The Gospel of Isaiah: Highlights of Chapter 40:1-2

The Gospel of Isaiah: Highlights of Chapter 40:1-2. 

WANTED: An imaginative scribe who can write exquisite poetry. A faithful, articulate believer in Yahweh who can switch from one extreme to another at the Lord’s command… from a sublime vision of God’s glory, to a ridiculous demonstration of shameful nakedness; from confronting the people over their sinfulness, to comforting people with hopefulness; from being an outspoken messenger one minute, to a living object lesson the next; from having one foot in the immediate surroundings one minute, to one foot in the future messianic realm the next. Must be adaptable, thick-skinned, and extraordinarily brave. Person who answers, “Here I am. Send me!” will be especially considered. (from The Jerusalem Post, 740 BC).

“Comfort, oh comfort My people, says your God. Speak tenderly to the heart of Jerusalem, and announce to her that her time of suffering and hardship is ended. Tell her that her sins are removed and I have renewed My delight in her. She has been punished enough and more than enough, and her ordeal is over and done with.” (40:1-2).

Isaiah’s Marching Orders. In this passage, the Lord Yahweh has instructed His spokesman to comfort His people and keep comforting them. The Lord wants Isaiah to speak tender words of compassion to His chosen people, encouraging them with an assurance of His forgiveness of their sins, the very sins that got them into trouble in the first place. Tell them their iniquities have been pardoned and removed from His sight. Explain to them that I want to show them My favor, that they have received more than enough punishment in their exile to Babylon, and their time of hardship is over.

Comfort. The Hebrew word for comfort means to console someone out of deep compassion. In the Hebrew mind, to comfort someone was synonymous to being kind to someone out of loving concern. The fact that the Lord repeated the word comfort twice is significant. On the one hand, it meant that the Lord wanted to give His people a double measure of comfort, a double-dose of consolation. Also, the Lord evidently wanted to emphasize the importance of comfort in God’s mind, to signify the intensity of His request of Isaiah. The great prophet didn’t have a highlighter, of course, nor did he even have underlining on his radar. So he used the common literary technique of repetition. By repeating Hus order to comfort His people, God wanted to communicate through His prophet that He will not abandon them under any circumstances, that He will never forget their Covenant, that His people can take His promised faithfulness to the bank!

God is the Divine Comforter. Scripture is clear that comforting His people is a character quality that goes deep into the very heart of God. The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit have comfort written all over them. One cold easily say that Comfort is God’s middle name.

1. God the Father Loves to Comfort. Isaiah specialized in focusing on this divine attribute: “You will say in that day, I will give thanks to you, O Lord, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, that you might comfort me.” (12:1); “Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth; break forth, O mountains, into singing! For the Lord has comforted His people and will have compassion on His afflicted.” (49:13); “For the Lord comforts Zion; He comforts all her waste places and makes her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song.” (51:3); “I, I am He who comforts you; who are you that you are afraid of man who dies?” (51:12); “Break forth together into singing, you waste places of Jerusalem, for the Lord has comforted His people; He has redeemed Jerusalem.” (52:9); “Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream; and you shall nurse, you shall be carried on her hip and bounced upon her knees. As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem. You shall see, and your heart shall rejoice.” (66:12-14).
2. God the Son Loves to Comfort. The Lord Jesus had His earthly mission clearly laid out for Him in Isaiah 61, and central to His mission was to comfort. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me to… provide for those who mourn in Zion, to comfort and care for the needs of all who grieve in Israel; to give a crown of beauty to replace their ashes. I will anoint them with the oil of gladness to replace their sorrow and grief. And I will give to them a garment of splendor and praise to replace their spirit of burdened heaviness. Then they will be called magnificent oaks of righteousness, planted by the Lord to glorify Him.”  (Isaiah 61:3). The Holy Spirit is upon Jesus to comfort all people in all its glorious facets as described in this passage. Beauty for ashes, taken in context, means that the Messiah will take away our ashes of hopeless defeat, of lifelessness, and then provide for us a crown of beauty. Our ashes, symbols of the ugliness of death, is to be exchanged by Jesus with a crown of beauty, something beautiful to replace something dreadful. The Spirit’s anointing oil of gladness and joy will replace the sorrow of our sinful nature. And He will cover us with festal attire, with garments of praise and rejoicing, to replace our fainting spirit of weakness and heaviness. The ministry of Jesus was to comfort the people in the fullest possible meaning of that term.
3. God the Holy Spirit Loves to Comfort. In fact, Jesus literally named the Spirit of God “the Comforter.” The Greek term Jesus used in the Gospel of John was “Paraclete“… And I will pray to the Father, and He will give you another Comforter (Paraclete), that He may abide with you forever.” (John 14:6); “But the Comforter (Paraclete), the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my Name...” (John 14:26); “But when the Comforter (Paraclete) comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father…” (John 15:26); “Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper (Paraclete) will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.” (John 16:7). The interesting thing is that the Spirit’s nickname “Paraclete,” which means “called to come alongside of,” is one of those rich Greek terms that has many dimensions to it, including Comforter but also Encourager, Advocate, Counselor, Exhorter, Teacher and Listener. One Bible translator summed up Paraclete by using the term Helper, and another translator used Friend. In truth these are all aspects of the Hebrew understanding of comforter as heartfelt actions being rooted in kindness and compassion. Yes, that’s our Lord for you, and aren’t we glad about that?