Comfort My People
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
It’s wonderful to be back
Again, i am so grateful to God for the amazing opportunity to preach the word of God to you.
I consider this opportunity a blessing of blessings, and am committed to doing my best, enabled by God’s Spirit, to preach the word to you, and grow in my abilities to do so.
I love this church, I love being a part of a church that is striving for covenental faithfulness in all aspects of worship and life. One which is not afraid and is a position to ask fundamental questions, such as: “What is the Church? What is worship? What does God desires from us?”
We are a small congregation, but that means more opportunity for us to see God’s sovereign hand establish our work, and for us to seek to lay a proper foundation as a congregation. We are in a position where if this congregation will grow, it will be explicable only by means of drawing by the Spirit of God.
Zech 4:6 “6 “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel saying, ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts.”
For as it was then, so it is now. As they laid the foundation of the temple, God’s instructed that His house is built by His Spirit, not by the strength of the flesh, nor by its power. Not by human wisdom, but by His Spirit.
Zechariah 4:10 (NASB95)
10 “For who has despised the day of small things?
Of course, we are not laying the foundation of God’s house, that foundation is once and for all laid on the Apostles and prophets, Jesus being the chief cornerstone. But we are building from a small congregation and seeking to add to His house. Recognize that there is no way it will be built than by the means of God’s mighty Spirit.
If you recall, I was preaching through the book of Isaiah.
If you recall, I was preaching through the book of Isaiah.
My original plan was to preach through the entire book. From the outset, my desire in doing so was specifically to cover chapters 40-66. I thought it would be wrong to jump to 40-66, instead of covering the whole book. I have since repented. As I am preaching once a month, and these are the chapters which the Lord has really drawn my attention, study, and focus, it seems good to me to begin this next chapter of life preaching here. The Lord has taught me glorious things through this section of Scripture, and I want you to see what He has shown me.
These chapters are incredibly important. They are incredibly poorly understood by many.
These chapters contain great great truths concerning who God is, His relationship to His people, to the identity, purpose and work of the Messiah, to the changing of the dispensations (meaning economy, stewardship) from the Old to the new, and more.
I hope that through studying these chapters you will obtain a key of understanding and insight which you can use to further understand the greater portion of Old Testament prophecy.
That we may understand more deeply who God is, who are His people, and what is His plan for this world, how we should live in the light of it all.
For the main theme of this prophecy is, in a word: “the relation of God’s people to Himself and to the world, and in the latter stages of its history, to that race with which it was once outwardly identical.” (Alexander, Vol 2, 481)
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The Nature of the Prophecy
The Nature of the Prophecy
These chapters really mark a significant transition in the book as a whole. The whole section is one long unit. The chapter division are convienet for reference sake, but they can confuse in thinking that these sections are syntactically (or in relating to grammar of the words) to be different sections.
The whole section should be thought of as one whole. The section is neither narrative nor strickly didactic, or teaching. It jumps around, alternates and cycles upon it’s different themes, going back, then forward. It has a logical progression, not not one which always follows a set rule or system, but one which is natural and fitting with ideas naturally associeated. Tghough it jumps, it has one unified theme throughout the whole, which can be parsed into four smaller themes, which I will lay out to you in a moment.
A brief word on unbelieving scholarship: Because of the uniqueness of the composition, unbelieving “scholars” have held dogmatically for the past few hundred years (since the german higher critics) that this section was written by a different author.
Suffice it to say that there is absolutely no existing manuscript, nor historical evidence whatever to suggest this at all. The evidence that is brought forth is all internal to the book, and rests exclusivly on conjecture. The unbelieving theory wars with any sound evaluation of the evidence in all parts, as sound reason.
The theory holds that some unknown and anonymous author somehow impersonated one of the most well known and prominent prophets in all of Israel’s history, at a time when the desire for a word from God was at an all time high, and at the height of His prominence during the reign of Hezekiah. This anonymous author managed to fool all other contemporary prophets, Jeremiah, Micah, and the subsequent (or following) ones, the kings of Israel, and the apostles, and Jesus, and all Jews and Christians for hundreds and hundreds of years until some Germans came along to enlighten us all. It’s a stupid theory, but what is to be expected from unbelievers.
