I invite you to turn this morning to Isaiah chapter 40. Isaiah chapter 40, I don't know where Dr. Godfrey is in Sunday school class, but I highly doubt he's made it through 40 chapters yet, seeing how slow that class moves. So we are going to consider Isaiah 40 today, page 712. And hopefully I can help him to see how to take a whole chapter at a time here. So, beginning at verse 1 today, let's give our attention to the word of the Lord.
"Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low. The uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. A voice says, cry, and I said, what shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. Go on up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news. Lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news. Lift it up, fear not. Say to the cities of Judah, Behold, your God Behold, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him. Behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. He will tend his flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs in his arms. He will carry them in his bosom and gently lead those that are with young
"Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance? Who has measured the spirit of the Lord, or what man shows him his counsel? Whom did he console, and who made him understand? Who taught him the path of justice and taught him knowledge and showed him the way of understanding? Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket and are accounted as the dust on the scales. Behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust. Lebanon would not suffice for fuel, nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering. All the nations are as nothing before him. They are accounted by him as less than nothing in emptiness.
"To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him? An idol a craftsman casts it and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts it for silver chains. He who is too impoverished for an offering chooses wood that will not rot. He seeks out a skillful craftsman to set up an idol that will not move.
"Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers. Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them like a tent to dwell in? Who brings princes to nothing and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness. Scarcely they are planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth when he blows on them and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble.
"To whom then will you compare me that I should be like him?" says the Holy One. "Lift up your eyes on high and see who created these. He brings out their host by number, calling them all by name, by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power, no one is missing. Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel? My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God.
"Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted. But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint."
And there will end today the reading of God's word.
If I were to ask the important question today: would you say that in life, at this very moment, for you, that you are in light or in darkness? How would you answer that question? If you look at the big picture of everything, does it seem like we are living in a time of hope, or does it seem like we're living in a time of despair? Are we living in a time of optimism, or are we living in a time of pessimism? I guess everyone will answer that different differently, based on a personal experience. And and maybe personalities and constitutions matter in a question like that. Some of you always look, and the glass is always half empty. And other of you will look at the glass and see that it's half full.
Well, maybe to take it to another level: Is it a time on earth of darkness or light? Is it a time of optimism or pessimism, again?
My goal this morning is to help us think a little bit that, no matter the personal experiences that we have in this life, the big picture, the perspective that the scriptures give us, is that we are living in a time when God has sent his light throughout all the earth, and that the light has overcome the darkness. First john we as believers, and I should say even as Reformed, are not ultimately pessimists. We shouldn't be. We are optimists. We are happy optimists. Well, that might trouble people when they look at life in many different ways, but I'm asking and challenge you to think about it from the bigger picture of scripture.
Isaiah 40 is a kind of text that reminds us that God has sent his light into the world, and the light shines in the darkness. And the darkness, even though doesn't comprehend it, that light has given light to every man coming into the world, as John says. And this great chapter of Isaiah chapter 40 has the effect wherever we are in life, whatever the circumstances that have come, good and bad it has the effect of awakening God's people to his light, to show us the light that he has sent among us. And this is has the great intention to cheer us, to make us happy, to make us hope-filled, to make us a joyful people. And that's captured even in his disposition in this text to us.
Now comes with some challenge, certainly, in this passage, but I want you to sort of step into the shoes of those who heard it the first time those in their very context and hear from them in light of their circumstances, and certainly indeed apply it to yours.
In their circumstances, the confusion that this passage captures, the complaint that they have, and God's answer of comfort that he gives which is surprising to all of this the context here is important in this chapter, I want you to notice that the people addressed here in this passage were facing in life one of the most distressing times that had ever come upon them and in their generation they had ever experienced. You see that captured here, just before this wonderful chapter that I read. If you look back at the end of chapter 39, so we have a breaking into something glorious in chapter 40, But the end of chapter 39, verse 5: "Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, hear the word of the Lord of hosts. Verse 6: Behold, the days are coming when all that are in your house and that which your fathers have stored up till this day shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the Lord, and some of your own sons who will come from you, whom you will father, shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of babylon
Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good." For he thought think of the selfishness of this there will be peace and security in my days, in my days!" What a terrible thought about looking to the future for your children, right?
