety—it's in vain! A horse cannot save a man by its great strength. If one day you encounter hardship or a critical moment, no matter how strong the horse is, it cannot save a person. Amen. So what should we rely on?
Verse 18 gives us the answer: The eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His mercy.
Hallelujah, God's eye watches over those who fear Him. What does it mean to be a person who fears the Lord? It means you place God first in your heart and are willing to worship our Lord from your heart. Hallelujah. When you act this way, you are placing your focus on God; you know He has the power and is willing to help you. When you look up to such a Lord, you are looking up to God's mercy because you know He is a God who shows mercy and compassion. Amen. When we understand that God is such a God, we are willing to rely on Him.
If you always feel that God is picking on your faults, always looking at you with a stern gaze, you will not seek Him when you encounter problems. Our God is willing to save our lives from death. So, dear family, when you encounter problems in life, your first reaction should be to call on God because He watches over you, and He is willing to show mercy to you.
Are your eyes on God? Do you believe He can save you from death? If you believe this, your life will change because you will place God's matters first, and the arrangements of other matters will definitely come after God's matters. Then you will not say, “I have no time for meetings, I have no time to listen to the word, I have no time to read the Bible.” The reason you have no time is that there are other more important things that have squeezed that time away.
If you truly worship God from your heart, treating Him as your most important priority, you will definitely have time. When you rely on God this way, He can save your life from death; He can save you at any time and in any place. Amen.
And keep them alive in famine. In this environment, surviving in famine is very difficult. If your eyes are on God, and you always look up to Him, you can survive in famine. In the Bible, Isaac, during a year of famine, listened to God's words and received a hundredfold harvest, gradually becoming very wealthy. Is this not God's grace? Yes. Can you believe and hold onto God's words like Isaac today?
Returning to the main text, now this arrow is no longer an ordinary arrow; it is the Lord's victorious arrow. Do we have such a victorious arrow in our hands? Of course, we do; the Bible in your hand is God's victorious arrow, and the communion we receive is also a victorious arrow. How many such arrows do you have in your hand? Count how many you are currently using. Today, I will use communion as an example.
Matthew 26:26-29:
26 And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” 27 Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. 28 For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. 29 But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.”
Jesus and His disciples were having a regular meal, just ordinary bread and ordinary grape juice. At that moment, Jesus took the bread and blessed it. This is very important! When Elisha laid his hands on the bow and arrow, it changed; thus, Elisha said, “This is the Lord's victorious arrow.” Jesus took the ordinary bread during a regular meal and blessed it. This is significant!
When Elisha laid his hands on the king’s bow, it became something special; similarly, when Jesus blessed the bread, it underwent a change. Jesus no longer called it ordinary bread; He said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” Amen. Can you believe this? If you see the bread as just ordinary bread, it will not have any effect on your life; unless you look at everything through spiritual eyes, then it will unleash great power.
When Jesus said, “Take, eat; this is My body,” you must see this as the body of Jesus! Hallelujah, because Jesus has blessed it. He took the cup, gave thanks, and blessed it again. Thank the Lord, Jesus took the grape juice they usually drank, lifted it up, blessed it, and then gave it to them. Did you see this action? After lifting the cup and blessing it, giving it to the disciples, it had already changed.
Then Jesus said, “Drink from it, all of you; for this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” When the disciples received this cup, they should see that this is no longer ordinary grape juice; this is the blood of the covenant that Jesus spoke of.
Whose blood is it? It is Jesus' blood. What is the function of the blood? It establishes a covenant with us. What is the covenant? His blood is shed for many for the remission of sins. So when we see this cup, this grape juice, we should not think of it as just grape juice; what is it? It is the blood that Jesus shed for us to establish the covenant, which brings the remission of our sins.
So, dear family, if you look at communion through spiritual eyes, you possess a victorious arrow from God. Amen, you can rely on this victory. If there are any diseases in your body, relying on the body of Jesus, since His body was broken for you, you will receive healing. By His stripes, we are healed, right? This is a promise from the Bible.
Similarly, when you take this cup, knowing that this is the blood of Jesus shed for me, bringing the remission of my sins, no matter how others attack you, no matter how terrible the environment is, you must know that you have a covenant with God; He will save you from death. Amen, He will keep you alive in famine because there is a connection between you and God. We have a blood covenant with God, a covenant established by blood, so God will be responsible for us.
