Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.
Isaiah 35:3 commands God's people to strengthen those who are weak, discouraged, faltering, or spiritually weak, and to help them stand firm and steady. Its surrounding words call fearful hearts to be strong and unafraid because God will come to save His people and repay His enemies. The call belongs to the promise that the redeemed of the Lord will return to Zion with everlasting joy when sorrow and sighing end, when the desert blossoms and the glory of God is revealed. It is a practical, special work for the church to encourage one another, uphold the faltering, and support fellow workers rather than discourage them, especially in times of depression, disappointment, division, and emergency. God's servants can faithfully do this work only as they themselves stand firm in Christ, know whom they trust, and do not waver, pitying the struggling as Christ does and lifting them to Him as the giver of life.
Words and Immediate Context
The command calls God's people to strengthen weak hands and confirm feeble knees, which means lifting up those who are weak, discouraged, faltering, or spiritually weak and helping them to stand firm and steady. This is practical work for supporting one another, especially where discord and contention have weakened people, by cooperating under God's direction in His work of renewal and mercy. It belongs to proclaiming the gospel message, and its promises are given to encourage believers and churches in times of depression, spiritual lack, disappointment, division, and emergency. The promise of the chapter, including this call, can be fulfilled in people's lives even in this world as God works on their minds, and since the transformation is God's work the honor belongs to Him.
Its surrounding words speak directly to those with fearful hearts, telling them to be strong and not afraid because God will come with recompense to save His people. That announcement forbids striking a mournful note or singing funeral hymns, and requires giving strength and steadiness to the weak and fearful with assurance and power as present truth for just now. The call to the weak and faint to take courage belongs to the promise that when God comes in judgment against His enemies He will deliver His church, gather the faithful at His return, and bring healing, restoration, and life and abundance in what was barren.
The chapter stands among the promises of the Lord's redeemed returning to Zion with everlasting joy when sorrow and sighing come to an end, connected with the hope of the new earth and life beyond death. The same command stands together with the promises that the wilderness and the desert will rejoice and blossom and that people will see the glory of the Lord and the excellency of God. Joined to those precious promises for the future, it is a special message to bear in times of depression and discouragement, to encourage the churches and to be claimed in emergency when there is spiritual lack, unwillingness to be helped, and halting and disaffection among believers.
Future Deliverance Promised
The call to strengthen weak hands and confirm feeble knees belongs to a prophecy of the future restoration of God's people, given for encouragement and as reason to meet discouragement with faith, hope, and courage. When God comes in judgment against His enemies He will deliver His church, save His people, and gather the faithful at His return, so the weak and faint and fearful are told to take courage and be strong because God will come with recompense to save them. This encouragement points to the church's final deliverance in the day when God brings wrath on His enemies, when He comes to save His people.
The encouragement applies to the closing work before the work is closed up and the sealing of God's people is finished. In that fitting-up time for heaven efforts must not flag or weaken but grow in grace and in knowledge of the Lord, when the outpouring of the Spirit of God will come and angels from heaven will be in the midst. Then God's people, out of the cities, are to walk in full obedience to all the commandments of God, to lay up these words in the heart, to accept Christ as Saviour and friend, to take the offered salvation, to place themselves wholly on the Lord's side, to consecrate themselves to the service of God, to draw together and not disband, and to depend on Christ alone for salvation.
The promise of the chapter, including this call to strengthen the discouraged and weak and help them stand firm, can be fulfilled in people's lives even in this world as God works on their minds, and since the transformation is God's work the honor belongs to Him. The verse is present truth to be proclaimed just now with assurance and power as part of announcing that God will come and save. It forbids striking a mournful note or singing funeral hymns and commands giving strength and steadiness to the weak and fearful.
Church Work of Encouragement
Strengthening the discouraged and upholding the faltering is a practical and special work belonging to the church, especially where discord and contention have left people weakened, and it is part of the Lord's work of renewal and present work of mercy to be done by cooperating under God's direction, encouraging one another and supporting one another. The command is also the charge given to Christians by Paul, that the weak be healed rather than turned aside. That duty is pursued by seeking peace and holiness, by guarding one another from falling away from grace or being harmed by bitterness, and by comforting and upholding one another through timely sympathy and kindness and words that give courage to the weak and fearful.
