PART TWO

ISAIAH – CHAPTER 40

COMFORT FOR THOSE WHO TRUST

Vs. 1-2: A MESSAGE FOR THE HEART

1. No people on earth have endured such age-lasting experience of sorrow, suffering, affliction and grief as that endured by Israel -the people whom God called and established in a relationship of covenant-fellowship with Himself at Mt Sinai. Their sufferings have come as a direct fruit of their despicable rebellion and sin, (Lev 26:43-45; Isa 59:1-2).

2. This prophecy is designed to comfort, console, strengthen and set at peace the hearts of God’s people in the midst of their deepest grief, (Isa 66:13; Isa 35:4). It is a message of hope. The Lord will not forever deal with them in judgment because of the wretchedness of their sins. Provision will be made whereby He can righteously redeem (Isa 51:11), forgive, cleanse, appropriately clothe and restore them to the blessedness of fellowship with Himself. He so blesses them that they may BE A BLESSING! (2Co 1:4).

3. The heart of Zion is to be comforted by the proclamation of a two-fold blessing.

a. Her warfare is accomplished (her judgment taken away); it is finished, completed, OVER! (Zep 3:14-17; Isa 41:11-13; Isa 49:25; Isa 54:15). The despicable attitude of high-mindedness and rebellion, which brought upon her the reproach of men and wrath of God, has finally been crushed! Now, she may live at peace – with herself, with God, and with her fellow-men!

b. Her iniquity is pardoned (Isa 33:24; Isa 53:5-6; Isa 53:11; Jer 50:20) -forgiven, blotted out, cast behind God’s back, forgotten and cleansed from the divine record!

4. The statement that “she hath received of the LORD’S hand double for all her sins” is NOT an assertion that her punishment has already been twice what she deserved! Rather, it is a reiteration of the two-fold blessing that God has provided IN SPITE OF HER SIN! The idea is beautifully expressed in one of our grandest old hymns, written by Augustus Toplady, (“Rock of Ages”):

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,

Let me hide myself in Thee,

Let the water and the blood,

From thy wounded side which flowed, Be of sin THE DOUBLE CURE.

1) Save from wrath

2) And make me pure.

And this is exactly what the Lord has done for those who trust in Him!

In reality, Isaiah is summoning the people of Israel to renewed service; and the service of the King always involves suffering. Far more significant than its being a “penalty” for sin, suffering is the very instrument through which the servant-task will be accomplished. And Isaiah is calling his people to something greater than themselves. Through their very suffering they become, in the divine plan, instruments of redemption – a blessing to all nations, as God has purposed to work through Abraham.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

1. Comfort ye. The Prophet introduces a new subject; for, leaving the people on whom no favorable impression was made either by threatenings or by admonitions, on account of their desperate wickedness, he turns to posterity, in order to declare that the people who shall be humbled under the cross will experience no want of consolation even amidst the severest distresses. And it is probable that he wrote this prophecy when the time of the captivity was at hand, that he might not at his departure from life leave the Church of God overwhehned by very grievous calamities, without the hope of restoration. Though he formerly mingled his predictions with threatenings and terrors for this purpose, yet he appears to have contemplated chiefly the benefit of those who lived at that time. What will afterwards follow will relate to the future Church, the revival of which was effected long after his death; for he will next lay down a perpetual doctrine, which must not be limited to a single period, and especially when he treats of the commencement and progress of the reign of Christ. And this prophecy must be of so much the greater importance to us, because it addresses us in direct terms; for, although it may be a spiritual application of what goes before, so as to be doctrine that is common both to the Jews and to us, yet, as he leaves the Jews of that age, and addresses posterity down to the end of the world, it appears to belong more especially to us.

By this exhortation, therefore, the Lord intended to stir up the hearts of the godly, that they might not faint, amidst heavy calamities. First, he addresses the Jews, who were soon after to be carried into that hard captivity in which they should have neither sacrifices nor prophets, and would have been destitute of all consolation, had not the Lord relieved their miseries by these predictions. Next, he addresses all the godly that should live afterwards, or that shall yet live, to encourage their heart, even when they shall appear to be reduced very low and to be utterly ruined.

That this discourse might have greater weight, and might mere powerfully affect their minds, he represents God as raising up new prophets, whom he enjoins to soothe the sorrows of the people by friendly consolation. The general meaning is, that, when he shall have appeared to have forsaken for a time the wretched captives, the testimony of his grace will again burst forth from the darkness, and that, when gladdening prophecies shall have ceased, their proper time will come round. In order to exhibit more strongly the ground of joy, he makes use of the plural number, Comfort ye; by which he intimates that he will send not one or another, but a vast multitude of prophets; and this he actually accomplished, by which we see more clearly his infinite goodness and mercy.

Will say. First, it ought to be observed that the verb is in the future tense; and those commentators who render it in the present or past tense both change the words and spoil the meaning. Indircetly he points out an intermediate period, during which the people would be heavily afflicted, as if God had been silent. (104) Though even at that time God did not cease to hold out the hope of salvation by some prophets, yet, having for a long period cast them off, when they were wretchedly distressed and almost ruined, the consolation was less abundant, till it was pointed out, as it were with the finger, that they were at liberty to return. On this account the word comfort must be viewed as relating to a present favor; and the repetition of the word not only confirms the certainty of the prediction, but applauds its power and success, as if he had said, that in this message there will be abundant, full, and unceasing cause of joy.

Above all, we must hold by the future tense of this verb, because there is an implied contrast between that melancholy silence of which I have spoken, and the doctrine of consolation which afterwards followed. And with this prediction agrees the complaint of the Church,

“

We do not see our signs; there is no longer among us a prophet or any one that knows how long.” (Psa 74:9.)

We see how she laments that she has been deprived of the best kind of comfort, because no promise is brought forward for soothing her distresses. It is as if the Prophet bad said, “The Lord will not suffer you to be deprived of prophets, to comfort you amidst your severest distresses. At that time he will raise up men by whom he will send to you the message that had been long desired, and at that time also he will show that he takes care of you.”

I consider the future tense, will say, as relating not only to the captivity in Babylon, but to the whole period of deliverance, which includes the reign of Christ. (105) To the verb will say, we must supply “to the prophets,” whom he will appoint for that purpose; for in vain would they have spoken, if the Lord had not told them, and even put into their mouth what they should make known to others. Thus there is a mutual relation between God and the prophets,” whom he will appoint for that purpose; for in vain would they have spoken, if the Lord had not told them and even put into their mouth what they should make known to others. Thus there is a mutual relation between God and the prophets. In a word, the Lord promises that the hope of salvation will be left, although the ingratitude of men deserves that this voice shall be perpetually silenced and altogether extinguished.

These words, I have said, ought not to be limited to the captivity in Babylon; for they have a very extensive meaning, and include the doctrine of the gospel, in which chiefly lies the power of “comforting.” To the gospel it belongs to comfort those who are distressed and cast down, to quicken those who are slain and actually dead, to cheer the mourners, and, in short, to bring all joy and gladness; and this is also the reason why it is called “the Gospel,” that is, good news, (106) Nor did it begin at the time when Christ appeared in the world, but long before, since the time when God’s favor was clearly revealed, and Daniel might be said to have first raised his banner, that believers might hold themselves in readiness for returning. (Dan 9:2.) Afterwards, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, Nehemiah, Ezra, and others, down to the coming of Christ, exhorted believers to cherish better and better hopes. Malachi, the last of them that wrote, knowing that there would be few prophets, sends the people to the law of Moses, to learn from it the will of God and its threatenings and promises. (Mal 4:4.)

Your God. From this passage we learn what we ought chiefly to seek in the prophets, namely, to encourage the hopes of godly persons by exhibiting the sweetness of divine grace, that they may not faint under the weight of afflictions, but may boldly persevere in calling on God. But since it was difficult to be believed, he reminds them of the covenant; as if he had said that it was impossible for God ever to forget what he formerly promised to Abraham. (Gen 17:7.) Although, therefore, the Jews by their sins had fallen from grace, yet he affirms that he is their God, and that they are his peculiar people, both of which depended on election; but, as even in that nation there were many reprobates, the statement implies that to believers only is this discourse strictly directed; because he silently permits unbelievers, through constant languishment, to be utterly wasted and destroyed. But to believers there is held out an invaluable comfort, that, although for a time they are oppressed by grief and mourning, yet because they hope in God, who is the Father of consolation, they shall know by experience that the promises of grace, like a hidden treasure, are laid up for them, to cheer their hearts at the proper time. This is also a very high commendation of the prophetic office, that it supports believers in adversity, that they may not faint or be discouraged; and, on the other hand, this passage shews that it is a very terrible display of God’s vengeance when there are no faithful teachers, from whose mouth may be heard in the Church of God the consolation that is fitted to raise up those who are cast down, and to strengthen the feeble.

(104) “ Comme si Dieu n’en cust rien veu.” “As if God had not at all seen it.”

(105) “ Qui comprend en soy le regne de Christ jusqu’ a la fin du monde.” “Which includes the reign of Christ till the end of the world.”

(106) Evangile, c’est a dire Bonne nouvelle.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

THE LORDS PEOPLE COMFORTED

Isa. 40:1. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.

I. God has a people in the world. In one sense, all whom the Lord designs to create anew by His Holy Spirit, and who, though at present afar off, will at length be brought nigh unto Him, are His people (Act. 18:10). But these are not the persons referred to in our text, for they cannot at present be known or addressed as Gods people; neither at present are they capable of being comforted, according to the direction here given. The people to whom the text refers are those who have fled to Christ for refuge from the wrath to come, and who are earnestly desiring to walk in newness of life.

II. It is the will of God that His people should enjoy the comforts of religion. The very nature of the religion He has given is to inspire comfort, as it is the very nature of the sun to diffuse light and heat. If His people are sorrowful or dejected, it is not because of their religion, but because they have too little religion, or because they do not know how to use the religion which they have. But it is desirable that they should be comforted

1. For their own sakes. While they lack peace and joy they can never be as diligent as they ought to be in the duties of religion (H. E. I. 306308).

2. For the honour of religion. The despondency and gloom of professors affords a handle to those who speak evil of the Christian life, and misrepresent it as a life of melancholy (H. E. I. 756762). For these reasons Gods people should lay aside all unreasonable fears, and preachers of the Gospel should consider it an essential part of their office to minister to the people of God that consolation which belongs to them, and which they are capable of receiving. Comfort ye, &c.

III. Let us examine a few of the most common causes of that want of comfort of which Gods people frequently complain.

1. Their misunderstanding the nature and extent of that pardon of sin which the Gospel provides. Reclaimed from a worldly course, the recollection of their former sins is very painful to them. It often overspreads their minds like a thick cloud, and fills them with darkness and alarm. They are not indeed without a hope that they shall obtain forgiveness at last for Christs sake; but still they ask themselves, What if God should not pardon me at last? (H. E. I. 1268). But God does not offer to pardon you at some distant day. He offers, in the Gospel, to forgive you now; nay, He tells you, that if you have in your heart come to Christ and believed in Him, your sins are already forgiven (Rom. 8:1; Luk. 7:47; Col. 2:13; 1Jn. 2:12; Isa. 44:22). The pardon vouchsafed is a present pardon (H. E. I. 23322339). When the prodigal returned to his fathers house a penitent, were not his offences fully and instantly forgiven and his self-reproaches stopped? Was he told, amid all the pleasures of the feast provided for him, that he must not enjoy himself too much, because perhaps his father might some years afterwards remember his past misconduct and visit it upon him? An apprehension of this kind would doubtless have much diminished his comfort; but would it not have been groundless and unreasonable? Equally groundless and unreasonable are your apprehensions, if you have indeed come to Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Put them away and rejoice in a present salvation (2Co. 4:17; Joh. 5:24).

2. Their seeking comfort where it is not to be found. It is one of their privileges that they are renewed in the spirit of their minds, but this renewal is not, and cannot be, at present perfect. But they forget this, and when they look within themselves they find so many imperfections that they are greatly distressed. If you are never to partake of the peace and consolations of Christianity so long as you fall short of the spiritual standard of obedience, you must go mourning all your days: for the more spiritually-minded you grow, the more spiritual will that standard become in your estimation, and consequently the more unholy you will appear in your own eyes. You can never find comfort by poring into your own heart. Peace and joy come by believing. Christ is the only source of consolation to the soul. If you wanted light, would you expect to find it by looking downwards on the ground, or upwards to the sun? Would the Israelite, when bitten by the serpents, have found relief by meditating on his wounds and lamenting the violence and deadly nature of his disease? No; it was by looking on the serpent of brass that he found a cure, and had his heart filled with hope and joy. Look unto Jesus, rejoice in the sufficiency of His grace to redeem you from all evil (Jud. 1:24; H. E. I. 44704474).

3. Their mistaking the proofs and marks of a really religious state. They say, If we were the Lords people, we should feel it in our hearts. But who has told you that warm and rapturous feelings are sure proofs of a truly religious state?

(1.) As a matter of fact, they are really reasons for suspicion when they are experienced at the outset of a religious life (Mat. 13:5). There is a religion that is like a bundle of thorns on fire; for a little time there is noise and light and some measure of heat, but presently the flame subsides, the fire goes out, and all is dark and chill.

(2.) Even when feelings are real, it is not possible for them to be long wound up to one high pitch (H. E. I. 2073, 2074).
(3.) The Bible never bids you judge of your religious state by your own feelings. You are there told that you are to walk, not by sight, but by faith; and if by faith, not by feelings. The promises are not made to feeling, but to faith. St. Paul did not say to the jailer who asked what he must do to be saved, Feel that you have Christ in your heart, and you shall be saved; but, Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, &c. Are you humbly believing in Jesus Christ as your only Saviour? Are you living in dependence on the Divine promises, and in a faithful use of the means of grace? Are you doing the duties of your station in dependence on God, and with a desire to please, serve, and honour Him? Are you walking in Christian holiness? Then the comforts of Christianity belong to you. Receive them in faith. Be not discouraged because you cannot find in yourself this or that feeling. Rejoice in the Lord; believe His promises, because they are His. Abraham against hope believed in hope. He had nothing but the bare word of the Almighty on which he could confide. But what other ground of confidence could he desire? You have the same word; confide in that. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. You believe on Him, therefore you have everlasting life. What you may feel is nothing to the purpose. Your salvation is grounded, not on the changeable feelings of a frail and mutable creature, but on the faithfulness of Him who cannot lie (H. E. I. 20642067).Edward Cooper: Practical and Familiar Sermons, vol. vii 345362.

THE CURE FOR ANXIETY

Isa. 40:1-2. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God, &c.

The skill of a physician is shown

1. In detecting the disease under which his patient suffers; and,
2. In choosing the best remedy.

There is as great variety in the diseases of the soul as in those of the body: there is the moral palsy, fever, consumption, answering in their symptoms to the corporeal maladies similarly designated; and some souls require quite a different regimen from all others.
I. A PREVALENT SICKNESS.

1. This is pointed out in the words, Cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, &c. The condition of Jerusalem is one of distress, anxiety, and distraction; and this so well accords with a passage in the Psalms that it may be connected with it: In the multitude of my thoughts within me, Thy comforts delight my soul. The disease is here more clearly describeda multitude of thoughts. An old translation has it, In the multitude of the sorrows that I had in my heart, Thy comforts have refreshed my soul; and Bishop Austins version is, In the multitude of my anxieties within me; whilst the representation in the original Hebrew would seem that of a man involved in a labyrinth from whose intricacies there was no way of escape. All this agrees precisely with the case of Jerusalem in the text; and what cause of distressing anxiety would there be whilst there was warfare unfinished and sin unforgiven! The case of sickness, then, so emphatically prescribed for, is that under which the righteous may be labouring from the difficulties which encompass him.
2. Who labour most under this disease? The persons supposed are they who strive to walk according to the precepts of religion. A man may be a man after Gods own heart, and yet subject to the invasion of a crowd of anxieties; and it is never a part of our business to lessen the extent of what is blameworthy, nor to endeavour to persuade the righteous that freedom from anxiety is not a privilege to be sought after. The Christian may rise superior to all intruders, and prove that they do but heighten the blessedness of the blessing (H. E. I. 2053, 40544056).

II. IS THE PRESCRIPTION SUFFICIENT? The disease incapacitates for any process of argument; it were of little use to prescribe dark sayings, mysterious dogmas, as though God, in His dealings with His distracted people, did but prescribe the application of things hard to be understood. With David, recourse was not had to the mysteries of God, but only to His comfortand with these the Psalmist found that he could delight his soul. Of what does this comfort consist? Of the rich assurances of His forgiving and accepting love; of the gracious declarations of His everlasting purpose to preserve to the end those chosen in Christ; the multiplied promises of spiritual guidance, protection, victory; the foretastes of immortality; the glimpses of things within the veil. It is the part of a righteous man, in his season of anxiety and distraction, to confine himself to those comforts, regarding them as a sick man does the medicines given him, as the cordial specially adapted to his state.
Observe that the comforting message is to be delivered to Jerusalem, and that annexed is a statement of her warfare being accomplished. Connect with the exclamation of Paul, I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course. It is no farfetched application of the text to affirm it as specially appropriate on the approach of the last enemydeath. It is here that the power of all mere human resources must eventually fail; for when a man thinks on what it is to die; when he reflects that die he must, so inevitable is the doom; and yet, that die he cannot, so certain is his immortality,in vain does the world offer its richest possessions, or philosophy its conclusions. It can only be what emanates from another world, what comes with authority from another world, that can have a solacing power, when it is the loosening of our connection with this world which causes the confused tumult in the soul; and Christianity furnishes an abundance of what is needed for allaying the fear of death and soothing mans passage to the tomb.

The anxious believer has then only to give himself meekly over into the Good Shepherds hands. Let him not argue, let him not debate, let him not sit in judgment; let him simply have recourse to the comforts of God. None, says Christ, can pluck them out of my hands. Christ holds His sheep; it is not the sheep that hold Christ, and God has caused it to be said of him, Comfort ye, comfort ye my servant, and tell him that his warfare is accomplished.Henry Melvill, B.D.; Golden Lectures, 1851, pp. 737744.

THE DIVINE GLORY REVEALED IN CHRIST
(Preached on Christmas Day.)

Isa. 40:3-5. The voice of Him that crieth in the wilderness, &c. [1309]

[1309] Many have admired this prophecy as an ancient poem who have not arrived at the proper interpretation. The poet seizes on one point in the national theologythe coming of a great Deliverer. In his imagination he gives him the character of a conqueror, coming to save and deliver. He represents him as marching along in Eastern pomp, issuing messengers before him to prepare the way; sending out pioneers to raise the valleys, to level the mountains, to make the crooked places straight, and the rough places plain. And some have seen no more than this in it; they have lost all the character of the prophecy in their admiration of the poem. We are to remember that the prophetic dispensation was a Divine dispensation, and that the prophets were holy men of God. There is the richest poetry, yet there is no mere adornment that is, there is nothing designed only to please the imagination; but with every circumstance of figure and ornament some new revelation is communicated, or some old revelation placed in a new aspect, and shown with fresh vigour. Hence, therefore, in the interpretation of this text, we are really to expect a person crying, a voice preparing the way; we are really to expect the removing of difficulties, similar to the levelling of mountains, the raising of valleys, &c.; and we are really to expect, not merely some great deliverer indefinitely, but such a Deliverer, such a Saviour, as shall answer the description given of him in the text, The glory of the Lord.Watson.

I take the text to be prophecy, in the first and lowest sense, of the deliverance of the Jews from Babylon; then of the appearance of Christ in the flesh; of the manifestation, also, of Christ in the believers soul; and of the manner in which He will set up His spiritual kingdom in the world [1312]

[1312] We cannot understand the Scriptures aright unless we know that God has established an instructive set of types, making one thing the figure of another. All Nature is full of types of the most blessed things; and happy is the man who can read the book of Nature in the light of the Lord. Everything around him shall give him instruction. But one event is often made the type of another. The deliverance of the children of Israel was a type of the deliverance of the people of God. Their journey through the wilderness, their supplies, their deliverances, their entrance into Canaan, are a type of the true Joshua bringing His many sons to glory. The Babylonish captivity is a type of the present state of the Jews; and their restoration, probably alluded to in the text, is the best type of their being brought again into the Church; and the whole together is a type of the deliverance which God works out for His people and for the whole Church. The language, too, which is suited to these outward events is often employed by the Spirit to denote other events. For instance, the language which refers to the deliverance of His people out of the Babylonish captivity, and their restoration to their own land, is employed to set forth His plan of working in the hearts of men and in the world at large.
These things must be remembered in reference to prophecy. What appears to be human skill is absolutely heavenly wisdom. It must not be interpreted by the common canons of criticism, or we shall lose all its force, and beauty, and meaning.Watson.

I. ITS LITERAL ACCOMPLISHMENT.
This prophecy was literally accomplished,

1. In the appearance of John the Baptist.

2. Following the footsteps of the servant comes the Master. Here the glory of God was manifested, and all flesh living at that time in Judea saw it together. Jesus Christ was the visible image of the power, the truth, the holiness of God.

II. ITS SPIRITUAL ACCOMPLISHMENT. This is seen in the work of God in the human soul. In this there is both preparation and manifestation. For Christ no more bursts upon the soul at once than He did upon the world; He sends His messenger to prepare the way before Him. That preparing herald, figured by John the Baptist, is repentance. Consider what repentance is, and you will see how it prepares the soul for Christ, for pardon, happiness, and purity.

1. The first element in repentance is a deep and serious conviction of the fact of our sin.

2. The second is a conviction of the extreme danger of sin and its infinite desert.

3. The third is a burdened and disquieted spirit. When these convictions and feelings have been produced in the soul, it is prepared for the coming of Christ into it. And when He comes into it, in its deliverance from the guilt, misery, and dominion of sin there is a glorious manifestation of the mercy and power of God.

III. ITS ALLEGORICAL ACCOMPLISHMENT. It is seen in the establishment of Christs kingdom upon earth. He sends forth His heralds, and by them the world is being prepared for that fuller manifestation of God which will constitute the latter-day glory.Richard Watson: Works, vol. iv. pp. 307318.

PREPARING FOR THE COMING OF THE KING
(For Advent Sunday.)

Isa. 40:3-5. The voice of him that crieth, &c.

The Spirit of Christ, which spake by the prophets, thus describes the preparatory work assigned to the heralds and forerunners of His advent. The application to John the Baptist is made by all the Evangelists, by John himself, and is confirmed by our Lord. One great point is thereby determined,the whole passage has a spiritual meaning. It is, in fact, a parable or sacred allegory, by which alone we can be prepared to behold the glory of God revealed in the person of the Son. The wilderness represents the whole race of mankind alienated from God and abandoned to the impulses of a corrupt nature. Just so far as men are influenced by worldly principles the call is addressed to them. His way has yet to be prepared in their hearts. This saying applies in the full sense to the unconverted, but in a very true and practical sense it reaches all.

1. In order that the highway shall be made straight, the first injunction is that every valley shall be exalted. In mountainous districts many a deep ravine is found, scarcely visited by the suns light, filled with noxious vapours, producing scanty and unwholesome food for its squalid inhabitants. How many dark places of our common humanity may be described in these very terms! Man bridges the chasms, and makes a way by which he pusses triumphantly to the accomplishment of his objects; but as for the places themselves, he leaves them for the most part unchanged, or, if changed, but sadder and darker than before, the rushing sounds which tell of his onward progress being no solace to the startled mind of the dweller in the gloomy hollow. Far different is Gods way; not thus does He bid us prepare our brethrens hearts, our own hearts, for His coming. He wills that the valley itself shall be exaltedthe ignorant raised into the clear light of heaven, the gloomy and despondent spirit raised out of its state of hopeless foreboding and brooding sorrow.
2. Every mountain and hill shall be made low. Self-exaltation is the surest hindrance to the favour of the great King.
3. The crooked shall be made straight. Crookedness, dishonesty, the absence of candour, of sincerity, of straightforwardness, is a hateful thing and must be put away. In our temporal and spiritual things alike there must be an integrity that will bear the scrutiny of our Lord (H. E. I. 3000, 3010). When He finds a heart open to receive Him, an humble spirit, and guileless simplicity, He will never withhold the full disclosure of His love.
4. And the rough places plain. Such rough places were ever common in the Eastrugged passes beset by dense thickets, lairs of wild beasts, intricate fastnesses, in which robbers find covert, which obstruct the progress of the sovereign into the remote parts of his dominions. In this we recognise a lively image of the evil passions, the corrupt affections, the unregulated desires which overrun the unregenerate heart, and which are extirpated slowly, with much effort, and very imperfectly from the heart when regenerate. We cannot say that the Saviour will not come to us, nor even that He will not dwell with us, until those hindrances are cleared away. That assertion would paralyse all hope; it is both contrary to experience and to plain texts of Holy Writ. But this we must say, He will not abide in us if things so evil are indulged and tolerated. The rough places must be made plain, at whatever cost; for until that work is accomplished, we cannot know the deep peace of the redeemed and sanctified child of grace (H. E. I. 14661468).

The work of preparation must be done. Are we dismayed at its extent? Then remember that it is a work of grace. What is low in us must be exalted by the action of grace upon our consenting hearts; what is haughty must be thus abased, the crooked be made straight, and the rough be made plain (H. E. I. 1071, 2376)..F. C. Cook, M.A.: Sermons Preached in Lincolns Inn Chapel, pp. 279291.

The charge to prepare the way of the Lord implies that there are obstacles in the way.

His way is to be made through the desert and the wilderness, i.e., where hitherto there was no way. The reference may be, first, to the state of the Jewish Church in the time of John; but the words contain a true and clear description of the Gentile nations. And what is applied generally to the nations is equally applicable to every human heart:

1. There is the pride and self-righteousness of man. The thoughts of men rise like mountains to impede the truth. At the very time when man is diseased and dying, he imagines himself whole, and without need of a physician.
2. The heart is by nature hard, impenitent, blinded to its own defects, and, even after confession of them, unwilling to have them condemned or to give them up. Men hear the righteous law denouncing them, but go on to break it; they can stand unmoved before the cross of Jesus and trample upon His blood (H. E. I. 26692279).

3. The state of human desires and affections presents other and formidable obstacles to the claims of the Lord. Their desires are low, their affections carnal (Luk. 14:18-20).

4. In some there exists a mass of prejudice, and the truth of Christ is viewed under a false light, or through a perverting medium. They will not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, and they cannot enter therein. Some are prejudiced against the authority of revelation,some against the doctrine of grace, or salvation by the merit of another; and many dislike the holiness, the self-denial, the separation from the world which Christianity inculcates.

CONCLUSION.

1. Repentance is necessary to prepare the way,humility, to receive and learn the doctrine,prayer, to give it success in the heart,and watchfulness, to carry it out into practice.

2. Every Christian has something to do in preparing the way of Christ in the earth.George Redford, D.D., LL. D.: Weekly Christian Teacher, vol. ii. pp. 105108.

This chapter opens the great evangelic poem, the work of Isaiahs last years. It is among the most conspicuous of the heralds of the Advent. It contains three distinctly marked features which indicate definite stages of preparation for it.

1. It marks the period of Jewish history in which the temporal power and splendour of Judaism began visibly to wane. The mission of Judah as a kingdom was accomplished. But something in it did not wither. Faded and fallen as a nation, the Jews became at once more powerful than ever as a Church. 2. A very marked prophecy of a universal Church. The first promise (Gen. 12:1-3) was hidden for ages. Here it does not flash,it shines, the calling of the Gentiles being the great burden of it (Isa. 49:5-6; Isa. 49:22-23; Isa. 9:1-6). The words were spoken on which the King, when He came, could rest His appeal (Luk. 4:18-19).

3. There was a clear vision set before the Jews of a great Sufferer for man who should yet be a great Conqueror. From the day when Isaiah wrote, the form of the Messiah was set clearly before mankind.

How far did this preparation fall in with larger movements which made the world ready for the actual Advent?

How the heralds prepared the way of the Lord.

I. THE JEWISH THEOCRACY. Some suppose Christ to have grown out of His age. But Christ and Christianity cannot be accounted for by natural evolution, with the Jewish theocracy standing in the way. Gen. 12:1-3 struck a keynote which runs through Jewish history.

II. THE JEWISH DISPERSION. The witnesses charged with the promise and the prophecy were scattered through the civilised world. Up to the captivity the Jews kept themselves sternly and sullenly isolated (Act. 10:28); afterwards they dispersed with facility. The significance of this is to be found in estimating the confusion of religious beliefs among mankind; and especially that neither Oriental nor Western thought became victorious. Jewish communities, with a firm belief in revelation, sacred books containing credible history, and a definite system of Divine legislation, the purity, righteousness, and charity of which were self-evident, settled among them.

III. THE INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL PROGRESS OF THE AGES PRECEDING THE ADVENT IN THE DIRECTION OF CHRISTIANITY. There was progress between Socrates and Seneca; from the citizen of a state, almost domestic in its character, man became the subject of a great empire, and developed individuality and responsibility. Alexander led the Greek into a world too big for him; he became oppressed, distracted, and broke away from his traditions in a world of ceaseless conflict and change. Between Alexanders conquests and Roman supremacy the thinker was thrown back upon himself, and compelled to ask ultimate questions: What am I? Whence came I? &c. There was a tendency towards the Christian question of salvation. But there was no response to the question forcing itself forward, What must I do to be saved? All was waiting for the proclamation (Isa. 61:1).

IV. THE ROMAN EMPIRE. This was by far the most important secular herald of the Advent (Luk. 2:1).

1. Modern European society is but the fully-developed Empire of Rome.
2. Amid a universal peace, and with a universal language, preachers could go almost everywhere.
3. The fundamental question opened by the Roman Empire is also that of Christianitythe relation of men to each other. Is it enmity or brotherhood?

(1.) Political amity gave rise to the idea of human brotherhood.
(2.) Still men were at sea about the reality, grounds, and claims of this brotherhood.

(3.) Thus the way was prepared till the time came when there were shepherds abiding in the field, &c. (Luk. 2:8-14). Thus the Lord entered into this world and took possession of His throne.J. Baldwin Brown: Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiii. p. 40.

THE MORAL TRANSFORMATION OF THE WORLD
(Missionary Sermon.)

Isa. 40:3-5. The voice of Him that crieth, &c.

We are authorised by the four Evangelists to understand these verses as a prophecy of the ministry of John the Baptist, who appeared as the forerunner of the Messiah; and they may be properly applied to all missionaries and religious workers who go out to uncivilised, heathen, and superstitious countries, to prepare the inhabitants for the reception of pure Christianity. The language is figurative, and is borrowed from an ancient Eastern custom. When monarchs went out to visit distant parts of their dominions or to invade neighbouring kingdoms, they sent heralds or pioneers before them to clear the way and remove obstructions. In allusion to this custom, John the Baptist and all his successors in similar work are represented as going out before the Messiah to clear away obstructions and prepare the way for the establishment of His kingdom in the world. Let us notice
I. THE CONDITION OF THE WORLD IN ITS SINFUL AND UNREFORMED STATE.
It is here represented as a wild, pathless, and dreary wilderness. This figurative description suggests

1. That it is unproductive of anything good. The earth when left uncultivated will produce nothing valuable and useful; and so men in their sinful state will bear no fruit to the glory of God and the good of their fellow-creatures.

2. That it is productive of things worthless, noxious, and injurious. A wilderness produces briars, thorns, and worthless weeds, and forms hiding-places for ravenous beasts and poisonous reptiles. This is a proper description of the heathen and uncivilised world. Men there rob, deceive, and devour each other. The dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.

II. THE NECESSARY AND IMPORTANT PREPARATION FOR ITS MORAL TRANSFORMATION.

1. Religious teachers must be employed to combat with the ignorance and thick darkness which cover the people. To preach the Gospel to people without any kind of elementary education would be like throwing grain-seed among thorns or over hard rocks uncovered with any soil. This preparatory work is carried on most effectively in the present day. Eleven Protestant missionaries and assistants are now employed on the wide field of the heathen and superstitious world for every one so employed fifty years ago.

2. The Word of God must be made accessible to the rations in their respective languages and dialects. Eighty years ago the Bible had not been translated into more than forty of the languages of the world; now the whole book, or portions of it, is translated into more than two hundred and fifty languages. We thus see that the Christian Church has done six times more to prepare the way of the Lord in the last eighty years than it had done in the previous eighteen hundred years.

3. The international communications which are rapidly opening in every direction are promoted by men of the world simply for mercantile and scientific purposes, but they are evidently overruled by Divine Providence to prepare the way of the Lord. Many are running to and fro, and knowledge is increasing. Pure Christianity will ultimately reap all the advantages of this, for every form of false religion can only thrive in the darkness of ignorance and thoughtlessness.

III. THE GLORIOUS TRANSFORMATION WHICH SHALL BE EFFECTED.
Every valley shall be exalted, &c., i.e., all the malarious morasses of immorality shall be drained and converted into healthy and productive land; all high hills and barren mountains of false systems of religion shall be levelled down and disappear; and all crooked and uneven dealings in the diplomacies of nations and commercial transactions shall be straightened and made conformable to the golden rule of the Gospel (Mat. 7:12). When this blessed change is realised, the glory of the Lord shall be revealed

1. In the number of converts to the true religion. The true followers of Christ in every age hitherto have been only a little flock in comparison with all the inhabitants of the world, but the time is coming when they shall teach no more every man his neighbour and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord.

2. In the beauty of their holy and consistent characters. Holiness unto the Lord shall be stamped upon every person and thing then; and in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts. The good works of Gods people will so shine before men that they shall be led to glorify our Father which is in heaven.

3. In the temporal and spiritual happiness of the world. All the sources of misery and unhappiness shall be dried up entirely. Wars and bloody contentions between nations shall cease unto the ends of the earth. All tyranny, oppression, and every form of injustice shall be removed, and kindness, charity, and justice will occupy their place. Men who used to be likened to bears, wolves, lions, leopards, and poisonous serpents, shall be changed and become tame and as harmless as the lamb, the kid, and the weaned child (chap. Isa. 11:6-8). The whole earth will become the holy mountain of the Lord. The spiritual condition of the Church will then be indescribably happy and glorious. There will be no lifeless religious service, and no worshipper groaning and downcast under the hidings of the Lords face, for the Lord will create upon every dwelling-place of Mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud of smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for upon all the glory shall be a defence.

IV. THE CERTAINTY OF THE REALISATION OF THIS TRANSFORMATION.
For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

1. The Lord has ample power to fulfil all His promises. The opponents and obstructors of the promised transformation are described in the next three verses as grass and withering flowers. And what is grass to withstand Almighty power?

2. The Lord is omniscient, and no unforeseen contingencies can derange His plans, as it is often with us (chap. Isa. 46:9).

3. The Lord is the God of truth, and it is easier for heaven and earth to pass than one tittle of His law and promises to fail (Num. 23:19).Thomas Rees, D.D.

THE LEVELLING FORCE OF CHRISTIANITY

Isa. 40:4. Every valley shall be exalted, &c.

The primary reference of these words is to the clearing of the way for the captive Jews in Babylon to return to their own land. Between Babylon and Jerusalem there was an immense tract of country, which was an untrodden and mountainous desert. The prophet hears in vision the voice of a herald demanding that a highway should be made, that the valleys be filled up, the mountains levelled, and the crooked way made straight. The Evangelists give the passage another and a moral application. They regard John the Baptist as the herald who in his wakening ministry prepared the way in mens hearts for the mission of Him who was the spiritual Deliverer of mankind.
The words illustrate the socially levelling force of Christianity. There are and ever have been in the soul of society opinions, prejudices, feelings, conventional notions, which, like mountains and valleys, have separated men into classes, and prevented the free and loving interchange of soul. How does Christianity remove those mountains, fill up the valleys, and give a straight pathway into souls?

In two ways:

I. By the levelling truths which it reveals.

1. A common God. A plurality of deities divides heathen society into sections. Christianity reveals one God, the Father of all, by whom are all things, and to whom are all things. It denounces all other deities as vanities and lies. A common God wakens a community of love, purpose, and worship.

2. A common nature. In heathen mythology men are represented as the offspring of different deities. In India one caste claims a nobler origin than another; and even in Christendom there are those who impiously claim a higher blood (Act. 17:26).

3. A common obligation. Different codes of duty divide men. The Gospel reveals one law for allto love the one God with all our hearts, and our neighbours as ourselves.

4. A common depravity. Pharisaic sentiment divides (Rom. 3:23; Isa. 53:6).

5. A common salvation. All are diseased, and there is but one Physician. All are captives, and there is but one Deliverer. All are lost, and there is but one Saviour.

II. By the levelling spirit which it generates. It generates a spirit which raises a man above the prejudices of heart and conventionalities that divide men. It is a spirit which has supreme regard to three things

1. The spiritual in man. The true Christian spirit sees no dignity where there is meanness of soul, no degradation where there is a true nobility of heart.

2. The right in conduct. The true spirit judges not by custom and policy, but by principles of everlasting right; and it inspires a man to attempt the removal of all social mountains and hills that stand in the way of the right

3. The eternal in destiny. The human race is regarded not in its merely visible and temporal relation, but in its unseen and eternal.

Its levelling, however, does not involve spoliation. Distinctions arising from varieties in intellectual power, mental tastes, physical capacity, and individual circumstances, it recognises and respects. These do not necessarily involve social separations. Rightly used they are a blessed media of intercourse. It is the mountains arising from individual vanity, religious bigotry, national pride, worldly pretensions, and spiritual ignorance that Christianity levels to the dust.David Thomas, D.D.: Homilist, Third Series, vol. viii. p. 95.

THE UNIVERSAL REVELATION OF THE GLORY OF THE LORD

Isa. 40:5. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, &c.

The chapter of which the text is a part forms the commencement of a series of addresses, distinguished not only for their elegance and sublimity, but for the manner in which they point to a future and far-distant period, when a display should be given of Divine splendour infinitely superior to any previously exhibited in our world. The institutions of the kingdom and Church of Judea, even in the days of Isaiah, were glory itself as compared with those of the nations around, and yet even their glory was as darkness when compared with those to which these predictions pointed as constituting the New Testament Church, and what has been emphatically characterised as the glory of the latter days. The former was but the dawn of a lengthened day; the latter was to be the brightness of meridian splendour; the former illumined a very limited sphere, the latter was to irradiate every part of the world, and to send its brilliancy through the universe.

I. The glory to be revealedthe glory of the Lord. The word glory is a figurative expression, signifying lustre, effulgence, splendour, magnificence. The glory of the Lord means the bright shining forth of the consummate excellences or perfections of His nature. Never was such an exhibition given of that glory as in the mission and mediation of the Son of God for the redemption of sinful men. It is to this that the declaration in the text unquestionably refers (cf. Isa. 40:3-4; Joh. 1:28; Mat. 3:3). No event had ever given such a demonstrative display of the glory of the Lord as this (Luk. 2:13-14). That the redemption of a ruined world was the object of the Messiahs mission is undoubted (Gal. 4:4-5); in this the glory of the Lord appeared (Isa. 44:23). He displays His glory in all His works (Psa. 19:1-2; Rom. 1:20); but the brightest display of that glory by far is given, and is to be seen in the face of Jesus Christ. Note particularly that the glory of every Divine perfection was manifested in the mission and work of Christ.

1. Wisdom (1Ti. 3:16; 1Co. 2:7; Col. 1:26-27; Eph. 1:8; Eph. 3:10).

2. Power (1Co. 1:24); all the resources of earth and hell were laid under requisition to hinder the execution of His undertaking (Isa. 63:1-6; Col. 2:15).

3. Holiness and justice (Isa. 53:5; Isa. 53:10-12; Psa. 22:1-3). How the glory of Divine grace now triumphed! Though the Holy One, He yet provided for the happiness of sinners; He showed Himself to be at once the just God and the Saviour (Rom. 3:23-26; Eph. 2:4-8). Like Him who accomplished it, redemption was not only full of grace, it was also full of truth; through Him all the promises of God were made yea and amen to the glory of God by us; the significance of the ancient sacrifices and ceremonies was disclosed; feeble glimmerings of light were swallowed up by a full blaze of glory (Mic. 7:20; Joh. 1:29).

The glory of the Lord was further demonstrated in the manner in which His various attributes were thus made to harmonise. There was no clashing; while the honour of each was advanced, the whole were glorified together (Psa. 85:10-11).

II. The means that were to be employed in revealing this glory of the Lord.

1. The personal ministry of our Lord Himself (Heb. 1:1-3). The manner in which Christ proved the truth of His mission and doctrines emphatically declared His glory (Joh. 3:2; Luk. 24:19); and all this was substantiated by His sufferings and death, His resurrection and ascension (Php. 2:8-11).

2. The written Word of Christ (Joh. 5:39; Col. 3:16; 2Ti. 3:15). All, therefore, who wish the glory of the Lord to be more and more revealed shall strive and pray that the Word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified.

3. The preaching of the Gospel (Mar. 16:15-16; Mar. 16:20). Whenever the preaching of evangelical truth is rightly conducted, the glory of the Lord will be more and more revealed (1Co. 1:18-24); but the members of the Church generally are to be instrumental by their prayers, instructions, and example (Mat. 6:10; Isa. 2:5; Mat. 5:16; Php. 1:9-11).

III. The extent to which the glory of the Lord shall be exhibitedAll flesh shall see it together. When Isaiah spoke thus, the very existence of Jehovah was unknown to every nation under heaven but one. Innumerable multitudes are yet sitting in darkness. This great promise has still, therefore, to receive its full accomplishment (Isa. 12:3; Mat. 9:37-38; Rom. 10:13; Rom. 10:15); then shall come to pass the saying that is written (Hab. 2:14; Isa. 35:1-2).

IV. The great purpose for which the exhibition of the Divine glory is to be made. What this must be is clearly implied, though, in our version at least, not expressed. It is, that the Lord may so be made known as to be universally and exclusively honoured and obeyed (Isa. 2:11). And the next grand object in view is, to promote the best interests of men (Isa. 45:22; Isa. 52:10).

V. The certainty of the whole, as intimated by the assertionFor the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it (Heb. 10:23; Heb. 11:11; 1Sa. 15:29). What the mouth of the Lord hath spoken, the power of the Lord will accomplish (Jer. 32:27).

APPLICATION.

1. Let us rejoice that our God is the God of glory, and in this character the God of salvation.

2. Let us individually seek to have saving manifestations of His glory (Exo. 30:3; Exo. 30:18).

3. Let us recognise our infinite obligations for the means we enjoy for this purpose.

4. Let us seek to advance His glory far and wide (Isa. 62:1).Adam Thomson, D.D.: Outlines, pp. 108114.

We believe that Jesus Christ was that image of God whom prophets had been desiring to behold. Is that enough for us? Are we content that the world should go on as it is,the Christian world, or the world that is not Christian?
If not, what is it we wish for? Is Jesus the One that shall come, or do we look for another?
There is a disposition among religious men to look for something else than the manifestation of Christ. Christ is, according to them, a means to an end, but not the end; the sight of Him is not itself what they covet; the loss of Him is not itself what they dread. Again, there are not a few who say that the Gospel has failed of its object. Has it set the world right? Has misery ceased? Has wrong ceased? Has the reign of peace begun? The last of these opinions ought not to be rejected till men have cleared their minds of the first.
I. In the Old Testament the misery of the Jewish people, though produced by the most different instruments, has but one cause. Whoever are the tyrantsPharaoh, Jabin, Sennacherib, Nebuchadnezzartyranny is the cause of their groaning. A Deliverer is their one infinite necessity. Men appear as their deliverers; but they appear in the name of the Lord. Idolatry is the worship of some tyrant force. These thoughts and experiences were the school of the prophets. Through the prevalence of idolatry in the world, they were forced to rely upon the might of God and to expect the revelation of His glory. God cannot be disappointed. His purpose is to reveal Himself, and He will reveal Himself.

II. Isaiah is rightly called The Evangelical Prophet, because he saw more clearly than any one that only One who perfectly revealed God, who perfectly revealed Him as a Deliverer, could be the Person whom Israelites and all nations desired. Every event was a partial Epiphany. He hungered for one which should be for all flesh. The mouth of the Lord had as much spoken this as He had spoken the commands against adultery, or murder, or false witness.

III. Apostles, while they claimed the words of this prophet as pointing to Christ, forbade a contentment with what disciples had heard, or seen, or felt, or believed. They said, We are saved by hope (Rom. 11:33; Eph. 3:18-19).

