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September 5, 2026 |
| Isaiah 40 | ||
Isaiah was a prophet in the 8th century BC. The time of his ministry covered the period when the ten tribes of Northern Israel were conquered by the Assyrians. Because King Hezekiah followed the words of God given by Isaiah, Judah was not conquered at that time. The Assyrian Empire fell apart and was quickly replaced by the Babylonian Empire.
Isaiah would not live to see it, but he also prophesied of a future time when the Babylonians would conquer Judah and take its people captive, moving most of the survivors to Babylon. That would not happen for more than 100 years after Northern Israel was conquered.
Isaiah chapter 40 is a prophecy for:
The Jews would see the Babylonian Empire fall to the Medo-Persian Empire, while they remained captives. In a later chapter, Isaiah names Cyrus the Persian by name as the king who will free them. This prophecy will not be fulfilled until 200 years after Isaiah writes it.
In this study Isaiah has a message of comfort for God's people who are in captivity, but Isaiah's prophecy also includes references to the coming of the Messiah. So they are to be comforted also in the knowledge that God is still watching over them, his plan for them continues, and his promises are true.
Prophecies are commonly written in a poetic form, and this one is as well. Usually I remove the poetic structure from the study. That allows for better use of the limited vertical space on a computer screen. In this case, though, I'm going to retain the poetic structure.
“Comfort, O comfort My people,” says your God.
2 “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.” (Isaiah 40:1-2)
God seeks to comfort his people in their captivity. Everything they had known was destroyed, and they find themselves as slaves in a foreign land. This comfort would come to them as words that were written to them before they were born.
The word "warfare" is sometimes translated as "hard service," and refers to the hardships of the exile, the fighting to survive. The word "fulfilled" is also used. This means that a period of time was set for these hardships, and there will be a time when it is complete. Remember that Isaiah is saying this 200 years before it will happen.
In saying "her iniquity has been removed," the message is not that the Israelites have simply paid a debt and therefore deserve a pardon. God, in his mercy, determined that this period of suffering for the exiles would be an acceptable sacrifice for them as a people, after which their sins would be atoned for, and he would remove their iniquity. The nation justly deserved the punishment. God had no obligation to do anything more, but he did. It was by His grace that He specified a time and accepted their suffering as atonement for their iniquity.
The people did not earn this grace. God could have let them vanish as a people, as Northern Israel did, but he granted a path to redemption.
The clause "double for all her sins" does not mean that she received twice as much suffering as she deserved. It means that she deserved double and received that. The Bible has many cases where a repayment is declared, and the amount is a multiple of the amount that was owed.
Double Repayment is the most common standard for restitution and divine justice. In Mosaic Law, thieves who stole livestock and were caught had to repay double if the animal was found alive (Exodus 22:4,9). (Some AI)
Repayment in other multiples is also specified, such as 4 times or 7 times.
The New Testament also references repayment in multiples. In Luke 19:8, Zacchaeus declared that, if he had cheated or defrauded anyone, he would repay four times the amount.
A voice is calling,
“Prepare the way for Yahweh in the wilderness;
Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God.
4 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; (Isaiah 40:3-4)
All four gospels interpret verse 3 as a prophecy about John the Baptist heralding the coming of the Messiah (Matthew 3:3, Mark 1:2–3, Luke 3:4–6, and John 1:23). The wilderness, or desert, spoken of here is not a literal wilderness. It is a spiritual wilderness – Israel, as it had become when Jesus was born. Therefore the valleys, mountains, and rough and rugged places are spiritual defects in Israel.
John's mission was to turn the people's hearts back to God and obedience to him, so they would be ready for the Messiah's coming. John did this by teaching them the truth, calling them to repentance, and announcing the imminent arrival of the Messiah and the kingdom of Heaven.
John was a herald; a role we do not understand in our time. When a king was about to travel somewhere, he would send a person, a herald, to alert the people along the way and at the destination that the king was coming. He was also responsible for making sure the route was passable, and if not, planning a route the king would take.
This was John's function, but in a spiritual sense.
Then the glory of Yahweh will be revealed,
And all flesh will see it together;
For the mouth of Yahweh has spoken. (Isaiah 40:5)
The verses were talking about John the Baptist, but suddenly the verses are talking about the end of the endtimes. What happened? Isaiah happened. Isaiah sometimes makes great leaps through time. Even from one sentence to the next.
There is more to the words. When it says "then," that's an indication that a time jump could be happening. When it says "the glory of Yahweh will be revealed," this is intended in a continuous sense, where the revelation begins in one time and continues through time to another time.