It is a special message for churches and believers in times of depression, discouragement, spiritual lack, disappointment, division, resistance, halting, disaffection, and emergency, calling them to rely on God's sure promises and to encourage others and support the halting, even those unwilling to receive help. Joined to it are the precious promises for the future that the wilderness and desert shall rejoice and blossom and that people shall see the glory of the Lord and the excellency of God. The whole of Isaiah 35 is to be read together with Isaiah 50 as an inspired word to be claimed in emergency, especially when disappointed by spiritual lack seen in churches and in individuals.
In such times believers are to refuse discouragement and keep faith strong in God as proved true in the past, bringing a true heart to the help of the Lord against satanic agencies. They are to repeat God's rich promises and Christ's words rather than words of unbelief, lean on His sure promise, take hold of the mighty assurances given in Christ and in His word, and communicate encouragement to others, including those unwilling to be helped and strengthened.
Fellow workers whose hands are feeble and knees weak are to be encouraged and upheld rather than deterred, discouraged, enfeebled, or caused to stumble, and feeble hands are not to be kept from doing something for the Master. They are to be helped to grasp Christ's hand more firmly and to work hopefully, with every hand outstretched to help each working hand. God has ordered mutual dependence so that no one is independent of others, and those who now uphold feeble hands may later in turn be upheld by those they helped.
This applies especially to those in charge, such as a conference president, who must not exercise an authoritative spirit or masterly manner but work as Christ worked, speaking comfort to the sick and sorrowing and counseling the inexperienced to be God's helping hand. Those professing to be medical missionaries are commanded to repent and be converted, to stop leading others in strange paths, and to examine and follow true principles according to God's law rather than principles formed for convenience. They must strengthen and confirm the weak instead of causing them to stumble and do the work Christ commissioned, knowing God reads motives beneath the surface, that only obedience brings sight of God's glory, and that soon-coming judgments will fall on those who cause the weak to stumble.
Strengtheners Made Fit
Faithful strengthening of the weak and fearful requires that those who do it stand firm themselves, free in Christ and His salvation, knowing whom they trust and not wavering. One whose feet are entangled, sliding, or caught in Satan's snare cannot build up the church, gather in souls, or rescue others from the snare. Those who are wavering and unprepared for this work must first labor for themselves and pray until endued with power from on high.
Those who are stronger must not look down on people struggling with weakness and discouragement but pity and help them as Christ does. Strengthening weak hands and feeble knees means lifting up the faltering and encouraging them to be brave and strong.
The love of Christ in the soul strengthens the weak by banishing selfishness, suspicion, self-importance, and arbitrary authority. When those connected with sanitariums, printing offices, and schools let the love of Jesus fill the heart, spirituality revives and the holiness and peace of heaven come in. Minds then become as Christ's mind, seeking the highest good of others, and that love acts as an ever-flowing stream in the desert, turning the sear and barren wilderness into a green, ever-watered pasture where flowers spring into fragrant life and peace reigns, causing heaven to rejoice.
Christ's followers strengthen the discouraged and weakened as they become one with Christ and follow His example, lifting up those who need help and directing them to Him as the giver of life so they continue in faith and service. God's angels also strengthen and encourage those who call on Him for help, as part of divine help in the struggle against forces seeking mastery over minds, enabling victory day by day.
Holding up hands ready to fall gives the church as a whole and its individual members a golden opportunity to obtain a higher and holier experience beautified with the attributes of Christ, and this is what makes it a living, active, working church. It is done by treading Satan underfoot, by wholly consecrated habits, conversation, and daily life on the Lord's side, and by holding communion with God as divine Counselor. It is done by a spirit of intercession and wrestling with the covenant-keeping God for themselves and for watchmen on the walls of Zion and workers in His cause, that they may be clothed with the garments of salvation and have power to prevail with God. Then many souls become the fruits of ministry, with assurance that God will answer earnest supplications sent to Him in faith.
