Isaiah 40:27-31

Why sayest thou, &c.— The third, or consolatory part of this discourse begins at this verse, wherein the foregoing doctrine and prophesy are applied to the comfort of the church; who, in her various afflictions, complained that she had been neglected of the Lord. This complaint makes the basis of the consolation contained in this verse. The consolation itself follows; in the first part whereof it is shewn, that God is not faint or wearied with the care of his church; that it is not a burden to him; that his providence comprehends all things, and nothing is exempted from it; that his understanding is infinite; for this is the meaning of the last clause of Isaiah 40:28 which is parallel to Psalms 147:5. The second part teaches that the same God was able to supply and would supply strength, to the faint and weary; to those among his people whose faith and hope were very low; which he would support in the faithful even until the manifestation of the great salvation: that the faithful should not fail, but persevere until the time of grace, and reassume new strength with that happy period. This doctrine or promise is proposed in Isaiah 40:29 and is explained and illustrated by a simile, Isaiah 40:30. See Psalms 103:5. The spiritual sense of this passage is plain; namely, that God will never fail those who put their trust in him. In this prophetical sense it refers to those apostles and first preachers, who, with indefatigable ardour, and unwearied perseverance, ran, and were not weary, walked and fainted not, in the great business to which they were called; preaching Christ amid persecutions, perils, and martyrdom, and every where proclaiming the kingdom of God. See 1 Corinthians 4:11; 1 Corinthians 4:21 and Vitringa.

REFLECTIONS.—1st, The conclusion of the prophet's message in the former chapter spoke terror and conviction; the opening of this joy and consolation; for though it be a needful severity to wound, it is the more pleasing part of our office to bind up the broken-hearted, and to preach the Gospel of peace.

It would afford the pious Jews a beam of cheering hope amid the evils that were expected, and support the fainting spirits of the poor captives, to have these great and precious promises set before them, and to be assured that, whatever they suffered, there was hope in the end. We have here,
1. The commission given: Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith your God; speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, or, to the heart of Jerusalem, and cry unto her. [1.] The persons addressed are my people; this is their character. [2.] The person speaking, your God, your reconciled God in Jesus Christ, in whose love his believing people are interested, and therefore may expect all that almighty power, boundless mercy, and infinite wisdom can bestow. [3.] The employment of God's ministers is, to comfort his people, who are often greatly dejected through affliction, temptation, or corruption. [4.] The order is repeated, and they are commanded not only to speak, but cry aloud; for though it be the privilege of God's people to rejoice, and his will concerning them that they should be happy in him, yet sometimes they are apt to write bitter things against themselves, and can then scarcely be persuaded to receive the blessings which God hath in store for them.

2. The mercies promised; and these are, [1.] The pardon of sin. Her iniquity is pardoned; however deep the die, and aggravated the guilt, it is pardoned freely and fully. The blood and infinite merit of Jesus have obtained the pardon for us, and there is no condemnation to them that believe. [2.] Victory over all our enemies. Her warfare is accomplished. Christ, the captain of our salvation, hath vanquished, for the faithful, sin, Satan, death, and hell; and hath entered into the land of glory, as a conqueror, to take possession. Though we have a warfare to maintain, while we are in the body, against flesh and blood, against the world and the devil; yet by his grace those who perseveringly cleave to Christ shall be more than conquerors, and see quickly all their enemies put under their feet. [3.] She hath received at the Lord's hand double for all her sins. God speaks as a tender parent, whose love makes him think the corrections he had given his dear children beyond measure: or rather the words intimate the full satisfaction which God hath taken of Christ our surety, exacting from him to the uttermost the desert of our iniquities, and in consequence pouring down upon his church superabundant grace and blessings.

2nd, The scriptures of the New Testament have not left us uncertain of the person, whose voice should cry in the wilderness. John, like the morning-star, the harbinger of day, appears to usher in the Sun of Righteousness, and to awaken, by his preaching, the souls of sinners to turn their eyes towards the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world.
1. The cry is, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a high-way for our God. Jehovah, our God, here spoken of, is the glorious Redeemer, whose eternal godhead is asserted. Our hearts are a desert, till his presence and love change the dreary scene. Where his footsteps tread, waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams of grace and consolation in the desert. The preparation for him must be from him; and he that commands must give the hearing ear, the contrite heart, and dispose us to welcome him into our souls; and then if we will open to him, he will enter in, and bless us with his presence.

2. Where Jesus comes, every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain. Such will be the effects of his grace upon the souls of believers; those who were sunk into the lowest deep under the sense of guilt, shall be raised up by divine mercy and exalted: the proud, who in their own eyes before were high in conceit of their own worth and excellence, shall be brought low, and acknowledge their sin and vileness: the crooked and rough ways of men of perverse minds shall be made straight, their errors removed, their corrupt practices reformed, and their hearts renewed in holiness.

3. The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, the Redeemer Jesus, the brightness of his Father's glory, and the express image of his person, and all flesh shall see it together; he being the universal Saviour, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it, and therefore no jot or tittle of his promises shall fail.

