Comfort, Comfort My People (Isaiah 45:22-23)

Children's Lesson (click here)

I. What Words of Comfort Sound Like

This is what words of... comfort sound like to me (see if you agree): “It's okay. You're okay. I'm right here with you,” says the mother as she calms her child after an especially bad nightmare. “You will get through this. You have our support,” shares the workplace leader with his embattled owner. “Yes, this is a serious and sometimes deadly disease. But I have every confidence that this treatment will be effective,” says the doctor to his understandably troubled patient. “I know it hurts right now. But one day, you will see him again, and together, rest in the presence of God,” offers the pastor to a grieving spouse.

When is the last time you received words of comfort? Think about that for a moment. What was troubling you? Who offered those words? What exactly did they say? This morning, the opening words of our study passage present to us a divine decree concerning comfort; comfort for the people of God. Look with me at Isaiah 40, from Our Bible Reading Plan this past week.

II. The Passage: “He Will Carry Them in His Bosom” (40:1-11)

This is how God directs the prophet in verse 1, and the first part of verse 2. We read...

Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. [2] Speak tenderly to Jerusalem...

Now before we go any further, we should be asking, “Why? Why do the people of God need comfort?” Though the second half of the book doesn't include an explicit introduction, it's clear from the content that these chapters (40-66) were first written for a people not yet born; for a people living 150 years after the time of the prophet. Who were these people? Look at what we're told a few verses earlier, back in the previous chapter. This is Isaiah 39:5–7...

[After King Hezekiah of Judah foolishly showed all of his treasure and weapons to Babylonian envoys, this is what we're told...] Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the LORD of hosts: [6] Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the LORD. [7] And some of your own sons, who will come from you, whom you will father, shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”

So the people to whom the second half of Isaiah is addressed are the people who witnessed the fulfillment of this prophecy in the 6^th century BC; the people exiled to Babylon after experiencing the destruction of Jerusalem. These Jews (and their children) felt the heaviness of God's judg-ment against their sin. They experienced defeat and death. They experienced the loss of home and hope. Though many prophets (including Jeremiah and Ezekiel) told them otherwise, they were tempted to believe that God had abandoned them and that they would never return to the land of their ancestors; the Promised Land. It was to these that words of comfort were decreed.

Now, it's not clear how well-known these prophecies initially were. Since they spoke to future generations, maybe they seemed irrelevant to those living in Isaiah's day. But listen to the opening words of this section and consider the words of comfort God gives his exiled people...

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. [3] A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. [4] 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. [5] And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” [6] 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. [7] The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the LORD blows on it; surely the people are grass. [8] The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. [9] Go on 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!” [10] Behold, the Lord GOD comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.[11] 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.

Do those sound like words of comfort to you? They should. They are words from God himself; from the God whom the Apostle Paul would later describe in 2 Corinthians 1:3 as “the Father of mercies and God of all comfort”. How exactly are these words of comfort? I see four distinct parts here, four ways God is communicating divine comfort through his prophet.

First, God comforts them with the assurance of his restoration (v. 2). Three realities are emphasized for Jerusalem in verse 2: Though she is a conquered people, and presently living under the reign of her enemies, “her warfare is ended”. That painful chapter is coming to an end, for God has now pardoned her sins. The prison sentence she has been serving is sufficient, for “she has received double for all her sins”. That doesn't mean God was being excessive. God is just. Therefore, double is exactly what she deserved. But the point here is that her punishment has been sufficient. Wonderfully, the time for her restoration has finally come.