IV. Of such teaching the consequence must be, that whatever calamities come upon the world will be stimulants and encouragements to this hope. There will be no shame in indulging it; because it is a hope for the world and not only for ourselves. There will be no uncertainty about it; because it does not depend upon our faith or virtue, but upon the eternal Word of God. The mouth of the Lord had spoken it.
LESSONS.

1. Let us have no doubt that, however we may classify mens oppressions, as individual or social, as political or intellectual, as animal or spiritual, God Himself has awakened the cry for freedom.
2. Let us have no doubt that that cry is, when truly understood and interpreted, a cry that God will appear as the Deliverer, that His glory may be revealed.
3. Let us therefore be most eager to meet all these cries, however discordant they be, with a true sympathy and recognition.
4. Let us, without precipitationrather by acts than by wordsshow that we believe we can give Gods answer to them.
It is an old commonplace of divinity which we are strangely forgetting, that despair is the only utter perdition, because despair binds a man in the prison of his evil nature, and fastens the chain of the evil spirit upon him; because all hope points upwards to God, and is the response of our spirit to His Spirit. The promise of this final Epiphany stands not on the decrees of lawgivers, or the expectations of holy men, or the confidence of seers. It comes from Him who said, Let there be light, and there was light.F. D. Maurice: Lincolns Inn Sermons, vol. i. pp. 175289.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

COMFORT FOR THE SUFFERING

Isa. 40:1-5. Comfort ye, &c.

IT is generally agreed that these last twenty-six chapters relate to the restoration of the Jews from their captivity in Babylon. They are the Gospel of the Old Testament. This is their value to us.

Put into the briefest words, the ideas contained in the first five verses of this chapter areThat a glorious change awaits the exiles, consisting of a new and generous manifestation of Jehovahs presence, for which His people are exhorted to prepare.
The prophet is commanded to speak words of comfort to those captives from Jerusalemto assure them that her warfare, her time of slavery, is about to end; that her sins are pardoned, abundantly expiated by her sufferings; that her God is coming to deliver her from the oppressor; and that she must prepare the way for His coming, as heralds ride before a conquering king.
The comforting announcement which the prophet was to make to Jerusalem was

1. That her affliction had become full, and had therefore come to an end.
2. Her iniquity is atoned for and the justice of God is satisfied.
3. The third clause repeats the substance of the previous ones with greater emphasis and in a fuller tone.

The double punishment which she had endured is not to be taken in a judicial sense, in which case God would appear over-rigid, and therefore unjust. The compassion of God regarded what His justice had been obliged to inflict upon Jerusalem as superabundant.
But this is only the negative side of the consolation. What positive salvation is to be expected? Hark, the voice of one crying! The summons proceeds in a commanding tone: Let every valley be exalted, &c. Spiritually interpreted, the command points to the encouragement of those that are cast down, the humiliation of the self-righteous and self-secure, the changing of dishonesty into simplicity, and of haughtiness into submission. Israel is to take care that God shall find them in such an inward and outward state as shall enable Him to fulfil His purpose. And the glory of Jehovah, &c. When the way is prepared for the coming One, the glory of the God of salvation will be unveiled; and this revelation is made for the sake of Israel, but not secretly or exclusively, for all flesh will come to see the salvation of God. For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it, is the confirmation of the foregoing prophecy.
Suffering endured through a long period, comfort promised, the elements of that comfort and the preparation for receiving itthese are the chief thoughts and main topics of the passage.
I. We all have to suffer, and to suffer for our own sins and for the sins of one another, in one way or another, and in a greater or less degree. It is part of the mystery of the world that some lives, even in the morning of their days, are overhung with dark clouds of sorrow. With how many is life a continual struggle with feeble health; in others, mental cares, cares of business, anxieties; in others, pangs suffered over sins committed and things left undone.

II. The Old and New Testaments say that there is Divine comfort for the sorrowful sufferers. This teaching casts a new light upon human grief. It puts to shame all ancient and modern philosophy. The Divine Physician uses suffering as a medicine (Psa. 119:67; Psa. 119:71).

1. We feel ourselves drawn into the true path of life.
2. Then the comfort of another message begins to be feltthat our iniquity is pardoned.
3. Then His Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.

III. God is coming over the desert of our lives to reveal His glory to us (Isa. 40:5).

IV. But, for coming into the possession of this privilege, we must prepare the way of the Lord (Isa. 40:4; Mat. 3:2). The conditions of comfort are here laid down. Christian comfort comes by raising up the whole soul of a man; by bringing down every proud thought; by straightening every crooked course; by chastening and refining all that is rugged in character or conduct. It is thus we prepare ourselves for the incoming of God.Charles Short: Sermons, pp. 255269.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

VII. SALVATION THROUGH GODS SERVANT
CHAPTERS 4053
A, PURPOSE OF THE LORDS SERVANT
CHAPTERS 4043
1. COMFORT, CHAPTER 40
a. PREPARE FOR THE COMING OF THE LORD

TEXT: Isa. 40:1-11

1

Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.

2

Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem; and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she hath received of Jehovahs hand double for all her sins.

3

The voice of one that crieth, Prepare ye in the wilderness the way of Jehovah; make level in the desert a highway for our God.

4

Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the uneven shall be made level, and the rough places a plain:

5

and the glory of Jehovah shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it.

6

The voice of one saying, Cry, And one said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field:

7

the grass withereth, the flower fadeth, because the breath of Jehovah bloweth upon it; surely the people is grass.

8

The grass withereth, the flower fadeth; but the word of our God shall stand forever.

9

O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion, get thee up on a high mountain; O thou that tellest good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold, your God!

10

Behold, the Lord Jehovah will come as a mighty one, and his arm will rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.

11

He will feed his flock like a shepherd, he will gather the

12

lambs in his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and will gently lead those that have their young.

QUERIES

a.

Who is to do the comforting in Isa. 40:1-27?

b.

Why cry, All flesh is grass?

c.

When is God going to feed his flock like a shepherd?

PARAPHRASE

Encourage and strengthen my people says your God. Speak to the heart of Jerusalem and call out to her that her warfare and her struggle is fulfilledit is over; her iniquity is paid for; Gods wrath is abundantly satisfied. Hark, a voice crying! In the wilderness prepare a way for Jehovah; make smooth and level in the desert a highway for our God. Every dark valley will have to be filled in and raised up and every mountain and hill scraped off and lowered. Everything that is uneven must be made level, and the rough places must be smoothed out like a plain. When the way is prepared then the glory of the Lord will be made manifest and all the human race will have His glory shown to them together. The Lord has promised this and it shall certainly come to pass. Hark, a second voice saying, Cry! And I said, What shall I cry? Cry out that all the human race is frail like grass and the flowers of the field. When the breath of God blows upon the grass in the hot, dry winds of summer, the grass withers and the flowers fade. That is just how fragile man is. He and grass and flowers wither and fade, but the word of our God stands forever.
O Zion, bringer of good news, get yourself up on a high mountain where you can really cry the good news to Jerusalem, as a bringer of good news and shout with a strong voice. Do not be afraid to cry loudly to all the cities of Judah, Behold, your God! Behold indeed! For the Lord Jehovah is coming like a strong and powerful ruler and His arm will rule for Him. He is bringing His rewards and compensations with Him for His people. He is going to provide food for His people like a shepherd; He is going to provide safety and protection for His people like a shepherd; He is going to show compassion and gentleness to all those who need help.

COMMENTS

Isa. 40:1-2 STRENGTHEN: There is definitely a division of Isaiahs book at chapter 40. This, however, does not mean the book has two different authors any more than there were two different authors for the Pentateuch (first five books of the O.T.). Moses, author of the Pentateuch, had different purposes in mind for his books and so used a different style. Isaiah has a different purpose in mind for the last half of his book and so uses a different style. For evidence of one authorship of Isaiah see Special Study, Seventeen Arguments That The Book of Isaiah Was Written By One Author, pages 14. Isaiahs main purpose in chapters 139 was to preach against the sin of Israel and predict judgment. His main purpose in chapters 4066 is to preach of peace and predict the nature of the future Israel of God, the Church. Edward J. Young calls chapters 4066, The Salvation and Future Blessing of The True Israel of God. These latter chapters are intensely Messianic! Isa. 40:3-4; Isa. 40:6-8; Isa. 53:1-12; Isa. 55:1-3; Isa. 61:1-2 are specifically fulfilled in the New Testament. We have emphasized the Messianic nature of chapters 4066 in our outline (see also the chart, Vol. I, pgs. 6465).

These first two verses of chapter 40 form a prologue for the rest of the entire book. Some have outlined chapters 4066 in a threefold division to correspond to the prologue thusly:

1.

40:1-48:22her warfare is ended.

2.

49:1-57:21 her iniquity is pardoned.

3.

58:1-66:24 she hath received . . . double for all her sins.

Nakhamu is the Hebrew word translated comfort. It is also translated repent in many places in the O.T. The authors of the Septuagint (Greek version of the Hebrew Old Testament) used the Greek word parakaleo which is the word Paraclete or Comforter comes from in Johns Gospel. In Greek it means one called alongside to help, aid or strengthen. The command in verse one is for someone to strengthen, help or aid Gods people.

Who is to do this strengthening? It is all the prophets from Isaiah to the Messiah. It is probably correct to say that the initial comforting was for the Israel of Isaiahs day or the Israel of the captivities (although the captivity in Babylon has not yet occurred). However, the ultimate target is the Messianic Israel. The fulfillment is for the days of John the Baptist and the Messiah. The true Israels warfare was not ended and her iniquity pardoned until accomplished in Christ (cf. Luk. 1:67-79) and John the Baptist was born especially to announce this. In Isa. 40:1-11 there are two texts specifically quoted in the New Testament as finding their fulfillment there (Isa. 40:3-4 and Isa. 40:6-8). The prophets from Isaiah to Malachi must strengthen Israel that those who believe may prepare a remnant through which the Incarnate Son may come and establish His kingdom. John the Baptist was the one who was more than a prophet (Mat. 11:9), the one whose crying in the wilderness signaled the fulfillment of the law and the prophets (Mat. 11:13). The Messiah-Servant was the one to whom this prophecy pointed. (See Isa. 49:13.)

The Hebrew phrase dabberu allev translated speak ye comfortably or speak tenderly means literally, speak upon the heart. It is a phrase meaning to win someone over in Gen. 34:3 and Jdg. 19:3. In Gen. 50:21 Joseph spoke upon the heart of his brothers to build their confidence in his kind intentions toward them. This is the manner in which the strengthening is to be done. The comforting is not something to be done superficiallyit is to be lodged in the heart of the people.

What is to be planted on Jerusalems heart is that her warfare is ended, her iniquity is pardoned and she has received double from Jehovah for all her sins. This cannot have the return from the Babylonian captivity for its essential goal for the nation of Israel enjoyed only a brief respite from conflict and struggle after their restoration. Daniel predicts 490 years of trouble to follow the restoration from captivity in minute detail (see our commentary on Daniel, College Press). Daniel also predicts that Israels iniquity will not be pardoned until the end of those 490 years (Dan. 9:24-27 in our commentary). So, the comforting or strengthening of Jerusalem is predicted on the promise of cessation of warfare and pardoning of iniquity in the great Messianic era of the future. That era will be announced by The Voice who was none other than John the Baptist. Jerusalem received of Jehovahs hand double for all her sins. This may mean either her punishment was abundant or her blessing was abundant. In either case, once again, it can find its ultimate fulfillment only in the Messiah (cf. Isa. 53:1-2 for abundant punishment and Isa. 61:1-11 for abundant blessingboth in the Messiah).

Isa. 40:3-8 STRAIGHTEN: The Hebrew construction is interesting. Literally it is qol qorea, voice, one crying. The first three gospel writers all confirm this found its fulfillment in John the Baptist (Mat. 3:3; Mar. 1:2-3; Luk. 3:4-6).

Certainly, all the prophets from Isaiah to Malachi were commissioned by this command to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord. Unquestionably, a faithful remnant needed to be continually prepared so that new generations of a messianic nucleus might be preserved through the centuries from Isaiah to Christ. But it was John the Baptist who had the climactic job of preparing an immediate nucleus for the coming of God in the fleshJesus Christ. It was John the Baptist who first immersed men and women in water for repentance unto the remission of sins (Mat. 3:1-2; Mar. 1:4; Luk. 3:1-3). It was the Immerser who pointed some of his principal disciples to Jesus (Joh. 1:29-51) and these men became apostlesevangelists and missionaries of the Messianic kingdom, the church, Indeed, even the Lord Himself said of John the Immerser, . . . among those born of women there has risen no one greater than John the Baptist, (Mat. 11:11).

The Hebrew word baaerabah means in the desert. It is the same word from which we have Arabia. The people are in the wilderness and God is going to come to them. They must prepare Him a way. The desert or wilderness was not necessarily an endless, flat sea of sand as we think of a desert today. A wilderness or desert could be any type of terrain which was uninhabited by people. The river banks of the Jordan, cluttered with reeds, brush and rocks was a wilderness. The barren mountains of southern Judea were a wilderness (desert). These wildernesses with their brush, mountains, valleys, rocks, and wild animals presented formidable obstacles to travel in ancient times. When kings and potentates wished to journey and it involved traversing such an unlikely territory, they sent great companies of slaves and workers on ahead of them to fill in valleys and lower hills and generally prepare a safe and easy pathway for them to travel. The desert is a figure of the obstacles and impediments that have kept God from His people. It was their sinful rebellion (Isa. 59:1-3) as depicted in the first 39 chapters that was keeping God from His people. This rebellious attitude in the majority will intensify in the days of Jeremiah and Ezekiel until God leaves them (Eze. 10:18; Eze. 11:23). God wants to come to them in PersonIncarnatein the flesh. He wants to reveal His glory to all mankind (Isa. 40:5). And when they have a remnant fully preparedwhen some believe Him enough to remove all obstacles into their heartswhen some are willing to obey Him completely (like Mary, mother of Jesus), then He will come! Isaiah is emphatically the missionary book of the Old Testament. He begins his prophecy (Isa. 2:2-3) by stating that all the nations shall flow to Zion. He ends it by stating that all flesh shall come to worship before the Lord (Isa. 66:23). One has only to take a concordance and look for peoples and nations in Isaiah to observe how often the prophet predicts that people from all nations will eventually become citizens of the Messianic kingdom of God.

A Voice is saying, Cry out. The Voice of verse six is evidently the Lord calling upon His messengers to add more exhortation to the message of strengthening, First, there is the exhortation to prepare a way for the Lord to come. The N.T. applies this to John the Baptist as the one who would prepare the hearts of people to receive the Messiah (Luk. 1:16-17). Further preparation to receive God is proclaiming the message that all flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: and the N.T. applies this to mans inability to save himself, the redemption that is in Christ, and mans access to that redemption through obedience to the gospel (1Pe. 1:13-24). Now the prophets from Isaiah to Malachi were charged to preach mans frailty and his inability to save himself, and the redemption of God provided by grace in some future era. And all their contemporaries who believed this and trusted in Jehovah were straightened out in their view of man and God. But only the substitutionary death of Christ and His resurrection (the gospel) validated once and for all mans lostness and Gods faithfulness. Only the gospel straightens man out so God can come to him. Only the gospel demonstrated ultimately that the word of God shall stand forever. The New Testament is the fulfillment of the entire strengthening half of Isaiahs prophecy (ch. 4066)!

Isa. 40:9-11 SURRENDER: The construction of the Hebrew in verse nine does not necessitate the tidings to be told to Zion. Literally translated the verse would read, So, a mountain high go you to, you bringer of good tidings, Zion. We have indicated this in our paraphrase. In other words, Zion is the bringer of good tidingsnot the one to whom good tidings are brought. Zion and Jerusalem are personified as proclaimers of good news. Isaiah predicted earlier that the law and the word of the Lord would go forth out of Zion and Jerusalem (Isa. 2:3). The good tidings are to be proclaimed koakh, powerfully, and, tiyraaiy, fearlessly.

What is Zion to proclaim? Behold! God is coming in mightiness! Adonai-Yaweh, the Lord-Jehovah is coming. Zeroau, arm, usually symbolizes a characteristicpower. It may also symbolize the Messiah who came as Gods Arm to rule (cf. Isa. 51:4-5; Isa. 52:7-10; Isa. 53:1; Luk. 1:51). Isa. 52:7-10 also predicts the good tidings by which the covenant people are to be comforted involving the Lord baring His holy arm before the eyes of all the nations. It is apparent that arm here and in Isa. 52:7-10 refers to the Messiah.

There could hardly be a better climax to this great Messianic prologue of the comfort section in Isaiahs book than Isa. 40:11. The shepherd can be none other than Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd. The Messiah-shepherd is one of the greatest concepts of Old Testament prophecy (cf. Eze. 34:20-31; Mic. 5:1-4; Zec. 11:7-14; Zec. 13:7, etc.). Jesus called Himself, The Good Shepherd (Luk. 15:3-7; Joh. 10:1-30) and His audience as a flock that needed shepherding (Mat. 9:36-38; Joh. 10:1-30).

If Isaiah and those prophets who come after him are to prepare mankind for the coming of the Lord, they must get men to prepare their wicked, desert-like hearts like a smooth, straight highway; they must straighten out their evaluation of mans ability to save himself and decide that man is capable of abiding forever only if he abides in the eternal word of God; they must surrender to the good tidings that God is going to send His Armthe tender, Good Shepherdto rule for Him.
Isaiah was writing of the glorious future for the benefit of the people of his day. Isaiahs task was to preserve a remnant of faithful Israelites who would be able to endure the disintegration of their nation, go into captivity and return to carry on the Messianic destiny. This remnant was to pass on their faith in the prophetic promises that this destiny would be preserved by God and ultimately fulfilledif not in their lives, in some glorious era to come. There may be an initial reference in this prologue to the restoration of the Jews to Palestine in the days of Ezra, Zerubbabel and Nehemiah.
But, unquestionably, the ultimate focus of the great redemption promised herethe coming of God to His people who are preparedis to the Messiah and His kingdomthe church. We have inspired documentation in the New Testament that this is so!

QUIZ

1.

Give as many arguments as you can that Isaiah is the author of the entire book by his name.

2.

What does the word comfort mean?

3.

Why cannot the ending of warfare, etc., be applied to the Israel returned from Babylonian captivity?

4.

Who is the voice that was to cry, Prepare?

5.

What does the figure of speech, make level in the desert a highway refer to?

6.

How much emphasis does Isaiah place on a missionary task?

7.

What do men need to straighten out about all flesh?

8.

What message is Zion to proclaim as good tidings?

9.

What proof do we have that these eleven verses are Messianic?

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

XL.

(1) Comfort ye . . .I start with the assumption that the great prophetic poem that follows is the work of Isaiah himself, referring to the Introduction for the discussion of all questions connected with its authorship and arrangement. It has a link, as has been noticed, with the earlier collection of his writings in Isa. 35:9-10. The prophets mind is obviously projected at the outset into the future, which it had been given him to see, when the time of punishment and discipline was to be succeeded, having done its work, by blessedness and peace. The key-note is struck in the opening words. The phrase my people is a distinct echo of Hos. ii. 1. Lo Ammi (i.e. not my people,) has been brought back to his true position as Ammi (i.e. my people).

Saith your God.Noticeable as a formula which is at once peculiar to Isaiah and common to both his volumes (Isa. 1:11; Isa. 1:18; Isa. 33:10; Isa. 41:21; Isa. 66:9).

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

1. Comfort ye This chapter proleptically opens the scene, as it was laid in Babylon during the exile, of God’s coming deliverance to his people. The interminable ring of “a remnant shall be saved,” still sounds loud and clear. The voice is to the prophet and his partners and successors, “Comfort ye.” The charge to “comfort” is re-doubled, denoting no cessation, no letting up, of this duty, for God is in earnest, and his promise means continuance of consolation till the exile is over.

My people The humble remnant, who are to be purified wholly of every idolatrous taint, and who shall be worthy of complete deliverance.

Your God Emphatic of “your;” because the humbled people are, and shall be accounted worthy to be, his a people to whom he twice commands to announce a perpetual consolation.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

The Preparing of the Way ( Isa 40:1-8 ).

The humiliation of Assyria has, in Isaiah’s eyes, opened up a new opportunity for the future for Judah/Israel. Yahweh has delivered His people, and awaits their response.

Isa 40:1-2

‘Comfort, comfort my people,

Says your God,

Speak to the heart of Jerusalem,

And cry to her,

That her warfare is accomplished,

That her iniquity is pardoned,

That she has received of the hand of Yahweh,

Double for all her sins.’

These are the words of the great Judge of all the world. The court has sat, the verdict has been reached and the sentence passed, and it is one of mercy. The words announce a change in Isaiah’s perspective. Previously he has mentioned quite regularly the deliverance and final blessing of Israel and Jerusalem, but here it takes centre stage. The time has come if only they will respond. The enemy has fled back to his own land (Isa 37:37). Now is the time to trust in Yahweh.

The verb ‘comfort’ is in the plural. Its repetition indicates the intensity with which it is spoken. The speaker is God, but this raises the question as to who are called on to comfort God’s people. There are two possible answers. Firstly that it is those who are to prepare the way of Yahweh (Isa 40:3), the heavenly beings who speak to each other in Isa 40:6. Or secondly that it is the small group of faithful Israelites gathered around Isaiah and his ministry, the faithful remnant. Or it may be a general command to be obeyed by both. The nations are withering, but the way is being prepared for Yahweh, the great King, to come, and Israel can therefore be comforted.

But the other question is, why can she be comforted? And the answer is, because, if she will accept it, all her tribulations are past, her iniquity is pardoned, she has received ‘double’ for all her sins. They have been ‘doubly paid’, paid in full. In other words she is now in a position where God can show His mercy because of her suffering.

But it was not to be so immediately and later in chapter 53 we will discover that this mercy is in fact shown because of One Who will suffer on her behalf. It is He Who will pay double for all her sins. Isaiah is not under any illusions. He is perfectly well aware that no man can pay for his own sins except by death. That is one of the things he was wrestling with. Thus he in the end comes to the conclusion that Jerusalem can only be delivered because of the price paid by the greatest of her sons. That is why her iniquity can be pardoned, because they will have been borne by Another (Isa 53:4; Isa 53:8). And yet included within that is that she has also been purified through suffering (Isa 4:4). Compare the Psalm of Hezekiah (Isa 38:15-17). God’s activity has made her ready if only she will see it.

‘Her warfare is accomplished, ended.’ The word translated ‘warfare’ regularly means ‘host, army’ and is so used in ‘Yahweh  of hosts ’, but therefore it also came to mean ‘war’ or ‘battle’ (Jos 4:13; Jos 22:12; Jos 22:33). Here therefore it depicts all Jerusalem’s trouble with which she has battled through the years. It has now been gone through to the full.

‘Her iniquity is pardoned.’ It is not that she has suffered undeservedly. It is because God has stepped in with a pardon (Isa 44:21-22). It is already so in the mind of God. The word for ‘pardoned’ is used of the acceptability of a sacrifice for atonement (Lev 1:4), and then for general acceptability (Deu 33:24), for reconciliation (1Sa 29:4), and thus for ‘being pleased with’. The idea is therefore that the barrier between God and His true people has been removed. But in the passive (as here) the verb only ever refers to the acceptability of a blood sacrifice (Lev 1:4; Lev 7:18; Lev 19:7; Lev 22:23; Lev 22:25; Lev 22:27), which points strongly to that meaning here. Once again it connects with the Suffering Servant (Isa 53:10-11). They are pardoned through His sacrifice.

Alternately reference may be to Lev 26:43, ‘they will accept the punishment for their iniquity’, indicating that Jerusalem has accepted her guilt and whatever punishment has been meted out. But it still required that God would accept it too, which is what is in mind here.

‘She has received of the hand of Yahweh double for all her sins.’ Even Israel would recognise that this could not be strictly true, unless there was more to it than just her own suffering. Isaiah will later point out that it was because One Who was unique would suffer for their sins that this could be so (Isa 52:13 to Isa 53:12). The world for ‘double’ suggests a piece of something doubled up (it comes from the root ‘to fold’) so that both sides exactly match. Thus the exact punishment has been achieved.

It is not therefore out of context that Isa 40:3-4 are cited in Mat 3:3; Mar 1:2-3; Luk 3:4-6. In the end the preparing of the way was in order to prepare for the coming suffering Servant of the house of David, Who could be called the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father (Isa 9:6).

There is no real reason for thinking that this passage should be applied to the ending of the so-called Babylonian captivity (which was only one of a number of captivities), of which Isaiah says nothing. No Babylonian captivity is mentioned and Babylon is only mentioned as a city that must be destroyed because of what it represents. It is unmentioned in chapters 40-42 and hardly prominent in the following chapters. The emphasis is rather on looking forward to the time when the Lord Yahweh Himself, having paid the price of sin through His Servant, will come as a Mighty One, to shepherd His flock and gather His lambs in His arms (Isa 40:10-11), in the everlasting kingdom (compare Eze 37:24).

Isa 40:3-5

‘The voice of one who cries,

“Prepare in the wilderness the way of Yahweh,

Make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

Every valley will be exalted,

And every mountain and hill will be made low,

And the crooked will be made straight,

And the rough places plain,

And the glory of Yahweh will be revealed,

And all flesh will see it together.

For the mouth of Yahweh has spoken it.” ’

Different members of the heavenly court cry out for the carrying out of the verdict described in Isa 40:1 (compare Isa 40:6). The cry here is for another ‘coming out of the desert’ by God, another deliverance, when God will again come to act on behalf of His people. Compare Isa 29:6; Isa 30:27-28; Deu 33:2-5; Jdg 5:3-5 where we have the same idea of God marching out of the desert into the land on His people’s behalf. He is the God of Sinai, coming to call His people back to the covenant, and coming to act on their behalf. And the way is to be prepared for Him. But by whom? Here by Isaiah and his followers, and in the New Testament days, by John the Baptiser.

The picture is of a great king making a journey, with his people going ahead so as to prepare the road and make the way smooth for him. Mountains were to be levelled off, valleys were to be filled in, crooked roads were to be straightened, rough places were to be made flat so that the king could take his journey with ease (this was often literally done). But here the great King is Yahweh, and thus the responders must be His subjects.

The Babylonians could speak similarly of preparing the way for a god. In a hymn to Nebo they said, ‘Make his way good, renew his road, make his path straight, hew him out a track.’ But the thought there was of making a processional way for the god as he was carried in his cart. There was no thought of the god as coming in person.

This call could thus be referring to His angel attendants, those who have already been told to comfort Jerusalem, who would go before Him, gladly serving Him. This would demonstrate heavenly activity on behalf of the people of God (compare Heb 1:14). Or it could be referring to the faithful among the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem as preparing the way by repentance and response, by an enthusiastic return to the covenant and the offering of true worship, and by acting as God’s servant towards the people. In the latter case the thought is that they should prepare the way by dealing with all that offends. Once they have removed sin and all that displeases God from their midst He will then come in glory and be revealed among them. This is probably the idea in its use in the Gospels, and in the light of what follows may well be in mind here.

But in general Isaiah sees the way as being prepared  for  His people, not  by  them. See Isa 35:8 where it is for those made holy; Isa 42:16 where it is for the blind, making darkness light before them, and crooked places straight; Isa 43:19 where He makes a way in the wilderness and streams in the desert; Isa 55:12 where it is for those led forth in peace. Thus it may well be that we are to see the way for God here as prepared primarily by the heavenly court. God does all. The angels go before Him to prepare the way. His people humbly receive the benefits. (Although this does not prevent man from having some humble part in it). When God acts, His own follow (compare here Isa 62:10-12).

‘And the glory of Yahweh will be revealed, and all flesh will see it together.’ Once the way has been prepared Yahweh’s glory will be revealed (compare Exo 16:10; Exo 33:18; Exo 33:22; Exo 40:34). All flesh will behold it (compare Rev 1:7). And Yahweh has declared it, and thus it will be so. (See Isa 2:10; Isa 2:19; Isa 2:21; Isa 4:5; Isa 28:5; Isa 33:17; Isa 33:21; Isa 60:1; Isa 60:19-20). So His glory and splendour will be seen by all flesh, and some will wither before it (Isa 40:6-8) and flee for a hiding place (compare Isa 2:10; Isa 2:19; Isa 2:21) while His people will rejoice in it and enjoy its splendour (Isa 24:23; Isa 60:19-20).

John saw this as fulfilled in the coming of Jesus. ‘And we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth’ (Joh 1:14).

Isa 40:6

‘The voice of one saying, “Cry out.” And one said, “What shall I cry?” ’

Compare here Dan 12:5-6. Heavenly beings are involved in clarifying what is happening. They are here declaring doom on mankind in his frailty, and the certainty of the fulfilment of God’s word. A Qumran scroll supported by the Greek and Latin versions, has ‘I said’ but there is no known good reason for the change except that it is an obvious simplification.

Isa 40:6-8

“All flesh is as grass,

And all its covenant love is as the flower of the field.

The grass withers, the flower fades,

Because the breath (spirit) of Yahweh blows on it.

Surely the people are grass.

The grass withers, the flower fades,

But the word of our God will stand for ever.”

The heavenly voice is to declare the frailty of men in contrast with Yahweh. Man is as grass, his response to God and to his fellows (chesed – covenant love to God and neighbour) is as withering vegetation, and when the wind of Yahweh comes it withers and fades. Man is unreliable. So man is as vegetation, he withers and fades, but in contrast what God has said, the ‘word of God’, stands for ever. It never withers, it never fades. It is everlasting. In Isa 37:27 this description of man as grass and vegetation is specifically referred to those too weak to stand against Assyria. In Psa 103:15-16 it is referred to the brevity of life. It represents man in all his frailty.

The wind or spirit of Yahweh here indicates judgments (Isa 4:4). Once these come men are unable to stand against them, and their behaviour is badly affected by them. Their changeableness is made apparent. Here the thought is of the effect of the searing wind on vegetation in a hot country, causing it to wither, likening it to the effect of God acting on the generality of mankind.

But in contrast to their fickleness God’s word stands for ever. It never withers or fades. He is unchangeable (see Jas 1:17). His promises never fail, His purposes always come to completion. He is totally reliable.

The overall thought connects with Isa 40:5 where all flesh sees the glory of Yahweh. But most are blasted over by it. It is only towards His own people that He acts in deliverance.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Isa 40:1-2 God’s Compassion after Judgment – Isa 40:1 is a turning point in the book of Isaiah. After thirty-nine chapters of judgment, God turns to comfort His people. Therefore, it is no coincidence that God reveals in these next chapters the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, His passion and His eternal exaltation with God’s children in heaven. This is God’s way of bringing eternal comfort to His people through the redemptive work of Calvary and Christ Jesus’ shed blood.

Although God’s hand of judgment had fallen, His love for Israel never grew any less. It is just like when our children stumble and fall into wicked sin and bear the consequences; we still keep on loving them with a complete love. God’s great love and promises held strong throughout those horrible years of judgment. When a father is punishing a child, his love for that child is not any less. Likewise with us, God still loves us just as much in our worst sins as in our best obedience (Isa 54:7-8).

Isa 54:7-8, “For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer.”

How often have I seen my wife comfort our children after a spanking. The more severe her punishment, the more tender her heart towards the child after the punishment. I saw her take a wet rag and doctor my child’s buttock after she had made it red with a spanking.

A parent who genuinely loves a child will bring punishment out of love, and they will bring great comfort after the punishment out of love for having to inflict the pain.

A good illustration of this compassion from God is found when He judged Israel for David’s sin of numbering the people. After destroying 70,000 people, God repented and stopped His judgment (2Sa 24:16).

2Sa 24:16, “And when the angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed the people, It is enough: stay now thine hand. And the angel of the LORD was by the threshingplace of Araunah the Jebusite.”

Isa 40:1  Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.

Isa 40:1 “Comfort ye, comfort ye” Comments – The words “Comfort ye, comfort ye,” are repeated for emphasis.

Isa 40:1 “my people, saith your God” – Comments – God shows His affection towards His covenant people. They are His people and He is their God, by virtue of covenant. The rest of the book of Isaiah will reveal that He has not forsaken them and that He has a great plan of redemption and restoration for them.

Isa 40:2  Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD’S hand double for all her sins.

Isa 40:2 Comments This passage of Scripture in Isaiah predicts the coming of John the Baptist and Jesus Christ, who will offer redemption for Israel even before His pays for their sins on Calvary. When Jesus Christ entered His public ministry after His water baptism by John the Baptist, He never condemned any sinner. He forgave everyone and healed all who were sick. Every before His atonement on Calvary, Jesus offered atonement to everyone. Jesus spoke comfort to Jerusalem and told them that God loved them, and forgives the sins of those who believe in Him.

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

The Word of Comfort and the God of Comfort.

The last part of the book of the prophet Isaiah has fitly been called the Book of Comfort, for in its beautiful language and in its exalted visions the Gospel of salvation is so clearly taught that it often seems as though John himself were speaking. The preacher and the prophet are combined in the message brought out by Isaiah to such an extent as to make us feel that voices from the world beyond are singing a glorious hymn of praise.

The Gospel of Comfort

v. 1. Comfort ye, comfort ye, My people, saith your God. Note the repetition of the charge, with the emphasis implied, the significance of the address in the plural as including the Gospel-messengers of all times, and the inviting designations “My” people and “your” God. In the very charge of Jehovah there is contained a tender call to the believers of all times to find true comfort and consolation in the message of salvation.

v. 2. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, literally, “to the heart of Jerusalem,” addressing words of consolation to all members of the spiritual Zion, the Church of God, and cry unto her, in a sermon of sweetest assurance, that her warfare is accomplished, that the tribulation to which His people are subjected would soon be ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, namely, in and through the Messiah, whose coming is so clearly foretold in this series of prophecies; for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins, that is, the severe punishment which the Lord’s people had to endure for their sins was to be replaced in richest measure by evidences of His grace and mercy. That is the strange and wonderful manner in which the Lord deals with His children always He substitutes acts of love and mercy for the well-merited condemnation. The prophet now shows in what way his threefold message would be realized.

v. 3. The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, of the herald of the great King Messiah, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, in the very midst of the spiritual wilderness in which men find themselves by nature, they should make ready a road on which their King might come into their hearts, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

v. 4. Every valley shall be exalted, the hearts that have been humbled by the hammer-blows of the Law being lifted up, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, the proud and self-righteous spirits being taught to despair of their own virtue; and the crooked shall be made straight, the hindrances laid flat, and the rough places plain, all obstructions due to sin and objection to the Lord and His Word being removed by the message of the New Testament;

v. 5. and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, namely, chiefly in the coming of His only-begotten Son, full of grace and truth, Joh 1:14, and all flesh shall see it together, all men having an opportunity to become acquainted with the Gospel of salvation, Mat 24:14; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. The paragraph deals with the call to repentance with which the Messianic era opened, particularly in the preaching of John the Baptist, Mat 3:1-3; Mar 1:2-3; Luk 3:2-6; Joh 1:23, but finds its application also in all true preaching of the New Testament, which is essentially a proclamation of sin and grace. The prophet now introduces a dialog between a heavenly voice and that of the ideal prophet concerning the proclamation which is to be made.

v. 6. The voice, some one with authority speaking from heaven, said, Cry, call out, announce! And he, a voice on earth representing all true preachers of righteousness, said, What shall I cry? What are to be the contents of his preaching? And the answer comes down from heaven, All flesh is grass, all human beings are mortal, transitory, perishable, subject to death and decay, and all the goodliness thereof, all the outward show and pomp of men, is as the flower of the field, barely reaching an early maturity before it withers.

v. 7. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it, for it is He who gives them their being, and it is He who causes their decay; surely the people is grass, even the covenant nation. Cf Psa 104:29-30; Ecc 8:8; Rom 6:23; Psalms 90.

v. 8. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, the repetition being made for the sake of impressing this great truth upon all minds; but the Word of our God shall stand forever, in the midst of the death and decay of this world, in the midst even of the final great cataclysm which will usher in the end of the present earth, the Word of the Lord abides without change and modification, throughout eternity. The prophet, therefore, urges Zion, the Church of the Lord, to make known this Word with rejoicing,

v. 9. O Zion, that bringest good tidings, the congregation of the Lord being regarded as an evangelist proclaiming the message of the Gospel, get thee up into the high mountain, from where her voice could be heard far and wide. O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, the parallelism bringing out the urgency of the call, lift up thy voice with strength, in triumphant strains, in a cheerful announcement; lift it up, be not afraid, faint-hearted on account of the feeling of unworthiness; say unto the cities of Judah, to all those who have experienced tribulation similar to that of the mother, Behold your God! The picture is that of the deliverance from the Babylonian captivity, but its application throughout presupposes New Testament conditions.

v. 10. Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand, the almighty Ruler making use of His omnipotence, and His arm shall rule for Him, in triumphing over all enemies. Behold, His reward is with Him, namely, that which He gained in the severe battle which He undertook, and His work before Him, the spoils which He has brought back, with which He intends to bless His people. One of these blessings is now described.

v. 11. He shall feed His flock, take the proper care of all His children in the faith, like a shepherd, in His capacity as the one true Shepherd of their souls; He shall gather the lambs, the young, weak, and inexperienced, with His arm, picking them up since they are unable to walk, and carry them in His bosom, with the most tender care, and shall gently lead those that are with young, lest the ewes be harmed by being overdriven. This entire introductory section, with its four strophes outlining the last part of the book, pictures the coming of the Messiah in all the beauty of its comfort, calls to repentance, emphasizes the certainty of His salvation, and proclaims the victory of the Lord and the glorification of the believers.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

PART III. ISAIAH‘S LATER PROPHECIES (CH. 40-66.).

SECTION I. THE PEOPLE OF GOD COMFORTED IN TRIBULATION (Isa 40:1-31.).

EXPOSITION

Prefatory Remarks

THE Assyrian struggle is over. The prophet has accepted into the depths of his spirit God’s announcement that the true spoiler, “the rod of his anger, and the staff of his indignation,” is not Assyria, but Babylon. He has accepted the sentence that his people is to go into captivity. Into this future of his nation he throws himself with a faith, a fervour, and a power of realization, which are all his own. “The familiar scenes and faces, among which he has hitherto lived and laboured, have grown dim and disappeared. All sounds and voices of the present are hushed, and move him no more. The present has died out of the horizon of his soul’s vision The voices in his cars are those of men unborn, and he lives a second life among events and persons, sins and suffering, and fears and hopes, photographed sometimes with the minutest accuracy on the sensitive and sympathetic medium of his own spirit; and he becomes the denouncer of the special sins of a distant generation, and the spokesman of the faith and hope and passionate yearning of an exiled nation, the descendants of men living, when he wrote, in the profound peace of a renewed prosperity”. The primary idea which occurs to him is that of “comfort.” He will “comfort his people” in their affliction, so far as in him lies; and he will do this by preaching

(1) the recovery of Israel from sin by faith and waiting upon God; and

(2) their recovery from the bondage to Babylon, which was the consequence of sin. In the present chapter it is the former topic especially which he urges.

Isa 40:1

Comfort ye, comfort ye my people. The key-note is struck at once. With that iteration which is his favourite mode of emphasizing what is important (see the comment on Isa 38:11), the prophet declares that he and his brethren have a direct mission from God to “comfort” Israel. Note the encouragement contained in the expressions, “my people,” and “your God.” Israel is not cast off, even when most deeply afflicted.

Isa 40:2

Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem; literally, speak ye to the heart of Jerusalem. Address her inmost feelings, her very spirit and soul. Her warfare is accomplished is pardoned hath received. These perfects can only be viewed as “perfects of prophetic certainty.” According to every theory of the authorship of Isaiah 40-46, they were written before the close of the Captivity, when Israel’s warfare was not yet accomplished, her iniquity not yet fully pardoned. Isaiah, however, sees all as already accomplished in the Divine counsels, and so announces it to the people. Israel’s warfare, her long term of hard service (comp. Job 7:1), will assuredly come to an end; she will thoroughly turn to God, and then her iniquity will be pardoned, she will be considered to have suffered enough. Double. “It was the ordinary rule under the Law that ‘for all manner of trespass’ a man condemned by the judges should pay double” (Kay; comp. Exo 22:9). Heathen legislators adopted the same rule for certain offences (Arist, ‘Eth. Nic.,’ 3.5, 8). It is not here intended to assert that the law of Divine judgment is to exact double; but only to assure Israel that, having been amply punished, she need fear no further vengeance (comp. Isa 61:7).

Isa 40:3

The voice of him that crieth; rather, the voice of one that crieth. A voice sounds in the prophet’s ear, crying to repentance. For God to come down on earth, for his glory to be revealed in any signal way, by the restoration of a nation, or the revelation of himself in Christ, or the final establishment of his kingdom, the “way” must be first “prepared” for him. The hearts of the disobedient must be turned to the wisdom of the just. In the wilderness; either, “the wilderness of this world” (Kay), or “the wilderness separating Babylonia from Palestine” (Delitzsch), in a part of which John the Baptist afterwards preached. Prepare ye the way of the Lord. The “way of the Lord” is “the way of holiness” (Isa 35:8). There is one only mode of “preparing” itthe mode adopted by John Baptist (Mat 3:2-12), the mode pointed out by the angel who announced him (Luk 1:17), the mode insisted on in the Collect for the Third Sunday in Advent. The voice enjoins on the prophets of the captive nation to prepare the hearts of the people for the coming manifestation of God.

Isa 40:4

Every valley shall be exalted, etc.; rather, let every valley be exalted. The prophets are to see that the poor and lowly are raised up; the proud and self-righteous depressed; the crooked and dishonest induced to change their ways for those of simplicity and integrity; the rude, rough, and harsh rendered courteous and mild. “In general, the meaning is that Israel is to [be made] take care that the God who is coming to deliver it shall find it in such an inward and outward state as befits his purpose”.

Isa 40:5

And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed. Then, when the preparation is complete, there shall be a revelation of the glory and might of Jehovah. The nature of the revelation is for the present shrouded in darkness; but it is a revelation which is not confined to Israel. All flesh shall see it together. It shall draw to it the attention of the human race at large. While the restoration of Israel to Palestine is the primary fulfilment of the prophecy, that restoration clearly does not exhaust its meaning, which points on to the restoration of all mankind to God’s favour in Christ by the of his advent in the flesh, which has drown, or will draw, the eyes of “all flesh.” For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. A repetition of the emphatic clause wherewith Isaiah had terminated the third section of his first prophecy (Isa 1:20). It occurs again in Isa 58:14. No other writer uses the expression.

Isa 40:6

The voice said, Cry; rather, a voice of else that sayeth, Cry. It is a second voice, distinct from that of Isa 40:3, that now reaches the prophet’s eara voice responded to by another. The speakers seem to be angels, who contrast the perishable nature of man with the enduringness and unchangingness of God. The point of their discourse is that “the Word of the Lord endureth for ever” (Isa 40:8), and therefore the preceding promises (Isa 40:2, Isa 40:5) are sure. And he said; rather, and one said. A second voice answered the first, and asked what the proclamation was to be. In reply its terms were given. All flesh is grass (comp. Isa 37:27; and see also Job 5:25; Psa 90:5; Psa 92:7; Psa 103:15). The goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. So Ephraim was compared in Isa 28:1 to “a fading flower.” The similitude is found also in Job 14:2 and in Psa 103:15. Homer approaches the idea in his well-known simile, (‘Iliad,’ 6:146).

Isa 40:7

The flower fadeth: because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it. When the hot winds, which God sends, blow in spring-time, the flowers fade; when a destroying breath from him (see Isa 30:33) passes over the generations of men, they perish. Surely the people is grass. Either a mere repetition of “all flesh is grass” (Isa 40:6) with an asseveration, or an intimation that “the people” of Israel is not exempt from the lot of mankind in general, but shares it.

Isa 40:8

The Word of our God shall stand for ever. Amid all human frailty, shiftingness, changefulness, there is one thing that endures, and stroll endureGod’s Word (see the comment on the first part of Isa 40:6). In the sureness of God’s promises is Israel’s exceeding comfort.