Isaiah wrote Isaiah
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An outline of Isa 1-39
An outline of Isa 1-39
Before we begin I would like to give you a brief outline of the previous contents of the book of Isaiah up until this point.
As you may recall Isa had a long ministry of Prophecy, spanning four kings. (Which was originally given through Havernick and this section is taken from Joseph Alexander’s commentary.)
1-6, are the earliest prophecies up to His commission, which have a general character and the reader is not given specific historical referents. Chapter 7-12 have specific referent to the specific occasions which they are addressing, which are important events under the reign of Ahaz.
13-23 contain prophecies against foreign powers, demonstrating how the Divine kingship related to other nations,
There is an appendix to the previous section at 24-27 which is a summation of the previous judgments on the foreign powers, which contains a summary of the fulfillment of God’s judgment towards pagan nations through unto the end of time.
While these are addressed to foreign powers, there is an oracle against Judah in ch. 23, this is likely due to the fact that Judah is strongly subjected to a foreign influence, namely an individual of Shebna. Judah has at the time sinful to be relegated to a heathen state.
The sections 28-33 contain prophecies and accounts of details under the reign of Hezekiah, with a more general appendix again in 34-35.
Then we have the following 36-39 to be the later dealings of Isaiah during the reign of Hezekiah, which show his full acceptance and recognition as a prophet, and also is a parallel to the accounts in 2 Kings about these events.
And so at the end of 39 stand the events where Isaiah delivers the news of the eminence of Babylonian captivity to Hezekiah. The book transitions to the text we have before us.
Isaiah is a well established prophet in the land by now.
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Now turning from what was before, I must prepare you for what lies ahead.
Now turning from what was before, I must prepare you for what lies ahead.
Lets talk about four great and recurring themes addressed in this section:
2 Errors of the shadows
2 Errors of the shadows
Consider Israel under the Old covenant.
As seen in our series on worship, the Law of God instituted under the Old Covenant used physical, material, and temporary teaching aids, types (which reflect and teach a true reality) to the saints to communicate spiritual realities to God’s people.
The nature of this system was material, temporary, and restrictive. Paul describes it in Galatians 3 as a type of slavery. It was to put these teaching tools before the eyes of the people to teach them justification by faith, the necessity of blood atonement, federal representation through the high priest, among other concepts. Now Israel being populated by sinners, fell under a certain errors which come from a corruption of the system.
Error 1
Error 1
At the time of Isaiah, the people had sometimes “enlarged” their worship by incorporating into it pagan elements, and sometimes they had completely subverted and replaced the true rituals with the rituals of pagans, and even worshipped the pagan deities.
So the first serious error to be observed is a pollution of God’s ordained worship, by a mixing with pagan elements, or a complete subversion to idolatrous worship.
Error 2
Error 2
as materialistic things often have a superior grip and impression on us through our senses, over the spiritual reality, people often confuse the symbol with the thing symbolized,
the second error to be observed is the tendency to believe there is an intrinsic magic and efficacy to the ceremonial rites, that they were in themselves the mechanism by which righteousness was wrought.
But even in the law itself, this was clearly not the case. For example, when a person who needed blood atonement was not able to purchase a full sacrifice, a veggie offering was permitted instead.
This error is be called formalism.
This error persists in several forms today,
Church of Christ fellow on Baptism, baptismal regeneration
Roman catholics on the Mass,whereby the taking of the Eucharist is seen to be a representation of Chirst’s work which is efficatious, or effective, and the propitiatory means to obtain grace and justification.
These two errors are those in which the Israelites continually stumbled at different points of their history which come from the nature of the Mosaic system. Mark these and remember these.
