““Comfort, comfort my people,” says your God. “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and announce to her that her time of hard service is over, her iniquity has been pardoned, and she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.” A voice of one crying out: Prepare the way of the Lord in the wilderness; make a straight highway for our God in the desert. Every valley will be lifted up, and every mountain and hill will be leveled; the uneven ground will become smooth and the rough places, a plain. And the glory of the Lord will appear, and all humanity together will see it, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. A voice was saying, “Cry out!” Another said, “What should I cry out?” “All humanity is grass, and all its goodness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flowers fade when the breath of the Lord blows on them; indeed, the people are grass. The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our God remains forever.” Zion, herald of good news, go up on a high mountain. Jerusalem, herald of good news, raise your voice loudly. Raise it, do not be afraid! Say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!” See, the Lord God comes with strength, and his power establishes his rule. His wages are with him, and his reward accompanies him. He protects his flock like a shepherd; he gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them in the fold of his garment. He gently leads those that are nursing.” (Isaiah 40:1-11 CSB)
Thank you to all who have been praying for me. I have spent the past three weeks dealing with a major health crisis and I’ve been unable to write and share God’s truth with you. While I won’t take the time now, I will share a few details later. God has been merciful to me and has used this time to help me get a better grasp on my dependence upon Him and what He wants me to share with you through this passage.
I have really been looking forward to diving into this chapter. It is, perhaps, one of the most profound and compelling passages in all of scripture. In fact, the verses we study this week are quoted in all four of the Gospels. In many ways, this is the biblical story in a nutshell. It is the entirety of the Gospel wrapped up in a few short verses. These first eleven verses are focused on the word “comfort” and cover the vastness of God’s plan to bring redemption to His people. This week, we will look at the “what” of God’s redemption plan. In the coming weeks, we’ll look at the “why” and the “how” of that plan.
Brief outline:
- The occasion of God’s comfort (vs. 1-5)
- The content of God’s comfort (vs. 6-8)
- The certainty of God’s comfort (vs. 9-11)
The Occasion of God’s Comfort: Notice, God references these people as His and, as such, they are certainly familiar with the discipline of God’s love. We’ve spent the past thirty nine chapters of Isaiah examining the depth and breadth of God’s judgment upon His people, their idolatry and lack of trust or faith in Him. There is a major shift in the focus of Isaiah from this point forward and it is all about God’s provision for their salvation.
I mentioned several weeks ago that I feel chapters thirty eight and thirty nine are introductions to the rest of the book. We saw how their human king, Hezekiah, was unable to deliver God’s people from their oppressor and enemies. While he sought to do what was right, he made foolish choices and depended, far too often, on his own ability and understanding. In essence, Hezekiah, is our Everyman. He is like us, we are like him. We make these same foolish choices and depend, far too often, on our own abilities and understanding to save us. So, we find ourselves standing here echoing Hezekiah’s hopes – nothing more than peace and security during our lifetime (Is. 39:8). Empty dreams and shallow hopes.
Fortunately, God’s discipline doesn’t last forever and His vision for our lives and His desire for us is far bigger than our own poor choices and disastrous failures. God’s conviction of sin has a profound purpose; to turn us towards Him and to draw us into relationship with Himself. For those of us willing to admit our sinful selves and our deserved guilt, cheap comfort, comfort that is not grounded in reality, is not really comforting to us. It’s like speaking a platitude or cliche to someone experiencing real grief, it does nothing to help them and often goes unheard or quickly brushed away as worthless.
But that’s how we often confront this sin issue in our lives. We offer platitudes, false hope and self-help solutions. You don’t really need God and His gospel of grace, you just need a good life coach, better job or a cause bigger than yourself to dedicate yourself to – like Hezekiah, peace and security during our lifetime. We often settle for what’s convenient or easy and become disappointed or disillusioned by what it offers. The salvation God provides is certainly not what we want or expect, but it’s always what we need.
Isn’t it interesting? A herald of good news for bad people from a surprising God. We may not like the Bible’s penetrating way of seeing and defining reality – especially about sin, but we must not reject it outright. G. K. Chesterton wrote, “Certain new theologians dispute original sin, which is the only part of Christian theology which can really be proved” in his book Orthodoxy. We must examine the biblical view of fallen humanity and see it as truth, see how accurate and enlightening it is about our human condition. Then we must embrace it and its transformative power over us. If we never see ourselves as sick, deathly sick and desperately in need of help, we will never embrace the truth of God’s view of our sin and His salvation as our only hope.