The work required of those claiming living connection with God is to work in Christ's line by encouraging the discouraged, confirming the weak, and taking stumbling blocks out of the way. It forbids poring over darkness and talking discouragement, which pleases the devil. Done rightly, the glory of God is revealed in the world and sinners are converted in response to the great sacrifice made for them.
Personal Faith and Courage
The verse is itself a prayer for one who is cast down and discouraged, in poor health with no one to depend on and having laid aside the armor and shield of faith, that the Lord would comfort and uphold, restore strength, strengthen weak hands and confirm feeble knees. Weak hands cannot cling to the Mighty One and feeble knees cannot support a person in adversity. Trials borne resolutely in Jesus' strength firm the faith and renew courage, and humble obedience brings safety, power, comfort and hope, while doing nothing for Jesus leaves a person without strength to endure and forfeits the reward.
Lifting hanging hands and strengthening feeble knees means encouraging discouraged and weak believers to keep walking faithfully, as with Brother and Sister Sanderson to continue on the straight and narrow path toward God's kingdom among the Lord's redeemed. The image of trembling knees and hanging hands applies to fear about the future. Rather than becoming fainthearted in difficulty, trust in God's guidance, strength and provision gives courage to meet hardship.
While the Lord's judgments are in the land, believers are to work with wholehearted fidelity, putting the whole being into helping others move forward and upward and pressing the battle to the gates. They are to be ever ready to speak encouragement to the halting and weary, walking safely only by walking with Christ, letting nothing dampen courage, and helping all they contact to work faithfully. Those sinking in discouragement must not give up, for the fainthearted will be made strong and the desponding made to hope. God has tender care for His people, His ear is open to their cry, and He will care for His own cause, so each person should fill his own place and live low and humble at the foot of the cross in faithful holy life, and will then not be ashamed but confide in God with holy boldness.
Isaiah 35:3 commands God's people to strengthen those who are weak, discouraged, faltering, or spiritually weak, and to help them stand firm and steady. Its surrounding words call fearful hearts to be strong and unafraid because God will come to save His people and repay His enemies. The call belongs to the promise that the redeemed of the Lord will return to Zion with everlasting joy when sorrow and sighing end, when the desert blossoms and the glory of God is revealed. It is a practical, special work for the church to encourage one another, uphold the faltering, and support fellow workers rather than discourage them, especially in times of depression, disappointment, division, and emergency. God's servants can faithfully do this work only as they themselves stand firm in Christ, know whom they trust, and do not waver, pitying the struggling as Christ does and lifting them to Him as the giver of life.
Words and Immediate Context
The command calls God's people to strengthen weak hands and confirm feeble knees, which means lifting up those who are weak, discouraged, faltering, or spiritually weak and helping them to stand firm and steady. This is practical work for supporting one another, especially where discord and contention have weakened people, by cooperating under God's direction in His work of renewal and mercy. It belongs to proclaiming the gospel message, and its promises are given to encourage believers and churches in times of depression, spiritual lack, disappointment, division, and emergency. The promise of the chapter, including this call, can be fulfilled in people's lives even in this world as God works on their minds, and since the transformation is God's work the honor belongs to Him.
Its surrounding words speak directly to those with fearful hearts, telling them to be strong and not afraid because God will come with recompense to save His people. That announcement forbids striking a mournful note or singing funeral hymns, and requires giving strength and steadiness to the weak and fearful with assurance and power as present truth for just now. The call to the weak and faint to take courage belongs to the promise that when God comes in judgment against His enemies He will deliver His church, gather the faithful at His return, and bring healing, restoration, and life and abundance in what was barren.