4. A farther commission is given to the preachers and at his request he is instructed what to cry; which may refer to the weakness and impotence of the Babylonians, to detain the Jews in their captivity, when the Lord should arise to save them; or, more generally, may be applied to all men, where the word of the Gospel is preached, as an alarming motive to attend to the great and precious promises of a better world, seeing this is so frail and fading. All flesh is grass, weak and withering, and all the goodliness thereof as the flower of the field, which, though it look more gay and beautiful, is as frail and feeble. Such are all human gifts and greatness, which, however specious, quickly fade. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it; then drooping, dying, all our beauty and glory languish: health loses its bloom, our possessions fade away, and death closes the scene: or when the Spirit of Jehovah breathes upon us in conversion, our past doings and duties appear poor and wretched; and those things on which we prided ourselves we count loss, that we may win Christ. Surely the people is grass, all people of every age, rank, and degree; the grass withereth, the flower fadeth, such perishing things are all merely natural excellencies; but the word of our God shall stand for ever; and therefore, when all beside perishes, and every earthly comfort or possession in death is for ever lost, they who make the great and precious promises of the Gospel their constant stay, will find, to their everlasting comfort, a portion which cannot fail them in the better world of glory.

3rdly, Great was the joy when, by the edict of Cyrus, once more the Jews were permitted to return to their own land, and loudly was it proclaimed by those who had at heart the prosperity of Zion. To this the prophesy may refer; but it was evidently designed for the days of Christ, and respects his incarnation.
1. His manifestation in the flesh is proclaimed to sinners, as their greatest happiness. O Zion, that bringest good tidings, when his ministry chiefly was exercised; or, O thou that bringest good tidings to Zion, as addressed to John the Baptist, and all the ministers of the Gospel, whose office it is to proclaim the divine, glorious, and transcendent excellence of the Redeemer, in all his offices and undertakings for the salvation of sinners; get thee up into the high mountain, to the most public places, such as the mount of the Lord's house. O Jerusalem, &c. or, O thou that bringest good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up thy voice with strength: lift it up, be not afraid of the opposition and revilings of men, who would persecute the preachers of the Gospel. Say unto the cities of Judah, where Christ appeared, Behold your God incarnate, the promised Emmanuel; a man, and yet the eternal Jehovah, come with the most joyful tidings that can greet a sinner's ears, to proclaim pardon, grace, and salvation, freely and to the uttermost.

2. His power and all-sufficiency are declared. Behold, the Lord God will come; that desire of all nations, and especially the glory of his Israel; he shall come with a strong hand, mighty to save his believing people and punish his enemies: or, against the strong one, to destroy the works of the devil, and break his hateful power in the hearts of men: and his arm shall rule for him, self-sufficient, and designing his own glory: or against or over him, the great enemy of souls, who must yield to this conqueror. Behold! with joy, ye people of God, his reward is with him, to bestow eternal life on all who faithfully stay on him: and his work before him, the glorious work of redemption: he came fully acquainted with the steps necessary thereto, and perfectly able and willing for the undertaking.

3. His grace and love are tenderly displayed under the character of a watchful shepherd. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: his believing people are his sheep, and therefore with tenderest regard he feeds them in the green pastures of his ordinances; bestows on them the waters of consolation; and watches over them night and day, defending them from every danger. He shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom; as when the cold is ready to kill the new-cast lamb, or it is so weak that it cannot follow the dam, the shepherd in his bosom bears and cherishes it; so does Christ the lambs of his flock, pitying their weakness, helping their infirmities, and in the bosom of his love cherishing and strengthening their souls: and shall gently lead those that are with young, whose circumstances are embarrassed, and trials difficult; he leads them gently as they are able. Let the under-shepherds learn of their chief shepherd to partake of his spirit, and tread in his steps, consulting the weakness, and ministering to the wants, of those sheep and lambs of his flock intrusted to their care.

4thly, The prophet speaks consolation to God's people, and declares the infinite power and wisdom of their God. The captives in Babylon need not fear Jehovah's ability to compass their deliverance; and faithful souls may ever be assured, that he, who in his condescension is their shepherd, suffers no diminution of his uncreated glory thereby. The description here given of our Redeemer is unutterably grand. Such his immensity, the vast abyss of waters to him are but as a few drops in the hollow of his hand; the expanded heaven to him is but a span; the ponderous globe but as a few particles of dust; and the mountains and hills, so prodigious in height and breadth, weighed in his scales, appear as grains of sand, and all nicely proportioned for the purposes they were designed to serve. In his amazing work of creation he needed no adviser; himself the fountain of wisdom, all receiving from him, none capable of adding to him. Before him the mightiest nations are but as a drop of the bucket, or the small dust of the balance; so light, as not to turn the poised scale. The isles he taketh up, or casteth away, as chaff, or the down of thistles. Were Lebanon with all its forests hewn down for fuel, and the innumerable herds which feed thereon slain for a sacrifice, utterly insufficient would they have been to expiate the sins of men: no less than the incarnate Jehovah could offer the propitiation, before whom all nations are as nothing, and, as if words were wanting to express their insignificance, they are counted less than nothing, and vanity. Note; (1.) The more we see of the Redeemer's greatness and glory, the more should our hearts be established in him. (2.) The less we are in our own eyes, and the more we see our own vanity, the more shall we admire the infinite love and condescension of our Immanuel.