2 Errors of election
2 Errors of election
Now look again at a second aspect of the Old Testament economy: which was the free election of Israel by God to be a special and holy nation, a kingdom of priests, and the means through which the rest of the world was to be blessed.
1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you;
2 And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing;
3 And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
The fact that Israel was God’s own possession and the elected nation was not disputable. They were supernaturally and providentially preserved throughout their history, and they had exclusive possession to the written revealed word of God.
However, looking only at the current means, at the reality of their election, yet forgetting their origin, and ends, they stumbled into error.
Error 3: national pride and Jewish superiority
Error 3: national pride and Jewish superiority
Some erred by forgetting that their election was on the basis of grace, and undeserved, and that the purpose of their election was to bring blessing to the entire world. They were called for the purpose of blessing the whole world, namely the whole church, which was is comprised of elect individuals from every nation, of which ancient Israel was “designed to be their exclusive representative (Alexander 52).
Under the Old Covenant, salvation was offered to the gentiles, think of Ruth, or Rahab, or Nineveh's generation under Jonah. Yet also there was provision in the law for a foreigner to be circumcised and become a citizen.
They forgot that the whole world was to be represented by the nation of Israel, as Israel’s 12 tribes were to be represented by the tribe of Levi, who was to be represented by the family of the descendents of Aaron, who were to be represented by one man, the high priest alone on the day of atonement. The high priests stood as an interceeding head for the body, of the family, tribe, nation and world. Israel as a nation represented the world, as a body to a head. (Alexander 52).
As God has elected His people from all tribes and tongues; it pleased His good will to bring the Savior through their representative Israel, and to give that nation the only deposit of the oracles of God, as well as to make it the center of true worship.
Under the old economy, the Jews went against the nature of the covenant to be haughty, seeing themselves as intrinsically superior and better than other nations, as they were the temporary and symbolical representatives of all the elect of God.
Yet this very reality also should have prevented the mixtures of the Israelites from all other peoples, as they were the only ones with the true center of worship.
Error 4: the error of the remnant
Error 4: the error of the remnant
These errors were prevalent in the Old Testament people of God, however they were not universal. For we know that there was always a remnant according to the election of Grace, that there were those who fell not into either of these errors, and that they were always the True Israel, the real church or assembly of God (Alexander 53), God’s true people.
These faithful ones, seeing the corruption of the nation, and hearing the threatenings of the prophets of future destruction of the unfaithful, fell into a different error. They were unable to conceptualize the existence of the True Israel apart from the nation of Israel, the national identity.
And even if the acceptance of that body’s existence apart from the state was known, they could not conceive of it outside of the forms of the temporary economy, or Old covenant dispensation.
That is to say that the remnant of God would be likely to error in thinking that if God removed Israel from being a nation, that the Church would cease to be along with it.
So here we have four distinct forms of error: (Alexander 54)
So here we have four distinct forms of error: (Alexander 54)
1 using the Mosaic symbols as a pretext for idolatry
2 trusting in the Mosaic symbols as being efficacious or effective means of sacrifice.
3 Considered Israel’s preeminence and election above all nations to be continual, merit based, and signifying an intrinsic superiority over the other nations.
4 And Finally, the belief that the destruction of the nation of Israel meant the destruction of the Church, or people of God.
The prophets wrote to correct these things. There is hardly a place in the OT prophets that do not have some direct bearing, some form of correction and rebuke to one of these errors. The prophets wrote:
“To rebuke idolatry, to rectify the errors of the formalist to the ceremonies, to humble the arrogance of the pride in the nationality, or to console the true believer that although Israel should perish, true Israel must endure forever and ever.” (Alexander 54)
Although these topics are continually addressed in other sections of the prophets, they are never so brought into focus, but such a powerful and mighty, well known and well established prophet, at such a time when these errors were at an all time high, before the conquest fall of the nation of Israel to Babylon.
For even after the great restoration of the nation from Babylon, which is herein predicted, Isaiah prepares the people for the removal of the old system of symbols and slavery, to be replaced by the true substance. Yet in the meantime, the operation of the covenant would continue.
