Isaiah 41:14-20 - Homiletics

God's strength made perfect in weakness.

It is when Jacob is brought so low that his only fitting designation is "thou worm," and Israel is so reduced as to be a mere "handful of men," that the promise is made of the triumphant crushing of enemies, and scattering of them "like the chaff of the summer threshing-floor." It is when the nation generally feels itself to be "poor and needy" ( Isaiah 41:17 ), when it is as it were at the last gasp, actually perishing of thirst, that it is raised to paradisaical bliss, that it finds itself in a veritable "garden of Eden." Exaltation follows abasement, not however by any mere law of alternation, as if men having reached the very bottom of the wheel of fortune must begin to rise, much less by any mere caprice of the power that rules the universe, but by the law of moral fitness. "He that would be great among you let him be your servant." It is when men, chastened by God's afflicting rod, abase themselves in the dust, feeling and acknowledging their weakness, and throwing themselves wholly upon God for strength and power, that they are most fit to become his instruments for the chastisement of others, and to occupy a high position among the nations. His strength is made perfect in their weakness; and this for two principal reasons.

I. IT IS FOR GOD 'S GLORY THAT HE SHOULD ASSERT HIS POWER BY WEAK INSTRUMENTS . The poorer the instrument, the more evident that it is the workman to whom the work is due. Egypt is subdued by plagues of frogs and lice and locusts. Sisera falls by the hand of a woman. The Midianites are smitten by the three hundred who lapped with the tongue ( 7:5-22 ). David slays Goliath of Gath with a sling end a stone. Great miracles are wrought by a rod, a word, some spittle. And so also with the events that revolutionize the world. "Big battalions" do not always carry the day. The host of Zerah is smitten by Asa ( 2 Chronicles 14:9-12 ). Ben-hadad and the thirty-two kings are repulsed by "the young men of the princes of the provinces" ( 1 Kings 20:1-20 ). Cyrus, with a handful of Persian rustics, defeats Astyages. Three hundred Greeks decimate the myriads of Xerxes at Thermopylae. Judas Maccabaeus, with a few thousands, destroys half a dozen Syrian armies three or four times as numerous (1 Macc. 4:26-34:; 7:40-47; 2 Mace. 12:13-37; 15:20-28). God's hand is the more clearly seen, the weaker and poorer the means that he uses.

II. IT IS FOR MAN 'S ADVANTAGE THAT HE SHOULD HAVE IT IMPRESSED UPON HIM THAT HIS SUCCESSES ARE NOT DUE TO HIMSELF . As man's arrogance is one of the chief causes of God's judgments upon him, it is well that success should be given him under circumstances which make it almost impossible that he should ascribe the merit of it to his own efforts or abilities. Best, far best for him to know that it is "when he is weak, that he is strong" ( 2 Corinthians 12:10 ). So long as we are conscious that we are instruments, we are less inclined to exalt ourselves, to be puffed up, to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think. We feel our dependence upon God, realize his power upholding us, lean upon him, and have a sweet satisfaction in so leaning. As our day is, so we feel that our strength will be ( Deuteronomy 33:25 ). His grace will be always sufficient, just sufficient, for us. So we avoid all boasting and self-complacency, and are able to "rest in the Lord," to "stay upon him" and to maintain a perpetual consciousness of his mighty arm supporting us.