Isaiah 40:1-31

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

«They need it, and they shall have it. Mind, O my servants, that you give it to them: Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.»

Isaiah 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.

The first meaning of these words was that, as Jerusalem had passed through a time of great tribulation, she should have a season of rest, but the grand gospel meaning to you and to me is, that our Lord Jesus has fought our battle, and won the victory for us, that he has paid our debt and given to divine justice the double for all our sins, and therefore, our iniquity is pardoned. This is enough to make anyone happy, one would think. It is the best thing that even Isaiah could say, or that God himself could say by the mouth of Isaiah, when his object was to comfort the Lord's tried people.

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. 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:

When God means to come to men, nothing can stop him or block up his road. He will level mountains, and fill up valleys, but he will come to his people, somehow or other. And when he comes to them, if he finds many crooked things about them, he will make the crooked straight, and the rough places he will make plain.

Isaiah 40:5. 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.

And, since he has spoken it, it must come to pass. «Hath he said, and shall he not do it? «With him, to say anything is to will its accomplishment.

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. Yes, the dearest ones that we have are but flesh, so they wither, and pass away like the green herb. Have you been bereaved, my believing friend?

Well, you may still say to your Lord, in the words of our hymn, «How can I bereaved be, Since I cannot part from thee?» The mower with the sharp scythe cuts down the grass, but he cannot touch the secret source of our hope, and joy, and confidence in God, and, above all, he cannot touch the God in whom we confide.

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!

If the chief, the best, the holiest city has found her God, if Jerusalem has been thus favored, let her sing the gladsome tidings, over the hilltops, to the most distant cities of the land, and say to them, «Behold your God «If you have seen your Lord, beloved, proclaim the good news to those who have well nigh forgotten that there is a God, say to them, «Behold your God. He is still to be seen, by the eye of faith, working graciously in the midst of the earth.»

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.

He knows their weakness, their weariness, their pain, and how incapable they are of speedy and long traveling; he is very tender and pitiful, and he will gently lead them.

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 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?

And yet, beloved, we sometimes act as if we were God's teachers, as if we had to instruct him what he should do, and because we cannot see our way, we almost dream that he cannot, and because we are puzzled, we conceive that infinite wisdom must be at a nonplus; but it is not so. He was full of wisdom when there was no one with whom he could take counsel, and he is still wise in the highest degree.

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

Not a bucketful, but just a drop that remains in the bucket after you thought it had been completely emptied.

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

Remember that this is said of «the nations.» China, India, Europe, Africa, with all their teeming multitudes, are only like the small dust of the balance that is blown away by the slightest puff of wind.

Isaiah 40:15. Behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing. And Lebanon

With all its forests of cedar: «Lebanon»

Isaiah 40:16. Is not sufficient to burn,

Think of all the cedars of Lebanon as being on a blaze, like some great forest fire, yet not being sufficient to supply the wood for God's altars.

Isaiah 40:16. Nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering.

Whether it be the wild or the tame beasts that are on that mountain range, they are not sufficient for a burnt offering unto the Most High.

Isaiah 40:17. All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity.

As if they were the mere shadow of something, and had no more influence over him than as if they did not exist.

Isaiah 40:18. To whom then will ye liken God?

This is a strong argument against idolatry, against the worship of God under any visible form whatsoever: «To whom then will ye liken God?»

Isaiah 40:18. Or what likeness will ye compare unto him?

The heathen did make these supposed likenesses of God. Here is a description of the process by which they manufactured their idol gods.

Isaiah 40:19. The workman melteth a graven image, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold,

The rough metal is cast in a certain fashion, and then the goldsmith puts on it his thin plates of gold,

Isaiah 40:19. And casteth silver chains.

To adorn it.

Isaiah 40:20. He that is so impoverished that he hath no oblation

The poor man, who cannot manage to make a god of gold,

Isaiah 40:20. Chooseth a tree that will not rot;

A good piece of heart of oak or enduring elm.

Isaiah 40:20. He seeketh unto him a cunning workman to prepare a graven image, that shall not be moved.

Fix it firmly, drive the post down far into the earth, so that it may be an immovable god.

Isaiah 40:21. Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations or 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 princess 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,

Suppose it to be night time: «Lift up your eyes on high,»

Isaiah 40:26. And behold who hath created these things,

These wondrous worlds, these stars that bespangle the firmament.

Isaiah 40:26. That bringeth out their host by number:

For God knows the number of them all, and the name of every separate world that moves in the vast expanse of space.

Isaiah 40:26. He calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might for that he is strong in power; not one faileth.

They are not propped up with pillars, nor hung upon some mighty ropes, yet they continue to occupy the spheres appointed to them by God. He hangeth the world upon nothing, and keeps it in its place by the perpetual out-going of his power.

Isaiah 40:27. 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?

What! when he has not forgotten one of all those mighty hosts of stars, and when not a sparrow falleth to the ground without his notice, how can you dream that he has forgotten you, or that your way is hidden from him?

Isaiah 40:28. Hast thou not known? 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; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But 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; and they shall walk, and not faint.