IWant2Know wrote:
Well, it sounds like Isaiah 40:29-31 didn't help him since I'm pretty such most JWs have tried to apply those verses to themselves.
Those verses are not actually applicable to this situation or even about individual application, as Jehovah's Witnesses believe.
Isaiah chapter 40 starts what is known as "The Book of Consolation," otherwise known as Second Isaiah or Deutero-Isaiah. Over a century had passed since the prophet Isaiah who penned the first section of the book had passed. Cyrus the Great had come on the scene and liberated the people from exile to Babylon. While the Jewish hope of the Messiah was not fully formed yet, what they did understand about the "anointed one" to come was being focused upon this particular Persian ruler as a possible savior of the Jewish people since he allowed them not only to return to their homeland but gave them freedom to worship as they pleased.
The text you cite is speaking of the liberation of the children of Israel, returning to and rebuilding the homeland, reconstructing the sanctury of YHWH with God giving the exiles full attention and new strength to do the work. In chapter 40, Second Isaiah applies full credit to YHWH over any king or prince of the nations, including Cyrus.
This new school of prophets, in the name of Isaiah, write that God will make sure this strength to return and rebuild will be given to the Jews in those words of chapter 40:29-31:
He gives strength to the weary and new vigor to those who are powerless,
Even though young men faint and grow weary and youths stumble and fall,
those who place their hope in the Lord will regain their strength.
They will soar as with eagles' wings,
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not become faint.
It is a poetic oracle describing the people walking back to the Promised Land from Babylon or Sepharad (some of the Jews had been exiled to the Iberian peninsula), even though at the time of the composition many had already returned. The oracle is actually describing the liberation of the people, what it had been like, and attributed God's hand to Cyrus' work.
But the text does not mean that young men today can literally hope in God to gain strength so they do not stumble, as in the case of "falling into sin." The "stumble and fall" that is being described is not sinning but comparing the strength of "Jacob/Israel" of verse 27 to being stronger than young men that don't have the power to cross the desert like Israel does. Recall that Jacob was able to leave his mother and father behind to find his wives and return, crossing a desert--a trip that Esau, a stronger man, did not take to find his brides. God gave Israel that power. Esau, a more physically powerful man, was actually too weak to do what Israel accomplished. The verse in Isaiah is basically stating that like Jacob, the nation of Israel was given strength from God, not from Cyrus, to return to the Promised Land and rebuild, something that even young men could not do on their own, even if they tried.
Or in other words, the power did not come from Cyrus.
To use this same text as an encourgement for young people facing "sins" is not only taking it out of context but shows a deep lack of Biblical history and an inability to just read the context.
The context is about the Creator being the real Savior, the true Liberator, greater than any power found among the nations--it is not about how youths can find help when faced with sexual temptations.--Note especially 40:12, 13, 15, 23, 27-31.
The same section does give credit to Cyrus, but not by name, since Second Isaiah is here speaking of God as the true Redeemer of Israel.--See chapter 41:2.