Isa 40:9-11

The time of Israel’s restoration has drawn nigh. The preparation has been made. The voice calling to preparation is silent. The promises are now on the verge of receiving their accomplishment. It is fitting that some one should announce the fact to the nation. Isaiah calls on the company of prophets living at the time to do so (verse 9). They are to take up a commanding position, to speak with a loud voice, and to proclaim the good tidings to Zion, to Jerusalem, and to the cities of Judah (comp. Isa 44:26). The terms of the proclamation are then given (verses 10, 11).

Isa 40:9

O Zion, that bringest good tidings, etc.; rather, as in the margin, O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion (so the LXX; Gesenius, Rosenmuller, Maurer, Hitzig, Knobel, and Kay). Get thee up into the high mountain; rather, into a high mountain. Choose an elevated spot from which to make proclamation. O Jerusalem, that bringest, etc.; again, as in the margin, O thou that tellest good tidings to Jerusalem. The repetition, with a slight change, is quite in the manner of Isaiah. The cities of Judah. These would be in rains, no less than Jerusalem herself (see Isa 46:1-13 :26; Isa 64:10).

Isa 40:10

The Lord God; literally, the Lord Jehovah. With strong hand; or, with strength. His arm shall rule for him. Kay translates, “His arm shall get him rule;” i.e. the manifestation, which he shall make of his power, shall cause his kingdom to be extended far and wide upon the earth. “The Lord’s arm,” “the Lord’s hand,” are favourite expressions of Isaiah’s (Isa 5:25; Isa 9:12; Isa 10:4; Isa 11:11; Isa 31:3; Isa 51:9; Isa 53:1; Isa 62:3, etc.). His reward is with him, and his work before him; rather, his wage is with him, and his recompense before hima case of synonymous parallelism. The phrase is repeated in Isa 62:11. Mr. Cheyne understands “the reward which God gives to his faithful ones” to be meant. But perhaps it is better to understand, with Dr. Kay, that in the “little flock” which he restores to Palestine God finds his own reward and recompensethe compensation for all his care and trouble.

Isa 40:11

He shall feed his flock like a shepherd. The similitude is a favourite one with the psalmists (Psa 77:20; Psa 78:52; Psa 80:1), and occurs again later on in Isaiah (Isa 49:9, Isa 49:10). Its beauty and sweetness have been widely recognized. He shall gather the lambs; collect them, i.e; when they have strayed from the flock. Shall gently lead those that are with young; rather, those that give suck (comp. Gen 33:3, where the same word is used). Ewes that are suckling their lambs require specially tender treatment.

Isa 40:12-31

THE MIGHT AND GREATNESS OF GOD CONTRASTED WITH THE WEAKNESS OF MAN AND THE FUTILITY OF IDOLS. If captive Israel is to be induced to turn’ to God, and so hasten the time of its restoration to his favour and to its own land, it must be by rising to a worthy conception of the nature and attributes of the Almighty. The prophet, therefore, in the remainder of this chapter, paints in glorious language the power and greatness, dud at the same time the mercy, of God, contrasting him with man (Isa 40:15-17, Isa 40:23, Isa 40:28-31), with idols (Isa 40:19, Isa 40:20), and with the framework of material things (Isa 40:21, Isa 40:22, Isa 40:26), and showing his infinite superiority to each and all. In contrasting him with man, he takes occasion to bring into prominence his goodness and loving-kindness to man, to whom he imparts a portion of his own might and strength (Isa 40:29-31 ).

Isa 40:12

Who hath measured the waters? (comp. Pro 30:4 and Job 38:4-6). The might of God is especially shown in creation, which Isaiah assumes to be God’s work. How infinitely above man must he be, who arranged in such perfection, “by measure and number and weight” (Wis. 11:20), the earth, the waters, and the heavens, so proportioning each to each as to produce that admirable order and regularity which the intelligent observer cannot but note in the material universe as among its chief characteristics! In the hollow of his hand. The anthropomorphism is strong, no doubt, but softened by the preceding mention (in verse 10) of God’s “arm,” and by the comparison of God to a shepherd (in verse 11). Isaiah’s exalted notion of God renders him fearless with regard to anthropomorphism. And meted out heaven with the span; rather, with a span (comp. Isa 48:13, “My right hand hath spanned the heavens”). And comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure; literally, in a tierce. The measure intended is probably the seah, which was the third part of an ephah, and held about three gallons. The seah was “the ordinary measure for household purposes.” In scales in a balance. The peles, here translated “scales,” is probably the steelyard, while the mozenaim is “the balance” or “pair of scales” ordinarily used for weighing. God metes out all things with measures, scales, and balances of his own, which are proportioned to his greatness.

Isa 40:13

Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord? Mr. Cheyne remarks, that “in Isaiah there is a marked tendency to hypostatize the Spirit;” and the remark is undoubtedly a just one (see Isa 32:15; Isa 34:16; Isa 48:16; Isa 61:1, etc.). In the present place, perhaps, the introduction of “the Spirit of the Lord” arises out of the remembrance of the part in creation which is assigned to the Spirit in Gen 1:2. He “moved,” or “brooded,” upon the face of the waters, and thence began the change, or series of changes, by which order was produced out of confusion. The Spirit of the Lord “directed,” or regulated, these changes; but who, Isaiah asks, “directed,” or regulated, the Spirit itself? Can it be supposed that he too had a director over him? Isaiah does not seriously doubt on this point, or “leave it an open question.” He makes his inquiry by way of a reductio ad absurdum. Is it not absurd to suppose that he had a director or a counsellor? He does nothere, at any rateso far “hypostatize the Spirit” as to view him as a Person distinct from the Person of God the Father, working under him, and carrying out his will. Or being his counsellor hath taught him? “The Lord by wisdom founded the earth” (Pro 3:19); but he was his own counsellor. He had no adviser external to himself. The wisdom which wrought with him was his own wisdom, an essential part of the Divine essence. The evangelical prophet approaches those mysteries of God’s nature which the gospel brought to light, but cannot penetrate them.

Isa 40:15

Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket. “From nature,” as Mr. Cheyne says, “we pass to history.” If God is so great, so apart and by himself in relation to the material universe, what is he in relation to man? What are nations, compared to him, but “as a drop from a bucket,” which drips from it, and is of no account? What are they, hut as the small dust of the balance, which lies on it but does not disturb its equilibrium? They are absolutely “as nothing” (Isa 40:17)vanity and emptiness, He taketh up the isles as a very little thing; literally, he taketh up islands, or perhaps lands generally. As he weighs mountains and hills in his balance (Isa 40:15), so he can take up in his own hands “lands,” or “countries” (Cheyne), with all their inhabitants, and do with them as seemeth him good. They are no burden to him.

Isa 40:16

Lebanon is not sufficient to burn. Man may think that he must be of some account, since God has required of him sacrifice and burnt offering, from which he may suppose God to derive some satisfaction. But, the prophet says, even if man were to burn all Lebanon as firewood on God’s altar, and offer there all the (clean) beasts of the entire tract, still God would be put under no obligation. Man would even then have paid less than his debt.

Isa 40:17

All nations; rather, all the nations; i.e. all the nations of the earth put together. In Isa 40:15 single “nations” had been declared to be of no account; now the same is said of all the nations of the earth collectively. They are accounted of God as ‘ephes, nothingness, and tohu, chaos or confusion.

Isa 40:18

Is more the complement of what precedes than the introduction to what follows (comp. Isa 40:25). If God be all that has been said of him in Isa 40:12-17, must he not be wholly unique and incomparable? Then, out of this, the thought arises of the strange, the poor, the mean “likenesses” of God, which men have in their folly set up in various times and places. It has been said that Israel in captivity did not need to be warned against idolatry, of the inclination to which the Captivity is supposed at once to have cured them. But there is no evidence of this. Rather, considering the few that returned, and the many that remained behind (Joseph; ‘Ant Jud.,’ 11.1), we may conclude that a large number adopted the customs, religion, and general mode of life of their masters.’

Isa 40:19

The workman melteth a graven image; rather, the workman casteth an image (comp. Isa 41:7; Isa 44:9-17; Isa 46:6, Isa 46:7). Israel’s tendency to idolatry has been touched on in the earlier prophecies once or twice (Isa 2:8, Isa 2:20; Isa 31:7); but in the later chapters idolatry is assailed with a frequency, a pungency, and a vigour that are new, and that imply a change, either in the prophet’s circumstances or in his standpoint. Perhaps it is enough to suppose that, placing himself ideally among the captives, Isaiah sees that the Babylonian idolatry will be, or at any rate may be, a snare to them, and provides an antidote against the subtle poison. The special antidote which he employs is ridicule, and the first ground of his ridicule is the genesis or formation of an image. It is made by man himself, out of known material substances. Either a figure is cast in some inferior metal, and then coated with gold and finished with the graving tool, or a mere block of wood is taken and cut into shape. Can it be supposed that such things are “likenesses” of God, or that he is comparable to them? Casteth silver chains; as ornaments to be worn by the images, which were often dressed (see Thucyd; Isa 2:13; Baruch 6:9-12).

Isa 40:20

He that is so impoverished, etc.; rather, he that can only make a poor offering, i.e. that cannot spend much on religion. Chooseth a tree; rather, chooseth woodgoes to the carpenter, and selects a good sound block of wood, out of which his idol shall be made. After this he has to find a skilful workman, who will carve his image for him and set it up, so that it shall not shake. As Delitzsch observes, “The thing carries its own satire” in the mere plain description of it. Is such a thing comparable to God?

Isa 40:21

Have ye not known? Hitherto the prophet has restrained himself, and confined himself to quiet sarcasm. Now he bursts out. Is there any one so insensate, so devoid of natural reason and understanding, as not to know what has been known to all from the beginningyea, from the foundations of the earthby “the light that is in them,” viz. that God is something wholly different from this?that he is such a One as the prophet proceeds to describe in Isa 40:22-24, alike above nature and above man, Lord of heaven and earth, and absolute Disposer of the fates of all men? Hath it not been told you? If ye have not known the nature of God by the light of nature, has it not come down to you by tradition? Have not your fathers told it you? Has it not been handed on by sire to son from the very foundation of the earth? The appeal is to men generally, not especially to Israel. Have ye not understood, etc.? Some omit the preposition after “understood,” and render the passage thus: “Have ye not understood the foundations of the earth?” i.e. how it was founded, or createdthat its creation was God’s sole act? (so the LXX; the Vulgate, Gesenius, Hitzig, Delitzsch, Knobel, Kay; but Ewald, Henderson, Weir, and Mr. Cheyne prefer the rendering of the Authorized Version).

Isa 40:22

It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth; rather, above the vault of the earth; above the vault of sky which seems to arch over the earth. As grasshoppers; i.e. minute, scarcely visible (comp. Num 13:33). That stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain. So in Psa 104:2, only that here the “curtain” is represented as one of thin gauze. The idea is common to Isaiah with Job (Job 9:8), Jeremiah (Jer 10:12; Jer 51:15), and Zechariah (Zec 12:1), and is a favourite one in these later chapters (comp. Isa 42:5; Isa 44:24; Isa 45:12; Isa 51:13). As a tent (comp. Psa 19:4, where God is said to have set in the heavens a “tabernacle”‘ohel, the word used herefor the sun).

Isa 40:23

The princes the judges; rather, princes, judges. The entire class of such is meant, not any special individuals (comp. Psa 107:40; Job 12:19-21). As vanity; or, as chaosthe same word that is used in Isa 40:17.

Isa 40:24

They shall not be planted shall not be sown shall not take root. The verbs are all of them in the past tense. Translate, have not been planted, sown, etc. The meaning is that princes and judges of the earth are not fixed in their places, have no firm root in the soil, are easily overturned. Even if the case were different, a breath from the Almighty would, as a matter of course, dry them up (see Isa 40:7) and blow them away. As stubble (comp. Isa 5:24; Psa 83:13).

Isa 40:25

To whom then, etc.? This is a summary, to conclude the section (Isa 40:19-24), as Isa 40:18 concludes the preceding one. If God is paramount over idols (Isa 40:19, Isa 40:20) and over nature (Isa 40:22) and over humanity (Isa 40:23, Isa 40:24), to whom can he be likened? Is he not altogether unique and incomparable? Saith the Holy One (comp. Isa 57:15). Isaiah’s special designation of God, at once pregnant and almost peculiar (see the comment on Isa 1:4), is “the Holy One of Israel.” This is, here and in Isa 57:15, abbreviated.

Isa 40:26

Lift up your eyes, etc. Once more an appeal is made to creation, as proving God’s greatness. “Lift up your eyes on high, and see who hath created these (heavens), bringing out their host (i.e. the stars) by number, or in their full number (Cheyne), and calling them all by names” (comp. Psa 147:4, Psa 147:5, “He telleth the number of the stars, and calleth them all by their names,” which, however, is probably later than Isaiah). Omnipotence alone could have created the starry host. Omniscience is required to know their number and their names. The Israelites are supposed to have “learned that the constellations had names, in Babylon” (Cheyne, ad loc.); but a special name for each star, which the Babylonians did not give, seems to be here intended. Not one faileth; i.e. “not one star neglects to attend the muster when God marshals the host.” The stars are viewed as his army.

Isa 40:27

O Jacob O Israel (For this pleonastic combination, so characteristic of Isaiah, see Isa 9:8; Isa 10:21, Isa 10:22; Isa 14:1; Isa 27:6; Isa 29:23, in the earlier chapters; and Isa 41:8; Isa 42:24; Isa 43:1, Isa 43:22, Isa 43:28; Isa 44:1, Isa 44:5, Isa 44:23; Isa 45:4; Isa 46:3; Isa 49:5, Isa 49:6, etc; in the later ones.) Why sayest thou My way is hid? The prophet has gone back to the time when Israel is suffering all the calamities of the Captivity, instead of being on the point of emerging from it, as in Isa 40:9-11, and he now hears the complaints of the exiles, who think that God has forsaken themthat he does not see their “way” of life, or regard their sufferings. My judgment. Delitzsch and Mr. Cheyne translate “my right,” and understand the “right” of Israel to be independent of its oppressors.

Isa 40:28

Hast thou not known? Complaining Israel is bidden to stay itself upon God, as

(1) everlasting;

(2) the Creator;

(3) unwearied;

(4) unsearchable;

and is then further consoled by the promise that God will give them strength to endure; support them, refresh them, and, as it were, renew the youth of the nation (Isa 40:29, Isa 40:31). Creator of the ends of the earth; i.e. “Creator even of the remotest ends,” and therefore of the whole earth. Fainteth not (comp. Psa 121:3, Psa 121:4). If God were for a moment to “faint” or “be weary,” to “slumber” or “sleep,” the whole fabric of nature would fail and disappear, universal chaos would set in, all moral order would ceaseprobably all existence, except his own, sink into nothingness. God is wholly free from whatsoever is weak or defective in man. No searching (see Job 5:9; Job 9:10; Job 11:7; Psa 147:5; Ecc 3:11). God’s ways being unsearchable, his servants must trust him to accomplish their deliverance in his own good time.

Isa 40:29

He giveth power to the faint. So far is he from being “faint” himself, that he has superabundant energy to impart to any that are faint among his servants.

Isa 40:30

Shall faint shall fall; rather, should even the youths faint and be weary, and should the young men utterly fall, yet they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, etc. The two clauses of Isa 40:30 are “concessive.”

Isa 40:31

They shall mount up with wings as eagles (comp. Psa 103:5 : and, for the use of the eagle as a metaphor for strength, see Exo 19:4; Deu 32:11).

HOMILETICS

Isa 40:1, Isa 40:2

Comfort after trouble.

God “has no pleasure in the death of him that dieth;” it is no satisfaction to him to punish. As soon as ever those whom he is forced to punish will submit to the chastening rod in a proper spirit, and allow the staff of the Divine indignation to have its due effect upon them, God is ready to comfort. God the Holy Ghost is the One True Comforter. He and he alone can pour balm into the heart, quiet the conscience, enable the stricken soul to feel that it is once more at one with God. A few words may be said on

(1) the conditions of comfort;

(2) the methods of comfort; and

(3) the proper results of comfort.

I. THE CONDITIONS OF COMFORT. As trouble comes upon us to punish sin, the first condition of our receiving comfort is that sin be put away. The next is that we implore God’s pardon for our past transgressions, and acknowledge the justice of his chastisement. The third is that we pray to him of his great goodness to remit his anger, and speak comfort to our souls, and pour his peace into our hearts. If we neglect any of these conditions, we have no right to expect that God will bless us with the great blessing of his comforting grace, which is not, like the rain and sunshine, an ordinary blessing of his providence, but is a special boon reserved for those who have prepared themselves to receive it.

II. THE METHODS OF COMFORT. God sometimes comforts us through the instrumentality of our fellow-men. Job’s friends were “miserable comforters, all of them” (Job 16:2); but it is not always so with the afflicted. The kind sympathy of friends, the wise counsel of spiritual guides, is often blessed by God to the relief and solace of those who are in trouble. “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,” was his address to the prophets of Israel (verse 1); and we may be assured that his Spirit went with the month of his prophets, and made the comfort which they strove to We effectual. Again, sometimes he comforts us by his Word. Many a time has the despairing soul found peace and joy in the promises of the gospel, which are indeed potent to raise up hope in the most despondent, and to comfort the most unhappy. But frequentlyperhaps we may say mostlyGod gives his comfort himself, without intermediary. The stricken soul strays itself’ upon him, leans on him, makes its moan to him; and he “comes to it,” and with his blessed presence puts an end to the soul’s trouble, dispels the darkness, drives away despair and fear, infuses hope, breathes peace, imparts comfort (see Psa 71:2; Isa 51:3; Isa 66:13; 2Co 1:3, 2Co 1:4; 2Th 2:17, etc.).

III. THE RESULTS OF COMFORT. The immediate result of comfort is peace and happiness. The soul comforted by God is at least contented, blissful. The further results should be

(1) gratitude for the great mercy and loving-kindness showed to us;

(2) perseverance in well-doing, the fruit and necessary result of gratitude, the chief means which creatures have of showing forth their thankfulness to God for any and every mercy vouchsafed to them;

(3) praise and thanksgiving, the natural utterance of the mouth, when the heart is really touched with gratitude, and sensible of God’s goodness. As David says, “What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me? I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the Name of the Lord. I will pay my vows unto the Lord in the presence of all his people I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the Name of the Lord” (Psa 116:12-17).

Isa 40:4-8

God’s promises sure.

With Isaiah it is enough that “the month of the Lord has spoken” a thing (Isa 1:20; Isa 40:5). “God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent” (Num 23:19). What he has promised, he will perform; what he has said, he will do, in the sense in which he said it. It is true, his promises are of two kinds

(1) unconditional, and

(2) conditional; and, though both kinds are sure, they are not sure in the same way.

I. GOD‘S UNCONDITIONAL PROMISES ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN OF ACCOMPLISHMENT. God has promised that he will never again destroy mankind by a flood (Gen 9:11). He has pledged himself that “while the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease” (Gen 8:22). By his Son he has declared that “the gates of hell shall not prevail against his Church” (Mat 16:18), that he will send his Son to earth a second time to judge the quick and dead (Mat 25:31-45), and that then the wicked “shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal” (Mat 25:46). These are unconditional promises, and are absolutely certain of fulfilment. Nothing can come in their way. God’s veracity is pledged to them, and, as he is true, he must and will bring them to pass.

II. GOD‘S CONDITIONAL PROMISES ARE CERTAIN OF ACCOMPLISHMENT, IF THE CONDITION REFULFILLED. The bulk of God’s promises to mankind are “covenant promises,” and, by the nature of a “covenant promise,” they depend on a condition or conditions which have to be fulfilled. The promises to the Israelites that they should possess Canaan, to David that his seed should sit upon his throne, and to captive Israel that it should be restored, were of this nature. So are all promises of temporal and spiritual blessings to individuals. Even where the condition is not expressed, it is understood. A single example will suffice to show the nature of this kind of promise. A covenant was made with David to establish his seed for ever, and set up his throne to all generations (Psa 89:3, Psa 89:4). This covenant was to stand fast, so long as his children walked in his ways. If, however, they forsook God’s Law, and walked not in his judgments; if they broke his statutes, and kept not his commandments, then their transgressions were to be visited with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. The Anointed of the Lord was to be cut off and abhorred; the covenant with him was to be made void, and his crown to be cast to the ground (Psa 89:30-39). In these cases God’s part of the covenant remains sure; it is man’s which is uncertain. If man fails, then God is, by his very faithfulness, bound to mark his sense of the failure by non-fulfilment of the promises which were made conditional on a certain course of human action. Unless man fails, God’s promises remain firm. No one can pretend to point out any case m which the covenant has been observed by man, and God’s part in it has been that of a defaulter.

Isa 40:11

God the Shepherd of his people.

This favourite image is “full of figures and analogies of loving-kindness. It is almost sacramental in its depth and power.” To exhaust its meaning is impossible; to draw out all that it implies is hopeless; even to make it the subject of comment may seem almost impertinent. Still, in an exegetical work, some comment must be made upon a passage at once so characteristic and so powerful; some attempt at exposition must be attached to the declaration of a truth so precious. Six things would seem, then, to be especially involved in the declaration.

I. GOD LOVES HIS FLOCK. Love is at the root of even an earthly shepherd’s care for his flock, if he is a true shepherd, and not a mercenary hireling. Without love, there may be care, but it will not be tender care; there may be guardianship, but it will not be incessant, unwearied, jealous guardianship. The heavenly Shepherd loves the sheep of his flock with a deep, true, patient, and abounding love, surpassing far the utmost affection whereof man is capable, surpassing even the utmost conception that man can form of love. His flock is his own creation, his own reflected image, his own purchased possession. His desire is toward it (So Isa 7:10). He loves it with a love which “many waters cannot quench, neither can the floods drown” (So Isa 8:7).

II. GOD CARES FOR HIS FLOCK. It is God’s care for his flock on which Isaiah especially insists both in verse 11 and Isa 49:9, Isa 49:10. He “gathers the lambs with his arm, carries them in his bosom, and gently leads those that suckle their young.” He gives them “pastures in all high places,” suffers “neither the heat nor sun to smite them, and leads them by the springs of water.” The most tender care, the most solicitous vigilance, is implied in all that is told us of his treatment of his flock, so that we may well say, that “all love, care, providence, devotion, watchfulness, that is in earth or in heaven, in the ministry of men or of angels, is but a reflection and participation of that which is thus seen to be in him” (Manning).

III. GOD GUIDES HIS FLOCK. The Oriental shepherd goes in front of his sheep; and so God is represented as going (Psa 78:52; Isa 49:10; Joh 10:3). He points out to them the way wherein they should walk, and leads them in it. By the inner light of conscience, “which lighteth every man that cometh into the world,” and by the outward light of revelation, which shines on many, he directs their paths. By the secret motions and influences of his Spirit he keeps them, for the most part, in the right way, and suffers them not to depart from it.

IV. GOD GUARDS HIS FLOCK. God’s flock has enemies as powerful and as dangerous as the flock of any earthly shepherd. Many a wolf in sheep’s clothing seeks to devour it; one lion, at any rate, is ever walking round the fold, longing and hoping for prey. But God is always on the watch against these enemies, baffling their attacks, defecting their designs, causing them to fall into their own snares. True, he cannot effectually guard all, if they will not listen to him, will not obey his commands, will rush madly into danger. But he is a sure Defence to such as “hear his voice” and follow h-is directions. No wolf can snatch his faithful ones out of his hand; no lion can hurt them, nor any roaring beast. God guards them night and day. “He that keepeth Israel slumbers not nor sleeps.”

V. GOD FEEDS HIS FLOCK. God is said to “lead his flock into green pastures” (Psa 23:2), to “feed them in a good pasture, a fat pasture” (Eze 34:14). Our Lord declares himself” the Bread of life” (Joh 6:48)the “living Bread which came down from heaven,” whereof “if any man eat, he shall live for ever” (Joh 6:51). God feeds his flock upon his Word, upon his faithful promises, upon himself received sacramentally. He feeds them himself, and he commands the shepherds under him, with emphatic iteration, to feed them (Joh 21:15-17). He gives them “angels’ food” to be the sustentation and support of their souls; “bread of immortality” to be their life here and hereafter; precious manna, far beyond that which he gave to his people in the wilderness, sweet at once and satisfying. “Lord, evermore give us this bread” (Joh 6:34).

VI. GOD SEEKS AND SAVES THE WANDERERS OF HIS FLOCK. Isaiah tells us that God “gathers the lambs with his arm” (verse 11). Our Lord, describing the good human shepherd, tells us that if he have an hundred sheep, and lose one of them, he straightway “leaves the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and goes after that which is lost, until he find it; and when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing’ (Luk 15:4, Luk 15:5). The Son of man came “to seek and to save that which was lost” (Mat 18:11). The sheep of God’s flock perpetually “go astray,” turn from the right way, wander into strange paths, seek pastures that are not good; if God were not perpetually checking their inclination to stray, seeking them, recalling them, “gathering” them, bringing them back to him, there would soon be no flock left. “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way.” If the “chief Shepherd” (1Pe 5:4), “the great Shepherd of the sheep” (Heb 13:20), had not cared for us and sought us and brought us home, we had been lost indeed; but now, through his great mercy, we are “returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls” (1Pe 2:25).

Isa 40:12, Isa 40:22, Isa 40:26

God in creation.

Creation tells of God in many ways. “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handywork: day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge” (Psa 19:1, Psa 19:2). “The invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead” (Rom 1:20). Here we have noted especially

I. GOD‘S MARVELLOUSNESS IN CREATION.

1. The very act of creation is the most marvellous of all marvels. For what is creation but the production of something out of nothing?a seeming contradiction, at any rate a strange paradox. Isaiah affects strongly the use of the word bara (Isa 4:5; Isa 40:26; Isa 41:20; Isa 45:8, Isa 45:12, Isa 45:18, etc.), which, if not confined to the sense of “producing out of nothing,” at any rate includes that sense (Gesenius, ‘Lex. Hebrews,’ ad voc.).

2. And the marvellousness of creation is enhanced by the vastness of creation: sun, moon, planets, stars; the incalculable distances of spacethe nebulae, either unformed stars, or infinitely distant solar systems like that of which our system forms a part; the Milky Way, or outer edge of our own system, set so thick with stars that they seem to form a continuous girdle of light.

3. The perfect order of creation: all things weighed out and measured by God’s hand in set proportions one to another; all keeping their appointed courses without collision or confusion; observing their respective times and seasons; displaying an infinite variety, which, however, is all ordered and regulated.

4. And by the unity of creation: all of it from one hand, from one mind, working without assistance, without counsel (verses 13, 14), from its own inexhaustible stores of wisdom and knowledge; and all of it subject to that one mind and obeying its every behest (verse 26).

II. GOD‘S GOODNESS IN CREATION. God does not leave his creation alone, to stand or fall by its own inherent strength. Every part of it is upheld by him, maintained in existence by him, enabled by him to perform the task which he has set it. The “way” of no part of his creation is “hid from him” (verse 27). Each star is known by name, and the starry hosts are marshalled “by number,” and led forth in their stately march, so that “not one faileth” (verse 26). So with his moral creatures. They too are upheld; “power” and “strength” are given to them continually (verse 29); he who sustains them is “never faint, never weary;” a way is contrived for them by which they may “renew their strength” (verse 31). Doubtless there is this difference. Material things are absolutely upheld, and prevented from failing; God’s moral creation is not absolutely upheld. It is given a sufficiency of help (2Co 12:9), but is not compelled to accept the gift. If man wills to perish, he must perish. Though God’s grace is “sufficient for him,” he can reject that gracehe can thwart the will of God, who “wouldeth not that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” Were it otherwise, he would be a machine, and not a moral being.

HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON

Isa 40:1-11

The prophet’s commission.

He is to unfold a theme of consolation, which runs through the whole of the book, introduced by this chapter. He speaks to the prophets: “Ye prophets, prophesy consolation concerning my people” (Targum of Jonathan); or, “O priests, speak to the heart of Jerusalem,” according to the LXX. The former is probably correct. The prophets were numerous both in Isaiah’s time (Isa 3:1; Isa 29:10, Isa 29:20) and during the Babylonian exile (Jer 29:1). Jehovah is now reconciled to his erring people, and calls them no longer by names expressive of rejection or contempt (as in Hos 1:9; Isa 6:9), but as my people. “Israel, my people, and I their God,” is the great word on which both Judaism and Christianity rest. Now the prophets are to “speak to the heart of Jerusalem.” It is to be in a voice clear and distinct and penetrating. “Heart,” in Hebrew use, is a comprehensive word; it stands for” intelligence, conscience, feeling,” in one (cf. Gen 34:3; Gen 50:21, where the Hebrew is, “to their hearts”). Perhaps chiefly the latter here. The vocation of the prophet is now especially to comfort and encourage. And so ever with the preacher. We may compare with these words the scene in the synagogue at Nazareth. Christ announces himself as the Bearer of consolation to the heart of his people, to the heart of mankind, especially to the poor and the distressed and dejected. And surely the burden of every ministry may well be the “Christ of consolation.”

I. THE MESSAGE TO JERUSALEM.

1. “Her warfare is fulfilled.” “Warfare” standing for “enforced hardships.” The metaphor “very suggestive of the peculiar troubles of military service in ancient times:” “Hath not man a warfare [hard service] on the earth?” (Job 7:1). The idea of an appointed time of service enters into the wordthe discharge of a duty for which a man has been enlisted, or solemnly engaged, as that of the Levites in the tabernacle (Num 4:23; Num 8:24, Num 8:25). Life as a period of enforced service. It means for most of us, perhaps for all of us, toil, danger, suffering. From this enlistment the only discharge is by death (Job 14:14; Dan 10:1). Our times are in the hand of God. A period is fixed to all suffering and trial. It may calm the apprehension of calamity in the most susceptible heart to see how quick a bound has been set to the utmost infliction of malice. We rapidly approach a brink over which no enemy can follow us. “Let them rave; thou art quiet in thy grave.”

2. “Her guilt is paid off.” For punishment is viewed as the payment of a debt, and so as the satisfaction of the demands of Divine justice. In the Law, the sword and dispersion among the heathen are threatened against the disobedient and the unreformed; but never does Jehovah forget the covenant between him and the people; he is ever ready to suspend punishment when they suspend sin. Here the people are represented “as having suffered what God had appointed themendured the natural punishment he saw to be necessary. They had served out the long term he had appointed. Now he is satisfied, has pleasure in releasing them and restoring them to their own land.” Happy that moment in the personal life when the soul can be assured that suffering has done its work, and that it may be self-forgiven, because God-forgiven.

“At the last, do as the heavens have done:
Forget your evil; with them, forgive yourself.”

3. “‘She hath received double for all her sins.’ The expression seems to denote what is amply sufficient (cf. Jer 17:18; Rev 18:6)” (Cheyne); “As much as God judged to be sufficient” (Grotius); “Double to be received for large and abundant” (Calvin). The great law of compensation running through life, we must believe, is exact in its operation. God makes no mistakes in his reckonings. Suffering may continue long after sin has been forgiven. If the memory of guilt be still poignant, if the consequences of sin seem still “ever before us,” it is as if God were saying, “Not enough hast thou suffered yet to know how precious is the peace of forgiveness.” And when that blessed sense of forgiveness steals into the soul, it is the symptom that the hand of God is removed, that the cup of sorrow has been drained, that the medicine has done its work. The justice of our God will exact sufficient from us in the way of suffering; his clemency and mercy will never add a superfluous stroke from the scourge; rather he will stop short of the full exactionthirty-nine rather than the full forty stripes.

II. THE MYSTERIOUS CALL. From what is to be believed of Jehovah, we pass to what is to be done for Jehovah. So ever does faith push on to practice. The internal act of the mind realizes itself and is made perfect in the external act of the life.

1. Mysteriously a voice bids the listening heart prepare for Jehovah. It is a “non-Divine, yet supernatural voice.” The poetic effect is heightened by the mystery (cf. Isa 51:9; Isa 52:1; Isa 57:14; Isa 62:10). Similar voices are spoken of in the Book of Revelation (Rev 1:10, Rev 1:12; Rev 4:1; Rev 10:4, Rev 10:8). There are times when the breath of coming change is felt stirring, and voices are heard calling to men to welcome it in and to help it on. Whence come they? Who knows? A spiritual world is all about us. It has music, and words; but while “this muddy vesture of decay doth grossly close us in, we cannot hear.” But at times they pierce through our sensuality and break up our lethargic indolence. “Clear ye Jehovah’s way in the desert.” The Divine monarch is about to make a progress. Let the heart of the nation be as a highway for their God (Psa 84:5). So the Gospels understand the cry. From another point of view, the way of Jehovah through the desert is symbolic of his people’s destinies. Babylon, as the scene of captivity, reminds us of the scene of captivity of yore in Egypt. When the temple was destroyed and Israel went forth, it was as if Jehovah had departedperhaps to his sacred seat in the north, where Ezekiel (Eze 1:4) sees the cherubic chariot. His coming back is the people’s coming back under his leadership. The imagery of clearing the way may be illustrated from the practice of Oriental princes. Diodorus tells of Semiramis that, in her march to Ecbatana, she had precipices digged down, and hollows filled up, so as to leave an everlasting memorial of herselfthe “road of Semiramis’ (cf. Baruch 5:7). Then the glory of Jehovah, eclipsed or hidden through his people’s suffering and exile, will shine forth in its splendour, and all mankind shall look on.

2. Again the voice is heard saying, “Call!” And the prophet answers, “What shall I call?” The burden of the cry is the frailty of man, and the eternity of the truth. Homer compares the race of man to the successive generations of the leaves of the wood; the prophet to the grass and the flowers (of. Psa 90:5, Psa 90:6). Israel and Assyria are both politically extinct, and Babylon is hurrying to its end. The thought is suggested, though not expressed, that if Israel is to rise again from its ashes, it can only be by abstaining from all attempts at secular aggrandizement. The new Israel will be, in all the circumstances of its growth, supernatural. And what is true of one people is true of all. Princes, nobles, and monarchs, armies and magistrates, are feeble like grass and will soon pass away. On the one hand, they would not be able to accomplish what was needed for the deliverance of the people; on the other, their oppressors had no power to continue their bondage, since they were like grass and must pass away. But Jehovah had all power, and was ever-enduring, and able to fulfil all his promises, especially those concerning Israel (Isa 44:26; Isa 45:19; Isa 52:6; Isa 63:1; Jer 44:28, Jer 44:29). And the healing results are to be known by all mankind.

III. THE INSPIRING VISIONThe prophet is carried away in spirit to Palestine, and sees the fulfilment of the promise drawing near. He personifies Zion and Jerusalem, and calls upon them to lift up their voices and announce to the cities of Judah the approach of God. Perhaps he idealizes the city, or is thinking of the city out of sightthe spiritual commonwealth of which the earthly and visible one was the type. Lo! he comes! the God and Leader of the people returning to the city, the temple, the land. He will come in his might; the arm is the very symbol of his almightiness; and it rules “for him,” i.e. for the peculiar people, the people of his possession. He comes to recompense his friends and to execute vengeance on his foes. The ruler of a people is fitly imaged as a shepherd, and they as his flock. And now he has sought and found his sheep again, and will once more lead them to green pastures (Jer 31:10; Jer 50:19; Eze 34:11-16), and, as a good shepherd, will not overdrive the suckling ewes (Gen 33:13). In the Syrian plains the frequent removal to fresh pastures is very destructive to the young, and shepherds may now be seen in the Orient carrying, on such occasions, the lambs in their bosoms. We need, by any means in our power, travel, and observation, to realize strongly the grave responsibility, the constant anxiety, the patient and unwearied tendance, connected with the shepherd’s life in the East. Compare such a life with that of the hunter, who, from watching, pursuing, outwitting wild beasts, comes to partake of their fierce and cunning nature. The life of the shepherd draws upon the fund of love and tenderness in his heart; it is a humanizing life, full of a fine education; elevating by means of condescension. Then how rich a symbol is the pastoral character of the nature of the redeeming God! And how do the numerous passages in the New Testament, in which Jesus is so described, start into life and beauty, when these things are considered (Joh 10:1-42.; Heb 13:20; 1Pe 2:25; 1Pe 5:4)! There is an ineffable union of might with tenderness in the character of the Redeemer-God, which should in some sort be reflected in the pastoral character of Christ’s servants (Joh 16:15-17).J.

Isa 40:12-18

Jehovah incomparable.

I. HIS POWER OVER NATURE. The boldest imagery to express this thought: the “hollow of his hand;” his “span;” his “tierce,” a small measure; his scales, with which he weighs the volumes of sea and laud, and measures the vast extent of heaven without an effort,as we use the hand to weigh or to span! Far from taking offence at such figures, we feel them to be truthful, appropriate, sublime. The Creator is infinitely superior to his world. Vastness of space may overwhelm our imagination, but not his. His thought holds with ease the universe as a whole and in all its parts. “Thou hast ordered all things by measure and number and weight” (Wis. 11:20). Vain the “materialistic” dreams of students occupied too much with the physical and the phenomenal. The physical is the expression of the intellectual; the phenomenal but the “appearance’ of the real; the creation, the “garb we see God by.” How much truer to what a spiritual religion teaches us is this view than that which would direct our wonder and our worship to the mere splendours of the material world, rather than to the great creative and informing spirit of the world! Isaiah, contemptuously speaking of the sea as held in God’s hand, as one might hold a drop of water, is a better poet than Byron, who apostrophizes the sea as a living being.

II. THE ORIGINALITY OF HIS MIND. A theological difficulty is supposed to be alluded to. “Who hath regulated the mind of Jehovah? Was he himself absolutely free? May not Omnipotence itself be subject to conditions? May there not be an equal or superior power to whose counsels he must defer?” (Cheyne). Distinctly the prophet, without arguing the question, denies the truth of such an hypothesis. By the Spirit of God we mean the mind of God, which is

“The life and light of all this wondrous world we see.”

The world is not “dead matter,” but the creation of that intelligence, the vast poem, inspired by Divine thoughts that breathe and burn. Love is the last ground of all things, and conscience and intelligence are its ministers. God’s Being is simple, unique, absolutely original. In a like sense to that which we say the works of a great poet are his unassisted productions, does the prophet say the world is the work of God. “Contrast the Babylonian myth of a joint action of Bel and the gods in the creation of man; and the Iranian of co-creatorship of Ormuzd and the Amshaspands;” or the crude cosmogonic notions of the Greeks. All parts of the world, all habitable lands and nations, are dependent on him, derived from his will, subject to his power. How, then, can earth’s noblest products add anything to his riches, or further illustrate the glory of One to whom they already belong? The poverty of Judah in wood may be contrasted with the rich forests of Lebanon; but even Lebanon could not yield enough for his honour, if that honour is to be measured by the extent of the offerings. The nations, and all that is great and imposing in their life, are nought in his eyes; chaos may designate them in this contemptuous view. In short, he is incomparable. No illustration, analogy, similitude, ever thrown forth from the poet-soul and imagination in mankind, as no picture of painter, image of sculptor, will here avail. Nay, there must be moments when the very forms of thought into which everything must be thrown that we may see it at all, and even last of all, the richest and purest musical harmonies, must be set aside as inadequate.

“All are too mean to speak his worth,
Too mean to set our Maker forth.”

Nothing can surpass the simplicity and the sublimity of this view of God. Nothing less lofty will satisfy our intelligence or meet the yearnings of our heart. The idolatry we are so ready to lavish upon the finite object is the poor caricature of that immense delight which God demands we should enjoy in the thought of him, and which we cannot be satisfied until we have attained.J.

Isa 40:19-26

Idolatry ridiculous.

A strong tone of irony and ridicule runs through the description; and nothing could better illustrate by contrast that sublime faith which has just been presented to our view.

I. THE IMAGE CONTRASTED WITH JEHOVAH. All our thought is composed of images, but what a descent from that image in the mind and solely there on which we have been dwelling, to yonder thing of metal, which the craftsman casts, and the goldsmith overlays with gold, and for which he forges chains of silver! Let art be honoured; let artists strive their best to give distinctness to thoughts that must otherwise wander in the vague. But if the concrete thing be thrust into the place of that spiritual reality it can but faintly suggest, it becomes an object of scorn instead of admiration. Have the great traditions of our fathers ended in this? What has that thing of your poor manufacture to do with the great scheme of things?

II. THE ETERNAL REVELATION. The prophet is astonished that men are blind and deaf to that eternal truth which has been announced from the beginning of the creationthe speech poured out from day to day, the declarations of every starry night. The works of God are the shadows of himself. “The whole system of the world is but a standing copy and representation of the Divine goodness, writing little images of itself upon every the least portion of this great body.” “The night itself cannot conceal the glories of the heaven; but the moon and stars, those lesser lights, then show forth their lesser beauties. While the labourer ties down for his rest, the astronomer sits up and watches for his pleasure.” When men were talking atheism around Napoleon on the passage to Africa, the great man exclaimed, pointing to the starry sky, “It is all very well for you to talk, gentlemen; but who made all that?” Again the prophet rises to that conception of the sublimity of Jehovah and the insignificance of man’s power in contrast with him, which may be called contrast in Hebrew thought. A series of “admiring exclamations” follows. Jehovah sits above the circle that over-arches the earth (Job 22:14; Pro 8:27); and men seem as insignificant insects in comparison (cf. Num 13:33). His vast hand has spread out the heavens like a curtain of fine cloth; they resemble a habitable tentalso an idea frequent in Hebrew poetry (Isa 42:5; Isa 44:24; Isa 45:12; Isa 51:13; Job 9:8; Zec 12:1). Thus the dimensions of nature suggest the majesty and infinitude of God. So the revolutions of the nations suggest the sovereignty and spiritual might of God. Men of weight are by him brought to nothing, and the judges of the earth become as worthless chaos. A magnificent city, with the tombs of departed and the palaces of living kings, is an imposing monument of human passion and human intelligence. Nineveh and Babylon “seemed planted for eternity, firmly rooted in the soil; but to the prophets, regarding them from the point of view of the future, they seemed as though they had never been.” Prefound faith in the Eternal fills the mind with contempt for the gloria mundi, which seems to be withering in the very hour it most proudly flourishes. The prophet falls back upon the thought of the holy and incomparable One, who marshals the starry hosts, who is Lord of the physical universe and of the world of man’s spirits. We need to rest our thought upon the infinite power of God. Weak ourselves, we need to lean upon that which is strong and enduring. And here we are liable to many illusionsthe illusion of the permanence of physical systems, the illusion of the permanence of human customs and institutions. God can cause the heavens to be shrivelled like a scroll, can efface the cities of the nation as if they were so many rubbish-heaps from the face of the earth. He and the soul alone abide.J.

Isa 40:27-31

Despondency reproved.

I. THE COMPLAINT OF THE PEOPLE. They feel themselves, or are tempted to feel themselves, forsaken of God. Their “way” seems to be hidden from him. The “way” is a figure for the course and condition of life. And is it not said in the first Psalm, “The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous”? There are times when this cannot be realized. The truth of a providence over the national and the personal lifewhat more consoling? “Thou art with me;” “Thou God seest me:” what might is there hot, in such thoughts to “warn, to comfort, to command”? There are other moods, and thoughts of another complexion. We suffer, and God seems indifferent. There is a sense of the injustice of the world, and God does not defend us. “Our right has been let slip by our God.” He has living oracles for others, nut for us. We gaze into his words; luminous to others, they radiate not their meaning upon us. Who and what is that God in whom we have been taught to believe? A name, and nothing more? These are, indeed, dark moments. “Passed and passed my turn is,” says a modern poet, in describing the “fears and scruples” of the drooping and despondent soul. The worst is that the weakness which is subjective, in ourselves, we are tempted to throw out of ourselvesto project on God. He must be growing weary and faint, and something less than God. This mood the prophet meets (cf. Isa 49:14; Job 27:2).

II. THE REPLY OF THE PROPHET.

1. He appeals to their intelligence. “Hast thou not perceived?” Look away from self and its restriction within the bonds of present distress; look at others who are expatiating on the “large places” of Jehovah’s goodness. Look at the silent heavens with their “goings on;” the march of the seasons; the recurrence of seed-time and harvest; consider the breath which stirs the souls of men to progress in wisdom, culture, peace, civilization. Contemplate as a whole and in its parts the marvellous mechanism of the human world. Divert thy thoughts from the little self-world to the immense universe. Listen as well as lookto the immemorial tradition; to the oracles that have lived and cannot die; to the deep voice of prophets and the music of psalmists; to the simple accents of the babes and sucklings. One immense harmony starts upon the ear and the heart; the loving and eternal God its central theme. “Oh, my brothers, God exists; believing love will relieve us of a load of care.” Intelligence and conscience combine with the sacred unbroken traditions of the race, to assure us that he is what he was and where he was.

