Today we start a new division in Isaiah. Chapters 1 through 39 were of the judgement and government of God. Really the method of how God judged his rebellious people and what he expected of them in their day to day life. From here on out, Isaiah will speak of the Grace of God. Judgement will not be spoken of, for a while at least. Salvation will be the new message. The earlier chapters had the revelation of the Sovereign on the throne, these coming chapters reveal the Savior in the place of suffering.
We have in chapter 40 a message of Comfort from God. I know that because it is listed at the top of the chapter in my NIV Bible. I’d say that is a welcome change from the continuous smiting His people required in previous chapters.
This is such a change from what had been written before that this is where critics come in and say “Hang on, this is so different that we must have two Isaiahs here. Of course, two Isaiahs, two prophets of God, in pretty much the same time and space. What we have here are men whose hearts are not aligned with God and put much trust in their own ability to reason things out. The Bible is the written word of God. His thoughts put down through his messengers. Yes, we are all sinful people, prone to pride and conceit. But when the Holy Spirit is upon you, guiding your thoughts and what gets put down on paper or papyrus as the case may be, he is the author, not the scribe. You are short changing God when you start arguing about what the Bible says. When you have more faith in yourself than you do in God, this is what happens.
Oh, I am sure they had and have good intentions for their arguments. We always have good intentions when we are sinning. But that is what the vile deceiver does. A whisper here, a nudge there, pretty soon you think that you have the perfect explanation of how the Bible is wrong. But if you’d actually read the Bible, you would find scripture verses such as my favorite one here:
Revelation 22:18-19
I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.
That should cure you of any notion of tampering with the message, don’t you think? Possibly, you argue, but it’s very near the end of the Book, so maybe they didn’t get that far. Well, there’s your problem, you’re doing it wrong. Read the whole Bible before forming opinions and then ask God for understanding. You can find many dozens, and I do mean many dozens of warnings about changing God’s words.
Getting back to Isaiah, God decided to now focus on Grace and Salvation after covering Judgement and Government. You always eat your meat and potatoes before you get your dessert. Everything God does makes sense, is not complicated and because we don’t understand it does not mean God is wrong. So no, God did not change messengers, just the message. I run into this all the time in doing research. These boys can’t agree on the color of the sky, yet they know better than God in regards to what He has said. The hubris of Man. I could go on, but let’s not, and get back to Isaiah 40.
We are going to find in this section of Isaiah that God is revealed as Creator, as Savior and as Sustainer and he will not be the great unknown to his people. He will be a very personal God, very much of a reality for His people.
The Bible is to be used to know God and how he wants us to live. And how he wants us to live is through Jesus. I ask, ironically, how hard is that? To live through Jesus, to accept Christ as Lord and Savior, to confess your sins and to not simply go to Church each week, wearing a hole in that cushion you always sit on, because you always sit in the same spot. Listen to the sermon and go home to watch some trashy TV, listen to the same garbage on the radio and basically not show that you are of Christ. Having the Holy Spirit indwell you is supposed to show. People are supposed to notice that you are of God. And if they don’t notice, there very likely could come a day when the Lord says, as in Matthew 7:23 “And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity”.
Let’s use Isaiah himself as an example of how a Godly man should look. Early in his life as a prophet, he walked around in the buff for a good long while. A clue perhaps? Yes, you say, but people walk around like that in San Francisco and the citizens of the town hardly bat an eye. I counter with “the whole town burned down once and nobody seems to have gotten the message.” Sodom of the West Coast I call it. And let’s not forget the San Andreas fault. God has said that earthquakes are going to be a major sign of the end times, so their day of atonement is coming. But let’s move on and determine what else would make Isaiah stand out as a man of God. Unruly beard and fiery eyes? Maybe, but we all tend to grow a bit of fur on our faces now and then (as I pull on my own fury chin). How about the absolute assurance in the way he spoke of God and his prophecies. The not caring of the consequences of his words or actions. How he spoke, “Hear the word of the Lord Almighty…”
I think you could tell he was a mighty man of God. The point being it is up to us to do more than just go to Church, to show that we belong to Jesus. To do his good works.
Matthew 7:16-20
You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them.
Lets go to Isaiah 40 and see how God brings comfort to his people.
1 Comfort, comfort my people,
says your God.
2 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.
Since the last chapter told of impending doom of the Kingdom of Judah and its captivity, this now is a promise for the restoration of the Kingdom and the return of the people from Babylonian captivity.
3 A voice of one calling:
“In the wilderness prepare
the way for the Lord;
make straight in the desert
a highway for our God.
A clear reference to John the Baptist, “A voice crieth, In the wilderness, prepare ye the way of Jehovah.”
4 Every valley shall be raised up,
every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
the rugged places plain.
John’s duty was to bring back the people to obedience to the law and to remove all self-confidence, pride in national privileges, hypocrisy, and irreligion, so that they should be ready for His coming. Level the road, so to speak.
5 And the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
and all people will see it together.
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
Probably not the context that is being referred to here, but this is what came to my mind:
Revelation 1:7
“Look, he is coming with the clouds,”
and “every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him”;
and all peoples on earth “will mourn because of him.”
So shall it be! Amen.
6 A voice says, “Cry out.”
And I said, “What shall I cry?”
“All people are like grass,
and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field.
Again not in the context of this verse but we find this in:
Isaiah 6:8-10
8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”
And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”
9 He said, “Go and tell this people:
“‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding;
be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’
10 Make the heart of this people calloused;
make their ears dull
and close their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts,
and turn and be healed.”
