Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Isaiah 40

This is my first blog in a while, in three months actually, and I hope it will be the first in a series of purely Bible based posts. This first one I'm going to talk about Isaiah 40...well not the entire chapter mainly just verses 27 through 31 but really this is such a great part of scripture I want to at least look at the entire chapter once through

    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.
    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.”
    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.
    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!”
    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.
    Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand
        and marked off the heavens with a span,
    enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure
        and weighed the mountains in scales
        and the hills in a balance?
    Who has measured the Spirit of the LORD,
        or what man shows him his counsel?
    Whom did he consult,
        and who made him understand?
    Who taught him the path of justice,
        and taught him knowledge,
        and showed him the way of understanding?
    Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket,
        and are accounted as the dust on the scales;
        behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust.
    Lebanon would not suffice for fuel,
        nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering.
    All the nations are as nothing before him,
        they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.
    To whom then will you liken God,
        or what likeness compare with him?
    An idol! A craftsman casts it,
        and a goldsmith overlays it with gold
        and casts for it silver chains.
    He who is too impoverished for an offering
        chooses wood that will not rot;
    he seeks out a skillful craftsman
        to set up an idol that will not move.
    Do you not know? Do you not hear?
        Has it not been told you from the beginning?
        Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
    It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,
        and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;
    who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
        and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;
    who brings princes to nothing,
        and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.
    Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown,
        scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth,
    when he blows on them, and they wither,
        and the tempest carries them off like stubble.
    To whom then will you compare me,
        that I should be like him? says the Holy One.
    Lift up your eyes on high and see:
        who created these?
    He who brings out their host by number,
        calling them all by name,
    by the greatness of his might,
        and because he is strong in power
        not one is missing.
    Why do you say, O Jacob,
        and speak, O Israel,
    “My way is hidden from the LORD,
        and my right is disregarded by my God”?
    Have you not known? Have you not heard?
    The LORD is the everlasting God,
        the Creator of the ends of the earth.
    He does not faint or grow weary;
        his understanding is unsearchable.
    He gives power to the faint,
        and to him who has no might he increases strength.
    Even youths shall faint and be weary,
        and young men shall fall exhausted;
    but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength;
        they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
    they shall run and not be weary;
        they shall walk and not faint.

(Isaiah 40 ESV)

Is that not just a great section of scripture? It starts off with words of comfort for the exiled or maybe soon to be exiled people of Israel that their warfare is over and that though they have sinned grievously their sins have been pardoned and it gets even better just in the next three verses.

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.


This is messianic! In the first five verses  he has said that Israels sins have been pardoned and that he is making ready for the coming King, the Messiah. The next group of verses 6 though 8 are a reminder that the word of God stands for ever that It is eternal even though the things we know and see around us will wither and fade and turn to ash.

The rest of this chapter Isaiah talks exclusively about the greatness of the one and true God. You could spend hours expounding on this part of the chapter alone and I'm sure have I how ever want to focus on the last five verses of this chapter

Why do you say, O Jacob,
        and speak, O Israel,
    “My way is hidden from the LORD,
        and my right is disregarded by my God”?
    Have you not known? Have you not heard?
    The LORD is the everlasting God,
        the Creator of the ends of the earth.
    He does not faint or grow weary;
        his understanding is unsearchable.
    He gives power to the faint,
        and to him who has no might he increases strength.
    Even youths shall faint and be weary,
        and young men shall fall exhausted;
    but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength;
        they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
    they shall run and not be weary;
        they shall walk and not faint.


I can't imagine how much of a comfort and source of strength that this chapter would have been to the believing Jews in exile. This ,again, is such a rich piece of scripture. This reminder that their God is the creator God, that their God care about those who are week an oppressed as they were or were about to be under the hand of the Babylonians and that if they had faith in him, faith in his promises, faith in coming Messiah, much like we're waiting for the messiah to come again. Then he would supply their strength and their endurance and their rest. I love what Matthew Henry's commentary says

"But those that wait on the Lord, who make conscience of their duty to him, and by faith rely upon him and commit themselves to his guidance, shall find that God will not fail them. [1.] They shall have grace sufficient for them: They shall renew their strength as their work is renewed, as there is new occasion; they shall be anointed, and their lamps supplied, with fresh oil. God will be their arm every morning, ch. xxxiii. 2. If at any time they have been foiled and weakened they shall recover themselves, and so renew their strength. Heb. They shall change their strength, as their work is changed—doing work, suffering work; they shall have strength to labour, strength to wrestle, strength to resist, strength to bear. As the day so shall the strength be. [2.] They shall use this grace for the best purposes. Being strengthened, First, They shall soar upward, upward towards God: They shall mount up with wings like eagles, so strongly, so swiftly, so high and heaven-ward. In the strength of divine grace, their souls shall ascend above the world, and even enter into the holiest. Pious and devout affections are the eagles' wings on which gracious souls mount up, Ps. xxv. 1. Secondly, They shall press forward, forward towards heaven. They shall walk, they shall run, the way of God's commandments, cheerfully and with alacrity (they shall not be weary), constantly and with perseverance (they shall not faint); and therefore in due season they shall reap. Let Jacob and Israel therefore, in their greatest distresses, continue waiting upon God, and not despair of timely and effectual relief and succour from him. "

Again as the Kingdom of Israel was instructed to wait up on the Lord, to have faith in his promises and come he did. This was their hope and there strength we too have a hope and strength Colossians three says

    If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
   
(Colossians 3:1-4 ESV)


This is our hope, to appear with Christ in glory, as well God will lift us up with Eagles wings so that we may not faint or grow weary. That he will raise us up on the last day not just to a temporal peace but to an ever lasting peace if only we put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ for our eternal salvation.


 






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