ISAIAH 40:1-11 - God's Final Word

Bethel Baptist Church

Advent 2023 • Sermon • Submitted 5 months ago • Presented 5 months ago • 37:18

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Everything necessary for salvation has been spoken to mankind by the Final Word of God, His Son Jesus Christ

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Introduction

This year we are studying the prophecies of Isaiah in our Advent sermon series—many Bible scholars consider Isaiah to be a sort of “miniature Bible”; the book follows much the same pattern as the entire canon of the Scriptures. For instance—Isaiah has 66 chapters; the Bible has 66 books. The first 39 chapters of Isaiah describe the judgment that is coming on Israel because of their failure to keep their covenant with YHWH—it warns of the judgment that is coming because of their rebellion against the Law of God. The first 39 chapters of the Bible are the Old Testament—the Old Testament—tells the story of the failure of God’s people Israel to keep the covenant that He made with them, and their inability to keep His Law.

The final 27 chapters of Isaiah describe YHWH’s deliverance of His people from their guilt, and tells the story of a coming Servant Who will suffer for the sake of delivering God’s people from their sins, and concludes with a description of the blessedness of God’s redeemed people inhabiting His glorious Kingdom forever (sounds familiar, doesn’t it?)

Our text this morning is right at the beginning of that second major division of Isaiah—it begins the 27-chapter “book” of prophecies about God’s deliverance of His people. At the end of Chapter 39, Isaiah has just declared to King Hezekiah the judgment that God will bring on Jerusalem :

Isaiah 39:5–6 (LSB)

Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of Yahweh of hosts, ‘Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house and all that your fathers have treasured up to this day will be carried to Babylon; nothing will be left,’ says Yahweh.

Chapter 39 ends with a warning of judgment. But now, in the opening of Chapter 40, the message is one of comfort:

Isaiah 40:1–2 (LSB)

“Comfort, O comfort My people,” says your God. “Speak to the heart of Jerusalem; And call out to her, that her warfare has been fulfilled, That her iniquity has been removed, That she has received from the hand of Yahweh Double for all her sins.”

As we read through the verses in this passage this morning, there is a distinct pattern that emerges—see if you can identify it:

v. 1. “says your God”

v. 2 - “Speak” comfortably

v. 3 - a “voice” is calling

v. 5 - The mouth of YHWH has “spoken” it

v. 6 - A “voice” cries out

v. 8 - The “word” of God stands forever

v. 9 - Raise your “voice” powerfully… “Say” to the cities of Judah

There are at least thirteen references in these verses to “calling” or “crying out” or “lifting your voice” or “speaking”… Isaiah 40 begins with God and His messenger speaking to His people.

And how does the New Testament open? With The Word...

John 1:1–5 (LSB)

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. And the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it.

As we read earlier in our Scripture reading, Jesus is the Final Word of God:

Hebrews 1:1–2 (LSB)

God, having spoken long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days spoke to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds,

Our Advent season is meant to help us meditate on the arrival of Jesus Christ, the Final Word of God, into the darkness and hopelessness of our condition apart from Him. Consider how Isaiah’s warning of the fall of Jerusalem would have been received by King Hezekiah and everyone else who heard it—the judgment of God was on them; the peace and security they thought they could depend on was an illusion; they were doomed to go into captivity and lose everything.

Look at the world around you this morning, Christian, and ask yourself is it any different today? Is our nation in any less peril of the consequences of breaking God’s Law and rebelling against His authority than ancient Israel was? Are our people any less lost in the darkness of their rebellion and wickedness than they were?

How many times have you tried to invite someone to church, but they refuse with some kind of joke about how if they walked into church, lightning would strike them dead? They’re trying to make light of something deep inside them; something that has the tendency to reach out in the middle of the night and grip their hearts with foreboding—they know that they have made themselves enemies of God. And the thought of coming into His presence fills them with dread, because they know that all they deserve is condemnation and judgment.

But how does God speak to them in these verses? Not with words of condemnation, but words of comfort! Here in the opening verses of Isaiah 40, we hear the gracious Final Word of God to a wicked and rebellious world—and it is a word that saves!

