July 1 - Isaiah 40:1-5

 July 1 – Isaiah 40:1-5

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

A voice of one calling: ‘In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness 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 mankind together will see it. For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.’”

Throughout these final twenty-seven chapters of Isaiah, we find some of the most beautiful words of hope ever written.  I went through the first thirty-nine chapters of Isaiah in March of 2009, hoping that I would get a chance to finish the entire book.  These words are a great way to get started.

This section of Isaiah is quite different from the first and itself is divided into three sections, all about the deliverance and restoration of Israel: Chapters 40-48  take us through the deliverance from Babylonian captivity, chapters 49-57 speak of the rejection and the restoration of the Suffering Servant – I can hardly wait to get into those passages, and chapters 58-66 prophesy about God’s final restoration of Israel and the world.  We will also find the Messiah in those chapters.

The first thirty-nine chapters were messages of judgment – on Israel, on the tribes surrounding her and on individuals.  Now, Isaiah turns to words of comfort.  Speak tenderly to Jerusalem – her hard service (also translated as warfare) is finished, her sin has been paid for.

These words were written nearly 100 years before Israel went into Babylonian captivity.  The time is not yet for her to be finished with the battle, but the prophecy Isaiah receives from God is a promise that Israel’s sin will not be punished eternally.  There will be an end and when the end of the punishment comes, tender, loving care will surround her.

While we recognize the next verses as the prophecy regarding John the Baptist, remember that most prophets were speaking not only to the distant future, but to the near future and also to the immediate needs of the people.  The Israelites were in a terrible place spiritually – a desert.  Things were going to get worse before they would get better, but they needed to know the Lord was sovereign and that individually and as a nation, to be able to welcome Him, they needed to prepare themselves – make themselves righteous.

When righteousness reigns on the earth, the Lord’s glory will be revealed.  How do we know this to be true?  The Lord has spoken.  Amen.