Isaiah 40 – 43
Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. (Isa 40:1-2)
This is a passage that begins much of the comfort of the second half of the book of Isaiah. It speaks of a future time, when the Messiah has completed the work for redemption. First, Isaiah is told to announce to the disobedient nation that the basis for their forgiveness has already been accomplished. He is to speak to the heart of Jerusalem (that is what the word “tenderly” means), “and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, and that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.” The phrase, “double for all her sins,” does not mean that God has punished the nation twice what their sins required because that would be of no comfort. According to Harry Ironside, this is a reference to an Eastern custom. If a man owed a debt he could not pay, his creditor would write the amount of the debt on a paper and nail it to the front door of the man’s house so that everyone passing would see that here was a man who had not paid his debts. But if someone paid the debt for him, then the creditor would double the paper over and nail it to the door as a testimony that the debt had been fully paid. This is a picture to Israel as a nation that in the death and resurrection of her Messiah will pay her debt of sin twice what is owed. The gift far outweighs the debt.
In these first eleven verses, three voices are heard. The first, announces forgiveness. The second voice is in Verses 3-5: A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway or our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” (Isa 40:3-5)
We need not be in doubt as to whose voice this is because the gospels tell us that this is what John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Lord, said about himself. The more I spend time with this, the more convinced I am that wilderness and the desert refer to our own lives and our hearts. Without God, our hearts are that wilderness and our lives are that desert. And thinking about the illustration of John’s life and where he ministered, it seems very likely to me that God had a deeper message to communicate by locating John in the wilderness. John not only ministered in the wilderness, but that wilderness was a picture of every heart without Christ. This seems to me to be a pretty remarkable picture of the work of God in the life of one who opens his heart to redemption. There were many things that block our growth, and God declares that every mount and hill will be made low and the uneven ground shall become level, the rough places a plain. And that change in your life and mine will reveal the glory of the Lord. That is the power in the gospel, your changed life and my changed life, and that is our witness.
Ray Stedman writes that God was declaring there would be a highway, built in the heart, for God to travel on. Four steps would be involved in the building process for this road: “Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low, the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places plain.” Construction engineers know that this is exactly how highways are built yet today.
In this beautiful symbolic language the prophet is saying that this is what God undertakes when he comes into our lives. When we have received his forgiveness, the next step is that he begins to change us, to reconstruct our lives. “Every valley is lifted up.” In the low places of life, the discouraging times, times when you feel crushed and defeated, there will be comfort and encouragement from the Lord. Also, “Every mountain shall be brought down.” All those places where our ego manifests itself, our proud boasts, our attempts to have hold onto the power in our lives, these must be removed and replaced. “The crooked places will be made straight.”
In Verse 6 the first voice, there is a sort of dialogue with God and Isaiah: A voice says, “Cry!” And I [the second voice] said, “What shall I cry?” [The answer is] All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people is grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand for ever. (Isa 40:6-8)
Ah, but it is more than that, as we see in Verses 6-8. It is a word of reassurance as well. What is man? “All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.” All the great things we boast about will fade away and disappear. All man’s knowledge and power amount to nothing. “The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; … but the word of our God will stand for ever.” Our natural strength will never accomplish what we want; human help will fail us. “But the word of our God will stand forever.”
“Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings, lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, ‘Behold your God!'” (Isa 40:9)
This speaks about telling others about the good that God has done. This is what it means to be a witness, because you are telling others what God has done in your life. Ever wonder why some people are better at sharing about God? Could it be because what God has done in their life is still fresh? You want to revitalize your sharing, focus your attention on what God has done in your life and make it your goal to tell others about God’s work in your life. He hasn’t done anything recently? Then you really are not paying attention because He has done everything in your life.
If you cannot tell somebody of God’s grace in your life, you cannot be a witness. All you can witness to is your knowledge of a certain set of verses, perhaps, and that is not true witnessing. When something has happened, when you have been changed, when you sense the work of God in your heart, then you will “lift up your voice” and say to the all the people around, “Behold my God.” What kind of a God? The voice goes on: Behold, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for Him; behold, his reward is with Him, and his recompense before Him. He will feed his flock like a shepherd, he will gather the lambs in his arms, he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young. (Isa 40:10-11)
What I love about this is the short phrase, His reward is with Him. The presence of the Lord is His reward to His flock. Being gathered will be our reward. We search for earthly rewards because it is the best we know. When we are in His presence, we’ll wonder why we ever loved the things we love now.
