This is among the most comforting and the most helpful messages that have come to us from God through the pages of Holy Scripture.  “Those that hope in the Lord shall renew their strength.” I first memorized this from the pages of the old King James Version, “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength…”

They that wait…they that hope upon the Lord…shall renew their strength!  Let’s start with the obvious. If you are waiting or if you are hoping, then there is something that you expect and want to happen but it hasn’t happened yet! There is a gap between now and the future that you want or need. There is something that is not yet completed in your life.  Does that sound right to you? 

Let’s do just a little history.  This is your moment for “Introduction to the Bible 101.”  Most scholars believe that our current book of Isaiah should be divided into three parts for better understanding. The first part was written when Israel was experiencing serious threat and the prophet Isaiah warned them of the danger and the results of their sin.  That was in the eighth century before Christ.

The second part was written after Israel had lost the war and their leaders had been taken away from their homes and forced to live in exile. The part that we are reading today is from the second part of Isaiah and it is written to people who are living in exile. We’ll come back to this.

The third part was written after the people of Israel had returned home. If you read the book through you see that the point of view changes and the message changes and that is because the circumstances have changed. This is the end of this small portion of your Introduction to the Bible 101.

So, our scripture for today was written to a group of people who had been defeated in war and had been forcibly marched from Israel to Babylonia, contemporary Iraq. They had lost their homes, their work, their families, their way of government and they were forced to live in a land that was dominated by a religion that they considered to be pagan. They were a minority religion with a minority point of view in a land of people who worshiped other gods and lived a different way of life.

Now you know what they were waiting for.  They wanted to go home! They wanted go back to the land of their fathers and mothers and they wanted to go back to the place where they belonged.

Can you imagine the frustration?  Can you imagine the despair; we’ll never leave this place…we’ll die here among the foreign gods…we’ll never have our own government and our own temple and our own culture ever again! 

And the poet/preacher writes, “They that hope in the Lord will renew their strength!” It must have been nearly unbelievable. How can a rational person have hope when there is no reason for hope?  How can a practical person have hope when all of the cards have been stacked against him?  How can one have hope when all of the forces of culture; the money, the government, the religion, everything is lined up against you? 

And the preacher’s answer is in his assertion, “They that that wait upon the Lord” or “They that hope in the Lord” shall renew their strength. The one factor not considered, the one factor forgotten and discounted was the presence of The Lord. And where the Lord is present, all of other factors in the equations of power begin to shift.

As most of you know, I’ve just returned home from 10 days in Egypt. That was 10 days in Egypt plus 24 hours each way in airplanes and airports! The business part of the trip focused on nearly 5 days in conversation with Egyptian pastors for the simple sake of mutual understanding.  As always happens, the formal meetings were pretty good and the hallway conversations were revelatory.  I saw the power of genuine hope in the Lord at work.

Egypt is 80 percent Moslem. Of the remaining 20%, half are Coptic Orthodox. As the Greek Orthodox haw their home in Greece and as the Russian Orthodox has their home in Russia, the Coptic Orthodox has its home in Egypt. It is a church that traces its history all of the way back to the New Testament (Acts) and credits the Gospel writer, St. Mark as being their founding leader. The other 10% is everybody else including this group that calls itself Evangelical. The Evangelical group traces its roots back to the 1850s and the missionary work of the Presbyterians. The Evangelicals are a distinctly minority group.

The government is authoritarian. It monitors the work of the churches. We were told that before we arrived, our passport information was delivered to the local police for the sake of observation. We were informed the taking pictures of government buildings is strictly forbidden. When churches wish to build, they are required to negotiate with governmental leaders in very interesting ways.

While the government is officially neutral, the customs of the place make it legal for Christians to convert to Islam but it is illegal for Moslems to become Christian. When you are born, as I understand it, your religion is stamped on your birth certificate and you are treated accordingly.

To be fair, we were told that the government also monitors the work of the more conservative mosques. The Moslem Brotherhood, the father to Bin Laden’s Al Quida movement, was formed in Egypt.  The government fears instability from the Islamic right as it is concerned about the work of the Christians.

The point is that our Egyptian sisters and brothers in Christ live, in comparison to us, in a highly restrictive environment.

And the dominant Moslem Culture is aggressive in converting Christians. Using pertro-dollars from Saudi Arabia, the Islamic mosques have lots of money for social service programs and, just as Christians sometimes do, they use those programs to convert Christians.

And yet, I must say, that I experienced a depth faith and a pervasive hope that can only be attributed to a focus on the presence of God. These deeply spiritual men are leading vibrant churches who are engaged in ministry in powerful ways.

I asked Professor Samuel Ibriham if he had a message for the American Church. A few years ago, he studied here and this is his message. “When I was a pastor” he said, “I had 25 lay persons in my church who were willing to preach when needed. Most members would pray upon a moment’s notice. Every member sees herself or himself as a volunteer doing the ministry of the church. In America”, he said, “My impression is that it all focuses on the pastor.” 

You may disagree with his impressions of the American church but did you hear him describe the vitality of the Egyptian Church? All of that in an unfriendly environment!  And it all begins with “They that hope in the Lord shall renew their strength.”

There are times when we all walk in hostile and unfriendly territory. If you have lost someone you love to death, you know about unfriendly territory.  If you have lived through a broken family, you know unfriendly territory.  If you have ever had a vocational dream shattered, you know unfriendly territory.  If you have ever been seriously ill or ever nursed a beloved friend or family member, you know unfriendly territory.

If you are in a hostile environment, if you are currently living through unfriendly territory, listen, “They that hope in the Lord shall renew their strength!”  It is a word from the Lord.

They shall rise up on wings as eagles!  There are times, even in the midst of unfriendly territory when the Spirit of God lifts you high, seems to lift you above the tough and uncertain realities that oppress and tyrannize and drag you towards the pits of despair.  There are times when the Spirit lifts you up above it all.

You shall run and not grow weary. And there are times when the work is just plain exhausting and when you know that you have nothing left to give, Somebody else gives it for you.  When you have no reserves left, God Himself seems to see you through.

And you shall walk and not faint.  And there are days, in the midst of unfriendly territory, when the best that you can do is pit one foot in front of the other. You just keep on keeping on and the Spirit of God keeps on keeping on with you.

Those who hope in the Lord shall renew their strength.  Will you say it with me?  Will you write this remarkable promise of God on your hearts and minds and install it in your memory?

They who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength.

They shall rise up on wings as eagles.

They shall run and not grow weary.

They shall walk and not faint.