If you do not look at this through spiritual eyes, this is just an ordinary piece of bread and ordinary grape juice; what effect can it have? It has no effect; but if you know this has been sanctified, then it is different. Hallelujah. Moreover, our Lord Jesus is still in heaven waiting for us. When we return to the kingdom of heaven, we will drink new grape juice with Jesus again. Hallelujah.
Returning to the main text, verses 18-19:
18 Then Elisha said, “Take the arrows.” So he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, “Strike the ground.” So he struck three times and stopped. 19 And the man of God was angry with him, and said, “You should have struck five or six times; then you would have struck Syria till you had destroyed it! But now you will strike Syria only three times.”
God's power is limitless, but people's access to God's power is limited. Today, in the kingdom of heaven, God has prepared various spiritual blessings for us, yet many believers do not draw from them. Some say, “How do we draw?” Reading the Bible, listening to sermons, attending gatherings—these are all ways to continually draw His energy from God. Unfortunately, many people come three times and then stop, just like Joash.
At this moment, the man of God said to Joash, “Strike the ground!” What is this arrow? The Lord's victorious arrow. Unfortunately, Joash did not feel that this was the Lord's victorious arrow; perhaps in his heart, he thought: “Man of God, what is this? Why would you have me strike the ground with arrows? What is the purpose?” He may not have had any interest in doing what he considered a boring task.
He was a king who did not care; it is truly pitiful for the people to have such a king. Elisha told him to strike the ground, and he did so three times and stopped. It was precisely because he felt this was of no use and thought, “What is the point of doing such a boring thing?” that he stopped after striking three times.
Elisha was angry with him, rebuking him for being so indifferent!—“I have already told you this is the Lord's victorious arrow; why would you not rely on God?” The king is the leader of the people; if the king is indifferent to God's matters, what hope do the people have? The key to the people's victory or defeat lies with their leader. Joash was the king; he struck three times and then stopped.
Today, dear family listening to the sermon, if you know this is a victorious treasure, if you were the king, how many times would you strike the ground? Some might say, “But the prophet said that striking five or six times would be enough to completely destroy the enemy.” I say, if you do not know that the man of God told you to strike five or six times, and he just said to strike the ground, how many times would you do it before stopping?
In fact, the best method is to keep striking the ground because you know this is the Lord's victorious arrow. Why stop this victorious arrow? Unless the prophet says, “That's enough, you can stop striking the ground now.” Wouldn't it be better to stop at that point? Joash did not trust in God's power; he lacked spiritual vision, so he acted perfunctorily.
We must not be like that. We repeatedly emphasize the importance of developing the habit of reading and meditating on the Bible daily. When we spoke about this today, some people went home and started doing it, but if they do not genuinely believe this is the key to victory, they will last at most three days. When they encounter problems, they will inevitably solve them according to their own ideas because they do not know how to rely on God.
Are there not many believers who say, “I do not know how to rely on God”? If you listen to our sermons in order, you will definitely know how to rely on God. The same goes for listening to sermons; we have talked about the importance of listening to sermons in order. Some may persist for a few days and then stop; others may say, “I have listened to it once.” The words of God are our spiritual arrows; we need to prepare and listen repeatedly to them to bring us continuous energy. Amen.
Yesterday, a sister shared her testimony with me, saying that for the past few years, she has been persistently listening to sermons and reading the Bible, and she has listened to our sermons in order several times and is still continuing. She said every time she listens, she gains new insights, and her life has unknowingly changed; her body has been completely healed by God, and her finances have been turned around.
When she shared this with me, she was very excited. She said that sometimes when she had problems and wanted to leave me a message, it just so happened that the content I was preaching at that moment solved her problem. How amazing!
In fact, God knows our needs. When we read the Bible, sometimes God will give us wisdom and faith through His words. When we listen to sermons, God may give us new revelations during that process. So it is not enough to just listen once; you are not completing an assignment; you are renewing your life.
