Comfort For God's People

Isaiah 40:1-11
In the very first chapter of Isaiah, the prophet of God brings this charge from the Lord against his people:

“Oh, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly. They have forsaken the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged.”

And for the next thirty-nine chapters Isaiah continues in that same way—laying out the Lord’s case against his people—explaining why they are about to undergo his stern discipline—listing their sins and counting their failures to live as his people.

The sins of the Israelites are not unknown to us: sexual immorality—materialism—adopting the values of the world—religious worship empty of meaning. Knowing our sin and knowing God’s holiness--we also have to know that God’s judgment is still something to be feared.

But then in chapter 40, the whole tone of Isaiah’s message changes from one of sin and judgment to one of forgiveness and hope. Despite the faithlessness of his people—God was faithful—and he would forgive their sins and restore them to himself. Then and now these words are a message of comfort for God’s people. Isaiah writes:

Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins.

There are times in our lives when the consequences of our sins are inescapable. We’ve spoken hateful words that can’t be taken back. We’ve lost our temper. A relationship is broken. And there’s no getting around it—there’s no denying it—there’s no changing the past.

That’s the way it was for the Israelites. Years of sinfulness had brought them to the brink of destruction. The consequences of their sins were profound and painful. There was no way they could repair their relationship with God. But he could—and would.

As an act of pure gracious love—he forgave them—and he promised that everything they had broken-- he would restore. He said: “Your warfare is ended, your iniquity is pardoned.” Those words were the truth about the spiritual reality of what had been going on in their lives—it was open, sinful, warfare against God. That is what all sin is—including our own.

All of us have a tendency to think of sin as a small thing--particularly those sins that may not obviously hurt someone-- or sins that the world doesn’t care about. But anytime we live in opposition to the will of God in any area of our lives—we have entered into warfare against God.

And once we have begun that conflict-- we cannot dictate the terms of peace—we cannot declare a cease-fire—we cannot offer a defense of our actions that will reconcile us to God.

If peace is to be regained between us and God, he must be the One who declares that the hostilities over. That is exactly what he did. Several chapters later Isaiah explained more fully how that peace came about through Jesus. Isaiah said:
“he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace”.

To comfort his people with the promise of peace, God did not simply disregard our sin—he dealt with it-- by judging his Son guilty in our place and signing a peace treaty written in Jesus’ innocent blood.

As great as was Israel’s sin and as great is our sin, the Lord’s pardon is even greater, not only forgiving us—but making his former enemies, members of his own family. That is the “double portion” of his grace towards us--that is God’s message of comfort for sinners—a message that needs to be received in heartfelt repentance and sincere faith. Isaiah wrote:

A voice cries: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 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."

In the ancient world, every effort was made to make the way as smooth as possible for a king’s journey. Of course we know that since Isaiah is talking about the Lord, he is not really talking about work done with picks and shovels-- but spiritual work that is done in our hearts by the Holy Spirit—lifting up the low places and bringing down the high places.

No doubt many of the Israelites would see the deep valley of how far they had sunk into a morass of sin-- and despair of ever coming out of it. But God promised that every valley would be filled in and lifted up by his gracious love and forgiveness—no matter how deep.

We too can feel at times as if our sins are so great that they could never be forgiven. But the promise of God’s Word is that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from ALL unrighteousness.

None of us have sunk so deep into a valley of sin that we are beyond the reach of God’s forgiving love.

Others in Israel must have felt as if their chastisement was all out of proportion to their sin—that surely things could not be as bad between them and God as all that—that perhaps God was unjust in his judgments and immoderate in his punishment.

Those kinds of self-made mountain tops of spiritual pride are even more difficult to overcome and more dangerous to our spiritual life than valleys of despair. We don’t like to confess that we are “poor, miserable sinners”. We don’t want to believe that even our best works of righteousness are as filthy rags in God’s sight.

But there is only way to receive the blessings of forgiveness and life that come from the Lord’s gracious hand-- and that is to come to God with nothing in our hand: no self-righteousness, no best efforts—nothing in our hand save for the Spirit-given faith that reaches out in response to God’s promise in Jesus to forgive and restore.

When Isaiah made these promises about the Lord coming to the aid of is people—they had not yet even been taken into captivity—much less set free. And yet the Lord promised their freedom--and the reality of his promise was just as certain in that moment as it would be 130 years later when God raised up a deliverer in Cyrus and the Israelites came out of Babylon. The Israelites simply needed to receive God’s promise in faith.

So it still is today. The Lord promises us that we are forgiven. The Lord promises us that we are his children. They Lord promises us that we will enjoy eternal life in a new heaven and a new earth.

We cannot see these things. We cannot touch these things. Some of them we enjoy right now and some of them are still to come. But they are true and certain for the mouth of the Lord has spoken them-- and we receive the life-changing realities of these promises as we repent of our sins, cast away our despair, set aside our pride, and believe his Word of promise.

To do so is vitally important—for our lives in this world are frail and our time here is short. Isaiah wrote:

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. Get you 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!"

Several generations of Israelites would come and go from the time these words were spoken until their fulfillment. Nations would rise and fall. Rulers would come and go. Nothing and no one in this world can withstand the relentless march of time. Only one thing endures from generation to generation and that is the Lord and his Word.

That is why the Lord wants his Word preached to the world—that is why he wants it shouted from the mountaintops and heralded to all people—because the Good News of his love and salvation has the power to change us (who were as frail and temporal as the grass of the field) into people who will live forever.

Peter took these words of Isaiah and used them to tell us that, though we have all been born of perishable seed, we have also been born again of imperishable seed, the living and abiding word of God which is the Good News of Jesus.

By virtue of their sins and faithlessness, the Israelites, both as individuals and as a nation were spiritually dead. But these words of promise were words of life to them and they were born again by their power.

So it still is for us. The Good News of God’s love and forgiveness are words of life and they cause us to be born again out sin and death-- into forgiveness, and peace, and eternal life. Those are the blessings Isaiah promises for all of those who will receive God’s Word in faith. Isaiah wrote:

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.

The faith of the Israelites was not disappointed. God’s promises were much, much more than mere words. God acted for their good.

When God set his people free from Babylon, he raised up a deliverer for them in Cyrus—one who would bring them out of exile to their promised home—one who would restore what their sin had ruined.

Cyrus wasn’t really what they people expected—but he was God’s anointed servant—the fulfillment of his promise to set them free from Babylon.

600 years later, God raised up another deliverer —and once again he was not what was expected. The mighty arm that would rule was the tiny arm of an infant who reached up for his blessed mother-- and the powerful arm that would rescue was tortured arms of a broken man nailed to a cross.

In Jesus Christ, God himself came to rescue all people from sin and death. Every moment of his life and everything he did was so that we could be restored to a life with God—so that our sins do not have to overcome us—so that we can stand unashamed before him on that great day when he comes again.

Though we have sinned and though we are frail, our iniquity has been pardoned and we are born again to eternal life by the enduring Word of God. We are cared for by the Good Shepherd. I pray that as we repent of our sins and trust in Jesus, Isaiah’s message would comfort us tonight and always. Amen.