2. The attributes of Jehovah. An everlasting God. Mortality means fickleness and caprice. His Name means constancy, faithfulness. His covenants are irreversible. In the English Testament of the Jews, that grand Name, “the Eternal,” is preserved. He is “Creator of the ends of the earth;” i.e. of the “whole earth from end to end.” Babylonia, then, the seat of the exile, is not beyond Jehovah‘s empire, as if he were only “the god of the hills of Palestine” (Cheyne). Creation infers providence. If God made the world, he governs it too. Men are dependent on him, and in their dependence is safety and bliss. He has no human infirmities: faints not, nor is weary. He works for his world both day and night (Gen 1:5, etc.; Exo 13:21; 1Ki 8:29; Psa 121:4). His unfathomable intelligence. (Cf. Job 5:9; Job 9:10; cf. Isa 34:1-17 :24; 36:26.) Therefore there was a “wise purpose” in all this present procedure of providence, so dark as it seemed. We look upon the wavering ripples on the surface of the river; but the sunbeam strikes upon them with directness and certainty. And “God’s hand is as steady as his eye.” His self-communication. “Man’s weakness, waiting upon God, its end can never miss.” For he is self-imparting; and if there be a void in us, it is that he may fill it; a weakness in us, that his strength may be seen consummate in it. “Unto the powerless he maketh strength to abound.”

3. The wisdom of waiting. Waiting! How much is included in that word! Faith, and hope, and endurance, and strength. Take the most vivid image of strength: the youth in his athletic vigourthe agile wrestler, the nimble runner. Is he strong? Nay, he shall stumble, while the stationary, waiting one “gathers fresh force.” He seems to be on the wane, to be losing the dew and brightness of his youth. ‘Tis but the moulting of the old eagle of fablehe will put forth fresh feathers. With “ages on his plumes,” i.e. will still be travelling on. These waiters ate the stayers in the race. They may appear as stationary as earth itself; they roll on by the same momentum, they are the agents of the same force. Exertion without God: what more impotent? impotence touched by God’s breath, God’s hand: what can it not do? “Wait, I say, on the Lord.”J.

HOMILIES BY W.M. STATHAM

Isa 40:1, Isa 40:2

Divine consolations.

“Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem.” Here, after prophetic revelation of danger and warning against the Nemesis of sin, we come upon the evangel of love. For God delights not in denunciation or death. All his universe testifies that he loves life, that he “has no pleasure in the death of the wicked.”

I. HERE IS REITERATION. “Comfort ye, comfort ye.” It is an inspiration of earnestness in conveying the heavenly message. For God is the God of comfort. Not comfort in sin, but comfort to all who seek to be delivered from it. This is like the “Verily, verily.” It gives emphasis to hope. For love deals not in cold aphorisms, but repeats itself, that the heart may be sure of the message. To convince of sin is not enough. To expose evil may be the work of the moral dramatist. To scorn it may be the work of the satirist. But God is more than a Judge; he is a Saviour. The Son of man came (as his great work), “not to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.”

II. HERE IS REST. “Her warfare is accomplished.” The weapons to be put into the hands of the faithful suffice to secure victory, and therefore the warfare is spoken of as accomplished. Looking forward to the Redeemer’s days, Isaiah reminds us that his sacrifice is to be complete, as we read in Hebrews, “Once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” Thus Christ spake of his own death, “I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me.” This is the spirit of the New Testament. “Iniquity is pardoned.” All who believe have full and free remission of sins. And the warfare within them must end in holy conquestevery rebel flag on every province of the nature will be hauled down, and every worldly enemy will be laid low. “This is the victory which overcometh the world, even our faith.”

III. HERE IS DEPENDENCE. We receive double from “the Lord’s hand.” This is the theme of all the true Churches of Christ. Whether we express our gratitude for redemption in the words of Lyte or Watts, Keble or Doddridge, Faber or Wesley, it is still the same, and antedates the great Church worship of heaven: “Unto him that loved us, and washed us kern our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God, be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.”W.M.S.

Isa 40:3-5

The golden age.

“Every valley shall be exalted,” etc. Everything depends upon how we view the future, whether with the horoscope of history or prophecy. History says the old evils returnwar, strife, wrong, selfishness. Then the heart sinks, and inspiration to duty is weakened. But when we go with the prophet to the mountain-tops, we see

I. PATHS OF PREPARATION. “Prepare ye the way of the Lord.” There are the ruins of the old military roads of the Caesars, but the Caesars are gone. There the Ptolemies of olden time made incursions, but their sway is past. But the highways of commerce, the freer intercourse of peoples; the more humanizing influences of equity in law, and reformation in punishment, the kindly workings of pity and charity to the neglected and forgotten;all these are preparation-paths for the great King who is to reign in righteousness. Not alone through the royal gates of olden prophecies, but through the triumphal arches of redeeming ideas and influences which he has set at work, the Messiah shall come.

II. OBSTACLES REMOVED. “Every valley,” etc. This is but a figurative way of stating that no hindrance can affect the onward march of the Redeemer. In Eastern countries the things described here were obstacles sufficient to hinder Solomon in his Eastern journeys. There were limits to his progress when he left his grand basilica to visit his wide domains. Not so will it be with One greater than Solomon.

III. GLORY REVEALED. It is hidden now. Men are dazzled with false glory, with meretricious ideas of empire, and they see no beauty in Christ that they should desire him. But one dayas the aesthetic student realizes in time what is true art, as the musician understands the majesty of Beethoventhe moral nature of men being quickened and renewed by the Spirit, they shall see the glory of the Lord and the excellency of our God. Not some here and there, but man everywhere; “all flesh shall see it together.” What a vision! and what a day of jubilee! We need cherish no doubt about it. The vision is not imagination. The grand climacteric result is not predicated from a mere study of the triumph of the strongest forces. God has pledged his own word: “For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.”W.M.S.

Isa 40:7, Isa 40:8

The imperishable.

“The grass withereth,” etc. The soul of man is immortal, and the Word that is to feed it is immortal too.

I. THE DECAY OF NATURE. “The grass withereth”that which feeds the dying race of creatures upon earth. “The flower fadeth”that which regales the physical senses of man. Each generation learns this great lesson, and it is interwoven into poem and song in every literature.

II. THE SYMBOLISM OF NATURE. These pictures of decay are to teach us how frail is the earthly life of man: “He cometh up and is cut down like a flower” “All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower thereof.” So that his best life, his soul, will demand the greater care; that must be rooted in the everlasting. The inspiring of the human is a pensive enough consideration at times; we can only be comforted by the faith which, uniting us with Christ, enables us to say, “Though the outward man perishes, the inward man is renewed day by day.“

III. THE ETERNITY OF TRUTH. “The Word of our God shall stand for ever.” It is blessed to be able to say “our God,” because that implies not only reconciliation, but interest in his kingdom, and that kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. There is the written Word, and that lives and is translated into almost every language and dialect on the earth. There is that Word as it lives and breathes in the regenerated hearts and histories of the saints of God. There is the eternal Word himself, the Logos, the Lord Christ, the Inspirer of all truth in all the ages, the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the Lord God Almighty.W.M.S.

Isa 40:10

Present reward.

“His reward is with him.” There is a glory to be revealed. There is a day of the manifestation of the sons of Goda day of august solemnity, when the King shall say, “Come, ye blessed.” But the Christian dispensation is not fairly represented when its rewards and punishments are declared to be future only. These words speak of a present reward.

I. CHRIST JESUS HAD HIS REWARD HERE. SO says the prophet, speaking here of Christ. And the apostle says, “For the joy set before him he endured the cross;” and Jesus gives this legacy to his disciples: “My joy.” We are apt to think of Jesus only as the “Man of sorrows.” And so our artists have painted him. In their pictures there is often no light of triumph in his eye ] How he went about doing good! What a reward it was, every day to comfort the mourner and to heal the broken-hearted! Think of all that Jesus said in the synagogue of Nazareththat he came to do, and you will understand that beneath this sorrow and suffering there was a still deeper joy. His reward was with him. So it was, even on the cross, strange as that may appear. Still the prophet says,” When thou shall make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and be satisfied.”

II. CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE ENDORSES THIS TRUTH. The Christian’s reward is with him. True duty is not discharged for the sake of reward. Men in this world never get happiness by seeking for it alone. It must come, not as an end, but as an accompaniment of duty. Besides, we should be open to the criticism that the gospel appealed to selfishness if we invited men and women to become Christians for the sake of heaven. No; we invite them to take up their cross and follow him, and therein they will find their reward. Strange as it may seem, they too will find blessedness where they least expected it in doing the will of God; and then heaven will come as the culmination and perfection of sacrificial and spiritual life.W.M.S.

Isa 40:29

Weakness made strong.

“He giveth power to the faint,” etc. The pilgrim to Zion is often weary. Lassitude and faintness steal over the soul, and energy is gone. At such seasons we cannot recover ourselves. No effort of will can give tone to the spirit and zeal to the activities.

I. FAINTNESS RELIEVED. Our principles have not changed; nor have our ideals. To live for Christ is still our aim. But somehow the heart, which is the centre of the life, beats feebly. God has varied ways of relieving our weakness and restoring our strength. But whatever the instrumentality, it is God that does it, God’s Spirit that fills it. Blessed hours are those when the heavenly breath revives the soul; when the graces lift up their faded heads like dew-bathed flowers; when courage revives, and the soul rejoices in God.

II. STRENGTH INCREASED. “To them that have no might.” Further than this we cannot go. And it should comfort those who regard their experiences of feebleness as indications that they are not the children of God, that such a state is recognized in Holy Scripture as possible to us. “No might.” Patience gone. Endurance gone. Perseverance gone. It is almost like moral paralysis. But it is not, indeed, so. The nerve is weakened, but not snapped. Divine communication can and will come, even to the most enfeebled and dejected. While we say “no might,” there is a little strength, or it could not be “increased.‘ And this increase is often very slow and imperceptible. When we are physically feeble, we cannot measure progress as we inhale the air of sea or mountain; only steadily does the tide of health, like the ocean tide, return. But it does come, if we wait upon God; for God is faithful who hath promised. It is all of him.W.M.S.

Isa 40:30

Spiritual faintness.

“Even the youths shall faint,” ere. Then faintness is not a matter of age. Exhausted power may belong to youth. We are to learn that natural spirits are not enough for this great campaign. Health and energy will do much for the earthly soldier, and for the young mountaineer on the Swiss Alps. But it is otherwise here. From beginning to end of the Divine life we shall faint and fail unless God be with us to inspire and strengthen us.

I. YOUNG EXPERIENCES. It is perhaps well that we should learn the great lesson early, so that we may never think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think. There are doubtless joyful experiences in our first love to Christ; but Bunyan was right when he placed the Slough of Despond so near the starting-place. We soon meet with disappointments and disheartenments. We are soon face to face with temptations which well-nigh overcome us. The Philistines make us afraid.

II. FALLEN FORTUNES. Not in houses or estates, but in hearts and lives. We fallutterly tall. So that there may be no excuse, no palliation, no pretence that it was only a stumble; we cannot gaily pick ourselves up and go on our way as though nothing had happened. We are told of our utter failure. But to fall, even. is not to be lost. We may be maimed, bruised, broken, but God can lift us up. “Rejoice not over me, O mine enemy, for when I fall I shall arise.” This is the victor-song of souls that trust not in themselves, but in him who is able to make all grace abound unto them. Never let the fallen, whether it be in faith, or creed, or character, be treated as lost.W.M.S.

Isa 40:31

Renewal of strength.

“They that wait upon the Lord.” Here we have revealed to us the secret of the soul’s renewed energy. It is open to all. We are thus “changed men,” for the Hebrew word here, “to renew,” means “to change.” Experiences like these alter alike character and countenance. God restores unto us the joy of his anointed.

I. A DIVINE PROMISE. Written in the book of inspiration? Yes; and embodied in the experience of a great multitude of souls. So attest the men of old, like Daniel and Nehemiah, who had each religious work to do in pagan courts. And s; also must we. No philosophy of prayer may be possible to us, save that best of all philosophies, the philosophy of experience. And this we cannot set aside. As the Bible is its own best evidence concerning its inspiration, so is prayer its own best argument. They that wait upon the Lord, in every age, whether in the patriarchy, the theocracy, or the Christian age, have renewed their strength.

II. A TRIPLE EXPERIENCE. “They shall mount up with wings as eagles.” True, there is a higher realm into which as we rise we are surprised that the cares and worries of this lower world should have such power to harass and overcome us. We do see light in God’s light. The nearer we get to Jesus, the Sun of Righteousness, the more we feel this light and heat. “They shall run, and not be weary.” Progress is made. Elasticity of heart is felt. We renew the youth of our souls. “They shall walk, and not faint” For we cannot always be in the enjoyment of swift progress. We have hills to climb and waters to ford, and what we call the commonplaces of life to attend to. Still, there is room for heroism here, and for gracious communion with God and contentment with his will. To walk and not faint is sometimes more difficult than to run and not be weary.W.M.S.

HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON

Isa 40:1, Isa 40:2

Pardon and penalty.

Israel is to be comforted by her teachers and pastors, because the time of her exile, which is the period of the Divine sentence, has nearly expired, and the hour of her redemption is consequently nigh. If we ask what ground of comfort we find here for the Christian Church, or for the chastened human soul, we have to reply

I. THAT COMFORT IS NOT TO BE FOUND IN THE SUPPOSED LENIENCY OF GOD. No thought can be more perilously false than the imagination that God is too great to concern himself with our misdeeds, or too “good” to take offence with our shortcoming. Scripture, providence, and a sound philosophy alike protest against that ruinous doctrine. Sin is clearly a most serious thing, a heinous and terrible departure in the sight of God. Let no man comfort his soul with the hope that “le ben Dieu” will overlook his life of impiety or his various acts of iniquity. God does, indeed, pardon sin on man’s penitence and faith; but even then pardon does not absolutely exclude penalty. We may not press into our service here the word “pardoned” (Isa 40:2), as it may perhaps there signify expiated; but elsewhere the redemption of Israel is treated as an act of Divine mercy. Yet here we have judgment and mercy blended. The guilty nation is not to be restored until “her warfare” (the time of her service) has been “accomplished,” until she has received at the Lord’s hand “double” (full and ample chastisement) for all her sins. And the fact is, as we find in our daily experience, that when God now pardons and restores, he lets his reconciled children feel the effects of their past folly and sin. The consequences of a vicious youth go far on into even Christian manhood. The penalties of an unwise and irreverent fatherhood follow the parent to the very foot of the grave. God’s mercy does not immediately arrest the tide of suffering and sorrow which flows from a long course of wrong-doing. The man “bears his penalty until his warfare” (his time of servitude) “is accomplished;” and that is often a long time, covering many years, extending over whole periods of human life.

II. THAT COMFORT IS TO BE FOUND IN THE FACT OF A REAL RESTORATION to the love and favour of God. In a very true sense, when a man repents and seeks the Divine mercy in Christ Jesus, he is one of God’s “people” (Isa 40:1); God is his God, as he was not before (Isa 40:1). And the ills that he now suffers lose their stern aspect; penalty becomes disciplineit is no longer the sentence of the Judge, it is the correction of the Father.

III. THAT COMFORT IS TO BE FOUND IN THE RELEASE OF DEATH and the free(loin of the heavenly country. When the end of life’s hard service comes, and the note of the soul’s return shall be sounded, then shall there be a glorious deliverance from evil, and entrance on the highest good.C.

Isa 40:3-6

Human preparation for the Divine advent.

We shall find, with very little seeking, a threefold application for these words:

(1) a primary one in the restoration of the Jews to Jerusalem;

(2) an historical and human one in the advent of our Lord and the founding of his kingdom;

(3) a future one in the restoration of the race to the likeness and the favour of God. The keystone of the passage we find in the fifth verse; it is the idea of the manifestation of God’s glory, which all mankind is to witness. We have, then

I. THE MANIFESTED GLORY OF GOD. This was to be displayed and has been shown in two illustrations which are now historical.

1. The faithfulness and the power of Jehovah in the accomplishment of his people’s redemption from exile.

2. A more striking instance of Divine faithfulness, wisdom, and power, in the giving of the gospel of his grace, in preparing the nations of the earth for its reception, in its actual initiation and inauguration, and in its early and widespread diffusion among men.

II. THE GLORY WHICH WAITS TO RE REVEALED. Christ has come, and we celebrate his advent with joy and gratitude. But it is also and equally true that he is coming. He is still “the Coming One.” Across the arid wastes of indifference, and over mountains of opposition and gulfs of apparent impossibility, he is coming, and in time we shall see himthe present, reigning, triumphant Lord. It is a glorious spiritual advance he is to make, and presence he is to confer, and power he is to exert; but it will be none the less glorious or gracious for its spirituality. That, indeed, will immeasurably enhance its worth, for it will be the grander, the truer, the more lasting achievement.

III. THE STRENGTH OF OUR ASSURANCE CONCERNING IT. “All flesh shall see it: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” There may be many indications that Jesus Christ will one day secure a glorious victory over the disbelief, the vice, the superstition, the selfishness, the indifference of the world; but the strongest assurance we can take to our striving, yearning, sometimes wondering and doubting hearts is that “the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it:” “I, if I be lifted up,” etc.

IV. OUR CONTRIBUTION TOWARDS ITS COMING. “Prepare ye the way,” etc.; “make straight a highway,” etc. The Christian Church has to ask itself the urgent, practical question, what it can do to quicken the coming of its Lord in his redeeming and regenerating power. And it may find its answer here.

1. Fill up the gulfs of unbelief; let not lack of faith on the part of Christian men hinder the putting forth of Divine power (Mat 13:58).

2. Remove the hills of inconsistency; let not profession and exhortation be neutralized by immoralities in life, by wide departures from the will and Word of God.

3. Take up the stones of blemish; make a patient effort to cast aside lesser evils which, if not serious obstacles, do yet trouble and impede.

4. Lay down a highway by prayer and zeal.C.

Isa 40:6-8

The passing and the abiding.

We are so little affected by that with which we are most familiar, that we need to hear a voice crying in our ear and reminding us of what we well know to be true. To nothing is this more applicable than the transitory nature of our human life and our earthly interests. We want to be told

I. THAT HUMAN LIFE IS CONTINUALLY PASSING. We do well to walk in the city of the dead, and let the gravestones, with their names and dates, speak to us with simple eloquence of the passage of human life. We are wise when we take some measures to recall to our thought and write on the tablet of our souls the fact which care and pleasure are so industriously trying to conceal, that, when a few more years have come and gone, we shall be numbered with the dead, and that the objects and the incidents which are everything to us now will be nothing to us soon. It is a real gain to us, in wisdom, to be reminded that we are but passengers to the unseen world, and that every step we take leaves us less of the journey to be pursued. Human life is like a flower of the field, a little while ascending to its perfection, and then a little while descending to its doom.

II. THAT ITS EXCELLENCY RAPIDLY DISAPPEARS. “All the goodliness” of human life disappears still more quickly than life itself. The most exquisite things are the most evanescent; the fairest are the frailest. The beauty, the strength, the glory of human life,these last but a very little while; they appear above the surface and put forth their blossom; then comes the killing frost, and they perish.

III. THAT THE TRUTH OF GOD IS EVERLASTING.

1. Enlightening truth. All that he has told us of himself and of ourselves, of our nature, character, destiny, way of return, etc.

2. Commanding and inviting truth. He still says imperatively, “Return unto me;” invitingly, “Come unto me.”

3. Comforting truth. It will never cease to be a sustaining and mitigating fact that “God is our Refuge and Strength,” that he chastens us; not for his pleasure, but for our profit, that we may be made “partakers of his holiness.”

4. Warning truth. It is as certain now, as it was in the earliest era, that “the soul that sinneth, it shall die.”

5. Hope-giving truth. From generation to generation it shall be, as it has been, declared that “whosoever believeth in him hath everlasting life.C.

Isa 40:9, Isa 40:10

God: his presence, power, and grace.

Such good tidings are to be brought to Zion that the language used is that of exultation; the messenger is to stand upon a high mountain, to lift up his voice with strength, to proclaim so that every one, far and near, shall hear. The message to be delivered is the presence of Jehovah, his everlasting power, his grace in bringing a large reward in his bountiful hand. The primary reference is obvious (see previous homilies); the secondary one is to Messiah’s kingdom, and the glory which is yet to be revealed. The most striking applications are to

I. GOD‘S PRESENCE IN JESUS CHRIST HIS SON. Then, when “God was manifest in the flesh,” when “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us,” the “Brightness of the Father’s glory, and the express Image of his Person,” might these words be most appropriately used, “Behold your God.” Then One was present who

(1) while he had in his nature and his character all Divine attributes (Divine knowledge, power, truth, purity, love, etc.),

(2) was visible to the human eye, audible to the human ear, accessible to the human race; then he that was “above all” was “with us” all, the Immanuel.

II. GOD‘S POWER IN THE ESTABLISHMENT OF HIS KINGDOM OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. No doubt it seemed to the Jews a very glorious illustration of Divine power to overcome all the obstacles that stood in the way of their return from exileto guide them into and establish them in the land of their fathers. But it is an incalculably greater instance of Divine power to overcome all the hindrances in the way of a spiritual redemption of the race, and to secure that glorious issue. This is that which the ruling and overruling arm of the Almighty is now accomplishing. Well might such a work be published with farthest-reaching voice from the highest mountain! God is doing that with which no victories that human monarchs ever won will for one small moment compare. He is triumphing over the prejudices, the superstitions, the vices, the selfishness, the individual and the organized iniquities of the world; and on the ruins of sin and wrong he is rearing the mighty and majestic edifice of universal righteousness and peace.

III. GOD‘S GRACE IN CONFERRING IMMORTAL GLORY. “His reward is with him.” God comes to us in the gospel with a very large reward. On them who seek for honour and glory in his appointed way, he confers “eternal life;” that is to say,

(1) life of the very highest kindlife that is spiritual and Divine, spent in his near presence and in his holy service; and

(2) life that never fails, but evermore enlargeslife that does not, as dues our mortal existence, ascend and then descend till the end is reached, but that continually and eternally ascends, enlarging and expanding as the centuries pass away. Well is it for these, and wise is it of them, to rejoice in his manifested presence, to take a sympathetic and active share in the outworking of his great accomplishment, to have for their chief hope a share in that heavenly heritage.C.

Isa 40:11

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Of no one can these words be used with such exquisite appropriateness as of that “great Shepherd,” that “good Shepherd” of the sheep, whom we call Lord and Master. They express

I. HIS PRACTICAL KINDNESS. “He shall feed his flock like a shepherd.” He will be to them, in all kindly service, what the shepherd is to his sheep.

1. He provides with all-nourishing truth.

2. He leads in the paths of righteousness.

3. He defends from spiritual perils.

II. HIS TENDERNESS. “He shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom.” He is tender in his treatment of:

1. The young. They may well sing, “Jesus, tender Shepherd, hear me,” etc. He who so graciously received the little children, who took them up in his arms and blessed them (Mar 10:1-52.) will regard with truest tenderness the children of his people now.

2. The sick and suffering. As tenderly as the pitiful mother waits upon her sick child, will he sympathize with those of his disciples who are afflicted in body.

3. The sorrowful. He is the “High Priest touched with a feeling of our infirmities,” holding and healing with delicate hand the wounded and suffering spirit.

III. HIS CONSIDERATENESS. “And shall gently lead those that are with young.” He will suit his step to the pace of those who have to fall behind. No hard iron measure has he in his hand; he requires of us only according to the strength we have. The shorter and slenderer service of the unprivileged, of the burdened, of the feeble, of the “little ones” of his flock is quite as acceptable to the considerate and patient Saviour as the longer and larger service of the privileged and the strong.C.

Isa 40:12-17

The greatness of God and the littleness of man.

These most eloquent words, so impressive as they stand that it seems undesirable to touch them in the way of analyzing them, may speak to us of

I. THE IMMEASURABLE GREATNESS OF GOD.

1. His Divine majesty. All that is most vast and powerful in the universethe sea, the heavens, the land, the mountains, etc.is small and slight indeed when compared with him; his surroundings, his possessions, all bespeak his unapproachable majesty.

2. His Divine power. Such is his boundless strength that he can hold up the waters in the hollow of his hand, can “take up the isles as a very little thing.” What cannot he accomplish to whom this is easy?

3. His Divine knowledge. Power rests on knowledge; God is able to do all things because he knows all things. He can tell what is the measure of “the dust of the earth.” He cannot be taught anything by any being, for all knowledge is his already (Isa 40:13,Isa 40:14); greatest things and least, the weight of the mountains, the number of the grains of dust, etc; are known to him.

4. His Divine wisdom. “Who hath taught him in the path of judgment?’ (Isa 40:14). Perfect wisdom, the secret of right action, of the direction of greatest affairs, of prevision and provision, of ruling and overruling, is at his command. His wisdom is incapable of increase; it is absolutely complete.

II. HUMAN LITTLENESS. “The nations are as a drop of a bucket” (Isa 40:15). We note, as corresponding with God’s greatness:

1. Our insignificance. We may find ourselves mean and humble enough when compared with our fellow-men; most certainly we do when we bring ourselves, our circumstances, our authority, into comparison with him.

2. Our impotence. How very little can the strongest and most influential men effect! how much less those whose lives are spent in lowly spheres!

3. Our ignorance. We want men to direct our spirit, to counsel us, to teach us knowledge. There are few men from whom we have not something to learn. We need to be acquiring knowledge, not in the time specially devoted to study, but all day long and all life through.

4. Our foolishness. We do not know how to conduct our own affairs wisely, and are continually making larger or smaller mistakes: how much more so in our conduct of other men’s affairs! Therefore we do well:

(1) To retain truest and deepest reverence of spirit; filial confidence and joy in God must always be made consistent with profoundest adoration.

(2) To accept without question the truth he has revealed to us in his Word.

(3) To trust his guidance in the direction of our lives, however dark and inexplicable some passages may seem.

(4) To work on cheerfully and hopefully, though a successful issue appear exceedingly remote.C.

Isa 40:16-26

The hopelessness and the simplicity of Divine service.

“Lebanon is not sufficient to burn,” etc.; “Not one faileth.” If we were asked whether it was a very difficult or a very simple thing to serve the Lord, we should say, “It is both the one and the other; everything depends upon the way and the spirit in which we proceed.” We learn

I. THAT MERE QUANTITY OF SERVICE IS VAIN AND FUTILE. “Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor will [all] the beasts thereof suffice for a burnt offering,” if the acceptable element in worship be absent. Great hecatombs are heathenish things; they are based on the essentially false idea that God can be enriched by human gifts”as though he needed anything,” as though, “if he were hungry, he would tell us.” And all ideas as to quantity in service are erroneous. It is not by “thousands of rams or tens of thousands of rivers of oil,” that he is to be placated. It is a hopeless and impossible task which so many set themselves to accomplishto please and serve the living God by a multitude of services, of celebrations, of privations, of prayers (“much speaking”), of acts of outward benevolence. As all Lebanon with all its beasts would not be sufficient for one acceptable sacrifice, taken of itself and of themselves, so millions of Masses and multitudes of charities, and innumerable acts of service, whether good or bad in themselves, would take a man no nearer to the favour of God and the kingdom of heaven, if there were not present something apart from these things and of more intrinsic excellence than they. Without this last, service is either formal, or superstitious, or selfish; in any case it is worthless.

II. THAT THE SMALLEST SERVICE RIGHTLY RENDERED IS EFFECTUAL WITH GOD. Not one of the vast army of the heavenly hosts fails to take its place and exert its influence and do its appointed work in the vast plans of the Creator. Every smallest star gives its light, and helps to keep everything in the sidereal universe in equipoise and in orderly movement. Not one faileth. So may this be true in the great army of Divine worshippers and of Christian workers. With a reverent and a loving spirit, the service of God is the simplest thing in the world.

1. The ejaculation of a moment is an effectual prayer.

2. The gift of two mites is a liberal offering.

3. The cup of cold water will by no means lose its reward.

4. The simple sentence of encouragement to the tired traveller along the road of life, or of comfort to the wounded soldier in the battle of life, or of good cheer to the baffled workman in the Master’s vineyard, is eloquent in the ear of the Lord of love.

5. The household duty conscientiously and devoutly discharged will be owned and blessed by him who observes and rewards the “bond and free.”

6. The simplest act of magnanimity, rendered in the interchange of our homeliest relations, by which a brother, or sister, or neighbour is frankly forgiven the hard word, or the inconsiderate silence, or the unloving deed, weighs in the scales of him who was the first to say, “Love your enemies.” Every soldier among the rank-and-file can serve the Divine Captain. With love in the heart there is no need of Lebanon and its beasts for an altar or a sacrifice. Not one need fail to do, day by day, hour after hour, act after act, that which is well pleasing in the eyes of him “with whom we have to do,” whose good. pleasure with us is the gladness of our heart and the music of our life.C.

Isa 40:18-26

The degradation of the Divine.

The holy indignation of the prophet is aroused as he sees the Godhead so pitifully presented to the mind, so shamefully represented to the eyes of men. He has in view the power and majesty of the Supreme One, and places in contrast the creatures of human imagination, the fabrications of the human hand. We have the degradation of the Divine

I. AS IT APPEARED TO THE HEBREW PROPHET. He beheld:

1. The power and the majesty of God, shown in

(1) his immeasurable exaltation above all his creatures (Isa 40:22);

(2) the perfect ease with which he formed the most wonderful objects in creation (Isa 40:22);

(3) the absolute control he exercises over the mightiest of the children of men (Isa 40:23, Isa 40:24);

(4) the knowledge and wisdom he displays in ordering the physical universe (Isa 40:26).

2. The utter folly of the heathen in their way of presenting Deity to their minds; attempting to fashion an image which should bear no resemblance to the Lord (Isa 40:18-20), as if anything that the hand of man can fashion could bear the smallest resemblance to, or be in any way fitted to suggest the idea of, the Majesty of heaven; the practical and the common issue of such idolatry being the actual acceptance of the graven image as constituting the very object of worship. We may regard the degradation of the Divine

II. AS IT APPEARS TO US IN OUR OWN TIME.

1. We have the true thought of God, as revealed to us by Jesus Christthat of a Divine Father conferring on us our being and our powers, visiting us with constant loving-kindnesses, divinely interested in our highest well-being, interposing to restore us to his love and his likeness, giving his own Son to redeem us and his own Spirit to renew us, disciplining us with fatherly care, and rejoicing in our filial affection and obedience with parental joy.

2. We have the degraded thought of God which men still entertain.

(1) The fetish of the heathen world: a being, ordinarily represented by an idol, whose malignant hostility is deprecated and averted by gifts and self-inflicted penalties.

(2) The fiction of the philosopher: an impersonal power, an abstraction or generalization, an ideal humanity, etc.something in which a few trained intellects may rest, but which no human heart can trust or love, and no human soul strive to resemble.

(3) The god of the ungodly: no being accepted by the mind but banished by the heart, unrecognized by the conscience, neglected in the life. This last is the guiltiest degradation of the Divine; for “this is the condemnation, that light is come,” etc; and “He that knoweth his Lord’s will and doeth it not shall be beaten with many stripes.”C.

Isa 40:20

The distinguishing love of God.

“He calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might “for that he is strong in power.” The infinitude of God is no argument at all against his observance of the individual and the minute; rightly regarded, it is a strong inference in favour of it. Because he is infinite in wisdom he compasses all that is most vast and extensive; and for the same reason, “by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power”he has a perfect mastery over all the particulars of his creation. He not only summons the mighty armies of the skies and marshals the whole host of heaven, but he is familiar with each separate star: “He calleth them all by names.” This individual attention applies to:

1. The inanimate creation (text).

2. The sentient, unintelligent creation: “Not a sparrow falls to the ground” etc.; and this fact constitutes a strong reason for forbearing from cruelty towards every living creature, and for treating all the members of the animal world with constant kindness.

3. The whole human world. Even if this doctrine were not true in other realms, it certainly must be in this. As we could not think and feel as we wish to do of the human father who failed to distinguish his children from each other, so also could we not reverence and love the heavenly Father if he failed to distinguish us. But he does not fail; “he mils us all by names;” he is the true and good Shepherd, who “calls his own sheep by name.” Each one of us is:

(1) The object of his Divine thought and care. Every child of man can say, “The Lord thinketh on me.“

(2) The object of his parental yearning. Away in the far country, each prodigal may be sure that there is a wronged, waiting, expectant Father, who is grieved concerning him, and who earnestly remembers him still.

(3) The object of his redeeming and self-sacrificing love. “He loved me, and gave himself for me,” we can all say, after the apostle.

(4) The object of his disciplinary dealing. “Whom the Lord loves he chastens, and scourges every son,” etc.

(5) The object of his desire that we should share his work and his glory. To each of his disciples he says, “Follow thou me; Go [thou], and work in my vineyard.’C.

Isa 40:27, Isa 40:28

The impiety of impatience.

God rebukes Israel for its impatience under trial. It ought to have “remembered the years of the right hand of the Most High;” it ought to have considered that its Divine Sovereign was one whose faithfulness did not depend on a few passing years, that the action or the inaction of “the everlasting God” was not open to the criticism which condemns the short-lived policy of frail and dying men. The rebuke is full of practical truth applicable to ourselves.

I. OUR DISPOSITION TO DOUBT THE FAITHFULNESS OF GOD. Whatever our creed may be, and however unexceptionable our views as to the attributes and actions of God, we find ourselves strongly tempted to indulge the fretful, distrustful spirit shown by the children of Israel; we are apt to think that God has “forgotten to be gracious” to us, that he has “passed us by,” that our wrongs and sufferings are disregarded by him just as if they were actually hidden from his eyes. This, whether we are suffering from,

(1) continued persecution, inflicted by a political power or by individual men; or

(2) protracted difficulties, social, or domestic, or financial, from which we have been anxiously striving to escape, but from which there seems no way of extrication; or

(3) unrelieved illnesspain, weakness, disease, decay, unrelieved either by recovery or wished-for death; or

(4) unsuccessful seeking after God, alter the peace and joy of his salvation, after the blessedness of conscious friendship with Jesus Christ; or

(5) unprofitable labour in the field of Christian work.

II. THE IMPIETY OF SUCH COMPLAINT. It arises not from a pardonable ignorance, but from a culpable forgetfulness, an inexcusable disregard of the nature of the God whom we serve. We ought to remember:

1. That God does not measure time by our chronometry; with the “everlasting God” one day is as a thousand years, etc. He is not slack as we count slackness; length and shortness of time are not the same thing to him that they are to us.

2. That it is impossible for him to be unmindful of our necessities or our sorrows. He “faints not, neither is weary.” What might possibly prove troublesome to men will not be wearisome to God. He does not withdraw his notice of his children’s needs for one small moment.

3. That we cannot enter into his reasons for delay or his methods of interposition. “There is no searching of his understanding.” For anything we know, an earlier interposition even by a single day would be a precipitancy that would do us harm; and for anything we can tell, God may have already started means of deliverance whose ultimate outworking will realize our hearts desire. Wherefore let us banish dissatisfaction and distrust as ungodly, and cultivate a devout trust in the Lord, who will make good the kindest word “on which he has caused us to hope.”C.

Isa 40:29-31

The need and the gift of spiritual power.

What Israel wanted in captivity the Church of Christ now needs in its present situation, surrounded by an unsympathizing or even hostile world. It lacks power to do that which it was created to accomplish. Potentially, it has within itself all that is required to complete the great work of regeneration which its Divine Master began; in simple fact and in sad reality, it has failed to discharge its function. Every Church should be a great power for good in the country, in the neighbourhood in which it is planted; every Christian man should be a real power for piety and virtue in the circle in which he moves. We ought to have power to “witness a good profession for Jesus Christ,” power to live an elevating, influential life, power to execute a useful and abiding work for cur Lord. Can we say that this is the case with our Churches, with ourselves? Must we not regretfully admit that it is not so? We note

I. THE PREVALENCE OF HUMAN WEAKNESS. Probably the “faint, and those who had no might,” among the exiled Israelites were the dispirited, the dissatisfied, the despairingthose who had lost hope in God and had no expectation of ever seeing again the land of their fathers. So with the Israel of God; the faint and the weak include:

1. Joyless souls, who have no gladness in God, and no happiness in his service, who walk even in the “path of life” with no brightness in their countenance and no elasticity in their step. But they include also:

2. Half-hearted souls, whose devotedness to Christ is seriously defective, who cannot say, “With my whole heart have I served thee,” who seem to think that a very large amount of selfishness is consistent with loyalty to the Lord, and who are often falling “out of rank” when they should be walking on in the march or actively engaged in the battle.

3. Faint-hearted souls, who have no courage to attempt anything for their Master and their fellow-men, and who consequently allow their life to pass on and away without achieving anything in the field of sacred usefulness.

4. Souls open to temptation; those who have gained such an imperfect control over themselves that they lie exposed to the gusts of temptation, and their best friends are continually solicitous lest they should dishonour themselves and the Name they bear.

II. THE INSUFFICIENCY OF HUMAN STRENGTH. There were those in Israel from whom, in the natural course of things, strength, vigour, fortitude, might have been expected. But in vain: “Even the youths shall faint,” etc. There are those in the Church of Christ whose physical constitution, or whose natural temperament, or whose intellectual capacity or acquisition might give them the appearance of strength; it would not be expected of them that they would become “weary,” still less that they would “utterly fall.” But no reliance can be placed on such natural supports, such unspiritual resources. These souls are not strong in the deeper sense in which the Church needs strength. They are subject to the inroads of pride; they are liable to fall under the assaults of passion; they are tempted to withhold from God the glory which is due to his holy Name; they may do nothing to commend the Divine Saviour himself and his glorious gospel to the hearts of men; and, “not gathering with” Christ, they only “scatter abroad” the seeds of error and of wrong.

III. THE GIFT OF DIVINE POWER. “He giveth power he increaseth strength.” God has access to our human soulsdirect and immediate access. He can “lay his hand upon us,” and touch the secret springs of our nature, calling forth all that is best and worthiest, “strengthening us with strength in our soul.” He can communicate to us so much of “the exceeding greatness of his power” that we can, through him and in him, become strong indeed; can attain to strength of:

1. Resistance; so that we shall be able to stand in the evil hour of temptation.

2. Endurance; that we can be calm, peaceful, acquiescent, even under the severest and the most lasting trials.

3. Steadfast piety; that we become “living epistles of Christ,” etc.

4. Sacred joy.

5. Faithful utterance.

6. Perseverance in every good work. God gives us of the refreshing, renewing, invigorating influences of his Holy Spirit, and we run without weariness, we walk without tainting.

IV. THE CONDITION ON WHICH IT IS CONFERRED. This includes

(1) a patient waiting for the exercise of God’s power on our behalf; and also

(2) an earnest appeal to him in believing prayer that he would fulfil his word. The truly reverent spirit will devoutly seek the Divine blessing, and confidently look for its bestowal. To expect without seeking is presumption; to seek without expecting is unbelief; to do the one and not to leave the other undone is obedience and faith in happy union.C.

HOMILIES BY R. TUCK

Isa 40:1

The comfort of God’s restored favour.

The question of the authorship of the latter half of Isaiah resolves itself into a discussion of its claim to be prophetical. If it is descriptive, it must have been written by some “great unknown.” If it is prophetical, and a vision of historical events covering long centuries, but grouped for effective representation, then it may have been written by Isaiah, and it fittingly completes a work which, revealing Divine judgments, also reveals “mercy rejoicing over judgment.” Isaiah seems to be among the wearied, burdened, disheartened exiles in Babylon, towards the close of the Captivity. They are “hanging their harps on the willows,” and refusing to sing. They have waited so long, that it seems quite plain “God has forgotten to be gracious.” To them Isaiah has a message from God. He is to “comfort them;” and this is to be the comfortingGod’s time of judgment is almost over, God’s restoring mercies are close at hand. “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound” (Rom 5:20). “Having, in Isa 39:6, Isa 39:7, predicted the Captivity, Isaiah, with a view to console his nation, delivers the prophetic discoveries which, in perspective vision, he obtained of the remarkable interposition of Divine providence for their deliverance.” We notice that the comfortable and comforting message is to give assurance of three things.

I. WARFARE ENDED. The warfare meant is that struggle to bear and keep heart which had been so trying all through the long years of captivity. Or it may mean God’s warfare with their idolatry and iniquity, the Captivity being regarded as God’s fighting with the national sins, in order to destroy them and root them out. There can be no comfort, no rest, for us until sin is resisted and mastered. Heaven is only a rest-time, because, then and there, the people are all holy. We must keep the warfare so long as we keep the sin. The discipline will be ended, the pressure of our military service, only when the victory of righteousness is won.

II. GUILT PAID OFF. This seems to be the idea of the original, which we have as, “her iniquity is pardoned.” Reference is rather to the penalty of iniquity being effectively removed. There can be no comfort while we are compelled to look this way and that, asking, “Where shall iniquity be laid?” On Israel it lay as a burden of so many years of national humiliation and captivity. To us the mystery of the “Sin-bearer” has been revealed; and we know that God has “laid on him the iniquity of as all.” This knowledge is comfort indeed.

III. FAVOUR AT THE DOUBLE. The sentence is variously explained. Some refer it to the sufficiency of the sufferings endured. Others think it suggests abundance of restored grace and favour. Treated meditatively, we may take the “double” to suggest the temporal restorations under Cyrus and the spiritual restoration under Messiah. When God restores, he does it in such a gracious, fall, superabounding way, as to be an infinite consolation and joy to us. The comfort unspeakable is God’s restored smile.R.T.

Isa 40:3

Needed preparations for Christ.

“Prepare ye in the wilderness the way of the Lord.” The figure used by the prophet is one whose forte could only be fully apprehended in that country to which he belonged. Until recent years there were no roads, at least no roads on which vehicles might be drawn; only such paths, often very rough, and steep, and dangerous, as would be made by the passing to and fro of cattle and of men. But a few years ago, when Ibrahim Pasha proposed to visit certain places in Lebanon, the emirs and skeikhs sent forth messengers to all the people on the way the pasha was coming, with a proclamation very similar to this of Isaiah, commanding them that they should gather out the stones, make straight the crooked places, level the rough places, and so prepare the way for his grand cavalcade to march through. Applying this figure to Messianic times, we note that the world wanted Christ, but it was not prepared for him when he came; and it is still true of many human heartsthey do really want Christ, but they are not prepared for him in his spiritual comings.

I. THE WORLD WANTED CHRIST. There is no word which so exactly describes the condition of the world when Christ appeared as the term darkness. “Darkness covered the earth, and gross darkness the people.” When God created man, or, let us say, set him forth as the Head of his creation, he put light within him, and was light unto him. But when man sinned by exalting self-will, God took his light away, and left humanity to work out the problem of life in the power of its own self-will. That problem may be stated thus: Man is satisfied with himself, with the light that is in him: then can he find his own way to God and righteousness? Can he answer for himself this question, “How shall man be just with God?” You cannot understand the history of Israel, or of the ancient world, save in the light which this representation throws upon them. Each nation took its own way in trying to solve the problem. Egyptians, and Persians, and Syrians, and Grecians, and Romans, all were working at it. But man, by himself, has always failed to discover any satisfactory solution. The light he had faded. Twilight passed into night; night grew blacker and darker; the stars were hidden by low overhanging clouds; and it was the gloom of moral midnight over all the earth when Messiah came. But the heathen, in their debasing idolatries, were conscious of bondage, and looked for a Deliverer. The Jews, though corrupted with formalism, held passionately to their hope of Messiah. The sins of the world wanted Christ. The woes of the world wanted Christ. The minds and hearts of men wanted Christ, though they could not put into shape of words their inarticulate longings. Humanity had its watchmen at every point of advantage, and again and again the question was eagerly asked, “Watchman, what of the night? watchman, what of the night?” It is interesting to notice that, whilst Christ was a babe, and as yet no shame had gathered about him, all humanity offered homage to him by its representatives, and bade him welcome to the world that so greatly needed him. Shepherds, representing the whole Jewish people, followed the angelic sign, and welcomed the Messiah-Child. Eastern Magi, star-directed, representing the whole heathen world, offered him their gold and frankincense and myrrh. And Simeon and Anna. representing the spirituals the religious classes, hailed him with the joy of believing and loving hearts.

