Isaiah 40

Introduction

Well let me begin with a question. Where do you look to … for comfort in life? Like when real pain and suffering hits … where do you most often turn … to feel comforted?
• Do you for example … go and talk to a jar of peanut butter about it?
• Do you phone that friend … who loves telling you how YOU’VE contributed to your own suffering?
• Or do you bottle is all up deep down inside, until you finally explode over the tiniest little thing, making everyone think you’re a psycho?
Where do we go in life … if we’re seeking REAL comfort … in times of crisis. Well … this is what Isaiah 40 is looking at … which we see in the opening words:
Isaiah 40:1 (NIV) Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
So we’re in the book of Isaiah this term … which as we’ve seen over the past 3 weeks … is MAILY about God’s judgment. In fact last week we saw that Isaiah dedicates 11 whole chapters to prophesies against wicked nations. And no one is exempt. Take conservatives for example. Conservatives love talking about things like that abortion is murder, sexual purity and family values. Things progressives almost NEVER talk about. Progressives on the other hand love talking about things like racial prejudice, oppression of minorities, and how the gap between the rich and the poor is ever widening. Things conservatives almost never talk about. But Isaiah talks about them ALL. No one escapes God’s condemnation in the book of Isaiah. And this even includes Judah. In the chapter right before our passage today … Isaiah tells King Hezekiah that Judah will one day be punished for her sins … by being exiled to Babylon.
But THEN something happens in Isaiah chapter 40. And what happens is SO huge … that it’s led some scholars to think that everything from CH 40 onwards … was written by a completely different author to Is 1-39. Now these liberal scholars are to be rejected. But they claim chapters 1-39 are written by ‘FIRST Isaiah’ … ch 40-55 are written by ‘Second Isaiah’ … and ch 56-66 are written by ‘Third Isaiah’. Such is the difference in material. We evangelicals however think it was all written by the one author.
But what happens in Isaiah chapter 40 … is the prophet moves from a declaration of judgment … to this incredible note of hope. And this hope begins … by showing Judah where TRUE comfort is found. And if we can tap into this source of ultimate comfort … next time things go wrong in our life … and they’re going to … we won’t go looking for comfort in a giant Sunday … or curling up under a weighted doona … or asking for a big hug. We will go straight to the source of true comfort.
And I’ve got 3 points today to help us find this true comfort … as your sermon outline shows. So we’re going to begin by seeing that this comfort comes … from someone special coming to visit. So I’ve titled our first point (i) WHO is coming. We’ll then see WHAT this person is going to do when he visits … which I’ve titled (ii) WHAT he is coming for. We’ll then conclude with our application … which is titled (iii) HOW his coming comforts us. And it comforts us by offering us complete (a) freedom, (b) peace and (c) healing … even amidst unthinkable suffering. That’s what we’re looking at today friends. How to find real (a) freedom, (b) peace and (c) healing … real comfort … when suffering comes a-knocking in life. So please come with me as we look at (i) the who, (ii) the what, and (iii) the how of finding true comfort.