These errors are what we will find addressed in the following chapters. A recurring presentation of truths, rebukes, corrections, encouragements fit not only for the people of that time, but also for all time, as the errors which the people faced then are also errors which the world continues to see to this day in one form or another
Here is a succinct statement of the meaning of the whole:
“Upon a brief inspection of these prophecies, it is enough to see that they are neither one continuous argument, nor a collection of fragments and parts, but one continuous whole. In this whole, the same great topics are repeated from beginning to end, in modified form and combination. If one designates a single theme to the whole, we may safely give the preference to Israel, the Peculiar People, the Church of the Old Testament, its origin, vocation, mission, sins and suffering, former experience, and final destiny. The doctrine taught regarding this great subject my be summarized as this: The race of Israel was chosen among the other nations, and maintained in the possession of peculiar privileges, not for the sake of any original or acquired merit, but by a sovereign act of the divine will; not for their own exclusive benefit and aggrandizement, but for the ultimate salvation of the world. The ceremonies of the Law were of no intrinsic efficacy, and when so regarded and relied on, became hateful in the sight of God. Still more absurd and evil was the practice of analogous(or pagan) ceremonies, not in the obedience to Jehovah’s will, but in the worship of imaginary deities or idols. The Levitical rites, beside the most practical and basic procedures, were symbols of God’s holiness and man’s corruption, the necessity of sacrifice and forgiveness in general and of sacrifice and forgiveness by vicarious suffering in particular. Among those Levitical rites there were also types (or illustrations along the same patterns of thought), prophetic symbols, of the very form in which the great work of atonement was to be accomplished, and of Him by whom it was to be performed. Until this work was fished, and this come, the promise of both was exclusively entrusted to the chosen people, who were bound to preserve it both in its written and its ritual form. To this momentous trust a large portion of the nation had been unfaithful, some avowedly forsaking it as open idolaters, some practically betraying it as formal hypocrites. For these and other offences which followed from the primary ones, Israel as a nation was to be rejected and deprived of its pre-eminence. But in so doing God would not cast off His people. The promise to Israel, considered as the people of Jehovah, should endure to the body of believers, the remnant according to the election of grace. these were in fact from the beginning the true Israel, the true seed of Abraham, the Jews who were Jews inwardly. In these the continued existence of the Church should be secured and continued, first within the limits of the outward Israel. When the fulness of time should come for the removal of the temporary and restrictive institutions of the old economy, that change should be so ordered as not only to effect the emancipation of the Church form the ceremonial bondage, but at the same time to attest the divine disapproval of the sins committed by the carnal Israel throughout their history. While these had everything to fear from the approaching change, the spiritual Israel had everything to hope, — not only the continued existence of the Church but its existence under a more spiritual, free, and glorious dispensation, to be ushered in by the appearance of that Great Deliverer towards whom the whole ceremonies of the Law all pointed.” (Alexander, 55-56)
By this view one can understand and account for the terminology of these Scriptures, namely the twofold sense of the name Israel, with which God alternatives between threatening and encouraging.
The apostolic interpretive key here is very clear. So clear, yet many miss it or are unwilling to accept the evident truth. Paul gives a decisive interpretive key in these things. Examine here briefly these passages from Paul concerning the matters just stated:
17 But if you bear the name “Jew” and rely upon the Law and boast in God,
18 and know His will and approve the things that are essential, being instructed out of the Law,
19 and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness,
20 a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the immature, having in the Law the embodiment of knowledge and of the truth,
21 you, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that one shall not steal, do you steal?
22 You who say that one should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?
23 You who boast in the Law, through your breaking the Law, do you dishonor God?
24 For “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” just as it is written.
25 For indeed circumcision is of value if you practice the Law; but if you are a transgressor of the Law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.
26 So if the uncircumcised man keeps the requirements of the Law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision?
27 And he who is physically uncircumcised, if he keeps the Law, will he not judge you who though having the letter of the Law and circumcision are a transgressor of the Law?
