Isaiah 40:1

Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned; for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins... The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever. (Isaiah 40:1–8)

When judgment looms over God's people, He answers not with terror but with comfort—the comfort of peace bought by the pardon of sin.

The Turn from Judgment to Comfort

For the first 39 chapters, Isaiah largely spoke judgment to the children of Israel, specifically the southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin. After Solomon's reign the nation divided into the northern kingdom of ten tribes and the southern kingdom of Judah and Benjamin. By Isaiah 40 the northern ten tribes are essentially no more, taken captive and dissolved among the nations by Assyria. The Assyrian army had already swept into Judah, decimating the land—more than 45 cities destroyed by Sennacherib around 701–700 BC.

We recently studied chapters 36–39, the historic interlude that gave us a peek into the events of Isaiah's day under King Hezekiah. Now, nearing the end of Isaiah's ministry, God begins to speak in a different way. Over the next 26 chapters the tone changes, which has caused some higher critics to claim more than one author.

One Isaiah, One God Who Knows the Future

The prophecies in chapters 40–46 are so accurate, so specific, hundreds of years before fulfillment, that some who call themselves Christians cannot accept that God can predict the future. In the 18th and 19th centuries, predominantly in Germany, these higher critics arose claiming two or even three Isaiahs.

Jesus answers the question for us. In John 12 He quotes both Isaiah 6 and Isaiah 53, and John says, as the prophet Isaiah singularly said—affirming one Isaiah, one man, and a God able to speak of things not yet come to pass. Our God is outside of time. He sees the beginning and the end as one. Jesus says, "I am the Alpha and the Omega." He gives us the very reason for His predictive prophecy in these chapters: that we would know He is God.

One of the greatest divine thumbprints on Scripture is predictive prophecy. God told us His people would become a nation once again—fulfilled May 14, 1948. Ezekiel 36–37 gives the prophecy of the dry bones; Isaiah 66 asks who has seen a nation birthed in one day. It was fulfilled in just the last century, and some of you were alive when it happened.

Hezekiah's Apathy and the Coming Babylonian Judgment

Isaiah 39 ended with a prophecy of coming judgment. After God miraculously protected Jerusalem—185,000 of Sennacherib's army killed in one night, and Sennacherib turned back to Nineveh—Hezekiah was visited by Babylonian ambassadors bringing a gift and letters because he had been sick and made well. Overjoyed, he showed them everything: his treasuries, the house of God, even the armory.

Isaiah came and asked what he had shown them. "Everything," Hezekiah replied. Isaiah told him this was foolish—all of it would be carried to Babylon, and even his own descendants would serve as eunuchs in the palace of Babylon. Second Chronicles reveals God allowed the Babylonians to come as a test of Hezekiah's heart. His heart was revealed in his reply: "The word of the Lord is good... for there shall be peace and truth in my days." Careless indifference had gripped him. At least it would not happen in his day—the very attitude we hear from politicians in our own time.

Comfort in the Face of Judgment

Right on the heels of that prophesied judgment—ultimately fulfilled within about 150 years—God says, "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God." How could a people facing judgment be comforted? Verse 2 tells us: "Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned; for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins."

This is not the cessation of earthly conflict. Even 2,700 years later the children of Israel are still in armed conflict. Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran's Ahmadinejad openly state their desire to wipe Israel off the map. So this is something far greater: God directs their attention to His coming salvation and the establishing of peace between God and man.

The Three Words of Comfort

First, their warfare is ended—a peace established not by negotiation on earth but with God Himself. Ever since the fall in Genesis 3, man stands as an enemy of God because of sin. Someone must come and deal with the cause of this enmity.

Second, "her iniquity is pardoned." But here is the difficulty: God is holy. Because He is holy, He cannot simply let us off the hook. Many in our nation say, "God is love, so He'll overlook my sin." No, He will not. That is a god you have created in your mind, not the God revealed in Scripture. He is just and serious about His law. Proverbs 17:15 says, "He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the Lord."

Third, "she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins"—she has received full payment. The debt must be paid in full; God cannot merely wipe it off the books. That is the only way He can release us from the curse of sin, which is death.

Just and the Justifier

Romans 3:23 says all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But verse 24 continues: "Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." Redemption is an accounting term—it speaks of paying the price. We are not justified merely because God wipes the sin off the books; He purchased our salvation. Verse 25: "Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood." Verse 26: "that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus."

The only way God can justify the wicked—which apart from this would be an abomination—is to pay the price for the wicked man's sin. He who knew no sin became sin for us that we might receive the righteousness of God. We received the better part of the deal: He took our sin, He gave us His righteousness, and He maintained His justice. The comfort of Isaiah 40 is real only because of peace with God, our warfare ended, our iniquity pardoned, the debt paid by Jesus.