5thly, The sin and folly of idolaters are here upbraided.
1. The absurdity of idolatry is here described. Mad in the pursuit of idol vanities, the founder casts the figure; and, lavish of their riches, they deck the senseless image; it is overlaid with plates of gold, or adorned with chains of silver. Yea, he that cannot afford an offering will have a god, though carved from a tree; and, choosing the wood which is most incorruptible, has it fashioned into shape, and fixed in its place. Amazing stupidity! to pay adoration to a senseless log, or expect support from that which cannot stand without being fastened. Note; (1.) The idolatry which hath prevailed so universally is a striking proof of the fall of man, and of the dreadful darkness of the human understanding. (2.) The continuance of this abominable practice in the church of Rome is among the strong proofs of her utter apostasy. (3.) Beware of spiritual idolatry: to place a confidence in gold, or set up the creature above God in our affections, is equally criminal as to bow the knee to a stock or a stone.

2. The prophet expostulates with them, Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth? From the visible creation the great Author's eternal power and godhead might be clearly seen, and traditionary notices of his being were handed down from the beginning; yet they degraded him into an image made like to a corruptible man, and worshipped him not as God; so that they were without excuse. See Romans 1:20. A glorious description then follows of the great Jehovah: on the circle of the heavens he sitteth, by his power find providence upholding all things: on this terrestrial ball he looks, an atom in the vast expanse, and puny mortals appear but as grasshoppers or locusts before him. As a curtain he stretches out the firmament, and in the heavens, hid from mortal eye, spreads his radiant tabernacle. In his view earth's mightiest princes shrink into nothing; their persons, counsels, power, are all vanity. Fixed as their thrones appear, and great as they seem to worms like themselves, one breath of his displeasure blasts them as grass, and hurls them from the earth as stubble before the whirlwind.

3. He directs them whither to turn their eyes, nor more attempt to liken God, the eternal Spirit, to any corporeal form. Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things; read, in the expanded volume above, the legible characters of the Creator's glory; that bringeth out their host by number, marshalled in exact order: he calleth them all by names suited to their position and influence: by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth; bound by omnipotent power, each in his several orbit performs his revolution, and uses his influence according to his Creator's will. Since then God is so infinitely above the highest creatures, and all these the works of his hands, every representation of him by them must be a debasement of his glory.

6thly, Their long captivity was ready to discourage the hearts of the Jews; and some of them, under the power of unbelief, were ready to conclude themselves forgotten and forsaken of God; for which the prophet here reproves them; and their rebuke is designed for our admonition, who, are ready to faint when we are corrected of him.
1. He exposes their impatience and unbelief. Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the Lord; he disregards my afflictions; and my judgment is passed over from my God? he hears not my appeals, nor gives me the expected redress. Note; (1.) Such questions as our impatience utters, must be silenced. Why and wherefore do we complain? God is not slack in his promises, but we are hasty in spirit. The vision is for an appointed time. (2.) It argues our folly, as well as sin, to suppose that God does not see our distress, or is not able to relieve us.

2. He reminds them of two things, which they ought to have known and considered: the infinite power, and unsearchable wisdom of God? Hast thou not known? after all the wonders displayed in behalf of his people; hast thou not heard, from the experience of past ages, as well as the oracles of truth, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? His power is never exhausted, nor his government enfeebled: he is from eternity unchangeably the same, and, as the Creator of all, must needs be able to govern the work of his own hands; and therefore, however low his church may be reduced, it is not owing to weakness or weariness that he does not appear for their relief. He will save his faithful people to the uttermost, nor can be at a loss for the means, when infinite wisdom is joined with almighty power; for there is no searching of his understanding; therefore we are bound at all times to trust him, and patiently expect the salvation of God.

3. When we do so, we are sure of being holpen. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might, he increaseth strength: such as, seeing their own spiritual weakness and helplessness, apply to him, find him a very present help. When I am weak, then am I strong. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: such as trust on an arm of flesh, and, self-confident, think they are able to extricate themselves from their difficulties, or, by the strength of their own natural endeavours, to overcome the powers of their corruptions; these shall prove their insufficiency, and utterly fail: but they that wait upon the Lord, both for righteousness and strength, and in every trial cast their care upon him, sensible of their own ignorance and weakness, these shall renew their strength, be enabled to stand in the evil day, supported under the sore burden of their temptations, afflictions, and corruptions: yea, more than supported, they shall mount up with wings as eagles, so swift and strong; and their trials shall serve to strengthen their graces, and lift up their souls farther from earth, and nearer heaven: they shall run, and not be weary, in the way of God's commandments, pleased in his happy service, and accounting it perfect freedom: and they shall walk, and not faint; though long their journey, and difficult the way, the everlasting arms of Jesus's love shall bear the faithful up, and bring them safe at last to their eternal home. Hold out then, faith and patience!