ISAIAH - Chapter 40 - The Angelic Voices of Comfort
Isaiah 40 – COMFORT, COMFORT, MY PEOPLE
Tuesday Morning Bible Study
September 9, 2014, the year of Our Lord
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
Isaiah chapters 1-39 told of a world-wide desolation and to our amazement as we preached chapter after chapter, we saw the beginning of the fulfillment of that prophetic end-time desolation. Then these past two summer months we have seen a culmination of world wide chaos.
The good news is chapters 40-66 prophesies of a world-wide restoration!
Chapter 40 deals with the Majesty of Jehovah!
40: 1-2: “Comfort you, comfort you, My people, says your God. Speak comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry to her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned; for she has received of the Lord’s hand double for her sins.”
The message of comfort in the opening of this chapter is the key note of the second part of the Book of Isaiah. The pronouns “My” and “Your” in verse 1 show that God’s people, though deeply affected, are not cast off and disowned.
We rejoice with Israel that for the time being, the bombing has stopped. “Her warfare” for now is accomplished. We do pray and speak comfort to the people of Israel. Yet, the chaos of the world is not limited to Israel. I have heard from Christian missionaries in Europe, Middle East, Asia, India and Sri Lanka how the independent churches are being attacked and many have been closed down.
This is a quote from one of the missionaries. I won’t use his name to protect him.
“Last month a church was attacked twice by mobs of angry Buddhists. They were accused of meeting as an unregistered church (not true), and were forced to close. This sort of thing happens often… Habakkuk questioned how a Holy God could allow evil to prosper. Habakkuk saw cultural rot at home and the threat of invasion from Babylon (Hab. 1). God answers that justice is coming, even if it seems to take a long time. Until then, “…the just will live by his faith” (Hab. 2:4b).”
Here begin the prophecies of the Lord’s peace, which like the prophecies of His Judgment, fall into three sections:
- 40-48: The Prince of Peace.
- 49-57: The Program of Peace
- 58-66: The Purpose of His Peace
Isaiah first utters a word of exclamation: comfort…speak…proclaim…prepare; and then deals successively with the Majesty, Manifesto, Messages, Might, and Mercy of Jehovah.
The call is not to passive resignation, but to positive and wholehearted action.
The primary thought is that of the establishment of peace by the process of righteous judgment.
When one turns from the 39th to the 40th chapter of Isaiah, it is as though he steps out of the darkness of judgment into the light of salvation. The contrast is great, and yet is evident that 39 is a preparation for 40 and even a continuance of chapter 35. There is a time lag of approximately 100 years from the fulfillment of chapter 39 until chapter 40.
It is an accolade again to the glory of prophetic grace given to Isaiah that the Lord chose him and trusted him with this mighty prophesy.
In chapter, 39, Babylon was brought to the fore as the nation that would receive Judah into captivity. (It is to be noted. In the summer of 2014, we are again in war within Iraq). This verse looks forward to the termination of a yet future Babylonian captivity and full emancipation of the whole creation from the bondage and futility of death and corruption.
The suffering of Jerusalem (Israel and the Church) is foreseen as ended with her disobedience fully chastened and her sin forgiven. There is however, a precursor to this promised comfort.
John the Baptist and his message which foreshadows a prophetic ministry in the spirit and power of Elijah in Matthew 3:3:
“For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare you the way of the Lord, make his paths straight”
Isa. 40:3: the voice of him that cries in the wilderness, prepare you the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”
There is a prophetic ministry who comes in the spirit and the power of Elijah. It is a ministry of preparation and restoration. It proclaims one message: repent! Change your mind!
The occasion and fulfillment of this comfort is the revelation of God in Christ as the personal God, Deliverer, King, Rewarder, and Shepherd, Jesus Christ. For the revelation of God in Christ and the restoration of the holy nation (1 Pet. 2: 9-10), and the final establishment of the kingdom of God. The way must first be prepared by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just.
40: 4-5: “Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the crooked shall be made straight and the rough places plain. The glory of Lord shall be revealed, all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.”
This reveals the day of the Lord, which is a Day of overturning and reversals. The evenness of this path speaks of the singleness and the simplicity of the Most Holy Place. In the manifestation and personification of this path (walk life-style) is revealed the Glory of the Lord. This is the realm of living, moving and having our being in the supernatural supply of God.
40:6-8: “The voice said, Cry. And he said, what shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades; because the Spirit of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people is grass. The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God shall stand forever.”
The incomparable might of God is emphasized by comparing man’s temporary existence with the eternal Word of God. In these verses of the Voices of Comfort, some of the sentences are the utterances of angels, crying to Isaiah, or to each other, in exultation over the wondrous things in store for God’s people in the New Covenant.
Flesh is grass -= the vigor, wisdom and health of man is feeble, weak, and easily consumed.
40:9-11: “O Zion, that brings good tidings, get up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that brings good tidings, lift up your voice with strength; lift it up, do not be afraid; say to the cities of Judah, Behold your God! Behold, the Lord God will come with a strong hand, and His arm shall rule for Him; behold, His reward is with Him; and His work before Him.”
Behold your God full of might and majesty. The Lord God (the Adnonai Jehovah---the divine incommunicable Name)...
To Christ all power has been committed. He is “the arm of God”, the man at Jehovah’s right hand, the Son of Man whom he has made strong from Himself. His name is “Immanuel, God with us.” “Behold his reward is with Him, and the recompense of His work before Him.” “Behold I come quickly! And my reward is with me”. (Rev. 22:12).