Therefore Jesus, the glory of Yahweh, is first revealed in the First Coming, and that revelation continues as the Great Commission that Jesus gave us to reveal him to all the nations, which continues through to the Second Coming, when "all flesh will see it together". That's the sweep through time that Isaiah is doing. Remember that Isaiah is writing this about 700 years before Jesus.
It can be said then that Isaiah pictures a single coming of Jesus that isn't an event but an unfolding of events. It can also be said that God has no respect for vast amounts of time.
Note these verses from Luke, spoken prophetically by Simeon after he had seen the baby Jesus.
Now send your servant in peace, my Lord, according to your word. 30 Behold, my eyes have seen your mercy, 31 Him whom you have prepared in the sight of all the peoples. 32 the light for the revelation of the Gentiles and the glory to your people Israel. (Luke 2:29-30)
The word "prepared" indicates there is more to come.
Simeon can't mean that all peoples (nations) physically saw Jesus - they didn't. He is speaking about the process of revelation in which all peoples will see him, eventually … and then the end will come.
Note these verses from Revelation.
Behold, he comes with clouds and every eye shall see him, even those who pierced him, and all the families of the Earth shall mourn for him. (Revelation 1:7)
Here again we see the idea that every eye will see Jesus together. That time comes when he returns again.
Note the last part of Isaiah's verse: "For the mouth of Yahweh has spoken". It means that the prophesied words are true and will come to pass. Without that part of the verse, the next few verses can be a mystery.
6 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.
7 The grass withers, the flower fades,
When the breath of Yahweh blows upon it;
Surely the people are grass.
8 The grass withers, the flower fades,
But the word of our God stands forever. (Isaiah 40:6-8)
Because we have been told people will be represented by grass and their lovingkindness will be represented by flowers in this allegory, we can simplify verse 8 to say, "When tested, people lose their strength and their faithfulness fails, but the word of our God endures forever". So the point takes us back to Israel as captives. As mankind does, Israel lost their desire to serve God and became unfaithful to him, but he is always faithful to fulfill his promises to them.
1 Peter 1:24–25 quotes these verses to emphasize the eternal nature of God's word.
Having comforted God's people in their captivity by telling them they still had a future and many great things would still come from them, God has now said it is the nature of people that they will fall away from him. God now begins to talk about how great he is and how they have offended him. He will close that out by asking them why they think they have been mistreated by him.
God is reasoning with the people of Israel about the foolishness of their idolatry. He is going to talk about their worship of gods they have made of wood, stone, silver and gold, and gods of nature and others.
So the bigger point that God is making is, "How do these false gods compare to me? Are they in any way like me?"
God now begins a description of his greatness that uses 3rd person tense, as though it was Isaiah speaking on his own, but it is still in poetic form and part of the prophecy God gave him. It is not uncommon for God to use literary techniques like this to get his point across.
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!”
10 Behold, Lord Yahweh will come with strength,
With His arm ruling for Him.
Behold, His reward is with Him
And His recompense before Him.
11 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. (Isaiah 40:9-11)
God continues to speak about the good things that will yet come from the Jews. He was talking about the Second Coming before the interlude with the flowers, and he continues from there now, saying, "Look at what your God will do."
The keys to understanding the time period that is in focus come from:
Clearly these are references to the Second Coming. Other prophecies speak of these aspects of his arrival.
The phrase "His arm ruling for Him" is interesting. His "arm" is a reference to his power or strength, but that is coupled with "for him," meaning his strength is ruling in his place. This is a very subtle reference to God's people ruling over mankind for him on Earth.
Then the verses speak about what a loving and tender ruler he will be to the ones who are his flock. In another chapter of Isaiah, God speaks about shattering those who resist him, those who are not his flock.
Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand,
And encompassed the heavens by the span,
And calculated the dust of the earth by the measure,
And weighed the mountains in a balance
And the hills in a pair of scales? (Isaiah 40:12)
These verses depict a God for whom the land and seas of the earth are like a backyard garden. God is depicted as measuring out the volume of the waters of the sea in the greatness of his hands and using those hands to measure off the sky. He is depicted as carrying around the dust of the earth in nothing more than a basket. And he is shown weighing out the mountains and hills.
Of course Isaiah is speaking in poetic terms here. God probably didn't literally weigh out the mountains on a mountain-sized weigh scale. The intent is to show that God is much, much greater than the earth.
Who has encompassed the Spirit of Yahweh,
Or as His counselor has informed Him?
14 With whom did He take counsel and who gave Him understanding?
And who taught Him in the path of justice and taught Him knowledge
And made Him know the way of understanding? (Isaiah 40:13-14)
Isaiah now asks the question: who is greater than God that he should be God's counselor, advisor, and teacher? The answer is obviously no one. By that we understand that God has all knowledge and understanding within himself. This also makes him the source of all knowledge and understanding.
Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket,
And are counted as a speck of dust on the scales;
Behold, He lifts up the coastlands like fine dust.
16 Even Lebanon is not enough to burn,
Nor its beasts enough for a burnt offering.
17 All the nations are as nothing before Him;
They are counted by Him as non-existent and utterly formless. (Isaiah 40:15-17)
When Isaiah says "nations" here, it appears that he must be referring to the governments of the nations, their people, and their boundaries. That would be the only way to mix the idea of nation and island together as this verse has. Therefore the intent is to show that islands, continents, national boundaries, and the nations themselves are of no importance to God. They are too small to be of consequence to him.
To whom then will you liken God?
Or what likeness will you compare with Him?
19 As for the graven images, a craftsman casts it,
A goldsmith plates it with gold,
And a silversmith fashions chains of silver.
20 He who is too impoverished to make such a contribution
Chooses a tree that does not rot;
He seeks out for himself a wise craftsman
To prepare a graven image that will not be shaken. (Isaiah 40:18-20)
God pauses from describing his greatness to ask them the central question - who is like me? People have created the idols you worshiped that infuriated me. If you have the money, you buy a fancy god made of metal. If you don't, you choose a tree, and someone carves it into a shape. Either way, you prop them up so they will not fall over. "Are they in any way like me?" asks God.
Do you not know? Have you not heard?
Has it not been declared to you from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
22 It is He who inhabits above the circle of the earth,
And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;
It is He who stretches out the heavens like a curtain
And spreads them out like a tent to inhabit. (Isaiah 40:21-22)
Isaiah now considers the throne of God - the place where God rules from. He describes it as being above the earth such that the people of the earth look like no more than grasshoppers. Isaiah is speaking poetically again, as he does in this whole chapter and generally does in all chapters. He doesn't mean to imply that Heaven, the place of God, is literally just above the earth's atmosphere.
The message here is that God is not of this earth and its people are insignificant in comparison to him. The heavens with their stars and planets are no more to him than a canopy, and that spreading them out is no more to him than a man spreading out a tent covering.
Isaiah will come back to the topic of the heavens again later.
It is He who reduces rulers to nothing,
Who makes the judges of the earth utterly formless.
24 Scarcely have they been planted;
Scarcely have they been sown;
Scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth,
But He merely blows on them, and they wither,
And the storm carries them away like stubble. (Isaiah 40:23-24)
God, through Isaiah, now says that he rules over the people of the earth. Their great men he raises up and takes down as suits his purpose. They too are only tools in his plan.
This is very much in-line with what Paul says in Romans 13
“To whom then will you liken Me
That I would be his equal?” says the Holy One. (Isaiah 40:25)
God slips back into 1st person tense to ask the central question: "Who is like me?"
Lift up your eyes on high
And see who has created these stars,
The One who leads forth their host by number,
He calls them all by name;
Because of the greatness of His vigor and the strength of His power,
Not one of them is missing. (Isaiah 40:26)
Back in 3rd person tense, God speaks of the stars as a sign of his greatness. The message is that, despite their large number, God knows each one of them individually. When he calls them none are missing.
From the city at night we can see maybe 6 or 7 stars. Without city lights, Isaiah's audience could see an uncountable, unfathomable number. God asks, "Who created all these?"
Why do you say, O Jacob, and assert, O Israel,
“My way is hidden from Yahweh,
And the justice due me passes by my God”? (Isaiah 40:27)
Does Jacob have a valid reason to complain about their exile and captivity? No, they had sinned and violated their covenant with God. God had been faithful to them, but due to their unfaithfulness to him, they were punished. But now they cry out that God no longer sees them or cares about what happens to them.
God is dumbfounded by their statement. It's really an expression of the problem that caused all of this. They do not know their God.
Do you not know? Have you not heard?
The Everlasting God, Yahweh, the Creator of the ends of the earth,
Does not become weary or tired.
His understanding is unsearchable.
29 He gives power to the weary,
And to him who lacks vigor He increases might.
30 Though youths grow weary and tired,
And choice young men stumble badly,
31 Yet those who hope in Yahweh
Will gain new power;
They will mount up with wings like eagles;
They will run and not get tired;
They will walk and not become weary. (Isaiah 40:28-31)
At the end, Isaiah is now back to the Second Coming, the Millennial Period after that, and eternity after that. He speaks of people with bodies that do not have the weaknesses of our current bodies. These bodies are the destiny of "those who hope in Yahweh."
Ultimately the Jews in captivity have been told that there are many things yet to be fulfilled through them. God has not abandoned them. In fact God wonders how they could think such a thing.
In Romans 11:33–36, Paul pulls pieces from Isaiah 40:9–31 to make his point about the incomprehensible wisdom and power of God.