God’s Coming & Our Comfort

Isaiah 40:1-11, 52:7-10

“If the Bible were an hourglass, Isaiah 40 would be the middle where the sands of time falling through the old covenant begin to accumulate and take shape to forecast the new age to come through Christ.” ~ Jared Wilson

Main Idea: God promises us comfort through the certainty of his own coming in glory and grace.

I. The Comfort of God (40:1-5)

Despite the sin & rebellion of God’s people that resulted in exile, the Lord’s deepest heart for his people is comfort. He wants to win their hearts back (‘speak tenderly’) and still claims them as his own (‘my people, says your God’).

Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 1:

Q. What is your only comfort in life and in death?

A. That I am not my own, but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.

This comfort is not generic; it is redemptive. We see this in 3 promises:

Freedom (“her warfare is ended”)
Forgiveness (“her iniquity is pardoned”)
Full Acceptance (“she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins”)

“There is an end to God’s disciplines but there is no end to God’s comforts… see in God not a frown but a smile, not distance but nearness. Even when we don’t act like the people of God, he still identifies with us.” ~ Ray Ortlund

The Lord promises comfort because he himself is coming to them (40:3-5). When the Lord comes in all his glory, he will figuratively level the mountains & fill the valleys. Isaiah is envisioning a new moral landscape created when the glory of the Lord comes.

All four gospel writers connect Isaiah 40 to the ministry of John the Baptist, who is the voice crying in the wilderness: “repent & believe, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” Just as the ancients would build a new highway for royalty, we must prepare our own souls to receive the coming of the King.

II. The Certainty of God (40:6-8)

Though the grass and the flowers might be beautiful, they are here one day & gone the next. All flesh & people are like this, something the Isrealites knew first hand in exile (cf. King Hezekiah in Isa. 39).

The certainty of the Word of the Lord compared to our own flesh is meant to be a humbling reality. But it is also hopeful: the Lord has promised comfort, forgiveness of sins, and the end of all who stand against him & his Kingdom. This has already happened at the coming of Christ & it will happen in full when he returns again.

God is inviting Israel & us to trust in his word rather than things that will fade away like the flowers and the grass. Are we trusting in the certainty of God’s Word and promises?

III. The Greatness of God (40:9-11, 52:7-10)

The exiles are given a more detailed picture of the coming of the Lord. The vision of the good news (‘gospel’) of God’s coming emphasizes both his glory & his grace.

God’s Glory (40:10, 52:10): He comes is a mighty warrior-king, whose arm will rule over all the nations
God’s Grace (40:11): He comes as a tender shepherd-king, whose arm gathers up his lambs & gently leads them

Jesus is the full manifestation of both the glory & the grace of God. In his first coming, we have experienced the tender grace & mercy of our “Good Shepherd” who is also the “lamb of God” who takes away our sins & gives us redemptive comfort. In his second coming, he will fully consummate his Kingdom as a mighty-warrior king who conquers evil once and for all & establishes his eternal kingdom.

“If we come to God, as fierce as his lion-like judgment would have been against us, so deep will be his lamb-like tenderness for us.” ~ Dane Ortlund

As we behold our God who reigns & who is coming, we are two respond in two ways:

Worship (52:8-9)
Proclamation (40:9, 52:7)