The Voice Crying in the Wilderness

"When and how shall this comfort come?" Verse 3 answers: first there would come a voice crying in the wilderness to herald the comforter—an advance team, like the team that goes ahead of a president weeks before he travels, making the way straight.

Who is this voice? All four gospels answer plainly: John the Baptist. Matthew 3:1–3 says John preached in the wilderness, "Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand," and "this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias." Mark 1, Luke 3, and John 1 say the same; in John 1:23 John says of himself, "I am a voice crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord."

Behold the Glory of the Lord

Isaiah 40:3 says to prepare a highway "for our God." Not merely a man, an earthly king, a prophet, or a good teacher—John is the advance man for the Lord God, who would become a man. "Every valley shall be exalted... and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed."

John 1 declares, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Verse 14: "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father." Jesus is the bringer of peace, the pardoner, the payer of the debt. Through Him alone is true comfort, for 2 Corinthians 1:3 calls Him the God of all comfort.

The Message: Life Is Temporal, God Is Eternal, Judgment Is Coming

In verse 6 the voice asks, "What shall I cry?" God answers: "All flesh is grass... The grass withereth, the flower fadeth... but the word of our God shall stand for ever." The message boils down to this: life is temporal, God is eternal, and judgment is coming.

Was John's message like this? In Matthew 3:7–12 he tells the Pharisees, "O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance... every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire." The gospel is good news, but it must always be preceded by the bad news—man is temporal, God is eternal, judgment is coming, and all have sinned. John came not to prepare earthly roads but to prepare hearts by bringing conviction of sin. This message is not merely Old Testament: Peter quotes it in 1 Peter 1:24, and James in James 4. "But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you."

Behold Your God

Verse 9 turns to the messenger: "O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain... lift up thy voice with strength; be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God." This applies to John the Baptist, but also to every messenger—to me and to you. Find a high point and proclaim the gospel with all your strength, without fear. Are we fulfilling this calling, speaking with every opportunity, clearly presenting the truth of who Jesus is?

What do we declare? "Behold your God." Verse 10 gives three things. First, the returning God: "Behold, the Lord God will come." Matthew 24:30 says every eye will see Him, coming with power and great glory. Acts 1:10–11 says He will return as He ascended. Jude 14–15 says He comes with ten thousands of His saints to execute judgment.

Second, the ruling God: "with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him." Revelation 12:5 and 19:11–16 say He will rule with a rod of iron. Isaiah 9:6 says of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end.

Third, the rewarding God: "his reward is with him, and his work before him." When He returns He will inspect the work of His servants, like the master in the parable of the talents. Revelation 22:12: "Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be." In Matthew 6, three times Jesus says the Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

The Loving Shepherd

Verse 11: "He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young." In John 10 Jesus says, "I am the good shepherd," who gives His life for the sheep (v. 11), who knows His sheep (v. 14), whose sheep hear His voice and follow Him, to whom He gives eternal life, and out of whose hand no one can pluck them (v. 27–28).

Four things mark this Shepherd: He feeds His flock, He gathers His lambs, He carries them, and He gently leads them. We cannot speak of the good Shepherd without Psalm 23: "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want... Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever." None shall be snatched from His hand.

The Creator

Verse 12: "Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?" The very first thing we learn of God in Genesis 1:1 is that He is Creator. Job 38 reminds us: "Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?"

There are an estimated 326 million trillion gallons of water on earth, in a constant cycle, covering more than 70% of the planet at an average depth of a thousand feet. Who measured all that in the hollow of His hand? This is anthropomorphism—bringing God into human terms so we can glimpse His greatness. It does not mean He literally poured water from His palm; it gives us an idea of His grandeur.

Have you stood at the edge of the Pacific, blown away by its expanse? Space is estimated to begin around 62 miles above the earth—330,000 feet—and our universe is estimated to be between 92 and 156 billion light years across. Light from the sun takes eight minutes to reach us. Yet God "meted out heaven with the span"—the distance from your thumb to your pinky. He measures the universe in the palm of His hand. He knows how awesome He is, because He created it; we only guess. As Psalm 8 says, "What is man, that thou art mindful of him?"

The God of All Wisdom

Verse 13: "Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counsellor hath taught him?" When God created He needed no one to direct Him. When He leads, He requires no counsel. When He rules, He needs no administration and no public opinion polls.

Has it ever occurred to you that nothing ever occurs to God? There is never a moment when, as you pray, He says, "Miles, I just didn't realize that." He never says, "I'm thankful you pointed that out; it never crossed My mind." Unfortunately my prayers don't always mirror that truth—often we are trying to convince God He doesn't quite understand what's going on.

Behold the Nations

In contrast, verse 15: "Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance... All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity." When He weighed the mountains in the balance, the leftover specks of dust—those are the nations. Why then do we so often fear man and nations rather than God?

Verse 16: "Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering." Ancient Lebanon was famed for its cedars and majestic forests; today it is largely desolate. Yet if you took all its trees and animals as a burnt offering, it would not be enough to honor Him.