This is a dark period here in Isaiah that's being captured of the coming Babylon captivity. It's a dark prophecy. I mean, just think about it for a minute. All your wealth is taken away in a moment. Doesn't matter if you're rich or poor all of you. It's zeroed out. Your homes will be plundered. Nothing that you have accumulated in life will be left. God has done this in history. Your families will be split up. Some of your sons will be carried off to Babylon.
There's a perspective, isn't it? There's a perspective we can always consider what we are facing, and then open the scriptures and consider what God's people have actually faced in the past. And they've been hard trials. They've been difficult things. And I think the great question that we have to sort of wrestle through is: what does God do for his people at this point? And what is the state of the people in the time of their difficulty and darkness?
And it's in this context that God announces a devastating disaster of captivity. that They were a people being greatly afflicted. They were an oppressed people by the nations. How much did you hear in Isaiah 40 of him saying, "I have all these kings in my hands"? Now, what kind of questions might you ask at this point if you're there? He is sort of capturing what's about to happen but looking at it in the sense of his as if it had happened and the state and the mindset of the people.
You might ask questions like this: How in the world did we get here? What is God doing? And has God abandoned us? Has God's anger endured forever against us? These are, in this text, a very discouraged and despondent people. And Isaiah knows that the time has drawn near for the exile, and he captures their experiences as if in captivity and the questions and burdens of their hearts that are coming out because of this.
Because of this judgment, the ultimate problem comes out in verse 2 You'll notice, of isaiah 40 "for Israel has received very end of it from the Lord's hand double for all her sins."
You ever thought about that? You've been paid back double for all your sins. Old covenant the attitude of their burdens and the judgment for this is captured. What would you think against God if God was pouring out upon you double for all your sins?
Throughout Isaiah, he described what had happened. That's where I'm sure, in your study in adult Sunday school, you've been you've been wrestling with what had happened. What went wrong? No one felt any more conviction. Isaiah had been describing it: "Woe to those who call good evil and evil good. Woe to those who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness." That's right out of Isaiah 5.
No one considered God. No one considered his holiness. Isaiah 6 That's why he had to raise up a prophet who'd be confronted with the majesty and the holiness of God to know how to properly address the people again. The people walked in great darkness, said Isaiah. Great darkness.
That's why so much of this chapter is given to expose their trust in idols that cannot speak, that do nothing for them. And so what Israel was suffering were the sad consequences of summarily not listening to the word of the Lord. not listening to the word of the Lord. And you can only go on so long and not listening to the word of the Lord, and there be serious consequences for it.
And so the prevailing spirit of the people during the time with God, this heart of this passage is addressing a complaint. As I was working through and trying to look at the structure of this great pastor there's a lot going on here, but the the verse that stood out to me, and I couldn't get out of, was the complaint of the people against God in the midst of all of this which is a sort of surprising complaint, but it's one that I think is very common to us in the midst of hardship and in the midst of darkness.
It's verse 27. Why do you say notice this carefully in chapter 40, verse 27: "Why do you say, oh Jacob, and speak, oh Israel? Here it is. This kind of glares in the chapter to me: my way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my god
That's really important. That gets us into the heart of the people at the moment the chapter is describing the way that people god's people related to him, how they related to him. what had happened in their relationship with him "Our way is hidden. Our way is disregarded."
In their hardships, in the tribulations that they were facing, in the afflictions that they were undergoing, which they imagined, in the midst of them. God no longer took notice. God neglected them God didn't care about them anymore. And that he was not faithful to make right all these wrongs against them by these evil, wicked nations and rulers. You hear the frustration in it toward God. God has turned his back on us. He's not listened to our prayers.
When you read this, you come up with this sort of summary: that their view of God was of abandonment, and that this was a people who had given up. Well, what do you do when you give up? Well, we looked at a few weeks ago Weariness They're weary. Weariness had enveloped the hearts of the people. They're hopeless. They don't know their future, or at least they haven't listened to know their future.
