Isaiah 40 (click here to read this awesome chapter!)
This is a great chapter, and it includes several verses which are very popular and comforting to Christians (verses 8 and 31).
This chapter marks the beginning of a third major section of Isaiah, which covers chapters 40-55.
We’ve just finished the long haul of answering emphatically that God can be trusted above all, whether that’s a person or a nation.
Now Isaiah turns to the future and is thinking about the time when the people of God will once again persist in their sin and ultimately be defeated and carried off into exile by the Babylonians.
They will naturally have questions regarding their relationship with the Lord: “Are we still God’s people? Will the Lord accept our trust? Will we become the people we are called to be? How are we, a sinful people, to be reconciled to the Lord?”
Chapter 40 begins to answer these questions and has two parts. In the first few verses, God reassures the people of His love for them, speaks of His comfort, and ultimately promises to deliver them. In the second half of the chapter, God speaks of His ability to deliver the people, for there is no one like the Lord. In fact, the nations and their kings are barely a drop in the bucket; they are dust on the scales (vs 15), and the Lord assures the people, telling them to fear not and to wait for Him, for He will deliver; He will come.
Which is where this chapter gets very interesting because this is a double prophecy: one regarding the exile in Babylon and the second regarding God’s ultimate deliverance in Jesus!
Once again, we are hearing the crimson whisper of Jesus in verse 11.
What I love about this chapter is that it talks about a future time when God will act and do something awesome. There is the future deliverance from exile, but the greater deliverance comes through Jesus. Through Jesus’ birth, life, death, and resurrection, God will completely rearrange the landscape.
Isaiah uses some very interesting images to help us comprehend the work that He is doing: paths are made straight, a highway is made, valleys are lifted up, mountains are made low, rough ground becomes level, and rugged terrain is made smooth. Those are all travel images that serve as a reminder that the Lord is with His people, that He is near, and that He is going to ease their burden. This is ultimately expressed in and through the gift of Jesus, in whom we have received grace upon grace, the very presence of God translated to us in the flesh.
Then, because the people wonder how this will all be fulfilled, Isaiah goes on to talk about how great God is and that nothing is beyond His scope and ability.
You and I have the benefit of sitting on the other side of this prophecy and knowing what Jesus has done, but we look forward to something more awesome, the time when Jesus returns.
This morning I am particularly struck by verses 28 and 29. I love the titles given to God in verse 28: everlasting God, Creator of the ends of the earth, who WILL NOT grow tired and cannot be fathomed.
The Lord knows everything about me, every flaw and weakness, and yet the Lord chooses to work through my weaknesses. Then, as if to put an exclamation point on it all, verses 30-31 remind us that for those who wait upon the Lord, the Lord renews and strengthens those who are faint and weary.
We serve a mighty and awesome God who is always present with us. He loves us and has given us His Son Jesus so that we can be reconciled, lifted out of our sin, and given the strength not just to walk, but to run, and to soar.
How do you imagine God wants you to walk, to run, and to soar for Him?
God bless you, and know that you are constantly prayed for.
Scott