God’s Coming & Our Comfort
Isaiah 40:1-11, 52:7-10
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)
Vision of the King
Isaiah 33:1-24
Vision of the King
Isaiah 33:1-24
Main Idea: The fear of the Lord drives us to the foot of the cross where we behold the beauty of the King and are redeemed.
“Ah, you destroyer, who yourself have not been destroyed, you traitor; whom none has betrayed! When you have ceased to destroy, you will be destroyed; and when you have finished betraying, they will betray you.” (Isaiah 33:1)
I. The Fear of the Lord (Isaiah 33:1-6)
“O Lord, be gracious to us, we wait for you. Be our arm every morning, our salvation in the time of trouble.” (Isaiah 33:2)
you lift yourself up, nations are scattered, (Is 33:3)
The Lord is exalted, for he dwells on high; he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness, and he will be the stability of your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge, the fear of the Lord is Zions treasure.” (Isaiah 33:5-6)
II. The Judge Arises (Isaiah 33:7-12) (10)
“Behold, their heroes cry in the streets; the envoys of peace weep bitterly. The highways lie waste; the traveler ceases. Covenants are broken; cities are dispose; there is no regard for man. The land mourns and languishes; Lebanon is confounded and withers away; Sharon is like a desert, and Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves. (Isaiah 33:7-9)
“Now I will arise,” says the Lord. “Now I will lift myself up; now I will be exalted.” (Isaiah 33:10)
“a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. (Ps 51:17)”
“But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.” And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. (Lk 15:17–20)
We may be reluctant to turn. Reluctant to repent. But our Father is not reluctant to show compassion.
III. The Posture of the Righteous (Isaiah 33:13-16)
Hear, you who are far off, what I have done; and you who are near, acknowledge my might. The sinners in Zion are afraid; trembling has seized the godless: “Who among us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?” (Isaiah 33:13-14)
He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly, who despises the gain of oppressions, who shakes his hands, lest they hold a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed and shuts his eyes from looking on evil, He will dwell on the heights; his place of defense will be the fortress of rocks; his bread will be given him; his water will be sure.” (Isaiah 33:15-16)
IV. The Vision of the King (Isaiah 33:17-24)
“Your eyes will behold the King in his beauty.” (Isaiah 33:17)
“Behold Zion, the city of our appointed feast! Your eyes will see Jerusalem, an untroubled habitation, an immovable tent, whose stakes will never be plucked up, nor will any of its chords be broken. But there the Lord in majesty will be for us a place of broad rivers and streams, where no galley with oars can go, more majestic ship can pass. For the Lord is our judge; the Lord is our lawgiver; the Lord is our King, he will save us.” (Isaiah 33:20-22)
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (Mt 6:33)
“Your chords hang loose; they cannot hold the mast firm in its place or keep the sail spread out. Then prey and spoil in abundance will be divided; even the lame will take the prey. And no inhabitant will say, “I am sick”; the people who dwell there will be forgiven their iniquity.” (Isaiah 33:23-24)
“And no inhabitant will say, “I am sick”; the people who dwell there will be forgiven their iniquity. (Isaiah 33:24)
21 And Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins. And he shall put them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness. 22 The goat shall bear all their iniquities on itself to a remote area, and he shall let the goat go free in the wilderness. (Leviticus 16:21–22)
Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
look full, in his wonderful face.
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
in the light of his glory and grace.
The Holy Lord of Hosts
Isaiah 6:1-13
The Holy Lord of Hosts
Isaiah 6:1-13
Main Idea: God’s glory displaces us, his grace saves us, and his greatness commissions us.
I. The Holiness of the Lord (6:1-4)
King Uzziah died in ~740BC after a 52-year long & prosperous reign, bringing uncertainty about the future. The end of his reign was marked by sin, as he grew “proud to his destruction” (2 Chron. 26:5, 16), desecrating the temple.
In the face of the uncertainty of the death of an earthly king, Isaiah is swept up to see the King of all Kings “high and lifted up” above the temple; He is unable to describe the Lord himself, but he does describe all that is happening around him:
He is on his throne, the “foundation of justice & righteousness” (Ps. 89:14)
The train of his robe filled the temple
Seraphim: lit. the ‘burning ones’ are above him with their eyes & feet covered, unable to look directly at his glory.
The seraphim cry out “holy, holy, holy” to one another; repetition is a sign of emphasis in the Scriptures, and this three-fold repetition is the only time it occurs in the OT. This speaks to God’s “otherness” & “set-apartness” in a superlative sense; he is holy beyond comparison.
“We must not think of God as highest in an ascending order of beings, starting with the single cell and going on up from the fish to the bird to the animal to man to angel to cherub to God. God is as high above an archangel as above a caterpillar, for the gulf that separates the archangel from the caterpillar is but finite, while the gulf between God and the archangel is infinite.” ~ A.W. Tozer
“We keep trying to fill [earth] with monuments to our own glory—kingdoms, businesses, hit songs, athletic victories, and other mechanisms of self-salvation. But the truth is better than all that. Created reality is a continuous explosion of the glory of God. And history is the drama of his grace awakening in us dead sinners’ eyes to see and taste to enjoy and courage to obey.” ~ Ray Ortlund
At the proclamation of the angelic beings, the whole foundations of the temple “shook” & smoke ( the presence of God) filled the house. An encounter with the true holiness of God such as this is dangerous & terrifying.