“Or do you despise the riches of his kindness, restraint, and patience, not recognizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?” (Romans 2:4 CSB)
Not seeing ourselves as deathly ill is exactly the issue I had to face a few weeks ago. I was on vacation with my wife in southwest Colorado enjoying the fall colors and doing a little fishing. On a Wednesday afternoon, I’m on the river fishing and hiking and enjoying a beautiful day among God’s creation. An hour later, we’re back at our cabin reading, relaxing and getting ready to start dinner. Suddenly, I’m getting chills and start running a fever. I fought a high fever all night long and we decided to find a local urgent care clinic and find out what’s going on. At the urgent care, they checked my fever five times with three different instruments because they couldn’t believe it was so high. The urgent care doctor, came in and took one look at my leg and said she was calling the ER to expect us and she wanted us to go straight there.
When we got in the car, I told my wife to “just take me home” and I would go to the ER in Oklahoma City (an eleven hour drive away). Fortunately, she refused and took me to the emergency room. After I related that story to the ER doctor, he told me that it was a good thing I listened to my wife because I would likely not have survived the trip home. The infection in my leg had already developed sepsis and unless they could get it under control, amputation or death were still very real possibilities.
When we deny the condition of our sin, we face a similar circumstance. Our sin is killing us, but we refuse to see it or acknowledge it. Unless we see it, acknowledge it, confront it, confess it and repent of it, we will never discover God’s amazing grace and the comfort He promises His people. Catch this, “her iniquity has been pardoned, and she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.” While it is certainly possible that the word “double” here could literally mean we receive “twice as much” of God’s grace than we need, the real idea seems to carry more the idea of us receiving the mirror image of what we deserve. We come before God in our filth and sin seeking forgiveness and He gives us precisely what we need, which is the exact opposite of what we deserve. We do not get what we deserve but we do get what we most desperately need: cleansing, forgiveness and restoration.
The Content of His Comfort: Get ready, the King is coming. We need God, we may even want God, but we’re not ready for Him. He comes to us where we are and even as we are, in the wilderness of our lives. But He never comes to leave us there, in that wilderness. He comes to lead us out of that wilderness and to lead us into the blessings of contrition, confession and repentance. These verses are quoted in all four of the Gospels in reference to John the Baptizer. Jesus asked the people about John, “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? …A man dressed in fine clothes? Those who wear fine clothes are found in royal palaces. What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.”
The words of Isaiah’s prophecy and the words of John the Baptizer both point to a difficultly in grasping the truth regarding the comfort God offers. God is not offering us rainbows, unicorns and the fulfillment of all our dreams and fantasies. The comfort God offers is a hard look at the reality of life and the hope of His coming among us – a straight, level highway into the presence of God and the glory of His appearing. John came to get the people ready for the arrival of God and what was he calling them to do in preparation? To acknowledge their sin, be baptized as a sign of repentance and turn in faith and walk with God. John heralded His coming:
“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 told you about: ‘After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me, because he existed before me.’ I didn’t know him, but I came baptizing with water so that he might be revealed to Israel.” And John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and he rested on him. I didn’t know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The one you see the Spirit descending and resting on — he is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.”” (John 1:29-34 CSB)
The analogy of the leveling of the earth is NOT indicative of God’s attitude towards our sin. God’s NOT saying, “It’s okay, you don’t need to worry about your sin. I’m making it easy for you by leveling everything and you can just cruise along, just like you are – sin and everything. No, it’s not THAT at all. But it is indicative of His intention of making it possible for us to know His love, to experience His mercy and to get ourselves before our God, ready for His transformative power over us. God uses the process of leveling the landscape to make it possible for all men to know Him, to come to Him in repentance and to experience His amazing grace.
He’s making it possible for all men to experience His power, to see His glory, to live in His presence and with His direction in their lives. His salvation is not for the most spiritually fit, but for any who will come – He’s leveling the playing field. His power is not for the greatest, most elite and powerful among us, but for all who will declare their weakness and need for Him – He’s leveling the playing field. His glory is not for the physically beautiful, the mentally gifted, or the most talented athletic stars, but for all who are humble enough to bow before Him – He’s leveling the playing field. Why? Because the power and glory of God are most vividly displayed in the life, obedience, sacrifice, death and glorious resurrection of Jesus Christ.
