The Word of God Stands Forever - Isaiah 40:1-11

Isaiah 40:1-11

Isaiah 40:1–11 ESV

Comfort, 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. A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for 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.” A voice says, “Cry!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” 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 on it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. Go on up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God!” 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 tend 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.

“Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.”

Sweet words to open up our passage. Comfort to God’s people by the decree of His Word.

God instruction Isaiah to deliver this message. A little background gives clarity as to what makes this especially sweet.

Two Sections of Isaiah

Isaiah can be split in to two sections: chapters 1-39 and chapters 40-66.

In these two sections, we find God’s judgment to be the major theme of the first section.

God’s Judgment

At the conclusion of this first section, we find there to be only a remnant left of Judah, God’s people are exiles in Babylon, and there is a great heaviness surrounding His people. The temptation to think that God had forgetten them would be real. See verse 27 of chapter 40. Isaiah 40:27

Isaiah 40:27 ESV

Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God”?

Isaiah has delivered proclamation after proclamation from the Lord on His people of their judgment due to their sin.

It is understandable that the people of God would feel discouraged.

That’s what makes this new section of this book so precious. In the midst of the darkness, there is a burst of light.

God’s Comfort

One expositor stated that chapter 40 of Isaiah would be like a song:

To this progress and climax the music of the passage forms a perfect accompaniment. It would be difficult to find in any language lips that first more softly woo the heart, and then take to themselves so brave a trumpet of challenge and assurance. The opening is upon a few short pulses of music, which steal from heaven as gently as the first ripples of light in a cloudless dawn. But then the trumpet-tone breaks forth, “Call unto her;” and on that high key the music stays, sweeping with the second voice across hill and dale like a company of swift horsemen, stooping with the third for a while to the elegy upon the withered grass, but then recovering itself, braced by all the strength of the Word of God, to peal from tower to tower with the fourth, upon the cry, “Behold, the Lord cometh,” till it sinks almost from sound to sight, and yields us, as from the surface of still waters, that sweet reflection of the twenty-third Psalm with which the Prologue concludes.

George Adam Smith, “The Book of Isaiah,” in The Expositor’s Bible: Psalms to Isaiah, ed. W. Robertson Nicoll, vol. 3, Expositor’s Bible (Hartford, CT: S.S. Scranton Co., 1903), 749.

For 39 chapters now, there has been exposition of the corruption inside Israel and Judah. But now there is hope. Hope in brokeness and darkness. Hope that is only found in the Word.

The Surety of the Promise - Isaiah 40:6-8

While a little out of order, I find it beneficial to us to see the basis of our hope.

Isaiah gives us the proclamation from the Lord that stands as our anchor for assurance in verse 8.

Everything will die. In this sin sick world, everything will eventually rust, crumble, mold, wither, and die. It’s the effects of sin on everything, including physical life. Unless the Lord returns first, this is the fate of us all.

Solomon even spoke of this in Ecclesiastes. Everything is vanity. Verse 8 is referenced by James in his book: even riches fade away and the man in the pursuit of them.

As sure as the sun rises is the temporary nature of man.

But even more sure than that is the eternal Word of God.

It will stand forever. It is the Word of God that is the foundation for all we beleive. It is the Word of God that has been given to men by the direction of God’s Spirit and has been illumated to us in the same manner. It is by the reading of the Word of God and the work of the Spirit that we come to faith and knowledge of our Great God.

The sufficiency of Scripture is the root cause of many controveries and debates. It is a poor view of it that leads to heresies and false beliefs.

We have physical evidence of this already-if the Scriptures aren’t enough for you.

Arthur W. Pink put it this way, “When we bear in mind that the Bible has been the special object of never ending attack and persecution the wonder of the Bible’s survival is changed into a miracle

Another

Dr. W. F. Albright, John Hopkins University, said, “There can be no doubt that archeology has confirmed the substantial historicity of Old Testament tradition.” Nelson Glueck, renowned Jewish Archaeologist, said, “No archaeological discovery has ever controverted a Biblical reference”

There are some 25,000 early manuscripts in existence. This is more than any other book of antiquity.

Many will try to destroy it, undermine it, twist it, and discredit it, but by the power of God-His Word will stand forever.

The first 11 verses of Isaiah 40 give us 3 pictures of hope. Yes, this is words of hope for Israel, but they are also for us.

The Promise - Isaiah 40:1-2

Comfor to His people! Speak to her Isaiah. Give her comfort.

The warfare is ended.

Let’s not beat around the bush. Israel and Judah had been punished for sin. A spiritual battle they would never win. This is where hope comes in.

Give her comfort becasue God is promissing Hope. The warfare will be ended and iniquity pardoned…why? Because the Lord has granted it.

This is only possible through Jesus. It is Jesus that has won the battle.

How are OT people saved? By faith looking forward.

Their comfort is promised the completed work of Chrsit that is to come!

And it will be fulfilled

The Promise Fulfilled - Isaiah 40:3-5

Not only has a promise been made, but the way is being prepared. God had been orchestrating this redemptive narrative the whole time.

Every Gospel uses this text to show us who John the Baptist is. He is the one that is preparing the way amongst people-announcing the arrival of the fulfilled Promise!

The Word becomes Flesh.

Jesus is the Glory of the Lord in verse 5. In Him is it revealed. In Him does all flesh see it. In Him has the Lord spoken. He is the Word of the Lord.

“In this “spoken word” of the Lord—the gospel of Christ—the glory of the Lord appears radiantly for all who hear and believe”

Andrew M. Davis, Exalting Jesus in Isaiah (Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2017), 230.

What comfort for the people of Israel. What comfort for us!

In darkness, in judgement, in times of bitterness-the Word of the Lord stands forever.

Weep no more.

Cry no longer from pain.

The Promise is coming and is now come.

So what now? What do we cry?

The Promise Proclaimed - Isaiah 40:9-11

Go on the highest mountain.

You’ve heard the Promise. You know He’s coming. The night is over and the victory soon won. Go share the Good news!

But the grace of God is unleashed into this sin-cursed and dying world specifically in this way: the eternal word of God proclaimed to sinners on the very topic of the glory of God. As sinners hear and believe that message, they are forgiven, comforted, and strengthened.

Andrew M. Davis, Exalting Jesus in Isaiah (Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2017), 229.

Read these verses in 9 and 10. Behold your God! Only He can provide these things. Only He can give you stregnth. Go shout it from the rooftops in your cities. The Lord has promised salvation to His people.

For us on the otherside of redemptive history, let this message resound with us as well. We have see the Promise fullfilled. Jesus has already won the victory. Let us proclaim it. It’s Good News.

In closing this section, the people of Israel and Judah are given another statement of comfort. These are true for them and us as we read about our Great Shepherd.

He will gather. He will carry. He will lead.

In darkness, the Word of the Lord stands. In weakness, the Word of the Lord stands. In sorrow, the Word of the Lord stands. In salvation, the Word of the Lord stands.