As we move into the 40th chapter, we see a new tone in Isaiah's message. The first two words, "comfort, comfort" sum up the entire final 27 chapters. The first 11 verses as an introduction.
40 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
The word "comfort" is a command -- but whom is God commanding? This is not just for Isaiah, or the prophet would have made that clear. It is all of us who hear this passage. We are to speak comfort to God's people. That is the command of God. We proclaim his gospel of forgiveness and peace through Jesus Christ.
2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and proclaim to her
that her hard service has been completed,
that her sin has been paid for,
that she has received from the LORD’s hand
double for all her sins. (NIV)
There are two different words for sin here. In the fourth line,
avon means "transgression; guilt for an intentional sin." It is a crossing of the line. This is the sin Solomon warns about: "He who despises his neighbor sins" (Prov. 14:21). It can also be a sin of omission: "If a person sins because he does not speak up when he hears a public charge to testify regarding something he has seen or learned about, he will be held responsible" (Leviticus 5:1). And what comfort does God give to us about these and other intentional sins? They have been paid for. Our warfare and our struggle with God is over because Christ paid the price for our sins. God has given faith in Jesus, and he has also given us his commandments to guide us and to keep us from stumbling: "the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning" (Exodus 20:20).
In the last line, the word for sin,
chatah, is a "mistake." God commanded Saul "completely destroy those wicked people, the Amalekites" (1 Samuel 15:18) even on the basis of this kind of sin, although they were guilty of much worse. This is the error by which the cupbearer and baker "offended" Pharaoh (Genesis 40:1). Sometimes it is a little stronger, such as when a man who should be celebrating the Passover fails to do so (Lev. 9:13). However strong or weak the sin may seem to us, it is always something to repent about: "And forgive your people, who have sinned against you" (2 Chronicles 6:39).
But whatever punishment we deserve for these and all our sins, the Lord has inflicted doubly on his own sin. They are paid for--completely, and forever.
3 A voice of one calling:
“In the desert prepare
the way for the LORD;
make straight in the wilderness
a highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be raised up,
every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
the rugged places a plain.
5 And the glory of the LORD will be revealed,
and all mankind together will see it.
For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” (NIV)
This is the only prophecy that the Evangelist Mark quotes by name in his Gospel (Mark 1:2-3). It is a call to smooth out the rough places in our lives, and to fill in the gaps; to make a path for God, because he is coming. He himself will come again, to judge the world, and we prepare our hearts for him in repentance for our sins--intentional, and unintentional--and we ask him to forgive us.
What do I need to change in my life today? I want to change, and I need to change. Lord, you are the one who changes me.
Note: Over the years, some scholars have felt that perhaps more than one person wrote the book of Isaiah. This passage is usually seen as the most obvious dividing point. However, too many witnesses point to all 66 chapters of Isaiah as the product of one man--the prophet Isaiah himself. Some of these things are internal (the use of certain words, etc.), but the most convincing is the testimony of Jesus himself, who quoted from every part of Isaiah's book and stated simply, "Isaiah says." Maybe the best example is in John 12:38-40, where Jesus quotes from Isaiah 53 and Isaiah 6 and says "Isaiah says" in both places. That's good enough for me.
6
A voice says, “Cry out!”
And I said, “What shall I cry?” (RSV)
In the same way that the call of Isaiah occurred (chapter 6), the voice of the Lord asks a question, and the prophet answers. Even though the voice is not identified, we know it is the voice of God. We know this unidentified voice is God's own because of the content of what is said; because of the witness of the rest of the Bible: Peter quotes this passage in his First Epistle, and reminds us all: "And this is the word that was preached to you" (1 Peter 1:24-25).
All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.
7
The grass withers, the flower fades,
when the breath of the LORD blows upon it;
surely the people is grass.
8
The grass withers, the flower fades;
but the word of our God will stand for ever. (NRSV)
The prophet reflects the words of Job ("He springs up like a flower and withers away," Job 14:2). The image of flowers in the Bible is rarely a pretty one. Apart from decorations carved into the furnishings of the tabernacle and temple (Exodus 25:33-34; 37:19-20, 2 Chron. 4:5, etc.), a dozen or so references in the Song of Songs (2:1-2; 4:5; 5:13; 6:2-3; 7:2, etc.), some song titles (titles of Psalms 45, 69 and 80) and Jesus' references to the lilies (Matthew 6:28), almost all the references to flowers in the Bible are about decay or judgment:
"(Man's day) flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone," (Psalm 103:15-16).
