Meditations on Isaiah 40:1-2

1        Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.

2        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.

 

Verse 1 speaks of comforting the people of God, and what shall we say to such?

It is, again, God speaking to Isaiah, but as the type of those who would be accepted in Christ, and as the type of the ministers of the Gospel, for the gospel is the promise of setting aside those heavy burdens that even those chosen from before the foundation of the world labor under, and learning of the humility and gentleness of heart that is to be found only in their Messiah, who Himself took all their burdens upon the cross. His words of tenderness are multiplied in the gospel, when He speaks of those whom the Father has given to Him, so that He wills to reveal the Father to them in Himself, for the Spirit of Truth, who is another comforter, has given them a new heart, a new spirit, and Himself resided within them, for such proximity of the Triune God making Himself at home within them: what more comfort can there be than to know we are children of God through the promises He made in His Beloved Son, setting such as us, who deserve the wrath that He endured, yet are exonerated from it, and even more, given life, into that Life and Light of the world, by the Father of Lights, to become children of light, empowered by His Spirit to live as those who are of the light in His glorious kingdom now, and in the age to come?

We are all ministers of the gospel, though each has his gifts by that Spirit of God, as He wills, and so the word of comfort includes all that is in the gospel, which is much more than merely being saved from the penalty of sin, or the presence and power of sin in this life; so should we offer such consolation to one another, as the apostle Paul, by God’s Spirit, speaks of in 2 Corinthians 1. There is joy in such comfort, for it is of God – times of misgivings and sins will be washed away, trials of persecutions and passions that are sorely tempted will be inundated with the grace of God in Jesus Christ, who so comforted the saints and the apostles in the church He built, for He is yet building it – no other foundation can be laid than that which has been laid, which is our Lord Himself, and we are but workers who build upon it. One thing we must remember is that the comfort of He who became sin for us is the same comfort that the apostle to the Gentiles speaks of, that our Lord spoke of when He called us to take His light and easy burden and yoke and lay down those of our own working, that we may see that comfort of God in the work of the Holy Spirit as we grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the reflection and emanation of this light of glory, which is His alone, showing forth His holiness, is the greatest comfort, as we know we are His, for we received it of Him, and show it forth of Him, and Him alone. There is joy and more joy – rejoicing ever more – in this comfort, for we were indeed lost in the darkness of sin, yet have found the light of life by being found of He who is the Light of life.

How many and varied are the comforts with which He has provided us with in Himself, that we may share this comfort with our fellow saints, according to the gifts He Himself has apportioned  to each, and in these various comforts, how great is the entirety of comfort that He has given to those who are His!

In verse 2, we see that this comfort extends to that fact that Jerusalem has its warfare ended, and has received double for all its sins. Historically, the time would be the second temple period of Nehemiah and Ezra, and indeed there was a time of peace after the long captivity that started with the Babylonians laying siege and taking away the majority of Israel after punishing her sins according to God’s words by the prophets; however, even in the rebuilding of the temple, there were those who sought ill for Israel, and they had to have their tools of war with them, along with the tools of rebuilding -  the peace was tenuous, at the first, and we find that it did not last, nor does it last, for Israel, as they face others whom the Lord gave them to be conquered by, until we have passed the intertestamental period and entered into the period of the New Testament, where we find Jerusalem conquered and subject to the Romans from before our Lord came until long after. Thus, we see that the warfare has not ended, completely, nor does it show itself to have ended up to this time; as the nation Israel is surrounded by enemies, they are continually prepared for warfare.

This speaks to that which is spiritually true for “the Israel of God,” by which we mean, of course, not the nation, or those of the heritage of the flesh, but of the promise (Romans 9:6-8; Galatians 3:16; 6:14-16), which consists of both Jews and Gentiles and people from all ethnic groups from all over the world (Galatians 3:26-29).

Since we have a picture of that which is the world that hates us, and so our Lord Jesus Christ, in this verse, how much more ought we to abound in Christian graces towards one another; to count, esteem, others as better than ourselves, not thinking ourselves better by dint of any seeming advantage we have, for the tenderness required of brethren in the Lord Jesus Christ is to take the place of He who came to serve and give His life a ransom for many, and though we cannot ransom one drop or molecule of anyone, because He did, how much more ought out lives to be living sacrifices that extol His greatness and glory, and in such a way that we do not contend, but exhort one another, and even more as we see the day approaching?

To extol the solo glory of God in Jesus Christ our Lord - Bill