The chapter stands among the promises of the Lord's redeemed returning to Zion with everlasting joy when sorrow and sighing come to an end, connected with the hope of the new earth and life beyond death. The same command stands together with the promises that the wilderness and the desert will rejoice and blossom and that people will see the glory of the Lord and the excellency of God. Joined to those precious promises for the future, it is a special message to bear in times of depression and discouragement, to encourage the churches and to be claimed in emergency when there is spiritual lack, unwillingness to be helped, and halting and disaffection among believers.
Future Deliverance Promised
The call to strengthen weak hands and confirm feeble knees belongs to a prophecy of the future restoration of God's people, given for encouragement and as reason to meet discouragement with faith, hope, and courage. When God comes in judgment against His enemies He will deliver His church, save His people, and gather the faithful at His return, so the weak and faint and fearful are told to take courage and be strong because God will come with recompense to save them. This encouragement points to the church's final deliverance in the day when God brings wrath on His enemies, when He comes to save His people.
The encouragement applies to the closing work before the work is closed up and the sealing of God's people is finished. In that fitting-up time for heaven efforts must not flag or weaken but grow in grace and in knowledge of the Lord, when the outpouring of the Spirit of God will come and angels from heaven will be in the midst. Then God's people, out of the cities, are to walk in full obedience to all the commandments of God, to lay up these words in the heart, to accept Christ as Saviour and friend, to take the offered salvation, to place themselves wholly on the Lord's side, to consecrate themselves to the service of God, to draw together and not disband, and to depend on Christ alone for salvation.
The promise of the chapter, including this call to strengthen the discouraged and weak and help them stand firm, can be fulfilled in people's lives even in this world as God works on their minds, and since the transformation is God's work the honor belongs to Him. The verse is present truth to be proclaimed just now with assurance and power as part of announcing that God will come and save. It forbids striking a mournful note or singing funeral hymns and commands giving strength and steadiness to the weak and fearful.
Church Work of Encouragement
Strengthening the discouraged and upholding the faltering is a practical and special work belonging to the church, especially where discord and contention have left people weakened, and it is part of the Lord's work of renewal and present work of mercy to be done by cooperating under God's direction, encouraging one another and supporting one another. The command is also the charge given to Christians by Paul, that the weak be healed rather than turned aside. That duty is pursued by seeking peace and holiness, by guarding one another from falling away from grace or being harmed by bitterness, and by comforting and upholding one another through timely sympathy and kindness and words that give courage to the weak and fearful.
It is a special message for churches and believers in times of depression, discouragement, spiritual lack, disappointment, division, resistance, halting, disaffection, and emergency, calling them to rely on God's sure promises and to encourage others and support the halting, even those unwilling to receive help. Joined to it are the precious promises for the future that the wilderness and desert shall rejoice and blossom and that people shall see the glory of the Lord and the excellency of God. The whole of Isaiah 35 is to be read together with Isaiah 50 as an inspired word to be claimed in emergency, especially when disappointed by spiritual lack seen in churches and in individuals.
In such times believers are to refuse discouragement and keep faith strong in God as proved true in the past, bringing a true heart to the help of the Lord against satanic agencies. They are to repeat God's rich promises and Christ's words rather than words of unbelief, lean on His sure promise, take hold of the mighty assurances given in Christ and in His word, and communicate encouragement to others, including those unwilling to be helped and strengthened.
Fellow workers whose hands are feeble and knees weak are to be encouraged and upheld rather than deterred, discouraged, enfeebled, or caused to stumble, and feeble hands are not to be kept from doing something for the Master. They are to be helped to grasp Christ's hand more firmly and to work hopefully, with every hand outstretched to help each working hand. God has ordered mutual dependence so that no one is independent of others, and those who now uphold feeble hands may later in turn be upheld by those they helped.
This applies especially to those in charge, such as a conference president, who must not exercise an authoritative spirit or masterly manner but work as Christ worked, speaking comfort to the sick and sorrowing and counseling the inexperienced to be God's helping hand. Those professing to be medical missionaries are commanded to repent and be converted, to stop leading others in strange paths, and to examine and follow true principles according to God's law rather than principles formed for convenience. They must strengthen and confirm the weak instead of causing them to stumble and do the work Christ commissioned, knowing God reads motives beneath the surface, that only obedience brings sight of God's glory, and that soon-coming judgments will fall on those who cause the weak to stumble.