God’s final WORD to SAVE has been SPOKEN to us in His SON

The Word that came through Isaiah to God’s despairing people was a word of hope and comfort in their captivity—and in the same way, the Final Word that God speaks to us in His Son is a word to

I. Speak to COMFORT His PEOPLE (Isaiah 40:1-2)

Look at verses 1-2 of Isaiah 40--

Isaiah 40:1–2 (LSB)

It’s interesting that in Hebrew, the word comfort is a plural verb—if we were Southern, we’d say, “Y’all comfort My people...” The picture here seems to be that God is speaking to all of His heavenly host. Do you see His heart for His people here? He sends angels one at a time to pronounce judgment on His people—but sends all of them to proclaim His comfort to them!

Luke 2:13–14 (LSB)

And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”

YHWH is proclaiming to His captive people that

They have DONE their TIME (cp. Matthew 11:28-30)

The word “warfare” in verse 2 is also translated as “hard service” or “harsh labor”—think of a convict who has spent ten years on a chain gang breaking rocks to build a railroad bed, or the Hebrew slaves under hard labor for decades in Egypt. Their “warfare” is fulfilled, their “struggle” is over.

When Jesus came to earth as God’s Final Word, His word to His people was that their hard, wearisome labor was over:

Matthew 11:28–30 (LSB)

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Jesus has come as God’s Final Word to “those who are burdened by their own spiritual bankruptcy and the weight of trying to save themselves by keeping the law” (MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2006). The MacArthur study Bible: New American Standard Bible. (Mt 11:28–30). Thomas Nelson Publishers.)

He comes as God’s Final Word that they have done their time, and He has come to announce that through Him

God has SATISFIED their DEBT

In His declaration of comfort for His people, God tells Isaiah to declare

Isaiah 40:2 (LSB)

“...That her iniquity has been removed, That she has received from the hand of Yahweh double for all her sins.”

YHWH has announced that He has removed their iniquity (literally, that “the penalty of her iniquity has been accepted as paid off”)—everything that they had done that sent them into exile has been forgiven! Their gross immorality, their rapacious greed, their roasting of their own babies over a fire as a sacrifice to demons--God has counted all of it as settled!

Isaiah says further that Jerusalem has “received from the hand of YHWH ‘double’ for all her sins”—the way that this verse is rendered in English it sounds as though God has punished them twice as much for their sins as necessary. (We see Jeremiah say the same thing in Jeremiah 16:18, for instance:)

Jeremiah 16:18 (LSB)

“I will first doubly repay their iniquity and their sin because they have profaned My land; they have filled My inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable idols and with their abominations.”

But the Hebrew idiom “double for all her sins” actually has more of an idea of a “stunt double” in a movie—a “double” in that sense is a one-to-one correspondence. The people have received from God’s hand an exact one-to-one correspondence for their sins. God’s justice has been perfectly balanced; His chastisement does not exceed what we deserve.

Which is bad news for a people who have infinitely offended an infinitely holy God! And so God’s Final Word to save us, His Son Jesus Christ, came do do for us what we could not do for ourselves:

Isaiah 53:5 (LSB)

...He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our peace fell upon Him, And by His wounds we are healed.

The Apostle Peter says

1 Peter 3:18 (LSB)

For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, so that He might bring you to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;

Here is the comfort that God’s Final Word has spoken to His people—that their slavery to sin and death is over! There is freedom from the guilt and shame of their iniquity, the old life with all of its addictions and bondage to its passions and desires is dead and gone—Jesus Christ took all of it, clasping it to His chest as He sank down into the grave and left it there!

God's Final Word to save has been spoken to us in His Son—He speaks to comfort His people, and He speaks to

II. Announce the GLORY of His APPEARING (Isaiah 40:3-8)

Verses 3-4 are very familiar verses for the Advent season:

Isaiah 40:3–5 (LSB)

A voice is calling, “Prepare the way for Yahweh in the wilderness; Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God. “Let every valley be lifted up, And every mountain and hill be made low; And let the rough ground become a plain, And the rugged terrain a broad valley; Then the glory of Yahweh will be revealed, And all flesh will see it together; For the mouth of Yahweh has spoken.”