7 The grass withers and the flowers fall,
because the breath of the Lord blows on them.
Surely the people are grass.
8 The grass withers and the flowers fall,
but the word of our God endures forever.”
Yes, we are grass and weeds along with a few flowers, here and there.
If God were to take an interest in how we as a people are behaving, I mean in the way that He did to the people Moses brought out of Egypt. Would we as a nation not wither???
Not saying that he does not take an interest in us. I would not be here right now if He had not taken an interest in me. And that interest in me, not that I am anything special at all, that interest started back when the stars were not yet formed. It is the same for all of us. As it was for them. They had access to God, maybe more so than we do now. We no longer have prophets to tell us what God says. I am not counting the unruly bearded types on the street corner with cardboard signs speaking of Doom.
What we do have is the Bible. What is clear to me in reading this passage in Isaiah is not really talking to his people of that day. Most of what is said in this chapter is for us. You may shake your head at that, but how could his people who were already judged by God to be carried off into captivity, how could they feel they were benefiting from what he was saying? I think it would be “That’s nice and all, but what about the here and now?” No I believe this chapter and beyond is for us. How could it not be? We are so easily swayed by all the distractions of our modern life. The devil is very busy because we have such small attention spans. And that is by design, don’t you think? We used to have an oral tradition, and with it, memories that would contain all that was said. Now, with the influence of the serpent, education is no longer valuing rote repetition of what you need to memorize and strengthening your brain. My wife and I worked in education and when I talked to educators about old ways of teaching versus new, they would just shake their heads at me, the poor fool that did not buy into the baloney that is being served out. No, most people, kids especially with their phones and internet, we are no better than terrestrial goldfish. And whose idea was that? Did God want us to be stupid, not being able to remember His written word? Nope. He loves us and wants us to do well. Why did he send his only begotten Son down here to die on a cross, for our sins, if he did not love us? This is the work of satan who has dominion over this world. We are in a battle that most people have not one clue about. A spiritual battle of dark forces. It is talked about in this:
Daniel 10:13
But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia.
Who was this prince of the Persian Kingdom? A very high powered demon of satan. If an angel of God has to struggle against a demon of satan, that’s something to think about. Nothing has changed. There is probably a prince of satan over every major city. That would certainly explain San Francisco. We need to take this seriously and use the armor of God. That is found in Ephesians 6:10-18. Read that often.
Let us read the rest of Isaiah Chapter 40 together.
9 You who bring good news to Zion,
go up on a high mountain.
You who bring good news to Jerusalem,
lift up your voice with a shout,
lift it up, do not be afraid;
say to the towns of Judah,
“Here is your God!”
10 See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power,
and he rules with a mighty arm.
See, his reward is with him,
and his recompense accompanies him.
11 He tends his flock like a shepherd:
He gathers the lambs in his arms
and carries them close to his heart;
he gently leads those that have young.
12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand,
or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens?
Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket,
or weighed the mountains on the scales
and the hills in a balance?
13 Who can fathom the Spirit of the Lord,
or instruct the Lord as his counselor?
14 Whom did the Lord consult to enlighten him,
and who taught him the right way?
Who was it that taught him knowledge,
or showed him the path of understanding?
15 Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket;
they are regarded as dust on the scales;
he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust.
16 Lebanon is not sufficient for altar fires,
nor its animals enough for burnt offerings.
17 Before him all the nations are as nothing;
they are regarded by him as worthless
and less than nothing.
18 With whom, then, will you compare God?
To what image will you liken him?
19 As for an idol, a metalworker casts it,
and a goldsmith overlays it with gold
and fashions silver chains for it.
20 A person too poor to present such an offering
selects wood that will not rot;
they look for a skilled worker
to set up an idol that will not topple.
21 Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood since the earth was founded?
22 He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth,
and its people are like grasshoppers.
He stretches out the heavens like a canopy,
and spreads them out like a tent to live in.
23 He brings princes to naught
and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.
24 No sooner are they planted,
no sooner are they sown,
no sooner do they take root in the ground,
than he blows on them and they wither,
and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.
25 “To whom will you compare me?
Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One.
26 Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens:
Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one
and calls forth each of them by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength,
not one of them is missing.
27 Why do you complain, Jacob?
Why do you say, Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord;
my cause is disregarded by my God”?
28 Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
29 He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
30 Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
31 but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
A poetic and beautiful piece of scripture of God’s comfort for His People, of which we are. Much of what Isaiah says in his many chapters is not easily known to us. The places I go for commentary mention that quite a bit. All we can do is ask God for understanding and have Faith that he has a loving interest in every one of us.
Now for a change of venue, Ronda asked us to take a look at Mark 13:24-27. Mostly because she wants our take on why her son thinks he’s a post tribber. Let’s go there and read
Mark 13:24-27
24 “But in those days, following that distress,
“‘the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light;
25 the stars will fall from the sky,
and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’
26 “At that time people will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory.
27 And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens.
My take is I don’t know. I am pretty sure that we are going to be snatched away in a twinkling:
1 Thessalonians 4:16-18
16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.
Also, the Jews are still very important to God and I am thinking that will determine the how and when of things. Beyond that, the Lord has not blessed me with understanding, and that is just fine. Some things we just won’t know, we just have to believe.
Let us finish with this scripture.
Romans 8:14-17
For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.