Do we not need to read the Bible again after we have read it? We need to keep reading, just like the Lord's victorious arrow; you must continually use it. Hallelujah! If you know that the words of Christ are your comprehensive strength for victory, how would you act? Would you stop after striking the ground three times like King Joash? Or would you persist in doing such things until you achieve complete victory? Thank the Lord. Finally, let us look at a passage from the Bible.
Isaiah 40:28-31:
28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. 29 He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength. 30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, 31 but those who wait on 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.
At the beginning, Isaiah uses two rhetorical questions: Have you not known? Have you not heard? The meaning is that you have heard many times; you also know I have told you many times.
Who is Isaiah talking about? The everlasting God, the Lord. However, the situation Isaiah encountered was the same as that faced by the man of God Elisha, where the prophet could speak the truth of God, but the people were completely deaf to it. They were not unaware: “Enough, do not tell us these things anymore; we are tired of hearing about God all the time.”
Just like when we tell others to listen to sermons, to read the Bible, to rely on God, “Do not tell me these things anymore; I am tired of hearing them.” So they are not unaware; they just cannot take it in.
Yet Isaiah still speaks: Do you know our God? The Creator of the ends of the earth does not faint or grow weary; His understanding is unsearchable. This means He is our everlasting hope; He created the ends of the earth, He does not grow weary, and He has great wisdom. Yet the people of Israel were unwilling to rely on this God; this is a strange thing.
What kind of Lord is God? He gives power to the weak; to those who have no might, He increases strength. How good God is! How good our Lord Jesus is! When you are weary, He can give you strength to keep going; when you are weak, He can give you power. But the premise is that you must rely on Him.
Yet people, clearly already very weary, are unwilling to rely on God's power and will continue to be weary. People who are already very weak are unwilling to come before God to gain strength. This is indeed the case; some people become less willing to listen to sermons and read the Bible the weaker they feel. In fact, from a spiritual perspective, when we are weak, it is because we lack God's power, and we should read the Bible, listen to sermons, and gather more.
You say life is like this; should you not rely on God? If not now, then when? This is something we must see. The more unwilling you are to listen to God's words, the more unwilling you are to listen to the words that come from God, the more you need them. Because you have already been struck by the devil's arrows, that is why you are unwilling.
Verse 30 says: Even the youths shall faint and be weary; and the young men shall utterly fall.
This is the true state of humanity. When do young people ever get tired? Look at children; when we want to take a nap in the afternoon, they do not sleep, bouncing around, playing until nightfall without getting tired because they are young and full of energy.
The strong shall utterly fall. How can strong people fall? Their strength is limited; once they encounter someone stronger, they will fall. Amen. This is humanity; they are limited.
However, if we rely on God, verse 31 says: But those who wait on the Lord.
When will a person wait on God? You must have prayed before you wait on God, right? Many people skip this step and do not seek God at all, so there is no question of waiting. So, dear family, the Lord's victorious arrow is something we hope to hold onto. When you hold onto God's words, you will surely renew your strength. Commit your matters to our Lord; now what you need to do is wait on Him, and you will renew your strength. Hallelujah.
They shall mount up with wings like eagles. When an eagle receives strength, it flies high; that strength is incredibly powerful. We will receive such power from God, soaring like eagles above all other creatures. Amen.
They shall run and not be weary. This is the strength that comes from God! The strength God gives you allows you to run for a long time without getting weary, even stronger than young people! They shall walk and not faint. Thank the Lord! The strength God gives you is from within, filling you with His great power! This is something the world cannot give you. Hallelujah! Are you willing to rely on God this way? May today's words bring us some reflection and lead us to make the right choices.
Let us pray together.
Heavenly Father, we thank and praise you. Thank you for giving us such words, knowing that we also have the Lord's victorious arrow, which allows us to overcome all things through Jesus Christ, for our Lord Jesus has already overcome the world. We have the Holy Spirit within us, enabling us to live out God's wisdom in our lives. Please place your words within us, so we continually desire to rely on God, meditate on God's words, and experience your presence and great power in our lives. We are willing to rely on you in all things like Elisha, believing that this week is filled with strength because you are with us. Your words are my strength, our wisdom, and our faith; we desire to know you more. All glory be to our Father in heaven. In the name of the Lord Jesus, we pray, Amen.