Contemplate these questions as you dwell in Isaiah 40:1-8:

1. In Isaiah 40:1-2, God commands Isaiah to comfort His people. How does the message of comfort relate to the previous messages of judgment and what is the significance of God's offer of comfort in times of difficulty?

2. Isaiah 40:3-5 speaks of preparing the way for the Lord and the revelation of His glory to all people. How is John the Baptist's ministry related to this prophecy, and what is the significance of the leveling imagery used in these verses?

3. Isaiah contrasts the fleeting nature of humanity with the enduring nature of God's word in Isaiah 40:6-8. How does this contrast provide reassurance to believers, and what practical implications does it have for our faith and trust in God's promises?

Transcript:

As I said, very familiar texts here. As this starts out, you have a well known Advent text and also you maybe know it from Handel's Messiah. That's also a very well known part of that musical work. Also we have the verses from three and four, or that we designate three and four and verse five as well that are very, very common to be read around the time of Advent. And then we have the grass withers and the flower fades.

We're so familiar with that. I say that every Sunday after I read God's word. In fact, I almost instinctively said Amen when I got to the end of verse eight. So, again, very well known passage here. Now, what's interesting is we have all of this coming after all of these prophetic words.

These words pronouncing judgment. And here, what do we have? Comfort. Comfort. My people notice that it's repeated that is important in the Hebrew language.

The idea is there is extreme comfort to be coming here, like truly comfort the people. Don't just give them comfort. Give them comfort. Comfort. And so how does this come about?

Well, it's by speaking, speaking tenderly to them. And what is the tender word that is to be spoken? That the warfare has ended, that all of this battle, this judgment is done. The sin of the people has been pardoned. And here's an interesting line that maybe as you were reading it, you wondered, what does that mean that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins?

The idea here is that it's all been paid for. It it has been taken care of. It is not a factor anymore. And then we move on to these verses three, four and five that I said were read regularly during Advent. And speaking about this preparation of the Messiah coming, we read this as we think about John the Baptist.

And the imagery here is that God is doing something different. There's going to be a straight path to this idea of the Messiah coming to this Holy One who will come and make things right. He is going to take those things that are curvy and make them straight. And we also see that this is also an imagery that is used for other things, right? Every valley shall be lifted up, so the things that are low will be made high.

Every mountain will be made low. There's a leveling going on here. Not just the curvy path, not just the path through the wilderness being straight and clear, but everything is being made level. And what is the purpose of this? And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed.

And who is that to? All flesh shall see it together. This statement, as we have seen many times before, is not saying that every person ever is going to see this. The idea of all flesh is all people groups. This is not just a Jewish thing.

This is not just a Hebrew thing. It is for all people, even the Gentiles are going to see this. And we can trust that this is going to happen because the mouth of the Lord has spoken. And so it's in this context that we come to verses six, seven and eight, right? What has God spoken about all people, all flesh?

Well, that they would see this and understand this. A voice says for Isaiah to cry, and then he's not sure what to cry, but then we have this. Remember, the context here is that the word of the mouth of the Lord has spoken. And so all flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. All these people, they don't last.

They're like grass. They will wither, they will fade. And even when God comes in judgment or whether just time passes, we see this when the breath of the Lord blows on it, surely the people are grass that they're going to wither, they're going to fade. The words of people aren't going to last. But this isn't the people who are speaking here about all flesh seeing this salvation or about this comfort that is to come to the people of God because their warfare has ended.

No, it is God who is speaking. And so we are reminded of this truth. The grass people wither the flower fades, we go away. Our word does not last. But what do we see?

Isaiah speak, that God has spoken to him. The word of our God will stand forever. That is going to last. And that's why this passage is so important for us, right? Because we understand from this that regardless of how we feel about things, when God has spoken, we have a sure and certain promise, and we can trust that that is going to come to pass.

And so what is it that we should trust? Well, we can have a perfect confidence that God has spoken tenderly to us in Christ. His Law came to us, and it was a harsh word, a word of judgment. We deserved his wrath. But now we see that the warfare is ended.

Why? Because Christ has come, the one who was going to level things out, the Messiah, he has come and our iniquity has been pardoned. It is taken care of. The Lord has received what we deserve for our sin. And so we can have this comfort and we can have this peace.

And that isn't going to go anywhere, because it isn't our idea that this is happening. It isn't our idea that we should have peace with God. It is God's idea. And while we fade, while we will pass, the word of the Lord stands forever. And so may we today and every day stand in this confidence that we have peace with God because the Lord Jesus Christ has paid the price for our sin.

The grass withers and the flower fades. But this truth that God has spoken in his word will stand forever.