Strengtheners Made Fit
Faithful strengthening of the weak and fearful requires that those who do it stand firm themselves, free in Christ and His salvation, knowing whom they trust and not wavering. One whose feet are entangled, sliding, or caught in Satan's snare cannot build up the church, gather in souls, or rescue others from the snare. Those who are wavering and unprepared for this work must first labor for themselves and pray until endued with power from on high.
Those who are stronger must not look down on people struggling with weakness and discouragement but pity and help them as Christ does. Strengthening weak hands and feeble knees means lifting up the faltering and encouraging them to be brave and strong.
The love of Christ in the soul strengthens the weak by banishing selfishness, suspicion, self-importance, and arbitrary authority. When those connected with sanitariums, printing offices, and schools let the love of Jesus fill the heart, spirituality revives and the holiness and peace of heaven come in. Minds then become as Christ's mind, seeking the highest good of others, and that love acts as an ever-flowing stream in the desert, turning the sear and barren wilderness into a green, ever-watered pasture where flowers spring into fragrant life and peace reigns, causing heaven to rejoice.
Christ's followers strengthen the discouraged and weakened as they become one with Christ and follow His example, lifting up those who need help and directing them to Him as the giver of life so they continue in faith and service. God's angels also strengthen and encourage those who call on Him for help, as part of divine help in the struggle against forces seeking mastery over minds, enabling victory day by day.
Holding up hands ready to fall gives the church as a whole and its individual members a golden opportunity to obtain a higher and holier experience beautified with the attributes of Christ, and this is what makes it a living, active, working church. It is done by treading Satan underfoot, by wholly consecrated habits, conversation, and daily life on the Lord's side, and by holding communion with God as divine Counselor. It is done by a spirit of intercession and wrestling with the covenant-keeping God for themselves and for watchmen on the walls of Zion and workers in His cause, that they may be clothed with the garments of salvation and have power to prevail with God. Then many souls become the fruits of ministry, with assurance that God will answer earnest supplications sent to Him in faith.
The work required of those claiming living connection with God is to work in Christ's line by encouraging the discouraged, confirming the weak, and taking stumbling blocks out of the way. It forbids poring over darkness and talking discouragement, which pleases the devil. Done rightly, the glory of God is revealed in the world and sinners are converted in response to the great sacrifice made for them.
Personal Faith and Courage
The verse is itself a prayer for one who is cast down and discouraged, in poor health with no one to depend on and having laid aside the armor and shield of faith, that the Lord would comfort and uphold, restore strength, strengthen weak hands and confirm feeble knees. Weak hands cannot cling to the Mighty One and feeble knees cannot support a person in adversity. Trials borne resolutely in Jesus' strength firm the faith and renew courage, and humble obedience brings safety, power, comfort and hope, while doing nothing for Jesus leaves a person without strength to endure and forfeits the reward.
Lifting hanging hands and strengthening feeble knees means encouraging discouraged and weak believers to keep walking faithfully, as with Brother and Sister Sanderson to continue on the straight and narrow path toward God's kingdom among the Lord's redeemed. The image of trembling knees and hanging hands applies to fear about the future. Rather than becoming fainthearted in difficulty, trust in God's guidance, strength and provision gives courage to meet hardship.
While the Lord's judgments are in the land, believers are to work with wholehearted fidelity, putting the whole being into helping others move forward and upward and pressing the battle to the gates. They are to be ever ready to speak encouragement to the halting and weary, walking safely only by walking with Christ, letting nothing dampen courage, and helping all they contact to work faithfully. Those sinking in discouragement must not give up, for the fainthearted will be made strong and the desponding made to hope. God has tender care for His people, His ear is open to their cry, and He will care for His own cause, so each person should fill his own place and live low and humble at the foot of the cross in faithful holy life, and will then not be ashamed but confide in God with holy boldness.