Now, I think all of us at some point face things like this in life and face moments like this in life, deeply wrestling with the ways of the Lord and thinking carefully without thinking carefully about why these things have happened and what the Lord is doing and what he has revealed to us. What we find in the hearts of the people is what the Spirit was was indifference to him, was indifference to God.
Now, this is where Isaiah 40 is wonderful. It's a big change in the book. It captures, in the midst of this, the heart of the people, but also, if you will, the heart of God.
It's that they had forgotten something about God, or they had willfully neglected something about God. And the heart of it is they had forgotten who God is. And in the forgetting of who God is, they didn't know him, and they didn't understand him. And in that case, they didn't consider his attributes at all. And on top of that, they had forgotten something about themselves.
And the prophet begins to work on this in this chapter. It's a it's a very clarifying chapter that works on this. And the first thing that he begins to show to correct their false view of God and his attributes to correct this with his attributes the first thing Isaiah will notice here, in the heart of this passage, to address these questions is: there is something embedded in creation that God told you about this world that you should take to heart through all of it. Consider what's true. And you see how this applies to every moment in history, for God's people, in whatever darkness you're in.
You know the passage: "Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told to you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?"
Hasn't God made something known in his creation? And hasn't God revealed that to you? Something that you, as his people, have always been taught about God. It's he who sits above the circle of the earth. Its inhabitants on the earth, to him, are like little grasshoppers. It's he who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.
You see what he's working on here, in this chapter, in verse 12? And you can work through all of these questions that are made here. God is saying something very clear here: "Your view is way too low of me."
It ties to Isaiah 6: "Consider who is your God, Israel. You should know this. He's the one who made everything. He's the one who made all this beautiful creation that's around you that you live in. a tent for the sun to dwell in. Think of all this language of his glory. Consider my greatness," says the Lord again.
"Who's measured, verse 12, the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span and closed the dust of the earth with a measure and weighed the mountains and scales and the hills in a balance?"
Who do you think did all that?
We just went up and hiked the other day up to Paradise Mountain. And it's like a 10 mile hike. My son came back from college and said, "Dad, we need to go do this." So we went and did this. And he's like, he's 20. I'm not that anymore. It was brutal. So we went through Hell Hole Canyon, and then we went up into the top of this mountain. And you look out at the vastness of this glorious creation. Every mountain he weighed out. Every mountain he formed.
When Job had been afflicted and Job had lost everything and was assaulted by Satan, and he complained against God, do you remember what God said? Remember how he corrected the thinking? "Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know?" He doesn't know. That's part of the problem.
There are questions in this, and the questions and the assumptions made against God is that he doesn't care about you, or all that he made, is that not it? And that he's given up on maintaining it, and that he does not control it, and that he is not sovereign.
So he goes up he goes on lift up your eyes and see who created all this." That's a good thing to do when you're in the darkness lift up your eyes and see. And go out and look at the vastness of the oceans, and look at the mountains. are Who created it? "He brings out their hosts by number, calling them all by name, by the greatness of his mind, and because he's strong in power, not one is missing."
He's saying, "I know everything I've made. I know every creature I've made. I formed every one."
What a knowledge of God! It's hard, it's hard to even comprehend the knowledge of God, the omniscience of God. Every single thought, internally, of every single mind and heart of every single person that ever existed can you comprehend that? "I know every creature, and your thought is, wait here your thought is I've disregarded my people. I don't care
Is that your thought in your hardship? That I've abandoned my word that I've spoken, which is the heart of this? is. "My word endures forever."
"You think I'm too far off for you? You think too highly of yourself. Do you think I don't care about you? This is how it's all coming out. Do you think I've forgotten you? I know every one of you. And I uphold every one of you. I know everything. It's not everything in my hand," says the Lord. "It includes you. Do I not know you? Do I not know the ones I formed in the womb?" Isaiah, I mean, Psalm 139. What a low view of God you have!