"When the blossom is gone and the flower becomes a ripening grape, he will cut off the shoots with pruning knives," (Isaiah 18:5).
"He will pass away like a wild flower" (James 1:10).
The exception is the gospel promise God made through Hosea when Isaiah was a young man: "I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them. I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like a lily" (Hosea 14:4-5).
That gospel of forgiveness and peace stands forever. There are no limits on the "forever" of the Bible. The word "forever,"
olam, means a limitless, unbounded time, as in "their inheritance forever" (Exodus 32:13). There are no minutes, no seconds, no hours, no centuries. There is only an eternal, blissful now, a day with no end that will go on and on be always new, always tireless, always now. What God promises us, he will certainly give us: "The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever," (Deuteronomy 29:29).
God's forgiveness washes over us and pours God's grace and mercy into our hearts. What is right with God, is always right ("Your statutes are forever right," Psalm 119:144). His forgiveness has brought us into a relationship with God that allows us to speak with him as our dear Father in heaven, and allows us to speak with our Savior Jesus as our very own Brother, our Friend, and our Advocate.
God's forgiveness has all the beauty of the flowers, with none of their brevity or mortality. That is the gift of eternal life. And through Jesus, it is ours. Forever.
9
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, do not fear; say to the cities of Judah, "Here is your God!"
10
See, the Lord GOD comes with might, and his arm rules for him;
his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. (RSV)
When Aaron fell into sin on Mount Sinai, he made a golden calf and said, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt" (Exodus 32:4). When the northern tribes broke away from Judah, King Jeroboam sinned in the same way, making golden calves to be the gods of the people (2 Chron. 13:8). But the true God cannot be represented the way an idol can. He cannot be cast in bronze or sculpted in stone. Isaiah simply points to Mount Zion and shouts to the coming Messiah: "Here is your God!"
Zion itself was not always a city of the Israelites. We saw how David captured the city after he became King. The word "Zion" doesn't even seem to be a Hebrew word; it's probably a name from the language of the Jebusites who lived there before David captured it.
Whatever its name means, Zion was the place where Christ was crucified for us. He died to remove the guilt of our sin forever. Behold, mankind: Your God!
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. (KJV)
God's people are described three ways here: We are his flock, we are his lambs, and we are those that have young. God's watchfulness and protection is over the whole flock, but it doesn't just blanket most of us. He also watches over every single member of his flock. This includes those who are often left behind; left to fend for themselves. It includes the very small children, who are carried in the crook of his arm "close to his heart," and it includes mothers who are still nursing their babies (NIV translates this term with "those that have young," compare the same word as "cows that have calved" in 1 Samuel 6:7).
God cherishes us all. In his Divine Trinity, he shows his love to us in different ways, but it is always the same God who loves us and carries us close to his heart. The Father created us and sustains us, the Son gave himself for us and intercedes for us; the Holy Spirit shines his light on Christ at all times and puts faith in our hearts.
Three folds in my cloak,
yet only one cloak do I wear.
Three joints in my finger,
yet only one finger is there.
Three leaves on a shamrock,
yet only one shamrock I bear.
Three Persons in Godhead,
yet only one God do I fear. Amen.
(Celtic prayer, between 450-700 AD).
ABOUT THE NAME “ZION” — No one is sure what this word means. There are word vaguely related to
zion in Hebrew, such as
ziun "monument," (Jer. 31:21),
zii "yelping desert creature" ("desert tribes," Psalm 72:9),
ziah "desert," (Psalm 63:2; Hosea 2:5), and an Egyptian word on loan to Hebrew,
zih "ship" (Numbers 24:24, cf. Gesenius Hebrew Grammar, page 269 §93y). Any one of these might have significance, and judging from other Hebrew place names, it wouldn't surprise me at all if it drew from several or all of these meanings. The
-on part of the word is either a Semitic plural or a place ending.
12
Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand,
And marked off the heavens by the span,
And calculated the dust of the earth by the measure,
And weighed the mountains in a balance
And the hills in a pair of scales? (NASB)
The "span" is the breath of the hand with the fingers splayed far apart. This was the measurement of the breastplate that the high priest wore with twelve precious stones for each of the twelve tribes (Exodus 28:16; 39:9). So the image is of God laying out his hand and getting the entire sky within his grasp.