Head – His wisdom – He is too wise to make a mistake!
Hand – His power –He is too powerful to fail!
Heart – His love – He loves me too much to hurt me!
40: 12-17: “Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being His counselor has taught Him? With whom took He counsel, and who instructed Him, and taught Him in the path of judgment, and taught Him knowledge, and showed to Him the way of understanding? Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance; behold, He takes up the isles as a very little thing. Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burned offering. All nations before Him are as nothing; and they are counted to Him less than nothing, and vanity.”
It is God’s might and power which is emphasized. The exiles in Babylon needed to be reminded that their God was omnipotent, yet his might did not alienate Him from His own people who were His prized possession. It is evident from the tone and question; the people were not automatically inclined to this level of faith. We, who are children of the light, can speak and declare these same verses to all the spirits of anti-Christ who are creating chaos in the kingdom of darkness in the 21st century.
This reminds the exiles then and the peoples of the earth now that Yahweh is Creator and sustainer of the universe. No human or superhuman, and certainly no Babylonian god had stood beside Him when He created the universe and set human history on its course. The Creator God stands incomparable far above the mightiest created phenomenon. Lebanon, the mightiest nations, and even mighty Babylon is nothing before him.
40: 19-20: “The workman melts a graven image, and the goldsmith spreads it over with gold, and casts silver chains. He that is so impoverished that he has no oblation chooses a tree that will not rot; he seeks to him a cunning workman to prepare a graven image, that shall not be moved.”
The man who is void of worship will always choose the wrong tree! Christ with his finished on the tree is the image of God; any other image is antichrist.
40: 21-28: “Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is He that sits upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretches out the heavens as a curtain, and spreads them out as a tent to dwell in; that brings the princes to nothing; He makes the judges of the earth as vanity. Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown; yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth; and he shall also blow upon them and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble. To whom then will you liken Me, or shall I be equal? Says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who has created these things, that brings out their host by number; He calls them all by names by the greatness of His might, for that He is strong in power; not one fails. Why say you, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God? Have you not known? Have you not heard that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, faints not, neither is weary? There is no searching of His understanding.”
The prophet views the nation in the Babylonian captivity as discouraged and complaining that God, no longer is caring for them; had no regard for their sufferings and so forsook them. God overheard their complaint without the people being aware of it. Then in verse 28, God directs their attention to His eternity, sovereignty, omnipotence and omniscience.
“If such be your God, O afflicted soul, where is there room for misgiving and despair?”
Yet his people in every age of the world, like the captive Jews in Babylon, been tempted at times to give way to doubt and despondency. They imagine they are God-forsaken, given over to desertion and abandonment. Who amongst us have not at times given way to such unworthy distrust of the equity and righteousness of the divine dealings?
Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, says your God.
He asks, “Why O Jacob, O Israel”, you who have tasted my covenant mercies, my chosen ones, my adopted children, why harbor unworthy surmises as to my fidelity to my promises? How can you suppose that you are unloved; left as wandering planets, to drift away in uncontrolled orbits; or, as wandering sheep, unwatched and untended by the Shepherd who gave His life for you? As every star in these mighty galaxies has its appointed pathway, and walks the firmament in obedience to divine and determinant law, so have I in my hands and under my control all the beloved.
40: 29-31: “He gives power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall; but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”
The truth that Divine enabling will be give to those who wait upon the Lord. They will rise with the strength of eagles’ wings above the stresses and distresses of life. They will remain in the race for the prize of the high calling. They will continue their walk in the monotony of the mundane things of daily life, which is a walk before God in sanctification. They will walk in obedience with God in fellowship and fellowship of the brethren. His grace is sufficient.
We walk in the outer court. We run in the Holy Place. We mount up into the heavenlies in the Most Holy Place.
The study of the Eagle is a study unto itself. This bird is a symbol of power and courage. There are two classes of eagles: the lesser eagles, with a wingspan of 7 feet ---one who has seen the vision; and the greater eagles, with a wingspan of 14 feet ---one who possesses the vision.
Eagles nest in the heavenlies. They have binocular vision. Both Isa. 40:31 and Psa. 103:5 use the word “renew” in relation to the life of the eagle. This renewing process takes place every seven years for a period of forty days.
First there is a separation into a high mountain. The eagle plucks out his old feathers, exposing old wounds and scars to be healed. He bathes in the cascading waterfall in the cave of the mountain. The eagle eats only wild honey during this renewing period. The beak that was once sharp is now covered with crusty formations. The eagle grinds his beak between two rocks so that he can eat again. As his feathers begin to grow back in place, the oil glands under the wings are reactivated.
The flight of the eagle is effortless. The eagle allows the wind (Holy Ghost) to do the job. The eagle will wait for the right wind current and lock his wings to soar. These turbulent winds cause the eagle to fly higher, give the eagle a larger view of the earth, lift the eagle above harassment, allow the eagle to use less effort, allow the eagle to stay up longer, and help the eagle to fly faster. The principle of life and immortality is locked up within these verses and thoughts. (Taken from a message by Michael Smith entitled “Spiritual Old Age”)
Taught by: Pastor Carolyn Sissom
Eastgate Ministries Church
Scripture from K.J.V.
I entered into the labors of Principles of Present Truth by: Kelly Varner; F. F. Bruce Bible Commentary, David F. Payne; Comfort Ye, Comfort Ye, by: John Ross MacDuff, public domain; Spiritual Old Age, Michael Smith.