Last week we took note of Isaiah’s language of “mountains” quaking at the arrival of YHWH—a “mountain” is his common way of speaking of a kingdom (Isa. 2:2). Here again Isaiah uses the image of mountains being “made low” as a highway is prepared for God’s arrival—the mountains are leveled off, the valleys filled in, the rough terrain paved over—all of this is Isaiah’s way of saying that when YHWH comes to His people

His ARRIVAL will not be HINDERED (vv. 3-5)

When He comes, He will not be stopped by some petty tyrant! Herod was terrified of the prospect of a King who would tried to stop Jesus’ arrival by killing all of the baby boys in Bethlehem, but he couldn’t keep Him from arriving. Herod the Great’s son couldn’t prevent John the Baptist from proclaiming the appearing of Jesus in His public ministry. And so it will be on the Day when Christ returns to earth in all His glory—on that Day the mountains will be made low as all of the kings and presidents and congresses and parlaiments of the planet beg them to fall on them to hide them from the wrath of the Lamb! (Rev. 6:16)! No matter how this present age fights against His rule, no matter how much they bathe themselves in the innocent blood of unborn children, His arrival will not be hindered!

The voice of God has spoken His final word for our salvation in His Son—His arrival will not be hindered, and our text tells us that

His FAITHFULNESS will not FAIL (vv. 6-8)

In verses 6-8, the voice of the LORD calls out again:

Isaiah 40:6–8 (LSB)

A voice says, “Call out.” Then he answered, “What shall I call out?” All flesh is grass, and all its lovingkindness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, When the breath of Yahweh blows upon it; Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.

Some translations render verse 6 as

Isaiah 40:6 (ESV)

All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.

But the Hebrew word rendered beauty in that translation (or goodliness in the King James) is the word hesed, which is the word used to describe the faithful, covenant love of God - lovingkindness in the LSB (faithfulness in the NIV). When Isaiah says that “all the lovingkindness of the flesh is like the flower of the field”, he is pointing out one of the greatest sources of pain and heartbreak in our sorry world—that our love and faithfulness towards one another will fade like a dying flower.

How many brides planning their wedding pick out flowers for the big day, celebrating the “love that will never die” between them and their husbands, only to see the love that prompted those marriage vows wilt and die like cut flowers in the sun. How many sons grew up desperately loving a father who ignored them or who abandoned them or abused them, until that love faded and soured and rotted into resentment and anger? How many families slog through the dead, scorched ground of bitterness and envy and suspicion because the love that they were meant to have for one another withered and crumbled like a scorched August lawn?

But not so with the faithful lovingkindness of YHWH! His Final Word to fallen mankind is spoken in His Son, Whose steadfast love and faithfulness for His children was such that even being tortured to death could not erase it! Christian, the lovingkindness of your fallen father or mother or spouse will always fade eventually, but the faithfulness of Christ for you will never fail!

God’s Final Word to save has been spoken to us in His Son—a word of comfort to His people, a word that announces the glory of His appearing, and a word to

III. Proclaim the STRENGTH of His ARM (Isaiah 40:9-11)

In verses 9-11 God calls for His messenger to lift up his voice one more time:

Isaiah 40:9–11 (LSB)

Get yourself up on a high mountain, O Zion, bearer of good news, Raise up your voice powerfully, O Jerusalem, bearer of good news; Raise it up, do not fear. Say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God!” Behold, Lord Yahweh will come with strength, With His arm ruling for Him. Behold, His reward is with Him And His recompense before Him. Like a shepherd He will shepherd His flock; In His arm He will gather the lambs And carry them in His bosom; He will gently lead the nursing ewes.

See here the way the strong arm of YHWH is celebrated in this announcement—get up onto the highest mountain and shout that His arm is

Powerful to REWARD and REPAY (v. 10)

Isaiah 40:10 (LSB)

Behold, Lord Yahweh will come with strength, With His arm ruling for Him. Behold, His reward is with Him And His recompense before Him.