Who is coming

And straight after this declaration of comfort in v. 1 … Isaiah tells us this comfort comes from someone coming to visit. Read these familiar words with me:
Isaiah 40:3 (NIV) A voice of one calling: “In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 4 Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain.
Now the reason these words may sound familiar is because they’re quoted in ALL 4 gospels. And what they’re getting at is … when a ruler … such as a king … visits a part of their realm … you make sure their journey is going to be as smooth as possible. So when the President of the United States goes somewhere … he doesn’t use the back streets … does he? They close off the main highways … to ensure his visit is smooth sailing.
But this is not just a President or a king. You see when a king visits … you build a nice flat bridge OVER the valleys … and dig nice flat tunnels THROUGH the mountains. When THIS person visits … the valleys and the mountains disappear altogether. Isaiah’s language here bursts the banks. And the reason he uses such heightened language … is to tell the reader that this ‘visitation’ is bigger than anything anyone has ever experienced.
And the reason this visit is bigger than any other … is because the person visiting is none other than the creator of the universe. My favourite passage of Scripture is Revelation 4 and 5 … because it gives us the best description of heaven in the Bible. My SECOND favourite passage of Scripture is Job 38-42 … because it gives us the best description of God in the Bible. And Isaiah channels Job’s description here. Just close your eyes and take this in.
Isaiah 40:12-13 (NIV) Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance? 13 Who can fathom the Spirit of the Lord, or instruct the Lord as his counselor?
What we need to understand is … passages like Job 38-42 … or passages like Is 40 … are God’s answer to those who say things like ‘if God is good … then WHY does he allow suffering’ … or ‘how could God command the Israelites to commit genocide?’ Now they would be good questions … if they were being asked of a human. But they’re not. They’re being asked of the creator of the universe. And God’s answer is ‘who are you … you insignificant little insect … to question me?’ Have a look at:
Isaiah 40:22-23 (NIV) He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. 23 He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.
Even the most powerful, intelligent and influential people of this world are nothing but insignificant little grasshoppers … when compared to the creator of the universe. That’s who is coming to visit.
But here’s the thing. Though he comes in unimaginable power … v. 10 … he uses that power to care for his people:
Isaiah 40:11 (NIV) He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young.
The ‘shepherd’ is one of the Bible’s favourite analogies for God. And it’s NOT just because WE are inherently stupid animals … like sheep are. It’s because in OT times … shepherds LIVED with their sheep 24/7 … in order to protect them … feed them and nurture them. Now let’s just sit with this for a moment. The almighty … all-powerful creator of the universe … who holds the oceans in the hollow of his hand … is MY shepherd. It’s like having your hero as a mentor. As some of you may recall … the first-grade cricketer Dan Sams used to go to this church. A few years ago he was playing in the IPL … when one of the lockdowns occurred. So he’s stranded in India for several weeks … not allowed to do anything but practice cricket. As it turned out Ricky Ponting was ALSO stranded there. And Rickly Ponting … who has the 31st highest batting average in history … spent session after session … helping Dan Sams with his batting technique … one-on-one. Can you imagine that?
Now multiply having Ricky Ponting as your own personal batting coach … by about a billion trillion gazzilion … and you’re getting close to what it’s like having the creator of the universe as your own personal shepherd. And THAT’S who is coming to visit … according to Is 40. A being of unimaginable power … but who uses that power to care for you and me.