II. THE WORLD WAS NOT HEADY FOR CHRIST. They had made no room for him. The inn was full. He must find a place for himself, where he couldsome strange place, out in the stable, in the manger. And there was no better room for him in men’s hearts. Only let the story of his life unfold a little. Only let his hands begin to do deeds of charity; only let his lips speak words of spiritual conviction; only let him point out the follies and sins of the age; only let him show that his mission was to the poor, the sorrowing, and the sinning; only let the purity of his perfect life, like a Divine light, reveal the corruption of his times;and then he is the “despised and rejected of men;” then they hurry him forth out of the synagogue to throw him over the hanging rock; then they lead him forth, bearing his cross, and crucify him between two thieves. How is this? Why does the world want Christ, and yet, when he comes, he finds men so unprepared that they reject instead of receive him? The answer is a very simple one, but a very painful one. Men get to love sin for its own sake. They dislike, indeed, the penalties attached to it; they tremble at the consequences of it; but they love the sin and cherish it. They would gladly enough have welcomed a Saviour who would break off those chains of bondage to Rome, which had been fixed on them as a judgment for their national sins; but they did not want to part with their national pride and exclusiveness. They would gladly have welcomed a Christ who could burn up the great book of death, which so surely treasured up for them “wrath against the day of wrath;” but they did not want to give up the sins that led to spiritual deaththe hypocrisy, the sensuality, the multiplied forms of moral evil, which they loved and sought. Therefore who can wonder that, when Christ came as a Saviour from sin, men were not prepared for himmen refused such a Christ? It is evident that the world, in its unpreparedness, needed the intense, arousing, almost terrible, preaching of John the Baptist. The work given to John was to try and alter the views of men in respect of Messiah. He preached “Repent;” change your minds; get another view of sin; see the essential evil and hatefulness of it. To all who came he spoke directly and plainly of the particular sins they loved; he demanded the giving up and putting away of individual and social sins as the necessary preparation for Messiah’s coming. This, then, is the one wrong thingsin loved for its own sake. This was the mountain that must be levelled, this the crooked place that must be made straight, this the rough place that must be made plain, before the glory of the Saviour from sin “could be revealed, and all flesh see the salvation of our God.”

III. WHAT WAS TRUE OF THE WORLD IS TRUE OF US. Our souls want Christ. It is sad, indeed, to be sinners, living without God, and without hope in the world. We have often felt that all was not right with us; dark shadows hung all around us, and all before us. We have looked and longed for the light. When we have thought of God and sin and the future we have cried out, “Oh that I knew where I could find him! I would come even unto his seat.” Sin in us wants Christ the Saviour. Conscious separateness from God wants Christ the Reconciler. Ignorance wants Christ the Teacher. And Christ wants us. Then why is the old fact of the time of his first coming repeated among us to-day? They wanted him, but were offended at him, and cast him out; cruel hands smote him, fierce nails pierced him, scorn howled around him, and a violent death freed him from a world that was not prepared to greet him. The reason for our rejecting him is the same as theirs. We, too, are unwilling to give up our sins for Christ. We want a Saviour from punishment, from consequences, from fears, from death, from hell; but not a Saviour from sin, from self-confidence, from pride, from independence of God, from our rebelliousness, our lustings, and our self-indulgences. We want a Saviour who will give us a secure title to future bliss; but not one who will take the stony heart away, and give us a heart of flesh; not a Saviour who can deliver us from the very love of sinning, and “create in us a clean heart.” Is, then, your path full of the stones, the crooked ways, the rough places, of loved sins? remember that Christ is a Saviour from sin. He is named Jesus, because he shall save his people from their sins. He will not save you at all unless you are heartily willing that he should save you from your evil self, from your loved iniquities.R.T.

Isa 40:5

Christ, as the Lord’s Glory.

The glory of God is his forgiving and redeeming. And it is this glory that was dimly revealed in the raising up of Cyrus to deliver Israel from the bondage of Babylon, and brightly revealed in “raising up his Son Jesus, to bless men, by turning them from their iniquities.” It may be shown that God, as the great Spirit, never can be seen or known by any creature, because all creatures are put under limitations of the senses. No creature can apprehend “essences;” he is limited to “accidents.” Nobody has seen the sun; it is the glory, the shining, the ray, of the sun that reveals it to us. So “no man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.” Christ is the “Image” of God, which we can see; the “Word” of God, which we can hear; the “Glory” of God, making a holy warmth about us, which we can feel. He is “the Brightness of the Father’s glory, the express Image of his Person.” His revelation is made that we might know the true God, and in the knowledge find “eternal life.” This view appears to be, in a very special manner, commended and enforced by the Apostle John, in his Gospel; and from this Gospel illustrations may be taken.

I. GOD REVEALED IN JOHN‘S PROLOGUE. Explain the figure of the “Word,” as meaning the medium, or agency, by which God communicates his thought to men’s minds. It is, as it were, God translated for man’s apprehension. But the “Word” is a Person, and John says, “We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father.”

II. GOD REVEALED AT CANA. Putting forth miraculous power to provide for man’s need, Christ showed God’s constant care of men, and led men’s thoughts to the mystery of God that was in him, for John says, “This beginning of miracles did Jesus and manifested forth his glory.”

III. GOD REVEALED AT LAZARUS‘S GRAVE. Pleading with Martha, our Lord spake thus: “Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?”

IV. GOD REVEALED IN THE VOICE FROM HEAVEN. In a moment of sore trouble, Jesus exclaimed,” Father, glorify thy Name;” as if he felt that his supreme work was to show the Father forth. “And there came a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again” (Joh 12:28).

V. GOD REVEALED AT THE SUPPER–TABLE. When Judas left the table, and the beginning of the end had evidently come, Jesus said, in a meditative, but most revealing way, “Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him” (Joh 13:31; see also Joh 14:13).

VI. GOD REVEALED IN THE HIGH–PRIESTLY PRAYER. This is our Lord’s supreme desire: “Father, glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee.” And this is his sublimest thought, as he looks back over his brief life: “I have glorified thee on the earth.” Christ is the Glory that reveals God for us, “who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that our faith and hope might be in God.”R.T.

Isa 40:6-8

The transitory and the permanent.

This passage is brought to our minds, in the early summer-time, by the sight and the smell of the fields. One day they shine with the glory of the golden flowers, and, in a little while, the flowers are fallen, the grass is withered, and we are freshly impressed with the mutability of all earthly things. Man changes; God is the “same, yesterday, and to-day, and for ever” Man removes; God abides, and his dwelling-place is as the everlasting hills. Man dies; God lives for ever and ever. From changing, passing, transitory earth, we may look upward to God, saying, “He liveth, and blessed be my Rock.” Of this double truth our text is one of the most poetic and eloquent expressions. The figure is sufficiently impressive to us, who see the swathes lying in the path of the mower; but it is full of force and suggestion in the East, where sudden blasts of scorching wind burn up the vegetation in an hour, and change freshness and flowers into barrenness and death. The Word of God endures for ever. It cannot be likened to anything on which rests the earthly stamp. It is not even like the giant trees, which grow on while the grass and the flowers of a hundred passing summers flourish and fade beneath them; for at last even the trees fail to respond to the wakening spring-breath, and the great trunks crumble down to dust, and pass away. It is not even like the mighty hills, which, towering high over us, seem to have their foundations in the very centre of the earth, and to outlast the generations; for they too are wearing down, and shall one day change and pass. It is not like the vast firmament, which keeps, through summer and winter, its broad expanse of blue, though clouds all blackness and clouds silver-tinged sweep in ever-varying shapes across it; for at last even “the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.”

I. THE TRANSITORINESS OF ALL EARTHLY THINGS. All nature echoes the message of the grass. The winter snow falls lightly, and lies in its white puritymystic, wonderfulover all the land; but too soon it soils, and browns, and sinks, and passes all away. The spring flowers that come, responsive to the low sunshine and the gentle breath, are so fragile, they stay with us only such a little while, and then they pass away. The summer blossoms multiply and stand thick over the ground, and they seem strong, with their deep rich colouring; and yet they too wither and droop and pass away. The autumn fruits cluster on the tree branches, and grow big, and win their soft rich bloom of ripeness; but they too are plucked in due season, and pass away. The gay dress of varied leafage is soon stripped off with the wild winds; one or two trembling leaves cling long to the outmost boughs; but, by-and-by, even they fall and pass away. Down every channel of the hillsides are borne the crumblings washed from the everlasting hills, as we call them, that yet are passing away. And mandoes he differ from the things in the midst of which he is set? Nay; he is but flesh. “He fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.” It is even true of man’s work. All the glory, all the goodliness, of man’s genius and enterprise and effortit is all as the “flower of the field.” Man’s strength, and wisdom, and riches, and learning, and beauty, and science, and art, all are subject to decay; the “moth and the rust eat into them, and the thief steals them away.” It is even true of the very forms and modes in which one man strives to bless and help another. The forms are not the principal things; they are but the temporary human stamp; and God may remove or change them to make us feel our entire dependence on him.

II. THE PERMANENCE OF ALL. DIVINE THINGS. More especially of all Divine revelations and declarations, for these are properly gathered up in the term, the “Word of God.” Everything that speaks to our souls of God is a revelation to us. It may be a touch of nature. It may be only a pure white flower. It may be the pale gold and green of a late sunset. It may be the snowy crest of an Alpine mountain, lying soft and pure against the summer’s deep blue sky. It may be the weird mist of the gloaming creeping over the landscape. It may be the glimpse “down some woodland vale, of the many-twinkling sea.” It may be the thunder-voice of God echoing among the hills, or it may be the voice of some fellow-man, translating into human words for us the mysteries of Divine truth and love revealed to him for our sakes. Howsoever the Word of God may come into our souls, it is true for ever. All things that our souls hear and feel and know are Divine, are permanent, eternal things. When God speaks to our souls by his providence, the message is permanent. The revelation of redemption is permanent. Everything that pleads in us for duty is eternal, because it bears on the culture of character. All God’s comfortings abide with us. And when God kindles hope, it is hope that cannot disappoint, that will never make ashamed. ]n Dr. Bushnell’s life is the following passage, found pencilled by him on a stray sheet of paper. Referring to the time of his infancy, when he “came out in this rough battle with winds, winters, and wickedness,” he says, “My God and my good mother both heard the cry, and went to the task of strengthening me, and comforting me together, and were able ere long to get a smile upon my face Long years ago she vanished; but God stays by me still, embraces me in my grey hairs as tenderly and carefully as she did in my infancy, and gives to me, as my joy and the principal glory of my life, that he lets me know him, and helps me with real confidence to call him my Father.”R.T.

Isa 40:11

God, in Christ, shepherding,

Or doing shepherd’s work. Here also the first glance seems to be at Cyrus, who, in Isa 44:28, is called God’s shepherd; but the after-glance rests on him who could say, “I am the good Shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.” “The change in the fortunes of the Jews is compared by the prophet to a shepherd’s seeking his lost sheep, and feeding them again in green pastures” (comp. Jer 31:10; Jer 50:19; Eze 34:11-16). No doubt the figure in the prophet’s mind was that of a flock taken such a long and wearying journey as that from Babylon to Canaan, emblem of the pilgrim-path along which the good Shepherd leads the flock of his Church. The important distinctions between Eastern and Western shepherding should be carefully pointed out. Eastern associations alone provide effective figures. Van Lennep says, “One of the pleasantest sights to be witnessed under the clear and brilliant sky of Western. Asia is a flock of snow-white sheep scattered over the surface of a fine green meadow; the lambs skipping and gamboling in frolic; the shepherd sitting on the soft turf, playing with his flute, and his shaggy dog by his side, keeping watch in all directions.” An Eastern traveller tells of seeing precisely what Isaiah so poetically describes. “One shepherd led his flock, by a zigzag path, up the almost perpendicular bank of the glen. Behind it two young lambs trotted gaily along at the feet of their mother. At first they frisked about, and jumped lightly from stone to stone; but soon they began to fall behind. The poor little things cried piteously when the path became steeper and the rocks higher, and the flock more and more distant. The mother cried too, running back and forthnow lingering behind, now hasting on before, as if to wile them upwards. It was in vain. The ascent was too much for their feeble limbs. They stopped trembling on the shelving cliff, and cried; the mother stopped and cried by their side. I thought they would certainly be lost; and I saw the great eagles that soared in circles round the cliffs far overhead, sweeping lower and lower, as if about to pounce upon their prey. But no! The plaintive cries of distress had already reached the ear of the good shepherd. Mounting a rock, he looked down, and saw the helpless little ones. A minute more, and he was standing by them. Then taking them up in his arms, he put themone on each sidein his bosom, in the ample folds of his coat, which was bound round the waist by a girdle.” Christ’s care of his flock includes

I. RULE. This is the proper idea of “feeding” them. In the East feeding involves daily guiding the flock to its pastures and watering. So it includes the entire control and direction of daily life. Sheep are the most helpless of creatures, and wholly dependent on the wisdom and kindness of the shepherd. “His arm rules for him?’ He restrains the wayward, corrects the erring, guides and provides for all. And we are as helpless as sheep, and as truly need to be ruled and provided for. From this we may unfold the authority of the Lord Jesus, and his direct control of our life and ways. Happy the flock that is willing to follow the good Shepherd’s lead!

II. GENTLE CONSIDERATENESS. Daniel Quorm is made by the Rev. M. Guy Pearse to express this very quaintly and cleverly. “‘But that be not all, though it be a good deal,’ Daniel went on again). ‘He carries them in his bosomin his bosom. You know the man who had a hundred sheep, and lost one of them, went after it, and laid it on his shoulderson his shoulders. When an old sheep goes astrayone of us old ‘unsthe good Shepherd has his watch-dog to fetch us back again. He sends a snappish sorrow to bite us, or a sharp-toothed loss to shake us up a bit, and to drive us out of the ditch into which we had wandered. And the shepherd lays the runaway on his shoulders. It wasn’t a very comfortable position, held on by the legs, with his head danglin’ down. That be the way the Lord carries old sheep when we go astray. But the lambs he carries in his bosom. The shoulder is not for them, but the bosom. There they lie, with his arms folded about themthere, where his kind eye can keep its glance upon them. In his bosom, where they can feel the great full heart beatin’ in its love, where he can hear the first mutter o’ their fear, and they can catch the gentlest whisper of his lovin’ care. He carries the lambs in his bosom. Keep close to himlie down in his arms, an’ you’re safe enough.'” Of this we may be quite sure, Christ takes particular care of those that most need it; of lambs, those that cannot help themselvesyoung children, young converts, weak believers, sorrowful spirits.

III. SELF–DENYING HELPFULNESS. We must never think that the wise, gracious, faithful shepherding of Jesus costs him no pain, no anxiety, no self-sacrifice. This is as much the suggestion of the shepherd-figure as the previous ideas of rule and gentleness; but it is not so often dwelt on or realized. He who rolls over us the “tribulum” of discipline and trouble, to separate the chaff from the wheat, finds the rolling to be hard and trying work. Our Shepherd suffers in his care for the sheep, and it keeps our hearts tender to be reminded of his sufferings for us. Illustrating this, we may recall the Eastern shepherd, who, especially in the early months of the year, “has much to endure. Snow falls and frosts set in, which kill many of the lambs, although he seeks to save all he can by carrying them under his cloak, and ‘in his bosom.’ This period tries his own powers of endurance, for it is the rainy season. He cuts small branches of trees, and lays them in a pile, to avoid the consequences of standing in the wet. The only sleep he can secure is by lying on such a pile of branches or fagots, enveloped in his heavy cloak, or crouching in a sitting posture, with its stiff heavy folds set up over him like a tent.” We often think of our good Shepherd’s care, but too seldom we remember, lovingly and thankfully, how much it costs him.R.T.

Isa 40:18

Wanted, a likeness for God.

“What similitude can ye place beside him?” This and similar appeals in the later portion of Isaiah bear directly upon the idolatries with which Israel was surrounded in Babylon, and exerted a most important influence on the delivery of Israel, once and for ever, from idolatrous sentiments and sympathies. Isaiah’s plea is, “How should the image-deities of idolatrous Babylon be compared to the almighty and unsearchable God of Israel?” The incomparableness and uniqueness of God are in the prophet’s mind; and his plea may be compared with the argument of the Apostle Paul at Athens (Act 17:29, “Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device”). The Babylonian gods were also the gods of Assyria, and they were, for the most part, of Accadian or pre-Semitic origin. “The Babylonian lived in perpetual dread of the evil spirits which thronged about him; almost every moment had its religious ceremony, almost every action its religious complement. In Babylon we find the remains of scarcely any great buildings except temples.” During the Captivity, God’s people were closely associated with a most elaborate idolatrous system, and the appeal is therefore most effective. “Look around you. Notice all the forms in which deity is represented. See all the thought-figures of God which men can fashion, and say, is there any one of them to which you can liken your God?” We may let the appeal take its widest forms.

I. CAN YOU FIND A LIKENESS FOR GOD IN HIS CREATION? His works are a revelation of himself, but no one of them is a picture of his form. They are no more like him than the machine which a man makes is like the man. The machine reveals the man, tells us of his skill, his thought, his patience. And so God’s handiwork reveals the attributes of God; but if men try to find a likeness for God in the material creation, they will do, as the Egyptians didbegin with the sun and end with the slimy reptiles of the Nile-banks.

II. CAN YOU FIND A LIKENESS FOR GOD IN MAN‘S CREATIONS? They may vary, from the mere upright block rudely carved to represent a face, to the splendid Jupiter fashioned by the highest genius of the Greek. Art may paint exquisitely; but no brush, no chisel, no graving tool, in civilized or uncivilized lands, ever fashioned anything worthy to be likened to God. Illustrate from the unsatisfactoriness of the best faces of the manifested God Christ Jesus; and by the painfulness of all attempts to paint God the Father.

III. CAN YOU FIND A LIKENESS FOR GOD IN MAN‘S MENTAL CREATIONS? For he thinks figures of God, when he does not make statues. Philosophy has its conceptions, and now men say law is such a name as may henceforth stand for God. But the images of men’s thoughts are no better than the idols of men’s hands. Thus we are brought to face the questionHow can God be known? The answer is thisHe cannot be known in himself; but he can be known in his relations to us, and that is the knowledge wherein is “eternal life.”R.T.

Isa 40:27

Darkness breeding doubt.

Here is a question which is full of surprise. “How, then, can Jacob and Israel be faint-hearted, or despair of their restoration, when this unmatchable, all-powerful, unwearying God is their God?” Yet there is almost an excuse for their doubtings and depressions in their national circumstances. They had been so long in the power of their enemies, and their outlook was so utterly dark and hopeless, that they concluded they were quite overlooked by the God of their fathers. And we cannot wonder at this, for circumstances, private and national, can make darkness for us under which it is easy enough for doubts to breed. We think of some.

I. OVER–STUDY. There is a fixed limit of brain-power. We dare not go beyond it. And the usual penalty of overdoing is a darkness which nourishes depressions, needless fears, doubts, mistrusts, and even despair that inspires suicide. It is needful that we should, in these days, be warned of an insidious form of evil. Educational forcings of children make darkness brood over whole lives. Pressure in manhood, under ambitions or necessities, bring black clouds to shut the sunshine out of many a life; and much of the scepticism of our time is no more than the diseased questionings of overwrought brains. Truth only appears to quiet minds.

II. DISAPPOINTMENT. When our way is closed up, our schemes fail, or our friends prove unworthy, the darkness broods over us, and we easily say, “There is no truth or trust anywhere;” and we fling our doubtings against the very throne of God. This was the secret of the faintings of Israel. They were disappointed. Again and again great national changes raised high hopes, and again and again the darkness fell, and seemed to shut them in. Then the bitter cry arose, “God hath forgotten to be gracious.”

III. A SCEPTICAL ATMOSPHERE. One man breathes out his suspicions, another his questionings; this man attacks the things most surely believed among us; and another man writes a book to shift the old foundations, and make the great Christian house tumble about our ears; and the very air is charged with an electricity of unbelief, which all must breathe, and few have spiritual health enough to resist. Such are the times in which we now live. It is easier to doubt God than to trust him.

IV. ILLNESS AND FRAILTY. The class of diseases characteristic of highly civilized times of society is precisely that which relates to the nerves, and has for its symptoms lowness of spirits, distorted vision, gloomy fears, and melancholia. Many and many a poor burdened body cries out, “God has forgotten to be gracious,” and it is only a body-cry; the heart holds fast its trust. Whensoever the doubting comes, the remedy is the same: the psalmist expresses it, “I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High.”R.T.

Isa 40:29

He who has power alone can give it.

“He giveth power to the faint.” “The final verses of this chapter are remarkable for the frequent occurrence of ‘fainteth’ and ‘is weary.’ They come in every sentence, and if we note their use we shall get the essence of the hope and consolation which the prophet was anointed to pour into the wounds of his own people, and of every heavy-laden soul since then. Notice how, first, the prophet points to the unwearied God; and then his eyes drop from heaven to the clouded, saddened earth, where there are the faint and the weak, and the strong becoming faint, and the youths fading and becoming weak with age. Then he hinds together these two oppositesthe unwearied God and the fainting manin the grand thought that he is the giving God, who bestows all his power on the weary. And see how, finally, he rises to the blessed conception of the wearied man becoming like the unwearied God. ‘They shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint'” (Maclaren).

I. A MAN MUST GIVE WHAT HE POSSESSES. He only truly enjoys it by giving it. The miser who holds is miserable. To have anything is simply blessed because we can share it, we can give it. This is more true than we think it, in all the best relations of life, even under our present depraved conditions. Ideally it is the only noble conception of life. Mothers only care for possession because it brings power, to give. Thinkers only acquire truth for the joy of imparting. We are permitted to think that this is true of God. He has no joy in possession. His joy is giving. He is always spending and working; and the gift of his Son is only the sublimest instance of what he is always doinggiving away his possessions.

II. A MAN CAN ONLY GIVE WHAT HE POSSESSES. We seek out each man for the skill he possesses. This man can give us healing, that one comforting, and this one teaching. Each has his own possession, and each can help us in his own way. No one man can do all things for us; and we are foolish indeed if we expect of a man what he has no power to give.

III. WHAT GOD HAS IS THE FULL, ABUNDANT SUPPLY OF ALL OUR WANTS. “My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” In the passage now before us the provision of God for us is gathered up into the significant word “strength.” Paul’s great want is also our great wantthe great want of every man the world over, in whom a trace of the Divine image is left. It is power“power to perform that which is good;” some spiritual force to act on our souls, and make us more than conquerors over self and sin. And that is within Goal’s ability. To bestow it is the purpose of his good will. “Giving power to the faint” is his Divinest work.R.T.

Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary

Isa 40:1-2. Comfort ye, &c. These are the words of the prophet, relating what he saw, or what he heard, in this scene of the manifestation of the kingdom of God, with its signs and concomitants. He relates, that he heard the voice of Jehovah directed to certain ministers of his, commanding them to comfort his people on account of the approaching advent of the kingdom of God. This command is from the Father by the Holy Spirit, and it is directed to those teachers of the church, whose office it is to deliver the word of God, whether it be for reproof, for doctrine, or instruction, according to the various states of the church. And in this case the first preachers of the Gospel are particularly to be understood. The message they were to deliver is this:Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people; speak ye comfortably to the heart of Jerusalem: that is to say, to the afflicted and heavy-laden; to those who had long panted for the expected salvation: proclaim ye good tidings; things pleasing to hear, and agreeable to their desires; which may deliver them from fear and anxiety, and relieve their burdened hearts. For this is the meaning of the Hebrew phrase, to speak to the heart of any one. Compare Gen 34:3; Gen 50:21 in the original. It is evident from the Gospel what consolation was here intended. It was that which the apostle calls everlasting consolation, and good hope through grace, 2Th 2:16. The matter of this consolation is contained in three articles. The first, in these words, Cry unto her, That her warfare is accomplished; or more properly, “That the determined time of her laborious duty or office is fulfilled.” See Mar 1:15. The meaning is, that the determined time of the troublesome duty, labour, and burdensome exercise which the people of God had hitherto undergone, was now past and fulfilled; that the time of dismission into liberty, long wished and hoped for, was at length come. The prophet unquestionably alludes to the whole period of the legal oeconomy; that time which our Lord in St. Mark’s gospel declares to be fulfilled, and that the kingdom of God was at hand. See Gal 4:4. The prophet’s ideas here are taken from the station and functions of the priests in the temple, who, like soldiers, had their regular times of duty and discharge from service. Hence not only this service, but almost every other kind of hardship and servitude is called warfare. See Num 4:23; Num 8:24-25 in the original. The second article is, that her iniquity is pardoned; which is fully explained by Luk 1:77 whence we learn, that a perfect remission of sins should be an attribute of that time of grace, to be opened by the great forerunner of the Messiah. Compare Act 13:38. The third article is, she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins, There can be no doubt that this passage is to be taken in a good sense. The Chaldee paraphrast renders it, She hath received the cup of consolation from the face of the Lord, as if she had been doubly smitten for her sins: and Vatablus has it, “The Lord will confer upon her many benefits, instead of the punishments which she might have justly suffered for her sins.” The full meaning, according to Vitringa is, that God, though he might with great justice punish the sins of his people more severely, yet at this time of grace he would cease from his severity, would forgive their sins, and would crown them with a double portion of his blessings; wherein the prophet seems to refer to that abundance of spiritual gifts with which God would enrich his evangelical church, and whereby believers would have a proof of perfect remission of sins through the great atonement, and a foundation of the most solid comfort. In various places of the New Testament, this abundance of grace and spiritual blessings is spoken of. See particularly 2Pe 1:3-4. Rom 5:20. Joh 1:16.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

I.THE FIRST DISCOURSE

The Prologue: the Objective and Subjective basis of Redemption

Isaiah 40

1. THE PROLOGUE OF THE SECOND PART AND OF THE FIRST DISCOURSE

Isa 40:1-11

1Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,

Saith your God.

2Speak ye 2comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her,

That her 3warfare is accomplished,

That 4her iniquity is pardoned:

5For she hath received of the Lords hand

Double for all her sins.

3The voice of him that crieth 6in the wilderness,

Prepare ye the way of the Lord,
Make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

4Every valley shall be exalted,

And every mountain and hill shall be made low:
And the crooked shall be made 7straight,

And 8the rough places 9plain:

5And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,

And all flesh shall see it together:

For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

610The 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:

7The grass withereth, the flower fadeth:

Because 11the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it:

Surely the people is grass.

8The grass withereth, the flower fadeth:

But the word of our God shall stand forever.

912O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain;

13O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings,

Lift up thy voice with strength;
Lift it up, be not afraid;

Say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!

10Behold, the Lord God will come 14 15with strong hand,

And his arm shall rule for him:
Behold his reward is with him,

And 16his work before him.

11He shall feed his flock like a shepherd:

He shall gather the lambs with his arm,
And carry them in his bosom,

And shall gently lead those 17that are with young.

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL

Isa 40:1. The rhetorical form of anadiplosis (epanalepsis, epizeuxis) occurs, indeed, principally in the second part (Isa 40:1; Isa 41:27; Isa 43:11; Isa 43:25; Isa 48:11; Isa 48:15; Isa 51:9; Isa 51:12; Isa 51:17; Isa 52:1; Isa 52:11; Isa 57:6; Isa 57:14; Isa 57:19; Isa 62:10; Isa 65:1). But it occurs also not unfrequently in passages of the first part that are the acknowledged productions of Isa. (Isa 8:9; Isa 18:2; Isa 18:7; Isa 21:11; Isa 28:10; Isa 28:13; Isa 29:1. Comp., beside Isa 15:1; Isa 21:9; Isa 24:16; Isa 26:3; Isa 26:15; Isa 27:5; Isa 38:11; Isa 38:17; Isa 38:19. Agreeably to the character of this section, the Piel occurs oftener in the second part: Isa 40:1; Isa 49:13; Isa 51:3; Isa 51:12; Isa 51:19; Isa 52:9; Isa 61:2; Isa 66:13 (Pual Isa 54:11; Isa 66:13). Piel occurs twice in the first part: Isa 12:1; Isa 22:4. The passages Isa 49:13; Isa 51:3; Isa 51:12; Isa 52:9; Isa 66:13, are manifest echoes of the present passage with the suffix referring to Jehovah, as it suits the contents of the second part, is found there oftener than in the first: comp. Isa 3:12; Isa 10:2; Isa 10:24; Isa 32:13; Isa 32:18, with Isa 40:1; Isa 43:20; Isa 47:6; Isa 51:4; Isa 51:16; Isa 52:5 sq.; Isa 28:5; Isa 30:26; Isa 58:1; Isa 65:10; Isa 65:19, etc.

The expression , as an introductory formula, is peculiar to Isaiah; for it is found only in Isaiah, and that in both parts: Isa 1:11; Isa 1:18; Isa 33:10; Isa 40:1; Isa 40:25; Isa 41:21; Isa 66:9 (comp. Kleinert, Echtheit der jesajan, Weissag, I. p. 239 sqq.). The Imperfect corresponds to the aim of chapters 4066. Comp., the formula with which the Prophet introduces the prophecies he addresses to the present church ( Isa 1:10; Isa 1:24; Isa 2:1, etc., comp. Isa 7:3; Isa 7:7; Isa 7:10; Isa 8:1; Isa 8:5; Isa 8:11; Isa 14:28; Isa 20:2, etc.). , taken exactly, is for us an untranslatable verbal form, that, according to its original sense, designates the thought neither as present nor future, nor in any way as one to be estimated by time measure, but one to be estimated by the measure of its mode of existence. That is, the Imperfect designates, not that which has objectively come into actual existence, but what is only present some way subjectively. In other words, , standing at the beginning of the second part, characterizes it as addressed to an ideal church. In itself, indeed, can mean, he will speak. Thus it is taken by Stier, v. Hofmann (Schriftbew. II. 1. p. 91, Ausg. v. J. 1853), and Klostermann (Zeitschrift f. Luth. Th. u. K. 1876, I. p. 24 sqq.); the last named of whom, however, errs in thinking that the following discourse Isa 40:3-11 gives the Imperfect the direction toward the future. For what follows, and is separated by intermediate members can never determine the specific sense of a Hebrew verbal form. can, also in itself mean frequent repetition (Delitzsch). But all these significations are too special. The subjective force of the Imperfect is capable of various signification according to the context. Here at the beginning we are much too little au fait, to assign to the word a construction as definite as those expositors would do. Here we know from the only this much, that what follows is to be regarded, not as something that has just gone forth, something to be executed at once for the present church, but as an ideal word of God according to its point of departure and aim.We have said above that with a suffix referring to Jehovah occurs much oftener in the second part than in the first. The same is to be said of with the suffix referring to Israel. occurs twice in the first part (Isa 7:13; Isa 25:1), five times in the second (Isa 40:27; Isa 49:4-5; Isa 57:21; Isa 61:10); six times in the first part (Isa 50:10; Isa 25:9; Isa 26:13; Isa 35:2; Isa 36:7; Isa 37:20), eight times in the second (Isa 40:3; Isa 40:8; Isa 42:17; Isa 52:10; Isa 55:7; Isa 59:13; Isa 61:2; Isa 61:6); in the first part properly only once in the sense here under review (Isa 7:11; beside this Isa 37:4; Isa 37:10), six times in the second (Isa 41:10; Isa 41:13; Isa 43:3; Isa 48:17; Isa 51:15; Isa 55:5); occurs not at all in the first part, on the other hand nine times in the second (Isa 51:20; Isa 51:22; Isa 52:7; Isa 54:6; Isa 60:9; Isa 60:19; Isa 62:3; Isa 62:5; Isa 66:9); in the first part only Isa 35:4, in the second Isa 40:1; Isa 40:9; Isa 59:2; in the sense meant here only Isa 50:10; Isa 58:2; and occur in this sense in neither part. It is quite natural that the affectionate words of endearment should occur oftener in the book of comfort than in the book of threatening.

Isa 40:2. The question might be raised whether is to be construed as a causal particle. But in that case must be referred to what precedes, and that, say, in the sense of (Jer 4:5) in order that it may not stand as flat and superfluous. This construction is not allowable here because must be closely connected with the preceding .

We must therefore refer to what follows, and , in the sense of that, introduces the objective clause. only here and Dan 8:12 is used as feminine. The reason seems to me to lie in this, that in both passages the word is conceived as collective, i. e., as designation, not of a single conflict, but of a multitude of conflicts, of a long continued period of conflict. of time (comp. Gen 25:24; Gen 29:21; Jer 25:12) occurs again in Isaiah only Isa 65:20 in the Piel.The expression occurs elsewhere only Job 11:6; the singular, also, , duplicatio, only Job 41:4.

Isa 40:3. Piel , make straight, occurs again only Isa 45:2; Isa 45:13.(, regio arida, apart from Isa 35:1; Isa 35:6, occurs in part first only Isa 33:9; whereas in part second, beside the present it occurs Isa 41:19; Isa 51:3. occurs in the same sense as here Isa 11:16; Isa 19:23; Isa 62:10; comp. Isa 33:8; Isa 49:11; Isa 59:7. It occurs beside Isa 7:3; Isa 36:2. It is the highway, embankment road, chaussee.

Isa 40:4. a word of frequent recurrence, especially in the second introduction: Isa 2:9; Isa 2:11-12; Isa 2:17; Isa 5:15; then Isa 10:33; Isa 29:4; Isa 32:18; also the antithesis of and in parallelism occurs very often in part first: Isa 2:14; Isa 10:32; Isa 30:17; Isa 30:25; Isa 31:4, and somewhat oftener still in part second: Isa 40:4; Isa 40:12; Isa 41:15; Isa 42:15; Isa 54:10; Isa 55:12; Isa 65:7. in the present sense only here; comp. Jer 17:9 Isa 11:4 in the ethical sense; Isa 42:16. . ., from alligavit Exo 28:28; Exo 39:21, like jugum from jungere. the joining, particularly the union between two mountains, the yoke.

Isa 40:5. again in Isaiah only Isa 41:18; Isa 63:14.The expression is found in Isaiah again only Isa 35:2; Isa 58:8; Isa 60:1. does not occur again in Isaiah. The expression seems to connect with in the Pentateuch: Exo 16:10; Lev 9:6; Num 14:10, etc. found again only Isa 49:26; Isa 66:16; Isa 66:23-24; with following again only in Job 34:15.The clause to is to be referred to what precedes, and not to what follows. For if were to be taken in the sense of spiritual seeing, of knowing, still it would be a secondary thought that all flesh shall know that revelation as one that was announced beforehand. The chief thing will be that they will verify with their own eyes that revelation. And this seeing shall win them to the Lord. Moreover evidently corresponds to the preceding . Therefore the pronominal object must be supplied to as is often the case. The causal clause relates to all that precedes.

Isa 40:6. Notice the verbal form with a simple Vav copulativum. It does not say . That would be to present this saying as a new chief member of the consecutio rerum, of the succession of facts that naturally unfold themselves. That might and perhaps would have happened were it a merely earthly transaction that is treated. To represent such in the completeness of its successive points, it must have read: . But the Prophet translates us into the spirit world where time and space cease. There what with us develops one after another is side by side. For this reason the Prophet here makes use of a form of speech which otherwise serves only to fill out some trait or to mention accompanying circumstances: comp. Isa 6:3; Isa 21:7; Isa 29:11 sq.; Isa 65:8. is meant collectively or as designation of the genus: whereas in Isa 40:5 (each flesh) it has individual signification.

Isa 40:7. The perfects and must not be compared with the aoristus gnomicus of the Greeks (nor even Isa 26:9; comp. my remarks in loc). For only that Hebrew verbal form that has, too, the notion of succession, therefore includes that of time, viz.: the imperf., with Vav cons., can be compared with the Greek aorist. Here, as in Isa 26:9, the perf., designates timeless objectivity and reality. is not for, but when. Were it taken in the sense of for, then the nature of the wind would be designated as the constant cause of the withering of vegetation. But it withers also when its time comes, without wind. But when a hot desert wind (Isa 18:4; Jer 4:11) blows, then it withers especially quick. flavit, inflavit, occurs in Kal only here. Hiph. Gen 15:11; Psa 147:18.There is much uncertainty about the origin of the particle . Gesen. (Thes. p. 668 under ), Fuerst. (Lex. under and ) and Ewald 205 d seem to me to be right in maintaining that , on account of its derivation from , has resident in it an argumentative meaning. Thus Fuerst. regards it primarily as a strengthened = therefore in a resumptive apodosis. He refers in proof to Exo 2:14 and to our passage. And in fact Exo 2:14 seems to involve the drawing of a conclusion. For after Moses perceived the defiant answer of the Hebrew man, he cries out: . Would not this be most correctly rendered: is the matter therefore really known?It is clear that the omission of Isa 40:7 in the Alexand. and Vatic, text of the LXX. is owing to arbitrariness, if not to oversight. Koppe, Gesenius, Hitzig, who regard the whole verse, or at least 7 b as a gloss, as a very diluted, sense-disturbing thought, as an ejaculation of a reader, only prove thereby how little they have understood the sense and connection of the prophetic discourse.

Isa 40:8. The words are taken verbatim from Isa 15:6, like from Isa 28:1, where we find . The expression occurs in Isa 8:10, comp. Isa 7:7.

Isa 40:9. Piel is exclusively peculiar to part second: Isa 41:27; Isa 52:7; Isa 60:6; Isa 61:1, a fact that need occasion no surprise. For it is natural, that the word, which means , should be found chiefly in the of the Old Testament. Isa 13:2, Isa 58:1. comp. Isa 10:13. With that exception occurs only in the second part: (Isa 37:3); Isa 40:26; Isa 40:29; Isa 40:31; Isa 41:1; Isa 44:12; Isa 49:4; Isa 50:2; Isa 63:1.The expression is very frequent not only in Isaiah but also in the whole Old Testament; Isa 7:4; Isa 8:12; Isa 10:24; Isa 35:4; Isa 37:6; Isa 40:9; Isa 41:10; Isa 41:13-14; Isa 43:1; Isa 43:5; Isa 44:2; Isa 51:7; Isa 54:4; Isa 54:14. strongly reminds one, and just by reason of what follows, of Isa 35:4. Comp. beside Isa 25:9. The expression is found in no other Prophet.

Isa 40:10. , essentiae. occurs again Isa 27:1; Isa 28:2. occurs ten times in the first part: Isa 3:15; Isa 7:7; Isa 10:24, etc., and thirteen times in the second part: Isa 48:16; Isa 49:22; Isa 50:4-5; Isa 50:9, etc.The clause is not co-ordinate with the foregoing chief clause, but subordinate to it. It is a clause expressive of situation (comp. Ewald, 306, c; 341 a, sqq.), that more precisely explains the notion is properly Dat. commodi, not mere Dat. ethicus as in Isa 40:9, which is, moreover, to be seen from the masculine . For were it Dat. ethicus, then, corresponding to the gender of , it must read .

Isa 40:11. It is remarkable that the verb is never used in part first in the sense of to pasture, the action of the shepherd, although shepherds occurs Isa 31:4 (Isa 38:12), (comp. Isa 5:17; Isa 11:7; Isa 14:30; Isa 27:10; Isa 30:23). In part second, also, the word means pasture in the active sense only once: Isa 61:5, three times pasture of beasts: Isa 44:20; Isa 49:9; Isa 65:25. shepherd in part second: Isa 44:28; Isa 56:11; Isa 63:11. the flock found again Isa 17:2; Isa 32:14.=, from occurs in Isaiah only here (comp. 1Sa 15:4). Beside this Isa 65:25. occurs again only Isa 65:6-7.The word is joined Gen 33:13 with and ; is used therefore of sucking beeves and sheep, 1Sa 6:7; 1Sa 6:10 of sucking beeves alone, Psa 78:71 as here used of both without addition. The word occurs only here in Isaiah. But comp , the suckling Isa 49:15; Isa 65:20., which has in Gen 47:17 the meaning to bring through, sustentare, 2Ch 32:22, the meaning to protect, hedge about, and also Isa 51:18 the meaning careful guiding, occurs in Isaiah beside here and the passage just named, only Isa 49:10.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1. We have here before us the Prologue both of the first discourse and of the entire prophetic cycle of Isa 40:12 to Isa 66:24. For the representation of Jehovah as the comforter after protracted suffering (Isa 40:1-2), as the true One, whose word abides when all that is earthly is destroyed (Isa 40:6-8), and as the true shepherd that leads His people with paternal care (Isa 40:11) corresponds to what follows (Isa 40:12 and onwards), wherein Jehovah is portrayed as the infinite, incomparable, almighty God, and the restorer of His people, so that we find in our passage the keynote of the whole of part second of Isaiahs prophecies. Their contents are predominantly consolatory; but our passage is like the outline of the thoughts of peace therein unfolded. The outward form of the discourse, moreover, bears the imprint of this inward correspondence. The entire second part is dominated by the fundamental number three. For it is composed of three subdivisions, of which each consists of three times three, therefore nine discourses. But our Prologue consists first of an introduction that contains twice three clauses. By three imperatives, namely (comfort ye, speak ye, cry) it is announced that the Lord has a comforting message for His people, and by three clauses, each of which begins with (that, that, for) is stated what is the contents of this joyful message (Isa 40:1-2). Hahn was the first to maintain (what Delitzsch, too, finds not without truth, p. 408) that these three clauses beginning with correspond to the three calls that follow (Isa 40:3-11) and to the three parts of the book, not only in respect to number but also their contents. . That there is a correspondence in respect to number can hardly be doubted. But that the contents corresponds to the three times three corresponding degrees can only be made out by great ingenuity.

After the prologue of the prologue, there follow, as remarked, three calls, each of which comprises three Masoretic verses. But by the similar beginnings of the three calls, and by their internal arrangement, it appears certain that the Masoretic division into verses corresponds in general here to that division into periods intended also by the author. Only in regard to the first (behold) at the close of Isa 40:9 (comp. below) there may be a divergence. Each of the three calls begins with a vivid dramatic announcement. And here, in fact, occurs a remarkable gradation. The first call is introduced by the simple (Hark! a call). The second call begins with the extended formula, containing a summons to call . The third call, finally, begins with a still more comprehensive formula of summons. It contains three members: 1) go up on a high mountain evangelist Zion; 2) raise with might thy voice evangelist Jerusalem; 3) raise it, fear not, say to the cities of Judah. Herewith it is worthy of notice that the third member itself has again three verbs (raise, be not afraid, say). There follows then on this threefold formula of summons a threefold (behold) Isa 40:9-10. Here, perhaps, the Masoretic division into verses may not quite correspond to the meaning of the Prophet. For if the first corresponds to the two that follow, then the clause introduced by it ought rather to be referred to what follows. Verse 9, accordingly, ought to end with the word Judah. The concluding verse (11) also contains three members: 1) he shall feed his flock like a shepherd; 2) he shall gatherbosom; 3) shall gently leadwith young. According to this the division into threes is not absolutely carried out in the prologue, but only just so far as it could be done without spiritless, outward mechanism, and tiresome monotony, and with such delicacy that it reveals itself only to close observation and not at all in a disagreeable way. Thereby the Prophet has proved himself to be a real artist. Moreover this tripartite division has its complete analogy in Isaiahs style in that twofold division that we noticed in the second introduction and in chaps. 2427.

In regard to the order of thought, the three calls contain a threefold specification of that general announcement of salvation contained in Isa 40:1-2. The first call (Isa 40:3-5) expresses the thought that now is the time to get out of the way every outward and inward obstacle that may obstruct the promised revelation of glory. The second call (Isa 40:6-8) declares that all earthly gloryeven of the elect peoplemust be destroyed before and in order that Jehovahs promise of glory may be fulfilled in its complete sense. The third call, finally, (Isa 40:9-11) summons Israel, which is in exile, to rally to its Lord, who comes as Redeemer, and to commit itself to His faithful, parental guidance.