This verse also mentions a "scales" (Hebrew
peles) and a "balance" (Heb.
me’oznaim). These are simply different parts of what we would think of as a typical scale. The peles is the beam that swings, and the two me’oznaim are the pans that hold the items being measured.
13
Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD,
Or as His counselor has informed Him?
14
With whom did He consult and who gave Him understanding?
And who taught Him in the path of justice and taught Him knowledge
And informed Him of the way of understanding? (NASB)
Paul quotes this passage in Romans 11:34 and 1 Corinthians 2:16. There is a proverb that also points us in the same direction: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5). But the point isn't "Oh, look, God is just so much bigger than us and we can never understand him so look at how dumb we are." No—the point is, by all human calculations, we should stand condemned for our sins. But we can't put boundaries on God, and we will never fathom his mercy.
God's mercy surges up and washes over us, tearing away at all of the sin in our lives. There is no protection when it comes to sin versus God (Numbers 14:9). There is only protection in God's mercy (Joshua 20:3). The foxholes of our rebellion, the fields of our iniquity and the huts and temporary shelters of our sins are wiped away by the unstoppable tide of God's forgiveness, and he has brought us into the protection of his walls forever.
15
Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket;
they are regarded as dust on the scales;
he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust.
16
Lebanon is not sufficient for altar fires,
nor its animals enough for burnt offerings.
17
Before him all the nations are as nothing;
they are regarded by him as worthless
and less than nothing. (NIV)
Isaiah points our attention up to the scoreboard: All the nations of the earth, zero; God, infinity. And it isn't as if we don't know the final score before the game is over. There's no question at all. We put our trust in God, who has already won the victory for us, the victory over sin, over the devil, and even over the grave. No matter what minor victory the devil may think he wins, God is already in the winner's circle. And he brings us along with him by giving us the trust in him that we need.
I believe that I cannot by my own thinking or choosing believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to him. But the Holy Spirit has called me by the gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith. In the same way he calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. (Martin Luther's Small Catechism: Explanation to the Third Article of the Apostles' Creed).
18
To whom, then, will you compare God?
What image will you compare him to?
19
As for an idol, a craftsman casts it,
and a goldsmith overlays it with gold
and fashions silver chains for it.
20
A man too poor to present such an offering
selects wood that will not rot.
He looks for a skilled craftsman
to set up an idol that will not topple. (NIV)
There is no idol that will stand up to God. We read a passage like this, or we see a film with a man praying to his ancestors and we're tempted to think “How foolish, how primitive!” But worshiping an idol isn’t primitive at all, is it? After all, if we remember the stories early in Genesis, then we should realize that idolatry came after the true worship of God. Idolatry is, from that perspective, a “modern” invention. Somebody thought that it would be smarter to worship a block of wood than the God who made the wood.
If you have some questions about this, I have to admit that I do, too--but God will ask his questions first:
21
Have you not known? Have you not heard?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
22
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 live in;
23
who brings princes to naught, and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing.
24
Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown,
scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth,
when he blows upon them, and they wither,
and the tempest carries them off like stubble. (NRSV)
The word “nothing” in verse 23 (“he reduces the rulers of this world to nothing,”) is the word translated “formless” in Genesis 1:2. It occurs about a dozen times in the Bible and eight of these are in Isaiah (Isaiah really likes this word). In 1 Samuel 12:21, it’s translated “useless” (this is also about idols): “Do not turn away after useless idols. They can do you no good, nor can they rescue you, because they are useless.”
Idols can't rescue anybody. If you and your idol--whether it's in your wallet, or in your mirror, or something made of stone, bronze or wood--if you and that idol of yours both fall out of a boat, you're both going to sink. And if a hand comes to rescue you, would you rather have that hand grab your shirt, or would you rather rely on your idol?
And in the same vein, would you want that hand to grab you because you deserved it, or because you think you believed in it enough, or because had earned it--or would you rather trust in that hand that grabbed for you simply because that person wanted to rescue you, whether they knew anything about you or not? We can't fall into the trap of thinking that our salvation is somehow coming out of us, out of our lives. It isn't up to us at all. It's all up to God. "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12)
And the Psalm says: "The salvation of the righteous comes from the LORD; he is their stronghold in time of trouble. The LORD helps them and delivers them; he delivers them from the wicked and saves them, because they take refuge in them" (Psalm 37:39-40).