What he is coming for

So … that’s WHO is coming. The next thing we need to figure out is … WHAT is he coming for. And we’re going to need our thinking caps on for a few moments to figure this out. But if we can unpack this … it is going to blow our minds. And to understand the ‘what’ of God’s visitation … we start with v. 2 … which says this:
Isaiah 40:2 (NIV) Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.
The million-dollar question is … WHAT exactly has Jerusalem received? Like we’re told she’s received ‘double’ from the Lord’s hand. But double WHAT? Well according to the context of v. 2 … the ‘double’ is EITHER referring to Jerusalem’s ‘hard service’ … OR the PAYMENT for her sin. ‘Her sin has been paid for’.
Now … upon first reading … it LOOKS like Jerusalem has received double ‘hard service’ for her sins. Like Isaiah has just spent 39 whole chapters … that’s longer than most books of the Bible … outlining the punishment God is about to pour out on Judah. And just TWO verses after those 39 chapters … we hear that Jerusalem has ‘received from the Lord’s hand DOUBLE for all her sins’. So we could be forgiven for thinking that must be double PUNISHMENT. So heinous was her rebellion against the Lord … that he decided to give her DOUBLE punishment.
The problems with that reading is … nowhere in all of Scripture does it ever claim God dishes out double punishment for sin. The WHOLE principle of ‘lex talionis’ … an eye for an eye … is that the punishment should fit the crime. So the notion that God is handing out double PUNISHMENT for sin … goes against everything the Bible tells us about God.
This ‘DOUBLE’ that Jerusalem is receiving … must therefore be the PAYMENT for her sins’. When v. 2 says ‘her sin has been paid for’ … it comes in the form of a DOUBLE payment. And it’s this ‘double payment’ friends … that is truly mind blowing. Let me explain.
According to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John … the person we make straight paths for is Jesus … God the Son. And as we hear at Earlwood Anglican every week … Jesus’ death on the cross was the payment for our sin. So if we ACCEPT Jesus’ offer of forgiveness … ALL our sin is washed away. We are justified … which means ‘just as if I’d … never sinned’. But here’s the thing. That’s only the FIRST payment.
You see if Jesus ONLY took our sins away … then we’d be like the murderer on death row … who got pardoned at the 11th hour for good behaviour. Such a person might walk free from prison. But there’s still a huge cloud over their head. Everyone they encounter will still say ‘oh … that’s that terrible person who did all those terrible things … but who somehow got pardoned’. Like can you imagine people coming up to a person like that and saying ‘hey … come and work for my company’ … or ‘marry my daughter’? Of course not. In the same way … why would God welcome us with open arms if Jesus’ death ONLY took our sin away?
This is where the DOUBLE payment comes in. The beauty of Jesus’ visitation is he didn’t just die the death we deserve the die. He also lived the life we’re required to live. This is what many Christians don’t understand about Jesus. If King Herod had succeeded in killing Jesus as a child … as Matthew chapter 2 recounts … then he would NOT have opened up the way to heaven. Because to get into heaven we don’t just need our sins washed away. That’s only payment number 1. We ALSO need perfect righteousness. We sing about this:
My hope is built on nothing less … than Jesus’ blood … and righteousness
And that righteousness is the second payment … the double payment. And that double payment means we’re not JUST acquitted sinners … with a spiritual bank account of zero. We are counted as perfectly righteous in God’s eyes. As I’ve said before … when God looks at Christians now … he looks at them through the lens of Jesus. And when he puts on his ‘Jesus spectacles’ … he sees us as just as righteous as Jesus is.
Isaiah tells us so in v. 10. And we’re going to need our thinking caps on for another 20 seconds.
Isaiah 40:10 (NIV) See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power, and he rules with a mighty arm. See, his reward is with him,
Now again … on first reading … it LOOKS like Jesus brings a reward with him. And IF we turn to him in repentance and faith … we GET that reward. But if we look again … it’s not OUR reward … is it? It’s HIS. So what is HIS reward? Like … what do you get for the person who has everything in the whole universe? I’ll TELL you what you get them. US. You get Him his flock.
And this is what is absolutely mind blowing about this double payment. Jesus hasn’t just given us the bare minimum. He hasn’t just given us enough to pardon us. He’s given us enough to make us ‘perfectly righteous’ in God’s eyes. He’s given us enough … so that WE are now GOD’S ultimate treasure.