But why? Why aren’t our efforts sufficient? Why can’t we earn our place in heaven through our own moral goodness? Because of Isaiah’s message: “All humanity is grass, and all its goodness like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flowers fade when the breath of the LORD blows on them…” We struggle with the reality of those words. Our pride wants to tell us why it isn’t true. We believe our achievements, our successes, our abilities and our brilliance are necessary elements for life. But in reality, we’re nothing but grass and our goodness like the flowers – withering and fading away before the truth God breathes out. But our God… Well, He’s something else, entirely. “The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the Word of our God remains FOREVER!”
The Certainty of His Comfort: The preceding words are the perfect lead into this last part. The certainty of His comfort is not based on our deservedness, our accomplishments, our goodness before God. Those are nothing but grass and fading flowers. But our God, His WORD remains forever. What God speaks, happens. You can count on His promises for they are based upon His character, His might, and His will. In these final verses, Zion and Jerusalem are references to God’s people. Not just those of Jewish descent, but of all those born of faith – faith like Abraham.
We are to be heralds of this Good News! But you won’t herald what you don’t believe. The comfort that God offers His people is the good news of His salvation from their sins through the Son whom He sent to level the playing field. Jesus said, “It is not those who are well who need a doctor, but those who are sick. I didn’t come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mark 2:17 CSB) At first glance, it would seem that Jesus says there are some who don’t need Him and His salvation. That’s simply a misunderstanding of what He said. The Pharisees reject His message because He ate and associated with those known for their sinful lifestyles – sinners and tax collectors.
It’s vitally important that you get this, Jesus is NOT the savior that Israel expected and He did NOT deliver the message or the salvation they desired and He’s not the savior we expect or desire. John was sent to prepare the way precisely because of this fact. In describing John, Jesus asks: “What did you expect? What did you come seeking? Someone dressed in fine clothes and looking like they belonged in your worship?” Not only was John, the herald, different, so IS Jesus, the Messiah. Nobody can objectively read Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7) and honestly say their Christian faith looks like what He demands of His disciples in that message. Why? Because we want and expect our Savior to reflect our priorities, hopes, dreams and desires. Jesus wasn’t sent to affirm our life choices but to transform them! He hasn’t come to give you a “thumbs up” of “like” on your social media profile. He came to radically alter your life choices and the direction your life is taking.
The righteous don’t need saving. But there are no righteous people, not even one (see Rom. 3:10-12). What? Nobody is righteous? Nobody does good? We’ve all failed to live up to the standard God set for us. We’re all guilty of breaking His laws and denying His rule over our lives. This is expressed through the two most egregious sins, pride and idolatry. Actually, our pride leads us into idolatry – usually the idolatry of worshiping ourselves. That’s the message of the first half of Isaiah, now the second half tells us that for those who are willing to see their sin, grieve over it, confess and repent of it will find that God comes and brings the comfort of His salvation into their lives.
Raise your voice, don’t be afraid. Tell the people, “Behold, your God!” John the Baptizer prepared the way, then Jesus steps onto the scene as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Behold, your God! Listen to the remaining verses in light of this: “See, the Lord God comes with strength, and his power establishes his rule. His wages are with him, and his reward accompanies him. He protects his flock like a shepherd; he gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them in the fold of his garment. He gently leads those that are nursing.” (Isaiah 40:10-11 CSB)
The world loves the moral teachings of Jesus, but they reject His power and His rule over their lives. They love moral platitudes, but they reject the authority of the One who spoke them as truth. But He comes with strength and He establishes His rule – whether they see it and acknowledge it or not doesn’t change the reality of it. He goes on to say, “His wages are with Him, and His reward accompanies Him.” God is prepared to pay out the wages of your life earnings, but He’s also prepared to offer you a gift you don’t deserve: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23 CSB)
Everyone likes to believe that their goodness outweighs their sin, but the reality of scripture hits like a ton of bricks here – you and I are sinners and deserve God’s judgment and death. But, He offers us comfort, He offers us a gift, He offers us Himself as the Savior who loved us enough to die in our place. He took our penalty so that we can receive His mercy and righteousness. Notice, “the LORD comes with strength, and His power establishes His rule.” He has the power and the authority to judge us for our sin. But that self same God also has the strength to protect us like a shepherd, to gather us in His strong arm and carry us in the fold of His garment. The very God who has every right to condemn us, judge us and destroy us is the very SAME One who comes to redeem us, comfort us and save us!
So church, shout this good news! Raise your voice loudly! Raise it, don’t be afraid. Say to the cities, “Behold, Your God!”
Oh, and fall before Him in contrition, humility, grieving over your sin and find His comfort: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” (Matthew 5:4 CSB) Never forget: His GLORY is our salvation!
Hilltop Baptist Church - Shawnee, OK 
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