Second, God comforts them with the promise of his coming (vs. 3-5) Verses 3-5 point us back to the book of Exodus and God's glory being revealed in the wilderness. It reminds us of God's provision for his people through his presence and his guidance. There will be no obstacle for his people, a people yearning for the land; for “every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain... made low”. As Yahweh declares two chapters later, “And I will lead the blind in a way that they do not know, in paths that they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground.” (Isaiah 42:16)

Third, God comforts them with the certainty of his word (vs. 6-8). Notice the repeated ideas in verses 6-8. The nations are like grass and flowers of the field. In what way? In that “grass withers” over time, and “the flower fades”. Whatever vitality humankind possesses, whatever power and position and privilege they boast about, it will not last. But as we read in verse 8, that's in stark contrast to “the word of our God,” for it “will stand forever”. If the prophet has communicated God's word of assurance concerning restoration, and God's promise concerning his coming, then God's people have a firm foundation on which they can stand with confidence.

Finally, fourth, God comforts them with the affirmation of his care (vs. 9-11). Yes, God is restoring them; yes, He is coming; and yes, his word will stand firm. But having lived for decades under the consequences of his wrath, they might have wondered what this restoration would be like. This is, just to reemphasize the point, the God of Exodus. The God of Sinai. The God of glory and power and holiness (just read the rest of the chapter to understand His greatness). So how is the declaration in verse 9, “Behold your God!”, how is that “good news”?

It's good news from the herald, good news for his people, because it's good news about a God who (v. 10) not only “comes with might”, but also comes (v. 11) “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.”

III. He Alone is Our Pardon

Brothers and sisters, friends, does it get any more comforting than that? In fact... it does. Listen. I'm absolutely convinced that, in some way, you also need words of divine comfort this morning. So do I. And no. Unlike Isaiah's intended audience, we haven't endured devastating warfare; we haven't endured death, destruction, and then years of exile, under the thumb of a pagan nation. But we do know what it's like to live under the dreadful, spiritual consequences of our sin, in a place of spiritual warfare, under the shadow of death, and as Paul put it in Eph. 2:12, “having no hope and without God in the world.” And as a result of that, we all can feel the painful thorns of that reality... in the circumstances and losses and frustrations and confusion that grieve us and worry us and frighten us anger us... every single day.

And maybe what we want most is someone, another person, to comfort us with certain assur-ances and affirmations; to tell us we're right; to tell us it will be okay; to tell us it's not a big deal. But there is no person on this earth who can offer you words of comfort like God can. Why? Because only God comforts us with an absolutely clear perspective, an absolutely compassion-ate heart, and absolutely unlimited power. That is, when God tells you it will be okay, it will be. When God tells you he's with you, he is. And when God assures of healing for today and hope for the future, you can rest secure. Again, why? Because only God has an absolutely clear perspective, an absolutely compassionate heart, and absolutely unlimited power. But there is no comfort unless you are one of his people. “Comfort, comfort my people.” We read in Luke 3...

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trach-onitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, [2] during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. [3] And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. [4] As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. [5] Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways, [6] and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.'" (3:1-6)

How can you also be assured of God's restoration... as one of his people? You can consider the ultimate fulfillment of that promise of his coming; which then strengthens us in the certainty of his word. And when you look the one whom John announced “in the wilderness”, the one for whom John prepared the way, you discover the affirmation of God's care in a Good Shepherd who even today “gather[s] the lambs in his arms” and “carr[ies] them in his bosom, and gently lead those” who come to him in repentance and faith. What comforts you? Hiding? Eating? Shopping? Clean-ing? 'Screen'-ing? Blaming? Politicking? Self-pleasuring? Denying? Venting? Brothers, sisters, friends, every day Jesus Christ offers us God's supernatural comfort because every day Jesus Christ offers us God. He is the pardon for our iniquity, because he received double for all our sins on the cross. And through his death we, by faith, can experience an end to our warfare; that is, we can now know peace with God. What is God calling you to do today? He is calling you to recognize and reject any counterfeit comforts to which you are turning, and... to find instead... comfort (again or for the first time) in the gospel comfort of Jesus, the One who ultimately fulfilled the words of Isaiah. For He and he alone is our restoration to that place of promise. And He and alone is able to make us children of “the Father of mercies and God of all comfort”. So go to Isaiah's God through Jesus this morning, and let him comfort you as only he can.