How his coming comforts us

Now … that’s mind blowing enough for one day. I could just drop the mic now … and we could all go home doubly edified. The creator of the universe … used his unimaginable power … to care for his sheep … by paying a DOUBLE payment … to make US God’s ultimate treasure. But Isaiah 40 doesn’t leave it there. Isaish TELLS us all this … to bring us comfort. And Jesus’ double payment brings us real comfort in 3 ways:
Firstly … it gives us real freedom. And by ‘freedom’ … I mean it releases us from our mind’s prison. You see a lot of people think that WHEN things go wrong in life … it is God punishing us for some sin … just like when things go well … God is rewarding us for some good. Like when the Captain and Maria finally get together in the Sound of Music … they sing:
Nothing comes from nothing
Nothing ever could
So, somewhere in my youth or childhood
I must have done something good
And Christians are often tempted to think this too. Yet such thinking is utterly debilitating. Not only does it lock us up in a type of time-loop as we constantly try to figure out WHICH sin am I being punished for NOW. It’s debilitating because the more you suffer … the worse you feel about yourself. ‘Somewhere in my youth or childhood, I must have done something monstrous’.
But the Christian gospel releases us from this prison. How? Because Jesus’ death has paid for our sin in FULL … which means God CANNOT hand out a double punishment for sin. So when suffering comes into our life … we Christians can be absolutely certain … that suffering is NOT God punishing us. It might be the CONSEQUENCES of our sin. Sin ALWAYS comes with a side order of natural consequences. But we can rule out altogether … God punishing us.
The SECOND comfort this passage brings is real peace. And this peace comes from trusting that God’s got it under control. You see the SECOND thing people’s minds go to when suffering comes … is that God’s plans have come unstuck. OK … God’s NOT punishing me for some sin. So maybe things have gone horribly wrong because God’s plans have been derailed.
But again … the gospel protects us from this kind of debilitating thinking. Do you really think that the God who holds ALL the oceans in the hollow of his hand … the God who knows exactly how much Mt Everest weighs … do you really think he’s going to be derailed by a bunch of wicked terrorists flying planes into buildings? Of course not. Now that is not to say that God CAUSED 9/11. God never CAUSES sin. But because of who God is … not even 9/11 can change his plans.
Now the WAY this comforts us … is by giving us absolute peace … that even when the WORST of things happen … God is using them for his plans. So even if (i) you lose your job … even if (ii) your spouse leaves you … even if (iii) you lose a loved one to cancer … even if (iv) your country gets invaded … we have no need to panic. For even when the Son of God was put to death … God was still completely in control. So when our anxiety levels start to rise … may we remind ourselves … whatever disaster is happening … whether it be dismissed from work, divorce, disease or death itself … Christians can sit back in peace … God’s got this.
The THIRD and final source of comfort … after freedom and peace … is healing. And this healing comes from knowing we are God’s ultimate treasure. What this mean sis … whatever he lets happen TO us … he is letting happen FOR us.
Romans 8:28 (NIV) And we know that in ALL things God works for the good of those who love him
You see many people think that suffering is God not getting on board with OUR gameplan. And the reason he’s not getting on board with OUR gameplan is because he doesn’t love us. The gospel protects us from THIS kind of thinking … by reminding us of the DOUBLE payment. Jesus didn’t just take our spiritual debt and credit it to his account. He took his perfect righteousness … and credited it to OUR account. What this means is … when God brings some temporary suffering into our life … and remember … even being killed by cancer is temporary suffering. When God brings temporary suffering into our life … we can be sure it’s there to help us grow.
The reason parents say ‘no’ to lollies for dinner … and ‘yes’ to chores … is not because they hate their children. It’s because they love their children … and they’re trying to raise their children to be happy, healthy, fully functioning adults. In the same way … if God is still bringing some form of suffering into your life … it’s because you haven’t learnt the lesson he’s trying to teach you yet. And the reason we can KNOW this … for certain … is because Jesus didn’t just pay the bare minimum … to pardon us. He paid enough to make us God’s ultimate treasure. And that’s how you treat your ultimate treasure. You help them become the best versions of themselves they can be.

Conclusion

And the degree to which we understand these 3 things … is the degree to which the gospel brings TRUE comfort … in times of crisis. So … when it feels like this life has kicked us in the face again … let us not deal with it the way the world deals with it. Let’s not eat a block of chocolate … or go for a run … or make a TikTok for everyone to empathise with. Instead:
• Let’s find real freedom … by reminding ourselves this is not God punishing me for my sin … because Jesus already took that punishment in full.
• Let’s find real peace … by resting in the fact that the almighty, all-powerful creator of the universe has it under control.
• And let us find real healing … by asking God ‘what will you have me learn by this hardship.
For if (i) our conscience is clear … through being forgiven, (ii) our heart is at peace … through trusting God, and (iii) our vision is clear … through seeing him helping us grow … then we will find true comfort. Or as Isaiah closes this chapter:
Isaiah 40:31 (NIV) but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.