Our God loves us, and he has saved us.
Note: Although it is not part of God's inspired word, it may be worth noting that the same thought occurs in the Apocrypha, pointing us to God rather to anything within mankind, with more of a positive emphasis on looking to God for salvation: “Consider the generations of old and see: has anyone trusted in the Lord and been disappointed? Or has anyone persevered in the fear of the Lord and been forsaken? Or has anyone called upon him and been neglected? For the Lord is compassionate and merciful; he forgives sins and saves in time of distress” (Ecclesiasticus 2:10-11, NRSV).
25
To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One.
26
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 by the greatness of his might,
for that he is strong in power; not one faileth. (KJV)
Imagine God doing exactly what this passage describes. It may be impressive to me that a three-year-old boy can know the difference between a Thunderbird and a Camaro (something I don't know myself), but God knows everything about every corner of the universe. As to naming the stars? Of course it's a case of anthropomorphism: placing a human quality onto God so that we can have a reference point to understand him. But God created far more objects in the night sky than we can see with a telescope. Who can count the stars? Certainly no one. Why, then, do we dare to count up and extol our righteousness before God, something that surely no one can do. (Martin Luther)
God made all of it. The wonders of the universe are there because he called them into being.
But why make this point? Why haul out the whole cosmos and show it to us? When God did this for Abraham, it was to make a point, and to make a promise: "I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore" (Genesis 22:17).
This time, God makes the point to Israel, and he make a promise to us, turning from constellations to consolation:
25
To whom then will you compare me,
that I should be like him? says the Holy One.
26
Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these?
He who brings out their host by number,
calling them all by name;
by the greatness of his might,
and because he is strong in power not one is missing.
27
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"?
28
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.
29
He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.
30
Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;
31
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. (RSV)
God knows our troubles. It isn't that he is so far above us that he can't see us. It's that his strength is as boundless as his mind, and as infinite as his mercy. We can't comprehend all of this, but we should at least humbly accept this. His judgment on idolaters is severe: "The rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood-- idols that cannot see or hear or walk. Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts." (Revelation 9:20-21). This is a terrifying scene because people can look around themselves at the world and know that there is a creating God who hates sin, and yet they have been deceived into worshiping the creation itself. And those who do the deceiving will be judged as well: "Do you not know that we will judge angels?" (1 Corinthians 6:3). And God still calls out to mankind: “Each of you must turn from your wicked ways and reform your actions; do not follow other gods to serve them” (Jeremiah 35:15).
But God gives us this comfort: When others are condemned, we who have humbly set our faith in God will be rescued. "Thus is the man blessed who fears the LORD" (Psalm 128:4). When we struggle with any temptation, we need to remember that we will not be better off if we give in. When a sin presents itself to us like a dollar on the sidewalk, we need to look past the need and the longing we might have to pick up that dollar and commit that sin, because we can't always see that the devil has a string attached. Ask the Holy Spirit for the strength to walk past the sin, turn from it, and leave it behind. Our God has given us a Savior from sin, and he promises us rest from all our troubles.
Note: The judgment of the evil angels, spoken of directly in 1 Cor. 6:3 (see also Jude 6) is also taken up in the apocryphal book 1 Enoch:
“...till the day of their judgment and of their consummation, till the judgment that is for ever and ever is consummated. In those days they shall be led off to the abyss of fire: and to the torment and the prison in which they shall be confined for ever.” (1 Enoch 10:12-14)
(Spoken to wicked angels): “You have brought great destruction on the earth: And you shall have no peace nor forgiveness of sin” (1 Enoch 12:5-6)
“These are being prepared for the hosts of Azazel (a demon), so that they may take them and cast them into the abyss of complete condemnation, and they shall cover their jaws with rough stones as the Lord of Spirits commanded. And (the good angels) shall take hold of them on that great day, and cast them on that day into the burning furnace, that the Lord of Spirits may take vengeance on them for their unrighteousness in becoming subject to Satan and leading astray those who dwell on the earth.” (1 Enoch 54:5-6)
