A while ago, I was taught to ‘exegete’ the Bible. To use study tools to discover the meaning of the original meanings of the original languages the text is written in, rather than using our predisposed English, first world brain to lay a meaning on the text. (that, I am semi-reliably informed, is called isogeses)
The english text is:
But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. Isaiah 40:31 (KJV)
I have previously taken it to mean being stoic, hanging on, with lots of metaphors and a soundtrack from the Eric Liddell movie. It was about heroism and martyrdom. The self-righteous strong-man kind, enduring the slings and arrows, not getting what you want and need, and instead enduring with suffering a walk in supra-human strength, because God was not going to interfere, you were going to grow strong through endurance.
A couple of years ago, I was lying in bed, talking with Our Father, asking Him what He would like me to know that day and the response I got was to dig into Isaiah 40:31. For me, this kind of task is no chore. If you ask the people who know me, they can tell you that I would take my Strongs concordance into the bed with me at night if it wasn’t lumpy enough to cause black eyes, I’m kinda in lurve with it…
I keep forgetting how much more there is in the words that gets lost in translation from Hebrew and Greek (and the other couple, Aramaic and Persian I think) to English. Because by the time I had finished with my NIV (1984 edition – love it) my King James and the Strongs Concordance, three sheets of blank A4, and several episodes of sharpening my pencil, I came out with this:
Isaiah 40:31 Those who take the time to patiently bind and splice themselves together with Jehovah the Self-Existent and Eternal Lord will find themselves forever changed. They will be made into a force that will arise in strength and substance; fruitful and powerful.
They will arise as eagles and cause dawn to break forth before them, they will increase and shoot forth. They will stretch out, make a way through and will never be made to toil or labour.
They will lead, carry, bear, bring forth, grow, march, prosper, pursue, chase, journey, spread out and never tire.
Now THAT was not a picture that I had been expecting, and it certainly makes more sense to me than sitting down and hanging out and just waiting for God to show up. The waiting is ACTIVE. It means to get callouses on your hands and a sore back and a cramp in your legs from sitting and concentrating on your relationship with the Three, being fixated on binding yourself to God like a rope maker has to concentrate on making a rope of four of more strands. Also, it’s specific on which picture of God we need to be binding ourselves to. To remember that it’s God who Does Not Need Us, Nor Does He Need Anything. So when we bind ourselves with Him, inseparable from Him as any strand of a tightly spliced rope is inseparable from the rope as a whole except from the beginning or the end of the rope, there is no unbinding. Because: He does not Begin, and He does not End, therefore; we do not begin, and we do not end once we are bound into the rope.
Patiently take the time. Bind and Splice. It is about being Deliberate, but it’s not about striving, nor is it about condemnation. We are making muscle memory. Like learning to drive a car, or make a coffee, or put on clothes, or brush teeth. Make this a Spiritual, Emotional and Physical Muscle Memory. Fill your head with Him, always. If you lose Him for a second, stop, stand still and find Him again. Say His Names out loud when you can, under your breath when you can’t.
If we are getting that close to the Three, then, we will not be able to come away unchanged. Even as Moses came out of the tent of the Presence and his face shone, it’s no wonder that the rest of the imagery is about strength, and having the sun appear in the sky at midnight out of nowhere. Of spontaneous combustion and full grown fruit!
We need Him, He doesn’t need us. Ask Him to help, for clues, for tips, for the things that make your relationship together uniquely yours. What makes you and Him, You’nHim? This is His desire. Jesus prayed that we would become one with Him, even as He was one with the Father.
God Bless You Very Much
Anita