This shines a light on Satan's temptation in Matthew 4:8, when the devil took Jesus to an exceedingly high mountain—the very mountains Jesus had weighed in the balances—and showed Him all the kingdoms and the glory of the nations. Men are so overcome by the glory of the nations; we saw it just this week at the G20 in Toronto. But to Jesus, who beholds the nations as nothing, this was no temptation at all. "Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve."

The Folly of Idols

Verse 18 introduces a major theme of the coming chapters: "To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him?" The workman melts a graven image, overlays it with gold, casts silver chains. The poor man who cannot afford that chooses a tree that will not rot and seeks a cunning workman to make an image that will not totter.

How absurd it is. God's greatness cannot even be comprehended by our finite minds—what likeness could possibly capture Him? Yet man is always given to worship the created thing rather than the Creator. Gold is $1,200 an ounce, so maybe you find a sturdy oak, cut it down, and take it to a carver: "Yeah, I like that—a little more here—and make sure it doesn't totter." It is foolishness, idiocy, an absurdity we can scarcely grasp.

God Sits Above the Circle of the Earth

Verse 21: "Have ye not known? have ye not heard?... It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers... that bringeth the princes to nothing." Note "the circle of the earth"—2,100 years before Columbus. God's response to idolatry: are you so deaf and ignorant that you bow to something created rather than the One who made it?

His sitting upon the circle of the earth speaks of a position of judgment. God who created the world is sovereign over it. He brings princes to nothing; the positions of authority in this world are allowed and given by Him, granted their jurisdiction by Him, and held accountable to Him. They imagine themselves powerful, but a blast from His mouth shows them to be like grass—just as with Sennacherib, who boasted of his strength in Isaiah 10. God told him, "I know thy rage against me," and essentially, "I know where you sleep."

Lift Up Your Eyes

Verse 25: "To whom then will ye liken me?... Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names." Go outside, look at the night sky, and ask who created the stars, who brings them out one by one and calls them by name so that not one is lost.

Yet the people of Judah, after all they had suffered at the hands of Syria, the northern tribes, and Assyria, began to say, "My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God." They accused God of careless indifference, supposing He had forgotten them or unjustly overlooked their cause.

"God's Forgotten Us"

After 9/11 in 2001, several of us went to New York City to minister near Ground Zero, handing out flyers for a prayer hotline set up by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. In Midtown Manhattan, Rick handed one to a well-dressed young woman who had been shopping. She walked a few feet, turned around with tears in her eyes, and came back. As we talked, it came out that she was Jewish, and she said, "God's forgotten us. God doesn't love us." Her conclusion from all the Jewish people had suffered was that God didn't care.

Many think like her. The Jewish people consider the Holocaust, the expulsion from Spain in 1492, the pogroms of Russia, the destruction of 70 A.D., the Babylonian exile of 586 B.C., and they ask, "Where is God in all this?"

Strength for Those Who Wait

The last verses answer with comfort for those who believe: "He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength." Notice He does not promise we will never go through difficulty. When you face cancer, a death in the family, the loss of a job, your wealth, or your home, He gives power to the faint. "Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."

When we are tempted to fix our trouble ourselves, we usually make it worse. We are far better to wait on the Lord, to be still and know that He is God, to step back while the nations tremble and quake—and behold God. When we behold Him, we see the returning, ruling, rewarding Lord, the good Shepherd who loves and died for His sheep, the Creator, sovereign over all He has made. It is in waiting on Him that we renew our strength.

Looking unto Jesus

If you are weary and fainting tonight, it indicates you are not doing what Scripture says. And if you insist, "I am waiting on Him and He's not acting," then you are doing exactly what Israel did—accusing God of careless indifference, calling Him a liar. That is hard to swallow, but the question is whether you have a proper perspective of God or whether your focus is on the temporal circumstance you face.

Hebrews 12:1–4 says, "Let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross... lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds." As Christians we are not released from hardship. Christians get cancer—any preacher who says otherwise is a false teacher. Christians lose jobs, homes, and loved ones. But the unbeliever does not have the strength of the Lord, the comfort of God, or the joy of His strength.

Philippians 4 says, "Whatsoever things are true... think on these things. Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."

Closing Prayer

Father, when we're so tempted to put our confidence in other things—in our savings, our 401k, painkillers or alcohol, in pleasures or in relationships with other people—may we recognize that all such things are fashioning graven images. It is going to the workmen and adorning it with gold and jewels, making something that will not totter, yet it is not sufficient for what is needed. God, we need You. As we move forward in a time in our nation where I believe we will face more opposition as followers of Jesus, remind us that our strength is found in You and our comfort is not in the cessation of hostility here, nor in the doing away with difficulty here. Our comfort is found in the peace we have with You, the peace brought about by a pardon You've given us as You paid the price. Remind us of these things as we go from here, I pray. In Jesus' name, Amen.