28 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh.
29 But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.
(maybe mention that some translations provide the word “merely”)
which it says in the ESV, which is to say, that one who is a Jew is one who is one not only outwardly, but inwardly as well. But that overturns the entire meaning of the passage. A jew is not one who is one outwardly, but one who is circuncised inwardly, and here you see a gentile of the flesh having his inward circumcision counted as true circumcision in the eyes of God, and the identified as a Jew. (Explain circumcision as a sign of the Abrahamic covenant)
If there be any question on it:
Consider Phil 3:1-3
1 Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you.
2 Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision;
3 for we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh,
We who have the Spirit of Christ are explicitly identified as the true circumcision.
Or Eph 2:11-21
11 Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “Uncircumcision” by the so-called “Circumcision,” which is performed in the flesh by human hands—
12 remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
14 For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall,
15 by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace,
16 and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity.
17 And He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near;
18 for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father.
19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household,
20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone,
21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord,
**Break down the true and false circumcision, and the granting of the citizenship, the being unified together, being the unified temple”
I must dwell here, because this is first off, a controversial point, yet from the text it is crystal clear. And as well, that if you do not understand this, you will not understand correctly this prophecy, and any other.
See now
6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel;
7 nor are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants, but: “through Isaac your descendants will be named.”
8 That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants.
9 For this is the word of promise: “At this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son.”
The children of promise are identified as the seed of Abraham. And the seed of Abraham is equivalent to the true Israel, not all those who are descended from Israel:
28 And you brethren, like Isaac, are children of promise.
Exact same phrase addressed to the Gentile church,
after Paul has identified them with Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, and said the following phrases:
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
7 Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham.
Please, go read these in the context. See for yourself, I am not pulling these out of their context to twist their meaning, but to say that those who are in Christ, are EXPLICITLY identified in the new testament as the true circumcision, the true Israel, the children of Promise, the seed of Abraham.
So any who wish to re-cut the church along ethnic lines are waring against the Aposltes!
There is more to be said about this, like how Paul identifies the church as the “Israel of God” at the end of Galations, or how Jesus promises the church victory over those who “say they are Jews and are not, but lie”. He calls them the synogoge of Satan, and then applies Old testmanet promises which were given through Isaiah to the Jews to the Church!
We will get there when we get there.
1 I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
2 God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel?
3 “Lord, they have killed Your prophets, they have torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they are seeking my life.”
4 But what is the divine response to him? “I have kept for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”
5 In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God’s gracious choice.
6 But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.
7 What then? What Israel is seeking, it has not obtained, but those who were chosen obtained it, and the rest were hardened;
Again you see the separation and distinction made between Israel of the flesh and the elect remnant according to God’s grace, which existed inside of the nation.
These distinctions are critical.
More of all these things will be said as we continue, but as of now, but for now, lets us begin, lest you think that I’m making all this up:
Comfort
Comfort
1 “Comfort, O comfort My people,” says your God.
2 “Speak kindly to Jerusalem; And call out to her, that her warfare has ended, That her iniquity has been removed, That she has received of the Lord’s hand Double for all her sins.”
3 A voice is calling, “Clear the way for the Lord 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;
5 Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed, And all flesh will see it together; For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
6 A voice says, “Call out.” Then he answered, “What shall I call out?” All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field.
7 The grass withers, the flower fades, When the breath of the Lord blows upon it; Surely the people are grass.
8 The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.
9 Get yourself up on a high mountain, O Zion, bearer of good news, Lift up your voice mightily, O Jerusalem, bearer of good news; Lift it up, do not fear. Say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!”
10 Behold, the Lord God will come with might, With His arm ruling for Him. Behold, His reward is with Him And His recompense before Him.
11 Like a shepherd He will tend His flock, In His arm He will gather the lambs And carry them in His bosom; He will gently lead the nursing ewes.
Coming off of the Judgments previously declared through the prophet Isaiah to the surrounding nations, this oracles begins with a word of comfort.