2. Comfortall her sins.

Isa 40:1-2. With three emphatically comforting words the Prophet begins. For the twice-repeated , that stands significantly at the head, as the stamp, so to speak, of the entire second part, is not alone comforting. The object my people, that depends on it, is quite as much so. Although judged and exiled, Israel had not ceased to be Jehovahs people, the elect peculiar people. It is usual to understand the prophets to be the ones addressed. But it was not possible for every Israelite to hear the voice of a prophet directly. Hence there lies also in the words a summons to carry the prophetic word further. Every one shall help to comfort. Each one shall contribute his part, so that the comforting word of God may come to all the members of the people. Not once only will the Lord assure Israel of His consolation. With emphasis in Isa 40:2 He summons the same ones whom He had already commanded in Isa 40:1 to comfort His people, to speak to the heart of Jerusalem (personification and metonymy at the same time, comp. Isa 4:4; Isa 40:9; Isa 41:27). The phrase (to speak out over the heart, to charm the heart, to cover with words, to sooth, to quiet) occurs elsewhere eight times in the Old Test.: Gen 34:3; Gen 50:21; Jdg 19:3; Rth 2:13; 2Sa 19:8; 2Ch 30:22; 2Ch 32:6; Hos 2:16. Whereas speak ye to the heart implies affecting address, (call ye) involves rather the notion of loud, strong and clear speaking. By every means the conviction must be brought to the people that now the time of grace is at hand., militia, warfare is used here figuratively as in Job 7:1; Job 10:17; Job 14:14. As in general the trials and troubles of this life can be set forth as conflicts (comp. Eph 6:11 sqq.; 1Ti 6:12; 2Ti 2:3 sqq.; 2Ti 4:7), so here the whole time of Israels affliction and suffering and especially the exile is designated as a time of conflict.

The second clause (for her guilt is thoroughly tasted), is difficult. First of all it must be noted that the Prophet has here in mind the passages Lev 26:34; Lev 26:41; Lev 26:43. It is said there that when the judgment of exile shall come upon the people Israel the land will be desert, and by that means shall enjoy the rest which it could not enjoy so long as the land was inhabited by a disobedient people that would not observe the prescribed Sabbath seasons ( Lev 26:35). The land will then enjoy its time of rest ( Isa 40:34). with the accusative is to have pleasure in something, enjoy something, delectari aliquare. The Hiph. that stands parallel with is nothing else than a direct causative Hiphil which means delectationem agere, to pursue pleasure, thus signifies continued, undisturbed enjoyment; as e. g. is not merely quietum facere but quietum agere (Isa 7:4), and like expressions, such as , etc., signify not merely make fat, make white, but a continued activity whose product is to be fat, to be white. In contrast with this thought that the land shall enjoy its period of rest stands now the other (Lev 26:41; Lev 26:43) that the people in exile shall enjoy their guilt: the land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them; and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity ( they shall enjoy their fault, Isa 40:43). This expression enjoy their guilt, is manifestly ironical. Whereas the absence of the wicked people is for the land a benefit, an enjoyment, the people in exile must enjoy the fruit of their disobedience. They must at last taste how bitter and bad it is to forsake the Lord (Jer 2:19), after having been unwilling to believe that apostacy from the Lord was ruinous. If now is frui culpa, delectari culpa, then is the passive of it, and means the fault is enjoyed, thoroughly tasted. Niph. , it is true, occurs in many places where it is used of the favorable acceptance of sacrifices. But there it means enjoyed, accepted as lovely enjoyment, to be pronounced welcome. Moreover this use is found only in Lev 1:4; Lev 7:18; Lev 19:7; Lev 22:23; Lev 22:25; Lev 22:27.

If ever had the meaning guilt offering, then the matter would be quite simple. For then would mean their guilt offering is favorably accepted. But it never has this meaning. We can only say therefore that the Prophet construes in the sense of is enjoyed, so that it forms the antithesis of , Lev 26:41; Lev 26:43.

That mournful time when Israel must enjoy the bitter fruits of its sin is now gone. The peculiar ironical antithesis of the land shall enjoy her sabbaths, and they shall enjoy their fault, has the effect that we are necessitated to hear now of an enjoyed, thoroughly tasted guilt-broth into which they have broken crumbs for themselves and have now eaten it up. The third clause beginning with is best construed as an objective clause parallel with the two preceding objective clauses. For if it were a causal clause, as Hahn would have it, it must be so indicated by an unmistakable causal particle opposed to the two objective particles preceding. But that the Perfect is not to be taken in a future sense (in time to come receives, Hahn) is plain from the parallelism with the foregoing Perfects. Nor can mean the double amount of salvation (Hahn, comp. Isa 61:7), for neither , nor suits that. The former does not for the reasons already given; the latter does not because it must in that case read . For how Hahn can say that the sins are the means by which Jerusalem comes into possession of a double amount of salvation is incomprehensible. If Jerusalem had not committed these sins, would it then have been the worse off for it? The Prophet can therefore only mean to say that Jerusalem has received double punishment, has been chastised with double rods. Then is the preposition of recompense, as the recompense may be regarded as the means in order to acquiring the thing [comp. Gen 29:18, , properly by means of Rachel, as the price is the means by which one acquires the work or the wares, From Dr. N.s Gramm.Tr.].

But how can it be said that Jehovah has laid on double the punishment deserved? How does this agree with His justice? One must remember first that the executors of the judgments against Israel did not merely restrict themselves to the measure of chastisement determined by Jehovah, but ex propriis intensified it, and thus brought on Israel a measure of punishment pressed down and shaken together (Isa 10:7; Jer 50:7; Jer 50:11; Jer 50:17, etc.). Yet if Jehovah permitted this, He is still accountable for it, seeing He could hinder it. And Jer 16:18 : And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double shows that this severe measure was intended by God. But was it really too severe? Delitzsch is right in saying that the expression is not to be taken in a juristic sense. It is rather to be taken rhetorically. It is an hyperbola, meant to set forth the compassionating love of God in the clearest light. For this love is at once so high and so humble that it accuses and excuses itself as if it had done too much in the way of punishment. Thereby, too, it betrays the motive for that overflowing salvation it proposes to display. For if one has given others so much pain, he will gladly make it up by so much the greater benefaction.

It is to be noticed that in Isa 40:1-2, first the Prophet speaks. For by means of saith your God he takes up the word himself in order to introduce the Lord as speaking the remaining words to . In the latter half of Isa 40:2 the Prophet himself again speaks, as appears from the hand of the Lord. The Prophet therefore partly cites the verba ipsissima of Jehovah, partly states what the Lord has done. This is the usual manner of prophetic announcements. It is necessary to note this here, because in what follows there is joined in climax fashion an unusual form of announcement.

2. The voicehath spoken it.

Isa 40:3-5. The Prophet hears a voice. He does not say whence or from whom the voice came. This is unusual. For if now and then in other cases the prophets hear terrestrial or super-terrestrial voices, still in every case the source of it is explained. The context makes known whence and why the voice sounds (comp. Isa 21:11; Eze 1:28; Dan 10:9). Here one learns only that a voice sounded. This is manifestly a rhetorical embellishment. The Prophet would make prominent thereby the importance of what follows by saying that it was important to him in an especially solemn way by a special superterrestrial voice. can in itself mean: a voice cries (comp. e. g. Mic 6:9). But it is more drastic and consonant with other analogies to take the words as an exclamatory phrase and as a genitive relation (comp. Isa 6:4; Isa 13:4; Isa 52:8; Isa 66:6). A heavenly messenger, then, brings the command to prepare for the Lord the way through the desert (Isa 40:3-4). This command has evidently a double sense. For in the first place the people shall in fact be redeemed out of exile and be brought back home. And Jehovah Himself will conduct this return, as appears beyond doubt from Isa 40:9-11. But the Lord will lead them in order that the journey of the people may be made easy and prosperous without obstacle or attack (comp. Isa 41:17 sqq.; Isa 43:1 sqq., 14 sqq.; Isa 48:20 sq.; Isa 49:9 sqq.; Isa 55:12 sq.; Isa 57:14). Such is certainly the immediate sense of our passage. In fact, the whole context, especially In its immediate connection with the comforting prologue, proves that it contains a promise and not an exhortation to repentance. With this agrees Isa 40:5, which plainly declares that Isa 40:3-4 announce the fulfilment, evident to all the world, of a promise given long before by the Lord. But of course it cannot be doubted that the old figurative meaning given already by John the Baptist is also justified. For in the first place it comports with the universal and everywhere to be assumed principles of the divine pedagogy, that that physical desolation of the way homewards were not possible without an ethical desolation of the ways of the heart. And in the second place, since the language is such that it can mean both, this possibility of doublemeaning makes it a natural conjecture that such was actually intended. In the third place it is to be noticed that this first voice announces the chief matter, redemption and return home, in a general way. The second (Isa 40:6-8) gives explanation respecting the when of its accomplishment. The third (Isa 40:9-11) defines the manner of fulfilment, and contains only in this respect those two points, one after the other, which in Isa 40:3-5 we observe in one another. For what is that behold your God, Isa 40:9, but the announcement that the Lord by repentance and faith will come to His people? And what are Isa 40:10-11 but the statement that the Lord Himself as a parental guide will come home with His people?

Isa 40:3 is referred by the LXX., the Vulg. and the Evangelists (Mat 3:3 : Mar 1:3; Luk 3:4) to what precedes. This is not only contrary to the accents, but to the very sound of the words, since evidently corresponds to the following , and must be construed like the latter. John the Baptist, in the application of these words, calling himself a (Joh 1:23), followed the LXX. He found in that sound of words familiar to his hearers, which our passage has in that translation, a fitting expression for what he would say, without meaning to give thereby an authentic interpretation of the original text (comp. Tholuck, The Old Testament in the New, 1868, p. 5). For when Delitzsch says: One may, indeed ought, as it appears, to represent to himself that the caller, going out into the desert, summons men to make a road in it, I can find no point of support for this statement in the Hebrew text. The command to make a road in the desert does not of necessity sound out of the desert itself. If the matter itself presents no necessity for this view, I see nothing else in the Hebrew text to indicate that the voice which the Prophet heard sounded out from the desert. Therefore the meaning which the Baptist, following the LXX., gives to the words seems to me to belong to the category of those free citations that occur so often in the New Testament in reference to Old Testament passages, and which constitute one of those departments of biblical hermeneutics that still remain the most obscure. Of course from our point of view no objection arises against the meaning and application given by the Evangelists (especially Luk 4:3-6) to the words that follow .

The Piel , used elsewhere also of clearing out a house (Gen 24:31; Lev 14:36) occurs again in reference to ways, in the sense of making clear, light, opening a road; Isa 57:14; Isa 62:10; Mal 3:1, the last of which passages is likely a reference to the present. The subject of Isa 57:14 and Isa 62:10 is also that road on which the people shall return out of exile to their home. If the customary route from Babylon to Canaan did not pass through the desert, yet the properly nearest one did. And from and Isa 40:4 it is seen that Israel was to go along, not only the most convenient, but also the directest way home. From Egypt, also, the people had to traverse the desert in order to reach Canaan. The notion desert plays an important part in all the pictures of the future that relate to the deliverance out of exile. How consonant to Isaiahs style it is to represent, that on their return home also from the second exile Israel will wander through the desert, may be seen from Isa 11:15-16. The meaning of is evidently that the way of the people shall go out straight, and thus be as short as possible. To be such, it must make no deviations either in horizontal or vertical directions. The former appears to be the meaning of Isa 40:3 b; the latter is made prominent Isa 40:4. The valleys (the form only here) shall raise themselves ( used antithetically with 11, 12; comp. Isa 2:2; Isa 2:13-14; Isa 6:1; Isa 30:25; Isa 33:10; Isa 52:13; Isa 57:7; Isa 57:15), and all mountains and hills shall lower themselves [, see Text. and Gr.] the rugged places shall become even and the connection of mountains [Bergjoch see Text. and Gram.] shall become valley depths. The Prophet would say, therefore, that the obstacles that would prevent the coming of the Lord into the heart of His people, and thereby hinder the coming of the people into their land, shall be rid away. And should not thereby the glory of Jehovah become manifest to the world? When the nations see how gloriously the people Israel serve their God and how gloriously He serves His people, will they not make efforts to attain the righteousness and salvation of this people and seek the Lord who is the author of both (comp. Isa 2:2 sq.)? The great, glorious promise, which the Prophet has just announced, must be fulfilled, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it, and the mouth of the Lord does not lie. The expression occurs in Isaiah again Isa 1:20; Isa 58:14. Comp. on Isa 1:2.

4. The voicestand forever.

Isa 40:6-8. The rhetorical dress of this second call, contains in relation to the first a climax. For there it is simply said: voice of one crying. But here: voice of one saying, cry! And answer: what shall I cry? Thus a second voice here precedes the voice of the one calling, and summons him to cry. This is indeed primarily rhetorical embellishment. Yet this embellishment has its material reason. In the first place, not only is the importance of the call set in the clearest light, but also its divine source, as we have already seen was also the aim of Isa 40:3. In the second place we have this additional, that the caller must be summoned to call. The reason for this seems to me to be, that the second call expresses properly as its immediate thought something unpleasant. It is like a shadow that not only suddenly, but also almost incomprehensibly breaks in on the full light of the foregoing announcement of consolation. For is it not an oppressive thought, that not only all glory of the kingdoms of this world (that alone were indeed consolation for Israel), but also that all merely earthly glory of the elect people is subject to change? Is it not a deep humiliation that comes also on the people of God, that it is said to them, they must be divested of all their own human strength and adornment, and thus first share the fate of the totality of profane flesh, before the divine promise can be fulfilled to them? Behind the caller, therefore, there appears another that commands him to call out what, of himself, he would not have called. The first call is quite spontaneous: the second is by special command. The LXX. and Vulg. take the view, that the summons to call is directed to the Prophet, whence they translate by et dixi. But this is plainly caprice. The Prophet describes a visionary transaction: he relates only what he has seen and heard. [see Text. and Gram.] must therefore signify that all that is related here took place simultaneously, and together, and not one after another. This suits capitally the pregnant brevity which the Prophet studiously observes here generally. He marks out the chief features with only a few strong touches of the brush. Hence he leaves unnoted whether we are to regard as the language of the one calling or of the questioner. It could be both. The questioner could have noticed the answer without the Prophet hearing it. Or the caller could answer audibly to the Prophet. It was then unnecessary to make the questioner say again what was heard. In short, the Prophet tells us only once what from the nature of the case must have been spoken twice.

As Isa 40:3-4 are no exhortation to repentance, so too Isa 40:6-8 are not meant to be a sermon on the perishableness of all that is earthly. For what fitness were there in such a sermon here? Israel is to be comforted; the downfall of the world-power at present so flourishing, the end of their period of conflict, and a corresponding period of glory and triumph is to be held up to view. But at the same time Israel is to be warned, in reference to its entrance upon these, not to surrender itself to rash, fleshly hopes. For the promises of that time of glory will not be so quickly fulfilled. Israel thinks, perhaps, that the present generation, that the nation as at present constituted, that the present reigning Davidic dynasty, that the present Jerusalem as now existing is to behold that glory. Just that is false hope. For all these are flesh, and therefore grass and flower of the field, and as such will and must perish. Thereupon, naturally, the fleshly Israel asks: how can then the promises of the Lord be fulfilled? If Jerusalem with the temple is destroyed, and the posterity of David extinct, the nation dissolved as a state and scattered in all lands, where then does there remain room and possibility for the realization of that which God has promised? The word of the Lord standeth forever, replies the Prophet. The perishing of all that is flesh in the people of God is no obstacle to the realization of what God has promised. On the contrary! The Prophet makes us read between the lines, that the word of the Lord, precisely because of its own imperishable nature, finds in what perishes rather a hinderance than a condition of its own fulfilment. Such is in general the sense of our passage. If we have correctly apprehended it, then the Prophet means thereby to prevent erroneous representations in regard to the time and manner of fulfilling what he has before, and especially in Isa 40:5, held in prospect.

Grass as an image of the perishable, Psa 37:2; Psa 90:5 sq.; Psa 103:15; Psa 129:6; Job 8:12. Also flowers: Job 14:2; Psa 103:15. The word occurs only here in the sense of physical loveliness, agreeableness. Elsewhere it is always used of the ethical friendliness, favor, complacency of persons (men and God). But has not the poet a right to personify things, and to represent lovely, gracious appearance as the favor and friendliness that they show us? Whence the rendering (LXX.), gloria (Vulg). is inexact (more suitable , Jam 1:11), but to retain the meaning piety would be pedantry. If the loveliness of human things is like the grass and the flower of the field, then it must resemble these not only in blossoming, but also in casting its blossoms. The continuance of bloom here as well as there is short. Indeed grass and flower do not even complete the brief period of bloom appointed them by nature. They wither before their time when the Lord breathes on them with the scorching wind as with a hot breath. The wind is called not only because it is Jehovah that charges it with its mission, but because, as breath, as life respiration of nature, it has a likeness to the Spirit of God. Thus in other places not only is the Spirit of God that operates like the wind (1Ki 18:12; 2Ki 2:16) designated , but also the wind that operates like the Spirit of God (Hos 13:15; Isa 59:19).

From the antithesis to the concluding words, the word of the Lord shall stand forever, we may infer that the Prophet in Isa 40:6-8 has in mind primarily the people Israel. For would the Prophet thus here in the prologue to his great consolatory discourse comfort the heathen? Does he not begin with the words: comfort, comfort ye my people? Thus we must understand by the word that stands primarily that word of promise given to Israel. The continuance of this is made prominent in contrast with the perishing of all flesh; thus, also, of the outward, fleshly Israel. From the general statement, all flesh is grass, Isa 40:6, the Prophet draws the conclusion, Isa 40:7 : therefore, verily, the people is grass, and to this is joined the further consequence that therefore the people as grass and flower must wither and fade (Isa 40:8). Hence the literal repetition of the grass withereth, the flower fadeth. From what has been said already, it results of course that we must understand by , Isa 40:7, Israel and not human kind (Isa 42:5). At the same time it is made clear that there is nothing superfluous in the text, but rather that the Prophet employs only what is needful to express his thought. He would say that, even if in the remote future all that is earthly, and even what is earthly in the holy people, will have perished, still the word of the Lord will remain and demonstrate its truth by the fulfilment of its contents.

5. O Zionthat are with young.

Isa 40:9-11. The third call begins also with a solemn summons to let the call sound forth, and this third formula of summons is the most copious of all, so that in this respect a gradation occurs. The Prophet so far had heard the summons to call and the contents of the call from above, so that he only cited to his readers things heard; but here it is himself that emits the summons to call, and defines the contents of what is to be called. As a man he turns to, an ideal person, it is true, yet one conceived as human, to Zion or Jerusalem personified, and commissions it to assemble all its children, that they may rally about the newly appearing, strong Saviour, and commit themselves to His faithful guidance into their home. The relation of this call therefore to the two that precede, is that it points to the gathering for the journey and the guidance and providence during the journey, after that the first call had treated of the inward and outward preparation of the way, and the second had dealt with the period of the journey. The first announcement of a call, Isa 40:3, contained one member; the second, which at the same time is a summons to call, Isa 40:6, contained two members; the last, Isa 40:9, that contains two summons, has three members. Thus we see the inward emotion of the Prophet grows more intense and seeks its expression in a climax. For this purpose the personification of the central point of the nation is distributed, that is to say, the function is assigned to a twofold personification, Zion and Jerusalem, although each of these two and both together represent only one subject, viz., the ideal centre of the nation that must now again become active and head the cities of Judah. This distribution of the role of representation among the two notions Zion and Jerusalem is frequent in both parts of our book: Isa 2:3; Isa 4:3-4; Isa 10:12; Isa 10:32; Isa 24:23; Isa 31:9; Isa 33:20; Isa 37:22; Isa 37:32; Isa 41:27; Isa 46:13; Isa 52:1-2; Isa 62:1; Isa 64:10. It is worthy of notice, that this form of expression is by no means found in all the prophets. First we find it in Joel 3:5; 4:16, 17; next in Amo 1:2; then in Micah, the contemporary of Isaiah: Mic 3:10; Mic 3:12; Mic 4:2. It is remarkable that Jeremiah uses the expression only in two places: Jer 26:18, as a citation from Mic 3:12, and Jer 51:35. In Lamentations the expression occurs three times: Lam 1:17; Lam 2:10; Lam 2:13. It is found beside Zep 3:14; Zep 3:16 and Zec 1:14; Zec 1:17; Zec 8:3; Zec 9:9.

Zion must ascend a high mountain in order to be heard afar (comp. Isa 42:11; the expression again Isa 30:25; Isa 57:7). Zion and Jerusalem are addressed as . This word therefore has not the genitive relation to Zion and Jerusalem=Zions herald of joy. Such it is taken to be by the LXX., Vulg., Targ., and after these by Gesenius, Hitzig, Knobel, Hahn, etc. It is the attribute of Zion and Jerusalem, as the following reasons show: 1) According to the view of those that assume the genitive relation, is to be construed collectively, and designate the messengers of salvation as a totality, so that it stands for and means the embassy of salvation (Heilsbotenschaft, Knobel). But even if grammatically this is allowable, still such a collective designation of messengers or of prophets is quite contrary to the usus loquendi. In this sense the sing. masc. is used Isa 52:7; Nah 2:1. Moreover one would expect, in order to obviate indistinctness, that the verbs would be in the plural ( ,, etc.). , which is quoted as analogous, means, according to Ecc 1:1, not a plurality, but a single person. 2) Hahn says it were inadmissible to use Jerusalem antithetically to the cities of Judah, seeing it belongs itself to them. But it is just the constant usus loquendi with Isaiah to distinguish Jerusalem and Judah (meaning the cities of Judah): Isa 1:1; Isa 2:1; Isa 3:1; Isa 3:8; Isa 5:23; Isa 22:21; Isa 36:7; Isa 44:26. This finds, too, its echo in later books: Jer 4:5; Jer 9:10; Jer 11:12; Jer 25:18; Zec 1:12; Psa 69:36. Precisely this prominent part, which we thus see Jerusalem play, justifies us in maintaining that the Prophet means not to rank Jerusalem with the cities of Judah, but would summon it to exercise its primacy over them. It is even a very important point in salvation, that at once, still in the exile, the old domestic constitutional organism should have effect. Jerusalem must at once exercise her maternal right over her daughters (comp. e. g. Eze 16:48; Eze 16:55). She must gather them like a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and require them to receive well their Lord and rally under His leadership for the return home. Involuntarily we are reminded here of the fact, that a great part of the Israelites, when they received the permission or rather summons to return home to Palestine, preferred to remain in the land of exile. These did not recognize the visitation of their God in that altered sentiment of the world-power toward the kingdom of God, in that wonderful summons to return home, as also later, when the Lord came in person to His own, His own did not receive Him (Joh 1:11). [See Lange on Joh 1:11, which he refers to the theocratic advent in the Old Testament, and thus exactly to the present subject as included.Tr.] By Behold your God, the Lord is, as it were, presented to His people. What the Lord, who has thus appeared in the midst of His people, would now further reveal, how especially He would show Himself toward the people, this is now described by a series of imperfects only, because these were still purely latent facts. First, it is said the Lord comes as a strong one. Not only will the Lordbe strong, but He will also show Himself strong. His arm will so rule that it shall benefit Him, not others, as is the case under a weak regent. As there lies in the for him the idea that He undertakes for Himself, so the following clause expresses that, opposed to others, He knows also how to preserve the suum cuique. He has for friend and foe the reward prepared that becomes each. One will not err in taking , which is never used in malam partem, in a good sense. On the other hand, which occurs also of retributive punishment (Psa 109:20; Isa 65:7), may be understood in a bad sense. is primarily labore partum, that which is wrought out, then, generally, what is acquired, effected, retribution (Lev 19:13; Isa 49:4; comp. Job 7:2; Jer 22:13). The words occur literally again Isa 62:11. occurs in the symbolical sense also Isa 33:2, yet much oftener in part second: Isa 40:10; Isa 48:14; Isa 51:5; Isa 51:9; Isa 52:10; Isa 53:1; Isa 59:16; Isa 63:5; Isa 63:12. The passages Isa 59:16; Isa 63:5 are especially worthy of notice, because the form of expression occurs there reminding us of . Verse 11 makes the impression as if thereby the prophet would obviate the dread of the hardships of the return journey, especially in reference to the delicate women and children. Hence it is said that the Lord will lead His people as a good shepherd leads his flock. The tender lambs that cannot walk, the good shepherd gathers in his strong arm and carries them in his bosomthat is, in the bosom of his garment.

Footnotes:

[2]Heb. to the heart.

[3]Or, appointed time.

[4]her guilt has been enjoyed.

[5]that.

[6]prepare in the wilderness.

[7]Or, a straight place.

[8]the connecting ridges become valley bottoms.

[9]Or, a plain place.

[10]Hark! there speaks, cry! And there replies: what etc.

[11]the breath of Jehovah blew on it.

[12]Or, O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion.

[13]Or, O thou that tellest good tidings to Jerusalem.

[14]Or, against the strong.

[15]as a strong one.

[16]Or, recompense for his work.

[17]Or, that give suck.

2. JEHOVAHS INFINITUDE AND INCOMPARABLENESS THE OBJECTIVE BASIS OF THE REDEMPTION

Isa 40:12-26

12Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand,

And 18meted out heaven with the span,

And 19comprehended the dust of the earth in a 20measure,

And weighed the mountains in scales,
And the hills in a balance?

13Who hath adirected the Spirit of the Lord,

Or being 21his counsellor hath taught him?

14With whom took he counsel, and who 22instructed him,

And taught him in the path of judgment,
And taught him knowledge,
And showed to him the way of 23 24understanding?

15Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket,

And are counted as the small dust of the balance:
Behold, he taketh up the isles as 25a very little thing.

16And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn,

Nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering.

17All nations before him are as nothing;

And they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity.

18To whom then will ye liken God?

Or what likeness will ye compare unto him?

19The workman 26melteth a graven image,

And the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold,
And casteth silver chains.

20He that 27is so impoverished that he hath no oblation

Chooseth a tree that will not rot;

He seeketh unto him a cunning workman to prepare a graven image, that shall not 28be moved.

2129Have ye not known? have ye not heard?

Hath it not been told you from the beginning?
Have ye not understood 30from the foundations of the earth?

2231 32It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth,

And the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers;

That stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain,
And spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:

23That bringeth the princes to nothing;

He maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.

24Yea, they 33shall not be planted;

Yea, they jshall not be sown:

Yea, their stock 34shall not take root in the earth:

And 35he shall also blow upon them, and they 36shall wither,

And the whirlwind 37shall take them away as stubble.

25To whom then will ye liken me,

Or shall I be equal?
Saith the Holy One.

26Lift up your eyes on high, and behold

Who hath created these things,38

That bringeth out their host by number:
He calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power;

Not one faileth.

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL

See the List for the recurrence of the words: Isa 40:12. . Isa 40:13. . Isa 40:14. . Isa 40:15. . Isa 40:16. . Isa 40:17. . Isa 40:18. . Isa 40:19. . Isa 40:20. . Isa 40:21. . Isa 40:22. . Isa 40:23. . Isa 40:24. . Isa 40:26. .

Isa 40:12. The perfects , , do not mean: Who can or will measure, etc.? But: who has measured, etc. The fact that no one has been able can (poetically) serve for proof that it is on the whole impossible. , which occurs only twice in Isaiah, is used by Ezekiel thirty-six times; a proof that the use of a word often depends, not on the subjectivity of the author, but also on the objectivity of the contents., related to on the one hand, and to on the other, involves the fundamental meaning to establish. In this sense it is used in various relations wherein it concerns determining a level, evenness, likeness. Piel is used Psa 75:4 of setting up pillars according to the balance; also of raising and leveling a road (Eze 18:25; Eze 18:29; Eze 33:17; Eze 33:20), then of weighing itself (Job 28:25), then of testing by means of weighing (Pro 16:2; Pro 21:2; Pro 24:12), and also of weighing out money (1Ki 12:2). But when determining the level, has once acquired the meaning to test, it may stand for all kinds of making trial, even such as occurs without using the scales. Thus it stands here for a testing by measurement by means of the span, and in the same sense Isa 40:13 of testing and examining the divine spirit. Hence I have in both places translated by comprehend, because the former (spanning) is a physical, and the latter (examining) is a spiritual comprehending.Notice that also depends as object on . On the insertion of after see Isa 38:16. [Gesenius construed as the whole in his Lehrgebude. But having afterwards observed that the Hebrew text has with a conjunctive accent, he corrected the error in his Lexicon and Commentary, and referred the word to the root , which does not occur elsewhere in Kal, but the essential idea of which, as appears from the Chaldee and Arabic analogy, as well as from its own derivations in Hebrew, is that of measuring, or rather that of holding and containing, which agrees with the common English Version (comprehended).J. A. A. See Fuerst, Lex. s. v.TR.].

Isa 40:13. The clause is dependent on the interrogation . The imperf. is to be construed as jussive, and the paratactic Vav. copul. is to be translated in our syntactical way with that, as also afterwards in the last clause of Isa 40:14.

Isa 40:14. I think that is to be taken in the wide sense meaning the norm that governs the life of every thing, thus in a certain sense, the natural law and right of everything (comp. e. g. Jer 30:18; comp. Exo 26:30 : 2Ki 1:7; Jdg 13:12). stands with only here; more frequently is so construed: 1Sa 12:23; Psa 25:8; Psa 25:12; Psa 32:8, etc. and conjoined also Isa 44:19 (comp. Exo 31:3; Exo 35:31; Pro 2:6).

Isa 40:15. is imperf. Kal from = tellere, to lift up.

Isa 40:18. Piel occurs in Isa., meaning to think, combine, meditari Isa 10:7; Isa 14:24 : meaning to make like, it occurs reflexively Isa 14:14 in Hithpael; in part second Isa 40:25; Isa 46:5. is joined here with as is Isa 14:10; elsewhere it is used with : Isa 46:5; Lam 2:13; Son 1:9.

Isa 40:19. (used Exo 20:4; Deu 5:8; in Isa. see List) stands first emphatically as the chief notion. to pound, beat (Eze 6:11; 2Sa 22:43) then to beat flat, with the hammer, to extend (Isa 42:5; Isa 44:24, also Piel has this meaning Exo 39:3; Num 17:4), acquires in our text the meaning to cover with something beaten out flat, so that means to plate over. stands last epanaleptically.On the frequent omission of the pronominal subject by Isaiah comp. Isa 2:6; Isa 24:2; Isa 29:8; Isa 32:12, etc.

Isa 40:20. [ may either be reflexive (for himself), as some consider it in Isa 40:11, and as all admit to be in Isa 40:9, or it may be referred to . Having secured the stuff, he seeks for it a skilful workman. As is an obvious antecedent, and as the reflexive use of the pronouns is comparatively rare, this last construction seems entitled to preference.J. A. A.].

Isa 40:22-23 are without predicate. , , are exclamations whose predicate must be supplied. The contents of the verses and what precedes (Isa 40:19-21) show that this must be has made the earth.According to Hebrew usage, the secondary forms (inf. and partic.) return to the principal forms ( verse 22 and Isa 40:23). Comp. Isa 5:8; Isa 5:23; Isa 31:1; Isa 32:6.

Isa 40:26. is nearer definition; (Isa 28:2) is in apposition with and with the subject of .

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1. The exceeding comforting introduction Isa 40:1-11 does not at once cheer up Israel. Doubts arise. Is the Lord in earnest when He promises? And can He do it too? Shall He that did not uphold us when we stood, lift us up again when we have fallen down? To these doubts, which he utters in express words Isa 40:27, the Prophet replies in the present section. He amplifies here the incomparableness, the aloneness and infinite sublimity of God. This idea underlies the whole passage.

2. Who hath measuredunderstanding.

Isa 40:12-14. First a standard is given by which one may estimate Gods elevation above all human ability to comprehend Him. The hollow hand, the span, the measure, the scales are human measures. Who does not instantly see the impossibility of measuring the divine works of creation with those measures? It is not meant that God has done this, as many expositors would explain. For even if appeal is made to the suffix in as referring to the divine hand, and though the suffix may be supplied to and thus the divine span be understood, still this cannot be done in reference to the measures that follow, which are of human devising and make. Does the Prophet mean to say that there is a divine measure, scales, balance of which God made use at the creation? Certainly not. But he would say: what man is able to measure the divine works with his human measures, i. e., to submit them to supplementary inspection and test their correctness? This is confirmed by Isa 40:13-14 where it is expressly said that no man before the creation influenced the divine creative thoughts in the way of counseling and guiding (so Gesenius, Hahn, etc.). The immeasurableness of God is expressed by Jer 10:6-7 in this way, which passage especially in Isa 40:8 sq., unmistakably looks back to our text (see below). is probably the third part of an Epha, and thus like the seah, measure (), of which the Epha contained three, according to the Rabbis, whence the LXX. often translated ephah by (Exo 16:36; Isa 5:10). Comp. Herz. R.-Encycl. 9 p. 149. Dust of the earth is an expression of the Pentateuch, Gen 13:16; Gen 28:14; Exo 8:12-13. Beside these comp. Job 14:19; 2Sa 22:43. distinguished from , and certainly the Schnellwage [an apparatus like the steelyard], occurs Pro 16:11. On and occurring together, see on Isa 40:4.

As there underlies Isa 40:12 the thought that no one is in a position to inspect and test the Creators work after its completion, so Isa 40:13-14 would declare that no one could inspire and direct the Creator before He worked. Thus the Prophet asks: Who comprehended the Spirit of Jehovah? The context shows that the Spirit as the Spirit of Creation (Gen 1:2) is meant. To comprehend the Spirit of God, according to Isa 40:12, means nothing else than to grasp it, so that he that grasps is greater than the Spirit of God; he spans and from all sides influences it. This passage is cited Rom 11:34; 1Co 2:16. At first sight Isa 40:14 appears to be only an amplification of Isa 40:13 b. But from with whom took he counsel it appears that the Prophet makes a distinction. There are counsellors who are consulted as authority and experts, whose word is law to be followed. In this sense, which corresponds also to , Isa 40:12 seems intended. But there are also counsellors with whom one consults on an equality, but who, still, though equals, in one or other respect, by instruction, correction, defining, influence the determination that is to be made. This seems intended by Isa 40:14. The Prophet would say that neither in the one nor in the other sense did the Lord have counsellors. The last clause of Isa 40:14. and shewed to him the way of understanding signifies the consequence of the three preceding verbs of teaching: so that He taught him to know the way of judicious conduct.

3. Beholdand vanity.

Isa 40:15-17. The absolute sublimity of God that has been revealed in the creation, is revealed also in history. In the former the Spirit of God showed itself to be conditioned by no one. In the latter the absolute dependence of men on God appears. Not merely single men, but whole nations count for no more before the almighty God than the small drop of a bucket that the bearer does not notice, or than the little crumb in the scale that does not influence the weight. Isa 40:16 must be regarded as a parenthesis. For it stands between Isa 40:14-15 on the one hand, and Isa 40:17 on the other, all which compare the greatness of God with earthly greatness, without itself presenting any comparison. Rather Isa 40:16 draws a conclusion from that incomparable sublimity of God: because He is so great, all the forests of Lebanon do not suffice for a worthy sacrificial fire, nor all the beasts of those forests for a worthy burnt-offering. Of course this very conclusion serves for a measure of the greatness of God, and it seems to me that the Prophet, along with the nations and the isles, the most widely extended and the furthest, (comp. Isa 66:19; Jer 31:10), would apply as a measure also the earthly highest. But would He also make prominent again the weighty mass of the mountain? He would then for the fourth time have made use of the same figure. Hence, not the ponderous mass of the mountain itself, but as much of its riches in vegetation and animal life as is suitable for the service of the Lord, must serve Him for a figure. is sufficientia, copia; thus , =sufficientia, copia sufficiens, i. e., satis incendii, sacrificii. The construction is like Lev 5:7 if his hand cannot reach the sufficiency of a lamb, i. e., if he cannot bring enough to buy a lamb. Comp. Lev 12:8; Deu 25:8. Isa 40:17 with all the nations joins close with nations Isa 40:15, and recapitulates and intensifies the contents of it. Modern expositors for the most part construe in a partitive sense, because it is nonsense to say: less than nothing, and because would properly mean more than no thing. But those are strange scruples. is the ceasing to be, where there is nothing more, the not being: is inanitas, emptiness, void. Now one may say that absolute nihilism, the horror of an absolute emptiness, void is still more impressive than a being that by its miserable nothingness makes not even an impression. And of course =more than, viz.: in a negative sense. The Prophet, who indeed is governed here wholly by the idea of comparison, compares the nations and the nothing, and finds that the nations in respect to insignificance weigh down more than and .

4. To whom thennot one faileth.

Isa 40:18-26. Having shown that no finite spirit may compare with God (Isa 40:12-18), the Prophet shows in these verses that it is also impossible to make any image or likeness of God. Because God has not His like, therefore there is no creature form that is like Him, and under whose image one may represent Him visibly. If this thought, coming in the middle between the promise Isa 40:1-11, and the inquiry Isa 40:27, would serve, on the one hand, to assure Israel that Jehovah has the power to keep what He has promised, so, on the other, this painting up the manufacture of idols appears intended to represent to Israel in glaring light, the folly and wrong of such a degradation of divinity to the sphere of common creatures. It is to be noted moreover that this warning in the first Ennead of our book appears in the form of an ascending and descending climax; the Prophet beginning with the more refined form of image worship, ascends to the coarser Isa 44:8 sqq., and Isa 45:16, and closes again with the more refined Isa 46:5-7. Let it be noted, too, that the Exile any way brought about the great crisis that had for its result an entire breaking with idolatry on Israels part. Before the Exile they were Jews, and yet at the same time served idols. After the Exile, all that was called Jew renounced idolatry. Whoever still worshipped idols ceased also to be a Jew and disappeared among the heathen. Our passage, as all others of like contents in the second part of Isaiah, attacks still with vigor the coarse idolatry, such as it was in the time of Isaiah. At the close of the Exile such a polemic was no more in place. For then Israel was beyond this sin of its youth. To the overcoming of it the word of the redoubtable Prophet no doubt mightily contributed.

That in general no one is like the Lord either in heaven or in earth, either among the gods or among the rest of creatures, is the constant teaching of the Old Testament, on the ground of Exo 15:11; Deu 3:24 (comp. Psa 35:10; Psa 71:19; Psa 86:8; Psa 89:9; Mic 7:18 and Caspari, Micha der Morastite, p. 16). But from this doctrine must be distinguished the other, of course closely connected with it, that one can and must make no visible image or likeness of God, because with that is given the more refined form of idolatry, that worships Jehovah Himself under an image (comp. on Isa 46:5). This is emphatically enjoined in the Decalogue (Exo 20:4; Deu 5:8), and in Deu 4:12 sqq., the reason is given, that on Mount Sinai, Israel observed nothing corporeal of God except the voice. The Prophet here joins on to these propositions of the Law. He shows, by describing the genesis of such idols, how senseless it is to regard images of mens make as adequate representations of the divinity. He shows how all their parts are brought together in succession, by human labor, just as any other product of industry. How disgraceful is the origin of such an idol! Men are its creators. The exterior is gold, but the interior vulgar metal. To keep it from, falling, it must be fastened to the wall with chains. When the idol is of wood, especial care must be taken against the wood rotting. And still how often it does rot! To keep the idol from falling it must be rightly proportioned and well fastened. Thus a god concerning which extreme care must be taken to keep it (inwardly) from rotting, and (outworldly) from falling down! is the reduced, impoverished. For , related to , is sedere, desidere, , therefore, is desidere factus, i. e., one that from standing is made to sit, thus brought down. Also the Arabic meskin=one brought to sit still, i. e., to inactivity, powerlessness (comp. Fleischer in Delitzsch, in loc). This meaning appears in poor (Pro 4:13; Pro 9:15 sq.), and poverty (Deu 8:9). is the consecrated gift, the voluntary offering presented for the service of the sanctuary; frequent in the Pentateuch after Gen., it occurs only here in Isaiah, is erigere, statuere, stabilire; see List. It is incomprehensible how there can be people among the Israelites to give to idols the honor that becomes divinity. Rightly the Prophet turns to such with the inquiry; are you not in a position to know better? This question he propounds in four clauses. When a man acquires a knowledge of anything, there must first be made to him the suitable communication, and he must corporeally hear it, and spiritually understand it. Hence the Prophet asks if all this has not occurred, only he asks in a reversed order. The spiritual understanding is the decisive and chief concern; hence he puts this first, making the two conditions of hearing and communicating follow. Notice that the Imperfect is used for the subjective transaction of hearing and understanding, while for the objective transaction of communicating the Perfect is used. In these three members the Prophet has, as yet, named no object. This follows in the fourth with the foundations of the earth. Here, too, he uses the Perfect, because he no longer distinguishes the subjective and objective transactions, but would only learn whether the knowledge in question is an actual fact or not. With Gesenius, Stier, Hahn, I prefer to translate fundatio rather than by fundamentum, for which there is adequate justification grammatically. For the word, like , , ,, etc., can have primarily an abstract meaning (comp. Ewald 160 b). This abstract meaning better suits the context, for it concerns, not the make up of the foundations themselves, but the way in which they originated. The Prophet manifestly refers back to Isa 40:12-13. How the foundations of the earth were laid, and who laid them, respecting this we have, of course, received intelligence () from the beginning. It is that which has been transmitted from Adam on down, and which we have in its purest form in the Mosaic account of the creation. The Prophet certainly means this latter information, because for him it was the authentic one, divinely attested.

[Respecting the different tenses of the verbs in the first clause of Isa 40:21; J. A. A., says: The most satisfactory, because the safest and most regular construction, is the strict one given in the LXX. ( ; 😉 revived by Lowth (will you not know? will you not hear) and approved by Ewald. The clause is then an expression of concern or indignation at their being unwilling to know. There is no inconsistency between this explanation of the first two questions and the obvious meaning of the third, because the proof of their unwillingness to hear and know was the fact of their having been informed from the beginning. The argument, he adds, is to show that they were without excuse, like that of Paul in Rom 1:20; comp. Act 14:17; Act 17:24.Tr.].

In Isa 40:22-23 (which are without a predicate, see Text. and Gram.), the Prophet would say: not the idols (Isa 40:19-20) are the originators of the earth, but He that sits above the circle of the earth, spreads out the heavens and abandons the rulers to nothing. locust, is chosen here on account of likeness in sound to ; it occurs again only Lev 11:12; Num 13:33; 2Ch 7:13; Ecc 12:5. according to the context a thin fabric, cloth (comp. Isa 40:15, thin dust) see List. Isa 40:24. In order to make still more impressive the nothingness of men of might as compared with the Almighty, a series of drastic images is used to paint the completeness and thoroughness of that bringing them to nought of which Isa 40:23 speaks. occurs only here; but occurs Isa 41:26. Both, in the repetition, are the negative (Isa 46:11). As the latter=et-et, so the former=neque-neque, or more correctly=et nonet non. For the sense is: both their planting and the scattering of their seed, and their taking root is not yet completed, when He has already blown on them, etc. Or more plainly: they are hardly planted, hardly sown, hardly rooted, but, etc. , radices agree, only here and Jer 12:2; the passage in Jer. seems to rest on our text. Like the Simoon of the desert (comp. Isa 40:7) causes the young green herb to wither suddenly, so the Almighty suddenly withers the mighty ones and the wind-storm carries them off.

To the first inquiry to whom will ye liken me (Isa 40:18) the Prophet has replied by referring to the power of God over the earth and its inhabitants (Isa 40:21-24). Now he asks the question again, Isa 40:25, and replies by a reference to Gods power over the heavenly constellations Isa 40:26. The Prophet uses the verb in a precisely similar connection Isa 46:5. He has used this word before in various significations (see List). In the sense of like, adequate, fitting it occurs chiefly in Job (Job 33:27) and in Prov. (Pro 3:15; Pro 8:11; Pro 26:4). , poetically without article, occurs only here as abbreviation of the Isaianic , which on its part rests on Isa 6:3, which see. It appears to me suitable to the context to take that bringeth out their host, etc., as the answer to the question who hath created, etc. For it is verily a very fitting demonstratio ad occulos to say: the same who day by day calls them all by name and without one of them failing, even He made them. He that can do the one, can do the other. He that leads out their host ( comp. Isa 24:21; Isa 34:4) according to their number by name, that is just the Lord of hosts, Jehovah Sabaoth. The expression occurs Job 9:4. comp. Isa 34:16.

Footnotes:

[18]comprehended.

[19]all

[20]Heb. a tierce.

