Comforting God’s People

COMFORTING GOD’S PEOPLE (December 6, 2020)

Text: Isaiah 40: 1 - 11

Isaiah 40:1 -11: Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. 2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. 3 A voice cries out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,  make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 4 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. 5 Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” 6 A voice says, “Cry out!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” All people are grass, their constancy is like the flower of the field. 7 The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people are grass. 8 The grass withers, the flower fades;  but the word of our God will stand forever. 9 Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings; lift up your voice with strength,  O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, do not fear; say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!” 10 See, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him; his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. 11 He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep.

“A little boy was smarting after being punished by his father. Shortly afterward, he knelt beside his bed to say his prayers, which ended with the usual blessings for all the family but one. Then he turned to his father and said. “ I suppose that you noticed that you weren’t in it.” (Michael E. Hodgin. ed. 1002 Humorous Illustrations. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004, p. 297). Are we like that with God sometimes? Do things ever go as they should when we slight God or leave God out of the picture?

Today’s text echoes what we see throughout scripture about how the Lord disciplines His children. God disciplines us because He loves us. We also see how God wants to gives us His comfort!

Today’s text provides us with three pictures--- punishment, preparation and providence.

PUNISHMENT

Remember the story about the boy who left his earthly father out of his prayer? He did that because he was mad at his father for the punishment he received. How many get mad at God our Heavenly Father for the punishment that we received?

1) Nearsighted: Have often have we misunderstood because we are nearsighted? Hebrews 12:6  tells us For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”  Without discipline we would be illegitimate children (Hebrews 12:8 ESV).

2) Perfecting vision: An earthly father’s vision for his children is to raise them with the foresight of what they need now and how it will shape their future. Proverbs 22:6 tells us “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it”.

3) Perfect vision: Our Heavenly Father’s vision is absolute because God is all-knowing. God knows the mistakes we will make even before we will make them.   2 Corinthians 1:3 says  ”Let us give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the merciful Father, the God from whom all help comes!” (GNB).

Does the second verse suggest that God punished them too much? Let’s answer that question with another passage of scripture.

1) Biblical answer: Psalm 130:3  LORD, if you were to record iniquities, Lord, who could remain standing?  (KJV). Here we are told that the “Jerusalem has paid the price for their sin as someone (Edward Hindson) explains in a historical way: saying that they “ suffered [both] the devastation of their land and their deportation to Babylon.” (The Complete Bible Commentary. (Edward Hindson. “Isaiah”. Nashville, Thomas Nelson, Inc., 1999, p. 816)... They were guilty of disobedience, defilement, idolatry of God’s inheritance--God’s land (Jeremiah 16:18 GNB paraphrased).

2) Reaping and sowing: They had reaped what they had sown.

PREPARATION

Why is clearing the Lord’s way in the desert so important (verse 3)?

1) Road work: Could it be that the prophet Isaiah was talking about obstacles that would obstruct travel? Could those obstacles be both literal and spiritual? Could those obstacles be within our hearts? If this were a multiple choice question on a test would the answer be …

a)obstacles,

b)literal or spiritual

c)obstacles within or

d)all of the above?

2) Men not working: In the New Testament, in all of the Gospels John the Baptizer uses words saying, “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight paths for Him” (Mark 1:3 NIV). That preparation involves genuine confession, repentance and bearing fruit in keeping with repentance (Matthew 3:8).