You see, it also expresses that true disregard is not him for us. It's us for him. We've disregarded him.
Jeremiah captured this. But they said, "There's no hope. This is the heart of the people. It's useless. This whole thing's useless. This is what happened in the heart of the people."
"So we'll walk after our own devices, and we will do every man what after the stubbornness of our own evil hearts." And the Lord says, "Are not your ways hard?"
And you see what Israel thought of God is that the present circumstance that they're in he's he's forgotten he's uninterested and that he's abandoned. But the reality was the whole chapter captures it was their hearts that had turned from him to idols, and they were trusting in them, and they were looking to them, and they were holding on to them. And that's what we do when we're all stressed. We're running to anything and everything else rather than him, and our actions show it. Our worries show it.
When we are oppressed and afflicted, is it not often our own sins that caused it?
Here was the truth of Isaiah 40: This chastisement was all happening to bring them back to him. And here's the beauty of it. God is in heaven. God does care. And after all this idolatry and all this darkness, it was time for them to hear something. And what he really wants is to make known something, so that people would again understand their God.
And this seems to me the way that he works: After periods of great darkness, then he shines a beacon of light on his people so that they can see again.
And it's against this backdrop of this darkness from the mouth of God that is prophesied that now God says, "I want you to run, Isaiah, throughout Israel, and I want you to speak and to cry out. See, now it will be heard."
All of a sudden, "I want you, verse 6, and you'll notice one voice in the heavens, an angelic voice asks a question here. What do you want me to cry out?"
Here's what I want you to say, that would come into the mouth of the prophet. "All flesh is as grass, verse 6, and its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers and the flower fades. And here's, I think, the heart of this passage: The breath of the Lord blows upon it. Surely the people are like grass. The grass withers and the flower fades."
New Testament captures this, grabs this verse. "But the word of God endures forever."
There's what's lasting. There's what's sure. There's a firm foundation for you. Everything else fails, even your own lives. But my word endures forever. And I'm declaring something to you now, says the Lord. My promises are forever. What I purpose and what I do endures forever. And I'm declaring my will and my word, says the Lord, to you. Your ways are not my ways. Your thoughts are not my thoughts.
And all of a sudden, the most beautiful words are spoken that launches us into the most profound description of God's purposes for you.
Verse 1: "Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry to her. Cry to her! Cry it out from the hilltops. Her warfare's ended. Her iniquity is pardoned. For she's received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins."
Wow! Give them really good news, says your God. Comfort! How so?
Here we go: "The voice of one crying in the wilderness: prepare the way of the Lord. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill brought low. And the crooked places shall be made straight, and the rough places smooth. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
See, that endures. This endures. Here's what he just said: "I will come to you. I will come to you. Your God will come to you. I myself will come to you. You will see my glory appear on the earth. I'm coming."
And the imagery that we have here is: get ready. A highway is going to be carved out. In the wilderness, everyone has to get out of the way when he comes. He will cast up a highway in the desert for him to ride. If you want to read the glory of this, Psalm 68 captures it. He is coming in glory. Every obstacle must be removed. Everything that is rough must be made smooth. Every mountain low. The glory of the Lord will appear.
Let them hear that! Pronounce that! Isaiah! Declare that! Comfort to my people! Give it to them tenderly! Tell them this is my intention for my people. Oh, Jerusalem, I've got glad tidings for you! I want you to lift up your voice in strength and start speaking again of hope on the hills and on the mountaintops. Proclaim it. Behold your God.
And the answer is: God would come down off the throne himself and give glad tidings. And here's what I want you to announce.
Their war is over. Tell them. Great pause. I have pardoned all their iniquity. Can you read over that so quickly? Tell them I've forgiven all their sins. This is my burden for them. And I'm going to rule them, and I'm coming with a great reward for them. And tell them when I come, I will feed them, and verse 11: I'm going to be their shepherd. And tell them the Lord himself will take them into his arms. And that tell them that I will carry them in my bosom. Tell them I will gently lead those who are with young.