These judgments which are coming, shall not harm the elect of God, and this shall be executed by His awesome power.
1 “Comfort, O comfort My people,” says your God.
2 “Speak kindly to Jerusalem; And call out to her, that her warfare has ended, That her iniquity has been removed, That she has received of the Lord’s hand Double for all her sins.”
Let God’s people be comforted, speak kindly to the city of God, Jerusalem, the city of the great King.
Her iniquity has be taken care of, it has been expiated, the guilt outstanding has been extinguished; it has been taken off of her.
She has experienced her punitive warfare. Her measure of punishment. It is done, and taken away from her.
For she has recieved the abundant and full punishment for all of her sins. This “double” denotes an abundance. That God in His mercy is satisfied with the punishments which He has laid upon His people. It is over, be comforted.
For this word double, see briefly two cross references:
12 Return to the stronghold, O prisoners who have the hope; This very day I am declaring that I will restore double to you.
10 The Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends, and the Lord increased all that Job had twofold.
In these phrase the double denotes an abundant blessing, upon restoration.
Some interpret this “double” phrase to mean that she, despite her sins, is receiving double blessings, which goes against the flow of the passage.
This relates to the mercy of God, who has set a limit to the punishment. He is unwilling to punish further, and is satisfied with what has gone before. He is satisfied with her punishments. (Calvin , commentaries on Isaiah)
“The Prophet means nothing else than that God is abundantly satisfied with the miseries which have befallen his Church.”
The Lord is abundantly satisfied with the warfare, and punishments and chastisements against His people. And with what blessed thought shall they be?
Be comforted, for:
Visitation of Yahweh
Visitation of Yahweh
3 A voice is calling, “Clear the way for the Lord 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;
5 Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed, And all flesh will see it together; For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
An unprecedented time of visitation approaches. That Yahweh God is coming to visit His people, and not only that, but that this visitation will be visible worldwide. That all the mountains will be flattened, that the valleys will be raised up, that every obstructing obstacle will be taken out of the way.
All flesh will see this work:
John says Rev 1:7 “7 Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So it is to be. Amen.”
And Paul says Phil 2:11 “11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
The Prophet here Emphases the worldwide,nature of this change, that every corner of the earth will be privy to this visitation of Yahweh.
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Now, as you know, this verse is cited in all four gospels (lu 3:4, mat 3:3, Mark 1:3, john 1:23), and fufilled in John the Baptist who was heralding prophetically and preparing the way for the Christ.
Observe that this is one of many times that the term יְהוָ֔ה, which is the covented, personal name of God: Yahweh, or Jehovah which is more latinized, that in all four gospels the name has clear referent to Jesus of Nazareth.
All flesh will see this work of God together. His coming.
Then there’s a voice:
Isa 40:6 “6 A voice says, “Call out.” Then he answered, “What shall I call out?”
One calls and another answers:
What shall He say:
Isa 40:6 “All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field.”
7 The grass withers, the flower fades, When the breath of the Lord blows upon it; Surely the people are grass.
8 The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.
Though generation comes and generation goes, the determination of God stands forever.
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One of the most amazing aspects of Scripture is that the story which spans thousands of years is united. That God’s tells a decisively unified story from the beginning to the end. That though Adam, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David, though they passed, and that Jesus has come and ascended, that the eternal decree and word of God has ordered the events of all things, and is carrying His purpose throughout he ages.
Your life is a vapor. It comes and it goes. Fail not to see the big picture, because He has ordered all things together, and though men come and go like the grass of the field, and the flower of the forest, the word of Yahweh stands forever.
11 The counsel of the Lord stands forever, The plans of His heart from generation to generation.
2 Before the mountains were born Or You gave birth to the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.
The follow instruction comes:
9 Get yourself up on a high mountain, O Zion, bearer of good news, Lift up your voice mightily, O Jerusalem, bearer of good news; Lift it up, do not fear. Say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!”