[21]Heb. man of his counsel.

[22]Heb. made him understand.

[23]Heb. understandings?

[24]judicious conduct.

[25]fine dust.

[26]has moulded.

[27]Heb. is poor of oblations.

[28]totter.

[29]know ye not t hear ye not?

[30]omit from.

[31]Or, Him that sitteth, etc.

[32]he that sitteth.

[33]were not.

[34]did not.

[35]he just blew.

[36]withered.

[37]took.

[38]?

3. TRUST IN JEHOVAH THE SUBJECTIVE BASIS OF REDEMPTION

Isa 40:27-31

27Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel,

My way is hid from the Lord,
And my judgment is passed over from my God?

28Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard,

39That the everlasting God, the Lord,

The Creator of the ends of the earth,
Fainteth not, neither is weary?

There is no searching of his understanding.

29He giveth power to the faint;

And to them that have no might he increaseth strength.

30Even the youths shall faint and be weary,

And the young men shall utterly fall:

31But they that wait upon the Lord shall 40renew their strength

They 41shall mount up with wings as eagles;

They 42shall run, and 43not be weary;

And they shall walk, and not faint.

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL

See the List for the recurrence of the words: Isa 40:28. . Isa 40:29. . Isa 40:30. Isa 40:31..

Isa 40:27. and in parallelism as here does not again occur; but Isa 29:4 affords an analogy. with in the sense of to depart unobserved, escape, occurs only here. Yet comp. in a physical sense with Gen 18:3.

Isa 40:28, On the partic. pro verbo fin. compare on verse 19 ().

Isa 40:30. The verb in the first clause put first shows, as Delitzsch well remarks, that the clause is to be construed as a sort of adversative clause, that is, as concessive: and though young men grow weary. The second clause returns from this potential construction to the simple, conformably to Hebrew usage, that demands the prompt return from all intensive discourse and verbal forms to the simple chief form.

Isa 40:31. The expression occurs again only Psa 37:9. In our text it is, according to the punctuation, to be spoken Koje, whereas in the Psalms it is to be spoken Kove (comp. Delitzsch on our text). (comp. , , Num 18:21; the change of clothing) is to change, and is used partly of changing place (transire, Isa 8:8; Isa 21:1; Isa 24:5), partly of change of condition in pejus (perire, pass away, Isa 2:18) or in melius (hence revirescere, Isa 9:9; Isa 41:1).

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Why sayestnot faint.

Isa 40:27-31. One sees here plainly the purpose intended by the preceding discussion concerning the incomparableness of God. The Prophet sees that the long chastisement of the Exile would call up doubts in the spirits of the Israelites. Carried off into a heathen land, they will suppose that Gods eyes do not penetrate to them, and that the wrong they suffer escapes His notice (Isa 40:27). On the parallelism of Jacob and Israel see Isa 9:7, and the List. This parallelism is a characteristic of Isaianic language, for it occurs in no other prophet so often. It is manifest that it is the people in exile that speak. Just because of their remoteness from the Holy land, the territory of Jehovah (comp. the prophet Jonah) they think their way, i. e., the course of their life is hidden from the Lord, and their right, i. e., the wrong done them by their oppressors, passes unnoticed by their God. This doubt of little faith the Prophet reproves by referring to the infinitude and incomparableness of God set forth in Isa 40:12-26. The words, Isa 40:28, hast thou not known, etc., are an echo of Isa 40:21. Jehovah is an eternal God, therefore He had no beginning as the idols had, which before the workmen made them (Isa 40:19-20) were not. Jehovah also made the ends of the earth; therefore they must be known to Him, and wherever Israel may dwell in exile, it cannot say that its way is hidden from God (Isa 40:27). Just as little may one say of God, who created all things, that it is too great a labor for Him, or that His power is not adequate to help banished Israel. For He does not get tired. Nor can it be said that He wants the necessary penetration, the necessary knowledge of the measures to be adopted; for His discernment is infinite, unsearchable. occurs Deu 32:28, and often in Prov. (Pro 2:2-3; Pro 2:6; Pro 3:13, etc.) and in Job (Job 12:12-13; Job 26:12; Job 32:11).

Isa 40:29 : Jehovah is so far from exposure to inability to do more, that He is rather the one who out of His inexhaustible treasure gives strength to all that are weary. Isa 40:30 : Merely natural force does not hold out in the long run. Of this the youth are examples. But those that hope in the Lord receive new strength, etc. Therefore Jehovah is the dispenser of power, but only on the condition that one by trust makes it possible for Him to bestow His treasures of grace. They feather themselves afresh as eagles, Isa 40:31. Since the LXX. and Jerome, etc., very many expositors, influenced by they renew their strength, understand these words of the annual moulting of eagles; on which seems to be based the opinions of the ancients that this bird periodically renewed its youth. Comp. Psa 103:5 and Bochart, Hieroz. II., p. 745 sqq., ed. Lips., who enumerates the fabulous representations of the ancients on this point. Hitzig objects to this exposition that as causative of as used Isa 5:6, does not occur elsewhere, and that it must read instead of . But , though not in that sense, occurs often in another much more nearly related to our passage. For not to mention where it is used of putting on sackcloth (Amo 8:10) and of coating over with gold (1Ki 10:17), it also stands for covering the bones with flesh and skin (Eze 37:6). And this may the more be taken as analogous to covering the naked bird-body with feathers, seeing that the foliage of trees is called the mounting up, growing up over (comp. redeunt jam gramina campis, arboribusque comae). Regarding the second remark of Hitzigs, it is true that one might rather expect , since it appears undoubted from Eze 17:3; Eze 17:7 that is the pinion, the feathers in general. But our passage does not deal in zoological exactness. Moreover the context has more especially to do with pinions as the chief organ for flying. The second clause describes the intended effect: rapid, untiring forward effort. The first clause says what makes this effect possible: ever new power, ever new, eagle-like rejuvenescence. That the rejuvenescence of the eagle extended to the entire body Bochart, l. c, expressly shows to have been a view of the Hebrews in distinction from the Greeks. For he says in reference to Mic 1:16 : Tam Graeci, quam Hebraei calvitium avibus tribuunt. Ita, ut hoc solo differant, quod, cum avium calvitium juxta Graccos pertineat ad solum caput, id Hebraei calvitium extendunt ad totum corpus. Thus we may assume (that the Prophet, whether correct or not according to natural history is immaterial, referred the renewal to the pinions. Now as they feather themselves afresh says figuratively the same that they shall renew their strength says literally, we need not wonder that the second half of the verse does not carry out the figure and say: they shall run, etc., they shall fly, etc. The Prophet emphasizes the promise of unwearied power to run and walk, doubtless, because he has in mind primarily the people returning from the Exile and the toilsome journey through the desert. Thus the conclusion of the discourse corresponds quite exactly to the conclusion of the Prologue Isa 40:11.

Footnotes:

[39]eternal divinity is Jehovah that created. He does not tire, etc.

[40]Heb. change.

[41]feather themselves anew.

[42]omit shall.

[43]do not weary.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. Quia haec posterior pars (prophetiarum Jesajae) prophetia est de Christo et evangelio, pertinet ad nostra quoque tempora, immo est proprie nostra. Quare nobis commendatior esse debet. Luther.

2. On Isa 40:1. Est mandatum ad apostolos, quibus novum praedicationis genus mandatur. Quasi dicat: lex praedicavit hactenus terrores, vos consolamini, mutate doctrinam, praedicate gratiam, misericordiam et remissionem peccatorum. Luther.

3. On Isa 40:2. Non auribus tantum, sed cordi potius concionandum est, hoc nempe sibi vult Jehova, dum ait: Dicite ad cor Hierosolymae. Et huc quoque pertinet illud tritum,: nisi intus sit, qui praedicat, frustra docentis lingua laborat. Foerster.

4. On Isa 40:3 sqq. John the Baptist was the first of those messengers and heralds of our redemption of whom the redemption from Babylon was only a type. But the latter comprehends all other ministers of the word that God has sent and will send to the end of the world to conduct wretched souls out of this miserable desert, and out of the prison of the law to the heavenly city of God. The way is prepared for the Lord when we cast away the great stones and immoveable idols, viz., pride and trust in works, and acknowledge our sin. For they utterly bar the entrance of grace. Heim and Hoffmann.

5. On Isa 40:3 sqq. When we attentively observe the quiet, yet mighty movement of the Lord through the worlds history, we see how before His going the vallies elevate themselves and the mountains sink down, how steep declivities become a plane, and cliffs become flats. Let us not fear to pass through the deserts of life if God be with us! It is a walk along lovely, level paths. Umbreit.

6. On Isa 40:3. [Applied to the Messiah, it means that God was about to come to His people to redeem them. This language naturally and obviously implies, that He whose way was thus to be prepared was Jehovah, the true God. That John the Baptist had such a view of Him is apparent from what is said of him. Joh 1:34,:comp. Joh 1:15; Joh 1:18; Joh 3:31; Joh 10:30; Joh 10:33; Joh 10:36. Thought his is not one of the most direct and certain proof-texts of the divinity of the Messiah, yet it is one which may be applied to Him when that divinity is demonstrated from other places. Barnes.]

7. On Isa 40:8 b. By the word of the Lord was he world made (Genesis 1; Joh 1:3; Psa 33:6), and He upholds all things by the word of His power (Heb 1:3). By His word, too, heaven and earth are kept for the day of judgment (2Pe 3:7). For heaven and earth shall pass away, but His word will not with that also pass away (Isa 51:6; Psa 102:27; Mat 5:18; Luk 21:33). Rather the word of the Lord will not return empty to Him, but it shall accomplish that which He pleases, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto He sent it (Isa 55:11). And when all earthly forms, in which the word of the Lord invests itself, grow old and pass away like a garment, still the eternal truth concealed in these forms will issue forth only the more glorious from their demolished shapes, and all that have lived themselves into the word of God and have trusted in Him shall rise with Him to new life.

8. On Isa 40:8 b. Verbum Dei nostri manet in aeternum. Insignis sententia, quam omnibus parietibus inscribi oportuit Hic institue catalogum omnium operum, quae sine verbo Dei in papatu, fiunt: ordo monachorum, missa, cucullus, satisfactio, peregrenationes, indulgentiae, etc. Non sunt verbum Dei, ergo peribunt, verbum autem Domini et omnes, qui verbo credunt, manebunt in aeternum. Luther.

9. On Isa 40:10-11. What a huge contrast between these two verses! In Isa 40:10 we see the Lord coming as the almighty Ruler and stern Judge; but Isa 40:11 He appears as the true Shepherd that carries the lambs in His bosom, and leads softly the sheep giving suck. Sinai and Golgotha! The tempest that rends the mountains and cleaves the rock, the earthquake and the fire, and then afterwards the quiet, gentle murmuring (1Ki 19:11 sqq.)! For His deepest being islove (Luk 9:55 sq.; 1Jn 4:8).

10. On Isa 40:11. Christus oves suas redimit pretiose, pascit laute, ducit sollicite, collocat secure. Bernhard of Clairvaux.

11. On Isa 40:16. Fancy never invented a mightier sacrifice. Magnificent Lebanon the altar in the boundless temple of natureall its glorious cedars the wood for the fireand the beasts of its forest the sacrifice. Umbreit.

12. On Isa 40:16. The reading of this place in Church, Christmas A. D. 814 moved the Emperor Leo v. the Armenian to take severe measures against the friends of images. The passage moves Foerster to propose the question whether it is permitted to make pictures of God and to possess paintings representing divinity. He distinguishes in respect to this between and or revelatio, and says, no one can picture God , but , i. e. iis in rebus, quibus se revelavit one can and may picture Him. This reply is manifestly unsatisfactory. For it is not about res, quibus Deus se revelavit that one inquires. That one may picture things by which, or in which God has revealed Himself, thus certainly created things, cannot be contested from the standpoint of Christian consciousness. But the question is: is it allowable to picture the person of God, or more exactly, the person of God the Father? For it has long been settled that it is allowable to picture Christ the man. But though there are many paintings of God the Father, still it is no wonder that not only strict Reformed, but that earnest Christians of fine feeling generally take offence at them. It seems to me to depend on whether this offence is absolute or relative. Is it not allowable to represent in colors what the prophet Daniel represented in words in that vision of the four beasts, Isa 7:9 sqq.? May one not paint the Ancient of days? And if it be God the Father that appears here under this name, which is certainly most probable, may one not paint Him in this form that He gives Himself as allowably as one may paint the baptism of Christ in the Jordan, and with that paint the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove? But who is able to do that? Who is able to worthily represent the Ancient of days? I regard that as the most difficult task of art. To him that can do it, it is allowable also. He that attempts it and cannot do it need not wonder if men take offence at his picture. So far no one has been able to do it, and hardly will any one ever be able. Hence the best thing is to let it alone.

13. On Isa 40:26. [It is proof of mans elevated nature that he can thus look upward and trace the evidences of the power and wisdom of God in the heavens, that he can fix his attention on the works of God in distant worlds. This thought was most beautifully expressed by one of the ancient poets:

Pronaque cum spectent animalia caetera terram;
Os homini sublime dedit; coelumque tueri,

Jussit et erectos ad sidera tollere vultus.

Ovid Met. Lib. I. 8486.

In the Scriptures, God not unfrequently appeals to the starry heavens in proof of His existence and perfections, and as the most sublime exhibition of His greatness and power, Psa 19:1-6. And it may be remarked that this argument is one that increases in strength, in the view of men, from age to age, just in proportion to the advances which are made in the science of astronomy. It is now far more striking than it was in the times of Isaiah. Barnes.]

HOMILETICAL HINTS

1. On Isa 40:1-5. Why is the advent of Jesus on earth to-day still a ground of comfort and joy? 1) By Him the season of bondage ends (Isa 40:2); 2) the curse of sin is removed (Isa 40:2-3): 3) the promised new creation is introduced (Isa 40:4); 4) the mouth of the Lord has revealed the glory. Advent sermon by E. Bauer, in Manch. G. u. Ein G. Jahrg. III. p. 35.

2. On Isa 40:1-5. The precious commission of God to the ministers of the word: Comfort ye, comfort ye My people! We inquire: 1) To whom, according to Gods word, shall the comfort be brought? 2) What sort of comfort is it that according to Gods word should be brought? Luger. Christus unser Leben. Gtting, 1870.

3. On Isa 40:1-9. What preparation does God demand of us that we may become partakers of the comfort in Christ? 1) Prepare the way of the Lord. 2) Learn to know your nothingness. Haenchen. Manch. G. u. Ein G. 1868 p. 39. [It is a good sign that mercy is preparing for us if we find Gods grace preparing us for it. Psa 10:17. To prepare the way of the Lord we must be convinced. 1) Of the vanity of the creature. 2) Of the validity of the promise of God. M. Henry.]

4. On Isa 40:6-8. What shall I preach? 1) So I asked with the Prophet, and looked into the face of this motley, multi-formed time. 2) So again I asked, and looked into the depths of my own poor, weak soul. 3) So I asked once more, and looked to thee, my charge that the Lord of the Church has given me to lead. Kliefoth. Installation sermon at Ludwigslust, printed in Zeugniss der Seele, Parchim und Ludwigslust, 1845.

5. On Isa 40:11. [God is the Shepherd of Israel (Psa 80:1); Christ is the good Shepherd, Joh 10:11. 1) He takes care of all His flock. 2) He takes particular care of those that most need it: of lambs, those that cannot help themselves, young children, young converts, weak believers, sorrowful spirits. [1] He will gather them in the arms of His power. [2] He will carry them in the bosom of His love and cherish them there. [3] He will gently lead them. After M. Henry.]

6. On Isa 40:12-17. To what the contemplation of the sublimity of God admonishes us. 1) The consideration of His infinite greatness admonishes us to be humble. 2) The consideration of His infinite power admonishes us to trust Him. 3) The consideration of His infinite wisdom admonishes us to be obedient.

7. On Isa 40:22-24. When might takes precedence of right and the unrighteousness of the powerful gets the upper hand, then we ought 1) To consider that our cause is no other than that of God; 2) that even the mightiest are before Him only like locusts, or like the trees that the wind sweeps away; 3) wait patiently till the hour comes for the Lord to show His power.

8. On Isa 40:25-31. Jubilate! 1) Holy is the Lord our God in His ways (Isa 40:25). 2) Almighty is the Lord our God in His works (Isa 40:26-28). 3) Rich is the Lord our God in His gifts of grace (Isa 40:29-31). Scheerer. Manch. G. u. Ein G., 1868.

9. On Isa 40:27-31. [Reproof of dejection and despondency under afflictions. I. The ill words of despair under present calamity (Isa 40:27). II. The titles God gives His people are enough to shame them out of their distrusts. O JacobO Israel. Let them consider whence they took these names, and why they bore them. III. He reminds them of that which, if duly considered, was sufficient to silence all their fears and distrusts (Isa 40:28). He communicates what He is Himself to others, choosing especially the weak for the display of this heaven-imparted strength (Isa 40:29). Comp. 1Co 1:27-29. V. The glorious effect: strength perfected in weakness, comp. 2Co 12:9-10; and enhanced by the failures of those naturally strong (Isa 40:29-31). After M. Henry.]

10. On Isa 40:31. [I. Religion is often expressed in the Scriptures by waiting on Jehovah, i. e., by looking to Him for help, expecting deliverance through His aid, putting trust in Him. See Psa 25:3; Psa 25:5; Psa 25:21; Psa 27:14; Psa 37:7; Psa 37:9; Psa 37:34; Psa 69:3; Isa 8:17; Isa 30:18. II. It does not imply inactivity or want of personal exertion. III. They only wait on Him in a proper manner who expect His blessing in the common modes in which He imparts it to menin the use of those means and efforts which He has appointed, and which He is accustomed to bless. The farmer does not wait for God to plow and sow his field; but having plowed and sown he waits for the blessing. After Barnes, in loc.]

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

DISCOURSE: 920
THE SCOPE AND TENDENCY OF THE GOSPEL

Isa 40:1-2. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lords hand double for all her sins.

THE ministerial office is fitly compared to that of a steward, who divides to every one his proper portion [Note: 2Ti 2:15. Luk 12:42.]. The execution of it calls for much wisdom and discretion, because there must be a diversity both in the matter and manner of our addresses corresponding with the different states of the people to whom we minister. To some we must of necessity proclaim the terrors of Gods law, however painful such a discharge of our duty may be: but the great scope of our ministry is rather to comfort the Lords people, and to guide their feet into the way of peace. The commission here given to the servants of Jehovah, is very remarkable, being thrice repeated in one single verse. In this view of it I am led particularly to shew,

I.

How earnestly God desires the comfort and happiness of his people

There are a people, chosen by the Father, redeemed by Christ, and sanctified by the Spirit, who are eminently the Lords people [Note: Deu 7:6. 1Pe 2:9.]. And that God is peculiarly solicitous to promote their comfort, appears,

1.

From the commission which he gave to his beloved Son

[He sent his Son into the world to execute his eternal counsels. And our Lord himself, in his first public address to the people, declared, that the comfort of mourners was a principal object of his mission [Note: Isa 41:1-3. Luk 4:17-19.].]

2.

From the end for which he sends his Spirit into the hearts of men

[God sends his Spirit to testify of Christ [Note: Joh 15:26.], to witness our adoption into his family [Note: Rom 8:15.], and to seal us unto the day of redemption [Note: Eph 1:13-14.]. In performing these offices he comforts our souls. And he is, on that very account, distinguished by the name of the Comforter [Note: Joh 16:7.].]

3.

From the titles which the Father himself assumes

[He calls himself The God of consolation [Note: Rom 15:5.], and the Comforter of all them that are cast down [Note: 2Co 7:6.]. He compares his concern to that of a Father pitying his child [Note: Psa 103:13.], and to a mother comforting with tenderest assiduities her afflicted infant [Note: Isa 66:13.]. Yea, he assures us that his regards far exceed those of the most affectionate parent in the universe [Note: Isa 49:15.].]

4.

From the solemn charge he gives to ministers

[He sends his servants to turn men from darkness unto light, and from the power of Satan unto God [Note: Act 26:18.]. And he especially charges them to strengthen the weak hands, to confirm the feeble Knees, and to say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not; your God will come and save you [Note: Isa 35:3-4.]. Thrice is that injunction repeated in the text: and in the execution of this duty we are justly called, The helpers of your joy [Note: 2Co 1:24.].]

5.

From the dispensations both of his providence and grace

[When he suffered his beloved Son to be tempted in all things like unto us, it was with a view to comfort us under our temptations [Note: Heb 2:18.]. And when he comforted St. Paul under his multiplied afflictions, he still consulted the comfort of his Church and people [Note: 2Co 1:3-4.]: yea, however he diversified his dispensations, he had invariably the same gracious object in view [Note: 2Co 1:6.].]

As a further proof of his regard for our comfort, we may point out to you,

II.

What abundant provision he has made for it in his word

The message which we are commanded to deliver to his people, contains in it the richest sources of consolation

1.

To Gods ancient people

[To them primarily was this proclamation made. And it was verified in part, when they were delivered from the Babylonish captivity and restored to the enjoyment of their former privileges in Jerusalem. But it was yet further fulfilled, when, by the sending of their Messiah, they were delivered from the yoke of the Mosaic law, which imposed a burthen which none of them were able to sustain. That, to those who received him as their Messiah, was a season of exceeding great joy; for they were translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of Gods clear Son, and from a state of insupportable bondage into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
It will not however be fully accomplished, till they shall, in their national capacity, return from their present dispersion, and be re-united, Israel with Judah, in their own land. Then will their warfare be as much accomplished as it can be in this life: then will the tokens of Gods displeasure be removed from them; and a state of prosperity be vouchsafed to them that shall far exceed all the sufferings they have ever endured, and all the privileges they have ever enjoyed. At no time have they ever been punished beyond their deserts; (their severest trials have been far less than their iniquities deserved:) but in that day shall their blessings infinitely exceed all that they can now either contemplate or conceive ]

2.

To his believing people, in every age

[It is the true Christian alone who can form any just idea of the import of my text. His warfare is accomplished! so far at least, as that he is in a state of victory over the world, and the flesh and the devil. He can say, Thanks be to God, who always causeth us to triumph in Christ. His sins too are blotted out as a morning cloud, and put away from him as far as the east is from the west. God has mercifully forgiven him all trespasses; and he stands before God without spot or blemish. As for the blessings vouchsafed to him, no words can possibly express them: his peace passeth all understanding; and his joy is unspeakable and full of glory. He has even now entered into rest [Note: Heb 4:3.], according to that promise given him by our Lord, Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy-laden; and I will give you rest ]

See, then, Brethren,
1.

What a wonderful difference exists between those who embrace, and those who disregard the Gospel

[Can that be said of carnal and worldly men, which is here spoken of the Lords people? Are their chains broken? their sins forgiven? their comforts greater than any judgments that await them? No: they are yet in bondage to sin and Satan; their sins are all sealed up in a bag against the day of judgment; and the wrath of God is shortly coming upon them to the uttermost. Then it will appear how great a difference there is between those who serve the Lord, and those who serve him not [Note: Mal 3:18.]. Let not this distinction then be made a subject of profane ridicule, but a motive to seek the Lord, that we may be numbered with his people, and be made partakers of his benefits.]

2.

What inconceivable blessedness awaits the Lords people in a better world!

[Even in this life, as we have seen, their blessedness is exceeding great. But what will it be when once they shall lay down this mortal body, and enter into the joy of their Lord? Now conflicts remain even to their latest hour; and whatever victories they may gain, they must still remain girt for the combat. And, though God has forgiven them all their trespasses, so that he will never frown upon them in the eternal world, they still have occasion daily to implore mercy at his hands on account of their short-comings and defects. But in the day that they shall be taken into the immediate presence of their God, O! who can tell us what they shall receive at his hands? Dear Brethren, do not think lightly of that joy; but be willing to sacrifice every thing for the attainment of it. Think in what estimation it is held by all who have entered into the eternal world. What would tempt those in heaven to part with it? or what would not they who are now in hell, give to be made partakers of it? Be assured, that it will be fully commensurate with all your labours, though they had been a thousand times greater than they have; and that one single hour of it will richly recompense all that it is possible for any finite creature either to do or suffer in the Saviours cause ]

Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

CONTENTS

At this Chapter, the Prophet begins a sermon, and a most blessed one it is, which continues to the very close of his prophecy. It is all pure gospel from beginning to end. The Holy Ghost commands the Prophet to comfort his Church with proclamations of the Redeemer’s coming, and the blessed events of his reign.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Reader! do not fail to remark the Lord’s gracious commands for comforting his people; he doubles it. Not that we are to suppose there was any reluctancy on the part of Isaiah to perform this blessed service; but certain it is, that the most forward of God’s servants, in becoming sons of consolation, are not half so earnest in this employment as the Lord is. And do not to remark yet further, that, let the world say what they please, there is a people whom the Lord owns, and whom he will have comforted; yea, and he will be himself their comfort. And must it not be a blessed service, to be the ministers and instruments, in the Lord’s hand, to this, the Lord’s employment? And will not the Reader be anxious to remark how, and with what comfortable words, the Lord commands his people to be comforted? Let him pause over what is here said, and read the words again. Jerusalem, the guilty city, the bloody city, yea, the city of slaughter, where the butchery of all the prophets took place, and where the Lord of the prophets should, in after-ages, die upon the cross; this place, this people, shall have her sins pardoned! And, agreeably to this, immediately upon the resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus, when he gave his final commission to his disciples, to go forth with the offer of salvation to all the world; Jesus commanded them to begin at Jerusalem, Luk 24:47 . One should have thought, (speaking after the manner of men) that Jerusalem would have been excepted in the general grant; and that there, if anywhere, the Lord would have said, Go not. But, the Lord’s thoughts are not our thoughts, neither his ways our ways. One thought more on this most blessed passage: what doth the Lord mean by Jerusalem having received double for all her sins? Surely it means, what is literally true, that in the person of her Lord, the atonement he made for sin was of such infinite value, that it not only compensated for all the evil done by sin, but, over and above, left such a redundancy of merit, as might be well called double, and such as will never be accounted for in the blessings of pardon, peace, and glory, and happiness to all eternity. Reader! I beseech you , often, yea, very often, turn to this sweet scripture, and think of Jesus!

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Comfort Ye! Comfort Ye!

Isa 40:1

How lovable the God who speaks thus! He allures us irresistibly. He commands our hearts. And the quality of the consolation He enjoins is so rich. Comfort, in the Bible, means strengthening. The word has deteriorated of late. It now too often signifies soothing, lulling to rest. But when God says ‘Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,’ He calls His prophets to strengthen them, to arouse them, to nerve them. It is a great and enduring empowerment which God desires for the people of His choice.

I. Comfort is commanded of God. Sweet is this ‘saith your God ‘. There is a God-given charter of consolation. Is not this very characteristic of God? In this as in all things God is very consistent.

Every congregation, whatever else it wants, wants comfort God enjoins it because God knows the deep and enduring need of it. ‘I was greatly comforted at Church,’ says John Wesley in his Journals.

II. God’s people have special need of comfort.

III. Verbal comfort is to be administered. ‘Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem.’

IV. Trouble survived is a comforting consideration.

V. The forgiveness of sins is a source of powerful comfort.

VI. The exaction of retribution is a ground of comfort.

VII. Relationship with God is the most solid comfort.

Dinsdale T. Young, The Gospel of the Left Hand, p. 193.

References. XL. 1. H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, Sunday Lessons for Daily Life, p. 85. John Watson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lvii. 1900, p. 145. T. Allen, ibid. vol. lxx. 1901, p. 72. C. Stanford, Outlines of Sermons on the Old Testament, p. 197. W. J. Knox-Little, The Light of Life, p. 159. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. iv. No. 221. B. J. Snell, The All-Enfolding Love, p. 81. XL. 1, 2. J. E. Vernon, Plain Preaching to Poor People (8th Series), p. 75. J. K. Popham, Sermons, p. 232. XL. 1-10. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Isaiah, p. 244. XL. 2. J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Prophets, vol. i. p. 167.

The Message of Palm Sunday

Isa 40:3

That humble pageant from which Palm Sunday derives its name that procession, so poor yet so royal, so fatal yet so victorious, whereby the Prophet of Nazareth claimed the allegiance of His people and challenged the power of their rulers finds a picturesque memorial in the rites of the Eastern Church. The morning service is heralded by a procession from the western door of the church to the altar. First marches one who bears a burning torch; next a deacon, holding aloft a copy of the Gospels; then the priests and the bishop, with sacred images; and last, so long as the Eastern Empire endured, followed the Emperor in his most royal robes. All alike bear palm branches in their hands and chant the ancient hymn: ‘Come forth ye nations, come forth also ye people; look upon the kingdom of Heaven. The Gospel comes as a figure of the Christ’ Those venerable words have a message for us Today; for they recall an aspect of Palm Sunday which is too little remembered. Year by year, when the day comes round, we give it a personal colour. Each one remembers a day, perhaps long ago, when the Saviour first made entry into his own heart; when first he consciously welcomed the King of Love. We do well so to remember, so to give thanks, and to renew the fervour of our loyalty. But personal faith is not the whole of religion. A Christian is concerned not only with his own soul, but with all humanity. He is pledged by the words of his daily prayer to extend the kingdom of God. He is bound on such a day to commemorate those eras of grace, landmarks in the history of mankind, when Christ has made entry into new realms, or brought new generations into His kingdom. He is encouraged to watch, as he prays, for the signs of a new visitation. He is impelled, as he looks upon some spiritual wilderness, to prepare the way of the Lord.

I. Preparing the Way. Prepare the way! Does that mean lay out the Christian system before men’s eyes? Surely not. For the Gospel is neither a code of laws to be obeyed nor a set of principles to be learned: it is, first of all, the presentation of a Person and a Life, both human and Divine, which wins love and commands adoration. For that reason it can never grow obsolete so long as there are living men; for that reason, too, it needs ever fresh interpretation in speech and action for only life can be the herald of life. As St. Paul says, ‘How shall men call on Him Whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him Whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?’ True! And the preacher must speak their language; he must understand the modes of their thought. Then he can go before as a herald; he can gain their ear by his sympathy, he can draw such a picture of his Lord as will appeal to them; and so they will open their gates to the peaceful Conqueror, so they will strew their palm branches and cry Hosanna in the highest!

II. A Divine Discontent. The Church of Christ is irrevocably committed to a Divine discontent with the social order so long as it involves grave evils. But many of us have been infected with that facile optimism, born of material progress, which taught the middle nineteenth century to regard social evils as mere regrettable incidents in a victorious campaign. To the sufferers at least we have seemed to be apologists for intolerable wrongs. We must purge ourselves of this, one and all. We must reiterate the Church’s ancient war-cry Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Secondly, we must show that our discontent is practical. We must demonstrate that the brotherhood of man, in the eyes of Christians, is no abstract belief, but a living truth which is to be realized in the concrete. We must prove our conviction that the kingdom of God includes the organization of social life. If the Socialist programme, fallacious as it is, inspired by a pathetic ignorance of history and of human nature, appeals to men’s hearts because it provides a simple cure for monstrous evils, how much greater and more permanent would be the power of a Christian ideal, towards which all were consciously working? Oh that we had such an ideal clearly before us Today! How it would shine in our eyes, how it would sound in the very tones of our voices, how it would lend grace to our daily deeds! There would be little need of argument or exposition; the Christian’s life would prepare the way of his Lord into men’s hearts, for they would recognize that in our age, as in the age of St. Francis and of Luther, He comes to preach good tidings unto the meek, to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.

Canon Glazebrook, The Guardian, 24 March, 1910.

References. XL. 3. S. Baring-Gould, Village Preaching for a Year (2nd Series), vol. i. p. 25. J. Service, Sermons, p. 1. W. J. Rutherford, The Key of Knowledge, p. 63. H. P. Liddon, Sermons Preached on Special Occasions, 1860-89, p. 117. XL. 3, 4. W. L. Williams, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxxiv. 1904, p. 74.

The Way to Heaven

Isa 40:4-5

There is a great work, a most difficult journey set before us all. We are at one end, and heaven at the other. Now Isaiah tells us that there are five things which we have to do in this matter: and they are set down in the order in which we have to do them. I. ‘Every valley shall be exalted.’ What does that mean? When a man begins in earnest to serve God, he finds so many difficulties, such different kinds of hindrances, so many defeats, that he is tempted to give all up as impossible. What does that man want, then, in the first place? Certainly comfort And therefore the same Isaiah, beginning his prophecies of the great things that God was about to do for His Church, opens them thus: ‘Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem.’ Therefore it was that our Lord, coming to His Disciples after His Resurrection, began by saying, ‘Peace’ (and peace is the same thing as comfort) ‘be unto you!’ Half this discouragement arises from our own idleness.

And this ‘every valley shall be exalted’ is set first, not only because it must really come first, but because also it is the most difficult. ‘Comfort the feeble-minded, support the weak,’ can be said in six words, but what a world of difficulty there is in them! And so it is in earthly matters: the filling up the valley is generally speaking a more difficult work than the cutting down of hills.

II. ‘And every mountain and hill shall be made low.’ For when Satan sees that a man cannot be discouraged from serving God, then he turns round and persuades him that he is serving God very well indeed; that he may well be proud to think how often he has resisted temptation, how often he has overcome difficulties, how often he has done great things for the sake of Christ. And so, except for God’s grace, that man is puffed up in his own conceit, thinks that he need no longer take any care to himself, and so falls back again into some grievous sin, and it may be that his last state is worse than the first.

III. ‘The crooked shall be made straight’ That is, when a man is really serving God, he will go straight on in his duty, turning neither to the right hand nor to the left, not caring what this or that person may think, or what the world may say; but what God will say, how God will approve, how at last God will reward.

IV. ‘And the rough places plain.’ That part of the promise can hardly be altogether fulfilled in this world. Rough places there always are and must be: sorrow and trouble we shall have up to the very end. But the text tells us that it will not always be so. As surely as we have them here, so surely they can none of them enter in there.

V. ‘And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed.’ So it shall indeed be to those that are counted worthy to enter into the kingdom of Heaven. But what that glory is or how it shall be made manifest who shall tell? St. John could not: ‘Beloved,’ says he, ‘now are we the sons of God; and it doth not yet appear what we shall be.’

J. M. Neale, Sermons Preached in Sackville College Chapel, p. 57.

References. XL. 4. T. C. Fry, Christian World Pulpit. vol. xlvi. 1894, p. 381; see also The Gospel of the Kingdom, p. 21. H. Scott Holland, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlvi. 1894, p. 385; see also The Gospel of the Kingdom, p. 37. C. W. Stubbs, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlvii. 1895, p. 8; see also The Gospel of the Kingdom, p. 59; see also ibid. p. 78.

Vox Clamantis

Isa 40:6

I would like to see the Church, all the Churches of Christ, holding their tongues until they had been shut up with the Lord, asking Him, ‘What shall we cry?’ What did the voice say? It said, ‘Cry!’ But that would be startling. Certainly. That would be fatal to slumber. No doubt; I never knew the Lord approve much sleeping; He does assign a few hours to rest, but it is a cluster of hours in which perhaps little else could be done. He is covetous of the daylight, He is miserly of the opportunity; He says: ‘Buy it up, buy it, seize it, have it, work while it is called day, even if it be so called by a stretch of imagination; make the light go as long and as far as you can’.

I. I wonder if Christ would have said, ‘I would take a draught of water from you, but I don’t like the vessel; I can only drink out of gold, or silver certainly, not out of that rude thing of yours; I will go back to the city and bring up a proper vessel; I would not mind refreshing My thirst and cooling this hot summer that burns Me’. Did He talk so? What did He want? He wanted the water, not the vessel. When the Church wants the water, the substance, the gift of God, the Lord will not disregard the supplication of His people. ‘What shall I cry?’ The Lord says, Do not ask that question first; I have told you to cry; now you can ask the question, second, What shall I cry? But we must have the cry, the shout, the prayer that is so terribly alive that it will take the kingdom of heaven by violence. We must have these fever cries, these hot pulses, these shoutings without prompting. We may not have lost the message, and yet we may have lost the right way of delivering it. It would be possible so to read or speak even a great or true doctrine that not a soul would believe a word you said. The first business is in the cry poignant, piercing, thrilling cry.

II. This inquiry for authority is well known by those who read the Scripture. There was a time when the Lord said unto a shepherd man, ‘Go to Egypt’. Why? ‘I have heard the cry of My people, the cry of pain, the cry of outraged humanity, the cry of instinctive justice: come, I will send thee, go thou to Egypt.’ And Moses said what the Prophet said, ‘Who sends me? What shall I say or cry if the people ask for my authority, if they ask my name? Shall I say that I am sent anonymously, or shall I be qualified, quiet, and empowered in every sense and degree by the possession of a name?’ And the Lord said, ‘Certainly, certainly I will be with thee; if they ask the name, say I AM THAT I AM’ a nameless name, an ocean pool, an Atlantic dewdrop. ‘If they say again, “Who sent thee?” say I AM sent thee’ the verb, the one verb, the only verb, the seed verb, irregularly conjugated, but coming out in all its moods and tenses with terrible and expressive emphasis. Still, the point is Moses had his authority.

III. Now what was this man told to cry? It was a curious message, and yet it contained everything. He was to proclaim evanescence and eternity, he was to proclaim a universal message and give a particular application. ‘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 withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth’ that is the evanescence. The clock strikes, eternity never strikes; time must chatter, eternity must be silent. He was then told to complete his message respecting evanescence by delivering a message respecting permanence ‘but the word of our God shall stand for ever’. The withering grass the standing word; these two things abide Today; they represent time, space; the measurable, the immeasurable; the fading and the amaranthine. If all flesh is grass, we had better fall to praying, because the praying time is very limited, the grass does not take a long time to wither. ‘The grass withereth’ if it be so let us be up and doing, with a heart for everything, because the time is short, the opportunity lingers but for a moment, and every wise man says, ‘I am a stranger, I am a pilgrim, I can tarry but a night; wake me before the sun is waked’.

Joseph Parker, City Temple Pulpit, vol. vi p. 62.

Isa 40:6

Ruskin says: ‘We find the grass and flowers are types, in their passing, of the passing of human life, and, in their excellence, of the excellence of human life; and this in twofold way; first, by their Beneficence, and then, by their Endurance; the grass of the earth, in giving the seed of corn, and in its beauty under tread of foot and stroke of scythe; and the grass of the waters, in giving its freshness to our rest, and in its bending before the wave.’

References. XL. 6. A. Mursell, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxxix. 1891, p. 381. XL. 6-8. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xvii. No. 999. J. Thomas, Myrtle Street Pulpit, vol. ii. p. 197. XL. 7. G. Matheson, Voices of the Spirit, p. 64. XL. 8. W. H. Brookfield, Sermons, p. 1. H. P. Liddon, Christmastide in St. Paul’s, p. 224; see also Penny Pulpit, vol. xii. No. 706, p. 317. E. H. Bickersteth, Thoughts in Past Years, p. 201. XL. 9. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Isaiah, p. 251. Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxxii. 1907, p. 182. XL. 10. J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Prophets, vol. i. pp. 175, 186. XL. 11. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. ix. No. 540; vol. xi. No. 652; vol. xiv. No. 794; vol. xxiii. No. 1381. C. Perren, Revival Sermons in Outline, p. 340. F. B. Cowl, Straight Tracks, p. 94. XL. 12. G. Tyrrell, Oil and Wine, p. 274. XL. 14. E. A. French, God’s Message Through Modern Doubt, p. 103.

Not Sufficient

Isa 40:16

There are so many things in life upon which we have to write the legend, Not sufficient

I. We write this upon Time; we have told off its centuries and have said at the close, Not room enough, not breathing space enough, not sufficient. We have received satisfactions and have been pleased with them for the moment and have said, Now we have entered into rest, and lo! our satisfactions have perished in the using, satisfaction has become satiety, nausea, and utterest disappointment. Who will show us the sufficient? who will lead us to the land of Enough? We have written this same legend upon the parcel or estate which we call by the great and promising name of Life, and we have lived long enough to know that life is only a variety of death, if there be not something beyond it, something explanatory, comforting, and crowning.

II. ‘Lebanon is not sufficient to burn’ if we are trying to make up to God for our wrongdoing and most unfilial and horrible wickedness alike of sin and of ingratitude and of everything that belongs to ingratitude and sin. Let us cut down the forest on the hill and burn it, and of what avail will be the white ashes? can they touch the mystery of sin? is there any equivalent in matter to the great claim of wounded law, righteousness, and truth? When we talk of Lebanon and sin we talk of terms that have no relation to one another; they belong to different spheres, we are speaking about two different worlds and categories of things. Sin has no material equivalent; it is not an account that has a debtor and creditor side, and that we can settle by giving so much in return; the sinner cannot touch his own sin, it is within him, he has hurt the universe, he has pained God. What will Lebanon do for him? he is no longer master of the situation, he has parted with his strength, with his individuality, with every faculty and power he had that lay in any moral and spiritual direction, and he is left with nothing but the crushing sense of his own responsibility. Truly, in the most spiritual sense, what he has done cannot be undone.

No forest can make up for a broken heart. If you have wounded some spirit, if you owned the bank of your nation you could not pay in gold for that wound. You could mock the wound, you could say, I have come to pay you, there is your gold, now be quiet. Gold can never touch such misery; the trees of the forest, the beasts of the mountains, the cattle on all the hills, do not touch the sore that is in the grieved, the bruised, and the broken heart.

III. ‘Lebanon is not sufficient to burn.’ This is true not only in reference to sin but in reference to gratitude. We never can pay for spiritual service; between the gold and the service there is no relation. What shall I render? is a bigger question than it seems. You never can repay a spiritual favour. You can repay gold with gold, you can take a receipt, but not for spiritual ministry.

Herein we come upon the innermost truths of the Gospel. We cannot repay Christ, we cannot give God an equivalent of our sin, we cannot give God an equivalent for His mercies; we can ask, What shall we render? what can we do? then we are upon the right ground and we have started the right line of inquiry. But you can only repay love with love; along that line lies a great possibility. God seeks not mine, but me, the man; He cannot be paid with what I have in my hand, but He is willing to accept as part payment as it were yet He would discourage the use of that word in its mercantile sense the love in my heart, the temple I would build Him if I could: ana who knows but that many a poor man may be credited with having built the Lord many a temple? Renounce Lebanon if you want to pay God even in the matter of sin or even in the matter of gratitude; rend your hearts, not your garments; bring your hearts, but not your Lebanons.

Joseph Parker, City Temple Pulpit, vol. vii. p. 99.

Reference. XL. 21 and 28. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Isaiah, p. 263.

Upward and Onward

Isa 40:26

I. The upward look corrects the ever-present tendency to which all of us are more or less prone, to absorption in the things of this life. Only the light of the eternal falling upon the things of time can keep us in constant remembrance of their uncertain value and continuance. To become absorbed by them, being possessed where we should possess and being ruled where we should ourselves rule, is but a misusing of life and a misspending of strength for that which profits not. The upward look assures us that life is ordered both in general scope and in intimate detail by Him Whose love is not merely universal but individual in its concern for men. Whose care is not only for the vine but for ‘every branch that beareth fruit’. Life’s facts are seen to be His purposes, and this alone explains and interprets those untoward experiences from which all men naturally shrink, and produces a calm trust and gladness amid all that tends to disconcert and dishearten.

II. The upward look ennobles our conception of duty that stern necessity of which such a large part of life is made up. In its light alone we recognize that all work is worship, and that there is a glory in doing earthly things with heavenly aims which nothing equals. Duty no longer is regarded as irksome compulsion by the one who lives with uplifted eye it is rather his opportunity for voicing the devotion of his heart.

III. The upward look enlarges our conception of service. For our Lord Himself bids us lift up our eyes and look upon fields that are already ‘white unto the harvest’. The uplifted eye sees the world’s need as a dark background to the Saviour’s brightness, and with expanding consciousness of the gloom of sin comes a quickened impulse to service and sacrifice. The upward look has been in all ages the inspiration to onward effort, and those whose lives are to us as stimulating examples and supplementary inspirations laboured and died to save men just because they had first seen the Lord ‘high and lifted up’. This is the secret of the lives of Carey and Martyn, of Chalmers and Keith-Falconer, of Mackay and Hudson Taylor, of Moody and Shaftesbury. They were one and all men whose eyes were lifted up on high, far beyond considerations of self-advantage and gain, so that they saw something of the need which compelled their Lord to the Cross.