II. The Grace of the Lord (6:5-7)
As Isaiah is confronted with the holiness, glory, & transcendence of the Lord, he pronounces a “self-woe” (cf. 6 ‘woes’ in Isaiah 5). He specifically identifies that he is a man of “unclean lips” because:
The proclamation of the seraphim
His unique role as a prophet & mouthpiece of God to Israel
His “lips” being an overflow of his heart (Mt. 12:34)
“When people encounter the true God, they experience a self-quake. That’s one way you can tell if you’ve met Israel’s God or simply a figment of your imagination. A made-up God will leave your world undisturbed, conveniently aligning your priorities without displacing anything, because ultimately you are more glorious than it is. The real God, however, will land in the middle of your life like an elephant crashing through the ceiling, displaying your sin, changing all your priorities, and forcing you to reorient yourself around the weight of glory.” ~ Andrew Wilson
Just as Isaiah experiences this “displacement,” the Lord of glory also shows himself to be the Lord of grace. A burning coal from the altar, where blood was shed & sins atoned for, touches the mouth of Isaiah, meeting his confessed place of need with grace & mercy. This act of atonement is a picture of the atoning work of Jesus Christ.
III. The Commission of the Lord (6:8-13)
The experience with God’s grace opens Isaiah ears to hear the voice of the Lord. Isaiah is both humbled and emboldened by what has just happened and he answers the call of the Lord to go to his rebellious people.
Verses 9-10 are the most quoted verses from Isaiah in the NT; they are most often connected to Jesus’ reason for teaching in parables (cf. Mt. 13:10-17). The ministry of Isaiah is a picture of all true gospel ministry; the word of God either hardens or softens those who listen to it, and a supernatural work is required to bring about salvation.
After the land is defeated (6:11), exile (6:12), and further destruction (6:13a), an unexpected hope appears. Though all appears to be burned down & destroyed, a “holy seed” and “stump” will remain. Within this stump is the seed of new life & hope, ultimately to be seen through the promise of a “shoot from the stump of Jesse” (11:1).
John 12:41: Isaiah said these things because he saw his [Jesus’] glory and spoke of him.
The Lord’s Vineyard
Isaiah 5:1-30
The Lord’s Vineyard
Isaiah 5:1-30
“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” ~ A.W. Tozer
Main Idea: We rightly worship the exalted Lord by receiving his grace with the fruit of repentance & faith
I. The Lord’s Vineyard (5:1-7)
The Lord communicates to Israel through a parable about an owner & a vineyard. The owner does all of the work required to plant this vineyard and yield a crop, investing years of attention, care, and hard work (5:1-2). However, when it was time to yield grapes, he only found “wild grapes” (lit. “stink-fruit”).
Since the owner could not have done anything more to yield a successful harvest (5:4), the vineyard must be destroyed; all of its sources of protection & nutrients will be cut off, briers & thorns (cf. Gen. 3:18) will take over, and he curses the clouds so that it would not rain.
The chilling conclusion to the parable (5:7) reveals that the owner is the Lord & the vineyard is Israel & Judah, his chosen people. He expected a flourishing vineyard marked by “justice” & “righteousness” but instead only found “bloodshed” and “outcry” (screams from the oppressed).
“What can now be done for the people of God when a total work of grace has been lavished on them and yet they remain as if grace had never touched them?” ~ Alec Motyer
Like Israel, we must carefully consider if we have rightly received God’s grace, leading to the fruit of a transformed life (Mt. 7:16-20), or if we have received the grace of God in vain (2 Cor. 6:1)
Romans 2:4: “Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?”
II. The Lord’s Judgment (5:8-14, 18-30)
Rather than being receptive to God’s grace & ownership, the people of Israel were resistant in at least 6 ways:
Woe #1 (5:8-10): Aggressive Greed
“The righteous (just) are willing to disadvantage themselves to advantage the community; the wicked are willing to disadvantage the community to advantage themselves.” ~ Bruce Waltke
Woe #2 (5:11-12): Sinful Excess & Self-Indulgence
Woe #3 (5:18-19): Self-Deception & Mockery
Woe #4 (5:20): Rationalizing Sin
Woe #5 (5:21): Blind Arrogance
Woe #6 (5:22-23): Corruption & Injustice
The bookends of woes related to injustice are the very reason the Lord has rejected their worship (cf. 1:11-17). How we treat others is a significant indicator of the health of our relationship with God. The affluence & seeming flourishing of Judah numbed & blinded them to the Lord.
Because of Israel’s resistance to God’s grace & their sin against both his love & his law, there are consequences coming:
Exile (5:13-14)
Destruction (5:24-25)
Military Defeat (5:26-30)
III. The Lord’s Exaltation (5:15-17)
All those who are proud & “haughty” (lit. ‘high’) will be brought low, while the Lord of hosts reigns “exalted” (lit. ‘high’). This is an expression of God’s holiness, seen through justice & righteousness. God, in his justice, will bring to nothing the proud & the haughty, so that he might be rightly worshipped & esteemed.
John the Baptist, in the Spirit of the message of Isaiah (Lk. 3:3-6), urges the crowds who have received God’s grace in vain to “bear fruit in keeping with repentance” (Lk. 3:7-8). We do this by abiding in the “true vine” (John 15:1) which causes us to bear fruit to the glory of God.
Isaiah often speaks of a remnant (“lambs”) that rightly acknowledges God for who he is & humble themselves before him. The invitation before us is to acknowledge God as the ‘owner’ & to receive his grace with the fruit of repentance & faith.