Isaiah 40 - ESV - Bible Reading / Study Notes

Isaiah 40

Comfort for God’s People

40:1   Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
2   Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
    and cry to her
  that her warfare¹ 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:²
  “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.”

The Word of God Stands Forever

6   A voice says, “Cry!”
    And I said,³ “What shall I cry?”
  All flesh is grass,
    and all its beauty⁴ 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.

The Greatness of God

9   Go on up to a high mountain,
    O Zion, herald of good news;⁵
  lift up your voice with strength,
    O Jerusalem, herald of good news;⁶
    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.
12   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?
13   Who has measured⁷ the Spirit of the LORD,
    or what man shows him his counsel?
14   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?
15   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.
16   Lebanon would not suffice for fuel,
    nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering.
17   All the nations are as nothing before him,
    they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.
18   To whom then will you liken God,
    or what likeness compare with him?
19   An idol! A craftsman casts it,
    and a goldsmith overlays it with gold
    and casts for it silver chains.
20   He who is too impoverished for an offering
    chooses wood⁸ that will not rot;
  he seeks out a skillful craftsman
    to set up an idol that will not move.
21   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?
22   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;
23   who brings princes to nothing,
    and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.
24   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.
25   To whom then will you compare me,
    that I should be like him? says the Holy One.
26   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.
27   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”?
28   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.
29   He gives power to the faint,
    and to him who has no might he increases strength.
30   Even youths shall faint and be weary,
    and young men shall fall exhausted;
31   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.

Footnotes

[1] 40:2 Or hardship
[2] 40:3 Or A voice of one crying
[3] 40:6 Revocalization based on Dead Sea Scroll, Septuagint, Vulgate; Masoretic Text And someone says
[4] 40:6 Or all its constancy
[5] 40:9 Or O herald of good news to Zion
[6] 40:9 Or O herald of good news to Jerusalem
[7] 40:13 Or has directed
[8] 40:20 Or He chooses valuable wood

Commentary

A change of emphasis, as chapters 1 – 39 denounced sin, and chapters 40 – 66 declare the coming salvation. We do not take the view, as is sometimes suggested, that there is a second (or even a third) writer; this is still the book of Isaiah. The final chapters may also be sub-divided;

ch 40 – 48; the majesty of the creator, His faithfulness and care;
ch 49 – 57; the servant of God;
ch 58 – 66; grace and glory.

v1-2: The message for Israel is comfort from God, through the coming of His Messiah. Comfort is real, and judgment is over, her warfare is ended, and iniquity pardoned; this wonderful message is for Jerusalem and, by implication, all the Jewish people. Since the chapter announces the coming of the Messiah, the promise here is extended for all peoples.

Israel had 'received double' for her sins, so the Lord repeats 'comfort … comfort.'

v3-5: Messiah is revealed, a way is prepared for the Lord; creation itself stands aside for Him. These words remind us of the so-called highway of holiness (chapter 35), and may refer, in the first instance, to the return from Babylon. However, the use of the same words in Matt 3.3 show the wider and more glorious fulfilment in the coming of Christ. God's glory is revealed, and revealed perfectly, in Jesus Christ. These verses point us to John Baptist, the voice in the wilderness, the solitary faithful testimony. Ultimately the word of God goes far beyond Jerusalem, to all mankind.

v6-8: The message to be proclaimed; that flesh is weak, it withers and fades, having no lasting strength or value; its glory and beauty lasts for but a moment.

In contrast the word of God is powerful and eternal, the incorruptible seed of life, 1 Pet 1.22-25; Christ is the Word, the eternal one, and he can never fail.

v9-11: The coming of the Lord to Israel;

do not be afraid, for He comes with salvation. The God of Israel is revealed, He is Jesus Christ;
He comes as Sovereign, with authority, bringing reward for His people;
He comes as Shepherd, with compassion.

v12-14: God is greater than His creation, excelling in power and might, Job 36.5, and excelling in wisdom. Verse 13 is quoted in Rom 11.34; the apostle expresses awe at the wonder of God's plan. The rhetorical questions open our minds and hearts to the glories of God and His creation.

v15-17: God is greater than the nations; the answer to nationalism and racism. They are described as a drop in a bucket, dust, and fine dust; nothing, worthless, and less than nothing.

v18-20: Our God is greater than idols; the answer the claims of idolatry. The contrast extends to the worship of God and the worship of idols; for worship of God is like God.

The graven image is made by man, albeit skilful man, but to human design and standards, whatever the claims of the craftsman. He tries to make something like the god he seeks. He chooses a tree, but neglects the One who created all trees. See Deut 4.12, 15; "you saw no form... you saw no form of any kind." It is a foolish thing to bow down to a picture, when the real thing is present (Jer 23.23-24).

v21-24: Our God is greater than men; answering the claims of human strength and religion. Previously, the nations are described as lowly, but here the people themselves are described as like grasshoppers (compare Num 13.33, the spies; message to Israel). Even the great men of the earth are nothing before God; man's sojourn on the earth is so short (v24). How wonderful that God sent His Son to save such as these.

He 'sits above the circle of the earth,' yet the idol-maker is concerned that his handiwork will 'totter' (v20); such a contrast, showing the folly of idolatry!

v25-26: Our God is greater than all of creation; the answer to pantheism (worship of creation). The challenge is to observe the greatness of what God has made, to ask whether anything could be considered equal to Him.

The starry host may picture the Christian church; known to Him by name, none is missing; all are secure in Him.

v27-31: Our God is all-knowing and all-powerful; the prophet invites us to worship and trust Him.

Israel's accusation against God, that He is unjust. God is not some super-human, like us but better; He is altogether different, and Isaiah has declared that very clearly.

The Lord, he says, is an everlasting God, the creator of all things, as in v21; did Israel not know this? There is no end to His strength and knowledge.

The Lord God is not a disinterested observer of humanity, for He gives strength and power to people. Our lives are different because of His intervention. Human strength is different from God's power; young men may grow weary, but those whose faith is in God find a strength beyond themselves, they find grace and power in their lives.