ISAIAH 40: 1-2 [ADVENT I SERIES PART I]
THE CREATOR COMFORTS
[Psalm 23]
How majestic is the second part of the Book of Isaiah! The new section opens by stirring the people of God with the promise and hope of redemption and restoration. The Prophet begins with the sharp contrast between the failure of the past and the hope of the future. Israel is to be comforted in the assurance that her trial has ended, and her sin has been purged. What great news!
This Good News must be announced [and a herald and forerunner of the coming King has been called upon to express God’s ultimate hope]. Though humanity continues to pass away, there is hope for something eternal. That hope is the Word of God which not only will be fulfilled but will stand forever. That Word of God here is the comfort and restoration based on atonement and forgiveness provided when the Glory of the Lord is revealed.
The way will be prepared, and God will come. Frail humanity will be visited by the God who will indwell His people. We are told to proclaim the glad tidings with the strong voice of gladness and certainty.
For the third time in his prophecies, Isaiah takes us into the courts of heaven where God speaks and angels sing. Isaiah’s third vision of the Lord in His heavenly court results in a report that is all sound and no sight. Without identifying the voices, the prophet hears the heralds of heaven speak the Word of God that will become his message. Although the content of the message of the four voices may differ, the tone is the same. Rather than crying out judgment against His rebellious children, God is speaking words of comfort for His hurting children in exile.
This first Sunday in advent we will look at: A VOICE or WORD OF COMFORT, found in verses 1 & 2 of Isaiah 40.
The recurring themes of the ensuing chapters are the fact and the ¬means of restoration. The first two verses dramatically set the tone of the next 27 chapters. The opening words are an assurance that all is paid, all is forgiven. “Comfort, O comfort My people,” says your God.
Without any transition or preparation, the repeated imperatives strike the hearer with sudden intensity. The future scene depicted is in Babylon near the close of the captivity. The ground of comfort is the speedy ending of the captivity because the Lord Himself is their redeemer. Comfort to you, comfort to you is repeated twice to give double assurance. The double use of the word comfort reinforces the depth of feeling in the heart of God. From the deepest reaches of His being, He sets the new tone for His people. In their distress they will be comforted, and in their future history they will be restored. Quite a contrast with the first introduction in chapter 1 when God spoke as a wounded father whose children had rebelled against His love. Now He speaks as a lover wooing a bride. Having previously announced the coming captivity of the Jews in Babylon, God now desires His servant (Is 52:7), to voice His comfort to them.
Comfort is the wonderfully tender word given to those who return to God. They speak of the compassion expressed to someone who is grieving over the death of a family member (Gen. 24:67; 37:35; 2 Sam. 10:2; Jer. 16:7). God is the God of All Comfort (2 Cor. 1:4). Whatever may lie ahead for the people of God, His ultimate purpose for us is not destruction but redemption, not death but life.
Furthermore, these are the words spoken, with the tenderness of a lover, to My people. God addresses the children of Judah as “My people” and acknowledges His relationship to them as “Your God.” What a world of yearning love there is in the two little words ‘My’ and ‘your’! The rebellious are still His; He who has hidden His face from them for so long is still theirs. And what was true for them is true for us. Sin may separate us from God, but it does not separate Him from us, for He formed an imperishable bond with us, which is the ground of our comfort. Without question this is the language of the covenant (Ex. 6:7; 19:5; Lev. 26:12; Deut. 26:17-18; etc.).
All questions about God forgetting or abandoning His people are answered. The covenant that He established with their father Abraham and continued through David is still intact. The tone of covenant love will pervade chapters 40–66 as the contrast to the pervasive tone of judgment in chapters 1–39. [McKenna, D., & Ogilvie, L. J. (1994). Isaiah 40–66 (Vol. 18, p. 26). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc.]
In verse 2 the prophet begins to respond to the command of God to bring a message of comfort to His people. “Speak kindly to Jerusalem; And call out to her, that her warfare has ended, That her iniquity has been removed, That she has received of the LORD’S hand Double for all her sins.”
This tone of kindness and gentleness is also unveiled and reinforced in the permanence of His relationship of love even to sinful and punished men. Jerusalem is addressed for God’s saving deeds in Babylon were to make possible a new Jerusalem that would emerge from the ashes of the old. Jerusalem though then in ruins, is regarded by God as about to be rebuilt. It is her people that are chiefly meant, as the city is being personified.
Please note the tender manner of His voice to us, and the prescribe tone for all His servants: ‘Speak kindly to Jerusalem,’ with passionate words, which may win His people’s love. To speak to someone's heart [lit. translation] is to speak appealingly, encouragingly. [The encouragement might be admonishing (2 Chr. 30:22) or affectionate (Gen. 34:3; 50:21; Ruth 2:13), or even congratulatory (2 Sam. 19:7-8), but in all cases] its purpose is to move someone who might be paralyzed by circumstances to take heart and believe. [The lover of their soul has not cast them off. However serious His anger with them may have been, they have every reason to continue to believe in His love (12:1; 40:27-31; 49:14-18; 51:3).]
[Is she not the bride of Christ, fallen though she be? Are not Jerusalem’s people the beloved of Jesus who unveiled the heart of God to us that our hearts might be won? How shall human voices be softened to tenderness worthy of the message which they should carry? Only by dwelling near enough to Him to catch the compassion and love ministered by His voice, by the compassion, find, merciful voice of God our Savior.]
It is as if the prophet says, "Alright, so much for the past. It's all true, but it's not all there is to the truth. Don't forget that the sin which brought about the long, hard service [The hard service, of course, is the Babylonian exile.] it is forgiven, and, more wonderful and gracious still, God’s mercy regards that the repercussions which came from their unfaithfulness have more than purged it. Israel has suffered immensely for her sins, but now it is complete; she need fear nothing more from God's hand.
The captivity may be in the foreground of the prophet’s vision; but the wider sense of the prophecy embraces the worse captivity of sin under which we all groan, and the divine voice bids His prophets proclaim that YAHWEH comes, to set us all free, to end the weary bondage, and the repercussions of our sins.
IN CLOSING
God calls them “my people and Himself “your God” (Je 31:33; Ho 1:9, 10). It is God’s covenant relation with His people, and His “word” of promise (Is 40:8) to their forefathers, which is the ground of His intervention on their behalf, after their time of correction (Is 54:8) in Babylon.
The proclamation of God’s forgiveness and love to us is also based on our covenant relationship with Yahweh our God. We too have received the promise of God’s eternal love by acknowledging and receiving Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. We have been forgiven and redeemed from all our rebellion and sin, pass, present and future, by the shed blood of the cross. We have a home in God’s New Jerusalem because we have been united with Jesus through a new covenant of spirit and grace.
This Advent season hear and receive the loving words the Father speaks to you His redeemed who await His coming. Be comforted in all the difficulties of this fallen existence. There is a better future, a paradise that awaits you in the New Heaven and the New Earth, the land promised to God’s new covenant people.
Dear Heavenly Father, help me to hear Your voice & receive Your comfort. Touch me yet again. Give me the courage to respond to Your love. Give me courage to choose Your joy. May this holiday season be filled with the Light of the World instead of darkness of this world. Please help me discard my mask and be real before You as well as my family and friends. Father, help me make this holiday season an offering of praise to You. In Jesus’ precious name we pray.