It's all today. And when he comes, he will strengthen them. Consider, oh Jacob. And much weariness. Great consolation.
Now, what am I talking about now? If I didn't have a story to tell at this point, we'd be sitting in the same place of Isaiah. But I've got a pretty good story to tell you right now.
What are we celebrating?
When John the Baptist arrived on the scene of history, he was preaching one great message: "Repent! Turn away from sin, for the Lord is coming. His coming is at hand!"
And we stand back now and what have we seen? What have we seen?
Do you realize that what Isaiah describes here is the preparing of the way of the Lord fulfilled initially with the coming of John?
Your child, Zacharias this language, your child Zechariah will be called the prophet of the Most High, for he will go before the face of the Lord to prepare his way, to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the remission of sins through the tender mercies of the Lord.
What are we celebrating?
I could interject in the midst of this right now. The great question of Psalm 42: "Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why are you downcast, O my soul?"
Shepherds, one day, were out in a field, and all of a sudden, glory and light begins to shine all around them. And then the angel speaks, and the angel says, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all peoples. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord."
Here he is. He is the promised one of Isaiah 40. Proclaimed on the mountaintops to this day. The glory has come. The gospel has been heralded. All of a sudden, as this happens, multitudes in heaven start singing out: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace toward men of his good pleasure."
Are you our people of his good pleasure? You're hearing it.
And everyone, every mountain every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. My appearance to you will make everything clear of God's love and his intention to pardon. And that's what's announced today, beloved.
The warfare with God is over. Having been justified by faith, you have what? Peace. There's no war. The light has come.
"Arise, that's what we started the service with. Shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth, and thick darkness is over the peoples. But the Lord rises upon you, and his glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your coming."
Tell them their iniquities pardon. What a message we bring! "While you were yet sinners, Christ died for you." The full measure of your sins has been paid for, pardoned, atoned. And the Lord says, "I want you to know I've come to shepherd you. I've come to care for you. I've come to gather you, you and your children."
Now I ask the question to close this out, because we've got to get back to Isaiah in Sunday school: Are you in a time of great darkness or light? Do you see what we're celebrating?
The time of comfort has come. His plan did not fail. He did what he purposed.
At this time of year, in my experience, many people actually hurt. We put on a false sense of happiness. People hurt because of sorrow, loss, death, hardship. I want you to remember what you're celebrating not as the world celebrates this thing. They've marketed it to death and made money.
"Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, how does this passage end, the creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary. You do. He doesn't. His understanding is unsearchable. So what does he do for you? Listen to this. He gives power to the faint. To him who has no might, he, end of Isaiah 40, increases strength.
"Even youths shall faint and become weary. Young men shall fall exhausted."
See what he's saying? Take the strongest you think in this life who can make it through? The youth in all of their strength and in all of their vigor, under the stresses and burdens and sorrows and darkness of this life, they fail. All of them. The strongest lack the strength to deal with this, all the stress, all the weariness. No, not even the young men in their prime can handle it.
When these seasons come, when chastisement comes, but you know what the Lord does for you? He gives power to the weak. When people are completely overcome, God promises he will help you. God promises he will strengthen you. God promises he will give you power.
Isaiah ends with a bright future. A hopeful future.
"But they that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint."
Why? Because of who has come to us. It is God who came to us.
"I will give you rest," said Jesus. "I have the power to give you rest. Come to me. Don't look to anyone else. Don't trust in anything else. Don't look to idols. Don't run to addictions and sins. Come to me. I will give you rest for your souls."
This is what we celebrate today. God has come to us in the incarnation. And the warfare is over by faith, faith alone. And he promises to shepherd you. He promises to keep you. He promises to uphold you.
Why would we look anywhere else, like Israel did?
Hear me when I say today: the word of the Lord has spoken.
Amen.
Let's pray.
Oh, Lord our God, we thank you for such comforting words. Bless these words to the hearts and lives of your people. And may we celebrate with great understanding our God and see ourselves and what we need and receive the gift of God to this world. We shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. In him we celebrate.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Thank you.