IV. The upward look brings also into life a power for the bearing of the strain which Christian service inevitably imposes. The pathway of the disciple is the same as that trodden by the Master, Whose service meant suffering and anguish as well as the bitterness of ingratitude and hostility. And few, if any, of those who seek to follow in His steps escape similar experience. But he whose heart’s attention is directed on high ‘where Christ sitteth’ learns to endure ‘as seeing Him who is invisible’. To his gaze there does not only appear an open heaven, but he sees the angels of God also ‘ascending and descending upon the Son of Man’ present help in his need.

J. Stuart Holden, The Pre-eminent Lord, p. 19.

References. XL. 26. R. Harley, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xliv. 1893, p. 197. C. A. Berry, Vision and Duty, p. 61. XL. 26, 29. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Isaiah, p. 268. XL. 27, 29. E. L. Hull, Sermons, p. 83. XL. 27, 31. A. B. Davidson, Waiting Upon God, p. 3. XL. 28. C. Silvester Home, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxvi. 1904, p. 155. XL. 29. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xlix. No. 2812.

The Secret of Immortal Youth

Isa 40:30-31

I. Look at the first fact here, that of the dreary certainty of weariness and decay.

1. Of course the words of my text point to the plain fact that all created and physical life, by the very law of its being, in the act of living tends to death; and by the very operation of its strength tends to exhaustion. There are three stages in every creature’s life that of growth, that of equilibrium, that of decay.

2. And the text points also to another fact, that, long before your natural life shall have begun t;o tend towards decay, hard work and occasional sorrows and responsibilities and burdens of all sorts will very often make you wearied and ready to faint.

3. My text points to another fact, as certain us gravitation, that the faintness and weariness and decay of the bodily strength will be accompanied with a parallel change in your feelings. We are drawn onward by hopes, and when we get them fulfilled we find that they are disappointing.

II. Now turn to the blessed opposite possibility of inexhaustible and immortal strength. ‘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; they shall walk, and not faint.’

The life of nature tends inevitably downward, but there may be another life within the life of nature which shall have the opposite motion, and tend as certainly upwards.

The condition of the inflow of this unwearied and immortal life into our poor, fainting, dying humanity is simply the trust in Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of our souls.

Here is the promise. God will give Himself to you, and in the very heart of your decaying nature will plant the seed of an immortal being which shall, like His own, shake off fatigue from the limbs, and never tend to dissolution or an end. The life of nature dies by living; the life of grace, which may belong to us all, lives by living, and lives evermore thereby.

III. The manner in which this immortal strength is exercised. ‘They shall lift up their wings as the eagle,’ implying, of course, the steady, upward flight towards the light of heaven.

1. There is strength to soar. Strength to soar means the gracious power of bringing all heaven into our grasp, and setting our affections on things above.

2. Again, you may have strength to run that is to say, there is power waiting for you for all the great crises of your lives which call for special, though it may be brief, exertion.

3. Strength to walk may be yours that is to say, patient power for persistent pursuit of weary, monotonous duty. Only one thing will conquer the disgust at the wearisome round of mill-horse tasks which, sooner or later, seizes all godless men, and that is to bring the great principles of the Gospel into them, and to do them in the might and for the sake of the dear Lord.

A. Maclaren, The Unchanging Christ, p. 12.

References. XL. 30, 31. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Isaiah, p. 276. J. H. Blunt, Plain Preaching for a Year, vol. i. p. 288. H. Varley, Spiritual Light and Life, p. 81. J. Thomas, Myrtle Street Pulpit, vol. iii. p. 84.

Walking Without Fainting

Isa 40:31

God as the Source and Giver of strength is the Prophet’s theme in the text. ‘They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.’ Man by himself is weak and helpless and impotent, but succoured by God he is equal to any task. ‘With five shillings,’ said Teresa the mystic, when her friends laughed at her proposal to build an orphanage ‘with five shillings Teresa can do nothing; but with five shillings and God there is nothing Teresa cannot do.’ And in that bold and daring claim the saint had Scripture for her warrant. ‘Ye shall remove mountains,’ said our Lord, ‘and nothing shall be impossible to you.’ And the Apostle Paul, as if writing a confirmatory comment on that promise of the Master, says, ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me’.

To the supreme feat of enabling men to walk without fainting the grace of God is equal. ‘They that wait upon the Lord… shall walk, and not faint.’ Life’s disillusionments and disappointments cannot make them swerve from their purpose. When life has lost its zest, its glamour, its radiance, and has become dull and hard and grey, they still remain steadfast and unmovable faithful unto death. God’s grace is sufficient even in face of the stern, bitter facts of experience. Some of the ardour and enthusiasm and eagerness may disappear, perhaps, but still it enables men to walk, and not faint.

I. Let me give two or three illustrations of this truth. I will take first the history of the Christian Church. If you will look up the book of the Acts of the Apostles when you go home, and read what is there said, I think you will find that there was about the primitive Church a spontaneity and enthusiasm, a buoyancy that are wanting in the Church Today.

But the belief and the hope were both doomed to disappointment Men did not receive the Gospel as they expected they would. Instead of having their message welcomed, Christians found themselves brought to the stake and the block and the arena. Instead of coming back within the lifetime of the early Christians, nineteen centuries have passed, and still the Lord delays His coming. The dreams and hopes of the early Christian Church have been disappointed.

With the loss of the early belief in the speedy and easy triumph of the Gospel the Church has lost her lightheartedness and gaiety. She no longer soars and runs.

And yet she ‘walks without fainting’ and without any wavering, but with dogged resolution has set herself to the task of bringing the whole world into subjection to the rule of Jesus. And beautiful though the soaring enthusiasm of the early Church was, I will venture to say that the fact that the Church of Today awake to the difficulties and dangers of her high enterprise still walks without fainting towards her goal is a still more wondrous illustration of the sustaining and strengthening power of the grace of God.

II. What is illustrated in the history of the Christian Church on the large scale is illustrated within smaller compass in the experience of every Christian minister and Christian worker.

III. The truth is still further illustrated by the contrast between youth and age Christian youth, I mean, and Christian age.

There is one thing more beautiful than an enthusiastic young Christian, and that is a faithful old Christian. It is a glad sight to see the young pilgrim entering with enthusiasm upon his course, stripping with eager hopefulness for the race. But it is a still more beautiful sight to see an old man, who has borne the burden and heat of the day, still pressing toward the mark, marching boldly and bravely, even though his step be slow ‘walking without fainting’. Paul the aged is a finer and more beautiful sight than young Timothy.

J. D. Jones, Elims of Life, p. 140.

Isa 40:31

This was a favourite text with Pre Gratry, but he preferred the Latin rendering: mutabunt fortitudinem they shall change their strength or courage. He liked to think that the courage of the soldier on the battlefield is changed into a higher form by those who accept the vocation to the ministry and become the prophets of peace to men.

References. XL. 31. A. Murray, Waiting on God, p. 101; see also Eagle Wings, p. 58. T. Vincent Tymms, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlix. 1896, p. 276. R. J. Campbell, ibid. vol. lvii. 1900, p. 129. E. A. Draper, The Gift of Strength, p. 12. J. Laidlaw, Studies in the Parables, p. 257 J. Pulsford, Our Deathless Hope, p. 126. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xv. No. 876; vol. xxix. No. 1756. XLI. 1. J. Leckie, Sermons Preached at Ibrox, p. 81. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxi. No. 1215. XLI. 6. W. H. Stephenson, A Book of Lay Sermons, p. 191. XLI. 7. C. Leach, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlii. 1892, p. 290. XLI. 8. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxx. No. 1962. XLI. 8-20. Ibid. vol. xliv. No. 2583.

Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson

Needed Comfort

Isa 40:1-5

It sounds as if God had said it. There is something in voice, The music seems to come a long way, and to have lost nothing in its descent. We know music when we hear it. The heart knows what music it wants, what it needs, and where it can have it; and when it comes a glow of tender love testifies that God has spoken with the soul as man might speak with man, face to face. “Saith your God.” It was well to put in that word, though almost needless. We knew where the judgments came from which we have studied from time to time. They were not noises of the earth, winds that were born in the dust, but great tempests from heaven, solemn judgments upon men, and upon cities, and upon nations, and it was time that something was said in another tone. The uproar has been infinite. The still small voice is the more precious. Yet we should not have valued the still small voice but for the tearing wind and the fire and all the artillery. It is because these things were so terrible in their mightiness, and so near in their crushing weight, that we listened to the still small voice with such eager interest and thankful appreciation. We know this in our own little life. We know how blue the sky is when the great frowning clouds have been driven away. It would not do to live always under summer skies, for even they would become commonplaces. Miracles may degenerate into platitudes. It is well to have change, variety, shock, trial; then when the morning breaks in silver, and all the hills are crowned with light, and all the birds say, It is Sabbath, let us sing to the praise of God, the heart knows that this is the very gift of divine love, and is its own witness, despising critic and scorning sceptic. This is none other than the visitation of the Father, God.

Yet having said all this, it is that we may make room for this instructive and limiting, yet enlarging, observation namely, that comfort does not mean only soothing, caressing, embracing. A very singular word is the word “comfort” all through the Bible. It is a kind of double word. We speak of a man being “a son of consolation,” and then we suppose him to be so quiet, to have only the eloquence of whispering, only the touch of soothing. He had all that, and more. The son of consolation is a man who can stimulate, awaken, rouse the sleeper; make a man conscious of his latent energy, and stir up the man that is within the man, so that he shall have boldness, distinctiveness of personality, consciousness of strength. So there be many sons of consolation who have not the name. You are consoled when you are strengthened; you are comforted when any spirit comes to you and finds for you the piece which you had lost, the energy which had fallen into desuetude, the faith that had lapsed, and bringing this lost piece to you says, Use it, and in the use of it recover your manhood. What comfort is there in soothing, caressing, embracing, quieting, mesmerising? That is really not comfort of an enduring or substantial kind. It was precious at the time, but it did not terminate in itself; if it put us to sleep it was that in sleep we might revive our energy, recruit our nerves, and bring up out of the forgetfulness of the night power and hope to serve the living God. Be thankful, therefore, to those men whom you have looked upon as being rather energetic than comforting, stimulating than soothing, and remember that Barnabas never would have been what he was if he could not prick, goad, stimulate, blister you into a larger consciousness. We shall find that we need all this view presently.

For here we have a comfort which is based on logic; and no other comfort is worth having. Let us not cry Peace, peace, when there is no peace; let us have no untempered mortar in building God’s wall that wall of security and protection, that sanctuary wall, every inch of which is written over with “Holiness unto the Lord.” This poet becomes logical. Believe no word that is not rooted or founded upon a rock. You cannot live upon foam. You cannot dine healthily upon perfume. The flower is a decoration, not a substitution for what you need, and of what you really enjoy.

“Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem.” ( Isa 40:2 )

Literally, speak to her heart. And having so spoken what shall the speech be?

“Cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.” ( Isa 40:2 )

To whom does God speak? To “my people.” In another part of the prophecies we read of a people who were not his people; they once were, but afterwards they were not; now they are again “my people.” That indicates a process. A whole history is involved in that one word “my:” it means, recovery, adoption, recognition, assurance, almost coronation; it indicates a new and tender relation, or the renewal of a relation ineffably tender and precious. It is not enough to be people, individuals, societies, nations, mere arithmetical hosts; we want the connecting word which binds us to the Great Heart. Not only am I a man, I am thy child, thou living God, take care of me, night and day, evermore. I could have the form and image of a man without that prayer, but not the joy of manhood, not the sense of dignity derived from him, who is the Son of man. Until we become religious we cannot be truly and deeply comforted; being religious we can never be truly and deeply discomforted: the wind plays upon the surface, but away down deep, and deeper still, is the spirit of joy and peace. Great peace have they that love thy law. So then this comfort is not a sentiment, it is the expression of a pardon, and it is the acknowledgment of a properly received and utilised punishment: “She hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins,” and she has acknowledged it to be the Lord’s hand. Then the punishment ceased. The moment we see God, and say, “It is the Lord,” and kiss the hand and the rod that is in it, the punishment is over. Punishment never goes beyond submission or acceptance in the right spirit. It goes beyond questioning, and difficulty, and scepticism, and obstinacy; it keeps on, blow after blow, scourge upon scourge; but no sooner does the sufferer say, “It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth good in his sight; I deserve it all; if thou canst pity me thou wilt,” than punishment has ceased, and heaven has descended into the heart.

Have we been punished for our sins? If not, there can be no comfort We cannot have any half work in this matter; the great negative work must first be done before the positive and constructive can be initiated. Believe this, and do not attempt to reverse divine processes, and to walk backwards into the kingdom of heaven. Why should we attempt impossibilities, when God comes to us in all sweetness and grace and tenderness and tells us the way of life, and offers us the blessing of his love? It is instructive and comforting to know that every consolation which God really gives comes after a process of discipline, a process of pardon, a process of punishment rightly received. We are all punished, we are all tried; the difference is in the way in which we receive the divine punishment. If we receive it as for sins it shall be well with us; then might God take away all we have. We have sinned against him with every finger; as for our feet they have been swift in the way of evil; our eyes have hunted creation for objects on which to feast their evil desires; our whole heart has been turned into a living lie; and now all other prayers must stand back until we use the only availing prayer God be merciful to me a sinner! That prayer having cleansed the heart and cleansed the mouth, all other prayers may come, and they shall be uttered in the prevailing name with infinite success. You cannot begin your prayer at the other end; you cannot begin with the benediction; that comes last, it is the purple eventide of the religious day; you must begin with the cry for mercy, the acknowledgment of transgression and unworthiness, and, God’s word for it, after that there will come ineffable peace, abounding, yea, with eternal joy.

Was the whole tragedy over, then? Is this a full stop to which we have come? No. God is loth to use the period. Has God any full stop in the literature of his reign and purpose and administration? The full stop is a human invention. There is no full stop with thee, thou Eternal One. The grave is not a full stop, it is an intermediate point, black enough, but quite momentary in its significance. So then, we have scarcely received the comfort, so rational and so profound, than there is a sound of trumpets, the cry as of a herald, the blast as of an instrument held and used by one who has news to tell.

“The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God” ( Isa 40:3 ).

Yes, truth lives in the future, as well as in the past. It is the coming eternity, as well as the eternity gone if we may so use words for purposes of accommodation that should be filled and glorified by the spirit of truth. There is always a better day to dawn. We have seen nothing yet, except that which is symbolic and initial, prophetic and assuring. Jesus Christ himself used the word “hereafter” more than once “Hereafter ye shall see.” We may, therefore, expect the Lord every day, not in some literal and measurable sense (in which we could not receive him), but in the deep, profound, universal, spiritual sense, which says: Thus thy kingdom come, thus thy will be done! In some lower mood, quite cold and straitened in itself, I want to see Christ in the flesh, but it is soon felt to be a vain hope and a foolish expectation. Christ must come in truth, in spirit, in salvation, in that sense of nearness which is the true association, in that consciousness of blessing which is better than mere proximity. What a wonderful word is this “Prepare”! It is a word that involves labour, and labour of a most difficult kind. What is to be done? The programme is set down here in plain figures make straight the highway, work in the desert, fill up the valleys, bring down the mountains, make the crooked straight, and the rough places plain. Have we to be engaged in this kind of work? Yes. It is hard very. It is negative undoubtedly. What will happen when it is done? This: Hear it, and be comforted in the sense of being inspired:

“And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together” ( Isa 40:5 ).

Prayer

Almighty God, we bless thee that thou hast spoken well of the days that are to come, for the days that are gone are full of weariness and sadness. We bless thee for gospel times, for millennial sunshine, for descending heaven. We thank thee for that word of thy Son, our Saviour, Hereafter shall ye see. Thou hast promised a great feast to the eyes of men; they are to behold new heavens, and a new earth in which dwelleth righteousness, and as for the ears of men they shall be filled with music. We thank thee that we have these prophecies in Christ Jesus, sealed by his name, glorified by his Amen, and made possible to us by the immediate peace which those who trust in him enjoy. Thou hast given us an earnest of the things that are to come; we do not live wholly in the future, but now what joy we have! Occasionally it is ecstasy, great passion of soul, infinite rapture of delight, so that we know not whether we are in the body or out of it, or In what heaven of thine, third or seventh, our souls are singing. Preserve us in the love of truth, and in the comfort of peace; and whilst we are filled with the spirit of anticipation may we be blessed with the grace of usefulness, so that even now we may turn our delight into service, our anticipation into sacrifice, and be found as faithful servants, honest stewards of God, each doing his duty faithfully, calmly, resolutely, independent of all fear or favour, giving himself wholly and lovingly to Christ. Comfort us in all our distresses, dry the tears which no hand but thine may touch, and when we have suffered awhile, and been perfected through suffering, bring us by right of the Cross, through the mystery of blood, to the land where there is no winter, where there is no night. Amen.

Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker

XXVII

THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST IN ISAIAH

The relation between the New Testament Christ and prophecy is that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. To him give all the prophets witness. All the scriptures, the law, the prophets, and the psalms, testify of him. And we are fools, and slow of heart to credit adequate testimony when we distrust any part of the inspired evidence.

Of the ancient prophets Isaiah was perhaps the most notable witness of the coming Messiah. An orderly combination of his many messianic utterances amounts to more than a mere sketch, indeed, rather to a series of almost life-sized portraits. As a striking background for these successive portraits the prophet discloses the world’s need of a Saviour, and across this horrible background of gloom the prophet sketches in startling strokes of light the image of a coming Redeemer.

In Isa 2:2-4 we have the first picture of him in Isaiah, that of the effect of his work, rather than of the Messiah himself. This is the establishment of the mountain of the Lord’s house on the top of the mountains, the coming of the nations to it and the resultant millennial glory.

In Isa 4:2-6 is another gleam from the messianic age in which the person of the Messiah comes more into view in the figure of a branch of Jehovah, beautiful and glorious. In sketching the effects of his work here the prophet adds a few strokes of millennial glory as a consummation of his ministry.

In Isa 7:14 he delineates him as a little child born of a virgin, whose coming is the light of the world. He is outlined on the canvas in lowest humanity and highest divinity, “God with us.” In this incarnation he is the seed of the woman and not of the man.

The prophet sees him as a child upon whom the government shall rest and whose name is “Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isa 9:6 ). This passage shows the divinity of Christ and the universal peace he is to bring to the world. In these names we have the divine wisdom, the divine power, the divine fatherhood, and the divine peace.

In Isa 11:1-9 the prophet sees the Messiah as a shoot out of the stock of Jesse, i.e., of lowly origin, but possessing the Holy Spirit without measure who equips him for his work, and his administration wrought with skill and justice, the result of which is the introduction of universal and perfect peace. Here the child is presented as a teacher. And such a teacher! On him rests the seven spirits of God. The spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge, and the fear of the Lord. He judges not according to appearances and reproves not according to rumors. With righteousness he judges the poor and reproves with equality in behalf of the meek. His words smite a guilty world like thunderbolts and his very breath slays iniquity. Righteousness and faithfulness are his girdle. He uplifts an infallible standard of morals.

In Isa 40:3-8 appears John the Baptist, whom Isaiah saw as a voice crying in the wilderness, preparing the way for the coming King.

In Isa 11:2 ; Isa 42:1 ; Isa 61:1-3 the prophet saw the Messiah as a worker in the power of the Spirit, in whom he was anointed at his baptism. This was the beginning of his ministry which was wrought through the power of the Holy Spirit. At no time in his ministry did our Lord claim that he wrought except in the power of the Holy Spirit who was given to him without measure.

In Isa 35:1-10 the Messiah is described as a miracle worker. In his presence the desert blossoms as a rose and springs burst out of dry ground. The banks of the Jordan rejoice. The lame man leaps like a hart, the dumb sing and the blind behold visions. The New Testament abounds in illustrations of fulfilment. These signs Christ presented to John the Baptist as his messianic credentials (Mat 11:1-4 ).

The passage (Isa 42:1-4 ) gives us a flashlight on the character of the Messiah. In the New Testament it is expressly applied to Christ whom the prophet sees as the meek and lowly Saviour, dealing gently with the blacksliding child of his grace. In Isa 22:22 we have him presented as bearing the key of the house of David, with full power to open and shut. This refers to his authority over all things in heaven and upon earth. By this authority he gave the keys of the kingdom to Peter one for the Jews and the other for the Gentiles who used one on the day of Pentecost and the other at the house of Cornelius, declaring in each case the terms of entrance into the kingdom of God. This authority of the Messiah is referred to again in Revelation:

And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as one dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying. Fear not: I am the first and the last, and the Living one; and I was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore and I have the keys of death and of Hades. Rev 7:17

And to the angel of the church in Philadelphis write: These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth and none shall shut, and shutteth and none openeth. Rev 3:7

In Isa 32:1-8 we have a great messianic passage portraying the work of Christ as a king ruling in righteousness, in whom men find a hiding place from the wind and the tempest. He is a stream in a dry place and the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.

In Isa 28:14-18 the Messiah is presented to w as a foundation stone in a threefold idea:

1. A tried foundation stone. This is the work of the master mason and indicates the preparation of the atone for its particular function.

2. An elect or precious foundation stone. This indicates that the stone was selected and appointed. It was not self-appointed but divinely appointed and is therefore safe.

3. A cornerstone, or sure foundation stone. Here it is a foundation of salvation, as presented in Mat 16:18 . It is Christ the Rock, and not Peter. See Paul’s foundation in 1 Corinthians:

According to the grace of God which was given unto me; as a wise masterbuilder I laid a foundation; and another buildeth thereon. But let each man take heed how he buildeth thereon. For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 1Co 3:10-11 .

In Isa 49:1-6 he is presented as a polished shaft, kept close in the quiver. The idea is that he is a mighty sword. In Revelation, Christ is presented to John as having a sharp, twoedged sword proceeding out of his mouth.

In Isa 50:2 ; Isa 52:9 f.; Isa 59:16-21 ; Isa 62:11 we have the idea of the salvation of Jehovah. The idea is that salvation originated with God and that man in his impotency could neither devise the plan of salvation nor aid in securing it. These passages are expressions of the pity with which God looks down on a lost world. The redemption, or salvation, here means both temporal and spiritual salvation salvation from enemies and salvation from sin.

In Isa 9:1 f. we have him presented as a great light to the people of Zebulun and Naphtali. In Isa 49:6 we have him presented as a light to the Gentiles and salvation to the end of the earth: “Yea, he saith, It is too light a thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.”

In Isa 8:14-15 Isaiah presents him as a stone of stumbling: “And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many shall stumble thereon, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.”

The prophet’s vision of his maltreatment and rejection are found in Isa 50:4-9 ; Isa 52:13-53:12 . In this we have the vision of him giving his “back to the smiters, and his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair.” We see a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. His visage is so marred it startled all nations. He is a vicarious sacrifice. The chastisement of the peace of others is on him. The iniquity of others is put on him. It pleases the Father to bruise him until he has poured out his soul unto death as an offering for sin.

The teaching of Isaiah on the election of the Jews is his teaching concerning the “holy remnant,” a favorite expression of the prophet. See Isa 1:9 ; Isa 10:20-22 ; Isa 11:11 ; Isa 11:16 ; Isa 37:4 ; Isa 37:31-32 ; Isa 46:3 . This coincides with Paul’s teaching in Romans 9-11.

In Isa 32:15 we find Isaiah’s teaching on the pouring out of the Holy Spirit: “Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be esteemed as a forest,” and in Isa 44:3 : “For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and streams upon the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring.”

In Isa 11:10 he is said to be the ensign of the nations: “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the root of Jesse, that standeth for an ensign of the peoples unto him shall the nations seek; and his resting place shall be glorious.”

Isa 19:18-25 ; Isa 54:1-3 ; Isa 60:1-22 teach the enlargement of the church. The great invitation and promise are found in Isa 55 .

The Messiah in judgments is found in Isa 63:1-6 . Here we behold an avenger. He comes up out of Edom with dyed garments from Bozra. All his raiment is stained with the blood of his enemies whom he has trampled in his vengeance as grapes are crushed in the winevat and the restoration of the Jews is set forth in Isa 11:11-12 ; Isa 60:9-15 ; Isa 66:20 . Under the prophet’s graphic pencil or glowing brush we behold the establishment and growth of his kingdom unlike all other kingdoms, a kingdom within men, a kingdom whose principles are justice, righteousness, and equity and whose graces are faith, hope, love, and joy, an undying and ever-growing kingdom. Its prevalence is like the rising waters of Noah’s flood; “And the waters prevailed and increased mightily upon the earth. And the water prevailed mightily, mightily upon the earth; and all the high mountains, that are under the whole heavens, were covered.”

So this kingdom grows under the brush of the prophetic limner until its shores are illimitable. War ceases. Gannenta rolled in the blood of battle become fuel for fire. Conflagration is quenched. Famine outlawed. Pestilence banished. None are left to molest or make afraid. Peace flows like a river. The wolf dwells with the lamb. The leopard lies down with the kid. The calf and the young lion walk forth together and a little child is leading them. The cow and the bear feed in one pasture and their young ones are bedfellows. The sucking child safely plays over the hole of the asp, and weaned children put their hands in the adder’s den. In all the holy realms none hurt nor destroy, because the earth is as full of the knowledge of the Lord as the fathomless ocean is full of water. Rapturous vision! Sublime and ineffable consummation! Was it only a dream?

In many passages the prophet turns in the gleams from the millennial age, but one of the clearest and best on the millennium, which is in line with the preceding paragraph, Isa 11:6-9 : “And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together: and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea.”

The prophet’s vision of the destruction of death is given in Isa 25:8 : “He hath swallowed up death for ever; and the Lord Jehovah will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the reproach of his people will he take away from all the earth: for Jehovah hath spoken it,” and in Isa 26:19 : “Thy dead shall live; my dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast forth the dead.”

The clearest outlines of the prophet’s vision of “Paradise Regained” are to be found in Isa 25:8 , and in two passages in chapter Isa 66 : Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all ye that love her: rejoice for joy with her, all ye that mourn over her; that ye may suck and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations; that ye may milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory. For thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream: and ye shall suck thereof; ye shall be borne upon the side, and shall be dandled upon the knees, as one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem. And ye shall see it, and your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like the tender grass: and the hands of Jehovah shall be known toward his servants ; and he will have indignation against his enemies. Isa 66:10-14

For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make shall remain before me, saith Jehovah, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith Jehovah. Isa 66:22-23

QUESTIONS

1. What is the relation between the New Testament Christ and prophecy?

2. What can you say of Isaiah as a witness of the Messiah?

3. What can you say of Isaiah’s pictures of the Messiah and their background?

4. Following in the order of Christ’s manifestation, what is the first picture of him in Isaiah?

5. What is the second messianic glimpse in Isaiah?

6. What is Isaiah’s picture of the incarnation?

7. What is Isaiah’s picture of the divine child?

8. What is Isaiah’s vision of his descent, his relation to the Holy Spirit, his administration of justice, and the results of his reign?

9. What is Isaiah’s vision of the Messiah’s herald?

10. What is the prophet’s vision of his anointing?

11. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a miracle worker?

12. What is the prophet’s vision of the character of the Messiah?

13. What is the prophet’s vision of him as the key bearer?

14. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a king and a hiding place?

15. What is the prophet’s vision of the Messiah as a foundation stone?

16. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a polished shaft?

17. In what passages do we find the idea of the salvation of Jehovah, and what the significance of the idea?

18. What is Isaiah’s vision of the Messiah as a light?

19. Where does Isaiah present him as a stone of stumbling?

20. What is the prophet’s vision of his maltreatment and rejection?

21. What is the teaching of Isaiah on the election of the Jews?

22. Where do we find Isaiah’s teaching on the pouring out of the Holy Spirit?

23. Where is he said to be the ensign of the nations?

24. What passages teach the enlargement of the church?

25. Where is the great invitation and promise?

26. Where is the Messiah in judgment?

27. What passages show the restoration of the Jews?

28. What is the prophet’s vision of the Messiah’s kingdom?

29. What is the prophet’s vision of the millennium?

30. What is the prophet’s vision of the destruction of death?

31. What is the prophet’s vision of “Paradise Regained?”

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

XVIII

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH PART 10

Isaiah 40-42

This great section (Isaiah 40-66) of Isaiah is called “The Old Testament Book of Comfort.” The New Testament correspondence to this book of comfort is John 14-17.

This section is addressed chiefly to the Israelitish exiles in Babylon. The conservative critics regard this as one of the greatest marvels of predictive prophecy. As Isaiah had already announced the Babylonian exile in Isa 39:6-7 he was further commissioned to provide comfort for those who should be tempted to despair by reason of their distress in captivity.

In 2Ch 32:25-33 we have an account of the condition at the close of the first part of the book, which does ample justice to the great and excellent Hezekiah as a ruler and a servant of Jehovah, yet it points out the sin of his heart in not rendering again according to the benefit done unto him. His heart was lifted up, which was no trivial sin, but he repented of this sin and thereby averted the immediate judgment from Judah. All this made Isaiah feel more and more distinctly the meaning of the Remnant, of which he bad had much to say. True, Assyria was never to destroy Jerusalem, but Isaiah saw behind Assyria a dark cloud arising which was to cover the whole face of heaven and burst upon the guilty city and people. This Isaiah saw clearly and distinctly. It was this very Babylon who at that time opposed Assyria, so that it was easy for Hezekiah and his people to take them as an ally. In view of this rising cloud Isaiah’s responsibility was increased. So now he directs his latest ministry to the future glory of Israel. The ten tribes were already in captivity and Judah was ripe for it. No time now to call to repentance until the Remnant should be purified by the judgment which was already decreed.

These last twenty-seven chapters are divided into three consecutive portions of nine chapters each which are externally marked off by a sad refrain: “There is no peace, saith Jehovah, to the wicked.” In like manner each of these divisions is subdivided into three equal parts of three chapters each. The central verses of the central chapter of the central division of this section contains the very essence of the gospel (see Isa 53:5-8 ). The progress of revelation is also indicated by the subject, or general theme, of each division of nine chapters. The first is “Theology,” or the doctrine of God; the second is “Soteriology,” or the doctrine of salvation; the third is “Eschatology,” or the doctrine of the last things. Who could imagine that such an arrangement could have come to be by mere chance in the hands of a number of Isaiah’s?

In Isa 40:1-2 we have an introduction to the rest of the book. This contains (1) the theme of this entire section, (2) the announcement that the warfare of Jerusalem was accomplished, (3) that her iniquity was pardoned, and (4) that she had received of Jehovah’s hand double for all her sins.

The theme of this last part of the book, as herein contained, has been fully explained already. But what is the meaning of Jerusalem’s “warfare” being accomplished? This means that her service was fulfilled, the long period of hardship and drudgery during which she has borne the brunt of the enemies’ attacks; that the time was fulfilled and the kingdom of God was at hand. A new day had dawned for Jerusalem. Her “iniquity pardoned” means God’s reconciliation to her and that he would not impute sin to her or punish her any longer for it. “Her receiving double of Jehovah’s hand” means, not twice as much as her sins deserved, but that she had received “abundantly” for her iniquity and therefore she might be assured that, having been amply punished, she need not fear further vengeance. All this is spoken from the standpoint of the captivity from which they are to return.

The theme of Isaiah 40-42 is the conflict with idolatry inside of Israel.

The prophecy of Isa 40:3-5 is a distinct prediction of the work of John the Baptist and is so declared to be in Mat 3:3 : “For this is he that was spoken of through Isaiah the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make ye ready the way of the Lord, Make his paths straight.”

This is confirmed by Mark (Isa 1:3 ), Luke (Isa 3:4-6 ), and John (Isa 1:23 ). But Luke’s quotation of Isa 40:3-5 throws more light on the interpretation than that of the other evangelists. He says that all flesh shall see the salvation of God, which indicates that this prophecy reaches over into the gospel dispensation and takes in the Gentiles.

The main work of John the Baptist is here set forth. His work, according to this prophecy, was preparatory and is set forth in figures of speech showing the levelling and adjusting work of repentance. Every valley shall be filled, all the hills shall be leveled and all rough places shall be made plain. The import of all these figures can be expressed in the one word, “grading”; so the work of John the Baptist was compared to the grading of a highway over which Christ was to come to his people. Then the prophet turns from the figure of grading to one of agriculture, expressing thereby the same preparatory nature of John’s work. The image employed is that of burning the grass of a field. (Isa 40:6-8 ). John’s preaching subsequently fulfilled this figure, of withering the grass of the flesh, in a most striking manner, by destroying all hope of fitness for the kingdom of God based on fleshly descent from Abraham. In Isa 40:9-11 , the verses following the description of John’s preparatory work, we have the thought carried on by a call to the messenger to get up on a high mountain and proclaim to the cities of Judah, with a lifted voice, the coming of their God, who would come as a mighty one to rule and to feed the sheep. This was all fulfilled in the coming of our Lord, who, heralded by John the Baptist, stretched forth his hand with authority, fed the sheep and tenderly cared for the lambs.

The picture of Isa 40:12-17 is that of the incomparably lofty One, the Jehovah of Israel, who is here exalted above all creation, showing God’s eternal wisdom and power versus man’s finiteness and insignificance. This passage is quoted by Paul in his great exclamation over the supreme wisdom and knowledge of God (Rom 11:33-35 ).

The picture presented in Isa 40:18-24 is a contrast between Jehovah and the senselessness of idolatry, as the preceding passage is a contrast between Jehovah and man. In the light of this truth the prophet shows how monstrous appeared the folly of those who made an image to represent or symbolize Deity. This passage is a complement of Isa 40:12-17 showing that if God be all that is there said of him, how strange that man should produce the poor, mean likeness of God which he has in his folly, set up in various times and places. The prophet here sarcastically contrasts these idols with Deity in their power, again magnifying Jehovah’s wisdom and power above every other being in the whole scope of the universe. Doubtless this argument, together with the many others made by Isaiah, against idolatry”, helped greatly to bring about the freedom from Polytheism, which has marked the Jewish people ever since the restoration from the Babylonian captivity.

The brief paragraph, Isa 40:27-31 , sets forth the comfort to God’s people of knowing the foregoing things concerning their God: that their way was open to Jehovah and he had not forgotten the justice due to them; that Jehovah is an everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth and does not grow weary, and that they that wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, shall mount up with wings as eagles, shall run and not be weary, shall walk and not faint. But what does the last verse mean? This passage seems, at first thought, to be an anticlimax, but it is a real climax. The first part of a journey is accomplished under the impulse of ardent feeling, as the eagle mounting upon wings for a long flight. The second stage of the journey is made by robust and energetic effort; as the traveler, not so fresh and buoyant, runs and by such effort presses on the way. The last stage of the journey is made by a steady, but tranquil and almost unconscious, advance, as when almost exhausted the traveler walks steadily onward. This verse taken in connection with the preceding one means this: Though the journey be such that the strongest, humanly speaking, may be weary and fall, the Lord giveth such power to those that wait upon him, though they be faint and have no might, that, in the first part of the journey, they shall be fresh and buoyant; in the second stage of the journey they shall run, as other men would, but unlike them they shall not be weary; and in the third stage of the journey where there is falling and fainting, with these it shall not be so, but they shall all have strength to complete the journey. How beautifully this applies to Christian service in this life. “They that wait upon Jehovah shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint.”

The special theme of Isa 41 is Jehovah’s contest with idols, the outcome of which is that Jehovah proves his Deity in two ways: (1) by stirring up Cyrus as a scourge to the heathen nations, and (2) by predicting the future which the false gods of the heathen could not do.

The prophetic picture in Isa 41:1-7 is a challenge to the isles and nations to match Jehovah’s strength with the power of their idols. Jehovah invites them to consider well the evidence. Then he marches out Cyrus at his word. He passes swiftly to chastise the heathen nations who tremble at his approach. They assemble, combine their efforts and encourage one another to make the very best god possible, so as to meet the power of Cyrus.

The thought is carried on in Isa 41:8-16 . In the midst of the consternation produced by Cyrus, Israel is encouraged not to fear; that Jacob is the chosen seed and he will be gathered from the ends of the earth; that Jehovah will be his God, singing in his ear, How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in His excellent Word; that he would infuse weakness into their enemies and that he would give Israel an aggressive vigor that would enable them to scatter their foes, which was fulfilled, perhaps, in the Maccabean period.

The crowning promise in Isa 41:17-20 is that of spiritual support and refreshment through the dull and dreary time of the captivity, which would find its full fruitage in the gospel days. The picture here is one that cheers the lonely traveler in a desert land. The anticipation of the blessings of the oasis stimulates and encourages. Here we have a desert converted into a garden, such as the gospel alone could do.

A contest between Jehovah and idols is described in Isa 41:21-29 . Here Jehovah challenges them to try their hand on revealing the past, predicting the future, or to demonstrate their claim by performing the supernatural, to which he himself replies that they are nothing and render people who choose them abominable. Then the prophet gives a sample of Jehovah’s prediction, which these idols were not able to match, because they were confusion. The prediction here is respecting Cyrus who should come from the north and should make the rulers as potter’s clay under his feet.

Who was the “Servant of the Lord,” occurring so often in Isaiah? Israel was God’s national son and it was the vocation of Israel to be God’s servant. So long as they served him loyally, they had true freedom, but when they ceased to do so they were chastised and had to learn the service of other kingdoms (2Ch 12:8 ). Yet their vocation was not annulled. The promise to Abraham’s seed stood firm. The “holy seed” was the germ of life which continued intact throughout their history. The title, “Servant of the Lord,” is applied to Israel, or Jacob, in Isa 41 ; Isa 44 ; Isa 45 ; Isa 48 . In other places where the title occurs, as Isa 42 ; Isa 43 ; Isa 44:26 ; Isa 49 ; Isa 52 ; Isa 53 , it is evident that a person is addressed who, while he is so closely related to Israel that he can be its representative, has at the same time a transcendent personality which enables him to stand outside of Israel and to act independently of it or in antagonism to it, as in Isa 49:5-6 ; Isa 53 .

It is to be noted in this connection that the title “Servant of the Lord,” occurring nineteen times in Isaiah 41-53 disappears after Isa 53:11 . The reason is obvious. His work as a servant is thenceforth finished. The everlasting covenant has been established (Isa 55:3 ). On the other hand after Isa 53 we have “Servants of the Lord,” which does not occur at all before Isa 44 , but occurs ten times in Isaiah 44-66. The relation between the two complementary series is fully explained by Isa 53:10 : “He shall see his seed,” and Isa 53:11 : “He shall see of the travail of his soul.” Through the obedience of one righteous servant many are made righteous (Rom 5:12-19 ).

The special theme of Isa 42 is “The Servant of Jehovah and His Work.”

In Isa 42:1-4 we have set forth the character, anointing, gentleness, and work of the Messiah. The New Testament (Mat 12:18-21 ) applies this expressly to Christ. In this we see that he was chosen with special delight and anointed in the Holy Spirit for his mission by Jehovah himself. His mission to the Gentiles, his quietness in his work, and his gentleness in dealing with backsliders are all noted with marked distinction. He will establish justice in truth and his administration shall include all the nations. The “bruised reed” refers to a musical instrument in need of repair, and the “smoking flax” refers to the wick of an old-fashioned lamp, nearly gone out. Both of these refer spiritually to the backslider and illustrate the tenderness with which Christ deals with the backslider. He will not break the bruised flute, but will fix it up again. Nor will he snuff the candle, but will trim it so that it will give forth its light. Brother Truett had a great sermon on this text in which he magnified the tenderness of Christ to backsliders.

The thought of Isa 42:1-4 is carried on in Isa 42:5-9 . This is a solemn reaffirmation that the mission of the “Servant of Jehovah” was from the Almighty and that the success of it was assured by him. This mission of the “Servant” is here declared to be twofold: (1) for a light of the Gentiles; (2) to open the eyes of the blind, to liberate the captives from the dungeon and from the prison house.

The “former things” here (Isa 42:9 ) are the former prophecies concerning Israel’s captivity which had been fulfilled, and the “new things” are the predictions respecting the restoration of the captive people to their own land.

The thought expressed in Isa 42:10-17 is a new song to Jehovah for his triumph over idolatry and for the deliverance of his people. The surrounding nations are called upon to join in this song, i.e., the nations about Palestine. This is a song of praise for the gospel and has its fullest realization in the antitype’s victory over superstition and idolatry. Isa 42:16 is a striking statement: “I will bring the blind by a way that they know not; in paths that they know not will I lead them.” This is an appeal to trust Jehovah in the darkest hours. The poet has expressed this great need thus: When we in darkness walk, Nor feel the heavenly flame, Then is the time to trust our God, And rest upon His name.

In Isa 42:18-25 Israel is represented as blind and deaf, grinding in prison houses because of disobedience, very much like national Israel in the days of our Lord, who had eyes but saw not and ears but heard not. They are also represented as a plundered people, but this is the judgment of Jehovah upon Jacob, because he was not obedient to his law. Again he is represented as not laying the matter of Jehovah’s dealings with him to heart. Is it not true that Jacob is in this condition today? He has never yet laid the folly of his sin of rejecting the Saviour to heart. But he will one day be made to consider his rebellious way of unbelief, the veil will fall from his blind eyes and he will receive our Lord and go with us after a lost world with a zeal that the world has never yet seen.

QUESTIONS

1. What is this section (Isaiah 40-66) of Isaiah called and what the New Testament correspondence to it?

2. To whom is it addressed and how is it regarded by the conservative critics?

3. Give a brief statement of the general condition in the kingdom at the close of the first part of the book (Isa 39:8 ).

4. Restate here the artistic features of this last section of the book.

5. What is contained in. Isa 40:1-2 and what the explanation of each of the items?

6. What is the general theme of the subdivision, Isaiah 40-42?

7. What is the prophecy of Isa 40:3-5 and where do we find the distinct fulfilment?

8. How is the main work of John the Baptist here set forth?

9. How is this thought of the preparatory work of John the Baptist for the coming king carried forward?

10. What is the picture of Isa 40:12-17 ?

11. What is the picture presented in Isa 40:18-26 and how does it seem to have impressed the Jewish people?

12. What is the thought in Isa 40:27-31 and what the interpretation of verse 31?

13. What is the special theme of Isa 41 and what the outcome?

14. What is the prophetic picture in Isa 41:1-7 ?

15. How is the thought carried on in Isa 41:8-16 ?

16. What is the crowning promise here (Isa 41:17-20 )?

17. Describe the contest between Jehovah and idols in Isa 41:21-29 .

18. Who was the “Servant of Jehovah,” occurring so often in Isaiah and what of the usage of the term by this prophet?

19. What is the special theme of Isa 42 ?

20. What are the contents of Isa 42:1-4 ?

21. How is the thought of Isa 42:1-4 carried on in Isa 42:5-9 ?

22. What are the “former things” and the “new things” in Isa 42:9 ?

23. What is the thought expressed in Isa 42:10-17 ?

24. What is Israel’s condition as described in Isa 42:18-25 ?

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

Isa 40:1 Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.

Ver. 1. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people. ] Hitherto hath been the comminatory part of this prophecy: followeth now the consolatory. Here beginneth the gospel of the prophet Isaiah, and holds on to the end of the book. The good people of his time had been forewarned by the foregoing chapter of the Babylonian captivity, Those in later times, not only during the captivity, but under Antiochus and other tyrants, were ready to think themselves utterly cast off, because heavily afflicted. See Isa 40:27 of this chapter, with Lam 5:22 . Here, therefore, command is given for their comfort, and that gospel be preached to the penitent; the word here used signifieth, first to repent, then to comfort. 1Sa 15:35 1Sa 12:24 This our prophet had been a Boanerges, a thundering preacher, all the fore part of his life. See one instance for all, Isa 24:1-23 where, Pericles-like, fulgurat, intonat, totam terram permiscet, &c. Now toward his latter end, and when he had one foot in the grave, the other in heaven, he grew more mellow and melleous, as did likewise Mr Lever, Mr Perkins, Mr Whately, and some other eminent and earnest preachers that might be named, setting himself wholly in a manner to comfort the abject and feeble minded; which also he doth with singular dexterity and efficacy. This redoubled “Comfort ye,” is not without its emphasis; but that which followeth Isa 40:2 is a very hive of heavenly honey. a

a Sunt autem omnia plena magnis adfectibus. – Hyp.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)