Isaiah 40:1-30

Isaiah 40:1. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem.

The loss of comfort is no small loss. God would have his people happy. They are in the best condition for serving him, and less likely to be overcome by the temptations of the world, when the joy of the Lord is their strength. Therefore, three times over he bids his ministers comfort his people. O Triune Jehovah, help thy servant now to fulfill this commission!

Isaiah 40:2. And cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished,

After all beloved, you have not to fight your own battles. Under one aspect, you may have to do so; but the great fight is already over, that fight which is so much greater than all others, that the lesser ones are scarcely worthy of the name of warfare. You have but to scatter the foes whom your great Captain has vanquished, and to march boldly onward because he has cleared the way before you.

Isaiah 40:2. That her iniquity is pardoned:

Oh, when that is the ease, what does it matter about the warfare? Brethren, if you have a sense of sin forgiven, you may well bear the way. The sting is gone from death itself when sin is pardoned; and, therefore, it is certainly gone from life as well

Isaiah 40:2. For she hath received of the LORD'S hand double for all her sins.

If the Lord's ancient people could thus be comforted in their seasons of sorrow, how much more may we be cheered when we think of all the blessing which has come to us through the sorrows of our great covenant Head! All is settled now. «It is finished,» was our Saviour's cry from the cross. Our debts are all paid, so we may well be comforted.

Isaiah 40:3. 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.

You have not to turn the wilderness into a garden; you have only to make «a highway for our God.» It is the presence of God that you want, O sorrowing soul, O mourning Church! Let the Lord but come to you, and then all shall be well. Your business is to give heed to the cry, «Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.»

Isaiah 40:4. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low:

That is what must happen to you who are very great and highly exalted, you will have to be made low. But as for the lowly ones, they shall be exalted. It is in this way that God comes to his people, marching over hills that have been overthrown, and over valleys that have been filled up, and leveled to make a highway for the King.

Isaiah 40:4. And the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain? and the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

That is the great purpose and end of nature, of providence, and of grace, that the glory of the Lord may be revealed. It is revealed; but many men do not see it. Yet it is God's purpose that all flesh shall see it together.» Do we all see it, clear friends? Are we not far too apt to take glory to ourselves, and to make out that we are strong, that we are wise? Ah! Too often, that is the case, so it is the Lord's work to put an end to all that folly, so that nothing shall remain but the glory of the Lord, that all flesh may see it, and see nothing else.

Isaiah 40:6. 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: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.

So, you see, there is a withering work to be done by the Spirit of God, withering up all the glory of the flesh to the intent and purpose that the glory of God's Word may be revealed, and that Jehovah himself may be seen in his majesty and might. This is the great battle of all the ages. Sometimes men have set up a golden calf to be worshipped; at other times, blocks of wood and stone; but idolatry is universal wherever man is found. We are all far too prone to trust in something else instead of in God; and God is always jealous of these rivals of his,- these Dagons that dare impiously to stand in the presence of the ark of the Lord.

Isaiah 40:9. O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O 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!

That is the point which we need to reach, where we may see God, where we may be conscious of his presence, where we may trust in his grace, where we may lean on his arm. And, oh! we need to have the voice very much lifted up before we can hear this cry, «Behold your God!» We run after this sight, and that, and the other, and forget him who alone is worth seeing. «Behold your God,» you who are sorrowing, you who are perplexed, you who are sorely burdened, behold your God, and you shall be strengthened and comforted.

Isaiah 40:10. Behold, the Lord GOD will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him. He 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 that are with young.

This is what the good Shepherd is constantly doing. Nobody else can do it. He alone can protect the weak, who are his lambs, and succor those whose inward sorrows bring them into deep distress; and there is nothing which he cannot do, for he is omnipotent. Then, why do you not trust him? You remember what the Lord himself says, by the mouth of Jeremiah: «Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited. Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green: and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.» Now comes a verse by which we are taught the greatness of God: -

Isaiah 40:12. Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?

Who has done all this but God? Then, after that, is there anything too hard for him to do? And who is so worthy of your confidence as this Omnipotent One? Oh, let the thunder of his power make you ashamed of the weakness of your unbelief!

Isaiah 40:13. Who hath directed the Spirit of the LORD, or being his counsellor hath taught him? With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and shewed to him the way of understanding?