Remember if you can way back when we spoke of Isaiah 2:3
3 And many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, To the house of the God of Jacob; That He may teach us concerning His ways And that we may walk in His paths.” For the law will go forth from Zion And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
For the citizens of the Holy city, are not only to be the recipients of the good new, but the word is to be proclaimed from on High, from those who spend their days in the presence of the King, that they are to proclaim definitively to God’s people:
Here we have the vision of the citizens of Jersualem proclaiming to all in the land:
Behold, your God! He reigns, look at your God!
Raise up your voice powerfully!
For the children of the heavenly Jerusalem are to go forth and call out God’s people from among the world:
For Rom 10:14-18
14 How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?
15 How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things!”
16 However, they did not all heed the good news; for Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?”
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.
18 But I say, surely they have never heard, have they? Indeed they have; “Their voice has gone out into all the earth, And their words to the ends of the world.”
The land will hear the Gospel, and God will gather the citizens of Zion from the cities of Judah.
4 and said to him, “Run, speak to that young man, saying, ‘Jerusalem will be inhabited without walls because of the multitude of men and cattle within it.
The city will be filled.
This is an eternal reality of God gathering His people into His presence.
That those from Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, the true presence of the King proclaim boldly to the cities of the land, of the people, to be behold God!
Raise it up do not fear: Do not fear that it will not come to pass, that it will not be fulfilled.
10 Behold, the Lord God will come with might, With His arm ruling for Him. Behold, His reward is with Him And His recompense before Him.
Yahweh will come with strength, in power. With His arm. Now here the Christ, the ruler is described, and in further instances will be described as the arm of Yahweh. The one sent out from Yahweh, stretched forth from Yahweh.
He is the one sent from Yahweh:
20 “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word;
21 that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.
1 Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You,
2 even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life.
3 “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
Concerning His reward, it is with Him already, it is as sure as given.
His recompense is before Him. His repayment of judgment on His enemies and His reward of His inheritance of nations.
11 Like a shepherd He will tend His flock, In His arm He will gather the lambs And carry them in His bosom; He will gently lead the nursing ewes.
The righteous ruler will shepherd His flock. He will tend to His sheep, He will carry the blind, sick, lame and weak. He will sustain, and bring life. He will sustain the nursing ewes. He will lead His people with them.
11 “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.
12 “He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.
13 “He flees because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep.
14 “I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me,
15 even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.
16 “I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd.
17 “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again.
18 “No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.”
Do you believe that Jesus is tending His flock now?
In Rev 2-3, you can see Jesus’ presence among the lampstands, the seven churches. He tends to the lampstands, and He brings corrective judgments amongst His people. Truely the worst judgement He can give to a church is to remove the lampstand, and let it continue in error.
Here as well you see that Jesus laid down His life for His sheep, for those nearby in the flock of the nation of Israel, and also He is gathering His ewes from abroad, He went to found the other sheep who were those a far off, and brought them near, and they became one flock. Jesus has one flock, and that is the righteous arm which is seen here in this text.
How does He feel about this church? Let us examine ourselves, that He may increase the brightness of our lampstand.
There is a church down the street recently, Christ Baptist Church, who’s pastor Charlie Colgan, was recently struck dead as He introduced began to introduce heresy into the congregation. Christ is still actively tending His lampstands.
I also would recommend Eze 34:22-31, but I don’t have the time to address it right now.
Conclusion
Conclusion
So here we’ve begun this journey.
We have looked at the four major themes,
1 idolatry
2 formalism
3 false national pride
4 and fear that God has forsaken His people
We’ve seen that this oracle begins with comfort to God’s people, so I say now to you, be comforted. For there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
For all the world has seen, and will see the work of God done in Christ Jesus. And though men come and go, God’s decree stands forever.
We who stand in the presence of God go forth to announce good news to the world, to call God’s elect up mt. Zion.
For the King sits enthroned, and He will shepherd His flock, He will gather His lambs. He will provide for them. Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. For the meek shall inherit the earth.