When May 4 rolls around, the Ewellogy has been known to pay tribute to Star Wars: May the 4th Be With You. But not until my friend John Ed Mathison posted a blog in 2024, had I ever thought about “the only calendar day that’s a command:”

March 4th!

March Forth! It’s not a bad word. It’s essentially what God told Joshua:

Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. (Joshua 1.2, ESV)

That’s encouraging(?): “Moses my servant is dead. Therefore…” Therefore, what? Mourn the loss? Hold a memorial service? NO!

March Forth…into the land.

As the old saying goes, are you standing on the promises or sitting on the premises?

March Forth…on the path God is leading you.

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…” (Matthew 28.18, 19, ESV)

In other words:

March Forth!

We interrupt this blog series to bring you a word from our sponsor…

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. (Psalm 19.1, 2, ESV)

I never cease to be amazed at the combination of orderliness in creation and the ability of smart people to figure it out. This morning, at 4:30 a.m., Mountain Time, there was a lunar eclipse, exactly as predicted. June and I didn’t even have to leave our bedroom, thanks to a window that faces exactly west.

And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit.

And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved… (Joel 2.28 – 32, ESV)

We’re entering a section of Isaiah that’s a virtual highlight reel of promises and insights into the God who cares about us. Yesterday’s snippets from Isaiah 40 ended with a verse many of us have memorized:

But 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. (Isaiah 40.31, ESV)

Isaiah 41 continues the theme with this gem, again, something many of us have memorized:

Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. (Isaiah 41.10, ESV)

My friend Ray Bandi, whom I mention from time to time, had a stroke in 2016. He still suffers from aphasia, the inability to call up a word he wants to use in a sentence. But in the early days after the stroke, it was worse. He displayed a phenomenon that I think could get him into textbooks. He would want to comfort his wife with the words above: “Fear not, for I am with you…I will strengthen you, I will help you…” But he couldn’t call up the words, so he would say to her, “Look up Isaiah 41.10.” He knew what was in the verse even though he couldn’t speak it, but he could speak the reference! There’s as good a reason as any for a robust scripture memory program.

Isaiah 41 continues:

For I, the LORD your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, “Fear not, I am the one who helps you.” Fear not, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel! I am the one who helps you, declares the LORD; your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. (Isaiah 41.13, 14, ESV)

And there’s the now familiar diatribe against idols at the end:

Behold, you are nothing, and your work is less than nothing; an abomination is he who chooses you…Behold, they are all a delusion; their works are nothing; their metal images are empty wind. (Isaiah 41.24, 29, ESV)

Little children, keep yourselves from idols. (1 John 5.21, ESV)

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. (2 Timothy 1.7, NKJV)

Yesterday we looked at Isaiah 40’s inspiration for Handel’s Messiah. Today, we finish Isaiah 40 with marvelous truths about God, truths worth meditating on. I’ll let the text speak for itself:

The greatness of God:

Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?…Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the scales; behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust. (Isaiah 40.12…15, ESV)

The futility of idols:

To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him? An idol! A craftsman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts for it silver chains. He who is too impoverished for an offering chooses wood that will not rot; he seeks out a skillful craftsman to set up an idol that will not move. (Isaiah 40.18 – 20, ESV)

The insignificance of world leaders:

Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in; who brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness. (Isaiah 40.21 – 23, ESV)

Who sees and knows:

Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD, and my right is disregarded by my God”? Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. (Isaiah 40.27, 28, ESV)

And (best of all!), God gives power to the weak:

He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted.

But 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. (Isaiah 40.29 – 31, ESV)