Dost thou want greater wisdom than his? Art thou perplexed because thou canst not understand all mysteries? What would thy wisdom and understanding be if they were placed side by side with his? A single drop of water, compared with all seas and oceans, has a larger magnitude than all thy powers have compared with the greatness of thy God, and all his glorious attributes. Trust him, then, and let him lead thee whithersoever he willeth.

Isaiah 40:15. Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket,

All the nations Jews and Gentiles, the vast multitudes of China, and India, and all other nations, all these are but as a drop of a bucket, the one drop that trembles on the bucket's brim when all the rest of the water is gone.

Isaiah 40:15. And are counted as the small dust of the balance:

That little imperceptible dust that does not turn the scale of an ordinary balance, and for which you would need the most sensitive scales in order to discover its presence. That is all that the whole of the nations of the earth are in comparison with God; yet, sometimes, we fancy that one man is so great that all must give way to him. Whereas, if we trust in God, and think as God thinks, a whole nation will be to us as a drop of a bucket, or as the unseen dust of the balance. Well did Dr. Watts sing:

«Great God! how infinite art thou I

What worthless worms are we!

Let the whole race of creatures bow,

And pay their praise to thee.

«Thy throne eternal ages stood,

Ere seas or stars were made;

Thou art the ever-living God,

Were all the nations dead.»

Isaiah 40:15. Behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing. And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering.

There, set Lebanon itself on a blaze; let all its forests of cedar be the wood to burn the sacrifice, and all its cattle the victims upon the altar; yet are they but as a child's toys in the sight of the all-glorious Jehovah. There is nothing in them that can satisfy his infinite heart.

Isaiah 40:17. All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity. To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him?

Now, children of God, do not miss the meaning of this passage by saying that it relates to the heathen. True, it does; but not to them alone, When the heathen liken God to stocks and stones, they scarcely act worse than some of his people do; for, sometimes, we do not even think as well of our God as we do of ourselves. Ye, being evil, are constantly supplying your children's wants, yet you doubt whether God will supply yours. You liken him to an ungenerous father, or to a forgetful and faithless friend, one who changes with the wind. Oh, dear friends, have you not so likened him? If so, let the rebuke to the heathen be also a rebuke to you. This is what the heathen do:

Isaiah 40:19. The workman melteth a graven image, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold, and casteth silver chains. He that is so impoverished that he hath no oblation

No precious metal,

Isaiah 40:20. Chooseth a tree that will not rot; he seeketh unto him a cunning workman to prepare a graven image, that shall not be moved. 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? It 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: that bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity. Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown: yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth: and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble. To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high, Look at the stars,

Isaiah 40:26. And behold who hath created these things, 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. Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the LORD, and my judgment is passed over from my God?

You see, it is another form of that same sin of forgetting God, or thinking little of God. It does not matter much whether it takes the form of atheism or of idolatry, it is the same kind of evil; it is getting away from God, or neglecting him; and, in our case, when we get depressed in spirit, and fancy that God forgets us, it is the same sinful nature working in the same sinful manner. May God help us to forsake every form of evil!

Isaiah 40:28. Hast thou not know? hast thou not heard, that 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. He giveth power to the faint;

Come now, faint heart, and swoon away at his feet. Come to him in all your weakness; do not try to conceal it, but trust him to remove it: «He giveth power to the faint;»

Isaiah 40:29. And to them that have no might he increaseth strength.

What a mercy it is to have no might that God may increase our strength! What a curse it is to be so strong in yourself that you do not go to the Strong for strength!

Isaiah 40:30. Even the youths

With all their vigor: «Even the youths»

Isaiah 40:30. Shall faint and be weary, and the young men

Though more confirmed in strength: «the young men»

Isaiah 40:30. Shall utterly fall: but they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles;

That is their first mode of progression, in which, perhaps, there is more flight than is good for them: «They shall mount up with wings as eagles;»

Isaiah 40:31. They shall run, and not be weary;

That is an improvement upon the flying; but they shall still further improve their pace, for running is not the best pace at which a man can go. Enoch did not run with God, but he walked with him; and so, as we grow in grace, we shall advance, from flying to running, and from running to walking. This is the wise, sober, steady mode of going to heaven.

Isaiah 40:31. And they shall walk, and not faint.

The Lord help us to attain to that blessed rate of progression, in which we shall «walk, and not faint,» for his dear Son's sake!

This exposition consisted of readings from Isaiah 40:1.; and Matthew 16:21.