Then we begin to hear a little about God’s view of how unique He is. To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with Him? [Who is like God?] (Isa 40:18) And again in Verse 25: To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One. (Isa 40:25)
Going back to verse 12, we read: 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? (Isa 40:12)
Here God Himself is asking man, “Can you do what I do? Can you hold the waters of earth in the hollow of your hand?” My wife loves the beach – I am not sure why but she finds comfort in the breaking waves. Perhaps in her spirit, the principles of these verses rides on the crest of every wave, “Who has measured the waters and held them in the hollow of his hand?” God Himself in majesty and greatness controls all the forces of earth. Verses 13 and 14 speak of God’s incredible wisdom. Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or as his counselor has instructed Him? Whom did he consult for his enlightenment, and who taught Him the path of justice, and taught Him knowledge, and showed Him the way of understanding? (Isa 40:13-14)
Who could do that? I think we can all admit to attempting to tell God how He could solve our problems. And we are often surprised by how and when God does overcome what we thought was insurmountable. We begin to realize that God sees more than I could ever see, and that He knew of obstacles we had not known about.
Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is hid from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God?” (Isa 40:27)
In verse 27, Isaiah writes to the heart who wonders if God really cares about them. Maybe you have felt that God does not notice you, that He has no concern about the trouble you are facing? This is God’s answer to this. 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. 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; [Watch the Super Bowl today and you will see it happen.] 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. (Isa 40:28-31)
Believers have taken these promises literally and found that to “wait upon the Lord” does this very thing, it lifts us up. However it all hinges on that one word, wait. Wait! Seems like the most difficult to learn. Wait. Let God work. The Hebrew word has a note of expectation about it: expect God to work, wait in expectation that God will move. It takes time, you cannot have patience overnight, but they that wait upon the Lord shall find their own strength renewed. They shall find their spirit mounting up like the eagle in its flight, their souls able to run the long game. They shall not be weary. And they shall walk (in body) and not faint.
I want to encourage you to read Chapter 41 but we’re going to fly over that chapter just noting verse 8,10. But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend; you whom I took from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, “You are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you off”; (Isa 41:8-9)
Here is a very firm promise to Israel, that even though they turn their backs on God, even though they wander off in unbelief and seem to jump into almost every trap possible, still God will not cast them off. The Apostle Paul picks up that argument in Romans 9, 10 and 11, and asks the question, “Has God rejected his people?” (Rom 11:1). His answer is, “Absolutely not.” God has a future for Israel, That is why the nation exists today even if they continue in unbelief. God has promised to deliver them some day and to consider that God could or would break that promise is to lack understanding about the character of God.
All of this speaks to us as well. Even though we turn our backs on God, even though we wander off in rebellion and hurtful, hateful submission to the idols that men follow today, God does not abandon us. He works in our lives to bring us back. In a remarkable passage, Verses 21-24 of Chapter 41, God challenges these idols of men to prove their word. I’ll let you read that. But it ends with this: Behold, you are nothing, and your work is naught; an abomination is he who chooses you. (Isa 41:24)
Behold, my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights, I have put my Spirit upon him, he will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not fail or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his law. (Isa42:1-4)
There is an interesting thing that happens with some passages, in that even the writer doesn’t fully understand what the Holy Spirit moves him or her to write. This first section that speaks of a servant seems to be without any doubt, Jesus. Then later in the passage, the servant appears to reflect the nation of Israel. When you are reading through this, and I hope you do, try to distinguish the different parts and how it turns quickly from one to another. Verses 42:1-4 are clearly about Jesus.
But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. (Isa 43:1-3a)
This is the explanation of why the nation of the Jews, subjected to the most terrible tortures known to man, including the unspeakable horrors of the Holocaust, have survived and still remain a nation on the earth. “When you pass through the fire, you will not be consumed.”
These verses, of course, apply to our hearts in a spiritual way. How many thousands have rested upon this promise, that God would sustain them through times of difficulty? Dealing with stress, these are verses worth remembering and even memorizing. “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, when through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you.”
Then God tells you why: Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you, I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life. Fear not, for I am with you; (Isa 43:4-5a)
This is God’s repeated promise. It is the answer to all our fears. Then comes the promise of ultimate gathering: I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you; I will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Do not withhold; bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, every one who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made. (Isa 43:5b-7)
What remarkable language! And breathe in that phrase – whom I created for my glory.
“You are my witnesses,” says the Lord, “and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am He. (Is a 43:10a)
That is God’s purpose for calling anyone to Himself: that you may know Him; that you may understand Him, and believe Him. The reason for this is that he is absolutely unique and does what no other can do.
Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me. I, I am the Lord, and besides me there is no savior. (Isa 43:10b-11)
There is no savior besides the Lord. He, alone, has power to deliver men from their sins.