Isaiah was announcing to the exiles living in Babylon that God would repay the Babylonians for what they did to His people. Jeremiah brought the same announcement in his prophecy:

Jeremiah 50:17–19 (LSB)

“Israel is a scattered flock; the lions have banished them away. The first one who devoured him was the king of Assyria, and this last one who has broken his bones is Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. “Therefore thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Behold, I am going to punish the king of Babylon and his land, just as I punished the king of Assyria. ‘And I will return Israel back to his pasture, and he will graze on Carmel and Bashan, and his desire will be satisfied in the hill country of Ephraim and Gilead.

Centuries later, Jesus’ mother declared the strength of YHWH’s arm to reward all those who opposed His rule:

Luke 1:51–52 (LSB)

“He has done a mighty deed with His arm; He has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their heart. “He has brought down rulers from their thrones, And has exalted those who were humble.

And as He entered Jerusalem for the last time, Jesus lifted up His voice and cried out that the arm of the LORD would bring them the reward of their deeds:

Luke 19:41–44 (LSB)

And as He approached Jerusalem and saw the city, He cried over it, saying, “If you knew in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. “For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”

And the day is coming when all of the kings of the earth will be repaid for their treason against God and His anointed. They may rage and fight against Him, they may band together to try to rebel against His rule, but His arm cannot be shortened—when He returns, He will return with the recompense and reward for every last human being on earth:

Revelation 22:12–13 (LSB)

“Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to his work. “I am the Alpha and the Omega, THE FIRST AND THE LAST, the beginning and the end.”

His arm is powerful to reward and repay, and in verse 11 of our text we see that His arm is

Gentle to CARRY and LEAD (v. 11)

Isaiah 40:11 (LSB)

Like a shepherd He will shepherd His flock; In His arm He will gather the lambs And carry them in His bosom; He will gently lead the nursing ewes.

Beloved, this is the greatest word that a discouraged, sinful, broken, anxious, rebellious people can hear—that the strength of the arm of YHWH, powerful to pull down empires and repay to the absolute fullest every single sinner who ever rebelled against Him is the arm that He will lovingly wrap around His dear flock to gather them to Himself! This is the Voice that is calling today—to those who nervously joke that they will be struck by the wrath of God if they enter His presence in church—understand that He has already struck His Son dead in your place!

His call today is a call of a gentle Shepherd who laid down His life for His sheep (John 10:15), a Shepherd Whose lovingkindness will never fade or fail, a Shepherd who declares to you that your hard service is over—your days of wandering far from Him are over, your constant grind of trying to convince yourself by your “good deeds” that you are worthy of His approval is done, your guilt and shame over your twisted and wretched past is cancelled, the rough and rugged wilderness that you have wandered through made straight and level and broad—because nothing will get in the way of Him finding you and bringing you to Himself!

He has brought you here to hear His voice—to hear His Final Word—not syllables pronounced by lips and tongue and vocal cords, but the Word made flesh that dwelt among us. Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man, utterly righteous and perfectly obedient to God the Father, came to this earth through the womb of a young woman to a manger in Bethlehem to live as a perfect and sinless life in order to suffer the death penalty you deserve for your sin under the wrath of God—laying down His righteous life for your miserable one, His perfection for your perversion, His flawlessness for your failure. He calls you today to be free from the penalty and power of your sin, to come to Him for that New Birth to remake you from the inside out, to belong heart and soul in life and in death to your faithful Savior, Jesus Christ!

BENEDICTION

Ephesians 3:20–21 (LSB)

Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or understand, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:

Why do people tend to make light of attending church by saying things like “If I walked in, the roof would cave in!” or “I’d be struck by lightning if I walked into church!” What does this reveal about the way they look at their standing before God?

What is the significance of the position of Isaiah 40 in the larger scope of the book? How does the tone of Isaiah’s writing change between Chapter 39 and Chapter 40? How does this change of tone speak to people who are deeply sensitive to the guilt of their sin before God?

Read Isaiah 2:2 , Isaiah 25:10, and Isaiah 40:4. How does Isaiah use mountains as a metaphor in his book? How does Isaiah 40:4, “Every mountain and hill [will be] made low” encourage you when you think about the opposition to Christ and His reign that you see in our nation today?

Read Isaiah 40:10-11 again. What are the two ways His arm is said to be strong? Which of these promises is a greater comfort to you in your current situation? Spend some time this week praising God for the strength of His arm to save you through His Son!

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