Comfort My People
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Isaiah 40:1-8
Isaiah 40:1-8
Pray
v. 1
Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
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1. The Lord calls for comfort.
Comfort my people.
#2 same slide
2. God is not saying take a seat in your easy chair.
He is not saying find comfort in the luxury that we are afforded.
He is saying be consoled.
The word used for comfort means
comforted, i.e., be in a state or condition of finding a measure of relief from sorrow and distress, and so be consoled or encouraged (Ge 24:67; Ps 77:3[EB 2]; Jer 31:15); (piel) comfort, console, express sympathy (2Sa 10:2); (pual) comforted, be consoled (Isa 54:11; 66:13+); (hitp) console oneself (Ge 27:42; 37:35; Dt 32:36; Ps 119:52; 135:14+); 2. LN 31.58–31.81 (nif) change one’s mind, reconsider, i.e., change one’sing. opinion concerning truth (1Sa 15:29; Ps 110:4); (hitp) change one’sing. mind (Nu 23:19+); 3. LN 25.270–25.287 (nif) be grieved, i.e., be in a state of sorrow or regret over a person or event (Ge 6:6, 7; Jdg 21:6, 15; 1Sa 15:11, 35; 2Sa 24:16; 1Ch 21:15; Jer 42:10); 4. LN 41.50–41.54 (nif) repent, i.e., be in a state of sorrow and regret about a wrong, implying a true understanding about a wrong and desire to change a thought or behavior (Job 42:6; Jer 8:6; 31:19); 5. LN 68.34–68.57 (nif) relent, i.e., to cease a particular course of action, usually with a focus that a gracious act. has occurred, with a possible implication that one grieves or has sorrow over an object or event, see also LN 88.75–88.82 (Ex 32:12, 14; Ps 106:45; Isa 57:6; Jer 4:28; 18:8; 26:3, 13, 19; Eze 24:14; Joel 2:13; Am 7:3, 6; Jnh 4:2+), note: some sources also place here an implication that this is a change of opinion concerning truth, but the contexts focus on future merciful behaviors and actions; 6. LN 38.1–38.13 (hitp) avenge oneself, formally, comfort, i.e., punish another with vindication and legitimacy, as an extension of feeling personal comfort that a situation is now just (Eze 5:13+)
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3. Be consoled; encouraged; find a measure of relief from sorrow and distress.
Find relief.
Be comforted in your time of distress.
Be encouraged.
Be encouraged in your time of distress because you are not alone.
Be comforted because we are His.
Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
Be comforted, encouraged, MY PEOPLE.
God is referring to you.
We are His people.
Be comforted.
Be encouraged.
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4. Find relief from your time of distress in the hands of your Savior.
God knows our trouble.
He nows the difficulties we face in this world.
He knows the struggles that we face regarding temptation.
He knows because He experienced the struggle of humanity when He walked among His people.
He knows the veracity of our enemy.
He knows that the enemy seeks to destroy hope.
Jesus knows the turmoils that we are in here in this world.
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5. Jesus knows the trouble we face in this world, yet He tells us in the midst of trial, find comfort.
Be encouraged.
Find relief from distress.
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How can we find comfort in trial?
How can we be encouraged as we look at the state of our world?
What relief can we ever truly experience?
6. The word comfort in Isaiah 40:1 also implies the connotation of being avenged.
Be avenged.
Be vindicated.
Be avenged because we know that this is not the end.
This is not the whole story.
Be avenged because justice is
He calls for comfort of those who are His
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.
In these verses God is promising rest.
He looks upon the city that is referred to as the apple of His eye.
He is looking upon a people that He loves.
He remembers judgement.
Even upon the city He loves
But He also reminds us that there will be peace.
Sins have been paid for.
God corrects those He loves.
A voice of one calling: “In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
God is declaring that our King is coming.
He says prepare.
Prepare your ears to hear the message of hope.
Prepare your minds to receive the truth.
Prepare your hearts to receive your King.
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7. There is a voice in the wilderness crying out, prepare the way of the Lord.
This prophecy was specifically speaking about John the Baptist.
But it also speaks to us, which we will talk about later.
Prepare the way of the LORD: This passage of Isaiah 40:3-5 has a direct fulfillment in the New Testament, in the person and ministry of John the Baptist. Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, knew this at the birth of his son (Luke 1:76). And three gospels directly relate this passage to the ministry of John (Matthew 3:3, Mark 1:3, and Luke 3:3-6).
i. Jesus was the coming Messiah and King, and John the Baptist’s ministry was to be one crying in the wilderness, and through his message of repentance, to prepare the way of the LORD. We often fail to appreciate how important the preparing work of the LORD is. Any great work of God begins with great preparation. John wonderfully fulfilled this important ministry.
God allows Isaiah to write about a coming herald who will cry out in the wilderness.
This herald will prepare the way of the Lord.
He will point to the coming Messiah and declare who Jesus truly is.
Turn to John 1
Now this was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Messiah.” They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” He answered, “No.” Finally they said, “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’ ” Now the Pharisees who had been sent questioned him, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” “I baptize with water,” John replied, “but among you stands one you do not know. He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.” This all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
In these verses John quotes for Isaiah.
He declares that he is the one that is calling from the wilderness because the Lord has come.
Verses 19-24
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.” Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.”
John implies the divinity of Jesus.
Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.
There are people who debate the divinity of Jesus.
As strange as it may sound, there are even sects of the “Christian” faith that do not believe in the divine nature of Jesus.
No man can take aways sin.
No man can take away the sins of the world.
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8. In John 1:29-34, John the Baptist is declaring the divinity of Jesus.
John the Baptist is calling out for comfort.
Turn back to Isaiah
A voice says, “Cry out.” And I said, “What shall I cry?” “All people are like grass, and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.”
A voice says “Cry Out.”
Isaiah’s response is: “What shall I cry?”
All people are life grass.
We are fragile.
We are tossed to and fro by the winds of change.
We have an unfortunate tendency to all bend the same direction.
But God says our faith is like a flower.
Faith is beauty.
Our faith in God dots the landscape of humanity with beauty.
But even beauty, or faith will fall.
Meaning that the faith of some will wither and perish.
Faith of some will fall because the breath of God blows on them.
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Two thoughts on Isaiah 40:6-8
9. One: The faith of some may decay because of our tendency to bend with the wind of human frailty.
The pressure of the world becomes too much for us to stand against, and faith crumbles.
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10. Second: Even faith is not equivalent to the eternal authority of the Word of God.
I believe this is the promise we are to gather from this verse.
Things of this world a frail.
Things change.
Our physical bodies are weak.
But the Word of the Lord endure forever.
His promises are eternal.
The directive of this verse is to cry out and remind everyone that this life is temporal.
But the hope of God is eternal and unchanging.
God calls for comfort.
God calls for vindication.
His people will be remembered.
God has come to us, in the flesh.
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11. Comfort has come in the person of Jesus.
Jesus is our comfort.
Turn to Matthew 1
This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.
Mary gave birth to a Son.
He is called Immanuel.
God with us.
God with us.
Our comforter is with us.
A Son was born.
His name is Jesus.
In the Hebrew Yeshua.
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12. The word Yeshua (Jesus in Hebrew) means Salvation.
13. Every time we say the name Jesus, we declare Salvation.
We declare our comfort.
Our hope.
He has come.
He is with us.
His Holy Spirit dwells in the heart of those who know the name of Salvation.
Our Hope.
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14. Isaiah 40:1- “Comfort, O comfort My people,” says your God.